City Council · Regular Meeting · September 19, 2024

uh after we do the roll call to uh to do that that was smooth right Madam co could you call the RO please thank you Mr Mayor mayor Williams I'm here mayor protm Middleton I'm here council member Baker here council member cavayero here council member cook here council member Freeman pres council member rist here thank you thank you so much I'm gonna pass it over to council member W it's my first time doing a acclamation in the work session room so okay cool and is Mary Rose here she may be here okay she okay oh hey Mar Rose glad you're on um well thank you Mr Mayor happy to do this Proclamation today um to to to curb some of the Log Jam at our meeting on following Monday so um like to read the following Proclamation whereas access to Mobility is vital for health and Community Connection enabling residents

of Durham to reach education employment Medical Services shopping Recreation and visit loved ones aligning with North Carolina's Transportation policy goals of improving public Mobility options and whereas the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the cost of car ownership at approximately 72 cents per mile with average annual household Transportation expenses reaching $1,961 many people cannot afford a car and nearly a third of us residents lack a driver's license due to age or other conditions and whereas transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the us contributing to environmental concerns including tus Tire dust entering watersheds and freeway expansions that have historically impacted communities of common and whereas going a week without driving is a great way to understand how we can improve our current transportation system to better meet the needs of derms residents and improve and

enhance Transportation options such as Transit Light Rail biking and walking Pathways as key strategies in our decarbonization efforts now therefore I Leonardo Williams mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina to hereby Proclaim September 30th to October the 6th 2024 as weak without driving in Durham and recommend its observance to all citizens witness my hand and the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this 19th day of September 2024 all right and Mary Rose if you're there on the on the on the screen there I'll bring this proclamation to you uh at our next bpack meeting or or sometime soon so thanks for joining us and thanks Mr Mayor as you know I'm Avid cyclist so this is a great way to to promote uh week with that driving and I'll be doing my own I encourage my Council colleagues to do the same a week with that driving it's a great way to to leave your car behind and explore all the different ways we can get around safely and

efficiently andur without a car so thank you yes on my scooter next to you go um Mary Rose would you like to share any remarks you see or on Madam clerk hi sorry uh I also I have comments on one of the items but um I also have tips for how to to uh proceed through the week without driving if any of y'all need a list of you know how to do that I can share that with youall yeah just yeah just share it over to us thank you for that um all right well are there any announcements by Council yes so for the um Team time we are changing making more changes for the town hall meetings and just want to make sure everyone's aware so Thursday September 6 will be at Edison Johnson's Recreational Center at 500 West Murray

Avenue and the doors will open at 6:30 and the meeting will start at 7 and Thursday October 24th we have nailed down Walltown Recreational Center at 1308 West Club Boulevard um again the doors will open at 6:30 and the meeting will start at 7 and then Tuesday October 29th we've added an additional town hall meeting uh because we have that many departments and it will be at Holton career Resource Center uh 401 North driver Street in the Learning Center or Media Center real quick Council by show of hands who's going to Inner City visit okay so we'll have some folks that are out there uh that day as well all right council member cook uh thank you good afternoon colleagues and uh members of the public welcome um I just have a couple quick things that I wanted to share I had a really awesome day yesterday I had to

meet with a lot of really cool folks from around the city and the state um that started at a meeting with pack one senior citizens about the bonds it was a really great conversation um folks brought up a lot of concerns that they had around particularly seniors on fixed income and the raising of property taxes and we were able to talk about the resources AA aable um but also I just wanted to say she was when she was elected in the late 90s she was the first woman elected to Statewide office in North Carolina's history and every time I hear that I'm just thinking about how recent history that is and um and what just a a huge um

celebration and and Way Paving for the rest of us uh she has been and also she is hilarious and very sharp and um and a great person and doing some really really excellent work for the state I think that is obvious is why she has won consistently in those past what 30 almost almost 30 years so that was really awesome um I also wanted to say on a very light note but also still sad that our red wolf puppies at the Museum of Life and Science are being transferred to a different location for study it's great for them it's great we're going to get another paired um Redwolf couple adult couple that'll come to the Museum of Life and Science and and there's going to be continued research and I I think that this is awesome I actually was driving in the eastern part of the state and I saw a red wolf on the road which was very cool because there's only like 20 of them in existence but also not cool because like

they need to be off the road but um anyway we have one of the few um Red Wolf couples that have actually been able to have puppies they are still at the Museum of Life and Science I sit on that board this is why I know all this information there's still the the Museum of Life and Science through the end of this month if you have not seen them they are so cute I would encourage going to look before uh they end up getting transferred so just wanted to put a plug in for that and with that I will hand off my colleagues thank you thank you thank you for that thank you um so I just wanted to share that um I had a pretty big last 24 hours I was invited to the White House for the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration um which so I'm a little bit like um never been to the white house uh I definitely fan girl lots of folks um and I just wanted to say it was an incredible experience uh there was a small cohort from North Carolina uh

there are not that many certainly I think there's 12 elected officials of Latino descent in North Carolina so there not that many of us um but just wanted to share it was an incredible experience to be in uh a very storied uh place in our history as a country and it was also Chilean Independence Day uh so so for this little immigrant girl it was a is a big 24 hours thank you thanks for um represen up there it's it's a cool place right it's a big old Museum that someone lives in um C remember wrist thanks Mr Mayor mayor PM staff members of the council public general public um just a couple things first thing is see my t-shirt it's centerfest this is weekend so enjoy centerfest com on out sunay Saturday and Sunday to enjoy centerfest one of the most awesome Community festivals in North Carolina um the second thing is I I did want to mention something um many of you heard that there was a demonstration yesterday um in front of Temple bethl um with about 30 or 40 people um I just

have a word for the folks who are demonstrating to say that um everyone in this community in this Council included will defend vigorously everyone's right to free speech um and in fact we had a debate on this Council last year early this year where we passed a ceasefire resolution and had a vigorous debate ourselves and also with members of the public so that's a right that we hold dearly in durm and we will'll defend vigorously um I live in the neighborhood near Temple bethl and some of the comments were very personal um and um uh uh actually cursing individual people including the rabbi Temple bethl and that's not okay uh the debate we had here and I give the mayor tons of credit we had a debate here that was incredibly respectful again among ourselves and the public and that's the kind of debate we promote in Durham but this kind of disrespectful language is not okay and we will hold you accountable for that so thank you Mr Mayor thank you Mr Mayor good afternoon

glad you man made it back safely congratulations uh council member kabier and your visit to the white house uh they frown upon taking ashtrays and stuff with the seals on it don't ask me how I know hope we had a great trip to all my honorable colleagues to those in the room and those watching on whatever platform you may be watching thank you um Mr may had a great opportunity last night to be on the campus of North Carolina Central University at the law school I want to shout out uh the ladies of the alpha Zeta Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority who held a wonderful voter Forum uh last night got to sit with uh commissioner Burris from the county and with our wonderful police chief uh Andrews and had a really really robust conversation with some of our younger voters about the importance of Engagement and being involved in uh our Public Square not only in terms of speech but also in terms of voting so I want to shout them out and Shout Out NCC law school as well um thank you so much council member R for for bringing up uh the comments about Beth Ali after I got out of the session last night I actually

got a phone call from Rabbi Graver and spoke with him last night I want to associate myself fully with your comments council member RIS um this wasn't 147 this wasn't City Hall this is a place of worship uh a place and as a member of the faith community as a leader in the faith community I know how important uh the concept of sanctuary the word literally means safety uh is to so many in our faith community whether it's a a synagogue or a mosque or a church or a temple uh this was not a governmental building uh this was a house of worship and some of the things that were said were abominable uh and contrary to the values of Durham council member riss you nailed there's no person on this Council that will not defend everyone's right to free speech this isn't about trying to mute your speech uh but this is about defending our values um every and I I I I

really because I don't want to call more attention to it every uh Sunday almost when I go to my black church there is a house that displays Nazi symbols on it um and then know when they know who I am and they know who we are and they know when we worship um I'm not going to give the address um but but there's something about uh targeting places of worship again have your Free Speech but we also have the right to respond to you that's part of free speech as well uh and we will do all we can to make sure every resident of this city feels safe and valued while still protecting our robust Public Square there is no more robust Public Square in North Carolina than um these folk were not public officials they're not policy makers they're worshippers who were going to a place of worship um shame on you and uh you know where I'd be at you know where my office is City Hall shame on you for some of the things that were hurled at those

people uh on last night and we stand in full solidarity with people of goodwi in the city of all faiths all religions all Races uh no matter who you love or how you love we stand with you all but we also will stand against uh words that are meant to hurt that are meant to divide and to meant to really instill fear in people that's not who we are in Durham so council member R thank you so much for your words I want to fully associate myself uh with them um and if that offends anybody you know where I'd be the week without driving starts September 30th thank you so much for that wonderful um resolution I want to plug go durm uh shout out to all my bus riders uh out there I look forward to participating in the week of of without driving I'm going to try uh doing some cycling as well I leave I live a little further out from the city center so I've got to be a little more strategic on what roads I ride the bike on but I'm very thankful for the Golder and buses they are clean uh they have Wi-Fi uh and the drivers are are very professional so I want to encourage all of our residents

and citizens and my colleagues here on the week of September 30th to uh try and leave the cars behind no leave the cars behind and uh use one of the other ways to get around our our great City you're going to learn some things about the city as well uh as you get out and move about it so thank you so much thank you Mr Mayor I yeld back thank you um well you all have shared many of the comments that I was going to bring up uh so I'll leave it there um that's also a school so let's just be conscious of that and there were kids there um and mam manager I will be reaching out to you about some dates that are coming up that I want to talk to you about that's Community Based and we'll talk about that later um colleagues we have a rich agenda today and we have uh some time to take after the meeting so uh we'll try to get through this as much as as fast as possible today um because we are going to spend a lot of time together today uh

with that being said um I am uh I'm just getting back from the North Carolina Mayors association meeting and that was a great meeting um it is a meeting where many of the smaller municipalities attend um however it's for all Mayors across the state and uh as we are growing um as we are growing in our city I do know that growth has its consequences and that growth impacts our municipalities around us and so uh soon I'll be hosting a dinner with the mayors of um Butner Oxford um Creed Moore stem stall Henderson meban um and uh Graham uh to uh and and of course uh Carell chaah Hill we'll be having a little regional meeting to just talk about what's happening our issues are some sometimes the same some sometimes

separate their issues are sewer and water they're like what are we going to do but they have a lot of folks that are starting to move there who are um moving out of Raleigh and Durham um or can't get into Raleigh and dorm right now so just make sure we're growing as a region and and being intentional about that so that was what I got from that and I'm looking forward to that and rep it was cool to represent DM in that room uh with that being said I'm going to uh pass it over to manager paage for any priority items good afternoon Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protm and members of the Durham city council this afternoon I do not have any agenda related priority items but I would like if it is um your pleasure to have a moment of recognition uh we do this uh sometimes we don't do it frequently enough but I'd like to do it today um like many cities across the country during the aftermath of covid the city of Durham government incre uh

experienced an increase in employee vacancies all across the organization last year to help show job Seekers why the city is a great place to work especially for those interested in serving in their Community the communications department created and launched a branding campaign called where careers meet Community featuring the city's best ambassadors our employees many of them you see out out here today and out in the community working uh that campaign recently earned a national National first place award called a Savvy award from the city County communications and marketing Association better known as three CMA the three CMA judges said fun tagline with multiple assets and engaging employee stories in this multi-prong campaign made this

recruitment effort a success an Innovative multifaceted and well-informed campaign to address a serious issue very comprehensive and a well balanced strategy that was in quotes so I would like this afternoon to recognize the C Communications Department led by Beverly Thompson for creating this award winning campaign and a special shout out goes to Hannah Watts who leads employee Communications with with a team but she's here um as as lead as a leader of that team on behalf of the city and photojournalist Joshua Lynch who uh always wears a cap and he he's always got a camera and uh we are very very happy uh to have these very valuable uh experienced expert employees who brought this campaign to life uh with such amazing uh photography and bringing the

life the experiences of our employees and that is all I have this afternoon thank you well they uh we gonna need a new city hall one day to house all of our Awards but here here's one of the newest ones well uh the flicker page is always popping so thank you all I follow the the city's F flicker page and uh those pictures are always high resolution high quality thank you guys Madam attorney good afternoon mayor Williams and members of the city council it's good to see you um the city attorney's office does have a priority priority item today I tried to get a memo out to you all to just give you a heads up we

have two matters that we need to discuss in closed session for attorney client consultation they are litigation matters and if you don't mind I'm going to hold the motion till the end of the meeting because I know you have a long agenda and I don't want us to forget um and that's it for my matters but I also message the council about a matter on your behalf Mr Mayor thank you and I only have one is that all I need it is and we can read that motion at the end as well okay sounds good thank you Adam cor good afternoon Mr Mayor and Mr Mayor Pro time and council members the city clerk's office has no priority items thank you thank you all right um this time I'll read the consent agenda

all right uh Now read the consent agenda uh number one Durham Housing Authority uh Board of Commissioners mayoral appointment number two Durham open space and trails commission appointment number three Durham city county appearance commission appointment number four racial Equity commission appointments Mr Mayor I didn't want to pull it but I did want to note that the attendance report is not showing or reflecting the actual attendance based on when they were added to the board and so I just wanted to make sure my colleagues were aware you got that note it Madam qu all right number five dhm historic preservation commission appointment number six approval of city council minutes number seven 2024 fiscal year in invatory performance audit August 6 August 2024 as number eight contract agreement with ETR Services LLC to provide services for their fiscal year 25 Community

conversations project I'd like to pull that item number eight yeah number nine request to carry over funding carryover funding from fiscal year 2023 2024 to fiscal year 2024 2025 to amend the fiscal year 2024 2025 budget Capital Improvement plan ordinance Grant project ordinance settlement project ordinance and internal service funds spending plans like to pull that one as well number 10 contracts for state and federal lobbying Services Mr Mayor I don't want to pull this but I do want to congratulate our staff and Durham on on a move that's been a long time in the coming and and and durm is U I think um experienced great success without these services and and to those staffers that have handled it for us a particular shout out to Chief of Staff Kisha

Wallace that has carried the ball for on us carried the ball uh in this area for us for so many years but I this is a move that we needed to make and and I want to thank the staff for their work and the vetting that's been done and my colleagues on the legislative committee as well I think this is a good thing for Durham thank you Mr Mayor similarly I didn't want to pull it but I did want to highlight or at least just check in on the Checkmate firm firm working in con Junction with Ferguson is the is what I'm hearing or is it just Ferguson uh yeah it'll be two contracts uh one uh State One Federal our Checkmate is State and uh Ferguson is federal already both have experience at both on both levels good I'll just add um I I second the comments of Mayor proam Middleton I think this is very exciting um I also really appreciate the Ferguson group and the fact that they only work work for um local government and I think that's that's very important something that I value and I think it's something that reflects the values of of that group as

well so thank you I guess we unofficially pulled this item with comments uh I'll just add uh I've envied uh a lot of organizations who have used uh these uh Services I've watched uh in particular the Checkmate group I work with several organizations that I'm in involved with such as Metro Mayors uh the league municipalities and I'm just always really really really impressed with their indepth reach um it's it's like they have a a u like a scope into the future they know what's coming and they are spread broadly across uh the general assembly which is I think what we needed so we're in we're in good hands and um looking forward to working with the Ferguson group as well just based on your background um I I think we we hit the nail on the head with these two firms so we get that is unofficially pulled but uh well addressed all right uh

number 11 Grant project ordinance accepting an African-American Mayors Association Grant to support economic Mobility programs not going to pull it but I will say that uh relationships are everything and I'm extremely excited to bring this to the city of Durham uh this is a direct investment in uh just building financial literacy skills amongst our community and I'm looking forward to working with our departments to carry out a series of programs uh that will be accessible to the community um and I'm grateful for our membership with with Amma um which Mayor Bill Bell was one of the original founders of this organization and it is going strong now uh so we are yeah we're going to have some money to spend on Durham folks here here all right um also that was one of those grants that came when I was away traveling

so um number 12 uh Durham Athletic Park feasibility study I like to pull this one number 13 uh request for construction easement at River Forest Park I want to pull that one mam clerk you going to have the order dinner soon uh number 14 First Amendment to Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act adults adult and dis dislocated worker program delivery contract with accurate Youth Alternatives Incorporated contract 19714 G to pull that one and the next one in in Tangent just call it when I get to to it um shot it number 15 contract amendment number two for D Workforce Development board Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act youth program e Youth Alternatives Incorporated

right and number 16 dorm Convention Center um in headquarter Hotel market and financial feasibility study presentation number 17 Consolidated annexation Yates right away number 18 Consolidated annexation brist wood right away number 19 Consolidated annexation armor Edge 20 zoning map change Sunrock Camden 21 zoning map change Duke central campus Edition and I will okay number 22 resolution to adop the Nao Urban Street design guide and urban Bikeway design guide as official city of dur Bikeway Street design guides is that a presentation then we have some yeah yeah all right so that's our consent agenda with the oh and also I have a

uh it was yeah 22 is four I also have uh okay number 22 was pulled by someone online and also number 13 was also pulled by someone Okay so resource okay all right hi r r okay okay all right so uh so this is our consent agenda with the exception of number 8 nine 10 12 13 19 okay 8 9 12 13 14 15 and 22

okay all right so I will go start I'll start with citizen matters Cal are you Kai are you in the room oh yeah there you go come on up great to see you thank you yeah just make sure you press that button that says on off on the mic there we go know that since I do festivals you minutes got it it's a very exciting time for festivals in Durham um thank you for your support we're looking forward to um seeing the ecology change that being said it's also a very hard time uh I run slingshot festivals at International Music Festival um I've run Moogfest I have brought millions of dollars into town thousands of people hundreds of performers I'm here to really discuss on the process about city funding um in

short of worked with anybody everybody in town and help put durm on the international map um uh I have anyway these points aren't only coming from me they're coming from venue owners business owners attendees Festival directors promoters people across dur room that for the last four or five years have kind of endured the hardest time for festivals endur them in time memorable personally um and it's quick to kind of recap what's happened the last few years uh durm events have been kind of leap frogged by other cities events um we know DPR spent $30,000 on a performer that never showed up um dcab wind up recommending a festival that wind up being fraudulent um 18K was actually extracted from the festival budget by dral Services it's been hard very very hard um dcab who I respect greatly I think they're very insightful um considered people uh due to a lack of experience allegiances habits time alloc

ations disconnectedness from Durham's components and mandates and the unawareness of the competitive market are really only capable of having half this conversation from my experience I've been in the last eight dcab meetings um and I feel like now is the moment so the process of course as you know um the recommendations come in front of you right my suggestion is for you guys to look long and hard at those considering some of these points and send them back for consideration some of these examples um there is a drive for new events which we fully support um Durham needs new events there are longstanding events in Durham that have put time energy money Etc that are actually getting much less funding than new events this year so I want you to please take a clear look at that and consider that the effort has been put in for years for some of these people myself included um new events should come but not really at the expense of of old events um and and then with that the telegraphing is clear for for for those

of us looking for investment Across the Nation is durm is really not a place for investment that's what I hear uh a second one uh the board tends to put the festivals in a hierarchy um that hierarchy is quickly abandoned when they start allocating funding and so I their process is actually confusing whether it's a hierarchical process uh based on Merit and the application or from my visual experience is it becomes auctioned off with really no Focus again it's starting to cause problems I want the E this is a great moment for the Ecology of festivals to change nice um lastly if I had a dollar for every time I heard the members lament that they could not get Latino par participation in these events I would be able to eat Mato there is a there is a a disconnect I've encouraged them one minute thank you am I done I'm

done okay there it is there's more points I can follow up an email these are very important please consider got it thank you thank you yeah you can send that to all of us thanks Kai all right we will um we will move on down uh starting at number eight sh um council member cook hi okay I had just a couple questions about the process to get there I know y'all put an RFP out for this group um and and there was some conversation in our memo about the scoring method but I was wondering if you could tell me what that method looked like and also the ranges of scores that we got from those six that answered the RFP um be super specific but yeah so we got we got six um proposals I don't have the scoring in front of me and I don't

know if that's something that we would I'm looking at our assistant um Bud director whether that's something we could provide you right now or whether we would need to provide you in a follow-up memo I was just I was just wondering about what types of things were asked in those and what types of things were valued in the in that process um well I think that you know um kind of being able to complete the work was um valued um and kind of um being able to um work with um groups throughout the community um and also um look at Equity um that was something that we wanted to make sure that groups were able to do so we were trying to look and see to make sure that the groups that we were um scoring had the ability to not only put on the presentations or sorry um Community conversations but also do the kind of um evaluation work that we were asking for afterwards as far as um you know uh being able to evaluate the comments that they got in from residents and provide a report to council so that you had meaningful um information um to

make budget decisions um do you happen to know if anybody from ETR is present we do have them here today I I would love to ask them a couple questions and they are they're virtual oh great is um I'm not sure who that who that is is there a representative from ETR on the call Mam CL can we I'm assuming the gabble would uh if you could make that representative uh reachable I don't know do we have a name of who might be on as a representative Jen Y that would be

okay well I I'm happy to also just explain kind of what I'm thinking about here which is this um this is a contract agreement for a group that's going to be doing qualitative research that's going to be assisting with our budget Department um this is the same uh firm that we used last year and so I assume we will be looking at similar uh presentations and similar data analysis we received this analysis in on March 1 I believe at our budget um special hearing that we did where we had our budget presented um or we talked about priorities for the budget that would be presented uh a few months later and I I just wan to I I'm pulling this for a few reasons but mostly because we talk about qualitative analysis and community outreach up here a lot and I like the direction that we're going as a city because we know statistically when we reach out via online surveys for example like that who we get as a result is not

representative of the community and of course these meetings also aren't necessarily representative of the community because it is an elective somebody has to decide to go to those meetings um but we did see lots of folks that weren't previously um interested or active in in local government that showed up um lots of diversity in terms of Ages um time SP and Durham and a few other things that I think were really strong and so I think these things are really important and I really want to make sure that when we look at qualitative data that we are taking it as seriously as we take quantitative data which I think is something that sometimes gets lost and there were a few questions that were raised during that March 1st meeting about some of the findings from those meetings and the answers that were given weren't really reflective of what the activities were that took place and I didn't know that until later because it wasn't until after we got the presentation that folks reached out to me and kind of said that there was

inaccuracy in how things were portrayed it wasn't a huge issue but it was enough that it wasn't quite accurate and it it just made me feel a little bit alarmed because I want to make sure that we're being really cautious when we get this information we're taking it really seriously um so that was all and I'm happy to follow up with the representative um and I will get their contact information at a later time but hi there that was all I was gonna say are you able to hear me oh yes yes hi thank you for your comment and I'm I'm sorry to cut you off um oh that's okay got trouble connecting a little um so my name is Jen gatherings I work with a company called ETR Services um thank you mayor mayor protim and council members for um pulling this item and giving us the opportunity to respond so uh thank you for your comments um we so last year we um we have multiple sources of data that were coming in and

we presented some of our analyses from the voting data and from conversations during our presentation to the council at the budget retreat uh the actual report was forthcoming and that report was a bit more extensive um this year we have already discussed with budget Management Services um how we will document that information and provide additional information so that folks in the department and also outside of the department have a better idea of how that coding was done and can get a better understanding of how why we lifted up the particular findings that we did so I hope that that speaks to your question um and I appreciate that and also appreciate the plug for qualitative research and that it's not just anecdotes these are what people are saying um additionally we are making a concerted effort this year to reach out to additional communities that are underserved around the Durham area and

we anticipate even more voices um and new engagement across the city this year thank you thank you for that I appreciate that Lo well thank you council member colleagues anyone else council member bris thank Pro and thanks uh uh council member Baker or sorry cook for for pulling this issue here um I appreciate that and I had some of the same sort of like I was trying to remember our budget conversation and some of the sort of like conversations around that data so I'm glad it's Jen right on the phone correct that is correct yeah yeah just so just one just one bit of advice so I know last year I think there was some time pressure with them getting the conversations done right but the one thing so I know there was maybe not the the full process they would have liked to done I know that when we got the feedback or the the results back from those focus groups um they it was sort of shared they collected feedback in four areas right so it's like infrastructure Public Safety affordable housing and Workforce Development and it seemed like in some cases some of those comments were sort of like shehorn into those categories you know and I just

hope as in as etrs doing the work again this year that those conversations are broad enough that citizens can bring their their concerns their needs their priorities in any range of things we fund I know that you could probably under infrastructure you could probably include Transportation parks and all but I I hope that the way it's framed doesn't in any way restrict comments that people may have about the budget that it provides a broad ranging way for people to engage and that we can then get that input as we're working on the budget so that's just my advice to the contractors and Miss thank you thank you council member Kopac anyone else all right that matter is discharge I'll you back to the mayor thank you colleagu if I need to make a change in the agenda order I need to move presentation up uh the presentation for uh the convention center we need to get these folks out of here to get their flight so um I see we pulled a lot of items and that would probably have us about an hour in so I'm going to um director Pro Gina um and while you're getting ready I

I'm on a mission to shake the hands of everyone that works for the city of Durham and I just went to VIs visit uh General services and they laid out the red carpet it was really cool really fun um and it is just really eye opening how much the city actually does and um your department General Services is literal generally and literally do everything so um thank you all and thanks for the entire team out there so good afternoon mayor Williams mayor protim members of council Gina propes General Services Department director and we were glad to have the mayor and welcome anyone else that like to come to11 fa Street and visit us as well as our two public cemeteries so with that um we are here today to share out more detail and findings of the Duram convention center and headquarter Hotel market and financial feasibility study here today we have our technical consultants Hunden Partners Rob Hunden and Sean gusterson

Susan Amy with discover Durham Becky Bolton is our general manager with Oak grou VI for the Durham Convention Center and also um um Joyce Spate is the chair of the Durham commission Center Authority board she's here as well our team will walk you through the technical findings of the study this um feasibility opportunities financials and economic impacts related to the future visioning of the convention center as a refresher you'll recall that um city council um requested and funded this this study in um fiscal year 24 and is a way to um accomplish this study the city the city entered into an interlocal agreement with discover Durham to manage the deeper analysis uh with the regard to the future of the convention center um in coordination with discover DM's 20-year look ahead Additionally the Durham Convention Center Authority board had previously identified a need for a feasibility envisioning study at our March 2024 City Council budget session General Services

presented a very highlevel summary of the study for informational purposes as Council was exploring a future Bond referendum um I'd like to invite Susan Amy for discovered Durham to provide a few comments on the interplay of the convention center study with a broader vision of discover durm 20-year destination plan and then we'll dive into the details with Hunden Partners thank you Gina good afternoon mayor mayor protm city council members and staff I'm Susan Amy president and CEO of discover Durham uh probably comes as no surprise to you that the Durham Convention and visitors bureau is supportive of taking the next step on this project in fact if we weren't at the table I would expect that would raise some questions for you a new convention center and hotel complex like the one that you'll hear outlined in today's presentation can generate billions of net new spending in Durham over its lifetime and support over a thousand new jobs each year and it was one of the top recommendations of the destination master plan as a generator

of economic impact but to put this in terms that hit home for all of us this kind of investment in our future is an investment in our downtown core in the locally owned businesses that have defined the vibrancy of downtown over the past 15 years and require that we work to sustain a supportive and growing business climate short and longterm for them to survive and thrive or we can look at this through a different lens what if we don't invest in having the facilities that will host major events conferences conventions meetings and sporting events without rethinking our current offering will only grow less competitive over time while Meeting Planners turn their attention to larger more contemporary and glamorous facilities and other communities as a community we're not at a point of deciding whether and where to build a convention center and hotel that's not why we're here today what its design requirements are how much to spend and how we'll pay for it the next phase of this process will generate the answers to those questions and should

result in a refined vision for what the facility will include along with a more specific proposal and a recommendation for proceeding so this next phase of this work is exactly what Durham next the newly formed nonprofit discovered Durham has launched was created to do so I'm here to raise our hand on behalf of Durham next to work with the city's General services department and with the county on the next phase of the analysis the only caveat right now is that you'll recall the redistribution of occupancy tax doesn't begin until next summer and we're all eager to begin this work as soon as feasible so therefore the Avenue that we'd like to take at this time is to after this presentation is to begin to research the costs that would be associated with the next phase and then from that we can return and have a discussion about whether Durham next has the financial capacity to step into this work in fy2 based on the startup funding we've been able to raise from other sources

or whether moving forward would also require other sources of funding we look forward to working alongside our partners in the city and uh with the county to develop an exciting plan for how the project will unfold so now I'll turn it over to hunting Partners good afternoon mayor and Council um first thank you so much um for um moving the agenda item up really appreciate that my name is Rob Hunden CEO of hund Partners I have our project manager Sean guson with me today and it's been a pleasure to work with Susan and Gina and Becky over the last um while now uh as we've been going through this process and of course we helped with the destination development plan as well um today I'm just going to really set the stage and let Sean sort of do the the blocking and tackling and I'll be more color commentary but I have to say um I've been I've been a professional for 30 years and I've been working on the Durham Convention Center for 20 years so it's kind of a bit of one of my babies around the country and so I I like to see how it's doing take

3 million operating net loss uh to in the black in this most

recent year of several $100,000 and so you know those things are going well this this business is performing for you but you are outmoded outdated and in a a small building relative to who you are as a destination um Durham has grown up all around this and your downtown is much more thriving than it ever was and that's the number one thing that people look for in a destination when they're deciding where to have an event is the destination appeal and when we kicked off this study it was on a Monday and every ven in town had an event going on on a Monday night it was impossible to get a place at a restaurant so that's the kind of place that people love to go to visit and have their convention conference and you're so unique and authentic as a destination the fact that you have this asset is great the challenge is is that it's uh physically hamstrung in the center of town in terms of what it can do to um expand and so as you'll see what Sean will take you through that you know this is a you know

we we've come full circle postco the industry is a a strong and thriving industry you're losing business and the opportunities to expand where you are are are tough um and so we're going to show you a couple of options and if you got to expand in a way that fit the market opportunity and not the physical constraints of your site you're going to be much better off so I'm going to turn it over to Sean have them take you through the the the the nuts and bolts of it and then I'll pop in for some color commentary here and there so Sean take it away thank you Rob and thank you for the opportunity to present on uh this important project um just kind of an overview of Rob spoke to but really we wanted to focus on what business Durham was losing out on and what the the market opportunity really is um for advancing this project for an expansion or new Convention Center along with a headquarter Hotel I just wanted to start off with our SWAT analysis of the project uh as Rob mentioned and as you know a very

strong growing Market with those strong demographics um and with the strong private Management on our ovg has really led to that rebound and facility revenues and and actually resulting in a profit for the facility which is very rare for convention facilities around the country um the convention center also generates one of the highest levels of uh long-distance visitation which really helps drive those room nights uh for the City downtown and also for groups looking to choose their destination having that strong walkable effing food and beverage and entertainment amenities walkable uh for those groups and events looking for a place to uh host their event uh some weaknesses um really the the big story is just having that lack of exhibit space um at a Convention Center um and limited breakout spaces which has led to a a significant amount of loss business um for Durham and also just having a lack of available room block that are needed for these larger groups um uh given the hotel Supply currently downtown uh some opportunities for the project um through an expansion or a new build having that new exhibit space

offering uh would provide that additional breakout space to increase that diversity and event types and having to expand a new facility along with that headquarter Hotel would lead to more fense more events and impacts uh for the city uh some threats for the project obviously uh looking at Raleigh and other competitors continue with expansion plans which puts uh the Durham Convention Center further behind in the market um and also looking at uh new new build uh has yet to identify a site for the project um and then also of course increased construction costs interest rates uh making funding more of a challenge for the project overall uh just for uh some context um just looking downtown there's a total of 576 rooms over five hotels walkable to the convention center um the marot 190 rooms really isn't significant enough to provide those room blocks uh to host larger events when groups are looking to host their attendees within uh one or two hotels um we looked at uh first a potential expansion on the current site

of the convention center uh we worked with our Arc partner convergence designed to come up with these uh uh Concepts on the site as well as cost estimates um you can see just from uh this site concept here shows the potential of of adding 11,000 ft a meeting space meeting rooms but that would take up existing Plaza space and then potentially to the east of the Armory shows the location of a potential 30,000 square ft of exhibit space um just this project alone just the smaller expansion uh is estimated to cost uh 93 million uh doesn't really uh get you to the the needed function space uh to be more competitive with regional convention facilities um and we also looked at what's the potential if there's a a complete rebuild of the vention Center and the Marriott hotel but uh the site constraints really just does not allow um to develop what is recommended to make uh the Duram Convention Center more competitive so we also looked at the potential of a new build um this just

shows a sight agnostic layout of the facility since the site hasn't uh been identified um in this layout we're looking at uh two floors uh 990,000 squet of exhibit space on the first floor along with some meeting rooms and then an additional 32,000 ft Grand Ballroom Junior ballroom and uh remaining meeting rooms which total 48,000 ft and then we also recommended along with that is the 500 key headquarter hotel with its own uh function space that could host its own events uh from a cost standpoint uh the convention center uh for a new build is uh estimated approximately 315 million and for the headquarter Hotel 225 million for a total cost of 540 million uh not including any cost of site acquisition um we also want to just walk through how we arrived at those recommendations uh for the convention center um looking at these graphs right here they just show the total attendance and Peak rooms that were required for events held in the state from 2019 to 23 85% of these

events had uh less than 2,000 in attendance uh that proposed Grand Ballroom that we just showed on the last slide would be able to accommodate those groups uh and also from a room Knight standpoint 82% needed uh less than 500 Peak rooms uh combined with your existing hotels downtown and and this recommendation would get those walk B hotels to over a thousand which would be able to provide those room blocks needed for those larger events and then we also wanted to take a deeper look at lost business um from the reports provided by discovered Durham out of 2019 a 24 reported lost business events 78% again had that less than 2,000 and estimated attendance threshold and large majority had required that less than 500 Peak rooms um you can see here just from those events alone 67,000 total room nights lost and 27 million in economic impacts were lost but this is just really the start of the story um when it comes to Lost business this is just not what it's reported but given uh

limitations on the durm convention center with its facility size um they're Miss they're missing out on a lot more business um that are not be able to be attracted to based on those size constraints uh one of the most striking things for analysis and I think uh you have all seen this before uh is just comparing Durham to the rest of the State uh convention centers you can see Durham on the right in green is where it sits currently as far as function space um obviously looking there it's the lowest among all these facilities um but looking at the looking at the yellow there right there just that that's the potential expansion doesn't really uh move the needle for Durham as as far as being more rightly sized to these other facilities uh but when you get to the red area shown on the right uh really puts Durham in a much stronger position uh puts the facility from a function standpoint function space standpoint above other state facilities with the exception of Charlotte and Raleigh and then just going more into the detail of the of these identified competitors uh and then comparing that

to what we're proposing from a new build standpoint really would get Derm to the amount of exhibit space uh that's comparable to the other facilities but actually lifts them amount of ballroom and meeting room space um compared to these facilities there has been a trend in groups really Desiring more flexible spaces uh from a ballroom and and breakout standpoint uh so this would be able to be achieved through this program and then also looking at the with the recommendation of the headquarter Hotel um with that new walkable Supply uh would get uh Durham to the same metric of walkable hotel rooms at Charlotte and actually put uh Durham ahead of Raleigh even with the proposed 5 50 room Omni Hotel I'll pass talk through this thanks Sean so one of the things that we wanted to uh show was um so so headquarter hotels are absolutely critical uh they're they're one of the key legs of the stool of being successful in the convention and Conference business and trade shows and all the other things that can be hosted there you got to have

those room blocks and so um it's it's tough to get there because those headquarter hotels around the country probably um more than 50 have been built bu over the last 30 years they are super tankers they need um ballrooms meeting rooms restaurants Spas all the other things and they're often very Leisure oriented as well as group oriented but that also makes them very expensive and so there's usually a public participation between 35 and 50% of the cost of those to get those um induced by the private sector and so that's been happening all around the country for many years and one is recommended and would be really required for to be success successful here and so one of the things that we did after working in another Market recently is we had some questions from hotel years that said hey can we know the convention hotel is going to help the convention center what's it going to do for the other hotels and so I think it's a very important question right so we looked at um markets where their headb a headquarter Hotel developed and not and

we showed the the pre and post um performance of the hotels right around that same Hotel and Convention Center as well as those in the sort of what we would call the secondary set and The Big Picture answer is is that actually the rising tide lifted both sets of boats um the occupancy and rate and revar over the years um post opening of the headquarters Hotel were actually higher for the primary set of hotels and even higher for the secondary set of hotels uh the secondary set of hotels don't often have to participate in those lower cost room blocks and so they can kind of compress rates when there's a big Convent in town and so the the the short answer is headquarter hotels alongside well conceived convention centers and we have recommended a well-conceived one if we can find a great spot for it uh will actually raise the tide and the profitability of the other hotels around them so I think that's a very important point to get to and so um I don't know if we want to go back to you Sean here

great thanks Rob um as part of our um our study we wanted to put together projections on on what these different scenarios look looked like um from an operating and performance standpoint so we looked at the current facility if nothing was changed or just maybe an interior renovation uh the expansion scenario and then uh the new build scenario uh you can see just at the bottom just from an attendance standpoint with the expansion doesn't really make a significant lift would with that a new exhibit space would enable the facility to host different types of events uh but given U the small amounts of additional space really doesn't make a a significant difference uh but when you get to the new build on on just having the that increase in function space and that flexibility in divisions uh provides that opportunity uh to increase uh those events and visitation and related impacts uh to the city and then looking at the quick are those people the numbers yep yeah event tenants yes okay attendees

y uh we put together projections uh for these three scenarios as well um currently uh the convention center is actually as Rob mentioned has has not produced a profit um compared to uh some small operating losses historically at rebounding from the pandemic which showing the the strength of the convention center even at small size punching above its weight um you can see from here we wanted to be conservative from an operating standpoint and and as is common in almost all convention centers uh do produce some some sort of operating loss um so we show here uh some potential subsidy that would be needed from an operating standpoint uh but given obg's history on the building wouldn't be surprised if that didn't happen uh looking at cost and impacts um though the facility doesn't necessarily operate a profit that can help fund the facility really um the trade-off is the economic impacts uh that it generates uh just looking at the the current and expansion scenario that lack or uh lack of space or limited increase in space really minimizes that potential for new

impacts from a spending stand Point offsite in the community um as well as uh onsite and uh room night impacts uh you can see on the right just that the new build um significant lift and and projected annual new room nights of approximately 78,000 new room nights per year at stabilization and we also made projections for the headquarter hotel and and like Rob men Rob mentioned wanted to see what that potential impact was on other hotels in Durham um at from at stabilization the OCC Can See For Those local hotels um our projected actually increase above historical levels as well as have a significant lift in uh their average daily rates uh the headquarter hotel is actually projected to operate at a 33% operating margin uh which leads to a financing gap of approximately 101 million or 45% of the estimated costs uh develop which is in line uh with what other head coder hotels have required from a publicly public subsidy standpoint um over the past few

4 million over this period and approximately 82 million in property taxes from the hotel uh which is equals about 101 million which uh is basically about the same amount as the headquarter

Hotel Finance Gap uh which could be used to help fund that from a public standpoint also from a construction standpoint uh would create a significant amount of temporary jobs estimated at 4,300 uh in the in the entire Market uh as well as generate additional sales taxes from that project um just kind of as a summary of the things that we found uh and leading to our recommendation for the new build um the current facilities is already up performing compared uh compared to other facilities of its size and just has limited availability to expand on its current event load um the expansion itself does has has that addition of exhibit and breakout space but doesn't provide what is needed to really make it competitive in the market uh versus the new build scenario would Elevate the Durham and the convention center as a more competitive venue um from a regional perspective also again the new build would allow for that potential lift in uh downtown and other hotels and the hotel taxes generated would be able

to help pay for that funding gap for the headquarter hotel which does leave uh a funding plan that would need to be developed for the convention center itself uh which I'll pass to Rob to talk about our recommended next steps for the project thank you thanks Sean yeah so in terms of next steps um the big the big um the big X Factor in all of these kinds of projects as you know is leadership um it's been great um to see the leadership that um discover Durham has um provided over the last couple of years in really um taking the bull by the horns um no pun intended uh to to really get their arms around the destination and start uh taking proactive steps to help find funding sources for the different um assets that um have been recommended um but it also takes leadership from electeds and others in the Civic um Square to really get these projects over over the hump so um that's that's the thing we cannot

control it's like us pushing on a string so you're the ones that can pull this over the finish line but in terms of next steps there are plenty that need to happen so right this is a concept now what we stated is you know this kind of thing is a big deal it does need a a new site in order to be optimized this new convention centers have been um constructed before in fact the most popular one in the country right now is the Nashville Convention Center in Nashville Tennessee and uh they had one right in the center of their town like you do now and it was constrained and they could not find a way to expand it and so they built a new one on the south side of downtown and ever since then everybody's been going to Nashville probably you have to for a very variety of conferences and their hotel room rates are out of control um so it's good for them uh tough for the visitor but uh but it's it's been great for Nashville so that's a recent example of a new build convention center but in terms of next steps obviously this a site is an issue um more detailed drawings and budgets and those kinds of things and

then really I call it sausage making it's the business planning of how how would this be um funded and again there are a lot of different funding tools and mechanisms that have been used around the country each State's legislature kind of H gives you uh some or um some more than others different tools in the toolbox to uh move projects like this forward so all of those things uh need a little bit of management and so we've you know put some ideas in front of uh folks here uh for those next steps and happy to discuss it another time and I know there's no formal action today but happy to answer questions about the study and next steps or anything else that you want to talk about in the remaining minutes so we're all set well thank you so much it's great to get this this uh this data this presentation it was something I've been pretty laser vision on um I am going to pass it off to my colleagues first for questions or

comments and I saw a council member C type it away so I'm G to go to her first always yeah always um hi thanks for being with us today I know that you just said that the funding part was a Next Step which of course is like all of my questions that I have so feel free to cut me off at any time um and and roll that down down the line but I was interested um in there was some comment I'm not sure if it was your your call colleague that talked about that citizen buyin for some of these projects needs to be around something like 50% and then private sector is able to generally like supplement the rest was that did I hear that correctly yes so I'm I'm not sure I would use citizen buying but if that's what you're saying is a public subsidy um if that's what you mean by that that's what we were that's what we stated so historically around the country when a headquarters hotel has been developed um between a third and half of the the cost of that headquarters Hotel would have been um

funded by the public sector now most of those um what you would call subsidies or incentives um can be generated by the hotel itself they generate property tax they generate sales tax they generate income tax and all of that so if there's a mechanism uh to recapture all of those taxes on site then in most cases that has been enough to fund that Gap over you know a 25 year period of bonds and and all those kinds of things and so there's lots of different ways that uh to skin that cat that have been done in some places and several dozen in fact um they have not been able to get a a a deal with a private uh sector uh to do it um in a sort of 5050 way or a 3070 way and so in some places the public sector has actually gotten into the business of um is you know creating a public corporation and developing the Hotel themselves that is always a last

you know uh option that we never want to recommend because it is fraught with a lot of other issues that come along with it but some cities have done that uh most of them successfully uh but um but yeah so typically yeah that 35 to 50% uh upfront uh subsidy get thatt going but again it does pay off over time and so that's the the larger the larger issue right um could you go back just a couple of slides and you had the tax oh that that maybe that's the one yep yeah I mean I think that my my concern when I'm listening to this my biggest concern is that is that exact thing that you were just talking about the recapture because a lot of this it seems like is going to be going towards our occupancy tax which we are not going to be able to recapture um just because we've just changed the law around that um and so that's I think what I'm what I'm sort of grappling with is we have a very strict tax code here

we when we raise our taxes whether it be through bonds or other other things we have to do it equally across all groups and we already have folks that are hurting in that regard and so it feels scary to think about having folks Buy in and I understand that it's spread over time and I understand that the buying happens over years of paying back and as as templ it intergenerational payback but um I think that when I'm looking at this and I'm seeing that hotel tax being half of the income there I'm concerned about the ability to recapture and and so that the burden on the citizens I think is my concern sure what I'll say is in most places uh that are funding visitor amenities whether it's Arenas or convention centers or any any of the things that we tend to work on it is almost never a general fund uh Bond or expenditure or or anything like that and

that is not something that we would ever call for we're not in the business of recommending necessarily the the funding plans but but just assessing the tools you have in your toolbox and then figuring out what's the way that you can match the uh benefits with the costs and so in most cases and places um it's the you're trying to really tax the visitors that are coming uh to get that money back so whether that's auto rental taxes Hotel taxes sales taxes in that zone um so that it is targeted and it's basically a visitor tax that's going to pay for amenities that benefit the community but are mostly paid for by visitors so that that's usually the goal from a policy perspective so that you can rationalize the investment and it's not through general you know bonds or funds or anything like that and I just want add one note to that um just to clarify these taxes are are net new so current commitments um of of hotel tax would not be impacted these

are additional taxes above that so hopefully that helps clarify that point those are all my questions yeah thank you for the presentation um just really quickly when you all set up these things um are there kind of community benefit agreements that can be laid out um specifically around wages paid to the folks in those buildings yeah I mean that's every jurisdiction is different but um yeah Community benefit Agreements are are often uh utilized whether it's a Convention Center or a sports facility or an entertainment facility or a hotel um th that is that is your I mean it's your jurisdiction so um that's just often part and parcel of what gets uh negotiated into those deals so we could in theory tie wages in that building any wage to like our living wage ordinance because in north in North Carolina we're very limited locally we can't do a local ordinance around um pay and so um that

that's one of the questions especially if it's publicly held land would we be able to do that yeah I that's not something I should probably comment on however and I know that when you know it might be something that Becky could not to force you to to answer this question either but you have a private management company of the building right now and so uh the employees are their employees even though it's a city county 50/50 ownership situation so I can't really speak to that but um currently they are obg's employees and not public employees yeah that's why I'm raising it because we've run into this problem with the convention center deac the ballpark and so our city employees um make lots more money than folks who are working at facilities that were only able to be built because of that Collective public dollar and so I just want to make sure we don't make the same mistake moving forward we pay 1958 as a minimum and that's how expensive it is to live here and I have been in southern states at conventions including in St Louis that were Union building so even within the

south in uh right to work states they are able to work it out and so I just want to say I mean Susan and I have had this conversation in depth I'm very Pro a Convention Center I understand what it could do around sales tax in particular um we know we our our tools are very limited in North Carolina it's kind of sales and property tax and and the sales tax is something I'm keen on on increasing um but I also want to ensure that the folks who are in those in those jobs are are making good wages and are not being you know traditionally we know that a lot of service type jobs they don't make the best wages and so um I want to I I don't want to handicap us thank you understood and yeah so essentially that's a policy decision there are many privately operated convention Cent ERS in um you know heavy Union cities and things like that where we are Chicago the largest in the country Detroit Philadelphia so privately run convention centers have operated in buildings that have very uh strong worker protections and all of

those kinds of things and so it becomes a negotiation and really then it uh does impact the bottom line of the the venue and so then as long as you know sort of those costs and benefits then you're that's a policy decision yeah just from a policy standpoint it actually doesn't because it means that we are not having to create services and continue to subsidize uh residents because they're actually earning higher wages and they can um withstand the cost of living so to your point Nashville is incredible it's also been gentrified I mean we're having the same problem in Durham it it's it's basically another Las Vegas and so um at this point you know I think much to the shagrin of of longtime National residence um and so I just want to share that very publicly here uh I sit on the discovered Duram board uh I'm in this space I'm on the cultural road map I sit on the Decap I get this pretty deeply and I just want to share with my colleagues like yeah yes but with their own values thank you thank

you just wanted to dig in a little bit more on um the way that uh the construction is is subsidized and paid for um I know that you responded a little bit to council member cook on on that issue but I wonder if you could just elaborate a little bit more if you're a Ware of maybe some convention centers specifically North Carolina if not North Carolina some other places and exactly what we might expect in terms of how you would anticipate this getting paid for um you mentioned I think you wouldn't anticipate Major General obligation bonds is that I understand that correctly what what would be the most common methods of paying for a $300 million Convention Center yeah and again this is something something that is a Next Step so anything I'm saying here is very prospective because we haven't been engaged to dig into that but historically uh these are revenue bonds tied to uh what we call Hot taxes Hotel

taxes and other visitor oriented or District taxes if there's a special district setup around um I will say that North Carolina makes it um doesn't make it more difficult but there are fewer tools in the toolbox in North Carolina for uh Creative Real Estate Finance than there are in other states and it's something that uh Susan and I have talked about quite a bit is educating legislators um because it would benefit you all and Charlotte and Raleigh and all the others um if you had some of these what we call supertip districts that allow for a recapture of multiple state and local taxes for a specific hero project that then has a halo effect around it um and so that may be part of the business planning or sausage making that needs to happen is to actually help create new tools to uh allow for that so that it is not something that is part of the the the the general fund at all it it absolutely I mean I don't know a

project that has been one of those um probably in 30 years so um yeah that that would be the task is to figure that out and to the extent that you don't have the tools to do it we got to go create them yeah I agree actually um Convention Center or not I do think this issue around Tiff and Tiff legislation at the state level has hindered our ability and other local government's abilities to um be able to do major construction projects um and now that we're Contracting with um folks who can Lobby on our behalf I I think that'd be an opportunity for us to explore hi and other types of sort of geographically focused um funding mechanisms for construction projects yeah and we're happy to provide some education on what other states have done in that regard um Indiana's one Virginia's one um that literally you know six seven eight nine different city

county and state taxes can be recaptured in certain districts that qualify with certain types of defined projects and so they're able to do these really killer projects I just want to say to council member B when it's time for because we'll be in a long session with the general assembly so when the legislative um legislative committee meets you know there is a call to all council members to send their items so please send that thank you let me come over here um council member rist is Mayor um thank you for the presentation love the the excitement of the energy around this um just to clarify so as I understand from the presentation so what you're saying is the the the finan ing gap for the headquarters Hotel would be about $100 million and then you're saying on this slide here you're saying that the the if you combine the city portion of the county hotel tax and then the property tax on the headquarters hotel that's roughly gonna essentially pay for that Gap um I wouldn't I wouldn't tie the two

directly together because the way we look at the impact analysis is what we would consider net new to the community uh not gross on site right so the gross on site taxes that would be generated by the hotel are different than the net new um taxes that would be generated by the hotel and and the convention center so from an economics perspective just go with me on that that they're two different concepts so um should we move into the next step of investigating options we would start to dig into okay what on-site taxes does the hotel generate in all its forms and Fashions and how could those be sort of you know C circulated back into the project Finance so I wouldn't necessar tie these directly together uh because one is a conceptual net new and the the way we would want to do it would be actual gross onsite taxes that could be recaptured by the project so so is this the on this screen is is that the net new or is that the gross onsite the net new and Sean correct me if I'm wrong net this is um on the right is all the net

New Concept including that the taxes correct and the grow on site is sort of separate sort of like larger concept yeah it's actually easier to understand because it's like you build this thing and it generates these taxes right whereas here we're saying you build this thing and some of that's recaptured some's recirculated in the economy you know they call that cannibalization whatever so there the one on the right is more that conceptual Economist idea yeah yeah of like the Delta right right so then so to get these numbers here tell me like what kind of like how did you get these numbers what kind of model are you running this I'm sure this is not a spreadsheet but it's probably oh it's an incredible spreadsheet it's it's an insane model uh so happy to share all that detail I it a lot of it is in the larger report that you may or may not have um so but happy to walk you through that but we use the you know the the most important thing to understand like an input output kind of model or yes it it's so it's we use the impl multipliers

yeah for the indirect and induced multipliers so for every direct net new dollar that is spent then there are you know secondary and effects and so people can think what they want of those but the most important thing for us is we're very conservative so most other people that would do this would show you much bigger numbers and want to blow you away with that we're very conservative on the The Daily spend and the overnight spend assumptions um the destinations um International industry has much higher multipliers so um so we're trying to be conservative uh but there's still very compelling numbers um but that's that's how we get there is there's a uh for every new Day Tripper and every do o new overnighter we have the spending broken down into lodging retail restaurant transportation and other those five categories there's a daily spend and an overnight spend per person that's net new to Durham city of Durham um and so then that then flows through the um the

model with the multipliers to get those secondary and tertiary indirect and induced thank you appreciate that yep M number Freeman thank you Mr Mar thank you colleagues a great conversation thank you for this presentation I fully expect to be attending this uh ribbon cutting as a private citizen so I look forward to it sounds good but there are there yeah really but there while I'm in the chair now I I do want to think about some strategic decisions we can make now and I'll put a pin right there I want to say it's a it's a really surreal experience as I travel around the state sitting listening to people gush about durm while we're sitting in a facility at an event that Durham could not handle uhuh but yet they're huge fans D and they're just going on and on about how great and I'm saying yeah yeah yeah and I'm looking around the room like so so so our capacity meeting our appeal I

think is it's absolutely critical that we we um I'm want to use the word exploit but but fully uh uh fully explore all of the implications of who we are as a city of now and looking to the Future so with that I I do want to ask and I appreciate the market feasibility study but I the the real estate market is not it it it's Dynamic right it's not static so I'm wondering and you've done I think I read a thousand studies in 28 years your your firm has done at this stage would you have you advised other cities or should we should we be looking for a piece of land to lock down now even as we're talking about financing even as we're talking about the other stuff do we need to be shopping around and and tying something up uh and sit on it uh if we're talking about a new build have you advised folk at this stage or or or talk to me about what what we can be doing now in terms of real estate 100% And I would advise that to be done quietly and executive session um because otherwise you're you

know just going to bid up the price of the land you're trying to by but um uh yes that in in in my view when you're in especially in a city that's going places which you have been for a long time I think there should always be an entity who is thinking about land assembly or major um publicly important um campuses that you have and the convention campus is one of those and there are other campuses U hospitals do it universities do it all the time they're always thinking about well what's our next thing what's our next thing so as you do think about that and yes we recommend that's part of the next steps is assessing those things um think Beyond even this development to well what happens in the 30 years after that are we going to be hamstrung again or oftentimes what we'll do is there's maybe a room for a surface parking lot in what we would assemble today that then in the future could go away and be structured parking and then be an expansion of the facility over the you

know the the surface parking so those are ways that you can smartly use land assembly uh to uh to you know future proof a little bit for at least the next 60 or 70 years does does the attractiveness of the of this undertaking is there a diminishing effect on it the further we get away from the downtown footprint other words if we have to walkability is key yeah yeah and and so you have to be really that's the other really key part of these next planning stages is to make sure I mean talking about these massive buildings and so the very thing that you're trying to do for your community which is induce people to enjoy your community you don't want to build something that ends up being a wall or a blockade or a super block that diminishes your walkability and excitement and activity of The Pedestrian experience so you already have some other challenges around that so why you you just have to be really smart and careful but yeah walkability

for most people uh is about 1,800 linear feet from wherever they are and that's in decent weather um so we have to be you know Savvy about how we do this so probably limits your options a little bit but again you also have a very sort of linear um Urban experience in Durham that might allow you a couple three options I haven't looked at them um but um there's walkability along quite a stretch uh because you're not like a circle that goes out like this you're more of a sort of an oval so um you know I think uh walkability um again that 1,00 ft is critical you want people to be able to spill out into hotels restaurants bars entertainment um so the closer you can do that the better gotcha all right well thank you so much for the report it's really great reading and I'm excited about the future prospects great thank you Mr Mayor thank you well I think it's

no secret I've been looking for this presentation for a long time um and I I to me it's um it's pretty black and white I think that you know council member Baker you hit it you hit the nail on the head um and I'm grateful that we now have some lobbyists to help us with this um we are our hands are tied you know as far as the tools in the toolbox um being limited but we do have tools yep and I think think that you know this I think the data speaks clearly enough for us to you know have leverage here um I so council member uh cook mentioned about the when you were talking about the the Reclamation of the taxes so I wanted to address that I wanted to sort of dig deeper into that uh and uh talk about the the public good here as well so uh I don't know if you want to address that or uh Susan am

would like to talk about that I mean you guys are I mean we're working with you all as a quasi governmental agency or something like that yeah so so could you could you speak to why Duram NEX is existing and and why we needed to free up um those funds going back into the general fund versus asset and amenity building for the public yeah certainly the the concept behind what we have come to you all and what you all were so generous and supporting for us that allowed for legislation to pass uh this summer is to allow Durham to take a portion of the taxes the occupancy taxes in this case uh that are intended by state legislature to be used for building on the visitor economy to turn those back into how can we make more Investments That bring in even more taxes how do we expand uh the health of the business community and we liken it to to setting

aside this um really small portion of taxes for Durham and us being as a as a group as a community being able to use those to invest in these future kinds of ideas because when we're as a community we're faced with some very real and hard problems and issues that we need to solve on a daily basis but we also need to be leveraging some of this to Envision the future so that we're not you know a Convention Center takes I understand like 12 years to build from the time you get it started is something like that it can from from the design standpoint um hopefully sooner here yes yes exactly um but but you need Runway and that's why we need to be taking the funds that are available now to be thinking about and beginning the investment in some of these long-term pieces does that get at what you were thinking about because we can also go into how this supports the small business community in Durham which I know is so for the layman terms um is it accurate to say you know durm

NEX is the project manager on this right and does this is up and going the occupancy taxes directed to you know that that nonprofit um you have more agility and the city does like the city will have to put it in a CIP and put it in rotation you all have the agility to not only re react faster but you also have the ability to you know seek matching funds quicker yes is that accurate yes we are a government organization I know that's not always understood we are government organization and so we do operate within those standards but we do also have the flexibility to your point to move more quickly and that's part of the idea of creating Durham next uh is to allow us as a community to be able to have one organization focused on these projects so that we can move them forward as a nonprofit We also are looking to the private sector to be able to partner

with us and offering opportunity through uh the nonprofit mechanism for people to make donations into the work that we want to do um in a way that would be tax deductible so uh we believe that we what we've created here is a vehicle that allows drum to be more Nimble and more proactive in putting these things in place just more like me potatoes can you say who is involved with Derm next and who exactly is on the board because I think that might help I think when we're thinking about organizations spurring off even though it is part of this like you're saying you're governmental there are accountability Partners involved and it's nice to know name right well I can tell you some of that as you know that the legislation got passed in June June 27th to be exact and so we have been frantically working to get everything in place place as quickly as we can um so not all of the pieces are in place right

now Durham NEX is a 501c3 it's been registered that will be operated by discover Durham it's following essentially the same model that we set up for the Durham Sports commission also a nonprofit operated by discover Durham and the value in that kind of relationship is that discovered Durham has the opportunity to provide the support the funding the operational expertise and the marketing support which allows the funds that can be used for the mission of those two nonprofits to be spent specifically on the work of those nonprofits so we believe that it is a great model that takes stretches our dollars as quick as far as we can like the sports commission the dur Durham next will have its own board of directors and we want that board of directors to be something separate from discover Durham that can work with the community through an advisory Council to to develop and collect input from the community that would feed into the um definition of these projects and ensure

that it meets the needs of all the populations all the residents all the community all the neighborhoods and groups in in Durham um for the benefit of the community so um we're trying to work to be really careful in structuring this in a way that it balances being able to create the economic impact that we're talking about and also create tremendous benefits for the residents so to your point about who's on the who's on the board of directors um we have a little over half of it probably recruited and we haven't announced those yet I will say that fad Ali who I'm sure everybody here is familiar with um has agreed to be the chair of the board and is very excited about some of the work that needs to happen here um Jeff Durham as CEO of the chamber Nicole Thompson as CEO of downtown Durham Inc are part of it as well um and they're probably U um County manager soel is representing the county um uh city manager Paige and I have talked about with her pending

retirement um what that representation from the city might look like so those are some of the key players on the board if that's helpful for right now and we'll be sharing the rest of the list as we get them recruited so this is something I feel like we keep sort of talking about but not maybe defining can and I want to say this is not specific to durm next because I think that the advantages of durm we've talked about this and in your presentation when you came before Council I don't know maybe it's been about six months now um there were a lot of projects on that development plan and and a lot of them in my mind are more impactful for local residents a Convention Center does not feel to serve local residents I understand the issue of accumulating more sales tax but then it's like it has to then get passed along to the residents it's a very attenuated um process right as opposed

to something like we talked about um I think there was a performance center and then there were uh sport fields and some other things where like Not only would this gain revenue but also people here would utilize that um and so I'm just wondering if we can talk about those benefits and be more specific about what the public would gain from a Convention Center certainly there's a few different ways I can think of to to address your question one is that uh there were more than 60 different initiatives that are part of the plan and one of the reasons for wanting to have a separate board is to make sure we have uh the the properly uh constructed group to Define what the priorities are obviously we can't work on 60 initiatives at one time and so the question is what's our run rate capacity are we've got about six projects that we are uh even though we aren't staffed yet and aren't fully operational as an nonprofit um we've got about six different projects that we are um in the

in this kind of discussion phase of how would this get done and who needs to be at the table and how would it be organized um I would say and this would be interest I don't know if if Becky has an answer to this um the there is a perception that a Convention Center solely serves visitors and I think especially in Durham there's a lot of business done in that is um related to Durham residence um where it's Durham residence or within the immediate um people living within the immediate vicinity that are benefited by it but you're right that certainly the purpose the driving Factor behind a Convention Center is its ability to track attract new people into the city uh the sports facility and some of the other projects that we are actively working on as well are things that I would say are more specifically focused on Resident benefit I can I oh go ahead sorry I was just going to say I have I and I have a different understanding I I think it

does uh benefit local because I we have hotels in Durham you know and they are for visitors um but the taxes that they generate are for me as a resident U so I think that I I get what I hear what you're saying council member cook I I have a different perspective of it um I think that you know there are some things that are here that we do have a um a direct you know benefit or return on investment that not even a return on investment a direct purpose for folks right here in the dur community and then there are assets and amenities that we have that generate resources that we benefit from here um we're City that's part of what cities do you know um you you have amenities and you have assets that generate resources from people who don't live here uh so therefore the property tax isn't the only method of uh Revenue that we generate um and right now it appears we are punching um we we're just

not meeting we're not fulfilling our potential when it comes to our sales tax um and a good example of what is here locally that's for locals and visitors is South Point mall where I believe N9 or 11 million dollar came in sales tax uh and we're able to utilize that in other areas other projects I can only imagine if we had a thriving Convention Center here meeting space we bringing all of these folks here they're spending all of their money and they're getting up and they're leaving and the economic impact from that will benefit us here locally um come drop it and leave um that so so I I look at it holistically and I think that you know we have to look at the diverse ways in which locals endur and benefit from uh from from these these Investments um I think also the other is you know we we we have we do have to have foresight and we uh you know Paris just had the Olympics um they found out that they

were going to get the Olympics years ago we have the world University games coming and it's going to use every Athletic Facility in every meeting space between Raleigh and Greensboro Winston Salem from the triangle to the Triad and we are very underwhelming when it comes to facility of we're just not ready you know so I think this is also an opportunity to you know tap in with our state and federal leaders to assist with trying to fund this project the other thing that's not considered here is the private sector and how that potential investment is there I think it's time for us to start reimagining existing infrastructure and be really Innovative and creative in how we are building our downtown uh as a nucleus economically to support the rest of the city um um yeah and and also just you know just speaking to other um and again I'm grateful that we have lobbyist now uh to help us through this but looking at the

demand you know uh one thing that Durham tends to do well is we tend to recreate the will over and over and over um conversations that I've had now is bringing all of those all of those Wills under one axle uh nccu is desperately trying to get a convocation center if we had this they don't necessarily have to do that we can go in as a partner all of the high schools are relying on Duke University for their uh their graduations I mean their their schedule in the gymnasium Camden um for their graduations we have several high schools in the city in this County um if we had if we had this facility then we could have all of that on the One Roof uh and so on and so forth they they're just so much opportunity here and I just look I think there's a great opportunity for us so I'm grateful for it like Miss Mary yeah indeed lots of opportunity I guess my question the final question um is back to the projections see we didn't spend a lot of time on the expansion we spent most of our time on the new build right and

obviously the new build it's a lot it's a lot more exciting shinier a lot more expensive right and I'm just wondering because you were talking about Mr Mayor about like downtown and mayor PM as well like what do we envision downtown where's this gonna be you know and so I guess my question is if the if the runway to build a a Convention Center is like 10 12 years that you saying yeah it depends on a lot of factors I mean if you have the tools in place I mean you can make moves pretty quickly the actual construction time period is probably two years but it's all the figuring it out stuff that takes time and so I imagine a lot of that is in in the case of the of the new build is like land right that's a big part of the question sure so I guess my question would be if we went with the expansion which is like less expensive it's pretty clear it's like right in that kind of you just just showed that downtown footprint like how long would it take us to do the expansion is that like a three or four year so like think I'm going to address your question in a second I want to answer the question about local you know the the op

well the reason I'm it's almost like a decision tree because it's almost like you got the bigger shiny thing but there's a little bit of like there's uncertainty there versus like do you go for the smaller one much more certainly that we can do that in a short amount of time so shorter answer is I wouldn't recommend it here's why expediency you know in this case I would let the perfect be the enemy of the mildly better um because what if you saw that drawing um which we could pull up if you want but it looks like a bug Splat um that exhibit hall that was drawn kind of over where the Armory is is a disaster for Meeting Planners and and Becky will tell you that like we showed you that to show you how bad it would be in reality it's actually not a great option I would not recommend spending $93 million on that I it does doesn't get you where you even kind of want to go so we that was an exercise to ensure that everybody understood that expansion in place is just not a feasible option unless you lit even if you blew out the entire

super block that it's on it's it's better but it's not ideal so I would 100% not recommend doing that bug Splat expansion concept I think it's a total waste of money getting back just and so I hope that answers your question um we could but again we could probably do this in three or four years right so it's so would be a terrible use of public funds in my opinion it doesn't get you where it it doesn't move the needle exhibit Halls are supposed to be rectangular the one we showed you looked like a staircase it just doesn't work so that was an exercise to show how constrained you really are um and that it doesn't get you where you need to be so in order to now if Carolina Theater magically goes to a new campus and you know the Marriott you know all that I mean there's other things that could happen but still that super block is still too small to it's at least then contiguous

and rectangular and so you could do more things on it but then that and you know suggests other questions that need to be answered so but that's the ausage making that needs to happen next and we can go through all of those scenarios This was meant to set up that conversation and and also determine is this something you're interested in um but yeah I I listen I'm all about you know smart government good governance efficient use of dollars and that is not the way to go um in my professional opinion um going back to the local perception um 46% of the users of the facility today are within Durham so a lot of Durham Hees uh are using that facility uh the other thing is if you remember during covid when all hotels shut down and Convention centers shut down how many people are out of jobs and restaurants and bars and entertainment facilities that's the impact of event facilities so event facilities have a

real impact on local people's actual lives you have a lot of people working in restaurants who are serving people who are going to events at the center going to things at hotels um it's a it's a very VI vibrant ecosystem that if tended to well um generates a really great sector of your economy that helps lift people up gives them skill sets to climb the ladder I started off in restaurants and hotels myself so I get that um so it's a it's a great um industry for people to learn life skills and go up that that ladder and an employs a lot of people um so that's my little plug for the industry but it does serve locals 100% and using other people's money and it also keeps you all from having to go elsewhere to go to all these events council member Freeman thank you I think uh your last Point really doves tailes very neatly into into exactly

where um council member kier's comment was coming from and I think to Susan Amy's Point as you're trying to develop kind of a an advisory around it if you're not even including Community then and making that selection that's a little bit of of the rub and it being the reason people want to see clearly what the community benefits are and so I would definitely just highlight that point I think I've been very voiced around um you know we need a new convention center and the space that's there um just acknowledging the Carolina Theater needs more space and so Marriott and the convention of the kve that would be great for the Carolina Theater um I know that there are spaces I'm I won't State them um for very obvious reasons but um I do want to say that it's it's got to be more than just the building in this conversation and even as you're coming forward and presenting and having this

conversation I'm not hearing the people Parts as you just started to State um as loudly and so that part that does say that these will be you know $27 an hour jobs minimum has to be upfront and it has to be very clear so the people will buy in okay and um dur is a very cultured area I mean we're the cultur capital of the triangle and it's intent on staying that way so the values of durm I mean I'm not hearing about the race Equity Pieces Just acknowledging like hey Tha and and um the West End and all of that is a part of what downtown is I know it's like right around the core of it but it's still downtown Golden Belt like all of that is a part of this even Cleveland hallay and if you're not finding ways to um spell that part out of it just kind of spell out the value in a in a more

succinct way I don't think this is gonna work and I'm just gonna say that heard that and and I I um and I I I fully believe we're gonna get there I I think I and my comments before I started talking I was going to say let's just stop saying Durham next because it's not about Durham next it's about the concept in which how we get here and the next conversation is when you add the players in it U so I don't want to put the carpet for the horse I I think understanding conceptually how we make this work you know the mechanics of it is where we are today and I um I guess you guys are looking for some direction Gina today was a informational session for um y'all to consider and then provide whatever guidance you may have to the manager's office or to us gotcha I think I think the uh the points have been made very clear just around the values of how it Ben it's clearly stating you know how we benefit you know

um how the the local values are Incorporated in this um and and you know just also make it it just how do we make it work you know um but really grateful for you guys thank you so what what are the next steps I'm I'm unclear like what happens next so next steps I'm assuming Gina you all [Music] will we will happily take guidance from Council as to directed next steps okay so I guess the investigation of funding options um all of the players that would you know be a part of this um the project management of it seeking private interest uh yeah does that make sense yes yes we can we can work with the manager's office and um and go from there all right so that and that's why we created dur now the name is put in so we went from concept to now you know that so you're G to work with that governmental institution that entity to start

designing the project the the project here right and and just Madam manager just real quick I don't you know the saying is a camel is a horse designed by a committee I don't want us to do committee work right now we just don't have enough information so if it's okay we're saying now we're gonna place it back in your office to give us next steps on how to move forward so may I speak please so so one of the things that is you know is clear clear here is you know the feasibility study is is just step one so unless there is funding and investment to move to a next step and a home for where that next step is going to uh live then we we don't actually have the next step yet so yeah go ahead yeah I think for me another piece of information that I feel like is missing is that Durham is still

in the process of forming we haven't gotten a form Al um presentation for them from them on their priorities and so the convention center may very well be their top priority but I don't know and so moving forward with this one when we don't know which they're going to recommend that we prioritize and having done I know that discover Durham and and I imagine Durham next will do a lot of community engagement understanding where folks are at in terms of that would be helpful for me to know so I'm not comfortable right now um putting any more money to towards next steps on the convention center and um until we hear back from them on their priorities yeah and the request wasn't for funding was it no the um but but in order to develop a plan and a program we would need to come forward present a plan of action and funding request and what that would look like we can have discussions with discover next we can work together on that we can evaluate the initiatives that came out of the destination plan I believe the convention center was one of

the top initiatives and the engagement that occurred with with um discover Durham and then work together and bring something back for consideration outlining steps outlining budget outlining all of those details today was information just I would generally say to see if there's consensus around a Next Step okay thank you Mr Marin thank you so much I yeah I think the um I think I think the next steps have pretty much been articulated durm next exist I I propose that we give chair Ali time to finish populating the board and and and doing your work and then we'll await when you've done your due diligence to come back before us with I I it seems to me that trajectory is pretty already evident in so far as derck already exists and is populating the board so I would just recommend awaiting their report we'll await to hear from you and tell us what's next was needed yeah so we're good yeah

y'all work together on that thank you all right uh thank you guys get to the airport our colleagues let's take a let's take a a quick Break um let's come back in five minutes e

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all right we're going to get right back to it all right I told you it was going to be a rich agenda nice some dents um we are going to kick back off um thanks for being so predictable I said break for five I knew it would be 10 so we're back exactly at 10 minutes uh we are on number nine um council member cook hi Christina I was wondering if you could just walk us through I think I've read the memos and and I understand what's going on here but there's quite a bit could you just give us a brief overview that's the only reason I pulled this I don't have any questions I just I think that for clarity sake it'd be useful to just have a quick overview of all the different asss under this item sorry last time I forgot to

introduce myself and this time I forgot the mic so um Christina Reen budget and Management Services um so yes this is an item that you see um every year around this time and so um there are a couple different parts to it uh the first is our carry forward which is something that happens automatically as part of the budget process um so any encumbrances that um are on the books in the previous fiscal year roll to the new fiscal year and that's something that um you would have seen as part of our Q4 report as well too we discussed that um last uh work session and then we do have what we call a carryover process which is um a process where we ask departments um if there are any one-time items um something possibly that they were not able to get done in the previous fiscal year or something that has come up since the last fiscal year and those are also um included in this um this item and then we do have some a few other kind of um more cleanup items that are in um this particular item so we do have a a

capital Improvement plan ordinance um a grant project ordinance um that is coming before you at this time a settlement project ordinance for opioid um settlement funds and then um we have to do our internet service sorry our internal service funds spending plan um which is also part of that um Carry forward that happens but those are separate funds um on a resolution instead of an operating ordinance and generally when um this is my first time starting in a budget from day one so generally will we see amendments sort of throughout the fiscal year how does it how does that normally go um yes so so there are other amendments that um generally will come forward um sometimes uh three or four times a year usually we will come forward with an amendment so if there's a reason we have to change the budget um we will bring It Forward um and then Council will U vote on it as well but this this one in particular happens at this time of year um because we are

automatically um amending the budget due to the incumbrances that are coming forward great thank you thank you next we have council member Baker on item 12 yeah thank you um just one question here um I was looking at the RFP and the RFQ um this is for the feasibility study of the durm Athletic Park um very impressed with the um response to the RFP by Perkins of will um I thought it showed a a strong understanding of Durham and downtown Durham I was just curious um because it's it's so broad um the origins of the RFP where this where this emerged from um and then any initial I know I know what you're going to say is um we're going to see where it takes us but any any initial thoughts on on sort of the motivations behind uh initiating this feasibility study um I first off I'm Tim all ran real estate

division General services and I I am thrilled to be working on the project 20 years ago when I came to Durham uh I moved downtown a block away from this and so um I'm honored and excited to be working on something so iconic not just for the city of dura but this is a worldwide project uh worldwide uh this put us on the map and there's a lot of wonderful things about Durham but this one is personally right at the top of my list and so I'm honored that Gina and Stacy elected me to to work on this um I think a lot of it was just timing um I think that it's been something that probably has wanted to be done and so uh putting all the pieces together and uh I they tap me and um with the support of Stacy and Alicia at the general Services we put together the uhu the committee and realizing that what's most important to start with is this is really is almost a community engagement study uh because right now we don't know um but it's critically important and I think there have been some amazing points made

here today and I really appreciate everyone's perspectives U the things that we talked about going into this are uh let's make sure that we before we hire anybody we we want to make sure that we're we're doing this right that we're engaging not just the community but the underrepresented community are we engaging the latinx community are we doing it appropriately are how how are we fitting in with the other stakeholders and all the other wonderful projects that are going on as the Durham um Athletic Park sits really in sort of the Hub if you came out and did a map of what's happening there there's so many things I don't need to tell you are happening around it so how do we you know the goal is how do we how can this become become a more vibrant um use of space because it's just great and so we want to do it right and so we put the RFP together in a very thoughtful way and we were extremely pleased and it was we had very good responses and um Perkins and will um came out I wouldn't say necessarily well I would

say top but we had a lot of discussion about Perkins and will and and two or three of the other vendors over a period of time so u a lot of thought has gone into how we're going to approach this process and what's the what's the timeline of the project so we are in the final stages of putting together the contract information and so forth that's going through the appropriate channels and of course we're here at the work session right now to answer your questions and u i ideally would love to start um in November um they have a defined set of deliverables that they been working with the city staff that they will deliver us over the course of the next year and ideally by July next year we'd have pretty good idea of one or two scenarios of this is what data shows this is what we're hearing from the stakeholders in the community and go from there thank you that's it for me thank you any uh council member thank you I was going to pull it as well and I just specifically I really appreciate as

well the the way you're working to be inclusive the two areas that I wanted to make sure to point to um just acknowledging that on North Street there's a very um inclusive uh Dynamic group that is working with adults with uh differing disabil or developmental abilities and I just want to make sure that that's not missed because as people um with different like on a spectrum with different disabilities different counc would you put your microphone a little closer to you please put fol online sorry with people with uh developmental needs um the challenges that they face in trying to find outdoor spaces especially in that area because it's kind of covered and Central Park is kind of the only outdoor space you have right there I think or Central Park in North what is that North North it'sing about North Street North Street but there's a park there too old North DM uh okay so the old DF durm Park and the Central Park and then this ballpark are what you

kind of have and I just want to make sure we're not excluding you know other needs for those folks as well as seniors with the senior center right around the Corner um they're they're just they just there's a lot of resources I feel like you should be talking to and and making sure that that's not missed that's all absolutely that is a a great Point part of the rationale in going with Perkins and wills work with idolism because they've got a great uh reputation of being able to work with every you know multiple groups and so forth and we recognize how important it is to reach out to specifically Community stakeholders who are to this property and there's so many other City projects that directly tie into this and so um one of the things that we charged all of the uh submissions with tell us your engagement plan and that was probably I think the biggest piece or one of the biggest pieces that we used in evaluating how we would go forward

and uh would you please just tell me the the specific group you referring to at North Street because so it's reality Ministries they don't they don't associate it directly with Ministries but uh because they are independent okay but I will say that that is in and of itself it's it's very um surface but I want to say when you add um ableism and racism together the outcomes are so hard um I want to I just want to make sure that that opport thank you very much we appreciate that yeah thank thank you Mr Mayor thank you so much for this I'm excited about this feasibility study just a little bit of history there there have been a number of grassroot leaders in this community talking about this for a long time and I've had I know Omar Beasley this was something he talked about all the time and I've spoken with members of the sports commission over the years I think I I I think and Susan am is gone but I I remember um arranging to have a

presentation made before the council some time ago about this type of thing so so to even the council member Baker's point the part of the Animus of this was community and again this this almost um shares the same uh type of narrative about our our um Convention Center our capacity meeting our draw we look at other C I think Rocky Mount uh some other uh I think it was Rocky Mount it's got this really nice brand new sports facility uh it might be green one of the Cities down east it's Rocky Mount it's got this really incredible uh facility um shout out to Rocky Mount that has been used as a a place of sports and sports use as a tool for alternatives to other types of choices that our young people make particularly in communities of color um so th those type of things actually were part of the the animating conversation uh about this uh facility and as we get into the

feasibility study I hope that those values would be um um maintained I'm sure they will per well as a great outfit so so just I just want to say publicly that some of the concerns we're raising were precisely the concerns that that gave birth to this conversation for this type of facility uh in Durham so I'm excited and look forward to the result of the feasibility study thank you very much thank you Mr Mayor thank you all right and we colleagues you might be having some connectivity issues that's in and out okay all right all right other it was just me 13 all right uh number 13 is that no okay is it

good this request specifically I I just wanted to first ask if this type of easement had been done before example of it uh to my knowledge I I do this is the first time that I oh I'm sorry Alicia bass General Services um this is the first time that I've done this so I I can't speak to that specifically um have you can you speak to this Rob Robert Joiner public works department yes this has been done several other times on various pieces of City property can you share any examples before we get to the not to I mean not today if you don't have to share today yeah there's I'm trying to actually remember the names of the parks um yeah four Tom Dawson Parks and Recreation I do remember the names of the parks uh the park was simp Cal Park

it was a temporary construction ement at Central Park um it was a lot more complicated and a lot more um um disruptive to the park than this situation so I really just want to um highlight for my colleagu I don't know how to uh put into words this very serious concern that I have um just noting that this this representative uh for this project um created a real problematic situ ation for the council in a case um that I won't highlight and a former council member and I just don't feel um as if I just want to make sure that we're not bending over to assist and doing anything that would um put any onus on on what they're what they're anyway the I'm I'm if you could share some examples I would feel much better about

moving forward with this that's that's the main thing so Central Park if you could share documents on how that came about because $1,000 for assess for the assessment seems low uh happy to uh we have some uh information not not in front of us but um and I I will say that um the Durham Central Park example was very disruptive this is relatively uh low level of disruption um that's about it and and valuation is with and the valuation we actually engaged an appraiser to to come up with a a value for that so we wanted to use something that was objective and so we had an appraiser they did it before and after appraisal so they looked at the value of the property as it is now then the value of the property how it would be impacted with this uh easement and so the difference between those two is what the value of this easement is and that's $1,000 that's $1,000 really odd for this area of that but I'm gonna go with you on that's

all good okay I'm sure I do get some examples all right uh number 14 Council Mt cook and just continue on to number 15 when we're done um my questions are not super detailed but we have the resource person either this is Russell Mr Dick okay this is Russell with officer economic Workforce Development I'm here online can we uh get the volume turned up yeah sorry I could I couldn't hear

you okay okay Mr Ingram are you able to turn your um volume up or speak closer to your microphone yeah right speak right into the microphone please can you hear me now it's you still sound a bit distant but let's let's go with it I'll ask everyone in the room to just make sure we're quiet hi Mr angram I just have a couple of really quick questions these are to both 14 and 15 um but I'm just curious about the process of the RFP and whether there was one done for both the adult and youth programs or whether they were separate ones that were put out and if they were separate if you could kind of tell me the the different priorities for those two so I can speak more so to the adult dislocated worker program because that's the program that I directly deal with um but for the RP process they are two separate um RPS you have one for the

youth program and one for the adult program um we have to put them out for bid um um dealing with the state recommendations how the state is operated So within all the different local areas you must go out for bid um to actually secure the particular individual who's actually going to execute the contract um and with that the executive committee um actually reviews those particular um rfps and then it also funnel through a um Workforce Development board committee that is selected through the executive committee which is the actual RFP committee um and they also go through the um go through the different RPS um they go through they have to submit their initial budget pertaining to the last year's budget um and they have to actually tell us exact what they're going to um um do with the funds as well as how they are going to be successful in serving the individuals who are in need of those particular funds as far as

the training is concerned and that's around the um I would say that's particularly both programs the delt dis located worker along with the youth program okay thank you yeah I I guess I mean I can see that the amounts are different and so I I assumed that there were two different rfps I was interested to see that the Youth Alternatives the eord eord I guess that's how I pronounce that Youth Alternatives was awarded for both of those and and in my mind I just think about resource sharing and and what that looks like and and um I know that this is I know that this program is is well regulated but I was just interested by the fact that this one group won both of those bids and I was just wondering if there if that was common that the same group put in for both or if this was sort of yes ma'am yes ma'am I would say that is common around the state now there are some instances to where um durm is

unique because we are a um one count Workforce Development board um with other Workforce Development boards and it's about three or four of those in the state with other Workforce Development boards they have multiple counties So within a one County Workforce Development board and even some of the other ones um they do have maybe one provider that actually does the adult dislocated worker program along with the youth program um in other counties it just depends on the need of the county along with the location because um I would give you a quick example like out in the East um you may have a provider that may be further up Northeast and then a one that's Southeast so they may have split it split it differently because the counties are different as far as how they serve that particular population but with Duren County it is very common to have one provider to actually do the programs okay thank you so much for that information is very helpful those are all my questions uh but if you'll stay on because I think my colleagues have a

question as well I've got one yeah thank you Mr Ingram um and this may be following up on on council member Cook's question Mr rram typically when we see these items on our agenda we've got a we've got a a contract and a budget and then some kind of scope of work and I don't I don't know whether that was left off this contract but I don't see any scope of work for these Services I'd love to see what the actual scope of work is if you wouldn't mind sending that to the council members yes sir we will provide that for you sir thank you any other questions I will just add that eard has been the contractor for a number of years now for both and and just to add their contract is also based on performance and do are actually State and fed federal regulated um so we we always hit our Mark we have been hitting our Mark um for the last years and um councilwoman Freeman she sits on sit on the board um for numerous of years um and councilman fris he's currently on the board right now so um

we if you need that information as well as far as performance um as what they're doing we can provide that information to you as well thank you that takes care of both my comments for 14 and 15 right thank you and uh lastly have number 22 that's uh no it was a resident um I have Gregory Williams Oh GRE Gregory gold de welcome you have three minutes ises that work hi y'all I'm Gregory Williams um y'all may have seen me before I'm the advocacy campaign organizer with bike Durham um I'll pull up my comments here I want to firstly

say good afternoon honorable mayor protim and esteemed members of the council um our city mayor and city clerk it's great to be with all of y'all bike durm fully supports the adoption of the nacto Urban Street design guide holding future projects to these high standards of safety and accessibility will encounter or excuse me will encourage more residents to um use multimodal Transportation the complete streets design add dignity to the experiences of those walking what excuse me walking riding and rolling and Durham I also want to sincerely apologize for my tardiness earlier and um helping accept the week without driving Proclamation it's ironic when a bike Durham member has car trouble as still have Grime on my hands from changing out my alternator this morning and um speaking of car trouble I actually hope that we can all um work together elected officials Business Leaders and Community leaders um in joining and participating in the week

com or and my last comment regarding mobility and Durham I want to highlight the benefits of the upcoming connecting Durham bonds the investment in Parks streets and sidewalk infrastructure along with the week without driving Proclamation and today's nacto discussion demonstrate our City's commitment to improving the lives of every resident thank you again for the opportunity to speak the designs set by uh nacta will make our street safer more accessible Equitable and long lasting the bonds will help achieve these designs and the week without driving will help highlight why these types of things are necessary um thank youall again I told you I'd be quick thank you

um Coles there any comments yeah I mean I think we all Greg was here to speak I'll I'll jump in yeah so um oh I was just gonna press the off button oh okay you just confused everybody's like wait that's not that's not how we're doing this right now but I know who to call on any my alternator change um um quick question where can I find these standards I missed out on that part the natto this the website yeah you can go to the website we're also ordering just the actual book the actual document um and yeah I'll just speak and then uh council member RIS uh so it's exciting

to bring this forward during the the week without driving um this is the nacto uh guidelines the that's the National Association of city transportation officials it's um we're member of nacto it's mainstream but it's also very very Progressive standards um much more Progressive than than North Carolina Department of Transportation standards um this is also pretty common resolution it's gone through in a lot of different communities um so I'm excited to bring it um I will say uh I want to update some of the language in the last Clause I'm working with staff to to make sure that it's the right language we'll hope to get back to the Council on that midweek next week um so that you can have that language thank oh thank you Mr Mayor so appreciate C Baker bringing this forward um obviously nacto guidelines are like a very and as you said we're a member of nacto visionary way to think about how we build streets and and sidewalks and and paths and I appreciate Mike Durham

we' had a meeting just last night right um endorsing an act um or endorsing this resolution I guess my question is more like process and I'm just kind of because these these standards the Urban Street design gu pretty linous and I'm just wondering in terms of process on the council and with our with our staff colleagues like how we with a resolution like this how do we envision this actually like being executed you know because it's pretty Broad and it's and it's not necessarily specific in terms of do exactly this so like I'm just kind of curious of your thoughts on how this actually gets from here St like how does it get executed so we you we adopt this resolution um and it provides um it points to these guidelines so we've got the nacto guidelines for Urban Street design there's also bikeways um an it uh institution of Transportation engineers and then those those become the primary guidelines um for City staff when they are uh implementing Street development

Street reconstruction projects but do this get like then sort of baked into the Udo is some of this already in the Udo like is some of this could this be can some of these guidelines be currently like do they kind of contradict current sort of guidelines I'm just kind of and then what does staff do like all those things it would not it would not be baked into the udio that would have to happen subsequent to this so that is something that has been discussed when we held that meeting um about Street design um back in I think it was in January where we brought everyone together to the table this was seen as some of the lwh hanging fruit just adopt this resolution the next steps are going to take more work um the um construction standards for Street design in new developments that's something those those cross-sections that's going to have to be updated we already have cross-sections we're going to need to update those cross-sections and that would likely be part of the unified development ordinance rewrite

project so this is just so this is like the the big picture I get that right yeah these are the these would be the city the city's guidelines which right now currently the city will look at nacto they'll look at ncdot they'll look at different guidelines this just says these are the primary guidelines that we want um to look at thank you Mr M thank you council member RIS for your questions thank you council member Baker for bringing this forward I uh um I appreciate and I value your Insight particularly in this in this particular area in this particular Lane I I want to I have issues with the process because this is a resolution and and resolutions from this Council that have the emot of the council that are voted by the council T to be statements that are not for the most part policy statements they are they are statements of values

statements of of support there are a couple of words in this resolution the word adoption update and official are in a res resolution which which has the weight of of at least as I read it of directive I think there's a line that says um uh the the official now the as the official design guides um I don't know if I'm prepared to make that designation yet without hearing from the staff and having um more conversation that has nothing to do with with your your your um deep knowledge in these matters I have not read the nacto I'm familiar with nact of course have not read all the guidelines and then um be it further resolved that the city of Durham update its Udo and official construction standards to be consistent with before for mention that that's that's directive language um in a resolution and and before I commit the the emper moer of the city to a directive like that I would want more time to to explore the guidelines to to

see what we're already doing uh to see if the staff has input on this because this is a little more than a resolution saying we agree with something or or we make a value statement this this has the weight of directive to me um based upon the words that I've already stated so I I wouldn't be prepared at the next meeting without uh and particularly since we have a Udo rewrite coming up this feels a little bit like putting the thumb already on the scale before we actually getting to the rewriting part and all the deliberations and mations that go along with a rewrite if we were to work this as um uh looking to them or we we uh resonate with the nacto guidelines we think they should be looked at or considered then I think that that comports more with what I understand the resolution from this body to do but this this feels more like it's getting into directive more so than value statement so but I do appreciate uh the resolution thank you Mr

Mayor yeah let me let me work on some of the language get back to you and then we'll we'll see how we're feel feeling midweek next week thank you and I appreciate that council member Baker I know that there's been some times I was thinking about the non-discrimination ordinance that we passed a few years ago uh that was moving us in a different direction than we were in currently and at that time the city attorney's office worked very carefully with our resolution and we had to build in a timeline for enforcement and um it it was a resolution that did give dire in in this way but it was a much more uh just kind of we moved in step with staff to a different future because we understood what the implications were for their own work and we had to be able to put it in this case there was an enforcement mechanism we had to add staff capacity to the legal department so that they would have the necessary attorneys to be a you know somebody was um accused of discriminatory practices

in employment or housing and then there was the human relations commission that was the resident um board that dealt with any complaints from residents themselves it's a little different but it was it took six months to a year we knew that the sunset of HB 146 was coming and um there were also Statewide organizations so I'm just naming that as an example of when we when we have given direction to staff it has been done very collaborative collaboratively with them and also understanding the impact on their work and in this case additional resources so I just am naming that as well well thank you mam minut so um thank you for the recognition you know we do have staff members who are here um as you well know we do not draft the resolutions of the council we do not we do not create the words that are in there but we are we do work with council members around around things that they have an interest in and the reason that they're here today is

because if as the council is moving forward with what you have before you if you have any questions for them they are here to respond to those questions thank you I would just add I think in this situation specifically because it's just reordering the priority of you know people rather than vehicles I think it's important to just hold that in context this is not as it's not as wrapped as I think some might think it is um I know that there might be some intersections we might want to look at more closely based on you know if we were to adopt this um standard like holway Street um and Ma and Miami Boulevard and many others but I do think it's critically important that we do have um direction from the council that says we do want to do that because I do know we we've done division zero we've which has not gotten us division zero and this is a step in that direction I

feel like this is a followup and so I don't I know we can definitely add timelines or what have you but I think just so that staff knows that this is the direction we want to go in I think they'll be good to support this resolution thank you council member Freeman I'm certainly you know resolutions often tend to be symbolic I would SE certainly lift up and you know a would love to know more about nacto standards I'm going to say that my time to read that I do not do this professionally so it's not the thing I have to look at all the time um so I think um for me absolutely saying that that's where we want to move is different than directing staff so if if council member Baker's open to um there there's obviously a value associated with this I mean I think the reason that there are good standards is because they promote walkability bikeability multimodal and that and that belief back into our comp plan around 15 minute communities and so I think that that my my maybe I shouldn't assume this but

that's my assumption is that's why this is important um I just want to be really clear that when we're directing staff we have to not tell them to do a thing but then not give them the actual resources to complete it thank you yeah thank you Mr man I want to associate myself with um council member Cabo's comment I I mean I read things before I vote on them I perhaps you read the handbook in its entirety I have not um so so to direct the staff and and again I don't have a problem with the the spirit of this resolution as I've stated this resolution has the weight of directive and I can't direct staff to comport to something I have not read and I haven't heard from them I don't we may I don't know if we may already be doing this as as part of our culture um so but I I have I put great great value and a high premium on on council member Baker's not only passion but expertise in this area so I'm I'm inclined uh to certainly believe that this is a and we

are members of and I'm familiar in a in a cursory kind of General wise way but I've have not read the entirety of this handbook uh so to adopt it use language of adoption to use language official to use language update to me we have not crossed that threshold of our due diligence at least in my opinion yet for a resolution the uh non-discrimination um piece that council member m cabier I think brought up was a good reference point was an actual ordinance that was a law um this is a resolution and and and our standards for putting our inod on resolutions are a little different than than ordinances um but this has got some ordinance feel to it with some of the words in it which is why I'd like some more time to hear from the staff and I take council member Baker at his word when he says he's going to rework I look forward to looking at the reworked language I think he should be given time to do that thank you since we are at this work session dealing with it could we hear from staff is you said that there was staff here that was willing to speak to it so the staff that would be here would be

willing to resp respond to your questions that you have around the things that you may want additional staff input in that's what I hear yeah it sounds like the issue is that folks maybe aren't familiar with this but it sounds like our staff is intimately familiar with this we already used this as one of our guiding policies so this is just an ask to use it as the priority guiding policy it's still just guidance of course our staff is free to choose else wherever this is just direction from the council that we would like to prioritize this one as opposed to the other guiding policies um I would love to if staff is here I would love to hear about the work that's kind of gone into this and what it will look like if it's going to be a huge burden what what things that we could do to make that transition I don't know effective so yeah Bill judge

transportation um so we are the city is a nacto member and we have been utilizing um many of the principles and guidelines from nacto for a number of years and incorporating them into our city funded projects so those would be projects where the city's doing the design um those include things such as curb bulb outs where you see um yeah ballards or other uh concrete little small Islands to reduce P pedestrian Crossing distances um yeah Transit Lanes red bike lane or red bus lane out uh by streets at South Point um the um yeah buffer bike Lanes with ballards things of that nature are all basically yeah derived from nacto um there is no yeah ashto standard for yeah a buffered bike lane or those types of features um so we have

been utilizing those I think the uh some of the concern is that last um sort of wording where um then we would start to apply those to the reference guide for development or the unified development ordinance because yeah right now yeah the city is utilizing the standards for our projects um but yeah but we're not necessarily able to then apply those standards for new development or yeah that where somebody privately is coming in to build or modify a road so I'll let Rob speak to that uh Robert jiner public works department so uh one of my tasks typically is the review of all the uh construction drawings site plans things of those nature uh for these types of things so currently none of those standards exist in the reference guide for development um and I think we're all happy to do that we all recognize the need uh for

these types of things to make things safer for for bikes and pedestrians um I would want some additional time to to look at those things uh see how they impact um down on the micro level you know is Council uh wanting to develop bike Lanes down to the individual subdivision Street and culdesac in that you know is that the level that you want to go to do you want a One Step Up from that do you want collector streets and some additional directions along that because that ties into storm water standards water quality standards portability wider streets there's a sort of a Domino series of effects that could happen um I haven't read all of these standards cover to cover um so some of the other things that I would have some uh interest in trying to figure out is when you put all of these sets of Standards together um do they affect your Mill and operations you know which is standard

City process uh for repaving streets because once you Mill and fill a street you take off all the existing striping and all of those areas does that now become a time where you have to go in and uh look at those issues in normal maintenance operations and now say we need to take this opportunity to make these things better if there are safety standards and other things uh that are happening and that that may be the case but we also need to recognize that that does change the timeline for standard Mill and fill operations because you add a design component to something that was maintenance and we just want folks to to be aware of those items I think we're happy to do it great so my understanding is that we're using the nacto standards except in terms of the future development in which we would be open to having guidelines to looking at those scto standards and seeing how we can apply them but we just need a little bit more time in that arena is that is that accurate that's correct um

so and I think you already said council member Baker that you were looking to rewrite that last line um and I think as long as it tracks with what we've heard from staff I would be um excited to support it I think that does kind of go to um mayor prm's uh concerns about it being a value statement as opposed to directive um and so it sounds like hearing from staff that we're able to sort of make that value statement this is where we'd like to see things going um and give directive that way so um I'm in support of this I will look forward to your final draft thank you thank you so much thank you so much council member um cook for your treatment of this and and I appreciate the staff responding as well I I do want to be clear this resolution didn't come the staff did the staff knew everything they knew when they walked in here today and did not ask the council to do this resolution this is a council didn't resolution and and I and I think it's a good good thing I um in addition to the

last line though um I want to be clear that we're not um I mean to your point with the mill and field the implications on certain of our of our processes to wholesale say this is our we are adopting as our Official Guidelines those words have import they have meaning when we place the city's emper on them it it has the weight of policy and and when I hear staff saying we don't know yet at what the implications may be at the micro level we haven't had time to look at it I think the more we we make this even if it's just affirming what we already do and so far as we use them we think these are good guidelines they should remain part of our menu of options we look at moving forward but I think I you know I would caution us and you I've been doing a bunch of resolutions over the years and I I you know I'm familiar with how they work and how they work for this body I think we just want to caution us from using language that has the import of of of policy or or directive and I think to you know councilman Baker's already said I think twice now already that he's

going to look at the language and I would just put that to and and and I welcome uh that revision with the with you know with respect to the comments I've just made thank you Mr Mayor okay I um are there any um so I I've been in a few cities where uh from what I see at the surface I've seen a few cities where they do Implement these um I have no issue with the standards I think um I just I I want to be very careful about um operational directors coming from us to you guys um but I hope that you well council member Baker you're going to work on your language to be more so guiding rather than directive I believe right yeah um yeah so if you can work with on that I'll be fine um I I think that's my only hangup the process in

which we you know try to operationalize as policy makers um I always interested in setting guiding documents or or just guiding policies um but I um I was a band director and I was a I sell chicken for living and I want to be very careful I have not become you know well vered I'm going to rely so on council member Baker in this expertise um I think just at a very high level is if it cause any type of restriction or restrictive you know environment while you're trying to do overall development that's something I want to know more about uh if we you know uh initially my comment was going to say was going I was going to say if this resolution is directing you to only utilize these standards then does it compete with anything else and does it make your job difficult to do what it is you do because you are the experts um but considering there's like some compromise there I think we can uh we can find a happy media and set that

guiding that guiding pace and um I'll I'll be okay with it so yep okay so that I guess that's some direction cool all right um colleagues those are all the port items I have um however we we're going to we have some time to spend together today um and we order some food if you want to just give them a call and tell them to go ahead and deliver yeah because we're we're we're about done if they are ready and we'll take your report they're planning on delivering at 4:30 okay that works okay you want the report uh I believe so yep all right good afternoon everyone um the Durham Housing Authority Board of Commissioners mayoral appointment is s

Nicole Diggs Durham open space and trails commission appointment nomination at large category is Ron Baron Durham city county appearance commission appointment Nikki Nicole miles racial Equity commission appointment for Ward one massina reddish Ward three Delvin Davis and at large David G Williams the final nomination is Durham historic preservation commission appointment for the category of architect is Scott singen and that that's my report thank you all right um we can settle the agenda all right mam manager it's on you thank thank you Mr Mayor uh before I

start speaking I do want to make sure that the followup around item number 22 uh lands on the right portion of the agenda um so GBA GB okay so for for consent one more do you think you'll be ready by the next meeting uh how much time do you think you need back push back one meeting we refer it back refer it back better give them time to work with staff okay so for your upcoming council meeting uh I have for consent items one through 15 and items 17 through 21 would be GBA public hearing it items um that will that will take care of the items that will go

forward right thank you madam manager all right any other matters before we get into I just want to make sure the item 13's on on gbaa not I'm sorry it was sorry so items 1 through 12 for consent item 13 on the GBA GBA agenda items 14 and 15 on consent and item GBA um GBA public hearing would be items 17 through

21 items 22 item 22 will be referred back and item 16 was a presentation I I fail to recognize a card I'm so sorry but there was one card for 22 that I overlooked it was stuck to the other one so I had another speaker um I want to you're here in person yeah so yeah I mean I mean I don't know if you have to do it again I just need to give time for the speaker they did sign up all right welcome you have three minutes sorry Reckless bro no worries thank you so much uh I wasn't sure what the rules are for how to do this I was struggling with how to figure out I think there's also some else um online who signed up to speak as well I don't know the mechanics of that but um Mary Rose is actually um present online and wanted to speak to this topic um okay so I'll try to go through

this real quick with council meeting Reckless council meeting I gotta put up a camera um so uh most of you all know who I am I'm in case anybody who who's listening doesn't um I'm the guy who runs the the camera on U Roxboro that that tweets out about uh Speeders and you know that's that's something that um I find frustrating that I had to do um but as a as a tech person I enjoy doing it and it's been a helpful tool for advocating for uh better Street designs uh but one of the things that's frustrating about that is and this really gets to an equity issue um I have the time and money to put something like that up um to come up here in the middle of the day uh and and advocate for saf design for rockboro but throughout our communities there are folks who are just trying to get through their day uh who who don't have the ability to make this advocacy and so from my perspective as a lay person I looked at these nacto guidelines and I think that this is a great opportunity to set an an equal Baseline that all community members can enjoy um you know you look at the the

the streetscaping that was done in 2006 and that's all very nice but it's very nice for the folks who are just right in the middle downtown right we need those like curb extensions we need better marked crosswalks um throughout our communities uh and that needs to not be a special project that just needs to be default way we do business uh so I think this is uh however we we end up W Smith smithing it and maybe getting it past or uh some aspects of this get adopted in the Udo or whatever I I think this is an important guideline for how to do this the this is something that uh professionals have determined our our best practices um and I well I agree that durm is dope I don't think there's anything special about the laws of physics or how cars operate and so I think we can learn a lot of from uh successful projects uh throughout the the the really the world that have shown how to do safer Street design um I also want to point out that uh I think you know we don't have to have this be a a very complicated burdensome process one of the things I have the benefit of

having heard some of the debate here so I'm kind of cheating um but you know one of the things that talked about is the the whole like resurfacing uh process and what the requirements would be funny enough nacto has an answer for that uh there's some stuff about uh doing quick build temporary things where your budget constrained your time constrained your material constrained so you can do things like as simple as putting out a planter um in a place where you have it marked off where somebody shouldn't be parking right well I can tell you right away I I cross Mangum all the time and obviously that's an ncdot street so it's a little bit of a different conversation but people Park all the time right up at the crosswalk and I can't see cars zooming through um that are going to stop uh at the crosswalk and so one of the things that nacto advocates for is hey go put in something that stops he I cut off now or oh is that just the ring to um that's something that we can do uh today and you know having those native guidelines gives us something to talk about I'm also a bpack member and that's what we struggle with too is is is talking about like with developers like here's what we should do and they go we're not allowed to do it so thank you thank you so much you walk away you

never said your name oh apologies I'm Chris pearlstein AKA Reckless rockboro yeah that guy um and Mary Rose are you still online yes she is hi yes I am here all right speak up for me okay if you can uh directly into your microphone okay good afternoon Council and thank you for this opportunity to provide comments as a member of bike Durham The Pedestrian advis bicycle pedestrian advisory commission and the vision zero Coalition I believe these design guidelines will progress Durham towards council's commitment to Vision zero and increase walking biking and Transit use throughout the city as part of bpac we review and provide comments on development opportunities for resoning cases which often includes requests for sidewalks multi-use paths and other specific bike ped Transit infrastructure however we do not often have the opportunity to comment on non-

resoning cases which lead significant gaps throughout the city currently private developers are not required to build sidewalks nor are they required to build walking or biking infrastructure under a specific standard this has caused inconsistencies between this what the city wants and NC Do's minimum requirements which leads to continued inconsistencies throughout the city and ultimately the city not getting what it's requesting incorporating these guidelines into the Udo and construction standards will reduce these inconsistencies between developments encourage more walking biking and Transit use throughout the city and bring the city closer to reaching its Vision zero goals I encourage the council to adopt these guidelines so that City staff have a statement of policy to make decisions that will improve the way our streets are designed I urge the council to ask updates on how these guidelines are being incorporated into the Udo and construction standards as part of the regular Udo briefings over the next year thank you and that's

it thank you for your comments um do you have to settle it again because there are comments yeah mam does she need to settle the agenda again because there were two additional comments or I mean the the items haven't changed I don't believe so okay all right we're gonna vote we're gonna vote all right um be trying to get some money for y'all let's see okay I'll uh entertain a motion to uh settle the agenda move to settle all right all in favor please vote by sign of I sign of uh allo post all right okay at this time I will pass it over to Madame

attorney thank you Mr Mayor um as I mentioned we do need a consultation this afternoon with the council um for two litigation matters and the motion that need the council to adopt is to hold a closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statute 143 31811 A3 for attorney client consultation concerning the handling or settlement and the cases listed below an as yet to be filed liability claim presented to the city attorney's office and the second matter is inray aquous film forming foam products liability litigation the master docket number is 118 MN 2873 RMG and this is is the PFS um actions and the two that we're considering today are the Tao settlement and a proposed BASF settlement and you can just say moved as red because that was a mouthful I would make that motion to hold the close session as red all right so moving properly second if I can uh I'll have it

11 A6 for a council consideration of the following Personnel matters one the conditions in terms of initial employment of an individual employee to serve as an interim city manager for the city of Durham two the annual performance evaluation of city manager Wanda page and three the annual performance evaluation of City attorney Kimberly rayberg don't move right been moved in probably second uh all in favor I'll oppose all right we are now preparing to go into close session and there are some logistical matters Madam Court Mr Mayor the um Communications office needs okay dtn is going to speak to

you hello Nathan Brit house with dtn uh Communications Department so uh the wife issue that everybody seems to be experiencing uh is being investigated by TS uh we've been talking with him during the entire meeting trying to figure things out uh and so what it looks like is there's kind of two issues uh issue number one is uh this wireless router right here might not be able to handle uh the amount of people who are trying to get on during uh work session so TS is looking into possibly adding an additional router to the room uh the other issue is that uh out of the 28 people who are trying to log on maybe 30 minutes ago and who are uh uh 10 of those individuals um need to

change their password or it's a password issue um yeah so uh that's the other part of the issue so two issues but it it hopefully will be resolved by the next meeting as long as you're not messing with this schedule for a closed session I don't care what the issue is so we're good okay great and nothing should happen I don't believe TS is going to be doing anything during the close session so okay so uh colleagues we should move to the conference room or should we do it in here here he's G oh stay in here okay okay gotcha all right and time to turn off yep all right everyone let's uh let's resume back at 420

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