Good evening, we would like to call the City Council meeting to order on Monday, June 2nd, 2014 at 7 o'clock p.m. I certainly want to welcome all of you that are here with us this evening. If we could just take a moment of silent meditation, please. Thank you. Well, ask Councilman Brown if he would lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Madam Clerk, could you call the roll please? Mayor Bell. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Cole McVadden. Councilmember Brown. Mayor. Councilmember Davis. Yes. Councilmember Moffitt. Present. And Councilmember Shul. We don't have any ceremonial items. We have one item that we'll speak to after the Clerk has gone through our prior items. I would ask first, are there announcements about the Council? Recognize Councilman Davis. Thank you, Mayor. I want to just take a brief moment to talk about two people who are in their mid 90s who've done some outstanding things here recently. One of them is a lady by the name of Hortense McClinton. A couple of Sundays ago, she was featured on the National Public Radio program Morning Edition Sunday. And she had a delightful conversation with the host and talked about her rearing in Oklahoma, her education at Howard University, and the fact that she was one of the pioneering early African American faculty members at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She was very delightful. And those of you who would like to hear that interview, I suggest that you go to the WNC website or to the NPR website and place her name in the search engine. The other person I want to chat about is a gentleman that many of us know from many years, Mr. R. Kelly Bryant. He was featured in yesterday's Harold's Son talking about his work with Boy Scouts, but he is much more comprehensive than that. And there will be a program at the Durham County Main Library on June the 21st talking about how he has archived and documented much of the life and times and events and people of Durham in general and the African American community in specific over the last 75 years. So Mr. R. Kelly Bryant will be honored at the Durham County Library on June the 21st at 3 o'clock. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Eddie. And I appreciate you bringing it again into our attention because all of us know these people are. Portenses, as you indicated, is a Howard grad and she's a very faithful Howard alumni. So I appreciate the recognition and we all know Kelly Bryant and we're going to get his bridge lights on pretty soon. Finally, is that it? Okay. Recognize Councilor Mark. On a more pedestrian note, I'm going to be absent from the first work session in July. On July, I think it's 20, 24th. And I would appreciate an excused absence. Second. It's been a proper move in second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes 6 to 0. Thank you. Recognize the Mayor. I'm going to be absent too, but it's on city business. I have a national committee meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes 6 to 0. I assume that's the same date. 20th July. Yeah, that's the same. Okay. Any other announcements? All right. Members of the council. If not, I'd recognize the city manager for a priority. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. No priority items this evening. Likewise, the city attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No priority items. And likewise, Madam City Clerk. Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'd like to inform you that a supplemental item has been added to your agenda this evening. Item 35, resolution memorializing Dr. Maya Angelo. Okay. You all have a, well, first of all, entertain the motion when you see Clerk's priority items. It's been a proper move in second. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. You close the vote. It passes 6 to 0. We all have a copy of the resolution at our desk. And I won't read the complete resolution that recognizes Dr. Maya Angelo for all of her achievements. And I told the assistant clerk that I saw this evening that they are having a program for her to mar it with Forest University. So I don't know if we'd be able to get this up there in time or not, but we can check on that and see what happens. Thank you. The consent agenda items are items that may be approved with a single vote. If a council person or a member of the audience chooses to have the item removed, we discuss that later in the program and I'll just read as usual the heading of each one of the consent agenda items. Item one is approval of city council minutes. Item two is street and infrastructure of set acceptances. Item three is Phillips development and realty's realty's impact fee appeal. Item five is dedicated funding source performance audit dated March 2014. Item six are grants drawn down performance audit dated April 2014. Item seven is second amendment to Ninth Street infrastructure project development agreement between the city of Durham and CPGPI Regency Development LLC. Item eight is proposed conveyance of approximately .190 acres of fee sample to the North Carolina Department of Transportation at 753 Ellis Road, parcel number 156775 and 801 Ellis Road, parcel number 156779, Durham, North Carolina 27703 for the Eastern Connective Project. Item nine is plan year 2014-2015 benefits recommendations. Item 10 is historic preservation commission 2013 annual report. Item 11 is 2013 Durham open space and trails commission annual report. Item 12 is 2013 planning commission annual report. Item 13 is 2013 Durham Board of Adjustment annual report. Item 14 is Durham environmental affairs board year 2013 annual report. Item 15 is 2013 Durham city county appearance commission annual report. Item 16 is Windmere Ridge Town Homes category 4 failed development reimbursement and storm water facility agreement. Item 17 is contract amendment for ST 254 Fayetteville Road, Buxton Riddell project. Item 18 is city of Durham telephone system improvement project. Item 19 is execution of amendment 3 with linear parking systems of Durham LLC for parking management services. Item 20 is an item that can be found on the general business agenda. Item 21 is North Carolina Department of Transportation encroachment agreement for Irwin Road underpass lightning project. Item 22 is the water treatment plant residuals engineering services contract amendment number one. Item 23 is FY 2014 water reclamation program. Item 24 is amendment number four for contract 4668 and your avenue elevated storage tank design contract additional construction phase services. Item 28 is human relations commission recommendations to council on the allegations of racial bias and racial profiling by the Durham police department. That concludes the consent agenda items. I entertain a motion for approval consent agenda items. Second. It's been property moving second. Madam clerk, will you open the vote? You close the vote. It passes 6 to 0. The general business agenda. Item 20 Durham traffic separation study TSS. And I'm going to hold that. We have one person who wants to speak on that item. We're going to try to move to the next item. Since we just have one person, I want to entertain Dan. Come forth, Dan, quickly. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council for hearing my brief comments tonight here on behalf of and speaking for the Durham area designers of which I am president this year. We thank you for your diligence and deliberations on the proposed Durham traffic separation study and your consideration of the report. We thank you to all of you by Durham area designers and other members of the community at the public hearing held last October. We know that you have a recommended resolution before you tonight that asks your consideration of that final report. We also know that you all will be thoughtful and wise in your deliberation of how best to deal with that report. It is still our very strong and limited number of scenarios that were covered in the report are conceptual at best and that they are not recommended solutions. We do contend that some of those solutions at key places will be potentially damaging for Durham in terms of city development and livability. In the resolution, though, is language that we strongly support and that is that implementation will only be advanced with project specific studies and public engagement in collaboration with and approval by the city of Durham. We know from experience that often when a long period of time passes between when a report is completed and when implementation begins on those specific recommendations that those projects may not be subject to a robust re-examination and renewed community input. Durham area designers hope that it will be the council's intent that this will not occur in this study and rather we would endorse any actions by the city council and the manager to begin that process of project specific studies and good public engagement as soon as feasible so as not to allow as time goes on us forgetting about the important things in this report and to avoid potentially significant negative community impacts. Our Durham area designers team is ready and eager to assist and support the city council and the staff in any way that we can in this undertaking and process. Thank you again for the time and your consideration of this matter. Thanks. Thank you. No questions. I entertain a motion on this item. Recognize councilman Schuhl that I'll move the item. It's been a problem to move them from discussion on the question. Just briefly Mr. Mayor thank you so much. We had a long discussion about this reasonably long I guess I would say at work session and we've discussed it in the past. I'm going to vote against this resolution because I believe that we should not be accepting these recommendations. I know there are many caveats which Dan Joule mentioned and I really appreciate your words and support them very much. There are many caveats that these recommendations won't be carried out until we have detailed studies but I think every time we accept these recommendations which are not recommendations that our community generally supports then I think we give people more and more the idea that this is what's going to be happening and I think we ought to be doing that. I would prefer that we would just simply receive the report. I know after work sessions that's not the majority of the council but I did want to say that. I just will give one example. This calls for example for the closing of Dillard Street. I don't think that there is a majority of our community or majority of the council that will want Dillard Street closed and certainly we don't want people relying on that sort of thing in the future by seeing this. So thank you Mr. Mayor and I appreciate you let me comment. Welcome to further discussion. Here and on Madam Clerk we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes. I'm sorry. It fails. 3-3. That's the motion. Let's move on. Let's move to e-town hall constructions that I will be given as mentioned. I move that we receive the report. It's been properly moving second in further discussion on that motion. Here and on Madam Clerk we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes. Thank you. As many of you may know that tonight is our budget public hearing and this will be the second time that we are beginning a process called e-town hall meeting. We'll conduct our first e-town hall meeting to provide an opportunity for people who don't normally attend city council meetings a chance to weigh in on budget decisions and to interact with council members, city council members. These are very important decisions to determine how your tax dollars are spent on city services and programs. For residents at home some of you have already submitted your questions via e-mail, you can look into it and we want to thank you for that. For those in the audience you may submit your questions on the blue card on the table that's near the clerk. Over to the left. Staff will collect the cards with your questions and give them to tonight's moderator. This is a public hearing for those who don't have a question but have a comment about the budget. You'll still have an opportunity to comment following the e-town meeting which hopefully will wrap up about 8.30. You simply complete the yellow card as usual if you have a comment for public hearings. Again at the end of e-town hall I will conduct the public hearing which will be conducted as we normally do with public hearings. Now I'd like to introduce and welcome tonight's moderator. Ken Smith who is an anchor and reporter for WRAL TV and Ken will explain more about how it works. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Good evening everybody. Thanks for being here tonight for the second e-town hall meeting. I'm Ken Smith with WRAL TV and Fox 50. Joining me Mayor William Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Kora Cole McFadden, Councilmember Eugene Brown, Don Moffitt, Eddie Davis, Steve Shrule, Councilmember Diane Decacati could not be with us tonight. Deputy Manager Tom Bonfield presented the proposed 2014-15 budget to the city council at the May 19 city council meeting. After that the city opened the cyber doors via email, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to begin taking questions about what you'd like to see included in next year's budget. Tonight's e-town hall is part of the public hearing process to give you at home as well as in the audience a chance to get your questions answered. Over the past few weeks the city has heard from several residents about what's proposed in this year's budget from repaving streets to making repairs to parks and as well as fees that are charged for things like water. Now tonight we'll hear from city council members as they provide answers to your questions and hear your concerns before adopting the final budget on June 16th. As Durham and indeed the entire country slowly emerged from the recession, the city still faces challenges to ensure that there are enough revenues to cover expenses. In other words making sure that there's enough money to pay for everything that the city needs. That's where you city council and the city administration work together to make those tough decisions to meet city-wide needs. Now clearly resources are limited. Now city council wants to hear and answer your questions and concerns to make sure resources are used the way you want them to be used. So that brings us to our first issue and before we ask that first question we have a nine second video that we'd like to show you concerning the issue of sidewalks. Do you need a hand? Alright that video demonstrates the issue that we're about to talk about which has to do with sidewalks. Now this question reads I and my family have tripped many times on unsafe and badly broken sidewalks which are in desperate need of repair in front of our home. There's also no way that handicapped people in wheelchairs or in crutches or in walkers can get down our street because the sidewalk is in pieces. I asked the city council to increase funds to repair sidewalks more quickly. I hope the city council agrees that waiting years to repair this and provide safe access is too long and that something must be done to repair our sidewalks. Now how can we get a sidewalk along the edge of Eno Trace between Shadebus and Lacy River on Infinity Road built? Is there money set aside to increase the number of sidewalks in the Durham area in general? Mr. Moffitt, get started if you will. Well not to be glib. There's never enough money. We have along with sidewalks, of course there's you can point to streets and street paving, new sidewalk construction, those two areas right there. There's a lot of need and as you started out by saying the hardest task that we have as a council is to balance the services that the city provides with the revenues that we raise. Nobody wants to see their taxes go up and nobody wants services cut so we're always looking for how to balance that. Right now we have $100,000 in the budget for sidewalk repair but it wouldn't even begin to cover all of the sidewalks in the city. It's going to take a long time for us to get the city into a place where people don't find problems with the sidewalks on a regular basis. And interestingly enough that you mentioned the $100,000 because the email also mentions the $100,000 set aside they're asking to increase that to $200,000 a year and you mentioned that the funds are limited can that happen? There are a couple of ways that could happen. There is I don't know how much extra we have in the fund balance right now I'd have to look to our finance director for that number but as a one time expense we can't do ongoing expenses from the general fund the unreserved balance but we could look there we certainly have a number of demands that are similar to that a number of requests of people asking for things that are important to them we could also do it by raising taxes and we can do it by cutting other services but those are just broad stroke very difficult to actually go in and there's no spare $100,000 in the budget right now I mean every dollars accounted for. Thank you Mr. Moffitt our next topic streets we move from sidewalks to streets bumpy streets this email reads are still an issue in Durham how is the city addressing the need to fix bumpy streets and potholes in the city Mayor Bell Well there is a number that people can call it's 560-1200 and we know that there are many potholes throughout the city so we can address them as soon as possible when they are identified and I would suggest if you know of a street that has a pothole or you consider it to be bumpy if you would call that number then someone would be able to address it in terms of being able to take care of it and council members feel free to jump in on any of these topics if you will when I call out the mayor or any other council members it's just to give them an opportunity to get the conversation started yes thank you let me add a couple of points one picking up two on what my colleague said every budget session I tend to remind us and they know this that you begin with the premise in city government that we have more needs than revenues more needs than revenues every budget session and I've been here for ten now so then the question becomes and it is as Don says a very difficult one one of priorities where do you place your priorities so that's our challenge secondly moving back to the question about roads and this is unfortunately what the public does not understand quite often and that is we have both city roads and it's almost a euphemism now to say state maintain roads I say state roads because they're not very well maintained by our state even though that's our responsibility not ours and they're the main streets and quite often that's where we get most of the protest calls concerning bumpy streets or potholes or whatever not always some of them are ours there's no question about that but the public sees a street as a street doesn't see it as a city street versus a state street so that adds to the complexity of the issue and then my last point is sidewalks and I think we are sidewalk poor in Durham there's a deficiency here and I'm just going to confess part of this is my responsibility because when we pass the I think it was a 20 million dollar street improvement what four years ago, three years ago what we should have done at the time and it's always easier of course to look back but we should have designated a certain percentage of that street bond for sidewalks 5%, 10% whatever we didn't do that and we would have been better off now if we would have done that because sidewalks connect neighborhoods they connect people walkability is one of the key things that people are looking for now much more so than they were even certainly 10 or 15 or 20 years ago so thank you and that actually is our next issue in terms of people to do with traffic safety improvements and more specifically bike lanes this email comes to us and says my primary objective is to add one more voice to requests for more adequate funding for traffic safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists as a family we conduct the majority of our errands by bicycle which is indeed possible in Durham now those locations where adequate infrastructure like sidewalks and traffic lights are absent bike riding with children can become life threatening in any case now basically here's what this emailer wants to know that critical gaps between sidewalks as you just mentioned Mr. Brown critical gaps between ramps missing pedestrian lights and lights that do not switch automatically how do we solve this problem in the budget can funding for other seemingly less important areas and I might point out that this email says for example in terms of taking away money from the public affairs government television on which we're broadcasting tonight not sure how much possible that is but question being is there money in the budget can we make that happen Mr. Brown I'm coming at you again I think we've made some progress with bike lanes and certainly part of our focus too has been on trails like the American Tobacco Trail the bridge going over I-40 and so on we've made progress on Main Street in front of East Campus where that entire area was redone and it took almost a year to do it but now there's a designated bike trail Cameron Road Maureen Road Hillendale plans are underway to see what can be done on those three main arteries but again state versus local streets we can't simply demand that a bike lane be added to a state street then you've got to go to the General Assembly and go to the Department of Transportation you might as well be dealing with a Pentagon it's very very difficult do we need to do more yes are we doing more yes is it enough probably not so it should rise I hope with all my colleagues to a higher scale and it's interesting you say that because a lot of neighbors look at the street and say hey this is a Durham street but in actuality some of the streets aren't Durham streets they're state streets and like you just pointed out their protocols to follow in terms of bringing bike lanes to state streets you learn something at these meetings all the time let me just add to Councilman Brown's comments and I've been reminded that in terms of what the city is doing locally and trying to maintain its own streets we did increase our budget from $100,000 to $1,000,000 in terms of street resurfacing and paving so that's another piece that the city has undertaken to try to meet that effort Mayor thanks Mr. Brown, thank you too public safety this e-mailer is concerned about the press the media reported an increase in crime this year according to the police department it is mostly quote retaliatory crime not related to other crime when I have a conversation with staff in neighborhood improvement services we agree that blighted properties often lead to negative outcomes pertaining to public safety with that in mind does the amount of property tax allocated for public safety need to be increased to keep the city safe Mayor Bell public safety is a combination of not just police department but fire department etc. but I assume that people focus more on the police department presently our police department is staffed at this level that they are asking for in terms of sworn officers so in terms of the number of police that are sworn officers on the staff we're at the level and we're funding them at that level can you always use more money? because of trying to improve public safety I constantly remind others that it's not just a law enforcement piece alone it has to have a community involvement and we're trying to include that as a part of the effort as we try to increase public safety but specifically we're funding the police department in terms of sworn officers at the level that they requested as council members and as you make your way through many of the Durham communities are you finding that neighbors are getting more involved in terms of keeping their neighborhood safe? well let me say this it's interesting to raise that question because I just participated as did a number of my council members this past weekend at a town hall meeting in northeast central Durham and after that meeting was concluded I just happened to walk out and I saw some person sitting on their porch and I went over to try to get a sense of how they felt the neighborhood and this was on driver avenue and asked them did they feel more comfortable in the neighborhood did they see some improvements and to a person there were about six persons sitting on their porch and I said the fact that you're sitting on your porch says something to me you're right because maybe a year or so they wouldn't have been sitting here but their answer is yes they do find that getting involved and going back across the street to the town hall meeting to introduce them to some of the leaders to make sure that they were a part of the group that's going to be involved so I think community involvement plays a big part and will continue to play a big part in terms of improving public safety in our neighborhoods Mr. McFadden you and I know that neighborhood improvement services will be promoting bringing more citizens into our packs because that's where a lot of our preventive activity is held this is something that I believe Ms. Dantzels said at one of our recent meetings Mr. Davis Mr. Smith thank you as a new member of the council I've been very impressed with the number of neighborhood groups that have invited me and my colleagues to different events that they've held which show that people are rallying around their own neighborhoods and multiple neighborhoods in Durham so I think to help to answer your question yes many more people are doing that and that is during the spring I expect that there will be even more such activities as we go through the summer leading into and up to the National Night Out program that will be held in August thank you appreciate that solid waste the possibility of reduction of recycling due to position elimination of course eliminating positions or jobs this email comes into us now that the waste reduction coordinator position has been eliminated how does the city intend to coordinate local government agencies and community groups who are working on positive impact waste reduction initiatives in Durham and now that the environmental economic evidence based demonstrates that waste reduction pays for itself how does the city justify removing a coordinated position as a budget cut Mr. Davis well we listen to the proposal that came from the solid waste department and talked about that reduction of that position I think we are looking very closely at the idea that there will be many more groups voluntary groups as well as agencies that will be working proactively to try to make sure that there is a heavier emphasis on recycling and that we can indeed absorb the reduction of that position by having many more people in a community action method to try to make sure that we indeed do involve more people and also that there will be many more efficiencies within the solid waste department that will allow for that work to be done by others in the department and of course neighbors will have a suggestion on how you can work this out and this email says why not reduce 401k for employees rather than eliminate positions in solid waste well I think that certainly would be many ways that we could do things we could reduce salaries I mean we don't certainly don't want to go in that direction we certainly want to be a good employer we want to make sure that we give our employees the same kinds of wages and benefits that they would obtain if they were in the private sector and we certainly want to make sure that these benefits are there for them as they do the great work that they do for the city of Durham and one more note about solid waste this email wants to know can you clarify what it means for code enforcement to be done on quote react on a reactive basis well I just had a conversation with the city manager as we came in and we have been looking at trying to make sure that we look at different neighborhoods and different ways that we might be able to enforce the codes we're hoping that we can have a proactive method that might include keep Durham keep Durham beautiful and other agencies and neighborhoods to see if we can't be more proactive rather than reactive so that that code enforcement will come from the eyes and ears that we will have throughout the community from different agencies and communities Davis thank you Parks and Recreation is the next topic and of course I want to point out the half cent on the tax rate was discussed at a budget meeting last week to support maintenance issues and repairs at city parks and facilities to that end the e-mail comes in to us and it reads I am writing in support of increased funding for city parks maintenance in this year's budget even if it means a tax increase to pay for it I would also like to express my support for the development of a multi field sports complex for sports such as soccer and lacrosse this lack of fields not only costs Durham visitors dollars it also results in the overuse of both city fields and Durham public schools so please address this issue Mr. Schul thank you very much for the question it's a great question excuse me it's always nice to get support for something that the council is planning to do so it's great to get that get that e-mail I would say a couple of things about parks in this budget first of all there are two ways in which I think we're really going to improve what we see in our parks and the first is that we haven't passed this yet but there's a lot of support on the council for adding a half cent or about 1.2 million dollars in funding parks and recreation to address parks and trail maintenance and this would be allocated towards hiring staff who would mo who would fix all the little broken fences who would paint all the basketball goals that are unpainted fix up the all the many many broken things in our parks resurface fields make fields green that are brown and don't have any grass anymore all the kinds of maintenance that we need so badly in our parks we have I believe now 58 parks in Durham and it just is a tremendous job to keep them well maintained the same way it's an infrastructure question the same way we need to maintain the infrastructure of our streets and our sidewalks the same is true of our parks we have thousands of people using our parks and they've got to be in great shape the other way in which I think it's we're really including some really good things for our parks in this budget Ken is through our capital improvement plan we have about four million dollars earmarked for parks in this plan and people have been wanting in some cases for a long time and then some just important needs that we have for example we need to the Americans for Disability Act calls for us to comply with certain things in parks in terms of access and so forth and so we're going to be spending about 350,000 dollars this year in Valley Springs and West Point on the you know for that kind of thing if you've ever been to Twin Lakes soccer park which is one field it's an astroturf field it is rented 362 days a year that's how popular this park is and of course it's been played into oblivion the surface is no good there's problems with the fence and this we have 400,000 dollars in the budget to resurface that field so we can keep it playable we've got 1.5 million dollars for west LRB Creek Trail which is a really important trail in west Durham that many people want we have so much in the budget for parks 900,000 dollars for resurfacing Herndon Park which will make that park playable many more days of the year so we're doing a lot for parks in terms of the athletic complex I'm in favor of an athletic complex and I think many of us would love to see it I think we need a park another park besides Herndon Park south of I-40 where everything's happening and growth but my colleague Jean Brown the mayor and Don have all talked about the fact that they're trade-offs all the time so what we're doing first with parks is we're renovating and fixing up what we've got and hopefully we'll be able to do something new things in the future and staying with the whole idea of infrastructure this next email comes to us about pools around the community and we should point out that is a pool study going around underway that examines the placement of pools throughout the city and this email wants to know is there funding for a wall town swimming pool? so yeah thank you for that question as well great question we do have a swimming pool study that's going on now I think many of the people in the public know that Long Meadow Park pool is closed for this summer because of maintenance issues it's a dangerous situation with water in the electrical room there and so we've got a swimming pool study going on it's going to take into consideration all the locations of our pools a new pool is very expensive it's going to cost ten million dollars so again it's not something to be undertaken lightly but we're going to study where pools are needed we're going to study what we need to do to make sure that our existing pools are well maintained and we'll be able to I think when that park study comes we'll be able to give a better answer sure thanks planning that's the next issue we're talking about again if I'm ahead to that my colleague pointed out a good point in terms of the Long Meadow pool I think that's really tragic that that's not going to be open this swimming season of all the places in Durham that really need a public pool that's one of them and I don't think we're going to have a pool realistically at walltown we just spent close to ten million dollars there on the facility I'd like to see it utilize more often than it is but we need to take care first and foremost of what we already have and pools are very expensive and that Long Meadow pool is absolutely crucial for the young people of Durham particularly those in northeast Central Durham and the reason it's not going to be viable this summer well we've spent a lot of money there it's a question of hydrostatic water coming in through the walls into the electrical room which is located below ground we now have yet another analysis looking into it but it needs attention in terms of the safety of the workers who are there and I'm really sorry that we could not at least go one more summer using that pool I've got to tell you when it comes to pools and electrical situations we've done a number of stories in the last month of children being electrocuted or almost electrocuted as a result of electrical wiring around pools so that is a concern and that should be taken care of before anything happens alright planning and this has to do with staffing how does the citizen ensure their planning needs are prioritized in the planning work plan I've been waiting over three years for a study to be done on my neighborhood's local historic district designation each year it is not included because there's not enough staff but the planning department feels they don't need any extra staff help me understand in bold Mr. Moffett so one of the things that we do, we're a very democratic city and people can come to our council meetings it doesn't matter if an item is on for public hearing or not, if someone wants to speak on it they can sign up to speak and it's a very open city and one of the things that we do is we say look, if you want something and if you want a sidewalk, if you want a street paved you can do a petition and then bring it to us and we'll make it happen and the answer is yes that's going to happen but it's probably not going to happen as quickly as you think it will and we have a long list of sidewalks that have been requested and we also have two local historic districts that people have requested that be developed and brought to council for consideration one of those is in the Cleveland Holloway area the other one is in the Golden Belt area the Cleveland Holloway one the staff has told us that they believe that they will have that to council within the next 12 months and of course one of their challenges is that they need to bring what we're going to do is to bring us a plan that has broad community support and that's not as simple as simply drawing boundaries there's a the second thing that's going on that they're working on in that area the planning department is that there's districts all over the city but each one has slightly different rules so they're trying to do a consolidated set of rules so that it's simplified for the historic preservation commission and for the districts themselves it's easier to understand so they're trying to get these rules finished then bring Cleveland Holloway forward and then work on Golden Belt and we're looking at that we're trying to figure out if there's a way that we can help on a one time basis to move these two historic districts to completion this year and we're going to do our best so to this email's point there is adequate staff it's like everything else the planning department has a very long list of things that they want to accomplish that we want them to accomplish and so they don't have enough staff it's what my colleague councilman Brown was saying at the beginning there's always more needs than there is the funding to pay for those needs the question is always where down that list do we stop this year we're going to spend to get to that point and so if we look at them we divide them into the critical issues and the important issues they have enough to deal with the critical issues and hopefully some of the important issues but not enough to get everything on the list done this year Ms. McFadden in defense of planning a lot of what happens and I do understand that he does have adequate staff because he said it over and over there is a layer of decision making and the whole process I think that holds up progress and staff has to spend an inordinate amount of time on that layer and that's something that I'm hoping the city and county managers will be talking about very soon I'm not going to call the name of that layer I'm on it Ms. McFadden I appreciate that all right Mayor Bell you've made it known about your poverty initiative and this e-mailer wants to know they understand the need to address poverty throughout the city how is the city funding that initiative I assume that the writer is speaking about the joint effort between the City Council and the Durham Public Schools to reduce poverty by neighborhood year by year starting in 2014 and we started this process first by saying we aren't speaking about adding more money to what's already been spent I'm not saying that somewhere down the line those things might change but it isn't a matter of trying to find more dollars it's trying to make more effective use of the dollars that we're already putting into those areas and towards that end we've defined six areas that we're focusing on health safety, housing, jobs and finance some of those are under the purview of the city some are under the purview of the county some are under the purview of the Durham Public Schools so let me speak specifically to the city schools I mean to the City Council public safety, housing and to a certain extent jobs are pretty much what the City Council is involved in and to that end what we're trying to do is to focus on those areas through task force to come up with ways to do that in terms of poverty in general we are really focusing on those areas already I mean if you look at what's happening in certain parts of our city in terms of housing if you look at the fact that we've spent a lot of times focusing on crime in those neighborhoods that have experienced larger disease of crime than other we're doing that if you look at housing, our neighborhood improvement services is working to deal with court enforcement to make sure we have houses that's meeting the codes of our city that are related to poverty but specifically we've chosen a particular part of the city Norfolk Central Durham a particular section of Norfolk Central Durham that we are beginning to focus on on this program of reducing poverty neighborhood by neighborhood year by year 2014 and we'll be defining neighborhoods that we're working in because what happens there can be a blueprint for what you can do elsewhere exactly and that's what we're hoping and what I've said over and over again in these specific neighborhoods it doesn't mean that other neighborhoods might benefit from some of the things that we find out that will spill over to other neighborhoods so while we focus on these neighborhoods it doesn't mean that the boundary line says that other neighborhoods couldn't be doing some of the same things that we are going to be coming up with but this is a long-term project I think it's important for people to realize that sure and if I may this email talked about funding but it isn't always about funding when it comes to reducing poverty is it it's not you know if we spoke specifically about poverty and that relates to income these ways fix it is go out and find all the people that are in poverty that below income find money give it to them and take them out of poverty but that isn't the solution the underlying causes which contributed to poverty and things that we're looking at and trying to focus on in some cases it may mean more money but we aren't starting off with the premises that we're going to put more money and we're first going to try to find out how we are changing the mindset this next topic is Ken can I make a comment on that as well Mr. Schulfield I just wanted to say the mayor has modestly said that this is an initiative of the city council and the county commission and school board in a sense it is but I think we I feel that the community owes him a debt of gratitude for putting this on the front burner I think we all know that Durham is making incredible strides in many ways but we also know and we've all known that there are a lot of people in Durham who do not share in that and I think what the mayor has done is to say that to the whole city and his state of the city speech he has rallied the troops he's gotten the committees established he's gotten our city staff involved there's a process going on people are coming to our committees they're rallying to it and I just want to say you know I've I've seen other big projects that the mayor has has started and you know he pushed a difficult risky ones to merge our city and county schools which we did successfully and it was hard the risk of building the D-PAC the south side neighborhood which I think is going to end up being a tremendous success and all of these are risks and I think that the mayor has led and I don't while I appreciate his modesty on this I think putting this in the foreground putting this in the forefront of what we're trying to do here in Durham in a way that's in everybody's consciousness that we're going to try to fight poverty here in Durham and that we have a strategy to do it it isn't going to all work out perfectly you know we've got kind of an unwieldy structure and who knows how it's all going to go but I can tell you that having it in the forefront of everybody's mind is a big difference in the way people are thinking about focusing their resources and so I just want to thank you Mr. Mayor and say I think it's already making a big difference thank you Mr. Schuyl I'm going to add to that too very briefly which is that I want to just sort of describe for a moment so that people understand it's not just people getting together and talking about this but of these six task forces some of these are for example I work on the health task force at least among everybody who's on that but they come together and they've been working like this partnership for Healthy Durham so we're looking at it we're trying to look at it in a different way and to say what is there some kind of disruptive technology if you will something that's low cost it's replicable we can replicate it across the city and that it's scalable but other of these task forces are people who are coming together for the first time and really beginning to think about how to deliver services in a different way and so it's very exciting to me to see what's going on and when we started this I didn't really know where we were going we still don't it's one of our models is to embrace ambiguity but like Councilman Schuyl said I have the debt of gratitude and excitement about the discussions that are occurring already that's my offer thanks you know I always have to say something great about this great mayor but one of the things that I'm excited about is the opportunity that this initiative will give us to actually uncover and to confront the institutions that drive poverty in our community and the same goes with homelessness there are institutions policies practices that cause us to be where we are and when we see them we need to make sure that we try to do something to eradicate them thanks Mr. McFadden because I'm coming to you next because this issue is really important to me as well because I do a lot of volunteer work with our church after school program so I recognize the importance of what we do to ensure that our children have choices because I don't advocate let's educate our children but I really believe that what we do puts our children in a position to have choices and make those choices what opportunities this email wants to know what opportunities are out there that the city might be providing to engage our youth and this one I'm very proud of the establishment of our youth commission almost ten years ago ten years ago to advise us as elected officials on those kinds of issues that youth see as being important to them so we have in place a group of young people who can actually share with us what they see is our needs now they were sort of quiet this past fiscal year so we've got to pump them up this coming fiscal year because I know we have some vivacious youth coming on our youth council this year but they and as I look in the audience I don't see any maybe there are some I don't see any youth in the audience that's sort of typical of what we see throughout the community and I think that's why we probably lose so many youth because they are not involved in their own planning the other thing I know that we have that is probably most popular is the summer youth program the youth employment program I think we received over 1700 applicants this year and we've interviewed I know close to 500 applicants and they would be placed in parks and some throughout city hall and with employers throughout the city what they need to do and I will make this call is to ask employers throughout the community to either hire or contribute money to the city so that we can hire our young people in positions we cannot force employers to hire but those of you who shop wherever can ask your merchants do you hire young people and the answer is yes keep shopping with them if it is no that will give you a few options but anyway it's very important that we shop with people who really care about our youth I always find that because I do so much work with young people that it's so important to make sure that they are vested in the process how can we encourage them to become vested in the process because we will try to pave the way but how do we get them involved how do we get them sitting out here how do we get them knocking on those doors to find those jobs how do we get them involved in the process well they are already involved they are just not here tonight but I do know I do know that they've been involved in the interview process they are aware of the jobs and so they will be doing that I am the advisor to our youth commission so in the upcoming year I will as I said do whatever I can within my role as city council not overstepping that boundary to make sure that they are pumped up and ready for action to recruit young people who actually who actually want to do some work and who will question us on stances that we take and I know at least three that I've recruited who are just waiting for the opportunity to come before us and make their demands known an example please time me an example is a couple of years a few years ago they said they wanted a team center and so we do have a team center that team center is right across the street from the Lyon Park community life center and I just hope that more teenagers in the ages well grades 9 through 12 will participate in that facility it is awesome they planned it and they have some good programs going on there for example of teens and young people getting vested in the process thank you I got to tell you that downtown Durham has come a long way I moved here in 2000 working for capital broadcasting and I got to admit I rarely came to Durham but now I look forward to coming to Durham because not only there are things to do but you have a great food restaurant scene in Durham that I really like Mayor talk to us about downtown development and what is on the horizon you said it all and I am going to share this with other colleagues on the council in response to this there is no question that we made great progress and the revitalization has been through public-private partnerships that has made this happen but I am going to turn this over to councilman Brown and let him further elaborate on this thank you Mr. Mayor well I guess I can speak as a native of Durham and growing up here downtown believe it or not used to be called the city of exciting stores and people would come here from the entire area to shop obviously that is no longer the case but when I moved back to Durham after a 15 year hiatus period downtown Durham was more than just a sleepy town it was at night too was a place to almost be avoided and one of the goals that we recognized up front was that to breathe life back into any urban area into a downtown area you need citizens to live there and so that is what is happening and we are very pleased to see that going on the I think part of the question too related to parking and will there be adequate parking for those who visit downtown I think that is an exciting question to even ponder as one who has seen the transformation of this city especially our downtown their hotels going up I think I see four new hotels and by planning rules and regulations we require adequate parking for the guests the vast majority of those will be overnight parking so they were not necessarily in a fear with people who want to come to downtown during the day and for esteemed dining experience as well as D-PAC and the Durham Bulls list can be expanded so I really don't see this in some ways I hope it does become a problem four or five years down the road but I don't see that now it's a major problem we are just exceedingly excited about seeing what is going on here I know for citizens me being a citizen parking is always an issue and I'm always concerned when the issues are focused on our visitors which is fine parking for the hotels and what not but for everyday citizens coming downtown being able to partake in the restaurant scene the parking for them what about that which could be a problem well they may have to walk a block or two and there's certainly nothing wrong with that this really goes back to the crux of the matter in terms of what we have done here is the mayor alluded to with our public private partnerships because if you're out in suburbia and you're building a parking space open area flat ground that space will probably cost you anywhere from $2,500 up to $3,500 but in downtown where land is scarce you're going to pay four or five times more for that parking so that's one of the driving elements of why we had these the partnerships that we had to have I mean parking is no question about it it's absolutely crucial but I think we are addressing that issue and again I don't want to be redundant but it's a great problem to have as someone as a native of Durham and seeing the positive transformation Thank you Mr. Shul and then Mr. Moffat okay thank you I just wanted to add one thing to that which is that I think one of the things we want to do and these are questions that you alluded to earlier one of the ways we reduce the need for parking downtown is to increase the walkability of downtown and so that and increase our bike lanes and improve our trails and add more trails so that people are coming to downtown in other ways and are traveling through downtown in other ways and I think that we're going to be doing that we have for example the Belt Line is a railroad line that Norfolk Southern owns that goes through downtown Durham and we have long coveted that as a possible trail it's no longer used as a railroad line and there's a lot of work in the city both in the part of the government our city government and the part of private interests to try to figure out a way to make that happen all those things can cut down on the need for parking and then the other thing about parking is this it goes back to so the theme seems to me to be kind of the same in a lot of these questions which is there are a lot of things we want but we also don't really want to pay more and so that's where this is constantly negotiated and several of my colleagues have referred to this but we got to have unlimited parking if people wanted to pay it for any of their tax dollars or parking fees so we just have to figure that out in a way that is as wise as we can and we're constantly kind of working on what that edge and that limit is and say as I'm sorry that you live in Raleigh if you would like to come here to Durham we would welcome you and there's lots of fabulous places to live here lots of great neighborhoods to live here in Durham Ken so come on over anytime thank you sir for the invitation Mr. Buffett so Councilman Schultz exactly right but I want to add a little bit we have a lot of parking we have a lot of going on downtown a lot of people know this but we've got many nights during the summer there are baseball games there are events at the Performing Arts Center there's performances at the Carolina Theater there are free music on many nights in American Tobacco at Brightleaf at the CCB Plaza and yet we have three decks at American Tobacco and three more decks around downtown as well as surface parking lots and even with all these events it's very rare that any one of these decks is full so there's plenty of parking there's no excuse and once you leave your car the atmosphere downtown is great it's a great place to walk and to promenade and to see all the other folks thanks a lot Mr. Brown, I saw your hand so I was just going to add a couple of things I think some of you don't want to hear this but eventually we're going to have parking meters in downtown Durham to help subsidize the very expense of renovating our current parking garages we also have a free bus system now that we instigated about three years ago which goes from Central and Duke to downtown Durham as well as to Durham and then I think Steve is right if we can encourage more bikers to come to downtown and perhaps have more parking for them in terms of bike racks but I'm not saying motorcycles necessarily they're on Ninth Street the left bank as we call it but anyway I think Donna that's a good update of all the problems we have or challenges I should say that we have in Durham finding a place to park is not very high on our list because there usually is parking what's wrong with walking two or three blocks? Thank you sir. Mayor Bellarmine really quickly give you the last word tonight at an E-Town Hall meeting concerning the Southside Development project and what about other needs for the homeless? Well I think that's a great question also and I think it's important for people to realize what's involved in the Southside project most people know it as Rolling Hills, Southside and etc what we wanted to do was to do something that would be transformative and a larger scale we did something very successfully over on Barnes Avenue Eastway Village Eastway Avenue about 40 houses affordable houses now it was all low income a lot of illegal activities going on our rental units very few homeowners and the city undertook to two blocks up and now we have a very quality type development we wanted to do the same thing over in Southside and Rolling Hills we wanted to do something that would be transformative but the surrounding area and I think we've seen that come about in terms of what's happening now in South Street I think at the end of this week we'll have sort of a ribbon cutting for the first homeowners in that area so looking at Southside and looking at it in the context of just it some people may think it's too much but I think when you look at the quality product that's going to be there not just for the people that live there and when you look at are we taking away from any other projects by doing this such as the homeless and my answer to that is no we continue to fund those projects and as we move from one phase hopefully we'll be able to do more but Southside needs to be looking at in terms of what it will do for the city in that particular area and I think hopefully by end of the summer certainly by January it'll be a pride of joy for all the people not people that just live there but the city of Durham you can see it now sort of transforming the skyline as you come into the city and it's going to be a quality project could you do it for less probably not could we do want to spend less money you always want to spend less money but you want to have a quality product and that's what we want to continue to do it's a very difficult site to deal with it's no question that the rain has really hurt us quite a bit it's hurt a lot of construction projects but it's going to be a quality project that's transformative that we can all be proud of all right Mabel thank you and thank you everybody for attending tonight's e-town hall meeting it's been helpful to council to be able to address your concerns if your questions were not answered make sure to check the city's rep site www.durhamnc.gov www.durhamnc.gov www.durhamnc.gov the council will be reviewing all questions and suggestions and responses will be posted your continued involvement throughout the budget process is not only welcomed but also encouraged stay connected via the city's Durham's Facebook page Twitter page and on the website all resources documents referenced tonight regarding the budget can also be found on the city's website once again thank you for coming and for caring about your local government and now turn the meeting back over to Mayor Bell well thank you Ken and we certainly want to applaud you and thank you for your participation okay we're going to continue the public hearing on the budget the process is that if you have questions or comments you'd like to make if you would go to the clerks table and sign one of these yellow cards meanwhile I have about nine cards that people have already signed up to speak I'm going to ask a few as I call your name if you come to my right to the podium where the moderator just left and let's give minutes to each one of the persons who want to make comments on the budget the first is Charlie Reese, is Charlie Reese present next is Steve Hopkins is Steve Hopkins present next is Gwen Silver James O Williams Williams present Donald Bryson V Peterson Peter Skilling Larissa Sable Tevin Armstrong and Charlie Reese had signed up already I see there's another card but again this is a public hearing is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item that has not signed up if so if you go to the clerks desk you can do so we have a clock in front of you with a three minute time limit and if you have prepared remarks that you would like to leave with the clerk please do so thank you good evening Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Colle McFadden members of the city council city manager of Bonfield and the rest of the staff here tonight my name is Charlie Reese I'm here as a member of the coordinating committee of Durham Peoples Alliance and first and foremost I want to take a moment to praise this budget and all the hard work that went into putting it together with one notable exception that I'll get to in a moment this is a good city a good budget for our city you've kept our bus fares low so that those who use our public transit system to get to work can afford to continue to do so you've kept the penny in the property tax rate for affordable housing projects so that there's a place in Durham for families of all income levels you've maintained the tiered water rate system to promote affordability and conservation this is a budget that is closely aligned with our community's values Durham Peoples Alliance also supports the new proposal to add half-cent to the property tax rate for maintenance of our public parks and trails this is a vital measure of the most well-loved and well-used public spaces in great shape but if you think of this budget as an orchestral piece of music there's one jarring note of discord and that's the solid waste fee Durham Peoples Alliance strongly urges you to repeal this regressive fee in favor of a small increase in the property tax rate like you Durham Peoples Alliance is committed to keeping Durham a place where families of modest means can afford to live regressive measures like the solid waste fee to make it that much harder for working families to make ends meet in a time of stagnant wages and when a great many of our neighbors here in Durham are living in or at a below the poverty line every dollar makes a difference the alternative, an increase in the property tax rate of about half a cent this small increase aligns more closely with the progressive values embodied by the rest of our city budget progressive values that are firmly held by the people of Durham would pay less if the solid waste fee were repealed and replaced by a small property tax increase I know that this council has been incredibly vigilant in fighting to keep Durham's property tax rate as low as possible but all of us must acknowledge that our cities become nationally recognized as a fantastic place to live and to work not because of our property tax rates but because of our world-class universities our robust business community our outstanding public schools our art scenes are thriving restaurants and nightlife even our 2013 international league champion Durham Bulls and yes because of our city's commitment our steadfast commitment to our own progressive values none of this will be outweighed by the consequences of repealing this regressive solid waste fee this is a good budget for Durham repealing the solid waste fee will make it even better and most Durham taxpayers will pay less thank you Steve Hopkins Steve Hopkins 105 South Benjamin 27703 and I really just came to thank our mayor for being at the northeast center Durham town hall meeting along with councilman sure and councilman Davis it surprised me that you stayed out the whole time and we really do appreciate that the community thought that it was important that you heard what they had to say and you did and you will get a report on it and I wanted to say that I also support more sidewalks because we've been screaming about sidewalks in northeast center Durham for the last 20 years and you know we're still screaming and councilman brown parking meter okay next is Gwen Silver mayor pro tem members of the city council and administrators it is exciting time to be living in city of Durham a time of great revitalization in a downtown area and I commend the council for the work that you've done and for the great responsibility that you shoulder to guide the city I want to highlight a couple of areas of concern and those that I hope that you will consider number one parks and recreation I hope that we can begin a discussion about ways in which they can generate more income and more revenue we can consider for example how can we get programs out about parks and rec when such programs are being paid for by people who live in Durham for their children to attend camps I have some information about the I-9 program and I have a grandson that's taking a clinic at wall town and find out for parents and know that parks and recs offer the same programs as I-9 camp we want to promote the centers that we already paid money for Houghton Center is basically a ghost facility the walls are never dirty the floors are spotless and we need more to get the community involved and offer some programs and services that they can take advantage of collaboration we have a district one resident Mrs. Lewis Johnson of sewing class that didn't get off the ground we don't know what happened but she was going to offer that class for free which meant that all the participant fee would have been revenue that could have been generated for parks and rec Stone Hill Estates a failed development the last mine paid for roads we made great increases in city streets and they're doing well however we have a number of residents who have been waiting 10 years for infrastructure to be done and for paving to be done I have a copy of one residence who at the end of the driveway before you get to the street there's a big pothole which means that every day 365 days a year two or three times a day they have to maneuver around the pothole to even get out of the driveway that needs to be addressed they will wait at 10 years many funds have been appropriated for other things but this development does need attention solid waste revenue in a recent CIP meeting I learned that the commercial division that empties the dumpsters has been discontinued other businesses are operating those trucks and they're operating and they are making money what happened that we got rid of a division that was revenue generating and that's only happening gotta speed up we want to promote some of the things that they could be done to bring in revenue for the city and that's probably tying into what's going on on the state level the mayor's poverty initiative Mrs. Johnson made this scarf for about a dollar this one sells at a maces for 22 dollars we're hoping that as we teach some of these classes we can better help residents not only get a job but how to also save money by doing things for themselves we want to move forward to implement a new budget please remember Stone Hill Estates and those other people who have been waiting years for distant streets thank you so very much James O. Williams I'd like to say good evening mayor and members of the city council I'm James O. Williams president well not president home under association president for Stone Hill Estates we have a packet in front of you dealing with the streets of Stone Hill in the last two years the clerk itself has also photos of in 2012 to 2014 the situation itself the city happened to drop the ball when it came down to the bond dealing with the developer as we found out the developer went bankrupt and the city itself when I pick up the ball want to pass everything on to the residents themselves 451 homes in Stone Hill as it stands I have seen in the last three months 25 houses go up for sale talk to the folks themselves they are totally disgusted with the streets themselves deteriorating like they are we get no city services but we pay our taxes that's for sure the whole thing in a nutshell I like for you to put this in the 2014 budget to get these streets research final surface because the streets themselves from the curb itself can be anywhere from an inch to three inches apart and dealing with the manhole covers the plates in the street potholes it's really destructive I mean I just look at it myself spending almost $1,000 for a set of ties dodging in and out and other people doing the same thing it's not fair and the past the fee itself to resurface the final surface of the streets themselves onto the residents that's not fair the two biggest investments you make are your home and your automobile when you sign on that dotted line and you walk away everything is taken care of this is a situation I've been dealing with in September of 2007 the whole situation has been going on for the last 10 years I would greatly appreciate it if the city itself city council itself would look into this deeply because we need our streets and we also need city services when it snows we get no services you gotta help your neighbors get up and down the street so far as where I live it's a tree in court and low stone the truck comes down to the tree and low stone makes a U-turn and go back because of the plates in the street it's only ridiculous it really is and I would appreciate and also all the residents if something could be done as soon as possible I mean everybody else has gotta raise but we still getting stepped on the whole thing they're not sure I greatly appreciate you listening and I would appreciate if you look at I mean the clerk has over there and another example so far as city officials Mr. Robert Joyner it was in 2012 this issue was supposed to have gone to the judge I believe in Greensboro and for determination on the situation I called Mr. Joyner from December January 2013 he never responded nor did he send me an email and I called basically every other day at least three days a week from the time that we were told I was told this so you know I don't see what it could be so far as someone responding the common courtesy of a phone call or email doesn't hurt anybody thank you Donald Bryson Good evening City Council Mayor Bell thank you for the opportunity I want to apologize about the transparency of the budget process here in Durham my name is Donald Bryson I'm the Deputy State Director with Americans for Prosperity Could you give your address to please I'm sorry your address we're a statewide organization my address is actually 424 Johnson Street Garner North Carolina but we're a statewide organization and I'm here on behalf of the many, several hundred activists we actually have in the city of Durham who are concerned about the property tax increase within this budget we're an organization that advocates for values that we call economic freedom and we think that a property tax increase within this budget isn't good, it actually hurts economic freedom and increases the tax burden obviously on citizens of Durham our actors are very concerned about this we think that there are other priorities that could be shifted around within the budget reliance on tax incentives and other financial incentives for businesses and businesses to move into Durham are a bad investment for the city and perhaps some of those that funding could be used to help shore up sidewalks in underfunded areas or socio-economically disadvantaged areas or for the Parks and Recreation Department rather than increasing property tax it's harmful to property owners and if you're looking for business owners or people to come in to Durham and buy houses in a recovering housing market increasing the property tax doesn't make that more attractive this morning Durham News reported that if you implement this tax increase of the eight largest cities in North Carolina Durham will have the second highest tax burden that's not attractive to business owners it's not attractive to new homeowners the property tax increase and if you're about the business of revitalizing and bringing prosperity to Durham the best way to do it would be to try to trim the fat out of the budget and try to take care of actual the base services that are needed for the city and while you're doing a study of where pools should be people aren't able to get around on the sidewalk and you're increasing their property taxes we think that you have a very open process for how to discuss the budget we just think that priorities can be moved around and I think that's a great thing thank you for your time you're welcome V. Peterson yes I'm Mrs. Peterson Victoria Peterson and you know everyone's been thanking thanking different folks here in the city government and persons working on different projects but today I want to give Mr. Baker a hug and a kiss I think his team did an awesome job for this community and very few of you here and those who are listening you may not know what their team did and I'm not going to spend all my three minutes but I just want to share this with you they say this community millions and millions of dollars dealing with a lawsuit that was filed against this community and Mr. Baker and your team I want to say thank you to you publicly in this city council for standing up for this community that at the end and at the long run save this community again millions and millions of dollars that we could have had been made by the court system to pay a group of young men that came into this community and literally broke the law but got away with it and that's all I'm going to say about that but thank you Mr. Baker and your team I want to talk a little bit about again about the crime and what we really need to do in this community to address it we have so many young men that fell through the education system in this community and for whatever reason years ago somebody came into this community and perversed them and encouraged them to sell drugs to make money when young men and women do not have skills and talents and they cannot get a job they start getting involved in deviant behavior because a lot of times what happens our kids fall through the cracks and my time is moving going real quick here I would like the city council to bring in some individuals to create a training program an ongoing local training program that our young men get a stipend over a two to three year period they receive a stipend every two weeks as long as they're in school they're being trained for a job and also a job that has hired them that company cannot pay them fully but the company can half pay them and the city can kick in the other half that would give a lot of our young men who are caught up in the criminal justice system a lot of the young men who are out stealing they're breaking in folks houses because they do not have the finances and the skills that they need to take care of their sales and their family Mr. Mayor that would really have an effect on the poverty in this community and thank you very much Peter Schiller I'm Peter Schiller and I'm a resident at 2615 Indian Trail I'm also representing re-investment partners as executive director at 110 East Gear Street we're a non-profit advocacy and community development agency working for economic justice we work for the betterment of people in the community that serve those people in places and I've come today to talk particularly about the policy of sidewalks and investments we've invested about with the city's help about 1.5 million dollars into the East Gear Street North Roxborough corridor for commercial and residential redevelopment as well as providing a number of human services and one of our biggest challenges is having the sidewalks repaired we've put in about $10,000 sidewalks help our transportation for low income residents who don't have cars sidewalks are important for compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act sidewalks provide a quality of life they show that there's investment there's a safety issue for pedestrians as I work in the neighborhood we've taken on crime we've taken on disinvestment we've taken on blights and their walk-aways from some of their properties but sidewalks are the ones where I see families not able to get their strollers and their children up the sidewalk I see people in wheelchairs riding up North Roxborough Road one of our busiest streets rather than being on the sidewalks and I see our business is not being able to prosper because of this tour up sidewalks and it's one of the harder challenges actually to get the city to invest in and so I have taken many of you on the tour of the neighborhood and I've talked to many of you about sidewalks and I know you know it's a priority I know you know it's important and what a worthwhile investment is that's not what I need to convince you of I think that if we frame the issue of we have way too many sidewalks we can't fix all of them then we have a we frame the problem as one we can't solve I do think if we frame it as how could we cut the wait time for more than three years when we can solve by simply increasing the budget by $100,000 because that's about what you're currently putting into it I think the second policy solution is that we need to be more targeted around how we spend those funds currently it's just a chronological list of when you put your name on it but some sidewalks are serving our economic redevelopment functions we're trying to bring neighborhoods back or we have an ADA complaint or we have a broader strategy that we need to think about the council to move on a reoccurring basis move the budget up to $200,000 and we will cut that wait time in half to we need a better management policy around how we prioritize those repairs finally I want to thank the public works department the gentleman who's in charge of sidewalk repairs takes his job seriously with great integrity he's brought new technologies to the problem he's reduced the per square foot cost the city's got a good strategy program staff in place it just needs a little more money with a little more target thank you Larissa Seibel city council person thank you and I know how hard it is to balance this budget but we do we are here with a petition with 65 signatures that's being passed around there's plenty of copies because I know it's not just city council but the city manager and his staff who have the responsibility for finding those funds to repair our sidewalks and we hope that you will do so we did not have to convince anyone to sign these petitions that people had stories to tell about the unsafe sidewalks some of them right in front of their homes and several people told me about neighbors who had been injured because of sidewalks that were uneven and they tripped and fell one woman sprained her ankle so badly that she was out of work for three weeks and of course didn't receive paychecks for three weeks the city did come out and inspect the place where the accident happened the neighbors are hoping the city will be back soon to repair these sidewalks they are clearly a hazard to anyone who walks on the 1200 block of Rocksboro street when I went out there I could see that some of the sidewalks were lifted at least four inches from trees that are no longer even there so it had been quite a while you couldn't even see the stumps or the roots or anything since the sidewalks had been in that condition and one lady I sat with her a couple times and she told me that she had called more than three years so we are in conversation with our neighbors and they are hoping that you can come out soon and I would be happy to get you that address whoever you can point me to try to get that on your priority list thank you for your attention welcome Linda could you get a microphone next is Tevin Armstrong I'm okay I have one good let I want to say I am using a wheelchair but I have one good leg Tevin Armstrong sorry I wanted to talk about the sidewalks and the fact that I use a wheelchair and I have one good leg so me riding up in the sidewalk which I do often I could use my one good leg I have to lift up my wheelchair to go over those cracks and bumps whereas other people who are in a different condition than I am can and it will be very difficult as the lady in the video today that's all shown on the monitor and it was very hard for her and she eventually had to roll in the street which is very dangerous so I just would like to say that if there is some way that you could fix sidewalks for people who makes it very difficult and they have to you know even before I had my operation I saw people riding in streets all the time especially in my neighborhood where I used to live and they ride in the streets always now they have problems growing up hills and it's very difficult you know so you know anything just to smooth it out for them and you know I think it will be a lot easier on people and make everyone just a little bit happier you know even though there are more problems at state you know that everyone has to deal with and I know you guys are very busy city council is very busy and I'm not here to jump down your throats and say what you guys you know because as you say it's better you don't know what goes on unless you're behind that counter behind that register or behind the desk so I'm sure that you you're working very hard to do what you can and but I just think that we should you know take into take into thought that some things may be on a higher priority than other things and and I wanted also to say that with the little time I have left I wanted to say there are some things to work with with the youth and also piggybacking off this lady right here I didn't catch her name but it is money to pay people to fix things and to pay workers and if we could get people more involved from the communities to come out and do things themselves you know would be would help out a lot and cut down on a lot of money so people won't have to so you know you won't have to worry about putting in budget for workers and materials and stuff like that I mean you're going to need materials but you know we kind of catch what I'm trying to say but you know I just want to thank you for letting me talk and speak and hope that I've made an impact on you know when you guys' decision so thank you Tevin I forgot that you were sitting back there he was on our youth commission and we really appreciate a young voice thank you tonight and Ms. Trump from what's your address oh I live my mailing address is 923 East Main Street I do not have an address a permanent address yet I was recently homeless but I'm working on that but 923 East Main Street if you want to send something to me if you want my phone number I can go ahead and you know I have it on the card here okay yeah so just give me a call I do look forward to helping out in the community soon I've been helping out in the community a lot a lot of people can witness to that and I like working with the youth so anything I can do if y'all want to call y'all need somebody to work for your program or run one of your youth programs give me a call I would love to do it and you know I'll be around and hopefully you'll see me up there sitting right next to one of y'all one day so okay that concludes all the persons that have signed up to speak for the public hearing on the budgets anyone else that would like to speak that has not spoken if not let the record reflect no one else has to speak on the public hearing for the budget I will close the public hearing and entertain a motion to receive the comments I still move Mr. Sack I'm going to prop it and move it in a second any further discussion I have something I want to say I represent the mayor protein thank you Mr. Mayor that was it's always great to hear from somebody who's in that exact situation that everybody is talking about kind of abstractly so Tevin thank you for being here and saying that I did want to make a few comments about a couple of things that were said I think one thing that we ought to tell the folks here and the folks who have written this about sidewalks and it is such an important concern that I wish for this reason but she is a real sidewalk champion as folks may know and one of the things she did bring up in our last work session is to try to figure out how we do reprioritize our sidewalk funds and the city manager is looking at that and the staff will be bringing something back to us about how to prioritize our sidewalk funds we haven't added any but for the folks that would like us to do that I think in future years that's something we should definitely be looking at and I really appreciate you raising it the gentleman here from Garter, I'm sorry he's not still here but I did want to say that the tax burden in Durham is certainly not keeping any businesses out of Durham Durham is filling up with businesses that want to come and live here they're pouring into Durham our economy is growing tremendously and in addition when you add the water rates in other fees from other communities Durham is right in the middle of the pack of North Carolina cities and finally just thinking about his comments about taxes in general I just wanted to mention some of the things that taxes do in Durham nobody likes to pay taxes in the city I have to pay them too and I don't like paying them any more than anyone else does but when I think about some of the things that taxes do our building inspectors last year reviewed 2,700 development plans by the way that's how many businesses want to be in Durham we had 90,000 electrical and mechanical inspections in Durham last year 90,000, 90% of them done within 24 hours of tax money does we had 9,600 customers come to the planning department for something that they needed our tax money paid for serving them we removed 650 tons of junk and debris 650 tons city staff did that your tax dollars paid for that we removed 500 sites of graffiti we have 516 police officers on the street 516 uniform police officers and they clear crimes in Durham at a much higher rate than the national average taxes are necessary for some of the most critical things that we have we have 1,500 city vehicles whether they be police cars or solid waste trucks we have a fleet department that has to service them we repaired people talked about potholes our staff last year repaired 1,800 potholes that's your tax dollars at work we repaired last year, this is by the way about sidewalks we repaired last year 8,000 feet of sidewalks last year we flushed 64,000 feet of storm water pipe we picked up recycling from 71,000 households 15,000 tons of recycling your tax dollars at work and I should have mentioned this when we talked about downtown and how to make less parking need downtown we had 22,000 people a day ride our data buses there's federal money in that there's people paying the fee when they get on the bus but your city money, your city taxes is helping to support that when you get clean, safe water out of your tap every day our city fees in that case are paying for it 25 million gallons a day so paying for the city paying taxes it's not paying for nothing it's paying for these absolutely critical services that we need no one likes to pay more I know I don't but I do want to say that the idea that taxes are just something that is unnecessary somehow should never raise them and shouldn't have them I just think needs to be countered with the idea of all the amazing things that our city staff is doing and we can only pay for it through taxes so we're making a decision each time each time we make a budget about which of those services are central and which we can do without but I did want to put that out there Mr. Mayor, thank you Steve, very well spoken needed to be said, recognize the Mayor Pro Tem I merely wanted to think all of our staff budget finance, everyone for the important role you all have played in helping to shape this budget we have 24 plus, 2400 plus employees who do an outstanding job and we need to tell you that more you are the experts and under the leadership of an outstanding leader Mr. Thomas Bonfield will raise it a birthday on Friday I already sang happy birthday to him so that won't be necessary but we applaud you for hanging in here with the city and we hope that your morale will continue to be high and if we're doing anything to make that not happen, let me know thank you Mr. Mayor thank you and it should be noted it's not just an outstanding budget process, it's an award winning budget process, they do a great job but I want to thank also all of the people who came here tonight to speak who have been looking at the budget as lay people I know how difficult it's a complex budget, people have really dug into and I've talked to people on the street who have come up to me who clearly understand have been looking at it and pouring through it and I really appreciate all of that participation that our staff makes possible but that the citizens take advantage of the partners against crime meetings that people came to the coffees of council that began this process earlier this year the first hearing that we held and all of the other intervening opportunities people have taken advantage of thank you all I called a question I think it's important in addition to what's already been said that the public understand where we go from here it is in Tennessee's council to adopt a final budget at our June 16th city council meeting in between we'll still have some more meetings to discuss what we've heard tonight certainly and some of the issues have been raised before we meet make a final decision but the goal is to adopt a budget June 16th city council meeting I haven't said that I've called a question ask the clerk if she'll open the vote close the vote it passes 6 to 6 thank you let's move to the next item in the agenda which is item 30 30 which is 2013 the assessment report of the Durham plan A140002 they're not all staying for this I shouldn't be insulted by everybody leading the room thank you Mr. Mayor Aaron Cain with the planning department I'll give a brief report on this item case A140002 the 2013 evaluation and assessment report of the Durham conference of plan there are three parts of the EAR that are before you tonight they're usually before you for a decision first is rectification of any changes to the future land use map that was made by the Durham County Board of Commissioners the second are policy changes to the text of the Durham conference of plan and the third are technical changes to the future land use map regarding things like changes in floodplain or conservation or agricultural easements that have been acquired there were no future land use map changes adopted by the Board of County Commissioners in 2013 so you have nothing to rectify there there are 54 policies of the Durham conference of plan before you that have either been edited removed or are newly created policies we ask that you adopt those as part of this there are also three parcels that are proposed to change future land use designation as part of the technical changes two of them would be change to agricultural because of agricultural easements that have been acquired and one is an open space change because an open space easement that was acquired all of those were in the county's jurisdiction however we ask you to also adopt those so that we have a common future land use map staff is recommending approval of all three aspects of the EAR planning commission recommended approval on a 12 to 0 vote at its April 8th 2014 meeting and the Board of County Commissioners adopted all aspects of the EAR at its May 27th 2014 meeting I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have them thank you this is a public hearing the public hearing is open you've heard the staff recommendation report I would ask first are the questions by members of the council if not the public hearing is anyone in the audience that would like to speak on this item let the director reflect that no one in the audience asks to speak I would encourage the public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact for the council it's been a proper move we'll be open about close vote it passes 6 to 0 thank you we moved item 31 street closing of an unnamed alley perpendicular to alley number 12 street closing 14 0 0 0 0 5 good evening Mr. Mayor members of council pat young with the planning department first I'd like to quickly certify for the record that all public hearing items before you tonight including the previous item have been advertised in accordance with the provisions of law and we have affidavits to that effect on file with planning department expo's fact it's the best I can do I can't do it in my sleep though so I'm so I'm told the street closing before you is 14 0 0 0 0 5 it's a Joey and Darby requested to close a 50 linear fit portion of an unnamed alley off of alley 12 which is immediately east of Buchanan Boulevard and south of urban avenue the right away is currently open and the portion requested to be closed to border by the applicant's property and property owned by Barini properties to the east excuse me to the west if the request is approved the right away will be equally divided and recombined with the adjacent properties city and county staff along with utility service providers have reviewed this request identified no adverse impacts thank you I'm happy to take any questions you're welcome this is a public hearing public hearing is open you've heard the staff report again would ask are there any comments from members of the council and ask Councilman Moffitt I just have one question I have one question which is given that it's a short alley why not close the entire alley well the the applicant chose to only get the required signatures from the adjacent property owner they would have had to go go and collect the signatures from the other butters there's only two other properties but the end that she's requesting closure of is a terminal end and wouldn't affect access to anybody else's property so she could have but she just chose to get it from her directly abutting neighbor to the tour rear pardon me ma'am do you want to speak on this item if you can come to the podium please and state your name and address as she's coming forth do we have any other comments from any other council members thank you I'm Joanna Darby 705 what street I'm the party in question to answer your question Mr. Moffitt about not closing the other two-thirds of the alley to the south of us it's an unopened uncity maintained paper alley however the four houses whose homes back up to that alley immediately south to me have paved and maintained it for umpteen years themselves and for me to request that the entire alley would be closed would be to deny them access to their own garages and nullify whatever expense they've gone to all right thanks thank you again it's the public hearing does anyone else that wants to speak on this item let the record reflect no one else has to speak I would declare the public hearing to be closed it's been properly moved in a second Madam clerk will you open the vote close the vote it passes 6 to 0 item 32 is the street closing of Chaparral Drive street closing 13000005 thank you again Mr. Mayor members of council Pat Young again with the planning department case SC130005 is a request by Hendrick Automotive Group to close a 1090 linear portion of Chaparral Drive which is located just west of Fayetteville road in south of Renaissance Parkway the right of way is currently open a portion of requested foreclosure is boarded by the applicant's property and property owned by South Point Mall if the request is approved the right of way would be equally divided and recombined with the adjacent properties the action is requested to facilitate development of the adjacent property for automotive sales use city and county staff along with utility service providers have reviewed this request and have not identified any adverse impacts thank you'll be happy to take any questions thank you you've heard the staff report it's a public hearing are there questions if I remember the staff council if not is anyone in the public that wants to speak on this item is that the record reflect that no one in the public asked to speak I would have caught a public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact for the council it's been properly moving second Madam Clerk will you open the vote close the vote it passes 6 to 0 the final item is the supplemental item 35 resolution memorializing Dr. Angelo it will entertain a motion on this item it's been properly moving second Madam Clerk will you open the vote close the vote it passes 6 to 0 I see a city attorney you're going to go get your kiss and hug okay let us know in that schedule please any other arguments to come before the council if not the meeting is adjourned at 9 p.m. thank you


So basically when we talk about symbols it's almost like everything in this world in form. They are symbols that the spirit wants to use to train the mind to see the oneness of it all, beyond it. And the forms are seemingly separate and different and comes and goes, but our lives are just being used to allow the symbols to come and go in order for the mind to start to identify with what is truly underneath it, which is the oneness. You know our mind is so big and vast and is just so beyond this world and this world is trying to present all kinds of evidence to say otherwise. False evidence appearing real, fear, that's all happening. And for us walking this path is to start to develop this discernment and this certainty when we are faced with this kind of evidence we have to be able to say no. So what we are saying here is this is so vast and we can tap into this vastness but we have to be willing to question everything that we are used to in this world because they are here to restrict us from opening up to this vast awareness. It's not the form that is any problem, we have to allow the form to be whatever but it is our calling to tap into an experience that's beyond all concepts.