all right good evening everyone and welcome to City Hall um it's good to have everybody here and have a few guests here tonight which I'll acknowledge them in just a moment um but for now like to call this meeting to order at 7 pm and if you will join me in a moment of silence thank you I now pass it over to council member Freeman for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you it's our practice to stand to salute the flag and say a pledge together flag United States of America indice
thank you madam clerk will you please call the role sure mayor Williams I'm here mayor proen Middleton I'm here council member Baker here council member cavayero here council member cook here council member Freeman present council member W here thank you thank you at this time I am going to pass it over to council member mayor protim Middleton to uh for our first uh celebration item thank you your honor and good evening to you to my honorable colleagues on the day to all in chamber with us tonight and to our neighbors and friends on whatever platform you may be watching good evening and thank you uh for joining us tonight I have the privilege of uh reading very serious Proclamation a proclamation for coloral cancer awareness month which affects so many Americans and people right here in our Durham community and I'm going to ask Mr Chris bigger uh to come forward
from the Durham coloral cancer community and Duke Cancer Institute if he's here come on up buddy thank you for absolutely Proclamation whereas coloral cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States with an estimated 53,0 fatalities in 2024 a slight increase over increase over last year's estimated estimated 52550 and whereas in 2024 approximately 152,153 men and 71,2 se0 women of these cases an estimated 10659 will be colon cancer and 46,0 220
will be rectal cancer coloral cancer affects men and women of all racial and ethnic groups with increased risk as individuals age particularly those aged 45 years or older and whereas historically marginalized populations including racial and ethnic minorities ities are disproportionately impacted by coloral cancer with African-Americans experiencing higher incidents and mortality rates colar rectal is often preventable treatable and beatable and increased screening can save lives and whereas coloral Cancer Awareness Month provides an opportunity for organizations and health practitioners in Durham to promote awareness of screening increase access to screenings and advocate for those affected by and surviving color rectal cancer and whereas the city of Durham encourages individuals to discuss family medical
history with their health care providers maintain a healthy lifestyle and undergo recommended screenings to decrease to decrease the risk of Choral cancer and increase survivorship rates now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby hereby Proclaim March 2025 as coloral Cancer Awareness Month in the city of Durham and urge all citizens to observe this month with appropriate actions such as screenings witness my hand and the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this the first day of March 2025 Leonardo Williams mayor [Applause] I I want to thank mayor Williams and all city council and the citizens of Durham um stand here today as a 36-year-old Survivor I was diagnosed with stage four
colon cancer when I was 34 um I never imagined this disease would affect me so young but the reality is that it's affecting younger and younger people at a an alarming rate I'm here today because of groundbreaking treatment like immunotherapy that aren't available to patients across the board and the reason is because funding for This research is very difficult to come by um this Proclamation is more than just words it's a call to action uh we have to keep advocating and um I will keep doing what I'm doing speaking my words and using my voice to push for Progress uh in those regards so thank you [Applause]
all thank you for that I'll now pass it over to council member ciero good evening everyone uh I'll be reading uh the next Proclamation and I think that we have um if Morgan Whitfield is in the audience or in the crowd and anyone all of you all are welcome to come up all of you come on up yep whereas March 12th 2025 marks the 113th anniversary of Girl Scouts of the United States of America the largest and most impactful leadership program for girls in the world the Girl Scout movement began on March 12th 1912 when Juliet
Daisy Gordon low a native of Savannah Georgia organized a group of 18 girls and provided them with the opportunity to develop physically intellectually socially and spiritually and whereas for over a Century Girl Scouts of the United States of America has aned its mission to build girls of Courage confidence and character who make the world a better place more than 50 milon 50 million women Trailblazers Visionaries and leaders are girl scout alums who have made the world a better place and whereas since its Beginnings Girl Scouts has emphasize public service and Civic engagement and has fostered a sense of community in girls girl girl scouts support their mental health and is an accepting secure place where they feel free to be themselves and where leaders and other girls are sources of support during difficult times and whereas at a time when civic's education education is missing from many schools Girl Scouts engages girls of all grade levels and Civics programming that deepens their understanding of Community Action democracy and government prepares them for a lifetime of Civic engagement and motivates them to take action on
issues that are important to them and whereas Girl Scouts offer girls 21st century programming and science technology engineering and math the outdoors entrepreneurship and Beyond helping girls develop invaluable life skills and whereas as a member organization of the world Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Girl Scouts is part of an international Sisterhood of 10 million girls and young young women in 152 countries and is committed to offering girls more opportunities to engage with communities worldwide make meaningful Global Connections and explore global citizenship Girl Scouts North Carolina coastal Pines seres 17734 girls across North Carolina now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby Proclaim March 12th 2025 as National Girl Scout Day in the city of Durham and urge all citizens to girls to Girl Scouts North Carolina coastal Pines and the Girl Scout movement witness my hand and the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this third day of March
[Applause] 2025 firstly I would like to thank the city of Durham and thank you to our honorable city council for having us here today for the Girl Scout Proclamation my name is Ruby Benson and I have been a Girl Scout for nearly a decade with my Cadet troop 21 Girl Scouts has been a driving force in my life in the path my fellow Scouts and I have taken scouting provides girls with opportunities to develop leadership skills engage in community service learn outdoor Survivor skills participate in entrepreneurship through cookie sales and Foster a strong of Sisterhood we've been given back to our wonderful Durham Community like many other troops by helping build a little library and creating an all natural scent Garden for the animal protection Society of Durham shelter dogs this year we have been working towards our silver award by building feral cat houses and cat carriers that
Aid in the chap neuter vaccinate release tnvr process with straight cats what's especially great is that my troop is not alone in Durham Girl Scouts are making a difference every day in the bill City in fact today there are more than 50,000 Girl Scouts registered in North Carolina today and we have some impressive alumni including Senator Elizabeth Dole poet ma Angelou and former NC Secretary of State Elaine Marshall being a Girl Scout is so important to me and many other young women in our great City we are honored to be a part of this Proclamation and thank you for having us here tonight [Applause] okay so here's a little secret and you can't tell anybody but my mom used to like be one of the troop leaders and I was a mama's boy and she said you have to join the Boy Scouts and I didn't want to go with those guys I didn't know who they were
so I went with my mom so I was an honorary Girl Scout for like a year I turned out all right I guess this is in Rocky Mount North Carolina I eventually joined the Boy Scouts until we uh went camping and uh we were on an ant bed and I said okay yeah I I can't do this anymore thank you all for being here
right all right so at this point in time I get to talk about how cool the jackets are the million Mile Club so if you all in the cool jackets could join me up here check these jackets out guys come on up here with me there you you know we G give him some height Dynamics there we go all right so I get a I get the uh I have the honor tonight of uh bragging on our ustri is goorm uh bus drivers so GoTriangle fixed route bus
operators Drive 40 foot buses on the city streets of Durham for 8 to 10 and occasionally 12 hours per day five days a week they do this in an uncontrolled environment while stopping at bus stops every block or two picking up and dropping off bus riding customers who are traveling to and from places of importance the intensity of this kind of operation cannot be overstated even minor lapses in concentration can have disastrous results small errors can easily result in costly damage to equipment property or other vehicle Les gorm's top priority is safety part of GoTriangle comprehensive approach to delivering the safest transportation services possible is to recognize and reward safe working behaviors and achievements by our valued employees in 2022 godm started a new program called the million M
Club to be in this club a bus operator must have driven 1 million miles miles or more in service in a fixed Route 40 foot bus and over the course of those miles avoid incurring a single preventable accident on average it takes 12 years of service to travel a million miles for obvious reasons achieving this Milestone award is a very difficult and an amazing accomplishment those who have achieved it are very few and are now a part of an elite club at GoTriangle over the last three years over the last three over the last year three operators reached this Elite status one operator has become only the second in history to reach 2 million miles I don't know if we really hear what's happening but this is pretty dang impressive so as a as a fellow CDL
holder and still have my CDL I just want to personally thank you guys I and I know it's really simple but I I love just waving at you all you drive by and you never take your hands off the wheel you just nod your head like you know they got it together they're so professional uh so I don't take a person that you don't wave back I just know you're doing your job and thank you all this is impressive and this is history making end Durham but this is history making period in the entire industry there are not many people across this entire country and this is nation that can say and that can say they've accomplished this so y'all rock those jackets with pride I'd like to pass it over to uh director of Transportation Mr Sean Ean you know we talk a lot about the contribution that essential workers make in our community uh and essential
workers make it possible for people to be there at uh our hospitals our dialysis centers our skilled nursing facilities our grocery stores Andes and we saw that uh throughout the pandemic and we continue to see how essential this work is and I think today is a Real Testament to not only how essential this work is but the skill and professionalism of being able to navigate a 40-foot bus through our streets with some reckless drivers out there who aren't paying attention these folks are always paying attention they're always focused on the safety of our customers and the safety of our community and that is our absolute number one priority so I am so proud uh to be here with this esteemed group in these beautiful leather jackets um and uh really proud of the contribution that they make um and the recognition that they're receiving tonight for this extraordinary achievement
[Applause] pardon me as I put some respect on your name uh Miss stand up here if you will miss Tanya Barrett 24 years two million miles 2 million 2 million miles wow gosh 24 years we go Duram 25 25 get get
it right now all right thank you uh Miss Wanda Dunbar 14 [Applause] years Trenton Jones 13 years and George Williams 18 years just so you can go back you see the TV screen your names and your your record is up there so we're going to make sure that's there for the record
[Applause] SE oh boy all right all right uh so those are our ceremonial items I'm now going to pass it over to
our colleagues for any uh announcements council member cook good on you all right thank you good evening everyone thank you for being here um really just so floored by that demonstration um I love that Sean always introduced me to people as council member cook she writes the number one so um I love that um I'm known to everyone that Sean introduced me to by my bus line um and I would encourage folks who have not done so to ride the bus I love taking the bus to work we are working on having more stops more transfer options um and and more frequency on some of our higher um ridership lines uh but it is a safe and really lovely way to commute through Durham and it is free and hopefully will continue to be so uh which leads me into my first announcement which is just to thank my colleagues and staff we had an excellent budget Retreat this past Friday uh
things are really scary I think in Durham and in the country we are losing lots of federal funding um in Durham specifically you have seen that uh there's been a reappraisal that's done by the county those are not numbers that we can address in any way but what we do talk about is what the tax rate should be after these amounts of home ownership go up and so there's a was an interesting conversation and I think a hard conversation for many of us um about that on Friday we will be continuing to work on that throughout this budget season um up through the end of June uh that being said we had a prioritization of all of the council members budget requests and I think what we saw was a real dedication to making Durham safer and just better for the folks who actually live here I talk about Fair free buses that was the number one priority when they to tallied everyone's uh prioritization list um homelessness strategy consultant was the
second um some other things that were up there were an expansion of heart uh which is our one of our it is our alternative safety team um Emergency Response Team uh so some really awesome things that I think are sort of talking about root issues that a lot of durit are experiencing uh so that was really great and I just wanted to shout out the staff who did such a good job supporting us we were there all day and making sure that we were fed and and could do that hard work that we needed to do um and that again that is all was all public and available online if anybody wants to watch that um the second thing is that I just want to send out a a bit of good thoughts to um the folks in Southwest North Carolina and also in South Carolina who are affected by the fires uh that is something that we I think unfortunately are going to continue to see more of in this uh day and age with climate change and and all the other negative impacts that that development
has on us um so just sending good thoughts out that direction and then my very last thing is just wanted to announce that white flag shelters are open for this week white flag is extra shelter for folks who are unhoused if you know anybody uh do check on them if you kind of walk past folks and you know them by name make sure that they know this information um this means the weather is dropping to a certain below a certain temperature and so they're opening up extra space for folks to sleep if they need a place to be warm overnight that is going to be running this Monday so tonight Thursday Saturday and Sunday of this week so we'll be having cold temperatures on those four nights and that is occurring back at Yates Baptist Church it is 20 2819 Chapel Hill Road it is on a bus line um and there are other options for folks getting there so if they need to reach out um please do so to um coordinated entry um and our heart program as well
those are my announcements thank you thank you council member Baker thank you for those announcements Council M cook and thank you for everyone who is here today and who's watching at home uh the Delta's in the crowd uh it's good to see you all um so uh just wanted to piggyback off of something that council member cook mentioned which was the budget Retreat on Friday um I do think that it's worth it to go online um mentioned this last time if you Google Durham City Council budget Retreat you'll be able to find the uh budget page it has a lot of information about current um future and past uh budgets and budget processes and I really think that it's worth it even if you don't have to you don't want to watch eight hours of meetings um you can you can go online and see the PowerPoint presentations if you're looking for something more General our first budget Retreat which was on the 14th I think is a really a good one to look at um this last one I think uh did a deeper dive um
some of the issues that we talked about included Transit and parking funds uh sustainability Solid Waste uh and then um City Council budget request so um I think it's I think it's worth uh taking a look at that if it's if it's something that you're interested in and the um first budget public hearing for the next fiscal year is going to be March 17th right here in the council chambers um this weekend I was able to attend the Bull City stop the gun violence vigil um along with other colleagues of mine the mayor protem council member Freeman was anybody else there okay several of us were able to attend it um commissioner Mike Lee was there um and it was uh it was moving to be in that space and listen to so many different stories and people that are um directly and indirectly impacted by um our our biggest our biggest crisis which is losing young people uh in our city um
we just lost someone else um today or yesterday um along with uh traffic accidents um those are the two biggest killers of young people and I think we we someone was just hit on fit Road um uh today uh and then I was also able to attend recently the Durham workers assembly meeting which is a very very uplifting meeting despite the challenges that lie ahead of us um the agenda was about how workers are fighting the billionaires agenda um there was the National Domestic workers Alliance was present uh the national nurses nurses United was there uh ussw and then local immigrant leaders were all participating in conversation and discussions about how workers can fight back in this current ERA um that that we find ourselves in the organizers around um from from cause uh the folks
who were organizing at the Amazon warehouse and Garner rdu1 were there to discuss some of the lessons learned from their organizing efforts um and there were there were a lot of wonderful takeaways so I'm just going to read some of the takeaways um some of the quotes that I heard while I was there people said we've got to stay United like never before we're going to protect our veterans even if that means protecting them from the federal government we need to get out of our bubbles and talk to people we're not used to speaking to in places where we may be uncomfortable we need to show everyone everything that we have in common we know we live in the worst state state of North Carolina for workers but we need to be able to dream we want all kinds of people at the table uh to affect policy change um and even though we work in different sectors our mission is the same and I think these were all really important takeaways that that I took and I wanted to share them with you all
that's it for me thank you so much thank you council member ciero thank you good evening everyone um appreciate my um colleagues comments and and uh also want to thank staff uh for a really good two uh budget Retreats um also want to thank uh parks and recre and everyone else involved with the grand reopening of Wheels many of us were there on Thursday I saw several staff skating my understanding is it was sold out all weekend long um which was incredible and I will have to say for those of us who were lucky enough to be on Council I stand by it was one of the best and easiest decisions uh ever made was being able to purchase um that property and to see so many delighted community members especially in this moment where um my colleagues have talked about some of the challenging moments we're facing uh it was great to just be some doing something really celebratory and joyful uh on Friday along with um many of my colleagues up here uh there was uh the vigil and then afterwards Judea reform held a Shabbat
for refugees and it was an Inc incredible moving uh ceremony and um um service and I will say that that was the also the uh first night of Ramadan so Ramadan Mubarak for those who um celebrate um and I think part of the reason that for me the Shabbat was so moving was that Judea reform um hosts or sponsors refugees from various parts of the world and one of the families that they sponsored were in attendance that night and they were Muslim and so I think in this moment when we often think that there is not a path forward that everything seems dark and challenging it was uh very inspiring to me to see a family who had fled Afghanistan um and be sponsored by a local uh Jewish synagogue here in Durham and a beautiful relationship has formed from that and uh Juda reform has re helped resettle many many refugees across uh our city so I really want to
lift up the work that they do um so that's all thank you thank you council member Freeman thank you and good evening everyone I want to say happy uh women's History Month to you all um just acknowledging uh it's only been a short 37 years of celebrating um the women who have created the fierce um fabric of what we call the United States and um I just wanted to just take a moment and say um I I really appreciate what women bring to the context of who I am and where we are and um I just didn't want to just note just a couple of um women in our own history brief recent history um who have been Mayors in this city it's only been two women in over 150 years and um that being Sylvia kirkoff and Elaine O'Neal um just just a sharing I I did also just
want to say uh uh congratulations to those million MERS I know how difficult it is to navigate in this city with all the construction and it's amazing to get to two million miles um I did have a note try remember okay so um I did want to ask my colleagues for an excused absence I don't think I'll need it but I do want to make sure I have it just in case on Thursday um almost finished here with my leadership North Carolina um uh classes and so this Thursday I'll be requesting excused absence and uh also just a a big shout out to all the Girl Scouts uh as a former girl as a Girl Scout once a Girl Scout always a Girl Scout but uh as a Girl Scout and a part of that global citizenship I think it's really um
honorable that our mayor thought to honor them this evening thank you that's all I have thank you I'll uh entertain a motion at this time um to excuse council member Freeman on Thursday Mo second second moved and properly seconded Madam clerk re please open the vote please close thank you motion passes unanimously um what's W6 could you just make sure the uh voting is recorded properly someone is titled W6 I'm not sure who it is it may have been council member cook no Baker it's an alphabetical order right yeah you think I'm picking on you all
the time all right council member rist thanks Mr Mayor good evening everyone thank you all for those in attendance and those on watching online um yeah Mr may I really appreciated your resolution or Proclamation about the million MERS that's an amazing accomplishment so cool um and you know I just think about in this time where like what we hear from DC is like you know what have you done in the last week right no one here in Durham is asking our staff what they've done in the last week because if you ask the folks there it's like yeah I've been getting up at 4:45 in the morning and I'm driving my next million miles that nobody's getting hurt and we're keeping our folks safe and by the way it's a 40ft bus in city streets that's amazing stuff so thanks for sharing that thanks for the folks who are here um I also thank you mayor pren for your resolution about coloror cancel Cancer Awareness Month as the oldest guy up on the Das here just want to remind you all to to do get screened check your family Med medical history as the resolution said above 45 you got to be careful about that just so y'all know
I'm going on Monday to get screened youall know what that means so remember to to do do what you got to do to keep stay safe um also mayor P I wanted to thank you so much for leading the town and state dinner that we went to last week so uh the mayor um council member cabier and I all joined mayor PRM who is the chair of the North Count League of municipalities um for their annual town and state dinner what an amazing event um a lot of fun but also you know the panels you all put together really talk about how we even though it's a charge like partisan time at our best we can actually in this State work together as you said in your comments right some of the state partnership we have or partnership we have with the state includes a ton of infrastructure stuff water Wastewater Parks Transportation so thanks for your comments thanks for helping to organize that dinner and I hope that even in this moment where we've got a Charged partisan environment in in Raleigh that we can work together in critical ways that bring value to our citizens so thank you so much um the last thing I want to say like I had I think uh uh Council Javiera mentioned
Wheels we had so much fun at the wheels um grand grand opening what an event what a great way for the city to provide value for our residents and you know I I'm so appreciative of council Javiera um mayor PM were you here Leo for that vote what an amazing way to like oh yeah coun Freeman yeah this is a a unique model of how local government provides a model for how we can provide value to our residents I mean youve got a a park that was like a Durham institution we all got our stories about Wheels right we all have them um owners wanted to sell but they wanted to keep it a recreational space and so like who's got the expertise and the dollar so they came to the city we agreed to acquire it it was going to be a splash park and the residents came to us and said like hey y'all aren't you going to keep the roller skating rink and so we also do community engagement here in Durham so we said all right let's have a conversation about that so we have now brought that Community institution back into public ownership open to everyone and I'm so excited about Wheels it's one of my highlights so far in the council was being there for that grand opening and so thank you city government thank
you for all the residents for making that possible for everyone and I hope you all go enjoy wheels and and like we almost fell down right it was fun may you were like amazing and Javier you were like great moves out there I'm just glad I didn't fall it was so much fun thank you all thank you Mr Mayor you got it may pro thank you Mr May thank you colleagues for really really excellent announcements uh tonight um and thank you uh Mr Mayor for that for recognizing our million MERS those those jackets are really really nice um can't get one but but they're really really really nice got to got to got to do what you got to do to get one um longtime Rider Derm uh Transit uh used to be a number five boy now I'm a number two uh bus line guy I want to associate myself with a council member cook please use them though those the buses also have Wi-Fi they are air conditioned they're clean they have Wi-Fi so please uh use our bus system and and they're free as council member cook pointed out so congratulations to our million MERS and two million miles
without an accident uh I'm not going to tell you all my record but uh in a car it's I don't drive a 40 foot uh long bus so thank you so much to a million milers I want to send a special shout out and welcome I know your honor you will do it uh from the center seat but had a wonderful conversation with the distinctive ladies of the Delta Sigma Theta sority Incorporated the Durham alumni chapter and thank you so much for gracing City Hall tonight and for gracing uh the chamber tonight and for a substantive conversation as well before so thank you so much for being here and I know mayor you will have more to say about that what can we say about Wheels get there everybody that's watching this if you can't skate do like me put the skates on and just play the corner just that's what I used to do just play the corner uh I'm waiting for the the old heads to come show up with the whistles though uh I didn't hear no whistles in there but uh but Wheels is just amazing um council member Rist uh you're right council member cierro uh you are absolutely Ely right uh when when we are
no longer in these seats and we look back at our time in government this will definitely be one of the one of the high moments um skating is back in Durham um so so please uh go uh saw some of those folk doing all the tricks and some icons and legends from back in the day came back out and we at Wheels it was just such a wonderful feeling it's a Sacred Space um there's so many people with so many stories attached uh to Wheels it it's a skating ring yeah but it for Durham it's a safe Sacred Space and I hope all of you uh who are watching uh on um T TV or whatever platform and in the chamber will get a chance to go by there uh thank you council member uh Baker for pointing out the stop the gun violence rally uh to my colleagues who attended this past weekend there were some some challenges to us who hold elective office uh there were some challenges to us and I hope that we were listening uh and take what was said seriously um you're we're very influential people and I I wish we were as powerful as people think we are but we do have some power
we do have some influence and we do have the ability uh to craft us some important policy here in our city it is the number one issue facing us and as I've said time and time again as greatest Durham is we will not be measured by the height of our skyscrapers or how great our restaurants are what's playing at DPAC we will be measured by how safe the most vulnerable people are in our city among us we will always have an asteris next to our our celebrations they will always be muted um until we deal with this scourge of gun violence and it is a national problem nonetheless but but what we can do locally uh we should and ought do uh to do right uh by our people thank you uh council member Rist uh one of the cool things I do as president of North Carolina League of municipalities is convene a town and state dinner I want to thank all of the legislators from across our state uh who came and I was so you know you look out at all those people um and they're all friendly but uh we we say in my faith tradition bring some amens with you uh take some of your folk with you and put
them in the audience and it felt good to see council member cabier and Council Beyer in your honor of the mayor uh in the in the audience that night for our town and state dinner so thank you so much on behalf of the league on behalf of myself uh finally happy women's History Month uh to all and thank you so much for being here uh thank you again mayor for some great proclamations tonight look forward uh to getting good work done tonight how Yi thank you all for your comments uh thank you all for um in the audience for being here as well I um it is women's history month and I uh enjoy the luxury of uh going home every night and seeing my beautiful wife who's a history maker history maker herself um from her to her mother to the beautiful women in our community thank you uh thank you for the history that you make every single day speaking of the women in our community I would like to uh give a shout out to the lovely ladies of Delta
Sigma Theta and sorority Incorporated for being here tonight uh they are in here in drove and uh they're doing a little more than just sitting in the audience they are coming with a challenge of um you know what you know what are we doing here at the city and how they can not only just question many people come and just question but they're coming um um not only asking what's happening but also how can he help make it better uh and I invite that type of action any day so I thank you all for being here tonight thank you for meeting with us uh a few of us before the uh meeting started tonight Mr Cal is Cal thank you for your service as a page at the general assembly um from wiet North Carolina and now here in Durham in the Bull City it looks good you keep in touch all right um so yeah thank you all for being here and I look
forward to working with you uh Beyond today um so I uh had quite the the last week I can't believe it's only been a week but I uh I spoke spoke at A T talk not long ago and then had the state of the city address and the state of the city was was an amazing experience uh and went to uh do some work across the country uh it's been a lot of travel lately representing the city of Durham but again I want to thank everyone for coming out to the state of the city this year it was bigger than last year and I am I'm I'm just floored with the excitement of the support uh as we brag on the city um and all the things that are happening some of the the things that are happening I actually cut a lot out of it this year uh but this is a great City dma dope uh we have our budget hearings
coming up uh really soon uh so please make sure as council member baker said uh tune in to the last two budget Retreats so you can know what we're talking about and uh we have the public budget hearings coming up uh do we have those dates you know top March 17th is our first one I don't have here yes okay so here in two weeks from tonight we're going to have our first uh budget public hearing right here in City Hall uh you may come sign up and speak on that agenda item and share your uh your um interest about the budget and let you know just have your influence on it um as I've said earlier I don't I personally don't have a political agenda I just you know mainly Focus mainly Focus my energy on facilitating the allocation of resources to the public um there's one focus and that is just making sure that our city is a safe environment for our young people to grow up in and that'll be my
Keen Focus uh in this in this budget and I look at that through every subject matter that we address uh so make sure folks that you sign up come and speak and just be involved in that process if you're not involved in the process getting involved in the process afterward has a little less impact um that being said speaking of budget and money um folks are receiving their tax information in the mail and I have heard of a few folks passing out so this is uh and correct me from wrong colleagues this is this is basically where we are value wise and this is not your tax rate your tax rate has yet to be determined uh but this is your current value and uh there are several resources in place you can go to this the County's tax office to um once you get those tax rates whatever or appeals uh I mean the uh the values yeah the valuation you can uh you
know you can always do an appeal if needed over at the County tax office uh I think there are do we still have Grant programs for senior citizens low income Hunter relief yeah yep so we have Grant programs for our senior citizens I've been spending all morning I spent all morning today calling um residents back um most of them were our senior citizens and they were worried um about you know they saw the evaluation they just got really worried and um the resident told me she said I want to die in my home I don't want to have to move I said we have resources to help you out you know but you don't have your tax rate yet um but we we we're not in the business of kicking folks out and moving people away want to make sure that you are growing with this community and we're going to make sure that the resources are there to to reflect uh that as such so uh I uh working on getting a statement uh you uh getting a statement out there so we can spread it far and wide so folks can know exactly where we are in the process and
when you get your tax rate you well now you have your evaluations what steps you can take uh now uh so don't don't don't over Panic just yet but yes Durham is growing and uh this is a very very complex and late um um formula that has that the county is required by law to put in place but we've been doing presentations all over the city and they are online as well uh but please just reach out to the County tax office if you need clarification uh or you can call me I'm just going to call the tax office and have them get in touch with you uh but we will get you the information that you need um Wills Fun Park uh I actually really really really enjoyed it I grew up in Rocky Mount where we went to Sports World which is kind of the same thing and I used to skate every single weekend so this was quite nostalgic I uh skated pretty well the other night after not skating in about 10 years I only fail
once and that's when the news wanted to catch me so media please stop capturing the worst of moments um um you know so you were the first on the rink I was the first on the floor it was really tight uh so I I don't recommend skating on a uh with fresh skates and a freshly waxed floor you got to loosen it up a little bit get some dirt on it get some sand uh so you can cross over well but I'm so gra I'm so grateful to have our amusement park back is is where the skating rink is open and we're expanding that property to be uh you know our uh mici Park in Durham uh mayor protim I know we've talked about it but thank you for hosting an amazing town and state dinner and just so you all for you all who don't know the town and state dinner is when the president of the North Carolina League of municipalities bring together local elected officials with state legislators all over the political owls together in a room sit us together and
We Dine together and the folks that you see on TV talking the crazy stuff and the folks that are over here marching and fighting and protesting this and doing all this we're all in the same room and we have to have dinner together and that is one of the uh highlights of the year uh it it it's not political it's it's uh collegial and I enjoy that that dinner every single year so uh you put on a great great dinner this year here Pro great job and to our colleagues that came and um had a quorum dinner uh there was a lot of us there but thank you all for coming and and being there as well uh next week uh next week uh I'll be in Washington DC with the Yale's uh mayor and CEO Summit but I'll also be there with the national league of cities uh spending time with Congress pray for your mayor um spending time with Congress
making sure that we are trying to get some some message in there what's happening here at the local level uh I know may approach him you'll be there council member Freeman are you headed to DC yep so uh anybody else headed up to DC okay so uh some of us will be in DC on Capitol Hill next week and just you know really talking to Durham show about what's happening here at the local level and why it's important I don't want to end on a negative note so I want to get this out of the way uh I've been made aware of um an individual that's been going around town um berating bars and and clubs and and you know uh making Val threats and I I uh not even going to mention their name they don't deserve it but I do want folks to know that uh we take you know uh discrimination and hatefulness hatred endur them very seriously and um our police chief and her Department are all over it and uh I can say on the record if you uh think that this is okay this is not Washington DC you'll be arrested
uh if you make threats on anyone in the city like that and um yeah I'll leave it at that um Dr Malcolm debond at uh Duke Orthopedics uh he leads the uh trauma orthopedic surgery Department uh he's also a good friend and one day we just had a conversation and uh he was you know just listening to my frustration about the fact that we're losing so many of our kids so many of our young people young men especially young black men to be special specific about it and uh them to gun vience and the ones we don't lose um still there's a great number that are being impacted by gun violence uh we hear the news story or we or the council we get the actual alert on our phones every time there's a homicide in this community before it even gets to the media the media then reports it the family finds out and then the
doctors receive them in the emergency room and this is taking a toll on everyone and I refuse to allow this to be normalized in the Bull City so I'm going to continue to talk about it but I'm going to I'm going to do more than talk about it we're going to do things about it uh so uh I want to highlight the Duke orthopedic surgery department and partnering with us um out of the mayor's office to reduce the amount of young black men entering the emergency room due to gun violence and uh we uh have partnered in drafting a grant in received it through Johnson and Johnson in partnership with Duke Health uh this uh partnership will engage in community assets Community like um bringing resources together yes but also uh when I say assets human assets we're going into the barber shops across the city and we're going to fund this program and this Outreach and we're going to work with barber shops we're going to work with Barbers to engage in intimate
conversations with these young fellas that are going in there that a as a as a black man the barber shop is our therapy session that's where we go and we just put it all out there uh so our Barbers are um underrecognized as the impact that they have on our community socially and so uh this program will uh engage our Barbers to engage with our young men to try and steer them a different direction and I appreciate Duke health and Johnson and Johnson and this grant uh which is a uh supportive of the Bull City future fund as well as we try and reduce the amount of young black men entering the hospital due to gun violence so Dr Malcolm Deon and your team at Duke thank you thank you thank you for this partnership uh and uh we'll continue to try and do more things including uh the financial literacy tour that um out of my office we launched the mayor's personal uh Finance Playbook which is a tour around the city on uh um financial literacy and economic empowerment this is in partnership with
the African-American Mayors Association so there's a lot of things that are happening in our community I believe that if we can Empower Empower our people and change the environment in which they are living then we should see different outcomes but it will take our community at large to be a part of this and with that being said uh last thing here I am fully aware of what's happening in Washington I'm fully aware the impact that it has on us here at the local level uh I don't like being antagonistic because I don't want our community members to be targeted but what I can say to the folks in DC is it's very different when you're at the local level at the local level if the you know a resident a citizen has an issue they come and they look us right in the eyes in person and tell us how they feel about whatever policies and decisions we're making often times when you're in Washington you don't you enjoy the luxury of not having to not having to face that so therefore you're held a little less
accountable but I do believe the strength of the Nation should be built from the bottom up as well as diplomacy the dignity and respect that this country has it builds up from the bottom so I when I think of America I think about what we look what it looks like here in Durham and when people think about what's happening at the national level see it for what it is but control what you can control that is us here the local level how we interact with one another that's what matters most so be proud of who you are be proud of the city you live in because this is what we can control I will send this message to uh I will take this message to Washington next week uh tonight at 7 pm on CNN there is a featured story CNN investigates uh you'll see your mayor and as well as some of the residents here in Durham talking about the impact of us Aid and
the cuts uh we have about 2,700 workers here we have 300 that have been laid off and fured who don't know where their next paycheck is coming from and uh I am working on an opad to highlight this and colleagues you should have circulated in your inboxes that resolution I'm going to take one final read at to make some adjustments and uh I hope that we can discuss that at work session on Thursday and bring that for us and um if all goes well I will invite uh those those uh workers who've been fured laid off to City Hall with us uh I'll be uh taking uh similar approaches to some of the other areas that are affected us here locally immigration uh how it's affecting our um our local economy uh but yeah we we fhi RTI EPA ni we are getting hit hard and I want our residents to know that we we're going to stand up you know for them and with them there are some things that I hope we'll be able to do here at the local level such as uh jobs that are available in the private and public sector placing them for in the Forefront
so so that folks can be able to uh apply for those jobs um but we have Durham MS that are getting laid off in furo because someone who runs a social media campaign or application is I'm going to stop talking I see Madam attorney looking at me and all right I'll finish it someone who's running a social media platform is trying to run our country and that's not going to happen anyway thank you all um for coming tonight who's here and let's get to business all right thanks colleagues for your patience with my long comments tonight I can hear Javier over there saying is he still talking all right so at this time I will um pass it over to city manager Mr manager for uh priority items thank you mayor mayor proon members of council the city manager's office has just one priority item this evening that's to announce that for agenda item number nine the 202 for our fourth quarter
crime report there was additional information that Council requested during the February 20 2025 work session and that that has been added to your packet thank you thank you madam attorney good evening Mr Mayor mayor PM members of council city attorney's office has no priority items this evening thank you madam clerk good evening Mr Mayor Mr Mayor proem and City Council Members it's good to see you the city clerk's office has no items this evening thank you thank you all right at this time I will read the consent agenda item number one Durham Planning Commission appointment item number two human relations commission appointment number three procurement card pcard performance audit January 2025 number four board's committees commissions task force calendar year 2024 annual attendance reports number five Duram conventions uh convention and visitors bureau DBA discovered Duram 2024 annual report number six Community Development block
grant cdbg program Grant project ordinance for fiscal year 2021 and 2022 number seven Public Works Operation Center renovation construction manager at risk agreement with CT Wilson Construction Company Incorporated number eight housing appe Hills board annual report for fiscal year 2024 number nine 2024 fourth quarter crime report number 10 amendment number two to Services contract for water quality web portal repair and maintenance for the storm water quality program number 11 supplemental agreement number three to master agreement number 18906 with exalt engineering PC for multimodal safety improvements to guest Road number 12 supplemental agreement number five to master agreement number 18925 with wsp USA Incorporated for design of multimodal safety improvements of City maintained roads number 13 supplemental agreement number three to master agreement number 181 18919 with stand Consulting Services Incorporated for design of two-way
conversion of Roxboro Street and Mum Street Number 14 Second Amendment to the contract with ratp de Dev development USA Incorporated for the management operation and maintenance of the godum fixed throughout transit system number 15 godum fiscal 2024 annual report number 16 governing agreement governing agreements for the 2025 2028 city of Durham transfer or call Professional Services and Engineering Services and data collection number 17 Construction contract award to Carolina Civil Works Incorporated for the 2025 Water and Sewer Point repair number 18 construction contractor Carolina Civil Works Incorporated for the fiscal year 25 unscheduled Pipeline and plant repairs project number 19 construction award to Tilex Group LLC for the Albany Peach Tree Gattis waterline replacement project number 20 Construction contract for Tera Flex Group LLC for the fiscal
year 20 okay uh fiscal year 25 unscheduled Pipeline and plant repairs project and number 23 CLE Drive Street closing be a public hearing all right move to adopt consent second it's been moved and properly seconded Madam cler you please open the vote please close that's what I mean W6 I switched out the batteries and it still didn't fix it so okay it's not is a council member Cooks okay who there the dead actually that's a that's a phantom um voting system it's me okay all right Mr council member w it's not council member cook then all right all right the the vote is seven to
zero all right sounds good thank you all right now um uh we prepared for the staff report good good evening my name is jelisa Harris staff planner major development review in the planning department staff requests that the all planning department testimony and materials presented be made part of permanent record the street closing request sc24 0000001 is for the permanent closure of the entirety of CLE drive to allow recombination of the rway with adjacent Parcels identify with re IDs 15787 71 157 900
15791 and 15787 0 the recombination is shown on the associated Street closing and recombination plat attachment D the applicant wishes to close the street to allow for the construction of a multifam residential development the right of way is only approved improved with gravel driveways serving the adjacent parcels and there is no provision for a future connection to other streets if the proposed street closure is approved by Council pursuant to North Carolina General statute section 160 d501 and 160 d605 the parcels identify with ra IDs 157 8711 157 90157 901 and 157 870 as we combine with former dedicated rideway should be designated mixed residential neighborhood on the place type map of a
comprehensive plan North Carolina General statute section 160a 299 requires that the governing body make two findings prior to closing any Street or alley these are number one closing the street or alley is not contrary to the public interest and number two no individual owning property in the vicinity of the street or alley or in the sub subdivision in which it is located would be deprived of reasonable means of Ingress or egress to that property this request was submitted to service agencies for review in comment all substantive comments were addressed during the review of the case and the applicant is present for any questions thank you you've heard the staff report are there any questions for staff all right I'll now declare it this public hearing open right
uh is the applicant here Marcus or Michael all right I don't have any signups so therefore I'll declare the public hearing closed and back before the council Council are they any yes sir I don't think this is going to be unless I have any surprises up here I don't think this is going to be too controversial of an item but I do have a one question um for staff for just generally cases like this um so so there's going to be a replatting they're going to consolidate the Lots will they then have to come back in and dedicate streets to comply with the block length standards of uh the UniFi development ordinance at the time further down the road when they do decide that that they want to develop b rinsky planning um the site
plan is for apartments and I believe they're using driveways and there's no further subdivision so they would have to meet those standards if they subdivided and uh streets required for for those connectivity standards I don't believe that's the case in the site plan um that they've got under review as of today obviously if the applicant um wants to to further clarify that's is that like a is that an explicit exception in the Udo for apartments versus other kinds of development so the the K activity standards talk about in subdivisions and lots and therefore wouldn't apply like interior to a commercial project or apartments or mixed use as they're currently written okay sure I can add to that um a Matthew Carpenter with Parker Poe 301 fville street here on behalf of the the applicant High Street residential um the project is a multif family project and so the internal streets will be private
driveways and parking lots um and and so the there will be no more public RightWay dedication interior to the site but but the project does have to meet um the other build to standards you know for the buildings that face the the public streets Hopson Road um and the other side thank you all right any other questions all right thank you um so therefore I'll entertain a motion to permanently close in its entirety C drive moved is Right second been moved and properly seconded Madam clerk please open the vote please close the vote I think it's gonna be a short meeting tonight bro motion pass second motion I'll inate a motion to amend the place type map of the comprehensive plan
to designate Parcels identifi with Reids 57871 15790 15791 and 15787 z and recombined with the formal DED former dedicated right away as mix residential neighborhood m is red second mam clerk please up the vote please close the vote I appreciate Mr Mayor that you waited until the vote that statement that you said again the vote is 70 thank you well with that being said ladies and gentlemen thank you all for coming out tonight we are adjourned cut it close though oh