good evening ready as your city manager I am honored this evening to present to you my proposed budget for fiscal year 2425 for the city of Durham as our city council and staff know our Administration begins working on our budget in November of each year to some it might seem like a routine process of projecting revenues and expenses and walking a tight rope to make equal or balanced as we try to meet the wants and the needs of Durham community members and our employees this year the wants and the needs were very significant and the challenge for our Administration was to find a way to meet many of those needs especially those of our dedicated
employees it was just the right thing to do as with past budgets I appreciate the guidance and support of our City's elected leaders mayor Leonardo Williams mayor protim Mark Anthony Middleton and council members Nate Baker Javiera Caballero Chelsea cook driana Freeman and Carl rist their steady guidance and Direction have been crucial to ensuring that our residents voices are heard and reflected in our budget during this budget Cycle City Council and our staff spent time considering the many challenges that face Durham during the two Retreats held in February and March of this year we also heard from many residents on this slide you see residents participating in our community conversations in
January and throughout the year our employees made their voices heard about their pay throughout this presentation you will see how this budget demonstrates the values that make our city a great place to live work play and visit for so many again this year as I did last year I want to make it very clear that I do value our employees it is no secret that the city like most municipalities and even some private sector employers are still still have shortages uh in several areas especially our Public Safety and operations departments areas that are critical to providing vital services including keeping our city safe providing safe drinking water and collecting Solid Waste for our residents I can assure you that my gratitude for
the service our employees provide to our residents is unending because of that recruiting and retaining staff continues to be a top priority that's why we launched a recruitment campaign this year that is focused on employees our own employees sharing why the city of Durham is a great place to work you hear from our own employees exactly why they came to the city and why they stay hopefully you've seen some of these ads on go Durham buses on television and on our social media look for more to come next year since November we have worked diligently to determine how to pay our employees fairly and equitably across our Organization no matter the job that they do and to make our already great benefits even more attractive at the lowest cost possible a key part of this effort was hiring a firm to conduct a
47% increase and that includes the city's general fund and all other funds that are highlighted here that you will hear more about during this
presentation before I get to the next slide I want you to know that sometimes doing the right thing isn't easy but it is always right as you probably know buying groceries filling up your gas tank and practically everything that's needed to run your household cost more these cost increases affect how city government operates too in the past four years despite increasing cost to operate the city we have only raised taxes property taxes twice two cents in the fiscal year 2122 and 6 cents which is a little more than a half perent in fiscal year 2223 yes growth and our strong local economy which is outpace other similar size cities has helped us to keep property tax rates rate increases down our economy is still performing well as
9 million in sales tax revenue most other sources of revenue including our occupancy tax and our state share revenues are projected to increase slightly while growth certainly increases our Revenue to help cover these increasing costs we need more Revenue to accomplish our primary priority with this budget to implement the recommendations of our employee pay study Additionally you will note that we have limited new projects and program
62 per 100 of assess value this means the owner of a house valued at $254,400 which is the median home tax value in Durham will receive a city tax bill of about $1,517 next year with the with the proposed increase in the property tax rate this annual bill would be approximately $153 more than last year's Bill the proposed general fund budget
50 million this increase is due to higher Personnel costs based on recommendations resulting from my recent pay study which I'll share more about later in this presentation this evening the general fund supports many of the services that the city provides such as Public Safety fire and police services emergency communications and Parks and Recreation it also supports employee compensation our street Paving program and our CIP projects which are capital Improvement program projects while Durham continues to outperform National and State financial indicators over the past few years we continue to monitor current
indicators and economic Trends very closely and we will always prioritize being good stewards of the taxpayers resources some fee increases are proposed to cover Rising costs also including those on this slide we are proposing increases to our water seore and our storm water rates the rate changes were recently approved at the city council's May 6th regular business meeting for your information this evening these new rates include an average monthly increase of $266 for water and sore and $155 increase for a typical storm residential storm water customer per month effective July 1st also you'll see here that our parking rates will stay the same in addition to Market pay adjustments proposed general fund
4 million from fund balance for one-time departmental costs including $4 million for Street Maintenance I am always happy to share with you that your city government continues to enjoy a AAA General obligation Bond rating from all three rating agencies Moody standard and pores
and fit what this means is that your city can borrow money or issue bonds for major projects at lower interest rates saving taxpayer dollars and that's significant as there is an item on the council agenda tonight authorizing us to apply to the local government commission to move forward with a $200 million Bond referendum for Street sidewalks and Parks projects if approved to move forward the bond referendum will come before our voters in November as always we have used our strategic plan developed with input from our employees our residents our elected officials and other key stakeholders to guide how we manage our budget while we continue to use the priorities of our strategic plan to provide services and programs this year new budget requests
gov budget it is impossible to carry out our work as as as a city government without our dedicated employees whether it is putting out fires providing good and
safe drinking water collecting Solid Waste or coming to the aid of our residents referred to by our heart team as our neighbors when they need us most we absolutely must pay our employees Fair wages by providing competitive market aligned salaries along with providing great employee benefits last year the city council approved funding for a compensation and classification study to see how city of Durham wages compared with other organizations other governments as well as private firms doing the same or similar work that we do in the city of Durham that study which is in progress has already told us in the compensation phase not just that we've fallen behind the market and pay but by how much here on this chart you can see how far behind we have fallen in our four pay
plans in this proposed budget I am recommending we increase these pay plans as shown to bring them in line with the current market additionally to ensure Equitable Equitable pay General step plan employees will now receive 5% increases each year added to base and instead of 4% for Effective job performance when funded in the annual adopted budget also to help lower costs for this year's Market pay adjustments increases for the highest paid salaried employees including Deputy city managers directors and assistant directors are Capp at 5% we believe these proposed Market adjustments added to our pay for performance increases will help us to retain our current employ employees and attract new employees into our organization at every level I'd like to point out that it is increasingly important to recruit
5 million in addition to the market rate and pay policy adjustments just
58 per hour effective July 1st which equals 40,00 726 annually there are no full-time employees currently being paid at or below the Durham's Durham's minimum livable wage because the city's operating budget is made up mostly of personnel expenses employee pay and benefits each each year we critically examine the need for new positions this year three new positions are proposed which will be paid for by development fees now let's transition to our other top priority our Capital Improvement plan and look at why it is so important this year the capital Improvement budget
103 site to point out a few projects as you may know due to lead levels and other contam contaminants in the soil at five of our city parks we had to close some playgrounds and other areas in these Parks last year the soil contamination is the result of common practices many many decades ago not just here in Durham but in many other cities across the United States to dump ashes from former landfills in public areas that later became Parks now thanks to Modern environmental science we know that certain levels of lead and other substances found in soil are not safe we have budgeted 5 million
7 million that will help Propel us toward our carbon neutrality and renewable energy goals you can learn more about our suain sustainability
goals on our website shown here I am happy to announce there are several new CIP projects along with the continuation of other projects aimed at improving pedestrian and bike safety throughout Durham related to Road Safety we recently hired an experienced Vision zero coordinator to develop and Implement strategies to help move us toward our ambitious goal of no traffic deaths or serious injuries especially as it involves pedestrians and cyclists she assures us like plans in other cities such as Alexandria Virginia that a strategic action plan with specific and time bound implementation actions can be accomplished through focused resources and collaboration we have prop have proposed funding in the CIP specifically for vision zero safety initiatives Parks and Recreation areas trails and Open Spaces play a huge part
5 million are already underway 3 million will be used for pedestrian brid Bridge repairs at several of our Parks including Indian Trail West Point on the Eno wall Town rightwood Sandy Creek and Sherwood parks of course there are many other General capital projects contained in the capital Improvement program lists such as the hill Andale Golf Course driving range Transportation projects and general repairs of city property as always these projects were prioritized using an equity lens or screening questions to determine who would benefit from the Improvement and who would be burdened the assessment also looks at unintended outcomes of the proposed projects I am proposing that we continue
5 million is included for
9 million will be used to pay the debt service for the 95 million milon affordable housing Bond all of the dedicated housing fund is applied to Forever home Durham forever home Durham is our $160 million program creating affordable opportunities for our renters as well as our homeowners through new construction property repairs and essential Housing Services we are building a more inclusive and livable Community continuing over the next few years the $95 million affordable housing Bond combined with local and federal funding will be used to invest 160 million to reach affordable housing goals established for the program on these next slides you can see the progress that has already been made to date along with upcoming
5 million bringing the total arpa investment for affordable housing to $27 million while we know achieving our housing goals will take time we are making significant strides toward ensuring we provide housing for many neighbors who might feel left out of Durham's Prosperity I want to encourage everyone to visit our forever home durm web page to stay informed on our progress now let's touch on our Transit goals continuing fairf free goorm service is a priority even though Federal covid response funding is ending this budget proposal includes the
9 million to support planned service expansions as a continue highlights of my proposed budget I am happy to say our community safety team and their heart program continues to help many experiencing behavioral crisis in our city over the last year they have expanded their service Citywide
operating 7 days a week I am confident we will continue to see significant progress as this program continues to greatly impact our neighbors next year our community safety team will be tasked with creating a program for a new officer of Survivor care to support survivors of violent crime this program starting off as a pilot comes after two years of listening to the needs and concerns of our community members We are continuing our support of the Durham expunction and restoration program to make it easier for those who need legal help to remove charges and convictions from their records and to restore a suspended or revoked driver's license also included in this year's budget proposal is $650,000 for legal aid of North Carolina to continue administering the eviction diversion program for lowincome renters
we want Durham to continue to be a welcoming Community for everyone this proposed budget includes $250,000 to Justice matters to continue an immigrant legal defense fund providing legal services to newly arrived refugees and immigrants to further support our youth and our Durham families I am proposing a summer camp Grant fund of $170,000 to expand summer camp opportunities through Community Partnerships that provide quality activities and experiences to our youth in their neighborhoods while school is out in the coming year we will launch a civilian traffic investigation program to respond to minor property damage only accidents freeing up our police officers to handle more serious incidents and other high priority calls our Police Department plans to have this program up and running
by March of 2025 in the upcoming year we also included $1 million to support the hati reborn Justice movement which works to prevent gun violence in Durham through a holistic approach finally $1 million has been allocated to the guaranteed income project with a goal of addressing Financial instability and strengthening support for eligible community members now now I've presented highlights from the proposed budget it is now time for our elected leadership and our community members to take a closer look a detailed look my proposed budget includes a tax increase which is needed to do what is right for our employees to pay them competitively and equitably our city council and our staff will review the details at next week's
m. m. gov budget we continue to be a city many are proud to call home as well as a destination of choice for visitors and our new residents while we acknowledge
our challenges as a community Durham is still a dynamic city and in fact in the in our mayor's words Durham is dope you better go ahead Madam manager I love it my staff and I are particularly proud that our organization was recognized in wallet hub's last ranking as one of the best run cities in America and the highest ranking city in North Carolina we don't take that designation lightly and we will continue to work hard to maintain your confidence in how your city government is managed Durham continues to compile accolades too many to mention here tonight but regardless of recognition and accolades we continue to work together and partner with local organizations to help make our city a great place to live work and play for everyone you can learn more about my proposed
budget and our operations by following us on social media watching our videos listening to our podcasts subscribing to our newsletters and visiting our websites we work hard to communicate what we're doing in many ways and we remain dedicated to keeping you informed on our work and our progress using these channels finally on behalf of our staff I want to thank our mayor and city council members for your leadership our Administration looks forward to working with you and listening to our community as we finalize a budget that reflects this City's values for all who call Durham home thank you [Applause]