City Council · Regular Meeting · March 18, 2024

Hall like to call this meeting to order at 7 p.m. I am masked up tonight cuz I'm recovering from something Paul burnout and got a little sick but I'm fine colleagues I'm not contagious and I check for all the things that are there to check for so no side eyes up here all right we will Let's have a moment of.

Silence thank you at this time we will have the.

Pledge of Allegiance led by mayor. Proin thank you Mr Mayor it's our practice to stand and salute the flag as we administer The Pledge 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 for all thank you all right Madam Clerk will you please call call to roll thank you Mr Mayor mayor Williams I'm here mayor protm midle I'm here council member Baker here council member cabayo here council member cook here council member Freeman and council member rist here thank you all right we have a couple of.

Mle okay have a a couple of proclamations tonight I'm sorry no is that yeah could you could you would you like to number two I was going to.

Have.

To good evening Mr Mayor mayor proam members of the council folks of Durham thanks for being here can I call up Alice sharp come on Alice you're everywhere model citizen you know this weekend on Sunday is the crop walk the 50th version of the crop walk and Durham an amazing an amazing fundraising event in Durham to raise the importance of hunger the importance of securing hunger worldwide in the US but also raising money to address hunger worldwide in the US I'm proud to have been a part of the crop walk for about 30 of those years with my church as a volunteer as a walker and as a donor and Shirley Frederick if you're out there I'm sponsoring you this weekend so make sure you're walk so let me read this Proclamation whereas the 50th annual Durham crop hunger walk will be held on March 24th 2024 and whereas it is the oldest fundraising walk in Durham whereas the Duram Croc crop hunger walks have raised more than $5.2 million for.

Hunger relief since the Inception of the Walk including the 25% or 1.25 million that has gone to to hunger fighting agencies in Durham and whereas in 2023 the Durham crop hunger walk was the second largest walk out of 500 walks in the United States whereas we applaud the citizens of Durham for their compassion and generosity in working together to help relieve hunger both locally and globally now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina to hereby Proclaim March 24th 2024 as Durham crop crop hunger walk day in the city of Durham and hereby call upon all residents to join activities and discussions that promote understanding support and awareness of the Durham crop hunger walk witness my hand in the corporate of the city of Durham North Carolina this 18th 18th day of March.

2024 thank you and it is a mouthful Durham crop hunger walk hi Steve one of the things the first things I want to do is show you the t-shirt which we have passed out or will be passed out to the council this was designed by St McDow who is is an nccu art student and he did a fabulous job so come out come out this Sunday and you can get your shirt as well but I do want to thank the citizens of Durham for their generosity there is absolutely no way we could have we could be doing this for 50 years without the citizens support So a big hand for the citizens of Durham and lastly please go to Durham crop hunger walk Durham crw walk.org Durham crop walk.org and please donate this year we've taken on a goal once we reached one goal we just kept going and it's gotten a bit out of control I think but $220,000 is what we plan to raise this year and with the support of Durham.

Citizens I know we can do it and I want to let you know that it's not just a oneperson job here we have Annette Reed and Bob nulan Bob has been doing crop walks for at least 30 40 Years Around 34 around and Anette has been doing a great job for the last at least 20 years or more not that much not that much but anyway thank you all again thank you to the council and we will see you Sunday all right.

I see so many omegas in the house I had to call an extra Alpha Man up here with me so we're the brothers of Omega sci-fi please join. Us. It's good to see you guys Justice welcome to the welcome to the Bull City to see good see oh yeah it's my son's professor over here all right all right I as a brother of alpha F Alpha Fraternity Incorporated will do the honors of welcoming the the Omega Man in the house. Tonight so therefore whereas on April 12th 1974 signaled the arrival of the first black Greek student organization on the campus of Duke University the Omega Zeta chapter of Omega SciFi Fraternity Incorporated and whereas the Omega Zeta chapter continues to demonstrate their commitments to their four cardinal principles manhood scholarship perseverance and uplift and their motto friendship is essential to the soul and whereas the arrival of the Omega Zeta chapter signal a new day in black student life on the campus that welcomed black students only 11 years before and.

Whereas at Duke University black Greek fraternity was allowed and successful on a campus that was was generally unaccustomed to the black experience and whereas the Omega Zeta chapter remains a strong and valuable part of Duke University and now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby Proclaim April 12th 2024 Omega Zeta chapter of Omega Sci-Fi fraternity day in the city of Durham and hereby urge all residents to join me in expressing gratitude for the invaluable contribution contributions of the Omega a chapter of Omega Sci-Fi fraternity Incorporated witness my hand in the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this 18th day of March 2024 congratulations thank.

You we thank you so much Mr Mayor and Council for this Proclamation recognizing our experience that we're having now in this moment and with me we have Dorian Balden kenth Lewis darl spells Charles Curry Isaiah fiser Smith Todd Perry Tom Johnson and last but not least honorable Justice from the North Carolina Supreme Court retired Mike Morgan who was a founding member of the Omega Zeta chapter of Omega sci-fi in 1974 Mike say here. Good evening Mr Mayor and members of the council and citizens and guests when we were teenagers at Duke University back in 1974 little did we envision this kind of recognition from the city this is indeed an honor I remember that when we had our big brother at the time one of the things that we would told that we had to do and I got the honor or the dishonor to be told to do it to call the dur morning heral and say there's something major that's going to happen here in the cafeteria you better be here and just.

Hung up nobody from the Durham morning Herold showed up but I think this city recognition more than makes up for that so thank you Mr Mayor thank you counsel it was 9:30 p.m. on Friday April 12th 1974 that I along with 12 other brothers of my 13 Commandments line two of whom have gone on to Glory had this honor to establish Omega Zeta chapter the first black fraternity on Duke University's campus thank you for this recognition it is indeed an honor that we teenagers never thought that we would see but yet on the other hand you can see throughout the generations of Duke University's Omega Zeta chapter Omega sci-fi not only continues to survive but it thrives as a very valuable organization on Duke's campus and indeed in the city of Durham and the county of Durham thank you for this recognition thank you for the honor.

For y'all that don't know that's a little black for eternal love. There all. Right colleagues we will go ahead and move to now any. Announcements council member cook good evening everyone I too am masking but mine has more to do with all of the trees that are pollinating outside than anything else but yeah just a couple of quick things the first is that I had the privilege to go to Meals on Wheels this morning with a couple of my colleagues you heard from them already this evening but such a great organization and it was so awesome to see the dreams of expansion just in their small space that they have and how that's really going to affect Durham in such a positive way so I just wanted to give them a shout out and then the other thing I just wanted to recognize is that it is Ramadan for our brother and sisters who are Muslim are celebrating at this time they're also fasting and so I hope everyone's having a meaningful fast I.

Was invited to break fast with Folks at the zakat foundation last week and it was such an honor to be in community with those folks to slow down and also to hear about how many things that they do for the city these folks have been out at housing communities just delivering meals bringing needed supplies to folks and the the volunteers I thought were amazing they are ranging high school and college folks who have been with this organization some for two some for five some for 10 years volunteering and lots of great family support so it was a real honor to be to break fast with them last week and and I hope everyone is having a meaningful fast for those who are celebrating that is all thank you so much for those comments Council member Baker welcome council member Freeman any remarks council member rist Middleton thank you Mr Mayor good evening to you and to my honorable colleagues and everyone in the chamber first I want to fully associate myself with council member.

Cook's remarks and Goodwill to our brothers and sisters in the Muslim Community she did a beautifully no need for me to go any further but thank you for for recognizing the period of fast Mr Mayor I was along with you were was in DC with elected leaders from all over the the United States for the Congressional cities Conference of the National League of cities and had opportunity to meet with members of our delegation on both sides of the aisle Democrat and Republican to address issues that are important not only to Durham but I had the opportunity also to to Advocate on behalf of the entire state with the executive leadership of the North Carolina League of municipality on issues such as expanding the commitment date for arpa funds a lot of smaller towns and cities and larger ones need that date not that we don't have ideas on how to spend the money but the date to commit it and to get Contract sign is fastly approaching we need that date moved up.

And I had an opportunity to talk with both Democrat and Republican Representatives about that importance a commitment to more funds for continuing internet expansion not only in major cities around our state but in rural areas as well tweaking the formula whereby Federal Transportation funds are are allotted to states around the country north Carolina is one of the fastest growing states in the Union but we're still using a rather Antiquated model and Metric for Distributing Transportation funds so had an opportunity to talk about that and capacity also for dealing with P in our Waters I want to particularly send thanks to Congress persons Representatives niichel bishop and fushi to Senator Bud who was very generous with his time and to the staff of Senator Tillis as well whom we were able to have some very productive conversations recognizing that we may not always agree on everything but we can agree to be agreeable and that our state is the Envy of this nation for a reason not because we agree but.

Because we respect each other so Mr Mayor I know you had meetings there as well along your own track but I just wanted to let the people of Durham know that we we've got great representation in Washington DC and I will finally say to my colleagues one of the things that was hit home to me is not only is North Carolina a great State and Durham a great City but I am glad that we are entertaining conversations about Durham bringing on a professional a Lobby and professional representation many of our sister cities around the state smaller than us have seen some windfalls for having a professional representation both in Raleigh and in Washington DC and this trip really underscored for me the importance of furthering those conversations and actually crystallizing them into policy so thank you colleagues thank you Mr Mayor feel better thank you thank you so much and I'll be potentially passing it off to you some tonight as my voice May dwindle but yeah I was in DC as well.

With over 4,000 elected officials from across the country I used this trip to spend most of my time with you know just building relationships and having meetings on Capitol Hill as I said before a lot of my time as mayor is going to be spent finding resources and bringing them home to Durham and so that we could get supplemental funds and resources to do the things that we want to do here locally when I was leaving the climate Summit out of Miami and flying up to DC I ran into congresswoman fredrica Wilson out of Florida and she we had a conversation and she said you should come on the Hill tomorrow and and there is a black man for Choice round table I didn't really I hadn't heard of it but I I went and I'm glad I did myself and senator-elect Sophia chli Abram who I ran into on the Capital Hill as well we went and we sat in and Durham was recognized on congresswoman fushi was around the table along with.

Congresswoman Ayanna Presley and brownley and Barbara Lee and it just felt good to be in the room with about 20 to 30 black men standing as out allies for women having you know the right to make a choice on their own bodies and there are some people that agree with that and some people that don't and you can stand where you stand on it it felt good to be there stand as an ally I another thing was just really as mayor Rist stated just generating relationships and resources for Durham and one thing I can say when I go to these conferences everyone knows who Durham is everyone knows how dope Durham is and I I want us to be able to tell that story even better you know there is a little mud fighting here on the local level and that's okay because we're trying to be better but folks we have it a lot better than another a lot of other municipalities across the country.

U so we're going to do a better job at telling our story that doesn't mean we're not going to fight that means we're going to keep on trying to make what we have here even better but we do have it a lot better than a lot of other people trust me this is also National Transit employee day and. Yeah sometimes I I have remarks and I get up here when I start talking I forget exactly what I was going to say so I did not want to mess this one up so I have a few remarks this is special if we have any Transit employees in the room if you are here please stand okay no worries all right they're working working all right so basically folks every day in our community we rely on over 230 go Durham bus employees and over 59 go Durham access employees to keep Durham moving our transit system carries essential workers at our hospitals skilled nursing facilities pharmacies and grocery stores three.

Quarters of gold Durham Riders don't own a vehicle and count on transit to get to and from work school and medical appointments 77% in 20 excuse me 77% in 2022 survey have no vehicle availability over the weekend and this morning at the Durham station our partners at bike Durham collected handwritten thank you messages from hundreds of writers expressing their appreciation for the hard work that Transit employees do every single day across Duram last year this Council honored 16 God Duram operators whose skill and focus on safety enabled them to complete 1 million consecutive miles of error free driving I'm going to pause right there and you better clap your hands because that is a big.

Deal error free wow thanks to the dedication of these veteran trans Transit workers and new recruits who have joined the ranks we're back at back to 100% prepandemic service levels and preparing to expand service in the months. Ahead to all our Transit workers bus operators mechanics customer service and support staff I want to say two things to you thank you for all you do day in and day out for our community and two we know you have plenty of job offers I have my cdl's but I can't drive those buses so we know we want you to know that we are so proud that you made the choice to serve the people of Durham thank you so.

Much Madam manager good evening Mr Mayor Williams Mr Mayor Rist middle and members of the Durham City Council I have three priority items for you this evening I will begin with agenda item number 14 which is the governor's crime commission 2023 criminal justice Improvement program Grant project ordinance this item is being referred back to the police department agenda item number 22 consolidation annexation Sharon Road Apartments cost benefit analysis which is it attachment number number nine attachment H has been updated to reflect an assumed tax rate growth of 3% per year an attachment in zoning ordinance was updated to reflect DPS profer increase from 10,000 to 35,000 in Tex commitment 12 and finally this evening I have saved the best priority item for last we have an employee recognition from our Parks and Recreation Department so I will call that team that presenter to the microphone at this.

Time you continuously hear me say Durham is dope you're about to find out why.

Good evening Mr Mayor mayor PRM Madam manager members of council I'm Wade wup with the Durham Parks and Recreation Department and it's my honor and I I appreciate the opportunity the mandre gave us tonight just to recognize some extra some more Heroes that we have in our city the team behind me here of DP PR are several different people at the campus Hills Recreation Center whether they're in Aquatics or Recreation and they responded to an emergency just a couple weeks ago there was a call for help and someone was playing pickle ball and had a a health emergency and seconds later our team was there and in a matter of seconds our team took a very stressful a very hectic event and remain calm remain poised remain professional and and they stayed a team so it's my honor to have them here tonight just to be recognized rightfully so for being a hero and I and I can't I can't I'd be remissed if I didn't recognize a police officer.

That was there on the scene as well to helped out but this group of seven folks here helped save one of our residents lives just what was it week ago two weeks ago two weeks ago so with us tonight is Mr Martin and his wife Mrs Martin I know if you wanted to say anything okay good evening I just wanted to start out about reading a letter from my husband's son John he addresses to Mr walcut but I felt it should be addressed to all the Good Samaritan Samaritans in this room who were involved in saving my husband's life I don't know what you look like I don't know your names but you are the reason that my father is still alive today your quick actions are the reason that my stepmother mother does not wake up without the love of her life today you are the reason that my brothers and I still have a mentor to call you are the reason that I will get to hear my.

Father's laugh again you are the reason that my father May one day hold his grandchildren in his arms thank you will not be enough for the precious times that you have given back to all of us I am grateful for all of you who were there that day thank you that is all I have up this. Evening.

Wow all. Righty I will entertain a motion to accept the manager's priority items move to accept priority items second Madam Clerk please open the.

Vote please close the. Vote the motion passes unanimously thank you thank you all so much thank. You all right I I fa to mention also that this morning we had students from dur public schools to go and visit the Google office here in Durham and they are starting in Middle School to study computer science and they are being trained by the actual software engineers of Google the company itself and I had the honor of giving opening remarks with Senator Natalie Murdoch this morning and I I told the kids I would shout them out so shout out to the Ken and students for starting your journey to be software Engineers all right Madame attorney have any priority items good evening mayor Williams mayor Pon Middleton members of the council it's good to see you I do not have any priority items if I may just take a point of personal privilege I just wanted to mention so that folks in the public know Mrs Martin who just read this wonderful remarks from her.

Stepson to you know thank the heroic Parkson wreck workers was herself a dedicated City employee for years I had the honor of working with her she worked in our risk management Division and it is just wonderful to see how this community gives back good to people who gave good so grateful to be part of Durham it's amazing it overwhelming all right and Madam Clerk thank you Mr Mayor good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor proam and City Council Members the city clerk's office has no priority items tonight thank you thank you Madam clerk all right at this time I will go ahead and read the cons agenda item number one mayor's Hispanic and Latino committee appointment number two Durham workers Rights Commission number three approval of city council minutes number four board's committees commissions a task force calendar year 2023 annual agendas reports number five approval of a multif family housing facility to be known as trails at Twin Lakes Apartment Homes in the city of Durham and the financing thereof with multif family housing.

Revenue bonds not to exceed 5.1 million number six establishment of a 911 alternate call routing into local agreement with the city of fedil again not pulling the item but for those who do not know it's not that our 911 Center cannot handle it they're doing fine we legislatively have to have a backup center in case of any catastropic event number seven Second Amendment to the Professional Services contract with Perkins and will Incorporated for the Durham station Transit Center improvements project number eight fire and Emergency Medical Services station 19 architectural services agreement with ADW Architects PA number nine American Rescue plan act arpa project right of way tree watering with jumping buddies LLC DV8 Pit Stop pressure washing number 10 American Rescue plan act Opa project right of way and Cemetery tree planting with Davis landscape limited number 11 Durham station Transit Center improvements project construction manager at risk pre-qualification procedures resolution number 12 fire and Emergency Medical Services station 19 construction manager at r agreement with seit Corporation number 13 amendment to.

Mayor's Hispanic and Latino committee bylaws 14 governance crime commission 2023 criminal justice Improvement program Grant was that one okay number 15 contract St 329d pavement Asset Management planning plan programming 16 contract Southwest 90 w96 PW Street Maintenance repairs 2024 number 17 contract s SW 96c inspection services for PW Street Maintenance repairs 18 Street and infrastructure acceptance okay atto accept certain streets and infrastructure in Andrews Chapel phases 1 a 1B 2 a 2B 3 a and four Ashton Crossing Phase 1 cley Farms phases 3 4 5 and six Davis Park East phases one two and three excluding sewer hun Huntington Valley phases one and two Lake Shore phases 2A and 2B excluding sewer lumbley Road Town Homes excluding sewer Magnolia Creek phases 1 a 1B 2 a 2B 3 a 3B and four Sagewood phases one and two Shephard's Square phases 1 two and three Sterling phases Sterling phases 2 a 2 B and 2 C excluding sewer 5622 ventur Drive American Drive Carthage Street Industrial Eno River SS outfall South Austin Avenue senior living apartments.

The Bluffs at Hope Valley and the courtyards at Andrews Chapel for maintenance by the city of dura number 20 public hearing on the fiscal year 2024 2025 budget and 2025 2030 Capital Improvement plan CIP 21 Consolidated annexation 3411 and 3417 Picket Road number 22 consolidation annexation Sharon Road Apartments all right that is our consent. Agenda that's the entire agenda yeah all right yeah that's right all right I'll now entertain a motion to approve the.

Consent agenda they moved second moved the properly second Madam Clerk please open the. Vote please close the poll the motion passes 70 thank you all right moving on to our general business which is our.

Public it's 63 so I'm going to do two minutes two minutes all right we have quite a few signups here how many.

Have all for this item number 20 okay Madam Clerk we're going to go and start with members online we're going to do two. Minutes all right all right so we're going to get started with online so this will be public this is a public hearing for our budget so we have director Ren welcome so good evening mayor mayor protm and members of council Christina Reon director of budget and Management Services this is a public hearing to receive comments from the public on the development of the fiscal year 20242 budget and the fiscal year 25 2030 Capital Improvement plan or CIP just wanted to let you know that budget and Management Services staff are here and available to listen and receive all.

Comments thank you so much dere yes yes yes all right Madame clerk we will start. With Frank staco in person okay Frank staco can you hear me I can can you hear me I can welcome you have two minutes well thank you very very much it won't take me that long I want to thank you mayor mayor proel members of the council for inviting me to speak and for all of your hard work and your efforts I'm speaking tonight to urge you to support the office of Survivor care in the 2024 2025 budget this really completes the circle for law enforcement and Public Safety in the city of Durham we do a pretty good job when it comes to law enforcement but it's only part of the picture and as a member of the pilot program prescriptions for repair we listened all we did was listen to survivors of gun violence and they were surprised at the how therapeutic and how healing it was and in one case one of.

The individuals who told us quite frankly they weren't really traumatized they didn't think by the gun violence that they had endured broke down several times and cried and said I've never done this before and then asked if he could speak with us even when the money ran out and then asked if he could volunteer this is the kind of thing that that clinicians and psychologists and therapists talk about all the time hurt people hurt people healed people heal people and without healing the trauma that is rampant in our community it is unlikely that enforcement is enough to do the job to make the public safe I urge you to complete the circle of Public Safety and please support the office of Survivor care in the upcoming budget thank you thank you so much Jerry llaca Mr Mayor Jerry llaca is not in the queue okay wait a minute I thought laugh oh you here okay Sam is that the next one okay Sam Sam.

Scarber hello can you hear me hey Sam yes all right thank you good evening everyone I hope you all are doing well thank you mayor mayor protm and city council as a lifelong derite who proudly served on the community safety and wellness task force I urge this elected body to support funding for an office of Survivor care through the community safety department we must fill the gaps created by our criminal Injustice system by creating an institution that provides La law enforcement trauma informed care that responds to the unique self-identified needs of survivors of violence and their loved ones the office of Survivor care is another step toward engendering restorative justice and Durham also I urge city council to meet each and every demand from UE Local 150 our city workers deserve a pay raise and the ability to live in the city they pour so much into our city workers are essential in the collective struggle toward building a truly functioning Democratic Society enclosing pay our city workers and create the office of.

Survivor Care thank you thank you all right I and and I if I was sitting in the audience I'll be clapping as well but I'm going to ask us to please do this so I can just keep the move keep the the meeting going we we have a lot of speakers tonight and I don't want to be here until 1: am so let's you if you don't mind let's just keep it to the snaps or or let's hold your applause to the end please Maya G Maya ganam can you hear me hello can you hear me hey welcome you have two minutes hi this is Maya gam I'm a resident of Durham this will be short but I'm just going to Advocate that we increase wages for city workers $25 an hour and that we also allocate more funding to the Survivor Care office and also to allocate more funding to Har as much as possible I think these are really important ways to address the needs of the community that.

Are not policing and that are not things like shot spotter thank you yep thank you too next jacine. Wagstaff this Wagstaff can you hear me I can all right you have two minutes good afternoon I'm just is here to support the city workers and also just to say that Durham is dope but we also have some problems we had a a fiveyear old shot last week and a 16y old and just a random drive by so let's while we got all these dope things going on let's talk about the things that are happening that are not so dope also just wanted to recognize that former school board and my former colleague Mr Maron I'm so happy to see that he survived whatever happened at the park and I congratulate those people that helped him at the time so I would like for this board to consider funding all of the above all of the previous speakers have said some things I agree with but also let's not defund the police by using these methods.

To defund them the police department with all of these new people moving into Durham means there thousands of people that have to be provided Public Safety so while we may need to support all of these other initiatives we also have to support our public safety our Police Department so that they can do their job thank you thank you Miss wack next Stella Adams Miss Stella can you hear.

Me m Stella can you hear. Me all right I see you raising your hand are are you muted do you see a red line through the microphone Mr Mayor Miss Adams has been unmuted could she say something Miss Adams I M Adams can you. Respond okay you you could just keep working with her I'll come back she off okay I'll come. Back that's all we have thank you thank you all right we'll get to the.

Cards all right I'm going to call call the names in groups of five if you will just cue to my right your left and the first is George bot Antonio Smith Rob Wilkerson Montell Perry and J.

Wallace welcome you have two minutes good to see you guys good evening mayor mayor Pro close to that mic for me George good evening mayor mayor Rist counsel I'm George B A automation driver for solid waste and I want to say we want to get paid how can our job be so important but get paid so little y'all finding it hard to pay us because the system is flawed 4% annual raises are just unfair that design only benefits employees that's on a higher pay scale mostly in the open range 4% of 40,000 is not the same as 4% of 90,000 I can see why the city is having a hard time figuring out the budget over 50% of its employees or on a higher pay scale on a lower pay scale is us the ones with our boots on the ground that do the hard work every day of keeping the city beautiful and clean we want to get paid you giv police 17% we just as important to safety and.

The health of this city we want to be reclassified as a $66.50 raise is a small ass for this line of work day in and day out in the dead cold in the rain in the scorching heat picking up the city's trash is hazardous to one's health what happened to the city's core values of integrity and fairness the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles moral uprightness what happened to being fair so I want to ask you how can you have a job that's so important but get paid so little thank you thank you next good evening ladies and gentlemen I didn't write anything down just came to speak what resonated me the last time we came before you guys you said we didn't show up before the last budget meeting we're here we ask to be recognized we do everything you ask us to do down to the smallest increment of whatever is ass we asking for the smallest favor make us whole give our.

Guys a reason to love what we're doing I mean not as if we don't already do but no aggression we love what we do we hope y'all love what we do for you and the rest of the citizens are D like I said we here show us that you recognize we standing before you asking for the minimum of anybody can ask for a decent living thank you thank You' for your service in 1998 the Durham City Council passed ordinance number 11,333 I was able to locate the actual original file ordinance and after reading it it was clear that the spirit of the ordinance was to ensure that city workers and workers Contracting with the city stayed above the poverty line in September of 20 16 it was recommended that the ordinance be amended to reflect the new method for calculating the liable wage this method which is the 4year blending method is on its face fatally flawed if the ordinance mandated that 30% of a person's monthly salary.

Must be able to cover the fair market rent according to hood and rents rise every year it is technically impossible to take four prior years of lower rent rates divide them by four and come up with the average rent rate rate to start your calculation that's going to get you 30% of the current fair market rate rent for example the 2024 Hood fair market rent in Durham is $1,418 for a one-bedroom apartment if $1,418 was 30% of my salary as the ordinance mandates then I will be making $272 an hour but because of the flaw Amendment calling for the use of four prior of lower rent rates you have set deliverable wage at $19.57 per hour well below what it takes to be able to afford the living D if you included this year's Hood numbers in your four-year blend the minimum wage would be $21.90 per hour in short the ordinance contradicts itself and that contradiction is a fatal flow for that reason I propose that this body amend.

The ordinance and remove the four-year blend requirement the living wage should be based on how much it cost a Liv and earn today not four years prior if this body truly Embraces the spirit of the ordinance as the ordinance that was meant to make sure that city workers were paid a fair wage that keeps them above the poverty line then you will do the right thing and fix this mess that your predecessors created thank you you thank y'all hey everybody how y'all doing hey city council hey mayor hi Council people my name is Montreal Perry I'm a collector in solid waste on what you call a Workhorse a worker that's on back of the truck that's re that's really in the trenches running up and down the street slanging cans from left to right in a timely manner boots glued to the ground till the souls come off I wanted to touch on why solid way should have renew classification if you had a choice to come and make the same amount of pay.

In a pickup truck cleaning buildings pulling trash or riding on the back of a truck and free rid temperatures or scorching temperatures pulling trash and dodging cars racing to get to work which would you choose there needs to be an incentive so our department can keep recruitment for people to want to come to solid was and help keep this community clean I noticed in this budget Retreat the payment the pay was based on a one bedroom but was based on a one bedro affordability was but did that conclude the three times the rent that these departments and complexes ask for we've been making our voices heard almost a year waiting on studies of someone to take the lead or initiative and c and City management to look into making a and looking look and to look into making our department hold so as y'all look over these numbers and budgets keep the underdogs in mind and at heart thank.

You two online okay before I call I'm going to go ah and call the five but he said these two right here right Jerry llaca can you hear me. Online next I have I'm here okay great Jerry thank you so much give me one moment okay yes all right if you will come to the mic Kevin georgees Victor quisa Danny ly Hunter Jennifer kingan and Dr Ria Mason or or Master or here all right Jerry you can hear me you have two minutes thank you for joining us thank you mayor good evening mayor mayor proam and city council my name is Jerry llaca I am a Durham resident I'm a volunteer with restorative justice Durham I'm here tonight to ask you to fund a three-year pilot office of surviv care within the City's community safety department for survivors of gun violence and the loved ones of victims of gun violence I was a trained facilitator working on the prescription for repair program last year my cases involve spending time with a mother whose son.

Had been violently murdered on the streets of Durham six months prior and a young woman whose older sister had died leaving her with little information about how what or why the shooting happened both individuals reported feeling bright brokenhearted confused angry grief filled and just living dayt day trying to make sense of what had happened to their loved one it was hard to get motivated to go to work and have anything fun related they spoke of feeling disconnected from their families their friends who had supported them at first but then grew weary and tired and told them just to get back to life the prescription for repair facilitators were there to listen and I am here tonight to tell you it was they said it was good to talk about these tragic events and how their loved ones had been so tragically murdered by us listening to them it validated their feelings it helped to ease the burden and it gave them hope for the future an office of Survivor care is urgently needed in.

Durham for adults and youth to connect these survivors with facilitated listening circles grief circles and all the relevant Community Based service organizations in the Arts mental health athletic spiritual youth focused and neighborhood based please consider supporting this very important office for the next budget cycle thank you thank you Leslie St. Dre Leslie than Dre can you hear me. She M she's mut Leslie can you hear me can you say something yes can you hear me yep welcome you have two minutes sorry about that hi I'm Leslie St Dre I'm a resident of Durham and I'm here to support raising the minimum wage to $25 an hour starting with a solid waste workers first I've talked to many of these workers who are working three jobs barely have time to see their kids their housing unstable $25 should be the bare minimum I think if if all of us making any more than that we can imagine it's it's impossible to live in Durham now for for that wage it actually.

Should be 27 or more so I'm here in support of that and we need affordable housing for our workers and in general so I do support the affordable housing for city workers and the W with the two million down payment on home ownership assistance and the grant program for city workers and looking to the Future for the Duke pilot to be earmarked for permanently affordable housing and wage increases we need training pay $50 per shift to train workers they need no increases to their health insurance costs anything that we can do to support them being able to keep this city running is is what we need to figure out in the budget we need flat equal pay raises for all this is fair so in in the unfair Merit pay system and we need to reclassify Solid Waste workers so I support ui1 15's demands and doing everything that we can to to support keeping the city going by supporting our workers and also I support expanding heart and funding at fully for.

Everything that they need to to keep it going and make sure thank you so much that it okay I don't see Kevin georgees all right so again I'm going to call those five names Kevin oh there he is Kevin georgees Victor eisa Danny ly Hunter Jennifer carrian and Dr Ria and I want you to say your last name when you get up here it's I can't see the handwriting all right pleasure to have you you have two minutes perfect timing all right good evening y'all it's good to be with you again I'm a local minister at Jubilee Baptist Church and this budget discussion reminds me of a story in my tradition where Jesus tells us that we're called to love our neighbors and someone asks in response who is my neighbor to whom do I really owe respect and recognition who do I really have to listen to and the answer in that story and my tradition is everyone and especially the most vulnerable but you all have an opportunity tonight.

To give your own answer to that question through this budget do you think the people who pick up our trash who clean our streets who keep our city beautiful are your neighbors or do you think they're just human resources that's what's at stake here who is our neighbor and it's a very literal question because if you all pass a budget that doesn't pay General step workers and especially our sanitation workers enough to rent a home and buy groceries and to like have fun and enjoy themselves in this city then you're very literally saying through your actions that they are not our neighbors that you want them to serve this community without being members of this community but we all know that there is no Durham Durham doesn't function without our general step workers both through the work that they do and just through the people who they are so I'm asking tonight that you treat those workers as neighbors that you don't dismiss their lived experiences with talk of Market rates and equal.

Percentages as though an equal percentage of inequity is not also inequitable y'all every single day I hear stories of people who are struggling they hear of development and growth and they Wonder for whom this is a chance to spread Durham's wealth to Durham's workers to Durham and as a white Minister I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't use some of my privilege to point out that this is also a racial justice issue too when the city Department with the highest percentage of minority workers is also the lowest paid we can do better neighbors need us to thank you sir good evening my name is Victor Kiza I'm a Durham resident and a workers rights organizer with unit for aair economy I have been supporting the Durham SE workers Union's fight for for living wages and better working conditions for months now last September several union members from the Solid Waste Department took a brave stand and refused to not load their trucks and protest or the se's lack of needed pay.

Increases and the militant struggle that lasted 6 days the union was able to win bonuses of $6.5 million to the all city workers but of course the fight was not over these bonuses that range from $500 to $5,000 were of course appreciated by the workers and was a step in the right direction but what the city workers are asking for is permanent wage increases u150 is asking to start a pilot program to raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour starting with a solid waste department then going to Public Works transportation and parks and W the solid wte department has some of the lowest wages and is the city's lowest pay Department with the highest concentration of black workers giving a raise of 650 an hours to Solid Waste workers will only cost the city $1.83 million the city can afford this raising the wages of city workers will set a prent for other Employers in Durham who will be pressured to pay workers higher wages North Carolina has.

Been ranked as the worst state in the country to be a low paid worker and still has a minimum wage of 725 an hour it is vital that this city council will take bold steps in addressing wealth inequality and low wages in our city that will that will have a ripple effect across our state I ask the City Council to do justice for the workers of Durham and meet the reasonal demands presented by the Durham city workers union thank you thank you so much for being with us good evening my name is Dr Danny L Hunter and I'm with the North Carolina environmental justice Network I would like to express my support for the requested $5 million for the Durham city parks contaminated with lead arsenic cadmium and other contaminants dangerous to human health while the $5 million is an important first step it it must be a part of a much larger commitment to a multi-year plan that includes strategic engagement with residents of impacted neighborhoods to co-create strategies for assessing contamination and.

Remediating remediating Parks furthermore this will also require significant annual investment from the city until the parks are safe the city should create a funding plan to render these sites safe for the Public's use and prioritize environmental justice within the community as part of the plan the city should act with urgency to determine the outside funds available and apply for that assistance such as justice 40 funds rather than waiting for State funding that may not materialized for years Justice sporty funds present a unique and historic opportunity to tackle issues such as parks and I encourage you to consider this Avenue for future remed remediation funds while also providing your support for the 5 million current Curr ly proposed I would also like to E I would also like to emphasize that social justice issues should not be pitted against one another in the budget there is Extreme urgency to address the park issue and to ensure that they are safe but I also stand in solidarity with the city workers from Durham demanding.

Higher wages that include increasing the minimum wage to $25 an hour flat equal annual flat equal annual pay raises for all putting an end to the unfair Merit pay system reclassifying solid waste workers providing affordable housing for all city workers compensating city employees for training shifts and no increases and annual health care costs providing funds to support both remediation and parks and Durham city workers will make the city of Durham a more Equitable sustainable and safer place to live thank you so much dror hello my name is Jen carrian I'm speaking on behalf of Durham city couny city county environment Affairs board I serve as the chair the environmental Affairs board is charged with advising city council County Commissioners and staff on all issues related to environmental Affairs and I want to start my remarks by echoing what the previous speaker said about important social justice environmental justice issues not being pitted against each other I just wanted to speak on behalf of some issues that the EAB has decided to support this budget round.

Some of which are in the budget already and some of which are not some are about making a able present some are about making a livable future but all of them are about making a livable Durham the first one is regarding the $5 million budget allocation for the parks and wreck remediation the previous speaker gave a lot more detail so I will save my remarks on that I do want to make a note to say that it is very very important that the city staff involve the public on future decisionmaking on what that remediation looks like it's the $5 million is just a start but the actual decisions of how to remediate needs to be done in conjunction with the community members that live in those neighborhoods I also wanted to make a general note regarding rooftop solar EV charging and General efficiency improvements in particular the EV charging for Fleet and Transit that is 42% of our current greenhouse gas emissions so if we don't install EV chargers for those electrified Vehicles.

We can't actually use them so we need to keep that in the budget lastly I wanted to mention a couple budget items that are not currently in the Solid Waste Department but we think should be in there particularly around creating reuse Hub manager and a reuse Hub anything that we can do to support reuse and reducing Solid Waste makes the solid waste Department's job easier and makes all of our Lives easier so increasing the budget for reuse hubs and reuse manager to actually reduce the amount of trash will support a livable Duram thank you thank you so much.

J good evening my name is raniel MRI co-director of the North Carolina environmental justice Network earlier this Council voted yes on a ceasefire in Gazza and you voted yes on that ceasefire because you recognize the humanity of everyone you recognize the intersection of issues and you recognize that no one is disposable we bring that narrative here to the Durham budget to recognize that no one is disposable in Durham when we say that city workers are essential we need to recognize that by how much we pay them I want a quote from the Durham County Community Health assessment report that was released today one and I'm quoting Durham County still has the highest eviction rate in the state and wages are failing to keep up with quickly Rising housing costs so yes to the affordable housing for city workers and all yes to the $2 million down payment home ownership assistant grant program for city workers and hopefully that will be expanded HUD characterizes affordable housing as occupants spending no more than 30% of.

Their income on housing cost the same report stated that affordable housing and Durham would require household income to be at least $448 per month so the minimum wage according to the Durham County Community Health Report needs to be at least $28 an hour raise that minimum wage starting with solid was first and yes to affordable housing for all city workers three the report spoke of the ongoing environmental Injustice I quote black neighborhoods contain more garbage incinerators and unpaved roads than white neighborhoods and they receive sewer lines later three of the five Durham city parks that my colleague spoke about are in historically African-American neighborhoods or lowincome neighborhoods so yes to that $5 million but recognize that these funds need to go to rectify the structal racism and historical policies that remain critical to cause income inequities and health disparities thank you.

Doctor mad Madam Clerk it's 809 would you please record that I'm assuming to gavl for this part of the hearing and I'm going to invite okay I'm going to ask the next five speakers to line up and then we're going to go to a person online but while go to before we go to the person online I'm going to invite our neighbors Dale mckel Christopher pearlstein Scott Carter Alex Mitchell Mitchell Schwarz and Eric lanf Freed if you'll queue up to our right while we get our neighbor who's on line Madam CL who do we have laes laes all.

Right larnes can you hear me hello can you hear me yes good evening thank you for being with us you have two minutes okay wonderful thank you so much my name is Dr Lauren EES and I'm a resident of wtown I'm also a scientist who studies chemical exposures during pregnancy particularly toxic Metals during pregnancy so I'm here to express my full support for the $5 million for remediation of lead in Duram Parks I want to make a couple points just around the science to emphasize the importance of this so there is no safe level of lead in the human body children are especially vulnerable and there is once's children have been exposed there is very very little we can do to remediate the effects of this exposure when they're so young soil lead exposure is one of the key pathways through which children are exposed so remediating the lead in Durham Parks is a critical way that we can potentially achieve environmental justice through meaningful involvement of community through meaningful public.

Education and removing lead and the other contaminants in soil I I want to highlight as well that we've talked a lot about lead as a as a critical contaminant of concern but the Mid-Atlantic report also found extremely high levels of Arsenic and cadmium so we're really just scratching the surface of the potential exposures that might be occurring through soil in these parks so I hope that this $5 million can be a starting point can begin meaningful engagement with communities as prior speakers have talked about can begin thinking about remediation Solutions so that we can achieve environmental justice in our procs and once again they can be a place of joy and play for the children of this city thank you thank you Dr E Dale mckel welcome good evening you have two minutes sir good evening thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight I'm here to talk about the maintenance of our Greenway trail system there are many great trails in our community that are used by cross-section of Durham.

Residents the many of the trails were resurfaced within the last couple years and I do appreciate the work that was done to to bring that to fruition but some of our existing Trails also have some other problems that need to be addressed the first of these had to do with Bridge repair the public works department has done a survey of all the existing Bridges and boardwalks and has identified about $2.5 million of repairs that need to be made and I believe that's included in their budget request I would ask you to support that the second item is spot repairs to address a couple of different issues one is tree roots we have a lot of of tree roots that have grown up and are causing buckling in the pavement of our trails and this is is a safety issue there was a resident on the American Tobacco Trail back in the fall who was injured hitting one of these areas and was in intensive care for several days following that injury.

The third issue has to do with drainage There Are Places on our Trails where water is not draining this is also a safety issue several residents a couple dozen at least have been coord have been U sending messages to the recreation advisory Comm over the last few months about these issues and a number of them have noted that they have fallen and been injured due to the slickness of the trails so would ask you to address those concerns and I believe the Parks and Recreation Department has requested $1.2 million to address those issues as well so we ask you to support those items and thank you for your time thank you sir.

Mr Mayor and City Council Members I'm Chris pearlin I live on Roxboro Street some of you guys may be familiar with my work on the Twitter account Reckless Roxboro so I'm here to talk to you guys today about Street safety this is I think an extremely important issue to address in our budget I've run into unsafe circumstances pretty much daily people failing to yield people going excessive speeds and this has been a major struggle we've seen lots of property damage and I've almost lost one of my dogs to a driver who left the street going in an unsafe speed I've also witnessed a lot of very close calls involving people who are waiting at a bus stop I've seen businesses crashed into this kind of a regular experience and I've actually just only been here for a year since moving from Raleigh after these incidents I was inspired to create the traffic camera project that some of you are aware of I just wanted to talk about some of the quick facts of things that.

I've witnessed and recorded two-thirds of drivers are generally speeding we actually had a top speed of 98 miles per hour it's 35 M hour Zone there We've not had a day where the top speed was below 66 mes hour and the average number of Reckless Speeders a day is over 20000 this is just on my little block of Roxboro which is within a third of a mile of a school zone and the main library but I think any Resident could probably tell you that these circumstances are not you unque to my area they exist throughout that Corridor and throughout our streets in Durham so I'm hopeful that we're going to make some progress I'm happy that we have a vision zero coordinator but the really important thing is at some point putting some action to that so I hope that you will fund what's necessary to make that Corridor safer I believe everybody deserves access to a Safe Transportation Network in our city regardless of how they live work or move throughout our city thank.

You thank you for being with us.

Hi I am Alex with revolutionary communist of America and I'm here speaking on behalf of meeting the demands of the city work sir would you would you suspend just for a second Scott is Scott Carter here all right all right Alex did you fil out the card yes Alex okay I think I do remember calling your name just just St we'll get you I promise you thank you Excuse me goe yes hi I'm Scott Carter and I'm a member of the city county bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission first I'd like to thank council member rist and Caballero for their services the aison to to be pack I'm here to advocate for the transportation department you know Capital Improvement plan list there are a lot of important projects on there and we really like to see them funded I was on bpack about 10 years ago for eight years and there were a number of projects that were on the list back then and I've just been on bpack now for two.

Years after a break and many of those projects are still there and not completed and some of them not funded yet not to say there haven't been a lot of projects that we've completed and you know are now usable so so that's great but I just feel like we need to pick up the pace and do more of these projects and do them faster you know I started advocating ating for myself and my family when I was a bike commuter and now I really want to see some of these projects get done for my three grand kids that live in Durham and hopefully they'll be able to take advantage of them we can't depend on resurfacing projects by ncdot and the city as our only way to get new sidewalks and new striping for bike Lanes we really need to take the projects that are on this list and make a capital investment in those in order to get you know get ahead of the game here we been it feels.

Like to me in a reactive mode BAC had a retreat recently we looked at Minneapolis as a city that's in the top 10 in the country and I know that there are some elected officials that might be traveling to Minneapolis this this summer and when you do please take a good hard look at the bicycle pedestrian Transit infrastructure that's there it's really amazing so please support this list melt help make Durham Greener safer healthier cheaper denser more Equitable more attractive to tourists more livable and more fun thank you thank you so much Alex Mitchell Schwarz you're next sorry about the mixup my bad sorry about that hi I am Alex with revolutionary Communists of America and I am here speaking on behalf of meeting the demands of the city workers which are a minimum wage of $25 an hour flat equal annual pay raises for all ending unfair marit pay system classifying Solid Waste workers affordable housing for all training pay and no increase to health insurance costs they and all other workers deserve.

Not just a living wage but a thriving wage and all of these basic human rights the bare minimum for a two parent household to raise two children in Durham is $25.65 an hour that's a bare minimum and workers deserve more than the bare minimum to survive when they make the whole city run according to the final City budget of the fiscal year of 2023 20 to 2024 which you can find online Durham has a general fund of almost 78 million for the police force as well as over a million in Grant funds and there is a proposed 10% raise in funding from 2023 to 2024 why the police do not protect us it is the sanitation workers the hospital workers and the rest of our underpaid city workers who keep the wheels of this city turning personally as someone who grew up in Durham I feel less safe because of the police this is the most obvious example of where to cut funding but looking at this document shows that the.

City workers are being stiffed while we invest in areas far less or sometimes completely unimportant we need to prioritize without our health departments sanitization workers Solid Waste Management what do you think our lives would be like thank you for being with us Eric Kopac good evening thank you for being with you have two minutes thank you good evening my name is Eric landfried at last year's public hearing I spoke about the need for a vision zero action plan and a vision zero coordinator the action plan will hopefully be developed soon and thanks to the funding approved by this body in the current Year's budget the city hired the fabulous Lauren Grove as its first Vision zero coordinator this year my request is that the focus be on delivering the projects that will help lead to Zero fatalities and serious injuries on Durham's roadways in addition to the vision Z action plan the city will be updating its bike walk plan planning changes to streets through the city and State's resurfacing programs and designing.

Improvements many improvements for people walking biking and using Transit throughout the city there's a lot going on which is great good planning and design is important but it's all for not if these projects cannot be delivered in a timely fashion as a longtime Transportation advocate in the city the number one question I hear from people is why does does it take so long to get things done in Durham some projects like new sidewalks and bike Lanes along Cornwallis Road and Moren Road have been in the works for over 20 years and still have not entered construction playing staff fair and competitive wages is critical not only is it the right thing to do for the city's employees it will allow City departments to hire qualified staff to fill key vacancies to deliver these projects but this is just a starting point if we're going to reach Vision zero or any of the other important outcomes the city has identified around equity and sustainability it will require sustained effort and honest conversations I'm very encouraged that.

City staff and this Council have begun to identify how to break down the barriers to delivering Transportation projects on time and on budget and know that there are a lot of people in this community and a lot of people in this room who are ready and eager to help thank you for your time thank you so much our next five speakers and I ask that you would queue up to my right Nancy low John Hodes Cel I believe this is Michelle Gallen or nen Ryan Harris and the name simply.

Fernandez starting with Nancy low thank you all for being with us you'll each have two. Minutes thank you my name is Nancy low I'm a Staff sign scientist with the Duke environmental law and policy clinic and I'm making these comments on behalf of our local nonprofit don't waste them in September 2023 the state go the state general assembly preempted local governments from reducing waste through the regulation of single use Plastics this development was a blow to cities in North Carolina who bear responsibility for implementing and paying for Waste Management but now have limited Tools in their toolbox to reduce the generation of that waste in the first place while the preemption is an unfortunate obstacle it does not have to stymy the city of Durham from making meaningful strides in reducing the city's waste the 2024 2025 fiscal year budget and the 2025 2030 fiscal year Capital Improvement plan provide an opportunity for the city to fund personnel and infrastructure dedicated to reuse and waste reduction which will not only.

Reduce waste being sent to Samson County landfill but will also create opportunities for green Workforce develop vment I urge the city to take this opportunity to fund three items first the city should invest in an expansive wash facility that can collect wash sanitize and return reusable dish wear to entities such as Durham schools restaurants government departments the convention center the Athletic Park and others second the city should fund a position for a program manager who would work with local retailers and restaurants to voluntarily reduce their waste footprint third third the city should fund a permanent reuse Hub manager position in the city's Solid Waste Management Department to continue momentum for the development of the ReUse Hub a Consortium of reuse infrastructure and entrepreneurs focused on creating a more circular economy here in Durham thank you for considering these recommendations and for your service to the people of Durham thank you so.

Much hi my name is John Hodes C and I live one block from Gregson Street at the most recent Durham Chapel Hill carboro Mo meeting Duke and Gregson streets were shown to be the corridor with the highest safety risk in the region they were also shown to be well under capacity meaning making them safer won't affect access our neighborhood along with many others is calling for the city to act with more urgency providing the funds needed to quickly design safer streets quickly engage the community on these designs and quickly implement the designs just as every plan ever done for Central Durham for the city and for the region has always recommended on tonight's consent agenda you accepted seven miles of new streets into the city system something you do a lot and I'm sure that kindness Lane and sweet cream Court will be great additions to our city network but if we can maintain them surely we can maintain streets like Mangum Duke Gregson and Vickers where speeding is rampant and.

Crashes are frequent if that's what it takes Mangum Duke Gregson and Vickers combined total about six miles so less than you took in tonight please act with urgency by committing the funds needed in the fiscal year 25 budget and the CIP to finally address all of these Safe Streets thank you thank you. Good evening thank you very much for the opportunity to speak about budget priorities for the coming fiscal year my name is Michelle Nolan I'm the co-director of the environmental law and policy clinic at Duke and I'm here representing don't wa Durham a local nonprofit that creates solutions that prevent trash as you may recall we've been working with the solid waste management department and a subcommittee of councel over the past several years to research the impacts of plastic pollution on the city's Waters neighborhoods and economy our proposal to city council was thwarted by General assembly's preemption of local government authority to take certain measures to reduce the production of waste in communities last fall but we.

Are not discouraged waste is a significant environmental justice concern in our community and around the state and it's too important for us to give up on this topic many routes remain available and so I'm here to ask for your support in three specific budget requests that are essential to the goal of reducing waste the first involves our local businesses 95% of local businesses we surveyed want to reduce plastic waste they will save money on purchasing and on waste disposal and doing so to help this we propose the creation of an incentive and marketing program modeled on the ocean friendly establishment program which has more than 300 businesses enrolled and is interested in expanding and Upstream communities we request funding to bring this program to Durham secondly we request money for a large centralized wash facility to help restaurants public schools and other businesses switch from disposables to reusable dining materials this is modeled on our don't waste Durham's popular green to go program the expansion of which is constrained by limited washing capacity and.

Facilities finally we support the division of solid waste management requests to add a reuse Hub manager position to help build momentum and support entrepreneurs working to create a more circular and Equitable economy thank you so much for being with. Us this is my first time speaking in public so forgive me if I sound rushed I could have probably been more prepared but I'd like to keep my message pretty simple and it usually comes from the heart it's easier to get it out U my name is Ryan Harris I am a I serve this community I serve the city as a police officer I've served it for 15 years I've been proud I very much hold myself to a very high standard as a police officer and I've been very fortunate for the past two years to be a recruiter for my department as you can imagine my job is demanding and the tasks are extreme being a police officer I I just would like for people to Envision in their.

Mind and in their idea having a loved one someone you genuinely care about someone that is very close to you having the worst day of their life someone who's dealing with a trategy that you can't imagine the first person that they're going to see the first person to respond to that emergency that tragedy of their life is going to be a uniformed police officer whether it's 2:00 in the morning 3:00 in the morning or 2 o'clock in the afternoon the police officer is going to respond and they're going to be there for you and when they get there for you you want the best you want the absolute best police officer that this city can Pro can provide the best that we can afford and my job is to go out there and find that find that talent look for that best officer you can possibly find and I take pride in being able to do that but I want to ask you before I step away from this I'm currently offering.

For that position $443,000 a year that's what I'm offering that's what the best we have to offer is right now and what I ask is what is it worth to you what is it worth to you to know that a loved one that you have is going to have a police officer respond what is that person going to be worth to you to be technically and tactically proficient the need to be physically fit mentally capable and have the respon responsibility and the maturity to make responsible decisions based off of limited information how important is that to you it's important to me it's important to my loved ones I've been fortunate because as a citizen of Durham I have been able to have police officers respond thank you very much for your time thank you very much good evening I'm also an officer with the dur Police Department this city council decided to pay a company to be told the same thing that the police and fire department have stated that we are severely.

Underpaid at the budget Retreat it was determined that the quote livable wage for Durham is $4,725 this number was based on a one-bedroom apartment with up to three people living together and I would respectfully like to inquire where this data was collected from and who would consider this suitable living in Durham in 2023 HUD stated the following would be considered as a low-income household for one person at $56,950 two people $647 and three people at $72,800 as my coworker just said the starting salary for a police recruit is 43,000 therefore a single recruit living in Durham would be considered lwi income and you quote a city policy that all fire and police salaries will be greater than or equal to the annual rate of living living wage but we have yet to see you uphold these promises the Vicious Cycle of being overworked and underpaid creates an increased rate of burnout among officers and a dangerous environment for not just the officers but also the public so of course people don't feel safe because we.

Are operating under 40% Staffing for officers on the street as I stated in a previous session this is a business investing in our Police Department by providing competitive wages will not only attract and retain top talent but also improve morale job satisfaction among our officers and this in turn will lead to a more effective and efficient police force that can better Serve and Protect our community I urge the city council to prioritize the issue of underpaid officers and take the necessary steps to increase our wages show your support for those who put their lives on the line every day ensure that we are fairly compensated for the invaluable service we provide to your city and it is time for the City Council to wake up and stop putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound thank you thank you our next five speakers I'm going to ask our next five speakers to please cue to my right Gregory Williams John Talmage Roger laferty Allison Kopac and desmer Gatewood welcome to all of you you'll.

Each have 2 minutes thank you for being with.

Us yes absolutely thank you thank you'all good evening mayor mayor Rist members of the council my name is Gregory Williams and I'm honored to stand before you tonight as the advocacy campaign organizer for bike Durham before I get started I'd like to take a second to thank our amazing Transit workers both those in attendance and those who couldn't make it tonight on Transit worker appreciation day that said I will be speaking in favor of Fair free Transit over the past month I've had the privilege of engaging with many Greg i'm sorry would you pull back just a little bit Yeah the sweet spots is maybe two inches from where you were yeah just over the past month leaning just a little more just just lean in yeah just Le you can get a little closer but it's not as close okay it's it says not to touch it yeah no just give them five more seconds please thank you I've had the privilege of engaging with many different people in our community.

These are some of the most eye- openening stories that stuck with me the first is from a man I spoke with who told me of the profound impact that fairf free bus rides have on his ability to support his sister he highlighted that the freedom from Financial constraints allows him to be there for her whenever she needs him ensuring that their family support system is not hindered by money another individual a veteran expressed how the bus serves as his Lifeline for navigating our town the elimination of fairs has significantly eased his Transportation challenges especially when attending vital appointments at the VA I also had the privilege of hearing from a dedicated worker who relies on the bus to to take her children to and from daycare and then commute to and from work for her the absence of fairs translates directly to more money each month which she can allocate to provide for her family this highlights the real world impact that accessible Transportation has on the financial well-being of our community.

And it's not just in our city limits that the impact is felt over 50% of those surveyed by bike Durham use the greater go triangle system to travel between cities in the Triangle this underscores the interconnectedness and importance of a robust accessible transit system that reaches beyond our immediate Community we have an excellent opportunity to show our support for Transit staff and the citizens of Durham alike by reflecting the values we've expressed tonight in next year's fiscal budget and capital Improvement plan thank you so much for allowing me to speak and have a great evening thank you so.

Much good evening mayor councel Madam manager John Tage I'm a resident of Old West Durham and executive director of bike Durham bike Durham has three asks of the council and the manager for consideration in this year's budget the first is to maintain fairf free Transit the second is to fund the full set of recommendations from the city's transport a department and the third is to accelerate projects by funding the the staff Fair wages and also the positions that are needed to deliver additional projects and those are across multi M multiple departments as you know in particular in the city transportation Department's memo I want to draw attention to the work that they're doing to accelerate the design for the repaving projects both that the city brings forward through the public works as well as the State Department of Transportation it's the easiest way for us to get safer streets for people walking and for people biking by making sure that every time we're repaving that we're taking advantage to shorten Crossing distances on streets to.

Make space for people biking where it makes sense and getting ahead of each of those opportunities by doing the engagement doing the design ahead of time means we could take advantage of things like rockboro and Mangum streets we can take advantage in the future of du conon streets and all of the miles that get funded through the city's repaving and N CD's repaving each year there's a lot of great other investments in sidewalks bicycle facilities safer Crossing and signals all in those in that transportation department recommendation thank you thank you so much.

Good evening mayor Williams city council and everyone that's here watching and listening my name is Roger laferty I've been with the Department Duram Police Department for 15 years I'm currently a sergeant in the recruiting unit and a board member with the Durham Fraternal Order of Police this past September I spoke before you all virtually about bonuses and our pay at that time we had 146 vacancies since September we have lost 20 more sworn officers and now up to 166 vacancies not counting the current recruits I'm now here before you yet again pleading to you all for fair pay for Durham city police officers firefighters and all Durham workers across the board currently in my personal opinion we are in a staffing crisis right now our staffing numbers have dwindled some people have left for other agencies While others have retired a good majority of the people who come here use Durham as a training opportunity once they earn their certificate they're moving on to the next Department that pays just a little bit better and.

There's plenty of them to choose from bumping up our starting salary is a good start but you also have to be mindful and acknowledge that we are losing veteran officers we are still losing very good officers officers with Rank and good amount of time and time and experience under their belt I've been working since I was 14 years old through various jobs I've been in public safety in one form or another for just over 26 years I have never had to fight so hard for something so simple which is fair pay something that we all deserve and work so hard for with all these major corporations coming into Durham buildings going up left and right people moving here in droves how do we not have the money to pay our employees a fair and competitive wage a fast growing city like Durham should be an honorable place to work with competitive pay to the cities and communities surrounding it having a career as police officer and firefighters we all knew we.

Weren't going to get rich that's not why we're in this profession but we would shouldn't have to work extra jobs to try to get by and pay our bills and support our families thank you thank you for being with. Us hi my name is Allison Kopac Safe Streets has become a passion of mine but not by choice my husband Matt Kopac was killed in front of myself and our two young children on a bike ride home from the Museum of Life and Science Matt was violently hit and killed by a speeding car that ran the red light and never stopped on the west Elby Creek Trail Crossing at Guest Road it has been my mission that I keep Matt's memory alive and do what I can to ensure our streets are safe for everyone please support investment in all in Safe Streets and Fair free transit to demonstrate your commitment to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries while increasing safe healthy and Equitable Mobility for all to demonstrate this commitment I ask.

For the support of the continuation of fairf free God Durham and God Durham access Services support funding for the entire list of the transportation department infrastructure projects plus design and engagement on Duke and Gregson and Vickers and accelerate the completion of projects by investing in staff and streamlining the project delivery process number four on the list of infrastructure projects include Trail Crossing improvements number six on the list is pedestrian and bicycle improvements on guest Road Matt was hit at a trail Crossing and On guest Road it will be two years in July since Matt was killed soon our three-year-old daughter will have been alive longer without her dad than with him a thought I can almost not bear I'm not sure where things stand but the intersection Remains the Same since Matt was hit I have seen so many close calls occur where Matt was hit I even witnessed driver speeding and running red lights when pulling out Matt's ghost putting out Matt's Ghost Bike to honor him providing funding and ensuring.

Completion is accelerated is imperative so no one else gets seriously hurt or killed thank you thank. You and may his memory be a blessing thank you hello everybody my name is desmer Gatewood I am a daughter of Durham I was born at Durham General Hospital I went to Glenn Elementary School EK pole Elementary School and Durham School of the Arts and went to nccu so I've got quite a pedigree all right wait a minute don't take my time off I do want to say though that I hear a lot about crime prevention now it is debatable whether funding police officers does in fact prevent crime but it is indisputable that alleviating poverty does pre prevent crime so back to that Durham Legacy one thing that has always annoyed me is the romanticization of the Black Wall Street and the Eraser of the black worker because what you may not understand is that without the black worker James Z Shepard would not have been able to found nccu okay mechanics and Farmers.

Bank would not be able to keep running if you didn't have the person who was treating the Wastewater we wouldn't have these places like WD Hill if you didn't have the city workers that were there educating these children as part-time jobs so you have to actually raise these salaries and you mentioned your fraternity Mr Williams well one of my favorite fraternity members of yours is the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr who spent his last days advocating for city workers in Memphis right before he was assassinated so if we're going to honor that Legacy if we're going to honor the legacy of black Durham we have to honor the legacy of all of black Duram and the black city workers who are here right now asking for a livable wage it's going to be their children who you're going to lock up if they turn to a life of crime which is also related to the bloated out of school suspension rates in Durham so if you want to prevent crime you need to.

Start on the front end and understand that people's quality of life has a direct correlation to the life that they end up leading please pay city workers listen to ue150 thank you to the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr and all the black people that make Durham what it is thank you our next five speakers I'm going to invite to come up our next five speakers are Julie Ms MSA Virginia Hartman Mary Rose Fontana Alisa Johnson and John Wagstaff Jr good evening and welcome to each of you you'll have two.

Minutes good evening thank you for your time U you've got a lot of weighty issues sorry I'm Julie massina I'm here representing Durham Parks Foundation and also South Durham sort of but also just wider Durham and the parks and Trail systems so like I I was saying you've got a lot of weighty issues ahead of you when looking at this budget but also I think one thing that we can agree on is that there is room in any budget for ensuring that there are going to be laughter smiles time in nature with loved ones for all of Durham to enjoy so specifically I'm asking for funding 5.5 million dollar for the Long Meadow and East End parks there has been quite a legacy of these parks of division and this is a great opportunity to bring them together there's also the pool there has is no longer functioning and so they've had to close that down and the Durham parks and wck are looking to relocate that and that would be a fantastic opportunity for.

Lots of Joy cooling off in the summertime but also avoiding the safety hazards of potentially going someplace besides the pool for example going to you know the Eno Cory and so many accidents can happen there so these Children and Families need an opportunity to learn how to swim and do it in a safe space the second space that I'd like to advocate for is the Roxboro rail trail so 2.5 million dollars to partner with the county for federal funding to acquire a rail Corridor this can add miles of fun miles of health and safety protected from Cars and these funds can create some of the things that we value most as humans funds safety and health thank you thank you so.

Much hi my name is Virginia wman and and good evening council members it may feel easy to dismiss the labor held by our most underpaid city workers because it often goes invisibly I urge you to shift how you view and value these critical roles we are not safe if our young people don't have safe public places to play we are not safe if there are heaps of trash polluting Our Living Spaces or we are not safe if there are no usable sidewalks crosswalks or roads these so-called support roles are the lifeblood of our city and they're absolutely essential to all of our lives we need their precious work to actually be valued appropriately by this Council so the people who serve our city are able to live in this city please increase their wages to the Housing and Urban Development mandated actual fair housing wage which would be $27 an hour to afford Durham sanitation you know what happens when we don't have waste disposal it's a Public Health crisis trash buildup can.

Draw Mass amounts of pests which require toxic chemicals to manage or eradicate it can contaminate the ground and waterways and contribute to the ongoing crisis of microplastics pollution sanitation workers are extremely precious they should be valued both for the difficulty and risk associated with their labor as well as for the precious role they play in keeping our city clean and healthy Parks offer much needed green spaces which decrease heat absorption and mitigate pollution they provide free Recreation spaces for people of all ages and consistent access to Safe free Recreation spaces is strongly correlated to decreased risk of interpersonal violence in young people there is significant clinical evidence that spending time in natural spaces can not only improve cognition extend attention span it even lessen depressive symptoms we must care for these spaces we must value the people who care for these spaces Public Works cover everything from streets road maintenance pothole repair sewer and water quality management snow removal storm water drainage street cleaning these people deserve to be thank you so much for.

Being with us thank you for being with. Us hello my name is Mary Fontana I live at 809 Cook Road in Durham thank you Mary Williams and city council for allowing me to speak today I'm calling on the council to continue to invest in Safe Streets and fairf free Transit as an environmental engineer I highly encourage everyone I meet to use public transit walk or bike whenever possible to reduce pollution and promote Healthy Lifestyles however for a significant portion of Durham residents this isn't a choice they rely on buses and safe infrastructure as an essential service of go Durham's ridership about 80% of writers would qualify for free or reduced Fair attempting to introduce bus fairs thereby including them in Revenue projections when 80% of riders would not contribute to this Revenue stream isn't economically smart we need to find other reliable sources of revenue to continue to fund Fair free transit for the majority of Transit Riders who rely upon it additionally continuing fairf free Transit has encouraged new bus ridership.

For those who would have otherwise used a car encouraging people to not use personal vehicles can reduce pollution wear and tear on our roads and traffic related crashes injuries and fatalities all of which reduce future city spending regardless regardless of which mode of transportation you use each trip begins ends begins and ends with walking ever out of all the various sidewalk projects planned throughout the city only one project is actively under construction we need to fund the transportation departments infrastructure projects including current sidewalk projects bike projects and the two-way conversions of Mangum rockboro and Duke Rex and Vickers we need to accelate accelerate the completion of these projects by investing in city employees through competitive wages and additional positions and by streamlining the project delivery process I'll submit the rest of these in Brittain comments so I encourage the City Council to develop a budget that invests in its citizens its staff its infrastructure and its essential services so that we can continue to see our great City grow and.

Prosper thank thank you so much for being with.

Us good evening Mr Mayor mayor Rist and members of city council my name is Alisa Johnson and I am the chair of Durham neighborhoods United a community Organization for to address the issues caused by Duke's off-campus fraternities student living and AC and athletic groups I ask you to make filling the police positions and paying officers a competitive wage priorities in the city budget as you may know Durham has a problem with student party houses and has had for many years our organization reached out to the Durham Police department for help and they helped us in 2019 they created the disruptive student Party House program for districts 2 three and five this program works with residents to lessen the number and frequency of parties and to help bridge The Divide between students and residents it also lets neighbors meet and get to know the officers who respond for those of us who live next to these disruptive houses this program has made a huge difference and we depend on.

It but we've seen the impact that office officer shortages have had on it slower response times officers unfamiliar with the program called in from other areas we love this program and we know that if Staffing shortages continue we could lose it this is an example of what we have seen our police officers do for our city we need more of them and they need better pay for the sake sake of our city please give it to them thank you thank you so much Mr waxa is you prepared to deliver your comments I'm going to ask if Regina Ma and Colleen Bol Blitz would line up and that should take us right to our 900 PM required break once again Regina Maye and Colleen boblitz if you would line up thank you so much you have two minutes welcome good evening John Wagstaff Jr I come before you as a resident and a police supervisor on the front line no I plead to you tonight that you prioritize Public Safety.

Staffing today we have at least 166 police officer operational vacancies no that's 165 one quit today let's be generous and assume we yield all 38 recruits currently in some phase of training and no one leaves or retires before then that would bring us to 407 of the 535 positions filled that's fewer than the 412 we had in 2004 when the city of Durham population was 100,000 less the 2016 iacp operations and management study of the dur Police Department recommended increasing authorized sworn staff to 563 and maintaining mineral operational sworn Staffing at 532 it is now 2024 and we're nearly 200 officers short of the 2016 recommendation this is unacceptable and it's our it's our most vulnerable residents who were bearing the greatest Bur burden we are losing very good officers who would have preferred to stay in Durham but left for other agencies because they could not hold out any longer they couldn't see a light at the end of the tunnel and this is not for a lack of trying by our chief every.

Surrounding City boasts a higher starting salary meanwhile and Durham officers and their family face a risk reward a ratio that does not add up everyone is extremely overworked our Academy classes are struggling to graduate 10 recruits the quality Wich pales in comparison to 6 years ago meanwhile residents Express wanting more police and more enforcement to those of us on the front line but the prevailing narrative especially in this room is otherwise and the cops are stuck in the middle we didn't get here overnight but we're allowing it to remain as bad as it is when we don't have to this city has the money but has not prioritized Public Safety Staffing higher salaries are the short-term solution and they must be because it's about preservation of life and property today not tomorrow not 5 years from now and black and brown residents know that the best thank you thank you for being with us.

Good evening Mr Mayor mayor Rist and all Representatives Regina May dur resident first I want to start off by saying thank you for all the police officers that come out to my community after a shooting thank you to all the fire department that come out when we have bullets lodged in air conditioned systems and other electron or electrical systems thank you for all First Responders that come out to what is known as underserved poverty communities like mine where most of my neighbors don't have the strength to come in and speak to city council so I sign up to do so as I stand here this evening I not only support the wage increase but I also ask for the support of the office of s severe I'm sorry Survivor care though I have not had any of my biological children die in these streets I know many that have I've held their hands I received the phone calls I received the phone calls of City County Employees being.

Evicted and I don't work for anybody I don't get anybody's salary I don't have any benefits from anybody I'm still fighting to keep my lights on as I do these receive these calls because we've been recognized as Community leaders a lot of people like to use that word but they don't really want to let us lead so I st here here for all that tonight and I as I Dodge out this door is not to be not personable it's because I'm trying to get home to my 11 year old thank you thank you good evening my name is Colleen boblitz and I'm an environmental scientist and Durham resident here in support of Mike Durham's calls for this year's budget I'd like to ask the ccil to continue to invest in Safe Streets and Fair free Transit by funding continuation of Fair free goam and goham access Services the entire list of the transportation department infrastructure projects plus design and engagement on Duke and greggson and Vickers acceleration of the completion of.

Projects by investing in staff through competitive wages and additional positions and streamlining the delivery process I love our city in part because so many Community invents and and amenities can be within of walkable and bikable distance given it's safe to travel as a pedestrian I'd like to ask the council to support Transit improvements as a Major Tool in our local Arsenal for fighting air pollution and climate change this winter was the first time in recorded history that there was no snowfall recorded at RDU so it's crucial to take whatever action we can as soon as possible like supporting Transit improvements toward that aim and appropriately on Transit employee day I'm supporting working conditions for city workers following the ue150 demands in addition to providing support for additional staff positions in the transit Department because an expedient path to accomplishing their projects means that we can be safe while traveling and more generally enjoying our wonderful city thank you thank you so much for being with us thanks to all.

Of our speakers that have spoken this far and those of you who are waiting patiently we will be in recess until 910 910 p.m. 9:10 p.m. thank you we're in recess you're.

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All right thank you everyone I'm going to call the next five names what was that name that name Daniel.

Do. All right next I have Danielle. Doan Robert. Gaddy Annette Love Joseph Westbrook and two T.

Howard test oh okay that's why you all were looking at me like that I look at the audience everyone is like this I'm like okay listen I know it's budget hearing right one.

Moment okay am I Live Now okay good all right I'm going to call those names again for the public Dan Danielle Doan Robert Gaddy Annette Love Joseph Westbrook and touche Howard right you have two minutes thanks for joining us thank you Danielle Dolen I live in wall town and I'm here as part of a group of neighbors from Walltown East End East Duram lion Park and Northgate Park and to speak on behalf of the $5 million in the budget for starting to clean up the Parks from lead and other contamination you know in the in the olden days they used to put a trash incinerators in black and brown neighborhoods and that's how they did it and then in the 50s it it was in fashion to turn those old dump sites into to Parks cuz that's how they did it when they look back on this moment 20 30 years from now what are they going to say about how we addressed it once we knew we know better we know that there's.

Dangerous toxics in the park and what are they going to look back and say $5 million is a start we're happy to see that it's making its way into the budget but we know from our neighbors up the street in Greensboro they're work on Bingham Park that up to $35 million per Park will be needed and so $5 million again good start but we have to commit to a multi-year funding plan that is including a lot more funds in future years we look forward to working together with you on that I'm also in support of small area plans that are in the budget to help and provide Community input into what the Northgate site is going to look like to incorporate Community priorities of jobs and afford housing real affordable housing that's affordable for residents of Walltown and surrounding areas and I thank you for including both of those things in the budget and look forward to working with you all on both of those thank you get the little guy.

Home good evening mayor Williams mayor Rist and other distinguished members of Durham City Council I am Robert Gaddy the president of Durham County Fraternal Order of Police number two I'm also representing over 500 dedicated members as a retired police officer here in the city of Durham with more than 30 years of service lifelong resident and a person who's raised his kids here I've witnessed the importance of retaining talented officers within our department the Durham city police department faces a significant challenge in losing experienced officers to smaller agencies like Carrie a PEX Wake Forest Hillsboro and many others these agency often often offer more competitive salaries benefits making it difficult for us to retain our best and our brightest the impact of losing these officers is just not considerable but it's alarming it significantly affects the mor the morale of our remaining officers and results in a constant drain of our time and resources as we lose those officers to other agencies for better or more opportunities the cycle of attrition is.

A severe drain on our Department's resources and capabilities to address this issue we must prioritize competitive compensation for our officers the compensation and classification studies are not just essential they are crucial in guiding our discussions ensuring that we offer competitive salaries and benefits compared to our neighboring agencies this is not just about retaining officers it's about investing in the safety and wellbeing of our community having lived here in Durham and raised a family I value well experienced and dedicated police force experienced officers are bring valuable Knowledge and Skills to the workplace and they are better equipped to handle the more complex challenges of modern-day policing please consider the long-term benefits of retaining our talented officers and prior prioritize this in the 20 425 budget thank you next rever love good evening mayor and mayor Rist I'm here this evening to talk about needing an office of Survivor care it may not mean much for you because you may not have lost a loved one meaning a daughter or son that hits very very differently when.

We're talking about survivors care I'm in in this on a regular basis because I have to be with families that's lost their loved ones to gun violence I hear the cries I see the pain and it's enough it's enough we've got to do something we've got to have people in place that can follow our families from start to finish the religious Coalition does that but we need this office to be in place so that that they can work with us and we can work with them we can work with our families to make sure they get what they need if you've never been hurt by the death of your son and or your daughter you will not understand the pain that these families suffer it is true we have the police officers but as you heard that their they don't their numbers have gone down but we have a whole city that can do this you have this budget you were voted to hold these offices the money belongs to the city of.

Dur because we buy things we pour into the city you have the privilege of managing it for us we expect you to do a good job in doing that and helping the families that's lost the loved ones to this violence I don't know about you but I'm tired of that but we have to still make sure our families are taken care of we can't just support them for one minute thank you we have to support them always thank you good evening my name's Joe Westbrook first I want to thank the city of Durham for allowing me to start my five Harding career here after 11 years I realized it was more beneficial for me and my family I continuing my career elsewhere as you guys have heard for a while now a lot of people are behind in pay and I was no different the pay studies that I was around for both went the same way results say you should make X but we can't afford that so.

Here's what we are going to do and it's still a raise i' accepted that we were just never going to make what we were supposed to based off user service and ring after sitting in a retirement meeting I learned that as an employee coming into the city after 2008 that my retirement insurance was way different than those who came before and wanted to understand more what I found through a lot of phone calls to retirees and those with a considerable amount of service was that prior to 2008 the city of Durham had an unprecedented retirement insurance policy but in 2008 that changed and it was decided that $35 a check would be put into an account and 2% would be taken from us to go into the same one when you retired you were on your own to go into the open market what I found interesting was that the city acknowledged the increase in insurance premiums in our benefits booklets yet has done nothing in the last 15 coming.

Up on 16 years to the amounts going into those accounts I also contacted those who had left to join other departments to see what their experiences were and what their benefits were like by doing so I learn learned of nearby departments that provided good pay and PID for or significantly assisted with retirement insurance which play played a huge role in my decision to leave Durham I could no longer sit around waiting for another pay and benefit study that was probably going to produce the same results as I mentioned earlier Durham ones had the best all-around benefits package while what they offer is pretty good it is no longer the best and as we all know the pay is definitely not my plea to councel is that you guys understand the information that has been presented to you guys before tonight and and coming in the future and sorry and the importance of getting these men and women the pay and benefits that they deserve and the impact your decisions.

Can have on this department and this city thank you thank you T thank you so much all right as he's getting ready for show and tell I'm going to call up the next five are Britney price Henry Rice yeah Britney price Henry Rice Jonathan lice Mike cm and Molly Flo having a r going on I want to call those names again because sounds cool no that wasn't a joke yes that really is the order sir good evening my name is touche Howard thank you for getting my name right by the way and I've been at the Duram fire department for over 20 years where I'm currently a captain clearly you all have a very challenging job trying to balance what's best for the citizens versus the best value for the taxpayer one of the values that you provide residents is a worldclass fire department that trains very hard to be ready for all sorts of emergencies including unfortunately gun violence which in the city of Durham is approaching a civilian casualty rate not.

Too much less than some War zones not only do our firefighters respond to gun violence incidents they're also working very hard through a division that Captain Elaine toer manages to provide stop the bleed training and CPR training that empowers the community members to take action on their own when you know before our responders can get there that's just one example of how our firefighters work to protect the community and I think that's something that gets lost when pay issues are discussed which is fundamentally our firefighters truly care about this community now I know that you've got a pay study in progress the graph down here shows basically what's happened over time with our starting pay our hourly starting pay versus the Durham living wage our starting pay is in red from about 2003 to 2017 on average our starting pay was 2% higher than the living wage but since 2017 it's slowly graded to the point where it's been devalued approximately 20% and that's you know one of the reasons challenges.

Challenges manifested by losing over half of the recruits from our Academy thank you all very much thank you all right the next all right thank you all so much for the claps again just a reminder keep it snapping so we can keep moving the next five names I have Britney price Henry Rice Jonathan lice Mike Cam and Molly Flo hi I'm Britney price I live at 1213 North Mangum Street I'm here today to ask that you use our budget to compensate city workers at a thriving wage reclassify Solid Waste workers and meet all of ui1 15's other demands to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Durham our lowest paid workers should be earning almost 33% more than we currently pay them and this doesn't even touch how much it cost to support a family and enjoy your life we must afford our workers the basic Dignity of being able to live in the city that I ask that you Center dignity in other aspects of this budget too dignity for pedestrians and cyclists and bus.

Riders dignity for people who use wheelchairs on our sidewalks committing to fairf free public transportation in the future and ensuring that no one has to wait for the bus in a ditch along East clubber Dearborn it means Expediting making our most dangerous thorough Affairs safer I live on Mangum Street and in the last week I've seen a car speed the wrong way down Roxboro and have nearly been hit Crossing with the light at a crosswalk centering dignity in the budget means allocating money towards ensuring our parks are lead free and safe for our children and ensuring that housing is Affordable and available to all it means vigorously pursuing the preventive measures against gun violence our neighbors demand and investing in an office of Survivor care and it means continuing to increase funding so that the heart team can expand a 24/7 service across our city if we consider dignity for our lowest paid city workers in this upcoming budget will go a long way toward building the Durham we all.

Deserve and lastly I am curious about when the city will stop locking our neighbors out of City Hall during these meetings their voices are important in this conversation as well thank. You thank you mayor I'm Henry Rice I'm a pediatric surgeon at Duke University and I had the honor of co-leading the prescriptions for repair project with a number of other people in this room staff from nccu and thanks again in Partnership of the city for helping develop this I had the honor last year of presenting some of the details of the results of this project and I just want to amplify a couple of points for the upcoming budget negotiation and ampli and U Echo the powerful messages that I've heard tonight for the support for the office to Survivor Care One goal of our prescriptions for repair project was to test will this program work and address needs and Durham and in short our evidence is very supportive that there is a the office of Survivor care is not only.

Effective in addressing gaps in care it's tremendously cost effective in that getting community-based volunteers to engage with victims armed by gun violence and an enormously inexpensive way to address some of these gaps I also want to offer my support from Duke University we are thrilled to get the chance to partner with you in the future in support of an office of Survivor care and we would have developed Platforms in collaboration with experts from nccu with people from restorative justice sturum with people from the religious Coalition and we have a very powerful force that can work side by side with the staff so thank you.

Again good evening my name is Jonathan lease and while I'm here speaking from the perspective of a firefighter I know that these sentiments would be echoed by members of other City departments as well since the last budget hearing on June 20th 2023 three Staffing at the Durham fire department has gotten even worse than it was before since then 31 more firefighters have left and that is nearly 10% of our Frontline Personnel that that are now gone 10% more but why have so many people left even after the bonuses and knowing that a pay adjustment is coming this year it is because as a result of how past pay plans were implemented many of our members have a profound lack of faith in the city's will or the city's ability to fully address our compensation and I thank former firefighter Westbrook for bringing that up as part of his decision to leave and go to another department in order to retain Personnel this pay adjustment needs to be implemented in a way that.

Will help restore the faith of the city employees in this process here are four recommendations for ways to accomplish that first and this is really important provide a competitive salary adjustment and also fund Merit raises for this fiscal year compression is a major reason why firefighters and other employees are leaving firefighters remember that in the last two Market adjustments in 2016 and 2022 the salary increase was funded instead of a merit raise repeating that will drive more firefighters away please fund both this year second adopt the universal Merit date for our pay plan which will eliminate pay leap frogging by junior members third articulate a long-term vision for maintaining competitive wages such as attaching the firefighter hourly rate to the city's minimum livable wage finally Restore Durham as a leader in benefit in employee benefits our employees are also leaving for better benefits such as retire Healthcare thank you Mike.

C good evening thank you to m mayor mayor Rist council members I and I certainly I think any of us in this room would say we don't and thank you for your service and we don't enview the job of trying to rustle all these budget priorities my name is Mike CM I'm a member of Durham can from St Phillips and a former member of the community safety and wellness task force I was one of the principal authors of the office of survival care proposal along with Marsha Owens who's here and muffin Hudson and there are few other task force members attending as well and certainly listening in a special thank you to council member ciero for being one of our most dedicated Liaisons throughout the entire task force process given the current Council and mayor's repeated demonstrations of support for the officer Survivor care since last September as well as the obvious widespread community support for it the issue seems not to be if to create an officer surviv care but when.

To do it and how to do it as to when well the city has clearly many pressing budget priorities especially Municipal payroll the relatively modest expenditure of $220,000 for the OC's first year is a Frugal expenditure and the sooner that OCS pilot can be launched the sooner it can begin to fully function by the third year and be able to be assessed for its continuation the total estimated budget for the Osa Survivor care three-year pilot is only a little over a million dollars over three years I would argue there are other less time-sensitive projects that could be def for this budget year to allow those resources to meet payroll and other demands and certainly the former task force members Durham can and others who support creating an office of Survivor care are is equally committed to violence Interruption and prevention both are worthy and complimentary and I'm confident we'll be sharing new proposals along those lines with the city and the county in the future and as.

To the question of why the OCS should be housed within the office of community safety there are many arguments in our full proposal to lay out the the logic of that thank you. You hi my name is Molly Flo I live at 924 Urban Avenue I'm the president of the Trinity Park neighborhood association and also chair of its traffic committee and I'm here in support of Safe Streets throughout Durham I want to highlight one particular part of bike Durham's three requests tonight and that is funding to look at design of how to tame traffic on Duke and Gregson Street I understand from a recent no analysis that Duke and Gregson Street have one of the have the worst safety profile of all the corridors studied and so I'm asking that you urgently fund design and then find implementation of safety improvements for those streets as soon as you can I've lived between Duke and Gregson Street for 20 years and I could tell you stories all night long of things that have happened or almost.

Happened including a recent save by pair of sturdy TR shrubs but that we know that those streets are not safe for any users of Duke congreg Street it's not safe for drivers not for city bus drive city bus riders there's several stops on those two streets they're not safe for school bus riders and certainly not for the many walkers in the the who who are crossing those streets like kids on the way to Watts Elementary or teenagers on the way to Durham School of the Arts so I'm asking that you do anything you can to accelerate work on the on Duke Gregson Street and to add them to that list of Transportation requests thank you thank you next I have Fifer Nicholson Banna velson Susan Dunlap Ruth Petra and Donna.

Frederick and if you all will just make sure when you come up to the mic you do state your name because I get some right I get some wrong just want to make sure we have it appropriate for the record yeah my name is a little bit strange thank you so much to the mayor the mayor protemp and the members of the City Council for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is feifer Nicholson and I have been a resident in Durham a place that has become my home for the last five years I also a graduating medical student from duke and a future surgeon as such I have been in Contin to be someone committed to the care of those affected by Bullet related injury although I'm in agreement with many of the other speakers tonight especially those calling for an increase in the minimum wage of Durham city workers I'm here to particularly lend my voice in support of the office for Survivor care I have come to know the.

Stories of those directly affected by gun violence through my clinical experiences as well as my work with the research collaboration between nccu Duke and the City of Durham called the prescriptions for repair you've heard it mentioned earlier tonight as well in our study survivors of gun violence and the loved ones of those killed Express that there is a great need for more engagement with the Durham community in the form of practical resources therapeutic interventions safe havens for processing grief among others I believe that the proposed office of Survivor care will will fulfill these needs and more the goods and services afforded by the osc are EP with similar interventions that have been demonstrated time and time again to be effective in mitigating future violence and further is in line with the culture of hospitality and kindness of the entire city of Durham toward our suffering neighbors I implore the city council to consider funding this initiative to the fullest and I'm grateful for your consideration thank you so I don't see Brianna melson so I.

Will let see Susan hi sorry Brianna V bson had to leave and she just asked me to convey they just asked me to convey Durham congregation in action stands with sanitation workers Transit I'm so. Sorry thank you my name is Susan Dunlap I am active in Durham can I'm a parish associate at first presbeterian church and a resident of Durham and I'm here to speak on behalf of an office of Survivor care and there are at least two very good reasons to have such an office the first one is as was stated earlier we need to interrupt the cycles of violence hurt people hurt people not everyone who has experienced gun violence will go on to to perpetrate an act of gun violence in the future but it is more likely that they will one of the biggest predictors of who will engage in gun violence is someone who has experienced gun violence themselves so the first reason is we do this to cut down on violent crime and.

Durham the second reason we should do this is it is the right thing to do it's the compassionate thing to do people who have been harmed should be cared for nurtured given support as they heal from Deep trauma when someone has been has died by homicide one of the things the office of of Survivor care will do is provide compassionate and skilled death notifications another thing the office will do is offer care and interventions for every single household where there has been violence for the children all the children will receive some kind of particular care if there has been violence in their home also peer support group will be formed no one can support a survivor of gun violence the way another Survivor of gun violence can the office of Survivor care will organize those those groups so I urge you to not allow another year to go by without an office of Survivor Care thank you thank you.

Mr good evening May mayor and councel I'm Ruth Petri I'm a resident of Durham and member of the Durham can gun vience action team I support the formation of an office of Survivor care within the city's Comm Community safety department last year facilitators in prescription for repair pilot listened to Durham survivors of G violence and heard about their unique needs in the wake of harm you've heard many of these stories tonight and you've heard about the harms that our neighbors are having to deal with we know there's a profound absence of public service for survivors of violence in Durham and I urge you to support the office of Survivor care now thank.

You good evening and thank you for listening to us the citizens I come for you from bragtown in followup from last year we asked for sidewalks on East Club Boulevard starting from a point that there was never sidewalk up to a community housing situation we were told that because of the budget that the project was put on hold so we come before you again sidewalks are necessary so we don't have to walk in the street of Club Boulevard where cars are going 60 miles an hour 60 on 35 posted and this is people who are just wanting to visit their neighbors walk to the store walk to the you know just normal to get to the bus stop so we're asking to look again into extending the budget to complete the sidewalk on East Club Boulevard all the way up to Dearborn Avenue because if you've ever drove there and see people walking and wonder why they're walking in the street is because there's no sidewalk and that is a heavily traveled pedestrian every.

Day so we're asking we know there's so many budget restraints but we've been in bragtown overlooked for so long and we will promise and we don't want this promise to go unkempt so it's just a reminder to look at that line again we do really need those sidewalks thank you thank you all right next I have and thank you all for snapping U rather than the prolong clapping it keeps us moving next I have Mimi Kesler Sarah Sarah dumato thanks for the fonetic support subcribed here Trish Breen Shen Hamilton do she leave she left okay Emy Owen oh there she is and Drew.

Cox good evening Council I I come to Echo a lot of what you've already heard I sent you an email with some very specific things in it but I concur with people who have spoken before me about job reclassification and increasing hourly rate rates and remembering who essential workers are they're the people who had to collect the trash during the deadly pandemic and also for the fire police and ambulance Personnel these put these people put their lives on the line every day they work they run towards danger when the rest of us run from it and they need to be paid for that danger I also support the bike Durham proposal and The Trinity Park Association position on increasing the the rate of design for Duke greggson and Vickers in the next budget year one of my concerns has to do with how much injury takes place on those roads from people in cars and pedestrians and cyclists and I want to make sure that you saw an email.

That was from Andrew S who nearly was killed on Duke Street by being hit and run by by a car and that is a lighted intersection I also want to more more staff for the planning department they need more inspectors and I support council member Baker proposal for a small area planning designer or allow them to contract those Services out if it doesn't mean increasing FTE I also want to associate myself with the Walltown neighborhood association and the Coalition for affordable housing and Transit thanks M about the toxins in the Park thank you Sarah dumato good evening mayor mayor pend members of the council my name is Sarah damato and I am the director of The Project Director of legal aids eviction diversion program again through legal aid we are here to request that this city continue to fund our program in the levels that you have funded previously one of the things that is a benefit of being one of the last people to speak is that I can hear.

What other people are here saying and so you've already heard how rents have increased and how the average rent in north Durham right now is $1,500 and that is for maybe a two-bedroom apartment and so that does require that an individual earn about $54,000 a year we know through different statistics that the fair market rent in Durham has increased 55% in the past five years and so where that matters and why our services are particularly necessary is that we have set up a courthouse clinic at the courthouse to meet people who are facing a and that clinic is open Monday through Friday at the courthouse with no appointment necessary from 9: to 12 and it's important that we are there because many people receive less than a week's notice between the time that summons is on their front door and the time they have to get to court there's not a time when there's work barriers Child Care barriers Transportation barriers to even go through the intake process to find an.

Attorney to get to us and so one of the things that we are asking is that the council continue to fund our support our our Clinic so that we can provide this support to individuals we know that in Durham of the residents that we have represented 81% identify as black or African-American 75% identify as female and this what we hear here in this in this room here is that people we're talking about city workers but we're not even distinguishing between those who are the gig workers the hourly workers who where if they miss one week of work or two weeks of work than they're at risk of eviction thank you thank you so much Trish B yes hello everyone thank you for the opportunity to talk my name is Trish bin and I've lived in Durham for 33 years and a proud durmite I'm here on behalf of Durham area pickleball Association which compared to all the heavy things going on here seems kind of minor but one thing I'd like to to.

You know thank you for the pineywood courts that came available U for us to play on the middle of of December there you're not aware of it there's 12 lighted courts and and they're and they're gorgeous it's the largest you know facility outdoor facility in the in the area but one thing I would want to request and and you look at spending your money on on possibly the getting the restrooms being year rounded because now they're they're they're going to be closed down during the winter time and we you know we have people using them you know constantly there's you know at any given time and a a peak times that's anywhere from you know about 60 to 80 people and right now you know the bathrooms are open but if but if not if they don't come into into year round then they have two PTO Johns and there probably will be a tournament during the winter time because the pick ball people they will play anytime and anywhere and we we just.

Had earlier this month we had our first tournament we had 400 people we made $22,000 which the dur Parks Commission got a a piece of that pie and my dap got some and then the people who put it on but again we want to you know continue to be you know a a very popular place to come and everybody you know enjoys it has a good time exercises and it would really help if we had the year round bathrooms appreciate your time thank you Miss Breen Miss Breen can I get an invite to one of the games sure all right good deal hi Embry good evening mayor mayor protm council members my name is Embry Owen I live in zco 27701 Avid pickle ball player but I'm here on another matter tonight I'm here to ask you tonight to fund two new positions in the community safety department to start the office of Survivor care and I'm here as a survivor of gun violence myself in solidarity with other survivors of gun violence.

Because the current systems that we have do not provide trauma ined support to survivors and to families who are left in the aftermath of gun violence we really need something new and we've needed it for a long time and as you've heard tonight there's ample evidence in our community that's pointing to this the Duke Health prescriptions for repair program conducted listening sessions and support sessions with people in our community who've survived gun violence and their families and the community safety and wellness task force has also done this work with people in our community and the office of Survivor care is going to be an entity outside of our courts and outside of law enforcement that will provide survivors and their families with connections to community support and also help survivors get access to the financial support to which they're entitled which can often be really difficult to get and I think as you've heard tonight the most important thing that it will provide us is a sense of hope and connection which.

People often desperately need after they have survived a traumatic event involving a gun or that their family member have loost lost a family member to gun violence one thing I just want to point out is as you all know Durham has become a national leader in how we do community safety by starting the office of community safety and by starting the heart program and I think that starting the office of Survivor care is the opportunity for us to take the next step forward in leading the country on this work thank you thank you so much sorry one moment oh left Drew Drew Cox yes sir hello thank you mayor council members and staff I'm Drew Cox president of the Tobacco Road chapter of the North Carolina police benevolent Association I'm here on behalf of chapter members in Durham PD you may remember that I came and gave comment in June of last year during the budget process I'm given Pause by the city's projected outstanding principal debt $988 million almost a billion with a B.

This year the budget deficit is projected at 9.6 million but this council is bringing over $116 million in budget proposals more than double to this same time last year and those are just the proposals you have a solid estimate for when it came time to fix step pay for your police officers and firefighters last year for a measly $6 million the argument was that you would have to raise the tax rate to cover the fix the proverbial cake was already baked by that point and that measure was voted down and honestly honestly rightfully so because this isn't a tax rate Revenue problem what we have in this city is a priority Problem this year's resident survey plainly showed that police protection was the highest priority for your citizens 56% of them stated they are very dissatisfied or neutral on the quality of police protection the question I ask you is when are you going to make your Police Department a priority over your own agenda interest in the budget this pay and classification study.

Shows police pay is lagging 17.6 behind a dozen comparable mun municipalities an increase of that rate on on the base officer pay would bring it up from 479 to 563 which would be a welcome substantial in increase but we would advocate for a starting pay of no less than $60,000 in order to best compete with surrounding agencies like carry and Apex which start off are pay at that rate or above this presents a fantastic opportunity for this Council to secure a much needed win for the police department and for its citizens priorities to be adequately addressed the North Carolina PBA would be happy to assist and consult with this council with data on recruiting retention attrition comparable pay decisions thank you thank you you all right the next names I have Emily wils Emily wils for real this time asmin.

Johnson Andrea muffin Hudson Ralph merer and Brandon Williams. All right my name is Emily wils and I'm here in solidarity with the Durham city workers union asking you to prioritize raising wages to $25 an hour starting with solid waste in the gospel of Matthew Jesus says if anyone asks you for your shirt give them your coat as well if anyone asks you to go go one mile go the Second Mile too in the same way if the supposed living wage in Durham is 1956 an hour give 25 five commit to being a city whose workers can actually afford to live here please do not hide behind the results of an intentionally narrow compensation study to justify ignoring this movement if you air air on the side of compassion go the Second Mile even though I am asking you to prioritize the Union's demands it's painful to watch livable wages be pitted against Transportation Public Safety and an office for Survivor care we should not have to choose between necessary public goods the unions and coalitions.

Here tonight shouldn't be competing against each other for the scraps of next year's budget our interests are largely aligned we all want to live comfortably in a vibrant and flourishing City so if the city can't fund our requests then maybe it's time we find creative ways to expand the budget we need not have a scarcity mindset with an abundance of wealth in our midst imagine if one such concentration of wealth Duke University built upon its many contributions to Durham by F fully funding the office of Survivor care eradicated lead from public parks kept Transportation free and ensured all city workers had a livable wage and affordable housing considering they own over 10% of all the land in Durham and pay no property taxes maybe it's time we encourage Duke University to go the Second Mile thank you hello good evening mayor Williams and Council thank you for listening and thank you for previously stating your support for the office of Survivor care I too stand in support of fully funding.

The office of Survivor care your partnership in funding prescriptions for repair which I was the coordinator for allowed survivors of gun violence to share their stories and their wisdom survivors clearly expressed the need to have an office of Survivor care a place in the city that can help them navigate the complexities of now living a life that has been Shattered by the effects of gun violence gun violence plagues our City yes Durham is wonderful I've been here since a child and even then gun violence plagued our city and it is absolutely devastating these are our families our friends our neighbors and loved ones and their lives are utterly destroyed and forever changed and all of our lives are impacted so what will be our response what is our Collective responsibility remember actions are louder than words will we continue to show indifference apathy and neglect or will we stand with our survivors and show care support and value their wisdom I hope and pray it's the latter thank you thank.

You y'all know my name right I can get started or how it work no I'm just kidding my name is Andrea Hudson everybody calls me muffin I stand before you this evening thank you I stand stand here before you as an advocate for the establishment of an office dedicated to to survivor's care from someone who learned that her brother was killed on the news as opposed to someone contacting us this initiative is not just about providing support it's about recognizing the profound impact of trauma and ensuring that survivors receive the comprehensive care and resources that they need to heal and Thrive survivors are various forms of trauma whether it be domestic violence sexual assault natural disasters other heroing experiences often face immense challenges on their own Journeys towards recovery yet too often they are left to navigate this journey alone without adequate support or Resources by establishing an office for survivors care we can centralize resources and expertise providing survivors with a dedicated space where they can access.

The range of services ta to their spe specific needs I can't never pronounce that word this office would serve as a Beacon of Hope offering counseling medical assistant legal support and assistance in accessing Community Resources furthermore such an office would play a critical role in raising awareness about the prevalence and impact of trauma breaking down stigmas and fostering a culture of empathy and support within our communities investing in survival care is not just a moral imperative is also a practical one research has shown that early intervention and comprehensive support can significantly improve outcomes for survivors reducing long-term Health costs and societal burdens in essence establishing this office for Survivor carees about standing in solidarity with those who have endured imaginable inimaginable hardships offering them the support and resources they need to rebuild their lives and reclaim their sense of dignity and agency it's about creating a more compassionate and inclusive Society where every individual feels valued and supported regardless of their past experiences together let us stand for survivors everywhere thank you so much.

Ralph hi council members I'm Rafe Master with the Walltown Community Association I wanted to make a few points first to Echo what others have said before supporting the $5 million in the budget to begin the process of removing toxic metals from the parks in Durham and I would encourage you all to work with the community members there's a lot of really talented people who can bring more outside funding because as they said it's going to cost a lot more but I think if we use the talent we have and the city listens and engages in particular parks and wreck with these people we can make sure you know parks are for play not poison and I also wanted to comment and thank you all for putting the small area planning funding in the budget in particular council member Baker and that we in Walltown are really excited and honored to be one of the first communities to work on this U with the Northgate Mall location we are very excited.

And committed we've been working hard on this for years and years and I view this is just the first step and we look forward to not only you know making sure that North Gate is developed in a way that reflects the community's interests but also sharing our experiences with other neighborhoods who can continue to use small area planning across the city because I think this is a really underutilize an important tool and maybe just another thing is you know we've been talking a lot about trying to fund sanitation workers and raise pay for police departments and Northgate Mall is one of many large scale commercial properties that are under assessed in the taxation policy of the county and the city that are paying less are paying taxes on appraisal below what they sold before the last appraisal was done I can tell you the year after I bought my product property my residential property was appraise you don't see this with residential or small commercial large scale commercial are.

Under appraise and we there's tens of millions of dollars that is missing because of that thank you thank you so much and we have Brandon Williams next thank you city council members Brandon Williams speaking tonight as a member of the wtown community in in the resident of city of Durham would like to continue to encourage you all to set aside again that $5 million that residents have been asking for as a DPR is asking for to help begin the clean up of the parks and I think you know we know 5 million is is just the beginning as has been mentioned that there's lots of to uncover in terms of what needs to be done in each of the five there's justice 40 funds other funds that can be leveraged you know from federal dollars working across the state we encourage you to begin that work and the really educating residents about the dangers and harms Beyond lead that are present in the Parks so that folks can really protect themselves.

And choose safety for for themselves and their kids additionally we want to thank you for the the work that's been put forward and a commitment from the city planning department around the small area plan for Northgate and the Walltown Community and encourage that continued resources of a full-time planner and other money for Consultants to expand that work to other neighborhood hoods we think small area planning will go a long way to help Walltown instantiate the the vision and priorities we've developed in conjunction with other neighborhoods for the Redevelopment of Northgate Mall and want to see that brought to other parts of the city to really help residents have a role in shaping the future of development and how it impacts them and as has been mentioned similarly we want to want to leverage this also to bring developers to the table we think that the the city has a great values and vision to be leveraged and to invite folks to the table to participate with residents for.

A future that we can all get behind rather than letting developers dictate what the city looks like and what is available to us moving forward so I appreciate your time tonight thank you so much and my last few speakers here I have Carina Carina yes Abraham Jer Seth Hurley and.

Mju thank you for joining us you have two minutes good evening my name is Carina deanan and I am a Durham resident and a member of line Park Community I am here to advocate for council's approval of the $5 million year marked in the budget for cleaning up the lead and other toxics in the park I would also like to ask for transparency with our community and Community input as it relates to the re remediation efforts in 192 24 the city council by edict created The Parks and Recreation they said that parks are essential to Durham Residents tonight I come before you to add on to that EDI safe Parks free of lead and toxins are essential to Durham investing in cleaning up our Parks most particularly these five Parks which are located in historically black neighborhoods is also an action of cleaning up the ugly history of systemic racism and environmental Injustice in addition I support the small City plan I am also the chair of the board for Habitat for Humanity the.

Small City plan is going to be fabulous because it'll be able to allow us to be able to also contribute and to give the community what they need I'm also supporting city workers and their Quests for fair and Equitable pay affordable work housing and ending Merit pay thank you for your time thank. You Abraham okay s.

Hurley hi my name is Seth Hurley as I'm sure you all know I'm a senior at Durham School of the Arts and I've grown up and lived my whole life in Durham I am here as the co-chair of and representing the young Democratic socialists of America Durham School of the Arts and I'm also here as the Durham Branch representative of and representing the triangle chapter of the Democratic Socialist of America I think we can all agree that everyone should have somewhere to live and that nobody should sleep on the street no matter their situation there is really no room for debate here there's no argument which can excuse the hundreds of families in Durham who have nowhere to go fault simply does not matter when someone is freezing starving and dying of dehydration all at the same time mayor Williams last year you said D's housing shortage is due to the difference in supply and demand in our city when you ask people propped up by the housing market they will of course agree from.

The Biden Administration to VAR think tanks to the people who attended the landlord lobbyist Conference of you of which you were a key new speaker of just last year but the myth of Supply in lowering housing prices could not be further from the truth Across America supply of housing has completely outstripped Demand yet prices continue to Skyrocket here in Durham we've seen hundreds of luxury apartments go up all over downtown with down payment and the hundreds of thousands of dollars but these don't bring down prices how could they when nobody lives in them see the simple fact of the matter is that in 2020 nearly 50% of the Residential Properties in the census block which we are now in were owned by outof state residents the reason there isn't Supply is not that we're not building enough homes there isn't Supply because stolen land is being bought and sold and hoarded by landlords while lawmakers like y'all act as if you can't do anything about it you are not an office.

To continue urban sprawl you are not an office to continue approving developer projects which destroy the environment and culture of Durham you are not in office to Aid the very same developers who are gentrifying and pushing our black and brown communities out of their homes we were in office because the people of Durham put our Collective interests in your hands and I must say at the moment we are not happy we the people of Durham need to begin seeing more affordable housing across Durham we the people of Durham need to begin seeing a stop towards accepting developers who give you on thank you half measures thank you last speaker.

My name is mju I'm here to express my support for the office of Survivor care in our years of listening to Durham residents through the Durham Community safety and wellness task force we learned how urgently Durham's black and brown neighbors and working-class neighbors yearned for holistic transformation of our violence intervention and Justice systems the office of Survivor care seated in our community safety department is an essential piece to shift from cycles of suffering to cycles of care and healing this issue hits close to home for me as a community organizer who has lost young people I worked with to gun violence I would also like to express my heartfelt support for all the demands of u150 Durham city workers we really need to see expansion of heart to 247 Citywide and we need to be able to access heart with an independent phone number we all deserve access to unarmed compassionate skilled care in our moments of greatest vulnerability and crisis I'd like to express my support for money for Parks and Recreation to.

Address the lead pollution crisis in our beloved parks and expand our play spaces I'd like to express my support for expansion of public transit and safer streets for pedestrians and bicyclists keep our buses Fair free and improve bus route access across Durham I've been coming to City Hall for 25 years and I've never seen residents locked out and silenced as we've been over the past three. Meetings City Hall should be a welcoming place for all Community residents not a place of political repression I waited outside of a locked door for over 45 minutes today and and saw many Durham residents leave in frustration because they were disallowed from access to this meeting please stop locking the doors of City Hall and inventing new Pro processes to exclude Community Voices we have a long way to go to create access thank you very much thank you so much all right and Madame Clark I'm getting your text.

Messages Leslie Griffin Griffith can you hear me hello hi can you hear me yes you have two minutes thank you hi yes this is LESA Griffith thank you I live on Markham Avenue between Mangum and rockboro streets on a section of Road known as the scurve whenever the street in front of your house has a nickname like that I should know that you're in for an adventurous time Mangum and Roxboro streets are designed more like race tracks than streets they're not made for cars bikes buses and people to move on in a safe way from my front porch I've seen more street signs taken out than I can count I hear screeching breaks and honking horns every day and I've witnessed multiple more serious crashes as a driver pedestrian and cyclist often with my kids I've seen how these roads just don't work for Duram the one-way pair of Mangum and Roxboro like the pair of Duke and greggson are based on an outdated model designed to Speed cars through town it's past time.

To study and make changes to these roads I support Dot's funding request for Designing improvements to these streets including the possibility of a two-way conversion I also support funding for improvements to the Duke greggson pair and other Safe Streets projects thank you thank you so much those are all of the the cards Madam Clerk am I all clear online thank you those are all of the cards I have and for the sake of room I'm going to pass these down up here thank you so much 22 21 21 all.

Right all right all right we are moving on to item number 21 at this.

Time hello there good evening mayor mayor proem and members of council before we get started I wanted to bring one matter to your attention and that is that there is a change in the process of direct translation zonings these are annexation cases where the zoning is not proposing to change these cases have not previously been heard by the Planning Commission in accordance with a resolution that they passed over a decade ago however due to a change in state law the Planning Commission is now required to consider all initial zonings including direct translations so this means that you will now be seeing Planning Commission comments for all cases U moving forward the first of those being the case that is is next on your docket so I just wanted to let you know that thank you all right at this time we at this time we'll receive the staff report for item number 21 Consolidated indexation 3411 and 3417 pick it Road thank you mayor Williams mayor protm Middleton honorable members of the.

Council this is Aaron Kane with the planning department I'm happy to be with here with you tonight before I begin staff would like to State for the record that all planning department hearing items have been advertised and noticed in accordance with state and local law and affidavits of all notices are on file with the planning department a request for a utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and initial zoning map change has been received from Andy Porter for two Parcels of land totaling 2.93 acres and located at 3411 and 3417 Picket Road the annexation petition is for a continuous expansion of the primary corporate limits the properties are currently designated established residential on the place type map the proposed residential Suburban 20 zoning is consistent with the designated use shown on the place type map if the proposed zoning is approved there will be no change to the place type designation the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of this application by a vote of 10 to Zer as part of the annexation petition the.

Applicant is not seeking a change in the underlying zoning District a direct translational zoning is one in which the existing County zoning is translated to The Identical City Zoning District upon the annexation of the property into the city limits a direct translational zoning does not include a development plan and any future development May proceed according to what the zoning would allow while the current use of the property is a single family home future development under the existing zoning of rs20 allows for agricultural activities single family residential development and cluster subdivisions with town houses and duplexes commercial and Industrial Development is prohibited in rs20 thank you and the staff and the applicants are here to answer any questions all right thank you this this item is a public hearing and I'll declare it open at this time colleagues are there any questions for staff at this time council member Freeman thank you prior to the question I did want to just take a moment and thank all the residents that came out this evening to.

Share their public public requests for our Capital Improvement budgets and just acknowledge that in the past that I've as I've sat here for the last seven years there have not been this many people in the room and I do want to really just extend a great deal of gratitude to all of you who took the time to be here and to share your thoughts I want you to know that I'm considering all of the things you've mentioned but I will be most heavily focused on the St staff pay and just say that thank you I did have a question for staff I just wanted to know specifically around the change that you mentioned if a memo had been shared with Council I might have missed it I know I've not been on my email this morning sorry you say that repeat that please so the legislative change has there been a memo shared with Council regarding that that legislative change was actually implemented a while back this is just a procedural change that we.

Are instituting to make sure that we're following the the new legislation and I'm just making sure that AO was shared yeah yeah yeah there we issued I think today or yesterday a letter to Industry we're happy to share that with the council but to date no a letter has not gone out to the council about it thank you just want to make sure I have that information if anyone asks questions be great to have more thank you and I this is this is a public hearing and I'll remind my colleagues let's make sure that our comments are gerain to the actual public hearing we can make our additional comments I just wanted to make sure I made the comments because it wasn't extended as a moment excuse me we're not we're not an item that was actually here on the agenda we're not allowed to actually share our comments is not an ordinary thing and so I just want to make sure remember fre you're out make sure that you understood that that was not.

What I understand is you're out of order and I need you to follow our procedures please I am following procedures okay I had a question colleagues let's make sure our comments are gerain to the public hearing my comments will be regarding whatever I have comments on very much I don't need you to police my comments doing enough policing the do locked is enough. Seriously all right back to order I know L of respect I need to just take a moment.

Okay okay sometimes you take a breath is there an applicant present for this tonight welcome and I apologize for that it's quite right good evening Mr Mayor mayor portam members Council Chris rowski with TM Associates 5011 South Park Drive Durham representing Danny Spence of Tio Builders we're here tonight for voluntary annexation for Trans translational Zoning for two Parcels toing 2.93 Acres these Parcels are remaining zoned rs20 just be brought into the city's jurisdiction the intention of annexation is to connect to the derms water and sewer anticipation of a single family residential development on these two sites so happy to answer any questions you might have thank you for your time this evening appreciate it thank you I do not have any one signed up for this item but however it is a public hearing is there anyone that is interested in speaking to this matter all right thank you at this time I'll declare the public hearing closed and back before the council colleagues are are there any commentary or questions or.

Concern all right thank you I will at this time call for I'll read the Motions motion number one to adopt an ordinance annexing 3411 and 3417 Picket Road into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into a utility extension agreement with Linda S Davis in peridan C Davis moved is red second it's been moved and properly seconded Adam Clark please open the.

Vote please close the vote the motion passes. 70. All right and motion number two to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of the residential Suburban 20 County jurisdiction and establishing the same as residential Suburban 20 City jurisdiction move is red second moved and properly seconded Madam Kirk please open the vote please close the. Vote the motion passes 70 and motion number three thank you to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statutes SEC 160d 605 move to adop consistency second and mooved and properly seconded Madam Clerk please open to.

Vote please close third motion passes 70 thank you very much item 22 thank you Mary Williams mayor of proam Middleton honorable council members next application is request for a utility agreement utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and initial zoning map change from Tim cyers of City for nine Parcels of land totaling 24.87 acres and located at 4862 wake for Highway this annexation petition is for a contiguous annexation of the primary corporate limits the associated zoning map change request is from commercial neighborhood with a development plan residential Suburban 20 and residential rural to planned development residential 10.62 to allow up to 260 apartment units the properties are currently designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map the proposed PDR 10.62 zoning is inconsistent with the designated Place type if the proposed zoning is approved staff recommends a change to the place type map to designate the entire property as apartment in townhouse neighborhood thank you and staff are here to answer any questions thank you this is a public hearing and at this time I'll declare.

This public hearing open colleagues are there any questions or comments to staff question Mr Mayor yes thank you your honor on P did you say it's inconsistent the zoning res is zoning is is inconsistent with the designated Place Time map on this I'm looking at second paragraph on the first page of the memo under executive summary MH you say inconsistent or I'm reading that the the proposed plan development residential 10.62 PDR 10.62 zoning is consistent with the designated place okay that must be a change to the memo that's that's taking place and and that would be that would be allowed there's been you know as we have a new place type map and we're making adjustments and in implementation the what is proposed is to be completely multif family so it could be considered apartment townhouse neighborhood but it's also introducing a new housing type into an area that is predominantly single family residential so it could also be considered consistent with multi mixed residential neighborhood yeah I.

Get that but did you say it was inconsistent I I did say inconsistent I I must have got you all right cool thank you I appreciate you thank you Mr Mayor are you back thank you any other comments questions all right do we have an applicant how much time do you think you need 10 minutes minutes Madam Clerk could you put 12 minutes on the clock welcome thank you good evening mayor Pro mayor protm members of the council my name is Tim cyers president and CEO of City thank you again to staff for the work on this project I do have a.

PowerPoint that's not the right one we're not switching sides all right I thought it was a new day are yall seeing the screen as well yeah okay all right this project is located at the intersection of Sharon Road in NC 98 and includes nine Parcels with multiple zoning designations while the site site gross acreage is approximately 25 acres the bisecting stream minimizes the developable land to about 17.7 Acres I'm here this evening requesting that you follow the recommendation of Planning Commission of their recommend for approval and their vote from nine to 9 to four along with our proposal of 260 apartments for this site equated to a PDR of 10.6 the site is consistent with a place type of mixed residential neighborhood and in in addition the owner committed to provide 5% of the units to be affordable at 80% Ami for the full 30-year time frame our team understands that this intersection is very heavily traveled and can create backups even though it was not required we completed a voluntary traffic study.

And our traffic engineer is here with us this evening to answer any questions you may have and yes this project will be required to follow all the recently approved text amendments for Mass grading tree coverage as well as erosion control requirements this map identifies that our site is consistent with the current mixed residential neighborhood Place type map with 17.7 acres of developable land area this proposal meets the meets or exceeds 23 of the 25 applicable policies and this map identifies our proposal of a PDR density of 10.62 and shows that these proposed departments are directly adjacent to an existing commercial use in addition to our proposed resoning this development will extend the current city limits to include all of the project area since our development plan is a Texton submitt I wanted to provide this opportunity for you to picture this proposal the this project is clearly divided into two development areas with a stream bisecting the two areas we have committed to one vehicle stream Crossing to minimize our environmental impact the.

Access point connecting to nc-98 to the north will only allow right turns minimizing the impact to the heavily traveled Corridor this will place the full access on Sharon Road aligned with the existing Street into the Ravenstone neighborhood if you were to zoom out from this map you would see mostly single family homes as well as the commercial shopping adjacent to the site this proposal does bring a diversity of housing types to the area and these residents will be able to walk to the gym grocery store restaurants as well as a choice of pharmacies and highlighting a few of the project commitments this development will provide a minimum of 5% affordable housing at 80% Ami for 30 years we will minimize the environmental impacts by reducing stream Crossings and ensuring the buildings are set away from the site boundary and naturally vegetated areas the existing infrastructure is in place or will be constructed to meet the needs for this 260 unit apartment development along with providing maximum building Heights and recreational open space.

Elements our commitment to improving both pedestrian and vehicle transportation elements include a 10-ft shared path along NC 98 and Sharon Road which will allow residents to walk to Walgreens without crossing the street turn Lanes will be provided in both directions on Sharon Road and limiting access to only right turns at n 1998 additionally a school donation of $35,500 is provided to equates to a commitment of $500 for every student increase that this development will provide some of the environmental commitments that this development will provide include native tree plantings above code minimum tree coverage to 24% providing four electric vehicle charging stations and ensuring the storm water control measures and Recreation open space remain outside the stream buffer even though Planning Commission did vote in favor voting nine to four to recommend approval of this project our team reviewed their notes and would like to add one additional commitment this evening in addition to the previously mentioned 5% affordable commitment we will provide one additional percent of the units at 100% Ami for 30 years this.

Will bring the overall commitment to 6% of the units being for affordable being provided for affordable housing as mentioned earlier this proposal meets 10 and exceeds 13 of the 25 applicable policies for a mixed residential neighborhood that is 23 of the 25 policies that are met or exceeded this proposal for 260 unit apartment development has multiple options for supporting commercial in the immediate area for the pedestrians who are just grabbing a few items those residents can walk to Walgreens with not needing to cross the street the undeveloped a land along Sharon Road is also Zone commercial which can provide additional resources without Crossing the street once constructed furthermore the Ravenstone shopping center is directly across the street a few of the 23 policies of this proposal accommodates include providing a new housing type the area preserving and creating play spaces providing affordable housing and encouraging Transit incurring pedestrian Transit preparing for student growth installing Green Building Technologies and protecting DM's most sensitive areas by locating the active open space and.

Storm water control measures outside of the stream buffer in summary I encourage you to follow follow the recommendation for approval from BL commission and vote to approve this proposal in front of you this evening this proposal meets the needs of our city is compatible with the immediate vicinity while also providing a new housing type in the area it is consistent with the place type designation exceeds some Udo regulations and commits to in to minimizing our environmental impacts while providing that affordable housing thank you and like to reserve any time for questions.

Thank you while we are still in this public hearing I do have speakers just slide over there Ral Stevenson a resource okay gotcha all right Michael row I'll go ahead and call up a few Michael R Pam Andrews Tammy SAA there we go Donna stanback Pam Williams Tom Freeman and Rebecca fre I'm just going to call you all so you. Can they're all yeah they all are do I have any on line oh it is okay so what I'll do since I've already called them up I'll acknowledge the ones in person first and then we'll go with online to finish it up online yeah welcome hello my name is Michael row I live in Durham and have lived in Durham for 20 years thank you for the opportunity to speak here today I'm here to speak against the parcel being rezoned on Sharon Road I I ask that this parcel not be rezoned for development due to the environmental harm that it would cause this parcel is located in an environmentally sensitive.

Area of Durham County that is already Under Siege by development It is Well document documented that this unchecked development is damaging our waterways ravaging our wildlife and putting it drinking water for over half a million people at risk the envir environmental impact of developing this parcel would be too great and should not be allowed this is especially in relation to the damage that is currently being done by the massive amount of other construction ongoing in this area Durham is a wonderful place to live and maintaining green spaces should be a priority so it stays that way for future Generations thank you thank you we can want.

To okay.

Sh there.

You good evening everybody thank you for letting us speak this late hour Pamela Andrews wait for US Highway an audit from October 2022 shows our fire stations are not meeting the target times there were two recommendations from that study management concurred on both of the statements and recommendations in statement number two recommendation two he also said we lack the tools to conduct a complete and in-depth study of our responsibilities this is compounded by Annex ations and vertical growth in recommendation two an outside expert was to perform a study that incorporates forecasting to determine the impact of future growth on its current resources has either of these recommendations been implemented since the audit was completed in October of 2022 there are currently 41 dense developments in Lick Creek and Little liit Creek watersheds with 17 approved impending construction you'll notice on this slide this is just lit Creek but little l Creek together with this one adds up to 41 under construction and 17 approved pending construction at what point have we maxed out our emergency.

Services this is scary my friends these are recent calls that have been in the last two weeks notice the serious wreck on the top right hand corner that is the intersection that we're proposing to build this Apartments March the 5th the fire engine itself had wreck that's next door to this road today there were no units available with three calls holding this morning on the 14th there were 15 fire units called to a fire in Northern Durham pulling all our resources on the 16th this Saturday at Firebird at South Point Mall the manager tried desperately for a long time to get 911 to answer this is alarming go ahead Tammy so this is station 8 as we've showed you before there is no ladder truck here to answer these large building calls policy 119 tells us that new developments are to seek emergency services and how it's going to impact it while this is just a policy at this point and it's not a Udo Amendment it needs serious consideration.

How will this be enforced and funds allotted when it is not on the consistency review document my last slide if you look on this Slide the designator future growth area in policy 122 says there are are three areas that are in desperate need of fire service out there Fletcher's Chapel Stallings and Southeast Durham at what point do we take the city's advice seriously the consequences of approving this development application without addressing basic health and safety concerns is clear approving a development plan that fails to meet safety needs with no enforceable way to ensure it is addressed in the future is unprincipled this application as presented should not be considered tonight thank you for your time we appreciate the late hour you let me speak right okay tamy sua thank you for letting me speak at this late hour as well Wildland Engineering in corporated who is under the process of receiving a contract from Durham for $3 million to perform a Southeast Watershed Improvement plan completed a little leak little Lick Creek Watershed Improvement.

Plan for 1.6 million starting in 2013 through 2015 I ask you was any of the recommendations from that plan implemented from my perspective it doesn't appear that it has or we've undone what was done then in 2022 little Lake Creek has a quality D Index the current Udo for double Cent fil s fences and flocking lence is not working which you will see in future slides this Ina ation will impact little Lick Creek and will impair it further the report noted noted that the future land use is was low density so why are you allowing high density with as much as 70% impervious and we would like to request a development in this area that maintains a 24% impervious in this slide you're going to see the The Grove Park Restoration in relationship to to this Sharon Road Apartments if you allow this to move forward as it is with a addition without additional undisturbed buffers then erosions and sediment from the site will undo the recent restoration project that cost 1.4.

Million I had the report from Wildland in 2015 it states the developers will be required to implement on-site storm water controls or purchase off-site mitigation credits during the site review process with the city or Durham County that limits nutrient loads discharged from the site after construction are you going to allow continue degrading of the environment which the taxpayers including you your taxpayers will pay for years to come can we take a can we take a step back could we have the mitigation credits so the developers pay for the impacts of our Creeks that we know are happening now can we think outside of the box because as a taxpayer I don't want to pay for this years down the road thank.

You hello my name is Donna stainbeck I'm a lifelong FM resident thank you for time this evening regarding this little lick Creek tributary that's shown here how many linear feet of Creek Crossing will be impacted to provide this Culbert is it going to be around 100 foot you know what is the sewer easement being placed where is it being placed it should not be within the stream buff or parallel to the creek can 150 ft of this be designated as undisturbed stream buffers on each side of this tributary this is an environmentally sensitive area as we've already.

Heard blasting can you commit to no blasting if this is not committed then over 130 homes within mostly environmentally environmental justice populated areas will be at risk for home well accepted damages with no recourse the city owns the bond on the blasting companies shouldn't this damage be on the city to provide an independent third party to evaluate the damage and pay restitution for the damages we still not had any restitution paid for the damages and there's been you know case studies and all presented see the rock there that came through and was on the WL news well this was the same blasting company that has M done much of Southeast Durham they were also previously called for doing blasting without a permit and we had folks in Durham complained that there was blasting without permits and that was never rectified why are blasting damages being covered by other counties like wake or and not endural things like blasting without the notice and the clearing the dust and fixing air conditioner and fixing the.

Cracks in the U walls and and these were covered and this was on wrl last week so why are we not getting more assistance for these people being impacted and not having more strength to control this situation thank. You good afternoon my name is Pam Williams I want to bring to your attention tonight that as Tim said it's very congested out here traffic backs up quite a bit NC 98 is already over capacity with 15,000 daily traffic as you can see right here that is the number from NC doot all the units are or developments over on the right side is is developments that are under construction today a so this 28,000 vehicles per day or average daily traffic will be added to the additional 15,000 on NC 98 and the 11,000 on Sharon Road with this development we're anticipating the additional traffic on Sharon Road to be increased by 8 to 15% as we had stated before this intersection is dangerous there's been over 133 crashes Within in five years this is from.

Ncdot for 2019 to 2023 or 2018 2023 almost doubling the traffic on NC 98 with the developments that's already been approved and under construction we only increase the accident and reduce the safety sidewalk needs to be continuous yes they will be providing a 10t sidewalk here for about 300 400 ft and about a 400t 10t sidewalk here but there's no connection here and here and over here there's no connection across on the other side of Sharon Road nor is there a pedestrian ramp here to provide for B bicyclist and pedestrians crossing here which makes it even more dangerous and without continuous any we need to provide for continuous sidewalks and bike either dur needs to pay for it or they need to provide it if we're saying that they can walk we don't want our teenagers across the road and we know they will if there's no place provided again here's the intersection this is Walgreens the developments behind it there's no refuge Island that's going to be provided.

There's no curb ramp here there's no sidewalk here and the sidewalk is going to go from a 10t to a 5ft side sidewalk so there's no Contin continuity there let's see there's five Lanes across why aren't we having a pedestrian signal here if you've got five Lanes across the the Tia does not always look at the traffic and where it's flowing from looking at the numbers I looked at and everything I'm almost 100% positive that they did not take the counts on the day that nello tier runs through this intersection with 50 to 60 trucks a day and that happens so much Miss Williams thank you oops fre there you can just push that down okay good evening all it's good to be my name is Thomas Freeman I'm a frequent speaker here from the development torn Southeast Durham County it's good to be speaking before you tonight and the public to document build and bolster the case for environmental responsibility there's a great mystery going around in Durham help the dur politicians find the.

Answer Feast your eyes on this slide here folks what you're seeing it's not really special it's what typical what we typically see in southeast Durham County it's the runoff from yet another massg graded high density residential construction site in southeast Durham it happen happens to be Olive Grove you've seen it before but who really cares the description is the siment laden rain runs off the Earth runs off the bare Earth into the settlement Pond and after a while the goo that's a non-scientific term it's pumped into the stream below as you can see the pipe which goes down to the covert in the right right picture and then it will oo its way 400 ft to LIT Creek but you can call you can just call it a drainage ditch of Durham there other options you might ask well certainly look at the at the link on the lower part of the screen it refers you to the North Carolina Administrative Code there are alternatives one novel improving concept would be to approach res.

Residential construction in a manner that does not destroy the environment I'll move on so let's get back to the goo the eventual location of the goo is Falls Lake but you already know that you can see the turbid water approaching the cleaner water on Falls Lake I rest my case. Durham welcome. Mayor mayor Rist and council members I'm Rebecca Freeman of Southeast Durham County and I'm speaking in opposition to this development tonight the picture on the wall on the screen now shows folks that account company Samantha Crop New River for a walk in the creek bed of lit Creek from the km road bridge last Saturday March 16 to which witness the destruction and Creek death caused by settlement basins discharge and site runoff from massg graded high density developments that Durham County Durham City Council approved accompanying Samantha or Durham residents one concern that the recent stream stream restoration through Grove Park Community will be damaged yet again from this development another concerned about fishing actually just fishing for.

Recreation in false Lake a member of the city council was there and a member of the Durham City County envir Environmental Affairs board was there residents from neighboring counties came one from Johnston counties that far away was concerned about the down Downstream damaging effects from what we're doing here in Durham a neighboring County Commissioner and a unba member was also there concerned about what we're doing in Durham we're we sincerely thank Samantha and all who came to this walk they dawned waiters got down into the creek bed measured silk deposits in the creek bed from up to 24 Ines that have been deposited by this turbidity and Saw Creek bed destruction of heavy flows and high velocities that have excised and damaged crink Banks over the last two years Samantha has documented irrefutable scientific data as well as observable confirmation of extreme high levels of turbidity and lack of usual Creek bed microinvertebrates this is the truth the honest truth and nothing but the.

Truth I'm also showing you tonight water that was taken from inside a home after it had gone through a soft water system that is not drinkable this is the kind of thing that we're in in southeast Durham and this should not happen this should not. Happen why are developers not held financially responsible for Creek restoration instead of all taxpayers who is allowing the creek environmental destruction is the Duram City counil s satisfied with the Carnage taking place when will this death and destruction stop has the council ever seriously considered residential development that we will be in harmony with the environment are council members ignoring the realities of residents concerned with traffic congestion and safety and emergency situations this is the reality in southeast dorm every day thank you right at this time Madam Clerk we're going to move to.

Online all right this is item 22 I have these right here okay Ronnie Turner can you hear me Ronnie Turner. Yes I can hear you all right one moment M Pro I want to pass over all right welcome you have three minutes Ronnie thank you you allowing me to speak tonight I'm Ronnie Turner I live on Hut road back up to this new plan development excuse me this area is overrun with construction but all of you know that some of you have been down there some of you actually live in this area I can't see how you can want to add more people to the overrun amounts of people that are here you are also damaging the lands that we were given graciously by the Lord that allows us to stay here I come from a native tribe we were here long before many of the other people came to this country this land is precious the water that we have the water that you drink out of your spet today and tomorrow will.

Be controlled by what you as a group and a board do with your decisions there's no way that we can continue this it's just got to stop at some point and it's up to y'all to figure out who's going to be in control you've allowed all the contractors to come out and just do whatever they want with no punishment no fines my in-laws live on do nickels they blasting collapsed their whale they had no water for two and a half months before I could find someone that would even come drill it they have had to purchase new filtration systems along with that well the these people in their late to mid 80s at a very fixed income and they've had to spend almost $155,000 just to be able to drink water no one will help all I was told while I was in the meeting there where was my proof well your proofs all over the news they blast after hours however they want and there's no one making them pay the.

People for what they've destroyed someone in your group as a group has got to get control of the contractors I'm not a against building a home I'm against the way you're destroying the earth and the people that worked here that have paid their taxes all these years that paid your salaries and everybody else in this County that have stood up and tried to make it a better place to live it's ridiculous that we're sub objected to this and we have no recourse so the only thing to do is to stand up and try to stop you from doing any more because we get no help when the damage is done everybody turns their back on us and I assume you just want to get rid of us so you can tear down my house and feel fire thank you Mr Turner for your time tonight Madam Clerk is Wanda Allen I see a Wanda Allen and Tina mle person in I see okay if you make Wanda Allen.

Yes I'm here good evening thank you so much for being with us you have three minutes thank you hi yes I am Wanda Allen and I have listened to the staff report reviewed the documents online and heard the applicant but I have not heard anyone tonight address the cost to clean up the creeks and Falls Lake the City Council and the county commissional are very much aw aware of the devastation they have committed over $79 million I said $79 million of taxpayers dollars to clean up these creeks and the lake from fiscal year 20 to 23 on February the 8th the city council work session $18 million was discussed on March the 11th the Board of County Commissioners entered into an agreement with $3 million for Southeast Watershed Improvement plan this project since it is a high priority for this applicant is it his intentions to put $3 million to support this Devastation to the creeks and to the Lakes that's my question is it his intentions to put up $3.

Million to support the devastation to this area thank you thank you so much his honor is back on the podium you want me to continue continue continue please yes sir and Tina mle person if it would make her available that'll take us right to 11: p.m Madam Clerk if you would Tina mle person can you hear me yes I can good evening thank you for being with us you have three minutes thank you good evening members of city council my name is Tina mle Pearson and my addresses on file I'd like to say you know it's important to note that we all understand the development is imminent but the way that it's developed gives little to no regard to the residents or the environment it is Corporate sociopathy at its worst while I oppose this project I want to talk about an issue that affects all projects in Durham do you know why Durham has very high bonds to develop because in the past developers would not finish roads and other infrastructure.

Like they were supposed to do so homeowners associations and Duram taxpayers had to finish the had to finish footing the bill for over 20 developments in Durham taxpayers should not be subsidizing developers the developers aren't paying to clean up the streams and they aren't paying damages when they destroy houses and Wells with blasting if they were held accountable I bet the developers would be a lot more careful with mass grading and Blasting the elected officials are resp responsible for holding the balance between the need for housing and protecting the citizens and the environment you should not pen one against the other that Bond money is there for a reason the developers and blasters can pay for any damages to an environment whether it's a stream restoration or damage to a house or well they cause the damage the only right and fair solution is for the developers and blasters to pay for it not the taxpayers Durham needs to pass a Udo amendment to tie clean water standards to sediment.

Practices then it would be the responsibility of the developer to put out a meter it is not difficult to put in a meter that can report the discharge and the turbidity this information would be made public so it can be dealt with appropriately right now we don't have a clean water standard attached to our sediment practices so notice of violations are not being issued ued fines are not being issued stop work orders are not being issued we need to attach a water quality standard to our siment regulations so when violations occur there is a stop work order until the issue is fixed thank you thank you so much for being with us friends that brings us to 1101 when we return from break Mr cyers you can then at that time respond to anything you've heard so we we'll be in recess until 11 1111.

In.

Owning a home provides a sense of Financial stability family community and pride but housing prices are now higher than ever making it hard for many Durham residents to afford their first home that's why the city of Durham is offering the down payment assistance program to support eligible individuals with up to $80,000 in 0% interest forgivable loans to purchase a house within the city limits visit this site or call to find out if you qualify for the program. Everyone in Durham should be able to find a home they can afford that's why forever home Durham is creating affordable livable and inclusive communities for low to Middle inome residents from renting to owning find out how the city is helping more people find homes right here in Durham learn more at foreverhome Duram.

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Address hey hey hey. Heyy hey.

I came to the city of Durham to improve living conditions for residents and I stayed because I'm encouraged to advance my career the city of Durham where careers meet Community to connect with the career that serves the Bull City visit durhamnc.gov. Careers.

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E not much more time all right. Wait yeah all right we Mr s cyers we have one more speaker online okay Jacob Freeman can you hear. Me all Jacob Freeman can you hear.

Me. No he's unmuted Mr Mayor Mr Freeman is unmuted but not.

Speaking he can hear. Us Mr Freeman could you hang up and L back in.

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Off.

Is he back in Q Madam.

Clerk you hang up hear me now oh there you go all right great welcome you have three minutes okay thank you so much let me get situated here I got messed up with that that okay so tonight I'd like to make the City Council aware their unwillingness excuse me their overall unwillingness to address the grave environmental issues caused by the high density mass creative developments in Southeastern Durham County it's on full display for the world to see so hello I'm Jacob Freeman I'm a Wake County resident Avid hiker and I use the mountain to Sea Trail around Falls Lake for recreation and exercise about two weeks ago I was reviewing a route plan for a Day hike on Google Earth and observed aerial shots from 2023 showing the sediment Laden muck running into Falls Lake from lit Creek these aerial views are not hard to find since they're the first views that come up when using Google Earth to search the area the city council has been made aware of the.

Turbidity issues in lit Creek on numerous occasions the harm it causes to Aquatic environments by the news River Keeper she has documented evidence of extremely high turbidity levels and has informed the csil the harm it causes and now the evidence is there on full display for the Casual Observer for of Google Earth to see examining other areas in the image the Google Earth image around Falls Lake where tributaries run to the lake this is the only Creek that has highly discolored water running into the lake one area of Falls Lake is clearly not like the others is a city of Durham now going to allow destruction of Little liit Creek Watershed in the same way liit Creek has been destroyed with this newest high density annexation the issues are clear the question is does the City Council have the willingness to act and vote against this development we need action action to stop these environmental issues and provide Wake County with the same consideration for their Watershed that Durham provides for its drinking.

Water sources in closing I have a question for Council Members what are the specific actions the City Council is planning take to take to improve the conditional lit Creek and I'm not talking about more studies we have plenty of those all with specific recommendations what actions are you going to take will you hold contractors and developers responsible and stop work until the situation is remedied will you commit to reducing the density and the amount of mass grading land disturbance in the Watershed What specifically are you going to do to stop this environmental disaster thank you thank you Mr Freeman.

S good evening mayor thank you for the ability to respond to some of these comments I've started a few here as try to minimize my my time here environmental issues yes we were we're aware of some of these concerns that the neighbors have which is exactly why we provided the additional commitments at the Planning Commission hearing for items commitments number 14 through 17 like native trees being planted for electrical vehicle charging stations additional tree coverage above the code minimum as well as those storm water control measures being outside of the stream buffers and as well as the recreational open space items being outside the stream buffers the second item of that environmental concerns is really concerned more about the ER control and the turbidity issues that you've heard a lot of tonight and a lot of concerns I understand the concern and I honestly applaud these neighbors because of these neighbors we have the new requirements that the Udo is now it's it codified the projects that are were discussed tonight that are.

Under construction did not follow those new Udo regulations and because the neighbors even that are here this evening and talking about this concern that's why this project in tonight will be required to follow those new regulations so so I do applaud the neighbors with bringing that concern and following up and pushing that as a Udo requirement which this require which this project will need to follow blasting was wasn't mentioned here this evening this project were we are not clear if blasting will be a requirement of this or not it's possible so I cannot commit on either direction in that manner and finally I'd like to discuss about the sidewalk connection we will have a 10-ft shared use path along our Frontage connecting to the existing sidewalk on Sharon Road That Sidewalk will allow direct connection up to the Walgreens we worked with planning and transportation on potential connection across Sharon Road and discussed with them providing a striping between the existing handicap ramps and unfortunately we we actually made that commitment to do.

The striping we were informed and and you may ask the transportation Bill judge if if you like we were informed that in order to provide the stripe Wing we also needed to upgrade the Ada ramps and provide the signal which is approximately an 80 to $100,000 addition that we could not do but we did want to do the striping but we're told we had it was an all-in-one package so we worked through that so unfortunately we could not commit to that because it was again that all-in-one package so I believe that covers majority of my responses if there's any additional questions please let me.

Know all right thank you all for your comments tonight this is a public hearing if there's anyone else that would like to share any comments to this if not I will declare this public hearing closed and back before the council colleagues Council M cook great thank you all for coming out tonight thank you Mr Mayor I have a lot of questions I'm sorry I'm going to be pulling everybody up I think but first for staff let me just pull up yeah so I am looking currently at the comprehensive plan consistency page on the third page of the one that I have which is newly updated there's a comment and it says in this batch of reports looks like this policy is not being applied consistently one has not applicable others have exceeding for different reasons feel free to decide how to reconcile just bringing this up I'm hoping you can address that but I I guess in a broader question I I'm curious to know how often it happens that some of these policies.

The application is dis agreed on by staff and how that gets remedied generally speaking sure so yeah in this case you know we the conference plan was just adopted five months ago now and so we have been working through issues of trying to make sure that we're applying it consistently we do have regular conversations about how we're going to apply you know policy 70 versus policy 82 versus policy 97 whichever one it may be we have SE as you see several dozen policies that we go through for every case and we do have internal discussions on a quite regular basis about how we're going to be applying that as they come up on a case-by Case basis okay so that's that's sort of decided Case by case or as as issues arise well as issues arise we come to a consensus as to how we're going to apply it if One reviewer baby was interpreting something one way and another interpreter reviewer was interpreting another way we will get together and.

Make sure that we have some consistency there did did we get consistency on on this particular one yes so this would be one where we came up you know this would be it has been fixed but for some reason the for the that particular comment bubble was not removed it normally is as it's processed to be put into onbase it got missed okay and I I since I have you up here I'm going to go out of order but this also might not be a question for you but there was some conversation about crosswalks during the commission meeting and then we just heard from the applicant talking about this All or Nothing sort of situation could you just expand on that a little bit sure I'll do my best and then Bill judge is here if he needs to fill in any gaps we were this was actually a conversation through email that we were having today the applicant had emailed this us this morning letting us know that he would.

Profer to stripe as sidewalk I had contacted staff at Transportation one to make sure they were okay with the wording and they had brought up that in this particular case at that location we would they would need to also upgrade the ramps they would also need to put in audible pedestrian signals to be fully ADA Compliant the applicant determined that that was going to be too expensive for them to do and in order to meet our policies and requirements for ADA compliance we needed to have all of those improvements done or not include the side crosswalk we didn't want a crosswalk that didn't have all the appropriate signals and signage and so forth so the applicant is decided not to do that does that in your question yes and as a followup is there no way that we can sort of determine that an applicant will pay for part of a something that is needed as a whole like is that not something that we can do moving forward that could I mean it.

Could be but I I I would need to defer to Bill on that whether or not we would we' take say a 50% pay because where is where's the other 50% going to come from we may not have it in our budget to be able to commit to that as staff but I'll leave the bill cor correct Bill judge Transportation unfortunately we don't have like a payment and Le type program for those as as Aaron indicated if we had a a funded project to to which we could perhaps apply it we we could probably work out that type of sit situation but at this point we don't have the the funding for the remainder of the project or a way to really incorporate and take that money and make sure that it would get used appropriately as intended okay and and an option to maybe not take the money up front but to have sort of an agreement of like if we end up doing this project.

You will agree to pay 50% of it or 40% of it or whatever it is is that is that a possible option Not Without Really knowing what the project is and funded and timeline for when it would be completed if we like I said if we had a more specific project we probably could work out some arrangement to that effect but without a an actual project to apply it to it this point or a timeline for when it would be that would be difficult to do okay thank you Mr Mayor I wonder if I could jump in on that line of questioning on the same that yeah so so thanks Bill so we do collect Street impact fees for every development right so could that not be part of a funding source to to do that we do collect Street impact fees but those are based on roadway capacity type improvements essentially for mitigating the additional vehicle traffic that is generated by the development or site so this site is subject to those and will.

Be paying those those fees and those Street impact fees can't be used for bike and pedestrian structure the they can wear their ancillary as part of the project building sort of complete streets type elements we can incorporate those but the the fees themselves are calculated and determined primarily based on roadway type of improvements so we we wouldn't likely be able to use them for sort of an independent pedestrian type project since the the enabling legislation and Fe are are based on vehicular capacity. Improvements go ahead yeah council member cook you can continue I think that might be all my staff questions but we'll see but okay let's see yeah I'm wondering and this is going to be to the applicant thank you for your presentation I'm wondering you you and maybe I think you might have brought your traffic specialist with you but you stated earlier that they you had done a traffic study but you didn't talk about any of the results of that traffic study and I'm wondering if you could.

Talk to us a little bit about the results of that traffic study and I want to think about it specifically in the context of I I know that this is a busy area I know that it is a there are a lot of vehicles moving through this area and we don't and we've talked about there's been some conversation about walkability it seems like really without a crosswalk the only thing that is a safe walkable situation is the one Pharmacy so with a specific eye towards the high volume of car vehicular traffic on that road i' I'd like to hear the results of the study I'm sure U ryal Stevenson with drmp and yeah it is it is true that traffic study but this particular site did not generate enough traffic to require a full typical traffic impact analysis report but we did we did want to take a look at the trips it would generate and how it may impact the surrounding intersections and access points so we did we did so and in.

Short very short summary is the levels of service delays cues that kind of thing at the surrounding intersections really didn't change at all with the addition of this site which is obviously indicating there's not a not a big traffic impact from this development and however there are some turn lane improvements that will be constructed at the driveways to facilitate you know the movement of traffic you know in and out of the driveways at the U at the site but it it it didn't have any impact or change at all in levels of service at any of the intersections around and one of the reasons for that is it has access on nc9 as well as Sharon Road and that just helps to sort of spread the traffic out to each roadway and not every car has to go through the same intersection or make the same movements so that really helps spread it out.

Okay okay thank you that was all my traffic questions back to the applicant again so sorry to make everyone Jump Around yes so I mean you talked a little bit about this when you were addressing the environmental concerns and you talked about some of the propers that had been made regarding tree cover and some of these other things and I know that we do have requirements in the Udo that address specific issues about waterways but we also are hearing from folks and and you saw my pict picture I was at lit Creek this past weekend I'm sure you've probably driven by there and seen it it is a horrendous disaster and yeah I mean you talked about kind of listening to feedback but the Fe and then you talked about adding a single percentage point of and I want to be very clear that that's income restricted it's not affordable housing at 100% as per our definition but most of the commentary that you got from the commission was about that.

Environmental impact and about that traffic study and I'm wondering if y'all did any delving into something along the lines of doing your own turbidity testing or doing other things that might work on prevention or creek repair some of these issues that we sort of heard over and over again and again I know they're not required but I'm just curious if that was any if there was any calculation done any thought behind how to make this impact less great on this huge water supply that we have yes and no as the best way to answer it and I'll explain that answer yes as a specific to this project no as a Southeast Durham concern that is a if if you're looking at it as a whole you know how can this one project you know provide the best quality Downstream for the for you know what exactly impacts this one site so what we did is provide those additional commitments about the storm water with ensuring that our stream our storm water will be.

Outside of the stream buffers making sure that we provide that tree coverage for that and but as an overall commitment for looking at a study for Southeast Durham no we did not do that and I'm I'm spaying specific to the study as well I mean there can definitely be testing done during development that sort of thing we have EPA guidelines that follow that has that been anything that yall looked into the specific study and then you talked earlier about there being one vehicular crossing of the stream but there's actually a second Crossing for utilities correct no so part of the original plans had one vehicular stream Crossing as well as one utility stream Crossing prior to Planning Commission we removed that so it's one stream Crossing in other words wherever there is the vehicle stream crossing our utilities will also cross in that same location so one total cross and that's going to be enough for all of the SE or all of the water all of everything yes ma'am.

Okay thank you I don't have any further questions thanks Al member Baker yeah I think I think being able to to provide a pedestrian Crossing is a rounding year for the developer so it's something that that I would like to see I've got some questions for for staff the affordability I'm just curious actually about affordability usually what we see or often what we see when when we get commitments from developers is affordability for for sale housing and this is this is affordability not using litec it is market rate so I'm just curious what is the what is the mechanism for ensuring that 5% of the units remain affordable for 30 years sure so the process would be that is actually managed by the Community Development Department they have members of their staff that are well-versed and trained in reviewing income eligibility the rules and procedures for the affordable housing density bonus which were adopted by Council in 2022 spell out a procedure and the types of documentation that will be.

Required to show that the occupants of the units meet the eligibility requirements and that the the rents that are being charged are within our our annual income limits based on based on the HUD income limits so yeah it is it is their job it would normally be a an annual monitoring that would be done to ensure that the units are occupied the number of units are that are occupied by those that meet the criteria are are done okay that's that's great and is there a we kind of talked about this at last work session a way to monitor for the Next Generation to to figure out where these units are going to be expiring their affordability is going to be expiring so that we can figure out how to keep them affordable right so we do have a way of tracking that and we're working on a process to make that public facing I don't know that the public facing will necessarily have the years that it.

Will be done but we we will have a way to to monitor that also just bear in mind that usually the way these propers are written is that it is based the year of tenure starts from the issuance of the first certificate of compliance so it's not like you know if you were to approve the zoning today that 30-year period doesn't start now it would start later on for something like the the enhancements to to Road Crossings I know some of it is on the other side of the street but how it seems like it would it would be something that could be required it seems like it's something that meets rough proportionality is that not the case it can be difficult to meet the Nolan and Dolan tests of rational Nexus for getting far off sight you have to be able to determ legally you have to be able to demonstrate that the profer or the the the exaction you're requiring is going to be beneficial or have a rational.

Nexus to the development that's being proposed so we could not say require this particular developer to build a sidewalk from say the forest food line shopping center to the east because it's not demonstrating that those would be able to to actually be used by the residents and the and the occupants of the site does that answer your question yeah yeah you did well on the aicp test thank you I did actually it was it was number of years ago but I still remember it for the public for the recreation the act of recreation do we typically expect there to be public you public use e easements on those those or are those entirely private just for the the residents of the development we have policies that encourage them to be profer for public use we have no Udo requirement to do so.

Okay fire and EMS those kinds of services heard some concerns it's also just a good practice of growth management to to Monitor and and ensure that we're planning for the future where are we on on fire and EMS and and services out there with an addition of a de development like this yeah I I I can't give you I I don't have any exact knowledge on on Fires plan we we we have that you have that okay great so well good evening Bo Ferguson Deputy City Manager for Public Safety so the fire department monitors and its response times throughout the county and tracks those and reports them on a regular basis that information is used to inform the capital Improvement plan and operational plan that comes forward really this time every year in the budget so from a high level that there is constant monitoring of that data that information can be made available ailable to to counil at your discretion okay and do you monitor Citywide or are you looking at are you.

Breaking the city apart geographically so that we understand where those response times are lower or higher both both so we we we have Citywide data but we also monitor data by by district and and generally by station we're able to to see different types of response characteristics out of different stations okay and there's not there's not concern from that data on this specific development no so the as as the the planning department brings forward with all items there's a cost analysis that each department that is impacted by growth is required to present which which makes its way into your packet that is a Department's estimation of the amount of resources that will be necessary to serve any new development that the council chooses to approve and that eventually gets built out all of that information comes back you know kind of in an annual basis when the department develops its work plan for the coming year when it makes requests through the budget process when the city manager considers her proposed.

Budget to the council so all of that data sort of funnels up into our annual work planning process at this time there's not a a specific concern that the fire department has expressed about serving developments in in the eastern part of the county cuz they have expressed concern previously I think on previous cases in last year years past I've heard them Express concern before the the department has acknowledged and I think reported in you know in this setting that you know that growth in any part of the county will drive a need for additional resources and will focus their future growth resources their future growth planning in that area I believe that's the nature of the comments they've offered in this setting before I I would not think it's it would be accurate to say that they have concerns about serving East durum they they do not they are able to meet effective response Force expectations for calls for service in this area can can we get the Geographic specific.

Information on the response times from fire and EMS yes yes so EMS is a County service I'll kind of refer to my friends in planning as to whether or not that they is available we can ask we we we'll ask for the EMS and we will get you the fire thank you yes may may I add just very briefly I did hear comments around an audit that was done in a previous fiscal year for us to invest in some planning capital and operational planning tools for the to to enhance the professional staff's ability to project longer term investments both as we have our you know annual budgets and our Capital Improvement programs that software has it's been funded and it has been purchased and it has been implemented so I just wanted to add that thank you there's there's no transit in the area do we know do we have any knowledge about how long we might expect to wait before Transit might arrive in this area so there were no plans in the.

Durham Transit plan that was adopted about a year ago there were no plans to run to run additional transit or expand Transit this far down 98 nor down Sharon at that time okay last year the city council adopted a new connectivity and block length ordinance and I think commissioner CE pointed out that you know 25 acres is a very large site it's about the size of six city blocks will there be public RightWay connectivity through this parcel I would I would have to I would yeah I would defer so no this will be priv private access through the development but it is not planned to be gated okay so it doesn't have to meet the connectivity requirements priv no not if it's private streets it won't need to meet those requirements so P we the new the new regulations that we passed allow for private streets with Public Access easements sorry I think the confusion is whether or not this is private streets or private access in common areas which is.

A glorified parking lot driveway system yes this is a parking lot system if you will okay so those do not have to meet because they're not considered streets they're considered a parking lot driveway system so it wouldn't meet the connectivity requirements would have to no what why why why doesn't it have to meet the contivity requirements because they're not building streets as defined they're building Bas essentially driveways and parking lots that's a good loophole all right questions for the developer hey Tim and thank you thank you staff appreciate it yes sir so 5% units affordable definitely better better than nothing recently we've been seeing developers especially for multif family commit to 9 10% is that something that you would voluntarily be interested in no we can't go that high sir we don't want to make sure this project can truly pencil the 6% that we are providing this evening is better than 0% and I believe if there was a commitment of 10% on this project none of these Pro of.

These units would be developed so 5% of the units at site plan for 80% Ami at 30 years and additional 1% at 100% Ami for 30 years so that's that's our commitment this evening the the I was as I mentioned earlier recommendations for the Active Space are you are you going to apply a public access easement to that so that is controlled by the HOA which will be determined at that time so right now it's planned to be private ho private active open space but that also doesn't necessarily mean that someone walking on the sidewalk couldn't access it you know if there's a pool or something like that I don't know how that would be accessed that probably would be private with a gate pass for safety right those are supposed to be locked up but there there is it is potentially available to the public to walk again not being gated but the HOA and the open space itself will be private and pretty much I'm just curious pretty much all the developments you're.

Working on there out there are we're covering those in HOAs right that's correct pretty much all of the new stuff we're building in this city out there is HOAs yes the the open space is required to be operated by an HOA per the Udo guidelines yeah that's cor because we're doing private private open space instead of public open space so everything is covered in HOAs which can be especially in single family developments highly exclusionary you said something about Green Building earlier is that something that I didn't notice maybe I missed it was there a commitment to Green Building that's another commitment we've been seeing a lot of recently so there under I believe one of the check boxes for the comprehensive plan I think maybe the title of that is green building and under that is an item for the four eight charging stations so so the The Heading is Green Building Technology but the commitment is the four charging stations for vehicle Char four charging stations on 25.

Acres we we have seen a commitment to recently to ngbs silver or gold certification is that something you'd be interested in committing to not this evening no sir all right guys we just got a couple more questions here is there any interest interest in a in a larger buffer for the streams on the site greater than the 100 ft no the with the ovious area it will be 100 foot buffer so we we will follow the Udo regulations for this okay.

And and then there were a lot of Comm requests from bpack and I noticed that only some of them or one or two of them you were able to to meet the developer was able to meet is there a reason that why it was only only a few of them the some of those one for example that I read was to provide a crosswalk again but the request was to do it at our entrance across from the Mid block to the Ravenstone single family development that's a non-s signalized location so I believe that's a very unsafe location for a mid block Crossing that was one of them the majority the rest of them I believe and I'm going off of memory here we're referencing the sidewalk which we have the 10- foot multiuse path as well as the crosswalk at 98 and Sharon Road that we've discussed already okay those are all my questions thank you very much thank you thank you council member Caballero I don't have any questions thank.

You all right thank you council member Freeman I had a question just regarding the ADA compliance package I'm concerned that it sounds like discrimination against anyone who's not in a vehicle with ada8 compliance around what we're doing and planning and I'm not sure how how to like reconcile that but if we're why is it not mandatory that they have to put the rails the light signaling for the pedestrians and the ramp in place so if they were if they were providing the crosswalk they would need to put all of those Ada elements into the project to to put in the crosswalk the crosswalk is not required why under the UOB I believe I'll ask I'll think Bill can probably answer that better but I believe it's because it's offsite it's not actually on the site that's being developed so it's okay to just let the people roll off into the street yeah so yeah Bill judge again the because this is an offsite Improvement it is not required but if yeah if they were.

Willing to profer to make it it would have to be ADA Compliant so that's where we identified those additional improvements that we would they would not be allowed to just provide striping because that that would not be considered ADA Compliant for so it's a norm to just not be ADA Compliant in the area that with speeds are like 45 to 50 m hour I mean it's an existing deficiency that the city and the the state will have to resolve at this point the I think the issue is yeah whether or not we can require it and because it's considered an off-site improvement we don't have any mechanism for for requiring it what would a mechanism look like to require it there'd have to be Udo ordinance revisions but it would have to meet those rational Nexus tests that Aaron described earlier the rational Nexus test yes there's a couple of Supreme Court cases from a few decades ago that require that any required infrastructure improvements be able to be tied directly.

To the pro site that's being developed and the project that's being built and that is difficult to that can be difficult to demonstrate on offsite improvements I would think that the senior tun tsunami would probably make a shift in the way a court would see something like this considering that it's not or it's creating an a situation where there's not a a mechanism for ADA compliance so am I am I off well it's not that there's a a not a mechanism for ada8 compliance there's a mechanism for ada8 compliance if the Improvement is going to be built we don't have right now is a mechanism to require that that Improvement be built because it is offsite so if we could remove offsite from the language that mechanism would have to be re would have to be buil why are we giving developers an option for ADA compliance is what no so for example when they build when they build their 10-ft side path and when they build their improvements on the site they will need.

To be ADA Compliant and if they're building offsite or they're use is offsite or the included annexation is offsite who's responsible for covering the ADA Compliant ramp light signaling well well the the use and the development can't be offsite because by definition if they're building something that the anex itself well the again the annexation location is the site so therefore it can't be offsite when we're saying offsite we're saying not a part of the actual development location an annexation location but it's directly located where anyone that uses or anyone that were in that site or on that site living would need to use right no the the location we're talking about is actually a little bit down the street from the site it's not it's not physically adjacent to the site that they're proposing to develop on what I mean is like the walking path right so the crosswalk that we discussed is not actually on the site it's actually it's a little ways down the street how would you how would you.

Wheel your wheelchair down that street is what I'm getting at well there there are some existing sidewalks that can be used but that like like Bill said that is an existing the lack of ADA Compliant ramps is a is a current deficiency of the existing intersection at NC 98 and Sharon Road which was constructed shoot Bill what 40 years ago maybe so back you I'm guessing but it's it's been I've lived here since 1999 and it hasn't really changed so it it's it predates a lot of our current requirements and I guess well how do you how do we catch up because those deficits are going to continue to be in place right you want to take that yeah so we do have an existing CIP program that has historically been funded annually where we appro where we do about six or seven signalized intersections and we upgrade the ramps and make them fully ADA Compliant so we've been working through those trying to ultimately our goal is to get to 100% but that's that's.

Essentially what what the city has been doing to towards relieving that and how long will it take to get to 100% with the base based on where we are today I do not have that estimate readily handy I think last count we were at about 75% of signalized intersections had those ADA Compliant ramps but thank you I I did have another question just acknowledging when we talk about Community Development taking on keeping up with affordable housing and all that I know there was some staff vacancies have those been filled I'm sure I'm not sure which V genes you're referring to there were quite a few in that department and I want to make sure that we're not just leaving it to an open vacant position to keep an eye on and then no one knows what's going Community I I can't speak for any vacancies in Community Development so I I'm not sure about that I guess that's put city manager yes so anytime we have an obligation to for.

Compliance we have systems in place that and staff in place to ensure that that data is collected and is reviewed in order for the project to stay in compliance according to the way it was presented and approved and the that is that is done as as a part of the work plan of that. Department right I just have two questions first question I wonder if Deputy city manager Ferguson could step forward there were questions about I know we've talked about this in the past in meetings but it's question about blasting and responsibility for addressing the the costs to homeowners from blasting so can you just remind us how that works and and what what that would look like in this situation sure so bo Ferguson Deputy City Manager for Public Safety so I know a lot of information has been provided previously to council and and there's a lot of layers to blasting I'm not going to try and do it all off the top of my head but I believe your.

Question specifically is who is responsible for damage blasters have to carry Insurance those Insurance polic making a claim against those insurance is how damage should be dealt with from blasting and I think there was some comments from some of the citizens about about cities somehow protecting other other cities provide like a fund or some way to ensure that homeowners are not harmed or I'm not I'm not up to speed on what other cities may offer we we don't have a fund that that offers reimbursement or covers damages we don't we don't have a program basically does The Blasters have a bond they have a bond and they have an insurance policy yeah thank you my other question is for Sarah or for Aaron just a question about the the Planning Commission comments you know the Planning Commission is pretty pretty has been pretty critical of a lot of developments Southeast this one they voted 94 to approve although as I read the comments there I see two comments against this development I don't see the.

Other four other two of the four votes even against this is that is it typical that if folks don't provide comments their votes not recorded or what it oh so the way the procedure works at Planning Commission is that the votes are taken at Planning Commission just like yall take votes here and we will record those votes they then have a week to provide US Written comments that we include in the package for you they're not we we certainly encourage but we do not require them to provide those written comments and they can decline to do so if they choose but again so if they if they don't in the notes we have here if they don't provide comments is it not recorded how that person because I just I see two votes against this I see several with no comments so can I assume that couple of the voted no just didn't provide comments therefore it's not recorded there that way I mean we certainly have the record we can certainly provide.

The the minutes from the Planning Commission meeting and provide you as to who voted no and I'll look that up as as soon as I'm done answering this question but I can let you know who who it is that voted no but I think that is kind that would make sense logically that let's say I see three people who did not provide comments that two of them would have been the ones who did not who voted no thank I appreciate that it might be helpful in the future to record that even if there's no comments just to record how the votes were taken so we know that sure that's that's certainly one thing we can look at is is in the Planning Commission written comments we can just simply include the vote what the vote was and then who voted no so that you have that information appreciate that thanks thank you Mr Mayor thank you all for bearing with us so long thank you colleagues for your excellent questions and observations I I.

Do want to dovetail something that that I've heard the the norm has been in recent years for us to see increasingly see more developers make profit 5 to 10 5 to n sometimes 3 to 8% range of affordable and income restricting units what used to be the case is developers didn't make any it was Zero and that has changed over the years although recently we had a throwback where we approved the development where there was Zero offer offering of of income restricted or affordable and a matter of fact they took Apartments away from the development so that's really the anomaly zero what has been normal is is within a range I I think what my colleagues have crystallized for me is that there's really two discussions going on here and I want to hearken back to a a hard and well appreciated lesson I learned when I first got on Council and that was about scope of our decisions there's a discussion about this particular case before us right now and the overall issues affecting.

Southeast Durham and some of the things I've heard tonight if if we if we agree that that's the problem then we're a little late in this particular process to fix those problems and I say that because if we are going to make a universal decision about policy in that area then we have to do that we can't take a Vel opers money at the front end of the process and use the metrics that we've passed the ordinances that we've passed just from the case of institutional Integrity whether you agree with the case or not if we're going to have a deao moratorium in an area if we're not going to do any more development then we have to which is which we've heard again tonight by the way at least twice I heard then we have to say that at the beginning of the process we can't take an application fee go through the whole process knowing full well that we are operating under a deao moratorium again this has nothing.

To do with the merits of the case this is about institutional Integrity if we're going to do that that's a separate discussion and which I'm willing to have and if we want to have that policy discussion but to to try at least for me from my point of view from a scope point of view what's before me tonight trying to fix those Universal macro issues on this one case to me is is it's it's for me it's intellectually dishonest and it's just difficult for me to do that I think that the Planning Commission got this one right it was nine to four they this Planning Commission has heard a lot of the same arguments all the same arguments that we've heard tonight sometimes they've come for sometimes they've come against I think they got this one right particularly given the metrics that we've passed the rules that we say we're governing ourselves by and this developer has proferred you know I listen I take the the comments from the Planning Commission very seriously and I.

Take the comments from our residents very seriously as well and I listen for that argument on which my decision will turn and one of the things I appreciate about our friends from preserve ryal Durham is they have the team approach that they that you know you use the slides and one picks up where the other picks up the challenge I've had and I say this U to many of you are friends I say say this seriously respectfully as friends some of the challenges I've had is that it it seems as though one argument is presented and then another argument almost nullifies it for example if if the issue is capacity of Emergency Response that's nuclear if that's the issue then by definition it doesn't matter how long the sidewalks are if if we don't have the capacity to respond to an emergency that's a Full Stop issue but but then if the next presenter says well they didn't do this with the sidewalks as a decision maker who actually has to make a vote my.

Now I'm thinking oh well if the sidewalks are put in will that nullify the emergency response issue if it if if it's if it's sediment is the real issue then who cares about sidewalks who cares about anything else who cares about the percentage of affordable housing if sediment is the real issue so I don't ignore you I I I really do look for an argument on which it will turn but it seems sometimes that the effort is to just throw everything against the wall to see what will stick with the argument I I I think that I heard that if we we can build according to the lay of the land which is the option right now and often times what that looks like well if you don't sell the land that's the option and I think a lot of what we're dealing with as a city and as a count County as well this is almost a corollary to what gentrification looks like in the inner city and some of the hard conversations.

We've had to have with Grandma and Mom and Dad is don't sell a house we know you can't you're struggling to fix it up we know you're struggling to pay the taxes but as long as we keep ownership of it and I think I think it was my colleague council member ree who may have brought this up some years ago the consideration of Performing kind of co-ops amongst owners out there in the county to stop these developers from buying the land and and getting your neighbors if the if the baby doesn't want to take over the farm or doesn't want to carry on the tradition folk who will Who will keep that ownership much like the same conversations we're having in the inner city here to keep the land in possession because we come to things like this I don't support a moratorium in the area I heard one caller said well what are we doing to respond to it what are we doing one of the things we've done is that we've.

Adopted wholesale what you told us to do and the and the annexation and the udl requirements now I'm hearing that please and now I'm hearing that well those requirements aren't good enough I'm hearing that they're not working based upon projects that weren't under those standards so I think as I've said the affordab the Planning Commission I think got this one right I do want to say that we've had affordability profit for both rental and ownership over the years of of things that have been brought before us and and I would say you know a lot of communities need to have serious discussions about retaining the ownership of the land and also I think we as a council need to understand or or or need to if we need to have a conversation about what it looks like to stop doing something in an area until something happens until there's zero sedimentation until we have the capacity whatever the metric is or whoever gets to blow the whistle and say.

Okay we have enough fire engines Transit follows density I'm not going to run empty buses to where no one lives no business person is going to put a store where there are no customers so I'm not going to pretend that the absence of Transit is is a done deal when there are no customers we run Go Durham free right now and I support continuing to do that but I'm not going to run empty buses towards the county and there's nobody to ride them in anticipation of of development going out there as developments go as plans go this is far better than what I've seen over the years because it's responsive to what we've asked for and here's the real issue the way we're going to fix some of the things we've heard tonight is a moratorium on development period because I have listened to a bunch of cases a bunch of different iterations a bunch of different profit I am firmly convinced that there is a large percentage of f.

Not all but a large percentage of folk that appear before us that nothing is going to pass muster because I've watched multiple iterations of things multiple iterations of things that incorporate the things that folk have asked for and to still know and I get that I respect that but within the scope of this decision tonight and what's before me tonight I think this is a good development I think the Planning Commission whom we have celebrated and laed from this de I think got this one right I'll be supporting this development finally Mr Ferguson bo I heard again residents say make the claim that unauthorized late night blasting has gone on if that is the case I want the full weight of this government brought down upon those those perpetrators we've got if that's happening we've got to have some record of it we've got to either seismic data or we can go and see the evidence it I want those folk prosecuted and dealt with if that is happening and we once.

Again we've heard those representations I want the full weight of this government brought down on those perpetrators thank you Mr May I'll be supporting this development thank you me Rist I'm not going to speak long on this one thing we cannot run from no matter how we spend it is supply and demand has an impact that's just basic Logics of life and you know also you know I I started looking into how these things work work you know and and you know when we're looking at you know what it takes to build these projects one thing I'm looking at is all right so the crosswalks and all of the amenities there we were talking about you know the fact of the matter is we use we use you developers to build those things out for us so we're enhancing the amenities in our communities based on you building somewhere in the area you know and sometimes you make it work sometimes you don't I'm not going to require you I'm not I can't even require.

You to build something that is not even connected to your site it'll be nice and if you do just like that long motion I read earlier in the Cent agenda all of those are infrastructure enhancements that we are receiving that we are accepting from previous projects and I I just kind of read it over in the in the consent agenda and nobody would probably ever really pick up on it but that was an entire inventory of infrastructure that some developer is building somewhere and we're going to receive it and we didn't pay a dime for it this would have been a case where if you all had proferred that we would have received a few feet down the road you know all of these crosswalks and and you know audible whatever we were talking about we would have received that on your dime now if you can't penil so that you can't make it work you can't make it work I can't make you do it it'll just be nice to have so.

I just wanted to put that out there that there there is no like I I can't force someone to do something that's not connected to their site and maybe you know the the the tax revenue that we're going to get from this site can help maybe pay for it if you guys aren't going to build it then it'll fall under our responsibility but we're going to get out of developers well everything that we can get out of you because that's just how it's set up I'll take it but if you don't do it and I can't require you to do it then it's going to be on me it's going to be on us the government it's called CIP we do brick and mortar infrastructure so I appreciate all of the fees we did get already because it helps continue to fund this entire process I am looking at this very objectively you know I I'm looking at the things that you know that we got that we would have we didn't have to get.

I'm looking forward to utilizing those benefits for the greater good of our community and yeah I I so I I'm going to support the project tonight and and colleagues those are my comments. Mr Baker yeah development of course is is is comprehensive in scope it's looking at a lot of different things so we need to care about the environment we need to care about affordability we need to care about all of these different pieces and the way that they come together we don't just need to look at a development on a parcel we need to look at a development in the context of a city because that's we are we don't NE necessarily build the city but we shape the city through our zoning regulations and we have an obligation to make sure that we are ensuring that every single decision that we make is building a city that is true to the values that we hold and the values of our Community we live in a state that.

Has a lot of that has taken a lot of preemptive action that has limited a lot of the things that we can do and courts that limit a lot of the things that we can do in terms of controll controlling development development impacts development impact fees places where in other states things are just automatic developers are just going and they're automatically doing a lot of things that we have to sit up here and ask developers to do from the goodness of their hearts and so so that that is the position that we're in we're we are in an extremely unfortunate position where we don't have a lot of levers of power that other cities and other states have we also know that there are things that we could and should be doing here that we do have the powers that we do have enabling legislation we could be requiring certain things that we're not requiring and sometimes when we ask developers and we make it known what what what is expected and.

What is consistent with the comprehensive plan being called for in the comprehensive plan sometimes we we get those things and it's important that we that we have conversations about those and and that we talk about them I support apartments on on this site but there are so many other things to consider as as we as we look at these rezoning cases because because there's there's Nuance there's there's sophistication to the conversations that we have around development especially on something that is 30 25 acres every single decision we make is an incremental decision towards building the city that we leave to the Next Generation it it is durable what we leave to the Next Generation and and we need to make sure that we're that we're being proud because we are taking away the right of the Next Generation to be able to determine the world that they live in they're going to live in the world that that we leave to them and as we have seen in southeast.

Durham we have not been building a sustainable inclusive walkable city and that's true this site is situated within the chaos that has been created in South Southeast Durham and that makes this a really difficult decision because what do you do what do you do when there's a proposal on a site that is amidst a you know Suburban environment that is that is wholly inadequate and inconsistent with with with your values and with with sustainability it makes it a tough decision and and that's just that's just the truth to it and all we can do is is the very best and and determine whether we think that it is good enough good enough to to meet the vision the values of the comprehensive plan so that's those are my those are my comments council member thank you I'm going to be very brief I did not plan on speaking so there's this conversation around values and development and whatnot so a few of us have been up here this is our.

Seventh budget season been here for a minute we've seen a lot of cases and interestingly one of one of the slides that preserve Ro D had I think listed several different comments and one of them said charter school and I'm assuming it's the charter school that came before this Council two different times I voted on every single school project that has come before me whether it's private or Charter because I believe all children should go to public schools you should not be able to dictate where you send your kids to school because if we go to school together then we learn how to live together better was a fundamental value of mine the city got sued for that project twice we had to see it twice 751 South a notorious project we got sued because we were forced into doing things as a city that we did not want to do a lot of this actually comes down to power and who has power and who does not.

And the state of North Carolina if you are a local government it is real clear that you do not have the power that many of us wish we had so the reason that we cannot not put we cannot require this developer to put the sidewalk that I think or the crosswalk that I think many of us want is because of Prior case law that is enforcing a rule that we have to follow the reason that Highway 98 is a disaster is because ncdot is underfunded and because there's a mandate there's mandated it's 96% that is a that is a law that was passed many years before any of us sat on these seats so yes to council me member Baker's point we are living in a system that we get to improve incrementally as best as we can on this Council because that is the power we've been given and that is a very limited power so when I make decisions on zoning cases I look at what.

The case is the comp plan is what the macro is and in this case this zoning case hit I don't know 23 of the 25 applicable policies So within that context that is how I make my decision I understand it makes residents upset I understand that they don't think they don't necessarily like it I think we can continue to strengthen some of our ordinances like we did around sedimentation and erosion control we have a rewrite of the Udo that can continue to help us be better and do better and I will support that but a resoning is for the case in front of me and this is better because it is adjacent to commercial it is going to be walkable in a much better way than some of the other things that we have approved so I will be supporting it and thank you thank you I appreciate everybody's comments and I I also really appreciate you know specifically council member Baker really pushing the envelope you know we push we push we get.

More we get more you know so what we're doing is collectively just trying to get the best out of it and also be as realistic as possible I don't want to constrict us so much that understanding the ospis in which we are operating as a council within North Carolina that we hurt ourselves more than help and also don't want to conflict the responsibilities of the City versus the actual individual developers but we do all have to work together on that so if there are no more comments I'm going to go ahead and call this yes oh sorry sorry to interrupt I just wanted to answer council person Chris's question about the Planning Commission in addition to the two that indicated they voted no the other no votes were mver and young they did not provide comments thank you at this time I'm going to declare this public hearing closed and back before the council no we were already back before the council I'm sorry it's sort of like the next day I'm sorry.

All right so I am going to go ahead and read the motion here to adopt an ordinance annexing Sharon Road departments into the city of Durham and to authorize the city manager to enter into an utility extension agreement with Sharon Road Wake Forest land LLC moved is Right second moved and second Madam clerk please open the poll yeah please. Close the motion passes four to three with council members Baker cook and Freeman voting no thank you motion to to adopt an ordinance amending the unify development ordinance by taking property out of commercial neighborhood with the development with the development plan residential Suburban 20 residential rule in Falls Jordan Lake Watershed Protection District B County jurisdiction and establishing the same as plan development residential 10.62 and Falls Jordan Lake Watershed Protection District B City jurisdiction mve is red second mve and second Madam clerk please open the poll please.

Close the motion passes 6 to one with council member Freeman voting no and and motion three to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General statute SEC 160d 605 I get it move to adopt consistency second been been mov in proberly second Madam Clerk please open the poll vote please close and the motion's unanimous thank you so much Madam clerk colleagues thank you for your time tonight and want to thank everybody who did come out tonight and thank you all for being patient and we are there are some comments I'm going to address later just to resident concerns but for the record we do not just kick people out or lock people out but I will choose safety and this mayor is going to follow those procedures that are set in place and once we get to capacity the building will be held until there's more available inside more available capacity inside and that's been clearly communicated with that being said we are adjourned in the next day 12:21 a.m.

Thank you oh I do have to make a motion now don't I make a motion to adjourn to settle German point of order when we settle the agenda German is part of the settled agenda we don't need a motion to where we where we at Madam clerk do I think you're fine oh okay all right cool we're.

Done.

E.

E.

For.