Good afternoon, and I want to call this work session of the Durham City Council to order at one o'clock on April the 8th, 2021. And I certainly want to welcome everyone to this meeting my colleagues, our staff, and those of you all who are watching at home. Madam clerk, will you please call the roll. Here. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Here. Council member Cava Yaro. Here. Council member Freelon. Council member Freeman. Present. Council member Middleton. I am here. Council member Reese. Thank you. You're muted Steve. Thank you. Thank you, Madam clerk. I'm expecting Council member Freelon, but Council member Reese has requested an excused absence. Could I have a motion to that effect? So moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Madam clerk, will you please call the roll. Mayor Schuyl. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Aye. Council member Cava Yaro. Aye. Council member Freelon. Council member Freeman. Aye. Council member Middleton.  Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam clerk. The ayes have it. The motion passes. Five to zero. We will now move on to announcements by members of the council. And I'll ask my colleagues. Are there any announcements today? All right. Don't see any. So I'll move now to priority items by the city manager. Madam manager. Welcome. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. Madam clerk. Madam Mayor, Madam chair. Madam mayor pro tem and members of Durham city council. I do not have any priority items for you this afternoon. Thank you, madam manager. Madam attorney. Are there any priority items today? Good afternoon Mr. Mayor and members of the city council. I also do not have any priority items today. Thank you, madam attorney. Madam clerk. Mayor and City Council on the City Clerk's Office has no items. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. We'll now move to the administrative consent items under the City Clerk's Office approval of City Council Minutes, Item 1. Item 2, Carolina Theatre Board of Trustees' appointment. Item 3, Durham Cultural Board Advisory Board appointment. Item 4, Durham Workers' Rights Commission appointments. Under Departmental Items, City Council's Office, Item 5, Resolution and Support of Immediate Action to Solve the Black Maternal Health Crisis. Mr. Mayor, I want to pull that item. Item 5, Item 6, Resolution and Support of the Local New Hope Autobahn Society Chapter Designation of the City of Durham as a Bird-Friendly Community. Item 7 of the City Manager's Office, Durham Performing Arts Center and DPAC Oversight Committee FY19-20 Annual Report. Under Community Development Department, Item 8, Ashton Place Apartments, Notice of Intent to Award Conditional Permanent Financing. Mr. Mayor, I didn't want to pull it, but there are items 8, 9, 10, 8, 9, and 10. I really wanted to explore an option around creating a race equity tracking plan, acknowledging that there aren't a lot of tools that are available for our staff to track the race and gender and kind of like that kind of level of detail on the process, like starting from the beginning and going all the way through. So from contractor to, you know, to residents moving in, I would love to figure out what we could do to set up whether it's a resolution or an ordinance that would have you, some conversation around that, but I don't want to pull it. Thank you, Council Member. I agree with that. And I know that the staff has been looking at that and I know that our affordable housing implementation committee will be paying attention to that as well. So I think that it's going to be critical. We already, there's already tracking going on on some of those areas, contracting and employment will be part of that, but there could be other categories as well. Maybe with your affirmation, we could ask the staff to ask to get our affordable housing implementation committee to come to us with some of those guidelines. Would you feel good about that? That would be really great. I agree with you about the importance that I know staff does too. So thank you for that. No problem, of course. Colleagues, we have here, I'm getting an echo for some reasons. That may have been my fault, Mr. Mayor. My Zoom has been acting weird recently. No worries. Would that fix it? Yeah, I think so. Thank you. No worries. Weird acting Zoom is a modern disease. Mr. Ron Stewart had signed up to speak for the Cumber Street Apartments, but I believe that Mr. Stewart would want to speak only if that is pulled from the consent and it is not being. If that's not the case, Mr. Stewart, if you could let us know that in the chat. Item 11, Department of Transportation Municipal Agreement with North Carolina Department of Transportation, NCDOT for R. Kelly Bryant, Jr. Bridge Directional Sons. Do you pull that, Mr. Mayor, please? Sure. Item 12, Air Release Valve Enforcement Assessment Professional Services Contract Award to Brown and Caldwell Inc. Item 13, South Durham Phase 3, Hydraulic Model Amendment 1 to the Professional Services Contract. Mr. Mayor, I didn't want to pull it. I just noted that the breakdown of the, I guess, the major, not the minor engineer, because I know Stewart Engineering is 50, is the sub, but they're missing the employee data on the major, hold on, I'll pull it back up. But I just noticed it. Okay. I just want to make sure it's there for our future meeting. Thank you. So, staff, please look at item 13 for the employment data and please update it for us if it's incomplete. Thank you. Under General Services Department, Item 14, Change Order for Construction Contract with Bar Construction Company, Inc. at Valley Springs Park. I'll pull that one, Mr. Mayor. Alrighty. It wasn't a happy item. Item 15, Purchase Contract with Barbizon Charlotte, Inc. for the Durham Performing Arts Center Performance Lighting Upgrade. Can I pull that one, Mr. Mayor? Alright. Item 16, Mayor's Hispanic Latino Committee 2020 Report. Item 17, Contract SW 41C Inspections and Ombudsman Services for Rocksboro Street, Sidewall. Under Presentations, Budget Management Services Department, Item 18, Green and Equitable Infrastructure Project. Item 19, Community Development Department, Affordable Housing Investment Plan Update. Under Public Hearing, City County Planning Department, Item 20, Annexation Item Triple Crown. Item 21, Consolidated Annexation Falls Village North. Item 22, Zoning Map Change Chandler Run. Item 23, Zoning Map Change Harriet's Place. Under the Community Development Department, Item 24, Public Hearing on the Draft 2021-22, Annual Action Plan. Colleagues, you have heard the agenda. And Madam Manager, I have four items pulled. Maybe you can confirm with me items 5, 11, 14 and 15. And then Presentations would be item, items 18 and 19. You have as well, Madam Manager. I was on mute and I do have those four items. Thank you. Sorry. No words. Thank you very much. All right, colleagues will now proceed to the pulled items. And we will start with item five, Resolution Supportive Immediate Action to solve the Black Returnal Health Crisis. And that was pulled by Council Member Freeman. Thank you. I just wanted to make an announcement or to pull it because I just wanted to note just how important it was. Acknowledging that we've passed a moment of us resolution and just and the state delegation has been moving forward to support the filing in the House and the Senate. And I just wanted to make sure that we thank the leadership of Senator Natalie Murdock and Representative Candy Smith for leading in that effort. And just note that the, the Senate has been filed in both the House and the Senate, and it's now up to us to make sure that the legislature moves forward and support. And so I think it's important to make sure we announce as loudly as possible that, you know, Black women are, it's facing high disparities in maternal health. And it's important that we, we actually address it in health and wellness for our state. And so for North Carolina, I mean, there's so much more we could be doing like expanding this, but I just wanted to make sure that I noted that. And I wanted to thank Mayor Pro Tem Johnson for bringing this forward because action is necessary and action means dollars. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Member Freelon and then Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Yes, I just wanted to echo my colleague, Council Member Freeman's comments, but also mentioned Joyce Spencer as well, the executive director of equity before birth. She gave a presentation at the human relations commission meeting on Tuesday. That was really just riveting the amount of work and funding. She's been able to raise and organizing. She's been able to do just in a few months this year. So just wanted to shout her out in addition to Senators Murdoch. Thank you. Yes. And also I almost forgot. Sorry. The mayor's committee, the women's committee, that's been working hard to pull this all together. I know they drafted this, this document and Mayor Pro Tem is bringing it forward. So yes. Yes. And I believe Joyce Spencer is on that committee. So yes, thank you. Thank you for making sure we don't forget Joyce Spencer. Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Thanks y'all. Yeah, I just also just wanted to shout out the mayor's council for women who are the folks who brought this issue to us and wrote the resolution and asked us to, to support it. So yeah, I'm glad that we're all excited about this issue moving forward at the legislature and those efforts. And I think Joy might be a member of the county's women's commission. They also have one and they've been working together a lot more lately, which is really also really, really great to see. So thanks for your support y'all and I'll make sure to communicate back to the women's council. Appreciation for their work. Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you colleagues. Before we move to the next item, I realized I was looking at the chat. Madam clerk, is there someone who, did we miss someone who wanted to speak on an item? I see that you've written to it. It's a low medallion and. I wondered if there was any that I missed somebody. Mr. Mayor on Morales. Maricardo Emerson is here to speak for the mayor's Hispanic Latino committee and their report that's in the packet today, as well as it hollow who is also a member of that committee. Okay. I did not realize that I did not have that information, but I'm glad to have it now. Let me just ask Madam clerk, well, we're going to colleagues with your permission. We're going to go back and hear from these two residents, our chair and our vice chair of the mayor's Hispanic Latino community. I see Madam clerk. I see you've made them available to speak and we'll start with our chair. Morales. Mercado Emerson. And can we also make her available to be seen? Madam clerk. There she is. Great. Ms. Mercado Emerson. We would love to hear a few words from you about your annual report. Good afternoon. I'm sorry. One second. We've had dogs and everybody else making a ruckus here. No worries. And so this year we've had the opportunity in the last year to share with the Durham community, the, the accomplishments of the mayor's Hispanic Latino committee. And in that, that includes being able to do outreach with, to communicate with the community and to be able to reach out to the community within the community in respect to COVID efforts. At the beginning of the pandemic. We sent, We sent information to city council to you, Mary or sure. And we've had an amazing conversation. Amazing conversation. And many of the things that we discussed in our letter to you for the things that have been put into place, including translation services and interpretation services for our phone calls and assisting us with getting the message out to the Latina Durham community about not just COVID, but other issues that are happening in the community and resources that are available to them so that they can progress to healthier better individuals living here as Durham residents. So currently we are in the process of for 2021. Each month has been themed out and we have dedicated each month to bringing in organizations to talk to us to see how we can better get the word out to the Latina community. Most recently working with NAMI on mental health issues that are really prevalent in the Latina community and the African-American community here in Durham. And so our committee is going to be trained on mental health first aid and other things that will be able to assist us in progressing messages regarding mental health services here in Durham in the city of Durham. We will continue our COVID efforts and they're now being moved towards encouraging people to get vaccinated and we have members not just from our committee, but also from organizations in Durham that are assisting us in being able to do that. Many of our members are also part of the Latin 19 committee that is established here in Durham through members from Duke University and local organizations here. And our members have also been a part of the immigrant and refugee committee as well. And so we're highly involved. Our members go to different meetings and hopefully represent the city of Durham as the city council would want us to, but we would like also to we've unfortunately lost three members because life happens and so we would really like to fill those positions so that we can continue our work at full capacity. Ms. Mercado Emerson, thank you for that report and I apologize for overlooking you. I'm glad you hung around and that I spotted this in the chat and thank you to the clerk. And that's a great report and I have been able to force it to attend your initial meeting and then this other conversation and gratitude also to Councilmember Caballero who's been a real champion of your committee. I wondered if it's a little medallion also would like to say a few words. He's the vice chair under the weather. Okay. All right. I can definitely say a few words. Excellent. There we go. So I apologize for the voice of everybody. I am getting over. We can't hear you now. We've lost him for the moment. Am I back, Mr. Mayor? You are back. Wonderful. Let me turn on my camera. There we go. So as you can see, I'm a little disheveled, but so yeah, as I was saying before, my voice is a little shot. I am getting over COVID. But thank you so, so much, Mr. Mayor and Councilmembers for, first of all, starting this committee. It's so important to be able to have voices in a democratic space representing the Latino community specifically in Durham. I think we really are paving the way forward on ways to make sure that we can democratize our municipal governments and Raleigh started an immigrant committee as well. And we've connected with them as well to see how we can start working together in a joint way. To add to what Chair Maricalo Emerson was saying, we also have been meeting with a lot of statewide folks. So we met with the Association of Mexicans of North Carolina. We met with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee to show our solidarity with other Latino folks all over the state because we understand that these committees are very few and far between and Durham and Raleigh are some of the few spaces that allow democratic Latino voices to be able to democratically access the mayor and the city council. So we've been speaking with a lot of organizations across the state and in Durham to see how we can elevate the voices of the Latino community. And as Chair Maricalo Emerson was saying, we did form a COVID-19 task force early. And it really showed how we were able to bring voices not just from our committee, but from the community as a whole to come meet with us and come tell us what it is that the community needs. And we were able to respond to those needs as necessary. We created a pamphlet with economic resources and housing resources, financial resources, all kinds of city resources in Spanish and in English in a way that the terminology is a everyday terminology that everybody can understand. So we personally, I very much have enjoyed serving the city and the committee as through the Mayor's Hispanic Latino Committee. And last thing, I have to think Council Member Caballero who has been, I mean a gem to the Latino community and she has been a fighter for us in every step of the way. And I very much look forward to keep working with her and with all of you. So thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Medellis. And to our leadership, I'm so appreciative of the great job you all are doing. And I see Council Member Caballero would like to say a word as well. Just really briefly, I just want to extend such deep gratitude for Maralisa and Italo. To some context, this committee met one time before COVID hit in person and they pivoted exceptionally quickly and have done an incredible job and have just been wonderful leaders. I was on a panel around vaccination and COVID equity efforts last week with Maralisa. She's a champion and Italo is also a well-represented throughout the community and just again, so much gratitude. We have come a long way in how we advocate and are represented. A lot of work still to do, but thank you so much for your service and to all the committee members. Thank you very much, Council Member. And Mr. Medellis, we very much hope that your recovery goes swiftly. We're not entirely shoveled either on this City Council and so we're good with that. Thank you so much. We appreciate you being here. Thank you, Mr. We will now move to our next item, which is Item 11, Municipal Agreement with North Carolina Department of Transportation for R. Kelly Bryant Jr. Bridge. And this was pulled by Council Member Middleton. Council Member. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon, Mayor Pritcham and colleagues and everyone who's watching this afternoon. Mr. Mayor, if I might just take a quick point of personal privilege. I just want to celebrate the incredible arc of progress and impact that the Mayor's Hispanic and Latino committee has had on the city. One of my first assignments when I got elected was to be the representative to this committee. And they were an impressive group then. And then they came and told me that they wanted someone more attractive and smarter than me to be the representative and and that's in Council Caviera along. That was easy to find. There was a huge pool of applicants for that. I can't believe that. I can't believe they said that to me. This is why you like it when when when Mayor Pritcham chairs said to me, you don't get as many as come in. That struck you deeply, didn't it? So I want to celebrate, share with our citizens leadership. I didn't have an opportunity to be there under her leadership, but but I think what's demonstrated to the work of this committee is that Durham cannot fully be who we say we are without all voices being amplified and empowered. And I'm just so impressed with the the and this is not to minimize what I saw when I got there, but the level of work and the growth in the organization, the impact. This just makes our city better. So I just want to congratulate the new chair and and certainly congratulate my colleague, Javier, who's just just been an incredible advocate in that space, not just in that space, but but for all spaces in the city, but particularly in that space which he's brought to this city. So I just want to celebrate them. And that really kind of doves tail dovetails to why I pulled this this item. I don't really have anything substantive. I just wanted to take opportunity to celebrate the naming of this bridge that the R. Kelly Bryant Bridge is kind of a warm, elegant in its simplicity reminder of just who we are when we're coming home late at night for meetings just to see that blue in the sky that this simple arc of blue cutting across the sky. I don't know this it just says Durham to me. It feels really special and it feels like part of our signature as a city to the world about who we are. I want to celebrate the committee, the community that made that naming possible and just celebrate what it looks like when folk who are organized make petition to their government. So I'm very excited about the signs going up on the bridge. I didn't want to just point out one note I made when I read the memo in the staff. It says data in the background to staff. It says pursuant to the term of the agreement city forces will fund the installation. I don't know if that's a typo if they meant finances, but I just wanted to be clear that the council know the mayor deploying any troops into hay tire on the bridge and it was finances that will be funding it. So I just wanted to point it out to the staff. I think that that's not what that means. But I just wanted to take time to celebrate this great naming and what this bridge represents. This was not a government started initiative. This was a people started initiative that the government picked up on. And that's really what it looks like at its best democracy at its best. So congratulations to the community folk that made this happen. I'm looking forward to seeing those signs on 147. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, council member council member Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate council member Middleton always bringing it home with those, you know, visuals of the arc of blue that I think that's going to stick with me for a while. I just wanted to also note that the note I had on my notes was around the $3,800 that this contract was for. And I was wondering if it was a typo and I figure it was just because it was the contract that came forward. But I really appreciate how staff has seen this all the way through to where we are today. And I know that the trail aspect of this is still out there. And I'm hopeful that we're going to figure out what it looks like to do some infrastructure and build up around there because the water that runs off into some of the folks properties can be harmful. So yes, we're we're that arc of blue is wonderful. It's phenomenal. And I think there's a lot more that we have to do around there to move us forward. Well, thank you. And I see Mr. Judge may have a comment for us. Yeah, so Bill Judge, City of Durham Department of Transportation, I was just going to clarify. So yeah, the $3,800 is the city is financing or paying NCDOT. NCDOT will be fabricating and installing the signs using their their their forces and they'll be maintaining them as well for the life of 147 in the bridge. Thank you, Mr. Judge. And I should just add shout out to Bo Ferguson and all the folks. Some of you all will remember that the that the bridge didn't always light up so well. Now it lights up perfectly. There's new technology there and it looks great. And so thank you all for all those who made that happen. All right. Thank you so much. We'll move to item 14 change order for construction contract with bar construction company Inc at Valley Springs Park. I think that this was Councilmember Freeman, but I'm not sure who pulled this. Was that correct? Councilmember? Yes, thank you. I know that this this is a fix or, you know, just kind of fixing the issue or addressing the issue. And I just wanted to make sure that I knew whether or not cadet construction company had other projects. And if we were looking at them as well and just making sure to catch, I guess, if there's any misses around that company company doing the work. Thank you, Councilmember. I see Ms. Rogers is on the screen. Ms. Rogers, welcome. Hello. No, as far as I know, we don't have any other contracts with cadet construction. And I would say this was only their second contract with the city. And I do believe they have left the state at this time. So we will be keeping an eye out in case they try to bid on something else again. Yes, thank you. I was going to say that if they did, we want to make sure that we can wrap them around wrap around some technical support because I don't want to have the same situation in the current. But I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. And thank you, Ms. Rogers. All right, colleagues will now move to item 15. And I'll let Councilmember Freelon and Middleton fight over who would like to go first on this one. Hold the item simultaneously with the exact same words. Okay, Councilmember Freelon. Sure. Okay. Hey, I thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just had a quick question. It's not so much about this particular, about this particular issue, but more about the broader question of overriding consideration for the kind of, when we decide to exempt ourselves from competitive bidding. And I read the memo, it's actually clear to me kind of how it applies particularly with DPAC with kind of sticking with the same folks. And it is really kind of a broader question about when is it appropriate to, you know, to suspend what we would typically do in cases like this. So it might be a question for, yes, City Manager Page, hey. Hello. I will start that response. Typically these types of purchases, you know, are covered by state law. State law is pretty specific around them. But there is the sole source part of that sort of an exception that allows a sole source, you know, non-bid in order for some type of consistency. It has to be very, very specific. And our department typically receive consultation from the Attorney's Office whenever we decide to make that type of decision, if it is a purchase that the state law applies, material apparatus supplies, you know, construction repair, those types of services, you know, just, you know, as we're speaking about it, when it's professional services, you know, not those things I just mentioned, those items are not covered by state law, but covered by city policy and some other considerations around transparency and those kinds of things. But we are permitted to do it. We use it on a limited basis and we usually consult with the Attorney's Office when we do. Okay. Thank you. That answered it. Thank you, Council Member. That's a good question. And I think that they do come up occasionally and they're always worthy of our attention. So thank you. Council Member Middleton. Mr. Mayor, that's why wisdom is so important. That is why I yielded. That is precisely the question I was going to ask and how widespread, how prevalent is that amongst the city? I know the city has a wide range of financial activities and just how prevalent it is. I was also curious about how often that exemption kicks in. So, Council Freelon, thank you. That was precisely my question. The only other thing I was going to say, it was just celebratory that the fact that we're purchasing new lights points to the inevitability of DPAC opening up again. And I think that bodes well for life as normal that we're even thinking about that, thinking that far ahead. So just wanted to celebrate that. We will get back and the lights will go up again. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council Freelon. Yes, they will. They will. I see Mr. Lamar is here from the City Attorney's Office and he also may have a comment to add. Yes, Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. Fred Lamar with the City Attorney's Office. Just to echo what Manager Page stated and also to assure you that the city cannot exempt this competitive bidding type of purchase without getting City Council authorization. So, if you're wondering how frequent is this, you're going to see every request because we need to get the Council to approve it. That's why it is a significant important issue and that's why it comes before you. That's very helpful, Councilor. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you all. Ms. Creta, did you want to add anything? We saw you a moment ago. We don't want to deny you your star turn at the City Council Work Session. It's been a while since I've been here. It's good to see you. No, we're very excited to be adding new lights at DPAC. We have a lot of projects that we're doing there and so this will just add more fantastic technology to the theater. So, I know that everyone at DPAC is certainly excited about opening as well. Thank you and thank you for our Council switch look great on another subject. So, thank you. Thank you to you and the department. All right, colleagues. We'll now move to our presentations and we're going to begin with item 19, which I'm sorry, item 18, which is the Green and Equitable Infrastructure Project. And we will welcome Mr. Ferguson. Welcome. Can't hear you, Bob. How about now? Yes. I'm sorry about that. Like you said, it wouldn't be a Zoom meeting if we didn't have some technical difficulties. So, I am Bob Ferguson, Deputy City Manager for Operations and it's my pleasure to present to you today on a follow-up conversation on Green and Equitable Infrastructure. And I see John has pulled up our presentation. So, John, if you could advance to the next slide. What we're going to be talking about today is a follow-up to a conversation we have at one of your budget work sessions on February 25th. At that time, we showed you a broad range of projects, totaling I think over $200 million to potentially respond to your interest in a bond or increase CIP capacity to support broadly projects that fell under the umbrella of equitable infrastructure and green infrastructure. In that conversation, it became clear, I think, amongst the council and the direction we received was that it would really help you to nail down this conversation if you had a stronger sense of the actual projects we might be looking at. And since there was such a broad range of projects in that first discussion, your direction to us was to come back to you with a refined list. And so, that's what we're going to do today. John, if you could go to the next slide. What we did to get there is first, we asked you to do some homework. In that first presentation, we had a number of categories of projects and we refined that list and then asked the members of council to do just a really rough prioritization exercise to take those categories and help us understand from highest priority to lowest priority where they fell on your scale. When we got that data back from council members, staff in the budget management services office was able to just kind of give us a running average of what the sort of consensus or average ranking of council was. And then we used that to assign a weighting to each of these categories. I will tell you up front and reiterate that that was much more art than science. You will see that rating, but please understand that that is just an approximation of assigning dollar value to numbers that you gave us of the priority order. That is certainly an exercise that could be refined at council's discretion. And then once we got that weighting, I sent the departments who have offered those projects up. I sent them sort of a bucket and said fill this bucket, this amount of funding with projects and use considerations like shovel readiness, racial equity, and other criteria to help determine which projects would float to the top of that list. How would we fill up that bucket based on those criteria? And that's what we'll be talking about today. This list still only represents a sample of what could be built obviously at this stage. Any of these projects could be traded out for other priorities. And I would remind council that we had a number of caveats that we offered in that February 25th work session that still exists. And that is that there's still a fair amount of work and analysis that needs to be done about the fact that some of these projects are very early in the stage of development would take some time to get them moving. We need to do some serious considerations if we move forward about whether or not we have adequate staff capacity to deliver those projects. A thorough racial equity analysis has not been done on any of these projects and equitable engagement efforts on projects that have not been introduced in the community yet would be a critical component in moving forward. Those caveats still existing. We want to go ahead and sort of walk you through what these priorities presented for council today. John, you can go to the next slide. As a quick refresher, these are the categories that we sent to council and asked you to prioritize. I'm going to start reading them. John, if you can get that next slide up for me, I'd appreciate it. The first was sidewalks. And these are projects that sort of fall in that general category from the 2017 bike walk plan as well as some new projects that would fall into that category. The second category we sent you was pedestrian safety and access improvements. These are primarily intersection improvements to help pedestrian access and safety at specific intersections throughout the city. The third was bicycle facilities. These are adding bike lanes on roadways and neighborhood bike routes. The fourth broad category was trails and that is both new trail construction and also major maintenance on existing trails. Next slide, John. Dirt street paving is a project that's in our existing CIP but that could use additional funding to be able to complete this work throughout the city. Energy generation and transportation electrification is a broad category we gave you that would help us with the conversion of city vehicles primarily to electrification and also would facilitate generation of green power through partner projects or through projects on city facilities. Energy resilience and retrofits is a category that would fund work to harden city facilities with green technology to both ensure that we have resilience that serves our city staff as well as the community and also uses green technology to support key city infrastructure and also this considers retrofitting existing city facilities to make them more energy efficient. The next, the last category, waste reduction in circular economy. This generally was a catch-all category for a couple of projects in solid waste that would support recycling and composting to sort of really generate that circular cycle that's so important to sustainable practices when it comes to waste. And then our last category we gave the council for consideration was enhanced and equitable green spaces. This really was talking about adding amenities to existing green spaces to make them more attractive and more resilient and also to introduce some newer green technologies into the everyday experience of Durhamites throughout the city and especially I think focusing on underserved communities. These are not the exact same categories you saw on February 25th. They are the same projects. We combined some of those categories to make your ranking exercise a little bit simplified but these are essentially the same concepts we sent at that time. Next slide, John. So we asked you to rank these and you did and this is the result of the rankings that the council submitted. You'll see that the first two categories tied and those were sidewalks and industry and safety and accessibility improvements. The next ranking was bicycle facilities coming in third, trails came in fourth, enhanced and equitable green spaces came in fifth, waste reduction is circular economy sixth, energy generation and transportation electrification seventh, energy resilience and record fits in eighth and dirt street pavement came in ninth. So if we go to the next page as I said in my introduction I then sort of took that pot of $50 million which was the number that council gave us at the budget work session and tried to divide it up based on your ranking. This is the part that I've referred to a little bit as art. There's nothing magical about these percentages but wanted to try to reflect your priorities in dollar figures. This could easily be changed and you'll see by the end of the presentation it already has been but this is this is what I gave to departments and said respond with projects that sum up to these amounts. I won't walk through it but they're on the screen and we'll get a chance to revisit this. So they did and at the on the next slide we'll start with your highest priorities. So the first thing that I heard back from transportation director Sean Egan was that while the three funding amounts for these first three categories were a good reflection of council priorities they weren't very viable levels of funding based on the projects that we have teed up. The reality is that we had many more sidewalk projects identified and ready to be pursued and funded but not as many projects in the second and third category. So Sean suggested that we front-load sidewalks with dollars from those other two categories and so that's what we did. So you'll see that while these first three categories the funding amounts don't match the amounts that I sent out to departments the three categories together do add up to the same total. We've just moved most of that funding forward into sideways. So with that in mind transportation departments suggested $22.3 million for the sidewalk projects and given all the considerations that we discussed before that the first look at projects are the ones you see before you. These would be new sidewalk projects on party, Holloway, Cornwallis, North Carolina 55 and yesterday. Again as I will say multiple times probably ad nauseam these are early estimates I'm not sure we could deliver all these projects perhaps we could deliver more than these projects but at this point in time that's an estimation of what $22.3 million in the category of sidewalks. The next category which was tied with sidewalks was pedestrian safety and accessibility improvements. Next slide. As we said in your ranking this was tied with first obviously it's a much much lower funding amount but that's a reflection of the fact that these are less expensive projects and that we just don't have the dollar amounts identified to really match that higher level. So a lot of this funding moved forward to sidewalks but you'll see that there's still a number of project limitations that transportation recommends we could pursue with $2.5 million of funding and these are intersection improvements for pedestrians at Mineral Springs in North Carolina 98, Austin and Cornwallis, 15501 in Mount Moriah, Avondale and Rocksboro, Rocksboro and Jackie Robinson, Rocksboro and Moorhead, Cornwallis and 55 in Fayetteville. Next slide. So the next category is bicycle facilities and again this is an area where the funding doesn't match what we sent out but that is I think a recognition again where these projects are in the pipeline. I think it also and we can ask Sean sort of towards the end of the presentation if he wants to elaborate but some of these projects really can be implemented without a lot of construction and I think the intention with only half a million dollars of funding here is to pursue those projects that really are more striping projects and realign the projects on existing roadways understanding that reconstruction of roadways to add bicycle facilities is a much more expensive proposition but in this in this project category he recommended half a million dollars of funding that would provide the local match for federal funds for bikewalk boardings and neighborhood bike routes. Again we don't have specific projects listed here we weren't able to get to that level in time but we can bring in Sean if he wants to discuss further kind of how this might play out if we fund this category. Moving to your fourth priority in trails we suggest a 7.1 million dollars of funding here and those are two specific projects the Durham Beltline Trail which you received an excellent presentation on several weeks ago and made it clear that while we have basic funding available to advance this project we that funding falls far shorter delivering the number of enhancements and amenities that were part of the master plan so we suggested this as a top priority because it is a project that is underway and under development that could take advantage of additional funding pretty quickly. I would also note that this is a project that we are shopping broadly for other people's money to the extent that the some of the federal programs that we become aware of over the last couple of months might be able to augment this project we're being aggressive about trying to secure those funds don't know if any of those efforts will pan out but having a number of ironed fire feels like the right approach for this project. We also have a funding shortfall for the R. Kelly Bryant Bridge Trail which is a program that is under development. I want to be clear that should this effort of additional capital funding not move forward you know we will be proactive about closing this gap through some other method but likely that will mean having to bring those funds in from another project and it will have an impact from another project so should this effort move forward we would recommend closing the gap in in this project's budget through this funding effort to keep us from having to to go through other pots of money and other projects to try and move this forward. Next category and next slide now we move to enhanced and equitable green spaces you'll recall this is that category that adds amenities to existing spaces that we have to enhance their sustainability and one of the things so we proposed about 2.7 million dollars worth of projects and on this slide the bulk of that funding in this suggestion goes to the South Islander stormwater project in our last presentation we walked it through I think a few amenities that are currently unfunded in that project that project is moving forward to serve the poor stormwater needs but does not have as much of the enhancements that we discussed in the early stages of that project we could potentially add some of those back in with this funding. This also could fund increased tree planting 1500 trees a year and that's an effort that I think council is more aware of this will be able to extend and find funding for that program for the next five years adding 7500 trees we'd be able to install green roofs on potentially five city buildings we could enhance existing park spaces and solar gardens and we could pursue a green lease program which is essentially where the city leases space for our staff or other uses working with the landlords of those spaces to incorporate more sustainable thinking in those spaces both in the design of those spaces and the use of those spaces for our employees so that's a number of projects that could fall under this category and that would fit roughly in a 2.7 million dollar project. The next slide takes us to waste production in a circular economy and this is I will admit for me probably the biggest stretch in this presentation in terms of a project that there probably still needs some work in vetting before anybody gets too wedded to it but we do not currently have the ability should our composting pilot that we hope to launch later this year should that take off and we've become interested and believe we could be successful at a broader city-wide composting program we will not have the capital facility that we need to actually receive and process that compost and so solid waste has proposed that potentially purchasing a new piece of land or repurposing an existing piece of land that we own getting all the necessary permitting and upgrades to make that a facility that could handle a city-wide composting would roughly cost five million dollars this this is one I'd ask you to think of a big grain of salt both in terms of our ability to deliver and the potential of that cost being appropriate but it does respond to this interest from council I think it's a very good fit with some of the values you've expressed in this process so we wanted to include it for future consideration next slide so this next category in your list of priorities was energy generation and transportation electrification at a level of four point four million dollars this could fund two different initiatives the first is to install charging infrastructure for transit buses at the Durham station so you know that we are venturing into electrification of the data fleet very excited about that and then we're taking possession of our first two electric buses later this month there there will be overnight charging for those buses at the data facility that this proposal would add sort of top-off charging at the Durham station so that when those buses come to the Durham station to load and unload passengers while they are waiting in that process they'd be able to get popped off and I think that's an interesting and exciting opportunity to keep that fleet running maximum on maximum uptime on those vehicles we'd also propose rooftop solar installation on city facilities that were fitting this four million feel like we could install that at three different locations in the city next slide our next the last category is energy resilience and retrofits and a funding level of five million dollars this would allow us to to do some of that as I introduced as we went through the categories micro grids solar power and solar power storage at various facilities to increase their resilience these could be things like recreation centers if we had a significant power outage and we wanted to open them in shelters this allows us to not just make sure that they are resilient but potentially using green energy to be resilient to enable to survive a significant power outage and to maintain resilience throughout that the second bullet is the potential for that same level of resilience for critical infrastructure like pumping stations or or city facilities that need to operate at 24 hours right now a lot of that resilience is not provided by green technology we rely on generators that use natural gas or diesel and so this potentially could use more green infrastructure to help find especially smaller facilities we talked about lift stations other infrastructure that might might run off batteries and those batteries could be thrown by solar energy again in this category we didn't didn't really have the ability we haven't gone far enough in this effort to identify those specific facilities so we're still a little bit general here but we were at least able to estimate the number of facilities that could be funded for five months the last category and I know you know a lot about this program so it's been much time on it the current CIP does continue to improve efforts to fund Berks Street painting I think this fits very well under this umbrella as as an effortively focused project to to make sure that we're providing an equitable level of service throughout the city this is funded in your current CIP our current projections are that we don't have enough funding in the CIP to complete this program so this as your as your right priority would at least add I think another a year of funding in the CIP without moving forward on this it doesn't mean this program in stocks but again it might mean that to continue this program through completion we have to look at some of our other projects to to find money to keep this a priority so with that those are the that's a quick walkthrough of the nine categories and what I wanted to summarize for you on this slide is that the the first waiting category is what I sent to departments based on your priorities after they looked at it and said well here are the projects we have and here are the ones that we think match the council's interest as well as being able to build in a reasonable timeframe they suggested those dollar amounts those are the dollar amounts I included and so I ran that second column just to show you right now the dollar amounts that are in each of those categories reflect these percentages while they while they differ I think in the general we captured the overall send of the council and trying to assign some level of priority to this and we'll see that they still add up to roughly 50 in this case 51 million dollars. Mayor Schuler you did at one point express an interest in the higher levels of funding and I would say that if council is interested at some point obviously there were projects that didn't make this list if council were to direct us to to come back and say what would 55 million or 60 million look like we could we could fill those buckets but at this point using the most viable projects at a 50 million dollar level. I have a little note at the bottom and it didn't translate to this PDF as well but I just would reiterate at this point that these costs don't potentially include some operating budget costs increases that we haven't calculated yet and that might be contract management costs that could be potentially new FTEs to manage significant projects in particular I would suggest that the infrastructure around sidewalks and pedestrian safety we are probably not scaled at this point to deliver that amount of new projects in the timeframe being considered without considering some additional amount of significant resources there. So these next three slides and John you can go to the first one are really just cut and pasted from that earlier presentation but I thought it would be useful for reference if council remained interested in pursuing a referendum and a bond approval these are the dates that David Boyd covered in that first presentation I just wanted to include them here as a reminder that last bullet is important to remind as well that if this November is not on the council's radar screen for this but you remain interested in a bond referendum that any November can have an election for this if you choose to go in that path. The next slide goes over the other alternative we discussed which is adding a portion of the property tax that would support an increased allocation to the CIP and rather than doing a voted bond issue instead in this scenario council could consider approving a tax increase and then allocating that increase to pay that service and to cash fund the CIP. In this scenario I think and I will say this roughly and David Boyd can pop on and correct me quickly if I get it wrong but roughly a penny on the tax rate would generate enough money over the first five years to fund the projects we just discussed the timing of that is very much an unknown so whether or not if those projects would have to push forward or backward within that five-year range is something I don't think we did answer yet obviously the debt model that we use to fund the CIP is very much in flux each year depending on what we spend on projects but as a general rule of thumb a penny on the tax rate would give us roughly enough capital to do these projects lower levels of funding would also generate enough money over a longer period of time and David could discuss that in more light but he would like and David notes in this slide I think it's important is that that is interest rates sensitive in that scenario that depending on interest rates at the time we do the borrowing that could generate more or less capacity so take all of that with a little bit of a grain of salt the next slide some of this information already covered but you know the difference here between the bond issue in that third bullet this does result in a permanent capacity increase as opposed to a one-time commitment to a group of projects so that when we work through this list this council or future councils could continue to to fund additional projects under this scenario of course this process if we were going with it does not require so our last slide is where we give you more work to do this is you know really at the conclusion of the presentation these are the questions that would be helpful for staff either to get some feedback today or as council considers this obviously there is a great deal of time sensitivity with the delivery of this year's budget as well as the potential to move forward on a bond referendum that we would you know either of those efforts you know we'd like to respond to council's direction as quickly as possible but we understand this is a lot to digest so our questions would be are there specific projects that you saw that you have more questions about again you would not have to commit to a list of projects immediately but the sooner you have thoughts or feedback the sooner we can tweak this list to make sure it meets your expectations we would like to know if the funding is distributed appropriately among the categories maybe you you like the categories in general but you'd like to see more funding in one category maybe less in another obviously a critical question I think Mr. Ferguson is having some internet difficulties but we'll wait a minute I expect we'll hear him Mr. Mayor John Allure is an interim budget director well we wait I certainly can finish off his questions if that is helpful sure that'd be great Mr. Allure thank you I think what he was just getting to is probably the most time sensitive question is is there a will a desire to advance this towards a CIP or to pursue a bond avenue with this if it is a bond which year would you target for selection is the are the funding levels I think I think his point here is with with the bond issuance consistent with council's current thinking and did did we miss anything is there anything within the scope of this presentation and or these questions that you feel also it needs to be addressed thank you for mentioning John absolutely it seems technology always tells us at the best time sorry for that I'm not exactly sure when my connection dropped out but but John summer this list does speak for itself I think the last comment I did want to make and I think I actually was making through the blank screen was that yeah I don't want to leave council with the impression that not moving forward with either a bond issue or a tax increase for the CIP means that none of these projects will happen what it would mean is you would need to tell us in in that venue if you wanted some of these projects to happen that we would need to find a reprioritization of the existing CIP some some projects would need to go in order to make some of these projects happen the fact that it's on this list doesn't mean a yes vote is for the project and the no voters is against it it does mean that if we don't move forward that that we need some feedback from council about we want these projects must happen we need them in the CIP staff don't give us some options to do that so you are not at a at a precipice where all these projects go away without additional funding but it doesn't mean you know more more more prioritization and more choices within the existing CIP so with that and with apologies for the technical difficulties mayor that concludes our presentation and we've got a broad range of staff who I owe a great deal of thanks for their efforts who are here today general services transportation public works solid waste and parks and recreation have all been a big help in pouring this information together and I believe we've got individuals I and obviously budget management services and finance have all been a big help in making this happen and we'd be happy to answer any questions you need thank you very much mr. Ferguson great report you all did a great job pulling this together with a lot of speed and we we gave you a short timeline for this and you've done a wonderful job thank you so much colleagues I think what I would like to do is just before we get to the kind of defining questions that mr. Ferguson posed for us and I'm happy to you know take those up now as well but I wondered if there are any questions that people have to start with just about any of the category any of the funding of the various categories any of the kind of more detail oriented aspects of the presentation councilmember Freelon thank you mr. mayor and thank you for the wonderful presentation bow um I just had a quick question you mentioned something towards the end that we didn't have the capacity to do the sidewalks and some of the other projects and I was just thinking about uh you know just partnering potentially with workforce development on training and hiring local folks here in Durham to help and fill that capacity versus you know outsourcing it or hiring somebody else is that something that you thought about or is there precedent for that kind of collaboration between departments thank you councilmember you know that that's certainly something we could explore when when we're talking about that capacity bottleneck we're really talking about the project design and and delivery and of course those are you're looking at civil engineers you're looking at project managers um those are obviously some positions that take an awful lot of time to to become prepared for and and I will tell you that I think there's a great deal of enthusiasm in the part of staff to find as much talent in those categories as we can find and develop as much talent but I think the reality is that that at you know in the current climate where the construction market is as robust as it is the pipeline to sort of develop and train new talent uh from from a level where you know where someone doesn't have that skill set to where they have that skill set that's a long pipeline uh so while I do think there's enthusiasm for that I wouldn't want to leave council with the impression that that would be a solution that makes these projects deliver sooner um I think as council has seen with a number of our vendors who come before us in the professional services categories uh you know those private firms struggle to find uh um struggle to find a diverse workforce and certainly I think that's something that locally you know we prize and value very highly um so I think that's a long range effort but I'm not sure it gets us a short term uh fix for a capacity problem I think really what we would be looking to do or what we are suggesting might be necessary is either hiring additional civil engineers in our project management division in public works and of course in that vein you know our our you know resources efforts to to find recruit and hire diverse and local talent I think they're pretty well developed um and then or the potential to go out and find contract managers either to design those projects. Got it so there's not like the poor and concrete that we actually are staffed enough in those types of roles to to execute the the new workload so so most of I'm sorry we yeah that's it okay uh so from most of these projects when we build a new infrastructure almost exclusively we do that through contractors our our staff um our in-house staff are better designed for very small construction projects and and maintenance so while we do a lot of sidewalk repair in-house asphalt maintenance in-house when we go out and repave a street or build a new sidewalk that's not something that we have found it to be the most efficient for us to have in-house so we're really looking at hiring construction firms to do work as opposed to our staff. Okay thank you for that um another really quick just high level question um you know I've been reading a lot about the American Jobs Plan and you know two million two trillion sorry with the T dollars of infrastructure potentially coming down the pipeline from the federal government um have you considered how that might impact any of what you're trying to do here um yeah uh yes we are I think in all of the above mode right now I think a number of city departments and resources are tracking um available funding for infrastructure and so I actually think you know one of the things we discussed in um in this process and also in a process to identify potential airmark candidates is the fact that if there is a large amount of infrastructure funding that really that may be coming for core needs um that that might best go to uh to some of our projects that don't score as well on the wow factor for you know for instance you know I think we understand there's there's always going to be a great deal of enthusiasm for trails uh for new infrastructure even for you I think some of these uh green uh inequitable projects you know people get excited about those and so sometimes it's easier uh when you're looking for grant funding uh to to showcase those projects but but the projects that often get you know I think left behind are some of those uh bread and butter projects like uh like maintenance of the dirt street project I think is a good example uh a lot of one of the categories we considered early on but took out of this discussion was we have several roads and there are multiple roads that need complete reconstruction those are not repaving projects but those are areas where road is simply failing um and I think those might be really excellent candidates if the federal governor passes a major infrastructure package so we are trying to be strategic about it uh and and prioritize projects for different categories of funding that seem like the best candidates to secure that okay thank you that that's all for me mr. mayor for now thank you and and uh mr. Ferguson maybe you could describe the earmark process a little bit I don't think all council members are aware of the fact that the earmark process is back and that we have applied for some earmarks uh so I hate to put a colleague on the spot but I might ask uh my colleague permission water manager page who's joining us to describe that process a little bit yes and I was I was popping in to say a couple of things one is we do have a point person at city um you know we we've been kind of on the edge of our seats as the um different funding sources the uh the ARC uh plan is is coming into existence and uh Bertha Johnson is actually leading an internal group that's looking at all of those sources coming to into the city as well as to other governments um in our community so we kind of have that part of it uh covered with with with the leader and I was also about to bring this Wallace on as boas to talk about the earmarks because she's the one that's been directly involved with the earmarks thank you miss Wallace welcome good afternoon mr. mayor mayor pro tem members of the council and manager page thank you mr. Ferguson I appreciate this opportunity to be put on the spot but I'm delighted to share with the council that I have been in communication with uh congressman david prices office about the new earmark on process is the process that has that we've not had the opportunity to participate in for several years now but that process has been restored through congress and so most recently as of last week we the city of Durham actually submitted two applications for earmark funding one was a joint application with a go triangle go Durham and Chapel Hill transit to purchase some electric buses so each organization submitted a request for eight million dollars to assist with the the efforts to go green we also submitted an earmark request for the Durham Belt Line the Durham Belt Line trail and so that is a project that we've had a lot of community engagement around and so we're hoping that we can get some federal support around that as well and quite frankly the criteria for earmarks the shovel readiness can the project be ready to go and be completed within a two-year period so we had lots of ideas many of which Bo has spoken to in his presentation today but quite frankly there is some infrastructure funding that we are expecting to come down the pipe so hopefully we can take advantage of that funding as well but we are aware of the earmarks and hopefully we will be able to take advantage of all the funding opportunities that are currently before us thank you very much Ms. Wallace for that explanation thank you all right colleagues other questions for Mr. Ferguson questions or comments Madam Mayor Prottam thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you Bo I always love your presentations they're just like so clear and direct and I always feel like I understand everything at the end of them so just wanted to appreciate the work and how quickly y'all got this back to us I'm wondering a little bit about the bike infrastructure stuff that seems to be the one that had the biggest disparity between our prioritization and the amount of funding that's being proposed so I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about that and I'm wondering whether there may be some projects that like aren't quite ready to go but that if we you know some that might be closer to being ready that we could prioritize over the next year or so to try to get them to a point where we could use a bond to pay for that fair I'm going to ask Shawn Egan if you could on the meeting and speak with her a little bit more thank you Bo good afternoon Mayor Madam Mayor Prottam and members of Council Shawn Egan Director of Transportation so what you see on the slide is a half million dollar recommendation for bicycle facilities as a match to federal funds what we what we've seen with the federal fund process there are specific requirements for federal and state assistance programs for transportation and that our bicycle facility projects tend to score much better than sidewalk projects for their transportation benefits so the the projects are set up generally with an 80-20 percent match 80 federal and 20 local so the the half million that you see there would leverage an additional two million dollars worth of federal funds so we'd be delivering a total of 2.5 million worth of projects but that local match would be required in order to complete the funding package for those projects and so we'd be continuing significant efforts that are underway right now and making significant investments in bicycle facilities as part of that match we have additional federal aid that's available through the annual federal highway funding process as well as through the CARES Act and other federal relief so that really gives us an opportunity to use these local matches and advance projects that will build out our transportation network consistent with what was recommended in the 2017 bike and walk plan. So I think to the council members in town curious if they allocated more funding could we get more projects in terms of local match if we have more local match could we get more projects or is this capped and I guess the second question would be is there an additional batch of strictly local projects that are kind of under listed priorities if council wanted to spend more in this area that that don't require a federal match but that we would just go out and and do if we have more money. I think the balance that we were trying to strike with this was to look at the project value as well as the equity considerations so we have certain projects that would improve the bicycle transportation network but they are not in communities that are historically underserved communities and so as part of this effort we wanted to prioritize projects that were located in historically underserved communities and look at project candidates from a race equity lens so while there are additional projects that we could consider they don't score as well when viewed with that race equity lens so they're so that was why we didn't recommend them as part of this effort. Thank you Sean that's super helpful can I also ask since this is in your lane as well on the pedestrian safety and access item that was another one that scored really highly for us but the investment was much the proposed investment is much smaller than than some of the other categories so that's just because those are less expensive to implement or are there if we were to put more money into that category are there other areas where we think we could improve that pedestrian safety. So what we saw with sidewalks and pedestrian safety was a great deal of overlap particularly in the description of the pedestrian safety it talks about providing connections to bus stops so the recommended project that you see in the sidewalks category every single one of those projects provides connections to bus stops and we know that over 80 percent of our gojourn bus riders are people of color 75 percent have incomes below $25,000 a year and two-thirds live in zero car households so transit is their transportation so we thought it was really a good opportunity to focus on sidewalk projects that both were serving historically underserved communities while also providing those connections to transit and bus stops so all of the projects that you see in that sidewalk category have at least a 75 percent minority population and all of them provide connections to transit services so there's a great deal of overlap and that's why but that's why we put them forward in that sidewalks category because of the benefits both as pedestrian infrastructure and access to our transit network. Got it thank you that makes so much sense. The other pedestrian safety and accessibility question that I had was around like new ideas about how to do crossings at at intersections and I'm wondering whether we've considered doing anything like you know we're like all the traffic stops and all the walkers go or any other you know way of timing different signals to make to make walking safer. I don't know a lot about it but I know that there are cities that are moving in different directions with regard to like their walk signals and signals for cars and was just wondering if we have any if you have any thoughts on that or if we're doing anything. So we had success when I was in Washington D.C. we had two locations with very high pedestrian volumes around our major transit stations where we did have crosswalk that where all of the vehicle traffic was stopped to allow crosswalks at two of those locations. We have not seen pedestrian volumes at a rate of that level here that would be sufficient to do that but we are continuing to advance things like a leading pedestrian interval where when the traffic lights stop the pedestrians get green time ahead of any vehicles so before those vehicles make their turning movements. So we continue to do installations of pedestrian signals and additional installations of those leading pedestrian intervals to give pedestrians kind of that first chance to make their way into the crosswalk before the vehicles move and that's something we're really looking to do more of and some of the intersections on that slide. That's the type of treatment that that could be implemented at those locations. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks Bo. That's all I've got. Appreciate it. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Councilmember Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Bo. Good to see you and John and I'm going to thank you and the team for really this great great presentation. I'm going to fully associate myself with Mayor Pro Tem Johnson's characterizations about your the nature of your presentations and the clarity of them, the accessibility of them. Thank you so much. So I want to firstly say full disclosure and I'm going to out myself. I can't recall whether or not I turned in my prioritization on this particular piece. I'm looking through my notes and thinking back. I remember doing it for the budget priorities but I cannot recall whether or not I actually did it. So whatever demerits that gets me within the consensus conversation I want to fully own. I know I've made public utterances about the priorities and what's in the context of this conversation but I cannot recall whether I did it or not. So I want to own that firstly. I think this is a really you know probably maybe second to the budget. This I think could potentially be one of the most important conversations we have both substantively and symbolically as well for the city. So I just because this I think could really send a clear powerful message to the people in the city how seriously we take both green space and equity. I did a little thought experiment and I did a thought experiment with the nomenclature and I exchanged I switched equitable and green in the nomenclature just to see how that would help me go through the priorities if I put equitable before green. Because when I look at the categories I sidewalks pedestrian safety and accessibility improvements in my you know worldview dirt street paving would be in one of the top three and again I want to own I can't remember what I did my priorities or not but dirt street paving for me when I put equity before green in the in the in rank that high or please put that in the first position dirt street paving moves way up for me because just whether you look at Hollywood depictions or in history books one of the most graphic depictions of inequity and disparity in in space and built space are streets uh historically you know who got their streets paved who got street lights and for a city that's called a city not a hamlet or a village or a town um I think at minimum all the streets have to be paid I mean you do even get into the discussion before you start talking about bike lanes you know a dirt street oftentimes points to a place in history through an equity lens where we know that there were certain communities by design that got infrastructure to begin with and and there are some that were put at the bottom of the list and those those you know those things codified themselves and embedded themselves in in history and in the development of cities and even to this day you can go to certain places around the country you know where the poor folk are the minorities because of historic disinvestment and historically you know not building up infrastructure I think that's a low hanging food I think that's a layup for us to to just make it a municipal priority that at the minimum every street in this city city will be paid so for me that that would have been moved up to the top three everything else you know gets built on that um secondly I um and the disco and if I'm out of order Mr. Mayor just let me know but to the questions that you ask to the questions that you yeah thank you sir that you listed on the last slide I think that again stressing equity over green I would be in favor of of an escalatory approach to this and by that I mean the if we add a penny to the tax for the cip I think that's a layup we can take now it's something that we can do immediately and have immediate impact I think it would send a clear um and dramatic uh message to the people of the city that we take equity um and green infrastructure seriously um it doesn't require a vote uh by the the citizenry or residents of the city uh and it also but with an eye towards also from an escalatory point of view adding the bond um on as part of our you know our strategy and the reason why I say this is because again putting equity before green I remember and I've said something similar before the the the way the rollout of the of the affordable housing bond was received amongst some in our city and just a heavy lift that that was uh even with all the information even with the outreach um and certain sectors of the community either because of historic you know hurt uh you know not trust uh you know mistrust uh having the time to do really do the robust educational piece um and I think that if we did the cip piece first and gave ourselves some time with the bond to do the requisite educational work again because if you stress equity first the more time we have for voices to to be part of the conversation to to tailor and contour what this debt this money would be used for the more equitable it would be as opposed to a you know city council in skonston city hall on high saying we're into equity and these are the projects we we're going to fund that we think the bond should be going to I think it would just give us more time uh to have um those conversations uh with community uh uh stakeholders um either way you know I I support the bond but I think that from an equity point of view it would give us uh more time I also want to hold the conversation about the bond intention with uh what will be the fruits of the the refresh of our comprehensive plan uh what will come of small area planning I know we're looking at southeast Durham uh uh developmental you know land use in southeast Durham and there's also been talk about possibly expanding consideration of small area plans for legacy black communities be they uh haytai or or wall town and I'm wondering how some of those ongoing conversations and the the ultimate results of our conversations about the comp plan and small area plans will inform uh and perhaps even hold intention what we do with that bond money uh from a green and infrastructure point of view so so they may be disparate but those are variables that that I can at least see being brought into play and held in tension as we have that conversation but I think the cip right now is a layup that we can take as a city 50 million dollars is a significant amount of money we can talk about adding uh you know adding more but I think that would be a really substantive powerful signal to the people of the city that we take um green infrastructure and equity seriously um and still have an eye towards ramping up and escalating with the addition of the bond perhaps in 2022 so those are my feelings when I hope I'm in order with that but but but that's where I'm kind of am right now thank you mr. mayor thank you colleagues thank you thank you very much uh council members other questions or comments at this time I'm sorry council member Reese is not here uh mr. Ferguson and I'm just gonna just uh ask you all to please if I know him he'll probably listen to this recording but uh just for you all to give some special uh time to him on this I know he'll want that council member Freeman thank you mr. mayor I think uh I would also like to process a little bit more um and take some special time as well I do note that uh I really appreciate how quickly this is coming together I will just take a step back and acknowledge along with council member Middleton I did submit and I noticed my number one is not on here and it's the you know the transformational infrastructure development or infrastructure investment and I think that goes along the lines of what council member Middleton is talking about and you know acknowledging that the projects we probably should have as a priority weren't even thought of um at the time that these CIP projects were pulled together and so I acknowledged that these are the projects that are in you know in the pipeline but there's some inequities in that and so just figuring out how to address that I think council member Middleton highlighted quite a bit I am excited about a bond and I think I lean away from the tax heavily acknowledging just how hard times have been for property owners that I've been talking to um and acknowledging that that increase might be even just the penny could be could be can could create a hardship that folks are already experiencing and um just just a just a mental note to myself but I really wanted to dig into some of the projects themselves because I I think the stormwater projects um I'm noting that Goose Creek is not is not in our CIP and so that's not going to be a part of this conversation also for the circular economies I noted the county's working on a plan as well or or at least having some conversations about what it might look like and so I think you should be making sure we're talking to them and I was thinking about when you're talking about the rec center specifically I know that there are because of the way our parks and rec centers have been set in the parks with a low lying area often in the land that people would not develop a property on uh there's a lot of water problems that I could note in Eastern I'm not I can't speak to every park but I know for up at uh Rock Quarry and a few others I mean there are huge infrastructure issues and I feel like I don't know if that's included in this conversation and so I would love to follow up back on that I really appreciate um Miss Wallace sharing um the earmarks that were highlighted because those would help a lot in alleviating some of the pressure on what the 50 million dollars could be used towards and I note that there are a lot more grants coming online um acknowledging that some of the foundations are figuring out that they need to support um local local nonprofits around these things and so figuring out if there's partnerships there that might help and building up our opportunity to to do some grant funding um with with national organizations I think that that um one thing that struck me from Mr. Egan's conversation specifically is around not doing any bike facility projects in other areas that are not underserved is that that creates the pressure so that all of them are all in there or in the historically underserved communities and so for bike facilities it might not it might not be an issue but that's not equity and just acknowledging that all or none is not a good picture for for the equity conversations really trying to figure out what is needed for each community and so I would definitely want to have more conversations around that but I think all in all this is this is phenomenal I was trying to note I was I was trying to be you know not uh inappropriate but my comment about how magical Mr. Ferguson has been with with this in a matter of two months but uh I really appreciate this and I am oh this is like this is this is all in my lane on infrastructure because people can't see the water pipes they can't see the infrastructure that's crumbling underneath the streets and the roads and I know that that it's it's important that we make sure we spend the money and we invest in it and so to the point that Middleton Councilman Middleton was making about you know we should move forward I'm of the mind and we should move forward with this bond and make sure that that folks understand that it's in the best interest of us now while we're while we're at these low interest rates while um while we have a chance to really uh move forward the CIP projects that have probably been there for like over 10 years I think I know some of them probably even much longer uh I know they've been there since I've been on the CIP committee and it's it's such a slow moving process especially with the sidewalks and the paving so I think that's why they came in so high but I I think that's about all I have so thank you thank you very much councilmember councilmember Middleton thank you mr. mayor if uh council freeman's comments uh prompt a question me I'd like to ask the staff is it the staff's position that if we float this debt via bond that it will not at some point require a tax increase to pay for it is that the staff's position uh no I believe a bond would require a tax increase I might ask uh David or I see the city mayor's that has come on spring but yes it will it will prompt the tax increase at some point I think there was a note in the slide that indicated we don't always have to have the increase in the year that we actually start you know start the projects because it is a cash flow um you know cash flow matter and we manage that you know very very closely and we you know we don't just like with the housing bond program we didn't start the tax increase um when we approve the bond but we will have it right in order to pay for the debt thank you madam manager so just to be clear between the choice of the cip increase or the bond it's just a matter of when not if uh regarding a tax increase uh it gets to the square so I just want to be clear uh uh the folks that are watching that either one of us we're gonna have to either one we're gonna have to raise taxes I appreciate that council member middle 10 I think uh I appreciate the clarity if I was unclear I was specifically just speaking to the fact that it's a lot of folks are facing a financial hardship this year and last year and so if another year or two could be added to allow for more time that was just that was it so I appreciate that clarity thank you council members council member cobietto I just have a real quick question it's so is this being presented as a either or either it's a bond or it's cip is I just wanted to understand that regardless of the timing I think uh we're open to direction from from council on that I think what we have proposed is for this 50 million dollars worth of projects the uh the slides we presented uh that represented the tax rate to support that uh was one alternative and the slides we presented showing a one a one cent tax for the cip is another alternative uh if council were to look at a hybrid model I think we you know we might want to come back to you with more financial calculations about what that might look like or if you were looking for a different funding level a higher funding level then those options would be available to council as well I have a follow-up question if that's okay mayor um uh the reason I'm asking is the 50 I mean what was it I forgot what the total was when y'all did the initial presentation that was like lots and lots of money of infrastructure over 220 million that's what I yeah so in my mind I don't really I hear lots of um I appreciate the presentation it was excellent I appreciate my uh colleagues comments I'm kind of processing 50 million dollars isn't going to cut it doesn't really matter how we do it um so if we're I feel like we're operating an infrastructure deficit for lots of reasons so to me if you're operating from a deficit point of view it's going to take there's the catch-up and then there's the actual parity to the communities around us um I don't remember when but at Dost um I think it was Lindsay Smart from Durham Parks and Rec they've done an analysis to our two other communities Kerry Raleigh others around trails we are woefully behind what other communities have in this area it's one of the things that um we Durham has done lots and lots of things way better than so many communities across the country this is one of the areas that I know that we consistently hear from residents sidewalks road improvements parks wouldn't it that's why we're having this conversation uh so I am interested in I can see the benefit of both doing it through the CIP or through a bond um I can I see the benefit in waiting till 2022 for a bond and not doing it based on the slide that you presented of the timeline that seems very very rushed to me to try and put it on the ballot in November um assuming the general assembly doesn't move our election um so I don't feel the I feel urgency but I don't feel like it would do any of us favors including our residents to put it a bond on the ballot in November I also do not feel confident adding it in the CIP this for this fiscal year that we're discussing because we know we're doing the affordable housing uh increase because we know there's going to potentially be some other um increases and so weighing those conversations and and not wanting increased taxes at that level um this is more you know thinking about next fiscal year whether it's a bond or in the CIP and also I think we're going to have a better understanding of what's happening at the federal level um with the infrastructure passage which I hope we get um um so I need more time to ponder uh I appreciate this presentation um it's a lot of really really good information and for me the importance is of is of the timing and then how do we get the most that we possibly can thank you very much council member mayor pro tem thank you mr mayor I just wanted to say um um after having this conversation I'm actually like wanting to do things more quickly uh just because it feels like a lot um you know the because I'm really excited about these projects and also knowing that there are a lot more of them in the pipeline I I feel a little bit more urgency now after this presentation to um to start figuring out how we do this money whether it's a bond or whether it's an extra cent um on the debt rate I also am conflicted about another cent on the debt rate this year um I can't remember exactly what we have right now in our in our budget guidelines what the what the increase was for the affordable housing I think it was like a little over a cent um and I don't know if we know yet whether there's another increase just for general operations so I'd like to keep it on the table um as something we continue a one cent increase on the debt rate is something we continue to talk about as we move through the budget cycle um and figure out kind of where as we kind of figure out what the what the whole tax rate is gonna is gonna look like um and I also think it makes sense to move forward with the bond I think doing it this year would be a stretch um putting it on the ballot this year would be a stretch but I also feel like this is something people are gonna be excited about um so I think I think I mean I I would if people were were excited about moving it this year I would be um I would be in favor of that I also feel like next year would be um would be good but I yeah I I I do feel like a lot of these things um that people are gonna be excited about them and I don't want to wait too long to start figuring out how we're gonna get this stuff on the ground especially with infrastructure projects like we're talking about this now but the actual implementation is of anything that we were to you know that we're talking about now is already several years down the road um so anyway just some some thoughts thank you council member Freeman yeah thank you um mayor pro tim johnson I I appreciate council member calviero's comments because I know I felt the same way when we were talking about the housing bond and acknowledging it was 544 million and we were talking about 95 million and that like deficit of like well where are we gonna get all that money from I felt it but I think in this in this uh atmosphere of COVID and the conversation with our current administration around building back better we've got two years to figure out how to make sure that we maximize what we can actually count on coming from the federal government acknowledging that the house in the Senate could shift could shift and change and so I'm mindful of that and so similar to council member I mean mayor pro tim johnson's comments I I do want to note that I think the urgency is not around it's not around us it's not around like whether this will like whether this will shift or change here locally it's more like nationally and just acknowledging that things can change really quickly so council member melton thank you council member council member melton thank you mr mayor so so this song on discussion really crystallizes you know qualities I appreciate so much uh in each of my colleagues and why it's so important um the the perspectives that we each bring I mean I I resonate deeply uh with council caviera and I appreciate how she she's a constant uh voice in terms of you know fiscal responsibility and and looking at the money and and I also appreciate uh mayor pro tim johnson greatly uh for a sense of urgency uh and and the need to act at points and I think we need both of those uh perspectives at the table um and and I I don't think it's an either or I I support both of these things which is why I I think we should take an escalatory phased in approach I think that um and you know respectfully I think all the projects uh that would be addressed with the cip increase are just as if not more important than each councils each counselors individual requests council generated ideas that are going to be in the budget this year um that costs money maybe not as much money but but it's my where government that's all we can do we spend money um prudently hopefully um but but I think that all of these projects are just as important as our council let initiatives and deserve serious consideration I'm I'm somewhat comfortable with the amount of money we're getting from the American rescue act we've got money coming towards the city um you know the indicated a good that we're going to have a favorable um relationship with Washington moving forward in terms of money coming down the pipeline uh so I think that if we looked at a phased in approach uh I think the cip will allow us to increase would allow us to strike early and make a a definite a dent and some of these projects that we so desperately need in the city and I think delaying the the the uh phasing of the bond would not aside from this you know financial room I think it would give us the time needed to you know if we're going to do an equitable bond then we need to hear from the community on what they think equitable you know use of that money would look like and I just don't think November would give us that amount of time it kind of like if we're going to put if we're going to have the you know the capacity to put equitable in the title then we have better make sure we do all the work necessary to make sure as many voices were involved in this equitable you know floating of debt for the city and spending the money and I just think uh that next year you know at least a year would allow us to do that and you know I take lessons from what we've learned in the rollout of the affordable housing bond and we took time to do that uh I don't think this will be any less uh um um heat and light generating in the community when we float this and and to confine ourselves to less amount of time to do the education the rollout the engagement on this bond then we did with the affordable housing bond I I just I don't know if that's a lift I'd want to commit us to but if my colleagues they go then I'm down with you but but I just think that the phased-in escalatory approach of both not either or of both of these I think would would make us a model uh certainly for cities around the the state possibly the country in terms of truly putting our money where our mouths are and striking now um for green infrastructure and for equity so that's all I'll say uh at that but I really appreciate the spirit and substance of this debate thank you college thank you council member um I have some comments but I see our manager madam manager thank thank you mr mayor um as as usual uh some of us are talking behind the scenes as as you all discuss uh some of these matters and you know certainly it has been said here but we you know we want to emphasize that any any decision that is made for new projects that are not already being planned this going to be a delay in delivery and it also means a delay in the larger parts of the cost so the design phase planning and design of a lower cost and you know delivering a penny this year does not take off the table in a plan on a planning horizon you know giving us the direction you know to go ahead and you know use the direction that you're giving to us now to have you know a future financial proposal that we give to you and so those were a lot of words but just wanted to make sure none of it none of it means we're going to spend new money next year for new projects in a material way thank you thank you madam manager colleagues I have a few comments uh thank you so much I thought that council member Middleton was right about the discussion that we've had I think you all have really outlined all the alternatives in front of us and they're complicated and I think we've had the full range of opinions um I wish I do wish council member Reese was here because this is an area where I think he really knows a lot and could help us but we'll we'll hear from him he is by the way taking care of a a ill family member nothing serious but came up this afternoon so I just texted with him and all as well he's uh he's pampering the ill family member right now is so good for you mr mayor deputy manager Ferguson had made himself visible I don't know if you know sir I don't know if you wanted that before you got into your anything mr Ferguson I know in fact I think I made myself invisible to allow you guys to continue the conversation okay thank you um um yeah so I had just a few thoughts uh not fully developed but the uh just to remember our budget guidelines and where we can change them but what we have said is that we have uh our our uh the affordable housing bond is in there at 1.38 cents and then we asked our staff not to go above two cents that would be our target uh total um that we don't know yet uh as a couple of you all have said what the operating needs will be that might fill up that rest of that two cents I know that our staff will help us with that um and I just want to say that you know we we talk about a penny if we wanted to hold the the total increase to two cents we'll see what happens but we don't have to do it in penny increments either we can do it in whatever increment we want adding a half cent to the set to the tax the property tax would if just using the rough math that from from what we know uh in the slides that we would would generate 50 million dollars or something like that over 10 years if i'm wrong about that mr boy can come on the screen and tell me uh so uh and we have talked about the fact you know so so in other words one possibility you can do a half set this year and a half set next year to get to the 100 million dollar over 10 year figure um I don't think we have to think of this all in in one cent increments when we think about the tax rate I know we're all concerned about the tax rate and then uh I am um as you all know I am a fan of bonds under certain circumstances and though there are a couple things about this that one thing that concerns me and one that seems like it's different in a certain way than the housing bond and I'd like to kind of hear from staff about that but the thing that does concern me is the timetable I it's not that I don't think we could do it I think we could do it and I think we would have a good chance to win the vote but I don't think it gives us the best chance I think to get I think if we want to be sure and really have the confidence and buy in of our residents that we would be better off to wait until 2022 either if the election is earlier in 2022 or if it's in November I could be persuaded otherwise and if my colleagues decide to go otherwise I will be there because I think this is absolutely crucial work but I think that we would be better serve starting off with some funding this year and some funding would be a lot of funding over time and then moving to a bond but again I I'm happy to hear other thoughts and if that's not the will of the council I'll certainly be there for a bond and then the thing that I feel about these items is as opposed to when I think about the housing bond sometimes with the housing bond we need millions and millions and dollars in one big projects and a lot of these projects on this list are not of that nature so I think that they're more susceptible to the to the long-term CIP funding than housing bond would be than housing needs are but I'm interested in if staff has any comment on that and if staff believes that either of these funding mechanisms because that's what we're really talking about here is what's the best funding mechanism we know we like the projects and we know we wish there were more projects a lot more projects that the need is much greater as councilmember caviero described and councilmember freeman and so I'm just wondering if staff could talk about which of these funding mechanism does either of these funding mechanisms give us a better chance to do what we want to do than the other I believe it's true that the mechanism of adding to CIP debt of CIP debt funding tax increase to do that that definitely gets us more over time but are there projects that we just have to have a bond issue for because they're big you know I think for example the of the of the organics recycling facility is that something we have to have a bond issue for so I wonder if staff could comment on on that and I hope I've made that question clear enough yeah I've asked finance director David Boyd if he would potentially discuss that and while he's coming on I will just say that yeah from a from a delivery standpoint you know the the funding comes through either mechanism you know and so large projects or small projects I'm not sure that the way the funding comes in via I think we've lost Mr. Ferguson again yep I think so Mr. Boyd do you want to comment and then we'll get Mr. Ferguson's comments when he comes back sure why don't why don't I start with just kind of illustrating real quick for you all what kind of capacity you can get at different tax rates in the CIP you know we've been talking about this one penny or a 50 million dollar number just so you have some some context John I think you have a spreadsheet that maybe you can share real quick just so it's easier for you all to see it it's not the most fancy formatted thing but I think with some words here you'll understand the the the point that I'm trying to make so and and this is not as Bo said earlier this is a bit of an art as opposed to a science because when we spend money or when we borrow money really drives this this capacity but just to illustrate if we're talking about one penny in the CIP with the way that we are currently using a mix of cash funding and and borrowing so I mean our existing CIP plan is a is a series of bonds just a different type of bond that that don't require a vote so from a from a simplicity standpoint it's much simpler to do it this way than then through a referendum process but if we were to add one cent and we were to see what kind of capacity does that create every year if we spent the exact same amount every year and if my my interest rate assumptions are totally perfect it's about 11 million dollars a year in capacity but if you want to say how much could we get you know as quick as possible with that one cent you know borrow more in the first year if we want to maximize that one cent we could get like 39 million dollars in fiscal year 22 to Bo's point of what I think he was he was saying we can't deliver you know a new 39 million dollars worth of projects next year and then that would eliminate capacity for you know the next couple of years and then we would start up again with some more capacity once some existing debt had had paid down the value of pennies increased and then we would start back up with that permanent capacity increase of 13 million dollars so that's the difference between that the even line and the max line so if that was a half a cent it would be you know six million dollars a year every year if it was even as opposed to 18 million dollars right now and then 10 million dollars once we got a few few years out or if we wanted a quarter cent you know that's a three million dollar increase every year or eight million dollars now so it really and we won't ever spend in exactly these flat increments but just to kind of illustrate the difference in what you could get at different levels is is what I was trying to illustrate for you here and and get back to again to that kind of permanent capacity increase versus the one-time increase that a bond would give you and then additionally additionally the the whole notion of of incremental our ability to incrementally deliver projects over time as well as the the possibility of the incremental approach to perhaps you know some increase in the cip now and and a bond issuance in the future um using the cip for some of those things that that that bow talked about that might not be that exciting um and the bond issuance for those things that might have more more public support but I think bows back in so let it finish his comments but I think this context might be helpful for y'all as you're you're considering where you want to go very very very helpful thank you so much. Apologizing again for any complete comments I'm not sure what's going on here I haven't generally had this problem but um I'm sure David covered it you know I think uh there's you know just some nuance between the two funding methods but not a significant impact to which projects we can deliver based on the funding method um you know I think internally as you probably suspect from how we talk about this I think the staff has a preference for some flexibility um I think you know uh and I think cip funding gives us a little more flexibility project schedules can change project scopes can change and within the cip we're able to move forward and back a year in terms of funding levels when that happens I think bond issues definitely have the benefit of of voter visibility and and affirmation sometimes the downside of that is there's an expectation of a very specific set of projects delivered in a very specific amount of time and as council is unfortunately aware a lot can come into play in delivering these projects and so sometimes the bond issues create that expectation and sometimes it disconnects between what we're able to deliver and when but again I think we're very comfortable moving forward with both methodologies and all of the pros and cons of each of those can be can be managed thank you that was super helpful very very helpful and it was good to see the spreadsheet I'd love to uh I think I've got the spreadsheet memorized uh but uh it would be great to uh get that in an email I think that it would all it would be helpful for us to refer to it but that was super helpful um so uh I guess what I would say to our staff is you have heard a council that has a wide variety of opinions and so I think maybe um and and and if we are to take action uh we would need to do that by May the third uh is our first step is that correct certainly if you wanted to an FY 21 um yeah or a 2021 election cycle referendum that would be a deadline you need to meet uh your other options uh have a little bit more flexibility but obviously as as the managers finalizing her plan of budget so if there was an intention for the next fiscal year CIP to be increased um that direction that they become very good things for so I have a suggestion for staff and my colleagues uh and I'm not sure this will work but let me just um we have one more work session prior to that date so can I suggest that we put another discussion of this matter on that work session um and that would allow us then to take the requisite action if we were to if we take action on May the third we don't have to go forward but it is necessary if we are going to go forward with a bond issue is that correct yeah okay yeah so um my understanding then would be if we were to take some action if we if we discussed it at the next work session that would at the following council meeting we could take the requisite action uh does that if we are planning to at least can keep our option open for a bond issue is that right is that timing work I think we could make that work that that first action of council is not doesn't require a significant amount of legal work or documents or or or specificity um to get that first action out of the way all right thank you so colleagues that gives us a couple of weeks to do I think a couple different things one is to talk amongst ourselves and just uh gets you know think together uh you know in ones and twos and threes about our own thoughts talk to um the staff further uh and our one-on-ones and so forth uh about their thoughts and what I would ask of the staff uh and I don't know that this is possible at this point but one of the things on my mind is can we know more in the next few weeks the next couple of weeks about any kind of estimate on will we have any progress about what we think about the tax increase necessity for other things I said you know that's all my mind when I think about uh what I'd be supportive of the tax increase of some size for see expanding the CIP for green and equitable infrastructure what else is is still on our plate and I wonder if it would be possible to know more in the next couple of weeks um I know we won't know everything but and maybe it's too early so any thoughts on that from the manager or um so we are we're working on the budget every day now and we expect you know to have most of our departmental meetings completed by the end of next week and you know certainly we're not extremely far from when the budget is to be prepared and presented so uh the answer to your question is we will have more information in the next couple of weeks without a doubt great so that will be helpful so colleagues um let me just reiterate then my suggestion is that the staff work on that and that we think about what course of action we want to pursue and that we discuss it again in two weeks that time council member Reese will also be back so how does that comport with your wishes colleagues is that okay can I see thumbs if you like it let's see a thumb okay I see most thumbs council member Freeman are you good with that I'm just thinking uh based on I mean based on the comments today I don't know that if it's if it's necessary but if you feel like that will help I think that's a good idea okay yeah I think that I mean I am I'd like more information before deciding and and I'd like to hear the wisdom you know get more wisdom from everybody and have a chance to think about it more okay so that's what we're going to do then uh Mr Ferguson is that okay with you and does that work with what your plans are for the staff and so forth okay yeah I think thank you let's go what you want your next steps to be so I think you know on the project side we're sort of on pause I think council's going to consider the the tax information you requested and then that'll help inform one of the next great thank you very much all right great discussion thank you for the presentation great presentation and you know I wish that sometimes the council is very clear we know exactly what we all think together we all agree slam dunk sometimes we have a a broader variety a broader range of opinions and that's where we are today and I think that's that's I think we're giving it thoughtful consideration so much appreciated okay colleagues now we'll move on to uh the next presentation which is item 19 and this is the uh let's see what it's titled the affordable housing report you get that title right uh affordable housing investment plan update and um I see mr johnson welcome mr johnson thank you thank you mr mayor uh reginald johnson director of the department of community development and uh I want to also say greetings to uh mayor pro tem and the members of the city council uh the purpose uh this afternoon is to share with you an update on the affordable housing um plan and so um the first thing that I want to to do before I begin is to want to definitely thank the community development staff all of the work that they do in and when putting this presentation together and also doing the work uh that needs to be done and I also uh want to uh thank uh the partners that we have as well as our stakeholders that we have that actually do work as well and we're very grateful uh to them uh the objectives that we have for this presentation is one to discuss with you the progress thus far on the affordable housing uh plan and then we also wanted to discuss how we're counting and discuss the f y fiscal year 22 plans and discuss the challenges that uh that are out there that we will be facing and so with that I will begin the first thing I know we've talked about the affordable housing plan but now we have a name for it it's going to be called forever home Durham and we want to thank one other new partner uh the local firm of Mars and Ross uh and uh in partnership with French West Vaughn another firm out of Raleigh that have jointly ventured to help us they're going to be helping us with our website but they helped us with the uh working through a name uh for the affordable housing uh plan and it's forever home Durham so we want to thank them for that uh next slide so just to uh reiterate where we where we were and uh going to where we are and and then go into where we will be uh you know as you remember the in November of 2019 the voter Durham voters overwhelmingly approved the 95 million dollar affordable housing bond the bond is being of 95 million dollars not the bond is being combined with 65 million dollars in existing city and federal funds to make a total of 160 million dollar investment now called forever home Durham uh in affordable housing and services for low-income residents next slide and just to reestablish the uh the goals or reiterate the goals uh that we had when we uh exactly presented this plan to uh to you uh members of the council and and the residents and voters uh forever home Durham goals was are to build 1600 new affordable rental homes preserve 800 affordable rental homes move 1700 homeless persons into permanent housing provide 400 affordable home ownership opportunities to first-time home buyers next slide to help 3000 low-income renters and homeowners remain in or improve their homes created at least 130 million dollars in contracting opportunities for minority and women-owned business enterprises MWBEs also to support nearly 3000 jobs as a result of construction of operations and resident spending over the life of the housing created with forever home Durham funding next slide so how are we counting what are we counting so included in forever home Durham reporting uh in terms of units uh counting units associated with city funded contracts executed on uh after july 1 2019 which is the beginning of the first city fiscal year forever home Durham program and then in terms of services services accounted uh the services that are delivered on after july 1 2019 and services include programs such as eviction diversion property tax assistance minor repair and down payment assistance not included in the counting uh forever home Durham reporting our activities and funding associated with COVID-19 response and the HUD U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development led remediation program if you remember we see about three million dollars for uh for participating in that program next slide so i'm going to orient you to this chart which is our progress to date across the top we have the goal the goals in the various categories that we just talked about then we have pipelines uh what's in the pipeline and that's defined as the funding recommendations that are made but a contract is not yet executed that means it's in some stage of planning that we have made a recommendation but no contract has been prepared yet or executed i would say because some of our still contracts are being prepared and then you have uh under contract means that a city funded contract has been executed and then completion uh completed means that uh for units uh a certificate of compliance uh uh certificate of occupancy compliance has been received and for services the services delivered that's what completed means and then that's across the top and then you have the the balance remaining after we look at those what's in the pipeline what's on the contract was completed going down the the left hand side we have the categories uh rental units created we have that's two subcategories one with Durham housing authority and then non-dha non-dha are the ones that we're contracting with our other partners and stakeholders other than the Durham housing authority and then we have rental units preserved and uh we also are doing some preservations with dha but then we also have uh those that we're working to preserve that we have with our partners other partners and stakeholders then our home ownership opportunity is created uh homeless persons in permanent housing uh then the next category is low income household stabilized and remember we just you know talked about the goals so just to pick out uh uh one uh rental units created uh total remember the goal was 1600 uh we have in the pipeline our 236 units uh with Durham housing authority and we have non-dha we have in the pipeline 230 we've completed 82 of course that's willard street and so uh that can help you to help one to see that we have uh what's in the pipeline and what's under contract and I have a balance of 1052 units we're out of the 1600 goal that we have that's how one looks at this chart of course you'll be seeing this frequently so that's reason I wanted to take a little time to to orient uh everyone to this particular chart you'll be seeing it more of it again uh next slide so this is some highlights of uh the progress to date uh summary you know of course we have two two categories one is of course working with houses the other one is is people and so uh he uses some examples uh willard street uh that I just mentioned before the new construction of 82 rental units for families also the jj hinderson tau with uh dha and their our development partner cci uh rehabilitation 178 rental homes for seniors then we have ross role with reinvestment partners uh preservation of 42 units for families and then uh partnership we have with the scrap exchange where we're uh land banking or some land for 33 future units for at some point in the next several years and then on the people side working with households and families uh 504 households have avoided eviction and preservation and preserved it and we've preserved their tenure 36 elderly and disabled homeowners receive minor repair assistance 562 persons experiencing homelessness regain permanent housing and then the joint city county funded unsheltered coordinate agency provides street outreach outreach and encampment response uh so those this is yes some highlights and so we wanted to share uh those with you next slide so the next slide uh uh next slide to talk specifically about uh fy 22 plans what we hope to accomplish in the next fiscal year and again uh thanks to uh mars and ross and french ron for forever home Durham uh in terms of the name of the affordable housing plan we also have a tagline that i'll introduce now the tagline is affordable livable and inclusive and those are aspirational goals and what we're trying to do with the the funding that we have we want you know to create housing that's affordable uh clearly that's livable and most definitely inclusive and so uh we want to uh um you know try to create something in terms of uh that really works for our citizens it's best that we can i do uh want to introduce a seated slide of of willard street a picture of willard street and i want to do acknowledge the comments that council members made on monday night reference to uh the willard street apartments and residents are moving in and and we just want to say thank you for taking the time to uh to visit for those who had the opportunity to do so next slide this is just want to spend a little time talking about this slide it's rental project development timeline and this is just a reminder an example of a low-income housing tax credit project it can be used for other projects as well but the point is that to the left you have city issues rfp that's at zero months and then you can go to completed construction such as a willard street that's 36 months out that's three years but along the timeline you have an award decision at uh three months a developer applies for tax credits at six and then award decision at 12 and the point is that it takes three years before we get to example the willard street or law firm south side or any other for a lot of projects and there are a lot of things that can happen along the way and it'd be quite frank about it that one can and we found this out you might want to say the hard way that you can start and be 12 months in and have a decision something impact you that you have to go all the way back to the beginning and so the point is three years is and everything hits on all cylinders that's awesome but the realities of development don't always mature that way and so sometimes some things take longer than what is initially planned next slide so what i'm going to do with the next set of slides is to talk in the various categories about what we plan to accomplish in fy 22 and this slide focuses on creating and preserving rental homes and this is Durham housing authority and in terms of the creation of new units remember where we have the jj henderson apartments new construction new construction of 80 rental homes for seniors we're going to execute the contract and begin construction uh livable street apartments the first phase of five uh 19 east main limited street redevelopment new construction of 72 rental homes for families we're planning to execute a contract and begin construction and then the commerce street apartments which you saw on the agenda today second phase of the 519 east main street liberty redevelopment new construction of 84 rental units for families we're going to secure and financing and execute the contract and then going into preservation of affordable units for the housing authority jj henderson tower we have we have a hundred and seventy eight rental homes for seniors construction underway and then the moraine road complete the improvements of a sewer infrastructure for the 224 rental units for families that's was what we wanted things we're planning to work with them in the macombish in fy 22 next slide and this is the create and preserve rental homes for other developers or other partners that i mentioned earlier construction to be completed in fy 22 the fits pow apartment complexes run by aqua was focuses on persons who are hiv and other some other disabilities rehabilitation of 14 affordable rental units for the rental homes the ross road project with reinvestment of partners rehabilitation of 142 rental homes for families and then we're planning to execute contracts in fy 22 and construction beginning in fy 22 or early fy 23 again going back to that schedule that i just talked about harry it's placed with reinvestment partners which is an adaptive reuse and creation of 16 affordable rental homes and then 2702 north duke street that's a casa project 16 new affordable rental homes and then have farrington road partnering with laurel street residential which is 82 new rental homes for families beginning at fy 22 or fy 23 the hearty street which is a partnership with dh ic and self-help 132 rental homes for families and then the east dorm phase two with the new dorm community in bantra steve dcl t will rehabilitation of 14 scattered site rental homes in fy 22 and then we're also planning to issue an rsp for new multifamily projects with the goal of securing additional 200 units next line so in uh in terms of provide providing permanent housing for homeless persons remember these um the system measures and where this is a if you recall i've talked often before the council where the community development department wears two hats uh one of we're administrators of the system in the homelessness system which is all the entities that work to have homelessness but uh we're also one of the 50 or so that also do that so we have a dual dual role but the key homelessness system performance metrics uh include 300 persons and 50 persons will exit homelessness to permanent housing 25 percent of people experiencing homelessness who contact entry point durham uh will exit homelessness without entering an emergency shelter and in emergency shelters we reduce the average length of stay by 10 to 65 days uh is what we hope to accomplish in fy 22 and then in terms of homeless system planning which we're doing much better job over the years thanks to the homeless services advisory committee and our relationship and partnership with hood and and other stakeholders uh in our community and indeed our region uh the community development will lead data driven planning and resource allocation discussions with the goal of building system uh wide consistency on funding priorities and then in terms of technical assistance we'll identify technical assistance of ta providers and expand ta to homeless service providers to help implement best practices uh next line uh going again to the category of home ownership opportunities uh we uh while we're going to work to execute contracts and begin construction of seven affordable uh four cell homes on city-owned single family lights that's with habitat for humanity and dclt and then we're going to launch our down payment assistance program assistance program with the goal of assisting 40 whole home buyers doing fy 22 and just as a note we have uh issued a request for proposals for a program administrator uh that was issued in march of uh 2021 uh next slide in terms of stabilizing low income homeowners and renters uh first category is repair rehabilitation uh we plan to have 30 minor repairs and five substantial rehabs completed for elderly and disabled homeowners uh 30 minor repairs are used to ten thousand dollars or less uh substantial rehabs can be up to uh 50 uh thousand dollars and then uh eviction diversion the city-funded eviction diversion program serves eight will serve 800 households and on property tax the long-term homeowner grant program for tax years uh 2019 and 2020 completed and that program is underway now we accept an applications now uh next slide in terms of uh creating contracting opportunities for mwbe's and this kind of gets to one of the things that um councilmember uh pre mentioned uh we're actually going to be mbe mwbe consultant firm will be in place by the end of fy 21 and will be responsible for the education and technical assistance for cindy city-funded developers on mwbe requirements including that includes dha and non dha projects also the outreach and support for mwbe's and section three businesses as well as the monitoring and reporting that is required uh then we'll begin to provide regular updates on mwbe activities and fy 22 posting on our website and including quarterly reporting next slide uh in terms of support of employment opportunities uh we'll be uh tracking and reporting progress towards goals of supporting 3000 jobs as a result of the city investment using the economic model available and uh to share the website there also prioritizing hiring of low income and section three individual eligible individuals for any new construction related positions resulting from this work and implement a workforce pilot program in partnership with dha and office of economic and workforce development that has already begun of course as we've shared it has some um challenges due to covid but uh they have I think a couple of people that are involved actually now next slide uh another goal that we have that we'll accomplish in fy 22 is to support the work of the affordable housing implementation committee appointed by the city council to advise and provide feedback on the implementation of forever home Durham program they had their first meeting on uh April the first uh actually we'll have another meeting on April the 15th uh and so uh our role is to support them and with that it also includes increasing public communication and enhanced transparency around implementation of forever home Durham and the use of public funds and that includes maintaining a forever home Durham website as the information hub about the program our goal is to I think by the end of May at least have some uh a website up it'll have this forever home Durham will have its own individual website separate from the community development uh website and then circulate quarterly updates on program implementation and outreach and presentations to community organizations and residents next slide so the challenges that we have for as we you know move forward the