City Council · Regular Meeting · May 8, 2025

Hello. Welcome to city hall. I call the meeting to order at 1 pm. Madam clerk, will you please call the role?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Williams, I'm here. Mayor Prom um Mark Anthony Middleton was granted an excused absence Monday evening.

Council member Baker here. Council member Cabayro here. Council member Cook here. Council member Freeman present.

Council member Rest here. Thank you. So, who's controlling this clock here? Shot clock.

All right. I love it. So, uh, next on the announcements, let's try something out. Let's, uh, let's give us three minutes.

See how it works. All right. I'll start with you, Council Member Cook. Um, just want to say thank you to all the staff and, uh, community who are here and everyone watching online.

I don't have any announcements. Thursday. So disrespectful. Council member Baker.

Um, thank you. Uh, good to see everyone this afternoon. To my colleagues and to the community who's

come out, staff, thank you all for being here. Um, the only thing I have is that the Durham Workers Rights Commission has asked us to express support for the organizing that's happening in uh at Amazon in uh Durham. And so I'd like to put they've asked us to express our support in the form of a resolution. So I'd like to put that on the next uh agenda and then we can work on the language if we want to.

Council member uh Cavayoro. Thank you. Um good afternoon everyone. Um Elaine, thanks uh for the lunch.

Mayor Williams, that was great. um had not eaten. And then number uh the second thing is on um our next work session May 22nd. I need an excused absence.

Those are all my announcements tonight. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll uh address it after um announcements.

Council member Freeman. Sounds good. Thank you, uh

Council Member Wrist. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon, colleagues, uh residents, members of staff, and folks watching online.

Um I've got a couple things. So, I want to thank the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina for giving me a tour of their planned facility on Hamlin Road just yesterday. This came about as as a result of a happen stance or a sort of a occurrence, unplanned occurrence at that hockey game when the mayor and I were at the Hurricanes hockey game. We bumped in Amy Barrows from the the food bank and so she invited me to come see the next facility.

So, the food bank is an absolutely central player uh in addressing food insecurity in a 34 county area including Durham. Um, one in seven people in our region and one in seven people in Durham are food insecure. Last year, the food bank provided enough food to fuel more than a 103 103 million meals to families in our area, including over 13 million meals in Durham. So, they're a central player in food security in our region.

So, I just want to thank Anna Miller and Charlie Hail from their staff for the tour of the new facility. Um, y'all should look for a ribbon cutting sometime later this year of this new facility on Hamlin Road. It's going to be a massive

expansion of their of their facilities and it's going to replace the facility they're coming in working in um on Andrew Avenue as many of you all know. Second thing is yesterday was uh W was walk and roll to school day as part of bike month which is the month of May in this country. Um and so I I participated in walk bike and roll for EK uh PO Elementary and want to thank the parents and kids that came out for that uh bike train. Many of the schools in the DPS system are celebrating their white I can't say that properly walk bike and roll day on different days.

m. at Holton Elementary. There's going to be a joint bike walk and roll event for both WA Smith Elementary and Eastwood Elementary. It's going to happen at the same time.

So hope many of you all can come to that one. It should be a great event. And again promoting the importance of kids walking and biking to school safely, which is a critical thing that we're celebrating as part of bike month. If you want more information, let me know. or you can also check out the bike term website which has more information on that. So, thank you all.

I did want to um just make sure I did note uh so for Leadership North Carolina, I know I've been missing the work sessions um yesterday was a graduation. So, I shift over from being in the in the trainings to now providing the trainings. I actually was appointed a co-chair um for the environment session um in Asheville. And so I I just want to give you a heads up that it'll probably be less of the work sessions, but um I definitely am looking for feedback if you would like to offer anything on the environment um for the leadership North Carolina work that I'm doing.

Congratulations. Right. Uh I just want to say uh it was great to have great to have the uh Duke school here earlier today. uh a group, little group of third graders uh full of energy and uh it was uh really cool to have uh well they were third graders but they were not asking third grade questions. They were asking questions about the impact of inflation.

Um the percentage of tax allocation from the state, federal and local level. Um the difficulty and complexity of housing and zoning. Um and literally I'm not lying. I was like wait.

So, we uh Council Member Cavier and I were um doing our thing as former teachers and I just kind of got caught off guard with real questions and um really those those were um really impressive questions. So, kudos to them. Also, I want to shout out OWD for putting on such an amazing event. Um and I can't remember what day it was.

Was it Tuesday? Tuesday which the uh the business evolution summit held at the Durham Convention Center. What a huge turnout. Um amazing speakers uh just rich and substantive uh information provided.

Um thanks for inviting me to be on the panel. Um but Dr. Johnson, he is always bringing the

house down with this world of intellect. Um but thank you all so much. Um colleagues, uh the other night, uh we um on Monday night we had one zoning case um that lasted about three hours. I was uh sort of joking today about this clock.

Um I I just noticed it as well, but I will be scheduling oneonone so we can uh talk about some some new strategies that I plan to u that I plan to practice uh moving forward on the uh on the uh the meetings on Monday nights. Uh, so just be on the lookout for as Derek is um transitioning out. Uh, Yep. headed to Harvard.

Headed to Harvard Law. So, really excited about that. All right. So, let's Yes, ma'am.

Go ahead. I I was hoping you would just say it, but I just want to make sure I put it on everyone's radar. The Bimbeay Festival is next Saturday. Um, cultural arts. I'm hoping I'm going to make it back in time to get there, but um hopefully you all will be there and uh

have have a great time with the African-American cultural arts space. Please please come out. Bimbeay is a huge deal. Um it's Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Uh and uh yeah, what time does it start? Rocky Park. Uh it's pretty much all day, but what time does it start? One, it starts at 1 pm.

There's a lot of stuff going on that day. m. Uh please come. Colleagues and community, please come out and enjoy.

Let's have a good time. I am uh not in my formal behavior on that day. So, we'll be hanging off the stage and having a good time. All right.

And at this time, let me entertain a motion to accept an excuse absence for Council Member Caballero on May 22nd. So, move second. It's been moved and properly seconded. Um, madam, all in favor?

I all oppose. All right. Thank you. You got it. All right, Mr. Manager.

Good evening, honorable mayor, members of council, the manager's office has a few priority items to bring to your attention. Uh, for agenda item number five, racial equity commission 2024 annual report. A presentation will be made as part of this work session. That presentation has been updated uh in your iPads just to remove a few slides.

Um and then agenda item number 24, fiscal year 2025 26, proposed budget and fiscal year 2026 uh 31 capital improvement plan. Uh there'll be a presentation for this made at your May 19th, 2025 city council meeting. And uh just to follow up on your uh acknowledgement of Bimbeay, uh it actually is uh a week of events. So we have events that start in our community that uh before just the Bimbeay Festival.

also encourage folks to go to DPR's website to learn more about all the different ways uh we celebrate BIMbe. Thank you. Uh Madame Attorney, Mr. Mayor, do you want to vote on the

Oh, I'm sorry. Uh I'll entertain a motion to u receive the manager's priority items. We move the property second. All in favor?

All oppose. Right. unanimous. All right, Madam Attorney, thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. It's good to see you and members of the council. The city attorney's office has one priority item this afternoon, and that is a request for the city council to hold a close session for attorney client consultation.

Um the applicable motion is to hold a close session pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143 3181 1183 for attorney client consultation concerning the handling or settlement in the case Town of Chapel Hill versus City of Durham and that is 85 CVS 3108. I'll um receive a motion on I entertain a motion for close session at the end of today's meeting. So move correct

been moved and properly seconded. All in favor I all opposed. All right. So we'll proceed at the end of the meeting before chairman.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you madam clerk. Good afternoon Mr.

Mayor and the city council members. I wanted to thank you for letting me practice with the the new timer here. And I don't have any priority items today. Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you very much. I do have um one nomination for the Carolina Theater Durham Board of Trustees appointment and that's Tanetta Walker. That's my report. Thank you.

Thank you. And I uh please pardon my well not to you all but my if my wife is listening, she was smacked me topside the head. I want to uh just thank her for looking out for lunch today. That was all her uh sorry about that. Um she wanted to just say just say hello to you guys by way of her language, which is food. All

right. At this time, I'll read the uh administrative consent items, and I'll come back up for citizen matters um to start us out. Item number one, approval of city council minutes. Item number two, which was just reported, uh, Carolina theater of during board of trustees appointment.

Uh, item number three, proposed city county planning department fiscal year work program fiscal year 2026. Three. Yeah. Uh, item number four, execute the agreement between the city of Durham and legal aid of North Carolina.

I was gonna All right. Item number five, racial equity commission 2024 annual report presentation. Okay, y'all can't see. Uh number six, condemnation action to obtain one sanitary sewer ement at 8220 North Carolina Highway 751 for the stage coach force main sewer project. Item number seven, request for temporary

construction easements at 1507 Goodwin Road and 1615 Infinity Road for the Goodwin Crossing Development. Item number eight, condemnation action to obtain one temporary construction easement at 3100 3106 North Duke Street for the South SW50D North Duke Street pedestrian improvement project. Item number nine, come donation action to obtain one temporary construction easement at one permanent rideway easement on 4245 North Roxboro Street for SW50D North Duke Street pedestrian improvement project. Number 10, condemn condemnation condemnation action to obtain one temporary construction easement at 441 North Roxboro Street for SW50 D North Duke Street pedestrian improvements project. Number 11, condemnation action to obtain one sanitary sewer at age 8216 North Carolina Highway 751 for the stage coach force main sewer project. Item number

12, Durham Parks and Recreation Outdoor Aquatic Center construction manager at Rist contract with Clancy and they construction company LLCP as a joint venture 2024 bond refer referendum project. Mr. M didn't want to pull that but just want to say like Yahoo we're getting going on on the bond projects at the aquatic center. So thanks DPR for getting that moving.

Absolutely. Dto number 13. Design build services contract with OG construction and LLC hill golf course driving range and putting area putting area renovation. Hold that one.

Number 14, acquisition of 708 and 716 Burn Road. Read REID. Uh number 1 193188 and number 1 193187 for the future expansion of Lake Mickey. Um, good stuff like more land preservation right to protect water quality. Great stuff. Number 15, contract for creative engagement team services between the city of Durham,

Arstein Wexler LLC and Keep Durham Beautiful Incorporated. Pull that one. Yeah. Durham Parks.

Number 16, Durham Parks Recreation Outdoor Aquatic Center Design Contract with Perkins and Will Incorporated 2024 bond referendum project. Number 17, contract agreement with HQ with MCube and company Global LLC to provide economic development consulting services to implement a business registry and legacy program. Number 18, resolution approving the conveyance of skate park communities to the scrap exchange incorporated pursuant to GS168-280. I again don't want to pull it.

I just want to say thank you. This is an amazing item of somebody who's wanted more skate parks for a long time. Uh, it's great to see this moving forward. I do want to pull it real quick.

All right. Uh, number 19, interlocal agreement between Durham County with joint public health programs. Number 20, amendment number

three to professional services contract SW47D Morin Road Bike Pedestrian Improvements. Uh, tip number C-4928. Number 21, second amendment to the contract with Oracle Elevator Holdco Incorporated for elevator maintenance and repair services. Number 22, contract amendment number three to professional engineering services contract number 14463 with CDM Smith Incorporated for the Fedville Road lift station and force main upgrade project. 23 contract amendment number one to professional engineering services contract number 19941 with Brown and Caldwell Incorporated 44 sales park sewer improvements project and we have presentations uh here um number 24 fiscal year 2025 2026 proposed budget and fiscal year 2026 2021 capital improvement plan this is just for formality uh number 25 consolidated annexation

Duvet Lane Town Homes, Town Houses 26, consolidated zoning map change, Bri Creek Multif Family. And we have a supplemental item here uh refers resolution in opposition to House Bill 765 and act to reform local government development regulations North Carolina. Um which we'll talk about that I'll pull. All right.

Um so we have citizen matters have one speaker um Joshua Robinson just uh come up here to this podium click the button on the right and the mic will turn green and then the shot clock starts. And then when you're done, just hit it. All right. Um, just one moment. I want to make sure you heard so we'll let the

commotion calm down. Folks, leaving out. These are the happy folks. It was on the sheet that got sent out.

Um, all the other items. Yeah, we also have board. Okay. All right.

Welcome. You have three minutes. Uh good a uh good evening, council. I'm here in regards of the program uh the Durham MFA

uh through OEWD. Um I'm still we me and my cohort members are still running through difficulties. Um Ed Ed Nixon came on February 6 stating that by March 27th that he would handle the issues that were going on with dispersement of funds. Um I've reached out to 12 of my members.

Two of them have only got paid. Um during this program, you know, we're all expecting to get this money and we're still reaching issues. It's almost about to reach a year since I got accepted to this program for a 4-week course and then the dispersement. Um I don't know what's going on.

I asked if we can hold Ed Nixon, Arthur Anderson, all the people who were in OEW uh D to type give a response. My last formal response was on April 10th. I have not heard nothing back. I don't have no update.

I was accepted. Everything was approved and everything, but I still have no formal response to, hey, here's a timeline. Here's a date that we can expect to disperse these funds. And from what Ed Nixon said, these funds were

being dispersed from another program. Um, I just find it difficult that they're still not taking accountability and nobody's really handling these matters. So, I came to address it to y'all. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Do we have a response to that? If you so there'll be a report tomorrow. Uh, Joshua Robinson.

Okay, good. I I've been personally intimately working uh through this getting it the kinks worked out with staff. Um, we're going to have a response for you by tomorrow morning. Thank you.

Make sure we uh see the young man over there. Uh, make sure you get your information. Uh, yes. I'll give him my email and all that.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You, Mr. Mayor, deputy manager Chadwell, can we also be copied just so we see what that response is?

I'd love to see them. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Um, Mr. Langley, can you hear me?

Yes, sir. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Welcome.

You have three minutes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, city manager, members of the city council. I come before you this afternoon with an urgent priority item.

And I will first start with a moment of silence for the young male of color, 16 years old, that was who uh lost his life on Sunday. So, let's start with that moment of silence. Thank you. Uh, I'm De Warren Langley.

I serve as the volunteer executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation, an organization that is not just mentoring young males of color, but transforming the way we think about support, opportunity, and equity. We are proudly and intentionally constructively disruptive. That means we do not accept the status quo that has been left for so many males of color, leaving them behind. Instead, we challenge it through a comprehensive model that integrates mentorship, academic support, skill

development, career readiness, and workforce training. We are building better outcomes by design, not by chance. Our work isn't about charity. It's about investment.

Investment in talent, in leadership, in the future of this city. The young men we serve are not problems to be solved. They are assets to be cultivated. And we need your support just as they need our support.

The return on that investment is felt in stronger communities and equipped workforce, safer neighborhoods, economic stability and mobility, and a truly greater Durham. Mr. Mayor, you noted on Monday, this cannot be done alone. When we talk about systems that are failing in our community, we are the system. We can change the system. Council member Cook, Council Member Carado, Council Member Baker, Mi Mayor Williams, Council Member Freeman,

Councilman Risk, Mayor Pro Tim Middleton. I'm asking you all to be disruptives disruptors of this system that is disproportionately impacting our males of color. We can do this. We are the city of Durham.

We are innovators. We have ample opportunity. Let's do the work. There's no excuse.

But we can't do it alone. And so I'm not only urging this council to collectively work on building a better ecosystem, but we ask for investment not just from private phil philanthropic dollars, but our tax dollars are a reflection of our priorities. Center our young people, center our males of color. Your support will help us scale, but it would also help create an ecosystem that won't leave these young men behind.

Let's choose to lead. Let's choose to invest in what works. Let's choose to believe in and back the power and the potential of males of color. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. All right. Thank you. The first item we have here is item number three, a proposed city county planning department fiscal year 26 work program which is pulled by council members Baker and Rrist.

Thank you. Um yes, I have uh thank you for for being here. Um, Director Young, just a couple comments, and I've already seen this a couple of times at the Joint City County Planning Committee. So, um, one comment I have is just a request if we can see something like a like a Gant chart that shows the timeline, something like what we have in the vision zero plan, um, I think that would be helpful. And then the other thing I want to, um, say, and I've said this numerous times, but I I want to say it in this context, too, is um, I love how ambitious the long range planning projects are. there

are a lot of them and I just want to uh be clear that uh I would I would support us going slowly and doing well on those projects rather than overloading ourselves. Um and and you know I I just want to make sure that we are not overpromising and stressing everyone out and trying to do too much because there is a lot of great stuff in here. And so, um, so I will I will personally not be disappointed if we have to slow down on one or two of the long-range projects. I just want to make sure we do a great job.

So, that's it for me. Thanks, Miss Young. Thanks for coming in today. Thanks for the for the exciting work program.

Um, I think it's great. Just for the folks that aren't on join city county planning, I just I have a question. I know there's a number of items you've added. This may be part of what council member Baker's referencing.

I'm just curious particularly there's a number of small area plans on that new items there. So I'm just curious because there's been a lot of talk about small area plans. I know for a while we weren't doing them. Now we're doing them again. When are we going to start seeing

some of these plans and then and how does that change the work we do as a city, our role as city council members? Like how's that going to affect the work we do? So just love your thoughts on that high level about those small area plans. Sure.

Good afternoon. Sarah Young with the planning department. Uh this is um indeed an ambitious uh work program particularly I can see how there would be um maybe excitement and a little bit of surprise about the number of small area plans um in the work program. I will say that of those three one has already been started this year the through this fiscal year here at the tail end these past few months we're starting work on Lakewood already.

Um but it's really important to also look at the deliverables in the plan. And so the plan does not anticipate that we will complete three in one year, right? Um for instance, the uh deliverable for Lakewood is that we will have a draft completed by the end of FY26. For Greater Greater Bragtown, the

same thing. A draft completed by FY26. But for Hillside Oakidge, it's just that we initiate the project before the end of the fiscal year. So we are being cognizant of our staff resources although we feel that we're well resourced u partly thanks to you all's support u previously the I think the real importance to get to your question about what we can you know hope to see with these small area plans one of the things that we presented to the joint city county planning committee a number of months ago was a bit of a scope for these plans to give a sense of like you know what they will entail what topics they can cover and address.

Um I'd be happy to share that with you if if you would like to see that. Um that was part of a JCCPC agenda item and just to kind of get everyone on the same page as to what we can accomplish or not through a small area plan. They are still just policy documents, right? So they're not regulatory, but they will help like a comprehensive plan does in guide

decisions that the city may make about future, you know, CIP projects or other things, help guide investment, um, help inform maybe some changes to ordinance, uh, that may be necessary to address very specific community needs that may be identified through a small area plan. Um, but you can think of them as kind of drilling down from the large comprehensive plan, you know, 50,000 foot look to a much closer look at a specific neighborhood or community as to in pinpointing like, you know, what what land use related challenges is that community experiencing or or feel like they might experience in their future that we can address through land use. And so is it accurate to say that staff in some cases will be coming to us with things to support the small area plan as well as um council being asked to respond to others who may be developers and others who may be asking to do make changes or reszone based on the plan. Is that are those both going to happen?

Right. That's a that's a very good point. The again similarly to the comprehensive plan there'll be action

items as part of these plans, right? Homework assignments. Some of those will be for us um as local government to tackle. um some may be uh changes to the place type map or changes in zoning map or zoning regulations themselves as well.

If I can add too, I would just say I I think a small airplane pants also a good uh it's a communication tool uh to private land owners, to developers. You know, it's a way for the city to to show them what our vision is for an area. And again, while it's not regulatory, it can, you know, help to seed ideas that that the city wants to see come forward. And so in addition to guiding our decisions, it can at least communicate with, you know, private land owners or or development partners what we might want to see in an area.

Great. Thank you. It's exciting. I look forward to that. Thank you. All

right. Item number four. Is item four? Yeah.

Council member Rrist. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon, M.

Smith. Thanks for coming. Um, so um this is really important work and I I'm really proud of you all for leading this work on uh expunctions. I know it's a model project.

You've been we're a national leader in that regard. Um I just want to I just want to understand because I know the documents had a lot of detail in there about you know about petitions filed and cases pending and all that. I'm just curious like for the long arc like what's been the impact of the expunction work in terms of in terms of criminal records expuned total right for how many people how many records expuned how many people had driver driving privileges restored that that sort of big picture high level thing was a little bit hard to tease out from all the detail in the reports understood um uh good afternoon Mayor Williams Council Burris other members of council Ryan Smith director of community safety um one thing I could provide council as a followup is I could provide I could sum up those numbers. I could create a simple report that that

summarizes at a high level some of those things each year and then in total since the program has launched. I think that would help answer that question. I think also though if it would help, we do have members uh who are doing the work on the ground of legal aid who are working in that office every day and overseeing that. Would it be helpful?

Do you have questions you'd like to ask them about that work while they're here? Um I I think mainly my question was the high level sort of impact like what's the ultimate impact? like love to see that. If there's any comments folks would like to make, I'm sure happy to sort of receive those.

But basically, put you on the spot. Yeah. Um, good afternoon. Thank you for having us.

Um, my name is Emily Baker. I am the second chance project director at Legal Aid, um, where we provide expunction and driver's license restoration services statewide. Um the deer project um has recently um or is in transition to being moved under my project. I've been doing exfunction work in the state of North Carolina since

about 2020. Um there's a lot of largecale national research um about the benefits and I think it's also just a logical kind of conclusion that if someone has a criminal record of some kind um that often includes things like larsenies or um drug crimes that the ability to eliminate those convictions from a person's record can have a very meaningful impact on their ability to um gain employment. There is also a lot of research around the fact that um in the state of North Carolina we criminal records typically will contain everything including dismissed charges and that research has shown that employers and potential employers will in fact hold dismissed charges against a person um in addition to just convictions. And so even for the individuals that we aren't able to clear their record completely um eliminating those dismissed charges can be very beneficial um and make them much more employable.

Driver's license is where my heart has always lied. Um I was a public defender in Wake County for 14 years. Um

and I saw the burden on the court system that was um created by the sheer volume of people that were charged with driving while license revoked, which is a huge drain on um a um area's finances, a huge strain on the court system. A lot of resources are spent on things like that. So, the ability to get someone's driver's license back um can be extremely meaningful and can have um wide reaching um consequences or wide reaching impact on not just the individual but also the community. Um it's a lot easier to register a vehicle with a license.

It's a lot easier to get car insurance with a driver's license, things of that nature. As for specific statistics as to, for instance, if you're if you're asking, you know, if we follow up with our clients six months after we close their file and ask what their current situation is. Um, we do not have that practice. That is something that we've been looking into at Legal Aid. Um, and I believe, if I recall correctly, there has been a conversation with um Harvard um about doing a data project down here um specifically around um long-term

follow-up. Um, I will tell you you that um, legal aids clients um, obviously are indigent and lowincome and that they tend to be a more transient population where their housing addresses and their contact information often changes. Um, and so sometimes it can be very challenging to find our clients um, and to get in touch with our clients after we reach them. I will tell you that one of the things that we're seeing is that um, for instance, I have a client that we worked with, we were able to get his driver's license back.

He was released from incarceration. we were able to get his driver's license back. Um, he has received documentation from DMV that they want to revoke it again. And he called us back, which to me speaks volumes because it means that he believes that we're trustworthy.

He knows that we're going to be there to help him. Um, and we're now representing him on his DMV hearing um to dispute that replication. Um, so when folks call us back, um, I think that speaks a lot about the impact that we have had on them long term. But there has there is some discussion with the organization overall um about finding out about

collecting more of that data. It just is a is a challenging thing to do when most of our resources go to the day-to-day just trying to get people the services. Really appreciate that. This is such critical work.

I really appreciate the work you're doing. Um and I want to be able to tell the story as best we can about how we're working in Durham to do this for folks who who need the support in becoming more financially secure jobs, housing, and so forth. So this is critical work and I yeah look forward to telling the story even better. So thank you.

Absolutely. I uh don't have any questions but I I just just wanted to say um my time spent both on both occasions at Harvard with the Bloomberg uh center. Um this is one of the programs they they talk about a lot and I think this was started under Mayor Shaw I believe. Yeah. Um yeah this is one of their flagship success stories. I think and actually um before I knew council member Cook, this is how we actually engaged and one of my um former um team members at my restaurant

was trying to get his license back and he had some stuff going on and his attorney, his representative was council member Cook. I remember blowing their phone up like I need this guy to get some help. So thank you all for the work you did. Was I recall Mr.

Smith? You were there in the very beginning right with Bloomberg Funds to start that front. So like again kudos to you for being part of that and I'll give a I think a shout out the team started under Mayor Bell. This was one of the one of the first initiatives it overlap between uh Beler program the deer program.

Yes. Cool. Yeah. All right.

All right. Thank you all. Council member Cook. He did get his license back, by the way.

Joining me today in the county, Dr. Brent Lewis, director of equitable well-being, Durham County. We are both uh co-managers of the racial equity

commission. The commission was formed after the work of the racial equity task force to report out on the task force recommendations and what happened as a result of those recommendations. They've been working very hard for several years now. And so we have members of the commission here today that will be presenting.

Um the two presenters will be uh attorney Nisha Williams and Elena Shanetta. Both our racial equity commissioners who've been with the commission now for multiple years. We also state for the record. This is item number five.

Yes. Presentation. All right. Yes.

This is their presentation. Uh joining us are a number of the members of the commission. I'm going to have the uh people that are presenting today introduce those people that are joining us. Thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon all. Um, thank you for

the opportunity to present today. My name is Nisha Williams and Elena, you want to share your name? My name's Elena Shanetta. This is my first presentation to the city council and I'm really excited to be here with y'all.

All right. You know what you're supposed to do on your first time, right? No, do tell tell her our name. Nothing.

Yeah, thank you. Glad to present. You're good. So, today we'll be providing an overview of the Durham Racial Equity Task Force Report, commonly referred to internally by us as REF.

Um, we also have shortened our name, the Durham Racial Equity Commission. Um, we'll also be referring throughout the presentation as DREAC. Um, also I wanted to um make a shout out to the commissioners that are here. Um Shannon, Henry, David, and Sheila are some of our commissioners. Um we are a body of um around 17 folks both from the city and county appointed. Today we will

be exploring um our published report of the Durham Racial Equity Task Force, an urg in response to the urgent and loving call to action um that was published on July 22nd of 2020. Um that was made to address, develop, and implement policies and actions to ensure a more equitable Durham community. We're also going to discuss the challenges faced and the key steps um that we want to propose um onward. I encourage you all to take notes and ask questions at the end of the presentation.

So we do have a slideshow that we would like to share with you all. Thank you. Um if we can go to the next slide, please.

Yes. Thank you. And if you can go to the next slide, please. Thank you.

There we go. All right. Wonderful. Thank you.

So, the Durham Racial Equity Commission, otherwise known as DRE, was created in March of 2022 in response to the recommendations outlined in the 2020 racial equity task force report. This commission consists of 17 members who were appointed by three governing bodies, the Durham County Board of Commissioners, um the Durham City Council, and with support from the Durham Public Schools. Our role is to provide guidance and accountability to the city and county in implementing policies that advance racial equity. We do this through six dedicated subcommittees. Um but the report will highlight five committees. Um the five committees um that each focus on

critical areas of racial disparity include one, wealth and economy where we examine the disparities in income, employment and financial access. The criminal legal system which focuses on racial disparities in law enforcement, incarceration and justice reform. Three, health and environmental justice, addressing health care access, public health and environmental conditions. Four, housing, which looks at barriers to ownership, rental affordability, and homelessness prevention.

And five, education, where we work to close racial gaps in academic performance, access to resources, and school discipline. The one area in the original task force that we did not cover but we intend to onward is public history which ensures Durham's historical narratives are inclusive and effect reflective of all the communities. In the following slides,

Elena and I will walk through each of these subcommittees detailing the initial recommendations, progress to date, and opportunities to growth. Mindful of time, we will be skipping every slide that is an overview of the original task force report because we don't want to duplicate stuff that we already know that you all very well know. So, we will be focusing more so on what we have learned um since the creation of this body in 2022. Elena.

Oh, wait. Yeah, we're skipping those lines. Good afternoon. Uh my name is Elena Shanetta.

I was lucky enough to be on the Wealth and Economy and Housing Subcommittee. Um I come to you today to review the task force recommendations which as Nisha Oh, did you already skip it? Um as Nisha said, we're going to skip that slide. I assume

you all have read the report. Um, did everyone get a chance to review the report that this presentation is based off on before our presentation today? Great, because we distilled everything into one slide per subcommittee. Um, we found some really great progress to date in wealth and economy.

Um, one of my personal favorite projects was the guaranteed basic income pilot project that launched in 2020. Um, the original project has targeted formerly incarcerated individuals, providing them with direct cash assistance. Uh, the data that we at least were able to find on the city website showed higher employment rates, fewer financial hardships, and improved mental well-being. Following its success, the Durham County has now introduced Durham County Thrives, a new guaranteed basic income program that will provide guaranteed income to 125 families over the next

year. Um, something I do want to just bring to everyone's attention is we are a city county co-committee. So, we looked at both county uh initiatives as well as city initiatives. Um, and this presentation covers them both.

In the area of workforce development, Durham has invested in job training programs. There's the Bull City Apprentice Program, which provides on the job training to help residents gain essential skills. Durham is participating in Results for America good jobs and equity project, which helps create pathways for sustainable employment. And on the housing front, the city has made strides in expanding affordable housing.

The Durham Housing Authority secured a $40 million neighborhoods grant to redevelop public housing units. We saw a lot of great projects during the COVID 19 pandemic. The Durham Emergency Rental Assistance Program provided financial support to more than

3,500 residents. Um, and the city has taken some steps to support minority owned businesses and wealth buildinging initiatives. There has been increased grant funding for black and uh Latinx owned businesses along with expanded access to business mentorship and financial planning resources. These initiatives do mark some meaningful progress, but as we looked at the data and how uh Durham has been um successful and areas for improvement, we definitely found some areas for improvement as well.

Thank you. Um, we would love to see an expansion of the guaranteed basic income program. While the initial program has demonstrated success, the reach is very limited. Additional funding would be needed to scale these initiatives to include other highne populations such as

single parents and low-income workers. Uh across the board, we saw a decrease in the percentage of black home ownership, especially in areas that are very ob obviously being gentrified. Um some of the housing pri um 2020 and 2024 um just aren't really sustainable for a lot of the more lowincome people we have here in Durham. Expanding firsttime home buyer programs, down payment assistance, and lowinterest mortgage mortgage options could help close this gap. We also need to address racial wage and employment disparities. Uh Durham is home to some of the best colleges, uh hospitals, um and yet we often see that bipac workers can are not accessing the same highpaying careers in

STEM, healthcare, and skilled trade. There should be stronger partnerships between the city and local businesses to increase hiring, retention, and promotion of diverse candidates. We have to support minority owned businesses. Many minorityowned businesses struggle to access capital and secure loans.

We would like to see city-backed business incubators, improving on loan accessibility, and an expansion of the mentorship programs. And finally, I want to talk to you about something that is near and dear to my heart. Um, I received my master's of science and analytics from NC State University over 10 years ago and was frankly very upset at the data accessibility available on the city and county websites. Often the data would be over five or 10 years old. Um, some of the links were often broken. um the ability to find consistent data

uh made it almost impossible to track uh outcomes here. I really need you all to standardize the economic equity data so that we can make reports publicly accessible and so that we are also able to ensure accountabil accountability and progress over time. Next, I'll be speaking on housing. We all know that housing and wealth and economy are interrelated.

Um, and on the good side, the Durham Housing Authority secured a $40 million choice neighborhoods grant, which is being re being used to redevelop public housing into mixed income communities. data shows that mixed income communities have uh a higher rate of overall um economic um growth for everyone involved. The 519 East Main and Liberty Street project is

one of the first developments from this effort. There'll be over 555 new mixed income apartments. The city has also expanded its firsttime home buyer assistant program um which aims to increase home ownership rates. Tenant protections did improve during COVID.

As I mentioned, the Durham Emergency Rental Assistant Program provided aid to over 3,500 uh households. Um in addition, the city expanded rental mediation services and tenant legal support. Homelessness does remain a challenge here in Durham. Durham has expanded transitional housing programs and increased wraparound services such as mental health care and employment assistance. I am happy to see that the city is supporting supportive housing models which have been shown to reduce chronic homelessness rates. Uh this there has been a very nice push

for greater accountability and transparency in housing development. The city has begun implementing equity focused policies to prevent displacement due to gentrification. Uh efforts to track racial disparities in home ownership and rental markets have improved, but again there's plenty of room for improvement from there. We would like to see an expansion of affordable housing and home ownership projects.

Additional funding should be allocated to lowincome housing projects and rental assistance programs. Another major concern, as I mentioned earlier, on the uh wealth and economy is displacement and gentrification. Many longtime residents are being priced out of their neighborhoods due to rising property values and rent increases. Implementing stronger anti-displacement policies and requiring new developments to include a minimum percentage of affordable units can help these vulnerable

residents. Eviction res prevention remains a priority. If you all read the report um that we produced earlier la or later last year, you would see that the eviction rate is starting to climb after the pause on evictions. and we are seeing the racial disparity just as clear as it was before CO 19.

Um, we would like to establish a city-wise rent stabilization policy that would help prevent sudden and unaffordable rent increases for Durham's unhoused population. We need more local government investment in permanent supportive housing programs. We could pair this housing support with job training and mental health services. And finally, transparency and community involvement in housing policy needs to be strengthened. Requiring racial equity impact assessments for all new projects will help prevent unintended racial disparities. Additionally, ensuring that

residents, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, have a seat at the table in housing discussions will lead to more equitable and communitydriven outcomes. These opportunities for growth are essential in ensuring a more fair and inclusive housing landscape in Durham. As an attorney, I am very familiar with the criminal criminal legal system. Um it is also um refreshing to hear the um conversations on expungements that was had prior to this discussion. Um that this county and city continues to invest in um all folks that live here including those who have um interacted with the criminal justice system. So, since the 2020 racial equity task force report, Durham has made um important strides in reforming its

criminal legal system. One of the most notable improvements is the expansion of the diversion programs, the misdemeanor diversion program, also known as MDP, which initially focused on youth, but has since been expanded to include young adults up to the age of 26. Additionally, the post arrest diversion, also known as PAD program that was launched in 2020, provides nonviolent offenders with rehabilitation options instead of incarceration. Other specialized courts that exist in Durham, such as mental health court and drug treatment court, have also been expanded to support individuals with substance use and mental health challenges. In terms of community-based public safety, the city launched the Durham Heart, which stands for holistic empa empathetic assistance response team in 2022. This program sends trained crisis responders rather than police officers

to situations involving mental health crisis, substance use, and homelessness. In just two years, HART has diverted over 11,000 emergency calls away from law enforcement, ensuring that individuals in crisis receive appropriate care instead of facing arrest. Additionally, efforts have been made to reduce racial bias and jury selection. The city has partnered with the inclusive jury project at Duke University to address the disparities and promote more racially diverse jury pools.

And excuse me when I said the city um meaning the court public awareness campaigns are also helping to encourage greater participation in jury service from under represented communities. And finally, there has been a significant push for greater transparency and accountability in policing. The Durham Police Department now publishes annual reports on racial

disparities and arrests, traffic stops, and use of force, making this data publicly accessible. While these changes mark meaningful progress, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. And in the next slide, we'll discuss the key opportunities for further growth in our criminal legal system. Some of um the areas for improvement is um one key opportunity is to expand communitybased crisis response programs.

We understand that there are funding concerns of course, but we do believe that the Durham Heart program has been successful in diverting thousands of crisis related calls away from police, but it currently lacks 247 coverage in the city as it's currently implemented. Additional funding and staff would allow HART teams to respond whenever crisis occur, further reducing unnecessary police intervention. And

again, the HART program uh is run in the city and not in the county. Another area needing improvement is reducing racial disparities in traffic stops and arrest. Black residents continue to be disproportionately stopped and searched by law enforcement. Establishing independent oversight of stop and search practices and expanding bias training for officers can help address this issue.

Moving to alternative sentencing and restorative justice programs. Um, these programs should also be expanded. Currently, many low-risk non-violent offenders still face incarceration when community-based rehabilitation programs could be a more effective solution. increasing post-arrest diversion options and incorporating restorative justice models can help reduce incarceration results and recidivism. And again, this is speaking to the adult population. We

know um the Durham Juvenile Crime Prevention Council funds many um programs that work with our court involved youth, but specifically when we're addressing community-based rehabilitation programs, we're specifically focusing on adults. Also, ensuring fairness in jury selections and sentencing is another priority. While Durham has taken initial steps toward jury diversity, more needs to be done to create a truly inclusive jury selection pro process. Additionally, racial disparities in sentencing for similar crimes must be addressed through policy changes and judicial training.

Finally, there is a significant need to increase support for formerly incarcerated individuals. We know that Durham um has a re-entry council which is doing great work. Um we do know that many returning citizens struggle to find employment, housing, mental health

support which um would increase potentially if they don't have that support their risk of reoffending. Expanding job training programs, legal aid services, and affordable housing housing initiatives will help these in individuals reintegrate successfully back into our society here in Durham. By addressing these opportunities for growth, Durham can build a criminal legal system that is more equitable, just, and community focused. Next, we will move to the topic of education. One of the biggest accomplishments um to date is has been the expansion of universal prek funding increases that have allowed Durham to add more classroom seats and provide higher wages for prek teachers and staff, ensuring that early childhood education remains both accessible and high quality. to

support student mental health and wellness. The number of school counselors and social workers have increased and Durham schools have become have begun implementing trauma-informed teaching strategies to support students experiencing chronic stress and trauma. Another progress includes um when we look at school discipline reform, the city has expanded restorative justice programs providing alternatives to suspending to suspensions and expulsions. This has led to a 5% decrease in suspension rates for black and latin students since 2022, helping to disrupt the schoolto prison pipeline.

Durham has made a number of strides in education as well as um there are more opportunities for growth. We are aware that we have limited time. So we will ask you all to take the time to read out

your um the further opportunities for growth in education which again in includes expanding out programs that we know are working and these are the programs that I just listed in the prior slide. We also have health and and environmental justice. I would also again encourage you all because of our time constraints to read through those slides and see where you all have had progress as well as opportunity for growth. Now to summarize, our general recommendations uh for priorities for city and county government leadership has been that we would love um for you all to create um what you see on the screen. Mainly um we've outlined three necessary areas of improvement. one centralized all of the subcommittees that did various work had

to rely on data that was not provided solely by the Durham city or county websites. The data was in uh disperate sources and sometimes those data told different stories. Um so streamlining that data would be um great consumable the open data portal itself needs to be re-evaluated for usability. Um, data should be easily exported.

When sites like the county strategic plan are down, there should be an obvious person that we can contact. Relevant sites such as Compass as well as the city and county strategic plan often have data that is many years old and they sometimes lack yearover-year trends as well as breakdowns by racial groups. DRE recommends engaging and investing in the data analytic service group within the city of Durham. This division supports city and county departments who want to help develop maps, applications, dashboards, and data stories that can all be published through the Durham open

portal. Um, we are very thankful that you all have given us this time and opportunity to present to you all. We are very aware you have packed schedules and so as you all continue to digest um the information that you shared with uh that we shared with you all. We invite you all to come to our monthly meetings.

We meet in person you right here in the city hall um every third Wednesday from 6 to 8. Um, and so we we would be excited to see you all there. And um, if I think we are at time, but if there are any questions or comments that you would like to share with us, um, we'd love to hear from you all. Thank you so much uh for uh for this presentation.

Um, this is a lot of work you guys have put in. Uh, but I I would like to open it up to my colleagues for questions and comments. Council member Freeman. Thank you. I just first first have to say that

um it's pretty interesting that we have a new pope, Pope Leo. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. But uh I did want to uh thank thank you both for presenting today. I know it's been a tired some uphill battle in trying to get this work done. And I do want to really appreciate our staff and the county um making sure that we finally get to this point of actually sharing out some of the work that you've been been doing.

I do want to stress this is just a little bit of it. I I think you guys have done a halen lift in reading and research and oh my gosh, I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it. But I I I do know that this is just the beginning and these recommendations uh definitely would be taken um taken up. I know our council has been very supportive of the racial equity commission. I do want to note for council to keep an eye on our legislators proceeding with something

around our guaranteed income. I think I think it's specific to us what I'm considerably concerned about. Yes, completely. But here we go.

Good work. Here we are. And uh that is the work that we must do. Did that pass crossover?

Did it pass cross? I'm not sure it did. Crossover for Yeah. For guarant.

Did that pass? Did that not go through crossover? Yesterday. But um but I do want to just say that um I think over the years this work has kind of sprawled into all different areas and this is really helpful to pull it back in to the specific blocks and then just to see like just specifically those areas around health, education, um housing and I know there's even more. Um, I'm not sure how we move forward, but I I do I

do appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the commission and I try as much as I can to stay out of the way because y'all are doing y'all are doing a lot. But, um, as much as you need, please let me know and I will try to be as supportive as possible. And we very much value the support that the city and county has shown um, this body as we have learned and been trying to figure out how um, our role plays in. Um, I think one of the things that we are mindful of is that local government has certain restrictions.

And so what we want to make sure that we're giving to you all are recommendations that we know are within your control and not necessarily within the control of other levels of government. Um, so again, we appreciate the time that you all have um given us today and we are ready and available at any time to answer any questions or comments about any of the work that the subcommittees are doing. I did want to just add one thing. Um, I'm not sure if we're looking at the the

housing on the housing side for home ownership folks who are falling behind. I know that HUD has not been doing foreclosures, but I do expect that to start back up. And so I do feel like in in addition to evictions, we're going to see some foreclosures and we need to be prepared. Thank you, Council Cook.

Yeah, thank you all so much for this. Good to see you all. Um, and just also want to say thanks for being so respectful of time. I just really appreciate that.

Um, okay. I just have a couple of follow-up questions and I did skim through the report, but we had a bazillion items on and I skimmed through a lot of reports last night. So um under the areas for improvement on the criminal legal system stuff talking about the racial disparities and traffic stops and arrest is the information that's available still the one that is just coming out of uh now I guess it's emancipate from Ian the Durham um I think it's the Durham police they do have um information on

their websites that also lay out like for example how many folks were arrested for marijuana charges and what was the race of the folks that were arrested for those. So, some of that information we're actually getting from um publicly available data that the Durham Police make available as well as from Emancipate. Okay. Um does do we and this is a question I should know, but just since you're here, do we does the Durham Police Department do traffic stops or only they when they do charges and arrests? Well, um we also have been tracking um stops stops and searches and seizures um as a result of when the um well way back when when FAD um used to do work and they implemented a policy in which anytime someone is um asked to consent to a search um during a traffic stop, they go through a process where they have to document and sign and give

written in consent that they are consenting to law enforcement. So that data is also tracked. Okay. Um and and because uh sorry.

So in in the recommendations um to have somebody else overseeing that data like an outside source. We we do have like we have some of that built in. Is it not being utilized or do you all have like more specific suggestions? I think what our concern is is that much of that data is housed internally and so what we're able to view is what they make available.

Um so what we would like is wonder we're we're not sure what is happening behind closed doors before they publish whatever data that they feel is comfortable to be released to the public. Um again having another party that is not associated with law enforcement to be reviewing that. We do recognize we have um the human relations council and and other entities in Durham, but we also know that they also

don't necessarily have subpoena power um and other certain ways to hold um law enforcement accountable. So, just trying to be creative around how are we working and intersecting with law enforcement. Cool. Thank you.

And then my other question is kind of along those lines because y'all both talked about um data and transparency and I heard it coming up a lot a lot a lot. Um so um kind of in the key takeaways it's like folks are not being heard or and then I think you were saying some things about like sometimes it's actually just like hard to get in and then like you don't really know how to navigate. Um what all systems are involved in that? Can you just like give me sort of a brief overview of like who the parties are and Yeah, we had um Bethany Chapel from the Durham, what was they called? Like the Durham Analytics Services Group came to present to our uh commission last July

um and sort of walked us through everything that was available. Um when I reached back out to her in preparation for this, I learned that she had left her role. I learned that her boss was no longer in his role. I don't even know if the Durham Analytic Services Group exists anymore.

Um, my understanding is they worked across the city and county to try to make data available. The data they did make available was um mostly I mean we have those really cool maps, you know, in Durham and those come from ArcGIS data which you can quite literally have to get a master's degree in to be able to use effectively. Um I think having data available that you know people can use in like a Google sheet or like something else that um compass as well sort of gives you a picture but you can't get the data out. So if you're interested in say seeing it a different way or comparing it to something else, you know, you either have to when we did like type it out into a sheet so you could type it out somewhere else, you know, hover over it. Like it's just it's made from the idea

of they know what you want to consume, but a lot of times it's not broken down by race. It's not broken down year-over-year. Are we going up or down? Is this good or bad?

It's sort of impossible to know. Um, so I would love to know if the data analytic services group is going to continue or cuz that seemed to be the only group that we could find that really ex sort of was over all data and supporting. Thank you. Those are my questions.

Thank you. Um, real quick to you continue. Are you all working with the human relations commission and the police re uh citizens police review board at all? No. And what we because we believe our body is very much um more so a research and and engaging in local reform. So in our initial the way in which we created this report was the commissioners all broke out into small groups and in our small

subcommittees right criminal legal subcommittee we looked at certain topics and dove into them just to try to make sure that we could give you all something. Um now our goal for the next um few years is to kind of go deeper into some of these subcommittee work. So potentially some of that work will include working with some of these other um bodies that exist within um our city and county government. It's safe to say this is work in progress.

Yes. Good. Good. Good.

What this presentation today is is an update to the 2020 report. We know that this work is a long journey. Um and we don't expect Durham to have done everything that the 2020 loving letter asked of Durham. Um what we wanted to share with you all today is what improvements and what opportunities for growth we're still looking for um after reading the 2020 report. And we also want to acknowledge that 2020 report there was a lot of good work that

was put into it and because COVID happened when it happened um the city and county were not really able to embrace the report I think in the way that was initially envisioned um by the creators of the report and the creators of the task force honestly. So, we want to really re-uplift the loving letter as well as draw attention to what work has been done by Durham County and city over the past few years and encourage you all that still even though we've done work, there's still more work to be done. Thank you, Council Member Baker. Hi.

Thank you so much for showing up. Um I I cannot believe how comprehensive this work is that you're doing. you're looking at so many different topics. Um, and that's just that's just really impressive. And and I think one thing when you read it, um, it's it's racial equity, but a lot of it's just let's make things better. Uh, let's make things work better and, uh, enhance quality of life for residents in Durham,

um, through an equity lens. And so I I'm very impressed by that and and really appreciate it. And I think this is fantastic work. Just a few few questions.

Um obviously you presented on it's comprehensive, you're touching on everything. So um just a few things that that came out to me. One was the the equity data and trying to get because I think that's something that's very doable. Um also just data is is complex.

Um and it is messy and it's all over the place and you can tell stories so many different ways from different sources of data. Um, I've never really found the perfect place to find consolidated, easy to use data because collecting data is so complex. Uh, maybe social explorer um, which is kind of an expensive subscription service that, you know, I had access to in gradu grad school. But I think that's an important part of the conversation is how do we how do we expand data to everyone? Of course, data works um, has been out there sort of trying to do the work of democratizing

data. So, um, let's definitely reconnect on that and and explore how we can improve data access. Um, I really appreciated a lot of the the housing recommendations, rent stabilization. I mean, that's such a it's such an important issue.

Um, it's such an a, you know, something that I'm so passionate about. Um, and of course, that's something that very directly we are are not allowed to do in the state of North Carolina. And yet at what point do we just say we have to keep talking about it at least and what is the next step to overturning that legislation and what are the little things that we can be doing along the way. um you know, we get profers from developers.

We have the power of zoning. We own land and can construct. Um and so how can we build in rent stabilization into those things? And I think that's a really interesting and important conversation. And I think that there's room for us to to do work on that. Um have you all looked and

maybe I missed it in the report. Have you all looked at like equity, racial equity in like um sort of taxation or land taxation or valuation? No, but that could definitely be another potential topic that we dive into. And of course, there are many other actors in the city and some are are doing that work.

And so there's there's definitely um opportunities for class cross collaboration there. Um but you know, when I read the report, I mean, it's just let's invest in this and invest in this and I'm yes, let's but we have just a few billionaires in this country that hoarding all the money. Um, but in our city, we also have a very large institution, Duke University, that that is much better resource than the rest of our city. And I do think that there are very fair conversations to be having with um, you know, working with Duke so that they are uh, stepping up and paying their fair share. I know that higher education is under attack in our in our country right now. Um and our major universities around the country are

facing um you know threats, funding threats um and a lot of other challenges, but so are our residents and so are our small businesses and so is everyone else across our community. And so we need to we need to share that and and work in in solidarity together. Um, so yeah, I want to come back to the to the data issue and um connect with you on that and and see what we can do um because I do think that that's an important issue and I do think that's that's a lowcost one and one that um requires collaboration. So thank you again for your work.

Thank you. Thank you. And I think that's a fair statement. Higher education is being attacked at the federal level, local level, too.

And there's an entire center for community engagement that I hope you guys will engage in. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Oh, hold on. I'm sorry. No, no, don't leave. I'm sorry.

Go ahead. I didn't see your hand. I didn't see anybody hands.

Thank you so much for the presentation. Really appreciate it. Thanks for being here. Um, as C Freeman said, and this work has kind of infused the whole city, which is so exciting.

Um, I just had a couple questions. I want to go back to the data real quick and then I had another question about recommendations. So am I correct? So are you just looking at data provided by the city or folks in Dur are you looking at outside data sources as well?

So what we did is each individual committee as just regular Durham citizens went to find what data could we find that's available. Again thankful for um Miss Sharon and Dr. uh Lewis in the help that they gave us in showing us where we could find information in both the county and the city. But some of the information outside sources, yeah, sometimes we went, you know, I was able to find information um from Duke Sanford public policy on jury inclusivity projects or we were able to go um to Durham Police Department and find information on

traffic stops. So it is a it was a amalgamation of different sources including county and city government plus random other entities that have this information. Okay, that's good. So just to follow up on that.

So on the on the wealth and economy piece. So you're looking at disparities in income, employment, and financial access. Are you looking at actual wealth data? Beautiful.

I don't think we had any actual wealth data. Let's there's there are sources on wealth data. I used to do work in this. I'd love to talk to you about that.

there's sources even down to the local level, county, city level. So, yeah, that would be awesome if we could figure that out. Okay, that's really good stuff. Um, second question is about some of your policy recommendations and you you mentioned rent stabilization, council member Baker.

These are sort of complex issues. I don't know, are you going to come back to the city with more ideas about what that might look like? Again, our goal for today is just to give you all a overview of what we learned over the last two years really. And then our goal for the next iteration of this commission is to really dig deeper into some of these um aspects

that we talked about. Um we're also mindful of um how much time we have together because we as a commission meet once a month. And so just again trying to figure out as we as commissioners and it's a revolving door. Sometimes we have people come on and come off and so then we're having to retrain folks and get them acclimated to the work.

And so it does create a longer timeline when it as it relates to like let's dig deep into this one particular topic. And so that's what we're continuing to work on. Um we are currently working on reviewing our bylaws. Um and and so as we're doing that, we are having conversations with each other about what work can the commission do. I think that's why we have also been very reticent in working with other commissions and entities that exist within the county and city. We want to make sure we figure out what it is that we're tasked with because what we don't want to do is duplicate any other work that's happening by other

commissions that we know exist here in the city and county. So again, as we continue to do this work, we want to dig deeper. Um, for example, we plan on um having conversations like with the clerk um of court and Emily Coward who is at the Duke School um around jury inclusivity and what is the clerk and Emily going to do together to um work on improving. So, what we're trying to do is leverage some of the relationships we have as commissioners in working some of these changes and then also sharing with you all where we think that there are some gaps and then being able to say these things to you all and then you all give us information back is super helpful because we as just regular citizens who don't do this as our regular job as much as we might think we um we know that you all know so much more. So being able to share this information with you all and then you all give us the feedback so that we can know where we should be looking or where maybe we shouldn't be looking will be

super helpful to us in maximizing our time and effort. That's really helpful. Yeah. So I look forward to all that and in particular I noticed you lifted up livable wages as well.

So as you get to that conversation, love to be part of that and hear your ideas on that one. So yes, I look forward to further conversation. So thank you. Thank you.

And again, we are aware that Durham as a progressive beacon in North Carolina. Sometimes some of our progressive ideas um make their way um into different spaces and then they don't want the those things to happen. So, we are aware um but we still want to um give Durham the applause that is necessary because we are a place that creates new and innovative programs. like you all highlighted um this morning with our expansion program and and we highlighted with the guaranteed income program, there are ways that Durham has been ahead of the game in creating new ways to address racial disparities within all the things. Um we know that these

disparities exist in every aspect of our life um here in Durham. And so we know that when we're talking about uh progress as it relates to racial equity, it is not an overnight thing. It is not a five-year strategic plan. It is um probably another hundredyear strategic plan as we envision what Durham do we want to see um when we're no longer here.

Thank you. Um go ahead. I just want to play off one more thing that I I feel like a couple of my colleagues have said and I just want to be really clear about it. Like we do face push back because of some of these things that we do and and I think that there is particularly in this political climate um a choice to be made about whether we operate under fear of backlash or whether we are bold.

Um and I know that we've had conversations up here about like sort of when to push the needle. And this feels like an example to me where like things are not working. Like the systems are not

working. And so it's not like we are bringing bad into it by being bold and innovative. And so I just want to appreciate that y'all put some things in here that like we can't complete tomorrow or we may not be able to complete at all. But like pushing the envelope I do think is important.

I don't want to legislate out of fear. I don't want to policy make out of fear. Um and so I just want to say thank you for for being bold in that report. Thank you.

And we also are aware that, you know, as we talk about racial equity, we're trying to um shorten the racial disparities, but we recognize that the guaranteed income program, some of our housing programs, our expansion work impacts all people of all races, of all genders, of all um walks of life. And so we believe that this work that we are uplifting in here does not just help black and brown citizens of Durham, North Carolina, but all people that reside in North Carolina. I just wanted to say thank you very quickly. Appreciate y'all's time today

and the presentation. That's all. Thank you. And uh I'll close with this.

I selfishly want one more component of this. I would like recommendations for residents as well. Recommendations for residents or from residents for. So basically what I'm looking at in all of the key areas of improvements like you know what the institutions can do which is I think the mo what we need to focus most on but I also would like to know what I can do as an individual to position myself better you know um because we are governor we're providing services to the individual but what are some recommendations for me as an individual to be able to get better access to these or better position myself to have a better quality of life if the system is working like it That's excellent point and I think we can um as a commission go back toward looking at that but one thing I do want to emphasize that the work of the racial equity commission is to really look at

government you all and um because what we know is that racial equity is is really um systems do the work do that invisible work an individual me myself I'm standing here we've got a couple of individuals from the commission coming before you all. We're doing some work. We know so many people in Durham County are doing the work of racial equity. But I think when we think about it on the more macro level, we know that you all as government actors have much more power than we as individuals do do have. Um I do think one of our things that we are seeking to do is to have more conversations with duramites as we are continuing this work. So I think as we have those conversations with dermmites, we can really engage with them and see what it is that they have the capacity to do, but we all know that at the end of the day, we're all living in Durham County and Durham City that is we don't have decisions over purse strings and

and certain things. And so really what we're asking you all are when you look at those those things just make sure you're wearing your racial equity glasses as you analyze um the work. Truly. No, I I am totally with you.

That's why I said the brunt of it needs to be on government as an institution, but I've never seen I've never seen a whole picture without all parties involved. Yeah. And I just want to know like not what I need to do to make sure the whole system works, but as an individual, what can I like what steps can I take to make sure that I'm better receiving to make sure that I'm meeting these systems? I I I do think that should be a part of it.

So, thank you so much. Thank you all. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time and effort.

Thank you. Bye-bye. All right. Item number 13. Design bill services contract with OG Construction LLC for Hillenddale and

golf Hill golf course driving range and putting area renovation. I think this is council member Cook. Yeah, my only one today. I just want to say I am not the I am not the agenda person.

Hi. Thank you. Good afternoon. Um, I I just have actually a few very over like broad questions about the golf course if you'll indulge me.

I have heard and I would love to hear if this is true that this is the most used golf course in the country. Is that accurate? That's a good question. I'd have to get back on that one.

Um, the most used. Yeah, I mean that is that's what I heard and and I don't I couldn't find anything so I don't know if that's true, but um I wanted to know I see that we're sort of making these improvements that we've we're going to contract with this person or this company in order to do these um improvements. We've already have the list out, but we're looking more in designs, but could you just talk a little bit about what this golf course is for the community and also the benefits that it brings to the city as well? Okay. Uh well, good afternoon

everyone. Good afternoon, Mayor and and North City Council, Tony Phillips. Um the general service project manager. Um the project entails, if you've been out to uh Hillando, there's a small driving range um and a small putting surface.

The golf course is also used for uh swing pals, which is a youth program. Uh first te, which is also a youth program. By expanding the driving range, we're now encroaching into their activity. But by making it larger, this will give the driving range an opport the areas if that driving range an opportunity to uh also benefit those that those um youth programs uh without uh interrupting the serious golfers uh the ones who are driving to get to the golf range and getting hit in the on the first te. So the first T moves back

which also changes the uh the fencing area that the driving range is located right now. So we're giving it more safety at the same time as increasing the opportunity for uh the youth programs to uh participate in those areas. And so these youth programs use it. I know a lot of community members use it.

Um there is a there is a fee associated but it's a little bit lower than maybe some other golf course or comparable driving range options in other places. Does the city see that money where what happens with the with the um fees that are for using the golf course? I have to get back to you on the fees and how and how they are split but um do we have a Good afternoon Gina Prop general services department the um arrangements but um Amerazel Goff is basically a um it covers itself through through the revenue and the operations and um we are responsible for large capital

improvements similar to what we do with some of our other other management agreements but in this instance as you've just said there's so many programs that um Hill Andddale provides. Over 1,800 um Durham public school middle school students were provided opportunities after school to um participate at um Hillindale and that that's not a charge to them. So there's community benefits along with you know revenue that is generated but the revenue helps to pay for the golf operations in and of in and of itself. That's awesome.

So are do we have break even there or do we end up getting any it's basically a break even type operation? Well those are Oh yeah, go ahead. Yeah, except for like like I said when there's large improvements and this just adds more capacity and more opportunity, right? Just didn't have much to say on that except that I do know that it's a great resource.

I live very close by. Um I see it just like so many people utilizing it every single day. Um, and would love to know if that statistic that I like heard about it being the

most used is is true, but I I was just going to say you should watch there's a video on CBS about Swing Pals and what they do. So, that would be another thing that um would be great to share and it highlights Helenale. I don't know about that statistic, but we can make start a rumor. We've seen done that.

But anyway, thank you so much Frell's work there and I it really is a great community resource. So, I appreciate it. I implore everyone to check out Swing Powers, what they do, and go through their little leadership target practice, setting your goals. It's really cool.

Um, Council Burris, Mor, thanks, Mr. Phillips. Yeah, I just want to say, um, I've been out to Hilda many, many times. Great facility, great value, right?

Um, but I know that this is all not only about the golfers who play there and love playing there, but it is about like first tea and swing pals, which is an amazing program. I've been out to one of the schools to watch the kids do their thing, shoot it to the targets, whatever. Yeah, it's amazing stuff. Um, and I'm pretty sure, Council Member Cook, I think for the kids that participate in swing pals, I don't think they they pay, right?

I think they're part of the program. Yeah. So, it's

tremendous value for kids, for the community, and I knew I knew this was in the works to sort of to redo that because it's a pretty tight area there, right? It is very tight. Yeah. So, I think it's a great thing you're doing.

I'm super excited about this and just want to thank you for that. Thank you. I'm sorry. I just thought attorney's text.

Um, okay. Uh, thank you all. Thank you. Thank you.

Right. Item number 15. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Uh, Rebecca Holmes with General Services Department. Thanks for coming. Um, so just I just had one question. So this was a little bit complicated, but essentially this is finishing the cultural roadmap, right?

That's talking. Okay, that's good. Um and as I as I read the materials, so that will be delivered that time frame you gave us will be delivered in like a year, right? Yes. So we anticipate that phase three of the report will be available in the late fall um so that the community can

respond to the plan and have any feedback. We'll be presenting it to council and county commissioners in the spring of 26. We're also working with MJR partners in the creative engagement team to help inform the budgeting process as well for this upcoming cycle. um not for this year but for the following FY27 year.

So great. That's exciting. And I know we've been working on the culture road map for a number of years now. This was I think before the election was even a big deal.

I guess my only question is and I know there's been some ups and downs with the with the project. Um this will be four years to develop the the roadmap, right? So so what have we learned that so we won't so next time we can do this process faster? That's that's my only question.

Great question. So, I think we've learned that we rely on the equitable engagement blueprint where we um we understand that if there's a we're not getting the information that we necessarily need to um inform the plan that we need to pivot and find a new way to engage with the community. And so, the creative engagement team is going to help support that work um where we're reaching out to

residents who really want more arts and cultural activity happening in their neighborhoods to be a part of the plan. Um so that pivot um that pause really helped us reestablish how to engage with community members and we're very excited that MGR Partners is responsive to those that kind of practice where they're learning from residents. They're planning based on um what residents are telling them and really building a robust engagement plan so we can actually learn what residents want to see at the end of the day. So, I hope that answers your question.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah. Any other questions?

All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Council member Baker, item number 18. Thanks for sticking around. Um, just a couple questions. I was just wondering

where is this going? And then um when we talk about public accessibility, is there going to be we talking about an easement or are we just sort of generally thinking that it's going to be publicly accessible? Sure. Wade Walco with Parks and Recreation.

And to answer that, I think this is just a great example of good government and efficient government because this is came to us from the purchase of the former wheels property. So, these are modular pieces of skate uh park equipment and we're able to uh through state statute and working with attorney's office advertise those pieces because we don't need those pieces. We can't use those right now. But we do know that there is a need for more skat uh experiences and opportunities in the city. And so this is perceived as a donation to the scrap exchange and those pieces would live on that site. It would be a donation to them and with the intent that they must be open to the public and free and be on private property.

Wait, that'll be on the which site? Not our not city property. The the scrap exchange is looking to uh use that equipment on their property. Oh, sorry.

Hi, Emily Macintosh Storm Parks and Recreation. So there is a area in the parking lot that the scrap exchange has identified to close down as parking and they will be converting that into a um skate park. Okay, that's perfect. That is so cool.

Yeah. Um and as you mentioned, uh thank you both. As you mentioned, I mean this is we have extra stuff um someone wants to use it and it's scrap exchange. I mean it's a perfect um perfect partnership there.

So very exciting. Um as uh uh council member uh Cababayro mentioned um just we we always need new things and skate parks is one of them and so this is just a great really exciting opportunity. Thank you so much. I also want to say uh Mr. Wal this is yeah great partnership and also so great

that when I read the memo here and they're talking about like spine ramps and double pup h pump h pump h pump h pump h pump h pump h pump h pump h pump h pump I didn't know what we were talking about but I knew it was exciting. So, so good job. Just real quick, I wanted to say that um also because of where this scrap exchange is, it is a pretty dynamic between Elitudo's little park area there with the water feature and this I think it's just a builds up a section of Durham that folks um Elfudo has a lot of public good messes. Um and so it's a way oversized parking lot, right?

I was gonna, this isn't for y'all, but what if we could at some point get an update because I remember years ago we had worked with the scrap exchange had it been 2018 or 2019 around potentially like moving forward on how to utilize that parking area. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's going to be in the next small area plan too. So be some opportunities for conversation about

that. Um, I think we were we helped I think I think honestly we maybe gave some money to help move forward in tenant like in securing tenants to kind of create stabilization for their rents. And that effort was then going to generate kind of a a master plan for that side of the parking area. Thank you.

See, I'm not Thank you, Council Member Freeman. " I'm like, "Okay, thank I I think it's just worth noting like this is I mean just like there's a Hay Thai area there needs to be a space in which it is predominantly Spanish speaking like I don't think there's that many areas in Durham that are named in space. There's this one in comparative foods side. Well, that one is that one's not as public or uh publicly accessible. It's mostly business and it's very accessible for business uses, but I think on the side of like families in need of, you know, like park space and that water feature is really nice and

even the the mural artwork is really nice and I think there should be more of it. That's all. Thank you, Council Member Free. I think that was the whole point of that work with the scrap exchange.

It had have been in 2018, maybe 2019. It was under manager Bonfield. Thank you. All right.

Our last item is um this uh resolution. Uh thank you colleagues for obliging on this. This uh this resolution is basically uh there there are actually many um municipalities. We're late in the game actually that have uh provided resolutions uh against 765 uh HB765. This is I mean there are some things in it where you know we could we can point out and say oh we can use that. Um but to be honest with you most of it you know um of the things that we would not have much of a problem

with in this bill we've already passed. um whether it was extended housing choice or um SCAT. Uh so we are pretty far ahead of the um the crowd statewide when it comes to zoning powers uh zoning innovation I would say. However, um I just speaking frankly, I think the way I've characterized this is I can appreciate the state getting interested in housing.

Um but I think the best way to do it is to support us because we do housing, but the state doing housing uh is coming in a bit a bit clumsy. Um and they they just don't understand it. And I know that for a fact because I've spoken to uh many representatives and senators on the state level and just about every last one of them. So tell us how to help. Just tell us that is coming from uh one side of the aisle and the other side of the aisle is well the residents have a right for their land to

be determined around them and so and so and so. And my response is you do know that the residents voted us in to do this. Uh so uh this was a proposal to you all to support a resolution uh joining many municipalities uh that is actually both like Durham is obviously a strong Democratic town uh based on our voter base and then there are towns that are strong Republicanbased towns and this is one thing we're all on the same page with. Um so uh you all had the resolution.

Are there any comments? Oh okay. So so and this language comes from this is a bunch of other cities have passed. Many of us folks uh in the league of municipalities got together and and yeah just kind of drafted it and madam attorney was able to uh check this up for us and um keep

us in line. Yeah. I think it's great. So this this language is very similar to many other um many other uh municipalities across the state.

Uh I'm part of a group of mayors who are forming for the first time the I85 corridor mayors. Uh and this is one of the items we were talking about before we officially tried to form this thing um from High Point to Henderson. So so you know yeah it's pretty straightforward. It basically says, uh, stop.

Just stop. We got this. Madam, um, Council Member Freeman, thank Thank you. I I appreciate that you're bringing this forward.

Um, Mayor Williams, I will say that this is similar to the conversation when people talk about, you know, states rights. The purpose of city, towns, villages is to do the land use. Um, and our hands have been tied and we consistently have to navigate the

what does it look like to untie them. And this is just speaking proof to power and it's on both sides as you said because we're both facing a housing affordability problem. We're both facing uh I mean we're all as residents in the state of North Carolina facing you know there's not enough there's no land growing. there's no way to produce extra land.

And so how we use our land is important. And so I I really think that sending the message um collectively um is helpful in and in and moving us in the right direction to where we actually do get some rent stability and housing affordability um in place. I I will say that it's probably I hope that the COG is also being asked to pass this resolution. If not, I would love to bring it to them. um and all the cogs across the state um making sure that we're all on the same page again and um making sure it's not just the cities, towns, and villages, but the regions, the counties, everybody saying the same

thing. Yeah. And there like especially like there is a party here where it it says we would potentially be we are exposed to being legally, you know, sued like that. We have legislative immunity.

Um, you know, so it it it already, you know, uh, it obviously eroded section 160D, which is what what we are here. Uh, so a lot of issues here. Council member Cabier, thank you. And I know that earlier in the session at some point, it would be great to get an update from staff about uh, where we landed because there was lots of bills that we were watching um, both federal and state.

And so that that is um, uh, really important to to see what landed where. But there were a number of bills that were really excellent around land use, allowing triplexes, allowing uh ADUs by right, getting rid of parking minimums. And I think the city of Durham is ahead of the curve on most of those things. So I think it's inaccurate to say that we aren't already doing this reform, that we're not invested in this kind of reform, and that we're not aware that it

it definitely helps affordability and we have been ahead of the curve. And so it's just a power grab at this point because if you were actually interested in affordability and land use then you would be lifting Durham up as an example instead of trying to be punitive. That is all I have to say. Thank you for bringing this forward.

That's all I can say if you could definitely there was more. No. Yeah. Absolutely.

Um, any other any other comments? All right, sounds good. Thank you all so much. Um, yeah, we'll have it on the uh Monday night meeting, Mr.

uh I think that's all right. All right, cool deal. All right, so I'm going to pass it over to uh Manager Ferguson. Mayor, can I get clarification on whether or not the resolution item 27 does council want that on GBA or do you want it as part of consent for the Monday night meeting?

GBA. Okay. Thank you. So, that being the case, then I'm sorry, colleagues, GBI.

GB. Yeah. Thank you. Uh, thank you, mayor and councel.

Then to settle your agenda, I have for consent items 1 through 24. GBA public hearing is items 25 and 26 and GBA item 27. All right, you've heard the uh items. Um I'll entertain a motion to Mayor.

Let me uh let me amend that. I've been trading text with my DCM. So um let me move let me let me settle uh consent items 1 through 23. Let me place the budget presentation which is item 24 uh on GBA with item 27 and then items 25 and 26 are GBA public hearing.

Thank you Bertha. Yeah, it's been moved and properly seconded to uh set the agenda. All in favor? I oppose. All right. Uh colleagues, uh we're going to close session

um which I need to do a motion for. We didn't do that earlier, right? Did we? Okay.

Okay. All right. Yeah, we did. All right, colleagues, I'll be the commencement speaker at NCCU tomorrow in Shaw University on Saturday.

If you're around, tune in. Uh don't and I'm not asking come to get in all that traffic, but Oh gosh, I'm not doing an AI thing. My phone's been going off all meeting. Um no, no AI.

But at this time, we'll presume to uh close session. m. uh in the conference room in the council suite and we'll adjourn after that. All right.