We are one minute away from air. Livestreaming has started, 30 seconds. The Durham City Council to order at Monday night, June the 7th. And I certainly wanna welcome everyone here tonight, all of our, all of my dear colleagues, our wonderful staff, and so many people who are with us tonight in various ways. We're so glad to have you. We have a long meeting tonight, a lot of good work to do. And so as we gather together to do that work, I ask you to please join me in a moment of silent meditation. This meeting is being recorded. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reeves will be coming a little late to tonight's meeting. So I'm going to recite the Pledge of the Flag, which he usually does. And you may join me if you would like. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One Nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Mayor Shul. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Here. Council Member Caballero. Here. Council Member Freelon. Here. Council Member Freeman. Present. Council Member Middleton. Council Member Reeves. I'm here. Sorry. Thank you. Colleagues, Council Member Reeves will be here late this evening. And I'm going to ask that we... I'm going to ask our... I just spoke to city attorney about this before the meeting. I can't remember what she told me. Madam Attorney, can you come on and advise me as to how to handle this? I apologize. Hi, Mr. Mayor. So I'm here to entertain a motion to excuse Council Member Reeves for that portion of the meeting for which he's not present. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry you had to tell me twice, but thank you. Colleagues, I'll accept a motion to excuse Council Member Reeves from the portion of the meeting at which he will not be able to be here. So moved. Second. Moved by Council Member Freeman. Seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Shul. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Here. Council Member Caballero. Here. Council Member Freelon. Aye. Council Member Freeman. Aye. Council Member Middleton. Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. Mayor, may I make a point of parliamentary clarification? Sure. I think moving forward that at the time a member of the body isn't present, if they've already said they're gonna be late, that the minutes would just reflect that at the time the role was taken, person wasn't there, and if they show up during the meeting, I think a simple addition to the minutes would reflect that they did eventually arrive as sufficient on the parliamentary proceedings. I don't think it rises to the level of a body needing to take action for some of this being late, particularly when they telegraphed it. Just wanted to make that point. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. I appreciate your parliamentary knowledge. Thank you. Colleagues, we'll now move to our proclamations and ceremonial items. And we've got four really great items tonight. And I'm excited to read the first proclamation. Madam Clerk, can you make Tom Miller available to be seen and heard? Mr. Miller, are you with us? I believe he is. I am. Thank you. Colleagues, as you all know, we have many, many people that serve us on boards. I believe we're up to close to 200 people that we appoint. Not sure of the exact number, but it's many. And many people, we have many people that serve for significant periods of time and do so much great work on our boards and commissions. But tonight I'm recognizing with this proclamation someone who I think has rendered particularly spectacular service to our community in his role on the Planning Commission, Mr. Tom Miller. And I'm going to read this proclamation. I think it speaks for itself and talks about the reasons that we're honoring Tom tonight. And Mr. Miller, after I finished the proclamation, if you would like to speak for a couple of minutes, we would be happy to have you do so. So here's the proclamation. Whereas Planning Commissioner Tom Miller is stepping down from his service on the Planning Commission due to the expiration of his second term. And whereas Commissioner Miller has served with distinction on the commission for the past seven years. And whereas Mr. Miller has served and continues to serve, the Durham community in capacities to numerous to name, but including his years long service as co-chair of the People's Alliance PAC, his decades long devotion to historic preservation in Durham, including his frequent services and officer of preservation Durham, this particular commitment to the restoration of Durham's historic African-American cemeteries is critical role over many, many years as a leader of Durham's Interneighborhood Council. And whereas Mr. Miller has long been and continues to be the organizer, leader, spokesperson, Grand Puba, an unofficial parade marshal for the city's oldest Fourth of July parade in the Watts Hospital Hill and Dare neighborhood. And whereas Mr. Miller's service on the Planning Commission has been of exceptional value to our community and to this council. And whereas council members frequently begin their comments or questions on a zoning case with the phrase, can you respond to these remarks by Commissioner Miller? Or I don't really agree with Commissioner Miller or I learned from Mr. Miller's comments. And whereas Mr. Miller's expertise in real estate, land planning, the UDO, the comprehensive plan, there's only questions of all sorts has won him the respect and admiration of all of his Planning Commission colleagues as well as every member of this council. And whereas Mr. Miller has guided neighborhood leaders from every corner of Durham through the planning process, meeting with them and advising them year in and year out. And whereas Mr. Miller's written comments are complete, sometimes over complete, erudite, argumentative, sometimes over argumentative, informative, wide ranging, sometimes too wide ranging, historically informed, unafraid of philosophical byways and the arcane and fun to read. Whereas Mr. Miller's comments often possess independent literary merit, as with this question from a recent case, why must our planning process look like a tumble down the stairs? Now therefore I, Stephen M. Shull, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim July 4th, 2021, in addition to being Independence Day to be celebrated this year as Tom Miller Day in Durham. And hereby I urge all residents to observe this day. Witness my hand in the corporate seal the City of Durham, North Carolina, this 7th of June, 2021, Stephen M. Shull, Mayor. Mr. Miller, congratulations and thank you for your extraordinary service. And if you would like to take a couple of minutes to make comments, we'd welcome you. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, the only thing I can say is shucks. I have to say that it's the greatest privilege of my life to serve the people of Durham from one end of the county to the other. I really have enjoyed the service. I'm looking forward to, quite frankly, a time off the commission for a little while. Who knows, I may apply for another spot on another agency.  I have to say I didn't do anything other than what I thought was my duty. And I will point out that there are lots of people on the Durham Planning Commission who do their duty as well. And so I feel a little sheepish about receiving your honor today, but I do receive it and I'm very, very grateful. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, members of council. Thank you so much, Mr. Miller. As I said, one of the prerogatives of being mayor is to be able to issue these proclamations. It's really a wonderful part of the job. And your service has been exceptional. And we're so grateful for it. So thank you for being with us tonight. And we look forward to Tom Miller Day on July the 4th. Colleagues, we will now hear the proclamation for National Waste and Recycling Workers Week. Councilmember Freelon will be delivering this proclamation and it will be presented to Jim Rinegruber, Assistant Director of Solid Waste Management. I see Mr. Rinegruber is with us. Councilmember Freelon. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Whereas the Solid Waste Services provided in our communities are an integral and essential part of the everyday lives of our residents. Whereas support of an understanding and informed community is vital to the efficient operation and collections of garbage, recycling, yard waste, bulky items and waste disposal services. And whereas the City of Durham Department of Solid Waste Management services over 77,000 homes and downtown establishments weekly. And whereas the men and women of the City of Durham Department of Solid Waste Management work diligently each day to keep the neighborhoods and communities of Durham clean. And whereas the City of Durham values and celebrates the many drivers, collectors, equipment operators, site and scale, house, attendance, crew supervisors, customer service, which was my job back in the day and administrative personnel employed to serve the residents of Durham. Now therefore, I, Stephen Shul, Mayor of the City of Durham do hereby proclaim the week of June 14th through 18th, 2021 as National Waste and Recycling Workers Week. In Durham, we hereby urge all residents to acknowledge the many services provided through Solid Waste and recognize the contributions that sanitation workers make every day to our health, safety, comfort and quality of life. Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina on the seventh day of June, 2021. Thank you very much, Council Member. And Mr. Ryan Gruber, welcome. And if you would have some remarks, we would appreciate them. Thank you, good evening. And thank you, Council Member Freelon for that. Perfect. Mayor Shul, Madam Mayor Pro Tem, members of Council and Madam Manager. So I am Jim Ryan Gruber, Assistant Director of the Solid Waste Management Department. Donna Long is traveling this evening, so he did send his regards. And to say hi to everybody. You know, as I was trying to develop my thoughts about what to say tonight, I realized how difficult it is to have perspective in the midst of a whirlwind. And as we all know, the past 15 months have been a whirlwind. But even without the benefit of having that perspective yet, as we celebrate waste and recycling workers, I think we can all agree that their status as essential workers was cemented during the pandemic. On the collection side, as the country seemingly stopped operating in late March last year, the garbage and recycling collectors kept moving. On March 18th last year, fear and uncertainty were growing, not only in the city, but across the country and the world. A Durham resident poignantly tweeted, one way I know it's not the end of the world is that our garbage was picked up as usual yesterday. And you know, as the most visible city employees in the community, the presence of the employees were a comfort to people across the city. We never missed a week of garbage or recycling pickup throughout the entire pandemic. And Mr. Mayor, as you're well aware from your course of duty, acting as a collector on our trucks, it's a very demanding job even on normal days. And we ended up having to ask more during the pandemic from our employees. So most employees ended up working more over time, working over time consistently. Operations had to be significantly altered and resources stretched to continue to provide services with COVID-19 precautions in place. And down at the Waste Disposal and Recycling Center, we had to temporarily halt some services, but mainly just for a few weeks. And the dedicated men and women of the department just put on their PPE and got out there every day. So much was asked of the frontline drivers, collectors, supervisors, site attendants, equipment operators, our contractors, which we don't wanna forget, cart delivery personnel. We have one code enforcement officer who's been out there every day, scale house attendants. They all rose to the occasion showing their dedication, not only to their work, but to the city of Durham and its residents. These de facto ambassadors of the city consistently go the extra mile from waving and honking horns for the kids to being helpful and friendly with residents who have questions or need help. These everyday heroes are on the job helping to keep Durham safe and clean. And finally, I do wanna acknowledge all the excellent work of the few administrative staff in the department that support the operations through budgeting and finance, human resources, our technology needs, and council member Freelon Specialty Customer Service. They immediately adapted to the new normal and did not miss a beat. We appreciate the wonderful support of the city council, the city administration, and of course, the Durham community. Thank you. Mr. Wrenger, thank you so much. We really appreciate those remarks and we are so glad to be recognizing tonight our frontline workers in solid way. So thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. All right, our next proclamation is for National Gun Violence Awareness Day and council member Caballero is going to share this proclamation. It will be presented to Sylvia Burns from Mom's Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Madam Clerk, can you make Ms. Burns available to be seen and heard? Great, Ms. Burns is a relatively new resident of our community but has jumped right in on the work against gun violence and for common sense gun legislation. We appreciate her being here. Council member Caballero. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Whereas every day more than 100 Americans are killed by gun violence alongside more than 230 who are shot and wounded and on average, there are more than 13,000 gun homicides every year. And whereas North Carolina has an average of 1,388 gun deaths every year with a rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people. North Carolina has a 23rd highest rate of gun deaths in the US and whereas cities across the nation, including in Durham are working to end the senseless violence with evidence-based solutions and whereas protecting public safety in the community, they serve our mayor's highest responsibility and whereas support for the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens go hand in hand with keeping guns away from people with dangerous histories and whereas gun violence prevention is more important than ever as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to exacerbate gun violence after more than a year of increased gun sales, increased calls to suicide and domestic violence, hotlines, and an increase in city gun violence. And whereas in January 2013, Hadea Pendleton was tragically shot and killed at age 15 and on June 4th, 2021, to recognize the 24th birthday of Hadea Pendleton, people across the United States will recognize national gun violence awareness day and wear orange in tribute to Hadea Pendleton and other victims of gun violence and to the loved ones of those victims. And whereas we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep our children safe. Now therefore, I, Stephen M. Shul, mayor of the city of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim June 4th, 2021 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day in Durham and hereby urge all residents to encourage all citizens to support their local community's efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives. Witness my hand and the corporate seal of the city of Durham, North Carolina, this seventh day of June, 2020, 2021. Thank you very much, council member. We will now hear from Ms. Burns. Ms. Burns, welcome. Thank you and you have a couple of minutes to address us. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much. Mr. Mayor and members of the council, thank you for your support. Those words just resonate so deeply for me because Wear Orange is all about honoring the victims of gun violence and the families they leave behind to mourn them. Durham has seen more than its share of that and it traumatizes the whole community. So together is the only way we can end gun violence and I'm very grateful that you're giving me a couple of minutes to make that point that you've already made pretty eloquently. Yes, I'm Sylvia Burns and yes, I'm brand new to North Carolina. I live here in Durham, but I am not new to the organization I'm here to represent which is Mom's Demand Action for Gunsense in America. We have grown to six million strong since the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. You're gonna see us everywhere. We have 30,000 right here in North Carolina and if I have anything to do with it, that number is just going to grow in terms of supporters and donations. It's a somber thing to have to celebrate and we have a tremendous amount of work to do, but we can only do it together, but we can. We can tackle this problem of gun violence and we wear orange to demand a future free from gun violence. I have mine on today. By the way, Durham looks beautiful in orange. City Hall looked amazing. I took pictures Saturday night. Carolina Theater was lighted up, Deepak lighted up the trees in orange. We're so grateful, so grateful of that and many, many other places in the triangle did too. So it's a unified effort and that's the only way we're going to be able to handle this challenge and this crisis. And you already mentioned that it is a crisis. We're coming slowly away from the pandemic that we've been in, we pulled together and we're still pulling together to end that, but gun violence decreased incredibly more during COVID-19 in 2020. We saw 40,000 murders from gun violence and that's the highest number in over two decades. So it is a crisis, it is a epidemic, a public health epidemic that I think we're getting increasingly aware of that we have to do something about. And that's, for me personally, I'll just serve this in. I have another second, four weeks ago, my niece, one of my nieces took her own life and took the life of her boyfriend in Lake Tahoe. So this year, I thought I was not part of this club. I've just been a very diligent volunteer for five years, but it affected me very personally. So I approached Wear Orange weekend in a much more kind of humbled state. So again, I'm very grateful. I hope there's a chance we can meet and maybe you can tell me the best forum for getting to know some of you all in City Hall, some of the council members and to discuss this issue. Thank you so much. Ms. Burns, thank you for being with us tonight. We really appreciate it. We appreciate your efforts and we're sorry for your loss. I'm so sorry to hear that, but thank you for being with us. All right, one more proclamation tonight and council member Freeman will be doing the honors for the Juneteenth proclamation. And this will be presented to Professor Andre Van. Madam clerk, can you make Andre Van available to be heard and seen please? Yes, ma'am. Can you be heard? Professor Van, are you with us? Yes, I'm here. Yes. Right, thank you. All right, council member. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Whereas June 19th, 2021, best known as Juneteenth or Freedom Day marked the 156th anniversary of the arrival of the Union General Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas, where two and a half years after the emancipation proclamation, African-Americans learned of the end of enslavement. And whereas since its federal enactment in January 2018 through its sunset in June of 2021, the 400 years of African-American History Commission, 400 YAAC authorized by public law, 115 public law 115-102 will fulfill its charge to recognize and highlights the resilience and contributions of African-Americans since 1619. And to acknowledge the impact that slavery and laws that enforce racial discrimination had on the United States. And whereas on August 25th, 2020, we wrote new history as we acknowledged another year since the 400th anniversary of observance of the first documented arrival of Africans in the African colonies, by looking forward to confront differences between the concept of freedom versus the reality of freedom. And whereas America must never forget or repeat its vivid and tragic examples of African-American history, of this African-American history, which exposed the dehumanizing impact of racial violence from childhood enslavement to convict leasing from lynching to racial massacres like Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 and Rosewood, Florida in 1923, from segregation to voter disenfranchisement, which is occurring now, from mass incarceration to wrongful inflicted violence upon the innocent who fought for their freedom in Selma, Alabama at Edmunds Pettus Bridge or the images of children who in Birmingham endured the bites of unleashed dogs. And whereas we must collectively strive to close the gaps of immeasurable distance between us and affirm the promise of a declaration of independence that all people have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and hold that the purpose of the American government must be to secure these rights for all. And whereas we must reject acts of violence and expand opportunities to understand and learn from our frank and complex conversations and whereas Juneteenth through August 25th, 2021 will serve as benchmarks to encourage individuals in collective reflection and transformation. And whereas it is through leadership and courage that we each have a responsibility to confront entrenchments which perpetuate injustice or a threat to America's true greatness. Now, therefore, I, Steven M. Schulmayer of the city of Durham, North Carolina do respectfully join municipal leaders across the country and the 400 YAAHC in spirit and solidarity and hereby encourage all citizens to honor Juneteenth through August 25th, 2021 as a period of reflection, cultural and public education, earnest assessment, planning and commitment to end systemic racism and all forms of dehumanization which threaten equality and freedom for all. Witness my hand, the seventh day of June 21st, Steven M. Schulmayer, thank you. Thank you very much, council member for that very important proclamation. Thank you for sharing that. And now we'll hear from Professor Van, we're glad to have you. And if you'd like to take a couple of minutes to address the council, we're pleased to hear from you. Sure, thank you so much to Mayor Schul, Madam Pro Tem Johnson, members of the Durham City Council, especially Councilwoman Freeman for helping us out here, City Manager Page and the Durham community. Let me say indeed what an honor and privilege it is to be here to accept this resolution in honor of Juneteenth, 2021 on behalf of the Durham community. This is such an honor. But yet it is also emblematic, I think, of the Durham way, as I call it, in recognizing and bringing into the public consciousness that the pride, commitment and resilience of a determined people, the city of Durham and the African-American community here have both blossomed and bloomed together since emancipation. This resolution is a tribute to the thousands of newly emancipated African-Americans who migrated into Durham to work in the tobacco factories as they sought self advancement, purchased land, created families and vibrant communities. Further, this Juneteenth resolution really helps to widen the Durham narrative by weaving in the stories of the enslaved community, Black Wall Street, the role of women, North Carolina Central University, civil rights, heroes and sheroes, and certainly many underrepresented populations and communities that oftentimes do not get such exposure. While many African-Americans migrated into other spaces to escape Jim Crow, many families in the city of Durham stayed and learned to live within confines of segregation by working to bring about a better day. It is from this group that a strong and vibrant people flourished in Black communities group. They used the tennis of self-help for their communities and promoted uplift for the race. Many of them went on to found early Black neighborhoods that served as safe places and great centers of social, economic, and religious endeavors for the African-American community in the city of Durham and Durham County. Although Hattie was that residential center and social center of much of African-American life, there were other communities such as the West End, the East End, Hickstown, Crest Street, Bragg Town, the Bottoms, Pearson Town, the Merrick-Moore community, and later College Heights and the Stokesdale communities that served as a destination for some and yet home to other residents. So lastly, on behalf of the Durham community, I want to thank you all for this great opportunity of noting the significance of this great milestone in the life and history of African-Americans here at Juneteenth. But also understanding very much and importantly that Black Lives Matter in the past and they said it matters today. So on June 17th, I want to invite you all as well at North Carolina Center University. We have a Jamesy Shepard Memorial Library. We'll be hosting a conversation, virtual celebration entitled Juneteenth, looking back while moving forward at two o'clock. So we invite you, encourage you to come and join us. And so with that being said again, I say thank you so much. Professor Van, thank you. We appreciate you for being here. Thank you so much for the history lesson and we are just so very appreciative of your work. Thank you so much and thank you, Council Member. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right, colleagues. We'll now move to the announcements portion of our meeting and I'm going to first call on Council Member Freelon who I know has an announcement tonight. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I've got two announcements. I'll be brief because I know I have a long schedule tonight. The first and foremost, actually maybe there's three because part of my first announcement is about you, Mr. Mayor, I want to congratulate you on your retirement and thank you for your service to the City of Durham. We haven't had a chance to gather publicly since you made that announcement. You've been a great mentor and friend and I appreciate all that you've done for our city. And I also want to take the opportunity to inform the public that I will not be running for public office this fall either. I was appointed in September to serve out the remainder of Representative Bernetta Alston's term which ends this December. And after that term wraps, my wife and I will be moving out of the city and into the county. It's been a privilege, the privilege of my life serving on this council and I'm really proud of the work we've done and we still have six more months of good work left to do. So I'm excited about that. And I've already had the chance to talk with all my colleagues and city manager Paige and appreciate those of y'all who shared affirmations and words of encouragement but also just wanted to share that with the general public here today. So thank you very much for that. Another really quick announcement. I just wanted to share that this weekend. Saturday morning, I was in McDougal Terrace in the Mac where there has been a lot of violence in recent months and years. I marched the streets with residents led by several organizations including Stop Killing Us Solutions Campaign, The Nation of Islam, Black Vote, North Carolina was there that Memorial Quilt for Victims of Violent Death that Sidney Brody was there. It keeps getting longer and longer. And I just wanted to thank my colleagues who were in attendance, commissioners, Howard Tenon Burns were there. I saw council member Freeman, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and many others. Folks with different, I had groups with different ideas for solutions on how to make our community safe but the dedication to standing up against violence and in solidarity with a Durham community that's been really impacted was very clear. And for me, especially now looking at the six months of runway that's left in my term, it reinforced the conviction within me to fund programs like We Are the Ones and to create the strategy for Black Boys that I've been talking about. I wanna make sure as we move into the summer that we have robust youth programming and activities and mentorship available for Black, young Black men and boys especially. So I just wanted to, again, just say some words of gratitude and thanks for folks who showed up in the community this weekend and just reinforce to the public that this will be my biggest priority is dedicating my time towards leveraging resources to end violence in Durham. And I feel like this weekend was a great moment for me to reflect on that and to really deduce some brainstorming and dreaming about how that can be accomplished. So those are my two announcements. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council Member. That's a momentous announcement, both momentous announcements but we so appreciate your service. Looking forward to continue to serve with you for the remainder of your term and thank you for all the great work you're doing. Really, really very grateful for it. Much, much good work. You're still gonna be doing. Thank you. Allen in the future. Thank you. All right, colleagues, other announcements? Council Member Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening friends and colleagues and everyone watching. Mr. Mayor and Councilor Freelon and those we get closer to that day we'll have another opportunity to say more and to fete you both but suffice to say I'm sure I speak for thousands literally thousands of people in the city that you go with incredible love and affection and regard for the service you've rendered and will continue to render to our city. And I know we'll have more to say in coming months. Mr. Mayor, I wanted to say very quickly just two things that I'm, I think it's rather poetic that on this evening we had a proclamation for both Juneteenth and National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Firstly, with respect to Juneteenth the whole Juneteenth celebration is, I was going to say Shakespearean but maybe I should say a Baldwin-esque kind of framing of the delay, how justice has been delayed for black people in this country. You know, we found out two years later that the Abed Spaceship Proclamation had been signed and that's just kind of part of the course of us kind of being behind when it comes to being served and to receiving justice. And I think that in the city, particularly with our upcoming budget and with discussions and echoing what my brother Pierce has said tonight that we have a wonderful opportunity I think in Durham to display what it looks like not to delay things anymore. I believe that with our upcoming budget, I believe with the talks we're having in terms of injecting racial equity into our CIP that we can have a period in Durham that reflects or kind of mimics what happened after World War II when the United States poured massive amounts of money into Europe under the Marshall Plan. I think it's time for a Marshall-esque type plan for Durham, particularly for our legacy neighborhoods. And I think talks about the CIP, some of the things that Councilor Freelon has mentioned about bulking up our youth program. We have the opportunity as we've demonstrated creativity and the willingness to move things and create things in other areas in our city life, we have the opportunity to exercise that same creativity and energy, I believe in a Marshall-type plan for legacy communities final once and for all here in Durham. So I'm gonna put that out there and challenge us. My government, my representatives, my fantastic representatives who serve me as a resident of the city on really thinking about as Juneteenth with Juneteenth as a template, no more delaying what is needed to do right by many of our equity, by many of our legacy communities here in Durham. Secondly, and very quickly with respect to national gun violence awareness, I think it's timely that we had this proclamation tonight. Ms. Burns, I think touched on, she didn't say it exactly, but I believe she captured the spirit of the emergency that we face as a nation and that we face locally as a city. We know that America is a washing guns. We have the most heavily armed society on the face of the planet. So we know it's an American, a uniquely American problem. But as a local official, my first and foremost task, my job is to ask what's going on in Durham and what are the Durham data points for the issue? I'm gonna challenge us as a government to do more. I think last week, it's safe to say we crossed the threshold. We had a mass shooting in Durham. Five people were injured in one shooting. I know it's uncomfortable to say and to entone, but I think every rubric I've read, it meets that definition. It meets that standard. Thankfully no one was killed in that particular incident, but we've crossed the threshold in Durham while we're reopening and it's getting warmer. I want to say tonight, Mr. Mayor, some months ago when North Carolina Central University came with some recommendations for interventions on their campus and around their campus, at that time we remanded the consideration of the free trial of ShotSpotter back to the administration at that time. I had telegraphed at that point that I believed we should have an up or down vote on that proposal. I let it go because it was bundled with the considerations of North Carolina Central. Tonight I'd like to ask for an update on those recommendations and those requests that North Carolina Central made and also on the staff's recommendation with respect to the offer for ShotSpotter. If not, I intend to call for an up or down vote. I think the people of the city deserve for us to have an up or down vote on it. I say this because we have now demonstrated, I think with our upcoming budget, our willingness to try pilots. We are pilot friendly here in Durham. I think that if the standard is applied, if we can find an example where any particular pilot that we're trying did not do well in any particular city, then we shouldn't do any of them. And if we're not going to apply the rule uniformly that there's one city it didn't do well in, be it Cahoots or anything else, then we should apply that standard to every pilot. If we're gonna use the one pilot went bad in one city or didn't do well in one city rule for one pilot, then I think we should apply them to all or try them all. I say this because I believe that the headline in Durham, what people are talking about actually in Durham outside of city hall are the number of shootings that are going on in our city. I believe that pilots are wonderful because I believe in science. I believe we should get data. I believe we should get facts. I believe they should be Durham specific data and Durham specific facts with any pilot. I believe that if pilots don't work in Durham that they should be left off. But I think they should be tried. So on tonight, I want to, in light of the headlines, the actual headlines in Durham, actually what people are talking about, again, on behalf of the black and brown boys and girls that are being trained to jump in their bathtub with no water in it each night that since we are trying a whole bunch of pilots that we should also try a pilot to see that if dispatching help directly to gunfire in our cities is something that could be helpful in terms of saving lives and in terms of muscularizing our investigative capabilities. We are soon installing cameras at every DHA property in the city.  If we can install cameras that look at people and capture videos, but don't do anything except give us high resolution videos of victimization the next day, then I think we should also be able to install something that will send help when it's needed. If we arrive at that great day when we're able to truncate the list down to the absolute bare necessities of the top two or three reasons we still need police, my suspicion is that gunfire will still be on that list. If we get it down to the last thing we need police for I would think that gunfire would probably be it. So with that said, I think that as a government it will give us moral authority and credibility with our people, not just to pilot and to experiment with things that send out mental health responders on our mental health responders, which I support that send out violence interruptives, which I support. But I think it's time for us to flood the zone. I think we ought to put everything on the table. I think we should demonstrate to the city that all voices are being heard and all voices matter. I think we should respect science as we're doing with other pilots. If the pilot doesn't work, we should take it up. Especially if we can get one for free. We should take it up and we should try it. We have crossed the threshold. The gauntlet has been laid before us. We are in a state of emergency. There are children whose lives are in danger. And I think we should try everything and anything that we can within the law and within reason. And if we're afraid of the government overreaching or having government surveillance the last I check, I am the government. We're the government. We're responsible for every tool that's deployed in Durham whether it's a car or a fire truck. We're the government. I trust you and I trust myself to safeguard abuses, to put the standard in place that will safeguard against abuses and to punish them and act if there are abuses in any area, be it finance or be at the police. We're the government. I think it will give us credibility amongst our people. I'm asking us to act. Tonight I'd like to officially ask the administration in due time or whatever time they determine to bring us back that report and an update on the request from North Crown and Central University. And I intend to call for either up or down vote whatever happens, up or down on the opportunity to try gunfire, detection technology in our city for free. So thank you, Mr. Mayor. That's all I have to say on that. Thank you, Council Member. And I appreciate your asking for the information for our administration on the NCC requests. Let me just say that we do have an opportunity to talk about this if we so choose on next Thursday at our budget work session in the morning. This could be added to the agenda and I think that would be an appropriate place for Council Member. Thank you, Your Honor. All right, colleagues, other announcements? Council Member Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm not sure, but I think you meant this Thursday. I just want to make sure. But I definitely- I think you're right. Yes. Thank you. I want to make sure I associate myself completely with Council Member Middleton's comments and just note that I think that it's high time that we do more than just talk about what we can do in the future and do something now. I also wanted to take a moment, Mr. Mayor, and apologize because I feel like our last meeting, that tension that kind of spurred up also took the attention away from acknowledging your moment in the sun and that you are retiring and I do want to congratulate you fully and completely on the expectancy of a grandchild. I'm not sure if they came already or not. I know it was like three days or so, but I do want to say congratulations and I wish you all the best. I want to thank you for your service. And I do want to note that over the next six months I look forward to making sure that your legacy does continue and live on. I also want to take a moment and just thank Council Member Freelon for reaching out and following up. I did appreciate catching up with him at the event on Saturday. And I want to note for the public that it is going to be necessary because of the great length and the weight that Mr. Sidney Brody has been carrying for us to find a space for that quilt because that memorial needs to live somewhere. And I think it's high time we figured out where. I think, I'm hoping to have conversations with Durham History Museum, but I do think that it may need to be a one-off space. And so I just want to put that out there for folks who might have some information so that you can share if you do. And I also wanted to note that I did have a forum. So in addition to the shootings, a lot of folks in the Black community have been experiencing a high displacement rate, acknowledging that the pressures of gentrification have been unbearable during COVID for many in our community. It's been even more harmful for people of color and ways in which that have surfaced and the conversation has been lacking around the industry and the kind of income aspect. And so I have taken the charge to make sure to have those conversations with folks in the community. And I'll continue to have those conversations with folks in the community. I'm hopeful that this summer we will have two students working through a collective group of folks in the community interning to try and come up with a plan around what that might look like. And I look forward to including any and everyone who might be interested in having that conversation. And so I want to make sure that I share that here. And at the other end of this, I do want to just step back and just note that it was stated at our last meeting that the DERM-CAN host event similar to what was proposed at the DERM beyond policing and DERM for all group. And I wanted, I was advised to make it clear that the DERM-CAN group hosted candidate forums. They did not host here or host demand meetings during a budget cycle and so there's a huge difference there. And I just want to make it very clear to folks that that is where some of this inks might lie. Other than that, I think I am mindful that there's a lot of pain in our community. And I do want to note that my neighbor is doing much better. She's recovering. And I'm mindful that that tension is in a space of like how emotional it is to experience something like that, not close to home.  Her granddaughters, she could have been killed. And so I want to make sure that I clarify that a lot of the tension from last week was mainly around that. And it had nothing to do with council member Freelon. I do want to thank council member Freelon for sharing that he's seeking to just end this all strong these next six months. And I look forward to helping you do what it is that needs to be done to make sure that these black boys and men do have something to do this summer because as I stated last summer, how hard it would be to go through the black artistry program project is just one thing. And I'm hopeful that we'll get the We Are The Ones program moving forward. So thank you. That is all. Thank you very much, council member. Colleagues, any further announcements? All right, thank you all so much. We'll now move to priority items. Madam manager, any priority items tonight? Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Domicile Council. I do have two priority items for your agenda this evening. Agenda item number 30, Development Agreement with Lambert Development, Hutch Street 2, LLC. Pursuant to city council's request, additional information has been provided in attachment number nine. Agenda item number 38, Greater Triangle Commuter Rail Study Update. Pursuant to city council's request, additional information has been provided in attachments number two through number four, located under the priority items by the city manager, city attorney, and city clerk section of the agenda. That is all I have for you this evening. Thank you very much, Madam manager. Madam attorney, good evening. Do you have any priority items tonight? Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Domicile Council. It's good to be with you all this evening. The city attorney's office does have one priority item this evening, Mr. Mayor. We would ask that council at the conclusion of tonight's business entertain a motion to hold a closed session, pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11a3 for attorney-client consultation in my request, concerning the handling or settlement of litigation in the following cases, Darrell Howard versus the city of Durham at Powell, and Deborah Friedman and Mark Reden versus the city of Durham at Powell. Thank you very much, Madam attorney. We will wait till the conclusion of the meeting to make that motion. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. Madam clerk, any priority items tonight? Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Madam Mayor Pro Tem and council members. The city clerk's office has no priority items this evening. Thank you very much, Madam clerk. Colleagues will now proceed to the consent agenda. The consent agenda is consists of items that the council has previously worked on. And those items can be approved by a single voter to the council. Council members are members of the public can pull an item from the consent agenda at which time it will be heard at the conclusion, in which case it will be heard at the conclusion of the meeting. Before we go out here, I've just been getting lists all day of people that want to speak. And I see that Laurie Fox has signed up to speak on item one, but I do not see Ms. Fox amongst the attendees. Can we confirm that please before I read the consent agenda? Mr. Mayor, I do not see Ms. Fox in the queue. All right. I don't either. All right. Thank you very much. All right, colleagues. I'm going to read the consent agenda. Item one, approval of city council minutes. Item two, citizens advisory committee appointments. Item three, Durham board of adjustment appointments. Item five, Durham planning commission appointments. Item six, Durham sports commission appointment. Item seven, housing appeals board appointment. Item eight, human relations commission appointments. Item nine, mayor's council for women appointments. Item 10, participatory budgeting steering committee appointment. Item 11, neighborhood improvement services and IES lean process performance audit dated April, 2021. Item 12, amend the fiscal year 2021 budget. Item 13, amendment of operating agreement with volunteers of America Carolinas Inc. VOAC to provide services for homelessness coordination, coordinated entry with diversion. Item 14, contract for habitat for humanity of Durham. We administer the city of Durham minor repair program and application intake for the substantial rehabilitation and home consortium rehabilitation programs. Item 15, contract for homeless management's information systems, HMIS lead agency. Item 16, less hazard control application intake and eligibility screening services contract with the partnership effort for the advancement of children's health each. Item 17, land hazard control marketing and outreach services contract with the partnership effort for the advancement of children's health peach. Item 18, 2020 bicycle pedestrian advisory council feedback annual report. Item 19, interlocal agreement with Durham County for consolidation of access services. Item 2020, 2021 lift station improvements group a gravity sewer, professional engineering services contract and McKim and Creed incorporated. Item 21, 2021 lift station improvements group a lift stations, professional engineering services contract to high field infrastructure engineering per PC. Item 22, 2021 lift station improvements group B lift stations, professional engineering services contract with Kim Lee Horn and Associates Incorporated. Item 23, amendment number three for engineering services from Raymond engineering, Georgia for various department of water management roof replacement.  Item 25, Southgate water reclamation facility administration building renovations amendment number one for DTW architects and planners limited. Item 26, water treatment plant residual and water reclamation facility by assault services. Amendment number one to contract with Synagra of central limited liability company. Item 27, annual insurance plan FY 22. Item 28, FY 2021 third quarter financial report. Item 29, resolution approving the application of the local government commission for the issuance of water and sewer utility system revenue bonds. Item 31, lease with salon lofts group LLC at the Morgan-Riggsby parking garage. Item 32, contract renewal with Saab of subscription and services agreement with Saab of software Canada Inc. Item 33, contract ST 317C utility locate services. Item 34, contract with WK Dixon and company incorporated for stormwater municipal separate storm sewer system MS4 program review. Item 35, partition process assessment rate revisions. Item 36, residential septic to sewer cost share project for the Northeast Creek watershed. Item 37, contract renewals, granticus LLC DBA, granticus SAS LLC. Yes, thank you. Just checking on. All right, yep. Colleagues, you have now heard the consent agenda and I'll now accept the motion for its approval. So moved. Second. Moved by council member Friedman, seconded by council member Freelon to approve the consent agenda. Madam clerk, will you please call the roll? Mayor Sewell. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Aye. Council member Caballero. Aye. Council member Freelon. Aye. Council member Freeman. Aye. Council member Middleton. Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Madam clerk. And the motion passes six to zero. Well, now we move on to the general business agenda. We have one item that is not a public hearing on this general business agenda. Item 30, development agreement with Lambert Development, Hunt Street to LLC. And we will first hear from a member of our planning staff. Good evening, Mayor. Mayor, pretend city council members. I am Robin Parrish with general services department. This item is a proposed development agreement between the developer Lambert Development, Hunt Street to LLC and the city. In exchange for easements within Durham Central Park, the developer has agreed to make proposed improvements as well as making profits to the city. During work, during work session, the developer gave a presentation about the proposed development, which is the Vega and is located at the corner of Durham Central Park. There were, there was feedback given from city council regarding the proposed development agreement. The first was an increase in the amount of the affordable housing fund from 57,000 to 285,000. And the second was to offer prospective purchasers of the residential units, educational material or information about what to expect living in an area like Durham Central Park and an urban area. The developer and staff have met and the developer has agreed to those changes within the development agreement and pending council's concurrence. We will upload the revised agreement reflecting those changes. I am here along with representatives of the developer to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Ms. Parrish. I said we're gonna hear from a member of the planning staff but of course we heard from a member of the general services staff and thank you very much. I'm sorry. One year falls my fault. Thank you very much for your presentation. Let me just be clear then the, as this is not a rezoning in which case we're prohibited from dealing in terms of asking for affordability, contributions to our affordable housing fund. This is not such a situation. This is not a rezoning. This is a deal, a business deal. They want easements and we are asking for changes in the business deal. And so am I to understand then that the developer has agreed to proffer, you used the term proffer, I suppose here it's really to include as part of their purchase price as an element of this purchase, $5,000 per unit to our affordable housing fund. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Thank you. All right. And then there were also concerns raised and you mentioned them Ms. Parish about the educating tenants. This was raised by council member Freelon and other members of the council, Mayor Pro Tem and others that these apartments are downtown and that we've had in the past situations where some of the residents of downtown apartments have complained about certain kinds of activities in the park, drumming and these kinds of things. And we want it to be clear. We, as we said in the work session to the developer, we want it to be very clear that these activities do happen and that their tenants need to understand that. So I would like to hear from you or perhaps from the developer about how they're planning to make that clear as so we can understand exactly what they're offering here. The developer has agreed to place material around the development itself as well as give perspective residential unit owners information, it's a flyer regarding things that they can expect, events that they can expect to take place at Durham Central Park. It does refer to the skate park as well as the Durham farmers market that there's a lawn there that people congregate there and there are things to be expected that happen within the park and they'll hear things while living that close to the park. They are here, they can speak. Mr. Coon is the attorney for the developer and he can elaborate on that a little. Thank you, Ms. Parrish. I really appreciate it. Let's hear from Mr. Coon. Mr. Coon. Yes. Are you available to be heard? I am, hello. Hi, Mr. Coon. Would you like to talk to us about this education of the tenants? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp, fellow council members. Yes, we listen closely to the input and comments from the last meeting and I would point out that the existing website, thevega-durham.com has already had a page on its website that's dedicated to a discussion of what the neighborhood and the surrounding area is all about and the vibrancy of that neighborhood. We worked with Molly Barnes, the marketing person we're working with and she helped us put together a, what I would say is an educational marketing document that we are using to provide to prospective purchasers into existing reservation units, people who was reserved existing units that basically discusses and the features and attractions of Durham Central Park and the vibrant urban park environment around it and the desire and need to obviously be good neighbors to everyone in that nearby community, essentially to highlight the vibrant park atmosphere that they're going to be living next to. When I did speak with Molly Barnes, she expressed absolutely that they have focused on that as part of their marketing to outline that amenity, so to speak, and the unique community in the area. And so that is one thing that is being highlighted in the marketing materials and on the website and so forth. We've also took to heed the comment from council member Freelon in terms of the idea of placing perhaps some signage around to make sure residents know of non-emergency numbers to call in case of a non-emergency park related matter so as to make sure that the appropriate level of response is brought down in particular matters so as not to heighten it unnecessarily, so to speak, which we have agreed to do in the development agreement. And so we think we've gone a long way and have accomplished that effort to do that, to bring that kind of educational information that's part of the marketing materials and package that we'll be providing to everyone who looks at these units and who has already reserved units at the bank. Thank you, Mr. Coon, and thank you for taking that seriously as well as the inclusion of the $5,000 per unit to the Affordable Housing Fund in the development agreement. We appreciate that. Colleagues, are there questions or comments for Mr. Coon or for Ms. Parish? Councilor Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Mr. Coon and I want to echo the Mayor's thanks for the contribution to our Affordable Housing Fund. Living in an urban environment comes with some stuff. I have some experience growing up in an urban environment. It took me a long time when I moved to North Carolina to get to sleep because I could not hear fire engines and noise, but I got accustomed to it living in the suburbs here. So I want to thank you for your efforts in telegraphing and communicating to folks what it means to live in a city center in a growing urban environment. And if you need any help, let the folks know what it means to live in an urban environment. I'd be more than happy to help Grotis. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council Member. Any other comments, colleagues? Council Member Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate the developer sharing those updates as well. I just want to note for the public, I did raise the question about what it looks like to plan open space and just acknowledging that an opportunity to bring on staff that could focus on open space has been brought forward by our DOS commission or committee. And I really would like to pursue that, acknowledging that this $6.6 million, I think it's less than an acre, maybe just shy of an acre, but the price of land is gonna get more and more expensive and it's gonna get really, really hard to plan our open space as more development is trying to kind of pack in around our downtown community. And just noting like I live in downtown or right outside of downtown. And the very few spaces that we do have to actually go out and enjoy, I'm not in the suburbs, Council Member Milton, I still have gunshots and fire engines and police cars in the background to keep me asleep at night. I will note that I think it's gonna be important just noting that for staff as well to figure out how to understand what that means for their departments because we do not have specific folks aligned to just focusing on citywide what that looks like. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to appreciate the developer team for the increasing their contribution to the Affordable Housing Fund. And I hope that other folks who are coming to downtown who are seeking easements from the city or other concessions from the city to build their developments will follow this example. We need more affordable housing in our community in downtown especially. And it's great to see a developer, especially a developer who's building downtown be willing to contribute more significantly to that. And I hope that we continue to see developers step up to meet more of our community's needs in that way. And I also wanted to just appreciate the conversation that we've been having about downtown and inclusiveness and making sure that the community that we're building is a community for everyone and making it very clear to new folks who are coming into Durham and into downtown what the expectations are for being involved in that, for being involved in that community that there is already a community in downtown. There are already people there using this space. And we welcome newcomers, we welcome people to join but we want people to know what they are entering into respect the existing community and culture and space that they're coming into. So I just wanna appreciate us having that conversation and really making it clear what our values are and the development team for taking it really seriously and making sure that the people that they're bringing in are on board with downtown Durham and everything that downtown Durham is. So thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor Pro-Tam. Any further comments? All right, colleagues, we need emotion on this item which will be to receive the presentation which we already did at the work session. To authorize the city manager to execute the development agreement with Lambert Development, Hunts Street, LLC. To authorize the city manager to execute an easement agreement that is not inconsistent with the development agreement. To authorize the city manager to execute, record and make changes to any documents related to the development agreement consistent with the manager's delegated authority. Can I have a motion to add effect? I was gonna say some moves to all three. All right, moved by Council Member Freeman, seconded by Council Member Middleton. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Mayor Schuyl. Aye. Mayor Pro-Tam Johnson. Aye. Council Member Caballero. Aye. Council Member Freelon. Aye. Council Member Freeman. Aye. And Council Member Middleton.  Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. The motion passes six to zero. Mr. Coon, thank you for being here with your team. We're looking forward to really good work and I appreciate also what you'll be doing to enhance the skate park in that area as well in the park. So thank you so much. Alrighty, we'll now move on to our general business agenda public hearings. The first item is item 39, fiscal year 2021 budget and fiscal year 2227, capital improvement plan, CIP. And we will first hear from Mr. Allure. Good evening, Mayor Pro-Tam, members of council, John Allure, Acting Budget Director. This is a public hearing to receive comments regarding the city manager's proposed fiscal year 2021-22 budget and fiscal year 2022-27, capital improvement plan, CIP. Thank you very much, Mr. Allure. This is the final public hearing on this item before we will be voting on our budget. And we're glad to have everyone who was signed up to speak as well as other people that may wanna speak as well. Let me just let everyone know how we're planning to do this. Looks like we'll have at least, well, in the area of 40 speakers, I'm going to give each speaker two minutes. So every speaker has two minutes. And the way I have a list of people who signed up prior to the meeting, and I'm gonna start with them in the order in which they signed up. After that, what I will do is I will call on, make sure that, I just wanna let everybody know, everybody who is here who wants to speak on this item will be able to do so.  I promise you that you will get a chance to speak and to be heard tonight. I'm gonna read the first thing I'm gonna do, and this will help me and the clerk and everyone, I think, is I'm gonna read a group of names in the order in which they've signed up. And so you can be ready for your testimony. Let me also just say, we really appreciate you being here. We know how important this is. We know that the budget is probably the most important work that we do. And we are very grateful to all of you all to be here and offer your input. It's really important to us and we will all be listening very, very hard. We have some more discussions to have about the budget and what we hear from you today will definitely inform those discussions. So thank you for being here. All right, the first five speakers in order will be Stephen Nill, Hilary Ensminger, Larisa Seibel, Jim Svarra and Latasha Gibson. And we'll begin with Mr. Nill. Are you available to be heard? You have two minutes to speak, sir. Yes, I am. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you for being here. In 2019, Durham residents voted overwhelmingly for a $95 million affordable housing bond. That bond will be issued in two parts in 2023 and 2025. Part of the reason for the tax increase in this new budget is to pay the debt service on the bond with an increase at the rate of 1.38 versus starting next year at a rate of 1.50. I got that information from David Boyd, the Durham Finance Director. I have two questions. Why is it taking this long to issue the bond when the mayor and council have discussed affordable housing even tonight as one of our top priorities? Going so far as to press developers to contribute to affordable housing funds instead of contributing to infrastructure in the areas the developments are being built. And second, given the economic damage COVID has done to many residents, why wouldn't we ask them to pay more this year when the bill isn't even due yet? Why not give them more time to get on their feet? Thank you very much. We don't answer questions as the hearing goes on. We like to hear from everyone, but your questions are duly noted. I'll also say that at the end of the hearing, some council members may have comments and I will take the opportunity to answer that question. So thank you so much. All right, now we'll hear from Hillary Endsfinger. Ms. Endsfinger, I know that you have to use special technology to be heard. Are you able to be heard tonight? I think so. Can you hear me? Yes, welcome. And you also have two minutes. Good evening, everyone. I'm not going to lie to you. I took a lot of inner strength to come forward and speak before you tonight. I'm coming as a disabled person, specifically with vision, a visual disability. And I'm hoping to speak and advocate for a larger community which often is hidden. I know that the city has made inroads and I have been barking and screaming for 15 years. And I did come recently, there were some changes and I thank you all for that to the webs, but there's a lot more that needs to be done. I know Beverly Thompson put forward a note, but it's kind of misleading. There's some misinformation in there. The blind, unlike the physically handicapped have very different and very specific needs. They're completely unique. And as far as I can tell, no budget has been money, has been set aside to address those specific needs. And this is on many levels, health and other issues, healthcare, for example, I'm perfectly physically abled. I don't need somebody to wash me. I can dance, but I can't see a thing. I can see some with assistive technology. I need the kind of help I need when I have somebody come into my house is somebody to help me read or help me pay my bills. There are people who are sighted who go blind in a day and are sent home and the system is not set up properly. It was designed by sighted people who were well-meaning sighted people, but don't know what it is that our needs are. Mostly we need some money set aside to address these needs for the physically handicapped. They're ramps, there's building codes, there's all this sort of stuff with a long range plan. There is no plan for the blind. And I'm asking, please put aside some funding to come up with some plan and with someone to oversee those needs. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ensminger. And we appreciate hearing recently from you at greater length and we are taking this very seriously and appreciate you being here. Thank you. Next, we'll have Larisa Seibel. Ms. Seibel, are you able to be heard? Yes, can you hear me? Yes, welcome. And you also have two minutes. We're glad to have you. Thank you. Ms. Seibel, I'm People's Alliance Housing Action Team. And I just want to summarize some of our requests to fund emergency rental assistance to prevent evictions and homelessness with legal aid and to continue and expand long-time homeowner grants to stabilize property taxes. We need everyone in Durham to keep their homes. The new county tax program will not help all the homeowners who are currently being helped by the city's long-time homeowner grant program. As you know that those neighborhoods were gentrified in part by city development, but there are other neighborhoods in addition to South Side, South West Central Durham and Northeast Central Durham that need help. Homeowners have rising taxes in Waltown, Braggtown, Merrickmore, and other historic African-American communities. And gentrification is a race equity issue that needs to be addressed by the city. We also support Braggtown and other legacy African-American communities in planning and investing in affordable housing, safe streets, sidewalks, transit, and community spaces. And we hope you will also increase transit buses and paratransit vans and staff to meet the needs of people with disabilities who are not being served. People are still waiting for transit to get to dialysis. Other people will be addressing these in more detail. And I appreciate your attention to these issues. Thank you. Ms. Ible, thank you so much for being with us. We're now here for Mr. Jim Savara. Mr. Savara, are you available to be heard? I am, can you hear me? Yes, so we're happy to have you and you also have two minutes. Thank you. I understand that property tax subsidy proposal developed by the county will be presented to you at your budget hearing on Thursday morning. It provides a grant to cover half the property tax bill up to a cap of $750 for households with income up to 30% of the area median income and at least 10 years' residency. The general approach is sound and we are grateful to see that the county recognizes that it can approve a program of this kind. The program would be even stronger if several changes were made. And I encourage you to consider recommending these changes to the county. Last year was difficult for many low-income families, not just the extremely poor and only one household received assistance from the county deferred payment program. The People's Alliance Board and its housing action team recommend that the county expand eligibility to homeowners with up to 60% of the area median income and increase the grant cap to $1,000. The coordinating committee of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit supports these changes and also proposes making owners of habitat houses eligible for grants without the 10-year residency requirement. The county intends to use American Rescue Plan Act funding to cover any costs that are higher than expected for this pilot program that will give us a clear picture of the amount of assistance needed on an ongoing basis but the city's contribution is needed as well. The PA Housing Action Team recommends that the city council also approve extension of a long-time homeowner's grant program of the city for one more year to cover the increased tax paid by homeowners and targeted areas in 2020 when they received help from no other sources. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mrs. Havar. We very much appreciate you being here. We'll now hear from Latasha Gibson and Madam Clerk, after Ms. Gibson, we will hear from Shalisa Howard Martinez, Gina Uppchurch, Janet Betger, and Marie Hill Faizon. So those folks can make themselves ready for their testimony. But first we'll hear from Latasha Gibson. Ms. Gibson, are you able to be heard? Yes, can you hear me? Yes, thank you for being with us and you also have two minutes. Thank you. I'm Adon Kostitut and I'm a chapter leader of Triangle ADOS, which stands for American Decence of Slavery. And my statement is in reference to the increase in property tax as it pertains to gentrification. I have prepared statement, but I'm going to summarize since I have two minutes to talk. So basically I don't think Durham City Council or Durham City is doing enough regards to gentrification and I know other people have spoken on it. But one thing that I or a couple of things that I want to mention pertaining to gentrification is that we do need to look at the history of redlining. Outside of redlining ADOS deals with discrimination in terms of mortgage practice, whether it's pertaining to high interest rates, paperwork being held on to seek out high interest rate or just subprime lending in general. And my proposal, I think Durham City Council needs to do an audit in terms of tracking mortgages practices, doing a comparison in terms of ADOS as relates to looking at assets, credit history and even job history and see how that contrast to other people who have gotten mortgage documents under better terms to see what has been the influence of one's particular lineage or ethnicity. So that is my comments. I do think that the gentrification that is an issue that needs to be addressed, especially given the rate. And other than the gentrification, I don't know whether it relates to the budget, but I think there needs to be research in terms of hiring discrimination, particularly within the IT industry now that the triangle region is a region that's being sought at. We know that companies like Microsoft, Apple and I believe Google have had poor records in terms of black Americans that they hire. So that basically concludes my statement. Thank you, Ms. Gibson. Thank you. Ms. Gibson, thank you very much for being with us and raising those points. Ms. Gibson, I just want you to know that you can email us if you have more lengthier remarks. You can email them to us. I can tell you that I will read them and I know that this is a council that reads its email. And so if you send that to us, we'll be happy to read your lengthier comments. Thank you for being with us. All right, we're now here from Shelisa. Howard Martinez, Ms. Martinez, welcome. Are you available to be heard? Yes, I am. Thank you for having me here today. Thank you so much. Welcome, we're glad to have you and you also have two minutes. Thank you. So I'm here to speak in support of the city of Durham providing funding to implement the Durham master aging plan and the FY 2021-22 budget. We know like the rest of the nation, Durham is experiencing a significant growth in the number of older adults. But we also know this increase in number of adults will have a significant social and economic impact, but it's also an opportunity to embrace older adults as a vital asset. So back in 2019, both the city of Durham and the county of Durham recognized the importance of developing a master aging plan for Durham. And as part of that commitment, they agreed to join the AARP network of age-friendly communities and the rural health organization's global network of age-friendly cities and communities. Led by the Durham partnership for seniors, we over 10-month period in 2019, a multi-sector group of stakeholders, including community-based organizations, public health, Durham City and County government agencies, as well as individual older adults, many of whom are from legacy communities and our long-term Durham residents, develop the plan. And I served as the plan's facilitator. The plan has lots of priorities in it and many of the priorities that have been spoken about already things around housing, concerns around transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, were part of our planning. We've completed the plan now and we also wanted to include things that looked at special cross-cutting issues that are important to Durham, such as social economic status, racial equity, dementia, LGBTQ issues, social isolation. Now we are ready to implement the plan. We had to delay our implementation because of COVID, but since then, we have continued to work together to collaborate around improving the health of well-being of older adults, particularly during COVID. And so now we're turning towards you and asking you for support and funding initial implementation of the master aging plan. I also wanna say that while this is called a master aging plan, this plan is really about making Durham a more age-friendly community for all ages, races, ethnicities, gender identities and abilities, because we know that when communities become more age-friendly for older adults, that all groups benefit, especially people who have disabilities, families with young children and youth. So that's why I'm asking you tonight to please support implementation of the Durham master aging plan. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Howard Martinez. We appreciate you being with us and thank you for your work on the aging plan. So now I'm here from Gina Upchurch. Ms. Upchurch, are you available to be heard? I am, thank you so much. We're glad to have you and you also have two minutes. Thanks for being here. Wonderful. First of all, thank you all for your service. You do a tremendous job for our city. I'm Gina Upchurch and I'm the Executive Director of Senior Pharmacist, but I'm actually here tonight on behalf of many, many agencies that have signed a letter to support the master aging plan that you should have all received the actual master aging plan as well as the people who sign on to endorse it. There are many, when you read, if you had a chance to look at the document, many times it'll say the Durham's Partnership for Seniors or the Durham Community Resource Connections for Aging and Disabilities. And I just want you to know it's a very loose connection of agencies doing the best we can to try to work together. We have a 12 hour per week coordinator, but that is it. So we're trying to formalize our work together. During COVID, many of the folks have been gathering. We started out by helping people who we knew were going through scary and isolating times. It was called Durham's Partnership for Seniors and more COVID response. And we actually got a lot of things done during these scary times. We are now proposing to merge many of these groups together to create a nonprofit organization to implement the master aging plan. And we want to do it using the principles of an accountable care community. Central to that is making sure the individuals most affected by the issues are helping steer the work. That includes individuals from more marginalized communities that have often been excluded from planning. We want it to be transparent. We want to use our racial equity framework and we wanna hold each other accountable for moving forward together. We're trying not to reinvent wheels, but to get the Durham wheels supporting older adults and adults with disabilities going in the same direction. We want a coordinated system that can leverage many opportunities that come our way. Why should you trust us? Because we get things done. During COVID, we managed to get a Durham grant. It was just $50,000. Senior pharmacist was the fiscal agent. We hired 24 community health workers and a coordinator. And it was very impactful and meaningful work where we had natural champions speaking to their neighbors and friends. And we did it with many community partners, Project Access, the Durham Housing Authority, Inhunger, Durham, El Centro Espano, Community Health Coalition and Care of the Healing Place. This is what we're asking you and the Durham County to each contribute $150,000 a year for two years to help get this work formalized and moving forward. We need to be intentional, not playing whack-a-mole with one program at a time, but building a coordinated system that also goes upstream to change policies, procedures, and cultures that are hurting or at least not helping our older neighbors, especially from, again, marginalized or excluded communities. Thank you very much. We appreciate hearing from you, Ms. Upchurch. Thank you. All right. Next, we will hear from Janet Betker. Ms. Betker, are you available to be heard? Yes, I am. And thank you for this opportunity. My name is Dr. Thank you. And you also have two minutes. Thank you. My name is Dr. Janet Betker and I'm an associate professor at Duke University in the schools of medicine and nursing. And I'm the director of the Duke Roybal Center on Aging Research and Evidence Implementation. I wanna acknowledge how much we value our academic community partnership and particularly the engagement with the city and the county. With input from the city and county agencies, community members, many community-based organizations, as you've just heard, a Durham Master Aging Plan was established with 33 goals in nine areas. These areas are critical to the health of our community. And I was really pleased to hear them raised in so many different discussions already today. We're asking for your support now to operationalize this plan because recognizing that we each bring unique expertise and resources and assets, we can have a different approach if we come at this coordinated and together. Having these assets and resources coordinated toward improved health equity, we'd be able to provide Durham a stronger foundation from which to build because with your support and intention to operationalize this plan, we as academic partners could more equitably bring forward additional opportunities for funding, program development, implementation and evaluation. We had a couple of opportunities, particularly during COVID, but because of the loose and somewhat informal infrastructure that we had to build from, it was really challenging to choose just one organization to leverage funding for a partnership that spans so many different groups. And that really impacted our community more broadly. Duke University has the oldest and only continuously funded center on aging that was actually first established by the Surgeon General in 1955. And we now have hundreds of faculty, staff and community and clinical collaborators that want to continue to partner with the Durham community. So I'm here to request and speak to the need for Durham City and County to have a collaborative focused on aging because the issues and opportunities are larger than any one of our organizations or offices. With your support, we would all be stronger together for addressing health inequities as we age. Thanks for this opportunity. Ms. Betker, thank you very much. Dr. Betker, thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate you being with us tonight. And I want to assure you all and everyone here who's speaking that we are listening hard and we very much appreciate what you're bringing to us. All right, next we will have Marie-Hill Faizon. Ms. Faizon will be followed by Meg Librand, Donald Quick and Michael Reynolds. And first we'll begin with Marie-Hill Faizon. Ms. Faizon, welcome. We're glad to have you. Can you be heard? Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, welcome. And you also have two minutes. We're glad to have you. I'm glad to be here. And I just wanted to speak on behalf of the transit and the paratransit service that we provide here in Durham. I'm just asking that the budget would allow an expansion of buses and vans and also bus stops to improve service and to improve the safety of the people. We've had, we could do so much better in that area. And I don't know how that's gonna filter down. I'm a paratransit driver and I have been for 19 years and that's a long time. And I've been advocating those years. And I hold my head up high because I represent a group of people that are proud of the service that they provide to the community and would like to see it improve. And I would ask that we have an oversight committee and more transparency as far as how things are ran and who purchases things for our community to use. This is equipment as mentioned before by Ms. Insminger that needs to service the people with a special needs. And from my experience, we don't have that. I don't know, you've got people that don't have special needs picking out equipment. And it's not working for the people that are servicing the community. And so if we can get an oversight committee to look at possibly picking out the equipment and when purchasing it, and that it's just not under the table deal and somebody's pockets are being lined for this particular thing. Because I can't understand why we get, we love the new. Thank you very much, Ms. Faizon. We really appreciate you being with us. And we also really appreciate your service as a paratransit driver. You've done it for a long time and I've heard many times from you about this. I just wanna thank you for your great work. All right, next we will hear from Meg Librand. Ms. Librand, are you available to be heard? I am and actually I'm Meg's husband but that's whose name is on our Zoom account. So that's what we put in there. My name's here. So I forgive me if I am out of place in terms of out of place, excuse me, in terms of the agenda item, but I read an article that talked about the city council's plan to move up to 15 police positions to- Sir, excuse me one second. You're fine talking about that item but can you tell us your name first? Yes, I'm sorry. My name is Brett Librand. Great, Mr. Librand, welcome. That's perfectly good topic and you all have two minutes. We're glad to have you with us. Thank you and thank you all for the good work that you do. I know you have a tough job but I wanted to express concern about that plan to move up to 15 police positions to a community engagement team simply because of what's been addressed tonight already the rise in violent crime. In fact, just near our house over the last three months, we've had one shooting about a half mile away. We just this past week had a neighbor whose door was kicked in by a group of folks in the middle of the day. They shot up the downstairs of their house by God's grace. No one was down there but apparently there was a two year old and a caregiver upstairs. And so anyway, it concerns me to think that with growing crime and a growing city that we would reduce the number of police officers that we have. Now, I don't think that we don't need to have conversations about policing and how we do that well but to put funds into an untried plan, I don't think as wise. And so I wanted to raise that concern. I know that Chief Davis, I think of several years ago asked for more officers and was not granted that. It would seem to me the wisest move going forward would be to think about how to increase police presence. I know I'm a pastor of a church and several of our members live in underserved sides of town. They want increased police presence instead of not. So that just wanted to bring that to you all's attention. As a citizen of Durham, that concerns me and I don't think decreasing the number of positions as wise at this point, especially for a program that's not tried yet. Not that it shouldn't be tried but I don't think it should be tried with funds that would normally be available for the police department. Thank you. Mr. Library, and thank you for being with us tonight and we very much appreciate your remarks. Next, we will hear from Donald Quick. Madam Clerk, can you make Donald Quick available to be heard? Mr. Quick, are you able to be heard? Mr. Mayor, there's no Donald Quick in the queue. Okay. I know Michael Reynolds is here. Can you make Mr. Reynolds available to be heard? Mr. Reynolds, I believe you can be heard. Are you with us? Yes, can you hear me? Yes, we're glad to have you and welcome and you also have two minutes. Yes, I want to say thank y'all for having me on tonight. My name is Michael Reynolds. I'm at General Services at Maplewood and Beechwood Cemetery and I just want to make a couple of issues known that first of all, thank y'all for the bonuses that we're gonna receive. And it's really been a tough year working through the pandemic. We have been, unfortunately, we have not had no days off from the pandemic versus a lot of folks was off, maybe the first two, three, two months or whatever.  We work mostly six, seven days a week. And with that said, that we're pre on the hazard premium pay is appreciated and deeply needed to retain some of the staff and recognize our service for what we do. And speaking on behalf of other city departments, we deserve to be recognized and for the hard work that we do because even though we should be equally, I don't know why we're not equally to the police department and fire department because when we get raises, they get a step more than we do. And I thought that we was on a step plan which we are behind on our step plan because we got no raise last year. So that's basically what I'm speaking on and speaking about the gun violence. As me working over there at Lakewood and over Beachwood cemetery. On just a couple of weeks ago, we seen somebody get killed and shot across from the cemetery. Two days later on a Saturday, that was a Wednesday on a Saturday. We had a funeral service, a birthday funeral home. And right during the service, while people was at the grieving, they had another shootout and drive by in the same place. So we feel, you know what I'm saying? Every day that we work, that we got to watch our backs and you know, and we're about, if we're going to get hit by a bullet because all the violence that's going on. So that's just my concerns and everything. Mr. Reynolds, thank you so much. We really appreciate you being with us. Let me say first of all, how much I appreciate you and the work that you do at the cemetery. You've always been incredibly dedicated to that work and I want to thank you. And in terms of the premium pay, again, I'll adjust that at the conclusion of the public hearing and can talk about what we have included in our budget. But thank you for being here. All right, Madam Clerk, we'll now hear from Stephanie Burrell, followed by Barbara Jacobs, followed by Nina Plosek, followed by Carmen Kwan. And I apologize if I'm getting those names wrongs or friends, but we'll begin first with Stephanie Burrell. Ms. Burrell, are you available to be heard? Ms. Burrell, are you with us tonight? Mr. Mayor, I don't see a Stephanie Burrell in the queue. All right, thank you, Madam Clerk. Madam Clerk, I want to thank you for all the management you do this process. It is hard and you do a great job both before the meeting and during the meeting. And I want to thank you. And also to our Deputy Clerk, Ashley Wyatt, thank you so much. We're now going to move to Barbara Jacobs. Ms. Jacobs, are you available to be heard? I am available. We're glad to have you, Ms. Jacobs. Thank you for being here and you also have two minutes. I'm very concerned about the proposed property tax increase. Two cents sounds like a very small increase, but it is a 3.8% increase in property taxes for the city of Durham. Plus the County of Durham has proposed 1.4% for a total 5.2% increase. The city council seems to think that they can pass whatever spending bills they desire and then use the taxpayers of Durham as a cash register to fund the spending. The tax increase should be limited to 1%. Remember, these tax increases impact everyone, not just property owners, but renters too. Landlord will increase rents to offset the increased property taxes. Are you proposing that we send unarmed mental health workers to a minor traffic accident when one of the drivers may overreact and pull a gun out of his car? Or send them to confront a panhandler who may have a hidden knife? And we have already seen a welfare check literally blow up in the face of police. It is a team effort and we need both police and mental health workers. I would suggest we pilot a small plan to send mental health workers out alone. The city manager has suggested moving only five police vacancies to the new department. This is a reasonable plan. We had a wonderful police chief, but the council turned down nearly every request she made. Will this make it more difficult to find a replacement? Do we have trouble filling vacancies because police recruits hesitate to join a city police force that is being continually reduced? Now, how else can we moderate this large property tax increase? The budget document states that salaries and benefits are projected to grow four and a half to 5%, a rapid increase. Salaries and benefits represent 40% of the budget. Could each department or area cut 1% of its workforce? 99% would remain. We can't spend whatever we like, unfortunately. To end on a more positive note, I have a suggestion for a new source of revenue. Transfer tax is charged whenever a piece of real estate is sold. The state of North Carolina charges zero point. Thank you very much for being with us, Ms. Jacobs. If you have further comments, please email them to us. We will read them. We're happy to get them. And thank you for being with us tonight. Unfortunately, transfer taxes, we're not able to charge that in the state of North Carolina. Localities are not able to levy those taxes. All right, next we will hear from Nina Plosek. Ms. Plosek, have I pronounced your name correctly? Ms. Plosek, are you with us? Madam Clerk, do we see Ms. Plosek in the queue? Yes, she's in the queue and she's been approved to speak. All right, Ms. Plosek, can you unmute yourself? Are you able to hear me now? Yes, we are. Okay, great. Hi, my name is Nina Plosek. I live in Northgate Park in Durham and I work as a licensed clinical social worker with queer and trans individuals and families. As both a survivor of domestic abuse and a trained mental health provider, I've witnessed firsthand the violence that comes with policing in previous professional roles and through my own politicization and lived experience. I've also experienced the healing that can happen when we work together to build alternatives and reimagine community care. Not only do we need to begin divesting from police departments and reallocating funds, we also need to stretch ourselves in our imaginations to create community programs that respond appropriately to interpersonal conflict, drug abuse and other crises. Peer support programs, harm reduction efforts, community crisis centers, mutual aid efforts and educational initiatives are some places to start. Reallocating a small but significant portion of public funding is a place to start. During my time as an advocate in recent college grad, many years ago, I had my first experience of learning proper care and de-escalation strategies at the community center where I worked. As I watched the mental health response team tend to a psychiatric crisis without relying on police or other tactics rooted in power and control, something shifted inside of me. I wish we could revisit this moment in my memory together because it shaped me in ways I didn't know were possible at the time. The individual experiencing distress may have been characterized as unsafe or unpredictable through a different lens or in another setting. What I do know is that they were profoundly scared, disconnected and in need of support. I was struck by the care worker's methodical, thoughtful approach and how mutuality, respect and self-determination were at the forefront of their practice. Simply asking what happened and what you need to feel safe can provide the foundation for connecting an individual to emotional, practical and interpersonal resources they might need. I hope it's clear that I'm speaking to urge you to reallocate the police officer vacancy positions to the Department of Community Safety and Wellness to hire unarmed skilled responders. We simply can't remain complicit any longer and every one of us deserves to feel safe and cared for. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Plosek. Thank you so much for being with us. Colleagues, Council Member Middleton has suggested and I agree, just that I inform everyone that the two-minute limit is a hard limit. When we're in the council chambers, there's a clock that we can go by and that I can watch and I can call time on people. That's not available here. So the clerk will be cutting you off after two minutes not to be rude, but to be fair. The only way we can be fair to people is if everybody gets the same amount of time. If you have longer comments, please, I beg you, send them to us. We are happy to hear them. We are good at reading more complex things and you can hear in two or three minutes and we would welcome anything further that you have to add. All right. We will now move to Carmen Kwan. Have I pronounced your name correctly? Yes, you have. Great. We're glad for you to be here. Welcome and you have two minutes. Thank you. My name is Carmen Kwan. I'm a bike Durham board member and advocacy committee chair. Thanks for this opportunity to comment on the budget and the capital improvement program. Bike Durham advocates for a transportation system that is safe, affordable and sustainable for everyone. We want to express our support for the following items in the proposed budget that align with this vision. Extending fare free transit through June, 2022, funding and additional position in the transportation department to manage transit projects so that more projects to improve safe access and schedule reliability can be completed more quickly. An initiative to complete a vision zero action plan and deliver on speed management projects. Vision zero was adopted as a policy by this council in 2017. Yet an action plan has not yet been adopted. We are concerned about the staff's capacity to complete a vision zero action plan this year without new funding for a full time dedicated vision zero coordinator. Over the past three years from 2018 to 2020, since the vision zero policy was adopted, the rate of pedestrian deaths in Durham has more than doubled. Seeing vision zero achieved will require dedicated staff. With regards to the capital improvement program, we want to express support for the additional half cent dedicated for equitable green infrastructure projects. We support a review of the projects to be funded to ensure that they are advancing racial equity in Durham. We further support the council discussion to focus the projects on construction of sidewalks, trails and other projects to make walking and biking and access to transit safe. Finally, we see this funding as a down payment toward a larger funding package to create Durham wide networks of safe walking and biking facilities in support of the city's strategic plan. Thank you again for this opportunity to speak on the proposed budget and the capital improvement program. Thank you so much, Ms. Quarner. We appreciate you very much for being with us. Thank you. And again, I want to reiterate, we're listening on all these subjects and we're very, very appreciative. Next speakers will be in order, Ashley Robbins, Nancy Hupplitzel, David Morgan and Herman Spurling. Ashley Robbins, Nancy Hupplitzel, David Morgan and Herman Spurling and Madam Clerk, could you make Ashley Robbins available to be heard? He has time. Are you with us? I am, can you hear me? Yes, thank you. Welcome and you have two minutes. We're glad to have you. Thank you. I'll make my comments brief. I just wanted to show my support for diverting the police positions to the community safety wellness task force and just express that I think it's incredibly unfair to continuously ask organizations to demonstrate certain outcomes with a fraction of the financial resources that we provide to the police. We have vacancies in the police department, which is indicative of a national problem. So people don't even want to be police at this point. So I think it's time we take some of those funds and invest into the people. Thank you. Thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it. Our next speaker will be Nancy Hupplitzel. I'm sorry if I have got your name wrong and maybe you could tell us how it is pronounced and we're glad to have you. Are you available to be heard? I am and I thank you. It's Hablitzel and you got closer than most people. Okay. Welcome and you have two minutes. We're really glad to have you. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. And I first I want to thank all of you for the work you do. I'm on our HOA board here and I know really what it takes to respond to people on a daily basis, whether you want to or not. I'm a member of the Leesville Road Coalition. It's an alliance of approximately 4,000 potential voters from communities all over Southeast Durham expanding on a daily basis. Our focus is to identify issues of common interest and engage the city and county officials in dialogue to make all of Durham a safer, more secure community. And I will preface this by saying that we moved here from Chicago. So when I see some of the things that are going on now with juvenile crime in particular and the shootings in Durham, I'm basically horrified because it's stuff that we left behind us, we thought. And because I worked in the juvenile court system there, I got to see this on a daily basis. My concern is the 70 open positions on the Durham Police Department. City is planning a signing bonus and a 4% raise to attract candidates and retain existing staff. But with a salary that is $11,000 lower than caries and that's the second lowest paid police department, how are we going to attract and keep the best and the brightest? Particularly at a time when we've just lost our very wonderful police chief and we'll be looking to recruit another one. And my other encouragement would be because of my experience in Illinois with the social workers getting shot when they went out without police, think carefully about where it is that you send unarmed people without a police backup. Thank you. Thank you very much for being with us. We very much appreciate your comments. All right, next we'll hear from David Morgan to be followed by Herman Spirling and then Chris Titus. Mr. Morgan, are you available to be heard? Yes, Mr. Mayor, can you hear me? Yes, welcome, we're glad to have you and you also have two minutes. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and the members of the city council. I'm also a member of that Leesville Coalition. I'm also a planning commission member appointed by the county and representing the Oak Grove Township. As part of the staff's efforts in updating and applying this Durham comprehensive plan, the planning commission is embarked on small area plans such as Southeast Durham and Brighttown and since development is skyrocketing and planning is needed in these areas. From reading the initial draft and actually attending some of the small area meetings, there's a clear bias in the resident engagement survey response and whether they're included or discounted those recommendations. The study has no additional activity beyond September, 2021 and the comments have made that the study is to help city council and city county planning to evaluate zoning better. Compared to Brighttown, the study seems to be void of extensive community involvement, especially in this area. And the perception is that the community is properly representative. What we're seeing is that there was a lot of emails in Brighttown that actually put a halt to some of this development to be able to better understand the neighborhood. And we're seeing a similar type of involvement here in Southeast Durham. Certainly most of the demographics of our community is over 55 and many are recent transplants like Nancy had mentioned, coming from other areas of the country, but it is a developing community in the last six or seven years. If you come to our Fridays at five, you can see there's a really growing group of community there. And certainly we are open to inclusive this and diversity in that, but we believe that these approved and potential new developments are really going to defeat that purpose. So the value of this study with more community involvement would help provide the direction for this growing Southeast Durham community. I Googled the word equitable in the 2021-22 budget and it came up 42 times. And so I really don't see what we need. Mr. Morgan, thank you for your comments. If you have further comments, we would be happy to receive them by email. We're glad to have you and we appreciate your being here. All right, we'll now hear from Herman Sperling to be followed by Chris Titus and then Pete Turner. Mr. Sperling, are you available to be heard? Hi, I'm sorry about that. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Thanks to members of the city council. I'll call you Steve because as you retire, we're going to spend more time together. I'm looking forward to talking about grandkids together. I am also a member of the Leesville coalition where so far we have 4,000 members, we expect that to increase to about 6,000 likely voters by the time the primaries roll around. And also I chair our Board of Government Affairs here in Carolina Harbors. We have vacancies on the 9-11 staff and there have been recent reports about the need to forward calls to Raleigh to handle those calls. As best we can tell, the plan is to take staff levels back to the pre-COVID levels. That said, the proposed program for enhanced public safety will complicate 9-11. As instead of just EMS, fire or police, it will now have to figure out if it's EMS, fire, unarmed police, armed police, mental health or mental health with police escorts. Doesn't 9-11 need more funding to be able to support the plans that are being proposed in this budget? Mr. Sparrowling, I'm having a hard time hearing you. Does that complete your comments? Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. We very much appreciate that input. We'll now hear from Chris Titus to be followed by Pete Turner and then Camilla Faust. So, Chris Titus, Pete Turner and then Camilla Faust. We'll begin with Mr. Chris Titus. It's Chris Titus. Is that Mr. Maynard? Mr. Maynard, do you want to pause for the nine o'clock? Yes, I do. Let's hear from Mr. Titus and then we'll do that. Thank you, Council Member. Yes, thank you so much. Mr. Chris Titus with us? Mr. Mayor, no. Mr. Titus is not in the queue. All right. Council Member Freeland and also Deputy Clerk Wyatt have both reminded me that we take a break after two hours for our closed caption folks to be able to rest. And so we're going to do that now. We are going to take a five minute break. We will be back sharp at nine o'five and the first speaker when we come back will be Pete Turner. So, colleagues, remember to turn off your microphones. We are still on the air. Thank you. All right, good evening. We're back again from our brief break to give our closed captioners a rest. I want to say how much we appreciate our closed captioners and the work that they do to help make our meeting successful. We're so appreciative. Our next speaker is Pete Turner. Is Mr. Turner available to be heard? Mr. Mayor, there's no Mr. Turner in the queue. All right, thank you, Madam Clerk. Next we have Camilla Faust. Is Ms. Faust available to be heard? Mr. Mayor, Ms. Faust is calling in. Okay. She needs to dial star six to unmute herself. All right. Ms. Faust, have you been able to do that? Yes, I believe you're unmuted now. Can we hear you? Yes, hello. Welcome, we're glad to have you and you also have two minutes, welcome. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Camilla Faust and I'm a representative from Southside Live Here Association. And I just like to speak about the Long-Town Homeowners Tax Grant for the Southside because majority of the people, majority of the Long-Town homeowners are seniors with a fixed income and also the neighbors that justified also throughout the city. My main concern is are we going to continue or do an expansion for the Long-Town Homeowner Grant? Mine is very brief. Thank you, Ms. Faust, brief but to the point and thank you so much. We very much appreciate you being with us. All right, our next speakers will be in this order, Benita Green, Waldo Finner, Marcus Southern and Vanessa Evans. Ms. Green, are you with us? And can you be heard? Ms. Green, Benita Green, are you with us? I see that you are, can you be heard? Ms. Green, you're unmuted, can you speak? Well, we'll come back and see if Ms. Green wants to speak later. We'll now move to Waldo Finner. Madam Clerk, can you make, Mr. Finner, it looks like you're available to be heard. Can you be heard? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. We'll be heard, can you be heard? I can hear you, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you, welcome. And you also have two minutes. Thank you for being here. All right, let me be very brief. We keep talking about property tax of this grant. If the county and the city got together and did a proper assessment of property tax, we won't have to do these grants. We should have come to the city council or county begging for relief when our property taxes haven't been assessed properly in the first place. Think about this. How does a home increase in value of a hundred and some thousand dollars in one year? There's no way. And this is what's going on in every neighborhood in the city of Durham. If we can make those adjustments and change that platform, then we'll have to do all these grants. That's one. Two, they talk about the police department. Well, how about telling them to stop standing in the parking lot, chit chatting all the time of the day and night and do their job? Answer 911 calls within a timely frame manner and not an hour to three hours later. I would miss Johnson on that. I haven't seen anything they've done to get a raise or to hire even more police officers. There's no need. As far as the shock dictator, you've got enough people in the city of Durham that can call in when they hear gunshots fire. And half that is not gunshots. They're messing with these cars. That's backfire. Just yesterday, it wasn't so bad going loud. Almost made me hit a pole, a bridge over here on a guest road. Guest road. So it's not so much as if people have to come out here and beg so much is that we elected you all officials to appropriately use the funds that you've been given to you. And you're not doing that. You're not doing that. It's unfair. Third is that the light rail, go to the county commissioners and ask them, what have they done with over $180 million taxpayer money and not have accounted for it? If you do these things, then you can understand, put the money toward other things. Mr. Feather, thank you for being with us. I do wanna say that all the tax assessment is done by county government. So I think the city doesn't have a role in that. I appreciate your comments on that and please address them to your county commissioners. Those are important comments. It looks like Ms. Green's microphone is working now. I see in the chat, Madam Clerk, can you make Ms. Benita Green available to be heard? Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can Ms. Green. We're glad to have you with us. And you also have two minutes. Okay, thank you very much. And thank you for allowing me to this time to speak this evening. I am here supporting the Walltown's proposal for the City Long-time Home Omen Grant Program. And I'm also asking that this program be available to assist, you know, Meritmo Community, Braggtown Community, and all of the heritage historically black communities in Durham, these communities have residents that have basically worked to develop the city, to bring a sense of community and family to this city. And now with recent developments, their homes are being placed, they're being put at risk, they're being put in harm's way. They're having being displaced and they can't afford to live in Durham.  So we should be concerned about the human element when we're developing and the lives that are being put under pressure. So I'm asking that we, you know, you know, include this and vote in favor for that Walltown Long-time Home Omen or Assistance Program. And also I would like to say, as far as police go, is that I feel we need to take a look at this as not divesting in the police with Durham, growing as a metropolis, we're gonna need the police force even more. I see it that we need to retrain the officers from their current practices. And I think we need to go back to a community policing system. You know, with the crime rising, we need our police force, but they need to be retrained. Okay, thank you very much. And I appreciate your time. Ms. Green, thank you. We so appreciate you for being here with us tonight. Next, we'll hear from Marcus Southern, followed by Vanessa Evans and Shanice Hamilton. So first we'll hear from Marcus Southern. Mr. Southern, are you available to be heard? Yes, sir. Thank you for being with us and you also have two minutes. Thank you. I wanna thank the council members for their time this evening. I'd also like to congratulate Tom Miller. This evening, I urge the city council to expand the city's long-time homeowners grant to the Walltown neighborhood. The city is undergoing a massive transition as many of us have observed. Durham County, I believe, was the fourth-fastest growing county in the United States. However, the rapid expansion of the city has not been without growing pains. The influx of newcomers to Durham has driven up the price of real estate in town. This in turn has led to a sudden doubling and even tripling of property taxes for long-term residents in the city over the last five years. And this will continue to accelerate. The abrupt rise in property tax threatens to push out many long-term residents. And I ask the council to recognize the historic moment we are in. Inaction will surely hasten the displacement of long-term residents and accelerate the destruction of historic black communities like Walltown. I'd also like to remind council members Johnson and Mayor Shul that you actually met myself and other members of the Walltown community association in Northgate Mall's food court well over a year ago where we asked for this grant to be extended to the Walltown neighborhood. And another year has passed and many long-term residents grasp on their homes has become even more tenuous. So I hope you all seize this opportunity to extend the grant to the Walltown neighborhood. And with this grant, the city can preserve at our estimates nearly $12 million of black and native Durham wealth. And thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Southern. I appreciate your being with us tonight. Again, we're listening to all your comments. We take them very seriously and we're grateful for them. Now we'll be hearing from Vanessa Evans followed by Shanice Hamilton and Julia Springer. Madam clerk, can you make Vanessa Evans available to be heard? Good evening Mayor Shul and city council members. Ms. Evans, thank you for being with us. And you also have two minutes. We're glad to have you. Thank you. First like to say we the Bradtown community association on support of Merrickmore and the Walltown community and all black communities that have been underserved here in Durham. We ask that the city and the County of Durham be transparent in what they are doing within the black, brown and indigenous communities of Durham. Let communities know what's going on when we have problems with developers not one to engage with communities. And they want to come in and develop within the communities that they're working in. I'd like to see that displacement stops long life, long residents, hardworking residents of Durham taken out of their homes and to have a system where people are paid living wages. And this way people can be able to pay for their homes and stay in the spaces in which they live. Bradtown wants a guarantee that there will be affordable housing in our area after raising taxes in all black communities of 100 to 300%. It is time that we get back what taxes have been taken from us. You all have stated that y'all are wanting to raise a two cent tax, but we haven't even used the previous buying monies of affordable housing. But then you're wanting more monies from residents that are still in the same fixed income or dealing with the pandemic that was still in but not out of it yet. From 2010 to now over $64 million has been taken out of taxes out of just Bradtown residents. We would like to see some of that money put back into our community as well as other communities that have been underserved and they too can go to data works to find out their information of how much taxes have been taken out of their community. Durham speaks of equitable services to all communities but whereas the true equitability in Durham. Ms. Evans, thank you for being with us tonight. We very much appreciate it. All right, now we'll hear from Shanice Hamilton. Ms. Hamilton, are you available to be heard? I am. Thank you for being with us tonight and you also have two minutes. Okay, thank you. So I would just like to clarify the city demands for a team to transform is to reallocate the currently vacant 10% of the DPD police officer positions to the department of safety and wellness and invest in unarmed roles for responding unarmed folks to respond to 911 calls specifically mental health calls and traffic stops. And so there's over 60 vacancies right now for sworn officers in the police department. We're asking for the funding for those 60 vacancies to be reallocated to the department of safety and wellness and hire unarmed compassionate care responders. We're not asking to move actual police officers from DPD to the department of safety and wellness. Our goal is to actually create more safety measures for our community and please do not keep us safe. Also please do not stop crying. Also just want to share that like you have no idea how many times I jumped on my own child because I hear the gunshots and they're literally right outside my window. And I'm like terrified that one of those bullets will come through my bedroom wall one of these days. I've also had a start to meet against me. I was more afraid to call the police and deal with the situation as is. And yet I still believe that we need to divert from policing and invest in care in our community and so do so many of our residents. I shared my lived experiences and meetings with city council members. I also know that there's stuff going on in the streets because our folks are struggling and in need of help. Our community has the resources that, if we have the resources that we actually need to get folks, like the help that they need, stable housing, resources, food, insurance, medical, health, transportation, like all of the basic needs, like our community would be better situated to thrive. Bringing a more surveillance to neighborhoods that are already being over-policed is not the answer ever. We are tired of living in fear. As far like the work that we've done with this campaign, we've met with each member of city council, each of you, as well as our city, as well. Ms. Hamilton, thank you for being with us. We have heard from you previously and we'd welcome hearing from you again. Thank you so much for being with us tonight. And if you have further comments that you'd like to extend, please feel free to write them to us. We'd be happy to read them. Now we'll hear from Julia Springer, followed by John Milazo and then Jacqueline Wagstaff. Is Ms. Springer available to be heard? Mr. Mayor, Ms. Springer is not in the queue. All right. How about Mr. Milazo? Is John Milazo here? Yes, he is, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Milazo, can you be heard? Mr. Milazo? Mr. Mayor, he's no longer here. No longer here, okay. Thank you. Ms. Wagstaff, Ms. Jacqueline Wagstaff. Ms. Wagstaff, are you available to be heard? Madam Clerk, is Ms. Wagstaff still with us? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, Ms. Wagstaff, thank you for being here and you also have two minutes. Okay, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and council members. Let me just start by saying one thing about this notion that Durham does not need more law enforcement. That's got to be one of the most acidine notions that I've heard in a long time. I had the privilege of just two weeks ago standing in the middle of the street with a mother who lost her 26-year-old son who laid in the street for six hours with her watching him. And I didn't see one of those mental health people there. I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, I'll call her back. We lost her, Madam Clerk. Yes, noting, I just want to take a moment and appreciate former council member Wagstaff's service to this board and also to the Durham Public Schools Board. Thank you, council member. We're gonna just wait until we can get Ms. Wagstaff back. She needs to unmute herself. All right, Ms. Wagstaff, could you unmute yourself? Ms. Wagstaff, are you back with us? Can you unmute yourself? I'm muted, and then, hello? There you go. Yes, we can hear you. Thank you, and you can go ahead and start again. You have two minutes. Thanks for being with us. Okay, Mr. Mayor, it's always a pleasure and an honor to be in your presence. Thank you, always a pleasure. Always, but to go back to my previous statement, I think it is the most acid-dying notion to think that Durham does not need police officers. One of the things that I'm clear on, I know these streets very well, and just about two weeks ago, I had the privilege, and I wouldn't even say it was an honor, but to stand in the middle of the street with a mother whose son had just walked around the corner on his way to work, and he was murdered in the streets at the same time that your group was discussing cutting the police budget. Now, my understanding is that when we have these incidents that occur in Durham, I don't think anybody's gonna be called in mental health workers or unarmed civilians to come to these type of incidents. I wouldn't call an unarmed civilian to even go to a traffic violation, because those incidents can turn volatile in a matter of seconds, and you have to have someone there that has the authority. When you create these positions, who's gonna be responsible for the authority that has to be given to these people when they show up at these incident, and then something occurs that gets out of hand, and then they're lost students? Who's gonna assume the liability? All of these questions have not been answered yet. And to hear four members of this council pledge a commitment of 20, getting rid of 20 positions this year, 20 next year, and 20 in the third year, just it makes my skin crawl to believe that if you were looking at what I see in these streets from these people that are suffering every day at the hands of the crime that's going on, and we say we don't need law enforcement to help us out, there has to be something wrong with your mental psyche. But if you wanna invest in something, start investing in these youth. Start putting some of these youth programs back together that we had years ago that kept our kids out of the street and kept the guns out of their hands. We have to do that. We have five people shot at 2 a.m. on Fayetteville Street. Thank you very much, Ms. Wackstaff. Thank you for being with us. And if you have further comments, please feel free to email us. We are happy to hear them. We'll now hear from Danielle Doman, or Doman, I'm not sure how that's pronounced, Madam Clerk, could you make Danielle Doman available to be heard? Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you for being with us and you have two minutes. Perfect, thank you so much. I'm speaking in support of two items this evening, the long-time homeowner's association program and funding for transit. So as a well-town resident, I urge all of you to add well-town to the long-time homeowner's association program and ensure that there are sufficient funding not only for this year, but for years to come for income eligible residents. NC Data Works estimates that just an investment of $100,000 will protect long-time homeowners in the historic well-town community that as you are well aware, and as others have said, is under ongoing threats from unchecked development and justification. So including well-town in the program is one way that you all, that city council, can take meaningful action to support my neighbors. And I agree with a previous speaker that the assistant cap should be raised since the average long-term homeowner of color in well-town, again, according to NC Data Works, saw their property tax at least doubled from 1,500 to an average of 3,000 in just past three years. So a $700 grant is not enough. A related request for more updates and transparency around what actions taking place on the affordable housing bond since it was passed in November, 2019, there's been very little publicly available information. And finally, I urge you to please invest in transportation that is safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable by extending free transit for the next year through June of 2022, funding, staffing that's needed for associated projects and also committing those resources to end pedestrian deaths and develop and implement a vision zero action plan. Thanks for your time. Thank you, Ms. Doman. We appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much. We'll now hear from Donald Hughes and Mr. Hughes will be followed by Charlida Burrus. Mr. Hughes, thank you for being with us. Are you able to be heard? Yes, I am here. And I just wanted to take a moment of personal privilege to ask about accessibility. I tried to open the closed captioning feature on the Zoom and I'm not seeing that option. So I would just encourage you all to think about that for future meetings, for those that might be hearing impaired or have other disabilities. Thank you. All right. Well, good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. I'm going to keep this pretty direct. Over my last three decades living in the city, I'd have to say that this is probably the most disappointed I've been in our elected members of the Durham City Council. I have sent multiple emails to the council regarding the FY21-22 proposed budget and ideas that I think could address the many social ills that are plaguing our city. Only one council member has responded to my email and that is council member DeGreionna Freeman. And I've tried through multiple mediums to reach council members, Jillian, Javier, Charlie and Mr. Pierce Freeline, but I've gotten no response. I've even gone to Zoom meetings and sent direct messages to these council members and still receive no response. I guess we live in a time where council members choose to ignore those constituents who they feel don't agree with them on the issues of the day. But tonight I'm here to request that the council really considers adding more funds to the Youth Works program, the summer jobs program for our young people. Currently a mere 550,000 is proposed for the program only providing summer employment opportunities to less than 500 youth in Durham to gain much needed employment and job skills. While there seems to be a singular focus from council members, Johnson, Javier, Reese and Pierce to take money away from local law enforcement, which I think is a reactive response, I have not seen much innovative thought from the same council members in the way of proactive solutions that provide opportunities for black and brown youth in our community. We must do better and we can do better. Research shows that summer youth employment correlates and is particularly effective in reducing violent crimes such as gun violence, something that we know Durham knows a lot about recently. I encourage you all to read my proposal, which has the support of local community members and state representative Hawkins and vote to double the youth employment program to $1 million provided in about a thousand opportunities for black and brown youth in this community. And similar to council member Middleton, if we're gonna pilot programs such as council member Johnson's pet project, the participatory budget program, where we've given over $2 million to just go to any type of program, maybe we should consider direct investments into our young people by providing them with opportunities to gain. Mr. Hughes, thank you so much for being with us. We're happy to have you. And if you have further comments, you may send them to us. I assure you, I read all of your emails, like all of my colleagues, we get hundreds and hundreds of emails and unfortunately aren't able to respond to all of them. But very much appreciate your being here. Ms. Charlida Burris is next up in the queue. Madam Clark, is Ms. Burris available to be heard? Ms. Burris, can you unmute yourself? Yes, I can. How y'all doing tonight? Thank you for being here with us and you have two minutes. Okay, real quick and fast. I had gun shots fired right at my place, right at the entrance of Edgemont, Alms on Saturday morning at 3.58 a.m. Now I was ducking gunfire. Also, I tried to call 911 in the middle of the day, no response. Now I sent two emails to two of the councilmen as Freelon and Freeman. And this bothers me when some of y'all are not in our areas, you say you want it, you're in the community, I don't see it. But I'm grateful that our councilman Freelon and Freeman did go to MacDougal Terrace. But MacDougal Terrace is not the only place that is having gun shots fired. Now, as far as you're concerned, Julian Johnson, cutting pol