City Council · Regular Meeting · June 2, 2025

Good evening everyone. Welcome to city hall. We are going to uh get on with the people's work tonight as soon as I open my computer. recording in progress.

Colleagues, give me one moment. My madam clerk, will you please call the role? Good evening, Mayor Williams. I'm here.

Mayor Present Middleton, I'm here. Council member Baker here. Council member Cavayto here. Council member Cook here.

Council member Freeman present. And council member Ris here. All right. You will now please join me in a moment of

silence. Thank you. At this time, I will now pass it over to Council Member Freeman for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you.

It's our practice to stand and salute the flag. if you'd like to join us and say the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley for all. All right, we have one ceremonial item tonight that is um I was excited to approve this. It was community uh one of one of our communitydriven proclamations where there's a formal process. There's also uh important it's also important that we are um uh communicating this good work at the

community level as well. So, I appreciate the committee members for uh launching and drafting this proclamation. I'm going to pass it over to Council Member Freeman to uh lead us in this. Okay, that's fine.

That's fine. Good evening everyone. I'll be reading a proclamation for disaster preparedness week and Mr. James Chavis with pack one will be [Music] accepting.

Thank you. Proclamation. Whereas Durham acknowledges that disasters disproportionately affect the most uh most affect the vulnerable among us who typically bear the most significant impacts from housing and food insecurity

from housing and food insecurity to financial hardships. And whereas Durham acknowledges that across the country historic heat waves, flooding, fire, and tragic tragically claiming lives and impacting many. Whereas Durham knows disasters elsewhere can become disasters at our our own doorsteps. And whereas Durham desires to promote, inform, and empower and to promote, perform, and inform and empower residents about disasters and possible dangers from natural disasters.

And whereas Durham believes that an informed community is a prepared community. Now therefore, I, Leonardo William, mayor of the city of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim June 28th to July 4th, 2024 as disaster preparedness week and the city of Durham and urge all citizens to take take note of this observance and take time to prepare. Witness my hand in the

corporate seal of the city of Durham, North Carolina this the second day of June, 2025. m. at Holton Career Center, there will be a community meeting about disaster preparedness hosted by Partners Against Crime Pack District 1 and District 5 to give residents the opportunity to ask questions about and be prepared for natural disasters. All are welcome.

Thank you. Thank you, Mor. [Applause] Thank you, Mayor and Council Lady Freeman, for joining in with the county to promote this proclamation. This proclamation is not just for Pat one and Pat Fowl. It's for the city of Durham to come and be prepared if any disaster come here in Durham. We

may not know what it's going to be or how it's going to be, but a little knowledge is better than saying what, what, what, who who, who, and start pointing fingers. If each and every one of you would take the initiative to get your own family, start preparing and understanding that anything may happen, it also may affect you. Don't try to point the finger at the Durham County government. Don't try to point your finger at the Durham Durham city government.

Don't try to point your finger at the Durham school board. But first, point your finger at yourself. am I'm getting my own family and trying to get my own friends knowledgeable and ready because this is nothing to play

with. So, I thank the city for joining in with the county. The school board has not. But I have one more thing I'd like to say and I'm going to turn it.

A press conference will be held on Wednesday, June the 11th at 5:00 PM at the 400 block of Cleveland Street to officially launch the public campaign this week of July the 28th through July the 4th, 2005 from 11:30 to 12:30. Community members are asked to gather and stand and to walk in unity if they like to Durham City County Board of Education to the Durham City Hall to the county office emphasizing the collective commitment to safe resilience and preparation. This will be a peaceful demonstration. Please understand a peaceful demonstration on the sidewalk

only. We will not block the street because we have a fire station there and we want to give them room to get in and out. So, if you would like to come to the press conference on June the 11th, please meet us at the 400 block and we will be glad for you to come and join us in the peaceful celebration to stop and to let each and everyone you know, mayor, city council members, city manager, all your others, you also are important to help us get this information out to the public because last minute happening you know as well as I know they shall be looking at you. Thank you.

Thank [Applause] you. Thank you so much. And uh I'll now bring forth

council comments passing it over and starting with council member Cook. Uh, thank you. Good evening. Welcome everyone who's here.

Much smaller crowd than I was expecting in person. Um, I assume folks are also watching at home and will be watching later. Um, just want to say that we spent two full days last week reviewing the budget that's uh been proposed by the city manager. And um, I just want to say thanks to my colleagues.

It was a it was an interesting conversation. I think we made a lot of headway and a lot of folks had uh strong opinions about where we should be going and I think that a lot of us are aligned in many of our big tasks that we want to see taken on. Um, I also want to take just a a moment of privilege to say congratulations to um our new administrative coordinator, Brandon Bryant, uh, who has been

assisting us and has now formally accepted the role. So, um, if you contact your three ward specific representatives up here, uh, that is who you will reach. So, congratulations to Brandolin. Thank you to my colleagues and um I look forward to hearing from all of you about the budget that's been released as well.

Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Baker. Good evening everyone. Thank you all for being here.

Um it's wonderful to see everyone's faces. I'm imagine a lot of folks are here to um for for the budget, the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget. Um and this budget doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in the broader context of what's happening in the nation, what's happening in our state, um, and our city, uh, city's history. 6% increases, which is something that

we've never seen before. Um and so that's why um we calculate the revenue neutral rate which takes the um the the percentage um tax rate down and then and then goes goes from there. Um and there's a lot of great information if you want to do a deep dive into the budget. Um I would highly encourage you can just Google it.

Um Google uh city of Durham budget development process. There's a great web page on the city's website um and you can learn all sorts of details about the budget. Um it's also uh decades of austerity in our country. So federal government playing a much uh smaller role in finances at the local level.

Um in 1980, federal dollars accounted for 22% of municipal budgets and just eight years later uh accounted for 6%. So, just a huge cut. Um, and that has actually never quite been restored. Um, and then

Durham has just historically been a poorer city than our neighbors in Orange County and Wake County. Um, if you look at tax valuation, uh, if you look at incomes, Durham, um, historically to this day continues to be a lower income community. And so that means if you have the same tax rate or even a higher tax rate, you're not pulling in the same revenue per person. So it might be tempting to um compare Durham with our uh neighbors and we should we we should learn from our neighbors.

We should all learn from each other. Um but Durham Durham does face some unique challenges compared compared to our neighbors. Um and we we seek to to uh rectify some of those challenges through our our budget and other means. So, just want to say uh thank you again to everyone who is here um and look forward to hearing from all of you in the um budget uh public hearing.

Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh

thank you to my council colleagues for their comments. I want to thank staff for the great um work last week at our budget work session and look forward to hearing from residents later this evening. I also want to shout out um I went to a a book talk yesterday um by Isak Viegas Isac Viegas. Um he is a local Durham resident.

He's released a book called Migrant God. Um it is about his work in immigration including uh with the sanctuary movement under Trump one. At that time Durham had uh three well chap between Chapel Hill and Durham there was three folks in in sanctuary and North Carolina had the largest amount of folks in sanctuary. uh that is not something wi with under Trump 2 that we've seen um a lot of movement towards partly because of um the removal of the sensitive areas memo. So historically churches or places of worship uh hospitals or other healthc care settings and schools were considered sensitive areas where there would not be immigration enforcement and the Trump administration uh recently

rescended that memo. And so those spaces that were often seen as sanctuary spaces um are no longer considered uh safe. And I think about a week or two ago in Charlotte, we saw immigration enforcement at a preschool at a Methodist church. Um so we are seeing more and more movement towards that.

And so I just want to lift up his work and his book. Again, the book is called Migrant God. He is a uh local Durham resident who's done a lot of incredible work uh for uh the immigrant community. Um, secondly, I want to highlight Isla, who is here this evening.

Isla is a bicultural, bilingual program that used to be housed in Chapel Hill that's now moved to Durham. So, yay, Durham. Um, they came today and met with um Sophia Hernandez in the city attorney's office and myself. I think they also got to briefly meet with the mayor. they're here in Chambers and it was really excited and eager that they've moved to Durham and that we have uh another great community organization uh to work with and I really just want to highlight uh their work in in Durham

and in making sure that uh our next generation remains bilingual and bicultural. Thank you. You mean the group tour that you didn't join me in the chambers with? I I did my session earlier, mayor, when I was assigned.

Every tour we have in city hall, council member Cavayora is with me except today. She's upstairs. All right, Council Member Freeman. Thank you and good evening everyone.

I um want to also thank the staff and my colleagues for a great budget season. Um, we made it through the workshop and the retreats and now this budget is for you to pour into and so I'm looking forward to hearing more before I weigh in on it. But, um, I just want to say thank you. Um, it's definitely jam-packed with a lot of resources and infrastructure that I think we need. And I'm sure there is always we can always improve upon it, but we know the dollars

are short and the needs are long. I um also want to thank the county and CIP for a transer transformative justice town hall week town hall this weekend. I had a chance to sit in on with um former schoolboard member um Alexandria Valaderez and um Andrea Muffin Hudson with North Carolina Community Bail Fund. And I I really am excited about how the community is responding in these times to support one another around their needs in the criminal legal system.

Um and um I'll leave it at that. Um, I did want to say that it's it's really inc like it's really becoming an an issue for me and just like identifying what violence looks like and how it operates and being really clear that if we want to solve gun violence, we need to get rid of the guns. It's not the

other way around. Um and that we as long as we still live in a democracy, it is what our collective voices bring to the table and the work that we are collectively willing to do together that will solve the problems that make our community better or that heal our community from the harms and make our community better. So, I'm ready to pull up my sleeve, roll up my sleeves, pull up my shoes, my boots, and um get them off the ground um to do the work. So, let's go.

Thank you, Council Member Wrist. Thank you. Good. Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Mayor Prom, colleagues, city manager, residents here, and those online. Uh, yeah, thank you for all for coming. Look forward to your comments tonight on the budget. It's great to have you.

Um, just a couple of announcements. So, as we turn the calendar from May to June, um, it's the end of bike month. I see a lot of bike dur folks here. Um, it's been a great bike Durham bike month here in Durham.

Um, and we say welcome to Pride Month. So, I just want to say happy Pride Month, everyone. Um, I was actually

lucky to get in on an early celebration of Pride Month at like 12:01 Saturday night. I was at a actually, you know, related to this, I was at a fundraiser for the Poly Murray Center, which as many of you have heard, um, lost federal funding of about $300,000 largely because of their stance on human rights and support for LGBTQ plus rights. So, we're doing a fundraiser to raise money for the uh, Polymor Center. Jesse Huddleston, who's the board chair, let us in a song, I think by like Bert Backreck or something, right?

1201. So, we got in early celebration of Pride Month there Saturday night going into Sunday. I can't say anything more about the party for the karaoke, but it was fun. Um, the weather's been great.

Lots going on outside. Um, Saturday was the 18th running of the Running of the Bulls 8K race, uh, sponsored by Bull City Running. That's Durham's premier community road race. I think there were well over a thousand runners there.

Um, so congrats to all the runners. I think most of them probably passed me at some point in the race. So, uh, but it was a great day and the weather was amazing. usually that run is like so hot early in June and that was actually a great day to be out there. Um JV from JV from um

water management was there. I think I saw JV run it or I'm sorry public works storm water. Um also want to say thanks to Durham Parks Foundation. They sponsored the initial glow in the park fundraiser.

We talked about this at the work session um on Friday um to raise money for um our parks, our great parks that we're uh working so hard to build in Durham. Great event with a lot of glow sticks. There was a DJ there, Mayor. We're sorry we didn't see you there.

I figured you might be there to do a little dancing, but um good event. We hope to build on that in the future and make that an annual event in Durham to raise money for the parks foundation. I want to say thanks to Emily Macintosh at DPR who seems to be always there for everything to support the parks and the parks foundation and also of course the board of of directors of the parks foundation. You do a lot of work to raise money for our parks in addition to what the city's doing with our bond money and so forth.

So great organization supporting our parks. Finally, I want to thank the um Durham Chamber for sponsoring the second intracity visit this year. Um that follows on our intercity visit to the Twin Cities last fall. Um the visit on Friday was a focus on downtown. We had a great chance to view the um Roxboro at

the Venal building. You all know on Roxboro, right across the um from the railroad trust from downtown. It's a brand new class A mixto state-of-the-art facility with um with uh um uh uh right lab capability. So like lab space capability.

So it's a great it's a great life science concept. It's got everything we want. It's got great life science jobs. It's walkable.

It's mixed use. And it's the key commercial tax base we need to supplement our residential tax base to allow us to have the funds to keep doing all the things we want to do with the budget we're talking about now. So, it checks all the boxes and I'm excited about that new development. We also got an early look at the 300 East Main project, which is one of two affordable housing projects on East Main Street.

There's 300 East Main and also 500 East Main. 300 East Main has 110 affordable housing units wrapped around parking for the Durham County uh employees. That's a great concept there. Thanks to Laurel Street, Laurel Street Residential in Durham County for funding that project. Leasing information is now available on the Durham uh county website. And again, that's 110 units of affordable housing

coming online. So, if you're interested in, uh, the market for affordable housing, check out the Durham County website. I think the building is called the Renegade. So, uh, again, good stuff as we work hard to make sure we're building our housing, growing our supply, including our affordable housing in the city of Durham.

So, thanks all for being here tonight. We look forward to our conversation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor Pres. Thank you. Good evening, your honor. To my honorable colleagues on the day, to everyone in the room uh tonight, to our staff, to whatever platform you may be watching, to our friends and neighbors watching, good evening.

As is, as is our custom, let me also uh add my wishes for happy pride month to all of our Durhamites or part of the LGBTQIA plus community in our city, as well as their family members, allies, and supporters. Uh thank you so much for being such an important part of the fabric of our city. Uh Mr. Mayor and colleagues, today um I had the um sad privilege, but it was a privilege and honor to be there to represent the city of Durham at the funeral, large funeral celebration in Clayton, North Carolina for the Honorable Marlon Lee. Council member Marlon Lee was a giant amongst us. He

stood at 69 uh was a renowned basketball coach uh here in our state and a beloved public servant uh in the city of Smithfield. And today with it must have been a thou at least a thousand people uh in the gymnasium at Clayton High School had the opportunity to bid him hail and farewell and and give our regards and best wishes to his family and to our our neighbors uh just down the road in Clayton and in Smithfield. We also want to send our best regards to our colleagues and all of the citizens of Boulder, Colorado who have suffered such a tragic incident uh in the last few days. um we get to meet our colleagues through our national connections and our associations uh often. Um so we want the folk to know in that part of the country in Boulder that the people of Durham are praying uh with you and standing with you uh in the face of just sheer evil in this horrific event uh that has occurred uh in Boulder. Finally tonight, just want to send out thanks to the Durham County Sheriff and to the deputies and the

members of the bomb detection unit of our sheriff's department who work so diligently at our mall. We had a scare at our mall uh this past week which turned out to be a hoax, thank goodness. Uh but we're also grateful that we have people who are willing in a moment's notice to go on our behalf, who have the expertise and the the stamina um and the demeanor uh to deal with stuff that most of us run from uh they run towards. So, we want to send shout out to our sheriff and all the personnel and we're so grateful that no one was harmed and it turned out to be a hoax uh and that everyone is safe in our city in our community.

Good to be with you. Looking forward to hearing from our neighbors and our residents and our friends on our budget presentation as proposed by our manager tonight. Uh so looking forward to the work. Thank you, Mr.

Mayor. And thank you, colleagues. Thank you. All right.

Uh I'm going to close this out. It's been quite a bit. I want to start out by first thanking uh Shaw University and the Durham United Negro College Fund um coordinator team. We held the the

inaugural Durham United Negro College Fund Mayor's Ball and it was a soldout event and it was an amazing experience. CU admission or students that are actually there that are in need of financial support. Um it's things like this where we have to come together and uh support one another uh in a time in which uh our federal government is very subjective on where they place their support. Um shamefully, you know, uh right before Pride Month, federal government cuts funding to the Polyar Center.

Um it's very intentional. So should we be we should be intentional as well. So let's make sure we're supporting one another. May

not be able to control how the federal government operates uh alone, but we definitely can control how we interact and support one another here at the ground level. Um so with that being said, happy Pride Month as well. We have a giant that we can just follow her her her lessons that she left for us, Pauly Mary. and uh see how we can just stand up for one another and stand up for our community and our people.

Uh so um yeah, thanks to the uh United Negro College Fund for the mayor's ball and also fundraiser that you all had there. Um thank you to Ela for coming today and spending some time with me here in city hall in the chamber. I know you all went upstairs to be with Council Member Caballero. I want to say that my session with you all was cooler.

uh because we were in here, you know. Um but thank you all for coming by as well. I wanted to

um speaking of work, uh as as we all know, you know, I I want to appreciate the council again for having such a rich deliberation around the budget um last week. It's probably the two most important meetings that we have in the year. uh outside of the actual passage of the budget and uh the conversations were spirited. They were spirited.

They were intense. I had a headache for the rest of the day. Um but I I just appreciate uh this council being so committed to this work. I I'll take the phrase of a wise woman that said, "I appreciate the emotional maturity of this council and I I think that really says a lot because this is an emotional job.

If you really care, it is an emotional job. It's it's heavy. Um, in this budget that's coming

up, you get a little bit, lose a little bit. " uh and some things and some things are immediate even some things are immediate we may not be able to fully address right now and some of that is structural some of it is conceptual some of it choices uh but as I started out what we can control is how we uh interact with one another how we support one another appreciate council member Freeman's comments you know u gun violence gun violence is gun violence and we cannot take the guns off of our streets into the federal government and our state government actually show that they truly care. But what we can do is we can make sure as I said how we interact be very intentional. That being said, I do uh we're finally here um doing the work. m. there will be over 300 people downtown at CCB Plaza if not

more. Uh we will be giving out the first trunch of a million dollars to 15 youth organizations in the city of Durham. Um from $10,000 all the way up to $50,000. This is not money that people ask for.

It's money that they needed. But they were doing their part. They were saving the lives of young people in this community. That is being intentional.

That is doing the work. And they're not waiting for anybody. They're just doing it. And I'm not going to wait either.

So, out of my office, we're raising a million dollars. We're about halfway there. I do appreciate the council's support of being able to allocate some funding over to the fund. Uh, but I want to thank the Triangle Community Foundation, and I want to thank uh, United Way of the Greater Triangle for holding and managing and helping to raise these uh, these funds. Tomorrow, 15 organizations will get exactly $35,000, and they will be able to continue to expand the work that they're doing. and my goal is to expand their

capacity so that we have more kids doing positive things rather than negatively in the streets. So, we want to be real about this gun violence and about what's happening to our youth in the city. Let's help change their environments and that's what I'm about. So, I appreciate all the community support and I look forward to us continuing that.

That being said, let's get to work. Mr. Manager on you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, members of council.

Uh the city manager's office has one priority item this evening. Uh on agenda item number 24, which was the 2025 first quarter crime report, additional information that was requested during that session has been attached to your council packet. Thank you. Those are all of my items. Thank you, madam attorney.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Prom, and members of the city council. The city attorney's office has no priority items this evening. Thank you, madam clerk.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor Prom, and members of city council. The city clerk's office has no priority items.

Thank you very much. I did have a question, however. When would you like for me to announce the um the nominations on uh GBA? You We can actually You want to just go ahead and do it now?

Sorry. I am still awaiting uh three items have uh one tiebreaker. So, I'm just awaiting one more vote um for three. Okay.

For three items. So, you'll want me to go ahead and do the consent and come back? Yes, please. All right. Hey, Madam Clerk, I'll be reading uh the

consent agenda. The consent agenda is comp comprised of items that the council's already had opportunity to do a deep dive on at a previous work session. All of these items can be passed with one vote. However, any member of the council or any member of the public can pull an item from the consent agenda.

Here begins the reading consent agenda. Item number one, approval of city council minutes. Item number two, workforce development board appointments. Item number three, Durham City County Environmental Affairs Board appointments.

Item number five, Durham Cultural Advisory Board appointments. Item number six, Durham Open Space and Trails Commission mayoral appointment. Item number nine, Mayor Mayor's Council for Women appointments. Item number 10, Citizens Advisory Committee appointments.

Item number 13, audit services oversight committee appointment. Item number 16, video inspections, construction drawings, and driveway permits, revenue performance audit, April 2025. Item number 17, request to amend the FY 2024 through 25

budget and other capital project ordinances. Item number 18, revised code of ethics for Durham City Council. I believe that has that item been pulled 19. It was uh pulled by a resident I believe.

Let me just double check. Is it is it 18 or 19? I believe it's 19 on GD. Okay.

It's 19. It's 19. Sorry. 18's on concern.

All right. 18 revised code of ethics for Durham City Council. Item number 20, contract with Context Systems, Inc. for audiovisisual maintenance and supportive council meeting broadcast.

Item number 25, 21, pardon me, 2025, City of Durham disparity study. Item number 22, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning HVAC preventative maintenance service contract with Brady Train Service, Inc. Item number 23, amending the rules and regulations for administering the non-discrimination ordinance of the city of Durham. Item number 24, 2025 first quarter crime report. Item

Item number 24 is pulled. Item number 25, contract for pre-employment psychological testing of police sworn and nonsworn applicants with the FMRT Group LLC. Item number 26, contract for post-hire psychological services for police employees with Richardson Martin Incorporated doing business as Mandology. Item number 27, contract with Powerhouse Recycling, Inc.

for electronic equipment recycling services. Item number 28, contract with the Spy Glass Group LLC for audit of City S Primary Telecommunications Service Accounts. Item number 29, second amendment to the service contract with Securence LLC contract number 17491. Item number 30, 11th amendment of annual support agreement and license agreement for Munis software. Item number 31, construction of a metal pole traffic signal at South Roxboro Street and Ramblewood Avenue and Mary

Mastenberg School entrance. Item number 32, purchase contract for the repower and refurbishment of Go Durham buses. Item number 33, award of bidterm contract for Caterpillar methane engine blower from Gregory Pool Power Systems. Item number 34, amendment one to professional services contract number 20472 with HDR Engineering Inc.

of the Carolas for Purr and PolyFlur Qual easy for you to say substance consulting support. Under our general business agenda, item number four, Durham Open Space and Trails Commission appointments. Item number seven, Durham PL Durham Planning Commission appointments. Item number eight, Durham Board of Adjustment appointment.

Item 11, Durham Sports Commission appointment. Item 12, Human Relations Commission appointment. Item 15, Racial Equity Commission appointment. Item number 19, revised rules of procedure for Durham City Council. Item number 38, resolution in support of Durham Amazon workers right to organize. And on the general

business agenda, public hearings to be heard later on. Item number 36, public hearing for the city manager's proposed fiscal year 202526 budget and fiscal year 202631 capital improvement plan. That ends the reading of our published agenda. At this time with the mayor's commission, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of pulled item number 24.

So moved. A motion in a second. Madam clerk, would you please open the vote? Madam clerk, would you please open the vote?

Thank you. Please close the vote and report out. And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Consent agenda is discharged. Mr. Mayor,

Madam clerk, are you ready uh to issue your report? All right, we'll we'll start with you. I am, and thank you for your patience. Um all right, for the item number four, the Durham Open Space and Trails Commission appointments.

Staff um I'm sorry, council has nominated Moren Quinnland for Ward One and Adam Salters for W two. For item seven, the Durham Planning Commission appointments. Council has nominated Anitra L. Bailey, Kimberly A.

Cameron, Ty Hun, and Ramsay Richie for the four vacancies on the Durham Planning Commission. For item number eight, council has nominated Richard Giddings for the one vacancy on the Durham Board of Adjustment. For item 11, the Durham Sports Commission appointment, Monica Brown has been nominated by council. For item number 12, the human relations commission appointments. Council has nominated the following five

people: Amanda Borer, Scott Brummel, Bailey Igo, Xiaolu, I'm sorry, Xiao, and Michael L. Ross for the Human Relations Commission's appointments. And for item 15, the racial equity commission appointment, Linda E. Strong has been nominated for the sole vacancy on this board.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, council. You've heard the clerk's report.

I'll entertain a motion to approve these appointments. So move. Second. Second.

I heard a motion and a second. Madam clerk, will you please open the vote? Please close the vote and report out. And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Mayor, you want the gavl back? Uh, which one are we on?

Uh, GBA is pulling. Yeah. Pull pull that.

All right. U Madam Clerk, be advised. We're going to go to item number 19 under general business, which is the revi uh revised rules of procedure for Durham City Council. Is that what you want?

And I believe we have some speakers for that. We'll we'll start with our online uh folk if I can. Uh I'll call you in a second. Thank you.

Is Pam Andrews available? Yes, sir. Good evening, Miss Andrews. Thank you for being with us.

You'll have three minutes on item number 19. Thank you so much. Um, good afternoon, uh, city council members, Mayor Proim, and Mayor Williams. I wanted to just speak briefly about um this item because when reviewing the context today, it says in section one um speaking to council on an agenda item is given up to three minutes. Section two, speaking to council on a public hearing item is

broken into nonzoning public hearing and zoning public hearing items. the nonzoning public hearing items have up to three minutes to speak, but on the zoning public hearing items, it's now to change to um instead of having three minutes, you have a 15-minute block for people to speak in. And I really feel like that all of them, the other two sections allow up to three minutes for people to speak. And I feel like because most people that show up to the council uh chambers are there to speak on the zoning items in a lot of cases.

And so to remove us from be able to have up to three minutes for residents to express their concerns would really be uh a disservice to Durham. And I'm asking you to please change that such that it would go back to letting people speak up to three minutes on the zoning public hearing. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much for being with us this evening.

Donna Stain Donna Stain back if you would make her hearable. She's Miss Stan back. Can you hear me?

Looks like mute. Okay. Can uh Can you hear me now? I can, ma'am.

Good evening. Thank you for being with us. You have three minutes. Um, well, I agree with what Pam Andrews just stated and I I know that we give you information and um it's very important for the public speakers, not just us, but all that are available to be able to speak on the zoning um discussions because they're going to need to live with those a a lot of them live right up next to them and know that things have been overlooked. We found documents that had errors in them up until the last minute and trying to get them corrected is very difficult unless we use the time during the zoning meeting. and we do not even get a re um

re rebuttal situation when erroneous information has been presented by the applicants. So I I'm just for getting as much good information that that's been analyzed out there and made available to the public and to y'all to make the decisions. Thank you very much. Thank you.

We appreciate you being with us. Pam Williams, do you see I don't see her in Q. All right. If if if uh Pam Williams should come on before we discharge with this item, please let me know.

We'll uh switch to in-house Mimi Cook. Good evening. Thank you so much for being with us. You have three minutes on item number 19.

Thank you. Good evening. I want to speak about that item also. I am concerned about um having to have only 15 minutes for a whole group of people and it seems that

limiting our time per person and not seating our time are in conflict in two minutes it's impossible to get complex issues out. You also suggest establishing a spokesperson, but that's ineffective if they if people can't seed their time. You would have much better presentations if you would allow groups of people to have 15 minutes or whatever whatever number like each person gets two minutes in that group and have an actual presentation. Um, and it does say that the presiding officer has the discretion to further limit comments.

That concerns me. What I've been advocating since uh 2018 is that there should be community input much earlier in the zoning planning process. The practitioners

panel that guides everything that the planning department does is used frequently to determine future development. The public should have equal access early rather than at the very tail end. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Yielding to the mayor. Thank you. Uh, did we get um was it Pam Williams? Is she on?

Okay. All right. Thank you all so much. I I did want to say just briefly, uh, the language that we're referring to was already in the procedures.

What you're asking for, I've actually been honoring. Uh, I have not limited the size to 15 minutes. I actually let everyone speak and if it's a lot of people, I do limit it to two minutes so that we're not in here all night. Um, in regards

to literally everything you all just asked for, I've actually honored. The language is not new. This has been in the procedures for a long time. These are revised procedures that are addressing some other things and other areas.

But um yeah, this is the new language. I've actually been given a lot more than 15 minutes. All right. You have a Go ahead.

I would just ask um Council Member Caballero to address it. I know that she worked really hard to pull these procedures together and I just want to afford her the opportunity to say um as I asked her the question, she stated very clearly similarly what you said, but I think she should address it. Thank you. Um, so as procedure chair, first of all, I do want to thank the city attorney and all her staff who helped her with this because this was um a lot of work and we started about a year ago. So um I also want to remind folks that they did have the draft in their inbox in early November of 2024. Um I think there are some folks who would like some colleagues who had asked for some

additional language to mirror I think the language above in the nonzoning. Um, and so I would like I think it was council member Baker who wanted that. So my suggestion is we um ask him to read that language and see if we are amendable and it's literally from the nonzoning paragraph right above it and it would just get transferred down and it would address the aortionment I think is the language if I'm not mistaken. So I'm going to pass to council member Baker on that.

I'm attorney do you hear that language? So, I've been tinkering with it a little bit. Okay. Um, so just for the public's benefit, I do want to reiterate what the mayor said. The for zoning public hearing items, the city council procedures have had a 15minute proposed 15minute per side for proponents and opponents since 1994. So that language has always been

in the council procedures and the council procedures committee decided to carry that language forward in the event that it may ever be useful. But as the mayor has stated, the presiding officer of any meeting has the discretion subject to the agreement of the remainder of council to modify that rule to allow for more people to her be heard and the presiding officer routinely does that. Um to address some of the additional concern, there is a provision that Miss Cook just referred to which is in the proposed um procedures rewrite. It is in sub it's in Roman numeral 2 paragraph C and we lost the pageionation when we uploaded this to onbase but we'll get that back on there. but it is under a section entitled guidelines for non-zoning public hearing items. I have tinkered a little bit with

the language. Under paragraph 4, I've written groups may may be asked to designate a spokesperson when possible. Um, and we've seen the mayor do that um in meetings before. Are you an organized group?

Is there someone who can speak on behalf of the whole? And then the next uh paragraph, Council Member Baker now reads, "Where numerous speakers request to speak on a public hearing item, the presiding officer shall have the discretion subject to appeal to the council to shorten the time or fix and aortion the allotted time among the speakers. And then I've carried that language and added that as well for the section D which is guidelines for zoning public hearing items. Under paragraph 1 sub paragraph little D. It now reads, "Where numerous speakers appear as proponents or opponents, the presiding officer shall have the discretion

subject to appeal to the council to shorten the time or fix an aortion the allotted time among the nonapplicant speakers. Yeah, I I uh so the the mayor has um since I've been on council has uh use your discretion to allow speakers two minutes sometimes when there are a lot of folks you adjust and make it one minute. And um and this has allowed a lot of folks to to come to come and speak on on items um public hearings for for zoning cases. Uh, and that's been the practice.

The way it's written currently is the 15 minutes per side. That language is carried forward to the new uh rules of procedure. There was just one missing sentence that I was concerned about that I was worried would take away the mayor's ability to

continue the existing practice. And that is why I raised this issue and just wanted to make sure that we got that language back in there so that the mayor still has the flexibility to and perhaps the mayor still had the flexibility anyway, but I just want to make sure it was well known that the mayor still had the flexibility to choose the procedure um you know as we move forward with with reasonzoning cases. So, thank you for making that adjustment. I'm now comfortable with with the language and I'm happy to to vote in favor of the rules procedure.

And I do have one follow-up question also in that section. Um just some clarification on who is a proponent and opponent because the former guidelines for um for zoning public hearing items allowed for proponents and opponents to be allowed 15 minutes. They allowed for five minutes of rebuttal to be taken from the applicant's original 15

minutes. This is adding a fivem minute rebuttal for the applicant. So now we are allowing proponents 20 minutes and citizens 15. So I just want to make sure that I understand because I think that um that's not how it was in the in the former procedures.

Well to to be clear, citizens can also be proponents of a project, right? So it you can't just presume that they're always on the opponent's side. Um and there was a great deal of discussion during the procedures committee meetings um that the applicant not be grouped in necessarily with proponents for that reason. um so that residents in the community who want to speak on an item are not sucking up all of the time that an applicant might use to present a case and I will defer to Madam Chair on the Thank you. It's also why it's noted in the thing. I think that's why we we

distinguished the language from proponent to applicant specifically so that we could address that because the way that they were originally intended or originally written you really couldn't, you know, tease out an applicant from a proponent or an opponent and they're not all the same thing. So, I think that that was the discussion that we had. And I do also just want to remind folks, I'm not trying to harp on this, but maybe I am. You've had these drafts in your inbox since I think November 6th or so. So um there's been ample time to um I understand that this is lengthy and um you know detail oriented and but it's time to to I think um that that was a discussion at the um at the many procedural committees that we had uh around the language was that we wanted to be where we could be more specific with the language because there was lots of collapse pieces or pieces that were just making it clunky. I was Are you saying it was available to

the public since November? I'm not I'm not following. It was available to colleagues since November and and and to the public because our emails are public record and so yeah procedures. So moved.

Hold on one second. I'll now call for the question to um call for a motion to adopt the revised procedures for Dorm City Council. So moved. Second.

Been moved and properly seconded. Madam clerk, please open the vote. Please close the vote. And the motion passes 6 to1 with Council Member Cook voting no.

Okay, let's see. What was the next one? Uh, if you want to go items, otherwise you got to Okay, I'll just do um

All right. I just had a quick question. Uh, I don't Yeah, go ahead. I just We did not vote on that amendment.

Did we vote Did we just pass it as amended? We just never actually voted on the new language. the um the language wasn't in the motion and I've captured the changes that we read on the record. So Okay.

Thank you. That's what I'll submit to the clerk's office. Okay. Okay.

M attorney, could you could you repeat that? So you said when you read Remind me what you just said. I couldn't quite hear that. Um, I I think to restate what council member Cook was saying is you all didn't vote on the amendment, but it wasn't a it was not an amendment to a motion. It was just an amendment to the text of the procedures which was stated on the record. I've captured it and that is the version that I will send to the clerk's office to be incorporated

along with the minutes as the official version of the procedures that you all have adopted. It's the version you you read out here orally, right? The two provisions. Yes.

Right. So, it's not what we have in our in our packet. It's what you correct. It's not it's not in Yes.

It's not in your um app, but as you know, Council Member Baker requested, I've added that language. And so what I can do is I can send a red line to the council after this meeting so that you all can see and I'll and I'll add the pageionation, point out where it where it appears, but I will clean it up and then send the official version to the clerk incorporating that change. I just wanted to check in with Council Member Cook and see if that might have changed your vote. Okay.

All right. We're going to uh the motion is passed. We're going to go to item 24. And I just had a quick question

for um I pulled this item. I I I received the updated um information. This is the first uh first quarter of crime report and we have um deputy chief or chief chief. She's online.

Okay. Uh madam chief, can you hear me? Yes sir, I can. Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, and members of council. Welcome. Uh just if you could tell me the uh thanks for the the map with all the black dots on it, but I couldn't really tell um if it if it Well, I guess I wanted to know how much does it mirror where our past census tracks had us focusing um the work of Bull City United and Shot Spotter. So I I can't necessarily speak to uh the census tracks for Bull City United. Um however, what I can tell you for um Shot Spotter um it does where I looked at at

the highest concentrations of shootings um it the uh those shootings do mimic um the Shot Spotter area um that we had um identified through data. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir.

And yeah, I'll leave it I'll leave it at that. I will have some further questions that we are to get some support from Congress on the crime center uh and how we may be able to get some new resources and helping in those areas, but I I I don't want to talk hypotheticals. I want to wait until we actually have that. So, I'll follow back up at a later time.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. So, I'll entertain a motion to Mr.

Mayor. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Um, I also just wanted to say thank you, Chief Anders, for uploading that map. I think that's helpful. Um, I also want to hearken back to something that we talked about at the work session or the budget work sessions that we had last week,

which is that um we there is the possibility of doing a canvas associated with knowing where the high um high gun violence areas are. Uh, and this data does allow us to have that information. So, if we were going to look towards having a neighborhood canvas, I know that was brought up as an idea. We do have that information now in this packet.

So, just thought that that was a good addition. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, colleagues. Um, and I I thank Council Member Cook um for alluding to the the proposition of a possible canvas.

I And I was part of that conversation. I think what I actually said was there are some cities where um through the use of the shot spotter technology the day after shots were indicated directed canvases were sent to those neighborhoods rather than in police officers. Um, some of our uh, fellow cities and conversation partners have been experiencing uh, some successes

with folk being more responsive to heart type people showing up the day after a gun incident in terms of investigation, in terms of willingness to seek help uh, uh, for members of their family. So, canvasing in some of our conversation partner cities is not just going out where we know there's a lot of gunfire. It's actually a specific response to a particular zip code down to a block that actually had because sometimes you know gunfire doesn't happen on every street in the area but on the ones that do we've been able to specific they've been able to specifically send heart type responders in addition to the police being there the night before the next day folk go out and canvas the neighborhood based upon the exploitation of the of the shot spotter technology. So, I think that's an important caveat to the conversation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I just add I think we've had that with um organizations like the Nonviolent Coalition that did go out and

um there was a group I can't name it, but I know years ago the day after folks would volunteer to actually go out in the neighborhood and knock doors. I've done that on a number of occasions for shootings that have occurred in housing authority locations over the years. So, I don't think it's some anything new. The city's been doing it and we could do it again.

So, that's if we want to fund something like that, I think that's a really useful um conversation to have for the next cycle. Mr. Be, if I might, if you're referring to the the the bullseye where we had folk there were the city of Durham has never deployed responders after a technologydriven identification of shots fired in our city. That's just simply never happened. U we have deployed law enforcement assets into areas to canvas and and and many times we found that to be contrary to our values, but in terms of heart, heart just got started a few years ago. We have never deployed those type of

assets in response to gunfire because we didn't have them. That's just historically not a true statement. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Historically, we have had social workers and EMS and others who have volunteer voluntarily responded in those situations. So, it is a true statement. Okay. Thank you.

All right. We're going to move on. I'll entertain a motion to adopt a resolution. Nope.

Just to accept the crime report. I'll entertain a motion to adopt the first quarter crime report. 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. All right. There was another item that was actually on GBA here. Uh item 38, the resolution is Yeah.

Um Council Member Baker, do you want to have any remarks on this? Uh yes. Um, so this is a resolution uh

that the Durham Workers Rights Commission requested uh that the Durham City Council take up. It's a statement uh in support of Durham Amazon workers rights to organize. Um although it's just a statement uh every little word that we utter in support of workers rights is important in a state uh that is uh consistently designated as one of the states that is worst for uh workers uh for working conditions. Um where our minimum wage has not increased for a very long time where the legislature has taken away our ability to raise the minimum wage at the local level.

um and where we have a very low union density. And so um we have folks on the Durham Workers Rights Commission who work very hard um including folks at Amazon who've been organizing with Amazon workers not just in Garner uh which has been a a more high-profile case but in Durham itself. And so this is uh a resolution

that supports uh that work and that endeavor. I know that there are folks here tonight who are on the Durham Workers Rights Commission and I appreciate you showing up as well. Thank you for being here. Thank Yeah.

Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank my colleague, uh, Council Member Baker, for uh, bringing forth of this resolution, um, which I fully support in spirit.

I do also want to associate myself with a statement that every word we we utter, uh, matters. I was not here at the work session where we had an opportunity to massage um, this resolution. Um but I do want to to raise a flag of concern um on the last line before the now therefore whereas Amazon has been accused of retaliation against unionization at RDU1 through unfree and unfair methods. Um my concern is this is this isn't an oped it's a resolution uh which means that the city's impromater and city seal is

placed on this. I can't recall a resolution where we've pared a just an accusation in a resolution where we've named a corporate citizen. Um I mean if if Amazon had denied it where we also put whereas Amazon said no we didn't. And I just think it's very it's a very slippery slope for a city a government to get that detailed in a resolution.

Let's talk about supporting workers rights. Absolutely. Right to unionize. Absolutely.

But because this isn't my this isn't me personally writing an op-ed. This is me acting as a steward of of the corporate seal and improad of the city of Durham. I I I I just think that calling out a corporate citizen and saying they've been accused of something. We haven't adjudicated it.

We haven't investigated it. We don't know. It may it may very well be true, but we haven't done our due diligence as a city. And I think that a resolution bearing our seal on it uh is just not the appropriate place to make that kind

of the parrot that kind of um accusation about a corporate citizen with absolutely no due diligence. So I support the resolution. I support the full spirit of it. But I would I would be much more comfortable if we stroke the struck struck the line Amazon has been accused of retaliation.

That's just me reportage on our part. It's not conclusive. Um, and I think it actually just opens up the resolution, which would be a very tight document to undo scrutiny and uh to take some criticism that we don't really have to take and could still very well issue a strong statement. So I would I would respectfully um ask that we consider and again I'm not a fan of word smithing at Monday night meetings but I was not at the work session and since it is on GBA I think this document would be much stronger without exposing the city uh to statements about accusations that we've done no due diligence on whatsoever as a city.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Go ahead. Just go ahead. And just additionally, is this the language that

the Durham Workers Rights Commission itself submitted or did is this language we've made changes to? This is language from the Durham Workers Rights Commission. How do So, I I was I was along the same lines. I'm definitely supportive and going to vote for it, but I was concerned about that line because it had an actual hard actionable accusation in it.

Um, but what are your thoughts on I know it's kind of like we're on the spot in the commission. Sure. Uh, I think it's well known. Um, I I support keeping it, but if most of my colleagues are uncomfortable with it, we can pull it out.

Mr. Mayor, yeah, I will say um first I was support 100% the spirit of this this uh this resolution. I appreciate council member Baker for bringing forward the members of the workers rights commission for actually drafting this and bringing this to our attention. I do think this would be stronger with that struck. Um partly because the the language is also passive. Amazon has been accused there's

no actor there. So it's a little bit the passive language and as council member or as Mayor PM said the sort of the accusation there seems like it weakens it in some way. So I think it's stronger just to take that out and say we fully support workers right to organize. Council member Cook, did you have a comment?

I thought I saw your hand. Um, yeah. I mean, I was going to say that I think that we could we could shift it to say that we would condemn any action that does do that as opposed to saying that those actions have been alleged if that would if that would be helpful. Um, I Yeah, thank you. I have too many things open on my computer. Um, instead of saying whereas Amazon has been accused of retaliation against unionization, um, that we say uh that we could add it in to say that this we condemn any action of retaliation against unionization at

RD1 through the use of unfree and unfair methods. Can you say that again? I'll try. Um, this is really hard for me.

Okay. Um, instead it could say, uh, and whereas the city of Durham condemns any use of retaliation against unionization at RDU1 through unfree and unfair methods. Was it consistent the times that I read it? Does it make sense?

It changed a little bit. Do that on the fly. It's still a bit specific, but I I I'm getting there on the spirit of it definitely. Um, go ahead, Mr.

Mayor. Thank you. I I I appreciate Council Member Cook. I believe the condemnation condemnation comes in our first line and the positive and affirmative statement of our belief. Whereas the city of Durham believes in the fundamental right of all workers to organize and engage in in collective bargaining to secure fair working conditions. Again, I I don't want to create the spectre that we're

even speculating that anything has gone on insidious without due diligence. In an op-ed, I'd go for it, but again, I'm I'm I'm when it comes to employing the impromoder of the city, I employ the strictest of standards personally that I would not employ on myself. Um, and I think that the the firm statement in the affirmative of our belief in the first line leaves no doubt how we feel about anything contrary uh to that. Um, so I I just think that, you know, striking the last line, this is a tight statement.

I think um our workers right commission has done an excellent job. I think Council Member Baker for bringing it forward, but I think just simply striking that last line and preserving what's left, I think captures everything that we're we're talking about in the affirmative sense. And I would disagree with that because the rest of the statements are about our belief in the right to organize and not the not the activity of the company that

is seeing the the organization. So I I understand not wanting to have allegations in there, but I do think that some comment about the actions of employers who are faced with unionization is an important piece of this. And I think that striking it completely that would be lost. This is a question for the mayor prom. Is there any language that you would use in that last whereas because I think it um while I cannot comment R RDU RDU1 specifically the retaliatory actions of Amazon have been well documented in the press so it's not out of bounds so um I I think that a condemnation I Yeah, that that's all basically what I'm saying is that it's not like that

behavior hasn't been documented elsewhere, right? It's not like that, right? So, it's we're not it's not getting pulled out of like the sky. I mean, it's it's there because there have been documented instances, not one or two, but many in almost every single place that there has been uh union organizing within the Amazon sphere.

And so I think that it makes sense to have So I guess what I'm saying is do you have suggested language since you're striking something? Yeah. I f first I I've read things in the press about each of us that were wrong. So I I I don't know that press documentation is is is the standard I would appeal to when employing the city's impromater.

Again, I'm not responsible for the the op-ed page or the newsroom for press. I'm responsible for the badge of the city of Durham. Um so yeah, it's in the press. it may or may not be true.

Um my my standard is why even dabble in it if we don't know we and we don't have to. Um so for me I don't I don't have any other proposal. I think the statement

um that that uh council member Baker has brought forth stands on its own without that language. Um and from when I read it, there's no doubt what Durham stands or doesn't stand for. But I'm not you know I'm not going to die on this hill if if we insist on putting something in there. Um, you know, I I I think there's so much good in the statement that's not going to hold me up.

" Not just cuz I read it in the newspaper. I read a lot of stuff in the newspaper. Um, but we have not done any investigation. We have not through our methods and our uh uh apparatus made a determination that this company this corporate citizen has engaged in unourred activity and until that threshold is crossed you know I don't even want our impromata anywhere near the speculating or the spectre of it but whatever my colleagues decide I I will I will yield. Thank you Mr. Mayor.

I I will go ahead and call for a question on this. Do we need a motion on that or Yeah. I'm going to I'll entertain a motion to adopt the resol language as is or language as amended or as suggested. Actually, I need to I need to actually call for a motion as is and if it gets voted down.

Can I make a motion to approve the resolution as amended by Council Member Cook? Yes. Second. Could Could you Council Member Cook, you're at it again?

The first one resolution was your first action on council and you modify language and now you're modifying again. Okay. So the last whereas line will read whereas the city of Durham condemns any acts of retaliation against unionization at RDU1 through unfree and unfair methods. All right. Question. Can we strike at RDU1 because once again

that's that's so specific. I mean that's an am can we just say we condemn it full stop rather than RD1? I'm good with that. That feels like a friendly amendment to my amendment but I will I'll like to it.

We haven't taken action so we can we can determine the amended language and then so I'll accept the friendly amendment if does that work? Can I Okay. So once again, Council Member Cook, I know I'm working you tonight. Can you read it again without RDU1 stated so we can just have it on the record?

Okay. " I'm good with it. All right, let's go. All right.

I'll now entertain a motion to adopt the resolution. May I me uh read the now therefore clause to the public? Oh yeah, go ahead.

So I'm going to skip all the whereas clause. I'm just going to say um now therefore be it resolved that the Durham City Council enthusiastically encourages Durham's Amazon workers to unionize. The city council stands with you offering our full backing and support for your right to organize. We call upon you to take this step towards solidarity empowerment knowing that you have our unwavering support in your journey.

All right, with these words stated, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the resolution. I think there's much on the floor, right? Yeah, I think we just I think we just need a second, right? Yes, it's been seconded, I think.

So, we just need to Yeah, it was it was seconded. All right. Wait, where are we? The motion on the floor is The motion is on the floor. So, I can now pass it to the click. Metal click, will you please uh per the record stated open the vote?

Please close the vote with the amended language. And the motion passes 6 to one with council member Baker voting no. Um, and so now with the new language, I'll make a motion to adopt a resolution in support of Durham Amazon workers right to organize. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I So I I asked your motion that was made by council member wrist was for the amendment of the language. It was for the amendment as for the resolution as amended. Resolution. It was for the resolution as amended.

As amended. I think I think that it was not clear because I think we it was not clear to us. Please change my vote to yes. Durham Workers Rights Commission.

Council member Baker did not support your and the press would have reported that and it would have been wrong. Right. Please have the record reflect Council Member Baker. The the vote is unanimous, Madam

Clerk. Thank you. All right. Now, my intent was for the budget hearing to be first tonight.

So much for that. It's last. So, uh, at this time, madame uh, director, welcome. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, members of council.

Christina Reen, director of budget and management services. Um, tonight is the second of two public hearings on the development of the fiscal year 202526 budget and the fiscal year 202631 capital improvement plan. As a reminder, the city manager proposed budget was presented on Monday, May 19th, and is available along with the full presentation on the city's website. Since that presentation, council has held two budget work sessions. 71 cents per $100 of assessed value.

23. All public hearing requirements have been fulfilled with this item and budget staff are here this evening to listen and record all public comments as part of the city's commitment to community input. The final adoption of the budget is scheduled for Monday, June 16th. All right, you've heard the staff presentation and introduction. Uh at this time I will deem the public hearing open for the 2025 2026 budget and fiscal year 2026 2031 capital improvement plan. I am going to start with our online

members 36 and this is item 36. The first person I have is Mr. Dwan Lingley. Can you hear me?

Yes. Can you hear me? I can. Welcome.

You have three minutes. All right. Thank you. Between the ages of 16 and 24, if you are a young black male, and we're just talking about here in Durham, you're either a victim or a suspect.

That was Chief of Police Patrice Andrews in November of 2020. Today, I want to speak plainly. Boys and young men of color deserve to be a public policy and budgetary priority. Not tomorrow, not next year, but now.

Not just a bullet point in a campaign platform. For too long, they've been underserved, underresourced, and too often overlooked in critical investments. And yet, when we invest in them with intention and strategy and sustained support, they rise, they lead, they transform, they succeed. I'm here renewing my request for the Charles

Hamilton Houston Foundation for $25,000 in this budget as we were not funded by the Bull City Future Fund and emphasize the urgent need to invest in boys and young men of color through competency based learning, strategy centered mentoring, and career focused skill development. At the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation, we are doing exactly that. Our programs including the young men of excellence program, career pathway program, black wall street academy, grow with Google, Google certificate program, and the next move initiative are intentionally designed to equip participants with the skills, strategies, and networks they need to thrive in today's labor market and building long-term economic mobility. Our fellows obtain career oriented employment before or within three months of graduation earning on average a salary of $69,71.

No other nonprofit in Durham produces this outcome. Name one. I'll wait. For the past nine years, we have

done this work without paid staff and without city funding. We are 100% volunteer-led organization powered by passion, purpose, and an unshakable belief in the brilliance of our young men. And despite limited resources, we've empowered hundreds of them to succeed in school, pursuing higher education, earn industry credentials, secure internships, and launch meaningful careers. Imagine what we could do with your investment, with your partnership, with your cooperation.

This is not just about programs. is about systems change. It's about breaking generational cycles of poverty, justice involvement, and exclusion from opportunity. It's about rewriting the narrative for boys of color in Durham and making it clear they matter.

They belong, and they are worth the investment. With your support, we can scale our impact, expand our reach, and offer even more boys and young men the opportunity to succeed, not just academically, but economically and professionally. Thank you again for your

time, your service, and your commitment to building Durham where every young person, regardless of race or zip code, can thrive. I welcome any questions and we'll be honored to discuss how we can partner in this vital work. Thank you. Next, I have Jack Holtzman.

Mr. Mayor, Jack Holtzman, Mr. Mayor Jackson in the chamber here. Okay, I'll hold and come back to you.

Okay. Uh Allison Cppler. Allison, can you hear me? Hey, yes, you have three minutes.

Hi, I am speaking today. I um in support of the funding for the study, the continued study of turning Mangum in Roxboro into into two ways instead of the one-way pairs. I live um as some of you guys know, I live on um Mangum Street. Mangum and Roxboro are two of the most crashprone streets in Durham. Every year

hundred people or there sorry 100 crashes on on these two streets. Extremely dangerous and just extremely encouraged to see this city council doing something about it and getting a lot closer and just really appreciate you guys. So, thank you for including the funding for the continued study of this. That's it.

Thank you. Next, I have people in person. Mr. Holtzman, would you like to come on up?

Welcome. You have three minutes. Thank you, uh, Mayor Williams, Mayor Prom, and members of the city council. My name is Jack Holtzman and I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of the Durham Human Relations Commission and its housing committee to support continued and expanded funding in the city's budget for affordable

housing. Without expanded support for affordable housing, more and more residents will be unable to afford to actually live in Durham and equally uh and unable to equally enjoy the increased services and benefits uh to be funded in this proposed city budget. Durham's HRC therefore supports continued funding for the following existing city programs. First, the eviction diversion program.

We support the continuation of this needed program and awarding the staffing contract to legal aid of North Carolina to help keep low-income Durham renters in their homes. Second, we also urged the city to continue funding the property tax relief uh for all low-income Durham homeowners, similar to the longtime homeowners grant program that's uh noted on page 186 of the proposed budget. The city down payment assistance program uh for firsttime low-income home buyers uh was not specifically referenced in the

proposed budget as far as we could tell and we recommend continuation of that program. Third, we strongly support increased application of the city UDO's affordable housing bonus in new housing developments. The city should use all available means to persuade potential developers to utilize the affordable housing bonus and increase the number of affordable units within each new development uh including units below 60% and 30% of the area median income. Specifically, the city's development agreement for the old police headquarters site noted on page 115 of the proposed budget should include objective and enforcable metrics for the inclusion of an expanded number of affordable rental units. Thank you for listening to the Human Relations Commission's funding concerns and suggestions on housing issues that impact all Durham residents. Thank you.

Next I have Dale McKill. Welcome. You have three minutes and after you will be Gregory Williams. Good evening.

Uh my name is Dale McKielle and uh the uh recreation advisory commission and the Durham open space and trails commission have adopted statements and resolutions in support of keeping the half penny for trail and park maintenance at a half penny in the new budget. And I just want to thank the uh city manager for including that in the proposed budget and just encourage staff to or encourage the council to uh to keep the half penny in the uh budget that you adopt. Uh the uh director of the parks and recreation department uh did a great job last week um explaining

their plan for how those additional funds would be used. And I think it will go a great way to um improve the maintenance of our trails and parks and continue to have a a great trail and park system here in the city. Thank you. Thank you.

Welcome, Mr. Williams. You have three minutes. After you will be Mary Rose Fontana.

Good evening, honorable mayor, Mayor Prom, and city council. This evening, I have just a few points. Uh, one, I know y'all have seen me out working very hard on preserving our fair free and we really appreciate um all the work that's gone into it. I'm here today with a copy of the printed names of our petition.

This is over 700 names of individuals in our community who have supported keeping our buses fair free. And uh we just want to say thanks for all of the work. I have a copy of the contents of the petition for everyone as well. This policy has made Durham more accessible, more equitable for our most

vulnerable members. I live in East Durham. I take the 3B in every day. I see what folks are going through, especially at Wellins Village, and I'm just very proud to be a part of that work.

Nextly, um we deeply appreciate the work that's gone into preserving or excuse me, into funding the design for the conversion of Brocksboro and Mangum. This corridor has been unsafe especially for pedestrians and um even drivers. So designing the funding is a critical first step. In addition, we appreciate the funding towards the planning towards the eventual conversion of Duke and Gregson contained within the budget.

And in the same vein, I believe this is all connected to your adoption, implementation, and funding of the vision zero action plan. We're proud to see that work done and glad to stand beside it. Um and then I think lastly, we always want to stand in solidarity with our partners. I know the heart program had some specific asks about um

being able to have full funding so that they can respond to more than just 50% of their calls and the ability to work 24/7. And so um we love so many things about this budget. It would be great if we could have everything that we asked for and um just really glad to be here. Thank you all so much.

Thank you. And after Mayor Rose will be Chris Pariststein. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, and city council members. And thank you for this opportunity to provide comments.

My name is Mary Rose Fontana and I am the chair of Durham's bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission, the advocacy chair of Bike Durham, and a citizen of Cook Road in Durham. I started my advocacy journey in Durham by contacting my then ward representative Leo Williams for traffic calming and a sidewalk on Cook Road. With the lack of sidewalks, but several people walking along this road to get to nearby bus stops and schools each day, I'm very thankful to see two

items around Cook Road safety improvements under the EGI items included in the proposed budget. Every time I leave my house or watch my husband ride his bike to work, I worry about whether we will survive the half mile distance to Fateville Street, a half mile of road where we have frequently been verbally threatened by drivers for merely existing on the road we live on. People shouldn't have to worry each day about whether their loved ones will make it home safely. Similarly, I want to thank you all for including the reversions of both Roxboro Mangum and Duke Rexen roadways, which are also residential and receive high pedestrian and vehicle traffic, but are in desperate need of traffic calming and safety improvements.

A common theme in this year's budget is the prioritization of safety and improved livelihood for Durham residents. Some of these priorities include the funding of vision zero implementation plan, continued fair free transit, the heart program expansion, and several others. And I want to thank you all for the continued commitment to the citizens of Durham and

your inherent care and respect for your fellow neighbors and community members as shown in the proposed budget. Thank you for your time. Pleasure to see you in person after all the emails we've shared. Welcome uh Reckless Roxboro.

After you will be Jane Lee. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and city council members. Um I'm here to primarily thank you guys for the um items in the budget that I think are extremely important.

Um fair free on buses is an important thing uh I think for many people in Durham. For me um while I could pay a fair, it is an important way uh for me to move around our city without a car. I don't own one. And um I think having that bus be accessible to more of my neighbors is extremely important. I also think the first step that we're taking here with Roxboro Mangum in terms of finishing the design is really important to addressing our high injury network and uh essentially making good on our promise uh for our vision zero action uh goals and plan. Um, one thing I do want to say

though is that uh, Council Member Freeman especially, I think, pointed out that the increased taxes uh, are extremely burdensome for some of our neighbors. And this is something that I think we always have to keep in mind when we look at these projects. Um, I really want to see Roxboro Mangum addressed. 1 million going towards just the design.

And one of the things I go to is, well, what is that? What what could we get for that? Right? Um I went and looked at the uh salary for a traffic engineer in the area and it's somewhere between 70 to $110,000.

And so if you map that out assuming quite a bit of excess for raises and um benefits, that's at least a decade of a single traffic engineer. And so then I wonder if I took that traffic engineer, hired them, stuck them in a room, and said all you're going to do 9 to5 is work on Roxboro Mangum, how long would it take them to do, right? I don't know. I'm not a traffic engineer.

Would it take a week? Would it take a month? Would it take three months? Let's

say six months. I can't imagine it would be six months, but let's say it's six months. You still then have nine years and six months of a traffic engineer working on other projects throughout our city. Right?

We've got Duke Gregson coming up, but we have other streets like Holloway, Cheek Road, uh, Club, Fagatville, MLK that need work, and all of our residents deserve to have safe streets. So, one thing that I I hope you all consider as we move forward and pass the budget process is how we can empower and hold accountable the various parts of our city council or our city uh departments to get more done for less. We know we're going to be facing a lot of challenges in terms of federal funding and who knows what the economic future holds. I think we really need to find ways to make sure we are efficiently uh spending this money and making sure that we are getting uh benefits for those who may not be able to sit there and have a camera uh or post to Twitter or come here and speak to you in person. I think we need safe streets for everyone in Durham and I think it's important to make sure we're spending our money wisely. Thank you.

Thank you. Hi. Um, okay. After you, Jane will be Chenith Hamilton.

Okay. Hi. Um, all my name is Jane Lee. I have multiple points.

Um, the writers of Go Durham like myself um of bus route 9, thank you for committing to continuation of fair free transit. Um, and as someone who regularly crosses Roxboro and Mangum to get downtown, I hope to see a future where those who have to use these roads are not risking their lives to get around um for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers alike. Um, thank you for supporting design funding for Roxboro Mangum corridors. I hope to see similar measures for Duke and Green. Um, I urge city council to fund the heart program beyond 50%. And um, I

think this would be a really helpful thing for my neighborhood as I frequently see heart vans um, driving around um, and providing their services. Uh, finally, thank you for providing funding to the Durham Rail Trail. As someone who lives at one end of the proposed trail, my neighbors and I are very excited to see the completion of this greenway project in the upcoming years. Um, thank you for funding Durham's vision zero plan, which is sort of helping provide prevent duramite injuries and deaths on the roads.

And I'd like to thank you for your time. Thank you, Jane. And welcome Chenith. after Chenise will be Leticia Fen Faith. Okay. Um hello um Chenise Hamilton speaking on behalf of um Have a Heart Coalition and we are asking for full funding for HART to um respond to

more than just 50% of the current calls that are labeled as heart calls and hoping to push for 24-hour expansion. You know, just like fingers crossed. 7 million that has been proposed also in the time in these times heart needs to continue to be a top priority and um based on the um what we saw a little bit earlier just want to say that like we want to be clear that we don't want Hart teaming up with Shot Spotter in any way, shape or form. Um heart we don't want Hart tainted like in that way. And um yeah, so we want to protect it and keep it like for the community and make sure that community has access to unarmed sit down um responders and care in this time and like we don't want to play with heart like that and have it connected to Shot Spotter or anything like that in any way. Um, we are also calling for city

council to enter into a interlocal agreement um with the county and school board to embed heart teams within DPS to enhance the safety and trust of our students, resist uh reduce the risk of violence, prioritize deescalation um and like yeah involving mental health wellness and so much more. Um, my kid is going to the first grade next year. Um, but my heart still stops whenever I see another school is on lockdown and then seeing our babies like with their hands up and guns drawn on them uh in school and that's a complete nightmare. Um, and it expanding heart into DPS is not the whole answer to stopping gun violence, but it's another resource to help our kids and to help eliminate the constant loss that our folks keep facing in this community. Um, it's another intentional way to help and it's another way to change their environment. Um, we keep hearing, you know, everyone says publicly that they're in favor of hard

expansion and it seems like folks are just saying that, but we can't get folks into the actual room to move this forward. And it's been like the hardest thing lately that I've been working on. Um, and we know that it takes more than you. And we're putting in all the work that we can with our commissioners um, and school board and superintendent and sheriff and all of those.

And so we're just asking for a little help from you all um to come to the like to get your comrades to come to the table so that we can make this happen sooner than later because later is not always an option. Um also please fully fund and support the budget demands of bike Durham keeping bus fair free and um support um affordable housing for our community. Thank you. Thank you. After um where am I? Leticia Wilma after Miss FA Leticia FAC uh will be Wilma Oliver.

Welcome. Welcome. Thank y'all for having me tonight. I am here in fully support of HART being funded and embedded into DPS um with the local agreement with the county.

I'm also here as a mom to speak about gun violence. Um thanks Mr. Leo for the funding that you have gave um for the activities of the youth. Um we just ask that we have funds that are specifically dedicated to gun violence like you did shot spotters.

Uh we would like to have an average of 200,000 the same that you delegated to them. Um your funds are great but you have to have circum certain curriculums to get them and I don't feel that that is fair to certain activities for youth. Um so we ask that you delegate a fully funded um $200,000 towards gun violence as you did with Shot Spotters. Um and that will help to upgrade the rec centers, the parks that's been down for two years. Um

investing in free parenting, substance abuse services, education and training programs all within our in lowincome communities. You are giving our kids great tools, but you put them back into unhealthy environments. um they go back to places that you have unrooted them and relocated them. Some of which our youth are unable to live in due to the gang violence and them not being able to be on that side.

Um this you may not know because it's inside the community and um you have to be inside the community to know that certain gang members can't go on certain sides and that's why we're having a lot of the gun violence. Um but to know that is to understand being on the streets. Um, so for me, we ask that you not only make Durham great again, but make the people inside of Durham great again. Um, we are appreciative of the tour, the tourists that will be coming as we build Durham. But we also want you to keep in mind that our community and our city is in

fight and flight mode and survival mode. and bringing more people tourists to our community of people who are hungry and going without will cause more violence in inside of our communities. Thanks. Thank you.

Uh next up is Miss Wilma Oliver and followed by her will be Antonet Halls. So good afternoon um mayor, mayor prom and our wonderful city council. I want to thank you guys for your service to our people even now more so than ever in this particular climate that we're dealing with with the federal level. I'm remember I remember Mr.

Goens my 12th grade US government teacher. He said don't ever forget the impact that your lo local government officials have on the community. So, thank you for all of your service. And even as I'm sitting

here tonight, I kind of am altering my speech a little bit because I'm hearing all of these wonderful people speak. And I know the heart of many of you guys because I've had a chance to interact with you and you truly have the desire to help the community. But and now I need to speak on behalf of the city government employees, the ones that are actually the boots on the ground. Um, we serve this community because we love this community.

However, many of my co-workers drive quite a bit because they say they can't afford to live in the city of Durham. 6% increase. 6%. So, I'm just asking that you guys really dig deep to see what you can do to help the city of Durham employees

because this inflation is increasing so much faster than our pay. But yet, I see and I hear the folks in this community and we do we love our neighbors, all of them. And so, I know it's not an easy task. But I'm just speaking for the folks that actually show up every day, boots on the ground to serve because we love this community.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Antonet Halls. All right. Well, that's my uh last um speaker.

Yep, that's the last one. So, at this time, I'll declare the public hearing closed and back before the council. All right, council. Uh, this was a this was a public hearing and we uh I remember we were here last

year. I was like, do you do comments? Do you not? All right.

Um, it's back before the council. If there are no comments, then I will move us to Yeah, this is a public hearing. Okay. Yes.

Um I just wanted to acknowledge um Miss Bur was here from pack five. I did forget her with the um proclamation on the um goodness. I'm sorry I just slipped my prepare preparedness week emergency preparedness week. And I just didn't want to miss because she was here.

She was a little late and she missed the opportunity to be here to speak. I just want to say thank you for um Mr. Chavis and Miss Burrs pulling that together and um thank you. That's all.

All right. Well, no more comments. I um thank you all for the work tonight. The time is 8:45. We are adjourned.