news by all means has been the most sought-after genre in the last few months. Going by the back members, COVID-19 led lockdown resulted in as much as 200% high membership of channels that brought you reliable and credible news. To talk more about the genre and the growth and the leadership decisions that made different channels, news channels stand out in this cluttered world of news. Today we have someone who leads one such network, Mr. Barunda, CEO of TV9 Network. Welcome to the show, Barun. Thank you, Nazia. So, Barun, as we start, I would want to understand from you how challenging have been last few months, COVID-19 has just changed the situation completely. It must have been very difficult to come to office, work with people are still working from home, you know, just take us through the journey. Well, this pandemic affected the entire world. And we have come up with this new normal now. But during this journey as we went into lockdown, during end of March, there was no new normal. People were grappling across the world with this new virus, which nobody had very deep information about. So, for news channels, we had a completely different challenge. We were the fourthest, we are the fourthest. And we are part of the essential services.  Being the CEO, even I had attended office every single day during the lockdown, including Sundays. I couldn't come to terms with this fact that I would be sitting in my home in AC room and then the reporters and others in the office back there, they would be exposing themselves, which is an unknown risk. But at the same time, we have communicated to the entire team that listen, you had a choice of joining as a teacher in a school or going and working in, or being a writer, being a poet. Every choice is where they are with. Every choice was there with you. But you chose to be part of media. So, this is the time you have to live up to the occasion. So, we couldn't shut shop. And then I get the examples that what if all the doctors take leave and say that, no, we are not going to treat you. What will happen to you? So, it was a very challenging situation for us. But the focus of our operation that time was that be true to your identity. You're the fourthest state. People are worried. They're sitting. They're confined at home. They need the news. Give them the news and protect yourself also. Your health is of utmost importance to us. But at the same time, you've got to continue to deliver, discharge your duties. So, that's how we worked on. And we made sure that we follow all the government directives and norms. We work with half manpower. Sometime we have gone through quarantine. Suddenly somebody got diagnosed with COVID. We went through, we had to shut the office for two days. So, all ups and downs had happened. But I think we lived up to the occasion. The entire team, our entire network, we have about 80 odd people got infected so far. Yeah, I wanted to speak to you about that. The data that I got was that you had close to 100 people from your staff got infected. Your offices were sealed. If you can speak about specific instances, how was it when it actually happened? How was it still continuing in delivering news even when your office was sealed? You see, the reporters were out on the field. They are at maximum risk. They're being exposed. They're going to hospitals and also they are well protected, well guarded. In the office, we had cut down the manpower to half. So, we started working with two shifts. And we made half the people work on a particular shift, but we extended the shift. So, every day when they came to office, it's one and a half shift.  And the next guys, the next set of people came in and worked for one and a half shift. So, that's how overall we tried to do. We have set up a parallel office. So, when the office was sealed, that was a big challenge for us. We have this sprawling studio. We had a fantastic setup, but we were deprived of that for about 48 hours. So, we operated from an auxiliary place next to us. And it is still continuing. I mean, suddenly it's not even a day going past where we don't have a new diagnosis, a diagnosis with COVID. But we tried to believe with this fact that we got to live with this virus. The better side of the virus is that it's, in 90% of the cases, it is asymptomatic, which I personally have spoken to at least 30, 40 people. It is fatal for comorbid and elderly people. So, when you go back home, either you seclude yourself or you seclude them if there are comorbid and elderly parents at home and take all precautions, social distancing, masks. So, it's continuing. I don't think we will come out of this very quickly. But everyone recovered. Sorry, everyone recovered, yeah. Everyone recovered, including one cancer survivor and one person who has severe diabetes. But they should have been more careful with their health. They should have informed us. But nonetheless, they've all survived. Tell us about the entire genre has seen a growth. As I mentioned in my intro, there have been a 200% high. But these are also times when credibility plays a very significant role. You have to give credible news. People have to believe in you. People have to trust you. So, what kind of content decisions did you take? And what would you think work for you that you saw such a significant increase in your viewership during these three, four months? You see, the business of news operations, there are three factors which give rise to growth of viewership. I think these three factors are exhaustive also. One, obviously content. Two is promotion. And three is distribution. And when we do all three of them together in tandem, then there's something called a multiplayer effect which sets in. One of the first basic marketing principles which we were taught in our business school. So, that is what we applied. We were a little lucky. Lucky in the sense that we were planning to relaunch the channel during the month of January. But with the logo change, et cetera, ministry took a little longer. So, finally the relaunch happened in the first half of March. So, relaunch is all pervasive. New look, new FPC, new promotions. And we planned innovative kind of promotions across the country. Later on, we had to withdraw most of them outdoor, et cetera. But local TV channels and digital, we've actually flooded that. And then comes content. One part of content is look and feel. If you have seen our channel just before this relaunch, and if you see the channel, you'll see there's a mark difference. And I would possibly, it's a creator's bias maybe. But I think our channel is one of the best looking channels amongst the Hindi news channels in the country now. That's my feel. And in content, you know, we were a fringe player just before the lockdown. Fringe player because we were, we launched only about a year back. People didn't know about it. There was no promotion happen. We were this, our content was good, but our look and feel needed a little bit of improvement. But a lot of people didn't know about us. So, during lockdown, two things had happened. One, we had improved the channel's look and feel and content. I'll come to content soon. Two, there's a heavy promotions in local regional news channels as well as digital. And three people were sampling more news channels anyway. You know, in, in, in case of this uncertainty, you were saying that 200% growth in news viewership. So sampling had increased. So once you sample something new, you like it. You stick with it. It's a very simple way of looking at it. And now in terms of content, what we did in one word, I would like to say that despite being a very new nascent channel, just about one year old, we have set the agenda many times. And, and not that we have compromised with our credibility ever because that's the first attribute to a news channel.  And in, in, we've given a variety of content. If you just look at our prime time, it starts at four o'clock and there are branded programs. Each one is coming up another heavy promotions on the channel across outside the channel. And in terms of content, the focus was COVID. And then we have identified, we have the first to identify there's a common enemy to the world. And of course, for India, which now had turned out to be the, the biggest enemy for us, which is China. If you, if you go back and see it longer, that you will see that our focus on exposing China had started way back in, in early April. And then, and then now that has become a very in thing in the genre. And then we also had been very focused on COVID related information in a very formatted structured way. If you see the channel, you'll see there are several fast programs, fast news programs and giving the detail in a crisp way that worked. And then third is the global. You would be surprised to see that the even Hindi news audience has become so very hungry for global news, global update. We had been doing reporting from 10 different countries at that point in time. And we have focused a large, largely on the US, China, and then what's happening in Korea. So there was a global perspective in our coverage, which people love. And it, you know, with, with the ratings coming after seven days, we all know what's working, what's not working. So it gives you fairly good idea that when you need to focus on. So that's how it, it moved along for the last 13, 14 weeks. I don't coming to, I mean, you're the CEO of the company. You are supposed to drive the business and the growth. There is this belief that, you know, news, despite all the numbers, is still undervalued.  Would you agree with me and would you want to speak about it? Of course, I think you have hit the nail on the head. I think news is highly undervalued and in the current situation, it is going to be even more undervalued. You see the way things had happened. Newspapers have, have actually been the worst sufferer. I mean, you're, you're talking to someone who could not start a day without a newspaper, but I, now that I've caught over the habit, I don't think I'm going back to newspaper again. GECs did not have fresh programming. They've suffered. So people, and then uncertainty, all these things have driven traffic to the news channels and the news channels viewership growth has have been stupendous. And yes, coming back to this undervaluing thing, it is. I mean, for instance, if you take, if you take a regional channel, let's say in Maharashtra, Maharashtra, a regional channel, audio visual channel that actually can command only a fraction of the rates that even a city radio station can command. Now that is height of undervaluation. Here you're talking about audio only medium. Yes, it's non-intrusive. But here you're talking about an audio visual and entire Maharashtra. And then even if you see the cost structure of a television channel and a radio station, it's vastly varying. So news overall is undervalued. This is the time. I don't think that we would take the opportunity, leverage the opportunity and try and increase the rate. But I think advertisers and clients will have to start seeing the value and they will have to start believing that news pays. And if the industry, the entire industry can come together and walk towards working with each other, I think we would be able to exhibit that new space. And I think the undervaluation of news industry in India in terms of advertising rate should see some correction. One of the reasons a lot of experts attribute the segment being undervalued is that there's too much fragmentation in the segment. But then we all contribute to it. We have so many channels. Would you want to speak on that? I mean, do you agree that it is the fragmentation which is also resulting in the prices not taking that metaphor? There's a thumb rule which you can apply to Indian media sector. The thumb rule is that there is fragmentation everywhere. The top three in any genre will comfortably be viable in terms of business. The fourth and the fifth, if there are business operations are robust, if they've managed their cost well, they would still be able to make business sense out of the venture. Now the rest even advertisers don't look at. I mean, if you talk about telecom market, if there are 20 telecom news channels, I don't think the advertisers look beyond even the number two or three. Similarly, nationally, I think because there are varying advertisers and the affordability varies, you still have advertising viability in channels which are even number seven, number eight, number nine. So that creates a little bit of pressure on the advertising rate because if you have a cheaper option, you might go there. But the cheaper options, when we were four percent and now we are 10 percent market share, we understand the difference that the advertisers look at a 10 percent market share channel and a four percent market share channel. So fragmentation, according to me, have a very little effect on it. Primarily, the leaders should drive the rate. Somewhere, somebody has to take some bold step to say that, no, I am going to change it even if there's temporary loss in revenue. And then again, I'm saying that it has to be collaborative. At this point in time, the world needs to stand together and everybody has to walk to a solution-driven approach. Haroon, in the last few months, your network has really done well. It has become one of the leading networks. Your channel TV9 Bharat Varsh is doing pretty well. What kind of leadership, bold leadership decisions do you think you or your editor took that worked for you because you just spoke about taking some bold steps. So what were those bold steps that you took that worked for you? No, no. I didn't say that we've taken bold steps. But you said that you have to take bold steps sometimes to grow. No, I am saying that we've taken fundamental steps. There was no bold step. Bold step is... I mean, I'm coming to that when we talk about the future plan. Fundamental works. Another thing I always believed to be ordinary is extraordinary. We didn't want to do anything extraordinary. We already had two leading channels who are undisputed leaders for over a decade, which is Telugu and Kannada. We had gained leadership in Marathi and Gujarati over the last six months or so. And Bharat Varsh, I just explained that it is a combination of distribution. There's a significant improvement in distribution front we've done. When we changed position on Friddhish, if you go back and see that immediately the rural viewership went up. I mean, this is like as elementary as anything. We focused on marketing and promotions. One of the things that we've done, we've started doing, that's being followed by the industry now. And content has told you that it's a re-launch, a very beautiful look and feel, and focus on content which people would love to see, people would like to know. The changing taste of viewership, as I said, that the global news has become a very, very in-thing, even with the news viewers. So these all have become, and then finally, you know, the company or the CEO is as good as a team. The team has been extraordinary. They have lived up to the occasion. We have recruited some key people in the senior managerial positions, top managerial positions across the country. So everybody worked in tandem. It's only the synchronization of each one of us, our output, and that's resulted in this growth. Would you also speak about your expansion plans? Well, yeah, expansion, we were looking at a couple of more regional markets just before COVID, namely Bengali and Tamil, because with that, you would have the regional network complete. The only thing, you know, the way you divide India, there are six large language differentiated markets, which is Bengali, Marathi in the North, and Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam. We don't see Malayalam to be a bigger market, but if you have gone to Tamil and Bengali, we would have covered the large language differentiated market. But obviously after COVID, we had to go back to the drawing table. But the expansion really, which will unfold soon, which is what you carried this morning that Raktim has joined as Studio 9's CEO, would be on the digital domain. So the group did not have, they only have a very, just a presence in the digital side of content. But that's future. Everything will make a transition from traditional TV to the digital delivery system. That is going to happen sooner than later. So that's our focus. We're expanding the digital team. We're recruiting across the country. And we had an English news channel, which is Bangalore-based News 9, which we shut down, as you know. We are converting that into our national offering now. But it'll be only on web. So we are not going to put it. Only on the web. It's a web TV. By when is it likely to make a comeback? I think we're targeting a launch date of October 1 for this news9live.com, which is a web TV. We've now been joined by Mr. Bhattra, who's director and editor of Business World as well as founder of Exchange Familiars. It's been a long time. Varun, congratulations on helping TV9 grow and taking it to a new journey. A lot of people are very anxious, jealous, skeptical about the ratings that you're getting. How is TV9 getting these ratings? And all kinds of what-saps are floating around. So what do you have to say to people who are not being able to accept what TV9 has achieved? As you are not there, I just explained to Nazia that we only stuck to fundamentals. And because this industry is quite transparent, you have a logger where you see the content and you have a viewership numbers after 10 days that appears on your laptop. One will have to just go back and do the exercise that they'll get to know. For instance, I've just said that our focus on China, our focus on global news, that's been followed by the industry now. If you look at the prime time, you'll see that prime time is largely focused, even before this Galwan Valley had happened, even before that.  So we turned the focus in April, the rest of the industry turned the focus much later. So I think if somebody goes back and does the homework, everything is very apparent, everything is very on the face. But I learned that, I don't know about this skepticism or jealousy or whatever. I don't want to comment about it. But I did learn that TV9, Bharat Barsh was not in the consideration list in terms of review for most of the leading channels. Now, that something is complacent at its best. And then finally, some people have taken us in the consideration list and started reviewing us only when we have overtaken them. So the jealousy or it's a competitive market. I would also feel bad if somebody from below comes ahead of me and I'm a 15-year-old band or a 20-year-old brand. I would have felt bad so. But I think it's a part of the game and if one sticks to basic, I think everybody would be able to deliver the kind of growth that we've seen or everybody will be able to understand the kind of growth that we've entered. Thank you, Bharat. I want to ask you one more question. Nadia is the editor of exchangeformedia.com. I joined it because I've known you from the day I started exchangeformedia. And you know, the day you entered news broadcast media, whether it was the ABP news under Uday Shankar's leadership or when you became the CEO of Xenium and blew it. Now tell us, you also brought in very good talent on the business side and the editorial side in TV9. Tell us about how has that contributed and what kind of talent that you brought in? See, this business is all about people. Technology is, the other aspect is just an enabler and people which are one on the content side, one on the business side and the support staff. On the content and the business side, you really need good people and the business is as good as the people are. In fact, the leader or the CEO is also as good as the team is. So we had to see this brand TV9. You know that they were undisputed leaders in Telugu and Canada. Brilliant brands, but they got built on their own mostly. I mean, when I went back and searched for it, I didn't see this really concerted effort to build those brands.  I mean, people can't reach there. But then with strong editorial product, you need to build the corporate entity. That is what I've tried to do. Bharatbhash was a new brand. It was struggling at four percent, four and a half percent. But then again, it is not really about content. When you're a new brand, you have to go for promotion. You have to go for sampling, distribution. So everything put together. So I've gotten people who, according to me, are the best in the industry and in all aspects. In the content, if you see that even both Canada and Marathi editors are new. We've got a new group editor as in B.V. Rao. There's a brilliant team which was existing in TV 9 Bharatbhash, which was waiting to explode, which is under the leadership of Hemant Sharma, who's a news director. And son, the editor of TV 9 Bharatbhash, I call him a magician. I mean, he's got the pulse. He knows how to communicate. So people who are within the system, Telugu, complete old team has been retained. And a group of people who have come from outside. Now it's a homogeneous, well-jailing team, which is moving as a new unit. So when you move as a new unit, you have a higher momentum. Thank you, Barun. Back to you, Nazia. Thanks, Anurad sir for joining us. Barun, I wanted to come back to the issue of China, that you were speaking earlier, that your content on China really made that difference in making your channel stand out and in the worship numbers. Would you want to speak more on it? And what kind of content were you giving out, which was different from what other channels were giving, and what sort of leads did you have on that? Okay, I will go deep into the content. Instead of my going deep into the content, I would like to invite the news director, Hemant Sharma.  I don't need to introduce him. So let's talk about the content. Greetings. Yes, tell me. Barun, you were saying that this was a big reason for you to separate India from the rest of the channels, that you were very much talking about China. Not only China, it's a global perspective. The global perspective of COVID-19. I am talking about the country that was going on in the foreign countries. After 377, I will tell you this from last August, after that we led. What was happening in Pakistan? What did Pakistan want to do in our country with 377? What kind of problems were there in Balochistan? How much was he doing in the POK? What kind of terrorist activities were going on in our country? What kind of temples were going on in Pakistan? What kind of terrorist activities were there in India? We were the only channel that sent our reporter to Pakistan. We were the only channel.  But our reporter, in Pakistan, sent us a full list of reports on how to go to the temples. We were benefited from this. When China started a conflict against this country, on two levels. One was on the border, the other was behind the COVID-19. The world later came to know about it. So we first recognized the COVID-19. On 8th January, we did a big program on the COVID-19. We told the people of the country that the COVID-19 was going on in the world, but not in this country. At that time, we told them that the COVID-19 has spread in China, it has spread in the world, and after 12 days, China agreed on the 20th January. So we were the first people to keep our fingers crossed against the conflict in China. Mr. Varun Ji must have told us that Mr. Varun Ji had an idea. He was his brainchild. In the prime time, we started a program on the care and care of the country. If you are concerned, then the people of this country are concerned. The flagship program is at 9 o'clock. But the care of the country, we have been doing that for the last 100 days, only on China. First of all, we recognized that China is making a mistake and we got the benefit of it. We have been doing it for 100 days. Whether it is COVID-19, whether it has just happened in Galwan-Ghati, the problems of the country before Galwan-Ghati, how China was making a mistake, what conditions were there, when the article 370 was removed, this started after that. Is it because of internal disturbance in our country and the neighboring countries are taking advantage of it? Mr. Najia, this is a question. We don't just keep our fingers crossed on foreign matters. When the corona came, and the corona spread badly in this country, and when the government started doing politics with the corona, then TV9 India was the first channel that told us that there is a problem in Bengal. There are dead soldiers in Bengal. There is no disposal of dead bodies in Bengal. We were the first people there. And Mr. Varun Ji will tell you that our market share is number one in Kolkata because of this. We are nationally 4-5, but in Bengal and Kolkata, we are number one. Actually, I wanted to speak to you about regional markets. You are one of the leaders in regional markets. Regional, they say, even when we come back to print, I want to go back to our business. We are in the national market now. In national, we were discussing for a long time. But a lot of players say that the future of journalism is in regional domain because even apps are becoming regional. Regional newspapers are doing much better than the national newspapers. So would you want to speak about this whole concept of going regional? Regional, it's not today. If you see, I don't recall the reports clearly now. When I was here in media industry earlier, during 2007 and 2013 with Zee, that time, also, if you see, even the growth of television was largely contributed by the growth in regional markets. And regional markets, as I said, that you can break the country in three regions. One is Hindi-speaking. One is small language differentiated markets, which is an Oriya, which is a Bhochpuri, which may be a Gujarat. And there are six large language differentiated markets. So these have very, very large consumption of content in their native language. So that has been propelling the growth, not only in news, also in GEC. And going forward, it's not journalism is going to be in regional. With digitization, the news consumption also is becoming very, very localized, hyper-local. So when you go hyper-local, it's a regional language. Even in India, if you take Hindi and the six top languages, which I said, they contribute to about 90% of the total population. We'll speak the seven languages. So it'll move to regional. What is in the TV news context, what I see as regional is that, you see, you would agree that Hindi news television has really, really suffered a lot over the last two, three years because the early adopters were digital consumers who were mostly English consumers. So they've shifted from there. For the next 10 years, Hindi and regional television in news will continue to grow. Maybe they'll follow the path which the print has followed over the last 10 years, but it'll slow down. It's about English. Sorry, English news. So it'll continue to grow in the regional markets because India's population is there and there's a consumption of content in mother tongue. The propensity would remain in India. And the second thing is, I'll compliment Mr. Varun in this regard, that when regional forces are strong, you see, our policy, the national forces have started to break a lot. After the 1980s, regional forces were born. Telugu pride was born, Kannada pride was born, Bengal pride was born, U.P. was born.  So the regional market is also increasing. And the market is also increasing. The land of Varun is increasing. So how much is regional actually contributing to the growth right now? For us? Yeah. No. For you, it is of course quite significant. But in general, if I talk of the industry, how much would you attribute growth of any channel, any network to the regional segment? No. See, still Hindi is a large market followed by those for Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi. For us, TVN and Bharat Bas is a news channel. If you talk about our growth now, obviously the growth would be, absolute growth would be largely contributed by a new channel because you're growing on a smaller base. As of now, till last year, 95% of our revenue, if not 99% of our revenue were all from regional markets. This year, it'll come down to maybe about 70%. But going forward, if you see our kind of network in the current status, there are four regional channels and one Hindi channel. Largely, it'll be one is to one in a steady state. So the revenue that you garner of this four regional channels, it'll be equivalent to one Hindi channel. So that is possibly the ratio. A leading Bengali channel, the kind of revenue it does, like to like comparison in the Hindi genre, when it is Hindi, it'll be four to five times. So three or four regional markets put together would be equal to four or five, would be equal to the national market, which is Hindi. You also said you are likely to expand to some more markets. Is COVID, what has happened in the last few months, is it actually a good time to expand? Because I don't really get too many appointment news from any network these days except from yours. So you are still hiring people, you are still expanding, which is actually good for our economy because not many organizations are expanding right now. But what is the strategy? What is your plan? So you see first, when you go through such kind of pandemic or economic recession, which I've seen twice in my life, in my professional career, 9-11 time when I was general manager in India Today Group, I've seen that. I've also seen a recession of 2008-09 when I was with Zee News. Business Today, the India Today Group wasn't a listed company, but Zee was a listed company. So if you go back and see that what happened during 2008-09, the Zee News Limited, which was a listed company, continued to grow both in revenue and in profitability. Even that time we were recruiting people, we were launching channel while the industry was retrenching. So fundamentally, when in a recession, if you can afford it, your any expansion, it's a biased market. Your any expansion comes cheaper if you can sustain that loss with your bottom line or with your investment.  You've got to differentiate between what is expense and what is investments. Investments will come at cheaper rate during this session. So if you can afford your bottom line, your investment can afford, you should move judiciously towards expansion during recession. That is the fundamental thing which I've always applied. And now, as I said that the digital is what the country is saying, the revenue, digital revenue is tip of the iceberg. According to me, it'll grow. And eventually all these linear TV channels will shift to digital. As we said that we're shutting, we shut down the English one and we're going into the digital mode. That will happen over the next four, five years. And we are late. We're late by about 15 years where we are starting the others. Some of the competitions have started 15 years back. So we had plans for traditional TV launches in two regions as we said. So we held back that plan given the recession. But on the digital front, we see it's far more prudent. It's far more advantageous to us to continue with the expansion now and sort of leverage this high news appetite which will continue to be there in the country for at least for next one year. But there's a lot of joke in this too. When the world is stopping the expansion, it's slowing down, so we're going into the expansion. That's what I'm asking Mr. Varun. Is this Mr. Varun's magician approach to leadership? No, it is a judicious call that you take. And then you have to showcase when you reach your investors or promoters. By the way, we walked with a set of promoters. I mean, I have never got that brief. I've worked in this industry for close to 30 years. The first thing I was told when I picked up this network, he said that Varun, respect is the first thing that we want to do. Returns and revenue can follow. And I have not heard as a CEO that any promoter is talking in that language. And I lived up to this. On my part, I've said that not to worry, respect and the credential is the first aspect of a news network. Revenue and returns will follow if you do your business well. So expansion is we have to showcase that we can sustain. We have to showcase that we can actually fund ourselves or justify the additional funding which is coming in. So everybody would count every money very judiciously very carefully now. So despite that, we've decided to go forward with this digital expansion. Varun, I really wish you all the best. We were live and we have some questions, but we're also out of time because we had scheduled it for half an hour. We were already 40 minutes into the discussion. So I'll take one question and if you allow me and then maybe we can close it. Yes, sure. So this question has come from an anonymous attendee person has not given the name. What is the plan for sustain is post COVID when people start their regular work in travel? What innovation is required for the news industry? Generally in marketing, everything is based on a habit, which needs individual to take up something on a regular basis. Varun, you want to answer that? Yes, I didn't get the question. The gentleman has made a statement. Basically they're asking what would be a good sustain is planned post COVID. See, everything has to change from now on. As I said, my first approach, which I have started writing to industry and all, first approach is everybody has to come together at least for the foreseeable future. We have to have partnership. We have to have leverage. We have to leverage each other's strength. We have to forget the competitive nature of ours for the time being. The more we collaborate, the better we are. And the other thing which happens in all kinds of economic recession, which is again a thumb. You got to look at solution-driven approach. Instead of addressing problems and applying the same method that you applied to address problems, you got to look at solution-driven approach. And this new normal, which they're saying that there are many corrections COVID has brought into us. I mean, your personal health is of extreme importance. We had to wait for COVID to come and tell us that look after yourself. So those are irrespective of whether you are running a news channel or you're running a GEC channel or you're running a FMCG product. We have to imbibe many corrections within ourselves post COVID. Collectively as individuals, as corporate houses, as an economy, as a society, everywhere. Thank you so much, Varun. Thank you so much, Mr. Malik for speaking to us. And on that positive note that we should right now look for solutions and not just talk about problems and wishing Varun and the entire team of Network 9, TV9, all the best. I would like to conclude this webinar for today. Maybe we'll catch up again some other day. Thank you. One final thing, Nazia. Thank you very much for this from our side.  You've asked all relevant questions. I hope that our answers could live up to your expectations. Absolutely. And if there's anything left, please feel free to talk to us. And any question comes to you further down the line. We would be happy to take those questions in. And we'll meet again when India Market's leadership will be with India. We will definitely meet. And I really sincerely from bottom of my heart, I wish you all the best. And I hope we do another program when you complete your one year. And your market share is even more. And you are in the top two, top three. I mean that's the best. There's no confusion in this, Nazia. There's no confusion. We've been born as a leader in India Market. We've been a leader in Telugu. We've been a leader in Kannada. We've been a leader in Marathi. We've been a leader in Gujjati. We're gradually becoming a leader here. There's no confusion in this. I don't have any confusion. I'm giving you the best wishes. Thank you. All the best for your family and yourself. And everybody who is watching it, please take care of yourself. Look after yourself. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for taking our time for us. Thank you. Namaskar.


Good evening. We'd like to call the Durham City Council meeting to order at 7 o'clock p.m Like to certainly welcome all of you that are in attendance with us this evening It would be just take a moment of silent meditation, please Thank you. I'm going to ask Councilman Davis if he would lead us in the pledge, please That's the clerk if you call her role, please. It's Mayor Bell present Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden council member Cotate councilmember Davis councilmember Moffitt Councilmember shul councilmember Brown has an excused absence Well, we have a very pleasant Event this evening and it's probably most of you know in fact, I think probably most of you here because of that We have young people that are going to be sworn in to the Durham Youth Commission And they had a reception a little bit earlier prior to this council meeting and I'm going to ask Miss Evelyn Scott the office director of office of youth for She'll come forth and make introductions. Thank you Again, we just like to thank our parents other supporters family and friends as well as City manager mr. Bonfield and other elected officials we'd like to thank you all for this opportunity again We are just grateful that you all trust us to work with your kids And we're going to take the mayor upon his his plea and he said that he wanted to see us more involved And we intend to do that so look forward to seeing us at the city and the county Meetings to again address some of those issues that are important for youth in Durham Alongside me are Lydia Newman and Anthony Mitchell and we represent the office on you So we are the ones that will be working this year with the students. Thank you at this time We're going to go down I guess and go ahead and take our oath of office by deputy clerk and gray City clerk and gray We're gonna have the students they're gonna come up to the podium and say their name as they walk down I'm Zach Meredith. I'm a senior at Jordan High School I'm Lindsay Molina, and I'm a junior at Durham Academy. I'm Kendall Hinton, and I'm a senior at Southern Durham My name is Michaela Interkin. I'm a junior at the City of Medicine Academy I'm Jonathan every I'm a senior K Academy. I'm Keanna Taylor. I'm a senior at Middle College at Durham Tech Hello, my name is Maya Baker. I'm a freshman that attends research triangle parks. My name is Bianca Razzak I'm a junior at Jordan High School. Hi, my name is Talia Kaptanolu. I'm at DSA as a sophomore Hi, my name is Maya Reed, and I'm a sophomore at Hillstead High School. Hi, my name is Rishon Bailey, and I'm a sophomore at Hillstead High School Good afternoon. My name is future quarter, and I'm a rising junior at Jordan High School Hello, my name is Kelly Traynum, and I'm a junior at Hillstead High School Hello, my name is Ashanti Asia. I'm a senior at Middle College High School Hello, my name is Christine Roister, and I'm a junior at Hillstead New Tech High School Good evening. My name is Taylor Walker. I'm a junior at Northern High School Good evening. My name is Sydney Taylor, and I'm a junior at Hillstead High School Good evening. My name is Tom Brown. I'm a freshman at Southern Durham My name is Mantees Malish, and I am a 12th grader at Durham School of the Art Hello, my name is Olivia Simpson, and I'm a junior at Middle College High School Hello, I am Elizabeth Ellsner. I'm a freshman at Northern High School My name is Jeff Seidel. I'm a senior at Voyager Academy My name is Keith Beasley, and I'm a senior in the IB program at Hillstead High School Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do hereby solemnly affirm that I will support and maintain the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and Laws of North Carolina not inconsistent therewith and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of my office as a member of the Durham Youth Commission Let me ask are there any announcements by members of the council? Recognize Councilman Schuhl and Mayor Pro Tem Mr. Mayor Two things real quickly one It seems from the Youth Commission members that the bow tie is back in fashion And there perhaps is a youth movement that we all ought to maybe take some note of That was a great looking bunch of young people I just wanted to mention that The our Parks and Rec Department had a terrific event at Red Maple Park That they had planned for quite a while the Recreation Advisory Commission as well Red Maple Park Is a is a park off of East Club Boulevard one of our most beautiful natural areas In terms of our parks absolutely gorgeous But it is a park that has fallen into some disrepair and some disuse and the neighbors gathered under the auspices of Parks and Rec The Recreation Advisory Committee was there they were surveyed There were probably 34 members of the of the neighborhood there and Our deputy senior manager both Ferguson was there along with many people from our parks and rec department And I was just very I was really proud of Both our staff And the way the community responded I think it's really going to make a big difference and I think that park is going to come back in a great way and Just wanted to express appreciation for for that and For all especially for all of our city staff who were there and did such a good job Thanks councilman shul and recognize the mayor pro tem Good evening. I was blessed this morning at eight o'clock To attend a great celebration And it was the uh Full bank of central and eastern north carolina Received a three hundred thousand dollar grant from um Bayer Crop science For the backpack program And so that is another step toward assuring that our children have food to eat on the weekends was well attended and We really appreciate where Bayer crop science has done for this community. Thank you Thank you mayor pro tem for sharing that information. Are there any other announcements? If not, we proceed with the agenda First being the senator and items which may be approved. I'm sorry We have for our times about a city manager of city attorney city clerk Thank you, mr. Mayor. Good evening. I had three priority items for this evening's agenda Agenda item number seven the microsoft enterprise agreement There was a couple of changes and corrections to the issues and analysis section of the agenda memo Gender items number 18 and 19 the consolidated annexation joven northeast creek And the consolidated annexation 1307 old oxford road Both of those items have the Some modifications to the recommendation and a required Consistency statement that's now required under state law as per the Director from the city attorney in item 18. That's attachment number 14 item 19. It's attachment number 13 Mr. Baker, I'm sure could answer any questions you have about that And finally, I did want to indicate for the record that we have posted the city manager's report In response to the recommendations from the human relations commission and the civilian police review board Which will be presented to the city council at thursday's work session That has been posted to the agenda On the the regular website where the agenda is and also It is available on the city manager's webpage on our home page on the website. So It will be available for anyone who wants to review it download it print it whatsoever Effective immediately. Thank you Okay, entertaining motion on the city manager's priority items I'm probably moving second madam clerk will be open to vote Close vote It passes six to zero Next the city attorney for our diamonds. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. No priority items. Likewise city clerk Yes, mr. Mayor members of the council. I have three items I like to introduce the city council to our newest Member in the clerk's office the deputy city clerk diana schreiber. She comes from the city of greensboro, north carolina In addition, mr. Mayor We have a first this evening lia. Wyatt who was recently appointed to the citizen's advisory committee And latasha wilson who was recently appointed to the Durham homeless services advisory committee They are here this evening to be sworn in before the city council If you come forward with the clerk I lia did he's why it Did hear by solemnly swear That I will support and maintain the constitution of the united states the constitution of the united states The constitution and laws of north carolina not inconsistent, they're with not inconsistent therewith faithfully and impartially and that I will faithfully and impartially Discharge the duties of my office discharge charge the duties of my office As a member of the citizens advisory committee will help me god Thank you. Latasha Wilson. Hi, Latasha Wilson. Do hereby solemnly swear that I will support and maintain the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution and Laws of North Carolina. The Constitution of Laws of North Carolina. Not inconsistent therewith. Not inconsistent therewith. And that I will faithfully and impartially. And that I will faithfully and impartially. Discharge the duties of my office. Discharge the duties of my office. As a member of the Durham Homeless Service Advisory Committee. As a member of the Durham Homeless Service Advisory Committee. So help me, God. So help me, God. Let me say to both of the young ladies who've been appointed, we certainly appreciate the fact that you've chosen to volunteer your services for these very important committees. We recognize that there's a certain amount of time that's required with that. But we would ask if there is anything that either this council or administration can do and help me discharge your duties. Don't hesitate to call upon us. And again, congratulations. And thanks for being willing to serve. We'll now proceed with the agenda. The first item is the consent agenda items. And consent agenda items may be approved with a single motion. If an item is removed either by a council person or a member of the public, I'll discuss later in the program. And I will just read the heading of each one of the consent agenda items. First is item one is Durham Homeless Services Advisory Committee Appointment, which is just done. Item two is, I'm sorry, item two is a crime statistics performance audit, June 2014. Item three is an overtime follow up performance audit. Item two has been for June 2014. Item four is utility extension agreement with Biomerics Inc. Trayburn. Item five is utility extension agreement with Angale and Marvelin, Oralina to serve. 602 Pleasant Drive. This is water only. Item six is the city code revision of the right-of-way ordinance, Chapter 62, Article 2, Division 1 of the City of Durham Code of Audiences. Item seven is the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. Item eight is munis software annual support and license agreement for 2015. Item nine is agreement with Tom Warner Cable Business Class to provide metropolitan area network services to the city of Durham. We'll pull that item. Item 10 is generator maintenance and emergency repair services service contract. Item 11 is pipeline agreements with North Carolina Railroad Company and Norfolk Southern Railway Company with a downtown loop water line replacement construction contract. I entertain a motion for the approval of consent agenda items with exception of items nine and items two. It's been properly moved. And second, Madam Clerk, we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes. Six to zero. Thank you. We'll move to the general business agenda of public hearings. Item 13 is a public hearing on proposed contracts between Argos Therapeutics Inc. and the city of Durham regarding incentives for capital investment within the city limits. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, city council staff. I'm Kevin Dick with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. And I'm pleased this evening to have the opportunity to present a proposed economic development incentive agreement between the city and Argos Therapeutics Inc. A bit about Argos Therapeutics, excuse me, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of treatments for cancer and other infectious diseases. They currently employ approximately 100 workers, and they are located in Northern Durham. They recruit talent from local universities, such as NCCU's Bright Program. And they're a very community focused company. And they make annual donations to food drives that are directed by Durham and Eastern North Carolina food banks. A bit about the project. The project would consist of $40.9 million of capital investment by 2017. Also, the city's proposed incentive payment would be $924,676 over a seven year period, and that is to be matched by the county. The projected capital improvements are slated to yield $1.7 million in new tax value over a 10 year period based upon a built to suit facility that would be located at a site on 2W Alexander Drive. This site is expected to be approximately 100,000 square feet and would consist of headquarters, manufacturing, and research and development. Over 100 positions, additional positions are expected to be created by 2017 with a total of 236 to be created by 2018 at an average wage of over $90,000. The job mix is diverse and includes scientific and technical positions, administrative research and development. You can see the specific positions at the bottom of the slide. As it relates to compatibility with our existing economic development policy and our focus on industries, this project is very compatible. The targeted occupational types within the biopharmaceutical industry include research and development, biopharmaceutical production, and manufacturing. And we have representatives here from Durham Technical Community College that can speak to some of the training, the short term training that's offered at Durham Tech that can prepare individuals for positions at Argos. And I mentioned earlier that the NCCU Bright Center has produced interns for Argos in the past and stands ready to also be a source for their hiring through the Career Center system. And these targeted occupational types, as I said, are consistent with the policy that was approved by council on April 10, 2014. Total incentive package, as I said, 924,676 to be paid over seven years. There is a slated county match. The county approved a similar incentive at their July 28 public hearing. And that's 100% match based upon the creation of the job number that I stipulated earlier. There would be precedents related to the agreement. One is that Argos would agree to a workforce development agreement that would stipulate their use of the Durham Career Center as a source for hiring. And we have begun having discussions with Argos on that basis. Incentive payments subject to the verification of capital investment, as I said, over $40.9 million in capital investment within three years of city council approval, so within three years of this evening if the agreement were to be approved. Argos would have to provide the city with expenditure documentation of the aforementioned capital investment amounts. And they would also need to execute a Durham-based business plan that would show good faith efforts for hiring Durham-based contractors, including minority and women-owned businesses. And we would work with the company to establish good faith goals prior to the execution of an agreement. Why is an incentive necessary? The dollars are needed to make this corporate expansion take place in Durham because there was serious counteroffers from Mevin and Orange County to the tune of over $3.1 million. And by state statute, retaining the company here when there is a significant chance of the company moving elsewhere is reason to offer an incentive. Durham County, as I said, approved their matching incentive on July 28. The combined offer would be over $1.8 million. And on-the-job training grants may be offered to the company based upon them hiring Durham Career Center system registrants. And this would provide those registrants with stronger opportunities for job placement. Again, the city would gain $40.9 million in capital investment and basically in a brand-new facility and approximately $1.7 million in projected new tax revenues, as well as the creation of jobs. Why does this deal make sense for the Durham taxpayers? Well, firstly, Durham would be retaining a company that is creating highways, jobs, and growth industries. And secondly, research and development, manufacturing, and biopharmaceuticals are among the job categories that we cover. That concludes the presentation. But before taking questions, I would like to acknowledge the presence of Mr. Jeff Abbey, president and CEO of Argos Therapeutics, Randall Goller, who is director of facilities, and Fred Miesewitz. Fred, what's your title? He's the chief operating officer. And I'd like to acknowledge their presence here tonight and take any questions if that pleases the council. Thank you, Kevin. Staff presentation, I would ask first, are there comments by members of the council on this item? We do have one person that indicated they wanted to speak in the public hearing. I recognize Ted Conner, and I would ask is it anyone else that wants to speak on this item? Ted, you can come forward on this item. This being a public hearing item. Well, good evening, Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Cole Mifatin, and members of the Durham City Council. I am excited to be here this evening. This is an exciting night for Durham, and hopefully for Argos Therapeutics. I'd like to once again thank Jeff, Fred, and Randall for being with us tonight. It's exciting to have you here, and hopefully exciting for you to enjoy the palpable support for your company. The Durham Chamber of Commerce is here tonight to speak for our support for Argos Therapeutics expansion in Durham. Their expansion offers an excellent return on investment to the city of Durham with respect to new jobs, a broad range of jobs, new tax base, support for a Durham-born company using technology that came from Duke University, growth of our flourishing life sciences cluster, and bringing positive recognition to our community. Moreover, and most importantly, each day 180 new patients are diagnosed with renal cancer, and it is humbling to know that the personalized immunotherapy treatment that could save these patients' lives and lessen their suffering will be developed and hopefully deployed from Durham, North Carolina. In fact, Argos will be the first company providing true personalized immunotherapies for the treatment of renal cancer. Due to the company's technology platform, Durham will become the epicenter for personalized immunotherapies serving patients nationally and I hope ultimately globally. To help our residents become prepared for work at companies such as Argos, Durham Technical Community College has added two new training programs in the past year and is adding a third program funded through a grant from Duke Energy. Joining us tonight is Dr. Peter Woolridge, Vice President for Corporate and Continuing Education, who supervises the college's industry training programs. Always like for Dr. Woolridge to see how important it is to provide the training for our Durham residents at these companies. All of these programs that Durham Tech provides aligns well with the technology Argos will be using in their manufacturing process or production process. The quest to support Argos Therapeutics Growth in Durham started a long time ago, back in 2011, and it has been a long and very circuitous journey, but with the City of Durham support tonight, Argos will hopefully select Durham as its permanent home. But I will say that with Durham support for Argos, it is absolutely important for the City of Durham to provide their support for Argos, and I think in the end it'll be support for all of us. Thank you, Ted. Are there any other persons that want to speak on this item? This is a public hearing. Come forward and state your name and address, please. You have two minutes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was, I'm Mrs. Peterson, Victoria Peterson. I was looking into book at their report at the information that was submitted to the City Council. I do not see at all a racial breakdown to this company. Where's Kevin at? Okay, maybe he can come back. I would like to know what the racial breakdown is. I am one of the political activists here in Durham, and I've been trying to watch over the last several years to make sure that African Americans are employed in this community. And this looks like this is a very nice industry and a very nice field. We have the Durham Medical Academy and we have some other areas that I'm hoping that this company will draw from to make sure that they have a racially diverse. I'm not ashamed to advocate for African Americans in this community. This state for years have had a history. And as I go back and do my research, it still has a history of discriminating against persons of color. We've got to make sure that our young men and women in this community are employed. And I'm not speaking about all of the other minorities. Nowadays everybody's a minority. I'm speaking about persons of color, the African American community. We've got to make sure that our young men are being employed in this community. So if there is some way that this company own, and another thing, I did not see how many persons in Durham are already working for this company or out there in the Research Triangle. I think that that's something that we need to start asking these companies. If you say that, and I'm going to be speaking on another one, if you say that you have 600 males that are working for you, well, I would like to know how many of those 600 males live and work in Durham. So I think we've got to start, Mr. Mayor, getting some better statistical information on exactly after these companies get started, after they get their monies, how many of them of Durham residents they have employed. And thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. You're quite welcome, Mr. Peterson. And may be, Mr. Mayor, Kevin was responding to that, but that information is a part of the report that we have. Well, I'm telling you it is, and I don't know if Kevin wants to speak to it. It says approximately 25 to 30% of the workers at Argos are Durham residents, and the demographic profile of the workforce is 17% non-cocasian, 50% female, 58% are age 40 above, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that information is available, but we appreciate you raising the question. Let me ask you, is anyone else that wants to speak to deciding to be in public hearing? If not, I'm going to close the public hearing. I do have a question since it was raised. Assuming that the council approves this, what assurances do we have that Argos is going to make the decision to come to Durham? I've heard about Brolin and Alamance and et cetera, so what? Well, I'd like somebody to speak to that. Okay. Well, and I'll defer to the representatives from Argos with any more detail than this, but I mean, we've been given assurance that based upon the amount that we've proposed to them, their board has made a choice to stay in Durham. They believe that the dollar amount that we counter offered with, combined with the proximity to talent, airports, amenities just made, and just Durham's reputation and its collection of biopharmaceutical companies and its reputation really with the financing community as a place where biopharmaceutical companies, high-growth, high-technology-type companies congregate more so than Medbin, so. Do the offices care to speak to that? Yes, sir. You can come to the podium, please. Thank you for your time. Hi, I'm Jeff Abbey. I'm the presidency of Argos. Yeah, so right now all we're waiting on is a decision from the state regarding our incentive package, but as Kevin said, we went to the board and we looked at the Durham proposal and the Medbin proposal, and even though the Medbin was financially more attractive, we felt for the company, given that we already have 100 people employed here in Durham and we don't want to upset that by changing their commute in a negative direction. If we get what we're asking for from the state, which we expect to know in the next couple weeks, we plan to stay in Durham. Thank you. It was important to ask that question since it had been raised upon the public record and we appreciate your response. Yeah, and I just want to thank Durham, Kevin and Ted in particular, but the city and the county for the support of Argos. We, as both Ted and Kevin said, have been Durham located since the beginning, since the spinout of Duke, and we want to remain Durham located as we become a commercial, fully integrated company, revenue generating and profitable in the future. Thanks. I would say this council in particular has worked very hard to try to make this a very business friendly environment to not only through incentives, but other quality of life efforts to attract companies such as yourselves and the quality of product that you're involved in. So we appreciate the fact that you're leaning towards making that decision. And once this council makes a final decision, then we'll leave it up to the state and hopefully we'll come back in two to three weeks until we'll see you here. Great. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. I recognize Councilman Shewell and Councilman Moffitt. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanna just second what the mayor says.  These are great jobs with great pay and that's really important to us and so that's great and I'm certainly planning to support this. I do have a couple of questions for Kevin. Kevin, about the incentive. The incentive $924,000 looks like 75% of the taxes we're taking over the first seven years of the deal. Is that, did I get that right? It's actually just about 72%. 72%. The new tax rate would be about 72. All right. And is that within our guidelines for this? Yes. Okay. The 25% to 30% Durham workers, I know that we, and I'm really addressing this as much to folks at Argos as I am to you, Kevin, but we are, we all know that people cross the triangle all the time to go to jobs and work in different places, but I'm really glad to see that we have a Durham-based business plan and I'm hoping that we can up that percentage. We are happy to be financially supportive in this way, but at the same time, it's really important to us that you all make a significant effort to employ Durham residents and so I'm glad to see the plan but I hope that you all will be doing that so I just want to urge you to do that. And then, Kevin, I wanted to ask about the YouthWorks internship. Is that part of the business plan as well? That is part of the Durham Workforce Plan, yes. I thought so. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilor Schuel, I recognize Councilor Moffitt. Yes. I had just a couple of, I had one for Mr, or two actually for Mr. Abbey. The first one is, are you all out in Trayburn today? Is that what I understand? Pardon? Are you? Off Racksboro Road, off Ben Franklin in that medical park that's out there? Okay. And then, the incentives you're talking about from the state, do you anticipate that the state might offer you different incentives for Mebben than for Durham? Yeah, actually, we will have less incentives in Durham than we would have had in Mebben. Because of programs like Golden Leaf and things that are based on which county and whether it's considered more needy in terms of job development. Right, okay. Right, thank you. Yeah, thanks. Recognize the Mayor Pro Tem. I would just like to thank the company and Kevin for reaching out to North Carolina Central University because we really have some bright students in every sense of the word. Thank you so much. No, thank you. We've been thrilled with the recruitment. I think we've added almost 50 jobs in the last 16 months or so with a lot of that coming directly from Durham residents and students here. So that's why we want to stay. Well, that's a good point. I had the new director of the Wright Center office a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about his plans and who he's talking to and hopefully he's hoping to get more involved in pharmaceutical companies around here. So it's good to hear the conversations going on. I appreciate it. Yeah, and I think it's worth noting that we were heavily recruited by states of Florida, Texas and the province of Quebec, all of which offered more money than the state of North Carolina is offering us. But because we have over 100 employees here in Durham today who are incredibly well-trained and incredibly important to our success and we feel like this is the best place for us to grow and become a commercially successful company. We turn down, we plan to turn down more money from those other locations than what we're getting here because we think it's important for us to stay here. Any further discussions, comments by council? I'm not gonna take the motion on the item. It's been a problem to move in second and further questions here and then I'll call the question. Madam Clerk, we're welcome to vote. Close the vote. Thank you very much. It passes six to zero. Quite welcome, thank you. Let's move to the next item. Item 14, the street closing south of Miami Boulevard. Street closing 14-0-0-0-1-0. Good evening Mr. Mayor and members of council, Pat Young with the Planning Department. Before I start my presentation I can first certify that all public hearing items before you tonight have been advertised in accordance with the provisions of law and affidavits are on file to that effect with the Planning Department. First case before you tonight is SC 14-0-0-0-1-0. It's a requested street closing of a segment of south Miami Boulevard. The applicant is Eden's Land Corporation and they are proposing to close the 3,585 square foot segment of south Miami Boulevard. This right-of-way segment is currently open but it's not used for vehicular traffic. The request has been reviewed by 20 city departments and public service agencies and no negative impacts were identified associated with the proposed right-of-way closure. So I'll be happy to take any questions. Thank you. This is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. I would ask other questions first by members of the council. Is there anyone in the public that would like to speak on this item? Let the record reflect that no one in the public has to speak. I'll occur the public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact for council. The property moving second. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes six to zero. Thank you. Move the item 15, street closing Belmont Drive, street closing 14-0-0-0-0-8. Good evening again. Mr. Mayor, members of council, Pat Young with the Planning Department. This application is by Stuart, Incorporated, proposing to close two separate segments of a Belmont Drive, totaling approximately 7,035 square feet. This right-of-way segment is currently open, but is not used by vehicular traffic and has been reviewed by 20 city agencies and public service departments outside of the, also including departments outside of the city, and no negative impacts to the proposed right-of-way closure were identified. So staff recommends approval. I'll be happy to take any questions. Again, this is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. You've heard a staff report. I would ask other comments by members of the council. If not, we had one person that has signed up to speak on this item, Mike Tarrant. Is he available? Yes, sir, you have three minutes. Good evening, Mayor Bell, members of the city council. My name is Mike Tarrant. I reside at 2205 Caroline Drive in Durham. I'm here representing Stuart as the applicant for the application before you now, and would be happy to answer any questions that you may have pertaining to the current request. Thank you. Are there questions by members of the council or the applicant? Is there anyone in the public that wants to speak on this item? Let the record reflect that no one else asks to speak on this item. I would declare the public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact before the council. It's been properly moved. Second, Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes 60, sir. Thank you. Move to item 17, 16. 16. Street closed and Dachshund Street street closed in 140009. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor, members of council, Pat Young with the Planning Department. This is a companion to the previous item, request by Stuart, incorporated to close approximately 199.81 linear feet of Dachshund Street. The current, the currently this segment right away is open, but not used by vehicular traffic, has been reviewed by 20 city departments and outside agencies with no negative impacts identified. The staff recommends approval of the requested road closure. I'll be happy to take any questions. Again, this is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. You've heard the staff report on the questions by members of the council, the staff report. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on this item? This is being a public hearing. Let the record reflect no one in the audience has to speak. I would declare the public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact before the council. Hello. It's been properly moved. Second, Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Open the vote. For some reason, none of my signal isn't. Okay. You close the vote. You want us to reset it? Okay. Reset. Can you open it? Close it. It passes six to zero. Thank you. Next one is item 17, street closing. Waterbury Drive, street closing 14-0-0-0-6. Good evening again, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, Pat Young, as our final street closing tonight, SC 14-0-0-0-0-6. Robert Murphy is the applicant he proposes to close 160.3 linear feet of Waterbury Drive. This is a right-of-way segment that is currently open, but not used by vehicular traffic. Neither NCDOT, the City of Durham Transportation Department, or any of the other 18 review agencies identified any negative impacts with the proposed closing. I will quickly note that at one time, this was identified as a potential access location for Sandy Creek Park, but the Department of Parks and Recreation indicated that it would be infeasible to install an access point at this location. So staff recommends approval. Be happy to take any questions. And this is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. We've heard the staff report on this item. Are there questions about members of the council? Is there anyone in the audience that wants to speak on this item? On the item 18, consolidated accession. Let the record reflect no one in the public asked to speak. I would declare the public hearing to be closed when I was back before the council. Been propped and moved in second. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes six to zero. Moved item 19, consolidated annexation, 1307 Old Oxford Road. Mr. Mayor, the previous item was 17. What we need to act on item 18. 18, Jovan Northeast Creek annexation. Right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm so sorry about that. Yep. I'm with the planning department. This is a request, a consolidated utility extension, voluntary annexation and initial zoning requests for approximately 177 acres at the northeast quadrant of the intersection of Ellis Road and Durham Freeway. The portions of this property were zoned by the county in June of 2006 to the same requested designation that is before you tonight, which is to plan unit development or PUD 4.840 and commercial general with the development plan, residential suburban 20, industrial light D. This would allow for a maximum of 676 residential units if approved. The utility extension agreement has been requested to serve this development. The public works department has performed a utility impact analysis and determined that adequate water and sewer capacity is available. A voluntary position for non contiguous annexation has been submitted and a fiscal impact analysis has been completed by the budget management service department and they have projected that revenues would be positive more than expenses at the time of annexation. And staff recommends consideration and approval of the translational zoning from the county designation as it's consistent with the future land use map. I will make one additional note. Attachment seven, section H, table four identifies projected school impacts. There is an error in that report. The projected impacts of the student generation are the same as they were under the county designation and that's a total of 122 students. So staff recommends that the city council adopt the extension agreement, voluntary annexation and zoning map change and the associated consistency statement. As the manager noted at the outset, a recent change through NC court of appeals requires that a separate motion be made for the consistency statement with a comprehensive plan. So there'll be two separate motions. The first is associated with voluntary annexation, the utility extension agreement and the initial zoning and the second is for the consistency with the comp plan. I'll be happy to take any questions. Okay, again, this is a public hearing. I would ask for their comments by members of the council and recognize councilman Schuyl. That's a question, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Page five of the memo under inspections. Could you explain about the street impact fee credits? So Mr. Schuyl, the inspections department often accepts credit, issues credits for construction of roadway in lieu of payments into the impact fee fund. I would need to have someone from the inspections department come and give additional detail, but I know there are guidelines and procedures where credits can be authorized under certain circumstances where there's an equivalent amount of construction made to what the fee would be. So just so I understand, do you mean that the credits are against what their expenses for our inspections would be? I mean, what is the credit? What form is it in? So yeah, the fee that's identified here looks like it pertains to the parks and recreation open space fee. Do you wanna speak to that, Rob? I'm gonna let Rob Joyner talk in a little more detail about that. Robert Joyner, public works department. The impact fees are collected for parks and rec, open space and also street impact fees. The street impact fees for transportation are essentially if you go out and construct road improvements associated with your project, those road improvements have a certain price tag that are associated with it and those impact fees can then be offset as a result of that. The purpose of the street impact fees is simply to have developers pay for their improvements over time and other improvements that might be made for the general area. Okay, so they're building their own, they're building roads which are, are they building a road? Is that how they're getting the credit? They're building improvements, offsite improvements, turn lanes and other things that will be associated with. Okay. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Are there other questions by members of the council? Are there questions by members of the public on this item? Let the record reflect that no one in the public asked to speak on this item. I would declare the public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact for the council and I understand we've got two motions to make on this. Move the first part. It's been properly moved and second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? And close the vote. It passes six to zero. I'll entertain another motion on the item. Second motion to adopt the consistency statement as required by NCGS 168-383. It's been properly moved and seconded. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes six to zero. Thank you. We'll now move to consolidate the annexation, 1307 Old Oxford Road. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the council, Pat Youngin with the Planning Department. This is, as the mayor said, 1307 Old Oxford Road. It's a utility extension agreement, voluntary annexation agreement, and initial zoning for a 1.33-acre portion of an existing property at 1307 Old Oxford Road from its current zoning designation of IL in the county to IL in the city. Utility extension agreement has been requested, has been reviewed by Public Works Department and determined that adequate sewer and water capacity exists at the site. Voluntary petition for non-contiguous annexation has been submitted and has found to be fiscally revenue positive by the Budget Management Services Department. And finally, the initial zoning of IL is consistent with the future land use designation and the existing zoning in the county and would allow the projected use, which would be expansion of an existing self-service storage facility at the site. So we would recommend that the two separate motions be considered and approved by council and we'd be happy to take any questions. Again, you've heard the staff report. The public hearing is open. I would ask other questions. My members of the council first on the staff report. If not, are there members in the audience that would like to speak on this item? Let the record reflect that no one in the audience has to speak on an item. Declared public hearing be closed as a matter of fact for the council. It's been properly moved in a second. That's on the first part. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? And close the vote. It passes 6 to 0. Entertain a motion. Is that a second? It's been properly moved in a second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? It passes 6 to 0. OK, we'll move back to the items that have been pulled. I've got the planning department up here. I read an article in the NLO, because it's dangerous when you read articles and follow them. But talking about bus stops and saying it takes a year to get a bus stop done in Durham. Read the article. Yeah, transportation. TTA was the one that was saying that. OK, we need to talk to TTA, and I'll talk to them if that's not true. OK, the item that was pulled was item 2. Are you going to comment on it? Yeah, I'm sorry to remain. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We've been in conversation with TTA. We do have a requirement, if these are on private property, that they go through the regular approval process. And we've been working with them assiduously to try to make sure they understand the requirements and that it's as streamlined as possible. So we'll continue to do that. Thank you for referencing this to the article. Item 2, crime statistics of pool by Ms. Peterson. You have a comment? Yes, Mr. Mayor and city council members. I just want to just share some information quickly here. I really wish that the crime statistic information had given a little breakdown of actually how many persons the Durham police officers have arrested, as well as the youth. There was one thing in the crime statistic, Mr. Davis, that you really may would be interested in. It does not give a report on the youth. Several weeks ago, I have been really very concerned about something that is going on in the Durham County jail, about so many of our youth under the age of 18 that is being placed in the Durham County jail. The majority of those young men and women are coming from the African-American community. I have been told, Mr. Baker, you really need to. I'm hoping that you will also look into this. There is no education going on for these kids that are under the age of 18. The school system is actually in violation of Title IX and Title 30. Just because these kids have been accused of committing a crime, not one of them have been found guilty of anything. And their education should still continue if our Durham city police officers and the Durham sheriff officers, if they are going to be arresting them and treating them like adults, they are still entitled. And Mr. Davis and Mr. Baker and his other city council members, please really look into this. The statistical, I thought, the report here, what they put together was good. But there was really no breakdown. And the other day, and matter of fact, I just got this from the sheriff department. They have 26 of our youth under the age of 18 in the Durham County jail. They have about 22 persons in the Durham County jail that have been there well over a year. They've got some there, Mr. Mayor, at least two years. That just is not good. I wish I had another minute, but anyway. But thank you very much, so I wanted to talk to you. Thank you for making the comments. And I'm sure it'll get passed on to the sheriff. I don't know if Mr. Bluenton wants to comment on that. Mr. Mayor, if I could just ask Ms. Burrington just to confirm, as Peterson certainly says what she says, but the purpose of this agenda item was really about the Audit Services Department conducting an audit of the crime statistics to be sure that the statistics that are being reported are accurate and complete. So, Jermaine, could you please just quickly explain what you do and what this was different than I think than what we might normally see with a crime statistics? Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden, city council member is Jermaine Burrington, director of the Audit Services Department. As our city manager stated, the purpose of this audit was to look at the process around the reporting of crime statistics, not the specific breakdown of the statistics. And so we may have some of that data in the field work that we have, but the purpose of this audit was to look at the accuracy or controls around the actual reporting of those statistics once they actually get into the system. This item, as Peterson might say there, was item nine, time, water. Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry. The item is to accept the report, second motion. It's been a problem to move the second item. It's been a problem to move the second item. Could I open the vote and close the vote? It passes 6 to 0. Thank you, council. Mr. Peterson, you had item nine, time, water. You have two minutes. Mr. Mayor, can I have another minute, please? Usually it's three minutes. Well, you can have another minute, Mr. Peterson. Thank you. You're very welcome. Mr. Mayor and city council members, several years ago, I, myself, and several other individuals here in Durham worked with quite a few of our Durham residents. And Mr. Baker helped us. I'm sorry, Mr. Youngman also helped us. We're trained in copper, cable, and fiber optic, as well as our IT director. One of the things we found out, even though Time Warner came to us and they committed to hire our young men and women. And when it was all said and done, those persons who had criminal records were not hired. Those persons who did not have criminal records, they were hired. And that's good. But what I'm seeing going on in my community, particularly in the African-American community, and also, Mr. Mayor, we had another murder on my street in walking distance to McDougalteras. We had two young men, 17 and 18, this past Sunday, that was also shot. Sunday before last, we had a young man that was murdered. We've got to do something in this community to help these young men to get out of crime, get out of selling drugs, even after they tried to get their selves together, even after they're trained, Mr. Mayor, and city council members. These companies still will not hire them. And I know a little bit about copper, cable, and fiber optic. Yes, some of that work, you have to go into a person's home. But a lot of that work, Mr. Mayor, you do not have to go into a person's home. And for Time Warner, I looked on here, I think they have about, what, 400 or 500 African-Americans that they have hired. There's no breakdown of those Durham residents, because Time Warner is all over the state, my understanding. They're just not in Durham. And I think that's good that they're hiring. But still, again, Mr. Mayor, and I've been coming up here for a few years, I have not seen not one report after we give these companies monies. Not one report has come back to say, well, Mayor and city council members, we have hired 30 Durham residents. We've hired 200 Durham residents. I keep hearing from different folks, well, Mrs. Peterson, we just can't give that kind of information. But they come here. They want our contracts. They want our monies. But we cannot get at least a very minor report on Mr. City Manager, of how many of our Durham residents, how many African-American men, how many African-American women are being hired. One of the reports, one of the groups just stayed here about what? 17% were non-whites that was hired. Well, really, what is that really saying? That doesn't say anything to me about the African-American community. And let me not give too much drama here. We have a history in this country. This country was made on the backs of black folks, of my ancestors. This state was also. We've got to start being accountable to the African-American community, and to make sure that they're getting employment, Mr. Mayor. And thank you very much, and other council members. Thank you. I guess just for the record, there's a statement in this memo that speaks about the SDB summary. And it says the Equal Opportunity Equity Department reviewed the bid submitted by Time Warner Cable Business Class Triangle Business Unit. And has determined it there in compliance with the ordinance to promote equal opportunities in city contracting. And I won't go much beyond that. It does give a breakdown of the workforce that's with Time Warner. Of course, they're located in Marsville, North Carolina. And that's available also. I'm going to recognize someone on the council. I thought I'd. Councilman Shul. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I share your concern, Ms. Peterson. And I know that we all do about the employment of African-Americans. But in this case, I think when you take a close look at this item, you'll see that over 50% of the employees of Time Warner are African-American, of this division of Time Warner. You're talking about 1,800 people and 51% of them. No, it's not statewide in this area. And 51% of them are African-Americans. So I understand your concern. But I think in this particular case, I think we can be unusually happy with the number of African-Americans that this company is hired to do this work. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. But it is statewide, Mr. Mayor. And I was just asking, can we just get a report? If you're going to give them the contract, can they come back? Ms. Peterson, I don't want to debate that here. The information is available in terms of the employment and in terms of the fact. I just wanted you to know. Well, I know because I'm reading a report. Thank you. Other comments on this item? Oh, what's going on? I'm going to recognize the mayor. I'm going to change my mind and ask that we move on. It's been properly moved in second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? You close the vote. It passes, six is even. Are there other items that need to come before the council? If not, it means adjourn before I adjourn, I mean, I just want to remind the council persons that are co-chairs of these task force who've got a meeting Wednesday, the 20th at five o'clock at Love and Respect on Andrew Avenue. And we're asking if you can get the survey questions in. That would be helpful. Any other items? Oh, no, no. Not me. Okay, thank you. The meeting's adjourned at 8.03 p.m.