member 21st 1M good afternoon to all of you like to officially call this Duram city council work session the order in order to Faithfully discharge the business of the people of Durham thank you all for being with us his honor the mayor is on the way in route so I'm going to oh oh his honor of the mayor is here I was gonna call a break uh just to give him a chance to be here but we are going to go ahead and get started Madam cler would you please call a roll thank you Mr Mayor pro tem mayor Williams here mayor Pro Middleton I'm here council member Baker his way council member cabayo here council member cook here council member Freeman present council member rist here thank you all right thank you so much uh at this time we will have announcements from The Honorable our honorable council members uh council member C good afternoon do you have any announcements um oh great well we're being reported that's good news um good evening or afternoon everyone I have no idea what time it is apparently good
afternoon everyone thank you so much for being here we have a full docket today um and a lot of work to do so I'm just going to be really brief um I just want to send a thank you uh to my colleague council member riss and several other folks in the community who've been doing a lot of hard work around um The Watershed at Falls Lake we went to a really informative meeting y yesterday morning I can't yeah yesterday morning uh that was that was just uh really well done and I was super impressed with all the work that's been going on there um and otherwise I think that's going to be all my announcements thank you thank you so much council member Cabo good afternoon good afternoon I have no announcements thank you good afternoon everyone council member Freeman good afternoon good afternoon I want to just take a moment to just uh reflect a little bit on Monday night's meeting and say that there's always a lot of tension but I do think that um there's a healthy tension about what's happening in our
city and I know that we'll continue to work together and do what we need to do um I also just wanted to put on my colleagues radar that in addition to the issues I mentioned on Monday night around JFK Towers um Miss I won't call her name but um a resident there shared that their elevator has lost their license or or failed inspection enough so that they've snatched the actual paperwork out of it so they don't have an elevator three three elevators are out and they're out of compliance so to speak and that I don't know what that looks like and how we would address it but I do know that there should be some something we do or something we have like something some way shape of form we should be able to address it for seniors who are essentially um left without a way to get up and down from their Apartments like this this seems like a a much larger issue with how our system operates to make sure that people have what they need um as as in reference to
an apartment building and as we move forward and see a lot more you know multi-story buildings going up whatever that process looks like to to have an annual review or something in place I would love to figure out what that is um because it's breaking my heart right now and I'll leave that thank you thank you council member for that council member Baker good afternoon we we're doing announcements good to see you hey thank you um there's been a lot of activity my apologies for showing up a few minutes late here um there's been a lot of activity postelection activity at the federal and state level I think it's causing a lot of harm um so I want to acknowledge that also without without going into detail because it's sensitive I just want to acknowledge a lot of the work Mr Mayor that that you have been doing doing behind the scenes um that folks out there are not able to see um and we we can talk about it more later but um I really appreciate that work that you're that you're doing to protect the autonomy of local governments in in
North Carolina so I appreciate that that's it when we survive yeah yeah we we'll talk about it later but nevertheless you're putting in tremendous work and and that's appreciated so um I also wanted to to raise one other issue which is um thinking about communication platforms and um considering whether the city should should look at um it's its use of um X formerly known as Twitter and potentially no longer using it or and or moving on to another platform um I don't want to provide any direction I just wanted to raise that with my colleagues and and staff and um we can start having that conversation and talking about it thank you thank you council member council member R good afternoon thank you mayor pro tem good afternoon colleagues staff residents um thanks for that comment Council Baker really appreciate that I've been thinking about that one a to um I just have two comments one is thanks Council mcook for mentioning the meeting yesterday of the upper New River Basin
Association um critical work being done on the rules um the uh new rules we hope to get through the the general assembly in the next couple three years so thanks to council member Baker and council member cook for coming to that meeting and thanks to our staff um Reginal Hicks in water management and Michelle waluk in public works stormr have been working on this issue for many many years and working on it very diligently and I appreciate their their presence and their kind of coach and guidance on these important issues it's complicated but it's really important um all the water signs for Falls Lake so thank you for that and thanks for the the staff at at the UN RBA um the second thing I want to say is actually some good news on the safety front so we did get a letter I want to thank the folks Sean and his colleagues at transportation for working this issue hard we got a letter last week from the Department of Transportation at the state level that and let me read a part of this it says the ncdot is not opposed to the concept of two-way conversion that's Roxboro Mangum um although concerns remain with operational issues NCD does not object to the city proceeding with the preliminary engineering of the
conversion provided it will assist in addressing outstanding issues stated above so it means we can move forward with the with the design process for the two-way conversion of rockboro Mangum we still need we need to pass a step we still need to work closely with DOT but we at least have the this the go-ahead to start that process of design which is really critical to getting to that two-way conversion so again thanks to Mr Ean and staff for working on this one on a basis I'm sure so thank you thank you Mr Mayor Pon thank thank you colleagues I'll just associate myself with all of the announcements made and I have no further announcements I'll yield to his honor good afternoon Mr Mayor thank you thank you all so much um I am going to uh get us going I just want to make a brief announcement um and I think folks have all seen the news you know there's a lot going on in the um State Legislature and we are just trying to be the best um supports as we can and uh we'll get into those details a little later uh down the year um but for now I just want to
highlight some really good news um and I honestly can't remember if I said it Monday or not because I don't know what day it is uh as we're walk working around the clock um but we um in Durham uh are celebrating uh receiving a$1 billion doll investment in semiconductor uh sem conductor um research and development that means that we're going to be leading the nation right here uh with the semiconductor Research Center they are going to do all of the research and development and provide that entail for manufacturers Across the Nation and some across the world uh and it just feels good to have them headquartered right here in Durham uh with the1 billion dollar investment from the uh the Biden Harris chips act and uh of course I was grateful to to there to receive that with Governor Cooper and of course I said if you have any more we'll take it uh so uh they are um we we are we're moving on up here
um yes my um Council Freeman I was hoping you were gonna say something about your turkey giveaway for the holidays as well yep right here on my notes uh when I left there uh I rushed back uh because $1 billion do is really important however uh we were able to give away uh I believe about 100 turkeys uh in partnership with urban ministries it was Butterball day we did a proclamation for it and um and sponsored by Cisco foods and um so if anyone saw me you know a lot of police officers are here today if you uh saw me over the speed limit I was just rushing to that proc to give away turkeys as well but I was coming from a billion dollars all right I wasn't speeding just take my word for it all right although I saw Madam attorney on the highway next to me so uh but anyway
[Laughter] um no uh so it it was a good day it's been a good week uh and um you know and we have some data that we're going to present today that we're going to hear today and I'm really EXC excited about that uh I see the media is here invite you guys to stay for the whole show it's going to be really good stuff um but anyway let's get to the business uh I want to make sure that I acknowledge uh council member Freeman's concern that we all share uh I I too am concerned I've been over there and uh what I'll be doing is looking at because I want to make sure that folks understand it is a private property and I know that we've Incorporated some code violations um I think there's some I think we're legislatively limited on how much we can charge but there has to be something because folks shouldn't uh live in those conditions so uh hopefully we can uh dig a little deeper into what's going on at JFK Towers uh and let that be a a you know just a however we respond to it it will help us you know
look into what other uh facilities may be like that in the future all right at this time I will um acknowledge Mana manager or any priority items excuse me good afternoon um Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protim and members of the Durham city council do have a few priority items for you this afternoon I will begin with agenda item number four the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30th 2024 a presentation will be made during the November 21st 2024 city council work session we expect that presentation to be about 20 minutes agenda item number 13 ordinance authorizing the adoption of revision to bylaws of the mayor's committee for persons with disabilities this item is being referred back to the equity and inclusion Department agenda item number 20 resolution authorizing
street closures for the 2024 durm holiday parade city council has been asked to suspend the rules today and vote during the 20 uh November 2021 2024 city council work session to authorize street closures for the 2024 durum holiday parade as a new requirement of the North Carolina Department of Transportation special event guidelines agenda item number 21 the 2024 third quarter crime report a presentation will be made during the 20 November 21st 2024 city council work session uh that presentation is expected to last approximately 20 minutes and finally agenda item number 32 authorization for loan assignment from Crescent Acquisitions LLC for the development of Sandy Ridge Villas is a supplemental item that has been added uh to your agenda today that is all I have uh for you um
to consider as priority items uh for today's meeting thank you thank you very much just clarification so the the presentation on the annual financial report will be today okay okay I just want to clar thank you all right um I will um I'll anate a motion to uh U receive the manager's par items so move all right all in favor I all right all oppos all right do we need to do a separate suspend the rules right we to do that separately all right I'm now entertain a motion to suspend the rules to adopt the resolution move to suspend second all right all in favor all oppos all right I'll now entertain a motion to adopt a resolution approving the closure of streets for the 2024 Durham holiday parade Mr Mayor point of
inquiry before we do that and this might be for for counsel I I had I was gonna pull this item because I don't recall this ever uh having to do this for the holiday parade but this is pursuant to to new yeah this is new statute it's um Fred Lamar with the city attorney's office it is a requirement that um NC do is now having for uh parides on um State Street so they're requiring these resolutions in addition to the permit that they issue okay um all right I'll I'll move uh to uh approve the resolution okay all right let's move and properly second um all in favor I'll oppose all right things are getting real interesting and I think I answered my own question well I know we're only having to do it because it's ours I know that there was a thing with Phoenix Fest and I'm assuming Pride
will also have to do it but they'll just go straight to ncdot okay I'm getting a thumbs up thank you all right uh now uh recognized city manager I'm I'm sorry attorney off yes good afternoon U mayor Williams May prot Middleton and council members senior Deputy City Attorney Fred Lamar here sitting in for Kim rayberg the City attorney the city attorney's office has no priority items today thank you and Madame good afternoon Mr Mayor Mr Mayor pro tem and council members um the city clerk's office wants to announce their um board and committee and commission report the first um nomination for the Durham bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission appointment for the Youth position is Rosalia M Edmonds the durhams the workers Rights Commission appointment nomination is um
been decided to re advertise and then the civilian and police review board confirmations have all been approved and those individuals are Shan Allen Cassandra Johnson shaana Lindsay Michael Cam and Alexander Williams and that's the end of the report thank you yes just in in reference to I guess going forward if we're doing the street closures this way I would like to figure out how to make sure my cons I won't that but I I just want to make sure we have a like an ongoing list of regular occurrences so that so that we can keep that at the Forefront of the conversation and concern that was raised with Phenix Fest as if there was some push to to kind of stop this event from occurring I just want to make sure that people know what the events are in a very general way that will'll see this street closer or this process occurring
did you ask that again or say that again if staff could pull together the events that would that this would come up up against that would be helpful so events that would come that are on City owned versus Street uh state owned streets and Roads if we could have a list that shows those events like the hillside um homecoming um faille pH squ State Road just make sure that we have that some even if it's on our website so that folks can see it then it doesn't be it doesn't seem as non transparent and it doesn't create that kind of a uh Whisper of they're trying to stop these events from happening okay all right all right um so I'll entertain a motion to
um no I'm sor that all right let me get back on track here all right cool good deal I'll now go ahead and read the uh administrative cons items item number one dur bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission appointment item number two dur workers Rights Commission appointment number three approval of city council minutes number four the annual comprehensive financial report acfr for the fiscal year ended June 30th 2024 um five appointments and reappointment to the civilian police review board we have some members of the public actually I just thought about that we have some 5 five1 they resources yeah they're resources okay never mind all the resources okay okay yeah okay well this first one is not that's just yeah public for number five all right I'll
come back number six American Rescue plan project fville Street Corridor planning and infrastructure Community Assistance initiative number seven First Amendment to American Rescue plan act project multif family support and Supply Mass Durham Community Land trustees Incorporated subrecipient Grant agreement number eight First Amendment to American Rescue plan act project durm affordable sustainable home stash durm Community Land trustees Incorporated recipient Grant agreement number nine American number eight okay is it both seven and eight or just eight okay yeah okay Madam clerk you want to um turn your mic off all right number nine American Rescue plan act inter local agreement with Durham County to support digital
Equity efforts number 10 historic preservation fund Grant project ordinance number 11 contract renewal for fiscal year City fiscal year 25 city of Durham domestic violence and gain reduction agreement with North Carolina Administrative Office of the courts I'd like to pull that one right number 12 approve data use agreement between the city of Durham and Harvard Kennedy School number 13 ordinance authorizing adoption of revision to bylaws of the committee for persons with disabilities M for a bag uh number 14 inter local agreement with Durham County for joint funding of the low-income homeowners relief program I don't want to pull it I just want to say I love seeing this love it awesome stuff yeah exactly all right number 15 Cooperative group purchase contract sewer vac truck number 16 condemnation action to obtain one easement at 10:25 9th Street for the westclub boulevard utility rehabilitation and replacement project
17 uh condemnation action to obtain one area of fee simple and one eastment at 407 Marine road for the bicycle and pedestrian improvements projects s w47 number 18 comination action to obtain one area of fee simple and one East met at 929 morine road 747 number 19 resolution accepted in the United States Department of energy Energy Efficiency and and conservation block grant formula funding number 20 resolution authorizing street closures for 2024 DM holiday parade which has been uh uh taken care of number 2021 I'm sorry number 20 uh number 21 2024 that's a lot of 20s third quarter crime report will be a presentation uh number 22 Street utility acceptances number 23 amendment number two to professional Engineering Services contract number 462 with duberry the engineers Incorporated for the westclub
boulevard Corridor utility rehab rehabilitation project 24 construction award to Moffet pipe Incorporated for the West Club Boulevard Corridor utility Rehabilitation and replacement project 25 resolution to authorize an application for drinking water State revolving fund emerging contaminants study grant funding like pull that please number 26 Amendment one to Professional Services contract with mckm and Creed Incorporated for the North Carolina 751 sewer outfall improvements and a presentation of the fiscal year 2024 2025 first quarter financial report and um coming up in the next meeting we'll have our zoning uh City County Planning Department uh presentations of hearings of zoning map change Vivo living iby Creek uh zoning map change Hillsboro Road commercial uh number 30 statutory vested rights termination Davis
Park po G uh 31 Street closing permanent closing of 2,899 square feet of Victory Lane and we have uh number 32 authorization of loan assignment for crescent Acquisitions LLC for development of Sandy Ridge Villas all right so I am going to prepare for Citizens matters but uh we have items 8 11 and 25 P yes is that right yeah all right all right this my Bo here um so we we have a uh we have Mr D lingley online Mr Langly can you hear me yes I can can
you hear me one moment uh can we turn it up a little bit can you hear me I I can't I'm uh trying to get the volume up just a little bit if you can speak a little louder as well good afternoon Mr Mayor mayor protim and members of the Durham city council um I come before you uh this afternoon after our recent surge in gun and violence we find ourselves having this circular conversation where the media will sensationalize the gun violence in our community our elected officials will come before us and begin to talk about the fif urgency of now and the many community- based organizations that are doing work in the community and then we go back to business as usual never developing a strategy or allocating resources in order to be able to mitigate what we are seeing occurring with our young people here in our community uh in Durham as you all are fully aware I serve as the volunteer
executive director of The Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation where we work with boys and young men of color to help them develop strategies and plans for their academic and Career Success uh one of the things that we like to highlight is the fact that 100% of our boys in our young men of Excellence program have Career Success plans that we provide coaching and support for them to accomplish and then the young men in our career pathway program graduate college entering career oriented employment earning on average $69,000 per year when we talk about what is going on with our young people and I'm so happy that the mayor highlighted these new semiconductor technology opportunities that are coming to our area but the question we must ask as a community is are we preparing the talent pipeline in order to feel these emerging roles and opportunities because when we start to ensure our young people are equipped with the skill knowledge and experience necessary to have fulfilling
and rewarding careers in our community that is how you deter them from choosing gun violence gun violence is a direct result of regulating the drug Enterprise that go on in our community so if we want to eliminate the gun violence we have to eliminate the disparities in the systems where failing our education systems our Workforce Readiness systems we can do this work but it requires investment in the right places with the right people doing the right work producing the right outcomes and Mr Mayor I look forward to uh there being some budgetary allocations in this upcoming budget I know that the city has many obligations but we always talk about boys and young men of color but we never prioritize them in our budgetary allocations I look forward to speaking with you all individually and collectively so that we can develop a plan and strategy to finally do what we know Durham can do thank you thank you Mr Langley and thank you
for uh agreeing to continue doing the work that you're doing and we all will do our part um that is all the public comment that I have I will now move to item number eight you know no go ahead go ahead you know council member cook say she'll hold on so go ahead no I'm she didn't say that I'm just saying it as if she did name we're on item number four to be uh presentation right is it this is the pulled item number eight p all right sorry but that one will be we're on number eight but that will be a presentation when you were talking about cool all right yes so uh Council m m cook is ready good afternoon Bera wimbish Deputy
City Manager for operations I also have sherry Taylor from dlct here with us today yes I think that this might be a question for Miss Taylor um but I'm actually just curious about the modular housing and if we could talk about the advantages to building in that way that she's making her way up um so just while she's moving up this is uh this along with a couple of other items on our agenda are um arpa projects we had we had approved those a former iteration of this Council had approved those arpa projects for specific things um some of the organizations have found that the money might be better used in other ways so this is a slight change but because it is a change we will need to now um reapo and so this change um I just had some questions about why we were switching to modular housing and I I think that it's kind of a cool opportunity so I was hoping you just tell us a little bit more about what it
is and why it is useful you are already unmuted great actually Mr Taylor can I just make a comment as as you're coming up to the mic I I pulled this or didn't pull but I wanted to say I think it's an amazing opportunity I want to applaud the city staff and Miss Taylor for bringing forward this amendment so that modular housing is now part of our affordable housing options um I did work on this years ago I know that modular housing now is high quality it's cost effective and it can be when it fixed to a permanent foundation can be a huge source of asset building so I applaud you for bringing this forward this is an Innovative way to build affordable housing I'm glad we're doing it end dur so thank you look forward to your comments thank you council member riss uh good afternoon uh Mr Mayor mayor proin Middleton city council I'm Sher Taylor executive director of d Community trustees known as DLT and so um this amendment is coming before you because our initial um application for arpa funds and contract um was
submitted in 2021 before the final rules came out from the federal government and so some changes are being um required because of that um one of the things that we found out is that um modular housing is very high quality and it can also be environmentally sustainable so we'll be able to achieve our goals of affordable housing that's also affordable to live in over time um we know that um North Carolina may have an additional 50 days over 90 degrees and so we need to be building homes that are sustainable where people can afford to run their air condition because that's a health and safety issue so with modular we'll be able to build these homes faster and um have them be within budget um one of the other things that this amendment uh you may have seen is that this is for home ownership and that was one of the things
that the final rule did not have in it but it now does and so with this amendment we'll be able to provide affordable home ownership opportunities and that is something that not a lot of providers do in the city of there's only a handful of us um so the more home ownership opportunities that we can provide I think the better our city will be any other questions thank you um and I just want to clarify I pulled this also because I'm very excited about it I wasn't this was not I wasn't up here putting you on the spot I just wanted a little bit more of an explanation on modular housing and why it is faster and why it is more budget a friendly and also sustainable if you could just tell us a little bit more about that sure so 90% of a modular home is created in a factory so that means there's not these weather concerns construction can happen at any time of year and what what's also great about it is that there's a lot more control over the product it's not
sitting outside it's not getting wet um and modular homes can be created inside the factory in about 5 months that means we can serve people faster with this housing because it's going to get up faster what is um done on site of course are the foundations the utilities that sort of thing and so the permitting for modular housing is also faster as well it takes about a month once once the plans are submitted so again it's not just about the environmental sustainability it's also about the speed and once they're finished in the factory they're brought to site they're set in one day and then the utility um connections can begin but again just because it's modular doesn't mean it's low quality um they're inspected of course uh you have to have Building Inspections uh I've been to um the majer factory twice to see the production I've
also uh been on site as they're you know setting a home and actually talk to homeowners who have lived in their home for two or three years and these homeowners were very satisfied with the product so we're happy to be combining you know Innovative you know construction with affordable housing again to get it on site faster I can just add so I've been to a factory too Miss Taylor's correct there's very little waste as you see these homes built in a factory stick buil homes homes built on site it's a lot of relatively speaking waste that that happens there that you got to throw away so it's absolutely more efficient in of materials um and I will say also you know um HUD changed their guidelines back I think it's like 76 right pr76 the old what we think of as mobile homes were not high quality often very dangerous since 76 the the standards that Hut has set for building homes in a factory are quite strict and so what we're building is as Miss Taylor said and Factory build homes are quite high
quality efficient everything you said so um it's a great source of affordable housing is it are these the first modular homes that you no so dclt actually has um a number of modular homes already in service and so we've been kind of watching the technology as it's been improving things always improve and I think our oldest modular home is about 15 years old at this point so we're just revisiting um um um construction method that has worked although it's better now in 2024 and can I ask if our I guess our building standards currently allow for modular homes to be built like that's already in place right be updated or anything yeah okay thank you it's cool to uh see you guys build what I grew up in so you know manager paig and I from Eastern North Carolina they are
everywhere so uh thank you okay this C okay thank you I would have taken a guess anyway I only pulled two things but they you happen to be the only two that were pulled so I'm responsible for 100% good afternoon mayor Williams mayor Pro to Middleton members of council Madam manager Ryan Smith director of the community safety department we also have available online our district attorney here to answer questions about this item um so I I'm gonna be I just kind of want a a broader breakdown of of sort of the priorities of this project and then I I also am interested in because it's been ongoing for several years whether we've had other interest groups like the county play a part in this and and if so what that part has been great uh is is our district
attorney available can you I texted she said she was online I am here can you hear me yes madame da did you hear that the question I did hear that question she asked if um first of all good good afternoon to members of city council she asked if there were other participants and we also do have contract positions from um Durham County as well D she I believe Madam da said they also have contract positions from the county I'm it's hard for us to hear Madame da we're working on the volume maybe I'm not sure why it's low okay can you hear me better now I'm gonna I'll talk up a little louder that's better thank you okay great I'm sry I is is it DeBerry that's
on the oh hi how are you um I I was asking kind of about the background of why this was um why this program was initiated by the city and then whether or not there's been other folks who have contributed either from the county or other stakeholders in the community um to sort of prioritize these these issues yes so can can you hear me now can you hear me oh yes much better yes better great great so I'm just give you a little bit of background on these positions we are a state funded agency and the number of uh assisted District Attorneys assigned to my office uh are established by Statute and uh Durham County has 19 Adas established by Statute that has not been updated uh since the 1999 2001 state budget for whatever um
reasons of political reasons literally every other jurisdiction in North Carolina has had more uh assistant District Attorneys allocated to them since that time um kind of at the exact at the at the same time Durham had entered into um and some of you may remember it it was a project that mayor Bell started um that was a bullseye project which has uh since been discontinued but that those positions were tied to that project and as a way to uh provide more help to the office over time durm County also uh funds positions in my office so that we have enough Adas to really do the
work and currently the positions that the city funds run are domestic violence uh District Court it provides an ADA for that Court as well as a legal assistant to provide um victim witness services in domestic violence court and it provides a second position that also works in District Court uh and does a great deal of work in juvenile District Court thank you so much and thank you for joining us today those are all my questions that I had quick I I have a quick question on the uh allocated uh Adas um so was was this initially allocated based on population or another
Factor the our state funded positions I have no idea that has always just been the way that because they it is a state agency that has just all always been the way that they have been allocated um we recently did a Statewide work study that showed that we needed more positions um and the general assembly did allocate some more Ada positions just not to Durham County thank thank you um Madame da it's good to have you with us and I thank my colleagues for the questions so I I have a bit of a historical perspective on this I remember um when this when this program was initiated and indeed there was some politics involved as there always is when in terms of allocation of funds it's always it's not always just mathematical or the calculus isn't always just neutral this in part was DM's response to a lack of funding and
and just like when we see there are Personnel issues with be they in fire or police they could potentially impact a service delivery this was Durham attempting to um butress a very important um part of our overall approach to dealing with violence and crime um in our city um we thought it would be a good thing to to there was nothing that legally precluded us from augmenting the funds that were coming to help uh the District Attorney's Office uh Madame da is correct that it was initially tied to the bullseye initiative but um we determined that there was value beyond that even with the cessation of that because one of the things you know we hear in our Public Square often is that you know the Department's overworked we don't have enough people to to handle cases um so this this was in part derms uh very direct and affirmative and robust attempt to address um Personnel issues address inequities and funding whatever the reason was uh and to hopefully also um manage the docket the growing docket and the backlog that existed
with cases and also to have a Humane approach you know particularly with young people um and gang violent in our desire to help victims of domestic violence as well um and the city's commitment has continued I'm glad it's continuing um and I hope it will uh into the future I just wanted to add a little historical perspective thank you Mr Mayor thank you Madame da thank you colleagues for your questions well thank you I know we have u a chat that's coming up soon I um one of the things I'll talk about is how we can best how I can best uh help advocate for more resources thank you all right any other questions colleagues right thank you thank you thank you um direct Smith next item is item number 25 thank you that was me I'll be very quick Jared bird today
so so the the the past thing and and I want to council Baker alluded to early and it two of the issues that are uh taking a lot of my attention with my work with the league are p and and dealing with trying to help local municipalities to maintain local control and I want to associate myself with council member Baker's comments while the mayor is working back channels I'm working very publicly on behalf of the State uh Beyond Durham to to maintain our municipalities local control but there other issues past um and making sure that we're positioned uh to do what we need to do uh in light of a recent uh Federal action so I understand we we took action as a council I think it was back in April to put some funding on the table for some testing is the Lion Share of this F 500,000 is there anything else we need to study or know or can some of this money actually go to mitigation purposes or is there anything else we need to study or find out I just want to get some clarification as to how much of this money can actually be used to
remedi used for remediation sure um good afternoon mayor mayor protim members of council my name is Lori Montgomery and I'm an engineering manager with the Department of Water Management I've been working a lot on the Pas Faz issue over the last couple of years so um we started back in January of 2019 with our consultant HDR engineering um to implement a p Faz study to make sure that we can stay ahead of the regulations and that we will be prepared when epa's regulations require water utilities to be compliant with the new regulations in 2029 so our understanding of this grant funding that's available from the federal government through the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is that this is money that has been made available specifically for p Faz studies and
evaluation um we since we engaged our engineering firm earlier this year before this funding had been made available you know we are already paying for this study to be done but the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality um DEQ has stated that this funding can be awarded retroactively for studies that already been underway or even completed so with that we are expecting that if we are awarded the $500,000 in grant funding that will sort of be reimbursing us for money already spent on this study and we would be able to use that funding for the next step in the process which would be further engineering work to design whatever treatment solution is identified as the best solution um and we could utilize it for design and construction of of the
project that is extremely helpful and that that was my I don't believe leaving any money on the table but I wanted to make sure that we had some some agility and flexibility as to how we could use it so to hear that it it's available for reimbursement kind of purposes and still free to do other things is very very helpful the other thing I'll say is I'm I'm durm as other cities and M municipalities go in our state particularly some of our smaller towns and vill is we we are kind of ahead of the curve in terms of our studying and preparation and posturing um ourselves for for the changes that are coming so that that's certainly a feather in our cap and and I'm very grateful to hear it and I hope we get the grant I'm sure we will thank you that's all my questions thank you Mr Mayor thank you see thank you very much thanks M Montgomery one question I recall when we when we did have that that conversation in April EPA came out with some measurements of Like Water Systems right so we were like slightly above the whatever maximum containment level but pretty close right so we're so as you were saying uh Mr
Mayor presam we're pretty we're pretty good shape right to start out with that's correct we are not our raw water sources do not consistently measure out as being below the contaminant levels that have been established by the EPA but they're very close they're just high enough that we have to do something additional with our treatment systems to be able to meet the regulations but we're in much better shape than many of our neighboring utilities that that have M much higher levels of pasas in their raw water sources great thank you thank you yeah as you were talking I may Pro 10 with her um montgomer I was thinking about the foresight the staff had and um really appreciate that that foresight manam manager um with your team all right well we're GNA move into our presentations yep we're going to move to our presentations uh the first item is number four the annual comprehensive financial report acfr for the fiscal
year Ed um in June 30th 2024 welcome good afternoon I'm trying to make sure it's on this time um good afternoon Mr Mayor Mr mayor protim council members I'm Jermaine bruinton director of the audit Services Department I'd like to introduce April Adams she's a partner with cherry Becker LLP our external Auditors and she is going to present a summary of the city's um acfr thank you very much
well good afternoon I am excited to be here to deliver the results of the June 30th 2024 financial statement audit and I apologize for anyone that heard it earlier this week at the audit committee they're gonna have to hear it twice but that's how it goes all right so what I'd like to cover with you this afternoon um it's just to point out who the client service team is and reiterate that we are your external audit firm and that we report to the board of governance um then I'll cover the results of the audit itself I'll talk a little bit about um the single audit that we also perform the the compliance audit that gets performed at the same time as the financial statment audit cover internal controls and how we actually report on those and what we actually do with those as a part of the audit and then I'll cover just a plethora of other required Communications that the audit sceners that we perform your audit underneath um require us to communicate to use the board of governance so this slide is important to me because it does reiterate that we are your external auditor deranger she runs the internal audit part so um we are hired by you the board of governance and
then we also report to you as the board of governance and so um that's what we're doing today uh I'm I'm April Adams I'm the audit director and what that means is that I'm the one that takes responsibility on behalf of the firm signs the opinions on behalf of the firm and then leads the audit engagement um throughout the audit um our firm is also required to have or our firm requires us to also kind of peer review each other before each audit goes out so Scott Anderson performed that second review we call it a quality review of your financial statements as well as the detail of the work related to the compliance um testing we did for the single audit um new this year with Stephen skill as a senior manager and then Karly Coleman returned as the senior and so those are the she's really the one leading um the staff in in the details of the of the work um Stephen and I kind of help her along with the audit plan and and make sure that at the end we review everything that's done so uh the big news the results of the audit um we did complete it and date it October 31st 2024 um we did Issue what
we call unmodified um or clean opinions that is the highest level of assurance we can give you as an audit firm that your uh financial statements are free from Material misstatement um that does mean that we perform a risk-based audit we are looking and focusing our procedures on where your financial statements are most at risk to being materially misstated um so I've listed here the different opinions or reports that are issued in conjunction with your audit there's four main um reports or opinions the financial statements themselves which is under those generally accepted um auditing standards the yellow book report is the report we issue under the governmental auditing standards um and then the federal and single single audit compliance opinions okay as far as single audit goes this is the federal and state dollars that the the city administers um we did we don't every single uh grant that that's going through during the year there's a prescribed way to determine which ones are the major programs that we test I've listed those here on the screen um that we actually
detail tested with the various different compliance requirements that are direct and material to those programs um so then you can see what we detail tested as far as internal controls go Adams just again so you didn't or we or you didn't choose us there's some sort of like there's some prescribed kind of there to a certain extent there's a prescribed um for the higher dollar ones um there is a risk assessment associated with those uh determining which programs but they it's decided based on lot do dollar amounts so um sometimes it could be a$3 million threshold would require it to be um at least audited on a three-year rotation um and then if it falls below that but above more of a a a minimal amount maybe um $200,000 then we can kind decide on a risk based approach if we need to test those programs that fall in between so so you do the risk assessment or do the feds or we do it okay we do it based on information provided by you by your
staff um okay as far as internal controls go uh we don't actually have pine on your internal controls um but we do and required by the standards to do a lot of work related to internal controls and then report if we find any deficiencies um during that review of that work um we also can decide if we want to test some of those controls for operating Effectiveness and then rely upon them as part of our uh approach to gaining Assurance over those financial statement items that we're we're reviewing um the types of deficiencies were required to report if we find them would be a material weakness or a significant deficiency I am happy to report that we did not uh report any material weaknesses as a part of your audit uh we can't exactly say the same thing about significant deficiencies we didn't report any but that doesn't mean that some couldn't exist and that just uh generally is is the the rule that they apply to us because we are looking at significant transaction Cycles so there still could be other transaction cycles of your control processes that we
didn't look at that aren't um going to yield a significant deficiency if if we were to have looked at them all right corrected and uncorrected misstatements another way of saying this is journal entries from the time that we were provided the general ledger or the trial balance we are required to report to you any material corrected adjustments or what we call past adjustments um which are less than trivial adjustments um I'm happy to report that there are no adjustments um from the time that we were given the trial balance to producing the actual financial statements so um good results there as well the next couple slides talk about the qualitative aspects of accounting practices um these are just things that we are required to report to you first up would be if there was any significant changes to accounting policies uh there were in the current year typically these happen when you're trying to implement a new accounting standard um we didn't have one of those this year so nothing to report as far as changes in accounting policies uh related parties are part of our audit that we're we were to look at
and identify um and inquire about and we should one come up that's significant we would be required to test that transaction to make sure that it was um recorded properly as well as executed on on arms length um transaction we didn't have any that we tested as a part of your audit similarly for significant unusual transactions we are required to be identifying those and inquiring those about those during an audit um we didn't identify any as a part of your audit but the reason why it would be important would be if one to were to occur it might be something the city's not used to recording and Reporting and so um the likelihood that it may not be correct therefore you would want your auditor to look at that and make sure correct recorded correctly uh this slide is just to point out to you that there are a significant number of uh numbers in your financial statements that are are estimates and so those are based on Management's knowledge and experience um of what they know about that that transaction or that financial statement number um and then it's estimated so it could be different
as it plays out into the future and so to me the ones I would point out the most are and that are the largest in your financial statements are related to your benefits for your retirees so that's your health insurance as well as just the pension itself those are based off actur reports but those actionary reports are based on information provided by your staff um this slide is just a place for me to tell you if I felt like there was any footnotes included in your financial statements that were not neutral consistent or clear I do feel like if you were to read your footnotes uh that you would be able to understand read them and understand and comprehend everything that you need to take away from those um so nothing tricky in there um I'll mention again I am your your external auditor and we're your external audit firm so we are on the hook to maintain a level of Independence um we assess that at the beginning of the audit when we sign the engagement letter and then any additional services that we might perform we have to evaluate our ability to maintain Independence and um whether man
management could take responsibility for those Services provided the only thing we're doing for the city in addition to uh the audit itself is helping um fill out and submit the data collection form which is where the city required to report um the Federal grant dollars as well as the audit results of that those federal dollars and so we fill it out and then we both have to certify and submit it all right the next two slides have just another variety of topics um first up would be if we encountered any difficulties with management during the audit we didn't encounter any difficulties with them um we also didn't have any disagreements with management during the audit um we ourselves the Auditors did not consult any addition Auditors or accountants on any matters during the audit um we do require and obtain a management representation letter at the end of the audit this is where we are saying management represented certain things to us that we are basing our opinion based on those representations and so we make a list um
of them during the audit and then ask for that to be signed by um Miss Wanda as well as um the finance officer um okay f management consultation so we're not aware that management went out and got a second opinion by any other Auditors a part of the audit um we don't have any other findings or other issues that we feel like we need to bring to your attention um while our audit is not uh required to and not designed to look specifically for fraud or illegal acts we are required to report those to you if we come across them um as a result of our procedures and and no fraud or illegal Acts were identified um during our audit and then lastly going concern we are required to um evaluate if we feel like the entity has an ability um to continue business for 12 months after our report date and so I'm here to to tell you that I do believe you guys will be here a year from now which is great news all right this slide is just to
kind of reiterate that we app Pine on the basic financial statements within that rather large document that contains the financial statements um and this just kind of reiterates how our opinion lays out across the rest of the information that's in there so the first uh type of information is required supplementary information that includes your mdna your management discussion and Analysis as well as the data provided for your pension plans that's 10 years um worth of data we don't actually extend our opinion on that information we do review it um as a part of the issuance to make sure it doesn't contradict anything that we are opining on um but we don't extend our opinion on it the second bucket of information information is the supplementary information this is the the individual and combining schedules that you'll see that that are after your footnotes we do extend our opinion over that we call it an in relation to opinion and basically what we're saying is that that information ties into the numbers that we do aine on and so we feel like you can rely upon it um and then lastly
other information this is your introductory section which includes um the organizational chart it includes a transmittal letter and some other information that's kind of you'll find it up front in that in that report as well as the statistical section which is in the very back and that is all the 10-year data um of the report um numbers and and other um demographic kind of numbers as well we don't aine on either of that information as well all right last slide for me is just up making you aware that there are upcoming financial reporting changes those happen through accounting statements um or standards that are issued the biggest one coming up for 2025 is compensated absences and so your management will yet again be adding another estimate to your financial statements and that that amount is to be um you already have compensated absences that are related to vacation time but that's been earned by your employees but what's not there is sick time um so any sick time that your employees have have
earned and not taken um that will actually end up being paid out in the payroll versus used as a service credit for their retiree uh retirement that amount is going to have to be estimated so they're going to have to figure out one how much do people actually take sickly versus how much they save it and use it for um retirement and so they'll be figuring that out over the next year and recording that um the other three we don't think we'll have a a huge impact or be difficult to to implement such as this compensated absences but they'll be looking for those um the last two for 2026 um and 102 is for 2025 let I had for you guys this afternoon um I'll be glad to take any questions thank you so much for a great report colleagues I'll uh yield now for any questions or comments council member cook please thank you um I just want to say thank you so much for that presentation um I heard you say a lot of times we don't app Hine on this we don't a pine on this but I do think that um as you're going through the slides and you're like we looked for any deficiencies and where
there were none to be found um that that is a it's just something that I think we should be really proud of as Durham um as from our city manager uh to director Brewington and director Reen and all the folks in that department I'm just really really impressed um youall continue to impress me and and I think that this presentation really showcases why that is and and how um yeah just how accurate everything is and how intentional and I just want to say that I really appreciate the work that's been done and I appreciate your firm for coming in and doing that audit as well so that's all I just wanted to shout out folks thank you councilman member colleagues anyone else you're here exactly all right great thank you this is the uh official confirmation of why we are one of the best run cities in the country so and I do want to add that Tim Flora is the Director of Finance and the audit really takes place in that department so shout out to his Department say that I'm sorry no problem
add don't on the list thank you uh next in we have uh our third quarter crime report but I'm do you folk want to go last I see Command Staff here are you ready to go now or do you want to go last we have a brief budget presentation before we will defer to whatever Council would like thank thank you ke appre all right time we'll have uh our budget Department come up with their uh presentation item number 27 FY 24 2024 through 25 first quarter financial report good afternoon might whispered it's going to be quick our friend in the police department say don't ever get on the radio and say quiet night tonight so he just said this might
um good afternoon I'm Christina Reen um director of budget and Management Services and I am here today to prevent to present our um first quarter financial report and this is just a reminder that this is a report that we come to you four times a year for and um it's an update on our financial status we work with our partners in the Department of Finance um to give you this report every um every quarter um as you as I've said in the past this is our first quarter it's early in the year and there's a lot more uncertainty with this um financial report but um the news I think is good the next report you'll get is in February after we've had um a half a year of data so we will start out looking at our general fund which is where most of our departments sit um and uh just as a reminder the general fund um the majority of the general fund revenue is our tax revenue
which makes up about almost half of the revenue in the general fund we don't receive that tax revenue um until late December early January which is when it's due and then we um we don't have any sales tax we receive in the first quarter so you will see no sales tax income coming in at that time at this point when we were doing the report we had um one month and now um I we have just received our November um report which is our August sales tax so we have two months um and so we have we are slightly ahead of where we were um last year at this time but it is still early days for sales tax so I will probably have a better um sense of where we're kind of um where that where that Revenue sour is going when I do our second quarter but at this point we believe that that will probably be in at budget so moving on to um the major revenues this is a a chart shows you a comparison of um FY 23 q1 compared to
fy4 um the I caution against um one part of the chart which is our largest revenue sarch which is property tax last year at this time the um an the the the county which sends out the property tax um bills sent them out late so the revenue that come that came in was a little bit off so it was down um greatly during this time last year so what you're seeing in fy2 that 17 million is closer to what we would traditionally see um in a year when the bills go out on time um so there's uh there's not much um to show in this um occupancy tax is down very slightly from where it was last year at this time our Powell bill is up um and then our charges for services are about where they were um at this point last year and intergovernmental Revenue can vary um just because that has um it's mostly a timing issue so where we think will end the year um which is
what's what's your most important what's what's most important I think um property tax we at this point predict that we will be on budget with property tax um occupancy tax we also believe that that will be coming in at budget um our Powell Bill we received two um two payments of pow Bill we received our first uh tranch and that is coming in over budget so we believe that Revenue Source will be in at $845,000 over budget um intergovernmental revenues we're predicting to come in at budget um and charges for services we are predicting that that um Revenue Source will come in slightly over budget at $228,000 so this is just a snapshot of um the revenue sources in the general fund and where we think we will um end the year and as I said we believe that will'll be um 9913 uh $913,000 um over Budget moving on to expenditures um we
do believe that expenditures will come in um under budget um we um uh are looking at our Personnel costs we believe that those will come in um under budget by about $4 million um which is good news because um as you remember we did a large pay Study last year and so we believe that we were on we were on track for where we budgeted um and probably will come in slightly under where we budgeted for operating and capital costs um we believe will be under budget by about $600,000 and we don't believe that any departments are expected to go um exceed their budget so this again is giving you a comparison of FY 24 to FY 25 um you'll notice that the personnel number is um is larger than we were in FY 24 but that also I you know is is a large part of that has to do with our budget for this year in Personnel is larger as well too because of the pay study so um and um operating is about where it was last year um we are slightly behind where we
were last year at this point in um Capital but that is um sometimes that's a timing issue so it's it's not a concern uh this is a snapshot of those major um expenditure categories that I talked about um and and so that gives you a sense of what I've just uh described as far as budget to actuals moving on to the Enterprise funds um I will start off with the water and sewer fund we are projecting that uh in the water sewer fund that revenues will come in slightly above budget um and that Personnel expenditures at this point are coming in um slightly over budget that has to do um they have had some hiring in that fund which is um good news this is early in the year so we'll be watching this um but at this point we're expecting them to come in slightly over budget in Personnel operating expenditures are expected to come in at budget um but overall a negative budget variance of $756,000 and this is a snapshot of the revenues
7 million and so
9 um million so this is um this is a snapshot of their revenues which are um very
close to budget and um their expenditures so moving on to the storm water fund um revenues are currently projected to come in at budget and their personnel expenditures are projected to come in under budget by $386,000 um and that is due mostly to some vacancies in the fund their operating expenditures um we're are expected to come in at budget and so that leaves the fund with a pos positive budget variance of 368 ,000 um just as a reminder this fund provides for the maintenance um and management of storm water activities and it is a self-sufficient Enterprise fund so it receives no tax support so um not much story here this is the revenues which we expect to come in at budget and then the expenditures which um they are saving um small amount in
Personnel so you are expecting a a like uh a variance there right of about five million no so the net so that um that five million that you're looking at there is the revenues um uh the revenues minus the expenditures so that five million is is showing negative but as you'll see from the adjusted budget we are budgeting for that so that is probably a what we call an appropriation from fund balance so we know that the revenues and the expenditures are not going to match and so when you're looking at the budget variance that's telling you how close we are getting to our budget which is what we are anticipating spending that we budgeted for a deficit is what that's telling you yeah and they will be doing slightly better than what we budgeted so parking fund um operating revenues are currently projected to come in slightly above budget by about $22,000 um which which is good news for the parking fund they have slightly
higher occupancy rates in some of their garages um and so we also their personnel expenditures are expected to come in at budget their operating exp expenditures are expected to come in slightly under budget which is $185,000 and so they have a POS budget variance of $316,000 which is um which is very good news for this fund which has which has struggled in the past so are you calling 202,000 slightly um yes as you can see they their their their operating revenues are about $6 million so oh gotta yeah so in the grand scheme of things but you know in a fund that has has has not always seen has not the direction has not always been positive this is very good news so but again we did plan for the city subsidizing this in the budget right this was expected to come in at about a $2 million um you're oh yes the $2 million again we had budgeted for Devo we're expecting this yes yes yes exactly when
you're looking at that net revenues um versus expenditures yes that's correct so inspections is our fin final fund I'll will talk about today their revenues are currently projected to come in slightly under budget at $153,000 um Personnel is expected to come in at budget operating is expected to come in slightly under budget and uh they that leaves the fund with an overall negative budget variance of 107,000 um the inspections department is um provides for for uh inspection related activities um and so here you can see um where their um the revenue uh where they're expected to come in under budget um it is very early in the year I will say and so um we will be watching this throughout the year to see um How This Ends but um this is some of their revenue and this is their expenditures so to to give you a sense of there and that is all of the funds that I have um
to talk out today and I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has thank you so much Madam director colleagues council member r m mayor pretend thanks M for the presentation as always um just two questions one just just a um if you clarify so in the the schedules you sent you sent out the adopted budget and then the adjusted budget remind me when we adjusted the budget I can't remember so we adjusted the budget when we did the carryover or the carry forward so oh okay so there's there's two things going on we have a a carry forward process where things roll into the new budget any expenditures and then we do a carryover process where departments uh where you know we appropriate fund balance for some some needs that might be happening throughout the year gotcha and then on the issue of personnel under budget so it's always going to have a little bit of flexibility in the budget so I appreciate that I will say that for the citizens of Durham who who dig deep to pay their property taxes seems like ideally we'd want to spend that money right so so personal under budget on on some level can sound like it's a nice gives us flexibility but I think ideally we'd be investing in those that
Personnel that capacity so I just want to flag that like it it's always good to see that a little bit of flexibility but like ideally we'd want to fill those positions right exactly um oftentimes in in the Personnel expenditures when you're talking about um coming in under budget it often has to do with their with with vacancies is the reason why we yeah we'd love to see those filled ideally right yes ideally thank you colleagues anyone else council member cook please I actually want to follow up on the question that council member R asked in the middle of the um part on the parking would you just go over with me one more time because we we have changed the I know that we're we are going to move some money around and I understand that there were going to be discounts for certain folks in the parking and how that affects these numbers that you've shown us because we only just did that yes and um you were talking about the parking vouchers um yeah so I Madam manager did you want to speak to it or she said
no okay um thank you for the question so we always estimate anytime we set up a program uh that the allocation needs to come from the general fund or from another fund that goes to an Enterprise fund we estimate what that might be and so when we had our carry forward I believe we estimated around $50,000 additional funding in the general fund to go to the parking fund uh to cover the vouchers or the grants that are provided to uh the residents that qualify for those grants so the impact is that fund um is not absorbing the cost of the program but the general fund is providing the resource okay so we would only see it in the general fund we would not see it in the parking fund and that is yes that is correct Mak sense okay correct thank you and then I had one other very quick
question which was about can you just tell me like what falls under the intergovernmental revenues in the general fund so a lot of the intergovernmental revenues has to do with money especially that we get from Durham County so any sort of inter locals we might have or contracts that's the vast majority of what what it is we also have some money for um fire consolidation is a large portion of that from um several years ago so those are the money that would be coming back and for from from that government to the city okay and then um the charges for services because we a lot of the services that we provide are within other specific funds what is in the general um some of those would be um things like fees for parks and wreck or um some other smaller fees that departments might charge thank you those are thank you Madame director thank you colleagues Mr Mayor we're at item 21 now for third quarter crime report I'll yield back to you if you're
ready thank you director uden all right get ready for our um qu report yes sir good afternoon uh manager Paige uh mayor Williams mayor protim Middleton and my entire uh Durham city council Patrice Andrews your chief of police um as we've done in in previous quarterly um reports I have had a member of my executive team um in this case my Deputy Chiefs that will present the quarterly report so your final deputy chief uh is uh deputy chief Walter Tate he is over the um operations correction Investigative Services Bureau um so your C investigators organized crime um investigators he is he is over that shop and he will be presenting to you today um just as a side note I'll pop up and down um as we get to the question and answer SE uh session uh
section in case there is something that uh that um he he does not necessarily have the the information on that I have been keeping to myself so I'll bring him up space here good afternoon everybody good afternoon May Williams manager page mayor protim Militan and council members and staff okay again I am Walter Tate U I'm here to provide your third quarter report I they doing that the third report of record covers our Department's five
1 through the third quarter we had 29 reportable homicide offenses 27 criminal homicides three
4% through the third quarter we had 122 forcible rapes 25% of the reported offenses occurred in the prior years 16% of the reported offenses were domestic in nature so when we look at our uh rapes we see this number up but a lot of this is our reporting efforts and also our sake Grant which provides resources and referrals uh to our victims and you will see when I go through the rest of the PowerPoint where a lot of these were reported uh the year before and cleared some of them was clear was reported the year before so that will the number will go up a little bit because reporting is more active now robbery was down
6% we had 890 aggravated assault offenses uh down from 630 incidents 27% of the incidents were domestic which down 2% from 2023 73% of the incidents were non-domestic which is down 1% from 2023 next slide we continue to talk about violent crimes reported this chart here shows violent crimes through the third quarter and over the last 10 years years homicides are in the blue line which are the lowest since 2020 and of the 29 homicides this year 25 involved
Firearms reported rapes the Orange Line have trended upwards aren at a 10-year high this could be influenced by our psyche Grant uh efforts and we are encouraging victims and supporting victims more so again that number is up but it's because of our support efforts and our grant efforts to encourage more reporting one out of every four rapes reported in 2024 occurred in Prior years robberies in the green line have trended downwards and are at a 10year low about one out of every robbery is commercial with the remaining three fours being individual lastly for this chart our aggravated SS in the purple line and they're highly varable and and fluctuate significantly over the last last 10 years however the last three years are down significantly from a peak in 2020 I was shooting incidents and and
1% year-over-year next slide so this will be uh this chart shows our ctive number of gunshot wounds by week through the third quarter and previous five calendar years 2019 had the fuest gunshot wounds with 192 the most was the following year with 318 in 2020 year-over year we've seen declines have occurred
7% through the third quarter we had 963 burglary fences 59% of the burglaries were due to residential locations which is down 133% from
1% through the third quarter we had
1,297 motor vehicle theft incidents 83% of the U Vehicles stolen not including attempts or Vehicles not registerable have been recovered 19% of the vehicle stolen were left running unintended with the keys somewhere inside the vehicle so this will contribute to a lot of the problems as far as motor vehicle theft W CH could you remind me the difference between a burglary and a larsy a burglar is when you break a plane uh any type of plane enter and you enter that's a burglar or breaking it in it A Larson it could be I'm in here already and I take this remote and I keep it that's a larsy kids were the most frequent stolen vehicle uh make with 223 followed by Hyundai 217 and Honda 87 slide property crime reported through
third quarter this chart shows the property crime reported through third quarter over the last 10 years burglaries in the blue line which have trended significantly downward over the last 10 years with the two lowest totals occurring during the last three years years while the ratio of residential and retail business burglaries have been slightly below the norm this is uh normal this year construction sites have been targeted more frequently uh this quarter 7% versus 2% normally and you see this with more construction more sites that creates more opportunity um when you talk about the triangle of crime opport victim suspect an opportunity when you have more sites you know you possibly could have more largess the the lsy orange lines have trended up with over the last two years are at a 10year high in addition death promoted vehicles and shoplifting those involve copper packages and tools equipment materials from construction sites trending uh Trends to be observed over
this year so we talk about people packages taking out the porch and we've done a lot of PSAs through our public affairs and through our community services to encourage people with their packages also tools um and leaving and locking their motor vehicle so you can see uh this is contributing to some of the uptick motor vehicles deaths Green Line have significantly increased over the past two years while they're slightly down from last year they're still up more than double previous in previous years kids and Hyundai continue to dominate Vehicles stolen so let's talk about uh stolen guns and I mentioned this earlier about from motor vehicles and talk about a little bit more now so this chart shows the cumulative number of guns stolen by week through the third quarter and previous 5 calendar years they have been over a year-to-year increase every year since 2019 and 2024 is tracking much higher with 424 through September 30th
so of all guns stolen this year 70% were stolen from Motor Vehicles this is much higher ratio than it has typ typically been over it's been 52% so the method of entry has been glass break and they're going in and they're taking a weapon and we've done a lot of PSAs through our public affairs commun Services social media to tell people not to leave their farms and cars it is not a safe it's not for storage please take your firearm with you and a theft out of an auto would be a larsy not a bur correct or or the other way around if you break in and you take it it's it's a it's a B vehicle then you commit to lar once you're inside gotta followup is there anything that tracks um whether a firearm taken from a vehicle is used in a crime if we if we recover the vehicle I excuse me recover the firearm and it needs to be ran through knobbing for any reason if we get a knob and hit off of it we can say
that this was used somewhere else depending on how the investigation is going and what's required of the investigation we could possibly get a knob and hit off of it will the will the owner of the weapon be informed if that happens so um in order uh for us to do that we would often have to have a serial number for that firearm in order to list it as stolen um I don't have the numbers in front of me how many um Firearms we have that we actually are able to track and Trace through nin based upon the stolen information um the serial number information um we have had firearms that um we owners just simply don't have their serial numbers for um and therefore we're not able to track that through um through Nan thank you so move on to clearance rates clearance rates for the third quarter 2024 dpd clearance rate through the
third quarter were higher than the 2023 rates FBI national average in burglary and every violent crime category larsy of motor larsy and motor vehicle theft clearance rates lag the national average which were impacted by the low solvability factors presented a large portion of these incidents while the homicide clearance rate this year was lower than 2023 it is based on a small number of offenses which can highly be verbal and dramatically change with just a couple of changes in status although the clearance rates for rate were well below 2023 FBI and dpd annual data at the end of the second quarter is increased significantly with the third quarter as investigations developed several investigations developed in several cases victim cooperation is crit is a critical factor in clearing this type of offense which can be impacted by the delayed reporting so one of the notes wanted to
6% of these calls in less than 5 minutes which did not meet the target of 57% the data previously sh indicates
respon response times are negative impacted when Staffing levels fall below 80% so next slide speaking of Staffing levels if you look here um we said fall below 80% I was sworn Staffing percentage right now is 73% so I was sworn Staffing is at 388 with 7 with 73% vacant was 146 positions at 27% at the end of September 2024 it is currently at 386 positions with 72% staff vacant is 148 is 28% vacant our non SW staff is at 86% at the end of September 2024 and is currently 87% staff with 133% vacant so we had nine new officers graduate from basic law enfor basic law enforcement training which is B Academy 59 on August 9th we currently have 14 recruits three uh
three are female going through Academy 60 then we have eight recruits which are which two are females which have been hired so far for Academy 61 which will start in February so in February I go is to try to get at least 30 recruits into that Academy to kind of boost our numbers a little bit so what was the the uh percent of sworn staff at the end of the second quarter you have that I don't the second quarter I don't have the second quarter with me but it was pretty close to where we are now and could you say what the goal is by the end of say like the the first quarter next year which would be I guess would be the well the goal for us right now first quarter of next year is to get 30 more officers in which would boost those numbers so we run two acmis per year so if we can get 30 in the upcoming Academy maybe maybe 30 in the next one that would give us 60 more if everybody completes their training then that would give us 60 more which would boast those numbers a little bit so you would be able to cut a little bit off
that 146 what be above 80% by that point then you would be close to above 80% if we if that happened that's not a guarantee that's going to happen because everybody has to pass State exams testing everything and and through the academy thank you just one additional question is that with or without that sworn um percentage is that with or without supplemental this is without Supple you talking about supplemental officers coming in to work after they get off and come back in no this is not this is not what supplemental this is what we authorized uh 534 and the actual number that we had at the end of the quarter was 388 and I just chime I just chime in and add um that we so we measure operationally so we have on our rosters we have what our staffing percentages are going to be for uniform Patrol so those are the officers out responding to calls we'd like to see that um we we want to aim for over 70% perfect would
2% and as the chief said we recently assigned the captain and lieutenants to help with the increase uh since janly we've seen 400 plus appin uh versus 90 this time last year so we have seen a significant increase and when we talk about applicant through testing through this third quarter we've had 86 compared to this time last year was 69 so just because you f application doesn't mean
you go through the test you know you might have 400 plus appin but testing you have 86 so it's know it's not the same so our 30 by3 initiative we're contining to build and represent uh our representation of female officers as we're a member of the 30x30 initiative this goal is to increase representation of women in police recruit classes to 30% by the year 2030 177% of Derm sworn officers are female which is above the national average of 12% we currently have 66 sworn female officers out of 386 officers in the third quarter of 2024 we had 22 female applant applied to become sworn officers that was the most app we've seen um female applant we've seen during the quarter since 2017 so we're contining to increase female applience uh we had one female to
graduate Academy 59 in August we currently have three females in Academy 60 so that's 21% uh three out of 14 our recruiting unit continues to work um year round to recruit more females we're recruiting officers regular and attending uh college career Affairs um during this last quarter we also use our funds from our cops Grant 30 by3 initiative to hold two events uh one was the uh that was held on September 1 uh was held uh women lead event which stands for law enforcement exploration day this event invited female members of the community to come to learn more about our department and different career opportunities that we offer in law enforcement uh the second one event was dpd Career Development Retreat for sworn female officers as it was held on November 15th and this event was held for retention um for our current officers and we had discussions about how female officers can grow in the department and the steps they can take
we've recently applied for another cops Grant to help us expand our recruitment efforts and my last slide will be a you Visa request by quarter during the months of January through September of 2024 the dur Police Department received 77 new Visa requests 57 of the U Visa requests were approved and 20 were denied 74% of the request submitted this court were approved we currently do not have a back and you Visa request and we are processing request as they come in any questions right thank you so much colleagues yes council member cook uh council member Baker do you mind sharing oh you go cool um thank you for your presentation I have just a couple of questions the first one is that um you said that
59% of the robberies involved firearms and I was wondering how that compared to Prior orders I don't think it was in the slide but I think you just said it would me just a minute give me just a second and I can answer your question you have a lot of data in front of you oh Jason okay good afternoon Jason Chief's analytical services manager for the police department that 59% is for all three quarters not just a third quarter oh okay thank you yes ma'am my next question is just kind of want to follow up on council member Freeman talking about the um sort of where the guns are coming from and and how we know and I and I know that there is there's been a lot of talk in the
community about identifying the guns that are used in shootings and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what our requirements and restrictions are and then if there are sort of things that are ongoing that we might look into that might address and help us find the where those guns are coming from and be able to identify those weapons so anytime we have a serial number and we can find out who the owner is and if the gun is stolen it was stolen from and we have the information um we can enter we have knobbing and we can do test firing to see if that gun was used in and and put it in our knob and then send it off and see if was it used in a crime as far as where they're coming from um part of where they're coming from as I you know stated earlier is out the stolen vehicles it could come from break-ins to a house it could come from it could come from a motor vehicle it could come from a numerous area uh array of things it's a mixed bag where they're actually coming from these stolen guns um I did I answer your question
correctly is that what you're looking for yeah I mean I think the the conversation in the community is that when we have these shootings that we're unable to actually state where those specific guns are coming from and so I know that we have restrictions in terms of what we information we can look into and share and so I just wanted to just to talk oh gosh sorry I had to move my microphone and now it's in my way um if we could talk a little bit about that and then maybe some things that are going on in other communities to address that issue yes so we we are um restricted um by how we apply um our investigative mechanisms so for example um there is a federal um Amendment uh uh it's called the teart um Amendment um it's rather I don't want say it's old um but it's it um was introduced in 2003 and this is
really kind of focused around um how we identify the the birthplace of guns and where the guns come from through ballistics um and that um that particular amendment was developed by the Department of Justice and introduced by the Department of Justice in 2003 uh it subsequently became federal law and it essentially then stated that the origin of where a uh a gun comes from or where a bullet is fired out of a gun and the where that gun came from and who bought it um that is primarily a part of a law enforcement investigation um and therefore cannot be shared openly and in the public well then there was some issues around that because then that also limited whether or not law enforcement we could share the information with e with each other through the ATF um and so um I think it was
2013 there was a secondary Amendment um that said okay law enforcement agencies can share with each other the information about where that gun came from but only if there is an active investigation or there's a prosecution and only if you're able to um to be able to show that that that there is those two things happening um we are then um allowed to share the information with um our tribal law enforcement agencies um and um and and other municipalities but we are very restricted as far as you know I can't if a gun is found I can't go in without it being a criminal act and say I want to know where exactly that found gun came from um and and so I am still or the agency is still very restricted by federal law um and then even still we
can't go out and publicize where that gun came from there are some exceptions the ATF can share some of that information so the ATF makes readily available federal firearms licensed dealers um whether you're an individual or you're a business um and actually makes that known publicly there was at one time um um a part of what the ATF made publicly known what agency or I'm sorry or what business or what person that is a federal firearm federal firearms licensed uh broker so an FFL and there's different degrees of federal firearms licensing um who sells the most right um at one time they actually had that readily available but now you can actually see who sells fire arms the only thing is I just can't go in and say that this person sold x amount of firearms unless there's a criminal case
that is that's going on so I hope that a long story but hope that helps thank you and and I just want to recognize there there have been some communities that have that have addressed this Federal restriction and I know that there is some push in the Duram Community to do so um and so I really appreciate that background from the chief and I think that's that's helpful for setting up that discussion um and I think I had one other question about the guns sorry to really be stuck on that one but we know that the number of weapons that are stolen out of vehicles that is only from police reports so we there are assumedly other guns being stolen out of vehicles that are not reported in official police reports is that is that right that's correct this is all self-reported you have the self-report right as opposed to like assumptively we
we somewhat know who has licenses to carry in Durham and so we have like a vague idea of the at least legal carrying weapons and we don't we don't have any way of like looking at those numbers as compared to yes so this is this is all self-reported yes okay I think those are all my questions thank you thank you colleagues Mr um council member Baker uh thank you for your presentation and and for being here and for all of the hard work that you all are doing um couple followup questions um about the the stolen guns um I was going to ask how do we know um self-reported do you think that the increase that we're seeing year over-year is that uh is that a trend is that a a a real Trend or is that a a data collection Trend kind of kind of like related to the trend that we see with with rapes and and the increase in numbers that we have there do we think that that is an increase uh year-over-year or is that data collection so everything that we put out
is through data collection and as I said before it's self-reporting if somebody has a gun stolen so that's the only way we're really going to know if they tell us or we recover a stolen gun um any what are your thoughts of what is behind behind that Trend um in Durham and I assume this is probably a trend that's happening across other cities and then also how much do stolen guns complicate shooting investigations so I think for for my personal opin you said I think one of the things it's not just personal I think looking at the data a lot of it is securing your weapon right so I look at 70% of the guns that were stolen right out of cars that's a that's a safety thing for the owner securing your weapon or you could have a secureity in your house and somebody break in and and steal a gun from your house so I think these guns it's not a thing that's indigenous to Durham I think that we see this throughout the country where cars are broken into houses are broken into
items are taken and one of the things that happen to be taken is a firearm because a lot of times that's what people are looking for in cars now that I'm talking to the investigators you know used to be they was looking for some some change or something but now you find in talking to the investigators they're looking more for the firearm um the the slides that you showed and and the the report showed that there were fewer shooting incidents but more victims uh is that a trend that we're seeing uh Nationwide uh do you know what is behind that Trend I don't know if it's Nationwide but it is definitely here and so when you look at the things that happened in Durham if you look at like the shootings the number of shootings are down but just say if somebody shot into this room right now this would be God forbid this would be considered aggravated assault for everybody in here so that number would go one incident but everybody here would be counted as aggravated ass salt so
that's how your numbers they're very sensitive uh when you talking about data you can have one incident again and you could have five aggravated assaults or 10 based off one incident so yes you're shoo incidents are down but your egg assaults have gone up and they could be based off one or two incidents that happen so there's potentially some outliers that are causing that true okay um and then lastly not not a question but just wanted to acknowledge that the the uh clearing rates are higher in Durham than the FBI uh numbers um for violent crime and I I want to applaud the police department for that work um I think that needs to be the priori is violent crime and that is um reflected in the clearance rates um of course always want higher clearance rates but um that's that's something worth applauding it's having higher higher rates than uh the FBI Uniform Crime reporting rates so appreciate that thank
you thank you I don't have any questions I just want to say thank you for the presentation thank you for being Freeman you have any questions thank you Mr Mar thank you uh Chief Andrew and to all of your command staff and his always were grateful to the men and women under your command just uh real quickly I I guess so the headline is that at the macro level violent crime is is slightly down shooting in are slightly down but rape and aggravated assault are up of course it's important as as a government to to point out those Trends to an individual victim that means nothing if if you've had a family member that's been shot you don't care about the the overall Trends but it is important for the public to know those trends that that they're slightly down violent crime overall and shooting incidents but we are seeing higher caliber weapons on our streets we're seeing younger perpetrators as well so for those of us who have responsibility for young people and children watching uh this broadcast today who may see this on the news I think it's important to
recognize um what our role is in terms of of insulating our children uh from this stuff you know there are guns everywhere in America where the guns are coming from this is United States of America there are more guns than people um if you're 18y old you can go buy a long gun um easily you can go to a gun show uh uh uh and get a gun so so it's really easy to to get your hands uh on a gun uh here uh in our country this is an American problem it's not just a a durm problem DM's not exporting any problems to any of our neighbors it's it's everywhere uh and exist organically and is gerain to to each and every city and town here I do want to um ask some specific questions I I also want to uh extend our well wishes to to the officer that was injured and officer involved shooting we're grateful for no loss of life either by the officer or by the uh alleged perpetrator as well and we continue to be grateful for those of you who put yourselves In Harm's Way for us
um each day couple of of specific questions um I've got gotten emails from from members of both our our Jewish and Muslim Community here in dur I'm sure many of us have have we noticed any uptick in in bias incidents or reports of harassment um from from either members of our Jewish Community our our Muslim Community lgbtq community have we seen any uptick of late or do are we even capturing that information we haven't seen an uptick um far as our data we haven't seen an uptick okay that's good and we okay um do we document every time an officer draws their service weapon are are they required to still document that it's it's called a use of force yes their supervisor it's excuse me I'm sorry yes it's a show of force even whether they fire or not when they draw that weapon a report is it's it's a show of force got you I'm glad to see um our we're still
leaning into our UVA efforts I'm concerned uh that we may uh be approaching a um a time when our our ability to engage in new Visa uh uh applications or granting Visa applications may be statutorily taken um from us is there not obviously nothing within your power but is there any discussion as to to what our contingencies may be or so as far as you know during Police Department you know we we are going to continue to work with our um Partners the Latina Congress El Centro and our community um that doesn't really affect how we do our job it might affect uh other agencies and what they do but as far as us we we don't require any type of status to do our job or take a report anything the uh finally the U I noticed on on the shooting incidents um Aster 68 of these incidents were initiated by shotspotter with no corresponding 91 on
one call in the areas where shot spotter was was uh used to be deployed um how much of those areas are are prevalent in terms of these incidents that were reporting and and if you don't have this information now in other words do we still find that those are the higher incident areas this don't have that exact information right now for you but we can get it to you um what I can tell you is it's down 184% adjusted for shot spotter in this but um we can get those numbers for you okay I'd be curious to see that it I think it's worth noting that you know what what we lament what we can't know for example we we kind of we Lament The ability not to know where guns are coming from but the instances where we can exercise our power to know things um you know we have the power to lean in um and knowing you know that there there gunfire that did not have a corresponding 911 call seems to me to be an area that would where we can exercise knowing rather than lament not knowing
um and I I just think that in every area where we can know where we can Flex where we can um get more information where we can respond um that that's something that we we ought look at particularly if we're going to lament our ability not know while we have areas in which we can exercise um control um those are all my my my questions I I hope that you know even with with this report going out to the public that the public will understand that we take no soless we don't rest on any downward trend lines we understand that anytime in our one of our residents or citizens or neighbors is is touched by gunfire or violence that that that's an issue for that's their headline and that we're not going to pull back in any way um from addressing the scourge on our country and our city no matter what the trend lines are as always we continue to thank you I'm very excited about the 30 30 initiative I'm glad to hear that the applications are up as well um I'll be careful about drawing a hard causal line between a pay adjustment uh maybe we'll say it's correlated but I'm I'm certainly hoping that that's part of the
reason why we're seeing increas applications uh and thank you for what you continue to do for us God bless y'all thank you thank you Mr Mayor other comments questions all right uh thank you all um first thanks for welcoming me uh to the department recently um I was a chief of the police department for about three seconds I went to the chief's office sat in the chair stay long I felt the weight I got up real quick um thank you all for having me um I I always take more of a psychological approach to this and I try and read through the data and and hear the story that it's telling me without the words been spoken um and I'm interested in knowing well first of all uh we we stated we do not run from our challenges um we we fight constantly to overcome
those challenges but those challenges definitely do not define who we are um and and that's why I continuously say our is our story to tell we could do like some other municipalities and just not show the crime report um but as we're are constantly fighting to create a safer Community it's important that you know we show data to show where we are where we're going and where we've come from uh obviously we saw a spike during the pandemic if you looking at the data you see consistently everything was High um during the pandemic which now that creates another problem you know it's like we we don't do well when we're spending more time with one another that's interesting um and those are some of the storylines that I see in the data and the trends um I in regards of U this growing problem car break-ins and um you know guns being stolen do we know of any
cities where there I mean I know this is a problem Nationwide do we know where their policies enacted that that it is working I'm not familiar with any um far as their I say is work I mean reducing the caror can and stealing of guns not familiar with their Trends right now okay I know I I surf the country by way of my colleagues and conversations and everybody says the same thing you know uh car break-ins and folks just keep um people keep just breaking in them you know especially F-150s for some reason thinking that you know we you know we have guns in them um I many of you know I drive an F-150 and I've been broken into twice um I don't have my gun yet but um I'll make sure I lock it up yeah uh let's see
so it appears that less people are dying but more people are getting shot so that means more people are shooting they just can't shoot and I don't I'm not saying it way I want people to get killed I'm just saying like what in the world does this tell us that it's more concentrated can I take this this is kind of where I I I guess I just get on my on my Soap Box um you can have both so you can have a decrease in the actual number your you can have a decrease in homicides you can have a decrease in violent crimes um you can have you know an increase in the number of aggravated assaults simply because of how calls are classified now right um and what we're seeing is we're having a a decrease in the number of shooting incidents but an increase in the number of people shot it's it could be you know
the the number of weapons present it could be the type of weapons that are present um and and and how many people are are in the area when it's happening and so we're starting to see kind of all three of those things happening which is driving up the number of people that we are having shot given any one incident um but you know I take a bit of issue um I always will say that we report the data right it's very hard for me to translate without having that lived experience myself what it feels like in here when you're living the experience and I think when we report out the data we just we I I give I acknowledge and give space for that to acknowledge that this is data this is not heart this is not how we're feeling perception and certainly many of us in this room have not don't have live those lived experiences in that way and so I don't
1% you know decrease um but you know one because this happens all the time people always counter they search for the bad news or you know at the end of the day you know one person dying it's just too many um but I I I do know that there's an overall story that's been told here and it is so nuanced there there's so much this this is just the data there so much that's not being shown here and I think what was most fascinating to me on the tour was when you all are doing
investigations and you are able to collect the evidence that the scene and you're able to line and match up you know how to identify basically bullets and attach them to the actual type of gun that is shot and how the numbers register and you can use that data to identify so much information um so I I think in the terms of how how do we make sure you all have the resources you need to be able to collect more evidence and be able to close more cases be able to just be able to understand more of the story told rather than just the high level uh so I appreciate what's been presented um we we I I don't demonize nor celebrate I just continue to try and invest in issues or invest in resources to where all of this is zero you know eventually I understand human behavior um but uh when it comes to looking at this and thinking what is needed to make sure you can efficiently do your jobs I
do think about what those resources look like and that's why you always hear me talk about um you know shot spotter you always hear me talk about ensuring that we're paying the officers a fair share uh not a fair share but a decent wage you hear me always talk about um you know making sure that uh while we are exploring alternative uh uh resources are necessary as well you know uh I hear often the data point you know 90% of the calls that are made we you know don't require an armed officer and I think you know 90% of the time I'm not sick but I still have insurance and so I think of it that way and I just I want to appreciate my colleagues for being open to taking a a more um holistic approach to Public Safety where we have to have our police department but also we are open to exploring other options and resources uh that can help us get these numbers down to zero and and I'm so I appreciate the work you all are doing I just wanted to state that it's so much more than the numbers and I hope that the public will always have Grace uh and
and also I hope the full story will always be told uh when it's reported uh in the media as well um lastly um this is almost rhetorical but would you happen to have would you happen to know the amount of uh crime in Durham that's committed it for people from other areas you don't have to answer that question thank you so much um I do mayor if I could add I do want to extend that invitation to come in and actually you could tour the whole Police Department headquarters so cool it's a long tour but the really cool stuff and everyone else is going to kill me it's our forensics the work that they're doing around nin and and testing firearms and those each firearm is leaves a different mark on that on that that round and it's very very cool stuff and then we'll be happy to take you to see our property in evidence but if you don't tour anything else in the PD definitely tour forensics
because they also have good snacks there as well but just let us know you know our doors are I mean you're always welcome to to come and see the really cool stuff that they a fascinating facility and way more in there than I ever thought so there are some other comments I'll go to council Marist C thank M May thank you Chief and your assistance as well thanks for coming in in the report I just have one question I know there's been chatter about downtown and like Safety and Security and and aggressive paneling so forth and I know we had a conversation by email about this could you just share with folks the relative number of crimes in the in District five which is essentially downtown compared to the rest of the districts in Durham so um I I know that you know I'm looking forward to our meeting um in December um where we will have kind of a lot of really great robust data um about downtown because downtown is um is compared to the other um parts of Durham downtown is smaller but downtown experiences less crime um volume than
other areas uh certainly less violent crime than other areas in Durham however um it does happen we we are seeing violent crime and we are seeing um you know crimes um of you know of of the matter of mental health and not crimes of mental health but we're mental health is involved that it turns into a crime um and so we're we're really working to try and address that we do capture that information I don't have the exact statistics up here um but what I can tell you is just anecdotally the crime rate is less um in District 5 Central District Downtown than it is in other areas of Durham of same size thank you I just wanted to say I'm going to follow up on I haven't been on a tour in probably five years so um I will be following up and then colleagues I'll be reaching out to individ to each of you about the meeting that is happening because we will have to notice
yeah uh we will have to notice if if more than three of us show up so huh no oh there I go to my okay know what meeting she's talking about but um I did want to just track back to um the comment that council member RIS um made and question he asked and I did want to just say that I do think that the work of the even though I don't like the name of the organization um the pack the partners against Crime um I think that's been a very good focal point for these types of especially for District Five those types of questions and just trying to get a handle on what's going on in your neighborhood in general and so I know each of the uh meetings that I get a chance to attend for packs one through five uh there's always an officer there's always a sheriff there's always City staff there's always like this often County staff in the room and they
are always working to do or to support in heart staff I want to be very clear are in the room trying to make sure that they understand what's happening on a very local level so that the people are at the Forefront of the conversation before the crime can occur and so I I spend a lot of time with folks in the community that way and I think I want to encourage more folks to do that because those meetings do occur whe whether virtual or in person in your district and so I I um yeah and then on the back side of that I did I wasn't going to ask but I really am starting to hear a lot of questions about these scams that are occurring and I know I'm not sure if we're tracking that data or not if those numbers are coming up but I feel like especially around um elder or senior or people with disabilities this is becoming a real hardship that is unbearable um for folks in our community and if there's a way to kind of gather that information it would be great to see sure yes and and I would say please
I I just had a couple thousand dollars just removed out of my account last night um so no one is immune um and just please you know make sure that if you get those alerts through businesses or what have you that you're paying attention to that but we also want to make sure that we're focusing on our our um our our seniors as well because they are very vulnerable especially this time of year thank you and then I just I also wanted to appreciate um mayor Williams uh comment and looking at it in a very holistic way how we uh address the crimes that can occur in our community and just acknowledge that it is because of my experience with the tour of the police station with the prior Chief um Davis and the work that she did to make sure that people understood how the system operated in general that it's really like giving me a great great foreground in making decisions as I sit here on Council and that's not just for police that's for development that's for um you know
programming that's for budgeting like all of those things tie together and I think um it's important to make sure that we don't forget that one when you pull one you push the other so yeah thank you I I like when you say nice things about me you want to repeat it you know put it ont the right person for the right time you're in the right seat um thank you colleagues there no other questions uh uh Madam Chief thank you so much thank you to your team thanks for taking me around and uh Crystal price thanks for joining the city [Laughter] all right I uh uh colleagues colleagues I have a motion uh that is very important that we um need to adopt because we are not going home and I am going to ask for I'm going
to contain a motion to hold a Clos session pursuant to North Carina General statute 143-30570 yes I um I'm going to vote in favor of going into this closed session but I do want to just put on the record that this would not have been my preferred method of choice because it is in closed session and I think that this is a really important role and I would have liked to have seen it in a more public capacity um and and have had opportunity for stakeholders and and the public to have our ear on this issue um and so I'm I'm going to vote in favor of of moving into Clos session because I I think that that is the right decision
today but I just want to say that that's not how I wish that it would have gone down you and I would agree with Council M clook I just wanted to make sure we're gonna I did have another item that I did want to bring forward okay I I'll I'll entertain the motion and then come back and I want to make sure we all know that we represent the public we represent the public yes yeah I I I respect my council members um observations but I don't know what's going to happen the close session so I'm not certain what we're telegraphing to the public or what's going down or not any any Personnel discussion is done in in closed session so I I don't know what you know what what's actually going to happen so so I'm voting to go into close session so we can discuss it thank you thank you you address in process all right uh it's been a there's a motion on the floor
um there's been uh it's been moved probably second all in favor I all oppos thank you all uh at the at the end of this uh additional comment and did you have a report out Madam cler oh yeah that's where you did it and after we have set the after we have the additional comment by council member Freeman and the manager uh sets sets the agenda we will then uh depart into close session and it's um really just about a notice that folks have been receiving and I I text you I didn't get a chance to catch up with you prior to but um folks have been receiving notice I've gotten a few calls about um these water notices about the pipes and being unknown and I just wanted to make sure that the city manager did address that um thank you m m yes so for for some time now uh and our you know potentially our experts around the Pro the uh the program of discovering and
identifying lead uh lead pipes uh in our both our system that we maintain in in our public uh distribution system as well as private lines that are maintained by our residents it is a um a long um a lot of a highly resourced project to get uh compliance around identification of lead uh pipes in our water distribution system that potentially you know can leech lead and I say potentially uh certainly we uh have done a lot of work with replacement of our water pipes uh with identifying whether or not any of our water uh distribution system uh has heavy metals which led is one of is considered a heavy metal uh what residents now are beginning to receive in terms of notification is really information along with uh some very direct um instructions
on how they might be able to help us identify uh whether or not there's lead on the private side of the water distribution uh system because we do not want anyone to have uh heavy metals in any water that they may be potentially drinking uh one of the you know and I won't go into details about what how that uh process might happen with a resident but it is some step one two three four things that people can volunteer to do to to help us identify uh the the lead potentially you know lead um lead paint what I would mean say lead paint lead lead in pipes uh I also would like to say that uh any Resident because residents probably listening to this that would you know that think they may have any type of uh anything in the water that shouldn't be there can request that their water in their home be tested and and they can do that by
calling 56200 and getting to our water uh utility and get those tests um those test scheduled so I am um as I said I'm not the expert but I'm I'm pretty close to it most of the time uh but in in this situation uh I do you know do not want any of our well first of all I did miss one thing so at in 1988 I believe is sort of a a a a date uh where you know homes that were built before 1988 potentially have pipes uh in some components of their of their resident that may have uh be made from that type of metal uh distribution if anytime there's a residence that was built after 1988 uh it would not it would not be included because it doesn't have uh you know it doesn't have those is not uh compliant to build properties with that type of
pipe in it so that's a you know that can potentially help people who live in new homes know that this is not does they would not be impacted by this so hopefully this is enough information for you all today as well as uh our residents who may be listening and if you would you know desire some additional information our uh our water management department would be happy to to provide additional information for you thank you and I I think just making sure to repeat that the the durm one call um is the number that you're giving and it can also be reached by app and by email on by online okay and then um just just in following up that there was a question about um the water being pink or brown and I was sing like you need to reach out to the county because your water should definitely be tested I just want to make sure that's the right information I I would just say in general anyone that has any concerns about water that is that they're receiving from the city's water utility
they have a question concern about it please call 56200 D one call thank you thank you uh Madame manager I'll uh keep it on you to go ahead and settle the agenda so I am uh going to speak very slowly because this is um getting close to uh my final times that I get that I get to do this uh but it is it is it is it is my uh it is my privilege to uh sit in this seat and uh set the agenda for your next city council meeting uh for consent I have item one I have items 3 through 12 item 14- 19 items 21- 26 and item number 32 and for GBA public hearings I have items 28 through 31 all right uh I will now entertain a motion to settle the agenda second we move and probably second all in
favor all of post all right we will depart uh folks this is