umber is and um I would be uncomfortable myself Saying that we had a number. I'd rather say We're looking forward to hearing from you. We're looking forward to being supportive and um Let us know and we will we will not need to wait until the next budget year to consider it We'll consider it whenever we get it from you That would be my that's where I'm leaning, but I'm happy to hear any other thoughts Mr. Mayor, I don't know if you can see me when I'm raising my hand. Yes councilmember freeman. Yeah, sometimes I can sometimes I can't It's not intentional. I I just wanted to say that I I hear you on that I think that The message we've already sent to the business community and naming a million dollars not knowing what The need would be is is similar And I just want to make sure that our homeowners our residents in the community know That we're We're we're recognizing that something needs to be done as well And so just along those same lines. I think that if we named, you know, a million dollars to be held in and and You know until It's not It's not as problematic And not knowing the number so I just just want to add that piece But I mean I just want to be clear either way. It's fine. It's not a it's not a big difference But I do think that the message we send is is important Thank you. Uh, okay one other possibility and uh hearing that Is that we could say to our county colleagues? Um, we would consider up to a million dollars in expenditure um After we receive your plan Uh And and your and and uh your commitment that sounds phenomenal Mayor pro tem Is the the memo that we received detailing costs. Is that total costs? For the Like for the theoretical program The one that they um the memo that we received yesterday, right? It's very honestly, it's quite confusing. Um, is exactly they don't make a recommendation Uh, the amount of money that the 750 000 dollars in original you could correct me Is the low end of the administrative costs That that is correct. Mr. Mayor, and then I would just add that It's not a recommendation Because there's several policy decisions that will directly affect cost And so that's the reason this hard I mean, even if you asked me for a number which you did not I couldn't provide you one because there's several decisions that have to be made To come up with a number Even a range and that's the reason it's not a recommendation. It's just a white paper And then uh, can I also add just looking at the memo right here that It it the At the 50 application rate It looks like the total cost is about three million dollars plus administrative costs So that's very different than the estimate that mr. Sparrow made Uh, you know, there's a lot of work that needs to be done here You know, it's really clear to me that there's just there's not a program There's a lot of different estimates out there. Um, so That's what we know, I think Okay, thank you Yeah, I I feel like I'm sorry mayor pro-town and then Yeah, I was just gonna say I feel like given And that was my impression too that it just it feels very up in the air what the cost would be I feel like we could I mean if people feel that a formal commitment is necessary beyond what we've already stated here today in order to um In order to make the commitment that we will move forward on this program that we could That we could make that commitment without a number attached that that would be more Reasonable given the fact that we don't really have any sense of what this would cost But Yeah, I mean so I would I would be open to that I feel like we've all made our intentions fairly clear on this call and that we can be held to the commitment to move a program forward at a future date But if we wanted to take a vote to commit to that, I feel like that would be reasonable Thank you Thank you very much mayor pro-town councillor middleton. Yes. Thank you, uh, mr. Mayor and I'm gonna associate myself with mayor pro-tems Uh comments. I I was going to say I I think you're concerned about naming a number Are valid and reasonable And I was going to actually recommend that that we still issue some statement either with the force of Of a resolution of a statement of intent or something that carries the imprimatur of our board officially Taking a stance In hopes that it would it would light a fire perhaps prod our colleagues Since that is a threshold we've already crossed Uh in doing so so I would I would support with or without a number a statement a formal statement of intent On the part of the council, so I'll defer to my colleagues on on the specifics, but I think it should be formalized Thank you. Okay. Thank you councilmember caballero I I agree. I'm The number piece to me seems hard to get to just adding It would be 1.2 million if we added if we had zed or not straight hats because that was 700,000 for administrative costs that they The low ball number that was given So I've added that would be 1.2 based on jim's far as number that he provided um, so I feel very reticent to To put a dollar amount to this at this time I do think that it would be helpful to have maybe that formal vote so to kind of have the The clear commitment to our residents and then also to uh clearly state to our county commissioner colleagues where we stand on this Thank you I feel an emerging consensus. Maybe I could councilmember reese. Did you Yeah, I've lost video yet again. This is the life we live. Um, yes, it is The uh, I have a suggestion about how to I think address some of the concerns if I if I can make it to my colleagues um What if we what if we as a council direct you mr. Mayor To prepare a letter under all of our signatures over our signatures um explaining the council's position um, and uh encouraging the county commission to Partner with us in this program and if if there is a consensus amongst us That adding a dollar amount. It is valuable. I've heard I've heard it both ways Amongst my colleagues, and I'm frankly agnostic about whether or not it It makes a difference, but I think we could say The city's prepared to commit um in the neighborhood of a million dollars of city funds to the To the grant administration of the program Thank you. Um So let me respond so far to what I've heard I like the idea of the letter on behalf of the council if you don't mind I don't want to collect everybody's signatures these days. So if it would be all right with you, um I would the the letter would be On behalf of the count on the behalf of the council's unanimous council um I would be writing to our county commission colleagues Copping the county manager Saying that we on the city council are prepared to entertain a proposal from the county with the support of the county tax office for tax relief for long-term low-income homeowners which And we would be prepared to entertain that um We would be prepared to entertain that uh Proposal at any time that it comes to us during this current tax year this upcoming tax year That we don't need to wait until the next tax year to consider this We will be happy to consider the proposal When it comes to us I don't think we have you know a consensus on naming a number and i'm comfortable with that I think we could think that people have heard this discussion But I think that there's I think that if we made that statement clear That we are ready to entertain it, uh, and we welcome it Not only we're ready to entertain it. We invite it. We welcome it How does that sound to people as a way to go? Can I have one one thing mr. Mayor? Sure, and then I councilmember middleton. I see you have a comment I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't raise my hand everybody out. It's bad. No worries. Go ahead I think the other thing we have to keep in mind is that obviously Making commitment to spend the money means we have to at least make an effort to figure out where it's going to come from Um, and I think that's one of the the the the fact that we don't have The dedicated housing funds spending plan in front of us makes that more challenging But I think we have to amongst the six of us Make a commitment that if the county says, okay, we're ready Here's where we're going to come up with say one and a half million dollars that would include their grant plus administration portion that we will have to Open up the dedicated housing fund spending plan and make adjustments make hard choices um, because this is very much a preservation of home ownership we have um, we have portions of the spending Of the spending plan the dedicated housing fund that are that are devoted to that that that uh goal I mean we're just going to have to move some money around to get enough money into that particular bucket To make it work and those are hard choices. We just have to commit to making them. That's all I wanted to add Thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you. It's important. Um councilmember Middleton Thank you, mr. Mayor and thanks, uh charlie I um, I agree 100 with all of the content that councilor reese just recommended Only I think it should be on an official statement Officially a voted statement on the part of the council. I think this is beyond the letter writing Threshold, I don't want it just on letterhead. I want to send a clear Message with the full weight of this government in the city on it. I want to raise seal and the clerk stamp on it That we acted as opposed to just a letter You know letters it's intent, you know, we might I mean letter you can go back on a letter. I want this codified So I I I'll accept a motion It's absolutely. I move that we uh adopt the councilor reese's language in the form of an official statement from the city council Is there a second? second Thank you Um, I'm gonna try to restate what do we need to suspend the rules Thank who we do can I have a motion that we suspend if we suspend the rules second I appreciate the parliamentary reminder Um Madam clerk, there's a motion that we suspend the rules and vote on this issue and I see Uh our deputy clerk welcome Uh, could you please take the call the roll for the vote here? Mayor shul I Mayor pro tem johnson I councilmember caballero I councilmember freeman I councilmember middleton I vote yay councilmember reese I Thank you Thank you the eyes habit and the motion passes unanimously Now let me try to see if I can state what the uh, and there's a motion on the floor now from councilmember middleton seconded by councilmember freeman that we uh That the council uh supports and will wants me to communicate to the county commission Copying the manager Maybe I should say and the manager that we invite and welcome a proposal of Uh tax relief for long-term low-income homeowners from the county Uh any time that they are prepared to make such a proposal Uh and that uh, we will At that time You know After the appropriate vetting uh, we at that time after the appropriate vetting will be Prepared to support such a proposal for long-term low-income homeowners Point of clarification that that doesn't need to happen For the will and we'll consider that anytime in the in the upcoming fiscal year Point of clarification Yes, sir. I just wanted to be clear on my motion. The the means of conveyance was not you writing a letter on our behalf It was an official statement of the council Uh, effectuated by vote. I just wanted to be clear that that was my motion Okay, then um So are you happy if I write the statement? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, man. Okay, so in other words the statement would then come from the council And not just from me. That's the point or is it a resolution rather than a statement because i'm understand it like Something with the full weight of the body is a resolution um A resolution's okay I'm not interested in a lot of vet resolves um But uh, I think a statement from the council carries the same way as a resolution Absolutely We've got a motion on the floor any more discussion Madam clerk, will you please call the roll? mayor schul Yes mayor pro tem johnson i councilmember caballero hi councilmember freeman ah councilmember middleton I vote yay councilmember reese hi Thank you Thank you, madam clerk the eyes have it the motion passes unanimously Reginald, I think we're gonna let you go. We appreciate you Mr. Mayor, thank you so much. I'm glad that wasn't a UNC cup Southern university I've got good. I could have been the end of our friendship reginal. Yeah, I didn't want you to switch over. All right All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. Appreciate all of you. I'm glad you know where he would switch to Wow Okay. Well, everybody's bringing it today Okay, um, thank you so much and let me just say I see that uh, terry porter holmes and Carolado have been on the call. Thank you all as well. We appreciate all of you all in community development Let me uh now move to um, I guess i'm presiding over this next piece as well Which is the office of economic and workforce development and I see andre pedigrees with us welcome andre. We're glad to see you Thank you, mayor. Thank you members of city council So I'd like to uh, thank you again for allowing me to have this continuing Conversations with you about the role of the office of economic development And workforce development In response and support of our small businesses and residents relative to cold it Again, we seek your advice your input and insights are very important to to us in designing these programs And again, we'd like to be responsive to our community given your insights um, you know, I wanted to maybe comment that The owd staff is in fact working virtually now in telecommuting Since the stay at home order And that's working well from our standpoint because many of our businesses are working in a remote fashion Um, I also want to acknowledge that the workforce development center the career center Is in fact Working virtually in clothes. However We have put together a plan That we're working with city and state officials to begin opening that up As a safe environment But all the appropriate social distancing and other tools ppe Required and we'll hear more about this Again, and today what we'll be talking about is uh, more specifics about our economic response Uh, that's more specific to how we're working with small businesses in response to this As well as workforce development, uh, the unexpected spike in unemployment Has presented some major challenges and again, we're stepping up to those challenges In the budget highlights, we've identified some projects that Uh, we're doing and I believe we need to consider doing Uh specific to cobit Relief in in response to Uh, what we're seeing out there for our businesses Next slide So since The cobit program or the stay at home orders were put in place uh, we have had to be Quick at assessing and adapting our program We have put All the programs and resources that are currently in this fiscal year budget as we close out towards cobit Cobit relief every one of the projects And programs have quickly pivoted into supporting this work And i'm going to highlight some of them But the first bullet point here is really around The small business recovery loan program that I spoke to you about last week In the work session again We're committed to coming back to you With a full program at the next work session On the june 4th We are on track to do that We have taken into Account many of the comments that you've made but also some of the inputs that we're hearing also in the community I like where we are and again You know how that model was built how it's delivered Uh in the types of funds provided are all under consideration And again, we will present that to you until we should spend a more in-depth conversation about that on june 4th The second point is really around The importance of information and partnership Uh during a crisis This pandemic has forced that has forced The city and our partners to work in a way that we had never really anticipated None of us can do this and be responsive to our community alone And so we were a part of putting together The small business advisory council coalition Uh is made up of many of the organizations that you are familiar with ddi The greater Durham chamber the small business development center Uh the greater Durham black chamber Uh and a number of other sort of service providers Uh, we've been able to consistently add to this coalition a number of the banks And I think that's significant because during this first phase much of the activity surrounded The cares act including the payroll protection program And the emergency disaster loan program so We were able to have banks financial institutions like horizon bank fifth third bank truest As well as cdfi's like carolina small business fund and self-help consistently be a part of this program And again the information sharing and coordination has allowed Us to sort of direct our resources and services in a much more appropriate fashion And again, we have been a resource in terms of Answering questions specific to some of the workforce development things and helping individual firms Get access to resources and again This is a very important resource Uh, this effort has been supported by the Durham business 360 comm website You know the digital presence Has been critical We have been working on a website. We weren't going to release it until Next quarter, but we accelerated that effort Brian Smith on my staff has done an outstanding job of putting together a portal That is hosting I believe some of the most comprehensive information about covet Not just north carolina, but even beyond Just not our programs, but also programs that involve the state and local and it's been relied upon You know in the first three weeks of covet. We actually posted over 50 Webinars seminars that essentially were made available to our residents and small businesses in order to get information And again, I don't want to underestimate the value of knowing How these programs work and how they can be effective Next slide next slide am I okay? Thank you um again So one of the other lessons around this pandemic and covet Is the importance of oewd making sure that its programs are delivered much more directly and closely to Our small businesses and residents Again, we are known for the program management of some of our incentive contracts Even our federal contracts are things that we do. We're primarily a program management organization But what I want to now talk to you about is how we have pivoted Programs to directly impact companies Um You know the office of economic development, we've had a number of programs, you know the chair of economic prosperity We have built We've developed the built the last roadmap that we've been utilizing as a part of our program And and again, we've gone from developing a program to implementing projects that touch businesses here and i've asked grace to talk a little bit about Uh a pivot that I think is really important Uh, you know for our work, uh that bill the last is leading right now and I'll talk about the other two grace Good afternoon. Mayor shul. Mayor po tem johnson of the members of council and the administration Thank you. Andre. I want to discuss briefly two key, uh targeted populations that we were working with as part of the bill to last team We are working with the um rdu airport and the small business program for rdu rdu has about 28 um small businesses that have been awarded contract contracts and out of The 28 14 are actually germ based and so the amount of contracts that the businesses Have received are about 7.9 million dollars and those germ based businesses have been awarded about 5.6 Million dollars So we are targeting and working with the businesses to assess the needs of both the owner of the business and their employees the second group of Small business support that we're giving is working with Some of the businesses with they have been impacted by the closing of north gate We are working through Durham tech small business and also The north kelana small business and technology center We had compiled some questions that will enable us to gather some data From those businesses so we can target specific the specific needs of those businesses the um The director of Durham tech small business and north kelana small business and technology development center Are compiling they had actually compiled the survey a couple of weeks ago And we contributed to some of those critical questions The survey will conclude next week and given the results and outcomes of those surveys We as the bill to last small business team will target the type of support so that it will be more impactful And i'd like to maybe add In regards to this particular set of projects Again, the demand and the need is is great And it's impossible for us to be everywhere And so this coordination with our partners and identifying opportunities that aren't being served become important We know that the hospitality industry and restaurants in the downtown area have been greatly impacted But we're fortunate enough to have ddi and the chamber as partners Who are developing programs and responses? That are there The airport is not an usual target for the city of Durham And north gate is just an unfortunate set of circumstances where people who were businesses were already impacted And expecting to come back to their place of business Again will not be able to And so we're building programs around both of these challenges That no one really anticipated But again, you know our office is looking to provide the technical assistance In coordination and the resource connections to businesses in these communities So if there are any questions i'll take i wasn't sure mayor you look you want to ask a question Thank you very much. I was thinking actually this might be a good time um Do you want to finish just this slide hundray and then then we'll have questions for you and for grace Okay, yo, why don't you just finish this slide and then we'll take you from there So pivoting is really all about trying to lean into The need as well as sort of leveraging the resources that you have Momentum 360 and to that matter the seas african-american legacy programs or programs That we have developed this year Momentum 360 Is a new model for us Where we actually have done cohort training putting groups of entrepreneurs together not necessarily from the same industry A range of industry and taking them through a sort of a six to eight week boot camp And we did this one in the late fall Towards the end of december very successful was it was focused on women entrepreneurs What we learned in this process is the value of cohort training and the value of networking Of small businesses in general are challenged around their own isolation and the ability to come together No one is going to be successful responding to covet as an individual or in isolation It absolutely requires a level of networking and connection as a part of this So we've extended the work that we're doing with this model To provide again additional information and technical assistance to the cohort group. They have gelled together They're doing peer-to-peer learning and and helping in this regard We actually have a whole program of work That we will be implementing Now virtually before we were going to do it on the ground uh and the seeds program we actually You know have been working on the legacy project But we transformed that To focus in on how we work with the 24 African-american businesses all who have been in business more than 20 excuse me more than 10 years To be a resource for them again a for Program, you know for a unit program Of training and counseling and peer learning and again, we were successful in getting businesses in this cohort Money's for ppp and some of the other small business programs And again, it's just a model in terms of what we're doing The final thing I wanted to just touch on the equitable engagement and outreach because that's important Again, nis is leading us on this effort and We have reached out to and have had conversations with some of the embedded Rooted Community rooted organizations as a part of nis Particularly around our challenges within the hispanic community Our program is not robust enough We will be putting up our Hispanic or spanish website that parallels the Durham business 360 website and we're going to essentially work with the Hispanic representative of the community rooted organizations To help us make sure that it's responsive to the needs and will we resource? That spanish-speaking website to make sure that it's timely the final thing on this slide mayor that I also Want to say is is that? COVID Has has demonstrated to me and should to all of us the importance of on-the-ground partners People who can deliver the service beyond the reach of the city You know because they have relationships and they can be there in a more consistent and constant basis I think is a model that I want to sort of move forward in going forward And so we entered into an agreement with the greater Durham black chamber to develop and deliver some training programs targeted at small businesses all businesses They develop eight webinars That they are delivering for us for this month and they will do eight in june It's it's everything from how to apply for resources under the cares act But it's also one that was specifically targeted for our total proprietorship In independent contractors around how they took it access resources particularly unemployment insurance resources that that weren't That for the first time they are available in doing this I think this is an important partnership. I'm seeking to do a similar partnership with the hispanic community And again within the minority contractors community in order to have that capacity on the ground More directly related to the work that we want to do. So I'll end with that there and take some questions at this juncture Andre, let me let me um I kind of changed my mind. I think maybe let's go through the whole Presentation and do the questions. Is that okay? That's fine. I was thinking we that's what we've done today And I think let's just stick with that And then and then we'll we'll have questions for you and grace Um, actually, I'm going to ask adria grams got to join the conversation now. Okay, great. I think you all know that adria is the Manager of our workforce development program She works with our contractors as well as the state I you know would like adria to Take us through the next two slides and We'll continue from there. Thank you Thank you, andre and good afternoon. Mr. Mayor mayor pro-tent officer and council members and uh other members of the administration I apologize. I do not have visual Um, I too am experiencing some challenges and so this is just a prep protection from getting bounced out of my system Um, so but it's very good to see everyone else is facing Um with regard to our workforce response Um, everything that we are doing within our workforce department has just made a pivot And we have been able to Adjust a number of our program offerings as well as augment a number of our services in a virtual sense and Um, while that has been really a big benefit in terms of maintaining our client Connectivity and continuing with providing services One of the things that's missing is um with our career center on briggs avenue We have um the section in the front our lobby area. It provides computer access and um, and so this is a I think a critical component that's missing from the from our Community at this time since there's not access to many other public domains where individuals can access computer services That's our crc and it's a part of our career center So that's one of the main reasons that we're pushing to reopen our career center So that we can provide access to that area for individuals who need to have that computer access In addition, as you all well know, um, this was formerly the unemployment office in air quotes But of course now all unemployment services are being offered online However, we know and anticipate that there are people who have questions and That have concerns and frankly in a situation like this with so much turmoil We recognize that there is also a value to be able to come and ask the question Even if we can't necessarily resolve their issues Even if it's a referral situation We recognize that there is great value in having that safe-to-safe Engagement with with our members of the community So with that in mind, we're looking to reopen our career center Hopefully to staff by the end of this month by the end of June And then open to public that first week of july We put forth a reopening plan that's been vetted by your reopening task force And in fact, we'll be meeting tomorrow with the risk management team to do a site visit and a walkthrough To look at the specifics of what we are proposing at both our career center site As well as our recity site, which offers our youth programs So we'll have more I guess more specific information about timing, which we're hoping to do After we get feedback from the team If they have any further recommendations that we'll need to address As I said, you know, we're looking at all of our programs and we have been providing continuous virtual services But with the state and the federal approval They've actually allowed us to start doing virtual enrollment There've been a couple of logistics Sort of hang ups and one of which is how do we provide our supportive services? And so we're in the process of resolving that now But we're on deck and ready to start our contractors who actually administer those services They're already ready to go. We have all the necessary technology And we have our career counselors are prepared and ready to start providing virtual not not just the services, but actual enrollment And what that means is is that now we can start being proactive and bringing in new individuals To help provide services to them. So we're looking forward to being able to to jump start that by next week Um our virtual job fairs is another means of trying to reach out Beyond the the bounds of our normal our normal Facility in the past we've had job fairs right there at our career center This gives us the ability to provide virtually a job fair scenario Where a number of employees can come Employers as well and they can engage with potential employees As you might imagine there are still a number of employers that are hiring In fact in a in a recent study conducted by I think the recruiters But it was quite telling in that Employees are now seeking opportunities that don't have face-to-face engagement And so, you know, as you might imagine with the high level of unemployment in our hospitality and on tourism areas with our food services A number of those individuals will not be Reabsorbed back into the workforce and they're looking for other employment opportunities Well, most of those are pivoting towards non face-to-face or non public engagement positions And so now the demand for those positions have skyrocketed When you look at the potential of maybe data processing or Maybe looking at contact tracing if that is something that we move forward on But right now we have a number of employers that are already in the hiring phase And we are connecting those employees with those employers through our NC work system But the job fair that virtual job fair will provide a much bigger platform for that So we are involved with a task force now to determine the best provider for that Our worn notices we've had about 15 But as Andre always indicates, you know, at this point, we are pretty sure that that's an undercount A number of the employers have not actually submitted worn notices In an effort to try to maintain their employee base So they will put them on a temporary Leave or temporary furlough to avoid having to go through the the actual worn process But with those in those employers that have had to release their employees We developed a virtual Program where we have our rapid response. We talked to the employees about what next steps are the services that we offer We connect them with unemployment And we provide a bridge for them So that they have support the necessary support to continue moving forward and and to obtain employment We now already have that in a virtual component And we also have a Spanish speaking version of that as well So both of those are currently already available I mean much much appreciation to staff on that they move forward and we're able to get that up and running If we can move to the next slide Um, as you know in response to COVID-19 We've had as a result of the the COVID-19 pandemic the Correction facilities have been a hot spot and an unfortunate hot spot for the transmission of this virus And one of the responses has been to provide early relief for some of the Some of the participants who might be able to come out on an early and released basis It's limited and it was very structured However, they have been about a dozen of these inmates that have been released back out into the population an early release But we also have our regular release You know population that's coming back and we've been working with the the reentry council As well as community-based partners in an effort to make sure that we're addressing the issues That are arising around our reentry population um Courtney McCollum, who is our our specialist in that area as you know Made an interesting point when she was reviewing this program That of the people who are coming back, you know, the challenges that they're facing one is is that they only have Correctional IDs and so um one of the big challenges is access to Other identification or social security as you know with dmv and the social security office either clothes on restricted hours um, it actually Presents quite a challenge and a barrier um in terms of getting those necessary Identification documentation so that they can start the employment process and of course, you know There's a whole spectrum of needs that are Uh pressed upon them when they are released, especially when they're released early So there are home issues. There are food security issues support services And so we've had a partnership with our community-based organizations and the department of Health and human services has worked together to help to address that and create a more comprehensive program For us We were already on the road to creating a comprehensive justice involved program our training to work program grant ended on the 31st of march and You know, we have been there was already in the works to have that program continued And merged into so that we have a larger comprehensive approach that went from In the facility to actually outside when once you've actually Exhibit And that included of course the welcome home program So we are still moving forward with that But within the context of helping both those who are on that normal track of release as well as those who have been early release For our dyip program We were able to make a very important visit. Um, we put a team together staff has come together to Actually create a curriculum that has taken our usual face-to-face program and As you know, it's a face-to-face place-based program a six week program What we've done is taken that pivot we reached out to some national Program and looked at how can we take that program and make that change so that we can provide Some type of service to our youth and and have a paid experience for them and With the leadership under, you know, kelly slain and and keanna brown They put together a curriculum in partnership with Durham tech as well as with america fade So that we have now structured a program ready to go Um, we have the curriculum prepared and ready to roll We're working with durham tech to provide the technical architecture So that the the participants would engage in the program and they would be Tracked and monitored so that it would show that they've completed the various tasks and program milestones So that you know at the end of the term They would be able to receive compensation and we would have a level of accountability for their participation We're excited about the prospect. Um, durham tech has been a great partner. They've helped us to put together that virtual program They offered already a human resource development program that they've delivered in person and had not put together a virtual Component, um, but working with with our program at oewd They've worked together and created a new virtual platform that we will be able to launch With this dyip program that we are proposing The real I think one of the real assets of this is now that we have this and I'm recognizing that Post-covid life is going to be very different. We all recognize this is a watershed moment And so consequently what we're looking to do is to take this and use it as a model To continually provide services throughout the year for our youth We always work closely with dps and with our other youth providers And so with a virtual program it provides us with that flexibility to move it forward Now that we have a curriculum that's a canned curriculum Of course, it's open to modification But we do have the genesis of a program that we can run virtually And so I think that it's an important asset for For the city to have in its process With our work-based learning component It's it's it's with in the advent of COVID-19. We've somewhat pivoted but what we've done is we've taken that work-based learning concept and Sort of changed it to provide more assistance a more targeted assistance To our employers So that it would provide our employees with an opportunity to up skill And to get an obtained training We have our incumbent worker program which allows In our employees that are currently employed to become up still and to You know to increase their ability for different types of employment within the company And in many instances one company that we're working with currently They're providing a cohort of individuals that would up skill together as a cohort And that would then open up a segment of entry level positions so that it actually does create a pipeline Entry pipeline for employment. So we're excited about that and we're using that incumbent worker program In conjunction with our on-the-job training as well as with apprenticeships In the in the in this age, we're being creative And i'm looking at ways to kind of daily chain these programs together So that it maximizes the benefit to both the employer and the employee And incentivizes the process of having our employees move up and through as I mentioned earlier We have a lot of employees who will not be reabsorbed back into their prior employment And so it's key for them to be able to have access to the training that's necessary And a lot of that is going to be on the job training. It will be not in The typical classroom setting However dorm tech as well as some of our other training providers will be essential partners in order to help make that pivot but They will be able to take advantage of those on-the-job training opportunities as well as the apprenticeship opportunities So we're moving that forward as well And that sums it up for What workforce is doing Thanks, adria. I just wanted to make the comment and just keep on that slide. No, you can go back to the the slide that the the The summer internship program is really a pilot program. We we think that We'll start this pilot It will inform how we can then scale it For our youth, but also throughout the year. So Again, I can talk a little bit more about it on the budget highlights. So again, what you have listed here are Some highlighted programs that We want to consider. First of all, thank you for your support On the Small Business Fund program that we're going to develop and again, I just wanted to remind everyone that The motto actually requires a third party administrator to originate service the loans and most importantly provide the technical assistance and again, We will have that information budgetary to you on the fourth The transitional jobs and welcome home program Again, it has been funded. We work very closely with bms and the i-team to put together a comprehensive program Again, the city is in fact delivering These services along with training the work directly as opposed through a federal contract dyip Again, you've heard about it, but the only other thing I will say about this Is that that negative number? By the way, is what was in our budget? From last year and it's been removed from our budget Because we're not doing the physical program and expanding it So we will need some investment in order to do the summer internship pilot Going forward The second thing I'll say about the summer youth pilot is that Most cities Has this have discontinued their physical summer programs But we think some smarter cities like Durham Philadelphia Denver and Baltimore are communities that know the importance of keeping their youth connected to their economies And they're utilizing a virtual internship paid program. And again, I just think This is a project that we can deliver I too think it's important that our youth continue to be maintained in our economy In spite of the fact that we can't deliver this service in a physical way The next one here is around neighborhood revitalization Um, I think you recall that in part of the design of the proposed fund We made a connection to neighborhoods in opportunity zones Again neighborhoods businesses are being impacted individual residents are being impacted But neighborhoods are also being disproportionately impacted And i'm anticipating Above and beyond the revitalization grants that we have that there will be needs to continue to provide infrastructure and support for neighborhoods again the targeted neighborhoods As a result of covet Again, it is so hard to come up with a club number A budget number We're working on some concepts and programs that that we expect to roll out But we think this is important to connect The recovery post covet with our neighborhoods in targeted programs where we know they're low-income people and again, uh, adria already explained the career Next-gen center opening we can go to the next slide This is the resource allocation table. Um, it actually reflects a continuing base budget Almost flat You know One of the biggest operating drivers in our operating budget is of course the management of Some of the business incentive contracts that we have booked in prior years and those things are coming due During this period next slide In this slide what I want to reference is really are down at the revenue area And specifically at the employment and training line item Again, we have typically received between 100 and 307 excuse me 1.3 to 1.7 million dollars under our federal department of labor wioa programs Uh, again, it's always late in terms of getting what that amount was Uh, we we did was project essentially a flat budget Uh, and this was done before covet We know That we're going to need additional significant resources The feds are essentially evaluating the resources that they have In my understanding in the upcoming Bill that I think went through the house There are dollars specific to Employment and training and workforce development So again that number is going to change but You know, you know, it's the number that actually drives all the work that we're doing So let me in here mayor and council and maybe take a question Thank you very much Andre Thank you, adria and thank you grace. We very much appreciate you all being here and for that excellent report I'll just make a couple of comments. I really was uh Great to hear um about the the uh Businesses at the airport. I was not aware of that those Durham basement businesses and I'm assuming A good number of those were minority businesses as well. And that's that's my first question grace That's correct Howling all of that data. Yes. Thank you And also about the work with the north gate businesses. I think we've all been really worried about that and I'm glad that you all are in touch And appreciate you all doing that survey and and working with them On the I'm also really glad that we're working to reopen the career center and appreciate Adria what you said about that being a place where one of the few places where there's Computer access for this kind of thing. I know how important that is. I mean, it's more important than ever now And it's just an irony that we are You know, it's so difficult to reopen but I appreciate you. I appreciate you all As well as you know, just the we're all so You know at a time when we need so many of our resources like the youth internship program Our inability to do that in person is the heart on on our community I want to thank you for doing what you can to try to make that possible and the The Durham to my colleagues anyone else is listening if you have not looked at Durham business 360 you really should um It's really becoming I don't know come it really is an excellent website They're It lists coveted related resources, but it's really much more than that. It's a it's a small business resource Of community wide and it's just full of really good stuff. It's extremely well done. It's very easy to navigate uh, and uh, I want to congratulate the department and um And I believe you mentioned brian smith particularly And just it's just it's a really great resource um, and I noticed that there's a seminar today actually a webinar today from the black chamber Is it so it's a list of various webinars that lists other things that are happening like our small business Called a forum that We're having tomorrow At the uh renewal recovery task force So it's just it's just I think a wealth of information and I really think that's great And I hope we can figure out ways to really publicize that and I I'll ask my council colleagues on many of you all have a really great, um Social media presidents All will take a look at Durham business 360 if you haven't pushed it out, please do and then the um I appreciate the concern expressed about our returning residents uh, and I want I have written recently I've been in correspondence with deputy secretary, uh, tim moose of the department of public safety to Try to get more information from our State prison system when folks come home We have 60 people coming home every month We know that many of them are coming home from places where there are COVID infections and I'm They were all deeply concerned about that and we want all those people connected as you said to our local reentry council That's not happening in advance. It's a big big Challenge I understand but it's also a huge problem for our community. It's been a huge problem But in the time of COVID-19 It's even more that these people will be connected. So I just wanted All everybody on the on the at the meeting today and especially my colleagues to know that that's something I've really been working hard on along with our members of our local reentry council and others One thing you did not mention was the Or at least I didn't I may have missed it was the integration of the Welcome home program. Did you all you want to talk about that at all? Yeah, so so again, I'm gonna let adria give more details, but the the partnership that We made with the budget and the The itime really Again a lot of Staff work, you know talked about really the importance of sort of a comprehensive approach to our justice involved program and just as you mentioned the ability to Connect with our residents prior to coming Out of the correctional facilities is critical. We learned that in our project training the work on the federal grant The welcome home piece the work that the itime has done over the last two years Essentially provides a a natural entry way for the broad range of workforce development services that we have And again the transitional jobs program, which is a very effective pilot just to remind me This is where city agencies actually took on justice-involved individuals who were recruited Through the welcome home and other programs with us and it was highly successful Again, we've expanded that program So again departments Are going to be looking towards that and we actually are wanting to move it out To the private sector Nonetheless, there's some cobit challenges You know because we didn't design it with that in mind But again, I think it still is valid in terms of us working and supporting all of our residents Regardless of where they're at in lives and particularly our most vulnerable And so this alignment and coordination I think fits very well With the work that we want to do and justice-involved and it will complement the work that we're going to have to do overall in workforce development Thank you very much I'm looking at the clock and I want to just talk to the manager for a minute Mr. Manager, I believe four hours is our limit. Is that right? Mr. Mayor, I checked with Bertha and from what we know right now We do have the ability to extend that time We we thought we had a hard stop at two And it does appear that we can we can continue on And she'll continue to monitor that okay Unless you want us to unless you want us to work toward a hard stop at two I would like you to I would like us to go ahead and move with dispatch Thank you That will be your decision. Yeah, no, I'd like us to move with dispatch And I'll I'll next ask for questions and council members, of course moving with dispatch means we also have to move with dispatch But I'll I'll now call on my council colleagues for questions and comments Council member Freeman and then council member Middleton and council member Reese if you have anything to say you'll let us know thank you, I I appreciate the presentation and I I know that there's someone else that's in the background of this work. Um, and I'm I'm blanking on her name um, but I know grace and Idra And it's one of I can't I can't call her first name, but I'm I really Selma your your tilda Zelda Zelda white I really appreciate the work that your team has done Over the last three years I've been on the workforce economic development board and or workforce board and trying to understand this whole like Mish Mosh of departments and pieces and grants and everything you did a really good job of explaining it at the council budget retreat and I just wanted to touch back on um Just a little bit of the the kind of state level issues that I want to make sure is at the forefront for the council in these budget conversations recognizing that uh, north carolina is the lowest paying unemployment insurance, you know compensation provider in the country I think we're at 51 not even like 50 like 51 and so just noting that people on average are getting um, the 277 dollars plus the additional 600 Payments that are coming in and that's going away very soon and so yes, um I I recognize that we we have budget constraints and I'm concerned that that if we're not Allotting anything or addressing anything around how that's going to have impact On people in our community As we talk about children without food. There's a reason they don't have food And it usually is related to the people in their household who provide the food And so just making sure that that's at the forefront of the of this Conversation as well. I'm not sure how we address it, but I I do know that That I that I didn't see anything in the presentation that looked like we were going to address it and then um You mentioned uh on the ground partners And I know uh, we had conversations about the greater dirt of business chamber And some of our budget retreat conversations And I expressed a whole lot of hesitation around working with them and I just want to make sure that that that um That's fine in the interim, but I really would like a more um comprehensive Plan around how to get folks on the ground involved and the eight sessions is a great start Um, I would like to make sure that they're in English and in Spanish Um, I know that we have a huge Latino population of business owners and they can use the support now not next year not down the line and um Around the reopening the career center. I'm not sure what the Where the holdup sits if that's city county or if it's state But um, I think it's important to make sure that that is open as folks For unable to uh submit their claims for unemployment are spending three and Six and eight hours on a phone trying to submit it and getting dropped and it's just completely It's just inhumane and it just there just needs to be something that addresses that just make them regret that and I uh I really wanted to to thank Um grace and adria for presenting on the the work that they've been doing I have to apologize to council. I have not been giving good updates Um around a lot of the things that they're talking about and I could tell you that there's a lot more than what they presented today and uh I would hope that at some point we could bring forward some of some of the other items that you guys have been working on and I mean, I think that I'm not sure people understand as a whole how much restructuring has happened And workforce and economic development under andre's leadership And I really appreciate the efforts that have been put forward to try and get us to to a position To work within this arcane system that's been set up by the state.  It was an issue and I know in kovat. It's it's an issue and again post kovat It's going to be an issue but how we respond is going to matter and Whatever we can do um, I look to you guys as the experts, um in the office of workforce and economic development um to provide those types of innovative solutions That uh, that will address what what we can do And so I just I just hope that uh that you guys are not stopping where you are and um as I pushed yesterday I think it was with uh parks of rec. This is the department I'm looking at like the most to say we need more so I thank you Thank you councilmember Mr. Mayor if I may respond Yes, you may Um, thank you for your comments councilwoman freeman. I just wanted to make a clarification That unfortunately we are not in the the unemployment office and that is a critical distinction that has to be made especially to our public because The state has made a decision to remove all unemployment services into an online Format um, and I recognize and appreciate the frustration that people are experiencing But there's we don't have any resources at the career center to help alleviate that Um, they are going to have to be referred to that online venue in order for them to resolve many of the issues especially around Claimment issues and payment issues I do recognize the benefit of just being able to have a person To talk with and that was one of the things that I feel Is really of critical importance to us getting the center open again But I do want to make that clarification that we cannot resolve unemployment um Claim program um Claim issues or payment issues Thank you, um Miss scott. I I appreciate you making sure to clarify for me if I implied that it was the office. I was talking about I was specifically Talking about the computers that are made available. That was all and um, it wasn't that I thought the staff was available I know I do want to make sure that the public is very clear that that's not what happens at that office Any longer and so it's it's just important the library's the light the main library downtown is closed And yeah the closest resource for many people in my neighborhood is stamper warned with like five computers I just want to be clear like we're completely under resourced and probably one of the hardest hit areas no library no You know employment security commission office with access to computers Even just if it's from 12 to 1 for an hour a day like there's just nothing here and Yeah, I mean I just I'm I'm experiencing this uh from a place of trauma and and that I've I went through this in 2008 with the with the uh recession the great recession And I knew what I knew then what it felt like to try and and access services being laid off and giving up on looking for um For jobs and trying to apply for the um and the unemployment service like I just don't want to see the same thing happen and folks fall behind and ways in which that we can prevent So thank you. Thank you for the clarity Yes, ma'am. Thank you Thank you councilmember Other questions or comments Any other questions or comments councilmember middleton? Thank you, mr. Mayor Andre good to see you brother. Thank you for being here pushing through like brave heart today. Appreciate it Listen, I have to move with dispatch I never thought as a black boy from the inner city. I'd ever grow up to hear the words hurry up and spend this half billion dollars so This is a great land. We live in man. Won't we do it? I real quick rdu in northgate. Um, I wanted to ask about Northgate when when northgate was was sold and the developer was making the rounds and meeting with council members I met with the representative from the developer and they made representations that They would be committed and I'm going to be very clear I say that they would be committed to to providing aid and assistance and relocating Um merchants that were there to their they didn't we didn't talk. I want to be very clear I didn't make a number they didn't commit to any specific numbers or anything like that But they did in principle so that they would be committed to helping Uh and providing aid with with displaced um business owners in northgate I want to ask or at least lean in and and and make sure that as you Do your work and your staff does its work that you follow up with the developer and probe them on what they can do I understand they have some portfolio holdings of other properties around our the triangle and around our city that may Uh be you know part of the the efforts to to relocate Some of these business owners So I wanted I wanted you to speak to that or at least uh be alerted to that and secondly and that i'm done Um anecdotally um some some members of the community have have reported to me that There were efforts made to relocate some of the the work the staff at northgate not very many people but A few folk in that uh white workers at northgate were found other assignments and jobs and that there were some black employees who were not reassigned Again, this is anecdotal. This is what community members brought to me. I want to know Do you know anything about that? Do you have any information on that? um So those are my two And then i'm done So first of all, I don't have any information on the workforce placement issue that you you spoke to Again part of what we're really doing is getting our team on the ground we've engaged In a sort of a webinar a group of businesses. I think it was around 25 And the broader survey is actually try to get very specifically to the needs of the businesses The We we we've come in in coordination with the small business development center They were in touch with the developer and the developer participated in that meeting but with your You know coaching We will engage the developer directly to assess What resources and how they can be used in alignment with the needs of the businesses You know we We can be very specific based on what you just told me as opposed to general so Again, we're the survey as grace said was going to be completed You know next week We'd love to you know update You know counsel on on how that has gone and and where we have Defined our role again in alignment in coordination 70 businesses affected We must have a strategy to support them to efficiency efficiently find their next best place And a set of resources that enable them to continue to stay and work in in Durham And that's the the goal of the program that we're doing in partnership with other agencies Thank you. Andre. Thank you your honor Thank you councilmember Any other questions or comments for andre? Uh, yeah, I do mr. Mayor councilmember Reese Andre I just want to Say that our thoughts and prayers with you and we're just it's amazing that you're with us today, but we really appreciate it Thank you Can you tell me a little bit about the current status of your ongoing work on the small business loan program? I know we're going to hear details a week from today Um, it's been a week since we talked last and I just wanted to get an update um again council provided Some very helpful and useful feedback around the urgency of completing a program for your review and approval on the fourth Again, there were specific comments about Um, this is a form of the fund that we're evaluating that um There were comments about You know Who who is this fund for? Would it in fact reach? sole proprietorship Freelance or independent contractors and again, they are part of the model We expect to be able to more explicitly talk about that and provide that And again refinement around terms and conditions I think you had a comment around a securitization of loans how that might work All of those things are being evaluated And I think one of the the bigger things is really the service delivery model How we roll this thing out in a very expeditious way wanting to rely on experience Um Infrastructure and capability in order to roll the program out rapidly. So I that that those are the the the sort of pillars that We have already begun to modify and and adjust So I hope that answers your question Yeah, no, I appreciate that any um any further progress on a funding Um a community partner to help us to administer the program I've you know, I've reached out to a number of them and Again, we are much further along Uh than we were when I met with you on thursday Building in some of the comments that you have Um It's imminent, but again, you can understand why it's it's premature to announce anything today but you will have that full program With a delivery model And and and delivery mechanism going forward All right. Thank you andre and thanks again for all your work. We appreciate it Thank you andre. Thank you so much. Thanks to you and your team for being here Grace and adria and I think there are others on from your team on this call as well And we're very grateful to you. Thank you so much and Uh, adria, we're glad to have you with us today. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for the opportunity and Appreciate all the prayers and blessings offered my family's way Our thoughts are with you. Our prayers are with you and uh, we're thinking about you all the time All right, great. Thanks. Thank you All right, um We're now to the next part of our agenda and i'm gonna Hand the chair back to madame mayor pro tem for our discussion of engagement Thank you, mr. Mayor. Um And i'm just going to turn it right over to our staff who will be presenting this i'm not sure Who that is oh, it's robin. Hi robin Turn it over to you Good afternoon mayor members of council I'm robin baker with the budget department and today i'll be presenting an overview of the city of Durham engagement activities Next slide please And so we are going to start with an overview of some mandatory and urgent engagement activities and also talk about some of the non mandatory non urgent engagement activities that are programmed for this upcoming fiscal year And then we're going to discuss some of the cross departmental coordination that's been occurring to prioritize and deploy resources in our post COVID air and lastly we'll have a discussion and solicit feedback from council on some recommendations For community engagement post COVID-19 next And so this is just kind of a high level overview of some of the current engagement activities that are occurring um related to urgent and mandatory items such as the census as well as stimulus check assistance and tax assistance And so there are a number of departments that are engaging On departments that have the most outward facing And some of the biggest initiatives that you all have covered such as the comp plan As well as the transit plan And so for the purpose of this presentation urgent refers to anything from now until august And so there are a number of urgent and mandatory items that the city is currently Engaging and community with and then we have a number of items that are programmed for the upcoming fiscal year such as the comp plan The dpr master plan as well as the strategic plan refresh next slide, please And so currently a number of our departments are utilizing CDC recommendations to practice in person and a hybrid method of online and in person engagement Our nis department as well as budget police and other departments have been assisting residents in identifying needs in the community and prioritizing those Another one of the urgent and mandatory items are related to use services and ensuring that the Census is completed as well as language accessibility related to um a number of our initiatives And then lastly some of the next slide, please And some of the non urgent non mandatory items like I said refer to The larger community engagement that has multiple phases within each initiative such as our comp plan And so we next slide, please And so we're going to transfer now and talk about some of the engagement activities by department And so these are just some images of some of the work that our neighborhood improvement services department is doing They have conducted needs assessment with their residents and assisted with getting games coloring books toiletries household items and Deploying those to communities most in need They're also working on Meeting with community as well as the community related partners virtually and continuing to build equity and in person and virtual mediums And so some of the most urgent and mandatory items that they're working on include the census outreach with the goal of Getting a response rate of 82 percent The census of course has been extended until the end of summer given the COVID situation as well as deploying The city hall on a go to assist with community building and the fair housing outreach and education component, which are all Going to a virtual medium And here's just some more images of the work that nis is doing currently in the community deploying resources to specifically Dha residents as well as residents that may be low wealth or low income And here is some of the non mandatory non urgent items that are programmed for the upcoming fiscal year The neighborhood matching grants is one of the most notable this occurs on a annual basis where communities can submit funds for a matching grant opportunity for beautification projects A neighborhood pride projects As well as some code enforcement and impact team neighborhood cleanups That are not able to occur right now in person, of course, but they are programmed for the upcoming fiscal year So the parks and recreation department had a number of community um playground renovations Some were from the half cent fund as well as from pb funds And so this spring they conducted a number of in-person engagements related to each of these Playground renovations and pump trucks. And so they are currently working on doing a combination of survey monkey to Get feedback from residents. All of their materials are translated in Spanish as well And they also have a number of trails projects that are programmed for the upcoming fiscal year The most notable would be the belt line trail next slide and so our general services department has a number of uh community projects that are related to transportation Public works as well as a number of participatory budgeting projects from our cycle one Related to bus stops public art. And so all of these projects are continuing on schedule virtually um and have not been Directly impacted by cove it or have been able to find a different medium for ensuring the schedule is met General services also has a number of non urgent non mandatory activities um A lot of them consist of of course pb related projects, but also transportation public works um the Hoover road athletic park. They are currently Using virtual bid meetings to maintain schedule for some of the larger scale cip projects And they are working with their um State quarters as well as the public art community to solicit feedback on what virtual engagement looks like next Our office on youth has a number of current activities and activities that have been um ongoing since the early spring. The most notable is a youth listening project That had about 18 sessions scheduled. However, it um occurred Of course, they had to move to some of the virtual meetings So six of those 18 were held on virtual forums And so are they are currently in the information sentencing phase and hope to share out that information via Survey monkey or some other online platform It's also important to know that they have been very responsive to youth needs currently they have Set up kind of a text line, which is the one way communication for any kind of social Emotional and physical needs for youth. They send out resources a few times a week and they also have the scenic quarantine challenge, which is um really meant to increase participation And shed light on the youth that are experiencing, you know, Unnormal circumstances and disruptions to their life as well Next slide and some of the non urgent non mandatory things are continuing the youth listening project as well as the youth engagement network Which is a network of service providers caregivers that is a city county joint effort They also have the youth commission, which is continuing to meet on a monthly basis via virtual medium Next slide, please And then our transportation department has a number of community engagement activities program for the upcoming fiscal year They also are using some innovative practices in partnership with the community rooted partners to how zoom Walkthroughs of the community as well as having a virtual online forum for the woodcroft parkway extension design And they are also researching street closures Well, they call them soft closures and so soft closures Result in it's the potential to expand dining into surface parking lots As well as closed streets to cars to allow for more walkability pedestrian friendly environment And here's just some promotional material for their virtual open house that is ongoing. You can submit information until the early uh better july And of course they have their transit plan and other operational Analysis that they are getting feedback from the community on a regular basis in terms of how to improve service connectivity coverage and on demand times And so the budget management services department has continued to conduct in-person engagement the um office of performance and innovation has been working to assist dha residents with Stimulus check assistance as well as partnering with nis parks and recs in general services and other departments to ensure That cdc recommendations are put in place here. You'll see that plexiglass Was installed as well as social distancing of six feet And masks were also provided to residents who did not have any of their own and so this has been occurring since mid may where The teams are going out into specific dha communities on a regular basis to assist with signing residents of to receive their stimulus check As well as census uh, complete the census and so bns is also um working on redesigning budgeting Cycle for pb Durham 2 which is scheduled to launch and fall of this year as well as the strategic plane refresh which is scheduled for engagement in spring of 2021 And so the last department that will cover is planning we we heard a lot about their um kind of engagement efforts and The potential to delay some of the decision making until in-person engagement is safe again And so they will be entering phase two of their engagement this fall and we hope to Utilize planning as a way to get feedback for multiple engagement efforts including the transit plan and potentially other citywide initiatives And this just is a brief highlight that the ambassador program and outreach teams are still meeting and assisting with coordinating the virtual engagement strategy for the comp plan And so I just want to pause and take a moment to thank all of our partner departments The ones that are included in the pre-session and are not for all of the work that they've been doing in the community um our fleet department General services police have all been present and responding to community needs and i'd like to kind of um take this opportunity also to Uh invite monica shepard to the conversation who is also going to talk about how this work relates to some of the Restoring government operations um work that her team is leading Thank you robin. Good afternoon mayor Mayor pro tem other members of city council I realize i'm the only thing between us and lunch But at this point i'm not sure if we just wait until dinner or not. So i'm going to be brief in my comments. Um We've been very very thoughtful in our process of how we are discussing how to restore services Whether a service is going to be fully restored. Perhaps reduced hours or a different service delivery Um, but when it came to community engagement, we recognize that there's community engagement And then there's Durham standard for community engagement. So we didn't feel like we could have those conversations about Restoring community engagement without engaging city council into a conversation about it I do want to briefly highlight the process that we're using for other services because I think it's been very thorough and comprehensive And us recognizing that the decision to restore or not to restore has ripple effects and consequences So we've been working with departments using forms to really um capture what are vulnerabilities associated with Restoring a service and then what are our mitigation factors? um, so We foresaw that waste made the decision or in got the approval to open the convenience center Lots of conversation about traffic control was going to be a vulnerability And making sure that we had proper provisions to address traffic control as a mitigation strategy So just a heightened level of just thoroughness We're looking at policy considerations Um interdependencies and equity So Sharon willians our equity inclusion manager. She and her team And supported by erin as well Have been going through these forms and issues or recommendations that catch their eye They are looking at them in deeper detail. Um, so to give you a quick example Some of our services have decided to go cashless to help mitigate the exposure and the risk But thinking about those in our community who are unbanked What's the strategy to make sure that those folks can still be served? appropriately So it's just a a lot of detail That we're considering when we talk about service restoration And then our executive team takes a bite of that apple of looking at this information every single week Everyone's talking risk management's involved general services. So just being really really thoughtful About service restoration So that brings us to community engagement And wanting to make sure that we are meeting city council's expectations as to how do we make sure that we are Meeting the standard and your level of expectation when we think about community engagement When we think about our community's capacity to engage with us Whether it be emotionally The financial challenges folks may be so Facing connectivity Issues so just wanting to hear from council Because that will definitely drive our decisions of what we restore how we restore it So would love to engage you all in a conversation with whatever energy you all have left to have a robust discussion Thank you so much monica and robin um for your presentation. This was It was really great to see um all the information in this presentation about all of the engagement the departments are doing And to kind of get a comprehensive picture of all the ways that we're Engaging the community. Um, I'm gonna ask my council colleagues if anyone has questions and since a couple folks are having Issues with their internet Maybe y'all could just write in the chat if you have a question if I can't see you But I see um council member freeman's hand They're on to result Thank you. I appreciate this presentation It's a little confusing to to just look at the slides without the context. I have to tell you I was trying to figure it out before I got here, but um, I I think I get it now and it makes a lot more sense. Um the My main questions are specific to um, I understand that you're listing like What's um I'll go back to to what your slide said hold on to what's urgent non urgent currently active Non-mandatory is there any way to get a list that shows them because it's it would be a lot easier to kind of understand How much is actually happening? Um, what is urgent and needs to happen versus what is um Urgent but not mandatory versus what is mandatory and not urgent kind of like that quadrant Situation I it would be it would be more helpful to me. I'm sorry. I'm just that simple, but um I appreciate the the The thought and the actual like effort that they're putting in to make sure that you're identifying Those who would be disproportionately impacted and that might not be able to engage around being unbanked Or uncell phone I think everyone tends to think that everyone has access which is why I which is why I was hard pressed about you know restarting uh committees and and boards in a way that would Kind of disproportionately lean towards folks who had access Uh, I just want to make sure that we keep in mind that that this is this is like the Lynch pin of engagement of making sure that everyone who who's not normally engaged is involved in the process and so I I'm I'm noting that I heard one the Very large like comp plan engaged derm part said that they were on pause until the fall and the Something out there was something else that was also on pause when I was trying to catch you but um I I know what struck would would actually like peak the interest was there was something about public art being virtual Uh Someone if someone could explain what that means that would be helpful or some of the um Kind of information gathering related to public art has been moved to surveys Rebecca brown is leading that effort and I can follow up with her if you have any specific questions related to any of those initiatives But there are and mainly it would it would be the question around how you're surveying If we're not having like those big events or we're having like, you know gatherings that people are just there I mean, are you just surveying online? Is that the sense? But it would be nice to know what that looks like and how Um, it's it's actually equitable We'll get more more information on that for you for sure And and I'll stop there I have a few more questions around provisions and policies. Um, and and Sharon's not on is Sharon on the call I'm not sure she is but that would be that would be the most helpful Sharon williams. Yes, she's she's not on on this call. She's probably watching Um, yeah, that would be the most helpful because I have a lot of questions about how the equity and inclusion aspects of these are working But um, I'll I'll allow, um, just yield to other folks to ask questions And the spirit of uh, it's past two o'clock Thank you councilmember councilmember middleton Thank you so much. Madam mayor pro tem. Of course. She's watching this is must-see tv Um Monica and robin good to see you both you guys are rock stars with this stuff. Um, and you've done an amazing job Uh, since since coming and joining this this happy band of travelers of ours Um, I do have some questions I uh looking at the budget and management services and maybe maybe budget needs to answer this or perhaps other city staff But uh on the budget budget management services, first of all, let me just say Any platform that's just virtual That is trying to, uh, solicit Input from members of the community be it selection of artists or anything else To me right now is just problematic just virtual for the same reasons that I argued for holding up on Picking award three Of replacement those same arguments still present persist And I don't know that we have any assurances from public health professionals or anything else That somehow the fall, which is only a couple of months away Is going to be uh, you know when we can go full throttle opening up I haven't heard any A professional say anything about the fall. So i'm just curious. Um under budget management services your your Um Slide we have participatory budgeting cycle two scheduled to launch in the fall Which is a couple of months away, but strategic plan refresh pushing to 2021 and i'm wondering Why are we comfortable thinking that we can do in person? Uh, a common a hybrid of in person and virtual Engagement with say participatory budgeting in the fall um But we we see strategic plan refresh being better in 2021 and if that's not for you to answer That's for administration Why do we feel safe or comfortable that we're going to be ready to do that then and what and what do we lose? By pushing that to 2021 as well Great question councilmember meadowton. Uh, that's when the strategic plan refresh was always scheduled to engage So that's not driven by health concerns Although I would say all of those timings Everything's really evolving. So this is like when staff is recommending when we're projecting And really wanting to hear from you all Which types of services is there a principle or a guideline to help us understand? Which types of engagements are or projects you all are comfortable with us pausing? Which ones do you feel that they are just So time-sensitive so critical that we need to move forward come up with mitigation strategies to address Rural abilities get back out there and in the community. So just trying to Gage you all's temperature your appetite for either pausing certain Practices and waiting until it is safe. It is clear Or ones where we need to be working to develop mitigation strategies Yeah, and I appreciate that and um, thank you for that for me participatory budgeting is so dependent upon Community engagement and it can't be done just virtually It's got to be some in-person events in order for it to work And and you know and I'm already on record with the great work we've done last time And you know our numbers weren't the best in terms of Equity equitable participation in terms of the voting populace. So we already had that to deal with So we need to work on that we need to make it better We need to do more engagement work to make sure that the voting populace is more reflective of the population of our city So it just doesn't turn into a two million dollar No supplemental white voter initiative. I'm concerned about that. So and and we had those challenges when we didn't have kovic So I'm just I just don't understand I'm not really comfortable with the fall, which is a couple of months away When when we're you know, we don't know If folk will leave me back to the work yet Uh in the fall of this year just talk about possible a possible another wave Or possibly another outbreak of the virus as we as we open up. So I I um We need to we need to make sure that this program is as successful as it can be and has full equity And with the challenges we've already had and the to-do list that we already have I just don't see why we would try and do this um this fall um Knowing how dependent upon dependent is upon actual in-person engagement. I as a decision maker I haven't seen any indication that we can plan with any confidence that You know, three months from now two and a half three months from now Uh, we're going to be in a position to hold the type of robust type of that engagement activities That are necessary absolutely necessary and critical for the successful deployment successful rollout Uh, um in practice of participatory budgeting So I would just ask that some consideration be given to that and not just participatory budgeting The the selection of artists any any platform that's just virtual um You know, we've seen what virtual issues can come up in this meeting during the course of this afternoon Any platform that's just virtual I would I would ask that serious consideration be given Uh to my colleagues. I'm talking to us now seriously consideration be given to giving a pause Uh, particularly, you know matters that are not urgent or mandatory be given pause until we get a better grip On on when it would be safe to engage. I rest on the same Body same corpus of arguments that I forwarded for pausing on selecting our colleague for the ward 3c I think those arguments are still just as applicable And um, I just don't see how we can plan for the fall to have the robust robust engagement We need and with that I'll yield the others. Thank you madam. Mayor pro tem. Thank you Other questions or comments from council members Mayor shul Thank you I thought this was a great presentation. Uh, I really like the rubric That is That was a lot I thought that the rubric was so thoughtful and The way in which each department's Work was plugged into that Um makes a lot of sense to me Um I think that there is an important balance to be struck between Monica what you rightly called Durham's Durham standard of participation And the work that we have to get done is a city to move forward There are a lot of things that just have to happen And I think you all have done a good job of Identifying the ones that are you know, the urgent and mandatory and the non urgent and non mandatory and those and that kind of stuff I thought that you just did a great job of identifying them And I have a lot of confidence That you all will figure out What You know what what I think you've made good choices about what are which things are in which categories and I think you'll Do a good job of figuring out which things virtual Participation is enough for and which things in person participation is enough for um the one thing that uh There there was nothing in the when I look through the chart and I've done it a couple times now I'll just do it again There's nothing that that I see and that I think wow, you know, this isn't their own category or that kind of thing the one thing that I feel like Um We we should give some thought to we need to do this as a community or at least as a The leadership team for uh for this for this work is the census um I really am concerned that we are not where we need to be We have very limited options. Uh in terms of In-person contact is much more limited than we would have wanted for the census and so I hope that we'll give A lot of attention. I'm not just this is not just city government. This is our whole census leadership team to how we use every every ounce of Virtual capability that we have to be able to get people to sign up and then Uh, and then when the in-person plans are you know, I don't even know what the in-person plans are But when the in-person plan when it's time for them and it may be now that we are Doing everything we can it's so critical to the future of our city and Our ability to get the resources that are due to us and serve our people well So when I when I looked at the public engagement plan, um, that was the one thing that I Was a red flag for me not that nothing that you all had in the plan but Just my concern that we have to really figure out how to advance that and I think that You know, I need to try to play the appropriate role in that as well And I know we're well led by a really good committee that's doing that. That's that's a really great group But I do want to Urge us all to forward that word But thank you. I just think you've done a great job. It's a bang-up job. I really do and Also, just while I'm at it, Monica, I want to thank you for your leadership on there restoring our city services I've heard a lot from the manager about the leadership that you've given that work and the thoughtful way in which You've approached it and want to express my gratitude. Thank you. Thank you all so much Thank you, mayor Thank you, mr. Mayor Any other council members have thoughts or comments? Recognizing the need to move with dispatch Council member ease. Yeah, I don't want to belabor the point I think we do we are going to need to spend some time as a group thinking about Those priorities and what's important to us For the coming year, but obviously I think staff is doing a great job meshing our the public health Reality on the ground With the things that we have to do and want to do and I think that's just going to be an ongoing process as we Move further into this public health crisis Otherwise, this was one of the best power points. I've seen in a long time So robin if that was you who did that. Thank you very much. It was great I actually want to shout out shana delaney So she did a great job. Thank you council member Um, I'll just add a couple of things. I think that uh, this is really helpful in thinking through these questions about What kind of engagement we should and need to be doing in light of the public health? consequences, um, I think we're starting to move from thinking of covet as a Like temporary blip on the radar to realizing that it's something that we are going to be dealing with for a very long time. Um I Do not think that even in a year. We're going to be able to do Engagement without some sort of attention to The public health situation based on some of the predictions that are coming out right now from scientists and experts um, and so we need to think about um So so so it brings up several questions, right? We can't not do engagement at all Um, but we know that the virtual engagement is not going to meet the The standards that we have if we're only able to do virtual engagement Um, but not doing engagement at all for for a year or more is also not an option So I think that we just need to think through all these questions and Um, I know the there are a number of efforts in the community to get devices out, especially to Students as we look into a possibility of not going to in person school or fully in person school in the fall There are a number of initiatives to get to get resources out to folks so that we can try to to To deal with that digital divide questions. I feel like it's bigger It's bigger than us. Um, they're Almost everyone in this new era is going to need more access to technology in order to function in a number of ways um and so just something thanks for us to consider and maybe participate in efforts to you know to decrease those digital disparities in our community and And we know that that would improve not just you know our our work but all of the various ways in which people are able to interact and just participate in community and the economy and In society right now given given our our circumstances Um, I'm going to stop talking as we need to finish up Anyone else have anything to say? Council member freeman Can't hear you Am I can you hear me now? You're good. Yep. Thank you. I I just um, I appreciate those the follow-up comments. I um, I just wanted to add that the county is currently at 55 percent and as a response rate for the census and I really appreciate the mayor pointing that out and it is it is um a huge area of um concern and we are just about at where the state is and just a little below where the country is I think it is hold on but um I I I appreciate mayor pro tem pointing out that it is beyond us and and how the digital divide will play into this I uh, also want to note that uh, here locally that um along the same lines with the computers access and you know cell phones internet All of that needs to line up in a way that's really equitable Um, as we move forward and I think that that can that will happen Um, it's just going to take a lot more effort to be directed in that In that direction or a lot more support to be directed in that direction. We're not there yet and so I just want to um Just echo that I I think that this this the way that it's laid out. Uh, I would appreciate a Oh, I still appreciate a a more simplified version and The presentation is helpful Thank you. Thank you councilmember freeman. We'll get a matrix for you We all learn differently and absorb information differently. So we're happy to do it in a different format for you Thank you very much Thank you All right. Thank you so much. Um monica and robin. This was really informative and we'll continue having these conversations and dealing with all these difficult issues Thank you. Thank you All right. I believe i'm gonna yield the floor um to bertha To finish up Yes, thank you. Let me let me jump in real quick if I could great Hey, um, so uh one thing about the census and mayor you may have heard different more But I know the call we were on what about two weeks ago There were two or three census tracks in derm and some of our most vulnerable neighborhoods. It had less than a one percent response rate I think the number was and I was stunned by that I haven't seen an update lately But I wouldn't want people to think that the 54 percent that the councilmember freeman was reflecting that's a citywide But we do have some census tracks that are just incredibly incredibly Undercounted that we know we've we've got a lot of work to do. It's really important that we we do that I don't know if you've all heard that but uh, we want to call a couple weeks ago Mary when that was mentioned and it just really stunned me So I just want to say you kind of been wrapping up certainly. Thank everyone for sticking with us This was a lot of material today A lot of information uh reflective of just amazing work By our staff the last couple days You only heard from maybe a third of our departments And don't want to in any way minimize the the the folks you didn't hear from because there are There is a an equal amount of thinking and work Around both covet response and budgetary impacts from covet response that are happening and in every Every department in the city I was thinking that In my um, you know don't want to keep repeating the many many years. I've been doing this I don't recall ever having a set of budget work sessions with the city council that didn't include a police department and a fire department Which was which was interesting, uh, uh, you know the the two biggest Departments in terms of our total expenditures and and we didn't even talk about them today Uh, certainly I think in one hand it's reflective of the competence that we have of of what they're doing But also don't want in any way to to minimize the The fact that they are and have continued to do incredible incredible work for the community under some incredibly, uh difficult difficult situations And and i'm just proud of them but proud of all all of our folks all the departments who are just continuing To do great great work. Um You know, it is nice to hear hear from Folks face to face like we did for a couple days, but uh, don't want to in any way Forget the folks who who also are are contributing in so many ways um, I was going to mention that normally, uh, as we go forward Following the public hearing which I know berth's going to talk about in a minute in terms of the format of that Uh, we typically have a the potential anyway. We haven't always done it the potential for A, uh, kind of final budget work session check-in Sometime the morning of the uh work session day which in this case would be june the uh the fourth Uh, I have uh the the unfortunate the news to tell you that that work session is a bear It looks to be a long long long afternoon from everything that I have seen that we went through yesterday So, uh, just wondering, uh, to what extent you want to have Uh, another follow-up budget discussion, uh, we we can talk about any flagged items for today There was just a couple from yesterday but try to get some sense of um You know the framework of of what else the council needs In order to uh to be comfortable following the public hearing obviously but adopting the budget On the uh on the 15th of june Which is the current schedule So any feedback you have for us there, uh, you know, we I'd appreciate knowing so we can we can properly plan about it We have a lot of work to do There are a lot of initiatives that we've heard about uh things that we've talked about even today that are Not necessarily budget adoption related But there's certainly our policy decisions and other actions that the council's going to need to be taking over the next several weeks that are going to continue to To to advance us. I know we've talked about the potential for Uh, july meetings. There's nothing on the plate right now for that. We're going to stay flexible about that But there's a lot of work, uh, both budget and otherwise to be Completed in the next two or three weeks. So Those are just some of my my quick reflections bertha if you have anything to add to that Please do and then any feedback we could receive from the mayor and council today would be very helpful So so tom, I would just add that I that I hope that we have been uh, you know We have been cataloging those follow-up items But I would hope that we can separate those items at a budgetary that we need to have decisions around before we adopt The budget to those items that could come in a later date that are more about process or program Um, if we can separate those so that we can make sure we can follow up and get uh accurate and tonally information back to you all and Mr. Mayor, would you like me to keep? presiding Okay, your mind. No, sure go right ahead um I personally don't feel the need for that budget session. Uh, unless Unless the staff does we we've hardly had any flagged items of a budgetary nature. Um And I personally would be satisfied with hearing, uh From staff in a written format about any of the flagged items that we had Uh, if there were one or two that didn't need to be taken up I think we could do it at the but at At the very long work session rather than having a whole uh morning session devoted to that that would be my preference Thank you. Mr. Mayor Other comments ditto Yeah, I agree. I think having as part of the work session, um Even though it's really long would be fine I do want to have and flag Any additional general fund spending and have further conversation about additional general fund spending Um, but I think that would be fine to have as part of the work session I I just specifically um have some concerns around uh equity inclusion and whether or not there are items that are budgetary So that is one that I would like flag I don't believe that department had any new initiatives. Uh, there were that was More of a continuation of their existing kind of ramp up of services I do uh concur and grouping everything into that monstrous work session. I do I think, uh I think there are some engagement issues. We do need to revisit based upon today's conversation I think it it what really makes a start for me is is in our most um needy census tracks We have one percent participation in the most important engagement issue the census Um, everything else is downhill from there. So I'm I'm not going to anesthetize myself thinking that, you know We're not even six months out. This thing started in March that we're going to have um, um great engagement In a hybrid in person virtual model as soon as this fall With one percent participation with the census which trumps everything we're talking about And I just think we need to be clear-eyed and sober and realistic About that making the decisions. I love I love the presentation that Monica and Robin did and I love the fact the last slide talked about us Making sure that it comports with uh, Durham values and they did a remarkable job presenting to us But the buck finally stops with us and I and I have some issues that I want to discuss about What our engagement should look like in the next Three to five months moving forward in the city and if we can seriously Make a case that the engagement will be Uh as equitable as possible given all that's going on. So I would just put that to us respectfully. Thanks ma'am Madam ma'am, I'm sorry. Thanks everyone Thank you So Do we have a consensus we can just add it to that work session? great And then I would just ask any any, you know information that we want to be sure and cover I know I'll be talking to each of you in the next over the next week And I'll be sure and flag that to be uh, see if there's anything that Comes up afterward or that you've thought more about Following the last couple days discussion that you want to be sure that uh that we're talking about at that work session as well That'd be great. Thank you All right, I'm gonna ask for final comments from council members Are we happy without them? Mayor pro tem and I make an announcement Absolutely whenever you're ready for me. No go for it We just want to remind and uh make some people aware of the public hearing which is on june 1st at 7 p.m To make sure that our residents are aware how they can engage in that process and provide feedback So the information is here on the screen They can also reach out to the clerk's office for additional information on how they can provide feedback or ask questions This is the first time, of course, we'll have a virtual public hearing So we want to make sure it will continue to try to promote this on our social media as well And our second announcement is um Normally during this time the last day of the work session We have a cake for our city manager. His birthday is may 30th And so we were not able to provide him a cake today and shireen was so distraught about that So she wanted to make sure that uh, we kind of send him a virtual cake and a virtual happy birthday And so I just want to say happy birthday to tom On may 30th, and I appreciate all his work. If y'all need my address to deliver the cake. I'd be glad to give it Thank you. Mayor pertin. That's it for me. Thank you. That is a lovely cake. It is a lovely cake Mayor pro tem. I just had one um Just posing an option um request for bertha Um, just noting that uh, we're having this conversation around engagement. Do you think 24 hours is enough time? Um after the meeting, I know that that's the minimum that was set Um by the the legislature, but um, do you think that's enough time just because it's the budget? And I know there's always a lot of people who are always trying to get feedback Um, I was thinking maybe it could be 72 hours just some a length of time that gives More people a chance to engage um, it's especially since i'm going to be trying to trying to go uh Prod those folks who always come and beat me up later to to say something now so I I don't see a problem with that. I I think the the time was just set by the clerk's office based on that legislation So i'm happy to extend that time Thank you Thank you All right, everyone. I believe we have concluded our business And we can adjourn the meeting at 2 33 p.m Thanks everyone everybody Tom you supposed to drop that cash app in the chat, man They hit you how it works in these streets, man Happy birthday. Happy birthday God bless everybody. Take care. Um councilmember freeman What's the timeline that you wanted for the public comments to be extended? I'm sorry. Can you hear me? Uh-huh. I just said 72 hours. Okay, no problem. Thank you