Durham City Council · Regular Meeting · June 1, 2026

And if you will join me, please, in a moment of silence. Thank you. Now pass it over to Council Member Rist for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If it is your practice, I invite you to rise with me and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, Madam Clerks, will you all please call the roll? Good evening. Mayor Williams. I'm here. Mayor Pro Tem Caballero. Here. Council Member Baker. Here. Council Member Burris. Here. Council Member Cook? Here. Council Member Kopac? Here. And Council Member Rist? Here.

Thank you so much., yeah, unfortunately we will not be able to have those signs up, so please make sure they are not blocking the view of anyone else. You can hold them in front of you, but do not hold them up.

All right. At this time, I will— colleagues, you probably see on the agenda the Tourette's Syndrome Awareness Day proclamation. I'm actually moving that proclamation to our next meeting. They were not able to join us tonight. They will join us at a later date, June 15th, I believe so. We'll have that ceremonial item then. So therefore, I'll proceed with council comments. Council Member Kopac. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone.

I'm really looking forward to hearing from everyone this evening and appreciate everyone who has advocated so far during this budget cycle and prior hearings and emails and phone calls., just love the engagement of this community, which helps us to arrive at the best decision that, that that we're able to. Wanna give just some appreciation first. The Pauli Murray Center recently hosted me. It's always one of the places I feel most rooted in Durham and encourage everyone to check it out if you have not.

And a couple upcoming events, Durham Community Land Trustees groundbreaking on Alma Street this Friday at 11:00 AM, and the Sandy Ridge Villas apartment affordable housing development June 12th, which will highlight the great work of the Bragtown Community Association. With that, just say happy Pride Month, Durham, and look forward to this evening. Thank you so much. Council Member Baker. Thank you all for being here. It's wonderful, wonderful to see everybody's faces. We've got a very tough budget and a tough budget year, pretty unprecedented in nature.

Look forward to our meeting. We've got a lot of budget items, agenda items that folks are here for. So I want to just give, give time for that. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Burris.

Good evening. Thank you all who are joining us in council chambers and also watching us virtually., to associate with my colleagues have already said, happy Pride Month, and just want to celebrate the contributions, resilience, and diversity of our communities. And also thinking about in a time where we have a rogue federal administration that's rolling back protections and mandating discrimination every day, it's time for us as elected officials, but also community members to rise to the cause and remember that locally we are the first line of defense against authoritarianism. We see that this has happened in our state legislature and also our federal government, so we need to make sure we set the example locally.

Also, today is Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day. If you know what the history is around that and the Tulsa Race Massacre, it was not— we are not that far removed from history. So I want to honor and observe all the lives that were lost in that, but also think— I think one of the last people who were involved actually just passed away recently. So our history is not that far as you think about that., really quickly also, I had the opportunity last week to go to the Green Tie Awards hosted by the NC League of Conservation Voters, and where they honored and acknowledged our legislators who are moving the workforce, towards environmental justice.

So shouts out to Senator Sophia Chitlett, who was acknowledged as a rising star. And then also just looking forward to a great meeting. Thank you all for your advocacy around the budget. We know the budget is a moral document. It reflects our values.

And this has been a tough budget cycle, but we hear you. I can tell you that definitely we hear you, and we are still working and moving forward to make sure our community gets what we deserve. And also shout out to city staff for doing all the tough work in, managing and balancing our budget. So thank you all. Thank you.

Council Member Burris. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem. Good, good evening, colleagues, staff, and residents who here appreciate you joining us for this important, exercise in democracy. The budget is probably one of the biggest decisions we make in a year. So I'm glad to have you all here and look forward to your comments on the budget.

Yes, I echo my colleagues' comments. Happy Pride Month. Also, last month was Bike Month. And I did want to say again, thanks to the folks from EK Poe who organized the bike train on a rainy Friday morning on the 22nd. Thanks to Scotty and David who came out with their kids to ride the bike train to EK Poe.

It's always fun to do that. Shout out to Hurricanes fans. We're in the Stanley Cup Finals starting tomorrow. So if there's Hockey fans out there, it's a big moment here in the Triangle. I know, Mayor, I think the Mayor of Raleigh is organizing like a viewing in Moore Square.

So I don't know, we didn't think about that. Is that a call out? Yeah. Also want to say thanks to Self-Help Credit Union. It's an amazing institution that many of you all know in Durham, North Carolina, a community development credit union.

They did a tour on Friday, took a bunch of council members, Council Member Kopac, the Mayor. I think were the folks who were there. Not Mayor Pro Tem. It was great to— I'm on the board, so I'm a little bit biased, I got to admit. But it's great to see what amazing work Self-Help is doing here, not only providing safe and affordable savings and credit products to families in Durham, but also small business lending, home lending.

They manage what's called the Durham Affordable Housing Loan Fund, which helps us acquire properties that are coming out of tax credit status that are on the market that we can quickly acquire and bridge to private— I'm sorry, to nonprofit developers. They also are a partner in affordable housing development such as Hardy Street and Willard Place. So it's great to have a partner like Self Help here as we address the challenges of building economic prosperity and building ownership in our community. Last thing, shout out to all the folks who came out on Saturday for the 18th annual running of the Bulls downtown. 1,600 runners ran that race.

It's a great community race that ends in the ballpark. So much fun. And so Great to see everybody out there, and I look forward to doing the 19th one next year. So thanks, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Council Member Cook. Good evening, everyone. Most of my colleagues have stated what I wanted to state. Happy Pride Month. I want to give a shout out to staff and also to my spouse and my friends for supporting me through what I think has been probably one of the most difficult times my time on council.

This budget as has been stated many times previously, has some limitations that are making it pretty unprecedented, and the decisions are really, really tough. I also want to be careful though that when we talk about tough decisions, that we're owning what decisions are in fact ones that are tough and not creating narratives to pit things against each other that are needed by our communities. So I'm excited to hear what everyone has to say tonight., we've got another work session on the budget this coming Thursday. That will start at 9:00 AM.

That is going to be live on YouTube and on our city Facebook, and you're welcome to watch or come in person. We are spending a lot of time on this budget. I want to really just reiterate to the public that we are reading your emails. I'm getting— receiving texts, emails, phone calls. I'm even reading, unfortunately, the long diatribes on Nextdoor.

We are, we are seeing your comments and we are taking them seriously and really much trying to weigh so many interests of 300,000 individuals across the city who have just a diverse set of needs. So I want to appreciate everyone for your engagement so far, appreciate you for being here tonight, those of you from who are watching at home, and particularly staff and my folks that have supported me through. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

Good to see you all., thank you for my, council colleague comments. Definitely happy Pride., I just also wanted to shout out Hillside High School. They had, one of their civic action project expos on Friday.

Those teachers regularly invite elected, elected. I think they hold them about twice a year., and it's always an opportunity, and certainly one of my favorite things to do is to to be with some of our young folks. There were a lot of brilliant minds in that expo with a lot of incredible ideas of how to improve Durham, and it's just always just a reminder of what to do and how to center yourself in this work. And yeah, thank you again for being with us on our second public hearing and also to staff for getting us to this point.

I do want to just lift up, generally speaking, there aren't that many places left in our public spaces where we're doing these things anymore. We have shut down so many of these things. We have silenced so many voices. And that's not what we're going to do in the city of Durham. So again, thank you for being here and for participating in this very, very hard but necessary work.

Thank you. Thank you so much. And thanks for shouting out that hillside, High School Civics Day, I joined Mayor Pro Tem there, and, you know, if you have doubt about the future, simply go spend some time with our young people and ask them a question. How do we solve the problems today? And just listen to what they have to say.

The future is bright, especially here in Durham. We have some of the brightest kids in this entire nation. And it's a blessing to be mayor of this city with young people that bright. And as I told them, I'm going to say it here. I want to make a public promise because I really want it to happen.

We have to have a wholesome one-day summit where our young people come together and put their solutions out for the public to see. So like Hillside, I asked them if they would help in carrying out this concept citywide with all of the high schools, and they said yes. So what that looks like is taking over downtown, putting out their projects on how to take on mental health issues for young people, gun violence, poverty, homelessness, social media addiction, I mean, stock market. They are all over the place. It's amazing to see, and to see them go so in-depth with it is just quite, quite impressive.

Happy Pride Month to the city. And also today, we kicked off the festivities with the official North Carolina Juneteenth flag raising right here, led by Ms. Phyllis Coley of Spectacular Magazine. It was a huge turnout. And just an amazing, amazing program. So as we get to the budget tonight, I do want to just set us up for it.

My first year on council, we had the budget hearing and I didn't fully understand the process and I was really irritated that we had this budget hearing. All of the folks came to speak to the council and we listened and we didn't say anything back. But then I went back and I learned what an actual hearing was. So tonight we are going to hear, when we get to that part of the agenda, we're going to hear from everyone. It is a budget hearing.

We're going to take everything, as my colleague said, we've been getting all of the emails, we've been getting all of the texts, all of the Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook messages. We've been getting all the name-calling. We've been getting it all. And it has been— I'm probably not out of line speaking for everyone on here, but it's been a brutal last few weeks. And we are not done yet.

We're not done. So tonight we're going to listen to everyone's comments. We're going to continue to listen and engage with the community at large. And we're going to continue to lose sleep as we take on the toughest budget I know since I've been on council, there are a lot of competing interests. Everything is good work, and, but we have hard decisions to make.

We have to get really creative. So please know that we're listening, we are hearing you, and we're listening, and we're going to have everyone share their remarks tonight. We're going to continue to receive emails. There will not be a back and forth interchange on the budget deliberations tonight. This is just the second hearing.

So if you don't see colleagues speaking back and answering questions, that's not what tonight is for. So I just want to make sure we, all knew that. All right, I believe that's everything. All right, thank you all so much, colleagues. Let's get to work. Mr. Manager, I'll pass it over to you. Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of Council, members— I'm sorry. Considering Mr. Rist's call out. The Mayor of Raleigh and I celebrated the Canes on stage at Raleigh Saturday.

And tomorrow night, I think at EO's downtown, it's going to be viewing parties all over the city. But they went and bought one of the sirens that the Canes start out. I'm going to ring the siren at 8:00 PM. And we're taking over Five Points and— where's that? Right up the OBU Cafe location.

Yeah, so we're going to have a good time. We're taking over the city tomorrow night. And yeah, get ready. All right. Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council, members of the public. The City Manager's Office has a few priority items this evening. First is the We got volume. There we go. All right, try one more time. Thank you.

The ceremonial item Tourette Syndrome Awareness Day proclamation has been postponed to the June 15th City Council meeting. And then for agenda items number 11, 17, 18, 26, and 29, for all of these items, additional information requested at the work session has been added. To your packet. Those are the City Manager's Office priority items. Thank you so much. Madam Attorney. Thank you, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, members of the council. It's good to see you. The City Attorney's Office has no priority items this evening.

Thank you. Madam Clerk. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayor Pro Tem, members of City Council. The city's— city clerk's office has one priority item this evening. It's item 6, on the general business agenda. We are requesting this item be referred back to our department. It will be on Thursday's work session agenda to be reviewed further. And we'll just bring this to you after, or you want to just come and collect it? Colleagues, you should have your ballot., okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So 10, 11, 29, and 30. Okay. All right, at this time I will, Madam Clerk, did that complete your report for now?, Mr. Mayor, I can announce nominations at the end of the agenda, but right before we adjourn, if you'd like to do that, on what's on GBA, or if you give me a second, I can just get it together for the general business agenda. What item is it? Item number 6?

Yeah, on GBA., let me— it's a pretty lengthy— it's item 5 and item 9, so I just need to announce the two— the residents appointed. All right, it's a pretty lengthy consent agenda. Let me go ahead and read. By the time I finish, you should be— all right, at this time I'll read the consent agenda.

Number 1, can Durham Open Space and Trails Commission appointments. Number 2, Durham Cultural Advisory Board appointments. Number 3, Durham City County Environmental Affairs Board. Number 4, Durham Planning Commission appointment. Durham— number 7, Durham Sports Commission appointment. Number 8, Human Relations Commission appointments. Number 10, request to amend the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget and other capital project ordinance. It's been— she texted to me. Okay, got it.

See, 10, 11, 15, 26. Okay, number 12 and number 11 has been pulled. Number 12, Third Amendment to the external auditor contract. Number 13. Actually, number 10 has been pulled. Number 11 has been pulled. Number 12, Third Amendment to the external auditor contract. Number 13, cooperative contract sewer vac trucks. Number 14, cooperative contract stormwater vac truck.

Number 15 It's just been pulled. No, no, no, it's a resource. All right, sorry about that. Contract for comprehensive facilities condition assessment with HDR Architecture Incorporated. Number 16, eminent domain action to obtain one temporary construction easement at 103 West Cornwallis Road for the SW45 bike and sidewalk project. Number 17, construction contract with Barr Construction Company Incorporated for Forest— for River Forest Park, Old Farm Park, and American Village playground renovation project— renovations project.

Number 18, construction contract with Harrod and Associates Constructors Incorporated for West Point on the Eno Parks renovation project. Number 19, eminent domain action to obtain one temporary construction easement at 105 West Cornwallis Road for the SW45 bike and sidewalk project. Number 20, eminent domain action to obtain one temporary construction easement and one permanent drainage easement at 107 West Cornwallis Road for the SW45 Bike and Sidewalk Project.

Number 21, eminent domain action to obtain one temporary construction easement at 2725 Stewart Drive for the SW45 Bike and Sidewalk Project. Number 22, eminent domain action to obtain one temporary construction easement at 2737 East Shoreham Street for the SW45 Bike and Sidewalk Project. Item number 23, construction contract with Classic Electric Service Incorporated for parking facilities structural maintenance life safety project. Number 24, contract with MQ, MQ and Company Global LLC for Economic Development Consulting Services Corridor Bounceback Program.

Item number 25, first amendment to the contract with M3 and Co. Global LLC for Economic Development Consulting Services Business Registry and Legacy Program. Item number 27, contract for licensing implementation and managed service support for Trimble Unity Construct with Trimble Incorporated. Item 28, Amendment Number 5 to Professional Services Contract with DRMP Incorporated for the design of Woodcroft Parkway Extension. Item 29, which has been pulled, 1-hour free parking program proposal.

Item 30, which has been pulled, Vision Zero 2025 Annual Report. Item 37, lease to the Museum of Durham History located at 521 West Morgan Street.

Item number 5, Audit Services Oversight Committee appointments. You about ready? All right. And item number 6, Citizens Advisory Committee appointments. Item number 9, Mayor's Council for Women's appointment.

Item number 26, which is pulled, contract with Axon Enterprise Incorporated to renew and expand services. And then we have GBA public hearings. 34, public hearing for the city manager's proposed Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget and Fiscal Year 2027-2032 Capital Improvement Plan. Number 35, Fiscal Year 2027-2031 Contract for Downtown Durham Municipal Service District Operations with Downtown Durham Incorporated. Item number 36, Public Hearing and Economic Development Incentive Program— I mean, Agreement with Coco Fro LLC.

All right, and the order may change, would you like to report out before I call for a motion? Yes, for item 5, I have, Nicholas W. Long and Maisha Aultree Morris were nominated for the Audit Services Oversight Committee., item 6 was referred back to our department, and item 9, I still don't have a general, a majority vote for the at-large seat, which was why this item was placed on general, the general business agenda., I have, 2 votes for Monique Armstrong, 3 votes for Tiffany Foster, and— Madam Clerk, I'm sorry to cut you off. Let me actually, set up— let me actually address the consent agenda.

Those are on GBA, so I'll come back to you. I can make a motion. And then you had gotten some texts, was it 29 and 30? Yeah, 10, 11, 29, and 30. Yeah, yeah, I don't have— where did you get 30 from? He got a text. I don't have 30. All right, colleagues, I'll entertain a motion to, approve the consent agenda with the exception of items 10, 11, 29 and 30.

So moved. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote. And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much. Now let me address 5, 6, and 9. Item 5, Council has nominated Nicholas Long and Myesha Aukotry-Morris to the Audit Services Oversight Committee. All right, colleagues, I'll entertain a motion to approve, to accept item number 5 with said names from the clerk. So moved. Second. So moved and properly seconded. Please open the vote. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you. For item 9— I'm sorry, item 6 was referred back to our department. And then for item 9, the reason the item was placed on GBA was, for the at-large member, and I still haven't received the majority vote for one person on, for the at-large category on here., so I have 2 votes for Monique Armstrong, I have 3 votes for Tiffany Foster, and I have 2 votes for Christy D. Moore.

So Council can either choose to just, you can change my vote to, the person that has 3. So that would be Tiffany Foster. Okay. So with that, for the seat for cultural recreation and fine arts sector, Council nominates Stephanie Williams. For fair housing and economic development sector, Sheena Matthews. For Ward 3, Sarah Stanfield. And for the at-large member, it's going to be Tiffany R. Foster. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to accept item number 9 as read. So moved.

So moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close to vote. And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you, colleagues. I'll be shifting some of the agenda around just a little bit tonight, but I'll start with our pulled items. Remind me again, it's 10, 11, 11, 29, and 30. 29, 30.

All right, Madam Clerk, how close are we to that, that list? She should be coming down right now. All right, thank you so much. All right, I have Do you know if there are speakers for Item 10 on the— Yep, I can, I can read them out for you. Okay, let me just start online. I just have one person online and then we'll come to in person. All right, Lou, Lou Gent. Lou Gent, can you hear me? Yes, I can.

Hello, can you hear me?, yes, welcome. You have 3 minutes. Wonderful, thank you. I, wasn't sure what agenda item this applied to.

I think it may actually be 34, but, greetings. My name is Lu Gent. I moved to speak tonight because last week I found out that the city's Durham Parks and Rec DPR contract with the West End Community Foundation, WECF, will end July 1st. I will not pretend to know all the financial intricacies of this matter. WECF, a Black-led organization, appealed for community support last week, and I believe that they and the entire Lion Park community deserve to be supported through our city's fiduciary budgeting process.

What I can— what I can speak to with authority as a Board Member of CANDOR a disability justice organization, is the ways in which this could negatively impact the people we serve through the West End Free Market Partnership at the West End Community Foundation. Through this collaboration, we've distributed over 200,000 pounds of food, much of which is distributed to the disabled and elderly via delivery in the West End, Lyon Park, and Lakewood communities. If this disruption to our partner organization does take place, or to our overall programs, the people who need these services may not find a way to replace the food being provided. I'm also a policy analyst, and I see unfortunate patterns emerging. The increasing criminalization of and decrease of third space availability for our unhoused and our elderly and youth, and those among them who are disabled or have other marginalized identities, is a nationwide trend.

Durham has a rich, diverse history, and our City Council is uniquely positioned to reflect that in the ways it governs, allocates funds, and stewards its history and land. After we vote for you, we depend on you to reflect our values in the ways you make those decisions. As you consider the budget and its amendments, please protect the relationships between city programs and community partnerships in the West End and Lyon Park, as well as third spaces citywide. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much.

Leticia. All right. The next two speakers— oh my gosh, I'm going to do it again. Leticia— let's just ask Leticia and Ifeotu. Ifeotu Jagan.

Do we see anyone coming in from outside? I have a Leticia and I have Ifeotu. Chigun. Yeah, we can just check outside. There she is.

Hello. And after we complete— excuse me, after we finish number 10, we'll go to number 11, which will be Jen Wickman and Leslie St. Dre. So Jen Wickman and Leslie St. Dre for number 11, you can start making your way up. Welcome, Leticia. Hi.

I think I'm supposed to be speaking for Agenda 34, but I can still speak. I'm speaking about the budget. It's crazy that I looked at the budget and there's nothing assigned to actual gun violence or our youth. And so I'm trying to figure out where in the budget do they stand, because this is something that y'all have been putting together conversations for the community, and the community is tired of just talking. We need some action.

And so set aside. I want y'all to think about the youth and the gun violence when y'all making this budget, for 2026, 2027. But we need it now. We don't really actually need to be waiting for a budget to, fight gun violence that are killing our youth and our kids every day., we sit and continuously come to these meetings and talk about it, but there's really no action.

And we still seeing 3 and 4, shootings a day. That, yeah, to me, it's very hurtful to see nothing like just set aside just for the youth and gun violence in the budget. So as y'all sit and think about the budget, that's what I want y'all to sit and align yourself with, as if you were the community losing your kids. You wouldn't want to wait on the budget. You would want something done now. So we need action. Thank you.

Efio Tu. Hello, my name is Efio Tu Jagun. I've been a resident of Durham County my whole life, and I would just like to start off with a quote. The opposite of poverty is not wealth. Opposite of poverty is justice.

And in college, one of my professors told me that a budget reflects the priorities of community. And I was in a youth program run by the city, Unexpectedly, we had a bunch of money taken away from our program. The event that my friends have been planning for months, it was— the money was taken. I'm not able to complete the program that, you know, the project that I was supposed to do. And it's just so funny that we're harping about gun violence.

We need stuff for our children to do. And yet we're taking money from these programs. We're ending our partnership with the West End Foundation, which is doing exceptional work. And so today I would just like you to— I would like to encourage you to match the county's contribution to Violence Interrupters. I would ask for $250,000.

We complained about, you know, this county not helping us with HART. You know, they need to pay their fair share for this program that's so popular, but we are not doing the same thing with Violence Interrupters. And so once again, the opposite of poverty is not wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice. And please pass a budget that does justice for all of us.

Thank you. Thank you, colleagues. That, I, I can say right now I have pages of speakers, so respectfully, I'll ask that, we, You can snap, but allow me to get through it. If not, we're going to be here all night, which Durham has become known for. So, colleagues, I make a motion— entertain a motion to adopt a budget.

Do I have to read all the time? Mr. Mayor, I recommend that you entertain a motion to amend the fiscal year 2025-26 budget and other capital project ordinances as stated in the printed agenda. Colleagues, I'll entertain a motion to do what the City Attorney just stated. So moved. That's a lot of motions. Second. That is a lot of motions. It's been moved and probably seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. One more. There we go. Please close the vote. And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

All right, moving on. Number 11, Jen Wigman followed by Leslie St. Dray. Oh, I'm sorry, Lu Gent. Lu Gent, can you hear me again? Sorry, I cede my time. Thank you. Thank you, you're generous. All right, now in person. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to speak tonight again.

I do prefer to go by my fourth married name, which is Gentra Fire., and people might not know if you don't have the agenda in front of you, that— excuse me, I will speak directly into the mic— that this is about our homeless neighbors and passing, you know, a program to help our homeless neighbors. And I just want to say that people like me, wealthy property owners, care a lot about our homeless neighbors. And mostly because the encampment in our park near where we live makes us feel really uncomfortable. But, that's okay.

I mean, we post about it in our listservs. We take photos of the people in tents without asking their permission, and we call Durham One Call, and we give screeds in work sessions, and that's all because we care. When we talk about public parks, when we talk about the public, I think you and I both know that we mean, you know, You know, the public, wealthy property owners, not like the riffraff, like those people holding up signs over there., I, I just feel like, what should we do?, as Durham, I mean, we could, we could make all these corporate landlords of these giant 4-over-1 Lego apartment buildings that are so ugly.

And sit half empty all the time— excuse me, half full. My mom told me half full. We could make those landlords offer their vacant apartments as permanent housing to the homeless. And if they don't, we could tax them at a higher rate per vacant apartment. Oh, please hold your applause to the end. We could do that enough to build permanent housing for literally all our homeless neighbors.

I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. Oh my God, that's hilarious. I'm not really serious about that. We wanna talk about zero homeless approaches. And basically what that means is functional zero just means that there's as many people coming into homelessness as leaving homelessness, but we can call that functional zero.

So I really appreciate a good definition change, really appreciate that. Also appreciate that this program is talking about rare and brief instead of no homelessness, and talking about doing it by 2031. It's not like people need housing right now. You know, if this all sounds familiar, if it sounds like selective empathy and conditional humanity, because it is and it's easy. Just think of the way we talk about genocides.

And to our guests here with the signs, that's the second warning. I've asked you once, do not hold the signs up. This is my second warning, do not hold the signs up.

Third warning, I'll ask you to leave.

Next speaker, Leslie St. Drake. Hi. Yeah, I appreciate that y'all want to focus on a strategy to curb homelessness. I am very concerned that we're talking about $13 million with most of it to subsidize landlords instead of solutions that go back and stay within the city, like more public housing or social housing, so that we're just not draining our tax dollars to subsidize landlords, which seems to be one of the only solutions that this council, the majority anyway, talks about. Also, I noticed that sweeps are not mentioned at all in this proposal, and that's one of the main concerns, is sweeps drive people further into homelessness and poverty.

One moment, please. Nana Kwark, please stop the clock. Just give me— just hold on for now. Just hold on for now. I'll call if needed. Thank you. Please continue. Okay, so I found it really drastic that sweeps are not mentioned at all in this strategy. You say that HART won't engage until there are places that people will go, and in this proposal it is independent housing, which everyone wants, but it doesn't say in the meantime will they stop the sweeps. So that is the question.

What do you do in the meantime? Is it just police sweeping, or what's, what's the plan there?, I don't see any interim strategies that you say you might address 30% of homelessness. What happens to everyone else?, I propose, community-led safe sleeping and parking sites, as was mentioned in the surveys, but it doesn't look like it made it into any sort of interim proposal for what happens to everyone else that is not addressed in this strategy.

And again, if we don't stop evictions, if we don't prioritize housing that residents in Durham actually need, we're only going to have more homelessness and a price gouging economy. Especially if landlords continue to be subsidized for keeping their units vacant. So we have an affordable housing crisis, and we really need our representatives to understand that we need to directly address the problem instead of pretending and repeating the mythology that housing that is expensive will ever trickle down or help anybody. It simply only helps landlord profits. Thank you.

Item number 11. Hi, I'm sorry, the second one. All right, colleagues, I'll entertain a motion to adopt a resolution adopting the Durham Strategic Framework to Prevent and End Homelessness. So moved. Second. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote. And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Number 29 is pulled. It's not a public hearing though, right? Okay, so I'm going to skip 26 and I'll come back. All right, colleagues, I'm going to now go to item number 29.

I have one pulled person speaker for that. It's the Pablo Friedman. Friedman.

Welcome. You have 3 minutes. All right. Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, members of council, city manager, and the millions of folks who care about democracy.

The night's going to be long. I'm not going to take all 3 minutes., I think, Mayor Williams, I'm glad to see you're honoring your proposal during the debate where you committed to free parking. But I think this proposal falls short, and I think it falls short because one economic lever that the city controls is parking. We can't control, you know, a bunch of pieces that affect small business owners, but we can control parking.

If you look at many of the large commercial properties around the Triangle area, they offer free parking. If you talk to small business owners in downtown Durham, one of the things they talk about the most is this little economic incentive could help them make ends meet. You've seen many of them close and their margins are getting even tighter. I'd like to encourage the council to look at an alternative proposal. There's a deck that was just recently constructed that has a lot of vacant units in there.

Highlight that one and offer 2 hours of free parking in that one. I think 1 hour when you have commercial developments in the Triangle that offer 2 hours free parking is sort of missing the mark on an opportunity where, with the right proposal, you could have a boost to your small business economy in downtown Durham. So I think 1 hour is a good start. I'm not sure that those would be the right decks. I would pick the one that you, just built that has a lot of vacancies and use that to help incentivize, and patronize some of your small town business owners.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Javier, Javier, that's just— oh, okay, never mind. Chair. Yes. Yeah. All right. Yep, that's what's number 29. All right, colleagues, I'll entertain a motion to receive the proposal for 1 hour free parking in select downtown garages. So moved. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote. And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you., I'm going to move it around just a bit. I mean, everything else is either Axon, which has a ton of people, or public hearings. You might as well take out 3. That's the one I'm looking for. Where is it? It's, it's, it's, it's up in your GBA, or it's up in the consent because it got bold. There it is. All right, sorry folks, there are a lot of moving parts up here.

Yeah, item 30. Sorry, Stella Adams, that was still on. Yeah, got it. All right, and that's the only one I have though. Okay. All right, Miss Adams, Stella Adams, can you hear me? Yes, can you hear me, Mayor? Yes, I can hear you. You have 3 minutes. This is for item number 30, Division Zero 2025 Annual Report. Thank you.

Good evening, Council. My name is Stella Adams, and I want to speak to you about Vision Zero and the places where our commitment to safety and equity is still falling short. Vision Zero is built on a simple truth: No loss of life on our streets is acceptable. Not one. And yet, when we look closely at the data in this year's Vision Zero report, we see a pattern that should trouble every one of us.

Black and Hispanic residents continue to bear the highest burden of fatal and serious injury crashes. Pedestrians overwhelmingly in historically Black neighborhoods represent just 2% of crashes, but 35% of all traffic deaths in 2025. That is not an accident. That is policy. Because safety is not just about speed limits and crosswalks.

Safety is about infrastructure, transit access, access, and whether the neighborhoods that have been— have carried the weight of disinvestment for generations finally get the improvements they've been promised. And that brings me to Route 4 and 9. These routes are not optional. They are lifelines for workers, for elders, for students, for families who depend on transit to get to jobs, schools, and medical care. When we delay improvements on Routes 4 and 9, we are not delaying a project.

We are delaying people's lives. Vision Zero cannot succeed if the very communities experiencing the highest rates of pedestrian deaths are also the communities waiting the longest for reliable transit. It cannot succeed if the neighborhoods with the highest crash rates, Bragtown, Merritt Moore, East Durham, Southside, are still waiting for basic sidewalk infrastructure. We cannot keep telling Black neighborhoods to walk safely when we have not given them a safe place to walk. So tonight, I'm asking you to align Vision Zero goals with our budget priorities.

Fund the sidewalk projects in historically Black neighborhoods, stop delaying the Route 4 and Route 9 improvements, and treat transit access as a core safety strategy, not an afterthought. Because Vision Zero is not just about eliminating traffic deaths, it's about eliminating inequities that makes— some neighborhoods dangerous than others. It's about building a Durham where every resident— thank you, Miss Stella— regardless of race. Thank you, Miss Stella. All right, colleagues.

Gosh, sorry, I have to go back and find it. It's just to receive the report. Colleagues, I entertain a motion to receive the Vision Zero report. So moved. Second. The Vision Zero 2025 annual report. It's been moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote. And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much. All right. We have quite a number of speakers for item 26, which is a pulled item but not a public hearing. However, I'm sorry, it's on the consent agenda, but I am— it's on GBA. GBA, that's right. Gosh. But I'm going to come back to that one. I'm going to knock out item 36, which is a public hearing, and we'll do— yep, 35 as well. All right, ready for the staff report. 36, is it? This is item 36. Yes.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of council. Christina Reardon, Director of Budget and Management Services. Tonight is the second of two public hearings on the development of the fiscal year. Item 36. I'm sorry, I thought, I thought I was item 36. I apologize. Item 36. There we go. There we are.

Yeah, members of council, Chris Dickey., my name is Chris Dickey from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Before you is a considered approval of a proposed agreement between the City of Durham and Coco LLC. Coco LLC is now preparing for the next phase of establishing a permanent home at 1004 Morning Glory Avenue. This is a 1,300-square-foot space, will serve as a production facility and tasting room and bringing manufacturing, retail community, and community engagement under one roof.

This project is a tangible investment in, in local economic growth and neighborhood revitalization. By activating a currently underutilized business. Proposed project will attract $593,000 in private investment with $115,000 in city funding, producing a 5 to 6— 5 to 1 ratio. Major pro— a major priority of the City of Durham is increasing and strengthening the economic stability of the proposed area, and we're looking for your support. Thank you very much.

You've heard the staff report. Are there any questions or technical comments? Technical questions or comments? All right, at this time I'll declare the public hearing open. And Miss Adams, Stella Adams, can you hear me?

Yes. Welcome, you have 3 minutes. Thank you., good evening again. My name is Stella Adams and I rise in strong support of the incentive grant for Coco Pro because this project reflects exactly the kind of moral community-rooted investment our city claims to value.

For decades, East Durham has endured disinvestment vacancy and neglect. This corridor has been overlooked traditional lenders, ignored by private capital, and left waiting for the kind of intentional development that honors the people who have lived here the longest. Koko Fro is not an outside developer. This is a Black-owned, Durham-born business investing hundreds of thousands of dollars of its own resources into a historic building that has sat underutilized for years. This incentive is not a giveaway, it's a partnership.

It closes a gap created by structural barriers that Black entrepreneurs face every day. It activates the vacant building, brings jobs, restores a historic structure, and strengthens a corridor that has waited far too long for meaningful investment. When we say we believe in equitable development, when we, we want to support Black-owned businesses, if we say we want revitalization without displacement, then this is exactly the kind of project we as a city must champion. This grant is small compared to the multimillion-dollar incentives we routinely give downtown, but its impact on East Durham will be profound. So I strongly urge you to support Coco Fro.

This is good economic policy. Thank you. Thank you so much. Did you get that clarification?

Okay, so 34. I already have her. Okay. Yeah, all right, it's 36, so moving this to 34. This person. All right, those are all the speakers that I have., If there are no other speakers at this time, then I'll declare the public hearing closed and back before the council. Colleagues, any comments or questions for the applicant or staff?

All right, I'll just say briefly, I'm looking forward to supporting it. I, you know, we're going from a dilapidated building to an active site that will provide a resource for, you know, a few jobs over in an area that's desperately in need of it, as well as I was concerned that it was in the Goose Creek Basin. It is not. Thanks for clearing that up for me. So I'm good to go now at this point.

Thank you. All right. I have come up. Yeah, I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for the presentation. You know, I appreciate the additional analysis from staff. We had a conversation about that at the last meeting when this came up.

So I appreciate the additional analysis there. And I got to say, I like the vision for the business here. I like the business plan. This is not a multimillion-dollar incentive deal, right? But I remain a hard sell on any public dollars for individual businesses.

And for me, in a year where we've got a tight budget, we have here folks from the community, from, from advocating for all kinds of things across Durham., for me, even $100,000 for— from public dollars for one private business is just a hard— it's a, it's a hard bar, it's a hard threshold for me to reach, and I'm not there on this one. But I, again, appreciate the additional analysis from staff. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, go ahead. All right, thank— I do appreciate staff as well for your— all your hard work and analysis., unfortunately, I have not been compelled to support this project at this moment, and after much thought and consideration. We are in a tight budget year, and I have not quite identified the multiplier effect, particularly in this neighborhood, as I would have liked to see. A business that, you know, maybe a legacy— I just wanted like a legacy business like we did in Fayetteville Street Corridor.

At this moment, I can't really justify that in terms of like just with our budget, budgetary crunch right now, and supporting a job that may yield— I mean, a corporation company will yield 3 3 additional jobs over 3 years in this neighborhood that desperately needs some type of economic stimulus. So I do get the concept, and I'm grateful for the concept, but right now I have not been sold on this investment. All right, do you any remarks?

Hello, Pierce from Coco Fro., I just want to thank staff, Mr. Dickey, Mr. Gunn, for, bringing this to council and appreciate y'all for your consideration., I did want to remark about the jobs piece., we are looking in the short term at, you know, for the next year or so at a couple of jobs, but this could end up being between, you know, 8 to 12 jobs over the next 3 3 years, and we intend to make those living wage jobs following the example of Monuts and other local companies who have committed to the living wage project. So, just wanted to mention that and just say, appreciate you for your consideration, and thanks, staff, for the extra work we did from the last meeting.

But I don't have additional things to say beyond what Miss Stella said, and appreciate you for your consideration. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Thank you. We don't get these very often. I think this might be my 5th or 6th one since 2018.

This is not the way that we really do a lot of economic development in the City of Durham. These are sometimes can be maybe not majorly controversial, but you'll see some friction on council around some of these. And I just want to say that over the years, there hasn't been a single one that I voted on that hasn't done well, hasn't given back to the community. And hasn't been a multiplier effect in the community that it's in. So even when I've had doubts or questions around, you know, is this the right one?

Is this the right money? How do we spend it? It is small. It isn't a huge pot of money. It is a tight budget year.

I will just say that Ideals Sandwich Shop was one of these, and that was a split vote. There was some pretty long comments on council that evening. And when I think about that corridor and I think what Ideals has done, not just for itself, yourself, but then for other businesses and what has happened there, you see the multiplier effect and you see the multiplier effect by locally owned businesses. And so I hope that this is another example of that. So I will be supporting it.

There were lots of issues and question marks around living wages, what was happening in the neighborhood, not dissimilar to what's here. I will also say, and I said it then, I think it was in 2019, when you're a PTA parent or you're working at your kids' school and you're looking for donations, you will always get the better deal for a, you know, donation to your kids' school. And I wish it wasn't like that. I wish we funded our schools at the level— like, we all get that, right? Like the bumper sticker of like, you know, why does the military get what they get and you get the bake sale?

We all get that. But when you are in a public school that is under-resourced, you look for every way you can to help those kids out in those families out. And our locally owned businesses always deliver at a higher level than any corporate, corporately owned restaurant or entity. And I have lots of firsthand experience, so I will be supporting that. And I just want to lift this out because it is a packed room and just share that historical, information.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? All right, and I, I'll just say lastly, we received a, AbbVie, which was a $1.4 billion investment in Durham. We put up millions, which was also a hard sell.

To be consistent, Mr.— Council Member Rist was a hard sell on that one as well. But they're going to be bringing close to 1,000 jobs. But Durham is about just over 90% locally owned. And it's because we have made those investments to try and keep it locally owned. I am tired of seeing crime tape in this area of the city, and I'm appreciative that someone is going to take the chance to go over there and bring some life to it and bring some economic activity and investment.

And also, I think it aligns with just who Durham is, keeping it local. So I hope that we can support it and bring some life back to that part of the community and give the neighbors some answers to what they've been asking, which is When do we get some attention? So thank you. Thank you. At this time, I'll go ahead and entertain a motion to authorize the City Manager to execute an economic development agreement with Coco Fro LLC in an amount not to exceed $115,000 for a building renovation project at 1004 Morning Glory Avenue, Durham, North Carolina.

So moved. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded. I'm— please open the vote. Please close the vote. And the motion passes 4 to 3 with Council Members Baker, Burris, and Rist voting no. Congratulations. Thank you.

All right, so that was 36. Next is 35. Next up is item 35.

Do we have a staff report? Item 35. Was, was Christina going to speak to this one? Yeah, yeah.

35 is the budget. Budget. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. No, 30— 35 is DDI. I'm sorry, my apologies. You're fine. Sorry. Okay. So, yeah, 35. Okay, got it. Thank you so much. Ready for the staff report. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayor Pro Tem, members of council.

The item, the item up for approval, the item is for the approval of a new contract between the City of Durham and Downtown Durham Inc. to operate and provide services and programs for for the Downtown Durham Municipal Service District for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. Little background information: Municipal Services District is defined as a geographic area where property owners pay additional tax in order to fund a variety of services that enhance but not replace existing municipal services within the district boundaries. MSD is commonly referred to as a business improvement district, or BID, The implementation of the BID within downtown Durham began July 1st, 2012. Since the MSD was implemented, MSD operations have been provided by Downtown Durham Inc. And since implementation, the BID services have been provided by the BID-operated DDI. The scope of services include clean and safe, economic development, marketing and communications, special events, and placemaking.

This, this contract is for a 5-year term. However, only the first year funding may be appropriate at this time. Staff seeks authorization to appropriate and expend fiscal year '26-'27 funds in the amount of $1,948,495, with funding for subsequent years contingent on further appropriations. Thank you so much. You've heard the staff report. Are there any questions or comments for staff? All right, thank you. At this time, I'll declare the public hearing open. I have one speaker, Pablo Friedman.

Welcome, you have 3 minutes. All right, good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, members of council, city manager, and the millions of people who care about democracy. So I stand before you tonight as somebody who pays the bid tax, and I think the bid services are really important, right? I do think that there is a value to paying that third tax. Where I think there's a bit of an issue here, to quote the famous phrase, there's a lot of taxation and not a whole lot of representation.

And specifically what I mean by that is residents pay a tremendous amount of this bid tax. Look at the number of seats on the board of directors for DDI that are occupied by residents. Ask how many times does DDI meet with residents and with what frequency. I serve on the board of my local association, and I can tell you that I think the amount of value that residents, not commercial property owners, not business owners, get from downtown Durham, because we're paying— we're essentially subsidizing all their salaries and their revenues. And what are residents, people who rent, people who own and live there, are getting in return.

I don't serve in the nonprofit, but I am a taxpayer, a premium taxpayer at that, and I think there needs to be a little bit more equity in this equation, particularly for residents, because it's not there right now. And so, you know, we live in a democracy, and so this is how the levers of oversight occur. And I'd ask you all to ensure that there's a little bit more representation of residents at the decision-making table. Separately, I think there's a larger question of how we've privatized a lot of our core government services. I think paying the bid tax is important, but I'd also like the City Council to explore another model where current government employees, if they want to earn an additional income stream or maybe make overtime, can do some of this work that's currently being privatized and contracted out.

I want to remind this council, at one point DDI was contracting with the Budd Group to do a lot of this work. That since has now changed, but I don't think the Budd Group represented the values of progressive Durham. So again, I think there's stronger oversight that's needed, and best of luck, honorables, tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Those are all the speakers I have, and at this time I'll declare the public hearing closed and back before the council. Colleagues, any comments?

Mr. Mayor, I do want to say, as a board member of DDI, I need to recuse myself from this vote given our policies around being involved in nonprofit boards. So I'd like to ask that. And that's under the advisement of our City Attorney. So if you want to check with Kim. Yeah.

Thank you so much. I'd like to say also, as a resident of downtown, a business owner of downtown, as someone who frequents downtown, I want to shout out the new ambassador program for really uplifting the hospitality of downtown. And for all of the residents to do so on the board, as well as business, small business representation and others. I think you're doing a great job and I look forward to supporting it.

Colleagues, I'll now entertain a motion to authorize the City Manager to execute a 5-year contract with Downtown Durham Incorporated, DDI, to operate the Downtown Durham Municipal Service District from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2020— 2031, in the amount not to exceed $1,948,495 for fiscal year 2026-27, subject to City Council budget authorization. So moved. It's been moved and probably seconded. I'm sorry. Is there a second? Second. So moved and properly seconded., Madam Clerk, please open the vote. Thank you. Please close the vote.

And the motion passes unanimously with, Council Member Burris abstaining himself from this vote. Thank you so much. All right, going back up. I believe it's 26. Yeah, 26. All right, Leslie St. Dre, I do want to acknowledge that I think I have you appropriately assigned to the port items now. All right, item 26, GPA, GPA, where Yeah, there we go.

Contract with Axon Enterprise Incorporated to renew and expand services. Starting online, I have Damon Williams, or Damon Williams. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes. Welcome. You have, 3 minutes. Thank you. Good evening, Council.

I am urging you to oppose the renewal and expansion of the Axon contract. While the usefulness of body cameras and car cameras for preventing police harm and holding cops accountable is contested anyway, the addition of surveillance drones and the FUSIS platform in this proposed contract is truly heinous. I would sincerely hope y'all don't use AI to write your emails or your policies, but that's your business. It is, however, my business and in my self-interest to adamantly oppose the use of AI by our city or its police force to increase surveillance. Through racist predictive policing and storing inordinate amounts of data about my neighbors and me and harassing us with drones.

Durham has already rejected ShotSpotter. We have ended our city's relationship with G4S back in 2017 or '18 due to its complicity in violence against Palestinians and so many others globally. We have already rejected Peregrine's Real-Time Crime Center just this year. And in case it wasn't clear, it's not the brand that we're concerned with. It's that we reject the use of our money for any platform supporting any real-time crime center at all.

We're also aware of Axon's connections to Israel and how its tech is crucial to brutalizing Palestinians. We don't want that for Palestine. We don't want that for our community either. We don't want to live in a gentrified city sold to the highest bidder whose false sense of safety is determined by an algorithm. We, the people of Durham, deserve better.

We deserve a heart program that does not simply become another arm that causes hurt under the guise of care. The people of Durham deserve tools proven to prevent harm, youth centers with a variety of programs like robust summer and late-night programming, and like the things that folks have already spoken in support of tonight. We deserve affordable child care, mentorship programs, free and expanded public transportation, and above all, truly affordable housing. We have the creativity, we have the people power, the history, and the urgency behind us to invest instead in real solutions to our city's issues. Many of my neighbors have already spoken about these tonight.

None of these root issue solutions involves an AI-powered crime center. It doesn't involve surveillance drone. It doesn't involve mass data storage of our people because none of it involves policing. And please also protect the DEER program. Thank you. Thank you. Now moving in person, I have Leslie, and I'm going to call up a series of speakers.

I'm going to call up a series of speakers so that you'll be prepared at the mic. First, I have Leslie St. Dre, followed by Mimi Kessler. Followed by Brian Fox, followed by Victor Ukwiza, and followed by Omar.

Welcome. Hi, I'm Leslie St. Trey, a Durham resident, also here to oppose the renewal and expansion of the Axon contract. Based on what a lot of what Damon shared and also the fact that we're looking at massive budget cuts this year. So just alone, it looks like the current yearly Axon contract would be like a 1-to-1 swap. Let's swap out police drones and over-surveillance of all of Durham and keep our community programs like the Weston Community Center programs like DEER, youth programming, programs that we actually need for people to be able to live in their city.

If you don't know, Axon owns evidence.com. This is the sort of clearinghouse data warehouse that everyone uses, SBI and the state-level DAs' offices, police, ICE, DHS. So we're a city that says we care about stopping ICE and detentions of our people, yet we're using a clearinghouse data storage place that can easily share that information with these entities that take our people, that kidnap our people. So fully want y'all to just cancel this contract. We don't need it.

More surveillance of our people. We need community programs, and as you'll hear throughout the night, that's what we need to actually help people survive. Housing is, is, violence prevention. And we need to— who's, who's committing the violence? It's our police. It's these state organizations. It's a militarized police state overall, and that's what we need to actually protect our, our people from. Thanks. Thank you. Next.

One moment, please.

My name is Mimi Kessler. I'm here tonight in my capacity as the current president of the Inner Neighborhood Council. Since 1984, we volunteered across neighborhoods for mutual support to promote the quality, stability, and vitality of Durham's residential neighborhoods. INC supports making a different decision about how to use $17 million. Rather than buy drones and computers for the police, let's spend the money fixing the parks and making them real destination parks.

The parks that are closed due to contamination is a perpetuation of racial discrimination And those communities need and deserve our support. Since we suspect that even $17 million won't actually pay for all of it, we ask that you consider a bond to make this right. Thank you. Thank you. Next.

Good evening, everyone. I'm here to speak against the over $16 million budget proposed for police surveillance technology while the city of Durham is already facing a budget shortfall. The shortfall is caused in part by commercial landlords appealing their property taxes. In turn, these appeals are due to vacancy rates that are self-imposed by keeping prices too too high for many Durhamites and local Durham businesses to realistically afford. This is not the budget we want for the future that citizens and families deserve in Durham, North Carolina.

Additionally, this is not the first time a similar police surveillance proposal has been considered. However, the proposal was unpopular in Durham then, and this new proposal is unpopular now. This is not a phenomenon unique to Durham either. Americans do not want to be surveilled in our day-to-day lives and should not be sold out in this way by our local elected officials. Surveillance like what is being proposed in correspondence with private companies will never have the necessary protections and considerations to not be abused by some party at some point in the process.

We have already seen this across the nation where the power to surveil and track citizens is being abused by officials and those with access to the data. Women have been stalked by officers with access to cameras like these in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Monroe County, Florida, and 17 other reported instances from California to Georgia. That is across our nation. This is not a direct indictment on Durham Police, but a general alarm bell that we as human beings are flirting with power that will not be used responsibly and that is not necessary now or in the future to ensure a safe community. Furthermore, this data is held on Axon-owned servers, That means you and I would be spied on by a private corporate entity with no off switch and no real accountability until it is way too late.

Axon plans to extend its AI cameras to drones as well. And I want everyone in this room to ask themselves, is this the future that you want to live in? Is this the freedom we claim to hold so dearly as Americans? A country of constant surveillance— Recording stopped. —are where science fiction dystopias come to life.

Do we want to fund a Department of Homeland Security collaborator under a rogue administration who regularly tramples on the word accountability? It is said at the beginning of this meeting that our budget is a moral decision. Our tax dollars should be spent by directly enriching the lives of the people of Durham, not to further authoritarianism by $16 million under the guise of public safety and crime prevention. We deserve fair wages for city and public workers. Lead-free parks, and enhanced public transportation, not to be sold out by elected officials for dangerous, irresponsible, and authoritarian technology.

Thank you. Thank you. Next. Good evening, Durham City Council and Durham County members. My name is Victor.

I'm a resident of East Durham and organizer of Nestor Bio-Liberation Center, and I'm here to strongly speak against the city's proposal to expand the contract with Axon The city is proposing increasing funding by nearly $17 million, y'all. That will mean more cameras, 6 drones, and other surveillance technologies in our communities. $1.5 million will go to automatic license plate readers, a highly controversial technology that has been used by ICE to kidnap innocent immigrant communities and send them to concentration camps across the country. So controversial that so many city councils across the country have been forced to cancel their contracts with these technologies. I can go on and on.

$2.2 million will go to virtual reality trainings. That seems kind of silly. Imagine what this money could do, you know, to really address the root causes of violence in our communities, invest in housing, education, mental health services. I can go on and on and on. The ACLU and other privacy advocates have strongly criticized Axon's AI tools that automatically generate police reports from body camera footage, which this proposal expands significantly.

And lastly, as our first speaker mentioned, this is the same technology used in occupied Palestine. Does Durham really want to be using the same surveillance technology that's complicit in apartheid, occupation, and genocide? I really think y'all should think about this. Thank you so much. Thank you. As we're, are you Omar? Okay, after Omar, I have, Sophia Rakeeb, Tia Hunt, Floyd McKissitt, Jen Wickman, Lindsay, and Pablo Friedman.

Thank you. My name is Omar. I'm also an organizer and work with the Nisargadatta Liberation Center. And so I'm here because I'm troubled by the proposed $16+ million contract renewal for public surveillance to further take away our tax dollars away from the working-class people here in Durham. The contract locks the city into a multi-year savings opportunity agreement, like Black Friday sale, to increase the power of state surveillance.

$60 million could go towards hundreds of thousands of families here in Durham who are struggling to afford food, to afford their rent, their groceries for their children. And also it could go towards addressing the issue of homelessness, people who are currently— who have— this system has currently failed. The contract isn't a democratic priority. If approved, this contract paves the way for real-time surveillance and cataloging of citizens through the FUSIS platform and license plate readers, as was previously mentioned. And state-of-the-art drone cameras.

Conveniently, Durham has yet to adopt the ACLU's model ordinance called Community Control Over Police Surveillance. This is not— this is for a more transparent process. It also gives people more power against government overreach. The data has been clear. Year after year, crime has fallen across the country, and here, right here in Durham, it's no different.

Last year, it has fell about 16% of violent crimes. And with that, I do want to say that I agree with Mayor Leo's statement just a little bit ago where he said that even one violent crime is too many. I agree. So I think that we should be using that, this $16 million to address the root problems, the material conditions of people who are constantly facing poverty, food insecurity, unaffordable housing, predatory contracts, and wage exploitation. Again, the surveillance contract isn't for the people.

It's against the working people. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, I have Sophia Reichby. Good evening.

My name is S, and I am a Durham resident and organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement. I'm here to speak today against the expansion of police surveillance technology. An over $16 million expansion with Axon Enterprises is not only a betrayal to the privacy of Durham residents, but it betrays our Palestinian brothers and sisters in their homeland. Axon Enterprise is complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. They provide surveillance technologies to the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza.

In the words of Axon's CEO, the commander and crew of the IOF do not know what to do with the surveillance data. They need something to process and to make this relevant operational time. The quote unquote operational time being the on-ground invasion of Gaza that has killed thousands of thousands of Palestinians. Axon, Axon's quote unquote situational awareness system, or FUSIS, sounds just like Peregrine, an AI surveillance system that Durham residents have already rejected. This company does not provide public safety.

It imports imperial, imperialist violence and surveillance, surveillance technology that has destroyed Palestinian families and wants to monitor and collect data on Americans' day-to-day, data that racially profiles and kills Black and brown people. The death count in Gaza has exceeded hundreds of thousands and continues to increase by the hour. Refuse to have the same technology tested in Palestine to be used to surveil, racially profile, and destroy families here in Durham. Millions of people across the world protest and oppose the slaughter of Palestinians. Thousands across North Carolina, including here in Durham.

Durham residents mobilized to push a ceasefire resolution, a symbolic measure to call for the end of violence and destruction in Palestine. A vote to expand Exxon's contract, a company that is complicit in the genocide in Gaza, is a contradiction to that ceasefire resolution. It invites surveillance and violence used abroad into our own communities. I reiterate, no to police surveillance technologies that would harm Durham residents. No to new drones, robots, cameras, especially especially from a company that is complicit in genocide.

Use that money towards important items that you're cutting from the budget that people are here to speak on today. Free Palestine. Thank you. Tia Hunt. Good evening.

Yeah, my name is Tia and I'm a new Durham resident and I'm really excited for my time in the city that I love so dearly, but I'm really heartbroken to hear about this potential renewed, $17 million contract with Axon that will do nothing but exacerbate the surveillance of Durham residents, especially those of us that are marginalized. I know for a fact that people come up here time and time again to say that if we want to reduce crime, then we need to invest in our community and not the police. So I'm certain that that statement and all of its sentiments are not new to y'all., I also know that Durham residents have showed heavy resistance against the construction of real-time crime centers, most recently with Perrigrine., and yet we have a proposed renewal of this contract to include FUSIS accounts with a similar program.

As already stated here tonight, it's not the particular companies that people have an issue with, but the technology itself., so that means no Paragrine, no Flock, no Axon, no FUSIS, no surveillance, period. There are plenty of other items at risk of being cut that aren't— or that aren't getting adequate funding that this money could go to., I want to up Deer, the community center at Lyon Park, equitable access to transportation across Durham. I also want to offer some specific concern with the contract that I read in the agenda saying that in addition to Axon storing this data, that Axon can transfer content to a third party for storage, and there's not much else explanation on like how that would happen.

And that's just a little bit too vague for my liking for 24/7 recordings of our city. And this is in addition to concerns already popping up in other cities and countries due to the relative ease that Axon technology has been hacked. And finally, I want to add that Durham, as noted before, has a strong history of standing with Palestinians amid the US-backed Israeli genocide and colonization of Palestine, from the Durham to Palestine Coalition ending police exchange with the Israeli occupation forces and the more recent ceasefire resolution. I really hope we can continue this history by ending a contract with surveillance companies that material aid in this genocide by offering technology to track and kill Palestinians., yeah, so I'm really hopeful that this new budget will have no renewed contract for Axon and that no new proposed contracts pop up in the future for surveillance companies.

Thank you. Got you. Next up. Good evening, Mayor, members of City Council. I'm Floyd McKissick.

It's Service, chair of the Durham Committee on Affairs of Black People. The thing I can say about this program, it needs to be expanded. And I say that because people who are Black and brown in neighborhoods across this city, and those who may not be Black or brown but are victims of crime, want to know that everything that can be done is being done to decrease crime in our community and to hold those who commit crime accountable for the offenses and for the conduct that they engaged in. If perhaps there's a police officer that's using a taser and it triggers their police body cam, that's a good thing. We don't have to look very far except over in Kelby, North Carolina this past weekend to see what happened when you had to rely upon a doorbell video to capture an incident involving police misconduct was inappropriate.

More importantly, I heard someone say Virtual reality training, a bad idea. I want to know that virtual reality training is being engaged in, in our law enforcement community so they can sit there and watch it and understand what they can do to de-escalate incidences before they occur. I, I heard about those type of incidences where there might have been over-surveillance. There have been times over the state fairgrounds because of the type of intelligence that was gathered, that they could intercept child predators before they were going into bathrooms during the state fair. What I'm saying to you, artificial intelligence is out there.

They're being tracked already every time you use your cell phone. You're being tracked already when you go through intersections. What we need to do is to make sure that that technology that has the capacity to reduce crime, to reduce violence, and to hold those who commit violence accountable for their conduct that is utilized. We can't be afraid of it. It is here.

It is with us. Most people in their homes today have over 21 devices that access the internet. 21 of them. All right? We are always involved in situations where technology is used as our friend.

It's used as something that advances us in society. Does it need to have constraints? The answer is yes. But when it can be used effectively, productively, and done in a way that reduces crime, when I guarantee you that anybody who's been a victim of crime wants to know that's occurring, when you see incidences occurring day in and day out involving murders in our community, involving people who have been victimized by crime, I don't want to see them adding more patches to a quilt. I want to know that what we have is a law enforcement community that's using every tool and resource that's available to them today to marshal those resources to be effective in addressing the responsibilities that they have a duty to execute.

So I would hope and I would trust that we would extend and expand this. Thank you. Next.

Hello, thank you for inviting me to speak again. Gentrifier. I totally love this contract. Love, love, love it. $17 million is a bargain.

I'm reading the book by Rick Smith, who is the founder and CEO— he's a boy boss— of Axon, the company behind Fusys, or Fusys, I don't know how you say it. Why should I care? They make money on tasers. They sell tasers and invented them, and they make money on body cameras. So they only stand to make more money by holding all our data.

And I just think it's amazing. I've read his book. It's called The End of Killing: How Our Newest Technologies Can Solve Humanity's Oldest problem. Now, I thought humanity's oldest problem had to do with humanity's oldest profession, but that's only partly what he's talking about. He is not out— he is not afraid to think outside the box, y'all.

He put tasers on drones. He put tasers on drones. And yes, his entire ethics board resigned because of that, but you know, you have to not be afraid to think outside the law. I mean, Sorry, the box. Think outside the box.

I love that FUSIS allows us to use all those things, all those home cameras, at the push of the button. We can just add that straight into the surveillance box that, that Axon also, owns and owns as a private company in perpetuity. And that's just another great way to to make money. And if you're not doing anything wrong, why would you care about all these additional cameras and surveillance all over the place? I mean, if you wanna be naughty, if you wanna have a little sniff sniff or a little puff puff, you just do it in your own market rate home or one of my ADUs.

Contact me. I mean, all of these rabble-rousers here who are going to bring up the fact that this is creating a real-time crime center, which y'all voted down because of public outcry before, And it will use predictive policing, and predictive policing uses AI that needs more data centers and has been proven to be racist. But that is only because the entire history of policing is racist. I mean, are we even supposed to do anything about that? I don't think so.

And besides, only sometimes have they arrested the wrong people because of these programs. But look, that's what expensive lawyers are for. You keep your lawyer on retainer if you're worried. I don't know what the problem is. Give us these 6 drones as first responders. Give us more cameras. Give us the 2 ground robots as police helpers. Drones and robots and AI, oh my. With a company led by Rick Smith and AI predicting crime, what could go wrong? Thank you.

Hello, my name is Lindsay. I'm here to oppose the Axon contract, which is not surprising to anybody, I'm sure, because I was here to oppose the Peregrine contract as well. And during that statement, I actually mentioned one of the Axon Enterprise contracts that's being integrated into this $17 million as a part of a bundle deal., earlier this year I talked about how that contract, which was to expand, storage capacity on evidence.com, to unlimited storage, to the tune of $3 million, was just as unnecessary as the Peregrine contract. And all of the $17 million worth of technology in this contract is wildly unnecessary and does not target the root causes of violence at all.

We know the things that target the root causes of violence that reduce gun violence, and it doesn't have to do with dumping money into policing. If that worked, we'd have less gun violence. Because we dump money into policing, all the time, constantly. Every dollar, every spare dollar we have is dumped into policing. And every single time we come up here to say stop doing it, where does the money go?

Does it go to anything that was, so in 2023, there was, research that was done in a coalition group by the city about public safety that had a long list of recommendations for how to actually reduce gun violence and improve public safety. And there wasn't a single thing on there about giving more money to the Durham Police Department. And yet here we are. I want to speak a little bit about FUSIS. FUSIS is a, a software that's surprisingly similar to Peregrine, partially because it's used to build real-time crime centers.

It also enables police officers to hyper-surveil a location without the public knowing. 64 of the camera feeds that will be, that are included in the contract with Axon Enterprises are going to be put on Durham Housing Authority properties. In Toledo, police used FUSIS to monitor, their public housing projects, and they monitored the same live camera footage on a playground on public housing property for 150 hours during an 11-day period. How were they able to do that without anybody knowing? Because they didn't have to have a police car on the ground to do it.

Nobody knew that they were watching it. And how would they know? Because you have a room that just has a bunch of screens that has feeds of cameras all over the city, and nobody knows what the police are watching and why they're watching it. And when a shooting occurred there, the police still took 15 minutes to respond. Thank you. Next.

All right, good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, members of council, city manager, and the millions and millions of people who care about democracy.

There are a lot of things have been said tonight around this contract. I want to talk about some things that have not been said about this contract that I think deserve merit in your consideration. So the first one is in the supplemental information. If you look at the cost on a yearly basis compared with an equivalent contract with Asheville, our contract is demonstrably inflated on a yearly basis. Right.

It's not an— the amount of money we as the taxpayer paying here in Durham per year for the same contract that Asheville got is wildly out of alignment here. So as you're looking at the budget puzzle, right, if you align the cost to what Asheville had, you could save a couple million dollars here, a couple million dollars that you could then use to pay your city workers more dignified salary. Okay. Point number 2. Why in this contract are the drones coming in for free?

Have you even had a conversation with the citizens and residents of Durham that they're about to have surveillance on drones? Does the public or the City of Durham know that you're going to activate automatic license plate readers with this system hinging on a policy clarification? The same thing happened with the Peregrine thing. It was a software tool, but built into that was automatic license plate state readers. I think there hasn't been a level of transparency between the leadership of the city on that specific technology piece because y'all try to push it through the Peregrine contract.

And I want to thank those of you on City Council that spoke to the city manager and encouraged him to pull it because I think that was the right thing to do. But why is there this obsession in this contract with that type of technology? And I think you need to level with the taxpayer and the people of Durham as to why you're doing it. Thirdly, Okay. I think most people in Durham will support you on body-worn cameras.

I think that's a middle of the road for where Durham is. But when you look at neighboring municipalities that have rejected FLOC contracts and you're trying to build them backdoor through Peregrine and through this contract, I think it raises some credibility issues, credibility issues that you all need going into the budget conversation, which you're about to have next. So absent some major structural reforms to this contract, it's ballooned way out of control. A lot of bells and whistles that the people of Durham didn't sign up for and you haven't leveled with. So I'd urge you to vote this down or send it back to staff with more changes.

Thank you. Thank you. Those are all of my speakers. If there are no others, I will now declare the public— wait a minute, no, yes, the pulled item. All right, colleagues, are there any comments or any questions?

Question for staff? Yep, I do have any comments. Yeah, if there's staff available, please come up.

Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem Council. Good evening, Chief., thank you for being here. I just have a question. There was a lot of concerns raised about data storage, as you've heard from residents questions here.

Could you just please describe how the data— with this contract with Axon, how and where the data will be stored, who owns that data, and how this was— would be different from, say, for example, the data that would have been stored, that would have been shared through the Peregrine contract? So can you comment on that? Like, is this the same as a real-time crime center? Is this different? Just please explain that.

No, this is completely different. Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Manager, esteemed members of the board, Chris with IT. So this is completely different., this data is only criminal justice data, which is only kept in regulations based on state, federal, and CJIS rules for criminal justice information. We own both encryption keys for all the data that is stored in the AWS cloud.

So, there's no opportunity for them to be able to take any of this. This, yeah, it's just, we own the data. If we were ever to move to a different vendor, we would rely on that vendor to help us do a migration of terabytes and terabytes of data. But that would— they can't get to it. Does that make sense?

That's helpful. Yeah, I know we talked about this before, but I want to make sure residents are kind of clear on sort of this issue also. So what, what data is stored? What stuff is— is there some data that's evidentiary that, that gets deleted eventually? Like, what, what is stored?

What stays there? And, and why this sort of increasing need for increasing, server capacity to store data? So it's going to be stored how long? Correct. At this To your point, what's going on is everything that we have is only kept based on the type of call that it was on and what the type of call is going to end up being looked at by the District Attorney's Office, as, as in like just a call for service, a misdemeanor, or a felony.

Those are the type of things that set the retention level for that data. So a call for service would only be 180 days, misdemeanor would be 3 years, Felony would be 20 years. If it was not tied to a call for service from DECC through the CAD system, the computer-aided dispatch system, if that was not assigned an event number or an IR number, then it, it doesn't get retained. It only gets retained if it's going to go to a case. Does, does that make sense?

Yeah, no, thank you for that. And then last question, so can you explain evidence.com? What What is that? Is that sort of how we use that? And is that, is that essentially also a real-time crime center, or is that not?

No, no. So basically what it is is it's a case management system or a digital evidence management system., what happens is the— everything from when the call starts to the course of the investigation to when it— the ticket comes in from an adjudicative authority where we put together a case and bring in all the information from all the different— from DECC, from labs, from forensics, from latent prints, from everybody. And all this stuff comes together to go into a single— this DEMS. And then we do a secure file-to-file transfer from us to Axon Justice, which the NCCDA has decided is going to be their preferred method for digital evidence management for all their court cases.

So for us, we've been already working on this entire system for the last year to perfect workflow, because between DECC ourselves and the DA's office, we're doing everything we can to compress that time between call to investigation to adjudication, to benefit, you know, victims and their families. So evidence.com is— it helps us to sort of transfer files. It's not a— it's not a storage. It doesn't store it. It doesn't analyze data.

It doesn't look at any data. That's all done by us. It's all done by hand. All the cases are built by us. So it's a tool to transfer data from DBD to other agencies that— right.

So this is mainly all we're doing is you'd imagine like it's a container with a bunch of data in it. And it's called a case, and it has an assignment, and the DA says, "We are formally requesting all that information." And this is a same-vendor solution where we go one server to the other, secure, and then we don't have to worry about, like we used to in the old days, where you had to print things off, drive them over, faxing things, things would get lost, we'd have to send downloads, and if their download speed wasn't good enough, the trials would get delayed. It's so much cleaner. The chain of custody is absolutely pristine when we're talking about these massive amounts of data that end up being, created for cases, especially when we're talking about some of the more, complex cases here in Durham. Thank you.

That's all my questions for now. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. Go ahead. Thank you. I've got a couple of questions as well. I want to just— to one thing that a resident just said, and I don't have the cost in front of me, but I do have the comparable things that are in our contract versus other cities across North Carolina. What is the cost comparison and are are we paying more than Asheville? So we are paying more than Asheville. Of course, we're a lot larger city.

I do have our fiscal manager here with the breakdown for the cost analysis that was requested. Good evening, Sean Huey, Fiscal Services. So we did a comparison, a benchmark comparison between ourselves, Asheville, Cary, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem., Asheville in particular, which you just asked about, has 232 authorized FTEs, whereas Durham has 531 authorized sworn FTEs. So we are over twice the size that Asheville is, and therefore our contract is likewise over twice the size of Asheville's contract.

Contract. Is that the Asheville— what I'm looking at for the comparison by police department seems like the Asheville contract has a lot of extra things that are included that are not included in ours. So why is it, why is it roughly double, or is it not, Asheville's just passed, and so we do not have the, exact details of what went into the contract., so it— I, I could probably, pull that data for you, but I don't have that— the particulars of the contract, what, what their breakdown of costs were compared to ours.

Okay, it's going to be good on the cost questions, but I do have some tech questions., can we speak— yes, if you want further on that Asheville contract, we do have a representative from Axon that can tell you a little bit more about that in the comparison if you would like. Okay. Good evening all, Andrea Swan from Axon. Thanks for having me here tonight, Council.

Appreciate it. What was your specific question, Council Member Cook, around the differences between the two? You can just hold that mic closer to your— certainly, sorry about that. Can you hear me now? Yes, I understand that the size of the cities is different, but I'm curious what the cost differential is because Asheville's, contract seems to include a lot more technology than the Durham one, and so I was just hoping you could speak to the differences that are included and, and why the cost is so much greater if that is just made up by size.

It's mostly made up by size, to be honest with you. You're twice the size here, or larger, than the Asheville Police Department is. There are some pieces of technology that they have in different size and scope than you may have. For instance, a different number of drones, different number of size for the FUSIS contract, different number of officers officers, but overall it's a very similar contract in terms of scope. There are other pieces that they may have in there that Durham does not have, but then Durham has pieces that, that Asheville does not as well.

Each contract is customized to the agency. Okay, thank you. I'm gonna— I have some tech questions.

Can you speak to predictive policing and whether there's any usage within the FUSIS technology or potential usage? Okay, so for AI, the only AI that is in our contract is, auto transcription, which if you look at the TVs, it's, it's what that's doing right now. It's, close was captioned., just makes it easier for to process videos so that we can take, what's spoken and have it into transcripts for the DA's office. It makes it a lot easier for them to, to go through the information.

Other than that, there is no other AI. So my understanding is that we will be connecting to cameras that are in existence already elsewhere outside of our body cams and dash cams. So DHA was— the housing authority was mentioned. I think there's other cameras too that are already in use that will be working with the system, and those cameras utilize AI. So can you explain how we protect against that?

So yes, so what happened was for us to be able to get the capacity that we needed for our ability to record the NC DOT cameras for, traffic investigations for the majority of our— it provides a tremendous amount of information for both criminal and civil courts. We do have a lot of civil court interaction because of traffic accidents, especially in those areas. Those devices were only made with an AI unit attached to it, like physically in the hardware. So basically, Our plan is we're just not gonna— it'll be disabled. We're not gonna use it.

We don't need it for what we need the actual full unit for. Like, we need it for the recordings of traffic accidents to be used for evidentiary value. The AI part, we don't need at all because this is where the accident would've happened and we would go back to pull the video for it. It. So there's— we don't need AI to tell us that we're pulling old video.

Do we, do we own all those cameras? Because I thought that some of those cameras were not owned by the city. No, so a lot of those cameras belong to the state. And so how do we control if the AI is turned on or off? There are two boxes and we would just disable it.

We would— okay, again, all of this, everything that we're doing, we've got the ability, one, for policy to be put in place in the first place to tell us what we can and can't do, and secondly, to be audited. So that would be the way that you'd make sure that we had them turned off. I guess where I'm getting stuck is that I, I understand maybe that we're not going to accept that footage, or we're not going to be directing that, but if the AI— if the cameras are owned outside of the city, I don't understand how we would turn off that function. This might just be me not understanding the tech. Okay, yeah, so I'm— maybe I'm not explaining this the right way.

We only get feeds. That's it. That's all we get is live feeds. We would be just recording those live feeds. The AI that you're talking about is a piece of hardware that's on a device that we're using as a recorder. It's a DVR, basically. Does that make sense? It's a what? A DVR. A DVR, like a digital version of a VCR. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Can I ask a clarifying question to help? Sure.

So just to be clear, if, if the camera is doing any local processing on the camera, that data is not coming to the city because we are only getting the video feed feed. So any, any software that might be built into that camera, does any of its processing, any identification of what it's seeing, does any of that transmit to the city in this scenario, or are we only getting the raw video? We are only getting the raw video with the watermarked metadata. Otherwise, it's not of any use, as evidence because you have to have date and timestamps. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, that was helpful. And can you speak to— I don't know if Chief, if you want to come up to— we have drones already in usage. Can you just speak to what we are already utilizing drones for and what this contract is going to do with respect to the current capacity that we have? Yes, I will. So let me go back. I should have told you I have a team over here that worked on this contract.

For about 2 years before me coming into interim chief May 1st of this year. So we have an attorney here from the police department. We have Exxon representative. We have TS from the city and also our fiscal manager and our IT person who spoke with Chris and the captain of our criminal investigation who actually was one of the project managers with this. So it's a lot of information.

This is a large contract. I think this is one of the largest contracts that I've ever seen for the police department in 30 years. So I have the staff here if anybody has questions to kind of clarify for the citizens of Durham what this contract is about. Now, to answer your question, the drones that we have now, we do use them. They are a big help when we have large crowds, traffic, or anything that we need.

We are usually operating, as I said before in our last session, at about 48%, 53%. And so the drones that we have now do not replace, they do not do predictive policing, they do not store any information at all. They don't have that kind of capability. But what it does do is it sends us back a live feed that we need to keep citizens safe in the city of Durham. Usually when we have a protest, and I've said this before, and to you and to other council members, We can buy more paint, we can buy more glass, we can't buy more people.

And so for us to let people protest peacefully, we do use this so we can monitor things around them to keep them safe. And I think that's— that is one of the biggest uses, like, we found to really help us, not just traffic, just day to day. Those things help us keep people safe. And so the drones that we're asking for now are launched drones, 2 of them. The other 4 will be in operations, which is our patrol division, to be able to act as a drone, as a first responder, giving us the capability to assess the scene, whether it's a building we're searching.

So we won't go around the corner and there won't be an accident where officer thinks that somebody has a gun. That drone can see around that corner and say this, this— they can give a live feed, not giving back some type of predictive information, but just a live feed of the scene so that the person that we encounter can be safe and also can be safe. It cannot just be used for— that can be used for if we're searching for someone that is missing, a kid, elderly person, there's an ambulance, any type of thing that we need to go into a wood line, we can use that drone. So the drone is not just going to be used for, what folks are thinking is going to be used for. This is not predictive policing.

This is not surveillance that we're using it for. This is to keep citizens safe, and I think that citizens have the right to be safe. Thank you. And so just a couple of questions to follow up. So this is, this is going to be footage that's going to be watched by a real person, and will that be— will it be helpful to other departments and other first responders who are answering crisis calls?

I think so. Absolutely. I think that if there's a call where we have to do a joint operation with fire, emergency management, it could be our community safety. I think we all benefit from that if it's concerning safety of the city. So yes, if it's an outside agency that's in Durham, like NCCU, Duke, or there's an outside agency beyond our Durham County boundaries, then yes, we could— they could actually help them too, as far as something that's involving public safety and, and their— the prevention of violence.

And you spoke earlier about launch drones. Can you just explain what that is and when the drones are used? So the drones will be launched strategically at a substation, either at headquarters, and when something occurs, it would be linked to our 911 can take off and actually get to the scene probably, and we're hoping faster than the officer. Right now, our time as far as responding under 6 minutes is not happening, right? But if that drone can get there before and assess the scene and give us a live feed, not predictive policing, not surveillance, a live feed of what that officer's getting ready to walk into, then it makes it safer for everybody out there.

Just because we heard commentary on it, will our drones— the drones in this contract have tasers, guns, or anything else on them? No, no. Those are all my questions for now. Council Member Kopac. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So a few follow-up questions. So first of all, my understanding is that we are not currently enabling the license plate scanners. Is that the case?

What would be required to enable them? And if we did so, what are the use cases that we would use the scanners for? So we have to have an agreement to enable it with Axon. We can, we can, as is described to me from IT, we can cut that function, that functionality off. What we would use it for is for missing persons, Amber Alerts, stolen motor vehicles, violent crimes.

It wouldn't be used for just randomly storing someone's information. And can you explain the difference between a scanner and an alternative license plate reader? So I would refer to my IT for that question.

So I'm kind of, are you referring to there being— asking if there are different brands or like the functionality of how this— the functionality of how it works? I think this came up in work session. It's helpful to get some clarity and also to be able to share it about, you know, whether— I think the police chief did address the extent to which it's not a general scan, but there was some explanation about whether the data was captured and saved. Versus evaluated on the spot, and I just think it'd be helpful to make that clarification, right? So basically what happens is you've got a camera that is focused at a, at a certain height, even the ones that anybody puts on posts or poles or anything like that, they've all got to be at that, cert— at the correct angle, and they're aimed at a certain place where it's— you're— for most vehicles where a rear plate is going to pass through that area and they've probably got a window of about 3 feet by 3 feet that they're actually focusing on.

The camera is only looking for alphanumeric values, right? So, letters and numbers, that's it. Once it sees something that we've or anyone has told it to look for, right, a series of values like ABC123, it's going to— every time it sees a number value go through, it's going to say, is it a match or not? It's completely binary, yes, no, is it correct or is it not correct? At this point, I— they can't even figure out the difference between states for plates.

They're just still looking at alphanumeric values. Once that happens and it sees something and it says, okay, I was told to look for a North Carolina plate that says ABC123, and then a license plate goes through and it says, hey, I think I found it. Hey, big screen pop-up, and it shows the plate, and it says, hey officer, you told me to look for North Carolina plate ABC123. Is this it? And the officer looks at it and says, no, that's Texas ABC123.

Decline. It's gone. If it is correct and it is ABC123 North Carolina plate, then the officer says accept, and then everybody gets alerted and they know that that car's been found. Does that make sense?, that is helpful additional information.

Thank you., so it isn't currently enabled. It would have to come back to council to be enabled, and you've laid out the specific use cases for it, so that's helpful., next, what are the state requirements we're facing in terms of data collection and storage? And, you know, can we do that with our existing contract? How does that help us to comply with the state requirements.

You know, are you catching— I'm sorry, I'm not really understanding what you're asking., so I'm just trying to understand in terms of this, this additional information we're seeking to store, right? And my understanding is that some of that was in response to requirements, coming from the state. That we have to comply to in conjunction with our district attorney. And so is that the case, if it helps fulfill that, or is that not the case?

Ideal— yes, in this case it would, because we've decided that, or at least the NCCDA has decided, that they're gonna go with Axon Justice as their digital evidence management system. So that would mean that our evidence management Our evidence.com system would feed directly into it once they've properly requested a case through the ticketing system, and then that way we've got an audit trail that comes all the way from us through them and then from them back to us and then back to them again. So we've got multiple ways to make sure that everyone's done everything that they were supposed to do. And yes, this is, this is going to be a thing that's going to happen from the NCCDA. All right, thank you.

And then my last question is just to highlight some of the discussions we've had around governance. I'm not sure who's the right person, if this is City Manager, other staff, but can you share what would be committed to in terms of council oversight for changes to contracts, to the contract, civilian oversight in terms of Audit Services Committee, and about the ability of the city to cancel the contract. Sure, Chief, I'll take that one if that's all right. So, in the follow-up memorandum that Council received, after the discussion at work session, we talked about, different possibilities, for, accountability back to Council, and, there were two different options explored. The memorandum sort of settles on the fact that the The Audit Services Oversight Committee is an independent body appointed by council.

The city's audit services director reports to the ASOC, and, would the council would have the opportunity to request that the ASOC audit the police department's use of technology against approved policies, against any resolutions that council may, put forward. And so our recommendation for that level of oversight would be for council to make a referral to the ASOC and request, a periodic review of the department's use of technologies, reviews of technologies in this contract, and to report directly out to the ASOC. That's an independent body outside of the police department that has full access to all the records within the police department. Thank you, Mr. Manager.

If we move forward as a council, I would just like to encourage us— I know we've discussed this as a group in the prior public meeting, but just for us to look for those really key elements of governance on a program like this.

Thank you all for being here. Just a few questions. Can you just tell me a little bit about the potential of use— uses of acts on products that we're looking at that are expressly prohibited that we have already decided we're going to shut that off, we're not going to be using it? We just talked about the automatic license plate reader. We've talked about shutting that off.

That's the only thing that I'm aware of as far as shutting off., that's it. And then, Mr. Manager, and the staff, provided response to some of our questions during the work session. We talked about putting in place some guardrails.

Can you talk about some of those guardrails that we are exploring and the mechanisms by which we would solidify those guardrails? Sure. Thank you, Council Member. Let me pull up the memorandum that we provided and reference directly from the memorandum that's also available on our website. So item 2 on page 6 mentions that for automated license plate readers, as you've just discussed in the current proposed contract, the Axon Fleet 3 ALPR technology feature is turned off.

If DPD wants to request the feature to be turned on in the future, a DPD policy update to enable that would need to be brought back to Council. That is a commitment on the part of staff on section— Mr. Manager, where does that policy live? The, the policy lives in the police department. The oversight is in the manager's office and potentially through the ASOC if the council so directed.

For item 5, it goes on to say the city manager's office, with support from the city attorney's office as needed, has committed to City Council that no modifications will be made to the proposed contract that affect the functionality or scope of use of the technology without first consulting with and receiving confirmation from the City Council. And then items 7— go ahead— item 7 we've already discussed, which is civilian oversight. So could you also— could you read number 4? Because that also relates to sort of the use of AI. Yes, there, specifically the staff discussed, answered a question from council members that came from our briefings about the use of AI model training.

And item 4 discusses the fact that we specifically would opt out of any use of our data. As staff mentioned earlier, we completely control our data. Our data is encrypted. Axon does not have access to our data. We have the encryption key, and the city is committing to opt out of any use of that data for AI model training.

So Council Member Baker, in summary, those are commitments from, from the staff, from myself to the City Council. I'm an employee of the City Council and serve at your direction. As such, those are things I've put forward, and then we can answer any questions if Council's interested in further discussion. Okay, and we talked about potential policies adopted through resolution at our next council meeting? Is that something that's on our radar?

Thank you, Council Member Baker. Thank you, Mayor. That was not something— that was a suggestion that the manager made during a check-in today, that if we wanted to add an extra layer of an extra guardrail, that that could actually be put into a resolution format so it wouldn't just be a policy that lives within the city Police Department, it would be an actual resolution that council could adopt. That is not language that is ready for this evening, but it is something that we could do, I think, potentially even at our next council meeting. But I don't want to speak for the manager.

Oh, confirm that that's conversation we had today, that if council directed us to bring back a resolution enshrining these things, that we'd be happy to prepare a resolution that included language making the commitments that I just verbalized earlier. And then, who would have access to the FUSIS platform? It would be a select few. It wouldn't be everybody in the department. You have to be trained, have a passcode to be able to get in there, and be documented what you're using the FUSIS platform for.

So it wouldn't be just random access. We would have guardrails and policies dictating that. Okay, we would have, policies in place, and those are general orders? Yes, sir. General orders, standard operations.

Can you talk about how those general orders are created or amended? So those general orders are created, they're reviewed by executive command staff, looked over by our accreditation manager, and then looked over by our city police attorney, and then so approved by the chief of police and put into effect. Thank you. And then, so we currently have a contract with Axon for the body-worn cameras and car cameras.

That's coming to an end., so regarding the new contract, what is, what is the final date that council can make a decision on, on the current, the proposed contract? So we would have to talk to Axon, and we were talking about renewing the contract to make a decision on the final date. The proposed end for our Axon cameras is July 31st of this year, is when the contract ends. So we would have to have something in place or talking about an extension with Axon for the equipment that we currently have now if we do not move to have this deal or contract with Axon.

My job before July 31st, correct? Okay, those are my questions for now. Thank you. I just have a question for Council colleagues. I feel like I can not foreshadow, but I can feel it.

So would you all want to have the resolution in place before you took the vote on this tonight? I'm just trying to gather, like, if you want to have that piece piece in place before committing to the vote, or what do you imagine to be the sequence in addressing this? Because I think that's going to be the next lingering question at some point.

Just one clarifying question., the— what we, what we spoke about today, and I posed this idea, the resolution would be an additional layer, as Mayor Pro Tem stated, it would be an additional layer pretty much enshrining what we already will have in our operating documents. To Council Member Burris's question, I think it's more so a preferential thing. I'd want to know prior to that question being answered, you know, just in regards to, you know, the contract, I think you said July 31st, or is it June 30th? Is it on the fiscal year?

July 31st. Is the end of our Exxon contract for our bottom— The other is, do we need the resolution to pass it? So can we pass it and also do a resolution next in the two— next two weeks that would allow us to enshrine our operations with this? Does that— does it have to be a prerequisite?

Well, Council Member Burris's question was, I believe, to the colleagues in a sense, and I'm asking for it. More of a clarifying question of, does it make a difference if we were to pass this tonight and we then on the 15th do the resolution? Would it have the same effect as passing it on the same day as the resolution? I can answer the contractual question. Contractually, on that timeframe that you just described, that would put the resolution in place in place before the contract went into effect.

So if you, if you approve the item tonight, it passed a resolution in 2 weeks, the resolution would be in effect before the contract went into effect. So that timing would work. As staff has reported, answered previously, you could also adopt the contract at the same time. But as we have a very full agenda on the 15th. I just had reminded Council via email earlier that that will already be a long meeting.

So, that's my feedback. Thank you. Thank you., I appreciate all my colleagues' questions and all the work that staff has done., I, I will say, generally speaking, you know, I, I understand everyone's suspicion and, skepticism, for lack of a better word, around surveillance, quote, surveillance tech.

I will say that to me this is vastly different than some of the other things that we have looked at., it is not Peregrine, it is not ShotSpotter., part of it is a bundling of tech that we already use and have had for many, many years— drones and, cameras., we've had a contract with Axon for, for years So in some ways, this is just an extension and not anything new. I also understand the deep concerns that folks have had around AI, license plate readers, all of the things that I have concerns as a council member, which is why we've been very diligent in having— making sure that that has been stripped out to the point that we were also talking about passing an additional resolution as a council potentially.

So that residents can know, regardless whether it's the 7 of us sitting here, regardless of whether it's a new police chief, regardless if it's a new city manager, those rules are still in place until they're not. And so that, that for me is the importance around this, is the continuity of accountability., I'm one vote. I very much want that oversight to audit services. If possible, I would like to be able to include who has access, to the point that I know it's not broadly within the the police department.

I don't know if that's something that can be included or not. I want a clear line of accountability to the public, who at the end of the day pays for this. I will also say that in many ways, because of the decision at the state level for how they are doing evidence and how they want evidence collected and shared with them, we don't have a ton of choices. They have made a decision on a tech platform, from an evidence collection and from a victim services standpoint, I understand why people want data streamlined, collected, and being able to be used to help folks who are victims of crime. We know that that is a very long process.

As council members, while we, we are not in that system in the same way, we hear from victims all the time about how long it takes to get things through. And I will say, as a mom of three, I don't particularly want to tell another mom, you got to wait longer. This is, this, this is clunky. I know folks want answers to what have happened, what's happened to their family members, and I feel like we need to respond to that. That's where I am as an individual council member.

I also understand that the, the, the, the angst is real. I think we're seeing a lot of very dangerous things happening at the state and federal government, and it's trickling down and informing how we talk about these things, so it's not that I think that that's outside the scope of, you know, what we should be talking about. I will also say, and this is for the Durham PD Department, and I've protested in many other cities at this point and experienced police officers in many other cities, and I've had to tell my kids this pretty often, don't pull that in another city because you're not dealing with Durham cops. You're going to get the crap beat out of you there, and that doesn't happen here, and we've taken a long, long— took us 10 years. The George Floyd anniversary was just a little while ago, and I can see, and I think everybody can remember, that what we experienced in Durham and what other communities were experiencing was not the same reality.

We were not having protesters beat up on the street by the police officers that they helped fund with their taxes. That did not happen, and it won't happen because the hard work that this community has already done to hold our police police officers has been done and continues to be done. And I will say, as a council member, every single one of my questions, every single one of my doubts has been answered and clarified and thought through by this police department and the staff around this contract. So again, I'm just one council member, but I do want folks to really understand the difference here. And that doesn't mean that I also don't have some, you know, hesitation, but that's just where I'm at.

I hope that helps to clarify for council members. I'm comfortable if we— to the manager's clarification around a resolution and a contract. I think that that's fine, but I do want a resolution because I want that extra guardrail for residents. Thank you. Okay, you're okay with that coming on the 15th?

Because the contract isn't into a— we're still ahead of when the contract takes effect, and so I'm fine as long as it does happen before we go on, before the fiscal year ends, the contract is implemented and we go on break. So we're going to try to make that happen before, by next meeting, which is the 15th. Council Member Burris.

Thank you. And I appreciate my colleagues for all your comments and also just really being thorough in reviewing the contract and making sure that we are all in alignment with what this actually is going to do. I appreciate all the advocacy around this. This has been a deeply nuanced topic. And as a former Industrial Areas Foundation organizer, we were always taught about the worlds that it is and the worlds it should be and how we work to bridge those two worlds together.

And so while I appreciate the visioning about the world that we want to aspire, we have to also hold true to realities of many of our communities. I did make the— I did go to a live crime scene after someone shot on East Main Street. And one thing that plays into my mind, I think about every single day, is a young lady who's only 21 years old, who had already been a victim of a drive-by, and she was shot in front of her two children. And when I asked her, like, what can we do? And she— I just watched someone just be so hopeless in that moment about their realities, where we have people who want their children to play in the parks.

There are also kids in our community who can't play in their front yards. I've seen videos of folks carrying assault assault rifles through some of our communities. And I've talked to people who've expressed that it feels like some of our communities are lawless communities, that people can come to those communities and commit crime and go back out into the wild. And I want to make sure that all our residents, and our children get to promise, because no one wakes up in the morning hoping to be a victim of any type of violence. I don't imagine that anyone would do so.

And so while I do hear the concerns been brought forth in council chambers, I also hear the concerns that I hear on the streets. And it haunts me to know that some of our young people, I think about where I was doing when I was 21, and I had not been a victim of gun violence. I had not been, I had not suffered harm in front of my children. When I went out there, I saw this, like it was a hollow point. You could tell the bullet that went, their mom was sitting on the front porch and that bullet came through.

This guy was shot right in front of a bus, of the bus stop. And they had talked about how these people don't even live in our community, but they come over here. And commit crime and then go back out into community. That's not a standard we can set for anyone. It's not.

We can't normalize violence to the point of where our children are basically ducking and diving in fear every day from getting off a school bus and seeing yellow tape up and then wondering if someone in your family was harmed. Just that anxiety for our kids. And so that's why I really— and as I said in the work session, I do appreciate the police department because I did I did get a chance to go on a ride-along, and I do appreciate the intentionality behind the work, but I want to just hold up with that tension that there are many in our community who do not feel safe, and they deserve to be able to walk down the street, bike, play, live, exist, and feel safe. While I know that policing is not the end-all be-all, I would much rather our police officer have access to a non-lethal tool and that we have the ability to have that recorded as well. And so that's where I'm at in thinking about what the future is.

But you can't unhear some of these stories. I'm literally haunted by what I saw and what I've heard, and not just from one person, from multiple people. I'm in Ward 2. If you ever drive down Holloway Street, I would encourage you to drive down Holloway Street and see what you see. Drive to the Village.

Think about you going about your daily life and you have to think about being a victim of gun violence. That's not okay. It's simply not okay. So we're not asking for mass surveillance. And I do again appreciate the diligence, but All children should be safe.

All adults should be safe in our community. And I just want to uplift that, that sometimes when we advocate, in another IAF quote, you can never do more for someone than they're willing to do for themselves. So if you are not building community with people and hearing their real stories, I think that it, you need to be in relationship to advocate for someone effectively, at least hear their side of the story, because they're the ones living it every single day. So with that, those are my remarks. Thank you.

Thank you. Sorry, see a moment, just reflecting on my, my colleague's comments.

And as I've met with victims and victims' rights groups, I do hear a yearning for those seeking justice that for their lost loved ones, a desire— there are tools that are available to, to make it easier to sort through our data and do things to help solve crimes for those who've been harmed. That, that is a, a really powerful call, and I think one that we have to take really seriously because we do have so many of our residents and our young people who are Who are facing violent crime in our community. To respond to Council Member Burris's great question, I do have high confidence that this council would pass the resolution we've discussed. And so with that, and knowing the contract would not take place until the end of the month, that, you know, would make me comfortable with the sequencing that I think is being proposed., and I really appreciate the resident comments tonight and the important debate, which is an age-old one about the balance between freedom and security and the desire to keep ourselves safe, safe, and not put ourselves into a surveillance state.

And I appreciate the resident comments and concerns over this process, which have helped us to ask better questions, to to really dig into the details of this contract to get to a place that where I didn't feel very comfortable at the start, I feel more comfortable with. And that's also a reflection and a thanks to staff who've dug into this.

I think most people would accept we're gonna use some technology. It's about what is the right technology and the right deployment. And I think a lot of my questions have been answered.

I understand and respect the fear, and I think we have to be vigilant because we are living in dangerous times. But then it's our job as a council to do our homework and understand which fears apply to the proposals in front of us. And while the threats that have been shared this evening are very real and are scary, I, I don't feel like on a close read of the contract and through the great community engagement and council discussion on this that they reflect the proposal and the contract that's in front of us here today. And so I do plan on supporting this item and supporting the resolution for enhanced and appropriate governance to make sure that we're addressing ongoing concerns and being vigilant as we adopt new technologies and expand existing ones. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Mayor. I'll be brief. I just want to echo some of my colleagues' comments. First of all, I want to thank Chief Tate and your staff for the, for the excellent presentation, for, for answering all the questions we've had here. I want to thank the residents who expressed their concerns here tonight.

I hear those concerns about, about surveillance of people in their everyday lives, about data security, about using AI tools for real-time crime centers. Those are real concerns that I share your concerns. As, as Mayor Pro Tem said, this is, this is, this This is not ShotSpotter, which I voted against. This is not Peregrine, which I was not a supporter of that contract either. So this is a different— we're talking a different tool here.

And again, I think as my colleagues have said, and I appreciate my colleagues for really looking at this with a fine-tooth comb. We've gone through the details here because this is important. We do sweat these details on a contract like this. Yeah, I think the questions have been answered about cost. I mean, like, policing is not free, right?

We're going to spend money on these tools, and somewhere or another, this is a way to bundle this and make it a little bit cheaper. I think the questions about data storage have been answered. This is not a real-time crime center. Also echoing Council Member Burris's comments, I am on the board of Durham Housing Authority, and I know there was a comment tonight about cameras and housing authority properties. The leadership of the housing authority and residents have said, like, please, we want more tools to address crime in our community.

So this is one tool to do that. And again, I think doesn't get into the kind of concerns about, about surveillance and over-policing that have been concerns with other tools. So I will be supporting this resolution. I will be supporting this motion, also supporting the resolution we've talked about to make sure the guardrails are there that are, that are independent of any particular manager or chief, that to make sure we have clear guidance about how this tool will be used. So thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Baker. We've been getting a lot of flack lately for how long our meetings are and how many different items we're trying to address. I raised that because, speaking to Council Member Burris's earlier question and actually comments, and I also want to associate myself with many of the comments made, we have, with With great power comes great responsibility, and we need to think through and talk through these very, very important issues. We don't get to live in the world that we wish we lived in. We have to live in the world that exists.

And while there are not— I think we face a truth, but from different angles. And so when I'm thinking about The truth that we face, on the one hand, we have a system that where we have to treat downstream pollution from upstream polluters, where people are systemically underfunded and placed into difficult positions. And we have a system that gives police and police powers the power to get rid of your civil rights, the power to end lives, the power to, having to make really, really important decisions in a matter of seconds that can change their life, that can change other people's lives. And some of these folks are 21 years old, 22 years old, 23 years old. And that is the system that we live in, going into incredibly difficult situations and having to to make incredibly difficult decisions.

And on the other hand, we are here because we need to protect the health, safety, welfare of our residents. And we also have to protect the constitutional rights of our residents, which are constantly under attack from many different places. And balancing those is threading a needle, and it's incredibly challenging. And so we have to struggle through these kinds of questions. So I, and I apologize, colleagues, for speaking behind you all because you all made such wonderful comments, but I would appreciate, 'cause I wanna get this right, I would appreciate another 2 weeks.

The reason why is because I've, been in contact with the ACLU, including the author of the— someone raised this earlier— the CCOPS model ordinance, community control of police surveillance, and folks who have experience reviewing contracts from not just Durham or Asheville, but around the country, and providing comments striking the right balance. I think if they reviewed the Durham contract and what we want to do here, I think they'd have a lot of positive things to say. But I do think that that would strengthen our case. It falls within the time period. It wouldn't change the decision timeline, but it would give us that little bit of security that we're, that we're doing this the right way.

And putting in place, the mechanism, the, the, the guardrails that we need to in the right way, and giving us any additional commentary on the, contract and, and the provider here. So, if, if colleagues want to move forward this evening, I respect that, but I would request, that we, that we move to, to 2 weeks from now. Colleagues, so those all the comments?

All right, I'm going to provide a few remarks. Thank you all for your comments tonight. And I actually really appreciate, I really do appreciate the comments because I, when we first started, I was in a, I wasn't in a good space because representation does matter. And I'll tell you why.

And there's been a lot of clarification up here around evidence.com, the, you know, why don't we just put more into the community programs? And there's then sources of funding and what those things are for, drones and computers. You know, the police doesn't need it, but yet we already have it. You know, we are trying to just make sure that the resources are better and that that the department has what it needs. I hear a lot of, you know, it's not against Durham Police, but just police in general.

No, this is about Durham's police. This is in Durham. This is not Israel, it's not overseas. I want us to free Durham just like I want us to free Palestine. That matters to me. And I think I want us to be really consistent with that because there are families, there are families right now that are listening and watching. And what they're saying is, where am I? Where's my representation?

And those families are the people who are dealing with this on a daily basis. They didn't organize around a message. They didn't do it. And I don't want to discount the messages tonight. But there are people that are living this every single day. They're not coming here, they're not making a joke of it. There are mothers who lost their children, multiple. There are people who are dying on a daily basis. This is not a freaking joke.

It's not just another policy to organize around. If we're going to take it serious, let's take it serious, and I want to respect that. But we're talking about a life or death matter here. Yes, it's in our contract, but the resources that these officers are going out there and doing the things that none of us will do, it matters. Why does it matter?

Because on Thursday, we're going to hear that violent crime is up 50% almost. That's what we're going to hear. We're going to hear that aggravated assault and rape and everything across the board except robbery is up. Before I finish my comments, I do have a question for SAP. And this is— Mr. Chief, you can come back up here because I need us to make this real.

And I want to go beyond theoretical. I want to go to pragmatism, like practical. What type of guns are you seeing on the streets by bad actors? M4s, that's machine gun, military-grade machine gun, AK-47s, 5.56 rounds, which is another military-grade round.

300 Blackout, which is another military-grade round. 30-30 military-grade rounds. So heavy artillery, as you said in the meeting over there before, we have our 9mm. We do have some officers that have rifles, but not everyone. So when we go to a scene, we are reactive and we are not having the exact same fire firepower that we are coming up against to keep citizens in Durham safe.

So that was my next question. What are you all carrying? We're carrying 9mm Glocks, 17-round magazine capacity. But when you go and see that we're collecting switches, which will turn this Glock, which is semi-automatic, boom, boom, boom, into a fully automatic machine gun, we don't have that capability. So, and I hate to have to talk about guns.

I hate to have to talk about war, but these are realities. They're realities. And I don't want to pretend two things. I don't want to pretend that violent crime doesn't exist. And I also don't want to pretend that, Mr. Chief, you all are the only solution to addressing violent crime.

So I don't want to discount what I've heard tonight, but I want to do— I do want to say that it takes everything. It takes the investment in after-school programs. It takes It makes sure that we have a robust heart and community safety department. It takes making sure that we have all the community centers funded.

But if you have the audacity to come and speak for someone that lives in this on a daily basis without consideration of their daily lived experiences, then we are a broken society. We are broken. There are people who have lost their children, and we're trying to make sure we have the resources to combat this, and I hear snaps and celebrations.

So that is— that's why it bothers me, because when we leave here tonight I know off gate I'm going to get a message, "Well, Mayor, what was the problem? Why didn't everybody want it?" That's because what happens, the city is 325,000 people strong now. Asheville is 94,000 people, 94,549 to be exact. So we don't double Asheville in population, we triple.

So that math— maths. Last year around this time we had 123— I'm sorry, last year around this time we had 130 shootings. This year we have 123, so we're— it's 5% better. But last year around this time 31 people shot. This year around this time, 51 people shot, up 64%. How many shot fatally? It's up 100%. So we have these numbers, these numbers presented to us. I have no idea how we can pretend that we don't need these resources.

So please, go look someone that lives this on a daily basis. And I'll close with this. I had a closed-door community meeting with the residents of Cornwallis. No cameras, no flashy, no nothing. Shortly after that string of shootings, 7 shootings in 7 days.

And I asked them, "What is it that you want?" And they said, "Why can't we have more security cameras?" Why can't we have more police? Can I get a shuttle from my doorstep to the bus stop? I mean, it's right over there, but you know, they be ringing the bullets out here. People should not have to live that on a daily basis and then come and listen to people speak for them and say Black and brown community, speak for yourselves.

And I'm not afraid to speak this truth because it's people that's living it every single day. It's not another political issue, it's life and death. So thank you. I'll be supporting this.

And we're an hour overdue for a break, colleagues, so I'll go ahead and call for the motion, and we'll be here for a couple more hours on the budget.

All right, now I'm going to call the motion as soon as I can find this. It's item 26, right? All right, colleagues, I'll entertain a motion to authorize the city manager to execute the contract to renew and expand Exxon services with Exxon Enterprises Incorporated in an amount not to exceed $16,099,402.28. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. It's been moved and properly seconded. Madam Clerk, please open the vote.

Missing— oh, there it is. All right, thank you. Please close the vote. And the motion passes 6 to 1 with Council Member Baker voting no. Thank you, colleagues. Let us please take a 10-minute break. We'll be back at 9:57.

Ah, it was. Do you want one?

All right, let's, let's, let's, let's get back. Let's start getting back.

And we— if you are in the hallway, in the foyer, and you can hear me, we have seats inside.

All right, it's the budget. Okay. All right, and now here comes the part where everybody says, ah, we are about to get into the budget.

Everyone will have 2 minutes. There it is. You thought I was going to say 1 minute. I know it. We will be here after midnight tonight. Let's get started.

On this item 24, we did 36, right? We did 35. 34. Oh yeah, you did. Yeah, 35, 36. This is all 34. Okay. All right, at this time, we're ready for the staff report., good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of council. Christina Reardon, Director of Budget and Management Services.

Tonight is the second of two public hearings on the development of the fiscal year 2026-27 budget and the fiscal year 2027, 32 capital improvement plan. As a reminder, the city manager's proposed budget was presented on Monday, May 18th, and is available along with the full presentation on the city's website. Since that presentation, council has held two budget work sessions on May 27th and 28th and is scheduled to hold a third public, a third work session on the morning of June 1st. The proposed tax rate for the 2027 budget is $43.71 per $100 of assessed value, and that is unchanged from the current fiscal year. Budget staff are here this evening to listen and record all public comments as part of the city's commitment to community input.

All public hearing requirements will be fulfilled with tonight's hearing. The final adoption of the budget is scheduled for Monday, June 15th. Thank you. You've heard staff's comments, and at this time, before I declare the public hearing open again, this is a budget hearing, not a budget deliberation. We've been doing a lot of deliberating, by the way.

We've heard a lot of the comments, we've heard all the emails, Chair Czajkowski read all the emails and everything else, and we are taking it to heart. I can pretty much speak comfortably and say it's been a lot of folks on this dais that have not had much sleep because we care deeply about this community. And now it's time for us to hear from you again. The first budget hearing was not that many people, but it's a lot tonight. I think that we all see that this is a pretty tough budget.

But it's not impossible. We're going to do it together with you. And so with that being stated, I now declare the second budget hearing open. And I will call up again, Madam Clerk, 2 minutes at a time. I'm going to call a series of names at a time. But first, I'm going to start online with our online speakers. Lou Gintz, can you hear me?

Is she still on? Okay. Lou Gintz, can you hear me? Is she unmuted? She's not unmuted. I've given her permission to speak. Is she unmuted? Ms. Gintz, if you can unmute yourself, you've been granted permission.

Okay, I'll come back. All right, David Mavoli, can you hear me? Yes, I can. State that one more time. Up there you go. Welcome. Yes, I can. Welcome, David. Thank you. You have 2 minutes. Great. Hold on.

Okay. Good evening. My name is David Mofoli. I live at 130 Main Street in Durham and work in the affordable housing marketplace. The funding in Durham is significantly higher with regards to funding lawyers relative to other municipalities in our state, like Raleigh and Charlotte.

Other municipalities have focused their eviction diversion programs on funding rent assistance and mediation service providers. Housing versus legal services. The significantly large Durham-funded legal aid presence in our city has led to some unintended consequences that I would like to bring to your attention. Housing providers or, or landlords like myself have asked for meetings with legal aid and for legal aid to connect residents to rental assistance and support services, as well as to point them towards newly created affordable units. Only recently, after my remarks 2 weeks ago, has there been communication in this regard outside of legal proceedings and within the judicial system.

I look forward to an upcoming discussion with Sarah D'Amato. The delay tactics of legal aid cause a decreased supply of housing units at affordable price points. Housing providers who provide naturally occurring affordable housing might have to forego half a year of rent or more if they find themselves engaged with legal aid. At the end of the process, they have been financially adversely impacted and are much more likely to sell the property versus continuing to provide an affordable housing unit. This is reducing the number of affordable housing units in Durham.

There is a financial hardship on housing providers who do not have access to rental payments for an extended period of time. A move out— a move out of a resident who has not paid rent for 5 or 6 months is not a favorable outcome to the housing provider, and many of those housing providers are nonprofits in the community like Housing for New Hope, faith-based organizations, or the Durham Housing Authority. As you are well aware, these organizations are also contracted and funded in part by the City of Durham. I've said this before, and I will say it again. I will reiterate, the most successful landlord housing provider is one who files zero evictions.

I'll repeat it: housing providers like mine— thank you so much— successful. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, sir. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Right. Lou Gent, can you hear me?

Still muted. All right. Danielle Doman. Mayor Williams, Danielle Doman is actually here in person. Did you raise your hand? I'll come back to you. I'll come back to you. I'm addressing online speakers first. I have you on my online roster, but I'll acknowledge you when we do the in-person speakers. I see Ajax is here as well. All right. Norberto. Norberto Barbie. Okay.

Quinondria Lee. Is there Quinondria Lee in the building? No. Is Jacqueline Wagstaff in the building? Not in the building, online. Yes, what? Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am, welcome. You have 2 minutes. Okay, thank you., Council Member Williams, live in Durham, and y'all know my address so I don't have to repeat it.

But, first of all, I would want to address one thing before I start to address the budget matter. One of the things that I noticed at the beginning of this meeting when we— when the public first started to speak, and I have to address this with you, Mayor Mr. Mayor, is that this council claims to be a council that does not subscribe to overpolicing, but yet you interrupted public hearing on a matter to threaten a public citizen in that room. And I sat here and watched it, and you had two police officers come up to intimidate him, all because they were holding a sign. Holding a sign is a part of free speech. And what I understand about it is that once— I think it was a little bit over the top for you to have this gentleman threatened with removal from the council chamber because he wouldn't put a sign down.

I didn't see anybody else in that room complaining about a sign other than you. And I think it was a bit over the top. And this is a recommendation. In the future, if you have a problem with signs and you want somebody to put out, I think you should call the HART team. And not tie up our police officers with that minutiae stuff.

But my concern about this budget is that, I'm gonna get right to the point, the Lyon Park Center budget, we're only talking about $100,000 and some change. And there was a contract signed in October that said that they met all the qualifications. Now, 6 to 7 months down the road, You're saying, oh, we don't want this contract anymore and we want to eliminate whatever program they were doing there. And my understanding is, is due to the fact that they're saying that they didn't meet certain plateaus, they didn't have enough participation, they didn't have this. Well, if they're saying that now, what happened when they signed the contract back in October?

Thank you, Ms. Wagstaff. That is your time. Next, Gregory Brockington. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, welcome. You have 2 minutes. My name is Gregory Brockington.

I am a very proud Durham native who has experienced the city's violence firsthand from losing my sister to gun violence, to cleaning the blood off of family members of my parents' front door after shootings in the neighborhood, seen too many of my little brother's childhood friends be buried and As a Sergeant of Marines who has trained hundreds of men and women to protect this country, even my therapist was stunned to learn I showed signs of PTSD long before I ever put on the uniform. PTSD gained ironically from growing up right here in the city of Medicine. It took nonprofit programs in my childhood like Grace Inc. to make me a productive citizen. So today I come before you with urgency on behalf of Grace Inc. and the life-saving work they do in youth violence intervention. Durham's young people— and by young people I mean children— are trapped in cycles of trauma, poverty, gang recruitment, and easy access to weapons.

Every week lives are lost or destroyed. Reactive policing, emergency rooms, and courts are crushing our budget while the pain continues. This is a proactive step. Grace Inc. meets our youth where they are in their neighborhoods and homes through trusted mentors, conflict mediation, job training, mental health support and real pathways out of violence. They interrupt shootings before they happen and guide young people towards hope.

This work is proven, but it is hanging by a thread. Short-term funding threatens to shut down a lot of these programs exactly when we need them the most. Dedicated, stable funding from the council will allow Brace Inc. to hire and retain skilled staff, expand into the hardest-hit areas, and scale the work that works. And, for For whatever remaining time that I have, if we could just take a moment of silence so that we can observe the children that we've lost, not only in just Durham but in the community that GrayThink serves, which is Cornwallis. Thank you.

Next, I have Abe Cheruku. Cheruku? Ms. Adams, Stella Adams. Yes, can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Welcome. You have 2 minutes this time.

Thank you., again, my name is Stella Adams, and I want to talk about the choices embedded in this tight budget, choices that once again ask Black communities to wait, to delay, to sacrifice so that newcomers can enjoy amenities and comfort. That longstanding residents have never been afforded. Hayti, Bragtown, Merritt Moore, East Durham, these historically Black neighborhoods had carried the weight of redlining, highway construction, displacement, and broken promises. And today they are still waiting, still waiting for the affordable housing they were promised, still waiting for sidewalks, still waiting for transit that's reliable, still waiting for environmental justice.

Meanwhile, this budget finds room to expand new transit routes serving new development and new residents, while Route 4 and Route 9, the lifelines for Black workers, elders, and students, continue to face delays. We can create new service for newcomers, but we cannot stabilize the routes that have carried this city for decades. This is not an accident. This is a choice. We see the same pattern in our parks.

We have 6 contaminated parks in Black neighborhoods, parks where children play, where families gather, where life happens, yet no dedicated funding in this budget for cleanup. At the same time, we're funding new park upgrades elsewhere. We can beautify parks for some, but we cannot make parks safe for others. Again, that is a choice. And the affordable housing gap continues to widen. Thank you, Miss Adams. Underway, but For the best. Thank you, Miss Adams. Lou Gent, can you hear us?

I do. Okay, welcome. You have 2 minutes this time. Thank you so much. I just once again want to urge the council to consider partnership with the Weston Community Foundation. I'll cede the rest of my time. Thank you. All right, moving in person, Vanessa Parks.

And no, no, not everyone else start bringing little adorable babies so they can get bumped up. No, we want the baby to go to bed. So welcome, you have 2 minutes. Good evening., let's, let's— yeah, let's bring that down some. Is that good? Yeah, that's much better. All right, thank you. All right, sorry about that, y'all., good evening. I'm reading the statement on behalf of Vanessa Parks, who is unable to appear but wanted her voice heard tonight.

My name is Vanessa Parks and I'm a recipient of legal service aid services. I know I'm supposed to address you by your titles, but tonight I am speaking to you as human beings. Too many families in Durham are struggling every single month. People are working every day and still trying to raise children in safe environments where they don't have to see drugs on their street, where they can feel safe, where their kids can have a chance at something better. But the cost of living makes it that hard, especially for someone doing it alone.

I was taken advantage of by my landlord for 3 years. Overcharged rent, late fees, no control. And when I fell behind, I was facing eviction. When I couldn't afford an attorney, I couldn't catch up. Without Legal Aid, I would have been homeless.

But Legal Aid stepped in. When they reviewed my case, found out I had been wronged, they fought for me in court. Because of them, I was able to stay in my home of, of 15 years and keep my grandkids in a safe environment. They didn't just help me survive, they held my landlord accountable. They gave me the chance to move forward into something better.

Legal Aid was a blessing, and if we lose it, we will see more families become homeless. So I'm asking you, are you really ready to turn your backs on people like me? What happens to the children? I am doing everything I can to give my grandkids a better life, not ones in a shelter. We don't need a handout.

We need a hand up. Because I am living in the low-income bracket is already hard enough. Keeping food on the table, keeping the lights on. And when life happens, when you get sick, miss work, fall behind, Everything starts to unravel. We cannot afford to lose legal aid. Thank you. All right, I'm going to call a series of speakers. If you can start making your way up to the mic. Okay, thanks. Danielle Doman, Ajax Woolley, Norberto Barbie. That was it. Yeah. No. Yeah, that was it.

Do you know who it is? Do you know who they are? Okay, I called them out. Abay Cheruku, if you're in the room, raise your hand. Okay. All right. Welcome. You have 2 minutes. Thank you. I live a few blocks from Walltown Park.

3 years ago, a neighbor became aware of a Duke study which found dangerous levels of lead contamination in the topsoil at that park. We didn't know anything about it until she stumbled upon it., we know that there's no safe level of lead in your blood. Children are the most vulnerable, and it can change— exposure to lead can change the trajectory of their lives forever. Lead is a powerful neurotoxin.

We found out about this 3 years ago, but the reality is that these have been hazardous waste sites since the 1940s, and has just come back into public knowledge recently with a study. So for the past 3 years, the state, in partnership with the city has done many, many rounds of tests which are expected to conclude this summer., we appreciate the contributions to the CIP that have gone in, 2 years ago and 1 year ago. Of course, you can predict that we're disappointed to see it not in the budget at all this year, especially as we get close to actually starting remediation., worse off, there's— because there's already this money, the parks are poorly maintained, bad signage, missing fencing, which means children and others continue to be exposed.

And we can't say now that we didn't know. You— let's use the existing funding to start on this as soon as possible. There's no excuse not to. So I get it, it's tough times, and I'm not here to ask you to squeeze something into the budget tonight. We understand that it's really tough.

But what I am asking you for is on July 1st, when this budget is passed and it's done and we can move on and start thinking about the next budget cycle, I ask for your moral leadership to make sure that this environmental justice issue is front and center for the next budget round. Thank you. Next. Good evening, y'all. Please support housing justice work and hold the line on eviction diversion funding as proposed in this manager's budget, which reflects a continuation of the prior year's commitment.

The message in this manager's budget is eviction diversion is anti-displacement work that prevents homelessness. On page 13, the first full paragraph begins with, quote, this budget makes a strong commitment to addressing homelessness in Durham. And the paragraph ends with, quote, this budget also includes $750,000 for eviction diversion. On pages 193 and 95, we learned that this support for eviction diversion went to, quote, assist at least 800 households with housing stabilization services to avoid eviction. If this budget were a $100 bill, we'd be talking about a dime.

Legal Aid NC's consistent presence is also the backbone for a broad range of additional cases cases handled through a seasoned network of boots-on-the-ground community leaders, trained lawyers serving pro bono, supervised senior-level law students, and legal advocates with the NCCU Civil Justice Clinic and the Duke Civil Justice Clinic. They're at work every day at the courthouse, in our public housing communities, and in low-income housing rentals across the city. They represent tenants facing chaotic and devastating situations that need immediate legal help Short funding eviction diversion as we battle a budget shortfall caused by— Short funding eviction diversion as we battle a budget shortfall caused by corporate landlords and their sophisticated abilities to game the tax collection system. That's like getting mugged for your wallet in broad daylight and then feeling around in your pockets to see if you have anything else to give them. Just to hand it over so they can better threaten the next guy, and then saying you hope they report themselves to the courthouse.

Thank you. Thank you so much. As Noberto is coming up, I'd like to call the next few speakers: Jaleesa Pendergraph, Joseph Fertig, Italió Medallius, Krista Camp, and Jada Alicia Rochelle. Alicia Rochelle.

If you all can queue to behind Norberto. Welcome, you have 2 minutes. Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, and fellow Durham residents. My name is Norberto Barbee, and Durham is home. I was born and raised here, the son of an immigrant, and since I was 18 years old, have dedicated my career to serving the community through public service and healthcare.

Today I'm raising my daughter in Durham, where she attends Durham Public Schools. I support the city decisions not to increase the property tax rate. Families across Durham are already facing rising costs for housing, groceries, childcare, and healthcare. We should be mindful of the financial, pressure our residents face every day. At the same time, I recognize the challenges Facing our city, we must continue to invest in public safety, infrastructure, housing, and the services that make Durham a great place to live.

The path forward is not simply asking taxpayers for more. It is growing our economy, supporting small businesses, attracting new employers, pursuing state and federal grants, and ensuring every taxpayer dollar is spent wisely. Durham has always been a city built on hard work, innovation, and opportunity. I believe that by working together, we can keep Durham affordable, strengthen our community, and build on even brighter futures for the next generation. Thank you for your time, your service, and your commitment to Durham. Thank you for your comments. Next.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and City Council members. My name is Joe Furtick, and I'm here representing Church World Service to advocate for Durham's immigrant community, a community of over 45,000 people. I'm here to remind this council of the promises several of you made last fall in front of over 500 Durham constituents to fund immigration legal services. That funding was completely left out of the city manager's proposed budget.

You already know the transformative benefit this funding brings to our Durham neighbors. Right now, this community is under attack. I see the fear and worry in my clients every single day, yet immigrant-facing organizations across Durham have experienced significant funding cuts that directly threaten our ability to provide critical legal services. This support is more urgent now than ever, and we are witnessing a federal administration finding aggressive ways to force vulnerable people into removal proceedings. Without legal representation, Durham families are torn apart, but with it, they have a fighting chance.

So you've heard our requests. You know exactly what this funding will do to protect, stabilize, and uplift Durham. We're asking you tonight to honor your commitment, stand with your constituents, and fund these vital legal services. Thank you for your time and your continuing leadership. Thank you. Next. Hi everybody, good to see you all, and it's great to be here with so many friends. I love it. It's great to celebrate democracy.

My name is Italo Medelius. And I've come before this council wearing a few different hats, but I think today is a little bit of a different one. I've never really talked about faith before, right? I grew up as a Catholic. I was a cradle Catholic.

My mom is right over here, and actually, I think a few days after I was born, she did the whole like Lion King thing where they raise you in front of the Catholic church. And I was always taught that you welcome the immigrant since I was a very little kid. And I was welcomed to this country. And today I want to talk a little bit about immigrant legal defense, as Joe was talking about before. I think Mr. Mayor and Madam Mayor Pro Tem, y'all came to a rosary last year before we passed the Fourth Amendment workplace resolution here.

Y'all got a standing ovation. It was a beautiful thing. And I think about a month or two later was when CBP came down to Durham and took a bunch of people. I think many of you know me as a labor lawyer, as a union lawyer, and I had to take those hats off and go represent 6 people that were taken. Many of them, I don't even know where they're at anymore.

And people like CWS, like World Relief, they have been getting flogged and starved by the federal administration right now. They are still standing though. They're here. They are heroes. They continue protecting and defending the people that need to be here.

And if we allow for our immigrants to be taken out of their communities, Durham Public Schools is going to suffer because you take kids out and you take the funding out. If you take immigrants out of our communities, our businesses are going to suffer. Our tax base is going to suffer. So this is not just a moral, but it's also a fiscal and it is an education issue. So please, please, in the— and for Durham County, I hope that you all will support, Mayor Pro Tem's $1 million ask for immigrant legal services.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Next. Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and council members. My name is Krista Camp, and I'm here tonight advocating for Church World Service and Immigration legal services. Immigration legal services are integral to creating a welcoming community for our immigrant neighbors and their families.

One of the most important aspects of immigration legal services is having a group of dedicated individuals who are trained in the legal intricacies of this work. In a time when federal funding shortages have all but eradicate— eradicated their ability to practice, these practitioners in this room and in our community have continued to perform this work with a level of respect, care, and dedication that is unparalleled. These services are needed more now than ever, especially due to the overwhelming nature of the immigration system as a whole. These practitioners bring decades of combined experience to immigration legal services, and we must rely on their expertise, expertise to guide us on how to best allocate resources to them and the immigrant community at large. As a resident of Durham, I hope that funding is allocated to helping our neighbors in need access immigration legal services with the oversight of these talented individuals.

Thank you. Thank you. As, just to make sure, Jalisa Pendergraph is not in the room. All right, tell me your name again. J— yeah, Jada Ali Rochelle. Sorry, I, I knew that. Before you start, if I could have Kellie Chavon Camarico. Camarico. Sarah DeMato. Tasha Adams. Regina Mays. Thank you. Sorry about that. I had a brain fart. Oh, no, you're fine. So my name is Jada Alisea Rochelle.

I'm the advocacy specialist for for World Relief Durham, and I'm here to talk about the budget. So recent federal policy shifts have targeted and stripped legal status from many long-term residents, making them previous documented but now vulnerable to ICE detention and deportation. This and hundreds of recent immigration policy changes has sparked a critical need for nonprofit legal services to ensure our long-term residents can stay safely in Durham. We ask the City Council to invest in preventative legal defense to reflect the needs of the large immigrant population that has deeply contributed to the Durham community by reflecting a section in the budget for low-bono and nonprofit immigration legal services to expand their work in the compute— in the community and multiply the impact already being done, and that is so necessary during this time. Over 15% of Durham residents are foreign-born.

This number has been growing slowly over the decades, and an even higher percentage have at least one foreign-born member in their household. Without the nonprofit community stepping in to support these Durham families who cannot afford expensive private representation, many of these families would be ripped apart. This will affect attendance of public schools and we will lose labor and business and many entrepreneurs and business owners as foreign-born residents start businesses at twice the rate of those born in the US. By funding to support this initiative, it will pay for itself in the protections of hundreds of Durham families each year, the protection of our labor markets, businesses, and reassuring Durham residents that it's safe to send their kids to public schools. There's a hole in Durham leaking families, businesses, workers, and attendance in our public schools, but public support through this initiative can help close that hole.

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Hi. Hello, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and my dedicated community members. Hi guys, we're going to make it.

My name is Kelly Shobin Kramarenko. I live between North Carolina Central and Durham Tech, and I worked for almost a decade as a nonprofit legal service provider with Church World Service. I could not imagine my life without the immigrants that make up my community, my friends, my coworkers, and my family. Like Osman, who traveled escaping Sudan, spent years in Cuba before coming to the United States and started a successful business through his incredible language capacity. Like Berthe, one of the most successful strong women that I know, who saved her 8 children from a house fire and was burned, yet has a spirit that cannot be put down.

Like Oleksandr, who came from Mariupol in Ukraine to try to make a new, safer life. The last year of Trump's first term saw over 400 changes in immigration law. In the first year of Trump's second term, USCIS changed from being a service provider to a service denier. Due process has been gutted, racial profiling has become reasonable suspicion, and arbitrary detention has become the norm. Legal services are more necessary than ever.

For years, local nonprofit immigration services have worked together to find legal security and to find home for people making Durham their home. Church World Service, World Relief, Justice Matters fight together for our community and our future. Local legal immigration services have helped tens of thousands of people achieve legal stability who would otherwise been unable to access legal services. For example, due to institutional support, CWS was able to provide naturalization services. Please consider the funding request.

Next. Good evening and thank you, Council Members. My name is Sarah D'Amato and I serve as the Project Director of the Durham Eviction Diversion Program at Legal Aid of North Carolina., I know that council right now is really focused on ensuring that taxpayer dollars produce measurable results and provide a strong return on investment, and I am here tonight because the eviction diversion program does exactly that. And I ask that you continue funding our program as proposed in the budget before you.

So far in this year, our program has served 768 Durham households representing nearly 2,000 household members, which includes about 450 children. We have opened— we have closed about 889 cases with preserving housing for at least 375 households, and we've helped 648 households avoid eviction judgments that can create long-term barriers to housing and economic stability. These not achieved some simply by providing legal assistance, but by helping residents successfully access and utilize resources that already exist in our community. Our staff works closely with service providers and landlords and other attorneys and community partners to resolve housing crisis before they become homelessness crisis. More than half of the tenancies we preserved were the result of negotiations with other landlords and their attorneys after tenants secured funds to address rental arrears.

In many cases, these financial assistance alone was not enough. It was the combination of financial assistance, legal advocacy, negotiation, and support. And so this legal representation not only protects the city's investment— our attorneys make sure that public dollars are not used to pay unlawful fees and charges, that rental is, assistance is not used to preserve housing with eminently dangerous conditions that have not been corrected. This protects both tenants and taxpayers while helping ensure that public funds support safe and stable housing. This work will become even more important as Durham implements the Flexible Housing Fund.

Thank you for your support. Next up. Good evening. I'm here tonight representing the HRC. The City of Durham Human Relations Commission recognizes the city's physical constraints and supports continued investment in essential services, including homelessness response.

However, we are concerned that the proposed 2026-27 budget does not yet provide sufficient transparency regarding the two key areas with significant equity implications: the approximately $927,000 in community partner funding reductions and the structure and implementation of the city's homelessness strategy. With respect to the community partners reductions, the budget does not provide sufficient public clarity of which organizations are affected, what services will be reduced or restructured, and which populations are most likely to experience impacts. With respect to the homelessness strategy, there is limited consolidated detail on how prevention compartments— I'm sorry, yeah, compartments— such as eviction diversion, legal assistance, and stabilization supports are resourced, and they're also— this also affects the efforts aligned with broader displacement pressures affecting long-term residents. We respectfully request a formal equity impact analysis prior to final budget adoption that addresses both areas, including demographics, geographics, and service-level impacts, as well as anticipated effects of housing stability and service access across Durham County. Finally, we urge the city to recognize community-based organizations as essential equity infrastructure and to clearly map how services currently delivered through these partners will be sustained, integrated, or replaced under the proposed budget.

Thank you. Thank you so much. As Regina Mays is approaching the podium, I'd like to call up the following speakers. Jen Wigman, Lori McAdoo, Adrian and Lightning Charleston, Kana Adon Bey, Kevin McIver.

Welcome. Good evening. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, council members, Regina Mays. Usually I just come and speak as a resident, but tonight I will be speaking in my role as the community legal advocate for NCCU Justice Institute, which is the pro bono law clinic. I'm speaking in favor of the eviction diversion program because day in and day out I visit the courthouse, 9:00 a.m. 2 PM Monday through Thursday to see residents show up with no legal representation, not knowing that they had the right to legal representation.

So we sit in that courtroom and we call that court watching. We connect them to the attorneys, to legal advocacy, to aid them through the process while whatever has landed them into eviction court— sometimes on average I take up 2, 4 hours minimum just to go through resident files, to check ledgers, to take documents and find the gaps and needs that maybe wouldn't even land that resident in the courtroom. Without this eviction diversion program, we won't have that advocacy. We will not have that legal representation, and we will have more of a homeless program. And let me tell you, I've been homeless before with all of my children.

With waiting on the waiting list to get into shelter.

You say put yourself there, you can't put yourself there if you've never been there. So that's why I do what I do. And it wasn't until programs like this was funded to even allow me to be paid to do what I was already doing for free. And I am advocating for more of that type of expansion to help the families to stop all of this Young children on the street couch surfing when you don't even know half the policies and half the rules that land people into the courtroom. And they won't know if no legal representation or no advocacy is there to help them.

Thank you. Thank you. Next.

Welcome. Hello, my name is Lori, and I don't, live near any of the contaminated parks. My relationship with this situation is my concern for the children, especially the underprivileged children. You see, life situations stole my childhood, and I was placed in foster care at the age of 13 and aged out. One joyful thing about my childhood were the parks and recreational activities provided.

Me, and a place for me to be a kid, if only for a moment. I say that with my heart smiling because I still enjoy the sounds of children laughing. But then I remember why I'm here, and that is because the last— the laughter has been silenced. Several parks have been blocked by boundaries, borders, and signage that most children can't even read or comprehend. So I'm going to tell this story so a child can understand.

Adults put something beautiful over something harmful and toxic. And like toxic does, if not monitored properly, it soon takes over— overtakes the good. Now the park is not safe for the children, but it looks safe to them. They understand the dangers of faulty equipment, predators lurking on the park, but this is a different predator. It's a toxic land, and the danger is unseen, and you have to find it before it finds you.

So we have charts to explained the issues. We still have analyzing data and examples, but why is it taking so long for this to happen? No more blaming, shaming. It's time to rectify the situation because we need to bring the laughter back to the parks. And my final comment is: contaminated parks contaminate children. Thank you. Next.

Evening. Thank you for inviting me back to the podium. Oh, I left my pen., I love the false dichotomies y'all are presenting tonight. I'm just really appreciating them, that we either care about people who are subject to violence or we need more surveillance that harms people.

I'm loving the crocodile tears. I'm loving the condescending diatribes, yet not understanding political satire. Like, that's— I'm loving that tonight. I'm loving not knowing the difference between making jokes and what is, like, obviously well-researched political satire. I mean, you just can't make it up. I'm pleased that we're limiting everybody to 2 minutes. I mean, like, why listen, right?

Unless people are here because you specifically asked them to come talk about something you care about and you'll listen to everyone else, like, why listen, really? And I'm just glad that mostly we stick to what the real influencers do, which is make secret plans for several years before bringing them into public light, take people out to nice dinners at Nana Steak, donate thousands of dollars to campaigns, heavily subsidize certain downtown apartments near certain neon bulls. I mean, those things are not hard, y'all. And I also just want to talk to the whiners who are upset that developers are are responsible for about $9 million of the budget shortfall. I just feel like if, you know, if you could just like instead of renting, have vacancies and appeal those vacancies and not pay your taxes, then why wouldn't you?

Time. Next up. And let's see, Adrienne and Lightning Charleston, are they still here? Okay, before you start, let me just call the others. Kevin McIver, Gregory Williams, Steve Rockhine, Wilma Oliver. Wilma Oliver. I'm sorry, Ms. Wilma. Adon, she's going to help you right there. Say it again? She's going to adjust that so you can— Someone— Her, right there. She's adjusting that for you to comfortably speak. Oh, y'all so kind. We'll see if y'all feel that way after I speak.

Bring the good vibes, man. All right, good vibes. Revolutionary love. Revolutionary love. Revolutionary love to the mayor, city Durham County Council, city manager, city staff, and everyone gathered here tonight.

Most importantly, revolutionary love to the people of Durham, the people you all work for. My name is Kanai Donbey. I'm a survivor of gun violence and a Durham resident. I currently serve as a community violence prevention organizer for North Carolinians Against Gun Violence. Every time I stood in these chambers, I've spoken with affirmations, but tonight I come with accountability while still trying to practice revolutionary love.

There is a community violence prevention cost breakdown for Durham on cviecosystem.org. I wanted the people to know that because I already emailed it to each and every single one of you sitting on the dais. And while researching the word dais, I came across an article by Scott Lansby, the city manager of Lake Oswego, and it got me thinking about how the hierarchical infrastructure of local government can make things feel performative instead of participatory. Yet I know it's too late to be on this year's budget. But what is not too late on this year's budget is investing in community violence intervention.

What's not too late is adding a line item that shows the people of Durham you're willing to put your money where your mouth is. There has been plenty of conversations about gun violence, plenty of concerns, plenty of tears, plenty of statements, but there is still no dedicated funding for a violence interruption program. No commitment to community violence intervention. Sounds like hypocrisy. As a survivor of gun violence, I find it irresponsible.

I find it frankly disrespectful that we're being asked to wait for Vaughn's reduction plan before making a meaningful financial commitment. We hear that violence is a priority, but budget reveals where we truly value. A budget is a moral document. At a minimum, I'm asking the city to match what the county has given, $250,000, to invest in development and implementation of a comprehensive violence reduction plan We know that $500,000 is not enough, but we need this and we need to do this now. Across North Carolina, we're seeing people do it.

Durham has an opportunity to lead with courage, urgency, instead of delay. People are impacted by violence, cannot afford to keep waiting, even if you can. Power to the people. Thank you. Next up.

Kevin McGuyver still here. Go ahead, Gregory Williams. All right, good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council. My name is Gregory Williams and I'm the advocacy campaign organizer for Bike Durham. First, I want to thank y'all and staff for working with Durham County to preserve fare-free transit during a difficult budget season.

Fare-free Go Durham and Go Durham Access services continue to make a real difference for Durham residents by increasing access to jobs, healthcare, groceries, education, church, family, and many other daily needs while saving families hundreds of dollars a year. In that same vein, we hope that we can— we hope that GoDurham can avoid delaying the Route 4 and Route 9 service expansions. Those routes serve many transit-dependent residents and provide critical connections to jobs, healthcare, schools, and essential services across Durham. We encourage the city to commit additional revenue towards transportation and safety projects in the CIP, like funding and implementation of the upcoming bike walk plan update, so the city can continue building the safe and sustainable infrastructure residents have asked for. We are also hopeful that the CIP includes support for the 100% design for the funding of the Rock Mangum conversion and safety improvements, the Duke Gregson Corridor design work, and investments in the R. Kelly Bryant Bridge Trail, which will create safer connections between neighborhoods and reconnect communities divided by Highway 147.

We also hope there's, support for the Third Fork Tree— Third Fork Creek Trail project. We also ask for continued support in investments in vision zero projects citywide to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries across Durham, and we encourage meaningful safety improvements along Guess Road. Long-standing concerns about safety crossings and pedestrian safety have devastated communities in our family, including the Davis family, who lost their son in November and have been fighting for justice and advocating for safer streets ever since. Thanks. Thank you.

Next up. Good evening. My name is Steve Rockin. I'm representing the North Carolina High School Tennis Coaches Association and the Eno Community Tennis Association. And I'm frankly embarrassed because the people that have come before me have had extraordinary things to talk about, and mine feels a a little bit less so, but, I, I want to appreciate what y'all have done in terms of, budgeting for the very needed repairs to, the Durham parks, particularly the tennis courts.

I play on, 5 USTA teams, 3 in Durham, 1 in Cary, and 1 in Raleigh. And the ones in Cary and Raleigh don't have any cracks on them. The ones in Durham do. And some of them are so unsafe that we have to sometimes not allow people to play on those courts. When I came before you a couple of months ago, I suggested that any money that you allocate, the United States Tennis Association will match that money.

And I'm here to remind you of that and that what is in the budget right now, of course, is not what we asked for, but we appreciate what is in the budget and hope that, that we can assist with doubling that money. The other part of it is also that, as I said before, investment in the parks infrastructure creates revenue because those courts are rented and it brings more tennis players into the fold. But again, I really appreciate what I have heard here tonight.

Wow, we got a lot to work on. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rockin. Before Ms. Woman starts speaking, I can call up Mitchell Lucas. Sahara Gar, Amanda Fetter, Megan Kane, and Danielle Doman. Oh, she spoke. All right, good evening everybody. My name is Wilma Oliver. It's such a pleasure to see all of my neighbors here., I am so grateful to be able to wear that flag every day and to serve our neighbors. But I'm here to just put a face to the numbers.

I was listening to the work session comments, and unfortunately my day job kind of keeps me from attending in person., but listening to the work session comments, I'm concerned about the employees who are making that 80% AMI or less. Yes, there are, according to that work session, some employees who are making about $83,000, but there are many of us who are making 80% AMI or less. And in previous work sessions, there's been a focus on 30% and the 60% AMI housing. But what happens when someone starts to make 63%?

They are no longer qualified to live in a development that only has 60% AMI. There's also the concern about first-time homebuyer programs and some of the previous work sessions where some of the council members shared that they kind of have their preference for the 30 or 60%. So just wanted to point that out. The other concern I have is about how did this Durham County tax thing get so far offhand? Because I know personally people who had erroneous information on their tax information, period.

And so they were able to apply for an appeal and it was corrected. So I do appreciate City Council keeping their finger on the pulse so that hopefully next year this does not happen again, that because we know real estate goes up and down just like gas prices., also we are looking at having to increase our water and sewer payments each month. So I thank you all. Thank you, Miss Williams.

Good evening, council members. Good evening, welcome. My name is Mitchell Lucas. I am one of the many voices you'll hear this evening on behalf of the D.E.E.R. program, the Durham Expunction Restoration program, here to advocate for funding for next fiscal year.

I myself, I'm an attorney over in Orange County as part of the Criminal Justice Resource Department. I'm also a proud resident of Durham County. I say my profession because it makes me intimately aware of the needed and necessary services provided by this program here in Durham County. They provide assistance to hundreds of residents every year, thousands over the years they've been in inception, and serve as a model for other jurisdictions across the state. Chatham County just recently learned is trying to create a License restoration project, synonymous with what Orange and obviously Durham County is doing.

And the difficulty with this, this, these services though, is that it's hard to get clients to come and share their own stories themselves because part of this work is to put them back to a spot they were before being involved with the legal system. We don't want them to experience those harms for the rest of their lives. And if we have them come here and share their stories directly, we're putting them back in the focal point of the public to share what previously happened. And the point of this is to get them out of that cycle, to make them more employable, to, to improve our socioeconomic status and theirs. So what I'd like to say is I hope that the voices that can be shared tonight are just a drop in the bucket of the services that are being provided to your residents and my community members, my colleagues, and my, my friends and family.

I'm hoping that this budget cycle can be amended to provide services for this and keep these needed services here in Durham County and keeping them being focal point for their state to follow. Thank you.

Hi everyone. Sure.

Hi everyone, my name is Amanda Fetter. I am the supervising attorney of the DEER program. I am here to read you a letter written by a DEAR client. Mr. Anthony Lamont Burnett wrote this letter, but he cannot be here today, and he would like us to read it to you on his behalf and on behalf of DEAR. To the honorable members of the Durham City Council, my name is Anthony Lamont Burnett, and I thought I— and though I cannot be present today, I give full consent for the statement to be read into the public record on my behalf.

I write to you as a committed community member a public health practitioner, a Black man who understands the weight of systemic inequity, and a beneficiary of the DEER program, a program whose impact is not hypothetical but documented, measurable, and transformative. The Durham Expunction and Restoration Program was created because suspended and revoked driver's license were identified as one of the most consistent and devastating barriers facing justice-involved residents in Durham. In North Carolina, more than 1 million people have suspended licenses due to unpaid traffic court debt, which can trigger an indefinite suspension after just 30 days. These suspensions disproportionately affect Black residents who make up over 75% of all revoked license charges in Durham County. This is not a coincidence.

It is structural, it is historical, and it is preventable. As a public health practitioner, I must emphasize mobility as a public health issue. When people cannot legally drive, they cannot reliably access work, school, medical care, child care, or food. They become more vulnerable to poverty, instability, and criminalization. The DEER program directly interrupts this cycle by restoring not only licenses but dignity, opportunity, and hope.

As someone who understands the law, I must also say ending this program would be a grave miscarriage of justice. DEER was built on collaboration between the City of Durham, the District Attorney's Office, the Public Defender's Office, Legal Aid of North Carolina, and community partners. It is a model of what equitable justice can look like when a city chooses to invest its people rather than punish them for having a low socioeconomic status. To cut funding now would not simply be a budgetary decision, it would be a moral one. It would tell the people of Durham— Thank you.

I know you tried. Please fund us. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Hello everyone, my name is— One moment. Yeah, could you make sure we get a copy of that? Thank you. Welcome. Hello everyone, my name is Saharagar. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today.

Just wanted to reemphasize the importance of fare-free buses in Durham. A transportation system is only successful if people can actually use it to access opportunity and resources with ease. Especially think of low-income communities that heavily rely on public transit and those with limited mobility to be able to move safely around Durham and afford it. I'm encouraged to— Council can— to continue prioritizing transportation projects that improve accessibility for all Durham residents. I also want to stress the importance of continued investment in the Guest Road improvements.

For years, the corridor has presented safety challenges for people walking and biking. Investing in safer crossings, sidewalks, and accessibility improvements can make a real difference for residents who use the corridor every day. And help ensure that everyone can travel more safely throughout Durham. I also encourage the city to move these projects forward as effectively as possible. Faster project delivery means residents can experience benefits sooner, costs are reduced, and lives can be protected through earlier and safe and safer improvements. Thank you.

Thank you. As the next speaker is coming, Amelia Ishmael. Mimi Kessler, Amanda Morris, Muffin Hudson, and Larry Hester.

$191,000. That is all that it costs to keep the Community Family Life and Recreation Center, a 100-year institution, alive in Lyon Park. I'm here to ask this council to restore the funding before July 1st takes it away. My name is Megan Cain, a former downtown business owner of over 12 years, a mother of 3, and 9-year homeowner in Lyon Park. Lyon Park is a small and mighty community.

We like to know each other's names. We like to show up for one another. And tonight I am showing up for the building that has showed up for over 100 years. This building was built in 1922 for Black families during segregation who raised their own money to educate their children because the country was not yet decided those children matter. I do not let this budget be— do not let this budget be what finally moves it.

$191,000 keeps this building open, keeps the Head Start, the clinic, the DPR programming, the community connection all under one roof, which by foot and by bus is Durham's most transit dependent residents. 43,803 people walk through those doors. That is just $4.36 a person. And by their own statement, DPR does not know where that, programs are going to be going. Lyon Park's baseball field and playground have been fenced off due to lead contamination.

The center is the one and only place that is left where the neighborhood can gather. This is not a community we've asked to share the burden. This is a community absorbing a second blow. We are good neighbors in Lyon Park, and we ask the council to be good members back.

Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and members of the council. My name is Emilia Ismael, Deputy Director of El Centro Hispano. For over 34 years, we have been a trusted partner to the city of Durham, serving families through some of these communities' hardest moments, including COVID-19, when the city relied on the community members we serve to not stay home. We are here tonight to respectfully petition for reconsideration of our exclusion from the, from the fiscal year 2027 budget. Our impact is real.

This past year alone, we serve over 7,300 community members, including 560+ individuals in job training, 430+ children and youth with academic support, and nearly 5,000 people with health education referrals, legal information services, and connections. These are not numbers, these are Durham residents. We are aligned with your priorities. We understand this budget focuses on homelessness, housing stability, and community safety. El Centro works at the root causes of those very crises because educational attainment, economic self-sufficiency, legal information, heli— therapy are what prevent families from falling into homelessness, keep youth out of the justice system, and and stop health emergencies before they happen.

We are not separate from your strategy. We are part of it. We understand the city's trying to build internal capacity. We support that. But those systems only reach the people who need them most if there is a trusted culturally responsive bridge.

That is what El Centro builds every day. And it is worth noting that our city funding until now from community development goes directly to the staff who deliver those services and construct those bridges. Cutting us doesn't redirect those dollars, it creates barriers. We also need to say plainly, receiving no warning of this cut has caused real harm for our nonprofit, any nonprofit. Sudden budget exclusion means staffing certainty, program disruption, and organizational stability. Thank you for your time.

Good evening again. My name is Mimi Kessler. This time I'm stepping to the microphone in my role as co-chair of the policy committee for the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit. This evening you spent $17 million on technology that will not reduce crime, and I want to call your attention to, some of the root causes of crime., please do support the eviction diversion representation because that does keep people from being desperate.

Expand Route 4 and 9 of the bus service. That will expand people's employment options. Figure out how to get the parks fixed. Parks are actually really important to the mental health of a community, and we have so few places where we can gather now that these traditionally Black, neighborhoods are being discriminated against because we still don't have anything budgeted for it. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone., cannot believe everyone's still here. It's definitely past my bedtime., my name is Amanda Maris. I am a district court judge here in Durham, but I'm not here in that capacity tonight, although my experience in the course has informed why I'm here tonight.

I'm here as a co-chair of the Deer Advisory Board., my co-chair is Judge Josephine Carr Davis, who is in Halifax County today. I I'm here to tell you just a little bit about the DEER program. Only one of you up here was a part of City Council when the City of Durham helped create the DEER program. In fact, it was a product of the City of Durham, so it is unlike the other community-funded partners that are on the chopping block.

However, I don't think it is unlike any of them that all of them have needs that need to continue to be met. So you have a very hard job in front of you here. The program was funded through— initially through the Bloomberg Philanthropies grant in 2017 that created the city's— the City of Durham's Innovation Team, or I-Team. The I-Team was looking for programs to create that would help and have a huge impact on Durham residents. DEAR was the first program that it created.

It initially had 2 attorneys from the City Attorney's Office on staff of the 4, 1 from Legal Aid and 1 from the North Carolina Justice Center. This program was unprecedented, not only in the state but in the country. It has been used as a model for Orange County, for Buncombe County, one other, New Hanover County. I sat on multiple Zooms across the country explaining to other jurisdictions how they could copy this. And now it is something that is potentially going to be eliminated when it was a source of pride for the city of Durham that in fact created it.

Now it is housed under legal aid and has one full-time attorney and one paralegal. And I'm not permitted to talk about money, But the program has been pared down and has been moved out of the city of Durham and is now supported by a community partner that is now in jeopardy. This program has dramatically increased access to expunctions for people that are eligible to have their records expunged but that cannot afford an attorney. And there's so much more. Thank you, Judge.

It takes a lot more. But I want you all to understand, this was a city of Durham program. Thank you.

Good evening, Council Members. My name is Larry Hester, and I'm the Executive Director of the Durham Business and Professional Chamber. I'm here to request city funding in this budget cycle for the continuation of the Road to Wealth building project.

Project, whose American— which we received through the American Rescue Plan. Our funding ends on December 31st, 2026. The City of Durham awarded our organization $1 million, which is comprised of 3 components: vocational pre-apprenticeship program, business coaching, coworking space. Since the award of the grant, the chain has successfully implemented all the components outlined under our scope of work. A detailed program description has been sent to each of the council members for your review.

Some of our program milestones have been We've identified the magnitude and need for workforce training in our local area. 150 students have graduated in our last 4 sessions. 60 students are enrolled in our current session. We're attempting to meet demand and add a 5th session before the grant ends. Job placement is underway for students on local construction sites. Partnership with Durham Tech for continuing trade education. Each of our sessions are 16 weeks.

We have met with members of the city Thank you, Mr. Hester. Okay. As the next speaker is coming up, Tia Hunt, Sophia Rakeeb, Meredith Carter, and Michelle Ketchum. Welcome. We ready? Okay, I'm ready. Are you ready? Hey y'all. Hey, my name Muffin Hudson., so we often talk about public safety. Public safety is not just policing. Public safety is stable employment. Public safety is transportation. Public safety is youth programming. Public safety is access to community spaces.

Public safety is giving people the tools they need to succeed. I ask you to give— continue to invest in the programs like the DIA program, which myself, it helped because I didn't have a driver's license 16 years, I had 59 citations for driving without— driving on a suspended license, right? But I went to work at SCSJ, and he's a judge now, but Dave Hall was like, let me help you get your license back. And we went to the DIA program, and I got my license back after 16 years. So I got my license back in 2019.

So it ain't been that long that it helped me. So I know that it helps more people, and it also took me out of a situation where I kept continue having to be in the court system because I kept getting stopped. My life didn't stop. My kids didn't stop going to school, going to doctor's appointments and things like that. My son played football at Lyons Park.

Now he's playing football at Auburn University. So that means that those programs actually do help kids. And it's not just about policing. We have to help the community. Along with policing.

If folks are asking for policing, I'm not the one to say don't give it to them. But I'm also saying, if you're going to give it to them, use some of that money to give the programming that you won't need policing because people will have what they need and they won't be able— they won't commit a crime because they have what they need. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

If you don't mind, let's go back to SNAPs. I can keep I can keep the meeting going with snaps, folks. Claps, I can't hear it. I can't move us on. Welcome.

Thank you, Council Members, Mayor Williams, Manager Ferguson. My name is Carter, and I'm a firefighter here with the City of Durham. And tonight I'm speaking to you as a representative of Local 668, your professional firefighters of Durham. In April, I celebrated my 7th year of service with the city. And if the budget goes through as proposed, this will be the third year that I will have not received my merit raise.

There's been some discussion on this council lately as to why do we keep bringing up our missed raises during COVID To clear up any confusion, we keep bringing up our missed raises during COVID because we're going to miss our raises again this year. It's a pattern and it's real and it's happening to us and It affects our livelihoods every day. 3 years out of 7 is a pretty poor track record, but what's worse than that is that it is an expression of the city's values and priorities. We come to work every day and we put our bodies and our lives on the line for the city and the residents of the city, and in return, the city upholds its end of the bargain about half the time. From our point of view, you all view our merit raises as optional.

We welcome the manager's proposal of a 2% adjustment, but the fact remains that in the last 12 months, inflation sits at 3.8%. We will be taking a pay cut this year in real inflation-adjusted terms. Our firefighters have to pay for rent, for childcare. We have to put gas in our cars, and we're going to lose good people over this decision. So we're asking the city to reconsider its priorities and fully fund merit raises in fiscal year '27. Thank you.

Thank you. Sophia? Michelle Ketchum. Okay, Michelle Ketchum. Right. We have Tia Hunter, Sophia Rakeeb, Meredith Carter. Okay. Okay, I thought so. All right. Egger, Jen Hinchey, Dasali Reed Bendel, Sherman Henson. Welcome. You have 2 minutes. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Michelle Ketchum, and I'm here tonight representing local housing providers and mom-and-pop landlords in Durham.

Our company manages over 1,100 homes in Durham. There's a dangerous misconception that landlords are all faceless corporate corporate monolith. This— that is not the reality. We serve over 300 clients who live right here in Durham. 75% of our clients own just one single property, and 18% of our Durham portfolio consists of deeply affordable housing.

These landlords are your neighbors. The eviction diversion program has good intentions, but its actual impact is destroying the financial viability of Durham's affordable housing. Recently, one of our local clients had her tenant paying $650 a month whose rent had not been raised in over 10 years. The tenant fell months behind and eviction was filed. Prior to the initial court date, Legal Aid, who represented the tenant, never once contacted us about settling.

An early settlement could have saved everyone immense time and money. Instead, they let it go to court, forced an appeal after the landlord won possession of the property, and refused to discuss our subsequent settlement offers. This was an incredibly reckless gamble with the tenant's future, as they easily could have lost the appeal. By the time a settlement was reached, the landlord, a Durham resident, was forced to pay thousands in legal fees. As a direct result of that settlement, this tenant is still moving out, and his tenancy was not saved.

And because the landlord refuses to risk dealing with Legal Aid again, they are now renovating the unit to bring the rent up to full market value, permanently erasing another affordable home from Durham's map. No one is winning here except attorneys. The current program provides zero incentive for local landlords to keep rents low. Instead, it punishes them. It's actively shrinking Durham's affordable housing stock because these frustrated small-scale owners are selling out to major corporate investors who will raise rent, and they're converting— or they're converting to short-term Airbnbs, to survive.

We ask City Council to reform this program and make the eviction diversion program finally live up to its name. As it currently works, it isn't diverting any evictions, it's just delaying them in court. That's time. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Egger.

Good evening, y'all, or night. I don't know when we, start that one., but my name is Edgar Ivan. I'm a Durham resident. I'm a volunteer at Nuestro Barrio Liberation Center, a local community space in Old East Durham.

Like many community members have mentioned, this budget consideration and its leading flaw, an abundance of large commercial property owners being granted their refund appeals for their own failure to provide accessible and desirable housing for the people of our city. It's alarming, but it's not surprising. And we're facing this tragedy, by commercial giants. And before we look at supporting our city workers or our firefighters or community partners, our parks or our safety, we look at expanding by millions of dollars a system meant to respond but not prevent crime. I appreciate the other folks that were talking about the prevention of crime, because well-funded education, living wages, dignified jobs, accessible housing and healthcare and behavioral care, food security and community investment, that is safety and that prevents crime at its root.

That's a need I hear from folks when I go into my community and I speak with my neighbors about our realities that we see every day but often feel that go unheard. And I just want to urge this council to uphold the promises it made to the people of Durham, to the workers of Durham, and to themselves. Thank y'all. Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you. Greetings, Mayor Williams and esteemed council members. My name is Dosali Rebandele, and I am the executive director of the West End Community Foundation Incorporated. I come before you this evening with a simple request. I ask you to say yes and no to a few important matters regarding the proposed elimination of funding and the termination of DPR's lease at the Community Family Life and Recreation Center at Lyon Park.

I ask you to say no to divesting from the West End and say yes to investing in one of Durham's deeply rooted and historic historic heritage spaces, originally built in 1929 as an African American school and a lasting symbol of education and resilience in the West End. Say no to taking resources away from a neighborhood that for years lacked equitable access to services and programming before our center opened its doors 24 years ago to meet that need. And say yes to preserving a trusted community hub that continues to serve over 40,000 children, families, elders, and neighbors every year. Say no to viewing our community center as simply a building or a line item in a budget, and say yes to recognizing it for what it truly is: a place of belonging, opportunity, history, culture, and connection. Say no to decisions that weaken community infrastructure And say yes to true partnership with community organizations doing the work on the ground.

And say yes to transparency, collaboration, and shared decision-making that keeps community at the core. Say no to pulling Durham Parks and Recreation and its vital programming out of Lyon Park. If that happens, we must ask, will that truly serve all of Durham? And say yes to the elders and youth who benefit from these programs. This is not simply about ending an agreement. It's about ending a longstanding relationship that has served thousands of individuals. Thank you. So y'all just going to clap?

All right, I mean, we'll be here all night. All right, Sherman Henson, Jen Henshie, okay, Kimathi Reed, Daniel Copenhagen. All right, come on up. Good evening, Mayor Williams and members of City Council. My name is Kimathi Reed Bandele.

I'm a full-time business student at NCCU. NCCU. I work as an after-school counselor for community scholars at Lyon Park, and I'm also the son of Lyon Park's executive director. I've been connected to both Lyon Park and Durham Parks and Recreation my entire life. Most of my childhood memories are tied to Lyon Park and to the programs connected to it.

I attended Head Start at Lyon Park for preschool. I participated in the same after-school program where I work now. As a teenager, I also benefited from DPR programs from Open Gym at Lyon Park to the Durham Teen Center. Since no one from Durham Parks and Recreation has made an impact statement on the need to remain at Lyon Park, clearly this was proposed by DPR in hopes that City Council would take the fall for budget cuts. This appears to be calculated to sign a 10-year lease agreement at the final hour and then propose backing out before— backing out before, the end of the fiscal year without communicating with your community partner is callous, calculated, and wrong.

The public was made fully aware a year in advance that Forest Hill Pool would be closing, yet DPR conveniently failed to mention that they had every intention of not renewing the lease or breaking the lease at Lyon Park. This is not how community partners work together. Clearly DPR was not concerned about the financial constraint that this would place on WECF or the potential domino effect that could follow. They didn't think about the fact that WECF is a nonprofit that must compete for funding to maintain its existence while managing a facility. They didn't think about the staff who are paid to operate the facility, like Head Start, the Duke Clinic, which serves the sick and vulnerable in the community, Kids Notes, or the catering service that occupies the commercial kitchen.

This is deeper than budget cuts. This is about being integral. Lyon Park has been in existence for nearly 100 years. Thank you. Thank you.

Welcome. You say your name for me? Trying to get back on track here. Daniel Copenhaver. Okay, just to make sure, and you can— there's a lever on there to lift that up. Just want to make sure I— Jen Hinchie. Hinchie. Sherman Henson, are you in the room? Okay. All right, Kimathi. Am I saying that right? Kimathi? Kimathi. Okay.

Thank you. All right. Welcome. Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, City Manager Ferguson, and members of the City Council. Late Chief Ed Croker of the New York City Fire Department once said, I have no ambition in this world but one, and that is to be a firefighter.

This position may, in the eyes of some, appear to be a lowly one, but we who know the work of the firefighter has to do believe it is a noble calling. Our proudest moment is to save lives. Under such impulse, the nobility of the occupation thrills us and stimulates us to deeds of daring, even supreme sacrifice. My name is Daniel Copenhaver. I am a captain with Durham Fire Department and member of Local 668 Professional Firefighters of Durham.

I stand before you tonight in support of maintaining the merit raises, my promise to the city employees, of the City of Durham, especially my brother and sister firefighters, police officers, and our fellow city workers who serve this community every single day. Merit raise is not a bonus, is not a luxury, is recognition for hard work, performance, sacrifice, and dedication. The men and women of the Durham Fire Department have earned these raises through another demanding year of service. Taking them away now sends a message that commitment to excellence is optional when budget gets tight. Many of us still remember what happened during COVID City employees went 2 years without merit raises.

This decision doesn't impact— this decision didn't just impact people temporarily, it permanently pushed workers backwards in the pay matrix. Families like mine fall behind while the cost of living continues to rise. Another missed merit raise would continue that trend and make it even harder to recruit and retain experienced firefighters. At the same time, the city continues to move forward with projects costing tens of millions of dollars, including a new green and sustainable fire station. While infrastructure matters, buildings do not answer emergency calls.

Buildings do not courageously enter burning buildings and extinguish fires and rescue trapped victims. Buildings do not perform CPR on a child, rescue somebody from a wreck, mitigate a hazardous materials incident, or stand ready to respond during hurricanes, storms, and disasters. People do that. The firefighters Durham City of Durham show up every day knowing the risk involved. We miss— thank you.

Thank you. You can, just— you can— you can now adjust that back down, that lever, right? There you go. Hi, good morning, City Council. Can I first ask that y'all all raise y'all head pay attention, stay off y'all phones and stop looking at the computers and give us respect.

So I first was going to get up here and talk about gun violence, but I have to address something first., every time we come to speak, Mr. Mayor wants people that are mostly impacted by gun violence and stuff that's going on in the streets to speak., but if you're a Durham resident, you are all impacted by gun violence. When one of our kids die, it should feel like one of y'all kids have passed too, or you shouldn't be leading Durham. I am a mother who is a survivor of— my son was taken by gun violence on Holloway Street.

I come up here, I have been coming for years, and for me, I'm still grieving. So that's why most of the people who are not— who are mostly impacted are up here because they are grieving. And I asked if you could keep your head up and pay attention and give me the same respect I will give you, but I see, it doesn't matter., but our children are being killed every day, and it seems like what you're cutting out of the, out of the budget are the resources that are going into these low-income housing., we need for y'all to invest into our youth.

We need for y'all to start sponsoring free activities. We need for y'all to start sponsoring free after-school care. Because some of us are barely making livable wages to pay for housing. So we can't afford to pay for activities to keep our kids busy. And to reduce crime, we need to keep our kids busy.

To reduce crime, we need to pay for affordable housing. To reduce crime, we need to pay— We need to make sure people are in housing to reduce crime. We need to make sure people are eating to reduce crime. We need to make sure people are at stability because all of that raises crime. If we don't have that, we are, we are going to see crime continue to raise.

Building these new houses ain't going to stop crime from raising either. Thank you. I suggest that you invest just as much as you're investing in the police into community because that's who they come to when they need help. Thank you. That's time. All right, good evening. You can lift that on up. Y'all can't hear me? No, we're going to need— I promise you don't need the mic. There's a lot of people listening online.

Okay, I'll make sure. And as you are getting ready, hold on one second. Leah Bergman, Alex Trejo.

Okay, here we go. Leah Bergman, Alex Trejo, Nicole Drapluck, Samantha Boyd, and Shanice Renee. Good evening, Mayor Williams. Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero and esteemed members of City Council and my boss, both Ferguson. Food, clothing, shelter, and education prevents a lot of poverty. But that ain't what I'm here to talk about. I come on behalf of North Carolina Public Service Workers Union and the City of Durham employees. I'm Willie Brown, uptown, downtown, even underground. That's what I do for the city.

I do a good job. But at the same time, it is most unfortunate that we try to keep recreating the wheel every year, man. I'm tired. This is my last year. Somebody else is going to run for these jobs because I'm tired.

I got some grandbabies to raise. But at the same time, you still going to hear my voice, you know, because the squeaky wheel is always going to make some noise. And I'm pretty rusty. The city workers work hard. I send them home because I know they got to get up at 4 in the morning, making it work so they can take care of the city of Durham.

Me, I'm a truck driver coast to coast. I can work out 4 or 5 hours. I can get it. I might sleep in my car tonight because I wanted to speak to y'all because we need y'all help. Y'all know we do.

Inflation is too high. Gas is so high I ain't even drive home tonight, y'all. I'm just being real because I'm going to make the sacrifice for the people that work with me and have boots on the ground with me every day. I got to be here for them. And I just need y'all to be there for him too. I'm going to make my message real simple. We all need each other. We all work together to make this place better. Let's do that. God bless.

Y'all have a good, good night. I'm going to bed. You not going to hang out with us?

Thank you for your service. Welcome. You have to Thank you. My name is Leah Bergman, and my comments are with regards to funding in the budget for the 2026-27 eviction diversion, a program I have followed closely and have experience with. The term eviction diversion is defined by the United States Department of Treasury and by National Center for State Courts as having three core components: rental assistance programs that connect tenants with emergency funds to help clear past due due rent balances.

Mediation— neutral third parties help landlords and tenants craft mutually agreeable payment plans. 3, legal advocacy. A successful program is designed to help landlords and tenants resolve housing disputes outside of the court. The objective is to keep tenants housed while ensuring property owners receive their payments. The current eviction diversion program managed by Legal Aid falls short.

The program has no funds for rental assistance. I believe that if you take a deep dive into where funds are being spent, they are being spent on lawyers' salaries. Please allocate funds to rental assistance. Secondly, there is no functional mediation. Last year, a conflict resolution center received $25,000 of a $700,000 budget.

That means less than 4% went to mediation. Third, Legal Aid has court offices in our courthouse and sits in the magistrate chamber seeking clients to represent. So by definition, if a defendant has been summoned to court, they are now in the court system. The current program falls short. According to this current city contract with Legal Aid, in the scope of work, the objective is to prevent avoidable evictions through early intervention.

This is not happening. Furthermore, it was shocking to see there will be no issued RFP for eviction diversion this year, and is on your next work session agenda later this this week to simply double the funding legal aid of the existing contract. This is not how it's being represented in the draft budget. I have members of nonprofit boards, citizens in this community who would benefit from emergency rental assistance, Housing Choice Voucher recipients, and housing providers with me. If you're in the audience tonight and support these comments, please stand.

Thank you. Good evening, my name is Nicole Drapluk. I'm a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I'm also a resident in East Durham at Juniper Square Apartments. If you know where that is, you know exactly where that is. Whether intentional by this council or not, this budget sends a clear message Tax breaks for big commercial owners come first while city workers and working families are paying the price.

We're refunding millions to large property owners justified by high vacancies, yet we're cutting merit raises for our firefighters and sanitation workers, stripping their step plan again. We're eliminating 9 positions, cutting nearly $1 million from community nonprofits, closing Forest Hills Pool early, and raising water and sewer rates by 12%. We're already facing rising rates by Duke Energy, and we really cannot afford to pay any more utilities. Utility hikes. I stood with our sanitation workers in 2023, and I will not stay silent while we prioritize commercial refunds and surveillance technology over the people who keep this city safe and clean.

Pay our workers what they're owed. Uphold the STEP plan. Invest in truly affordable housing. Repair the existing public housing that already exists, not another high-rise that we can't afford. Fund youth programs, violence prevention, local jobs, environmental protections, accessible public transportation, and mental health resources.

I'm a mental health worker at Duke Hospital, and I see the repercussions of not funding these programs every single day at work. Every year, community groups come to you asking for funding on the issues that matter to their neighborhoods and what matters to them personally most, but funding always falls short in some way. That raises the fundamental question: is this budget and process even designed to seriously address the needs of the people of Durham? I encourage those of us who came to speak out today to imagine a system where we have community control over our tax funds and our city budget and a system where the lives of working people are prioritized over that of profit. Let's demand exactly what we're rightfully owed, and let's organize for that.

Good evening, I'm Alex Trejo. I'm a Durham resident here representing the Party for Socialism and Liberation. As many council members have already stated, a budget is a reflection of our priorities and our morals. It tells us who a city is willing to fight for and who is expect simply to absorb the consequences. This budget makes Durham's priorities clear.

The record shortfall we are facing is not an accident or miscalculation. It is a direct consequence of how capitalism functions. Wealth is protected and working people pay the price. This is not a bug in the system. It is the system working exactly as designed.

Two-thirds of this shortfall comes from lost revenue due to property tax appeals followed by commercial property owners. When wealthy property owners gamble on their investments and lose, they appeal to the very same system that was built to serve them, and then the rest of Durham puts the bill. Those of us already stretched thin, already navigating rising rents and stagnant wages, are being asked to absorb losses from investments we had no hand in making or no say in. We did not make these investments, and we should not be made to carry these losses. The budget must be built to serve the people of Durham and prioritize our needs not the pockets of commercial landlords.

I grew up on Hardy Street in East Durham, one of the most underfunded communities in this city. I know firsthand what it looks like when a budget does not fight for you. This is why I'm not just here asking for a better budget. I'm here because we need a fundamentally different system, one where working people have real political power and control to plan our economy to meet the needs of the people and the planet. Thank you.

All right, as you're coming up, I'd like to call Shanice Renee, Edgar, another Edgar. All right, Sparkle Yates, Xavier Frazier. And Dietrich Millen. All right. Welcome.

Is this Samantha Boyd? Yeah, she was in the walk or something. Hi, this is Samantha Boyd, the president of River Forest. I saw that you wanted to do renovation to the River Forest Park. Park, where I have residents who, since the flood of last July, have not been able to move back in their house.

They have not had funding. The insurance haven't paid. So, and you're talking about increasing taxes again. My tax— okay, I'm gonna say, because the tax doubled. And I understand about the workers and everything. I have citizens, residents that need to— we need help. We need help. Is there anything in the budget that we were supposed to get and we didn't get?

Because there's a lot of residents that— and then we even had to have boats to come pick out. And every time it rains, I got residents that are scared of the flood happen again. So we need some mental, we need some help, everything. Thank you. Just put something in the budget to help everyone. I mean, 2 years without a raise.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Williams. Good evening. You can lower that, we can lower that down just a little bit. No, no, the, the whole podium can— Miss Williams, can you up? I'm sorry, we're going to lower that down a little bit. There you go. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem, and council members. Good, good evening to all the community members. I am Sparkle Yakes and And I stand as a representative of West End Community Foundation, where I have worked since the doors have opened.

I come to plead with you tonight to ask you, let us continue to restore history. Let us continue to take care of elders and children. I've heard you over and over tonight say that we are working to control crime, but let us continue to be a place of preventiveness, that we educate, we protect, and we secure children, and we teach them and our community to keep us whole. It's not about the money, but we're not just a place of, finances. We're not just a place of employment, but we are a place of family that have built a community, that are still trying to build stones, not just for today but tomorrow and for years to come.

I understand that there are many people who need many things, but let us remember to stand on these words. We used to say that our words was our bond, so why is it that we make an agreement and then we take it back? Our community needs us, our children needs us, and so do our seniors. I plead with you, Mayor, to listen to us and to fund us and to help us. And I promise that we will continue to be a part of this community, to help this community stand.

Thank you for taking the moment to listen to me. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody. You can, you can raise that back up right there by your right hand. Your right hand under the podium. Right hand. I think this is better. Yes, a lot better. All right. My name is Xavier, by the way. Xavier. Xavier. Yes. Thank you. Thanks for— I'm here to talk about reallocating funds. So I know that eviction and having legal representation is very important. Yes.

But speaking to you as a tenant, somebody who's literally gone through not having rental assistance and not knowing if there was a resource to have it, it would be really nice to have that in place as opposed to going and battling in court for the next 6 months where nobody sees money except the state, except everybody else instead of us, instead of the people that actually matter.

I've been living in Durham on my own for the last 4 years. I am 26. And I lost my job when I was 22. And I know other people have had bad experiences with landlords, but this particular experience for me has been very good. Am I going to be late on my payment?

As long as I communicate, I can do that. My rent was $950 when I first started. It is $1,000 now. So I feel like those are very important things to bring up to the fact that not everybody's a terrible person and not everybody's a terrible landlord. And we shouldn't be punishing good landlords and making them pay $49 on $100 for taxes.

And it really irks me that the people who are basic— who basically made it easier for me to live and made housing affordable are getting punished and getting extended— sorry, just extending court. For no reason and just going back and forth where nobody's seeing any money at all when it could go back to us and go back. The $750,000 could be my $250 that I might need for that month. Instead of asking my grandma, I can ask the place that I've been at since I was born here in 2000 at Duke Regional Hospital. That's all I got.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, Miss McMillan.

Good evening. I simply want to say people should not be judged from the past decisions that they have made, but should be judged on the things that they are doing right now. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council members, I know that you are aligned, and I believe that you believe that we should invest in people, we should invest in public safety, economic mobility, and a stronger Durham. As managing attorney, I do support the eviction diversion program, who has done a wonderful job. But tonight I am here to ask that you fund the D.E.A.R.

Program. As managing attorney, I have worked with and seen many of my colleagues as well as clients come through in despair and needing hope. You've heard from Anthony Burnett, who needed hope, and now he is a Central graduate in the public health field.

The DARE program is just more than a program. It is creating second chances. It helps ensure that one mistake does not become a lifetime sentence to poverty and exclusion, as you have already heard from other people. It improves employment outcomes It contributes to Durham's economy through taxes, consumer spending, and community engagement. Stable housing is directly linked to this very vital program.

And so we are asking that you continue to fund the Durham Expunction and Restoration Program called DEER. This program helps hardworking Durham residents overcome barriers. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, I have Emily Mister. So you waited all day, huh? Bertil Mercado, or Mercado, Mercado, sorry about that, sir. James Kithcart.

Frederick Davis, welcome. Thank you., good evening, my name is Emily Meester and I'm the project director for the Second Chance Project at Legal Aid., I am here to urge you not to eliminate the funding for the DEER program. Eliminating for the funding for the DEER program would end a 10-year relationship between the City of Durham and Legal Aid to provide second chance legal services to Durham residents.

It began with the Transformation in 10 grant in, I believe, 2016 or 2017, which funded a position in the local Durham office to do expunction and driver's license restoration. And that eventually evolved into the collaborative effort that was DEAR and is DEAR. DEAR provides expunged criminal record expunction and driver's license restoration to low-income Durham residents. Through these services, DEAR removes barriers to employment, housing, and education, leading directly to economic mobility and increased opportunity. By funding the DEAR program, the city ensures that their residents have access to a full-time attorney and a full-time paralegal dedicated to helping individuals clean up their criminal background and get their driver's license restored.

By investing in the DEAR program, the city is investing in its residents. Since July 4th, 2024, DEER has closed 577 expunction and driver's license files at a cost to the city of less than $850 per case. By comparison, in the private market, hiring an attorney for an expunction runs around $1,000 per county in which an expunction is filed. For driver's license restoration, private counsel often starts at $1,000 and many attorneys charge $200 just to review a driving record. Expunction law is complex, and navigating it without an attorney is virtually impossible.

We currently have a client in which we will be filing 10 petitions in 5 different counties. His case would cost $5,000 with private counsel. Thank you. Thank you. I butcher your name, so please state it for the record. Humberto Mercado. Thank you so much.

Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and City of Durham Council Members. My name is Humberto Mercado, and I work as a paralegal with the Durham Expungement and Restoration Program, DEER, which is part of the Second Chance Project. DEAR is a program that helps people in the Durham community do something we all believe in, which is to earn a second chance. I'm here today because a decision is on your table that could take that chance away. A criminal record, even for a minor nonviolent offense, follows a person for life.

It blocks them from seeking employment, housing, education, and licenses—things that the average person may take for granted. Not because they haven't paid their debt to society, but because the system never lets them move past it. Our program, which you are all aware of, changes that. We make an effort to help and assist every client we serve through every step of the legal system, through the expungement process and driver's license restoration. Most of the time at no cost to these individuals.

We have helped many Durham residents successfully clear their records. These are neighbors, parents, workers who are now employed paying taxes, voting for you to be in those chairs that you are sitting in. This isn't charity. It's smart policy. Research consistently shows that expungement dramatically reduces recidivism and increases earnings. It gives individuals optimism, hope, and an opportunity to contribute back to the Durham community. Keep in mind— thank you, Councilor— do not cut funding for the D.I.R.R. program. Thank you. Thank you.

And as Mr. Davis, Pastor Davis is coming up, Ashley Trice, Karen Haldeman, Pablo Friedman, and Cheryl Chu.

James Kithcart. James Kithcart. No, James Kithcart. Okay, welcome. Thank you, Mayor Williams and council members.

I'm Frederick Davis, 34-year resident of Durham. As you all know, I'm the founder of the West End Community Development Corporation since 1992. We've been in partnership with the city since 1996 bond referendum. We've opened in 2002 with a guaranteed— as a result of the 1996 bond referendum that we would partner with the City of Durham to provide recreational services in the southwest central Durham area. That's just not the West End or Line Park.

It's the southwest central Durham area. Our work was and is a partnership since 2002. Case in point, After agreement was signed, October 2025, after no discussion with the citizens in the Southwest Central Durham area, the leadership of Durham Parks and Recreation on February 4th announced that the Community Family Life and Recreation Center, which is labeled as a recreation center for you all, that there will be a transition. Well, you cut the program. You canceled the agreement, and I know whatever you can do, we need the $191,000 re— re— re— back into our operational budget.

We need now the council to make a tough decision and an ethical decision to strategize with us on restoring the programs back, as well as the financial commitment that was legally signed in October 2025. And, 2 minutes. If you all would cut your 5 minutes and don't take your 3, we'll have more time. Thank you.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem, City Manager, council members, and now hundreds and the millions online. So let's talk about this budget. And I'm going to— I hope you don't have a debate about this here in this progressive part of the state that we call Durham. Progressive economic values dictate that those with the most pay the most and those with the least pay the least.

But in Durham, we have a multi-billion-dollar nonprofit that doesn't pay property taxes that should be paying $50 million. And some of you on the dais don't say anything about it, but you mortgage this tax payment on the backs of the least here in the audience and on the residents of the working class and the middle class of this city. But that's not the least. City Manager Ferguson, you sit on the board of Durham next. They get about $10 million of occupancy taxes.

You could be on that board tomorrow and say, bring me back that occupancy tax revenue to make sure that the least gets something. Those folks that are promised their merit raises get that merit raises. 4 of you on the dais can give direction to that city manager. That's the power that you have. But if we're going to propose an austerity budget tonight, let me throw some other options on the table, okay?

I think you should restrict increases for those making above $75,000. They don't get an increase. And preserve those increases for those with the least of those who call the city their employer. Additionally, I think those of you on the dais tonight should refrain from getting an increase next year and reserve that money for those with the least. City Manager Bonfield, I'd ask you to elect publicly to not take a pay increase tonight.

I think it's important that we all live austerity if we're going to preach it. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Thank you and good evening. I'm here with Justice Matters, a nonprofit that provides legal services to protect abused and neglected children and immigrant survivors of violence. Core to this work is a city-funded initiative to meet the urgent need for immigration services for those at risk of harm and deportation.

These services are essential to public health and public safety, impacting every facet of community life where immigrants, students, workers, and Dreamers exist. One such client is a DPS student, a victim of child abuse and trafficking whose lack of immigration status was being used as a weapon to control her. This impacted her health, schoolwork, and ability to engage with teachers and friends. She reported her abuser to local police, and we represented her in obtaining immigration status so she could access essential medical care and engage in school without fear of deportation. Thousands more are at risk of exploitation and removal.

Services to obtain status, protect victims, and keep families together are critical, advancing key goals in the city's strategic plan. Shared economic prosperity, safer communities, connected, engaged, and inclusive communities. Durham is uniquely rich in resources, and local nonprofits like Justice Matters, Church World Service, and World Relief rely on one another as an ecosystem of support. This will break down without increase in long-term support for this complex work, especially during this critical time when immigrant communities are coming under attack. I deeply appreciate the tough decisions you're facing with this budget.

You need to squeeze a lot out of less, but these services cannot wait. These neighbors will be gone if we do. We Durham immigration nonprofits are here speaking on behalf of vulnerable members of our community who are often forced to remain hidden. We're standing strong, committed to this need, and ask that the city support our diverse community by funding this important work that protects the lives of our immigration neighbors. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Ashley Tries, Karen Alderman. Okay.

Shaneth Renee. Oh, Leslie St. Drake. That's why it was misassigned. No, it was, it was, it was mis— it was printed wrong. It's Leslie St. Drake. Oh, there she is.

Hello again. Third time's a charm, right? I'm Leslie St. Dray. I'm right now speaking as founder of Community Land and Power. It's a land housing environmental justice org.

And as I support refunding all of the community programs that are being cut. Studies have shown all over the world that higher inequality equals higher rates of violence. Yet again and again, we have a council majority that pretends that's not what's going on and we just need more police. It is really concerning that you also casually seem to vote through a budget item before the budget hearing that is excessive, right? Police technologies.

It's not necessary. The extras, bells and whistles is not necessary. We could have saved, or we can save all of these programs. So you shouldn't have had that vote. So yeah, I support the funding for eviction diversion, for immigrant legal counsel, for all of the community programs, expanding the bus routes, paying people what we need.

And I want to talk a little bit about solutions. We've mentioned— people have mentioned the county budget cuts of— it was $10 million. The city's experiencing a $9 million cut. And I just want to tell y'all, we can claw that back. There are ways to appeal the appeals, and we must.

I want to ask that the city attorney obtain and publish all records of these corporate appeals and subpoena the corporations on firms and strategies they're employing to help them loot our city., it is a choice to let them choose the income valuation instead of cost valuations like all homeowners have to choose. This is a choice by a board appointed by Board of County Commissioners. All of them are real estate industry people, right? So they're all giving their friends, big giant $10 million refunds.

So support community programs. Enough grifters. All right, those are all of our speakers for this item. Now we have 3— no, that's it. That's it for tonight. Colleagues, thank you all for your time here. Residents, thank you all so much. It was. So at this time, with all the thank yous, I do declare the public hearing closed. Really appreciative of all of you all helping to make our job even harder, and we'll continue to work through this.

Colleagues, I just— I'm grateful for the hard work we're doing on a daily basis. I know we, we're still in it, and we're going to— we're going We're going to produce the best budget we possibly can. Thank you all so much, and we are adjourned at 12:05 AM. Thank you. Good morning. Rest well.