City Council · Regular Meeting · November 7, 2024

Ahead and read the consent agenda and then I'll go to citizen comments item number one Durham open space and trails commission appointment number two Durham city county appearance commission appointments number three human relations commission excuse me appointments number four participatory budgeting steering committee appointment number five fiscal year 2025 2026 budget development schedule number six contract modification with Excuse me language language Services Solutions LLC for Spanish interpretation and translation services number seven Durham station Transit Center improvements project authorization to negotiate and execute a guaranteed maximum pricei be Amendment to the construction manag manager at risk semar contract for Construction Services I'd like to pull that one what that number seven and I want to pull number five okay five you have it.

Okay number eight proposed acquisition of property for the godor access maintenance facil facility number nine design Bill sorry i p number eight all right number nine design Bill Services contract with Caballero Caballero planners Incorporated for the Beachwood Cemetery columbarium project number 10 American Rescue plan act arpa bridging business opportunity and Equity project number 11 janitorial services contract for the Durham Armory number 12 number 202 20 24 community policing development micro Grant project micro grant grant project ordinance number 15 no no 13 Street and utility acceptances 14 stream vegetation management contract with ripple Eco Solutions LLC number 15 Municipal separate storm sewer system ms4 inspections sd202 2409 number 16 contract amendment number three for SD 20216 Municipal separate storm sewer system ms4 inspections number 17 contract amendment number one for SD 2023 01 drainage salute drainage structure access and stabilization May 18 contract with Park Mobile LLC for the J My Voice keeps going out foray by phone yeah we pay by phone mobile payment services I'd like to pull that one number 19 Fellowship placement.

Agreement between the city of Durham and Fus cores cores for treatment plant Energy Efficiency number 20 Award of Construction contract Carolina Civil Works Incorporated for brown Water Treatment Plant dewatering polymer system modifications and just the public hearings that are coming up are consolid annexation Constitution Drive right away 22 zoning map change for Vivo living Duram 23 Consolidated indexation doc Nichols towns 24 Consolidated indexation Tri Creek 25 zoning map change carrying house expansion all right so those are the items and the 5 S8 and 18 are pulled but now I'm going to go to public comment and the first Speaker I have is Stephen.

Harris usually don't it thank you Mr Mayor and and members of the council good good afternoon my name is Steven Harris I live in Durham North Carolina I'm a native Liv in the trle Ridge subdivision and I've come to you today on behalf of concerned neighbors that have asked me to address this issue with the city and consider enacting a new city ordinance to protect homes and properties from damage due to nucent Wildlife feeding within the city limits we've had a major problem in our neighborhood and in neighborhood without HOAs like mine more than a dozen homes have and cars have been significantly damaged by Wildlife due to Reckless feeding and subsequently overpopulation resulting in only in over $50,000 in damage on my street alone the damage is primary from overpopulating the squirrels chewing automobile wire harnesses and fuel lines building nest and engines attics and chimneys hundreds of animals have chewed through metal wood plastic all within a blast zone of neighbors that are feeding the animals over the past few years we've.

Made repeated requests directly to the individuals to cease feeding the animals and they have refused one person in particular has over 20 feeders in their front yard feeding animals squirrels Birds foxes crows including daily bags of peanuts corn and eggs the majority of feeders are open feeders that are available to all Wildlife at all times of the day you can find a murder of crows it can be found in the yard a small herd of deer and squirrel too numerous to count we've had neighbors complain that they cannot do business from home doing Zoom conferences because of the noise that the crows make we're also concerned about the problem with disease prevention and also major concerns that some people may take it upon themselves to go outside of the law and maybe try to poison these animals which could just cause other major problems along the way the North Carolina Wildlife Commission strongly recommends not feeding Wildlife however they do not enforce this regulation within the city limits and let the cities decide to do.

The enactment of regulations on their own additionally there is not a current Wildlife officer assigned to Durham County due to being unable to hire people to fill those position positions we would like to request a similar ordinance that Raleigh has enacted to protect homes and personal property from unnecessary damage we have researched other ordinances throughout the county well throughout the country and suggest the following things to be considered no open or platform feeders no feeders on the ground to attract Wildlife all bird feeders must be designed to deter squirrels crows and other Wildlife with the exception of song birds and hum huming Birds no more than five feers per resident and that is mainly because of the different type of feers that are available thank you very much for your time thank you so much and Steve it's good to see you and good seeing you I I have personally experienced a lot of what he's saying and I know exactly the neighbors he's talking about so yeah.

I I get it just anodally on next door there's a long spread that this is continuing in a lot of neighborhoods gotcha next person I have is Grace. Wakan I'm still on the list s somehow Steve hello Grace good afternoon thank you and thank you for giving me this opportunity welcome Council my name is Grace wakman I represent Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church here in Durham and I wanted to speak to my concerns about the the state of emergency assistance and the rental crisis syndrome so I oversee an emergency assistance program in our church it's fully funded by our congregation of less than 400 people started out as a pretty humble program last year I think we distributed around $18,000 to 90 unique families mostly to divert pending evictions and utility cut off this year however we're on track to more than triple that we've already year to date distributed $45,000 to over 200 families the things I'm observing that are prompting me to come here with a concern.

Is that we partner often we partner with entry point Durham and several of the organizations that are protecting are unsheltered or shelter threatened it's come to our attention recently that entrypoint Durham is out of funds to provide housing for their clientele so we are trying now to absorb a lot of that The Fallout for people that they're not able to secure housing funds to get people off the streets into homes or to keep people in homes I also recently was working with a client and the other thing that's come to our attention that's really concerning is I believe the Durham Housing Authority has used up all of their housing vouchers and aren't giving out any more housing vouchers again we're trying to absorb by providing rent deposits to get people into their homes I recently worked with a client who had fallen behind on their rent and she was so confused because she felt she hadn't missed a payment in five years of what what the problem was so she actually.

Brought her rental Ledger in and a letter she received from the Durham Housing Authority that does her annual lease Amendment and she received a letter dated July 19th for a reexamination of her lease to adjust her August 1st a 362 per rent increase is going from 169 9 a month to 780 so she was given less than 2 weeks notice to absorb and adjust over $600 increase I don't know what the context is around the rest of the situation but I was just asking if there were any kind of tenant protections that oversee things like that perhaps longer notice if you have to do a increase so simply just asking if there was an ability to mobilize more assistance funds for rent and to possibly help entry point Durham out to the remainder I think they're out till July 2025 and perhaps strengthen tenant protection so we want to help as much as possible and mitigate any Fallout but since we're just donation-based assistance it's not something we can.

Rely on or sustain so we're just asking for collaboration from the city thank you thank you. Next I have Emily.

Wils hello my name is Emily wils and I'm the associate pastor for public witness at Trinity Avenue Presbyterian church and I'm here because like my colleague Grace Wakeman I'm deeply concerned about the current struggles of renters and Durham and I fear for how the situation of tenants and cross Durham will be will worsen in the coming months between the two bonds the upcoming County revaluation of property taxes and the city and County's new budgets we know that property taxes in Durham are about to increase significantly and while I'm grateful for the existence of Durham's lowincome homeowners relief program nearly half of all Durham residents are renters landlords will increase rent as a result of these increases forcing tenants to disproportionately shoulder the burden of the property tax increases meanwhile renters do not have access to relief now as you have just heard entry point is out of funds until July 2025 however our clients consistently tell us that everywhere else they've tried to access rent is also rent support is also.

Out of funding to make sure we're able to offer at least something we limit our support to $250 per household per calendar year now as a tax exempt organization we know it's our responsibility to use the resources we have to protect the most vulnerable in our community we know that this is what it means to be a good neighbor and a true partner to the city of Durham and would invite other tax exempt organizations with resources to spare throughout the city to do the same we also know that $250 once a year is insufficient to meet the needs that this moment demands we are neither equipped nor designed to subsidize the City by ourselves with the looming tax increases on the horizon it is critical that this council is proactive and protecting tenants we need your help to meet the demands of this moment ultimately we're asking for three things please find funds for entry points eviction diversion program to be used between now and July 2025 if you need some ideas for.

For where to look or where to fund it I'm happy to offer suggestions number two rent assistance may stop the bleeding but ultimately it's a Band-Aid solution we need creative policy Solutions so one strengthening tenant protections like requiring longer notice of rent increases increasing landlord engagement to assuage the growing reluctance to accept vouchers in the first place forming a tenants Advisory Board find what you can and do it and be as aggressive in your desire to end homelessness as you are in your as you are in your development and so to that end follow the comprehensive plan particularly on affordable housing please do not give away the city's only leverage to make sure more affordable units are built you are beholden to your constituents not developers thank.

You thank you next I have ozetta Frasier welcome hello I'm speaking for the partial group of pack five this is just a few of our participants frasia and crew yes L Street Laurel yes Laurel Avenue I'd like to present and more importantly get resolution to the skid row situation going on at the intersections of East Main Street and Stoke streets this intersection right off of Austin and East m is alive with open drug use drug dealing and prostitution these folks have made themselves comfortable sitting on the curb drinking beer and doing drugs right out in the open sometimes they'll use an umbrella for privacy once I even witnessed a man defecating along the side as a result there has been prop property broken into theft and trashes always strewn about a few months ago people started congregating at the old Los Primo I even saw a tent then suddenly they were gone and they're still gone people this isn't a new problem but what's new is the community of new homes a half a.

Block away I'm a proud and I'm proud to be a part of this new community however our homes aren't just domiciles or dwellings they're our investments our our Legacy and its manifestation of our hard work and and determination it's our sense of Pride because it really was N Easy we had to sacrifice and deny ourselves for the privilege to have our names listed as owner as an active participant of the newly reestablished pack five we want to see our tax dollars work we need this area cleaned up from the lering that allows this illegal activity for over a year pack five have followed direction from leaders of the Durham city police but to no avail pack 5 needs this area cleaned up and made safe for ourselves and our families pack 5 needs to see action thank.

You thank you and I look forward to meeting with you all tomorrow at 1 pm correct y thank all right thank y'all for being here sure we'll meet in the conference room down the hall I just text you Miss B.

For some reason it's giving me so much joy that we get to just focus on things local just I you know it's tough stuff we have to figure out but my gosh I'm just I'm glad that we are engaging as and that's that's to council member Freeman's point that's just how we're going to do it this how we're going to survive all right I could add to that I do want to thank pack five for being here I I live in pack one across the street from pack five and these issues have been part of the conversation I brought up on Monday night and just acknowledging that there's a growing population of folks who are showing up who have no ties to DM and that is what is creating this issue and I think it's it's going to need to be like a like an actual policy conversation but at first we you know this this just I mean it's hard to see folks without homes or shelter try.

To navigate a space it's like a million times harder to have to I mean they're they're navigating it outside of where they were born raised grew up have connections ties it's one thing to be on the street a few nights you know because you don't want to be in the shelter it's a whole another to not even have access to the shelter shelter list is is I mean the waiting list is too long we we're just we're really like at a conundrum of of or like a it's catastrophically becoming an issue for predominantly black neighborhoods and Hispanic neighborhoods that have that have often been left out of like it's just out of the conversation in so many ways and I and I yeah I just want to stress that this is something that that I think we're really going to have to pour some effort into because it's not just on the development side it's not a it's it's yeah this is a little different yep yeah so we'll be talking tomorrow and I.

Think some of these conversations are actually related what we heard today so we'll talk let's go now to number five so this is thank you all for coming counil remember Freeman we on you thank you I just really wanted to to pull this item just to make sure we get clarity on on where the community conversations are in this scheduling because I know we we talked about it and I think the contract was discussed but I wasn't sure if that was included in the scheduling or not so the community conversations are currently going on so we have them I think the council received an email with those dates we had one last night and they'll be going on through the until Thanksgiving so as part of the budget development schedule we won't be having conversations during during those months but you will be receiving the report about the community conversations during your budget Retreats and can you say when the additional ones will be because I don't I don't know that that yeah they're on.

Our website so we have one I don't have them off the top of my head we have one I just want to stress the same thing I stressed in the town hall meetings everybody's not online and just just acknowledging that the experience of having your phone cut off and your internet cut off you don't have access to any of the information in a way in a real way that you know it it just becomes even more isolating and so just making sure we're not just relying on online materials people are not all online that's a big thing understood and and yep okay.

Okay I have those pulled up and I'll just go ahead and read because there's only four remaining the next one is Tuesday November the 12th that's from from 5: to 7:30 p.m. it's at the Durham County South Regional Library then we have one Saturday November 16th from 11:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. that's at the East Regional Library Thursday November 21st from 6:00 to 8:00 pm that one's at aluro and that is going to have all conversations conducted in Spanish and then the last one is Saturday November 23rd from 11:00 a.m.

To 2: p.m. and that's a North Regional Library thank you council member. Cook good thank you next we have item number seven qu by Council Mook hi Gina propes General services department and Sean Egan with transportation department hi thanks I was just hoping that y'all could just for a little bit of clarity talk about where this money is coming from and and sort of the timeline for this project just because it's on our I know that's not the exact thing that's on our agenda but another opportunity to talk about some cool funding and also cool projects that are upcoming the transportation department has led a lot of the grant funding as well as some of the other strategic planning and I'll let Sean aan address that good afternoon mayor members of council Sean aen with the transportation department so we worked with our partners at go triangle and the Durham County Transit plan to look at some of the concerns that we' heard from Riders and the community about Durham station.

In the 2020 and early 2021 time frame and we determined that we really needed to look at a series of improvements to revitalize the facility and address the concerns things like canopy coverage we get more inches of rainfall here in Durham than Seattle gets every year and yet only 20% of the waiting area is covered so we did engagement we talked to Riders about needs we heard things like there should be restrooms out on the platform right now most of our Riders are making a transfer at the platform they run in to the building to use the restroom by the time they get out they've missed their bus and so what are other things that we could do the walkways most of the platform right now is unimproved and Landscaping efforts have been unsuccessful there so it's mostly dirt and when it rains it's mud and we also knew that we were going to be growing our system and we were at capacity where we're Now setting up temporary bus Bay for for boarding.

Because we have more activity than we have capacity for so the go triangle team go triangle Leta design team that put together a schematic design that went from 20% canopy coverage to 80% that improved all of the platform walkways that added restrooms and customer information out on the platform and that grew the capacity of the station from 20 Bay today to 28 bays in the future we submitted that in November of 2021 to the Federal Transit Administration with a request for $10.8 million and we were awarded that funding in March of 2022 so at that point we worked with General services to get to a full design and general Services recommended that we work with the construction management at risk firm too so we brought them in early in the process the project was originally thought to cost about 13 and a half million the federal would have covered 80% of that with the local match coming from the Durham County Transit plan as we've moved through costs have increased considerably so we have.

Worked with our partners at the Durham County Transit plan to increase funding to close to 10 million that's been approved so far we also allocated federal funds that are used for improvements that come directly to the city we allocated 1.7 million of that funding to this and we have a request that's pending right now for 3.56 million of additional Durham County Transit PL so that's primarily fun fing coming from the half cent sales tax so every time that you buy anything in Durham half of one% of that gets collected and that has to be used for Transit improvements so U this is the most important Transit facility in Durham it serves about 14,000 Riders a day and we have the opportunity to make this a a signature project that our community will be very proud of of and a real demonstration of the importance that Durham places on Transit so we have gotten no staff recommendation for the balance the 3.56 million it went to the border of County Commission work.

Session on Monday got a very favorable reception there went to the go triangle finance committee yesterday got a very favorable so we expect those final approvals to come board accounting Commission on the 12th and then go triangle board on the 20th and that'll be the last piece of funding so that'll bring the the Durham County Transit plan up to about 13 million so we've put together City controlled funds durman County Transit funds and then the federal 10.8 million to be able to really make sure that this is that we're giving our Riders 14,000 Riders a day the best project that that we can you I really appreciate that because that's the station I bust to and often I'm walking in the mud so I totally hear that I just I was just wondering one clarifying question you said 13 and a half was the original amount and then you said that has inre we're about 26 now we've almost doubled wow thank you those are all my questions thank.

You you yeah go ahead thanks M rean for that clarification just just a couple things so thanks for your work to work with the county in this and I know we're expecting there additional 3.5 or six with their approval so we look forward to that and we appreciate the county considering that I did want to ask about I know there's also a raise Grant that's part of the funding for this right no ra no no gra Grant it it was from the Federal Transit Administration bus and bus facilities program so it was a competitive Grant but it had it had to be for a Transit project whereas raay can be any transportation okay so sorry an FTA specific FTA yeah yeah so and that's money that the city has or that money we're expecting so the city that that was awarded in March of 2022 okay so there's no concern with this new sort of administration change in DC where those those dollars are secure yes okay thank you I was gonna ask about.

That actually do you how was funding 2016 to 2020 versus 2020 to 24 from Federal infrastructure investment and I know it's I'm I'm just I'm not asking you to get political I'm asking because this was pretty historic getting funding directly to the municipality do you foresee or I'm not even asking to for C was it different 2016 the bipartisan infrastructure law significantly increased total funding levels so for formula funding that flows to States and local governments and it also added significantly to competitive programs like the raay program so there's more money as a result of the bipartisan infrastructure law there is more money available for state and local governments than prior to the current authorization and that's authorized through 2026 that was available to compete for right okay gotcha and I know I have all Fe I don't give a dang about the top I know we have amazing staff so I know applications are good go ahead thank you I I know how important this project has been to Durham and I.

Know we we f you know fought and submitted an excellent grant to get that funding from the federal government I'm not concerned so much about this project but I am concerned about the two years remaining on the infrastructure dollars are just because it's been just because the formulas have increased in what not can there be a clawback if it's been authorized to 2026 does that even matter and are we starting to think about the structure of the bipartisan infrastructure law is a little bit unusual they typically do a multi-year authorization and then there have to be annual Appropriations at the federal level what they did in order to get more projects moving quickly was what they call an advanced appropriation so for fiscal year 24 you had available your 24 funds but also your 25 funds so it's not clear whether that practice of the advance appropriation will continue with new leadership in Washington there there may be changes to that structure what we've heard from usdot is that they are working to get all.

Of the current appliations reviewed and all Awards made by January 20th of 2025 thank you we have two of those pending thank you right now that's that's really important thank you let me know how I can help if there there is any need just let me know I'll I'll do what I. Do I'm just gonna pass to Mich over to council cook because I have you for number eight as well yes so two more items that are ported those are yours okay hey how are you hi good how are you so I was just curious about the process of looking for this piece of land and why this this need what we why we did not what we were missing I guess in our previous city property what we why we could not meet this need because I know that we've recently acquired quite a lot of large properties this seems to be sort of a storage facility just hoping you could talk about why we were looking for this what we.

Needed so we're as we've talked about particularly with the funding that's been made available through the Durham County Transit plan for expansion of transit services in Durham we are outgrowing our current facilities so we looked at how to best manage the need for additional maintenance and storage facilities for our Transit fleets that was a study that was led by go triangle that started around 2020 what the study recommended was that since there was going to be significant growth in our fixed drought bus system right now both our fixed route and our access Paratransit are co-located at fa Street what they recommended was that we relocate the par Transit the access system to a new site and then backfill that space with fix drought so we would have one fix drought facility and one access facility and so as part of that the team began a site selection process to review sites that met the size requirements many of those sites were evaluated and however throughout throughout that when they got to the end.

Of that process none of the property owners were interested in selling to the city at that point yeah so it left us in a position where we would be potentially acquiring using eminent domain and that was not our our our preferred approach so we had done all this analysis and looked at locations looked at what would be the most efficient place to deploy the access Fleet from we had done analysis of neighboring sites on Junction Road and then this site came onto the marketplace and was available for voluntary acquisition and so no condemnation or eminent domain is needed for this process so we also conducted a review view of city and publicly owned facilities that were 5 Acres or or larger and most of those what we found was that those had been already identified for other uses such as affordable housing okay could you just go back to the current storage and and say that one more time you said that it was so right now the big buses the 40ft buses and.

The small access buses are all they all operate out of the same site on face street it's next to the general Services Department out there what we found is that we're at capacity right now for the the fixed route buses so rather than create have two separate fixed route sites the idea is to relocate access to a new site and then that frees up a lot of the land at the current facility that can then be used for maintenance and storage of the large 40 foot buses those are my questions.

Thanks is that 18 that was eight so 18 we have you Council m.

You're good yeah you don't have to come back up this I just wanted to say one thing very briefly which is that I I understand all of the issues that currently exist with taking cash at at parking facilities and I but I also want to just say because I I feel like I've flagging this a lot and I want to continue to flag it that we have so many Durham citizens who are not digitally literate and so when we continue to sort of move these things away from cash and again I totally understand the issues with safety and the it's just a whole thing to move money around and I completely understand why we're doing that but I just want to continue raising this because it makes me feel really concerned that we're going to cut off populations from being able to access Downtown parking for example and I see this a lot folks who are elderly particularly I feel like fall into this category we actually have a pretty high illiteracy rate generally.

Speaking and then I feel like when you add digital literacy into that it is it is just Amplified folks don't always have access to the internet unless they're on Wi-Fi and anyway there's just a lot of complications that go into it so I'm just raising that flag I know that this is not doing away with mon with cash payments but just want to flag it and that's all I'll just if I could respond quickly so this is providing more payment options for customers but we will continue at our parking decks to have vending machines we call them pay on foot stations they're usually by the elevators where people can pay for their Park with cash so that will not change as a result of this all right so that is our agenda I'm gonna pass it over to the manager to to settle the.

Agenda oh I'm sorry mam Court good afternoon Council I didn't report this earlier so pardon me for that we do have a open space and Trail appointment that has not reached consensus there were three votes for Alexis seel and three votes for Lindsay s biersbach and I wondered if somebody would like to switch their vote on that you can change mine well to toach toach from Bell yeah that's why okay. Oh wait dos recommended Lindsay s bers boach for the vacancy okay so I want to go with I I want to go with the recommendation I think okay that's the person who has the nomination yeah okay Durham city county appearance commission appointment the two selected individuals are Allison P steel and Caitlyn wheeler human relations commission appointments there to Scott brummel and Shandra M Jones and the final one participatory budgeting steering committee appointment at large category is Samuel F Thomas III and that's my report you I just want to say one more thing I know there there's a lot.

Of adjusting that we're going to have to get used to over the next couple of years after the election I will be meeting with the School Board chair and County chair and and just in our next leadership Round Table I think that you know how we respond or how do we adapt to the new new leadership at the national level it's going to be a topic of discussion I know that we're going to run into a lot of kids that are going to be worried about you know the rhetoric that's been stated and you know I believe everything that I'm hearing at the national level so I just want to make sure that we are preparing and understanding what our agility is at the local level and what you know our exibility is and you know what what levers we have to protect the folks that live here in Durham so that'll be one of the conversation topics that I'll I'll be contributing to at the table with our our trif Factor.

Leader leadership here in the U in Durham County I was just going to say that I I think that's important and then also at the national level just making sure to be as act active as possible in a bipartisan way with folks like the national league of City even local progress and want to say the young elected officials like there are a lot of resources that can be brought to bear around these issues because it's not it's not onid I think folks I I want to be really clear U to the general public this election was not a rebuke of the work that we've been doing it's actually very supportive those margins were very close and so as much as the majority rules when it's 4951 there's a very slim space there are two years till the next election two 24 months of Our House and Senate and things can shift very quickly if we all stay on task I I know that there's a local election next year but there is I.

Mean in a very real way we can't lose sight of the fact that the work that we're doing is having impact and though folks may be afraid that does not mean we Retreat thank you I feel like I think about this all the time I'm just going to say it for the record and I'm going to keep saying it but I was just as we're listening to these folks that are appointed to these boards for those people who don't read these agendas in as much detail as we we do up here we for all of these positions always have a slew of really qualif people from Durham and I know we've talked about it before but we got to keep talking about it it is incredible how much people want to be involved in their local government and the time that it takes and so I just want to acknowledge that to everyone that doesn't get selected please keep applying we see the work that you're putting into these applications I love.

Reading people's resumés it's so cool to see the just diverse expertise and passion that people have in the city and it just makes me really really excited thank you for everyone who applied keep applying thanks thank you madam manager thank you Mr Mayor members of the council I have for your consent agenda at your next council meeting items 1 through 20 and for public hearing items GBA public hearing items 21 through 25 thank you all right I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda so MO second all right all in favor I hi I'm opposed all right thank you all so much we are dismissed.