Good evening. We'd like to call the Durham City Council meeting to order January 5th 2015 at 7 o'clock p.m. and certainly want to welcome everyone is here this evening and wish everyone a happy new year and hopefully I'll be off to a good start. We could just take a moment for a solid meditation please. Thank you. Would ask Councilman Brown if he would leave us in the pledge. Madam Clerk would you call the roll please. Mayor Bill. President. Mayor Pro Tim Cole McFadden. Councilmember Brown. Councilmember Cattady. Councilmember Davis. Councilmember Moffitt. Councilmember Shul. We have two three proclamations to present this evening. I don't know if anyone's here to represent Dr. John Hope Franklin family. If not I won't read the proclamation. It's really an honor of Dr. John Hope Franklin's centennial birthdays.  We have a proclamation we're going to be presenting. They're doing a celebration of his life later this year and it speaks to the fact that he was born January 2nd 1915 in Rentsville Oklahoma to attorney Buck Colbert Franklin and teacher and milliner Molly Parker Franklin. It speaks to the fact that he was awarded over 140 honorary degrees, lectured in universities around the world, was an avid orchid enthusiast and had two hybrids named for him was the marvelous chef, father and husband and inspiration to students and faculty. Now therefore I, William V. Bill Bell, Mayor of the City of Durham North Carolina do have our honor the memory of Dr. John Hope Franklin's centennial birthday and if I urge all the citizens to take special note of this observance and witness my hand in the quarter city of Durham North Carolina. This is the fifth day of January 2015 and I know I spoke into the sign and someone will be here to pick this up. It's Dr. Wilson here. Dr. Wilson is the professor of criminal justice at NCCU and we're here to see him to present a small proclamation recognizing justice. Whereas the word justice appears in many of the United States most cherished documents to include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Pledge of Allegiance, whereas the pursuit of justice assures a fair society, whereas the North Carolina Chapter of National Association of Blacks and Criminal Justice and the National Alliance of Faith and Justice founded Justice Sunday to symbolically recognize Dr. King as a clarity and drum major for justice and to commemorate the spirit and service of thousands of diverse volunteers who fought to preserve human dignity and achieve social change, whereas the National Observance of Justice Sunday on January 18, 2015 and I might indicate that Justice Sunday is a trademark, office of benchmark to launch and renew efforts to eradicate bias and divides, build mutual respect and play us to work together to ensure all children maximize access to the pencil, meaning education rather than pen, meaning penitentiary, whereas Congress in 1994 passed the King Holiday and Service Act which directed the Corporation for National and Community Service to support a national day of service, whereas the theme of Justice Sunday, a charge to keep we have service beyond and beyond, before and beyond, challenges all to facilitate assistance and transition and healing before and beyond the national day of service, whereas January's national mentoring month doing which NAFJ partners with institutions of faith, municipalities and community stakeholders, National Association of Blacks and Criminal Justice, Association for the Study of African American Life and History and others to encourage mentoring, whereas Justice Sunday, 2015 will serve as a national day of recruitment for mentors to help youth to reach their full potential and whereas NAFJ encourages the use of national park service sites as resources to promote civic dialogue and interpretation of relevant themes such as civil rights, therefore I will be billed by the Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, to hear by joined with NAFJ and its local affiliate in proclaiming January 18th, 2015 as Justice Sunday, 2015 in order to our citizens to honor change through a broader commitment to volunteerism and service around pressing social issues. I'm going to present this to Dr. Wilson for any comments that he might have. I want to take a minute of your time. Justice Sunday was so many times we celebrate King's Grief that we forget the cause and we take it as a vacation rather than as a day to do any service. So Justice Sunday was used to commemorate Dr. King because most of the social movements in this country, especially civil rights styles in the church, and so what we're doing around Durham, and we've been sending letters around the different churches, asking them to take 15 or 20 minutes on Sunday, the 18th to commemorate Justice unfairness in our communities and to have a small dialogue and to have a prayer for justice in this country. So that's why we are celebrating Justice Sunday. Thank you very much. I'd like to ask Dewarne Langley, Vice Chair of the Durham County Juvenile Prevention Council and Larry Thomas, President of Thomas Leadership Mentoring Academy. This proclamation is sort of in keeping with the one that I just read, and it speaks about mentoring. Whereas in 2002, the Harvard School of Public Health and Mentor, the National Mentoring Partnership created National Mentoring Month. Whereas the goals of National Mentoring Month are to raise awareness of mentoring, recruit individuals to mentor, and encourage organizations to engage and integrate quality and mentoring into their efforts. Whereas a mentor is a caring, consistent presence who devotes time to a young person to help that young person discover personal strength and achieve their potential through a structured and trusting relationship. Whereas quality mentoring encourages positive choices, promotes self esteem, supports academic achievement, and introduces young people to new ideas. Whereas the mentoring programs have shown to be effective in combating school violence and discipline problems, substance abuse and incarceration, and truancy. Whereas mentors help young people set career goals and use their personal contacts to help young people meet industry professionals and find jobs. Whereas youth development experts agreed that mentoring is critical to the social, emotional, and cognitive development of youth, helping them to navigate the path to adulthood most successfully. Now therefore, I, Wayne V. Bilbell, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, D.U.P.A., January 2015, as Mentoring Month in Durham, and hereby called upon public officials, educators, business, and community leaders, as well as encourage all citizens to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs in order to, one, recognize the men and women who serve as staff and volunteers at quality mentoring programs who help in our young people find inner strength and to reach their full potential, and two, to promote the creation and expansion of quality mentoring programs across the country to equip young people with tools needed to lead healthy and productive lives, and three, support initiatives to close the mentoring gap. Again, witness by hand, Corporate City of Durham, North Carolina, this is the 50th of January 2015. I'm going to present this to Attorney DuWarn Langley and for any comments and to the President also. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Bilbell. Before I get started, I would like to wish the Mayor who celebrated his birthday on Saturday a happy birthday. Happy birthday, Mayor Bilbell. And to members of the City Council and citizens of Durham, we would like to thank the Council as well as the Mayor for this proclamation. As having grown up in Durham, I'm a benefactor of mentoring and have benefited from individuals like Coral Cole McFadden, a former City Council member Howard, Clement, Michael Palmer, John Roars, and a lot of other individuals. We have a number of mentoring organizations here in Durham, such as the Thomas Leadership Mentoring Academy, Partners for Youth Opportunity, Movement of Youth. So many great organizations and individuals are committed to helping our young people grow and develop. And we just want to continue to encourage mentorship as well as allowing young people to have opportunity to grow and develop in the City of Durham. And I want to turn it over to Larry to see if he had any words. On behalf of Thomas Mentoring Leadership Academy, myself and our Chairman, Larry Campbell, we would like to thank our Mayor, all of our City leaders for their continued support, because we all know the difference that a mentor, a thing I like always like to say a positive mentor, because if we don't mentor them, they will be mentored. So we have to be positive mentoring. So once again, I'd like to thank all the mentors and everybody's taken time out of their lives to mentor a young person. And lastly, you'll be hearing more from my brother's Keeper Summit for our young people here in Durham. So keep your ears open. Once again, Mayor, thank you so much. Like directs nice. Council person's comments. I know Councilman Schuhl and then the mayor program. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor. We tonight on our consent agenda have a resolution concerning unaccompanied migrant children in Durham, which we are about to pass tonight, where we make it clear that Durham is a city that welcomes all people, especially including unaccompanied migrant children who are coming to us from Central America, many of them from driven from very harsh conditions. They come here to Durham and are they come here with a sponsor. And so they are here with support from our community. But many of them need much more support. And I want to our resolution. Thanks Durham Public Schools, El Futuro, Immaculata and El Centro and many of the other institutions would support these young people. And so we're not going to be I see Mr. Mayor that we have a lot of people here who came to support this and we're not going to be discussing this tonight. We've already done it in a work session. But I wondered if those who were here in support of this resolution concerning unaccompanied migrant children in Durham and welcoming those children would like to stand up and in their with their support. Thank you all very much for being here. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman school. Recognize the mayor pro town. Good evening and Happy New Year, everyone. I'd like to congratulate the Durham Ministerial Alliance for the Emancipation Proclamation service on the 1st of January and for the citywide revival that it is sponsoring beginning tonight at Union Baptist Church. As a matter of fact, I believe in corporate prayer. And to that end, I will be leaving this meeting somewhere around a quarter of eight so I can join the spiritual leaders of the city because if we ever needed prayer before in this city, we certainly need it now. So do I need an excused absence or to pray? It's been proper and moving second by Councilman Davis and Councilman Cattati. Madam clerk, we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes seven is zero. Thank you. Are there any other comments by members of the council? Recognize Councilman Brown. Thank you, Mr Mayor. And thanks for all of you who are here. I must say the gentleman pointed out a very good salient point that is concerning the mentors that if we do not mentor our children or if our parents do not, we know who will. And we know also the very negative devastating effect. If our children fall under the wrong mentors. So please thanks for bringing that issue up. Also, I would like to make a point that we lost a very fine, dedicated public servant last week. And that was Governor Mario Como of New York. I went out to the Raleigh Durham Airport. Oh, gosh, this was probably 20 years ago to hear him speak. And it was quite an afternoon because he began his speech with a very simple question. And that is, what happens when a child, a student drops out of high school? And then he then commenced to go through the litany of all the negatives, all the social ramifications, all of the community's negativity that would come from that. And again, that was a long time ago, folks, but I still remember it. And he will be missed. Thank you. Councilman Brown, are there any other comments from the Council? If not, we proceed with the agenda. I would ask the priorities items by city manager. If there are any. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Happy New Year as well. Agenda item number 23, zoning map change auto park center Z 14 0011 is an item that is needing to be referred back to the administration to the city County Planning Department. The applicants attorney and design consultant notified the city late this afternoon of this request and want an opportunity to readdress a site plan issue. So that'll come back to council at a later date. Entering emotional and manages prior times, proper move by the mayor pro temp second by councilman Cattati and councilman Moffitt. Madam clerk, we open the button. Close vote. Passes seven to zero. Recognize the city attorney for any priority items. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No priority items. Likewise city clerk. No items, Mr. Mayor. We're proceed with the agenda. First being the consent agenda items may be approved by single motion if a council member removes an item or someone in the public removes it. We'll discuss it later during the meeting. Read the heading. Item one is approval city council minutes. Item two is the firefighters relief fund board of trustees appointments. Item three is the Raleigh Durham airport authority appointment. Item four is the passenger vehicle for higher commission appointments. Item five is street infrastructure acceptances. Item six is a resolution concerning unaccompetent migrant children in Durham. I've been seven is expediting hearing requests for zoning map change. South side East faces two and three Z 14 0 0 0 3 4. Item eight is an item that can be found on the general business agenda. Item nine is a license to dream between the city of Durham and Brightfield transportation solutions to install a DC fast charger in parking lot 32. Item 10 is the dream of sidewalk construction on Avondale Drive. Tip number you 4726 H M. Item 11 is a bid report November 2014. Item 14 is a change order to address modifications to the masonry scope of work for foreign to Cleveland Street roof and envelope renovations contract with LA Downing and Sun Inc. Item 15 is a contract for property management services with GWC properties LLC as 66 16 East Main Street 101 South Elizabeth Street 113 South Elizabeth Street 601 East Ramsey Street and 605 East Ramsey Street. I'm 17 is in a local dream of Durham County for the purchase of sodium chloride. Item 18 is you 33 0 8 Austin Avenue use an occupancy of dream of North Carolina Department of Transportation. I am 19 is you dash 0 0 7 1 East and connected CS X railroad permit item 20 is SS 4905 be one old Oxford road at Daniel Blaine North Carolina Department of Transportation improvements items 22 to 23 items that can be found on the general business agenda and take the motion for the approval of the Senate agenda items property moved by the mayor pro temp second by councilman sure madam clerk we open the vote close the vote and pass the seven is you move to item eight general business agenda 2015 long session legislative agenda to accept the proposed 2015 long session legislative agenda. Good afternoon Mr. Mayor madam and pretend members of the council city manager. My name is Karmisha Wallace I'm the senior assistant to the city manager the item that is before you tonight is asking the council to adopt the 2015 long session legislative agenda. There were some questions that were raised during the city council work session. We do have I think a few folks who've come this evening to respond to some of the questions that have been raised by the council. Sorry. We have three people that signed up to speak and I will recognize them if they choose to speak. Otherwise we can have what a discussion we need to have at the city council on this one. I think the issue has to do with the first legislative proposal. And I saw Leo early when we came in. She's late. And Marsha on is Marsha present. And George Wilson is Georgia here. Okay. So maybe we should introduce what this is for the public. Okay. The sheriff's report our request. Okay. So the sheriff submitted a request to you Mr. Mayor was subsequently forwarded to the council. And what the sheriff is asking is for the council to support his proposal. And that proposal is increasing the penalty for offenses involved in stolen firearms. I will say that we were anticipating this item a little bit later on the agenda. I'm not sure if the sheriff is going to be here. I did speak with someone from the sheriff's attorney's office. And I think they were anticipating being here this evening. But at this point the only thing that the sheriff is asking is for the council to support. It is not the intent of the administration to advocate or lobby for this particular item or to work with the legislators to draft language to this effect. But the sheriff is simply asking for the council to support this particular item regarding stolen firearm offenses. Recognize the Mayor Pro Tem. So Camisha did you say someone is was to come tonight to somebody here. I mean from the sheriff's office. Yes I did speak with I think Curtis Massey from the sheriff's attorney. He and I spoke this afternoon and he was planning to be here tonight. Mr. Thoughto it's going to be later. Yes sir but we wouldn't want a discussion without them. Well I guess we it's on the agenda and we have persons that are here to speak on this item. So I'd like to recognize them at the appropriate time. Leo Rupert Marsher Owen and George Wilson if you care to come to the podium to the right. And if you could limit your comments initially three minutes. Good evening. I'm Leo Rupert from the Carolina Justice Policy Center and thank you so much for allowing me to speak this evening. My comments are a little bit longer than three minutes. So just cut me off when you need to. There's probably a first time here in spite of Steve around. We have a clock over there that looks at the time. So I want to let you know that I value and respect the work of our sheriff and I know that he has the very best of intentions regarding this proposal. And I too am concerned about the use of firearms in our city as I know you are. The question is not whether it's a good idea to reduce firearm theft. The question is whether the proposal would have the impact that you want. And the question is not whether or not we're just being tough on crime but whether we're being smart on crime as well. So my request of you is that when it comes to increasing sentences that you learn about the sentencing structure and consider proposals that become before you in a larger context that you ask for evidence that lengthening sentences actually reduces the crime that you have in mind and that you consider unintended and harmful impacts. We're not going to be able to go through all those in three minutes but that's just a sort of general outline. First I hope you'll consider the larger context in which you're making the proposal here. I've distributed a copy of the North Carolina sentencing structure and just briefly this is how it looks. This is the larger context. The sentences go from most serious at level A to least serious at level one and then they go vertically. So level A you've got murder and I'm not I'm sorry level A you have murder level I you have a less serious offense for example criminal receipt of goods and services. Now I just want to point out that all offenses are serious. There's not any offense that doesn't involve somebody or is not serious. Going across horizontally you're looking at prior records. So if you have a very severe prior record you would receive a receive a longer sentence horizontally. So this is the context in which our sentencing structure is set. So when you raise or lower any penalty not just this one please think about the overall context because as you raise one sentence you might be reducing this the seriousness which with another offense is viewed. The proposals before you in the context of are in the context of North Carolina's sentencing structure proposal one increases the penalty for larceny of a firearm from a class H felony to a class E felony. The offense is at the age level because it involves a crime against property which again is viewed as serious but not as serious as a crime against persons. So by moving it up you're equating it with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill discharging certain barreled weapons or a firearm into occupied property. You would even be saying that theft of a firearm is as serious as an offense of that of a person who commits a lower level felony death by vehicle. So I have a few more remarks but that's the general context in which I hope you'll consider these proposals. Thank you very much. Thank you. Be happy to answer any questions. Marsha. Thank you for this opportunity. Happy New Year. I'm Marshawn with the Religious Coalition for Nonviolent Durham and let me just finish what you began if I may that by by having stolen firearms become go from a misdemeanor to a felony at this class you're talking about increasing punishment at 72 months it would make it commiserate with assault with a deadly weapon as Leo said kidnapping in the second degree and felony death by vehicle. I just don't think that that is commiserate. I also think that we need to think thoroughly about how do we address stolen firearms and firearm thefts in Durham if we're willing to spend 72 months incarcerating someone at the rate of $29,200 we're talking about over $175,000 for a firearm theft. Couldn't we be more creative to see how can we address this community so that people store their firearms more carefully so that they're not stolen and that we work as a community to address this in a more economical fashion and I think in a more just fashion so I would just like to agree with Leo that this is I think it is a extremely harsh response and not a very smart one. Thank you. Welcome George Wilson. I'm here representing criminal justice politics center and myself as a professor of criminal justice and increasing the sentences for gun theft would that really reduce crimes? I'm not sure it would. I just finished reading and teach about a book called The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and this happened before. They increased the penalties for drugs. They made mandatory sentences for drugs. They misused the whole idea of why the drugs were there gave misleading information and it only caused mass incarceration rather than reducing the problem. I see the problem is that who's taking care of the guns where the guns stored and what the citizens responsibilities are for those guns and I don't think that having an increase we already have a penalty for guns. Increasing the penalty would only add to mass incarceration of those persons who are there. Citizens should be more aware of how they store their guns if they have them which is their rights and what they would do but if I would look at the whole picture increasing the penalty but only increasing the number of people who are going into prison who will still be coming back out to our to our communities we can't serve the ones that are coming out now and adding more people to our roles of our cities, our jails, our social services, our housing, our jobs would only increase the problem to reduce it so I am against the idea of adding additional time for a penalty that's already there. The problem should be how can you make folks take better care of restoring their arms rather than penalizing folks for sitting there. Thank you. Thank you. Do you recognize the mayor pro tem? Eagle land. Good evening. So what do you suggest that we do? Now this is my backdrop one of my church members was killed he was lying in bed and someone fired a gun and I penetrated the house and he died in my neighborhood. We hear gun shots all the time on the day after on November 30th my neighbors told me that they could not get into my neighborhood and this is old farm there was a shooting right on the periphery of our neighborhood in one of the apartment complexes. What do we do for people who are getting guns who are stealing them but getting them from unknown places what do we do just wait and let people continue to die let us continue you're the professor please tell me they're not getting them from unknown place they're getting them from us why do we need them in the first place we have too many guns in our society already so why do we need more guns they're selling guns now I just went to gun show and they're selling guns that are fully automatic it's you can't do anything with but kill people and they have them stored in the houses in their homes so the idea is that why people they have more they've been more guns sold than any other time we're buying the guns don't know how to use them don't have to store them don't have to lock them and so that's the problem the issue is how would you trace the gun my problem is that if it takes me three or four hundred dollars or four five thousand dollars to trace the gun to find out where it came from and who stole it it could be stolen sold four or five times before they get it so you really are not really helping the problem by increasing the penalties you need to get rid of the gun have some real some real gun legislation to do something about solving the problem to me adding more time it's a band-aid approach to solving the problem that's already here the guns are already on the streets making a high appearance is not going to take the guns off the street and how can you definitely trace a gun back to say it's stolen a lot of people don't read it or you can have every citizen who has a gun register the gun at the police station let everybody know where the gun is with the serial numbers in the gun and they're not going to do that so now you're going to find this gun there might be four five years old there might be transfer from from family to family from another state and you're going to say now this gun is stolen in an attempt we need to have some real gun legislation we're going to band-aid approach to solving a problem that is out there in the streets already I appreciate what you said thank you I really appreciate what you said but still I have some concerns about what's already here and we do a lot of studying it and while we're studying people continue to get here but that's okay that's part of the system too thank you let me say something I'm really disappointed that someone from the sheriff's department is not here to defend the request that they're making I have some serious concerns about the use of firearms in this community and I know that if we did legislation it's highly unlikely it's going to be localized to Durham if it gets to the general assembly it's probably going to be debated whether you want to make it statewide etc I understand the mechanism but at least you raised the question let me let me just share some information with with my colleagues on the council and we have a a group of people consists of the city manager the county manager the sheriff the police chief the DA's office the magistrate the chief district court judge superior court judge we meet once a month and the focus is on violent crime in this community and I don't have to say it for my colleagues but for the general public when we speak about a violent crime we speak about four different categories of crime aggravated assaults robberies rapes and homicides the ultimate crime is probably all those homicides but homicides are a very small percentage of violent crime in this community serious but a very small amount the highest amounts of violent crimes are aggravated assaults robberies followed by rapes and homicides we look at this each month we track to see what the violent crime is in this community and in 2014 from january 1 to the middle of december there were 1400 violent crimes committed in this community 641 were committed with guns when we look at aggravated assaults during a certain period of this time thank you some more tape will make June July or September there were 1036 aggravated assaults in this community and a higher percentage of that was committed with guns same thing with robberies all guns by and large now the question that I have is I think that people at some point in time have got to take the consequences of their actions I mean when you break into someone's home you already beyond the pill when you've done that when you're breaking someone's home and you steal something you're still going beyond you've got a choice of what you want to steal now if you want to steal a gun versus a television set or jewelry etc that's your choices you're making but my large why are you stealing a gun you're stealing it because you're going to sell it to someone or you have the intent of using it now I don't know how many of these gun-involved crimes were from stolen weapons we can find that out but the fact is they were committed with guns and we've got to send a message that in Durham it's not acceptable it's not acceptable to do crime period but when you rise to the level that you do under crime and potentially hurting someone or harming someone with a gun or the intended to or not we've got to send a message now the question is what harm is done when you put someone in prison for this for a longer period of time my question is at least they are off the streets they're off the streets for four or five years I mean that might not be a good thing and I know the analogy that George made with with drug crimes of the penalties with cocaine etc and I I agree I think we went far beyond and we're finally coming back trying to correct that but to me guns are a different issue I mean you're still a gun for one or three person either you're going to sell it to someone you're going to use it or maybe going to keep it as a trophy well if you keep it as a trophy you know and you don't commit a crime with it you don't go get caught and we're talking about people to get caught with stolen firearms we're going to talk about people that steal guns and we never know where they go we're talking about those that have stolen a gun and they've committed a crime that's that's the issue and I'm sympathetic to what the sheriff is requesting unfortunately he's not here his representative is not here and it's going to be hard to to move this I think in the direction that needs to go but I'm not an illusion even if we supported this it's going to be a tough ballot over the general assembly it's going to be a very tough ballot I'm not even sure that our local legislators will support it but I think we need to raise the question and we need to send a message that violence with guns is intolerable violence period is intolerable but when you're doing it with guns it makes it even worse and when you're doing for stolen firearm that's a double piece that I think we we need to deal with so I appreciate the comments that have been made I know all the people and I respect you very much for what you do somehow I think this has got to come back maybe you can do both maybe you can study it and try to implement it but I just don't think we can leave it lying the amount of violence that we're seeing and I'm concerned about Durham I don't know what's happened across the state I don't know if it's worse less or whatever but I'm concerned about what's happened in Durham it's intolerable to have this type of violence created in this community with the guns that are being done I don't even talk about homicides I mean I looked at homicides and I think a period of time that I looked at we had I think we had 12 homicides and of those 12 homicides all but three were committed with guns again gun involvement and I got another speech I want to get on and that's who's who's committing these crimes and that's that's a whole different story I talked about that in emancipation proclamation about who's really committing these aggravated it's African-Americans against African-Americans young people another issue we got to deal with in this community and you know maybe we'll start that with my brother's keeper but we have an issue here and we just need to own up to it and you know we can keep studying it but the facts are here we've got a violent crime and the vast majority of it is being treated with guns and the only question that I don't know that I'm sure we can find out is whether those guns were stolen or not but having said that anything else on this recognize councilman shul thank you Mr. Mayor Mr. Mayor you know first of all I know that you have backed up your your words against gun violence with many actions so you have been in the forefront of really the kind of gun legislation that Dr. Williams was talking about Dr. Wilson was talking about earlier you have been in the forefront of that and I know that you when it comes to this gun violence you put your money where your mouth is and I appreciate it and I'm totally supportive of that and I agree with you about gun violence in our community and the and the ravage that it causes the havoc that it causes but you know the reason that I don't support this our that the council support this is that I don't think it's it's going to do anything to improve that situation and I think it does have some negative consequences and I do think it's important to think about let me just say that don't hold anything against Leo the fact that she's married to me she her credentials are I will tell you her credentials one is that she's fabulous and she's brilliant and I love her but the other credential that she has is that she she's been on the when the state legislature establishes sentencing commission she was one of the first people to be appointed to that commission and has served on it for 17 years before she stepped down a couple years ago the person in their state who served the longest on our sentencing commission and knows a lot about it so I think that it's important to think about do we really want to support moving a crime against property into the same category of seriousness as a crime against a person so stealing a firearms is terrible and I agree with you a lot of people want to wreak havoc with that firearm but do we want to really make a theft of a firearm to be seen as serious as assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill kidnapping and assault on a law enforcement officer with a gun those are all crimes against persons and and we have a sentencing structure for a reason and the second thing I would say is that in the terms of the second proposal the sale or receipt of a stolen firearm is already a felony not a misdemeanor which is the second proposal that the sheriff has and I think that if we shouldn't be raising this we should be if we think that our district attorney is prosecuting this as a as a misdemeanor rather than the felony it is I think what we need to do is let's talk to our district attorney about prosecuting it as it's supposed to be prosecuted before kicking it up to a classy felony where it's extremely serious as serious as some of these crimes against persons and then increasing the term of imprisonment by 72 months six years the the state legislature just in 2013 enacted additional penalties similar to this for the use not the theft or the sale but the use of a firearm and so I think what we should find out is has this had any effect we should know that first and before we before we support an increase here and then finally I just want to point out and it is terrible to break into someone's home and to steal a firearm those are and those are both already crimes and they're both already crimes that carry significant punishment with them and so for that reason Mr. Mayor I would hope that we would not support this as part of our legislative agenda thank you Thank you Councilor Schultz I just see that the sheriff and his council has come in you've missed probably I don't know if you missed the night medicine on the TV but Sheriff I know that we're discussing your proposal a request and I don't know if you or your council wants to come forward Good afternoon well good evening I hope everyone had a great holiday Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council members I appreciate your consideration for the legislative initiatives I afforded to you and hope that you will support all of them while I and my legal advisor are prepared to discuss all of them I understand that the only questions you are concerned or the proposal is the increase to dependencies related to stolen firearms this concerns the offenses of larceny sell or receive a stolen firearm from a Class H to a Class E felony and increase in minimum sentences where another felony is committed with a stolen firearm this proposal proposal is based on my experience over the years of seeing so much gun violence in our community and seeing an increase in larceny and firearms including gun safes and I have heard a lot of discussion about the need to do something about the level of violence two years ago Mayor Bell took a first step and proposed that the bill be set for persons who commit criminal acts with weapons be dramatically increased particularly when they were a repeat offender the council supported that proposal and it became law so now there is rebuttable presumption against releasing persons from pretrial confinement who are alleged to have committed previous firearms offenses I see this proposal as a next step enhancing the punishment of those who are convicted of offenses involving stolen firearms and yes I do believe stolen firearms are a separate and more significant threat to our community I think it is fairly obvious that stolen firearms are not being added to someone's collection but instead are used in other crimes this may be where it is used directly in the armed robbery assault with a deadly weapon or murder or if it is merely carried by criminals so they have a deadly weapon available for their use or possessed by a felon who is not legally allowed to own a firearm I realize there has been some concern over the proposed increase and I do hope that the awareness of such significant penalty for stealing, selling or receiving a stolen firearm will deter criminals if that awareness does not then perhaps their conviction and sentencing for those offenses will remove that particular threat from our community thank you and I look forward to discussing any concerns you may have sure if I first I wish you'd been there earlier to see here some of the comments that were raised in opposition to this the net of what I'm hearing is that it's still too harsh of a penalty for persons who commit the offenses that you are proposing and I don't know if you have any comments relative to that Mayor Bailey and City Council for the last two and a half years I have sat in meetings with the mayor the police chief I have watched the violence on tvs on tv and I feel that it's time for us to take an initiative or a step to try to cut or curtail some of the activity that's occurring in our community individuals who are committing crimes are not purchasing and they're not coming to the sheriff's office filling out the legal way to purchase a permit and to buy weapons they are obtaining these weapons from individuals on the street and I would hope that you would help support me in this matter it's interesting people people talk about could you identify your I'm sorry Curtis Massey legal advisor to the sheriff's office you know it's interesting people talk about equivalencies of what is this offense compared to other things and the offensive larceny of a firearm is a class H felony as is larceny of ginseng and pine straw and I would suggest that this is a far more serious offense than either of those and when you talk about classy yes there are certain serious assaults upon person but classy felony also includes the unlawful possession and use of an unmanned aircraft a drone with a weapon a classy felony also includes possession with intent to sell controlled substances within a thousand feet of a schoolyard so it's not simply the serious physical but other hazards that are included within the classy penalties so you may say that is this a overly serious classification but how serious is the threat and that's why the sheriff when we pulled this out some months ago and started looking at making that change came to that level of classy now it's also been suggested and we were here for some of the comments that there was a statute passed last year regarding enhanced sentencing when a firearm is used in the commission of a felony and that's true interestingly that only applies if the use of the firearm doesn't have to be proved as part of the underlying felony i.e. armed robbery it would not apply assault with a deadly weapon it would not apply because use of the weapon is part of the underlying offense here it is simply saying the use of the stolen firearm is an additional kicker regardless it would still be necessary to show that the firearm was stolen and it was known to be stolen but it's about elevating the punishments for that larceny and use of the stolen firearm recognize councilman moffitt thank you first i just i want to say that i believe it's an unintentional mischaracterization to talk about concerns about it being too harsh when i've heard of concerns about effectiveness i don't think this is an issue where we disagree on being tough on crime i have a couple of questions one is have you all consulted the north carolina sentencing commission on this i mean that's that's the standard that's the body that considers and they would be part of the process right now they've not it's not been submitted to them the second is do you have a projection on reduction and gun thefts and gun related crimes what do you what do you expect other than i mean do you have any kind of a i can tell you for this year or for the past year we've sent an uptick in break-ins in the residences and in those break-ins we've had firearms stolen but we also have had firearms safes taken out of the house so we've seen an increase of 30 to 40 percent in our break-ins in the past year the um our our most of the firearm larcenies that you're seeing safes that are removed from the house no we we had a speaker earlier the mayor pretend mass well what do you do if you don't do what you're recommending and uh speaker who's a professor at nccu suggested that improper storage of a firearm might merit consideration would you all support legislation penalizing people for improper storage of a firearm in other words a theft is both the person committing the theft and the opportunity for that theft well most homes that are broken into councilman moffitt the homes are ransacked people don't just inherently lay their weapons out around their homes they're they're put up they're they may be in gun cabinets and citizens are actually buying gun safes now so you know at what point or where do we start an initiative to try to curtail and stop you know I've lived in Durham all my life and I I am proud of where I live but I am committed not only with the programs I've started at the sheriff's office whether it's the educational program to allow young people to get their education or the choices program that we started for 11 to 16 year old who are at risk youth I'm committed to trying to make a difference in our community and you know if someone is incarcerated at least their family can go speak with them they can't do that if they're buried in a graveyard well I don't think any of us would disagree with that and certainly none of us are soft on crime none of us want to see more gun crime in Durham but the I think the considerations raised are simply about and I understand the sense of I want to do something you know let's do something and certainly there are parts of this community that are I don't think it would be too far from the mark to say under siege well I believe that when things happen here in Durham you turn to chief Lopez and the police department and then turn to the sheriff's office to say what can we do and so I'm trying to make a step I'm trying to make a step I'm tired of sitting at a table and talking about it I'm trying to help do something about it thank you You're welcome to ask Councilman Davis Thank you Mr. Mayor I guess my question on number three here when you talk about how the minimum term of imprisonment for any offense with the underlying felony was committed with a stolen firearm will be for 72 months six years and does that matter who stole the weapon I mean if the person is committing the felony with a stolen weapon that was not stolen by that person does the discretion of a judge get removed because of this automatic minimum term of imprisonment and it doesn't doesn't seem to matter as long as it is a felony and I'm not talking about death but any felony that is committed with a stolen weapon with the person gets an automatic six year sentence well the minimum yes sir first it would still be an obligation to establish they knew it was a stolen weapon so that first question you said would it matter if they knew yes no no would it matter if that person stole the weapon or if someone else stole it no as long if they received the weapon knowing it was stolen there would still be the additional enhancement and then you know it's interesting this goes back Councilman Shul was pointing out about there's already been an enhanced punishment for offenses committed with a weapon this is the exact same enhancement it just extends it to stolen weapons as far as the discretion that's going to really lie more with the issue of the district attorney and how he chooses to prosecute thank you Mr. Spam yeah you have a comment okay I have a comment too but I'll defer to you I usually don't I'm uh let me do this students and uh the mayor of pro tem has to leave and Councilman Brown hasn't spoken and then give back to him I need to know if we're gonna vote on this because if we are I need to stay here I hate to forego the opportunity to pray but I'll stay for this one we're gonna vote on this tonight well it depends on I have a suggestion how we might move with this okay I'll wait till we've heard people speaking going Councilman Brown thank you Mr. Mayor and I'm glad excuse me to have representatives of the sheriff department I would suggest it would have also been beneficial to have someone from the general police department here uh this evening but I'm going to ask you Sheriff I guess you've talked with Chief Lopez about this and yes sir I sent the proposal or document over to Chief Lopez probably in about a month and a half ago okay so he is he's a supporter of this as far as I know yes sir thank you I was struck by some comments from the earlier speakers perhaps the focus should be on the storing excuse me storing arms versus stealing arms and I'm a little puzzled by that because it is as the mayor pointed out and others it is a conscious act not only to break into a home and to steal items but to steal the gun and I do not believe that the burden of proof should rest with a homeowner of this because as you have pointed out as well quite often the the places where guns are stored or the entire box is stolen because I mean you can buy these at Costco gun storage places and so even with those who decide to store their their guns in these cases gun cases quite often their guns are stolen as well secondly I concur with the professor Dr. Wilson in terms of the drug laws and what we did in the past and how many of us now will agree that has been a failure but I think it is not exactly a fair comparison to make when one talks about harsh drug laws versus gun laws and as the mayor points out as well some of these laws are are being rescinded or pushed back into a more common sensical approach you know I just our entire criminal justice system is under attack this state ranks number two in the nation that is to say second from the bottom in terms of what we spend on this system and it has moved beyond embarrassment to what is now a full crisis situation to such that perhaps even in April we may not even be able to pay in North Carolina those who serve on juries the $15 or whatever per day that they receive we can't afford to do autopsies on some of those who are killed perhaps in criminal cases I mean the list can go on and on and on and I also believe that and I really want to applaud what you did in terms of inculcating more education into the jail and the crime cabinet would be we're going to be touring our generally jail on this Friday yes sir because jails in this country have become places where when the inmate leaves he or she is a more hardened criminal than perhaps when they first entered but all of this aside I'm certainly inclined to go with the mayor and the mayor approached him on this is it a perfect response no but perhaps this will send a message to those to at least think twice before they steal a gun and we are talking ladies and gentlemen about 1.4 million guns that were stolen in the past six years in this country so let's hope this will send a message to those who are inclined to do so thank you Mr. Mayor that's counsel shul thank you Mr. Mayor I usually don't like to talk twice on these things but y'all weren't here when I got going so forgive me and sheriff has been said a couple times here I know that your intentions here absolutely the best and I have no quarrel with that I know that we're on the same side on that I know that your intentions are pure and I don't I don't agree that this will work but I know that you bring it forward with the idea that will and I totally trust and believe that I just do want to point out a couple of things and the in terms of I thought that my colleague Eddie Davis raised a really important point where when he asked about judicial discretion and I understand that the DAs have some discretion about what they charge people with but I think it is clear that we ought to be clear that this is a mandatory minimum this is this is not does not give the kind of judicial discretion that we are moving back towards in this country and we know that the California Three Strikes in Your Outlaw has been has been dismantled we know that the federal government with Attorney General Holder's support and leadership has been lessening a lot of the mandatory minimums that have been imposed for for drug crimes and so I think that to impose a mandatory minimum this situation is moving against the kind of judicial discretion that the that the country is moving towards and I think rightly so the other thing I want to say is I totally believe you again that the you've seen an uptick in the in the in this in the theft of firearms I completely trust you on that and but I think that one of the important things when you think about crime data is not just an uptick but what's the trend and my colleagues we have in front of us on the second page of this packet the the trend in firearms stolen during household burglaries from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and you'll see that if you look at the left hand column on the second page that the thefts victimizations involving firearm thefts nationally have fallen from 300,000 in 1994 to about 150,000 in 2010 there was an uptick in 2009 there've been upticks in other years but the general trend has been down and this is not to say that's not still serious problem it is a still serious problem but I think that when we look at crime data it's good to to think about it in the in the big picture so those are my additional comments Mr. Mayor appreciate it and thank you very much let me since we've had had this discussion process wise you're commission said this will support can you can you explain I know the difference for the record for the record the sheriff has asked that we he's he's soliciting the council's support for this legislative initiative which the sheriff is will be advancing independently and separate you know from from the council sheriff have you had any conversations with any of our legislators on this issue I haven't okay I like to move this to our legislative breakfast to have a discussion with our legislators and see where they are on this because somebody's gonna have have to take the bill forward I mean we can talk about it all day long but if nobody's interested in taking it forward it's it's not going anywhere if there's no support for our legislators to do this then at least from this viewpoint it looks like it's gonna be dead that's why I ask that you contact anyone else other than our local leg we've talked about harshness any particular reason why it was raised from an H to an E and nothing in between in terms of the suggested penalties we we have to legal advice and I have been going I've been discussing this with him for over a year and then the meetings backing forth with our meetings monthly here there was something that I felt that it needed more precedence on on the seriousness of a weapon being used and I just want to use this analogy we all sit behind computers every day and we mash a sin but you can recall that message somebody pulls a trigger you can recall that bullet so that's a serious crime anytime somebody wants to intimidate someone with a weapon or they actually use a weapon and I'm whatever's going on around the country I'm in tune with but I care about the community I live in and the people I serve well I'd like to move it forward I'd like to get a little bit more information as to why we went to E rather than anything in between in terms of harshness and understand that if someone does something with a gun there will be other charges other than this fact they stole the gun I mean that it's aggravated assault to kill someone to aim someone that's that's going to be a part of it the other piece from the management I like to get I like to get information from the police department looking at the robberies and an aggravated assaults that occurred in our community with guns is in a way they can tell us how many of those were done with stolen guns I think that's additional information I think would be helpful as we move forward but I like to move this to our legislative breakfast and have that discussion with I'm going to I'm going to recognize the councilman sure well that's a suggestion but I'm going to recognize councilman sure I just like to vote it up or down I don't you know if I'm on the losing end of it I'm okay but but I just prefer to go ahead and vote it up or down that's fine anything to motion on the item the motion is support I move support second it's been propped to move the second question back I just want to clarify that this motion is about the entire entire legislative package not just specifically this item or is it are you talking about just well detaching this item from the legislative agenda and voting on that separately well he has other proposals on there but I guess I was focusing on the stolen forums probably but the the agenda item itself is our entire legislative package of which this is an advocacy request so I didn't know if you wanted to move the entire the the the oh you know you're talking about the whole package so I'm sorry so I didn't know yeah there are two different motions I think that we're talking about Steve for the whole package and that's that's a different issue I was trying to isolate this this portion of the agenda and I thought that's what the motion was going to be well in reference to let me just share what the motion is the motion is for this item that the sheriff is here speaking I move that we it become a part of our legislative package it's been proper to move the second by the mayor pro town councilman Brown any further discussion on that if not I'm going to call the question Madam Clerk will you open the vote the close vote the motion fails for a lack of seven three yeses and four noes so someone is not voting in affirmative is councilmember brown are you voting yes okay Mr. Mayor I can ask councilman I just wanted briefly say you said earlier that you're you want to do something I know you work hard every day on behalf of the citizens of Durham and I just want to appreciate everything that you do to make our community safer thank you for all of that work and for the energy that you're putting into these proposals tonight thank you sir thank you mayor we're going to move to the next item which is Mr. Mayor you're let's sleep with this not right just with that item removed yeah legislative agenda it's been properly moved the second amount of click we open the vote and close the vote it passes six to zero thank you moved to the general business agenda public hearings assessment and improvements item 22 public hearing to consider resolution to rescind 11 previously ordered petition sidewalks good evening mayor bell mayor pro tem call McFadden members of council I'm Marvin Williams director of public works for the city of Durham item 22 is an is an item to hold a public hearing to rescind 11 previously ordered petition sidewalk projects at the September 4th 2014 work session and an item was brought forward regarding the prior prioritization of sidewalk construction including 11 projects on this item and after much discussion council express a desire to amend the assessment rate for these petition projects from five dollars per front foot to 35 dollars per front foot in order to do this the council must first rescind the existing order projects prior to reissuing new petitions at the higher rate for those that they desire this item is for the initial recension of these projects all other actions for example issuing new petitions ordering projects at the higher rate will occur in the future as separate actions all property owners petition sponsors and applicable homeowners associations have been notified of this public hearing via us mail letters were mailed on december 19th 2014 in addition and add announcing this public hearing was in the december 22nd edition of the Durham Harold Sun newspaper staff recommends that council act on the recension of these projects and we're here to answer any questions that you may have thank you this is a public hearing matter you've heard the staff report the public hearing is open I would ask first of the questions comments by members of the staff members of the council if not I'm going to recognize persons that have signed up to speak on this item and when I call your name if you come to the podium to the right each of you has three minutes Bill Mitchell Bill you signed you had two cards here Wallace Lamb it's Wallace Lamb present Jesse is that vassal back yeah thank you Rhonda Silver it's Rhonda Silver present and Maria Oyaski thank you now is there anyone else that wants to speak on this item this is a public hearing that has not signed up to speak not Mr. Mitchell proceed thank you Mayor Bell and City Council for the opportunity to speak on the issue of the petition sidewalks I'm specifically going to be addressing the Granddale and Cedric road projects which are items number seven and 11 on the project list I am the president of the Parkwood Association I'm here to representing the thousand and six homes in Parkwood and a thousand or so homes in the surrounding communities that will be affected if the sidewalks are cancelled the ad is the boat is rescinded we request that the council not rescind these sidewalk projects but rather build on the work that's already been done and open discussions with the affected groups to see if we can find ways to get some or portions of these sidewalks at least built and find ways to reduce the total costs of doing it a lot has changed since some of these sidewalks were approved back in 2006 and 2008 hundreds of volunteer hours were spent just on the two sidewalks which I'm going to discuss the Granddale and Cedric road sidewalks and besides meeting the intent of the walks plan these sidewalk projects were also meant to meet the safety and connectivity objectives of the plan so we did a lot of work to make these viable projects and we'd like to see them at least considered concerning the safety objectives the motor vehicle traffic and the pedestrian traffic on Cedric road has increased substantially since the city council directed construction of the sidewalks six years ago Cedric is now a popular east west cut through and is projected to become even more so as congestion on highway 54 and developmental along Granddale Scott King Road highway 54 and 751 south increase the west of Cedric roads particularly hazardous for pedestrians because it forces them to walk along the edge of a busy uncurved two-way street concerning the connectivity objectives on the pass out which I gave on the back side there is a map that shows how these sidewalks will connect with existing sidewalks yes the two sidewalks scored low on the list when the city consultant applied the 2011 revised scoring criteria but as shown by the following examples we question whether the projects were scored properly the Cedric road project goes by a city by a park it's not a city park so it did not get scored positive for that reason the Cedric road sidewalk also connects the sidewalk directly to one that goes to the Parkwood elementary school but it also did not get credit because it doesn't go in front of the school and it showed in my handout again the sidewalks complete a network of existing sidewalks but they did not get but partial credit for that so we like to re-discuss these issues with the city rather than using them that's all thank you Wallace Lam oh yeah thank you for your time tonight I appreciate you hearing me out Mr. Mayor city councilman and woman first of all I want to thank you for your hard work and your effort throughout my city I'm very appreciative and I thank you for your service I didn't know how often I'd be able to address that but I'm very grateful for everything you've been able to do for my town and the efforts and it definitely shows every day I feel like we're getting better and better and we're progressing each and every day the whole thing about it is towards this for Eno Trace that's basically what I'm here for and you know to talk about the actual sidewalk and you'll have to bear with me right now because my hand right is not so good and basically I hurt my arm because I don't have very good sidewalks to walk on so I mean I actually broke my arm a couple of months ago so I can't write very well and my notes aren't that good but if you could bear with me the whole thing about it is that for only safety and exercise for my community a big standpoint is the security for the neighborhood now in the neighborhood of Eno Trace I don't know how familiar it's a horseshoe neighborhood and with the actual sidewalk that goes through shade brush all the way to Lazy River that would make a complete loop and with that I thoroughly believe that that would entice more homeowners to come out of their homes and actually be a part of walking around the neighborhood and being more of a watchful eye on security and since I've actually been in Eno Trace I've lived there since 2000 and I've seen unfortunately hate crimes gangs people in cars doing drugs drug houses and it's very important we've actually spent a lot of effort trying to work with the local authorities to keep our community outstanding and do what we can but I mean one of the things about it is that I feel that the security is in question because it really helps to get people out of their houses and be a part you know it would now with today's technology cell phones you know we're able to do the 9-1-1 be able to get somebody to the scene and having somebody that's able to walk around the neighborhood be proud of their neighborhood they're able to get officers on the scene by seeing a visual quick as possible so I mean just if you could just think about that and I would appreciate it thank you for your time Jesse thank you good evening Mayor Bell and Councilmen and women I am also representing you know Trace as Walter was and I would like to to talk about the sidewalks on the issue of safety as well as of course improving the vibrancy and the walkability and the health of the neighborhood and particularly with safety this sidewalk in between shade bush and lazy river drive the south side of infinity connects two parts of the road that are in between two big hills so it's really if you're heading if you're heading either east or west you can't see very well and the road slopes away and there's no shoulder so there's really nowhere to walk and I can attest to the hazards where actually Wally broke his arm while walking that stretch of the road I mean this is this isn't a safe place to walk and me and my wife we're avid runners we have a small child that we often have in a jogging stroller and we can only run about a mile within the neighborhood before we have to cross infinity road and there's a blind hill the speed limits 45 miles an hour people often go much faster before we can get to other neighborhoods where it can run farther the addition of the sidewalk would add a considerable amount to the walkability of the neighborhood and that's all I have thanks thank you Rhonda Silver Hi thank you for the opportunity to speak I would like to see the sidewalk in my neighborhood rescinded I don't know about the situation and the others I'm on green street we're talking about one block talking about the size side of the street from my perspective I didn't sign the original petition although I've lived there for 15 years I think that is aesthetically nicer without the sidewalk I am concerned about my tree which is quite large and quite close to the sidewalk and I'm concerned about my privacy because on my side the houses are closer to the street and that brings people from the street closer in to me which I would prefer not to have thank you you're welcome Hi my name is Maria Yoski I'm the petition owner for the petition on 1000 block of green street but although it's a fantastic block and it needs a sidewalk for a million reasons including that we're close to the Durham Public School Elementary School George Watts we're a missing link in a connector between the Ellaby Creek Greenway and Watt Street which is a major corridor it's well lit people traffic at night a lot but I don't have time to talk about how wonderful my block is I would like to talk about my concern about how it seems that there has been a false choice raised up to say that these neighborhood initiated sidewalk petitions need to be rescinded in order to allow the top down rather than bottom up vision of where sidewalks need to go I want to thank Nathan McHenry and Dale McHeal for having dredged up a lot of data for me on very short notice and I just I assume I hope that you're aware of these numbers but I think it's important to put the numbers into context of how much money we're talking about if because I think that most people who live in a city want to have sidewalks I think it's an important thing that distinguishes being in a city from being in a rural area is the ability to walk safely which is everybody has pointed out is good for one's health and so forth but the ability to walk safely without being run over by cars so I don't think anybody's in most most people are not in disputes they they want to have sidewalks or not the question is how much money or is it reasonable to put into it and so as I understand it the Durham strategic plan says there are five things that the city ought to be doing we should focus on a strong and diverse economy safe and secure immunity community thriving livable neighborhoods well managed city effective stewards of the city's physical assets these are the goals of the city plan and the sidewalks actually play into all of these and yet as I see it from the numbers I'm aware of the budget doesn't seem to really be taking the putting sidewalks as very important the current population of the city of Durham is 242,000 people 242,810 people total city budget of 390 million the city sidewalks budget however is 200,000 for this coming year that is by my math if all my numbers are correct 0.5% of the total city budget so I is is going to sidewalks and the per capita budget for sidewalks therefore is we're spending 82 cents per person on sidewalks new sidewalks and repaired sidewalks is that actually the amount that we're putting in now the Durham sidewalks plan it's a fabulous comprehensive plan it takes all kinds of great things into consideration but as I understand it the latest estimate of how much it would take not even to implement the whole plan because nobody seems to know what that number is but to implement the 24 listed projects would be 14 million dollars now at the current rate of funding which is 100,000 dollars per year that would take 140 years to implement this plan now 140 years ago Durham was not a city what do we plan to be 140 years from now if we're serious about implementing this plan if we're serious about sidewalks the funding for the sidewalks needs to increase dramatically and there shouldn't be this choice between the city plan and the neighborhood petitions thank you I'm not being facetious when I ask this question but you sign up as a proponent plus to rescind okay thank you all right thank you let me ask you all the other persons that want to speak on this item to be in public hearing matter if not I'm going to close public hearing and bring the matter back before the council for discussion or action as councilwoman Katati yeah um I have a lot of comments first I appreciate everybody that's called written and certainly all of you that have come out and sat here with us this evening I think we desperately need additional money for sidewalks I've been saying that for a very long time we have dedicated very little money over time I do expect that we'll have additional conversations in upcoming budget hearings but I do see this particular vote this evening as a way to at least prioritize what we currently are doing and this is the first step and then we'll reevaluate based on that we were given oh I don't know 12 to 14 choices of next steps that we would do with this but I think to proceed with sun sidewalks independent of a priority plan which is our Durham Walks plan is not the best use of very limited funds I was encouraged to try to explain the process but I almost think that I should defer to staff about what the options are but can you well I don't know I just again really want to reiterate that I appreciate everyone's comments but we do need a lot more funding and I would prefer to see us do it in through the Durham Walks plan where you can really see what our highest priority projects are that will meet reach the most people and address the highest safety concerns and proximity to schools and a whole host of other things so I'll stop for now were you deferring to the staff could I could I walk the staff through a couple questions Marvin could you talk just a bit about currently just in general know everything's a little bit different what's the average cost per linear foot of sidewalk and to install a sidewalk approximately right now we're currently averaging approximately $55 per foot but it varies right I understand to be on location $55 so under the the current petition policy not these sidewalks but new new petitions coming forward that petition would require the petitioners to pay what per linear foot the $35 per foot if they were in the Durham Walks plan and if they were not it would be the actual full construction cost so how many of these sidewalks regardless of ranking are in the the the Durham Walks plan do we know five five so I don't know if any of the do you know specifically which five I don't believe we have them separated out I'm just trying to clarify for example is Sedwick Rhoader or Granddale by those sidewalks in the Durham Walks plan Granddale is Robert Joiner Public Works Department I'll read the sidewalks that are in the Durham Walks plan South Roxborough Street Green Street Sedwick University Drive and Grandin okay so just to clarify the process going forward if the council acted tonight to rescind the petitions that have already been put forth there would be a new opportunity for new petitions to come forth from these communities and other communities for those sidewalks that that came forth that are in the current Durham Walks plan the participation from the petitioners would be at thirty five dollars for linear foot that is correct sir and for those sidewalks that are petitioned that are not within the Durham Walks plan those would be at would just use round terms fifty five dollars but it could vary full cost for the full cost going forward so I just want to be clear about that council members is that everybody's understanding okay and then at what point do you anticipate that we would potentially be revisiting the prioritization of the Durham Walks plan we will really have to defer to the transportation departments as they took the lead on that effort anybody from transportation wants to address that Mark Aaron some transportation that's something that we intend to bring up to the budget process this year right is updating the Durham Walks plan thank you thank you Mr. Manager were there other comments councilman shul councilman Mark thank you Mr. Mayor yeah I just want to say that for everybody who's here today to talk about their sidewalks and the and the need that we have we totally agree with you the the when I one of the first meetings I ever had with the city manager one of the things he talked to me about was how far Durham is behind on sidewalks when I first got elected and there's no question that's true and the stories that like the gentleman about the jogging I have had so many people from so many neighborhoods tell me something quite similar to that and I know you're right and so you know I think that one of the things it's incumbent on on us I think to try to figure out how to how to make this not the false choice that that our final speaker talked about I think that that's something we've got to do and and we need to be thinking about how we're going to get the level of sidewalk construction that we need in Durham what I will say about it is it's expensive if I do the math is $55 a square foot about $250,000 of and how much is that for a mile of sidewalk Marvin can you do the math for me not off the top of my head about a quarter of a million dollars I believe of per mile of new sidewalk and I believe it costs about $100,000 to repair a mile of sidewalk I could be wrong on those figures we're thinking about so if we do this what it's going to mean is taxpayers are going to have to pay for it and so for those of you all who are in a situation where you feel it's very important for us to get more sidewalks in Durham which I agree with you're going to have to convince your fellow your residents of Durham that it's worth paying for because it's really expensive and so I think it's something we need to figure out how to do and I hope that we can but that doesn't solve you know your problem in the short term with this with this process but I do want to say that in the big picture it's I completely agree we're not where we need to be and we need to change it thank you that's councilman Marford when this first came up I put myself in the position of petitioners and I thought I could never support this because we told people if you go out and you do these signatures then someday we'll build a sidewalk but I realized that some of these projects have been on here for seven years eight years in that the likelihood of them getting funded it's misleading to continue to leave them on the list because they're probably not going to get funded so I that's the conundrum I find myself in here I do want to just read to the record I don't need to read the email but we received an email on January 3rd from Deidre Murphy regarding the university drive-side walk and she was also opposed to recension I just wanted to since she couldn't be here tonight put that into the record thank you Any other comments to recognize Councilor Brown? Thank you Mr. Mayor and thanks for all of you who came out tonight I want to go back to the Parkwood and I'd like Mr. Williams if he can because I think you brought out two points concerning the Sedrick Road sidewalk and that it was one reason it did not receive as higher or as high of a score as you had hoped and anticipated was that the park that's in front of the sidewalk proposed sidewalk was not a city park and secondly that to correct me if I'm wrong on this or maybe it was Eno Trace no I think it was Parkwood it's just your oh okay and then secondly no no no but the sidewalk going to Parkwood Elementary didn't go all the way to the school or something and that gave it a another reason for a negative reading am I correct did I hear that correctly can someone explain that to us and to Mr. Williams yeah step up to the mic please sir yes sir Mr. Brown the park is one of our park was largest park it's publicly available we don't restrict access to it the sidewalk though is not a city park and because it was not a city park he got zero for a score because this cult Sultan as we understand it was told to have it go by parks and he assumed city parks and the Sedwick sidewalk itself connects directly to the Revere Road sidewalk which goes directly by the school but because Sedwick proposed sidewalk does not go by the school it also didn't get any score that's why we think that we didn't get a fair evaluation on the scoring okay I would suggest to Mr. Williams that regardless of what the outside consultants tell us that this is a sort of thing that we need to be very cognizant of I'd rather rely on neighborhoods here in the city than some consultant about this but this needs to be corrected now let me continue because I'm on record saying that unfortunately Durham is sidewalk poor and I'll be the first to admit that I should have taken a stronger stand when we passed several years ago 20 million dollar street improvement bond which the citizens supported but we should have set aside a percentage of that for sidewalks and we did not do that we speak often of connectivity and that's usually meant to be between various neighborhoods but what we fail to discuss is connectivity within the neighborhood itself and how do you do that you do it primarily with sidewalks and I'm I'm very sorry you broke your arm I'm confused you broke your arm because perhaps of a sidewalk that was not there but anyway we as others have said we're definitely going to address this in the next budget hearings that will start Mr. manager January or February the budget yeah the budget hearings will begin in May the budget process began the process well the process and we need you your support to help correct what has not been done in the past thank you comments council members on the site if not the public hearing has been closed we've heard the remarks entertaining a motion on the item we have four recommendations from the staff relative to this when I say recommendations options that we could take so if you're making a motion it would be good to frame it in terms of the staff recommendations possibility actions we might take some page two of the staff memo the alternatives those are all turned as and the recommendation Mr. Mayor just for the record is to rescind the previously ordered sidewalks and we would initiate the process anew I'm waiting and I'm entertaining the motion does anyone want to make a motion on this item is there a second to that it's been properly moving second any further discussion hearing and calling question Madam Clerk will you open the vote and close the vote it passes five to one with council member Brown voting no okay thank you we're going to move to item 23 zoning map change auto park center z14 0001 oh you then hear the motion okay the motion is to rescind the sidewalks that we have yes wait a minute let me go back I've gotten off of my motion the maker of the motion was council member Katae so I'm going to refer to her as to what our motion was right the recommendation from by staff was to rescind with no alternatives so my question would be for the manager or for staff to please clarify when it will come back to us with all the different options because again there were several so I expect that now that we've taken this first step we'll take additional action in the future is that correct that's that's correct we'll work with the city manager's office to identify which of the alternatives will this be suited during the budget process and you'll see this again at some point when we talk about the well let's do this let me let me let me read what the alternatives were for the rocket since I'm going to try to explain the motion and also let you know what the alternatives were that the staff was recommending that we consider since you don't have it before you you do okay we didn't vote on either one of those alternatives is where it stated it was to rescind the petition on page two yeah of the memo there's a thing that says recommendation and immediately under the word recommendation it says that the public works department recommends city council conduct a public hearing to receive comments and adopt a resolution rescinding the following previously ordered sidewalks and then list the 11 sidewalks that was the motion that councilwoman Cattadi made sorry we approve the staff's recommendation to rescind we did not recommend one of the alternatives we'll be considering many of those in the future sometime between now and june correct all clear okay and by the way I live in the neighborhood so I appreciate I didn't want to get on the bandwagon to talk about sidewalks I appreciate the need for sidewalks and we're going to try to work to see what we can do make those things happen and the vote was already been taken and it was councilman browns one devoted against it everybody devoted in support of it okay I was going to say that okay item 23 was the one that was referred back to the staff about a city manager's priority items let me ask are there any other items that come before the council this time if not the meeting is adjourned at 847 p.m. thank you


Candace Modi's L Believes Prioritizing Physical Attraction Is Not Shallow Actress Candace Modi's L has shared that she has freed herself from society's expectation that women ought to look for more than physical appearance in their partners to avoid being labeled as shallow. Taking to Twitter to share her thoughts, Candace first opened up how she felt it was ridiculous that women had been socialized to believe they shouldn't prioritize their partner's physical attraction. I can't believe I used to guilt myself out of prioritizing physical attraction because I was repeatedly told it was shallow of me.  One of Candace's followers responded to the tweet, saying caring for men's looks was reserved for young people who didn't know any better. Candace responded by attempting to explain why she feels the notion was not fair. Absolutely not. We're allowed to want what we want, without people thinking it's okay to invalidate that. Too many women settle for what's on the menu and not what they genuinely want and nowingly deserve. I won't be one of them, Meerkat, she replied. The conversation about women being made to believe physical attraction should be the least of their worries was sparked by an earlier tweet in which Candace opened up about how tricky it was when a guy ticks all other boxes except in the looks department.