Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · March 23, 2026

Good evening everyone. It is 7 o'clock on the dot and we're about to get started. Welcome to the board of county commissioner the Durham County Board of Commissioners regular session. Today is March 23rd, 2026.

I'll open this session with our public charge. The board of commissioners ask its members and residents to conduct themselves in a respectful courteous manner both with the board and fellow residents. At any time should any member of the board or any resident fail to observe this public charge. The chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control. Should the cororum fail to be restored, the chair will recess the meeting until such a time uh such time that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed. Stephen Valentine, would you read the land acknowledgement?

>> Mr. Chair, thank you so much. But could I just take a moment of personal privilege? >> Absolutely.

The chamber is full of a lot of people here today and I just want to say thank you. When I look out and see so many unfamiliar faces, I think to myself, we have a community who is committed to change. So, thank you for being with us here today. All right.

So, [clears throat] the land acknowledgement. As we convene for the dorm county commissioners meeting, it's crucial to recognize the painful truth of history. We stand on the stolen ancestral lands of the Kotaba, the Eno, the Okanichi, the Shakuri, and the Tuscaroya peoples whose deep connection to this land predates our arrival. We acknowledge with humility the unjust displacement displacement and violence that occurred leading to the

dispossession of indigenous peoples from their homelands. Their resilience in the face of such adversity is a testament to their strength and spirit. May we humbly honor the ancestors and elders of these nations, both past and present, by committing ourselves to fostering understanding, healing, and justice for all who inhabit this land. Let us walk forward together with open hearts, acknowledging the past, and embracing a future guided by compassion, respect, and unity.

Thank you, Stephen Valentine. Appreciate that. Uh, Commissioner Burton, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> Yes.

All right. Thank you very much, Michelle Burton. The next item on our agenda is agenda adjustments. Are there any adjustments to the agenda?

Seeing none, I accept I'll accept a motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Has been moved and properly seconded that we approve the agenda as presented.

Any further discussion? Hearing none. All all in favor say I. >> I.

I. >> All oppose, please use the same sign. Passes unanimous unanimously. The next item on our agenda are the announcements.

Uh, Clerk Wallace. >> Good evening everyone. and I will read the announcements published in tonight's agenda. m. at the Holton Resource Center located at 401 North Driver Street. Leticia McNeel, Greensboro Director of Community Safety, will be

the keynote speaker for the session. The initiative is jointly led by Durham County's Justice Services Department and Community Intervention and Support Services Department along with the city's police department and community safety department. gov. m.

The session will include a live Q&A. gov. Registration is now open for the 4 summer camps. The Durham 4 summer camps empower youth through meaningful conversations, hands-on experiences, and essential life skills that support their

growth. A limited number of scholarships are available to cover costs. You can learn more and apply, and there is a link um on the site. The deadline for registration is April 17th.

Join Breastfeed Durham for a free community celebration on Saturday, May 2nd from 3 till 6:00 pm at Hillside Park located at 1301 South Roxboro Street. The celebration brings families, health professionals, and local organizations together to support the well-being of pregnant families and young children. will also it will also include live entertainment, food trucks, community I'm sorry, children's activities, health information and community resources. Special guests include Freeline Pierce Freeline um Emmy awardwinning producer and Durham native. He will join um and he will also do a live reading and performance featuring his books Daddy Daughter Day and Daddy and Me Side by

Side. org. Uh, measles can cause serious illness, especially in young children, adults over 20, pregnant individuals, and those who are immuno compromised. Protect yourself and others by staying up to date on measles vaccination.

As cases arise, now is the time to make sure you're vaccinated. Measles vaccines are available at the Durham County Public Health Immunization Clinic. You can contact 919-560-7608 for more information. Durham County is partnering with Durham Benefits Access Coalition to promote free and accessible tax filing options. You may qualify for valuable tax credits that help with housing, food, child care, and more. Houses households earning 89,000 or less can file online with chat, email support, or virtual assistance from IRS certified preparers.

It is important to know that tax refunds do not count against SNAP, WIC, SSI, Medicaid, Medicare, TF, or other benefits. org. Durham County has officially renamed the former Admin 2 building at 200 East Main Street as the William V. Bale Building.

A dedication ceremony was held on Friday, March 20th, celebrating the legacy of former commissioner and mayor William V. Bill Bale, whose decades of leadership and service has left a lasting impression on the community. I have two additional announcements that were not included in tonight's um agenda. One is that Sheriff Burkehead has been invited to appear and testify on Wednesday, March 25th at the Senate Committee on the Judiciuary Subcommittee on the Constitution hearing entitled Protecting American Citizenship to

Federalism, Sanctuary Cities, and the Rule of Law. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 2 PM in room 226 at the Dixern uh Senate Office Building located in Washington, DC. And lastly, RDU airport Authority will hold a public gift card donation drive during the government shutdown. Donations can be dropped off at the terminal one and terminal 2.

TSA supervisor podiums at the deck of the checkpoint or simply ask a supervisor or manager. 250 food line gift cards were delivered to TSA on Friday, March 13th, which were donated by the food bank. That concludes the announcements in tonight's agenda. >> Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk Wallace. And um I just wanted to echo the um William Vbell building ceremony. It was spectacular. It was excellent and it was welld deserved. And I just have to continue to um give praise to the staff

that made it happen. It looked it went very very smooth. And when something looks smooth and easy, that means someone behind the scenes was working really hard to make it go smooth and easy. The building looks wonderful.

The letters on the building on the sign is just uh wonderful. Everything involved went great. And so I just want to lift up the staff again uh for all the prep they gave to me, you know, to to host it, but also everything that they did to make it happen. It was just wonderful.

I just want to lift them up for that. Um Commissioner Long, >> thank you, Chair Lee. Um yes, I've seen pictures. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the naming because it was our Eid holiday, but want to echo sentiments from the staff. I saw like a few days before when I was walking on Main Street, I was like, "Oh, what are they doing? " But it

was really great to see it even in the process, the amount of effort that went into it. Even the manual labor that the staff also put in um to renaming, but also Manager Hager, I heard you did an amazing job as MC and keeping the whole program and or chair Lee MC and manager Hager speaking and Commissioner Valentine. Um, I also had two additional announcements I wanted to share that I know that there's a lot of fear in the community right now with the government shutdown about increased presence of ICE in multiple airports. Uh, I saw several people posting wondering if you know if RDU is one of the airports.

RDU is not listed on the one on the current list of airports where ICE is going to be you know present to step in in the place of the TSA. um shortages due to the government funding shutdown. So, wanted to ease hopefully and keep that ease for folks that we don't have that presence of ice in our airport. And also, if

unfortunately there is still ice presence in areas that if you guys see ice or think you see ice, um it's important to reach out to community organizations like SMAR, North Carolina that are doing verification. uh you can call or text them at 336-54353 and it's important to reach out to them and have them conduct a proper verification so that we don't you know start uh fear and instill fear in our community members with unverified sightings. Um so that is one thing and then also with this increased threat of ICE presence our immigrant communities unfortunately this leads to a lot of community members feeling unsafe uh to even leave their homes to drop off their kids to school to go grocery shopping. Um, so I would urge everyone to support uh the the drive that's happening at RDU airport, but also we have here in Durham and Durham County our welcome baby program which is out of the cooperative

extension that collects uh groceries, u formula, um baby clothes, all sorts of supplies and uh things that can help our all of our families here in Durham County, but especially our immigrant community members who may be more um fearful of leaving and going out into, you know, grocery stores and public spaces. So, I would urge everyone if you have the resources, I've even donated things from my pregnancy that I'm not using anymore that they actually are able to use um and have different sanitation tools and resources that a lot of things if they're in good condition, you can donate and another family can make good use of it. Thank you. >> All right.

Thank you, Commissioner Burton. Thank you, Chair Lee. Um, and I'm glad that um, Clerk Wallace mentioned about TSA and about the um, gift cards that are being donated because a lot of people um, in our wider community don't realize they haven't

been paid for over a month and they have to continue to work because they're consent considered essential and many people have been reading about now they're ICE agents. They're not at RDU like Vice Chair Lom said, but however, really concerned about people working without getting any pay. So, just want to lift that up. I'm definitely going to go out to terminal one and Terminal 2 and give some gift cards so people can at least get some food, get some gas in their cars because gas is really expensive.

But on a brighter note, I just want to shout out um the branch [clears throat] manager at Bracktown um branch library. I was there last week and I hadn't been there in a number of years and it's just a gem in the Bragtown community with the history. Um it opened in 1964 um with the um it was part of the Durham colored library system and then it got merged in um into the wider Durham County Library System. And it's just a really great resource in our community.

I really enjoyed being there and I told the branch manager, Miss Brown, that I would shout them out while I was on the DAS. And they're open from 10 to 6 Monday through Friday. So, if you want to go out there and just see their wonderful collection, their wonderful collection of children's books, go go and see it. So, thank you so much, >> Wendy Jacobs.

>> Thank you. Um, I just first of all wanted to add to the announcement about people being able to get help with their taxes at um the main library. Um, and there's also uh will be in our announcements how you can get help locally. This is an effort um that is happening in Durham to make sure that people have access to all the benefits that they are eligible for. And uh Council Member is is one of the folks who is helping to lead that

effort. and he wanted me to mention uh to remind parents that when you are filing your taxes this year, if you are a parent of a newborn child who has been born since January 1st, 2025, you can register to receive a one-time $1,000 deposit in a what's called a 530A A or the Trump account. Um and that kids born after January 1st, 2025, but 10 years old or younger, so if you have a child at home who is older, 10 years uh or younger, um you may also qualify for a $250 deposit in a 530A account. And after your children um turn 18 years of age,

these funds can be used for education, home ownership, or a business startup. So, we are locally trying to get the word out about the 53A accounts or otherwise known as the Trump accounts to parents when they are filing taxes this year. Um, also want to highlight just a few things that were um, not in our announcements but are in the Durham County newsletter. And um, if you do not subscribe to the newsletter, I really encourage you.

It is chock full of great information um that the county manager puts out every week. Um, and you can go to the Durham County website to sign up. But some of the things related to children and getting kids um engaged in activities for the summer, we know that's one of the most important things. We heard in the announcements about the

4 camps. We also have um highlighted kids voting Durham through our cooperative extension is having a kids voting Durham internship for youth ages 14 to 24. We also have signups for the Durham prek right now um that are open um that is uh if you can find that also on the Durham County website. Also, Sunbu, the Sunbre program is um the deadline is March 31st.

This is really important for all schoolage children to get food during the summer. Uh so, please uh look into that if you have not if you have school age children and you have not signed up for that. Um, and then lastly, another great opportunity for high school students at

NC State is um the North Carolina Resource Conservation Workshop. Thank you. >> Uh, thank you, Wendy Jacobs. Stephen Valentine.

>> Yes. Uh, chair, I I will end our remarks uh where we started um saying congratulations to our mayor for life, Mayor Bell, and thank you to the community. Uh the the reason that uh the naming occurred was because of the push from the community. And so I want to say thank you to the community for showing up in large numbers to recognize uh Mayor Bell.

And I want to re reiterate some comments that you made about our staff, general services, engineering, the manager, and absolutely everyone who played a part in the ceremony. I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. And uh, Chair Lee, you did it

with class. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Valentine.

Okay, the next item on our agenda. We're moving into ceremonial items. The first um the first is a resolution recognizing 25 years of farmland protection in Durham County. We do have a resolution.

Uh Wendy Jacobs is going to read it. And I believe we have uh pe we have some people in our audience related to this and so we'll um have you come speak after the resolution um has been read. I'll turn it over to you, Wendy Jacobs. >> Thank you.

It is my honor to read this resolution. 25 years of Durham County's commitment to farmland preservation. Whereas Durham County recognizes farmland as essential for local food

production, water quality, wildlife habitat, and the rural landscapes that define the community. And whereas preserving farmland supports a resilient food system, sound agricultural practices, and access to healthy, locally grown food for future generations. And whereas the county's farmland preservation efforts began in 2001 with the Hearnden family's first conservation easement, establishing a model of voluntary conservation. And whereas 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of this work during which the county has completed 30 easements protecting 2,491 acres and ensuring the viability of 20 family farms. And whereas these efforts strengthen the agricultural economy,

support farmers, and enhance environmental resilience by maintaining open space and protecting natural resources. 58 million to protect easements valued at $15 million. And whereas the program continues to grow with five additional farms totaling 137 farms and $76,000 in I'm I'm sorry.

137 acres, not farms. um and 76 I wish 137 farms and 76,000 in secured funding scheduled to close soon. And whereas Durham County remains committed to advancing farmland preservation through strategic partnerships, innovative policies, and voluntary conservation programs. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Durham County Board of Commissioners celebrates 25 years of farmland preservation leadership, expresses gratitude to land owners, partners, and fiscal supporters, reaffirms its commitment to protecting farmland as a foundation of the county's economy, environment, and heritage, and commits to expanding preservation efforts and supporting ing the next

generation of farmers this the 23rd day of March 2026 Dr. Mike Lee, chair. Nida Alam, vice chair. Michelle Burton, commissioner.

Wendy Jacobs, commissioner. Steven Valentine, Commissioner. >> Thank you, Wendy Jacobs. >> Wonderful.

Um, I'm Nicole Connley. I'm chair of the Durham County Farmland Preservation Board, and I just wanted to say a few thank yous. First of all, thank you to this board for this resolution and for your ongoing support and commitment to preserving farmland in Durham County and to supporting agriculture and the work that we do at large. We are really grateful and recognize that we are um really blessed to have a board that is so supportive.

Um, I would like to thank all of the farmland board members, past and present, who have been part of making this program successful. Um, and and helping to preserve farmland. Um, and most most well, all important, but

importantly as well, I would like to thank members of our open space board who have been the real architects and um, horsepower behind making this happen. um Jane Chorus who over the years um worked tirelessly to build this program and help Durham County frankly be a leader in the state in the conservation of farmland. Um I'd like to thank um Celeste Burns who will speak here in a moment and and Jill Fusco as well for their ongoing work that they do here. Um, and then now most importantly, I'd like to thank the land owners who have made the commitment to protect their farmland so that future generations in Durham County have a place to farm.

We're so grateful. Thank you. >> Could you please stand? Could the farm Could they stand?

>> Yeah. >> Yeah, please stand. >> Can we get the farmland owners um who are part of the conservation easement stand so we can Thank you.

>> [applause] [applause] >> I'm gonna hand it over to Celeste. >> Thank Thank you for letting me take a few few moments here. This is um this is a this work that I'm very passionate about. I'm Celeste Burns, open space and real estate manager.

Um, again, thank you to the board of county commissioners now and in the past. Thank you to the farmland preservation board. Without their um understanding and uh of of agricultural history and future, it's their their work is really critical. Um, it's great to work with Sher and Lisa alongside that board.

I'm really appreciative of that. Want to shout out our open space and real estate team who um really help make the nuts and bolts of these complicated projects fit together. Um, and again I do want to acknowledge Jane Cororus. She wanted to be here tonight but is out of town um

retroing her retirement but she really laid the foundation for this work. Worked with so many of y'all and um over the years and uh is really kind of her foundation is why we can do this. Um we have some guest stars in the audience. I want to recognize USDA partners with Natural Resource Conservation Service.

Would you all stand up? Brian Lo Halt and Julius George, our assistant state conservationists. >> Thank you. Um with without that partnership, this this work would be really difficult.

and um their guidance and patience um and good sense of humor through lots of bureaucracy, we are making this happen and I'm so grateful to be able to work with you. Um and last but not least, I want to acknowledge our land owners. There are many who aren't with us anymore and I want to um think about

them and um there are people who um were not able to make it here tonight. And then we've got this lovely group of people who came out on a Monday night to to rec to be recognized. I really appreciate that. Um your uh I really thank you for your commitment, your vision, your generosity, your patience.

I mean, you're protecting farmland and natural resources and soils, but you're really protecting something that we don't even see in the future with the future generation. It's truly my pleasure and privilege to work with you all and um thank you. [applause] >> I'm going to make sure all of our land owners get a copy of this signed if that's possible. >> Absolutely.

We'll make sure that happens. >> Thank you so much. >> We'll So, we're going to do commissioner comments and then we're going to invite everyone down. and we'll take a picture

with the resolution right here in the front. Okay, >> sounds great. >> Wendy Jacobs, >> well, thank you um for your words um Celeste and Nicole. Um I also wanted to recognize um our all of our open space and real estate staff that are here, our soil and water staff that are here, our farmland board members, and our cooperative extension staff.

Could you all please stand as well? Everyone who's here. [applause] This is truly about teamwork and partnership in Durham County. And I and also I am so grateful to each of the farmers and land owners who are here. As Celeste said, be thanks to your generosity, the gift that you are giving to our entire community for generations to

come. You really are leaving a legacy, you and your families, and we are so grateful to you. Um, and I think it's fitting that I think it was at our last meeting that we talked about um, the farm campus that we are launching Durham County's farm campus and being able to we got a grant to hire a director and that really demonstrates the commitment that we have in Durham County to protecting our soil, our water, our air and also our soil. for for food for healthy local food.

So, thank you again to everyone for making this possible, this 25th celebration. Thank you, >> Commissioner Long. >> Thank you, Chair Lee. Thank you so much uh to the Farmland Conservation Board, to all our farmland owners all for creating the food that gives us sustenance. Uh so often we just walk

into the grocery store and we kind of just take for granted. pick up our groceries and keep moving on with our lives. And don't think about how much hard work and dedication goes in not just to grow those particular crops and those fruits and vegetables and food, but also when it's not season the way the you all have to work uh the land to make sure that it's ready. And I think it's important for us to recognize this not only for farmland conservation because I know that the resolution um proclamation recognizes like the positives of it but also just recognizing what we've lost that like over the last decade I think it's like nearly 20% of farmland in Durham County has been lost that in North Carolina over 8 million acres of farmland has been lost of farm owners just not sometimes not able to sustain the business because of climate change impacts of shorter seasons, the way that droughts and flooding impacts um this

all's ability to be able to grow the fruits and vegetables that we need. Um so I think it's really important. And I'm glad that we have this opportunity to recognize our farmland owners. And also, people may forget that we have farm owners in Durham County because they think of us as like a more urban hub, um, an urban center, but no, we have, uh, a lot of folks that are producing so many things that we need, not just for us, but for future generations to come.

And for our residents and neighbors to recognize the importance of farmland recognition, but also when you go out and buy your groceries, look at the labels sometimes and try to buy from local farms as much as you can. Go to your farmers market, go to your uh local markets that you see that it's like this is a North Carolina farm. Uh and support our local farmers in that way as well. >> All right.

Thank you, Vice Chair alum. Uh com um Michelle Burton. Yeah, I just want to say um this is one of the boards that I serve on and it's been a

pleasure being on being the liaison to the farmland protection board. I have learned a lot about easements. Um I've learned a lot about voluntary um protection of farms. Um since I've been on there, it's been a great pleasure and I'm looking forward to continue to serve.

And I learned a lot. There was a farmer's breakfast and uh an attorney from NC State came and I learned a lot about farm law. Like that was just like wow to think about all the things that farmers and growers have to think about with their farms. So it's been such a pleasure being on being the liazison to the farmland protection board and thank you for all that you do um making sure that farmland is protected here in Durham County.

>> Stephen Valentine. Uh yes, thank you chair. Uh first let me just say thank you to the uh the farmland board for the work that you do uh in this community and again to all of our

partners in this work and more especially to our land owners. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for being so gracious. Thank you for the hard work that you put in when no one's looking. um being the the grandson of a farmer. Miss Carrington asked me earlier, did I farm?

No, but I'm the grandson of a a farmer. And so, thank you for what you do each and every day. And I'll end my comments by saying thank you to our partners from the federal government uh with the Department of Agriculture. We couldn't do it without you.

Thank you, Vice Chair. >> Yes. I just wanted to add a quick thing. I hope that we're going to bring back the farm campus tour again where we all hopped on a bus and got to tour our local farms across Durham County. That was a really great way for me uh last board to I didn't even know there was a

blueberry farm right by my house um that now my family goes and buys ice cream from. So, I would love for us to be able to revamp that as well. >> All right. Thank you very much.

Oh, so we're going to take a picture. We'll go ahead and take a picture here and we'll move forward. This is the picture is for everyone. If you're part of the cooperative extension, farmland owner, USDA, everyone come for the picture.

photo. >> Know that someone's hair shoulders blocking your face at all. closer. All right. I think we're good right now.

All right. One, two, three. All right. One, two,

All All right, that is excellent. Excellent. Thank you all. Congratulations again.

All right, if the uh if my fellow commissioners would grant me um uh just a moment, I need we need to step backwards in the agenda to approve the minutes. I skipped right over it because I was so excited about the proclamation. So, I'll accept a motion to approve the our uh board of commissioners me meeting minutes for February 2nd, 2026. >> Um, chair, I just I I'll make a motion troop.

I did have one question related to the minutes. >> Okay. Um, there were a lot of directives in these minutes and it occurred to me that I don't know what we what our current system is for actually following up and tracking directives. >> So, we track the directives, but we can

make sure at the next work session that we give the updated list to the board. >> Okay, that would be great. Thank you. So, I would entertain a motion um to approve the minutes from the February 2nd, 2026 work session.

>> Well, that's her making the motion, by the way. >> Not entertaining it. >> What did I say? >> You said entertain.

>> Sorry. >> She she that we'll accept that as the motion. >> Yes, I think. [laughter] >> Second.

>> I would make a motion. Thank you. >> It's been moved and properly seconded that we approve the meeting minutes for February 2nd, 2026. Any further discussion?

All in favor say I. I. >> All oppose, please use the same sign. The meetings have p um been approved unanimously.

Okay. So, we have a couple of resolutions. I believe there's a couple of them um that we're going to just make note of and we'll have um those come to speak.

So the next one, these are to be acknowledged. So the proclamation for National County Government Month 2026. Is anybody going to speak on that? Okay.

>> Yes, ma'am. >> Good evening, Deborah. >> Good evening, chair and commissioners. I'm Deborah Craig Ray, chief communications officer, and I want to thank you for recognizing National County Government Month.

Um certainly this is an activity from the National Association of Counties that began in 1991. The goal was to recognize our 3,69 counties. Um the goal is to educate the community about what counties do for them. And certainly the next objective is to honor our employees who work day in and day out to provide the services. And finally, the goal is to increase civic participation to have the community attend meetings and take note

of the great things that we're doing um in the community. And so that's sort of the background of National County Government Month. Um I'm going to just mention just a couple of small things that we are working on. And I'm joined by Dawn Dudley of my staff and Dr.

Brent Lewis of uh human resources. We are working as a team this year to provide um observance of National County Government Month weekly. You'll notice that we highlight a bit of Durham County's history, facilities, and special programs or projects on our social media platforms and internal channels. Among the events that we will host for the community will be a nature walk led by our open space division, a hybrid public artwork uh art walk and what counties do session with local college students. Beginning April 1st, you'll be able to watch a segment of InTouch dedicated to National County

Government Month. And tomorrow, our PIO team will record a session of our Decode Talk session featuring North Carolina collection manager Lauren Penny, who will discuss the history of Durham and Durham County government. So, that's just a few things that we are doing, but again, our goal is to celebrate all month. And thank you as always for your support.

>> Thank you very much for that, uh, Miss Craig Ring. All right. The next proclamation that we Oh, I'm sorry. I just wanted to make a comment. Thank you, Deborah, um for highlighting um National County Government Month. Um I think that this um is more important than ever uh because honestly what is happening um in our country right now and what is happening at the federal government that we are

all feeling it here the most at the county level. Um, I read over the, um, NACO, National Association of County Officials newspaper last night and it was interesting to me. They had were recounting um, speeches from people who were in the federal government, who were in the cabinet, head of different um, departments uh, speaking at that conference. And over and over again they would say well you you know you at the county level you're the ones who are closest to the people um you're where the work really happens and that is absolutely true. The problem is right now is that we are being um really left on our own without the support from our federal government. and in a state like North Carolina where we have we're the only state that hasn't had an approved budget.

Um so I just think it's I want to highlight at this moment in time that we are local county government. We are the government that is day in and day out our employees, our staff who are taking care of people in our community. And it is just very challenging right now. Um and we are also the forefront of we are the front line of democracy um when you know running elections um things like that.

It's all here at the county level. So I I want to just I hope that we'll talk more about that um during this month and also to highlight what is happening at the state level right now. There may be a constitutional amendment uh on our ballots here in North Carolina coming up in the fall election that could be very frightening to limit the power of local governments

at the county level to have control over property taxes. And unfortunately, that is one of the only tools that we have to pay for the services we provide. And it's estimated um that between 70 and 75% of our services go to mandated state and federal programs and services. So if we don't have the money to pay for those required services like law enforcement, like our sheriff, like our EMS, like uh fire, responding to fires, things like that, and of course the many other things we do.

Um it is going to be very very difficult. So I I just wanted to take a moment really to highlight [laughter] this important issue. Thank you. Okay.

Any other comments? All right. Thank you. The next the next

proclamation we will acknowledge is a proclamation for second chance month 2026. >> Good evening. I'm Robin Heath. I'm the assistant director of the Justice Services Department.

And I want to start by thanking you guys um the um board for your steadfast support of second chance efforts and valuing all of our citizens even those that are just as involved. This month we have um a number of different activities that are planned and Rashida will share with our calendar um to celebrate and recognize the um challenges of those that are just as involved. We're going to kick off the month. I hope everyone will have a chance to come through our parking lot uh because we're going to kind of chalk it up and um just really try to start raising awareness in, you know, with

some sidewalk chalk and some artistic abilities of some previous clients and current clients and JSD staff all um just to start raising that awareness. And the second week of the month, um, we have our jail transition staff as well as our local re-entry council staff will attend a, um, state conference in Raleigh with the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections. And um I was at a meeting last week with um the North Carolina Joint Re-entry Commission and they um were really talking a lot about the re-entry 2030 and how far along North Carolina is in um you know just moving forward on justice involvement and making second chances a a reality. Um so we're excited to see that um North Carolina is moving forward, but Durham has always been at the forefront of that in in North Carolina. The third week we're going to

be um partnering with public health to um do a balanced bites where we're going to offer um information about hypertension and diabetes and do a um nutritious cooking class. And on the 21st, we will have a re-entry and reconnection. Um that'll be a panel and resource fair for families who are having people come back from from incarceration. Um this will be the first time we have done this.

Um but we have definitely found a need that families need to know how to support their loved ones as they come home. and we're going to kind of close out our month on the 24th um with a sock hop. Um so we hope everybody can join us on that. We want to have some fun. The admission cost is a pair of socks that will be used for our clients or $5 value in hygiene

products. These are items that we use a lot and we we find our clients are consistently in need of these things and so we thought this would be a way to, you know, raise some supplies and have some fun. There will be food trucks in the parking lot and um there we've got some door prizes that have been donated and we will have um awards for best dancer and that best retro costume or outfit. So looking forward to everybody All right.

Thank you very much, Commissioner Comments. Thoughts? Oh, vice chair alone. >> Yes. I just want to um shout out the uh Justice Resource Centers Center and Office for all the work that you all do um to support our justice involved residents and our neighbors who are trying to get back on their feet and support their families and live their lives like all of us are. And so, thank you so much for the work that you put in and all the ways that you

also support families before um they become just as involved as well to make sure that we were able to prevent and have that intervention opportunity uh to support all of our Durham residents and also the ways um I know it's not it's listed somewhat here with like the family events, but I think it's also important to recognize the work that the Justice Resource Center does with young people whose families and parents may be justice involved and to support the uh kids here in Durham County's community to make sure that they're taken care of and still feel the love and care of the broader Durham community and so that they don't get left behind in any way. So really grateful for the work you all do because it truly comes from the heart. Um and also I know Sheriff Burkhead is here. Thank you to Sheriff Burkehead and his team for the efforts and work that they do within the jail of providing services and programming through continued education through MAT to help our residents get back on their feet when they reenter into the community.

>> Stephen Valentine. Yes. Thank you, Chair. So, thank you for highlighting uh the need for a second chance and it's not uh just this month, but it's every day.

Uh when individuals leave our community, it's important that they reenter. Re-enter for a spouse who may have gone without a loved one. Re-entry for a family that potentially has lost an income for a community. And so, uh when we talk about second chances, we're talking about our neighbors. Just today, I had an opportunity to talk to a young man who was um doing work in my home. " And so we we talked for about an hour as he was uh doing some work in

my home um about this very subject. And so, um, although we're celebrating it as a month, and in fact, it's every day that we should be concerned about reintegrating, um, people back into our community. And so, thank you for the work that you do in this space. >> Michelle Burton.

>> Yeah, I just want to echo what my colleagues have said. Thank you for doing this work. Um, I'm reading a book right now talking about um, gun violence and that a lot of between the ages of 18 and 30 is the ages where most people, young people are affected by gun violence, right? And in many instances, it's like a split-second decision, right?

It's in a heat of the moment. It's not premeditated. And so as they are unfortunately incarcerated and they get out, they're like, "Okay,

" You know, they're mature. They're they've grown and things like that. And yeah, they need a second chance because if they could go back, they wouldn't have done it. So I we appreciate the work that you're doing.

And I'm going to make sure to bring some toiletries because um I know that's something that people definitely need. As a former educator, that's something that we had to provide a lot to our young people. So, thank you so much. >> And in my haste, I forgot to introduce our new local re-entry council coordinator, Rashidita Royster, who is standing here beside me.

But, um she she's the one, you know, doing the work every day. So, I just want to recognize her here. >> Wendy Jacobs. >> Thank you, Rashidita. Um, I also want to just lift up the our justice services department and our we have our director right here, Roshanna Humphre, and also

the our justice resource center. Durham County has been a national model, a national leader in this work. And I I want to lift up the meaning of second chance month. People will come back to our community and we want to make sure that they are productive members of our our society and also with their family.

We want to give them the support and set them up for success. So, thank you to the re-entry council for what you do. I I want to emphasize that Durham County is a second chance employer and uh we f practice follow the practices of bay on the box with our employment practices and I we want to encourage all employers in Durham to be second chance employers. And recently Duke University announced a new initiative around um jobs and workforce

development and they have committed to hiring more people who are re-entering and who are just evolved. So I want to applaud our biggest employer in Durham County, Duke University for doing this. And Rana, are they working with you on that as Well, could we have you come and comment? I see [clears throat] Andy back there, too.

>> I apologize. I tried to give the staff the spotlight tonight. Um, but yes, um, we have been working with Duke, Andy Miracle, and myself. We have been appointed to Duke's economic mobility council.

The council is working on strategies to um promote employment across sectors. They have a a whole plan that's being laid out. But in addition to that, we were visited at justice services department about two weeks ago from four senior um human resource

executives from Duke to um talk about a pilot project with us to help to bring um justice involved individuals into um jobs at Duke. And so we are working with that group to try to figure out what that pilot will look like and how individuals that are working with us and enrolled in our programs can then go into that pilot program. So we're excited about working with them because we have been trying to get our clients into Duke for many many years. And so we are we can't be more happy that they reached out to us and and have come to visit.

They wanted to see our operation. It was a great visit and they seem very motivated to move forward with this project. Well, this is fantastic news. Thank you, Andy and Roshanna, for helping to make this possible.

Um, this is an incredible opportunity for people in our community. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for your support >> and thank you all for this important work. Very, very important work. So, thank you. >> Thank you

>> and welcome. >> Okay. And our last um proclamation for acknowledgement tonight is the proclamation for fair housing month. >> Yeah, there we are.

Okay, good evening. Um, thank you all for having us tonight. Um, my name is Sandre Trice Jones. I'm the president at the Durm Regional Association of Realtors.

And I'd like to acknowledge our DEI chair, Sharon Sungl, who usually does this, who said in her big pocket book, she doesn't have her readers, so I have to come up here. I know she's telling a story. So, um, again, on behalf of the Durham

Regional Association of Realtors, we are honored to receive this fair housing proclamation from your board. Yeah, fair housing is about access, equity, and ensuring everyone has a fair chance at home ownership, and we work to do this every day. So, I want to thank you all for acknowledging us again this year. Thanks.

>> And thank you so much. Commissioner comments on the proclamation acknowledgement. Stephen Valentine just thank you for bringing forward this resolution. Um I think as we continue to see, you know, housing prices go up and our community members being pushed out, this is a really important conversation we need to continue to keep at the forefront. Even um I know I told Chair Lee I was in uh New York this weekend and was traveling around with a friend who's a community organizer there and through Harlem and just learning about what's happening there that I'm sure is

like happening all across the country. Thankfully, not here in Durham yet, but of um public housing communities, these corporations that are coming in to try to privatize and purchase all of these properties to make it harder and harder uh for low-income communities, uh middle class income, uh families to be able to buy homes. So, really appreciate the work that you all are doing to make sure that housing is equitable, uh and bringing this forward to us to help recognize. Thank you.

>> Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair Alam. Commissioner Valentine chair. Thank you, Madam President.

Uh thank you being with for being with us uh here this evening. And so the Fair Housing Act, as you know, is is very important particularly in the African-American community. And so it's one of the trifecta, the 1964 passage of Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and in 1968 following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, he had the Fair

Housing Act that was passed. And so it's not lost on me that uh many in our community still are denied access to very important part of the our existence and that's housing. And so the work that you do every day is important. And so I want to thank you and I also want to thank you for uh appearing here uh today.

And I too have readers that I need. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much.

>> Thank you. >> We appreciate it. >> Okay. And that is our ceremonial items for tonight.

The next item on our agenda is approval of the consent agenda. There are a few items on the consent agenda and they've been vetted. We've talked about them in our work session um with the staff. And so I will accept a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly seconded that we approve the consent agenda. Any

further discussion on any of the items. All right. Hearing none. All in favor say I.

>> I. >> All oppose, please use the same sign. The consent agenda passes unanimously. Next item on our agenda are public hearings.

Um I think we have one. Yep. We have one public hearing and this is a public hearing to consider an economic development agreement with Welcome Venture Park LLC. Um Matt.

>> Yes, sir. Uh good evening. [clears throat] My name is Matthew Filter. I'm the economic development manager for Durham County.

Uh tonight we're holding a public hearing to consider an economic development agreement with Welcome Venture Park LLC. Uh this is honestly just a really uh unique partnership that the county particularly economic development and transportation um has undertaken with Welcome Venture Park. And I'd like to um recognize Randy Warren who's in the

audience. Uh he's a representative from the company who's here tonight. Uh so I just want to spend just a minute or two just kind of presenting the highlights of what this um agreement would be pending your approval. Uh the agreement to be negotiated and executed by the county manager would include three parts.

One, it would be a reimbursement payment from the county to the company of $1 million following satisfactory completion of sewer utility infrastructure necessary to enhance the business prospects of the county. The next piece would be a real estate option uh given to us for $1, uh permitting uh future acquisition of 1420 Old Oxford Road for a sales price of $1 million uh following a due diligence period after which we could decide whether or not we wanted to purchase the property. Um and then a community benefits package uh including community commitments uh to internships and workforce development programming. Um for background, Welcome Venture Park is a 157 acre industrial and business park in North Durham along

Hamlin Road. Construction is ongoing. It's incurring in three phases and upon completion, it's estimated the site will collectively produce approximately $270 million in new taxable uh value and support 300 or more new jobs. Uh both phase one and two, it's being done in multiple phases, have adequate utility capacity.

Uh but the third phase does not have adequate sewer capacity. 7 million. The county is being asked to contribute $1 million towards this project, which would only be paid out upon satisfactory completion of the sewer upgrades. Upon buildout and occupancy of phase 3, it's estimated that phase 3 alone would contribute $6 million in new tax revenue to the county over 10 years. Uh the county's willingness to consider financial support for this project is directly linked to the fact that the county also um is interested in an undeveloped parcel that the company owns adjacent to the future Durham Roxboro

Rail Trail. Uh the rail trail plan approved by the board last year determined that this general location was ideal for a future trail head. So preliminarily, the parcel that we're considering acquiring could include restrooms, parking, open space, other railreated programming as that materializes down the road. So to that end, um they're going to grant us a six-month option for $1, after which we can either decide to purchase the property for that purpose or not.

1 million. The parcel is otherwise not for sale and was intended to be used by the company. So this was something we worked with them uh to negotiate on. It's not out there for sale to just anyone.

Uh the most important issue to be studied and resolved during the due diligence period is environmental testing. Uh currently this site and several others in the area are considered brownfields. Uh but we don't really have a lot of detailed testing on this particular small parcel alone. So, a key part of our due diligence period will just be um

working with our state um state partners at DEEQ and the developer and our internal folks to determine if it's an appropriate usage of the property. Then, at the end of the the due diligence period, we could either buy it or not buy it. Lastly, real quick, uh we don't historically um negotiate community partnerships for real estate deals at the county typically is my understanding or for sewer um reimbursement projects, but um we thought it was important to ask and Welcome Venture Park was a willing willing partner. Uh so they're going to be offering one paid internship annually uh to a student at Central or Durham Tech.

They're going to work with us on local hiring and workforce development initiatives with DPS to the tenants in the park. um and they're going to facilitate introductions to the different tenants and the owners there uh to uh work with uh the county on possible workforce development uh partnerships and opportunities. So, I'll stop there. Um happy to answer any questions you may have. >> All right. Since this is the um um this

is our public hearing, which is open, by the way. I don't think I said those words, but we're open. Um we'll have questions from the commissioners. Okay.

Hearing none and we have no public comment uh signed up for this particular item. This uh public com I mean public hearing. I will now close the public hearing and we'll have comments from the commissioners. Uh Wendy Jacobs.

>> Um thank you. Um I just I have a question. Could you tell us about um what some of the current companies are who are there and the types of jobs they have and what are um I guess you're in phase one and two now but phase three um or I don't know if you want to share that um but just curious about what are who is there now and and what do you project will be there in the future in terms of the types of jobs. Randy, would

you like to come up and talk about that? >> Um, and you know, just how many companies are there and how many employees? Uh, we're familiar with the Treyburn Industrial Park and also RTP, but we this will be our first partnership with the venture park. >> Good evening.

Excuse me. I [clears throat] was trying to get out of it. Matthew, you couldn't keep me there. Um, thank you.

My name is Randy Warren. I'm with RW2 Development Company. We are the owners representative for the welcome group. who is the developer of Welcome Venture Park.

Um to answer your question directly, in phase one, uh our tenant mix is is varied. We have some local uh home improvement type uh tenants, uh smaller tenants. We have mobile communications local tenant that uh services the local community. Um we have a local Durham transfer and storage company that is relocating within our phase one. Also, we have a new tenant to

the market to not only North Carolina but and not only Durham but also the state of North Carolina, Cavalier Logistics. They service the biofarmaceutical companies that are so predominantly located in RTP. Um so this is their first location here in North Carolina. We're talking to them about a second location at Welcome Venture Park um because of its proximity.

Uh, also Durham, uh, or sorry, uh, Food Bank of Eastern Central North Carolina, the Durham location just opened. Um, they haven't we are going to have a grand opening and hopefully, uh, many of you will be able to come and attend that in the month of April. Uh, but they've taken about 65,000 square feet um, and have started to process and distribute take in food and distribute food out of that location. They're not completely ramped up to their full scale, but they're getting there. We're excited about that. Uh, as far as the jobs that are in phase one, we are probably somewhere over, and I'm sorry,

I don't know this right off the top of my head, we're somewhere over 55 to 60 full-time day jobs there. Uh, and they range from that doesn't include, let me take food bank separately because they have probably 50 or 60 volunteers a day coming through their facility that uh that help uh facilitate their food distribution. Uh but within our park they range from warehouse workers, office staff, uh professional in scientists in the Cavalier Logistics um um facilities. And we're also talking with other entertainment uh or sports related entertainment type uses for phase one which um they're they are considering the location primarily because of the growth of the residential and to service that market in the in the north Durham Roxboro area.

Did I answer your question? >> Yes. Thanks. I mean it's it's great to hear about smaller businesses because you know t typically

um in RTP and Trabber they're they're bigger companies they're national and the fact that this park can serve some smaller businesses and of course still diversity sounds with the biioarma that's part of the whole supply chain kind of pipeline around biioarma which is great and even the home improvement um you know, we're looking at in Durham Tech, um trying to focus on skilled trades. So, you know, that's even a potential internship right there. But, um uh anyway, we're we're happy to partner with you. Um and um we consider you know things like internships and building uh workforce development pipeline with you all is one of the things that's one of our priorities as a board and we recognize that you have to build these partnerships and these relationships. They don't just happen. So we're looking

forward to partnering with you. >> Thank you for that. I will point out that we have been in partnership with Durham Tech through a scholarship fund that we contributed early on in the project uh specifically focusing the Braggtown community and the students there. Last year I had the chance to attend uh the first scholarship breakfast at Durham Tech and met the first recipient of the uh scholarship.

And this year I plan to go again in April. This will be the second student that this fund has uh has promoted through Durham Tech. and we've been working with with that group and are excited about the internship opportunities that present themselves as we move forward. U we talked about the full-time employment.

I would just like to point out that currently in just phase two, which is about half the size of phase one, we probably have 150 to 200 daily construction employees on site. Uh and that was true for phase one and will continue. We estimate that through the life of the construction pro

project, we'll have over 3,000 employee construction employees visit and spend time on the project as well. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> And I also want to just thank our staff uh for making this possible and the creativity um Ellen sitting over there, our transportation director, being able to implement the rail trail plan in a creative way.

Thank you. Stephen Valentine. >> Yes, Mr. Warren.

I'd be less than candid if I didn't say that uh I've come around to Venture Park. Um we're happy to be a partner. Uh we're looking forward to the uh the tax revenues particularly in the out years, the number of jobs that will come to our community as a result of your endeavor. I'm also um pleased to say that uh you're one of the the few and I'm hoping that this will be the trend that has a willingness to address some

of our infrastructure needs far in advance. Um also to the to the extent that you are adding to our infrastructure is going beyond Venture Park and also having um an impact on the larger community and so that doesn't go unnoticed. You mentioned the food bank. Stephen Valentine was actually over there just last week.

Uh I spent some time at the food bank at my church. " And so we ventured over there and so we thank you. We thank you for partnering uh with the food bank. Now my question is about transportation. what what are the conversations about the transportation needs in that that particular area of North Dorham? Um I know initially when Venture Park was in its infancy, you talked about jobs particularly for the Braggtown community, which isn't

directly in the community, but close by. Are there any more discussions about, you know, what's the plan for particularly public transportation to get get there? Is there any discussions >> there? There have been discussions I think and thank you for pointing out the infrastructure investments that uh Welcome Group through Welcome Venture Park and working with the city and the county have have uh have created the the uh list station improvements that we're talking about today are kind of following the tail end of those.

We've uh expanded roadway on Hamlin Road. Uh expanded turn lanes at Old Oxford and Hamlin. will be expanding uh turn lanes and for safety at uh Glenn School and um uh oh my gosh, Redm Mill Road um there as well. um in the the uh building of North Durham Parkway, the segment of North Durham Parkway that we've built within the project, um we've also included, I think, five bus stops uh

currently there um to provide that uh basis for public transportation to and from the park so we could further attract some of the local employees that don't have transportation readily available. Um unfortunately I would say that bus service doesn't come to our park. So we we uh we met uh early on with uh um some of the transportation leaders and tried to extend that. We've been told that once the traffic you know once we have enough generation of people there that would warrant the bus service uh then we would get that.

It's kind of chicken and egg. So we would love to see buss and public transportation to the park. I think a lot of our uh companies that are moving there for hiring purposes would love to see that as well. Um so we're we are open for discussions, happy to engage and happy to see how we can further um create a an opportunity

for that public transportation to exist. >> And so I'm going to attest to the improvements on the road on Hamlin Road. >> Yes. Excellent.

Excellent. And also the unintended uh impact of the natural trail or roadway that has existed as a result of your development. And so so many members of the community are now using that uh for exercise and and leisure. And so I don't know if that was intended or not, but uh people in the community say thank you.

>> Well, we I've noticed them early in the morning running and walking. And it's uh it's been it's been nice. We've also uh you know we preserved about 35 acres of wetland streams uh tree protection areas which uh you know and and through the sidewalk at multipath inclusion in our development. It does make for a nice walkway and and there are quite a few folks from the neighboring communities doing that.

So thank you. Next time you're out at the food bank, please stop in and see us. >> I'll do that.

>> Um I was going to ask Alan just your question about transportation. Ellen, I'm sure she knows what I'm going to ask about the ondemand >> transportation option. >> Yeah. No, thanks for bringing that up.

Um Alan Beckman, transportation director. Um you're correct. There is public transportation actually um to this area. It's the um Go Durham Connect Microransit service that's funded by the county transit plan.

Um there's a north durm zone that covers a pretty large area where you can get an ondemand kind of shuttle um within that zone. So so you can um it it's designed to kind of facilitate transportation to some of the areas that are, you know, less dense and not on the fixed route uh bus service. Uh but you can take that and then you can connect to a place like at uh like at Durham Regional where there's a bunch of uh transit routes that converge there and then you can transfer to other

routes. So how could we work with the venture welcome venture park to help get that? Are you aware of that program the on demand service? I I am um I don't know I don't know we can we can uh relay that information to our clients and tenants.

I think it's it's really employee and userbased de you know request. It would be great if you could if we could work together to get that out to all the business owners so they know when they interview people if they don't have transportation that would be an option for them possibly. >> Happy to do that. Happy to work with Ellen and Matt and Andy on that.

>> All right. Thank you very much. Uh so that is well we were on the outside of the public hearing but that works. So

with all the questions being and asked what I will do is I will accept a motion to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute an economic development agreement with Welcome Venture Park LLC. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly seconded.

Well, we have a motion on the floor that's been moved and properly seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. >> I.

>> All oppose, please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> And that is it for our public hearings for tonight.

We are moving forward with our other business and that is uh advanced public comments on the uh fiscal year 2627 budget. Manager Hager. Good evening, commissioners. We will share uh with the board and community and those who are in attendance tonight um a few highlights about our budget process and some of the um opportunities

and challenges we face as we go into the development process of the 2627 budget. We have about 12 14 slides we'll share and then we will allow for advanced public comments. Uh we'll quickly talk about some documents that are in the resource materials within the website, share some expenditure and revenue highlights and then um talk about ways we can get public input. This is one of many ways tonight with the advanced public comments and then some next steps.

Um, next slide. And our budget is anchored on guiding principles and those principles have been established many years ago. And there are about 16 of those principles. We'll not go through all of them, but they follow our county's financial policies and our budget policies. um that reflect the

strategic and operational planning that's within uh how we do our business in county government. And we also make sure that we maintain adequate fund reserves in case there are emergencies. Again, there are 16 um principles. We'll not go through them.

That is in the supplemental document as well as at the end of the slide deck as well. Um we started our budget development process back in the fall um shortly after actually it's probably more summer um after we passed last year's budget because we saw the challenges we would face with this current year. There have been many shifts and changes at the federal and state level that implicate what we can do and how we can perform services at the county level. And some of that was brought up today.

how communities are very reliant on local government. Counties often are close to those services that many of our residents need each day. Um those

principles, all funded entities that received dollars went through a budget evaluation and that's continuing to happen. Looking at how they're funded, what dollars are locally funded, what's mandated, what's required, and then what's a priority because of community um support. looking at allocations to make sure that their alignment aligns with um general statute requirements whether it's a local mandate or board priorities as well as looking at how do we assess operationally managing the budget, looking at span of control, um benchmarking cost against peers where appropriate and many other ways to determine are we as efficient as we should and if there are shifts required in the future, making sure that we've thought about those tough questions ahead of that shift. Um, we've also been

looking at strategies, uh, contingency strategies in the event there are federal and state or local revenue shortfalls. And as we go into this and Mr. Lane will talk about some of those challenges, um, those those are most important. And of course, we've continued to look at how do we refine our key performance indicators as we help share with our community members what we do and why we do it.

Next slide. Our general fund is funded primarily um through property taxes and sales taxes. They comprise almost 80% of our budget. Um the next highest revenue is inter intergovernmental revenues at close to 9%. I did a quick look before I talk because this is probably the fourth time we've shared and that's I always try to find a new fact. 10 years ago in 2000 no 201617

97% almost 14%. 9%. So there's increased pressure on our property taxes and sales taxes. If you go to the next slide, we'll talk about our expenditures.

Counties and cities are structured with areas of focus for the county. Uh we have several key areas. Um, our budget is comprised of service level areas, many of which are within our human services, our public health department, um, our social services department, two of the largest human services areas, our office of the sheriff, office of emergency management, as well as the libraries. Those are the largest departments. We have uh about 2,200 employees and 2,300 when you count all of them for all funds.

Beyond um those key areas, education is the next largest functional area that we support and it has always been a tremendous um commitment from this community for decades to support education. We are among the top funded counties per student in the state and have maintained that designation for decades. Um Durham public schools, Durham Technical Community College and our commitment to preK cover those areas. And for a benchmark for that, uh, when looking at it statewide in the education function, um, it's about 25% across when compared to our peers across the state and we are at 35%. But again, that's a reflection of our values and our commitment to ensure that we support our talent pool that's coming along the pipeline. Next slide.

I will next transition to Keith so he can share some fiscal updates. >> Thank you, manager Ager. Good evening, commissioners. feels a little bit like a road show as uh the manager and I have had this presentation with various groups a number of times and I think the last one we had was with the board of education and I talked about being at an inflection point and I think we are as a county and I you'll hear me use that term and what I mean by that in summary is that the growth in revenue is not keeping up with the growth in expenditures and we're getting to the point if we continue doing some of the things that we want to do and have been doing that we are looking at property tax rate increases every year just to keep doing things.

So I call that an inflection point. What are some of the major issues that are happening right now for the county? We'll start with some intergovernmental revenue side of things. I noticed the manager talked about how that that amount as a part of the total general fund budget has decreased. It's going to continue to decrease. Part of the reasoning is is we're spending down our ARPA dollars and

we have some holes to fill because ARPA dollars are no longer available. prek support this for this year. 1 million, some preK support for DPS and some school health nurses. 4 million and that's 13 FTEEs.

This is a program that the county has had for decades uh that's now in in danger of going away. There are other state grants that are being uh reduced for public health uh $737,000 for child health grants. Some HIV and STI STI partner services is another uh 200,000. There's roughly another million dollar loss in revenue there or a reduction of services. We look at the Department of Social Services side, we're looking at a $2 million estimated

decrease in revenue funding because of a change in the cost share uh related to SNAP administrative costs. We're going from uh what was a 50% uh county cost share and 50% uh federal cost share is now going 25% federal and 75% county. That's a loss of $2 million in revenue. Some other bigger issues that may not happen next year but could happen in the year after that is some of the related to SNAP funding is related to error rates that the state is experiencing right now.

And all I want you to see is that circle down at the bottom. 5 million. that's not come to fruition yet and that error rate could stay under the uh the federal guideline minimum. But if it doesn't, this is potentially on the table. That's a major revenue loss.

Thank you. So larger revenue issues, we just went over intergovernmental revenues. Remember the manager showed you our two major revenue sources. Property tax and sales tax make up 80% of all our revenue.

Those are the key revenue sources that sort of drive everything that we think about. Economic growth in the county sort of drives sales tax growth. That growth is slowing and we see it in sales tax growth revenue. And I'll show you a slide in a few minutes that sort of exemplifies that.

Our local property market is growing. Uh and thank goodness it is, it's not growing quite as fast as it was five years ago. Um and even though it has grown significantly, there's still been some heartache and around revaluation process and how much that has hurt some people. So even when growth is a good thing, it has some issues with it as well. Oxy tax revenue. We talk about we're in the second year of a three-year decrease of that amount to zero as that money now goes to uh

Discover Durham, I believe. And that funding normally goes to support our capital projects and we have to find and make up that revenue somewhere else. Intergovernmental revenue we just talked about. Ultimately, what I would sum it up and say is we're seeing growing revenue variability.

What I mean by that is we cannot count on standard growth every year that you can then build build upon and feel comfortable with this. Our revenue growth is slowing. It's a little bit more chaotic and I don't see the chaos ending anytime soon at the federal level in particular and even at the state level. This is a complicated slide.

It's very impressive. David and I are really proud of it. All I need you to note is the blue columns. That is new sales tax revenue that the county experienced in that year to be used by county commissioners to pay for salary increases, to pay for health insurance increases, to expand funding for Durham public schools, to pay for new positions. What I'd like you

to notice if this little red is look at the amount of growth in the past three years, including 2627 versus previous years. It's not there. Remember, 80% of our revenue comes from property tax and from sales tax. And so, our second biggest revenue source over the last two years, and what I'm estimating for 2627 coming up, is practically zero.

$770,000 in new sales tax revenue is not enough to grow to pay for the cost of expenditure increases that the county has, much less consider new initiatives like EMS needing a whole new uh uh ambulance group out there, which is like two ambulances and 12 people. And we could go on and on about the different needs that the county departments has. Can't be funded with only $770,000 new revenue. property tax revenue. That's the other side of that 80% coin. That's the only

other place that we have as a county to find revenue, significant revenue increases. And what I'd like for you to notice there is again is the columns that matter. And the blue part of that column is growth in property tax revenue without a property tax rate increase. That's natural growth in property tax revenue.

and Ki can help explain that at a later date, but basically that we get natural growth in property tax revenue when new buildings get built every year, new houses come online, or a building that was half built gets completed. So, we're still growing in that natural growth. But what I'd like you to note is the green part of each of those columns, that's additional property tax revenue that the board has chosen to apply through a property tax rate increase to meet the needs, the expenditure needs the county has. And what I would ask you to note is look at the five years.

This is roughly a 10-year graph. Look at the first five years versus the second five years. And in particular, look at the last two years. The amount of additional

property tax needed by the county to support the services asked for by citizens and desired by the county commissioners has needed a significant property tax rate increase the last two years. What does 1 cent on the tax rate bring in? 8 million. Just have that in your back pocket.

Half of that. 4 million. 8. We're going back to the property tax rate increases.

What I would like for you to know is look at that little red circle down at the bottom of that middle table. The last two property tax rate increases for Durham County have been the highest tax rate increases percentage-wise in the last 30 years. We are at an inflection point where we're depending on property tax rate increases to supply the necessary revenue to meet the needs of Durham County residents and the board of county commissioners. The question that everyone has to ponder is, is that sustainable? I will also remind

the commissioners, I told you this at the board retreat, between the city and the county in the last three years, the property tax rate has gone up 20 cents or about 19%. That's not accounting for revaluation. So, literally everyone in the county or almost everyone in the county has had a a close to a 20% property tax bill increase between if you're a city resident. What are the 26 27 estimates looking like? 7 million in new revenue to

5 million in known expenditure increases. The way I would frame it is I'm already in a whole $5 million before I even get to even ground. I'm I'm in a hole I've got to climb out of just to get to even ground. And this does not include any expansion requests yet for education, which by the way DPS asked for 19 plus million dollars in additional funding from the county.

This difference right here does not include that does not include any expansion request for any county department yet. Nor does it increase sal include salary and benefits cost increase related benefits cost increases. So we have some hard decisions to make as a county. We are at an inflection point.

Again, you can always go back and raise the property tax rate and meet some of this difference, but there are hard choices ahead. What are some of the key budget takeaways? Slowing revenue and quickening expenditure growth. Economic

indicators point to potential for further challenges. It's a little chaotic out there. And I don't see that changing for the next two to three years. We need to consider long-term sustainability.

I say this every time. The decisions you make today have long lasting ramifications. And sometimes you have to make tough decisions now to ensure sustainability, fiscal sustainability into the future. We have to begin prioritizing early.

The manager and management team have done a great job of that along with our office and some other ones. We have some difficult decisions coming. We're going to have to say no to certain things or figure out unique ways to pay for certain things. We have to begin those strategic discussions immediately, which we are.

And we're looking forward to hearing from citizens about some of those strategic discussions we need to have. Manager spoke of briefly. We're having man mon monitoring quarterly reports for any earlier warning signs. I don't see anything terrible yet. We're not stretched too thin yet, but I am concerned and we're paying attention. We will uh need to probably to keep our

long-term sustainability fiscal sustainability in line. We'll probably need to limit some of our mid-year fund balance amendments. What does that mean? When departments come to you with a surprise request or something new that's exciting and they want to do, where do we find those funds?

We usually go to our savings account which is fund balance and we appropriate that fund balance to do it. We may need to be a little less a little more judicious in doing out those funds when they are requested and ultimately again we have to prioritize our long-term fiscal sustainability. What are some of the headwinds in the next five years? We've got a huge ERP implementation process to come.

get one shot to do that correctly and we need to get it right or it will it will hold us back for a while. So I know the manager is laser focused on that and want to make sure it's a success. ARPA backfill. We are going to have a lot of nonprofits coming to you that are going to be missing what was funded with ARPA dollars and expecting you to backfill. I just showed you one of the slides where

the count's already got to find close to $2 to $3 million of backfield ARPA dollars that we used this year and previous years. We have tax rate increases needed just to pay for the debt service on the 22 g bonds in our CIP. We have other areas of pressing that will need to be funded. the uh building renovations for Durham public schools, buildings for DTCC, renovations of some of our own buildings.

This detention center across the street while working right now is close to what 40 years old. Uh it gives me nightmares in terms of how much the cost of keeping that up or doing something new. So we have major issues also on a whole another side of the budget which is the capital improvement plan. We have to keep our fiscal foundation in order.

Keep our fund balance at the right levels. Keep our AAA bond rating so we can get the lowest interest rates possible. We have, and I'll say it again, there are a lot of state and federal changes happening right now. And it's a little chaotic. We have stagnating revenue growth. There's

a certain amount of mission creep in in Durham County. What I mean by that vers mandated services we have to provide versus the non-mandated services we like to provide. In addition to the things that we have to do, we've had a good 10, 15, 20 year run in revenue growth as we have matured into a hustling and bustling city. Those times may be slowing down and we may have to consider what services we support in the future.

We can are we going to support better the mandated services we have or we continue to spread our services thin and charge residents for the price of that sort of expansion of services. We have some macroeconomic changes. Inflation, goodness gracious, who knows what wars in the Middle East may or may not do in terms of costing us down the line in any number of different ways. And yet, we still have population growth.

But I will note that the population growth, and I think I slow showed you a slide, our our population growth is largely going to be in an older age group. It's not so much younger people. It's largely older

folks. And we'll have to figure out how that affects us. the budget calendar. We are currently uh in meetings and we're in the last stages of departments meeting with the manager and uh where they are requesting dollars that the manager quietly smiles at and says we'll see as she knows and has told them consistently we don't we have very few dollars available for the many requests.

Uh the key thing to note is that we will have a budget a Durham County virtual budget discussion on March 30th. Uh May the 11th is the key date where the manager will present to you the board her manager's recommended budget and then we will have a month of meetings with the board where you will discuss the manager's budget and make changes as you see fit and hopefully we will approve a budget on June the 8th. One last thing to note that the manager there is a I don't know what happened there but we have a budget survey that you can go find online. I know that I saw in the agenda packet, there's a link to that budget survey. So, even if you don't

have uh qu um statements you want to make if you're a resident of Durham County tonight or even at the virtual meeting on May March the 30th, you can always go to this survey and write down your your expectations, your wants, your hopes and dreams on that survey. And you can use this quick QR code to get there. And with that, manager Hager, I'm done. >> Thank you so much, Keith.

And those are our remarks and we welcome the comments. >> All righty. Um, commissioners, do you have any comments? We have one public comment tonight, but do we have commissioner comments?

Go ahead. Um, vice chair. >> Yeah, I know we've gotten variations of this presentation ourselves, but I feel like I always learn something new every time we go through it myself. I did have a question for uh, budget director Keith. I see him running away from us. Um or David or manager Hager uh where the just provide clarification the slide

that says you know from the new tax revenue growth of like new construction new properties of $10 million that's not like the net revenue or like balance to say okay we're building these new homes and these new families coming in but also we have to provide all those new families and new community members services. So it's not like the net of like taking out those costs because there is cost also that revenue. >> Absolutely. There's always costs indirectly or directly related to that new revenue coming in which is like yes you need more EMS >> ambulances out on the road for that.

>> It's also why you do economic developments. You hope to get certain buildings that have high dollar valuation that bring in high tax revenue but don't press on services quite as much. That's the wonderful art and science to mixing and matching residential development versus uh commercial development. >> Yeah. No, I just wanted clarification on that because I think when I was reading it, even though we've heard it many

times, I was just like so that folks aren't like, "Oh, that's $10 million that's just like up for grabs. That has no strings attached. " Yeah. >> Yeah.

Commissioner Berton. >> Yes. Um the question I have is about the ratio of commercial properties to residential properties like I know Kar you may know the answer like how many commercial properties do we have in Durham County? I know you shared that number before before and the number of residential in Durham or can you get that number for us? Again, >> I can get I can get the specifics, but that is close to roughly 10,000 commercial and then the rest will be residential. We're talking about 130,000

parcels. >> Yeah, that's that's not a lot. So, it's like we're depending on residential property owners to carry us. Correct.

Is that >> correct? Um, and then some of that's vacant land versus improved land. So, I have to get you the exact figures, but it is definitely about 10,000 commercial properties and that's that is improved and vacant. >> Thank you.

And >> I would ask that I'm sorry, Kio, real quick. The trend though has been that there's been more residential growth than com commercial growth and that is I think what you're getting at. The RTP used to be provide significant commercial property valuation when it was doing different things 10 years ago. Also office space um I think we talked about some of the the vacancies in the office space has caused the valuation of some of those commercial properties not to grow at the level. So what that does do ultimately is put pressure on residential property and the tax rate to

be supported by residential property to go up to make up for some of those losses. >> And so it's important to note as well although it's 10,000 parcels, we look at what's the value of those parcels. And so that's real important. And so our mix of valuation um of residential to commercial has been in a solid position over the years and we can um confirm that that mix.

Yeah, that'll be helpful because when talking to our residents, letting them know that's kind of where we are in Durham County, particularly when they ask questions around our commercial businesses paying their fair share and things like that. So, thank you, >> uh, Wendy Jacobs. >> Well, thank you. I appreciate that this um budget information is being presented

um and shared with the public. We received this at a budget work session and or budget retreat and I'm really glad I I think we we haven't really done this like this before with the public hearing. Did we do this before? >> It's been um the last time we did this was in 2015 16 but yeah so it's been 10 years.

Yeah, it's been a while. >> Okay. So, I appreciate that. I appreciate the survey um that you all are going to do this virtual meeting um and trying to make it as easy as possible for residents to receive this information and also to provide input.

So, thank you to our staff. Um, and I just want to say that our budget director is doing her his job. Um, but I I want to say to the residents that uh we understand that we are in challenging times, but this is a

national trend and Durham County is not isolated. We are part of what's happening in counties all over the United States. um just from a macro level. Um and also I would say especially in North Carolina where we have seen our state government since I've been a county commissioner since 2012, we have seen the state reneging on their responsibility to fund public education.

not just the operating costs and the personnel costs but also the capital improvements related to school needs, maintenance and repairs. And that is one of the biggest driving factors that we see when we looked at those numbers from the last two years of why there have been such high tax increases and why the budget needs were so high. and they have been directly related to funding for for

Durham public schools. So I think it's important that people see the bigger context here. Um, and I want to say on a positive note that we are also doing great things in Durham County to make sure that we have a diverse economic base to make sure that we are having good jobs here for our residents. Um, that's something that we, the county is very intentional about.

We just had the welcome venture park here. Um we are also um investing upstream in things like Durham prek because we understand that we have to invest in our future. Um and we are also trying to look at things like how do we uh create more tourism here so that visitors and other people can help support our businesses and generate sales tax

revenue. Um so I and related to what the manager said, I think it is important to look at the distribution of our um tax rate because compared to a lot of other counties, we actually have a very diverse tax base. Um and that's something else that we are very aware of and that's why we support economic development um in places like Treyburn and RTP and now the welcome park. Um so um I do think we and I also want to applaud what our staff does which is they go after grant funding.

Um they're fantastic at looking at all these other sources of funding. We saw that tonight as well. Um I want to also talk about our staff looking at redundancies and effectiveness and efficiency. We have to do that and

that's why we're looking at consolidating our 911 center. Um and these are all things that we'll continue to do. So, and Keith, we appreciate you um keeping us grounded, but I also want to really emphasize that we um it's not all gloom and doom and we're going to get through this together. And Durham is still very fortunate um in compared to [clears throat] other places um in the state and in our in this country and we will keep making the key investments that we need to do to have a bright future for everyone in our community.

Thank you, >> Stephen Valentine. >> Yes, Director Lane, thank you for your presentation. I just have three uh sort of questions. one, you keep referring to an inflection point. So, how am I to understand the inflection point in light of the larger discussion around property tax reform in our state? I mean, this is

a trend across our nation, but I believe there is going to be action in this particular area. And so, that's sort of the big elephant. And so, what what are what are we discussing relative to that? >> I'm not including that discussion.

And I know I've seen a few of those meetings uh on my computer screen that the state legislature has had and they are disconcerting at best from a local government standpoint. The inflection point I mean is just for Durham County in terms of its growth in expenditures and desires needs and particularly supporting Durham public schools. The ability to do that using natural growth and revenue has all but dissipated and we're at the point of needing property tax rate increases every year potentially just to handle some things that we used to be able to in the past handle with natural growth. That's the inflection point I'm talking about. When I take into account potential changes at the state level, constitutional amendments and whatnot, then it becomes

a whole different ballgame. It may limit your ability as commissioners to raise taxes, but it does not limit expenditure growth, right? >> And then we are looking at significantly scaling back the services we provide. If you're limited in the revenue growth that you have, >> that is my deep concern unless we bring in some magical commercial property valuations of sorts, which I'm sure we'll put a high um priority on.

But that that's a whole different ballgame what they're talking about at the state level. And I'm deeply concerned that as well-meaning as many of those legislators are, they do not understand the nuance and some of the possible downstream effects of some of the choices they are pondering at this moment. It is quite scary frankly. >> Yeah.

Uh thank you for that that context. I think that our our residents uh need to be aware. Second, you talked about the cost uh sharing shift as it relates to SNAP uh the SNAP program, SNAP benefits program,

and you also talked about additional costs that would uh the county would have to bear with regards to administrative error rates. I think that the part that our um citizens need to know is that that error rate is not just specific to Durham County. Is that correct? >> Statewide.

Yes, sir. >> Statewide. And so if Durham County is doing their part, >> right, >> doesn't matter. >> But other parts of the state are not, >> we will >> county is still going to be >> paying a price.

Yes. >> Paying a price. All right. I just want to make sure I was clear.

My colleagues just moments ago talked about tourism. And so some of our uh occupancy tax funds are are going to an alternate source with the thought that the return on investment in sales tax will will occur. um when do we believe that we'll have uh some return on our investment with respect to that? >> I am not quite the person to answer that question. Um I don't know when it will

be specifically. That's a long-term investment of those occupancy tax dollars. It remains to be seen how and when those dollars would come back to us and increase tourism. I can't answer that directly because it just depends.

So on the consent agenda today, uh, one of the items talked about, um, surplus surpluses in sales tax and occupancy tax for this year. And so some of that is coming back in addition to the small percentage that we're receiving today, right? >> Yes, sir. >> But in the out years, we'll be receiving nothing.

>> Correct. >> What does what is that outyear today? Well, next year 2627 or is it 2728 David? I think it's we built in the second year is 2627.

The third year we will go to zero in 2728. There will be no money collected. Okay. >> No overcolction, no anything that at that point the full 6 to7 million amount

I think that's roughly the estimate of oxygen tax will be going to Discover Durham. County manager, would you like to add anything with regards to that discussion? I would say that when the decision was made to shift those dollars to Discover Durham, the intent was to create a strategy so that years down the road, dollars would be um generated through expansion of um new infrastructure that would come to the community. I can respond as a as our liaison to the discover Durham board. Um right now there is a f a festival study going on also a sports facility study and also convention center. So these again are long-term investments but in the short

term they are going to be rolling out some um a grants program related to festivals this coming year. So there are some some things that are going to start happening um very soon very quickly uh that hopefully we'll see the direct benefits of soon but then there's some very long-term types of investments that are look being looked at. >> And if I may also add sorry about that um as the leazison for the downtown Durham Inc. uh board for the county.

I know that um Nicole Thompson has the state of downtown Durham coming up on April 22nd because some of the work of this transit uh of the tourism tax dollars is adjacent to the work of downtown Durham, Inc. to help support our local businesses in downtown Durham and the hotels. uh especially bringing in more folks to downtown to the hotels around the community, but then also getting them to support the local businesses and shop local and bring in generate more tax revenue. So, that's an

opportunity to also learn about how specifically in downtown um some of that work is going to be hopefully coming forward. >> Okay. >> I did have another question also. Um just wanted to note that well first wanted to piggyback off of a comment Wendy Jacobs sent and also a asking um for the budget document for our budget retreat.

I think could we add in the commissioner like priority documents to that um that county legisar page. So I think it would be also good since it's a lot of the documents of the presentations from staff but also for the community to be able to see like these are also the priorities the commissioners are bringing forward and advocating for alongside staff and the tax page um of showing the tax rate increases over the years that is solely Durham County right that is not the city. Yeah. And so what was the city last year? Because like I

know not everyone is in the city but most of our residents are in the city of like were we probably hit like close wasn't the city like three or 4% last year. >> It was a four or five cent tax rate increase. I think the net total between the city and the county was eight or nine cents. I know it was not quite double figures but within spitting distance.

So it was eight or nine cents total. I think it'd be and I know it's like again a city but maybe like in some of our slides like to include that also because we're not just these tax rate increases aren't just in a silo since we are this city county um community that the folks who are being hit with the county taxes majority of them are also being hit with the city tax rate increases too. >> Okay. All right.

So that was our comments. Now, our public comment comes from Carl Newman. [laughter]

>> Good evening, commissioners. My name is Carl Newman. I am here tonight in my capacity as the vice chair of the Durham County Library Board of Trustees. Um, it has been a big calendar year for the library because of course we got our new library system director, Dana Connors, who started on January 6th.

and I think that her uh budget asks for the library system were due around the time she knew which printer she printed to. Uh however, she has already had the opportunity to discuss with the board of trustees at the February meeting the library's asks for this year which I know are in your departmental budgets um you know candidly we've been good good kids in class um and made you know budget asks in line with what we know is and have heard why it's going to be such a tough budget year. I I just came here tonight on behalf of the board of trustees in support of the library system as you go through this budget process um to remind you of a few things about the library. The first of which is in the last several budget cycles they have been your fifth largest county department roughly flat in full-time

equivalents and that remains still the case. Um and in that time most recently in the last year we've added back Sunday hours which we are all thrilled about and I know the community here in Durham is too. However, that's just at main library and they have had to do that without any additional staff. Um, and the last thing that I do want to say, there's two things in the budget that you talking with Dana about the libraries asked.

One is um a facilities fee that is designed to do multi-year or sort of be a multi-year pot of money to work on projects for facilities expenses. Unfortunately, at Stanford El Warren Library and elsewhere in public library buildings, we sort of know that deferred maintenance sometimes becomes maintenance delayed and then actually now it's really expensive because we should have done it before. Um, and so I'd ask, you know, even to the extent you think of that as new money, we think it's really important for the library facilities as physical places that are sort of an extra room for everyone in Durham to meet. And the last thing that I'll say, of course, is um you know, we know that a budget is not a popularity contest.

But if it were, um if you look at just about any resident survey you've ever done, it'll probably tell you that the most beloved branch in your Durham County government tree is the Durham County Library System. And so we appreciate this body and board's uh support of the library over these last few years. Um, we would hope to enc encourage you to continue in that trend even what would in what we know will be a hard year for the county's budget. That's all I have to say.

>> All right. Thank you, Mr. Newman, and thank you for hanging in there with us uh today to um for the end of the meeting here. All right, that was for information, right?

Yep, that was for information. So, we'll move forward. The next item on our agenda is board and commissions appointments. Um, attorney Williamson. >> Good evening. We have two, three, four, five

boards here where we have um where the board has selected its candidate. Um, for the Alliance Board of Directors, the board has selected Vana Munchi. For the Durham Convention Center Authority, the board has selected Kamala Usuzel. For the Durham County Women's Commission, we have two positions available.

The board has selected Valerie Pum Thompson and Sarah Cunningham for the Durham Cultural Advisory Board. The board has selected Marylu Flowers Shown. And for the Historic Preservation Commission, the board has selected Nicholas Trapley. I apologize if I mispronounced your name.

Congratulations to all that were selected. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh, next item on our agenda would be for items pulled from the consent agenda, but we

did not have any of those. And the last item is the adjournment. Um, I get confused. Do we vote to adjurnn?

>> All right, I'll accept a motion to adjurnn. >> Some moved. >> Second. >> Has been moved and properly seconded that we adjourn.

All in favor say I. I. >> All oppose, please use the same sign. >> Passes unanimously.

We are adjourned. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you.