to everyone who is here. We are working to cast on YouTube. Just give us one minute, please. We're hearing that we are live. A number of people are chatting that we are live. Okay, fantastic. So thank you, everyone, for being here again for part two of the budget healing series that Durham is hosting to listen and hear from the community about how we can invest in our community to create transformative change. We are here tonight to review the community engagement process that has happened thus far to prioritize the investments that will be made in our community with American rescue plan dollars that have come down from the federal government. And I guess I just wanted to start this evening by reading some thoughts about why budget healing, and those words are, we have been wounded in community, we are healed in community, no way around it. Healing might not come from the community where the wounding took place, but community is needed for healing nonetheless. So I thank you for being here as we navigate this conversation and these decisions that will impact each and every one of us here in Durham. We are providing simultaneous interpretation this evening. If you would like to hear this presentation in Spanish, these are the instructions and I will now turn it over to our interpreter to explain how to hear this presentation in Spanish. Thank you, Layla. That is it. Good afternoon to all and welcome to the healing series of the second part. It is a series that talks about how to invest in our community in this transformative change. This is the idea of reviewing the process of how to invest in the dollars we receive from the government in the communities. So if you want to hear this part of the interpretation in Spanish, please connect to the channel at the bottom of the screen. There is a globe if you are connecting from a computer in which you can choose the Spanish language if you are connecting from a device or mobile. So it goes where there are three points, it says more, make a click there and choose interpretation of the language and language interpretation and don't forget to press end or don to start the interpretation in Spanish. Thank you very much. We will now open it up to hear from Dr. Harper. Dr. Harper is our partner in this event and has helped us to plan these series of events and so we are very grateful to have you here Dr. Harper and looking forward to hearing your remarks this evening. Thank you, Layla. Good evening. I am Jim C. Harper, the second chair and professor of history of the department of history at North Carolina Century University. I would like to thank the Durham city and county officials as well as Mayor Pro Tem Gillian Johnson, Councilman Freelon, Bertha Johnson, Leela Patterson, and Sharon Williams as well as Neil Wilson for collaborating with North Carolina Century University and the Durham community with these budget healing events. Events like these help to provide the Durham community especially people that have been left or felt marginalized with an opportunity to find equitable solutions and to participate by bringing their ideas and strategies to this budget process. Durham's Black Wall Street became one of the wealthiest Black Wall Streets in the nation. Durham was not the usual southern city entrenched in the history of racial and class-based separation. It was partially populated by farmers until the railroad was routed through in 1853. Tobacco warehouses ran up along the tracks creating a demand for an increase in Black and white laborers. By the early 1900s, the HATI community became the emphasis of the majority of businesses and homes for African Americans. Durham became a model for entrepreneurship and self-help and the name HATI was meant to suggest the symbolism of the independent nation of Haiti and reflects the principles of self-help and autonomy. These businesses personified by people who worked and developed Durham as a city of enterprise for African Americans. You saw a difference here, said Andre Van, the university archivist at North Carolina Central University and author or co-author of the book, Durham's HATI. Van noted that Durham was different. He believes that there was more cooperation between Blacks and whites in Durham than in any other southern city. The HATI day of the Black Wall Street era ended with urban renewal, but we must recognize the fact that a group of marginalized people were presented an opportunity to take a seat at the table. They seized the moment. Durham City and county officials have opened up the budget process with the inclusion of marginalized groups to participate at the beginning of this process. It is time to bring forth our thoughts and ideas in this process so that this federal funding can be used to bring racial equity while following the guidelines of the recovery fund. This is an opportunity to have a seat at the table. Together let's take full advantage of this opportunity and take part in this equitable decision-making process to engage historically under-served communities and help the people in the Durham community who are in need. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Harper for those powerful words. I'd now like to introduce Interim Deputy City Manager Bertha Johnson. Good evening everyone. I would like to also welcome you and thank you for joining us tonight. Our City Manager Wanda Page will be joining us later due to a schedule conflict. I would like to recognize our City Council members who are with us tonight if you would just give a wave. Good evening everyone. Buenos tardes. Thank you for joining us. I would like to thank the City staff who have worked so hard to get us here tonight especially Leela Pedersen, Jeff Hart, our NCCU intern, John Allure and the Budget and Management Services team, and James Davis and the NIS team. Next I want to recognize Deborah Craig Ray, General Manager at Durham County Government. Thank you Bertha. Good evening everyone. I am very privileged to be with you this evening. I'm Deborah Craig Ray, General Manager for Durham County Government. I represent Go One which is Community and Family Prosperity, very appropriate for this evening. It's my honor to introduce our Interim County Manager, Claudia Haga. Claudia. Hello everyone. Thanks for coming. And I'd like to also recognize our commissioners who are here. Chair Brenda Howerton, Vice Chair Wendy Jacobs, Commissioner Heidi Carter, Commissioner Netta Alam, Commissioner Nimeshina Burns. If I could just take a minute just to say this is such a historic moment. I feel so passionate about this because our community works so hard and works so well together. And here we are at this moment where we have such historic legislation. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is historic. Never in a generation have we seen this type of money flow into cities and counties and towns throughout our country. Think about what we said earlier, transformative change. I can just imagine the great decisions that are being made today and moving forward will benefit our children here in Durham for generations to come. And I'm so proud of all of you for joining us. Take care. Thank you. Thank you so much for those powerful words again. I'm going to reintroduce Bertha. Before we do that, let me share the presentation and now I'll turn it back over to Bertha. Thank you, Leela. I just wanted to point out to everyone the amount of resources that are coming to the city and the county from the American Rescue Plan. We are so excited to be able to share these resources with the community that came from the federal government. So the funding will be divided into two distributions. We've already received our first 25 million as of May 2021. We will receive our second distribution as of May 2022. That's really important because this is really the first process in terms of distributing the first tranche of the resources and then we will have another process for the second tranche that we receive a year from May next year. And note on this slide we have the link to our website. Please go on our website to not only get more information but also keep updated on the process. So on this slide you'll see the eligible uses of the funds. You don't have to write those down. We have those on our website and we'll be talking about those as we talk about the proposals tonight. And here is where we will start to make this an interactive experience for everyone. So if everyone could either in your browser or via your smartphone go to minty that is m-e-n-t-i dot com and use the code listed here. I'm going to allow people some time to do that. If you have any questions or complications feel free to type into the chat. We also have the website listed in the chat and if we could also list the code that would be very helpful. Thank you. That code is 5 4 1 4 1 5 2 5. And as you get this pulled up you should be able to rank according to your own perspective and preferences. Please rank the following eligible uses in the way that you think they should be prioritized. First we have and this is in no particular order but you can select the order that you think that they should be prioritized. We have public health revenue replacement water and sewer infrastructure economic impacts premium pay and broadband. And for anyone who may not be able to participate in this poll or the polls that we will have over the course of this presentation we will be sending a follow-up survey after this meeting for anyone who wasn't able to attend the meeting as well to participate and ensure that your input is included as we move forward in this process. So we see input coming in. Thank you all for your participation. I'll leave this open for about 30 more seconds. There are some questions in the chat about the explaining a little bit more about what premium pay revenue replacement and economic impact means and the difference between the two. And also some assistance. Thank you for elevating that. Thank you, Hillary. As we mentioned previously I know that we were not able to provide assistance for you to participate in this poll right now but we will be sending a survey to everyone via email and follow-up to this meeting and you will be able to provide your input via that survey. To answer the questions about premium pay so premium pay is additional pay that would be provided for essential workers above and beyond their pay recognizing the harm that they have the harms way that they have been in front of this past year. And going again all of these eligible uses are listed on our website and our website also links to the United States Treasury's guidance about the definitions of each of these broad categories. Okay so right now we have economic impacts in first place public health then followed by broadband premium pay revenue replacement and water and sewer infrastructure. We are going to move on now to the next slide. Thank you. So since we had the last budget healing meeting at the beginning of June we have been busy engaging the community and asking for your input via surveys and through submitting substantive proposals as well. Through those channels of engagement we have gathered 300 more than 300 responses with ideas and needs that you all are experiencing and witnessing in your community as well as 80 substantive community proposals for funding. The deadline to submit those responses and proposals was on Saturday July 31st and so we are still working to walk through each of those proposals. We will not be walking through each proposal this evening because we need more time to vet them but we will be walking through the survey responses. And we will talk more about the process moving forward at the end of this presentation. So the first category of questions that we asked were around health and we wanted to know what are the needs that you all are witnessing and experiencing in your community. This is a collection of the responses that we received. The first response here is a lack of walkable infrastructure and green space. The second one is access to affordable preventative care services. Another person responded limited access to affordable trauma informed anti-racist community resilience based and culturally affirming mental health services for families. Another response was access to free health clinics or mobile vans, food and housing, making sure everyone is vaccinated, healthy food availability, and affordable in-home care support for disabled family members and elderly adults. When we asked about the ideas for how we should invest these American rescue plan dollars, one person said free broadband would help a lot of struggling families with children. Another person wrote mental health outreach. We also heard infrastructure, walking paths and sidewalks, vaccine education and distribution, improved access to fresh produce, local healthy foods, clinics at the comprehensive high schools, early childhood intervention, double expenditures on crumbling water and sewer infrastructure and more mobile vaccination teams. I should say that in each of these categories we heard responses that related to some of the other categories as well and so in sorting the responses we have been able to document you know which responses relate to health and which responses relate to the other categories. So just to review the top health concerns that we heard from you the community in in our outreach are access to healthy food, transportation and walkability, mental health services, health clinics, preventative care, elder care, school nurses, maternal health, vaccine access and education, green spaces and youth enrichment programs. Now I'd like you to keep your minty.com open whether you are using your browser or your smartphone and again the code once you reach minty.com is five four one four one five two five and here if you could please rank your top three to five health concerns so when you open minty.com you should be able to rank and if you can just choose the top three to five health concerns that you think City Council and Durham County should prioritize when investing these American rescue plan dollars. We'll leave this poll open for about 20 to 30 more seconds. Feel free to continue voting and the results that we see here is that in first place mental health, second youth enrichment programs, third healthy food and fourth preventative care. Coming in fifth is vaccine access and education which is now just flipped with health clinics. Please continue voting as we continue through the presentation. The next category that we will review is housing. So again we ask people what are the needs the housing needs that you see in your community. We heard from you that there's a lack of affordable housing that stable housing stable income is needed to support the increasing rents that broadband multifamily housing, better parks sidewalks and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods are needed that a shortage of affordable housing rising rents and their tenants facing eviction. Also that rental assistance for seniors and low income individuals is needed as well as a recognition about light and substandard housing and rising cost of housing and gentrification. In terms of the ideas for how funds could be invested to address these needs, we heard that greenways and solar are critical for our community's resilience into the future. That expanding and fully funding the eviction diversion program that funding for community land trust. We also heard that we need to invest money improving public housing those families deserve to be in a safe space. Build more quality income house low income housing renovating abandoned houses and buildings supplementing rent for seniors that eviction and homelessness prevention are needed investments. And subsidy for nonprofit development of affordable housing. The top housing concerns that we heard were no surprise here affordable housing, safe healthy housing, eviction prevention, homelessness, rental assistance, first time home buyer supports, public housing maintenance, mixed use zoning, property tax relief, non-profit housing development, rent control, and to remodel existing housing. We are going to launch another poll. If you could again pull up minty m e n t i dot com and use the code 5 4 1 4 1 5 2 5. Please go in and rank your top three to five housing concerns. As people are going in and voting just to put a plug for something that we will talk about at the end of the presentation, all of the voting that is happening now as well as the input that we received to the survey that will be sent out and follow up to this meeting will be taken into account and forwarded on to both the city council and the county commissioners for them to take into their consideration as they make decisions about how to invest American recipe plan dollars. We may have a technical issue with this poll. I don't see responses coming in. We will work to resolve that. Can someone let me know in the chat box if they are able to see this poll on their minty dot com screen? Yes. Okay. And are you able to vote? Looks like people are voting, so we will figure out how to get the results to you one moment. Thank you for standing by as we resolve this technical difficulty. Okay, and there we are. So the first concern that we see here, again, no surprise affordable housing followed by homelessness, followed by safe healthy housing in fourth place public housing maintenance and a fifth place rental assistance. Please continue voting and we will compile these results moving forward. So just to review, we have two more categories and we have education and employment. So in terms of education, the needs that we heard from you are that places kids can that we need places kids can play and fully funded schools that we need teacher pay outdoor equipment safety equipment like fences around elementary schools community centers for teens more resources for special needs students teacher education and support social emotional services literacy job training for public schools and local college students vocational training and adult education programs again broadband access more civics alignment with workforce needs and affordable daycare. The ideas that we heard for the investments that should be made are to improve school infrastructure make necessary repairs and upgrades to buildings to hire more social workers counselors and nurses more inclusion staff leadership and trade programs more tutors and counselors to pay teachers more to invest in after school tutorial programs to invest in basic reading writing and math to get kids up to grade level pre K and summer school as well as schools need updates to their pipes and air systems. So the top education concerns were to reduce class sizes broadband access affordable childcare and early education after school programs art and cultural programs public libraries teacher pay to hire additional staff rena state renovate school buildings support for students with special needs tutors and counselors community engagement and outreach. So here is our poll if you could please rank your top three to five education concerns and the results are coming in thank you all for voting and leave this open for about 10 more seconds. It looks like we've had more than 50 people vote. The number one concern here is teacher pay followed by affordable childcare and early education followed by broadband access after school programs and in fifth place support for students with special needs. Please continue voting if you would like to make your selections known. Okay, our last category here is around employment. So the needs that we heard from you are that living wage jobs are needed also access to financial resources to small businesses businesses that reflect the full diversity of the people in Durham child care for working parents need more resources for trade schools public transportation to employment and scarcity of employees. Again, those are the collections of needs that we heard from you. In terms of the ideas for funding, we see that job training and readiness programs increase minimum wage more vocational training and subsidies for community college implement countywide paid leave program and supplement wages back to work incentives worker led initiatives paid internship opportunities for youth employer programs to support livable wages and investment in public transportation. In terms of the top employment concerns, the ones that rose to the top were living wages job training small business supports unemployment benefits paid leave guaranteed job program vocational training programs apprenticeship programs support for minority and women and owned businesses to encourage employee ownership and to reform the procurement process. Now we will open up our polling once again. If you could please rank your top three to five employment concerns. And just as folks are doing that to let you know we will have a question that is much more open ended for you to add any additional things that you have not seen in the previous top concerns or polls.  Allows us 10 more seconds. Okay, we have over 50 people who have voted in first place in terms of the top employment concerns was livable wages. Second was supporting minority and women owned businesses. Third vocational training programs. Fourth apprenticeship programs and fifth job training. Please continue to vote. So as I mentioned, this is an opportunity for you to tell us what additional concerns would you like to see prioritize? Is there anything that you didn't see listed that you would want city council and our county commissioners to prioritize when making investments with American rescue plan dollars? I will just preview some remarks that we're going to give following the these polls, which is to say there are strict eligibility guidelines that the both the city and the county must follow to be in alignment with US treasuries guidance about how these funds can be used. And so our goal this evening is to really think expansively about what's possible. What can we do with this transformative amount of money, this once in a generation opportunity to really make a change in our communities? And our goal is to think broadly to brainstorm and be creative about what's possible. And then it is really our job as staff to go back and vet each idea and proposal that we have received to determine if it is an eligible use of funding. So some of the ideas that we see listed here, people are writing in harm reduction programs, universal basic income, support for artists, help with the food pantries, more reentry housing as we dismantle mass incarceration reparations, stipends for books and tech devices for North Carolina Central University college students to continue working on public transit and the commuter commuter rail, universal pre-k and affordable childcare, implement a racial equity recommendations to adopt broadband digital literacy and skills training, support the land trust for legacy communities, to eliminate health disparities and improve food security for families, to pay for a cultural master plan to develop long-term strategies. And please continue writing your ideas here and we will continue to collect them and ensure that they are incorporated. So as I mentioned, we are still waiting for additional guidance from United States Treasury. They have submitted their interim guidance and that is available, we'll be a link on the American Rescue Plan website, which we can drop into the chat, can also be found at bit.ly slash arp Durham. But just to say that that is just interim guidance and that all cities and counties throughout the country are waiting for additional guidance from US Treasury to ensure that these investments that they make with American Rescue dollars are in compliance with federal law. Also want to let you know that the proposals that have been submitted from the community and from internal departments will be compiled and available on the website for view in the coming weeks. And so again, check back on that website for those updates. Staff will continue to vet proposals and determine eligibility according to that US Treasury guidance. And we also have been working very closely with the Office of Equity and Inclusion to ensure that we use an equity impact assessment tool to evaluate proposals. And to talk a little bit more about that, I'm going to turn it over to Sharon Williams, who is going to talk about the equity impact assessment tool. We can take Sharon off mute and she can provide explanation about the following sides. Sharon, I think you are off mute, but we are having trouble hearing you. Can you try speaking one more time, Sharon? I am. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you now. Fantastic. All right. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So the equity impact assessment uses systemic examination to look at different racial and ethnic groups that will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision. When we look at impact assessment, our goal is to minimize unanticipated adverse consequences in a variety of contexts. So it includes the analysis of policies, practices, programs, plans, budgets, et cetera. So we can use an equity impact assessment to examine a vast array of things. It's a vital tool for preventing institutional racism and it helps us to identify new options to remedy some of the long-standing inequities. Next slide, please. So here is an equity impact tool or decision-making model. We look at the proposal in terms of what is being recommended, proposed, or considered, and what specific results are expected if we implement it. Stakeholders, who are they? So which stakeholders are currently affected? Neighborhoods, geographic areas, when we're talking about racial equity, specificity matters. Data, which data or data evidences, which data evidence is historical inequities and is the rationale for the recommendation or proposal. So what can you point to that says this is why this is important? Causes, what is producing and perpetuating the inequities that we are seeing? Are the inequities expanding or narrowing and what is the root cause? Positive impact. So what positive impact on equality, equity, and inclusion could result? And will the solution that you're putting forth reduce disparities, discrimination, et cetera, and if so, how? Adverse impact. What unintended impact could result from your proposal, who would be affected and how? And could adverse impact be prevented or minimized? And if so, how? Alternatives, there should always be some alternatives. So what could be done instead? Are there any other options other than what you are proposing that might accomplish the same objective? And metrics or evaluation, how will impact be monitored, documented, evaluated, measured, and reported? Layla? Thank you, Sharon. Thank you so much for the collaboration with you and for the intentionality around implementing this tool to advance equity and Durham. Okay, we are going to launch another poll. So we want to hear from you. What criteria do you think is most important when evaluating these proposals? As we mentioned, ultimately the decision about how we invest these dollars is up to our city council and our county commissioners. But we want to know from you what they should be using as criteria to evaluate these proposals. And again, there will be an opportunity for you to write in other ideas that you may not see listed here. As the responses start to come in, we see in first place that the criteria are councils and commissioners should use when evaluating proposals for American Rescue Plan funding. First place is racial equity. And second is measurable impact. And we've got some bouncing around with the rest of these. It looks like in third is alignment and strategic goals. Our strategic plans that we know our local governments work so hard to create and in fourth place, environmental sustainability. So I know I see a question in the chat, who will be deciding which proposals get funded? Ultimately, all of these decisions are made by the elected leaders that we have elected to serve. So the city council will decide what proposals get funded on the city side for the $52 million that the city has to allocate. And county commissioners will make the final decision about which proposals get funded for the $62 million that is coming to Durham County. I'm going to move us forward. Please continue adding your input. So as I mentioned, what additional criteria beyond what you just saw, do you think should be considered? Feel free to write in your own ideas here. See another question in the chat. Do proposals need to be submitted to county and city? One thing I would say is that you always have the opportunity to contact your city council member or your county commissioner about the needs and concerns that you see in your community. So if you have ideas about how you think these dollars should be invested, please do contact your city council member and your county commissioner. Okay, in terms of additional criteria that should be considered, we see partnerships, so partnerships between organizations, intersectionality, overall local and regional impact, and whether it aids in climate resilience and managing impacts of climate change, continued resident input and decision-making, impact on marginalized residents, long-term benefits to all communities, health and well-being of residents, disadvantaged groups over the percent of the population, long-term impacts, equity, urgent needs of families and distress because of COVID-19. And again, please continue to add your thoughts and ideas and input here. Leave this open for about 10 more seconds. Okay, moving us forward. As I said, city and county staff will continue to review proposals and determine whether they are eligible and satisfy the assessment criteria. Those proposals that meet eligibility criteria and do satisfy the assessment criteria will move forward and be reviewed by city council and county commission. Proposals that relate to the top community concerns that have been identified here in this meeting, as well as the survey that we will distribute following this meeting more broadly for those who either were not able to participate or were not able to attend, those will be highlighted. And so we will see what are the top three to five concerns in each category, health, housing, education and employment. And those proposals that correspond to those top concerns will be highlighted. I will reiterate that the final decision is up to our elected leaders. And so if you want to see a particular idea or concern or proposal move forward, you can always contact your city council member or your county commissioner. City council will have a work session on September 9. That meeting is open to the public.  Durham County will be updated at their September 9 work session. And Durham County government will continue community engagement for those unincorporated areas that are part of Durham County but may not be incorporated in the city of Durham throughout, through October. Yeah, so just to reiterate the timeline, I see some questions in the chat. This process that we have really, you know, we are working from scratch, you know, just to lift the curtain a little bit. Again, this is a once in a generation opportunity, federal funding coming to local governments. And we are, you know, designing on the fly a community engagement process as well as a decision making process to ensure that these dollars really do advance transformative change. And so when the next $25 comes to Durham in the spring, we will reengage the community to ensure that ongoing investments are made that contribute and advance equity. Now have time for question and answer. I know that there are a lot of questions already in the chat. We may not be able to answer everyone's question here tonight, but we will have access to a log of the chat following the meeting and we can follow up with your questions. If you would like to unmute and ask a question, please type a cue into the chat and we can create a running list in ordered lists of people who would like to contribute. I do see a list of cues and my very helpful colleagues will go ahead and unmute the first person who would like to ask a question. Good afternoon. I'm a little confused about the difference between submitting proposals to the county and the city. If we submitted a proposal through the ARPA email that was open until the 31st of July, does that mean that we are entered to the county and city funds or is there a separate submission process and how is that being explained and advertised to the public? Thank you very much for your question. I'm going to allow either a representative from the city or from the county to unmute and respond to that question. I will also let the county respond, but all of the information that has come to us, the county has access to that information. They will get all of the proposals as well as all of the responses and I'm sure they're also getting additional ones directly to them as well as their elected officials. Bertha, thank you. The county will receive the proposals as Bertha shared. Our cycle with vetting with the commissioners will continue beyond September. We shared we will have engagement with our unincorporated areas. As we receive the proposals, we will have follow-up conversations with our board and also determine if we need to do additional RFPs or other processes to get other information from potential individuals that want to apply. Thank you for that response, Claudia. Hilary, you have been. I'm sorry. I believe D is next, then followed by Hilary. Okay, D, go ahead and ask your question, please. Yes, my concern is being that I saw there were only 300 responses done on your online survey to begin with and we have much more citizens here in Durham than that. So, what is the plan on the next outreach? Are you doing small community able-hood meetings? Because I don't think we're really reaching most of the people that are really going to be affected by this online survey. That's my amount. Yeah, Leela, will you talk a little bit about the engagement and the thousands of people that we reached out to, which is way more than we actually received proposals for. And some proposals were sent by groups, but not by individuals. Correct, yeah. So, we have been working with the county as well as neighborhood improvement services within the city to cast a really wide net.  That is not the totality of engagement or input that we have received throughout this process. So, we have engaged, for example, neighborhood improvement services to ask them what kind of input have you received over the past year in the variety of channels that they engage with, you know, both in-person and online. And we are taking all of that input and compiling it so that it is made available to our elected leaders when they make these decisions. We also have leveraged all of the good work engagement and outreach that the participatory budgeting team has done over the course of their process. And we've emailed over 4,000 residents within Durham asking them to engage and submit their ideas. We know that this is not a one-time process that we engage one time. And then we've heard from the totality or even a representative sample of our community. And so, we are committed to continuing that engagement throughout the process, knowing that there will be additional funds made available next year and additional opportunities for engagement and input. I can't have a voice. Hillary, are you unmuted? You can go ahead and ask your question. Oh, I don't know. I might have been unmuted. I think I, this is Michelle Bush. I think I'm showing up as Hillary and that wasn't meant for this group. But anyway, while we're on it, I do feel that some people are getting to vote and there's some people on this call that can't vote because we are visually impaired. And I know this is a particularly bad day for me visually. It's worse than normal. So I did not get to pretty much have a voice. And that comment was not geared towards you at first. But I said, which drew your attention to me. I did not realize that. Well, I knew I had unmuted and I kind of forgot. But anyway, I think that there has to be some way that we can have some vision here. And I mean, in different definitions, vision to participate in vision to be heard. And I heard the person say earlier that there was going to be a way for us to participate after this call. But I don't know about anybody else. But I felt kind of left out a little bit, although I did not have time to register. And I did get to get in. I'm thankful for that. And I do thank you for taking this on. I just want to make sure that visually impaired people are heard on this call. Yes. Thank you very much for your comments. They're very important. And we have worked with some blind individuals in Durham to assess their needs and to make this as accessible as we possibly can. And so I apologize that these polls were not accessible for you this evening, but we are committed to ensuring that your input is included and considered. And we will be providing a way for that input to be included moving forward. Well, I in particular am not even registered. I was happy to get on the way I did it at this moment. There, you know, I have to register to get on to even get heard, which I'm willing to do. And again, I want to thank you for your efforts. I know it's hard, you know, to cover everybody sometimes. I just I think fallen through the cracks a little bit and I'm not blaming anybody for it anymore that I'm blaming myself. But here I am and willing to participate and to help as much as I can and to give my input. But I need to get on your radar. Yes. And thank you very much for being here this evening for participating. Your concerns are important and valid. And we are going to continue to ensure that they're incorporated moving forward. I want to acknowledge AJ, if you can go ahead and ask your question. Hey, um, yeah, I just had a thought was wondering if the city or the county has thought about ways to offer continued support since this ARPA funding will be one time. If, you know, the city or the county have thought about the longer term investments to sustain these folks who are going to get funded. Yeah, thank you for acknowledging that. I'll allow Bertha or Claudia or others to go ahead and unmute. Thank you for acknowledging that this is one time funding. And so I'll allow city and county representatives to speak to ongoing investments. Thank you. That's a great question. We actually talked about that at our first event. You know, our goal is to, when there are programs that work, Sharon talked about some of the criteria we'll use, but we plan to look at ways to continue those in our annual budget. Bertha covered that quite well. That is one of the areas that we've shared with our commissioners that items that we fund do need to have a sustainable model, whether it is a phased approach, but it does need to be an investment that longer term can impact the community in a major way. Thank you both Bertha and Claudia. I'd like to acknowledge Dr. Hinton, if you'd like to go ahead and ask your question. Hello, thank you for having the session. My question was around the urgency and timeline to respond to the proposals that were submitted through the website. I'm pretty sure a lot of those proposals were relatively time sensitive as it relates to this pandemic. So what is the priority around those proposals as we continue to vet ideas throughout the community? I'll allow either Bertha or Claudia to respond to that question. I'll start out. That's a great question. One of the issues that we are trying to gauge is final instructions from US Treasury to ensure that proposals align with allowable cost. The timing of that is important because if we move forward in areas that do not align that means it's an expense the county or the city will have to cover. We know there's a sense of urgency on so many areas as it relates to these dollars. Both boards will vet them in upcoming months and there will I am sure be at least for the county some proposals or priorities that will move forward faster than others and I know that's not an exact answer but it is. It sort of speaks to the process. I don't know what the total amount that is before us but I imagine is probably more than the money that was allocated and so that's the other challenge as well making sure we do our due diligence and give the appropriate attention in that vetting so that as we presented to the council and commissioners they they have a good sense of of what's being presented and it's been fleshed out well. Thank you for that thorough response. I do want to acknowledge we have our city manager Wanda Page here. I'm trying there you are you are unmuted. I just want to acknowledge that Wanda Page is here and see if you have any words you'd like to share. Good afternoon. Good evening everyone. I do not want to take up very much time I was at another meeting but I am here to listen and I look forward to hearing the questions as well as you know potentially responding if needed but thank you for the acknowledgement. Thank you very much Madam Manager and we have Isabel. Hi everyone really appreciate this opportunity to participate and listen Claudia I was particularly buoyed by your comments. I think there's a certain amount of lack of clarity here and I think that's probably because the process itself hasn't been really clearly defined yet but I think it would you know to the it sounds on some level like the city council and the commissioners will only be considering those proposals that have been submitted and other input from community members about how the ARPA money will be allocated. I'd love some clarity on that or if there are in fact priority areas that the commissioners and the city council have already identified as places where they believe we need to invest funds to address issues so that everyone on this call and everyone in our community doesn't think oh all this money is just going to be allocated to the people who submit I mean maybe it is that all the money will be allocated to the people who submitted proposals but I just think it would be very helpful and you may not have the clarity yet I get that but it would be good I think to try to get a little clearer so that everyone who's sitting on this call at this moment has some sense of what role these proposals will play in the ultimate allocation of the funds thank you so much. I will start with that with an answer and others may weigh in it also um from from the perspective with our commissioners they've not had policy conversations yet to sort of prioritize which areas they will focus on with the funding with CARES funding the way the dollars came to the community we had a short period of time and the board prioritized six pretty broad areas looking at how we managed the pandemic dollars were spent for housing for non-contradict housing for our community members that were homeless or in transition making sure that we had dollars for food insecurity that continues to be a priority I am sure for PPE protective equipment as we managed the pandemic and then there were some other broad categories that impacted our business community as well and I'm missing some so that but that gives you some gauge of what the board did with the county with the CARES funding as we present this information to the board I am sure they will have a similar lens of what is needed for the community short and longer term and with the proposals they will be able to gauge the impact that the residents are seeing could be done with the dollars those conversations will unfold for both bodies soon and how they determine to move forward may vary with both bodies as well as I shared for the county we have some more engagement conversations that need to occur especially in our unincorporated areas but I do envision that our board will continue with some of the priorities that they've had in the past as it related to the pandemic last year so I may not have answered your question specifically but I've tried to convey how this all will connect and intercept and it's a great problem to have to have these resources bridging us at this period it is also somewhat challenging and frustrating because it's not as clear and concise as to how the dollars will be allocated we we can share with the group conversations or presentations we presented to the board we gave some examples of areas that they funded as it relates to priorities that they've had in the past that align with the categories that US Treasury have stated that we can fund I think that may give some insight of examples but again the board does have to engage in those conversations soon these engagements with our residents such as this particular one and the surveys and other input will help them as they come to some final decision thank you very much for that thorough response Claudia I think we have been encouraged because we are not alone every single local government across the country is designing their own process and determining their own understanding of these eligibility guidelines and what they're going to do with these dollars and so we are hearing from and learning from all of our neighbors as well as we move forward I want to acknowledge Ajax and then Jesse so Ajax if you want to ask your question um I think there was someone before me actually okay since you're unmuted you can go ahead and we will acknowledge others as we move along okay short thanks good evening everyone um I'm curious if you can help shed some light on how the timeline and the decision process around allocating this first tranche relates to the timing of the municipal elections and how we were we will have a different mayor and perhaps some different city council members coming into their seats perhaps still during the time when some decisions are being made around this or is there a treasury requirement to allocate the first tranche prior to the elections and what would the handoffs look like functionally if there was still decision making taking place while there's a changeover in local government it's a great question there's lots of moving parts as our interim deputy city manager and our city manager wanted to page decide who would like to come off mute and and answer I will just say there is no requirement that the funds be allocated until December 2024 so December 2024 is the deadline for allocating funds and December 2026 is the deadline for actually spending those dollars I'll allow others to add more in terms of the dynamics on city council and pertaining to the elections I can I can speak to that good evening everyone I'm council member Javier Cavallero since the the the election the general is November but the the seating of new council members and the new mayor will not happen until December and so I think that whatever proposals we could get through the first at least piece of the proposals my understanding is that we do need to spend the first 25 million before we get the second tranche I believe that's correct and I think the money has to be spent by 2024 just saying thank you I'll now acknowledge canita you'd like to ask your question good evening this is actually a fia on canita's account thank you very much for acknowledging me my first question has to do with the partial funding of proposals so for example if all if 20 proposals are funded then will the remaining amount of money be partially funded to other proposals or if someone is asking for a thousand dollars will they get 500 instead or will they get $5,000 because there's more left over and then also it will be conversation about who gets funded be public will any of that conversation be public thank you well folks decide if they'd like to unmute and add I will just take that easy last one which is to say that sorry canita can you can you ask your question just one more time it's a fia on canita's account apologies apologies okay no problem will any part of the conversation around who gets funded be public will will the public yes so so on september 9th both county commissioners and city council have public work sessions where this conversation will be had and those are both open to the public that is not to say that all decisions will be made on that day but that conversation will be had and is open to the public you know if there are others who would like to unmute and add the counties all of our meetings are public and we will start our conversations with the board in september and as i shared earlier the conversations with the commissioners and the vetting will will go on through october if not a little longer thank you and just to reiterate our goal is to be as transparent as possible throughout this process and so as we continue to compile and vet proposals to determine eligibility to sort them into categories and then to acknowledge where the community has expressed their top concerns and highlight those that relate to those top concerns and we are going to make that available that information available via the website so if you can continue to check back that will be updated so that we are continuing to be as transparent as possible and people can see what is being discussed and viewed and considered as we move along in the process i am going to acknowledge jesse i'm sorry there was the partial funding part i'm sorry i didn't mean no that's okay that's what i was going to respond to lila all of the proposals that come to us have the opportunity to be partially funded but there is no predetermined amount that we would actually award to any particular proposal so the proposals will stand on their own merit for example there are some proposals that have multiple components to those proposals and so those proposals will be vetted and there may be an opportunity where one one component of proposal really meets all of the criteria and you know they have the you know impact and and outcome information that supports that component if there are other components after reaching back out to the proposals that that do not meet the criteria then that part of that proposal may not be funded but we will not know until we actually vet the proposals thank you for that additional detail and just to further clarify we as the city or a county are not able to fund a nonprofit for example to do anything that the city and county is not authorized to do and so that is part of our determination in terms of what is eligible and will be considered okay i want to acknowledge jesse you can ask your question um thank you lila um jesse huddleston here um i i want to i guess start with just saying that this this process feels really really challenging for me um so i'm imagining that i'm not the only one and i recognize that uh we're all surviving a pandemic and doing the best with what we have um so please bear with me um i think i'm what i'm sitting with is that and this is somewhat is a somewhat of an echo of some some comment that some comments have already been made around um how you all are seeking to engage uh and recognizing like the value of receiving proposals and that is like one way of engaging um as diplomatically and democratically i think what feels frustrating and challenging about this is that uh because like people are in need right like people who need hundreds of thousands of dollars may not have the capacity to actually apply for hundreds of thousands of dollars um and i'm mindful of previous efforts before the pandemic that like things that were needs before they were exacerbated by the pandemic be it you know we had a whole commission for or see my commission whole task force for racial equity and they spent countless hours providing all kinds of recommendations and what has come of that right the city and county have come together i believe to create the office on youth and they they spent months coordinating their youth listening project and they provided a report that had all kinds of recommendations those recommendations highlight real needs that were exacerbated by the pandemic what's been done uh we can go on i've heard from many educators in Durham public schools that talk about issues with uh mental health and SROs and this that and the third and so it's just i think like part of me is like i appreciate the the desire to hear from community members and give them the chance to participate um you know i submitted an application with the support budgeting and wasn't selected but that's how i heard about this so i i understand the ways in which folks are doing their best and part of me is like elected people and city and county staff i feel like have a pretty i want to trust that like folks know what the issues are and are are already in ideal positions to like make decisions around millions of dollars um and i don't know that it's on community members to like decide how to properly manage and leverage millions of dollars in a pandemic when they're just trying to like get their bills paid and like take care of their kids and survive so i this isn't this i guess if if there is a question here and again please bear with me um i i want to hear from uh our leaders around like how our efforts that have already like people have already sacrificed a lot this is supposed to be a healing event and i'm not feeling harmed by it but i'm not really feeling helped by either transparently and i'm trying to understand like the ways in which efforts that have already been offered uh a lot of a lot of which was without pay right who can talk about money um like how are we leveraging the work that's already been done to respond to the needs that have that were around before the pandemic that have been exacerbated by the pandemic and i understand that the pandemic now gives us access to these rescue relief funds but like how like how are we doing that because i think some of that like community members have already given ideas community members have already um done their best to show up and folks will continue doing that as they're able but like if this is to be a healing event then we have to tell the truth and the truth of the matter is that like there's a disconnect between like community members saying what the needs are and then budgets not always reflecting that like artists have been struggling right but and like but then we hear from elected officials saying that like oh we're so grateful that artists are like stepping up and like and and doing things but it's like well but who's showing up for the artists you know so again we can go i can go on and on but i i guess again i feel very frustrated and challenged by the process happening here and i'm i'm trying to understand like how we leverage what has already been offered with the opportunity of of these millions of dollars um and not like asking more of folks who are already spread so thin um like a lot of this work has already been done i feel like and if we are doing a good job of healing then we're listening to what's already been said and instead of asking people to repeat themselves and submit another application that will probably be rejected or partially funded and still not enough so i i think that's where i'm at with my you know frustrated challenged feedback not really a question that's what i said q wish so i'm i'm offering that and if any of our leaders have perspective or response to that i'd appreciate it if not thank you for at least hearing me out blessings peace and love as we wait to see if there's any others who would like to unmute i just want to thank you for your comments you are right that a prerequisite to healing is truth telling and i want to thank you for making your voice heard here and i want to acknowledge all the work that has been done in a variety of channels and formats and and um want to let you know that all of that will be included as the decisions move forward to ensure that you know all of that information from both um internal and external processes as much as we can get our hands on is included and forwarded on to our elected leaders as they make these decisions but um would offer you know comments from either dr harper or any of the other um leaders that we have on this call to respond to jesse's comments thank you for making them jesse um claudia hager uh i hear you this is tough um part of the challenge when we have um budget deliberations whether it is this or the annual process there is always more needs than we have dollars i also hear you when you say that we do a lot of engagement in this community i know one of the guiding principles that the commissioners have talked about is making sure that we look at those plans that we've already done and you mentioned it for for the county we have priorities as it relates to our children um with our pre-k goals um we have priorities um and work underway uh with our affordable housing task force um there are priorities in lots of different areas and a lot of those goals and plans have been developed based on community input i do know those are in the forefront those will also serve as a benchmark as county as as i'm sure the electric officials start gauging where do we invest in one area versus the other um and there will be that interconnected um relationship of how one area such as our artist impacts our economic development which impacts community and so i know those types of hard discussions will happen the challenges we do have more we have more needs than we have dollars i don't know if i have a good response to your to your comments but but i i i know we struggle with that with lots of cycles that we go through thank you thank you again oh go ahead um calcino cabrera thank you thanks jesse uh for your excellent comments and questions one of the things you know this is um an iterative process meaning that we're learning as we go i think that you're highlighting previous plans that artists have already come to the city asking for a public art fund there has already been asks from members of dost to start a community a broader open space fund uh similar to what i think the city of raleigh does more expansive so i think that um there's lots of city staff and county staff on this call i want to thank them for being here this evening i think that there's opportunities to look at work that we've already done i think there's opportunities to set aside a smaller bucket of money potentially for proposals i think that we have some really really important work to do ahead of us um i will say that much of what we will not much we have to comply with what the federal government says on this um so that is one one piece that does make it frustrating for everyone including the the city council members and the county commissioners who will ultimately have to make these decisions but again appreciate what you shared thank you we're going to have two more questions jack lean thank you um i have a question related to the proposal template that was on the website um so when i um submitted a proposal it was very high level um didn't ask for detailed budgets didn't ask for a lot of information that might sway or make the my proposal or the proposal i submitted um more in line with what what's being asked for or what you're looking for so um if there are proposals that are submitted and they look good but you're you got questions are you guys going to go back to those folks and say can you can you elaborate can you give me more and then um that's one and then jesse made me think of another one the second one related to something similar to jesse said is since there's been so much participatory work um and there are already partnerships established with the city and the county related that fall under these areas will organizations that are doing this work have relationships with the city or the county and receiving funding will they be considered without submitting a proposal because the proposal deadline is passed thank you just respond um to the first question so as we do comb through every proposal and if there is a need for more information we have your contact information and we will be reaching back out for additional information is there anyone else who'd like to answer the second question there and this is claudia with with the county our our path is slightly different and so there will be a potential for rfps to occur once the categories or priorities are determined once we see what's submitted that will help us give advice to the board on how to move forward with next steps thank you claudia um we now have shon and then i see dr hinton um and we will have to close uh questions after dr hinton go ahead shon um just listening to jesse um it occurs to me that if there are things that cannot be funded by the money because of restrictions into it that some of the traditional strengths of Durham and haytai was the reinvestment of business owners within the community and now we have rtp and other major corporate partners and i just wonder if there are proposals that don't fit into the priorities or that may not be able to be funded that there be some consideration for those projects that have merit and strength for the community like art projects and other things like youth development um to then possibly reach out for either i don't know like support fund matches from local organizations or um or corporations that there i think there's an opportunity here to carry on a more robust list of things that would support the growth sustainability and healing or a community in a way that will then allow those people that have sort of benefited from our community's location and infrastructure and everything else to give back in a substantive way i don't know it just seems like there there's something there years ago when my wife and i opened a youth center back in iowa the city couldn't support it but the local corporations could support it and were eager to because it was their workers children we were serving and it just seems like there may be opportunities like that here in Durham now thank you thank you for that comment um what i will just say is to reiterate um the point around transparency so as we compile all of these ideas and proposals they will be made available to the public and so if there are creative ways um to receive funding for those proposals that are not eligible via the the federal funds through american rescue plan you know our hope is that there can be a creative process to understand what other opportunities there may be um for those investments is there anyone else who'd like to respond there before um dr hinton has the last question okay i'll turn it to you dr hinton i must i must admit it's not even asked in our community so um i just i just want to leave on that note so thank you you broke up a little bit there for me i don't know if others had a hard time hearing we got you there at the end i don't know if you want to want to say that one more time i was just at going we've been doing this work and we want to continue doing the work and this process was to bring us together so that we could acknowledge that you know we're really out here doing this work i mean absolutely so what i heard you said say is you know there is ongoing engagement in this community a lot of work that's happening on the ground and this is an opportunity for us to hear from each other to you know be those truth tellers and elevate these needs and concerns knowing that you know there will be ongoing needs and need for a focus on those priorities moving forward so thank you again to everyone who is here tonight who has engaged in the process please you know talk to your neighbors ask them if they have heard of the american rescue plan ask them if they know anything about what's happening here tonight and if not you know share these resources so that more people do have an opportunity to make their voice heard in this process so thank you again for everyone who has participated i want to quickly just acknowledge our hosts this evening a lot of work has gone into not only tonight but the process at large i want to thank the city staff the county staff our partners and friends at north carolina central university our elected officials who are present here tonight thank you to the community and the residents who have taken time out of your thursday evening to be here and to engage and thank you to everyone who does this work day in and day out to ensure that the needs of our neighbors and residents are are met i do want to turn it over now to council member cabrero to provide us with some closing remarks thank you thanks so much for all the residents who joined us this evening and taking your your time out on some of your time off i also want to thank city staff for all the tremendous work you've done so far on this really important process in moment this we will continue to listen to you all we will continue to do the best we can to serve the residents of durham and all the many many needs that they have in a really long pandemic i think many of us believe that we would be in a different space than we are right now i certainly was hoping for a different the beginning of a fall that would look different than it is right now in durham and in north carolina again we will be taking this up everything will be public the decisions will be public and residents will be continued or will continue to be engaged i want to appreciate all the really thoughtful and challenging questions and comments that folks presented this evening and we learn a lot from our residents i you know we are the best city in the united states and we have some awards to prove it and so and we're we're better when we all work together and i really appreciate everyone's energy and thoughtfulness thank you thank you everyone and we look forward to hearing from you in all the different capacities and formats and thank you again for being here i hope you have a lovely evening