about good afternoon everyone afterno welcome to City Hall your agenda um Call's meeting in order at one o'clock it's pleasure to have everybody here Madam clerk will you please call call the rooll thank you Mr Mayor mayor Williams I'm here mayor proen Middleton I'm here council member Baker here council member cabayo here council member cook here council member Freeman and council member r here thank you okay all right uh colleagues it's good to see you are there any announcements Madam um um council member cook um good afternoon everyone mostly staff folks um and colleagues um I just wanted to say several of us were in um
attendance yesterday when the federal folks from HUD uh came to visit our local public housing authority DHA um and we were able to go to visit some sites and also hear from some leaders of some of these communities and um I just wanted to send out a thank you to those folks who met with us yesterday in the middle of the day I know not everybody was able to come from their various Community um Representatives but because it was in the middle of the day but um those who did come uh did a really excellent job articulating the issues that are going on at some of those locations um and we had some really good intercourse I thought between or uh discourse between um the HUD folks and um our our citizens which was really exciting to see and specifically um I know there's been a lot of conversation around McDougle Terrace um and some hopes and dreams for some new building nearby in order to move the residents out of those older uh units that are there and um are are our
nice friend from HUD did say that he was committed to working with us on that project and so I was excited to hear that thank you can come on down if you have any announcements afternoon colleagues folks in attendance thank you for being here um I just want to speak actually on the housing topic thank you colleague um council member cook on the topic of housing um today is the what today is the sixth right so in about a week a little more than a week we'll have proposals coming in for the 505 development 505 Chapel Hill Street the former police station um I've heard a lot from community members about that site it's a it's a it's an important site for Durham High value site um a lot of folks are concerned about affordable housing at that site I share their concerns and so I just want to say that as as these proposals as we get ready for the proposals to come in I'm really excited to see um proposals that come in at at or above the required 91
affordable housing units which is which someone needs to get highly advantageous ranking so I'm hoping to see proposals come in way above that I know the county has redeveloped a couple sites or is redeveloping a couple sites right now on Main Street one of which has 100 affordable housing units the other has 200 affordable housing units so I think we could do great things at that site with affordable housing so again I'm just saying I'm I'm really looking forward to proposals coming in with well above the 91 required so that someone could get a highly advantageous ranking for their proposal so I look forward that I look forward to seeing those with the colleagues and I look forward to evaluating those with staff so thank you thank you Mr Mayor welcome home I'm glad you're safely back with us good afternoon colleagues everyone in the chamber and all those watching on whatever platform are you watching just a dovetail on council member of cook and council member riss already mentioned Mr Mayor it was a pleasure to welcome a deputy assistant Secretary of Hud's Department of Public and Indian housing The Honorable Richard monio to to Durham yesterday had an opportunity to host a panel uh discussion I particularly want to thank our residents of the our public
housing complexes here who asked some some pretty straight uh forward and I think rubber meets rode questions um Mr Mayor the the deputy assistant secretary wanted me to make sure that secretary fudge and the president send their regards to you you were in DC but send their regards to you and and we're very impressed with what Durham has going on we've got a lot of work to do um I told the folk yesterday Mr Mayor that the conversation didn't end with a period or an exclamation point but with a uh indicating that there's still uh work to be done so uh glad for that visit yesterday and looking forward to a good work session today thank you Mr Mayor I yeld back thank you as stated um I spent some time in DC um the last couple of days uh with the Yale CEO and mayor's Summit and I was probably the most concentrated and policy riched room I've ever been in um from having dinner with Tom Rogers to founder and owner of C uh CNBC and MSNBC
to to um uh you know uh spending time talking about international issues and understanding how and what is going on in the Middle East so we can better be informed on the local level with Jake Sullivan the uh National Security adviser to the President also getting some real on the ground perspective from um the princess of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia and hearing from her side of uh of things where uh she actually sort of pushed back a little bit on the uh on what's happening but what I did notice was there there was there is an overall strategy where everyone is on the same page uh and that means uh governments uh so that was that was really really uh really insightful and one of I was the one that posed the question I said I think we all um I think I think the conversation between Jake Sullivan and the CEO of Motorola uh in AARP were going back and
forth and I was the person that posed the question so what is the message we all know what's going on and what's happening but what is the message and how do we relay that on the ground level as uh as one of the 40 mayors that are here I I want to be able to be able to provide this information for our residents so being at the core of that discussion on Middle East conflict in Ukraine and Russia and how it impacts us here on the ground level I I I stood in that moment with pride to represent Durham uh with uh 40 also 40 Mayors 40 CEOs 40 of uh Fortune 500 uh CEOs in the room with uh the White House senior staff so that was really cool um I think the highlight of my trip to DC was on my way home last night and as I was uh about to board my plane I saw a classmate from high school who works in the Congress in our con Congress and she waves oh my God Leo come here and I go over and I see a young lady who's 109 years old
beautiful um black woman from Halifax County North Carolina where I'm from she's going to be featured in the State of the Union tonight with the president um and it just felt really cool to CEO and CEO of Delta was there to greet her as well and myself um just by chance uh that was quite the highlight and um also in closing uh having a conversation with the CEO of T-Mobile and ensuring that uh we have all of our connectivity resources here that we could use or if we need more we have that and also connecting all 30 something thousand of our students in our Public Schools household uh to uh to Wi-Fi and internet so this was a busy two days but I definitely enjoyed it and I'm back to DC next week for the national league of cities all right which I think I have some folks joining me on there on here but anyway uh let's get to the people's business and I'll uh acknowledge the U the uh the uh priority items by our city manager attorney and
clerk good afternoon uh Mr Mayor Williams Mr Mayor protim Middleton and members of the Durham city council the city manager's office has no priority items for you this afternoon thank you madam attorney thank you mayor Williams good to see you mayor p Middleton members of the council good to be here the city attorney's office has one priority item today and that is a request that the city council hold a closed session at the end of all regular business for attorney client consultation Madam attorney it's been um probably a bad practice of mine but uh I've been waiting until the end of the agenda to entertain your uh priority item and also it needs to be two separate requests two separate motions so I want to go ahead and entertain those when you make their request okay so the first request is a request to hold a closed session colleagues I'll entertain a motion to accept the uh request of the city attorneys Clos session so moved second right it's moved
and properly second I please acknowledge by raising your left hand thank you thank you Mr Mayor and um the actual motion language to go into closed session is to hold a closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statute 143 3181 A3 for attorney client consultation concerning the handling of a settlement demand for a yet to be filed liability action I'll entertain a motion on what she just said uh move second all right all in favor thank you madam clerk does that work better okay thank you Mr Mayor good deal all right at this time I'll entertain uh priority items by the city clerk thank you Mr Mayor um welcome to you and to the members of city council mayor proam and City Council Members um the city clerk's office doesn't have any priority items today thank you so
1 million I have some questions on a few of these but I don't need to pull them um go ahead and pull it we'll
just five number five uh number six establishment of a 911 alternate call routing into local agreement with the city of Durham (appears to be a location reference error) you pull that please Mr Mayor number six number seven Second Amendment to the Professional Services contract with Unknown (context unclear) will Incorporated for the Durham station Transit Center improvements project number eight fire and Emergency Medical Services station 19 architectural services agreement with ADW architex PA number nine American Rescue plan act project right of way tree watering with jumping buddies LLC DBA Pit Stop pressure washing all right we'll pull that one number nine number 10 American Rescue plan act project right of way with in inary tree planting with Davis landscape LTD limited number
10 number 11 durm station Transit Center improvements project construction manager at risk pre-qualification procedures resolution number 12 fire and Emergency Medical Services station 19 construction manager at risk agreement with seit Corporation number 13 amendment to mayor's Hispanic Latino committee bylaws 14 Governor's crime commission 2023 criminal justice Improvement program Grant project ordinance and 15 contract s-39 D pavement Asset Management plan programming uh 16 contract SW 96 PW Street Maintenance repairs 2024 17 contract s sw- 96c inspection services for PW Street Maintenance repairs 18 Street and infrastructure
acceptances and for presentations we have transportation department go Durham fifth gr year 2023 annual report and we have budget Management Services 20 public hearing on the fiscal year 2024 2025 budget and 2020 fiscal year 2025 and 30 Capital Improvement plan Citywide planning department we have consolid we have Consolidated annexation 3411 to 3417 Picket Road uh uh 22 consolidation indexation Sharon Road departments all right and that is our agenda with items four five 6 nine and 10 pulled c all right and we now address uh citizen matters
citizens matters this is an item this those are resource people all right uh Madam clerk I do have um folks online three just three where is it bottom three right here those are resour do you see uh Donna stand back Donna can you hear me yes hey there speak up just a little bit for me and I'm welcome you have three minutes okay I got to I thought I had the volume okay there are several council members that are being derogatory to a Citizens you know when we bring up issues of infrastructure environment or the comprehensive plan folks do not know my background and history and you know just FYI I am
disabled and do require a car haven't been able to ride a bicycle in 30 years on because of arthritis and um you know there was just a whole schmear of council members that were being derogatory to US during the March 4th meeting and um I hope that we can keep from saying I like this about you or I don't like that but focus on the issues that we bring forward thank you thank you uh Miss stand back and I I'm sorry that that came off that way for whoever or whatever it was um but thanks for bringing it to my attention all right next I have Jeremy bergren see Mr bergren in the queue all right uh and finally I have D waren
Langley Mr Langley is in the queue he is or okay Mr Langley can you hear me yes I can good afternoon good afternoon welcome you have three minutes thank you Mr Mayor mayor Pro you can speak up a little bit for me though okay good afternoon Mr Mayor mayor protima members of the Durham city council as well as the senior administrative staff of the city of Durham um as I was sitting in queue I be I the question I asked myself is what can I say today in order to get the council to make boys of color a budgetary and policy priority I mean the data is clear we see the crisis we know what organizations are doing the work in the community I was just before getting on to give this comment uh texting one of my Scholars who has an interview with Progressive Energy where he's going to be interviewing for an IT position and that is how you transform lives of boys
and young men of color is by providing them with the consistent support nurturing environment and developmental opportunities that will allow them to transform their lives and I know you all have a six million do Surplus budget as well as some other discretionary funding you all could shift around and I repeatedly come to you all requesting investment in the work that I do voluntarily in our community no matter how much I love Durham and the voluntering that I do it does cost money to feed the boys that we serve to pay for opportunities for them to participate in camps and for them to participate in internship opportunities so I'm just really asking you all in this budget to make boys of color a budgetary and policy priority and give us some money so that we can continue the great impactful work that we're doing and I'll be reaching out to each one of you via email to share more and to again make this appeal thank you thank you so much Mr Langley and I
look forward to your email there's a great deal of work that's are that is already in motion may not happen as fast as we all prefer but there is a great deal that's happening and um it is much more holistic than a single organization hope that you'll be a part of this overall movement thank you all right um let's start with our pull pulled items here all right number four this was pulled by uh council member wrist mayor good afternoon Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protemp members of city council Lola Roland here from the city clerk's office sitting in for Javiera Caballero (context suggests this may be misidentified) I'm here to have an answer any questions you might have about item four paa you can't roll up on me like that I didn't know what was happening I was like what's going on are We yeah all right coell council member oh thank you so Lola's here as on this
one yeah yeah so I guess it's for paa PA yeah um so my question paa is um I see them I see the memo there with the I guess the names of folks who will be who are this is a list of folks who have fallen under 50% attendance um and they will be they will be asked to exit they'll be they'll be removed from those committees right but as I reviewed the whole list of of uh boards and commissions that that that was attached to that memo it seemed seems like there's a lot more names that have below 50% attendance and I know in your memo you said that if they're not on the the list on the first page but their attendance is below 50% then they've already maybe resigned but it just seemed like a lot of people I just want to make sure I understand what's here what the process is and and I want to make sure we're communicating this clearly to folks in boards and commissions so they understand that they're being um they're being taken off the roles from these boards and commissions so a little more clarity on what's what all is here would be would be very helpful sure uh thank you so
much for your inquiry council member wrist um I just want to make sure you all can hear me can you yes okay just um so this actual item was submitted by Javiera Caballero (context suggests this may be misidentified) it's her item but um she's not here today so I'm filling in for her as I've submitted this item previously so um if the member isn't listed on this on the first page that is because they have already resigned or their term has expired that is why the 50% % has already been noted if they fall under that 50% so they're actually no longer part of the actual commission or committee um I will the list of members that's listed on the first page submitted by Javon now these won't be automatically removed so the clerk's office follows the removal process before actually removing the member so um it's in the in the motion of this item it says for Diana to start the removal process so that will start with an email phone call and actual um
physical letters sent to the member to inquire about whether or not they'd like to keep on serving and to discuss what their obstacles are for attending the meetings and how we can assist so if no correspondence is received from the member that's on that first page then Diana will continue through that removal process and formally remove them um if they do reply and if there are some obstacles that we can assist with we will definitely help um or or if they reply and say hey I've been very busy um I apologize I've missed you know the past two meetings but I'm I'm definitely interested in continuing to served and then they will continue to be part of the board or committee that they've been appointed to I appreciate that I guess my other question is um I assume the the board chairs are sort of in touch with you on a regular basis so they understand this issue of who may be falling below the 50% so they can remind folks right so I want to make sure that process is in place also want to ask about if there's if if the number of folks who are below 50%
um and not showing up is causing any difficulty in in establishing Quorum at these boards and commissions so do we have a does that something we need to look into further I just want to make sure that's not in any way hampering the ability of chairs to to do the business of their boards and commissions um as we've been instructed in the past for the clerk's office um as we've been instructed so typically the majority of our boards have a staff Le on house within their respective departments that communicate directly with the board chairs and their members so typically the clerk's office only communicates directly with that liaison if they do not have um an assigned staff member that's a city employee um now in regards of uh Quorum a lot of these boards uh the members can range anywhere between four to 17 members and as you'll see on the summary page uh it's Max of two people who are falling underneath this
attendance so I I can't speak directly on every single board as there's 29 of them that we manage the vacancies for but I'm I'm unsure if if the the ones that are noted on this first summary page are affecting Quorum or not I guess the last thing is just for the and this is this is just a sort of comment to the rest of my colleagues um you know again given the number of folks who were who were look like on those lists were falling below those those marks and maybe have already been removed it does make me wonder with so many boards and commissions if this is if is this the right number of commissions we need and boards and commissions or or are there are some here that are no longer as if we're having trouble filling spots right are there some that are no longer as important so I just want to flag that as something to to potentially take up at a further conversation thank you and uh that that is defin one of the items that I ultimately would like to look at uh we
do have a lot of boards committees and commissions and um I think an audit of needs could be something we look at soon um council member I I I that was one of the first things I noticed when I got on Council I think it's 27 and um 29 29 and you know the question is are they all you know efficient or necessary in this time not saying they not necessary but they were created for a reason at one point uh that's that need still exist Madam clerk thank you Mr Mayor I did want to add um for Miss Roland that we also explained the attendance policy upfront when people join the boards and committees so it's it's not as if they they have no idea that this regulation applies to them so they are aware from the get-go yes thank you appreciate that yeah I I definitely appreciate the
city's diligence the city staff their diligence in it uh also when it comes to us as council members uh as you all know in which we could Madam attorney we could get an update you can just send an email that legislation that came about the voting on boards could you just send that refresher to us or you want to just kind of talk about it but where I'm going is because council members can can no longer be voting members on boards and uh commissions I believe or what is it we can't vote on nonprofit boards anyway yeah that's what it is not our own internal we're not voting members on our internal ones anyway we're xfo for the most part except for maybe dos which has weird bylaws um but um like the Museum of History whatever yeah they we're supposed to be listed as XF members right okay so you don't mind giving a uh um not to put you on the spot you can send an email if you'd like or if you want to just kind of briefly talk about it but um that that that that
3 I'm going to look at Fred and see if he remembers um I'll follow up with the specific provision for sure but it was a a modification made to the conflict of interest rules um I think it went into effect at the beginning of 2020 2022 maybe January 1 um and it's not that you can't vote on nonprofit boards at all it's that you can't vote on a contract between the city of Durham and a nonprofit and there are a number
um of organizations that do have contracts with the city mayor Pim I think serves on downtown dorm Inc and they often bring items to us and so in that instance the council member needs to recuse themselves from participating in the vote that would transfer money from the organization for which you are an elected official to the nonprofit I thought yeah that's was pretty clear okay thank you I went to law school on YouTube so I not as thorough as you are all right um so are we all good council member R good good deal all right item number five council member Baker yeah just one one one question um and then one question sort of tangential to that I think I know the answer to this but um the the language here says a minimum of 30 years I think I I think we've talked about this before but the the intent is that this is permanently
affordable correct uh Reginal Johnson director Community Development Department uh yes the intention is that is um long-term affordability but that's up to the developer that's not up to the city so oh it could just be a minimum of 30 years affordability runs out yes that's correct because you're following and we do I do have uh Eric Pell who is the uh representing the twin uh Lakes uh LLC on the line he can elaborate a little bit more but you're following the guide guidelines of the qualified allocation plan of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency okay yeah I mean I just as always it concerns me that public dollars go to something to we the affordability run runs out so so I guess my next question to that is um this is the tangential question to that issue is um do we maintain a database of all the units in in our city where there's only temporary affordability and then we know
how much longer they are affordable and when that affordability runs out when we're losing units to to Temporary affordability temporary affordability so when you what are you referencing when you mean temporary so 30 years of affordability and then it and then it's goes back to market rate so the no we don't have a database of those that we do not have financing with financing relationships there are other developers like like Twin Lakes that we don't have any money in uh in terms of our contribution that's one of the outstanding projects that we have in terms of uh Community developers work is to try to find all of the the uh housing affordable housing that we do not have relationships with that um have uh affordability requirements on them okay so we so public dollars go for 30 year a 30 years of affordability we know where those units are and how much longer they
are intended to remain affordable is that correct no we don't know we don't know even for the public dollars that are being used no we know the ones that have used City funds yeah we know those we know those they are some everything else we don't we don't is correct okay and but you said that's that's in the cue of a project yes it is is to do you know the timeline of that project and how much we'll have to develop a timeline for that okay okay that would that would that would definitely be good to know um just so that we're prepared to spend more money to try and purchase those or whatever needs to happen to make sure that they we don't lose all that affordability um those are my questions thanks uh May appro him thank you uh Mr Mar I thank uh council member uh uh Baker uh for for always keeping our eye on the prize when it comes to affordable housing I I do want to point out this particular item though does not involve City funds this is a an item this is one
of those and I know because I I dealt with the same things when I first got on Council asking the same uh question so I appreciate council member Baker's antenna uh being up one of those perfunctory things we we need to do just to satisfy a legal requirement through a resolution but but am I correct in saying this does not involved any indebtedness to the city or or the state the issuance of these bonds per per the memo May mayor protim you are absolutely correct this is uh actually a conial in nature for the city the uh Durham Housing Authority is the issue of the bonds right uh what the IRS requires is that the local jurisdiction in which the Housing Authority uh sits that we have to approve this as a part of the IRS requirements which basically means that we recognize right and we and we've done this a number of time we've done it for Central and other uh um uh organizations and interest in the city it is a way to while not using the direct lever of City funds or Municipal funds it is a way to
kind of Contour the environment uh for affordable housing projects and of course to to council member Baker's point when it's when it's not under our direct purview um the ter terms may not be as um uh stable or as as desirable as we want but it is still forwarding the environment still forwarding the the the um um the the plausibility if you will of affordable housing to be uh in our mix so um but I I I think uh to council member Baker point we definitely do need to to keep our antenna up and and keep Vigilant but I did I did want to make sure that we said this wasn't City this isn't City funds it this is just a kind of a perfunctory legal check mark that we're called to do on from time to time so thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor if I could also just to build on that point so um Point very well taken my colleague council member Middleton um to council member Baker I think this is this is all important background on this Finance question I think the additional piece is that this this 30-year period of
affordability which has kind of been ingrained in these federal tax credits right low-income housing tax credits those are as well to your point those are federal tax credits so it's not tax credits we usually at the city so it's federal tax credit it is public dollars um but I think your point is well taken that we should have a good sense of how many properties are on this you know 30y year or whether it's 30 or 15 year affordability sort of period and have a good sort of line of sight so that when these are coming out of their period of affordability that we have knowledge well in advance maybe five or more years in advance so we can both let the residents know but also potentially consider are these properties we might want to try to acquire right to maintain the affordability so these are all I think the the the point you raised about having some kind of um database or sensus of all these properties is really well taken and I would very much support that idea thank you council member Freeman thank you and I would also second that as well I think that uh in the past we've had conversations about setting up databases
around even for the development cases that come forward and they profer affordable housing units and making sure that those are lined up I would also add that it's important to make sure the details of that whether it's 1 2 3 4 or five bedrooms um is also included in that as well so I I don't know where you are in the work plan but it would be good to get a grip on making sure that that's a priority in this year or within this year because I think you know as affordability is is lessened and we keep losing affordable housing units and and more units are being added our housing mix has changed a lot and I noticed on the US Census um data the county has information but the city does not and I don't know where the disconnect is but I want to make sure that we can figure that out thank you so any other comments questions all right thank you director thank you that all right all right next item
number six council member Baker actually I think that was me Mr Mayor that was mdon Council mayor president Middleton thank you Mr Mayor you want to say hi and introduce yourself who are you sir excuse me sir uh good afternoon Randy Bean director of Emergen Communications good to be here good to see you Randy thank you so much and as always we appreciate what you and uh that incredible team that work on you do for us uh in the city please extend our regards to them so there there's there's some uh banter about in the media about this item and I I actually spoke to somebody from the media yesterday so I just want to get some clarity as to what this is um the one of the spins out there is that this is in response to our immediate kind of tactical needs with Staffing when my this is actually in the event of a cataclysmic breakdown of our of our system correct just tell us what this is
and what this is not if you would I I will be glad too so this is an inter local agreement so in the n one Community that's across the state we have a system called an EET that's the Emergency Services internet system so there's 127 paaps involved each of those paaps we being one of those needs to have an interlocal agreement what that interlocal agreement is for is for those catastrophic situations those emergencies where the center itself is incapacitated which means cannot receive calls nor can it dispatch so in this particular interlocal agreement that is specifically the language that's contain within it is when our Center is incapacitated in an emergency status and we are relocating to our backup facility so this interlocal agreement would then allow for the calls to be answered by the agreeing party that being the city
of failable who will answer those calls while we are in transit to the backup center thank you so much for that and and the the operable term is is a catastrophic event that takes us offline this is not during the day of a regular course of events our operators our call takers uh responders can't respond to calling it gets bumped to Chapel Hill or bumped to this is not what that is that is not what that is at all it has nothing whatsoever to do with Staffing got you all right um thank you and I hope that our our friends in the public in the media uh get that understanding uh because some of the some of the the spin I don't mean spin in the pejorative sense some of the way the the framing of the story is that this is because of staffing issues when this is actually something quite strategic and and big and in the event of we're totally offline absolutely and and we in the city of Durham merch Communications are just like the other paaps in the state they are required we are required to have that arrangement in
our local agreement got you that's it thank you so much for for clearing that up for us thank you Mr mayor council member when are you when are you going to invite us out there when's you's week for appreciation where Council gets to come thank you so very much for uh actually um council member we are preparing a proclamation for the 15th board meeting and that is actually the week of national telecommunicators week and we will be sending invitations out it begins on a Saturday and ends on a Sunday so 14 April through that in in entire week so we look forward to your visit thank you and um for Council for new Council colleagues when we get that invite is always a a fabulous tour and getting to meet some of our 911 911 call dispatchers and just seeing the the great facility we have and um some of our core um city workers doing excellent work thank you so very much and and I will share with you and uh a few of you cancel members have done this uh previously we will actually uh give you
the opportunity to put a headset on and listen listen to the callers as it comes into the center be you're more than welcome we would uh invite you and uh it's quite an interesting opportunity to learn more about emergency communications and how it functions and operates that's also a reminder um as well to make sure that uh my new colleagues understand that our call takers have not been identified as First Responders and so they do not receive the same type of benefits that First Responders receive and it's a good chance to advocate for our First Responders who are on the calls to be um acknowledged as First Responders and their benefits thank you thank you council member thank you council member R you are acknowledged Mr bman thanks for the presentation and the clarification there just one question about in this kind of risk management framework so I imagine that Durham (appears to be a location reference error) who's our now partner with his interlocal agreement um assuming we passes in the next meeting right that they they also have an alternate routing relationsship
themselves right so in the rare occurrence where there was a catastrophic thing happening in Durham and a fable at the same time I imagine our routing relationship if we're routing to them and they're also in a catastrophic situation their alternate would also then kick in for us right is that is that correct that would that would occur similarly yes so there's there's like a chain there where there're sort of like where at some point someone will be available to in a in a incredibly rare moment someone would be there backup to backup to answer the calls we have here right and the a the significance of the network that I was speaking about for the interconnectivity of the various P apps thank you all right great uh and you you you said it Con you you said it conly um colleagues when you do go over there if you haven't and you put on a headset it is a very uh anxious experience so just make sure your nerves are in check and you'll have
a greater appreciation at how our 911 Center call takers uh keep their cool May Pro Mr Mayor thank you I I you you are 100% right um brace yourselves you may hear some things sometimes that are quite quite riveting I do want to uh however associate myself and and uh celebrate um what council member Freeman said about the recognition of responders I think it was last year maybe a year ago I had an opportunity the the great honor of introducing the resolution to recognize our call take um as First Responders it's actually a a a a Statewide initiative to do that um I know one of the things that uh we've had conversations within the uh North Carol League of municipalities um to put some muscle behind changing that designation precisely for the reasons that council member Freeman has pointed out in terms of not only just the proper recognition but there are some implications in terms of of compensation and participation uh um in various funds and pools of that nature so that's something that that uh
we hope to get beyond the resolution stage and I I plan on certainly um pushing that with the league as well in the coming year so thank you good to see you thank you Mr May thank you got it thanks for being here and thank you Mr Mayor for your kind words there sir your adventure on the headset was quite enlightening and it was good to see and hope to see all of you all we will be sending out invitations and and don't worry about the time because we're there 7:24 so anytime you're available will be ready thank you thank you what was the next one no all right next item P that Baker Baker all right item number nine council member Baker you pulled this yeah just a real quick question um first of all I'm glad that we're not pressure washing our trees um uh tree watering sounds routine enough that we might do that inhouse can you just explain to me why why we need a contract this out and whether uh you
know in the future we're looking at um being able to bring something like this inhouse or what what what requires us in this situation to contract this out good afternoon council members Mr Mayor Mr Mayor proam uh my name is Kevin Unknown (unclear if this is a name being referenced) assistant director with General services and with me is Dan hickey urban forestry supervisor Hey Kevin would you pull a mic just a little closer please I'm sorry certainly I'm a little shorter than most we're in the same Club D there we go here how's that uh typically what we find is the watering that we do for our trees is done during the summer months and that's the time when both our urban forestry staff and our landscape staff are at their full capacity with their daily activities we have attempted to do this in in various stages of looking at part-time labor seasonal labor and nothing has been successful for us in the past so we opted to go with a contract Ed route with a company that owns a water truck
and has the ability to travel throughout all of our streets uh to apply the water while our teams our inhouse staff are actually out doing their their daily work okay so there's just sort of a surge of need in these summer months and then that goes away yeah all of the rights of way are either contracted out or done by our internal house uh staff for mowing and so that's done by us and it's typically when our Urban forestry team is at their busiest uh cutting and pruning trees okay thank you welcome Madam manager thank thank you I would just also like to add one you know one point of information around the this particular project uh it was funded with arpa funding which was additional funding that we all know is is onetime funding so often when we have one-time funding it is is very much more efficient to try to do a request for proposal get those one-time uh resources
in to deploy those funds but we are constantly looking at um you know to to make or bu uh and efficiencies all across our organization and this this cycle is is no different so just wanted to add that all right thank you all right and uh thank you director Unknown (unclear if this is a name being referenced) it's good to see you again see you too sir remember going out to Oakland Avenue and I learned more about trees than I thought I'd ever would including resident mitigation and you are welcome to join us anytime all right uh item number 10 yeah this one I was just I was just curious I was looking at the number of trees and and the cost um and it came out to I know this isn't how it's how it's actually calculated but about $900 per tree so I was just curious is that normal why are these really nice trees why is it why is it so why is it such a high price uh the trees that we're
bringing in are bald and burlap trees which are larger than what the city typically plants we usually go with be root or we'll go with containerized trees bald and burlap tree gives us a better record for survival and we felt that that was the better uh product to put out on our city streets the cost of $900 includes the purchase the transportation the warehousing the installation and a one-year warranty so that if the tree happens to die during that one year it will be replaced prior to putting this out to bid we had contacted several landscape companies and tree nurseries and the estimates we were working with initially was about $1,000 a tree installed cost and warranted so the $900 did not surprise us when it came in that's great thank you you're very welcome all right thank you all so much
guys one follow question there yeah sorry just one more question so just to give us a s a good question Council Baker so what would be the alternate cost if you were just going be root trees so the $900 would how would that compare to the bear rout I'm going to ask that Dan may have that information but I believe the cost would be about a third of the cost if we were go to a much smaller tree but the likelihood of Sur survival would be diminished yeah that that is uh correct it's a little apples and oranges it's definitely more expensive to contract out planting and and we kind of knew that going in uh this was through the arpa funding again so it's kind of a one time just in addition to the planting where already do inhouse um but yeah what Kevin Lil has said is is correct about onethird the price thank you all right thank you all colleagues I believe that's it we will now move to our presentation with uh director Sean Ean we go
Duram welcome good afternoon Mr Mayor mayor PRM and members of the city council Shan Ean director of transportation for the city and I'm proud to bring you the 2023 go Durham annual report today for the go Durham transit system fiscal year 2023 was defined by continued recovery from the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic and transition to a new management approach this approach focuses on performance and accountability while establishing a strong foundation for delivery of major service and facility improvements in the years ahead in May 20123 the council authorized a new service contract with financial penalties and incentives tied to the concerns voiced by Riders during Community engagement such as ontime performance cleanliness and customer service the new contract is managed
directly by the city transportation Department's new Mobility Services team led by two of our Region's most respected Transit professionals Brian fahe and Jennifer green fairf free service in 2023 ease the burden for those ESS poal workers our community relied on throughout the pandemic at hospitals skilled nursing facilities pharmacies and grocery stores and it enables access for the 77% of our Riders who do not otherwise have access to a vehicle for transportation we also laid the foundation for the expansion of our zero emission bus program we joined the zero emissions bus resource Alliance to share data and best practices with our peers across the country and we are providing training to our bus operators and mechanics so they have the skills to maximize the benefits of this clean
energy technology for our Riders and our community our senior shuttle funded by the Durham County Transit plan addresses the importance of access to Fresh Foods for residents in senior living communities who have limited Transportation options we expanded the program in 2023 adding new sites at Carver Creek Morehead Hills 519 East Main Street and the witted School in February 2023 the Durham city council recognized 16 inductees to the million Mile Club recognizing the extraordinary achievement of bus operators who safely navigated a 40ft bus through our streets for 1 million miles without a preventable Collision in 2023 we provided over
910,000 more annual passenger trips compared to 2022 a 19% increase average daily passenger trips increase by over 2400 compared to 22 and as shown in the chart we're now regularly providing half a million trips each month on Pace for more than 6 million trips in 2024 by population the city of Durham is the fourth largest city in North Carolina but our transit system has the second most ridership in the state this is the clearest demonstration of how much Durham residents count on transit for their daily Transportation needs it also indicates a strong appetite for more and better Services we can provide thanks to support from the durm County Transit plan the remainder of this presentation shows key performance indicators we have
established for the god Durham system city of Durham and God Durham operations staff meet monthly to review progress and identify opportunities to improve performance safety is our top priority so we'll start with these kpis we track incidents at our Durham station terminal where we have nearly 12,000 daily boardings as well as onboard incidents on all of our routes across the system as shown here rates are consistently below Target but we continue to develop training and customer engagement tools to reduce the frequency of safety incidents on our system we also continue to closely track operator assault incidents and even the one we experienced in fiscal year 2023 is one too many improved training and coordination with law enforcement have helped to limit the number of assaults
and threats to bus operators what you can also see here with onboard incidents is that the majority of these are minor General disturbances or rule violations such as playing music without headphones what we call preventa bles can be a major Collision or something as minor as a side mirror striking a sign or a tree branch note that in September of 2021 we had zero preventable crashes we are working to make that a regular feature rather than an exception we created the million mile program to recognize those bus operators who have logged 1 million miles without a preventable crash due to the importance of transfers at Durham station the target for ontime arrivals at Durham station is 99% or
org careers for more information about our hiring the red line here showing scheduled hours is used to measure the share of published 2020 service levels provided taking into account announced service reductions due to Staffing shortages we are consistently around 100% on this measure the blue bars show the
difference between budgeted service and actual service delivered reflecting the reduction to Approximately 80% of the budgeted service levels for 2023 this is due to the consistent bus operator shortages that we experienced in 2023 but I'm pleased to report that as of January of this year we increased service to 100% of 2020 service levels and hiring continues to enable service expansion to begin in April each month I have the pleasure of meeting with some of the most recent graduates from from our training program to thank them for making these service Restorations and expansions possible we've set an aggressive Target of more than 20,000 miles between failures and we fell short of this goal repeatedly in 2023 as onethird of our
Fleet is at the end of its useful life and scheduled for replacement with the arrival of 18 new buses in 2020 6 keeping the fleet in a state of good repair is critical to avoid service disruptions that can impose a significant hardship on our Riders an important change we made with our new contract was to add a senior director of customer engagement and marketing focused on the customer experience at God Durham (appears to be a transit system reference) since taking on this role in July Brenda Jones has brought a strong f Focus to addressing the complaints and using customer feedback to improve training and procedures to provide a better customer experience including the QR code initiative we announced this week to enable Riders to report cleanliness and other concerns at our
stops this is a standout indicator for us because we want our customers to know that concerns are being addressed so we consistently respond to 100% of our customer concerns within five business days looking ahead our future is bright with the support of unprecedented funding for God Durham in the 2023 Durham County Transit plan design is underway for bus stop and access to Transit improvements on the Holloway and Durham (appears to be a location reference error) corridors and the Rev vitalization of Durham station as well as dramatic increases in system service levels of more than 50% in the years ahead the full Durham County fiscal year 2025 draft Transit work program is included as an attachment to your materials and is available on the Durham County website the draft budget includes
$27 million for the city of Durham's projects and some of the highlight are increases to go Durham service frequency and new cross town RADS a $7 million increase for Durham station to make the gorgeous image you see there a reality an additional $4 million for go Durham and God Durham access operations and maintenance facility improvements uh and $374,000 for the direct investment and Mobility Equity dime Grant to support continued fairf free service on go Durham as I close I want to take a moment to thank our partners at go triangle at the Durham Chapel Hill carboro Metropolitan planning organization whose support makes these improvements possible but in particular I want to recognize Durham County transportation director Ellen Beckman who's joining us here today uh and who has been instrumental
in advancing this critical work and with that I'm happy to answer any questions thank you thank you director and uh if anyone needs any tips on how to hire that's pretty Savvy in your coat pocket there colleagues council member Freeman thank you I will will just say I love the tie as well as the pocket square and um I just appreciate the presentation I think we've come a long way and I I appreciate your creativ it and coming up with that million MERS bus program or drivers program and I don't have any questions I just want to say thank you thank you council member rist Mr Ean thanks for the presentation um really enjoyed it appreciate the um the focus on customer service the real intentional intentionality there I really appreciate that um and I appreciate your presentation with clear goals you set for yourself and your colleagues and sort of how you've performed against those I really appreciate that that
transparency my one question is about um and I for the most part you're performing at or above those metrics which is really exciting the one that I wanted to ask about was the safety one the the um the crashes per 100,000 miles and that seems like for many months is above that Target I think that's I don't know what slide number that is but I wonder if you just have any thoughts on like what's what's happening there and what's what's needed to sort of reduce the those uh preventable crashes so we're putting a really strong focus on training uh we're also adopting some new technologies so uh one of the new technologies uh is a it's a gyroscope that's uh loaded on the vehicle that tracks if there's sudden braking or sudden turning movements that are outside of what we would see and so we've added that technology and we're capturing the data for those sudden breaking or sudden turning movements and we're having our supervisors and
trainers review that data with the operator who was behind the wheel at the time uh and in many cases that results in additional training for those operators because we want to identify the risk of a crash before we actually have an incident and so that technology that's measuring those sudden movements uh is a tool that we're using it's one of the many tools that we're using to improve the training of our operators uh to identify those those risks uh and improve uh make sure that they have the skills that they need the training that they need uh to be on the lookout uh for those risks and prevent those uh collisions from happening great thank you council member m cook thank you so much for this presentation um I also was at the community presentation that you did a few weeks ago um and we had a lot more numbers going on in front of us at that point in time uh so I do know that some
of this exists out in the world um but I just had a couple questions about the things that um you put in front of us today um the first one and actually council member rist asked one of my questions um so the first one I have on my list is you talked about um that you were in that we're actually increasing the salary from 1965 and and that there are great benefits are you have are you seeing issues with um a low number of applicants or is it um an issue of retention what what's going on there there with with folks so we've been successful in attracting applicants uh but one point that I emphasize when I meet with our operations team um and especially when I'm at those graduation lunches um is that we have a very rigorous training program that's focused on the safety of our system and the safety of our Riders uh and so uh most of the applicants Who start our training program program they
never get to the graduation lunch they uh are unable to meet the requirements uh that we've set for the safety of our system and what I've told our management team is we are not going to compromise on the safety of our system in order to get our bus operator count up we are going to maintain high standards for safety and for service quality uh and many of the applicants coming through our training programs cannot reach those standards uh and so they're they're unable to complete the program I see so instead of instead of doing anything to to increase the percentage of folks who make it through you're just looking to increase the applicant pool so that we hopefully get some more drivers through we provide retraining opportunities when folks are struggling uh in the program uh and in many cases uh I I hear it from the folks who are at the graduation lunch they were ready to walk away uh they were very frustrated they felt like they weren't going to be able to do it
it's too hard it is I often say it's the toughest job in transportation is uh driving a bus uh it is very challenging work those of you who spent time on our streets know uh they're very challenging so uh we work with our training team to do some Outreach to folks who are getting discouraged to give them additional time additional training opportunities um but there are some folks who just can't can't uh meet those standards uh and so uh we we we've made a a decision to maintain those standards uh but we are seeing significant growth in our operator account we wouldn't be back at 100% uh in January of this year uh without that growth we wouldn't be talking about a service expansion in April without growth U so we've put a very attractive compensation package into place uh and it's yielding result results we're getting uh good candidates
who can meet all of our uh all of our standards and requirements awesome um and then you had also you had you had quite a few kind of goals under the reliability category um and I understand the need for more drivers and and for folks to complete that training but what else um is needed besides staff to meet those reliability goals well some of it is um the service levels and the crowding that we're seeing on our system so um I was I tried to get just down uh the street here I tried to get on the Route 4 bus a few months ago it's about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and the bus stopped and they told me it's full there's no room uh there were there were a few of us at the stop uh we're seeing significant crowding uh on many of our routs and that degrades reliability and ontime performance the more crowded the bus is the longer it takes at each stop for people to get on
1 million uh so these are zero emissions battery electric buses um we're able to
7 million Grant from the Federal Transit Administration through their low and no emissions bus program uh we worked with uh Congressman David Price who submitted a $2 million uh Community Project funding request for the city uh we worked with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality that's administering uh the Volkswagen uh diesel emissions settlement funding and we were able to secure funding uh from ncdeq and the VW settlement as well as the Federal Highway uh congestion mitigation and air quality program so we have been aggressively pursuing every uh dollar from uh every external partner that we can um and we put that funding package together uh and that's how we were able to order the uh 180 emissions buses I me that is awesome to hear I love I love
hearing about folks going after specific grants because I think that's such a good way to finance this and we're getting these um zero emission buses for we need to replace the buses anyway is what I heard you saying and so that's right we're replacing them with high quality zero emission buses which I love um do we have the infrastructure to support those buses at this time we are uh that's our next Federal Grant application is actually we're going back to the low and no emissions Federal Transit Administration uh and we'll be uh applying for additional funding for charging equipment uh so that we have all of the equipment uh online uh in 2026 when those buses arrive so Mr Mayor I'll be reaching out for a letter of support and add a manager as well thank you those are all my questions just one question um maintaining the the fairf free uh bus system I think is important to mean many
my colleagues up here can you just talk a little bit about um any hurdles we Face moving forward I know there's some Revenue sources um that might be running out um do do you foresee any challenges or do you think that for the foreseeable future we have a clear path towards U maintaining fairf free buses so we were very fortunate um to get Federal funding with the covid-19 pandemic uh and we have been working to uh draw down all of that uh that funding uh the remnants of that funding enable us to continue the fair free into 2025 uh but once we look at 2026 and Beyond uh the combination of the very generous compensation that we're offering to our staff that's really the biggest Financial driver long term for us is that we've raised wages and benefits retirement Healthcare uh for the employees uh that's driving uh a cost profile that's um that's increasing
and uh we're going to exhaust uh the all the remaining Federal funding in fiscal year 25 uh and so we'll be coming back in 26 looking at uh that uh expected Gap uh that's caused by uh the fair free as well as U to a larger extent uh the employee compensation thank you you have anything guess one follow up real quick yeah um just a follow up on that so you mentioned u m Regan that the Durham County Transit plan with respect to the fair fre buses so can you describe what the what the balance of like what's the how do we how are we sharing funding with the county to provide the fair free buses what's that look like sure so we submitted a project to the Durham County Transit plan for fiscal year 25 we looked at that uh the funding that had been allocated for uh special pass programs like the youth Go pass uh as well as funding for
technology to to do mobile ticketing uh and funding for fair capping which basically gives customers the benefit of a monthly pass uh uh without having to uh pay Upfront for the uh monthly pass so funding for all of those Fair related initiatives was programmed in the 20-year uh Durham County Transit plan uh but we couldn't access any of those dollars uh without charging fairs so what we proposed was to turn those multiple streams into a single block grant uh that would be available the value of those streams was $374,000 that covers about 20% of our expected Fair Revenue loss uh and so what um what we proposed was that those funding streams be converted into that block grant um and very pleased to say that um that proposal was was included in the work program and and we we're
looking forward to that getting uh approved this year so it's like 8020 share 80 80 City 20 County okay all right thank you Mr Mayor strong good to see you man thank you so much for a great um presentation uh the gold buses are clean they're comfortable and they have Wi-Fi um they're free absolutely and I want to congratulate you on on pulling off um the uh Small Miracle of making it excellent and keeping it fair free so no pressure on there how we we ask for greatness and and we want to keep it free at the same time I do want to um uh maybe two uh questions and maybe a bit of a commercial uh for go durm as well uh firstly on the slide the fair free Transit the surveys it says the source is the 2022 go Durham onboard survey is that right it was in the field in 2022 um the survey the results were um
were published in 2023 but it was based on uh what we call intercepts right uh talking to customers on board the buses in 2022 so this is you know in the full uh impact of the pandemic um this survey was taken right the reason I asked I took a survey but I I was I was I think it was on the number two but it was during 2023 so when of those surveys so they were in the field I think in like November December and I think some of them may have spilled into January I can get the specific dates but um I definitely took a survey uh on a on the number two in 2023 and I was curious about the possibility or how we guard it against repeats because I another time I was on the number five and a worker asked me to take it I told him I already took it but some somebody else on the bus told me that yeah I've taken it like two or three times already on different you know buses and I don't know if they were capturing folk that had already taken it so I'm I'm I'm wondering because I my susp this is unscientific my suspicion that it's probably higher
than 77% the folk that ride who don't have access to cars but that's unscientific as is Middleton do do we know or did we um try and capture possible repeat surveys or multiple survey takers I'd have to look into the The Firm that conducted that survey and what what controls they had into place but I can certainly look into that cool I want to um again this is really exciting because any anyone that has a vision of durm being um walkable and and is concerned about uh car Centric development without also bolstering our transportation um capabilities and supporting it and advocating for it those are really kind of at odd of Visions but I know that that it can be challenging I know I know that when I you have to be very deliberate in planning trips sometimes for for for connectivity sake and and getting you know I be very clear it's very easy to be car Centric in this town and sometimes planning trips if you've got to go downtown to get to the mall from
your neighborhood you know to to the to to the um downtown Center but I will I do want to um maybe just just just gently um advocate for intentionality on using uh our system particularly if you want it to to to measure the view we have of ourselves as a city and the trajectory we have on ourselves as a city and it will take some intentionality um you know I I I look at it perhaps you know for my colleagues if if you're going to do a ride along with the police or fire or go sit with 911 First Responders um ride gold Duram as well put gold durm on that list as as a something just to do um which which leads me to as on-ramp to my next point I um with respect to driver um safety um trying to be Incognito but when I got off at the uh you're very recognizable well well those post office shots are really good um at the uh The
Hub downtown um going to take a trip to to South I think number five got off and of of course got into some conversation with some folk and some of the drivers and I this is anecdotal but uh one driver told me about um getting getting a uh substance thrown on them and having to clean it you probably know about this case having to clean it up themselves um concerned about weapons being fired uh at the bus um you spoke about assaults on drivers as well um so I I want to and I'm I'm glad that we're looking more at compensation but could you just say a little more without uh divulging any that's proprietary or or needs to be you know kept um from public hearing but say a little more about what we're doing to to keep our drivers who work so hard doing an incredible job safe specifically with with the physical assaults and and concern about weapons um I know we had looked at barriers at some point we we've implemented those
protective barriers on 100% of our Fleet 100% so that's one of the initiatives um we also uh have uh Duram police officer at Durham station if you've been down there you'll see them uh patrolling the station and we work also uh on patrols on some of the routes where we've had reports of incidents and issues uh and so there's there's careful coordination uh with dpd uh we're also um in conversations with Community safety about uh bringing to Bear some of the resources like the heart team um to respond to uh crisis needs on the system that don't require a law enforcement response but uh do require a response and uh we want uh trained professionals uh to be able to respond to a crisis like that um and uh that'll provide better protection and better Safety and Security for our our bus operators uh coordinating those uh responses as well
right and I I know this may have reached your desk as well and I know I've spoken to a couple of drivers we we do not we do not want our drivers armed we do not allow the drivers even if they have a concealed carry permit to carry weapons on them and I know some of our drivers were but just to be clear we it's prohibited yeah it's prohibited absolutely we don't want guns on the bus by anybody um finally I I'll just say it it you know it's really staggering statistic that we're forth in the state population but we're number two in terms of ridership Charlotte we're coming for you yeah yeah exactly and and and think about that we're number two even given all of the challenges we have even and you know and and you know we in Durham we have a higher bar than a lot of folk in the state because we'll talk about um you know uh uh car Centric development and we need to do more with Transit and and but we're sitting here the number two users uh in the state for population which I think is an invitation to do even more not the rest on our Laurels
but do any more and I just want to encourage everybody listening all of our residents and citizens to you know use them use the bus part of what we got to do is destigmatize um our system um you know it's got to be egalitarian it's got to be folk working at Google and Facebook along with folk working at Duke whether you're doing surgery or cleaning floors at Duke um if we're going to become that City that we envision so um yeah keep writing and and and keep doing what you're do and congratulations on a great um report and I look forward to uh um getting back to you on that survey uh information um and looking forward to seeing those new buses rolling in the streets thank you thank you Mr Mayor thank you director um this is quite impressive our uh bus Network here and our drivers and just all of the data that supporting this um I I wanted to I serve on the board well first of all let me shout out uh Transportation director
88 million for the electric charge stations now it said it's going to happen over 12 years we want that to be a lot sooner so we'll look into that um the other is all of the grants that you've that you your your team have bought in for uh durm Central Station and I I just I got to say on the record how excited I am about the vision for uh our Transit Network being able to
instead of going from point A downtown to point B that will eventually be able to go from point A to point B and if downtown is not a year route you don't have to come downtown uh which would make our overall Network much more efficient um and as you know we already talked about um we now have bipartisan relationships at the federal level and state level to where whenever we are you know putting forth uh in application that we will have significant push at all levels that is when you see me going to DC folks that's what I'm working on so really excited about that um considering I also serve on the board for go triangle and uh uh go triangle is bringing back rates uh Fair rates as well as Wake County uh there is some sense of logic behind it I am one to um I think Transit should be like public schools uh free and
accessible um what should we but also know in you know in the real world we have you know we got to be practical I am always going to try and I mean we now you I've been bit by the bug now I want to keep Free Fair free Transit but is there anything that we should be on the radar for just not catching us off guard in the upcoming years considering Raleigh Wake County and uh go triangle have rein or incorporating fees again that my question is is there anything we should be on the look for that would pressure us or require us to incor reincorporate fees fairs so it does need to be I think part of a larger conversation about funding for Transit um in our community uh what we're trying to demonstrate is that we're pursuing as much funding as possible from every available source so from the FTA Capital grants from the Volkswagen settlement um from the County
Transit plan uh the dime program for Fair free and so we're we've been Relentless in pursuing those funds uh but the council will need to make a decision uh at some point going forward we're we're uh about uh the future of Fair free and the future of the the level of operator compensation that we have we're also looking at other states uh Virginia for example has a state supported uh fairf free bus program where the state supports agencies that are offering uh free fair so like uh Richmond uh for example is one of the participating systems there uh and we're interested in in talking to some of our uh Regional and state Partners about could we try something like that maybe not at this maybe at the state level potentially at the regional level uh there's Federal funding available to reduce vehicle miles traveled so one one
of the best ways to reduce vehicle miles traveled is by getting more people uh on on our buses so we're we're exploring some of those opportunities uh is are there additional sources that uh we can develop to support fairf free Transit um and so we'll be coming back to you as uh as we're able to develop those but uh we're going to leave no stone unturned in terms of finding uh additional funding for this thank you so much uh well considering colleagues that our mayor proen will be uh State president of the league of municipalities hopefully we can enlist him to uh uh convince our state Partners no pressure convince our state Partners to uh consider the fact that you know when our region which is a hot spot in the nation is strong so is the state and uh this could be a benefit that they they see as a win as well um
but I do know at some point we will have to make a political decision um because those grants are not necessarily going to be last funding the most part right so right now you guys are doing a heck of a job bringing in Grants and and support but I do know that at some point we're going to have to make a decision and that's going to be significant so just want to put that on there uh council member ciero just really briefly I just wanted to say thank you I know this contract with Gorham was a big part of 2023 work for your department and I remember at the beginning uh at the time it was uh mayor Williams and I were no members and so that's where a lot of these conversations were initially happening was in our Mo prep calls and um I thought it was super ambitious and was eager that it would happen but wasn't sure how it was going to turn out so I just think that it was um a really good call uh it has L us uh really embark on the journey that we need to um on transit in the city so thank you and I'm look forward to keep uh I like to win so
I keep uh looking forward to winning more dollars talking about you behind your back that's what I was up here saying I was like you know we used to talk about this stuff and he's actually bringing it forth that it's working now all so good comment uh Council Cy council member Freeman thank you and I think to that point it's really important to note that the I guess the cost around us running this system and service is around $147 and I had to go in and note that and 51 cents and so for less than per hour um and so for $150 per hour um I think we can figure out how to increase compensation and keep the fair free um because I think that is a good rate to be at and we can we can figure it out so I'm not concerned I will also note I had not had a chance to share I know I asked the Communications Department to share I am currently serving as the vice chair for the transportation infrastructure committee for the national league of
cities and um it is my hope to have a few conversations um over the hill day um next week to if I could clear up a little bit more I feel a little bit more comfortable but to have a few conversations with folks in transportation and um and figuring out some of our bus Rapid Transit conversations some of the funding that needs to be in place for that and then also uh just making sure that we're not forgetting um how all this works together I I really did want to ask though while you're here um if you're seeing a a if the communication is working out around construction and um bus service because I know that the incident level is kind of high but uh but are you seeing any any increase in incidents with the construction because there's a lot of construction happening in the in our downtown core it's it's a real challenge for us uh keeping up with all of the construction uh if you uh look at our
service alerts you will routinely see services that are being uh disrupted uh rerouted uh because of construction so for example uh on Lakewood Avenue uh right now there's a major water line project that is disrupting the route five and has been uh so uh we are working very hard to make sure that uh we're providing that service alert information to our Riders uh you can find it uh if you use Google Maps and you click on the transit button in Google maps you can get real time information about how many minutes away your bus is from the stop but you can also get information about all right well is this stop was this stop taken out of service because there's a construction project happening um and so that that stop can no longer be served and uh we're seeing some of that uh on East Main Street for example with the uh the county construction project so uh we're encouraging folks to sign up for
those service alerts uh and we're trying to develop as much technology as possible um but Durham is a is a very popular destination for major construction projects right now um and we want to be a vibrant and growing city uh that Embraces that uh but we need to make sure that we're providing accurate up-to-date information to our Riders um and that we're working uh with the development Community to minimize those disruptions as much as possible thank you that was all thank you and council member Freeman thanks for bringing that up the fact that you're on that National Committee not only collaborating Municipal wide with local officials across the country mayor proam is going to be president of the league of municipalities for the entire state which is the most powerful group that can provide impact on the general assembly to to local progress um and council member cook and Baker we need to
get you all on some of these National groups as well and RIS uh so get ready for your memberships to uh just had an NLC call today by the way so yeah yep it' be great to have everybody on and you'll really love NLC um I haven't been to local progress yet because council member cabier hasn't invited me um just throwing you on the spot I know uh free and Middleton are members as well uh but thank you all thank you all so much director uh and and in closing I am still a proud card carrying CDL uh member I I hiring I'm not driving I see how difficult it is to drive those big buses in our streets but uh I kept my CDL from when I was teaching so uh shout out to our drivers and let them know we really appreciate them just for the record you don't need a CDL to come work at God Durham uh just a regular driver's license and a clean driving record uh and we will train you we'll
help you get your permit your CDL permit uh and then we'll take you through the whole training process to get your full um CDL all right put me on the substitute list all right thank you all right all right thank you so much for that great information I did I did have a follow-up question for for our city manager I didn't know if if there was any way to find out um I think for the bus system there's an alert but I don't know if there's an alert for our biking system like I don't know if there's anything in place or not but when those routes are offline if they're trying to bike through especially on Main Street if trying to bike through it's going to be on one side and making sure folks know that in advance um we we do not have that type of system in place at this at this time so we we belong to the National Association of city transportation officials we have a number of our staff are going to be at their annual meeting meeting in May um and we can we we can do peer Outreach to find out what the best practices across the country are U
for uh alerting uh cyclists uh about impacts uh alerting pedestrians about sidewalk closures and other impacts because it's it's really important all right that's the agenda I had a few other um items that we uh that I know Council cover and I both needed to get support for uh do you want to go first yeah um thanks mayor Williams just real quickly um Justice matters the organization that holds our immigrant legal defense fund would like to come to a work session either either work session in April and it's our practice to um when we have organizations wanting to present to come to the full Council and make sure there's u a desire for that so that is my ask I just thumbs up thank you that's all and then so just for staff following up um I think um from the city attorneys hi Carlos I think you're the staff Lea
on so do you mind just following up with them to get them on the work session for either one they said is fine in April thank you thank you and I had two items that I needed to um bring forth for us as a presentation uh one is the Discover Duran presentation on the um discover dur Pres presentation for I'll come back to that one um the one thing I needed to bring was the sister cities of Durham presentation uh it's time for theou renewal for cushan kushan kunan China reaffirming our friendship City relationship and it'll be a quick presentation but before we renew that OU we needed to have the presentation good
okay and also I discovered Durham had a presentation uh that they uh needed to bring to us that would uh uh pose a decision that we'll have to make ultimately but before we get to any uh policy changes or anything and they needed to provide a a presentation to the to the council can I get a thumbs up this discover durm yes it's about their their their like master plan yeah yeah I yep okay cool deal thank you all oh yeah you want me to okay all right and also um so the state of the city is coming up uh really excited about it uh we're putting a lot of work in it uh and a lot of what some of our one-on-one conversations uh have been will be incorporated in it because not only from what staff is doing also initiatives from Council um it will be different this year it will be uh an event it will not be on the uh council
meeting agenda in City Hall it will actually be at a city uh City owned facility in downtown Durham and it's going to have we're going to have like a mini resource fair for folks to sign up and make sure they have access to the resources that the City offers it's going to have uh some guest presenters uh some of our youth throughout the city uh we're going to have live music going to have some light bites refreshments and then I'll provide a uh state of the city uh that's going to be quite the uh Vision projection for what's to come with that being said one of the things that we're going to be talking about is something that council ciero is working on right now um you hear me talk about advisory councils directly and to help inform me but we're going to have some working groups and council member cavier has taking that on uh that's going to be quite the trifecta so she's going to give us a quick kind of intro to what she's working on on um not only mine but
our behalf thank you Mary Williams this is just a continuation of conversation that was brought to Joint City County last week I'm pretty sure council member Freeman was there council member rist was there and mayor protm was there um the the idea is to have a joint housing uh initiative with both the county and Durham Public Schools so that when we were talking about our housing strategies we are not doing it in silos uh we are doing it collaboratively um I've also had conversations with uh manager Paige and so um the the mayor um commissioner board chair Alum and um I should say County Commissioner chair Alum and board chair Umstead will be handling appointments to the task force uh and it will be a it'll be brought broad it will not be um it'll include components like Workforce housing uh it'll include components around land use and Transit we're trying to make this as broad as possible uh and the reason we want it to be both County city and schools is we understand that the
interconnectedness uh in all these spaces is crucial if we're actually going to um chart a different future around housing in the city that we all uh aware is a priority for residents and consistently gets put if not in the top top priority definitely the top three priority so um that that's all thank you yep so I'm looking forward to really uh introducing that this will be I possibly the first time there's ever been a housing strategy put in place uh with uh multiple uh facets of our community from all three governing bodies in dorham County so I'm really excited about that council member Freeman just um just following up you said the state of a city will that take place in place of the city council meeting or is it in addition to the city council meeting it would be a it would be a separate event so it'll be um we'll have our regular council meeting but this will be off off the agenda you have a date already April April 9th April I'm glad you asked me that because I keep
getting keep getting in trouble uh coun mavier keep saying she better let everybody know so we can be there so April 9th please colleagues make sure you have that in your uh yep all right April 9th and uh we we will um we'll we'll we'll have a lot of marketing behind it all right I that's our agenda all right and also there's also been I'm ready Madame clerk I'm ready uh so we're going to settle the agenda and then make a motion to accept the agenda being settled right yep okay uh oh oh so I'm going to acknowledge Madam clerk for the appointments thank you Mr Mayor it's short um the first nomination is for the mayor's Hispanic Latino committee and it is for the nominee of Heidi and Andino and the second and last is the
dur Durham workers Rights Commission appointment in the category of low wage industry and the nominee is Gary Elwood and that's the end of the report thank you so much um at this time Adam manager um will settle the agenda thank you Mr Mayor for consent I have agenda items 1 through 18 and GBA public hearing items 20 through 22 thank you all right I'll now entertain a motion to settle the agenda so move second all right all in favor I all right sounds good we will now uh recess to uh close session we will uh uh let's go straight on up there we will be in the committee room yeah uh let's let's uh let's all go on up but take a take a bathroom break if you need to so