City Council · Regular Meeting · March 6, 2025

Request to hold a closed session that Council convene a closed session at the end of all regular business today and that is pursuant to North Count General statute 143 3 3181 A6 and it's to consider the qualifications competence performance character Andor Fitness of an administrative employee who reports to the city Administration thank you I'll we can go ahead and approve that you can if you'd like yeah I'll entertain a motion to proceed to close session at the end of business been move the property second all in favor on of post all right thank you madam Clark thank you Mr Mayor I've got my board committee and commission task force report the Durham city county appearance commission appointment for the three nominations they are going to Quinton Holloway Nikki Nicole miles and Allison pel with the nomination to the workers Rights Commission under the category of diverse backgrounds the nominee is Brienne moral.

Related to the participatory budgeting steering committee appointment and the category of Youth Clark R Sando and the last item the rally Durham Airport Authority mayoral appointment is Nana Assante Smith and that's the end of the report thank you so much at this time I will read the administrative consent items right City number one approval of city council minutes number two City Durham city county appearance commission appointments number three Durham city Durham workers Rights Commission number four participatory budgeting steering committee appointment number five Raleigh duror Airport Authority mayor appointment number six amendment number one contract number 18421 with United minority contractors of North Carolina Incorporated for minority Women Business Enterprise Workforce section three and Davis bacon Consulting Services Mr I don't want to pull that one I just want to say appreciate city manager Chad well staff for pulling together additional information I requested on that one I am continuing to work with the deputy city manager because I I want to understand more given the total amount of minority contracting why the.

Number of Durham firms there is still relatively small and what are we doing to start increase that pipeline I know that's not a that's not an easy or immediate answer or solution I think it's really critical as we build this economy that we're thinking about how we build a base of minority contractors that can be involved in these contracts we're issuing so I'll continue working with the deputy City Manager on that but I appreciate the additional again information that you've shared even your staff thank you thank you thank you all staff all staff for being involved with that number seven ordinance amending the bylaws of the mayor's committee for persons with dis disabilities number eight just real quick I'm not going to pull number seven but I just that was a request from the members of that and while you know diversity equity and inclusion is on the attack I think that it's important that we make sure that we are being Equitable in the work that we do here locally so I I'm.

Supportive of this number eight opior settlement funds requests for proposals like pull that one number nine General obligation Parks streets and southw walks bonds series 2025 number 10 2024 equal business opportunity program ebop annual report presentation and update the a presentation number 11 lease of a portion of Duke Park parcel 109272 to Durham bicycle Cooperative I don't want to pull that one I just want to say that I'm excited to that that use continues it's a great organization and so I'm so proud that we're supporting that work yep go get your bikes fixed there number 12 keep d beautiful 2024 annual report number 13 condemnation action to obtain one area of fee sample and two easements at 400 Marine road for the bicycle and pedestrian improvements project number 14 contract with gets Incorporated for birwood Park public art project using Equitable and green infrastructure egi funds number 15 contract with cmta of Kentucky Incorporated for enhanced commissioning Services of the city of Durham for the city of Durham fire and Durham County Emergency.

Management Services EMS station 19 project number 16 condemnation action to obtain one area of Fe simple and two eastmen at 1315 and 1401 Marine road for the bicycle and pedestrian improvements project number 17 human resource consultant ow call provider list I'd like to pull that number 18 durman human relations commission 2024 annual report number 19 mayor's Hispanic committee sorry mayor Hispanic Latino committee 2024 anual report number 20 contract St 335 Street repairs and repaving 2025 21 contract St 336 pavement preservation 2025 I like to call that oh 22 amendment number one to st39 329c Pavement Management Services 2024 23 contract sw100 sidewalk repairs 2024 Bond just good news bond funds being used it's great I would like to pull that I just have one brief question 23 yeah 23 24 supplemental agreement number four to master agreement number 18 909 with ketton and Associates Incorporated for feasibility study of Duke and gron streets that one 25 supplemental agreement number four to master agreement number 18 one 18919 with Stant Consulting Services.

Incorporated for design of Horton Road multiuse path and saltalk gaps T BL 0063 26 Federal Transit Administration section 5310 American rescue plan act Grant project ordinance for dialysis transportation number 27 service contract for Vanguard utility Service Incorporated for the larger meter inspection testing a minor repair services project that one 28 contract Amendment two to professional Engineering Services contract number 18079 with high fi infrastructure engineering PC for the fiscal year 21 lift station Improvement project improvements project number okay we have budget Management Services here number 29 public hear on fiscal year 2526 budget and fisc year 26 31 Capital Improvement plan we have a zoning map change chin Road chin Page Road Apartments zoning map change number 31 picket Apartments number 32 Consolidated annexation 1012 valat Drive point of inquiry I think a c resident pulled number 31 Madame attorney correct it's a public hearing for Monday night but are is it in order to have that pulled for.

Public comment today from a resident residents can speak on any item that they choose to speak on but those comments will not be part of the public hearing record obviously got you 31 then we have a resident that's requested 31 be pulled yeah. Actually number 27 is that a resource person yeah that's a resource other one is pulled I have 33 Okay 32 consolida annexation for government drive and supplemental items number 33 joint resolution calling for the immediate lifting of the stop work order on foreign assistance programs and the reopening of the United States agency for International Development now pull that speaker yep all right that is our agenda with items eight 17 24 23 and 27 21 I'm.

Sorry all right can you this again could you read those out absolutely I have 8 17 21 23 24 27 and 31 you concur Mr manager yes all right and we do have a citizen matter as well and a presentation item 10 all right sounds good council member mover's handwriting looked like mine for a second so can read it all right so let me go up to Citizens matter Mr dwor lingley is who I have online here Mr Langley can you hear me yes Mr Mayor can you hear me loud and clear you have three minutes welcome great thank you for the warm introduction and welcome my name is dewor Langley I serve as the volunteer executive director of The Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation that Fosters the academic leadership and professional development of boys and young men of color our mission is to provide a comprehensive Continuum of strategy centered skill-based and career focused programs services and mentorship that go beyond theoretical knowledge emphasizing a practical and strategic approach to prepare our boys and young.

Men for academic success and success in the competitive Workforce I wanted to share an event that occurred on Saturday since it didn't make any other local news broadcast the 2025 boys of color power Academy Pathways of opportunity where leaders emerge resilient the theme was sharpening Minds igniting Brilliance and building resilience we had over 60 boys of color attend that event where 23 were on the AB Honor rooll and seven were on the aonor rooll the key learning objectives for this event was to develop a growth mindset for them to embrace resilience learn from setbacks and persist through challenges to develop mental fortitude and academic success to strengthen their self identity and confidence to cultivate self-awareness cultural pride and authentic spaces for them to feel empowered and confident to express themselves enhance their emotional intelligence by building selfregulation skills fostering healthy relationships and managing emotions and most importantly building strong networks to support themselves participants engaged in Dynamic sessions focused on identity leadership and resilience through interactive workshops and other opportunities the boards were.

Able to provide we were able to provide a space for them to feel in inspired supported and empowered to become Future Leaders and change makers our keynote speaker was Mr Kamal Bell who's the founder and Farmer at soof for Farms he which is a multifaceted agricultural entity dedicated to addressing food insecurity and underserved communities he shared his journey in entrepreneurship and education inspiring them to develop blueprints to force their own path to success our Workshop facilitator was Dr Deon gray who is the founder founder and CEO of black and belonging a platform dedicated to fostering inclusive School environments we also had a special welcome and speaking from Dr Anthony Lewis the superintendent of Duram Public Schools the power Academy is more than just an event it is contining investment to equip boys of color with the knowledge confidence and mentorship needed to excel in every aspect of their lives we're committed to fostering a courageous and power environment where boys can Thrive academically personally and within their Community this Academy was the third.

Year we were fortunate enough to have last year mayor Leonardo Williams to serve as our keynote speaker where Mr schedule for a short period but through his engagement there much longer but this Lang excuse me thank you your time to thought thank you. Right that's all I have for Citizens matters you can remind me of which yes sir we have pulled item number eight council member cook I believe pulled it all right on you council member. Cook yeah Tim Flora Finance director I'm going to turn it over to our resident expert our senior analyst Julia brenaman who has worked very very closely with the city attorney's office on this so she can probably speak to it better than I can thank you good afternoon hi I just would would like a a little bit of a fill in on the chronology because I know that there were funds that we ended up receiving more funds than we thought and there was maybe a reissuance of the RFP but I was just wondering if you could.

Walk me through the chronolog chronology in terms of when the rfps went out and then also if you could talk a little bit about the the rubric for scoring the rfps that came in because I know that there were several that came in even though I know we're going to fund more than the two that are listed here but if you could just talk about those as well yes definitely so yes the RFP went out towards the end of last year and when it closed we ended up having 18 proposals given to us and so our Review Committee which comprised of myself Tim Flora wut city manager W bush and Fallon Thompson in particip participatory budgeting reviewed all 18 proposals and they were based on description of the project population need Target population the overarching goals sustainability Community Partners organization background and experience and then their overall budget and so you were right the as more funding has come in that's why we decided to do this RFP process and more settle ments may.

Continue to close giving more money but this is what we have guaranteed to us right now and so that is how we came up with the numbers that we're working on and we split it up into threeyear periods so that way it would be manageable with the upcoming possibility of additional funds did I answer your questions yes you did so when when and if the additional money comes in do we did we evaluate all of those 18 proposals and we're going to go back to that list or will we be reissuing rfps how does that process work so that has not been determined yet it could go either way we could go back to the original list or we could continue to put out another RFP it kind of depends on the timeline of when that additional funding may come like I said right now we're hoping to do three-year increments and so hopefully in three years we would go back out with a new RFP and kind of redo this whole process.

Again getting a better gauge of what our Community Partners have what programs are going out there and what the needs of the city are right now than you those are all my questions thanks thank. You anybody else Mr Mar next is 17 and that was pulled by.

Me hi good afternoon Jim Riner assistant director with human resources afternoon good to see you good to see than real quick just just for my own kind of a knowledge B so there's no outlay of money yet attached to this contract correct correct so it we're contractually comprising a list of potential vendors in a case we should need them correct B basically this serves kind of two purposes one it by executing these agreements and these aren't contracts they're agreements we're able to kind of collect all the I don't know what you would call it boilerplate stuff up front so we bet the insurance requirements and make sure that people are authorized to do business in North Carolina and all that so it helps streamline that that procurement process and then it also allows HR to kind of be a resource for departments who they have a need and we able to say okay we have this list that you can you can choose people from sure do do these agreements preclude us from.

Looking at other vendors and the not necessarily we would encourage departments to go to this list first there could be services that there could be gaps that you know departments are free to go through the procurement process for other other vendors but we you know this this list is designed to make things easier so in most cases we think departments sure gonna use this why does this rise to the level of council consideration so technically it doesn't the dollar Thresh holds are not likely to to rise to that threshold but I think it's part of we the practice we started is sort of you know just really being transparent with this and wed to make sure that you know they're these Agreements are a little bit Broad and so it's this is kind of the safer way to do it let's put it that way now transparency is our friend appreciate it that's all I had thank you good to see you thank you Mr Mayor baring any other questions.

From colleagues next items number 21 that was pulled by council member. Baker council members Baker and cook give me yeah thanks for being here so this is PVE pavement preservation so this is using crack seal micros surfing surfacing Cape seal and asphalt Rejuvenation can you just for the Layman explain a little bit about this is different from a full-on resurfacing project can you just for the Layman explain a little bit about what this does maybe how much longer this preserves asphalt and kind of cost savings around doing it this way and how long this can preserve asphalt for good afternoon afterno Tasha Johnson Public Works assistant director also here with me Clint Blackburn who is over our newly combined project delivery and design team so pavement preservation is a combination of treatments we like to refer to it as doing the right treatment to the right Road at the right time the order of magnitude just talking broadly is about a 1 to 10 so if it.

Costs $10 to pay a mile of road which it doesn't but if cost $10 to PVE a mile road we could preserve that m road for $1 and we could extend the life of that road multiple iterations and extend the life cycle of that road keeping it at a higher level of service for a longer period of time at less overall cost for the life cycle of that road does that answer sure I noticed on the map that this is going to be applied on some brand new streets can you just talk a little bit about so the streets have just been paved and is that something that we wanted to wait a couple years after they were paved or is that something that we usually want immediately after they're paved how does that work so the the idea is to keep the good rose in good condition and so we will do treatment sooner than later and we want to and we're doing a combination of treatments for example a rejuvenator you would do.

One to two years after the road has been paved a chip seill or a micros surfacing you might do five to seven years maybe 10 years depending on how the road wears after it's been paved the premises to keep the good roads in good condition longer rather than waiting for them to deteriorate to a point where it cost is more costly to repair them and some of these really are I mean this some of the brand new neighborhoods that have that have been constructed do we ever get any revenue or payment or fee inl from some of the developers out there to help pay for some of the Rejuvenation that happens almost immediately after the construction of the streets before we accept these roads for maintenance we make sure they are at an acceptable level of service before we assume maintenance of them and so that is at the contractors or developers cost thank you thank you cook she had pulled it as well mic off yeah thank you okay actually council member Baker asked.

Almost all of my questions I was just curious if the decision on which roads are repaved as one that's made inh house because I think this contract is only for the actual or not repaved excuse me preserved this contract is for the actual preservation process with slurry papers are the decisions which roads to do is that all made in-house or do we contract out for that as well a combination we have ultimate decision but we do use a consultant to help us identify the roads and do the prep work and establish the list but the city actually vest that list before we determine which roads will be paved okay thank you those are all my questions I'm sorry Clinton would like to add something this well Clint Blackburn Public Works Mr Baker or sorry counc council member Baker when you say newly roads that are just accepted it's important to know that a lot of those roads are two three some sometimes they several years old before we accept them so when we're.

Putting when you say we're putting when they're fresh brand new roads they're not quite brand new so micros surfacing we're wanting to hit it around five years five to six years depending on the program so that's why you're seeing that they're not necessarily brand new road though so thank you all right any other questions on that next item 23 Chelsea cook council member. Cook yes this is such a quick question and actually might be for Tim but I'm happy to pose it my question is we are already Contracting work out for the 24 Bond also in this agenda we had a final approval to send the bond out I don't know where the item went but my question is how are we able to do this contract out before having ad having sold the debt I guess you understand my question yes so you actually passed the budget for this and so the budget is the authority to begin the process we don't necessarily have to have the funding in.

House to do it we know we're going to be getting the funding so as long as the CIP the budget has been approved that to spend so help me understand because I think we're going to do for all of these different ones that were covered by the street and sidewalk Bond and for those of you listening I'm talking specifically about the bond that we just passed by referendum so when we put up collateral for this Bond we put it or essentially the same thing we we are based the bond on the structures that we build and so for some of them we've identified and we already have permission to do like the sidewalk repair these are sidewalks that we already maintain and so we don't have to get any additional permissions or do anything to in order to do the repairs we're able to start those immediately for some of the streets and sidewalks we're not able to start those immediately does it matter when we sell the bonds if we have identified exact.

Streets and sidewalks no the actual Bond the the financing piece is compl completely separate from the the actual construction piece and so and and so so these are General obligation bonds so these are these are not supported by the infrastructure they're supported by the taxing Authority which is but no there those are two separate items once you get the once you approve a budget to to begin these proc you can begin the process the the cash flow and all that all those things that we and finance do behind the curtain all that we just work out the details okay I mean I assume even when you're you have to have some sort of plan right like we did this yes absolutely so so there's a resolution today to begin the process so so it was a $200 million Bond and so we are going out for the first tranch which is $100 million for the first tranch based upon our discussions with the project Managers from the departments on.

What we can get done and so really what we want to do is we don't want to go and get all the money we want to sort of it's we want the money to be in our hands when we actually need to spend it and so so we're able to use reserves available reserves and then we just supplant those those funds with with with the bond proceeds okay thank you that was very helpful thank you so much right next item is number 24 wrist hello director Egan welcome yeah well first of all thanks so much for this I know we we've all of us in the council have been getting numerous emails about crashes on on Duke and greggson and I know that also your department came out with a new high Ender Network which shows this is one of the corridors in the H Network so I'm I'm really glad they were're moving ahead with this feasibility study my question just looking at the scope of work so I just want to understand like.

This is the feasibility part but it's also getting into some potentially some options right and I guess my question is is the is the like how how broad are the options that they may be evaluating or considering is the is a two-way conversion is that sort of like the answer or is that sort of like one option like how wide is the set of potential solutions to the safety concerns on Duke and Gregson thank you good afternoon mayor mayor Pro and members of the council Sean Ean director of Transportation so we're going into this with an open mind in terms of the Alternatives you know for mangaman rockboro when we got to the end of our feasibility we determined that the two-way was the best way forward and that the recommendation and that contract to begin that design was awarded by Council on Monday night in this case we're going to be looking at a a series of different options and Alternatives that will include two way but we'll include other.

Configurations as well I was in downtown Philadelphia in October they have a grid of one-way pairs but the the travel Lane there's one travel Lane with either a bicycle facility or a parking Lane on either side it looks like they used to be three lane streets but what the city did was to find ways to introduce some we call it friction and to reduce the number of lanes and then the width of lanes and so it makes walking in Center City Philadelphia very pleasant because the traffic goes slowly and you feel safe crossing the street it it effectively reduces The Crossing distances having either a bicycle facility on one side and then a parking Lane on the other side so you're really only thinking about one lane of traffic but we'll be looking at other options as well we're starting analysis right now for a bus Rapid Transit project for example so for the buses to get from Durham station to West Main Street and proceed toward East Campus and nth Street they'll need to.

Use one of these roads most likely so maybe there's a a Transit a red painted dedicated bus lane on a portion of one of these roadways so we're going to be looking at all different needs for the facilities and different users and use types But ultimately with the goal of reducing speeds and making it safer reducing the the number and severity of crashes so that safety is going to be the most critical but also looking at a variety of different uses and needs for the roadways that's very exciting I appreciate that and I guess I you know we've talked in the past about Vision zero is your sense like if if we don't correct the safety concerns on Duke and greggson can we ever meet our vision zero goals there's a definition of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result I think it's difficult to expect a different result unless we make really significant changes U to these roadways and particularly our focus and we'll be.

Coming back in two weeks on the 20th with a vision zero action plan presentation to talk about U the high Injury Network 10% of our roads are responsible for 74% of fatalities and serious injuries and U Duke and greggson are prominently featured Rock Roxboro is also prominently featured those are the areas where we really need to make significant changes to the design of the roadway if we're going to see safety improve thank you that's a long way of saying no so diplomatic Mr manager I just wanted to add some context though I appreciate Sean's response and I think it's honest but I would also O say I wouldn't want to presume the answer to that question until we finish a feasibility study and look at the data I think obviously Sean has a lot of understanding of of what we've seen on that quarter but it might be presumptuous today to have a definitive answer to that question let's let the data lead us and and certainly we'll we'll be transparent with what our studies.

Found yeah I guess the point is if we don't do anything it's going to be hard to change outcomes right M thank than you and I'm excited to see this moving forward this is the not just the highest Injury Network for the city of dur it's for our entire TPO region so we have yeah so we actually have lots of data on what's going on in that Corridor that is several years old at this point I just want to share that however I think what folks really want is a response so if that means piloting some ideas if that means thinking out of the box to get something on the ground faster I just want put that out there that that that's our burden as a city regardless of whether it's we all know it's NCD ncdot road we know that there's sometimes challenges when it's not our road of what we can and can't do but I think that especially the residents who live there I mean I live pretty close by.

There's a there's a a neighborhood you know signs up and down these corridors right now that say slow down we've had some pretty terrible wrecks including a school bus hitting a house house in the last couple months and and this is a longstanding problem so I think it's on us to be as responsive as we possibly can given you know all of the additional pain points but I'm I'm looking forward to seeing what happens and then just saying from my perspective as a single council member the the faster the better and if that if that means that okay the two-way conversion is just infeasible for the short term or what not does it then then what is feasible and so I think it's really important that we have that lens of responsiveness and and quickness versus you know it's the ideal thing that's going to get you know yeah sure we can move towards that but it's in my opinion it's more important to show that we are doing something for an injury or.

A network that is many for many years been a very very dangerous set of Roads thank you that's all yeah I would just add the part of the feasibility analysis is looking at things like cost and schedule and what alternative provides the best value and what we've heard from the community is a real sense of urgency to move forward with this work so U cost and schedule will certainly be very serious considerations in the study May Mr Mayor also yeah so and yeah thanks to those comments coun MAV and we we have met as you know with with Becca Gallas who's the engineer for division five to me it's it's it's not either or right I think we can do both we I think I'd love to see us do something now to sort of show there's movement because we know that the the feasibility is going to take a year year and they'll be designed after that so it's going to take it if we whatever the long-term.

Solution is there it's going to take several years so I'd love to see a both. Andk any other comments reest all right just want to say thank you for using Philadelphia as an example because they they've done some pretty Innovative things with like they had a lot of wide streets multi-lane five six lanes and they they think they use outdoor dining for one lane and then they used another Lane for whatever to just really reduce the speed so and actually the outdoor Dawn and beautified the Written House Square that area it's just absolutely gorgeous all right number 27 howc member cook.

Good afternoon mayor mayor Pro 10 members of council I am Lisa Mitchell with the Department of Water Management and this project is my pervia great thank you this is going to be really quick but these the the what I'm reading from this memo the things that we're looking for here inspection and minor repairs and testing do seem to be things that we also do regularly as a city so can you explain why we've outsourced this or at what point we need to Outsource it yeah this is outsourced really just due to labor restraints that we have in house with our existing crews and the sort of specialty nature of these large meters and the specialized equipment that's needed to calibrate them that we don't possess in house and are these slots that we in terms of the labor issue are they slots that are just not full or are they we just have folks sitting in those spots and we just do not have the capacity for this yeah I'm I'll pass that question on.

To our director Don gry you can speak closer to more of our labor issues thank you good afternoon mayor mayor Pro MERS of council Leisa doesn't have as much historical knowledge as I do we have typically always tested the 2inch meters and less and we've always done the larger meters by having a contractor come in for the at least I mentioned and can you just I might say in the memo but can you talk to me just really quickly about how many meters or percentage wise fall in the two inches or less and then the greater we have roughly about 2500 inch and a half to 2 inch meters that need to be tested the the 1 inch meters and the 5 in meters usually we just replace those because they're not really repairable where the the 1 inch and the 2 in and larger but the inch and a half and the 2 inch meters we have the capabilities to do them in house the larger meters the 3 four 5 and.

6 inch meters we don't have the capacity to do that how many of those but there's about 500 okay that are in this contract okay I think those are all my questions thanks Mr gy are those are those larger meters associated with larger users or simply an older technology or what's the the L these are all of our large meters users users okay than. Commonly referred to as our cash register because they we build a lot of water out of these.

Meters all right next item is 31 this was pulled by a resident and that resident's name is Betsy Ross so Miss Ross can you hear me yes can you hear me I I hear you with lots of Reverb a feedback can you say something again. Please.

Hello this Roth okay I think I muted myself can you hear me now I can hear you so I do want to say that this item is on the agenda for our next general body meeting which is the following well not this Monday but the next March 17th and your comments will be received today but they won't be a part of the public hearing the public record public hearing record but we we will hear them today I just wanted to make make you aware of that before you started okay well thank you so much for let me say a few things anyway and I app you have three minutes okay so this it took a while for the council to understand that there was so much opposition to this because there are three large businesses within 600 feet of the pro proposed rezoning and it took a while for the word to spread throughout the neighbors and park goers and so I would like to I guess issue a.

Complaint about that type of thing and in this instance and request that if this is if an area the area needs to be increased in the future if they're you know large Parcels of land that are with businesses so that the neighbors can understand what's going on quicker and I there's a good phrase environmentally think globally act locally you have over a thousand citizens in Precinct 43 and other areas of Durham who are very concerned and strongly oppose a large Development Area of impervious surface at this location could we have a city and communal effort to keep the existing two houses keep the former sausage plant and Ward workking building for vocational training add 10 10 to 14 echo-friendly owner owned perhaps Habitat homes on the site the city could work with friends of Sandy Creek concerned citizens drum Tech drum Cooperative Extension and other organizations to to assure that the pickets and coals have the same profit for their land that Ascension is offering the tree canopy of 100 plus.

Year Oaks Magnolias and pecans could be kept and very little environmental impact to this area and why not an honor the picket family and all that they've done for Dr to name this picket Park so that's that's what I have to say about it and I kind of envisioned something really really neat there and something that could be super helpful to the community and just you know I love affordable housing I'm all for it and I live there's nothing between me and my house except for Durham Academy I'm and I'd be happy to have people who had affordable housing there but I think it would be nice to have rather than rent to have owner occupied homes if for them which would build build in generational wealth for them as well so I think that could be really really great and so you know instead of doing something that's going to hurt our waterways and Jordan Lake I thought we I thought that Durham had 16.5% of its water from Jordan Lake but.

Maybe that is an old figure and they've changed things but even so if we have you know we need to care about our neighbors and their water and maybe Durham may get water from thank you Miss Ross thank you so much you're welcome you're welcome I do want to say while we're on this topic that that I know my office has received quite a few calls from Neighbors in this in this area and I know there's there a few folks taking issue with this item being on the agenda the same night as the budget hearing and some believe that it was intentional to limit time that is not how it works trust me there have been times where the city the City Council has been here at 3: am so the the items are not placed on the agenda based on trying to manipulate time it's based on schedule availability we deal with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cases so to the public that has that.

Concern that is not the case and I also want to be very clear the city doesn't own this land we are facilitating and and sort of litigating this process between the owners and the community and what goes there whether really is about how much goes there not what so I want to be careful about you know the expectations of what the City Council can and can cannot allow I understand thank you so much for all your good work over there absolutely absolutely and I spent time with the kids at da this morning talking about this stuff as well so thank you all for being great engaged residents over there all right number 10 that is our.

Presentation yep 2024 equal business opportunity program ebop anual report presentation update that allocates 25 minutes you don't have to take all 25 if you don't want e.

While they're getting ready I want to give a shout out to the Bull City wood wood shop they had their Gayla last night and I unfortunately missed it due to an unknown conflict that came up but they've been doing great work over there and I just want to shout them out for another great.

Year e.

Can you hear me all right and now thank you thank you appreciate your patience with that good afternoon mayor Williams mayor Pro militon council members I am Sheila faet the deputy CFO mayor Williams mayor protm council Timothy Jackson Finance UBC manager and we work with of course Tim Flor in the finance department and the purpose thank you today you will receive a presentation on our equal business opportunity program Advance the slide. There all right so we're going to provide you with an update on our ebot performance in 2024 participation SL and so here's our agenda for today we wanted to start with our policy adoption because the last time we were before you you had the opportunity to see that draft policy so we want to give you a status on that we're going to go over the process improvements that we've had over the 2024 year and part of those improvements is how we improved our RFP process our data validation and our performance measure we're going to talk.

About our 2024 annual report and some of the data that's in that report and we'll give you a short synopsis on our 2024 Med week celebration and we'll give you an update on our disparity study and after all of those things we'll have of course we'll take questions at any time but we'll have a question and answer period in the end so I'm going to start off again with the adoption of the policy in March of last year you all saw that policy and you authorized our city manager to establish an ebop implementation policy and we wanted to let you know that that policy was finalized by our department it was approved by the city manager in October of 20124 and it was adopted within a July 1 2024 effective date and again that policy provides a greater flexibility for administering and improving our ebop program and it also contains detailed descriptions on ebop administrative procedures and an example of that is what our in individual administrative departments what they are responsible.

For as it relates to ebop okay I'm going to turn it over to Timothy for a couple slides and so what you're looking at here is a slide on our equal business opportunity process improvements this process we looked at two user centered designs and we also had a coordinated engagement with our state department the North Carolina Hub office and so when we started our user centered design what this is is what actually look at the type of work that departments are doing break those scopes of work down into feasible components so that way minorities and women can actually bid on those particular projects we also partnered with the North Carolina Hub office for enhanced engagements this way the state supports what we do they can help us advertise our solicitations and then invit us to different events across the state of North Carolina our request for proposals process this is something we wanted to take a look at and see how could we incentivize how could we get more participation in a.

Proposal process one of the things about proposals that a lot of you already know is there's an avaluation Matrix portion so we actually incentivize that Portion by adding additional points for if you have a understanding of the equal business opportunity program if you look over towards the right side this is just a highlight snippet of one of the many examples of how you could incentivize an evaluation criteria but what we did in item F here is if you have an understanding of our equal business opportunity policy you get a total of five points if you don't have understanding you don't get any points and if you decide to utilize one underutilized business you get three points and if you utilize multiple minority and women then you can get a maximum of Five Points one other thing here is a lot of times in different projects there may not always be a type of participation goal that's okay because what we do then is we ask for a Outreach plan Outreach plan simply.

Says how could you include minorities and women in this work that normally would be specialized so we ask for outreach plan and then lastly We've adopted what we call a good faith efforts point system so we said what we'll do here is if you can't make any participation goals you can't do any kind of Outreach plan here's a point system out of 120 points if you can submit documentation for these categories you only need 50 points to show us that you really demonstrated a good faith effort and we move it forward now here's our data validation project our process it was it was really good what you're looking at is we looked at all of the vendors that we have in our financial system our database and so the first thing we did was we had to verify that all the information profiles were up to dat essentially that they had accurate information as we did that we noticed we had to work on duplicated information we had to eliminate duplicate entries we.

Had to consolidate profiles because we realized that when you do this it really maintains a clean database and then finally we wanted to position ourselves into the new Erp system that is coming to the city of Durham our Oracle system so system enhancements and this is by upgrading the system to enhance reporting capabilities we believe that this will Foster better consistency across the vendor management process and so here's a snapshot that you can see of our performance measures all the way to the left starting back in December of 2023 our database only contain 201 certified mardian women vendors and so as we start implementing our validation process we increased to 463 certified minority women businesses and now we have approximately 470 as of June 30th of 2024.

Here is the physical year 2024 annual report We've included a a link a hyperlink you guys can click into it and it will actually take you to the annual report but this year's annual report we highlighted employee Spotlight my myself as a new employee here at the city of dermis there also you can find that information about the participation status shared process improvements and then we know about the disparity study and I'll turn the presentation back over to. Sheila all right so now we're going to talk about our Prime Contracting data and so this is telling you specifically where we landed at the end of the fiscal year as it comes to our Prime sub excuse me our Prime Contracting so again we are encouraged by our 2024 participation percentages we exceeded the prime goal for mube in Professional Services at 177% and our goal is 8% we had some participation in wbe Prime Professional Services and we do need to put a little more focus in that area we met the prime.

Goal for wbees and goods the goods category at 4% and we had no mube Prime participation for the goods category and additional Focus is needed in that area and if you take a quick look at the charts for professional services and goods the charts will show a notable Improvement in participation when you compare us our data from 2023 to 2024 next slide so now we're going to talk about our construction as well as our services area we had 7% mube Prime particip participation and construction and the goal was 11% % we exceeded the prime goal for wbe and construction at 19% and the goal was seven we exceeded the prime goal for mub ease in services at 8% and our goal is seven although we did not meet the goal for wbe and services we did have increased participation and if you again if you review the charts for construction and services the charts will show notable Improvement in participation when compared to 20 23 so now we're going to talk about our.

Subcontracting numbers and we are also encouraged by our 2024 percentages and participation we ended the year at just one excuse me two and 1% below our mube and wbe goals in construction we exceeded the subcontracted participation goals for mube at 30% and wbe at 16% in professionals Services the goals for for for Professional Services are 8 and 6% respectively as we did not meet each subcontracting goal we had participation in three of the four categories with significant improvements in construction and in Professional Services and this is a slide about our payments to mwbe subcontractors and if you you can't really tell them this but we actually had an increase of more than $1 million in each category when compared to 2023 the chart on mube excuse me mwbe type shows each category ex an increase in each category for all except for Hispanic which had a small decline when we compare that to 2023 and we believe our efforts in data cleansing is a huge factor for the participation success over 2024.

During our data validation project as Timothy indicated in an earlier slide we validated more than 400 vendors in our Erp system and we made sure that they were certified so that we could calculate that and include that in our reporting as you see today and we also believe that the change in our project strategy that Timothy outlined by us incentivizing projects when we don't or cannot actually place a goal on that particular project we incentivize it through the solicitation process and again we truly believe that our efforts and our process improvements is what is a reflection of where we are today with the city when it comes to our ebot program so I'm going to turn it back over to Timothy and he's going to talk about a couple of the areas so this is a fun highlight area definitely this was our minority Enterprise development week you all may know it as Med week and so what this event is it's a celebration of achievements contributions from minorities and women it usually takes.

Place around October this past year we teamed up with Durham County and we hosted this event together our theme was solidifying your next and so it occurred October 14th through the 17th and this event consisted of celebrations such as a keynote speaker you have panelist Network lunching a business expo there's another hyperlink here of a recap video that's really cool our Communications Department did that for us so take a look if you get a chance now this slide here you you've seen it before basically what this is it's the disparity study we are currently now in process actively with the disparity study but we wanted to just give you a few highlights of the background and quick quick demonstration of what the disparity study is this study that we're going through it's going to tell us whether we have inequities in our public procurement and Contracting it also is going to help us ensure that our race or gender based programs can actually pass legal testing which is scct strict scrutiny compelling interest narrowly.

Tailoring program so it definitely does that for us there's no chord mandated period between different studies but generally you would have a disparity study within five to seven years and so some of the things that they're going to look at during this study is going to be what kind of research are we doing the scope of our research what about our data they're going to look at the condition of our data how many different entities are actually involved d in this particular disparity study and so it'll last one year normally it lasts a whole year and then we'll we'll release all the results the last three bullets here are just foundational information for disparity studies we know that the notable case here 1989 US Supreme Court decision City of Richmond versus croen out of that case we did you know courts determined that there's legal requirements of compelling interest you have to have compelling interest to be able to support any type of supplier diversity programs and so the disparity study will definitely.

Give you results to determine a compellent interest and so here's the timeline we're ahead greatly of this timeline You' got have seen this but you know we we we put out proposals in January we've already had question and answer periods and so our real goal here is to be able to get a recommendation in May and then hopefully an award and issue a contract by Jim and we're open for questions thank you so much any questions colleagues council member cook awesome thank you for this presentation you've touched on a couple of the things I want to I just want to delve a little bit more deeply into a couple of the ones that you listed the first is that my recollection of feedback from the community was that the process was really convoluted and that the information maybe was accessible but people had trouble finding it or maybe it was in different places so I know you talked about redoing your process and and I heard you talk about these the one.

Through five boxes it can you just talk about whether it's accessible what it looks like from user interface when our folks are trying to participate with the program like are they able to find the information needed have you gotten good feedback about that user interface and any improvements that you've seen there yeah awesome question Council C and actually yes I didn't want to go too deep for you all today that's why we kept it highlight but actually we have additional Partners specifically for that reason that you stated we've teamed up with the Women's Business Center and also the small business Technology Center so we host events through the year where Community participants can come and we actually break down and teach them how to bid and understand the city's proposals and we also are open for any kind of questions during the solicitation period only time we cannot answer questions is is once bids are due cuz you know that that's not proper but yes we have done that right.

Now awesome that's so good to hear then I mean it seems like you said that the number of vendors that we have in the system have increased and you also said that there has been some application shift can you just go into a little bit more detail about what the results are that you've seen and and how you maybe know that they're related to the process fixes that we did yeah with the codm first what we had to do was we actually had a lot of participation already in our system but the problem is you can't report on it if it's not succinct so what we did we said well let's just first scrub the data that we have to see if there's actually a problem and as we begin to scrub that data we found that we have a lot more certified firms than we originally had it and have you gotten feedback from I mean you said that you've done some Community engagement can you just talk a little.

Bit about like the feedback you've gotten from from the businesses that are now participating yeah one of the recent projects I hope I don't get ahead of myself but coming before you soon is going to be the water intake project and what we've done is hosted outreaches I think we've done three Outreach events is over at our M Lake facility we've had overwhelming minority businesses there and we're actually breaking down the project and we're highlighting and identifying for them here are areas of need here's where you can bid on the city's project here are City's water management department here's the city resources and any help you need please let us know so so far Council cook they seem engaged yeah that's really really cool to hear and then I heard I heard y'all say just at one point I think Sheila said it that that there were a couple areas where we want to be working a little bit more so do y' all have plans in place to sort of.

Address those areas and what are they yes we do so what you want to do is what what we've learned to do is for instance say for instance if women are are not really getting opportunities for Professional Services and traditionally they're be goals on both sides well then you want to look at where your deficiencies are and really engage contractors how can you participate and here's a recommended list of women's businesses for this particular work so we're taking more of a handson really indeep approach to trying to fix the issue well I just I feel like over the span of the year it has been just drastic improvements and and I really want to applaud y'all because I know that this was a lot of work that y'all went into do and that this is there's a lot of information here anyway and it's hard to work with a lot of different contractors and folks in the community and of course everyone has their interests and and.

I just want to applaud you all because I think it sounds like you really like tackled all of these specific issues really Consolidated things and and made it more efficient and and I'm I'm hopeful to to see it sounds s like the data is already supporting the the changes that y'all are made are helping and I'm I'm excited to see it continue to grow so thank you very much thank you council member Baker just want to say I'll Echo the comments and appreciate the questions by council member cook and I'll just say thank you for coming in for the presentation this is really important work I agree with u comments about responding to to input by by counc member cook and yeah keep up keep up the good.

Work I don't I don't have anything to add I just want to say thank you so much for the presentation today any other questions yes misset Mr Jackson thanks for the presentation as well and yeah I note the know you you came before us back in last spring right and the the data here is much is really appreciated the sort of like the level and the the amount of data and the and the sort of like the depth that you can go is really really appreciate so thanks for that my only question is so and you know to where we're meeting the goals in many in different Professional Services and so forth where we're not meeting the goals like what's it going to take to meet those goals and what do you need from the council to help you help you and other folks around the city meet those goals that.

Again I know this is as we talked about before with the on the housing side I know that this is not an issue that we can solve tomorrow it's easy but this is a long-term thing but it's so important for our City's economy so yeah what'll it take and and how can we help support that really the simplest answer is they love seeing you guys come to our events seriously the more events that you come to that they actually see City officials there when the mayor dances on stage and it's like I love my city you know it it it it it actually makes our job much easier so Council R if you could just come and just support us let us do the hard work because you know we know the community they they have an expectation but they just really want to see you guys at the events I don't mind having a good time yeah yeah want yeah thank you this is more Workforce but like with the folks who are doing.

Doing like the folks who may be struggling a little bit to and I get the good faith effort are we doing a good job and this is coming up because of conversations we're having with recently arrived refugees and skill sets that we know those folks have and we are struggling to make sure that folks see the breadth of talent in Durham and it maybe in in parts of the community that they are not even aware exist and so I I really want to emphasize and I see to council member this point I remember when we had this last spring and the amount of data that the fact that you all went back to look at what we already had was a huge that that's that's awesome because it we were already doing good work and we're just getting better at this and I remember former mayor schul would ask often around contracts are we meeting our goals because we weren't meeting our goals very often then and we've seen that Improvement and Trends within.

Our just our own agenda items so I think my my ask is really to encourage businesses to really mine what talent there is out in Durham because there are lots of folks out there that may just need that extra support and and again going back to that connectivity back to where are the where's the labor and and how do we ensure that we're being that good bridge between businesses and and where they can get qualified folks that's all thank you one more point on that you know so appreciate your comments about showing up and we're happy to show up just because I'm wondering for example on like like service is where we we hit the minority U business goal but not the women business goal so just showing up again we're got to do that but I'm guessing there may be more than that right and what we are doing is having more Outreach events for example we had a Hispanic Outreach event earlier this year and we partnered with the.

Minority and we had a very good feedback and a very good Outreach so we're taking a Hands-On approach we're also trying to go through our database and we're looking at any minority vendors are not certified and this is part of this strategic plan to reach out to those and get them certified and again we believe that it's there but we can't count you in our program unless you're actually certified in our system based on our ordinance today so that again it's more that Outreach is what we're doing to get us there and that Outreach that's sort of to build your your well to build your your set of folks right I'm also wondering about pipeline like how does a pipeline how do we build a a deeper Pipeline and and and I'll say too council member R one of the factors contributing to some of that non participation is if you have participants in the city of Durham who can't understand English they don't know what to do with.

The solicitation so we had strategic we have strategic engagements in someone's original language I believe the more that we do that the numbers will take care of themselves because as as Council Caballero say yeah she's right you got a very talented pool but there may be some language barriers so the more creative we come with strategic outreaches I think hopefully we could get some participation I'm being annoying I'm sorry so and this goes back to like with lettino orgs or businesses in particular like I know there's folks who have gotten certified over the years and and that kind of also like advisory piece like asking businesses who have gone through the certification or maybe don't have that language barrier they're bicultural they're bilingual and so encouraging other smaller entities and and you know you're kind of like well my friend did it and they said it was worth it and so I'm going to do it right and it is about that again that relational piece of okay it it's worth my time this extra.

Effort because it is effort if you're a woman woman-owned business or a minority owned business it's it's not easy process to get through all of the paperwork and the credentialing and so relying again on the folks who who you all already have relationships with if they're willing to be kind of those ambassadors for the program as well I think that we would get a lot of success and I think folks would be eager to be helpful because it is it's good for your business to be able to access government contracts thank you colleagues some really excellent engagement deputy chief AET it's good to see you thank you for this incredible work you do for us and Timothy you said you you haven't been with us long but had you not said it we wouldn't be able to tell you're you're doing really important work really really your your your composure and your presence and your command of your subject knowledge when you're before us is just evident that that this was a good hire.

So so thank you for all you do man and continue to do this important work I'm encouraged by the the upward inclin and certified vendors listen this work is not easy we we basically asked your department to solve over a hundred years years of segregation and discrimination and disinvestment so I'm I'm I'm allowing a very wide birth for for success in this department because I know how just deep the hole is I you know the number for every vendor that we get on our list I think about the number of businesses that have gone out of business lack of capacity lack of connection we're battling against 100 Years of of cronyism essentially of folks sharing within their Network how to get into the pipeline so so just keep doing the work keep keep battling along U speaking of battling I your work now is is being undertaken in a very hostile environment incredibly hostile environment I'm I'm anticipating any day direct inquiries to come not from Washington but from Raleigh about our.

Work in this area so I I say that to say the the secret that's not so secret we may need to have some conversation about about nomenclature we may need to have some conversations about I like underutilized businesses and folk may still want to interpret that a certain ways but but this is so critical to our values council member riss it's you're right it's critical to our economy but it is work that that's being attacked it's work that's being is under attack so you've got the added burden of dealing with the historical challenges of this kind of work and this renewed kind of hostility toward this work in in our modern context so you're earning every cent it's not easy and thank you so much for the work and again I'm I'm encouraged by the certified vendor upward incline and certifi vendors that we're seeing actual empirical documented successes U so we'll keep plugging at it thank you so much good to see you thank you Mr Mayor thank you Mr manager thank you.

Just want to Echo some of the address some of the comments from Council a little more thoroughly and say that had a had a great opportunity to spend an hour with this team on on these issues and and some broader business related issues earlier today I want to underscore for council member wrist this team is being aggressive about thinking about structural ways to improve the success of this work I think you've seen the results of that over the last year I think you will continue to see recommendations and ideas brought forward and I think we know that the council is is ready willing and able to do anything we bring before you that we think will contribute to the success of this program and then also simply just to mayor prm's comments you know I think the other piece that I want to make sure everybody realizes is if if this were just a matter of willingness in terms of how the city managed its own contracts you you would see.

Drastically different results we are obviously in a highly regulated environment as to how we conduct purchasing and so the the real magic of the results that you see are are you know there are so many variables that have to be brought to the table in order to be successful in this work and and you've seen the the tremendous Improvement that our our staff has brought over the last year that that's not easy given the you know the the amount of legal hurdles and Regulatory hurdles I want to thank our partners in the city attorney's office as well for for helping to make sure that that we are doing everything we can to maximize our work in this space and then finally you know one of the things we talked about earlier is this work obviously sits hand inand with the work of your office of Economic and Workforce Development and you know I think one of the things that I think we have a growing opportunity to do is is.

To make sure that the staff in finance are also working in lock step with staff in economic and Workforce Development to make sure that we are not just finding and and recruiting businesses who satisfy these goals but actually helping to start and grow those businesses which is a shared effort obviously between this staff and the staff and economic and Workforce Development I just want to reiterate for Council that we we understand that Nexus and are leaning into it thank you thank you so much I remember back in the day my wife and I we first started our katering company we were getting our Dons and Brad street number and trying to go through this process and it was dense so the the overwhelming Outreach of support that you all are providing is is definitely appreciated the fact that our numbers are trending up you know that that that is I just think the work you all are doing are speaking directly to the values which DM DM represents as a.

Community and as a city and we'll always show up I just let us know when we get a lot of requests have to be a lot of places but we'll definitely show up and try to be as supportive as possible but just keep doing the amazing work I believe in you and I know that you all are paying attention to what's happening at the state federal level so I know that you're preparing for that when we have those conversations everything ISS done by keyword search so have faith in you guys to figure this out but thank you good.

Work all right our last item on the agenda is the resolution.

Yeah I know the I know no data resource yeah so colleagues I was I was approached by I was approached by a few community members asking for you know you know basically what is the City you know what's the city's position on what's happening at the federal level regarding USA I informed them that we were already on it we were already you know just paying close attention to this as well as everything and there there is you know we've received several inquiries you know on very specific things that are happening regarding cuts and you know I I know a lot of residents have reached out like you're not as loud enough on immigration matters or you're not as loud enough on the youth stuff or you're not as loud as you know we get all types of inquiries the reason why I'm proposing this resolution and and I I don't plan to bring up a resolution on every single topic but I will say that some of the things that are happening are they.

They affect our community at a very Broad in a very broad way I so I'd like to just break this down personally and why I'm so adamant about taking this approach I believe that talking about this not only impacts us here locally it impacts us at the state level at the federal level and globally when we are you know when we're thinking about us a I think about the3 billion dollar that are coming you know to our universities here locally I think about the 2700 employees that are here actually more than that here locally I think about all of the you know the folks that are living right here in the city of Durham really good decent paying jobs doing amazing work especially around health safety public health science and health safety and ensuring that dermit are contributing to the the health safety and you know these these parameters of keeping us all safe not only here locally but around the entire Globe I I will admit on Rec.

That it does take energy and effort not to not to use Choice words in result of the actions that are coming out of Washington but this specifically is very broad-reaching this affects child care this affects it affects you know the livelihood of households it affects the small businesses it affects the local economy it affects you know it literally tears that the fabric of a actual families there are folks that were you know middle class families or you know just hardworking families that are doing just just imperative work that are now applying for unemployment or selling jewelry to to just you know get to the next the next month so these are real real real implications that are happening that are affecting us in way more than just one way so I I wanted to you know communicate with the Mayors around the triangle because we are the triangle and Durham specifically are we have a much more concentrated impact on us than than most cities Across the Nation we are home to NIH.

Fhi 360 we're home to the EPA we're home to RTI we have you know amtr here you know we have NPR Here a the United States Postal Service and I mean there is a company that's that had $140 million Slash from their budget they are companies that are having to lay off hundreds of people you know and that's one less family that's going to be able to come and spend money in downtown Durham or anywhere around Durham it's one less family that's going to be able to go out to dinner enjoy a good meal and you know try and enjoy a decent quality of life it's one less family that's going to have to that that will be able to just enjoy Durham you know that's one less child that's going to be in child care so this is very far-reaching and as we take a look at this I I did I was going to make some changes in some of the language but the Supreme Court just ruled that it.

Was illegal so I won't suggest taking that word out I will say also in the resolution before you it does reference the wrong it referenced the wrong executive order the attorney's office caught that and we have that corrected in the in the draft it was executive order 13888 which was the executive order from September 26 2019 enhancing state and local involvement in Refugee the actual executive order that we are the to referen this 14169 titled re-evaluating and realigning United States foreign aid which is directly impact the usaid and it's being implemented by the Secretary of State Marco Rubio again so what's the correct executive order it's not executive order 14169 and what's it titled reevaluating and realigning United States foreign aid that's what says in here it doesn't have the number but that's what it said that's what references in at least in what I see on the on my I may have given Madame attorney I may have given you one the wrong one then because yeah sorry the.

One I've been looking at had that language so but yeah it pretty much this is it's it's pretty straightforward I will say in the one two three fourth in the fourth stanza whereas North Carolina is a leader in improving the health and well-being of communities worldwide and it's the fourth largest recipient of us Aid funding in the nation where it says having I'd like for it to say which has infused North Carolina's economy with more than $1 billion so I I can make those slight grammatical ER grammatical okay I need to read the whole thing all right so I will read the whole thing as proposed we all good over here the resolution resolution and it is the it is the wrong number all right all right so I'm just GNA read those colleagues and then if we have any feedback we can discuss it in and I'm going to read it off my computer screen because this is not working over here.

All right this is a joint resolution I like I I've been communicating with the Mayors across the triangle to have us all just represent as a collective a joint resolution calling for the immediate lifting of stop work orderorder on foreign assistance programs and the reopening of the United States agency for International Development city of Durham town of Chapel Hill North Carolina whereas US foreign aid assistance directly benefits Americans through one building alliances and Partnerships that enhance National Security by stabilizing regions vital to US national interests two expanding markets for us goods and services and advancing Prosperity here and abroad strengthening Health Systems abroad to prevent infectious diseases from crossing our borders and whereas the current administration's illegal and and immoral blanket stop work order on foreign assistance funding and dismantling the United States agency for International Development us Aid has one ceased the life-saving work of thousands of dedicated development development professionals here and around the globe causing affordable death and harm whose impacts will be felt for many years to.

Come two ended university- based Public Health collaborations that prevent infectious diseases such as Ebola from spreading to the United States three jeopardize National Security economic stability and government efficiency and four would lead our International Partners to seek other funding Partners likely us competitors and adversaries to fill this whole and displac the United States influence and whereas the executive order on re-evaluating and realigning United States foreign aid is in violation of the anti-de anti-deficiency Act and the empowerment Control Act because us U US foreign assistance funding is congressionally appropriated on behalf of American taxpayers including North Carolinians and whereas North Carolina is a leader in improving the health and well-being of communities worldwide and it's the fourth largest recipient of USA funding in the nation having infused North Carolina's economy with1 billion dollar and whereas North Carolina institutions including Chapel Hill and Durham based firms nonprofits universities and partner organizations play Vital roles in implementing US foreign assistance programs that strengthen Global Health security Economic Development and humanitary in Aid and whereas the triangle.

Area the triangle area has a significant concentration of international development organizations as evidenced by over 1,750 employees across 60 International development organizations in the dorm chaper Hill metro area including nonprofits universities and small businesses and whereas the shuttering of us Aid has forced hundreds of furls and layoffs at triangle area implementing partner organizations prevented Millions and payments owed to North Carolina based contractors and implementing partners and inhibiting Global Innovation harnessed from North Carolina based firms and biotechnology agriculture Health Care Education Health security cyber security Etc now therefore be it resolved that the town of Chapel Hill and city of Durham call on the US Treasury to immediately pay out sending invoices to North Carina organizations for services already rendered under foreign assistance contracts one and two urge the north Carina attorney general to amend pending L litigation to one include the Department of State and USA as defendants two recognize impacts on public institutions like universities three address secretary Rubio's implementation of executive order with the correction of.

One 14189 and stand in solidarity with effective workers and organizations demanding immediately lifting immediate lifting of the stop work order Congressional review of foreign assistance local economic benefits protection for over 1,750 triangle area jobs tied to Global development contracts and four urge all community members to make their voices heard through on this critical issue by calling their respective Congress members and be a further resolve that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to each City's respective National and State Legislative delegation North Carolina's attorney general Jeff Jackson North Carina's Congressional Delegation US Secretary of State Marco ruio and United States Office of Management and budget director Russell Vault the 17th day of March which would be that night we address it colleagues yes do have a question but do we want to do public comment first well I have two members I would I'll Let me let me do it this way Rachel and Briana I know you all have sign up as resource I'll leave it to your preference to speak or.

Not would you like to yes sure all right colleagues and the reason why I'm saying that there are a lot of folks that I've been communicating with and reaching out to and every time they speak publicly they are getting bots of attacks and and even from their workplace so I just wanted to be very sensitive to that but my fellow CNN interviewee it's pleasure to meet you in person Beyond LinkedIn nice to meet you too thank you for doing that interview I hope everyone was very proud to see our mayor on CNN recently I am Brianna Clark schwelm I am a Durham resident very proud to be here and I'm the executive director of the North Carolina Global Health Alliance I'm actually representing a quite a few people in the room so I'm going to ask them to stand these are fellow foreign aid workers based in Durham.

And we're here because we would really like to see our City Council stand up and stand with us on this issue now you heard the words International Development you heard the words foreign assistance it might lead you to believe that these are issues better addressed on the national stage it sounds like our mayor actually got that feedback in some way recently and I am here to tell you that this is not just solely a national issue this is a North Carolina issue this is a Durham issue this is a problem right here in our community and we are already feeling the effects of it as was mentioned in the resolution North Carolina is the fourth highest recipient of usaid funding every year and the the Amendment to the resolution should actually say $1 billion per year so we are infused our economy is infused with $1 billion per year from foreign aid Investments That is huge and the vast majority of that comes to this District so there a lot of fours here North.

Carolina is the fourth highest recipient of funding our district the North Carolina fourth congressional district is the fourth highest re receiving District in the country so there are 435 congressional districts we get the fourth highest amount of usaid funding right here where we are standing right this moment that is a massive number massive number of jobs massive number of businesses that are supported by these this this investment from our foreign our our federal government the the kinds of organizations that receive this funding they practice Global Health North Carolina is a leader in global Health we have always been recognized as one we're also talking about agricultural investment so there are farmers in North Carolina that receive funding to support foreign aid there are academic institutions based right here in our district that receive funding all of that is at risk right now we are looking at a potential loss of 8.5 billion dollar that had already been promised to our state in the coming years so that's the loss that we're facing right now and.

As we stand here right now now all of that has been cancelled they officially canel the vast majority of that last Wednesday so we're really facing a massive loss when I spoke to carboro on Tuesday I went up and I said about 300 people have already lost their jobs since Tuesday I now have to say about 500 people right here in the triangle have already lost their jobs that's the direct the direct impact the immediate impact we know that this is going to reach many more thousands of people across North Carolina we estimate about 2,000 people people might possibly lose their jobs from this one decision in the coming weeks and the ripple effect will be huge the individuals who have to put their house on the market who have to pull their kids out of child care who aren't going to downtown businesses and then the other Industries the other businesses that are no longer supported by this major you know source of investment in our local.

Economy I am going to pass it to Rachel in just a second I do want to just really also highlight that this is a global issue we're talking about our local economy but every single person behind me does that this work because we care so deeply about the health and wellness and dignity of humanity Humanity everywhere here in North Carolina and around the world and it's it's difficult to even start to talk about what this impact is going to have on lives around the world the food that is literally behind lock and key not giving out not being given out to starving families the medication that is not being given to sick children the mothers that are no longer able to deliver their babies in safe environments because America decided that we didn't want to participate on the global stage and be a leader in the world anymore I am incredibly proud to live in Durham I am incredibly proud of the City Council for even considering.

Taking up this issue I know that it is a challenging one to get engaged in but I assure you this is a local challenge this is a local problem and everyone in this room I I believe agrees with me when we say that we would really we urge you to represent the interests of Duram mites and to this resolution thank you very much thank you. Rachel hi I'm Rachel Cooper I'm a global health professional very proudly a durmite and a mom who lost my job as a result of this stop work order and the subsequent dismantling of usaid up until January I work to strengthen the capacity of governments in East and Southern Africa to build their resiliency to build their ability to finance procure and distribute life-saving medicines for HIV for TB for malaria and other infectious diseases when I moved back from Ethiopia during Co to the US with my husband we chose Durham we both had remote jobs we could work anywhere in the US and we chose Durham because as a.

Global health professional I know that this is the Nexus of the most Innovative and impactful work in global Health Durham has amazing institutions like the Duke Global Health Institute RTI fhi360 just to name a few and many of those folks are are sitting behind me that represent those organizations more than that though my dite friends told me about the values of this incredible city how we show up for each other how we respect each other's differences how we dance together in our celebrations how we hold each other in the worst of times I knew that this was the community where I wanted to raise my son and for the last 3 years I've been enormously grateful for the ability to do just that he's a sorry he's a proud durite at 2.5 years and he affectionately snuggles his Woolly Bully every night I'm in front of you today because I'm deeply concerned about the impacts of the dismanteling of us Aid on our community here for the hundreds in our community who now find.

Themselves with no paycheck people who one month ago like myself were gainfully employed with good American jobs Brianna spoke about the the just the job loss numbers and Mar Leo echoed this in his interview with CNN recently these are dedicated members of our community that support our tax base and their prospects for jobs in this area are dwindling rapidly concerned about our esteemed Global Health institutions for what this means for future generations of global health professionals being trained at those institutions I'm sorry I'm really gross I'm concerned for our health security I know firsthand I've lived in eastn southern Africa and I know that communicable diseases Know No Boundaries they don't respect those bound those borders and our USA funded work abroad kept terrible diseases like Ebola in those countries and at Bay so I want to thank the Durham City Council and in particular I want to thank May Leo May Williams for your championship of this resolution for showing up for your community members in times of great.

Need and for passing this resolution because you understand thank you for for you understand that what happens globally affects us here locally thank you for everyone in this room that is working to Advocate at the state and National level to do the same the folks that aren't listening that are that are telling us so maybe we're too big for our britches here at Durham City Council I think they need bigger britches there my colleagues in East and Southern Africa many employed by North Carolina based Health orgs are watching and they're thanking you too so Asante siko I'm sealo thank you so much for hearing us.

Out oh thank you thank you all so much H Derek has napkins for everyone in now it's right there I'm not crying not I don't have any tears up here but gosh this is yes this is how we stand out for one another in the Bull City so I'll bring it up to my colleagues to shimy commentary or any adjustments edits anything I actually had a question on what you said earlier but I do want to acknowledge thank you folks for coming out and I know it's really emotional to talk about another side of things is that immediately upon seeing changes and major impacts like this of decreased employment is that we see those folks in eviction Court pretty quickly we talked about the loss of housing and it's just it's something to to really be aware of I mean that any sort of change those folks show up the following month right and and we have young people who are impacted by this too who maybe don't have savings or don't have a.

Spouse that's able to float them and in times and so I just want to say thank you I really appreciate the struggle and and really sorry that y'all are going through that and thank you for bringing it to us my question is about you said that you were going to make a change but based on the Supreme Court case you are not going to make a change I'm reading the case there's not a lot going on there it's really really short really really short yeah it was a 54 ruling that just happened just like and it literally is just like yeah I think we're going to uphold this injunction but it's not they're not talking about they really didn't delve into like anything and so yeah I guess I was just wondering what you thought that changed it was basically whether we whether the current administration's illegal and immoral whether we were going to describe it as illegal or not because it hadn't been determined illegal I mean I have my thoughts on it.

I think it is but I I didn't know if we were still has not been determent illegal is what I will say from this lawsuit I feel comfortable with that language my based on my understanding of the law I don't think that it's legal but if you wanted to make that change I don't think that this case supports I don't think this doesn't say anything either way that there's no like holding of legality or illeg law school at Stanford I went on YouTube I I mean I I trust your judgment do you I Mike I was going to take it out until I heard that do you think we should still take that the scriptor out just to be safe I I'm comfortable with leaving it in I think that's a question for the colleague our colleagues I I don't think that it's been determined either way right that but it's certainly This One Singular paragraph is not giv us it's just not giving us anything either direction so that's.

That's up to folks feel comfortable leaving it and you feel comfortable with the law degree I feel comfortable with you know yeah attorney I wonder well I think council member cook who is also a lawyer has stated it well so what happened there was a district court judge that had entered a temporary restraining order and by a 5 to4 decision yesterday the Supreme Court said yeah we're not going to lift the temporary restraining order so to council member Cooks point they haven't got to the substance of the matter right but so they just left it at the they left that trro in place which means there are other things that still need to be decided ultimately yeah they like literally stay in here that they didn't even decide whether or not the government complying with it is okay or not so they just said the judge decided this we're going to leave it in place that's that's it okay so you have an opinion I do the so the threshold that I.

That I have to cross for my personal statements is probably a little less than when we're placing the cities in promod on something for me when I'm acting behalf of the city given I remember the conversation we had over the use of the term genocide which is a legal term when we were talking about the the ceasefire resolution and although morally and viscerally many of us thought it was it it it was genocide but it is a legal term and once you cross that threshold it implies certain things and I think that opening ourselves to this statement should be so powerful and so unimpeachable I don't want to give any opportunity for quibbling over the leg it is a moral whether it's slavery was legal for a long time it would have been appropriate to say slavery is legal so I I I don't want to even give onramp to any type of sniping to lessen the impact of the statement so I I would recommend taking since it's it's an unsettled question.

The morality of it I think is is not unsettled but the legality and why even open ourselves up to any type of impeachment of the statement so I I I would prefer taking the legal comment out I certainly comfortable with morality but yeah I'm going to vote for it either way whatever this Council ultimately decides but I would feel more comfortable taking legal out illegal out rather so so that was my initial like I I just don't want to get like I don't want the overall message to get the attracted by someone saying well you said it was illegal and it's not illegal or whatever it's just not worth it I I want again unimpeachable that's why I was going to suggest taking it out should if that was here cool all right so with the extraction of that I also okay one one second we get more than one building more more than one billion per year so I'd like to put more more than one billion and then.

Add per year council member I say I fully support the statement I think so I'm so proud of us doing this I appreciate the folks who' come here you know if you live in Durham long enough you have tons of friends who are working in the international a community so thank you all for coming here and for all your colleagues who couldn't be here this love the show support just this is a very small nitpicky language thing so if you look at that that second sort of group there whereas current Administration is illegal and immoral the when we just talking about blanket stop Etc funding and dismantling of usaid has and then there's four bullet points right and there's all verbs after the has right ceased ended jeopardized that fourth one says will lead it's a little bit awkward construction maybe something like encouraged our International Partners U to seek other funding sources or Partners just to make that a little bit more just to make the language that actually it tracks on the.

Whereas statement as well exactly what you're saying we have Force prevented and then is inh inhibiting so the one further in the first Yeahs later as well same thing yeah the verbage just isn't parallel which so what the bottom where says whereas the shuttering of USA has forced prevented and then C Mook is suggesting inhibit inhibited yeah yeah correct for consistency's a suggestion of begone to impede that was the edit inhibited works too I inhibit inhibit would be fine yeah thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor have another one well the whereas the executive order re-evaluating and realigning United States foreign aid is in violation of the anti- deficency act the empowerment control of act because of US foreign assistance funding is congressionally appropriated which I I think is sound but I wonder if we're in the same category editorializing that it's it's in violation of.

Something if not can we if not letter can we say Spirit yeah that's what I was going to say we could we can easily take out violation and and say that it goes against the the the spirit of the violat spirit I think would at least violates the spirit that's where is the executive order and reevaluate c m I think you said violates the spirit or or is in violation of the spirit is in violation of the spirit of.

This while my mic is up I also have my thanks to these folk who have come in today you know the the US president is the only leader on the face of the planet that carries the moniker leader of the Free World no other Crown no other Parliament no other prime minister gets that designation and I think what we are seeing is is a systemic and calculated and deliberate abdication of of that of that designation which is was kind of a cool thing being a citizen of this country I mean we got a lot of stuff to answer for but to note that your leader gets called the leader of the Free World you know except whatever you want to say about exceptionalism exceptionalism is what exceptionalism does you can't just wrap yourself in exceptionalism it it does something it shows up in ways and I think one of the chief ways is what we've done through the work of USA for for how long on both sides of the aisle so you are.

Heroes you you are the best face of our country you're the best face of our city so proud of each of you and thank you for showing up here today and for repping the best of us very proud of you praying for you thank you so much thank you Mr Mayor all right so what what I'll do yeah go ahead thank you good afternoon thank you so much for being here with us what I know y'all were at carbo on Tuesday and I'm seeing that this is with Chapel Hill I was just curious if if somebody could share what okay so is the town of corbor also doing one pass think they did pass it on Tuesday okay I just could you could you come up could you come up to the.

Mic press press that to the button on the right hey hi sorry I'm Kirsten weeks also a derite and work with Rachel so Chapel Hill added a little more forceful language calling for North Carolina's Federal representation to take action to better advocate for North Carolinians impacted by this executive order I would thank you yeah I I would just say my preference would be to add something similar I mean I I I appreciate I appreciate folks being here and I appreciate we we are good friends with our Orange County counterparts there are other resolutions that we have and ordinances actually that we have worked together collectively and and and pushed over the C the threshold to get to passage and so historically we have added our US senators and our Congress people to those resolutions calling on them that is the level of power the the lever of power that that is supposed to to represent us and so my my ask is to add both our US senators and Congress member fushi who is the.

District 4 representative and then another ask is are are the folks who are here advocating in Wake County as well because it would be wonderful to get some some things in front of the City of Raleigh obviously it's up to them but yeah we I know just Brianna before you actually go Janet and I have been talking about this as well so they it's it's C it's going to circulate the triangle so yeah Raleigh had does have a copy of this they are as the capital and we've had a conversation with mayor Cowell they are hesitant to take up certain federal issues they're navigating a slightly different political situation but you know I hope that mayor Will Williams will continue to speak with her and see what's possible we are actually really launching a Grassroots campaign across the state so it's not going to end here in the Triangle obviously we're the most impacted in carboro they actually added a line about Ukraine Ukraine is a is the single highest recipient of usaid non-military.

Spending in in the whole thing is their highest so and they had passed a resolution about Ukraine in 2022 so that was where they wanted to also lend some voice and also with the Amendments around sending it to senators and Congress people but this will also be going to some other cities around around the state in the days to come thank you this is so the part of the reason I think and I could be wrong that we receive so much usaid money is this the historically the it is US UNCC and John Hopkins as the best Public Health institutions in the entire country we are and John Hopkins is not a public institution it is a private institution that is U for many people much more cost prohibitive than UNCC Chapel Hill and so I think that there's a lot here that speaks to a lot of what should make most North Carolinians proud We have the oldest public university in the country we have one of the most robust.

University Systems in the country and it is not lost on me that we are getting attacked for the very reason that we have that and that we had historically one of if actually the best public school system in the South we were the education State we had the education governor and so for those folks who are attacking us it it is clear as to why and so I just want to for for residents who are hearing being educated and being a both a a local resident and a citizen of the world is a good thing you should not be afraid to be that you should be proud it is good for democracy to have folks who are educated is good for democracy to have a citizenry that is curious about the world and not afraid of it and so I just want to say thank you for coming and as somebody who is jilan and has seen what happens in countries when democracy dies and how long it takes.

Even when you have free elections again how long it takes to rebuild Civic Society how long it takes to have trust again and that is not a country with a large military and is not a country that has nuclear capability so for for all folks in Durham and across this country there's a lot to lose and not just for this country but for the world so it is it is for those of us in these seats and in our communities to fight for what is right and so again thank you to these residents who who have advocated for this yeah and real quick I will say under be it further resolve it as the north col Congressional Delegation in there go ahead mean National and State delegations national and state that was going to be question yeah I want to ask about the the the having Chapel Hill on here as well especially since we we've tweaked the language and it sounds like they're passing different thing do.

We still do we want to maintain Chapel Hill on this piece of paper I I was actually thinking about that. I guess we we have a week and a half still to work on the language but something to ponder there let's do this I I would I mean it it's it's a joint effort still but I I think that you know so Caro pastors right Chap Hill pasts let this be a Durham resolution and we'll have multiple resolutions that will support it rather than combining I I I know it sounds silly but having multiple I just shared a post about Ramadan and it's like six or seven resolutions across the whole state and it just looks really powerful and and that it's just it's even the Optics with it but also I I would like the language to be consistent and it's not necessarily consistent because our bodies are different we think differently we operate differently so I'm I'm going to propose that this be a while a joint effort Raley will.

Probably be passing some version that this be a Durham resolution could we do this I I think you're right about that I think we get tripped up in joint resolution has different language but could we add a whereas that says whereas Chapel Hill and caror have already passed resolutions other cities are considering them just to kind of like at the weight of our colleagues who are doing this I think it strengthens the resolution may maybe language where we at you know where whereas the city of dur the city of Durham joins other municipalities across North Carolina yeah I like that yeah I like that as well because we will need to go back then and there's a couple of the whereas Clauses that talk about Chapel Hill and Durham so if we want to take Chapel Hill out and then add a whole we as CLA and just say like we're all doing it together cool I'll take note of that for me yeah I'll just I'll just say.

And I'm sure we'll discuss this more we can have but you know I think things are changing so rapidly there's there's so much retribution in the air that there's there's we see all over the country I mean fear to speak out not just fear for oneself but also fear for others May protm sort of mentioned you know you have a higher standard for speaking out on behalf of the city I think you know on certain issues we are fearful for our neighbors and calling attention to to what can happen to them and speaking out on the other hand you know we don't we don't want to be quiet we don't want to be silent in the face of far-reaching injustices that are that are taking place across our country you know not not to not to sound not to exaggerate but the the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War not the not the American Republicans Spanish Republicans said I'd rather die on my feet than than live on my knees.

It's important to speak out and we need to be we need to take a balanced approach and there's not going to be a right or right or wrong answer if anyone thinks that being quiet on one thing or low on others is right you know they they probably don't know we none of us know the answer to these things it's things are constantly changing and and it's a barrage that we are facing and we just need to do the best thing what we think is the best thing and in any given moment and so I I appreciate U you all for coming to speak you know we have family friends who who are facing returning from Tanzania where they've been living for many years because of because of this because of this action their their whole family's been living they been going to school in Tanzania they'll be moving potentially moving back to Durham and looking for for jobs so this this affects a lot of people I also think.

City of Durham has shown and this Council has shown that it's it's we understand the connection between the local and the global for our sister cities for resol resolutions that we've that we've passed historically and so I I wouldn't see this as a departure from our understanding of our connection to the world whatsoever so again just appreciate the conversation everything that's been said by my colleagues and from you all for coming and and speaking to us today thank you thank you council member Baker Council may may person I want to associate myself fully with everything that that my my friend and colleague council member baker has said Mr Mayor you alluded the other day we had the commander of a us nuclear submarine attack fast submarine at a instrument of unspeakable destruction here at civil at City Hall with us and and part part of their their power is is is they run silent and deep and they're they're incredibly destructive but but their strength sometimes sometimes is in their silence not knowing that they're.

There and what I struggle with in this season is I I know how Mark Anthony is left to Mark Anthony's devices when I'm speaking up against something I'm I have self-awareness but but sometimes the question is do I want to risk spending $2 million silently to help a group of folk as opposed to hanging a bright light over it and have it come taken from us and I have the victory of having spoken up but I've lost the actual impact of of silently doing what I need to do and and there's no right answer the season you know in in my faith tradition the ancient scriptures said there's a time and season for everything a time to speak up and a time to be quiet time to fight time to be peaceful A Time To Love time to hate time to build up time to pull down and I've been struggling personally a lot lately with how best to serve this city faithfully and as my friends in the medical profession when they take their.

Oath say first Do no harm and and and you know and I and that's why I'm so thankful for this Council for these deliberations because there is no right I don't pretend to have the right answer or the right balance so I appreciate you council member Baker reminding us that that you know blowing the trumpet's important and and raising the standard sometimes is important but sometimes like our nuclear submarines do you run silent and deep and can do a a lot of damage when the time comes so I say all that to say we continue to push I'm voting for this resolution I think this resolution needs to go forward and be loud but there's going to be some other times coming down the pike in this in this current climate we're in where we're gonna have to decide do we want to give up our location on some things knowing what the enemy's goal is or do we want to help folk our neighbors and friends you know the Underground.

Railroad didn't have neon signs on it they hid people until the danger had passed so thank you all right thank you all thank you my to my colleague for these comments Madame clerk I will work with you Dereck and I'll work with you on getting these edits in he's been paying close attention and I have a lot of scribble here on the paper as well I think my colleagues have hit the nail on the head here you know some things I've been very louded about some things I've been strategically loud about some things I'm being strategically patient about and I'm thinking constantly and consciously on you know how we stand up and and advocate for our our community sometimes it needs to just be you know a few people in a room strategizing and sometimes it needs to be loud as hell and and this is one of those cases where you know when I have my behind handed to me I'm not going to take it quietly and and you know the we're.

Getting hit regardless regardless on this one and it's it's it's a ing so many parts of our local community and I just wanted to make sure on this case we we we do project where the line is drawn but there will be just for as May Pro chman council member Baker just stated there will be some things that you know we may not be as loud on that doesn't mean we're not as intense on for the sake of you know how we're legis atively structured and how you know in you know folks can can come in here and do things without our even some things it don't even matter whether we deliberate or not because they're going to do it regardless and some things they're legally already structured to do so but you know it also sometimes you need to you need to cry out so that your community know that you're fighting for them and they you know the community at large gets that that little motivation to stand with you and fight.

As well this is a marathon that we're going to Sprint through it's going to be exhausting but I think that you know what's going to happen in this moment is we're going to appreciate the art of tenacity we're going to come together closer than ever before so that being said I thank you colleagues for this thank you all seriously thank you all for joining us and we got you back. I actually and I I apologize I want to ask you for your guidance on this there was one item that bunch of I'm sure we all received emails about this issue of like unpaved streets and which ones get paved and I think staff had been prepared to respond on that today we didn't add that to the agenda so I just want to I just want to see if if there's space in the agenda to to raise that issue we're gonna do that in other matters I was about to go to got yep so those are all of the.

That's all of the items I have for that and thank you all again so we are going to go ahead and set the agenda yes I know that you already addressed this earlier but I am and I have no problem staying late I just want to be very clear about that but just as a recognition that I do think we are going to have a lot of speakers on a couple of these resoning General hearings we've got the CIP budget and we've also now got a resolution that we probably are going to have a lot of Citizen speakers on just just respecting the fact that our meeting starts at 7 pm and it's difficult a lot of times for people to stay really really late I know the agenda is in your purview just bringing up the fact that we have these three potentially four very heavy speaker items just acknowledging that as we settle the agenda and if if there needs to be any movement on that yeah yeah acknowledging it but it's.

There yeah and also sometimes the city clerk provides us pizza around midnight if we're still in so I'm just gonna share that as. Yeah yeah let's s the agenda. Thank you mayor before settling the agenda I did not hear guidance from Council on item 33 as to whether or not you want to see that on GBA or on consent yes yeah the but the edits need to be made for the final version and we'll just have it on GBA thank you with that settling the agenda your consent from today is items number items number 1 through 28 and your GBA public hearing items are 29 through 32 and then item 33 would also be on GBA move to settle been move probably second to settle the agenda all in favor allst all right thank you I'll address other matters before going into close session yeah so we are moving forward with Paving gravel streets I that was also part of the the bond we have received some Community input that.

Some people like their Gra streets I just wanted to ask for a reaction from staff also wanted to see if if it makes sense to consider some sort of opt out option or if that's a heavy burden for for us to carry out at this point I know that there are reasons to pave gravel streets I know that at least from what my understanding is that it's more expensive to maintain gravel streets than it is paved streets but just wanted to hear from you and then also just get a little temperature check from my colleagues good afternoon Marvin Williams with the Department of Public Works that's really a council decision so I have to put the ball back in your court so we're we're operating under the under the directive from a prior Council to go through and pave all the unpaved streets within the city maintenance costs they really vary by the street because it depends on the width how much use it gets on a daily basis the length of the street the.

Number of driveways on and on so really the maintenance costs very quite a bit so whether or not we want to continue as a city with Paving all those streets that's going to be a decision the council has to make if you do decide to go that way the opt out I would recommend that you have some type of petition where you get a majority maybe 75% of the property owners on that street segment to agree to not have their street paid only because we have seen that you have a loud few vocal residents that may not want something but the rest do but that you never hear from them if I could elaborate and Marvin please correct me if you think I misstate this or overstate just in my time here I think I've seen really two rationals that under underg guarded the the Paving of gravel streets program the first and primary was more of an equity argument there was a concern that neighborhoods had been left behind when their when.

Their neighborhood was developed their developer put in gravel streets the city accepted the streets and did not bring them up to standard generally speaking we accept streets as is it's just that most streets were paved some streets weren't so I think there was a concern that gravel streets were were in essence something that the city had neglected in the past and there was a desire by previous council members to PVE then there is I believe some some maintenance concern obviously Marvin stated today it's not a major concern and then we've heard nuisance concerns that there's more dust on gravel streets and so I've you I know I think it was Omar or you know about six or seven years ago when one of the first streets came up residents just felt like there were a number of negative experiences so I I certainly would concur with marver you know that if we were to opt out that we try to do something formal and I would also ask Council to consider.

Allowing that to have a period of time under which we wouldn't consider it so that we we're not sort of going back and forth with neighborhoods that this is sort of a hey here's your chance and if you're opting out you don't get to come back in two years and have us restart a project or restart a process so those are just my comments and Marvin or DCM Winbush if if of if that opens any other thoughts or if I've overstated anything please correct no overstatements council thank you and I'm if we can follow a similar process so I lived on an unpaved Street until the last year and I love my pave Street and I will say at least from the perspective that IA it required a ton of maintenance on on that road that road was getting new gravel every year so I I just want to share that for for anecdotal purposes every Street's different but we knew before the street got paved that if we wanted.

It paved it was the petition process and so we already had a process if you wanted to get it paved I think we should follow something pretty similar I know in this case the cost would be you know not that the paving before there was potentially cost on the residents to get it paved and that wouldn't necessarily apply but we had a good process with that and I think if if it can be tailored to this that that would be my Approach or my my desire I was on the council that made the decision to pave every road that was left and I think it was the the right approach for a growing city for lots of reasons so yeah that's all thank you yeah I'll just say I think based on based on what I've heard I'm I'm interested in in a in an opt out option everything moving forward and if a threshold if there's a petition and a threshold is reached by folks who live along a a a gravel Street and.

Everyone wants to wants to maintain that gravel Street I would I would support I would support that so that's where I am thanks Mr Mayor yeah like I I appreciate C babier mentioned the previous action you all took I I want to respect the previous Council and the decision they made on this regarding equity and maintenance and so forth at the same time like I know Wallace Street I've been down Wallace Street and I understand the the the concerns at least expressed by email that it's a it's certainly a traffic calming thing having a gravel road there easier to walk down not as many cars going fast so I think yeah I would support some kind of opt out petition within a as the as the manager said within some time period so it's not some some ongoing thing we got to kind of manage within some time period if a petition we can figure out the process how many residents has to be or whatever but I think there I think.

That makes a lot of sense so I would support that I can't being I can't imagine being one of the leaders of of a major American city and and not Paving the roads when we first had this whole conversation was born out of the other side of the tracks phenomena where you could drive into a city and tell where the black and poor folk lived by the conditions of the roads and where the wealthy folk lived on the other side of the tracks by the conditions of the roads the funny thing is this started with a forced opt out the government opted these roads out from being maintained you know when you live in a city there's some things we're obligated to deliver emergency response it's much easier for police and fire trucks to get down a pave road than a than a gravel road there's much more damage to cars from rocks being kicked up when you drive the cars down those Road there's much more pollution from.

Dust being kicked up I cannot imagine having a city now there are places you can live if you want to live in a rural type of environment but this is a city and when we agreed to do that to pave the roads in the city and trumpet the folk if you're going to live in the city you're going to drive on paav roads when we did it it was it was in direct response to the overwhelming historical evidence as to why there was a there was such a a a critical mass of unpaved roads in certain areas and not others so and if we do allow neighbors to opt out in five years if there are new neighbors or new people living in the neighborhood I I I don't see why we would allow our neighbors to opt out of what I think is just a basic thres old standard of living in a modern city only to have new neighbors moving maybe five or 10 10.

Years later and say well you know why AR why aren't our roads paved there are people asking us today why aren't their roads paved because of stuff that happened 50 years ago and and this was an attempt to address that I I I just if we were in a rural environment perhaps but I I don't see why a modern city four Florida city in our state 75th Florida city in the country would would give people an opportunity to opt out of having a paved Road within the city proper but that's me and and and again this comes from historically why those roads weren't paved in the first place in the other side of the tracks I don't want to live in a city where you can tell where poor black people live based upon the conditions of the road and that's precisely what this was and that's why we addressed it as a council thank you Mr Mayor yeah I appreciate those comments I I would imagine 90 9% of the gravel roads would.

End up getting paved I think this would probably not be used very much but there are I mean we'll we'll see I guess it would be would be the answer we we'll see you know what streets and what neighbors who live on those streets would actually want to come forward with something like this but we we heard I think it would be I think it would be responsive to at least provide a residents where there's an overwhelming of support because every street has different conditions and some streets yeah it's a it's a traffic huming device it slows things down people are just more comfortable with with how it is what's that so yeah so I I I still think that even with an opt out option 99% of these gravel roads are going to get paved if if not 100 I I don't know it would it would be up to up to resident but I think just at least allowing an option is is a fair thing to do there's.

Been overwhelming support not to have development in neighborhoods I mean should should we give an opt out option for that as well I I again well I made the point Thank you Mr Mayor yes just gonna say briefly that the the pros to leaving a gravel Street are ones that I think we should be incorporating anyway when we're building our pave streets and I do think that there's an important comment here about how folks feel like what the standards We are following whether those standards are good enough in terms of traffic calming in terms of runoff right and and what they're going to receive in their streets and and if we're looking at concerns from residents that they think that a pave Street means that things are going to go too fast then perhaps we're just not building enough of our traffic calming when we're building our new streets or we're not at least communicating that to Residents so I'm just pointing out the fact that when we're talking about benefits of these.

PVE unpaved streets those are not benefits that are exclusive to gravel they could be incorporated in our the way that we build our pave streets as well too fast until they call 911 all right well it's always the unexpected conversations that can surprise you all right You you got could staff just come back with us to us with a process of what it would look like around an opt out option not that that is a decision because quite frankly like I I mean I I lived on a gravel road for it did not help water quality the gravel just sits in the thing it means that the the drain it the design of the road is not drain properly right there's lots of things that people think you know it's the same as when folks and this is a off funny example but like the the development at Gregson and club with the little Eight houses and everyone was all mad that actually creates less run off than some of the large Ranch houses.

Around there even though you wouldn't think that so I think that sometimes we think a thing and it's not and we we assume a thing as a as a resident or individual and it's not actually backed by so the the water quality and the runoff I would say that having things go where they need to go and not get caught up on a gravel road is going to help your storm water because it's going to actually hit the actual Gutter and the system that's in place so I just would love for staff to just give us an option of what an opt out would be I I I kind of I appreciate the mayor proems I mean so what I I don't want fire trucks down my road because I don't like the noise or I have an apartment downtown and I bought the apartment and now I'm mad that there's noise I mean there are certain things that you are giving up if you choose to live in a.

More densely and and and the nice thing about this country at least at this point is you can choose to live lots of different places like no one is no one is making you live somewhere and so I just want to remind folks that like I hear those individual resident concerns but that is the the tension of living in a place with lots of population is that you're not going to necessarily get everything you're way just so you are giving some things up when you choose to live in a city and so I don't want to create a culture where you know this isn't McDonald's I don't get to go up and and buy exactly what I want and get exactly that that is not what it means to be in Civic society and live in a city that's all thank you thanks could you work on moving the railroad for my apartment because it's just too loud it's too loud it makes my bed shake and my whole building.

I'm sure we will all vote for that I'm just no this is this is thank you for bringing it up though this is this is a this is Civic engagement you know and I appreciate the discussion I'm not sure we have clear directions so have Direction ask you to clarify if there's a majority of council that's looking for something to change or not I I I'm I'm not really interested in going I mean I I guess we could look at what it would look like but you know when it comes to like the whole runoff thing I mean I think about Picket Road like do you want the water standing or do you want it moving you know and so to clarify a gravel road is not considered to be a pervious road our storm Water Division has looked at that for years it functions essentially just like a paved road so there's no benefits to storm water on a gravel road because by the time we pack in the gravel to in order.

To stabilize it for vehicles to use on a daily basis it's just as hard as asphalt and as far as a petition process it will look exactly like an infrastructure petition to have infrastructure added it would just be the reverse we would just have to Simply get a petition sponsor from whatever street is looking to opt out of having the road paved and a majority of the property owners not people that live in the street but the actual Property Owners would have to sign off on the petition in agreement that the city would not pave their Road and we would recommend a three to five year period that those res those property owners could not come back to the city requesting that we restart that program because our hope is that we're complete with the majority of the dirt road paving program within the next 3 to five years years and we wouldn't want toop super aggressive with this program and it has been one of one of our big.

Successes on infrastructure has been the the amount of money put and the amount of success and the amount of roads that have already been paved yeah I I am I I'm G to follow the lead of the former Council for me I which means I don't think we have let me give you clear guidance what would you like to do I'm comfortable not even looking at how to assess because I think that's an extra expenditure and sound I appreciate y'all's comments so I'm I'm comfortable with moving forward with the paving as it's planned and and no opt out is what you're saying and no opt out all right so your guidance is is don't worry about it all right thank you all right at this time at 3 41 we will take five minutes to walk down the hall to go into close session in the the council Suite conference.

Room 341 Let's start at 3:46 in the Council Suite conference room thank you we will adjourn from closed session by coming back into Open Session we'll do that where we are so for those that are watching we will formally Madame clerk have that recorded and at that time we will end the meeting we can't end that we we're we're not over yet we're going to close session.