lass educational program so it won't really be about startup one the area of crisis management and how to modify your business strategy another area is in the area of real estate again many of our business businesses who are have been around a long time they actually own their property and so are looking to figure out how to leverage it and for those who do not own property one of the big issues is how to again afford the rent when again the market is changing this is the issue of gentrification how do you prevent it and again within this program there are some assets that other communities have used that we seek to use as a part of it the the legacy business registry is about how we formally identify legacy companies in our community and and again the criteria is posted there 20 years of continuous operations independently and locally owned and a part of the community fabric so it's just not any business but a business that has contributed uh in addition to the economic contribution but contributed in a cultural way again this program is being managed by a contractor Latasha Gatti is the owner of infinity bridges they won this contract competitively and so they've been a part of the design of this program so I actually included just some background in this around legacy programs the american planning association actually put out a memo to their members throughout the country uh this memo was really about the importance and a growing trend around legacy companies uh again we are just starting our program but there are other communities have had it for a while uh within our national league of cities cohort uh san francisco washington dc and miami florida are part of the program that we've been working in uh and again we've been able to learn from them uh and share our information san francisco has had the longest program they've had a program since 2016 uh again uh they have a designated staff um they have been able to find out how to raise the money and again through a legislative process uh they have created a budget uh funding stream that's a million dollars as a part of the grant program that they have and that money is used again to provide business assistance so businesses who are a part of their program are eligible for specific technical assistance not general technical assistance this is the things that they need individually within their organization um again it's based on the number of employees you have uh and there's an allocation made the rent stabilization grant is one of interest uh this is funding uh that san francisco makes available uh for businesses who leases art whose lease is up and changing the city actually works with the property owner uh and will provide a subsidy to support the business in order to maintain the rent from going up too high so there are two things about that one trying to negotiate a an increase that's not as high but also a longer term lease and the the city has been very successful in supporting a number of these businesses as you can see there are 275 companies that have been identified and selected as a part of this program and again uh that's the logo uh that pretty much is prominently displayed in many of these businesses going forward priority two is really around uh the communications and outreach um again the comment that i want to make in this regard uh is really around the work that we have been doing on our our website so Durham business 360 dot com uh was developed by oe wd as a small business portal uh it is a website in which our businesses can actually do business on again there's business information that will help people in terms of developing the physical feasibility study uh we actually have a number of um startup um you know how to start a business we have nine of them on our website uh that people have used it takes them all the way from doing their business plan to engaging the planning department and getting licensure and all that sort of stuff it's been very popular uh one of the things that i wanted to to note about our outreach and our website uh is how we've improved uh the spanish translation uh there's a tab on our website for our spanish speaking entrepreneurs that at least introduce what the resources are finance technical assistance in the in the spanish language the next thing and again we're working with the language access program here we will be translating all of the how to do business startup programs into spanish and making it available to our spanish community again there's a lot of information this is a result of uh of our small business surveys we continue the survey and that information is ported on our website uh again the website has been up for three years you can see the growth from last year the uh already just for february two months uh we've had 10 000 hits uh i expect that uh we'll go beyond the 48 000 that we had last year it's a calendar year the Durham small business recovery fund uh again we will be uh before you um to discuss this more specifically but just to give you an update uh all the grant money has been gone for over a year the city and the county had 1.8 million dollars in it for uh loans uh currently we have 39 approved loans uh 860 000 dollars uh have been uh distributed to the borrowers again the average company is 10 years it's been in business and the average loan is 27 000 so again these are mature businesses who uh again are taking on debt to grow their business again i know that uh you know grants are preferred we don't have grant funding uh but uh again 129 business have applied for the grants for the loans uh and again i think one of the important goals for us was to make sure that women and minority businesses were receiving the dollars and as you can see we've been able to keep that efficacy up uh this is pretty similar to what we were able to do in the grant program and a lot of that really has to do with the outreach and efforts that's there there's technical assistance available to each borrower uh carolina small business development fund uh is the administrator of this program uh again they are working both collectively and individually with these uh companies uh as as as borrowers i think the other thing that carolina small business fund has been able to do is provide additional resources uh they actually are a lender themselves uh they have received monies from banks to help do the outreach and continue to support their digital library they have a digital library that's available to small business in addition to the 101 uh counseling that they do again as i said we'll be back with you to make some modifications to this program again i think the biggest takeaway for us is with the remaining money what we've learned is that many black and brown businesses have taken on uh some of the fintech financial technology loans uh where their higher interests and their adjustable uh rates and again with interest rates going up uh we are just concerned that if we can help these businesses take down some of this high interest debt to our program again our program is is a term loan 10 years at 3 percent uh we think that that will help get the money out and actually provide a service to businesses that are there in the area of equity through procurement uh we need to do more work there again uh we are working with equity and inclusion uh Sharon Williams and part of our goal is to do two things increase the outreach to promote the opportunities that are available uh through the city's office of procurement and working with E&I but also build the capacity to really understand how to become certified and why that is valuable in terms of new market opportunities related with that and again i as a part of the discussion with the the water department bidding is really important uh in understanding how to bid and how to do it competitively is something that we think is an important part of the training that we want to do as a part of OEWD just an example momentum 360 uh is a training program that that we do in in OEWD we've done three courses uh this period since July uh one of them is in the area of public arts so we had 26 artists who participated in this program and the program was really about how they can be more competitive in competing for public art calls that the city or even private sector organizations what we're talking about is sculptures paintings interior design murals and in this program which was great i you know went to the graduation we partnered with triangle artworks and it wasn't a theoretical thing each each participant joined the team and they actually responded to RFPs that were actually national and many of them chose to submit their proposals around the country for these things again it wasn't academic it was real for many of them but part of the program was really helping them to sort of assess the opportunity and to competitively bid and again i'm emphasizing that because again in the construction area it is hard bid and in order to really fashion a good bid you got to have a strong financial background you have to be able to track your costs and have the financial record keeping that's required as a part of this and within our momentum 360 program we have the financial academy that we did that was our first series this this summer and it's all about that back in helping entrepreneurs understand you know quite frankly how to get out of your shoe box out of your wallet and into a financial system that you can manage but additionally it really is about getting them to be much more comfortable about understanding the difference between their profit and loss statements and balance sheet and not automatically deferring the discussion about their financial records to their accountant again this is a series that i want to expand next year and to do it on a more frequent and regular basis yes it's basic finance 101 but many of our companies are at that level and again i think it helps them in the long term in terms of business operations again the final priority is really in the area of place-based work in the neighborhoods as you know we have a neighborhood stabilization program we continue to make investments in north-east central Durham and the Fayetteville quarter our brownfield environmental assessment program is a unique program it is one that the city has had for almost six years and again i was told that it's quite it's not often that you're able to get to reprieve this contract from EPA but we've been able to do it actually the program has just ended in september and we do have some general fund money that we applied to it but again it's a simple problem property owners who own property and are using it in order to do any development improvement they have to be able to determine whether or not there are any environmental hazards there this program provides that assessment provides that technical assistance that helps them figure out exactly what they need to do there is some federal monies that are part of the remediation that's not a part of our program but we've been able to successfully get some remediation grants for for some of the property owners in Durham bottom line it actually improves their opportunity to be able to um develop their property you know as a part of the effort and actually be a part of the economic growth that's happening in their community again this is a timeline of activity uh i again just reference that there are some things that are ongoing new things that are coming up again we will be implementing this national league of cities hispanic outreach program where again we are working to develop a program specific to the Latinx community not just a translation but one that is culturally sensitive and delivered by a trusted partner in that community Prospera USA is a company that is working with us through the national league of cities to be a part of that again i'm looking to do a evaluation of the economic the small business recovery fund independently as a part of the work that we're doing going forward so again that's the small business one and i'll be very brief uh in providing an update on the work that the city the office of economic workforce development is done as a part of the built to last and it's my expectation that stella adams will be available to provide some additional detail we included in your packet a report that the the built to last innovation uh a board had submitted providing an update so again built the last was commissioned to develop the roadmap which was a part of my office in the office of economic workforce development there were two important components to that that was the creation of a separate non-profit to run both an equitable development fund as well as a training training center uh it was the fund the equitable development fund that was again again the big differentiator as a part of the work that the lab was going to be able to do again we put together uh working with their board a startup memorandum of understanding that included the scope of work that was came to city council and was approved we hired the forest law firm that developed reviewed and filed the organizational documents in partnership with the built to last board so the articles and corporation have been filed by the secretary to the secretary of state a 501 c3 application was submitted to the rrs again all the organizing documentation is in place the mo u milestones this is a a a contract that is $416,000 the initial payment of $180,000 was paid at the execution of the contract the next deliverable is in fact the strategic business plan that provides the fundraising strategy the operating costs as as well as you know staffing as a part of the program after that the third payment has to do with the feasibility of the equitable development fund again part of that is the fundraising strategy the management and the design of the program and again assuming the the positive feasibility study the remaining dollars will be distributed and paid over the the final six months as a part of the program so again that is where we are now and again expecting to get the strategic plan as part of the next deliverable and again if Stella Adams is available or are still on the line I I think this is where we were looking to have them provide some additional feedback on the program it's miss Adams she's she's not well again I I know that she was on earlier and the original plan was that she would be available for some comment so she is on the she is on the on the call but again we cannot hear her well again I will take questions in regards to small business work plan or any questions that I might answer in terms of bill to last any questions thank you madam mayor and I thank you andre for sharing this update I know that there's always so much going on in the office of workforce and economic development and before I begin I just had a couple questions from earlier I know we were trying to assess an economic impact of the ballpark I just wanted to know if you want to weigh in on any numbers you wanted to add to that conversation I don't have any numbers but I did refer the economic assessments that is actually done by the sports commission they do a report every year around economic impact and I actually refer that to Gina as a starting point so again those reports are going to speak for themselves and I would hope that you would join her in figuring out that report that report to us because I want to make sure that the jobs aspect is not lost and there was also a previous question by one of my colleagues around the firms that are here in Durham for MUBE and MWBE and I didn't know if you had specific numbers around that I don't have specific numbers but I do know that the hub lists can be disaggregated as a part of geographically I think the other thing I would say in regards to that is that in addition to be hub certified there are a number of SBA certifications DBE veterans again you know it would be what I intend to do is for us to actually get the list of Durham businesses who are certified in each of those programs and use that as sort of the outreach and database that is available for the companies as well as available to us to use to track how well we're doing thank you forwarded to an automated night when you finish recording you may hang up or press one for more options and want to leave a message but I guess we can this is the Durham City Council saying hello hey um Leonardo yes we are here all of us good afternoon miss Adams you have a floor if you want to make any comments I did and and I apologize I don't know why none of my devices are working where I can talk to you all um I do want to just say to you that as the chair of the built to last board I'm really excited about hope that you've gotten an opportunity to see the update that we have um we have um held we held our first board meeting on January the 11th where we um um elected a number of folks um I was elected chair of the built to last lab Derek Rhodes was elected as treasurer and he is the founder of Durham success summit Pilar Rochelle Goldberg was elected secretary and she is the president of El Centro Hispano Anita Daniels is a member of our board she is president of actualities limited um Kurt Maryweather um is um co-founder of diversity Inc. Doug Spate is um a 5 s um startup with um with um triad growth Dr. Stefan Wilson and um we just um recently hired Dr. Joyce Blackwell as our um as our um yes ma'am we can okay um and we just hired Dr. Joyce Blackwell as our executive director she is um and we're very excited to have her with us we have been and our next meeting is set for um April the 12th and we're just so looking forward to um working with the city but working with the community in the development of um an equity fund one of the things that um is critical I think is looking at the feasibility of establishing an equity fund so it's not just um debt but also equity available particularly to our um um minority and women owned businesses located here in Durham um and we have hired Cedar Grove um and they are in the process of they will be conducting a feasibility study to look about how to do that um we have taken on not just the equitable um development of the equity fund but we're also looking at doing trainings um through the program to again we're not going to duplicate but we're going to try to collaborate with other organizations throughout the city to strengthen um minority and women owned businesses in our community um and we have um and we're also committed to working with the city um to increase opportunities um for our um our minority businesses um to compete and to win um contracts and um to access the capital and credit that they need to expand and be sustainable the purpose of built to last is to do just that help our communities um help our businesses um through succession planning and help them to sustain themselves through good times and bad um Andre gave you the statistics I won't repeat them but when you lose 41 percent of black owned businesses nest um and that's the intergenerational impact that can't be um brought back um and we're we're going to try to um help the city build by making sure that we have this equitable development fund we have Dr James Jim Johnson and Jeannie milk and bonds working with us in the development of this um study and we hope to bring it to you soon um I'm not sure if any of our board members are still on the line and still available and maybe you can hear them better than you've been able to hear me but I want to thank the city for all that you have done again um there are a couple of slots I probably will talk to Andre and um and and the city manager about that we would love for you to um recommend folks to us who can help us bridge um um some of the programming that we're doing and um again I look forward to your questions but we're excited and looking forward to um delivering product to you um untimely basis is there any board members present um maybe they could be allowed to say a word if they like thank you so much for your comments this afternoon miss Adams um we're looking now I don't see any board members looking at I'll see the manager's list are there any further questions for Mr. Medivh? May I approach him? Thank you Madam Mayor good afternoon Andre good to see you sir Adrian the whole crew thank you so much for being here I was greatly looking forward to this presentation I want to thank the staff um I actually asked for this update to be brought to us as a council to help us kind of inform our decisions and give us a broader view of the lay of the land as we as we go into our budget process this is something that has been um uh very important to us as a city certainly as a council uh under the the overall rubric of our shared economic economic prosperity plan so I want to thank all of you for being here um one of the reasons why I had asked for the the presentation or update was to try and make an assessment of capacity and bandwidth moving forward to to add more things or to the department to your portfolio um and Miss Scott you actually you set something interesting with respect to our youth works that the staffing issue we don't have dedicated staff to that um and I know under the small small business work plan talking about the uh the seeds program which I think is incredibly important and you alluded to uh San Francisco uh who has a dedicated staff and Mayor London breeze doing great great work uh San Francisco is kind of the bellwether for a number of initiatives uh going on around the country but they do have dedicated staff to do the kind of legacy work so I guess my first question is do we we're going to do it via grant via contract now do we anticipate needing to staff up in that area and to to deal with legacy type initiatives moving forward you're going to make an ask at some point in the future so again we're piloting the program and and designing as a part of it uh based on the pilot we'll get a better sense again and we're looking to contract this next fiscal year I have a budget request in uh for operating that um and then we'll go from there I think one of the things that that has made San Francisco different is that they created the dedicated funding source again over time it didn't start that way um and you know and I don't have that ask in this proposal because we're really trying to figure out what is going to work here in Durham uh as a part of it so uh next year under contract and then from there uh we'll see yeah no I I appreciate I'm listen I'm a huge fan of Durham specific data I say it all the time uh to see what works in Durham and how it works for Durham um the with respect and and Miss Adams if you're still on thank you so much for joining us I heard that the the it said that the first board meeting was on January 11th the next one's going to be April 12th is the board have they have they been meeting monthly is it once a month uh did the board meet in February and March no miss Adams if you can hear me we meet quarterly quarterly okay and are there and I think I heard you refer to the executive committee meets weekly but the board meets quarterly okay and miss Adams how many how many slots still need to be filled on the board before it's at optimal um not to imply that it's not working by optimal I mean before it's at full capacity I don't remember how many slots were designated for a full board but how many slots are still empty currently so when our when our board met on um January 11th our bylaws allowed for seven members and we had seven members present that board then voted to expand our um board to 11 members so we currently have seven members we would like um we have put in our um plan that we get some recommendations from the city to spots from the city and then we have two spots that we are um keeping available perhaps to um assist with getting other funders thank you thank you for that so um seven currently and we can go up to 11 um that's correct got you um just kind of looking forward and uh not asking for any firm you know commitments anything today that's that has the force of law behind it but best guess um as the folk who are kind of running point for us and are closest to this when do you think ballpark we may see the the not only the establishment of the equity fund but actual money going out to businesses um in our community uh to build capacity to help them you know compete to you know broaden the supply chain as well but this kind of when when do you see that happen generally speaking from my perspective we we will have you know we'll have the feasibility study within um within six months we'll start looking at and then now tell us what we need to do and how we need to go but you know an equity fund that is going to be meaningful and long term um is something that you're going to have to you know it's going to have to have um significant investments we're not talking about um in my mind we're not talking about like a little a million or two million we're talking significant funding so but I think that we can start helping people within um 24 months is when you'll see it on the ground and and and but in the interim we'll certainly be doing partnering leveraging um participating in um community investment activities trying to get um trying to get equity investments into the fund as quickly as possible there's opportunities open right now for that we're you know that um you have to take advantage of when they happen but we'll be talking to um but again I don't want to get ahead of the study and and and that's the first phase all right well thank thank you all so much for this really important um I I think potentially transformative work um for our city um you're it's on record that there are some more um board members that need to be filled in the ask of the council to kind of think about folk and and to help an identifying folk who would add value to the board as duly noted and I know my colleagues and I will will take that to heart and begin thinking about uh those type of things um but thanks again uh to the staff for for making this happen uh today and for the ongoing important um sometimes unheralded sometimes uncelebrated but absolutely critical work uh for our city thank you so much good to see you all as well thank you madam mayor thank you madam mayor any other questions I'm sorry I just wanted to make one comment to uh to the mayor pro tem uh about the continuing work um again oe wd is one player we're not the the major uh technical assistance provider or trainer in the system um I had mentioned that additional resources have come our way again you guys are evaluating uh some of the the ARP funding uh in in those proposals there are a number of proposals directed at supporting small women minority business but additionally um our partners have augmented their activities North Carolina Central University has received at least two prominent grants focused on supporting small women minority business as a part of their small business technology development center uh so there are more hours and more resources available there uh JB buxon has increased the capabilities of the small business development center again both of those organizations are sort of anchors to this SBA community navigator program uh the four partners that they are now funding uh have been doing this work but have never been funded to do this work in the way that this program has done um again my point here is is that no one is waiting uh we are all again trying to sort of partner and leverage to continue this intense work um the rebuilding uh the availability of the resources uh again in the area of access to capital if you as you know we feel the whole we we we feel the whole uh in terms of the Durham small business recovery fund uh again in the long term we aren't going to be a lender uh our success will be dependent on our abilities to continue to get the banks to be responsive to the needs of our work and again uh what's going on out there is the big banks who aren't very present here i'm talking about chase the wells and what have you uh they are investing in local cdfi certified development financial institutions in and in the case of mechanics and farmers uh again uh one of our local banks uh the five largest banks invested i think about 73 million dollars in that organization and to me that's great news because jim sills and mechanics and farmers now have added capacity to provide lending credit facilities in our community and so those are big things that have to be integrated into the program and again these announcements are fairly new people are trying to figure out how to do it but again uh you know no one's waiting i want anyone in the community to think we're waiting and again we're all sort of figuring out where we can deliver the best support working together collectively absolutely your point is well made and well taken and i don't think i used the word waited but if i did i certainly wouldn't create the impression uh that that anybody's uh twiddling their thumbs there are a lot of pieces i will say however that a lot of those players predate the urgency of this matter that they were always free to do those things but i think now the the entree of the city's voice and folk like you providing leadership and communicating urgency for those folk to coalesce and do what they were always free to do we always knew we needed capital we always knew we needed more support for black and brown businesses but i think the the state of urgency around it now is is directly related to focused attention um by the least of elected folk but folk like you have been running point for us so we know y'all doing the work that's why i said unheralded and uncelebrated i want folk to know that it's it's moving forward thank you so much thank you Madam Mayor Councilwoman Converter thank you good to see you all good afternoon um i have a few questions first of all thank you for the very in-depth proposal around several different components of y'all's work is it's super helpful and i appreciate it um sorry that's my microphone um i just had a couple of questions so i appreciate you uh naming um with the Durham business data portal what's going to be happening there and i saw that some of it's already getting translated i know that that's something that's going to take some time i just wanted to appreciate you all and then i know that our our latino community does need a lot of support i think you all are entering into that work i think you realize how critically important it is and i was just curious what are some of the who are some of the partners you all are working with thank you for that question again we are in a cohort group sponsored by the national legal cities uh getting technical assistance from from Prospera USA which is hispanic-owned consulting company have been around for 20 plus years doing this work nationally and they're advising Durham and eight other cities in terms of what we're doing uh in this program we are looking to identify barriers that are limiting the success of the hispanic community uh in our work and there are two focus areas obviously the translation and putting together culturally competent programs uh are important uh the other thing that was identified uh was being able to help the the hispanic entrepreneurs formalize their business uh again to the force um you know i i said get out of your wallet and and and get into a financial system uh really what that means is a lot of people work as self-employed the family money the business money is all tied together um as a part of that uh our community partners include uh vicki garcia uh of the uh you know the latin credit union community credit union um uh maricio solano who is head of economic development for uh el centro uh and uh angie saccar who uh is uh hispanic and she runs panam construction you know they are a fairly successful uh construction company uh here in terms of size i again uh they uh somewhere between four and five million annual revenue uh so they're fairly successful they have been providing the guidance into the work that we're doing uh we are putting together a pilot program uh targeting at bringing um 15 latinx construction companies who've been in business from two to three years uh to do the financial management that we've done in the financial academy to also provide some support in terms of bidding and how to bid uh in each one of those companies uh as a byproduct of this uh we will get them hub certified uh as well as uh exposed to them other uh certifications at sba and others uh again working as a cohort but also one-on-one counseling uh that program uh is slated to launch uh we've already designed it we have a small grant from the national league of cities to implement this so again we're looking to have that launch in may i'm very optimistic about it uh again it will be in spanish um you know the language appropriate uh going through it so and we think that uh that's going to give us a lot of insights in terms of how we scale future programs and outreach to the hispanic community thank you so much i appreciate all of that information i just actually want to thank uh the folks that are community partners um some of those folks reached out in the fall uh to me actually and and we're curious because they were hearing especially angie at pinum you know the folks that she works with were wondering well how do we get these contracts how do we get into this ecosystem how do we level up our small family businesses that might be now second generation right and so it it was on immigrant hustle and and they want to continue uh all of that um that work and and build it out and so i just really appreciate that the city is is entering into this space uh it's very much needed and uh i know that uh it will bear a lot of fruit in the future councilwoman johnson thank you madam mayor and thank you uh for this presentation it's really great to get all these updates um i'm wondering if you can speak a little bit more about the employee ownership aspect of the seeds fellowship and also um the opportunity to expand our employee ownership work through the budget request that i submitted earlier um and with in partnership with with y'all and yeah just how you how you feel about how you think it might work how it is part of how it could build on the work that we've already done in that area thanks so um again uh the silver somami with people retiring business owners uh at a rapid rate all the research shows uh that very few businesses small businesses have succession plans we identified that as a part of the research we did with the national league of cities here in our community um we actually uh partnered with the north carolina employee ownership center it's headquartered here in durham serving the the greater state but they have been an excellent partner for us to talk about succession planning when we started working with the legacy companies we were really very much focused in on retention and expansion but as we talked to some of the owners about whether or not they had a plan many of them did not uh and we also learned about uh employee ownership as a as a possibility i can tell you at the start of this i had no idea uh about employee ownership and it was not a priority as we went into the seeds program but over time uh in learning how uh once many owners are deciding to leave uh they're either skilled technicians or professionals uh and maybe don't have a a a kid or someone in their family to transfer it many of them are finding that they they can sell the business to their employees. In that process, what we've learned is, one, it's a good option. It's not for everybody. In the North Carolina Employee Ownership Center has actually done a number of outreach events talking about succession planning, but also talking about employee ownership over the last 18 months. And again, that's been helpful. The other thing that we have learned is that those businesses that do that transfer to employee ownership solve a number of issues. So first of all, employees is hard for them to assemble and start a business by themselves. So the whole cooperative approach to be able to essentially be in a position to buy a business that you've been working and contributing is, mitigates a lot of the risks. You know what you're buying. The second thing is, so that there is a wealth creation opportunity. The other thing is, is that for businesses who have spent 20 plus years, they've got to find a way to monetize the value of their business. And that is through a sale. And oftentimes people just, hey, I just give up and close the doors. So now we have an option for those business owners to essentially sell back to their employees. They may hold some of the paper, in other words, get an annuity as a part of their retirement. And the SBA has put in dollars specific for this purpose. So there is funding available to support employee ownership conversions. And don't get me wrong. What I have learned about the employee ownership thing, again, is that it's not for everybody. This is not going to overwhelm the conversion thing. But it is a really effective option. There are some very successful employee ownership configurations that have been successful all over the country. They, again, continue to be successful. Generally they pay better than other companies with benefits. And I just think any wealth creation option that we can support is a good idea. Again, too, it helps sort of monetize the sweat equity of many of the owners. But it also provides an opportunity for the employees to come together, share the risks, and to continue the business. Thank you. And so the proposal to contract with the North Carolina Employment Ownership Center to expand that model to help people to provide technical support for potential startup employee-owned businesses and to help existing employee-owned businesses.  So again, let me just differentiate your proposal with what we're doing. Right. So within the SEATS program, the legacy program, we have actually had the North Carolina Employee Ownership Center provide some hands-on consulting. So there's some legal financial aspects of that work. So they've been supporting us specific to those individual companies. Your proposal is really, from my standpoint, a much more macro approach to essentially educating our community about employee ownership and this as an option. As I read your proposal, it included outreach, not only to the business community as an option, but also to the financial community. So there are groups of banks, lawyers, and accountants who also aren't aware of this option. And again, this model, the ability to propagate this model and get people to better understand it, I think will help more people consider it as an option. And again, it's case by case. It's not gonna be a massive movement in terms of that. The third thing I'd say about this is now that there is, in fact, dollars set aside, specifically targeted for this. Again, even I don't know all the bells and whistles around it, the ability to have someone who is knowledgeable, who works in this area, and as a resource is something that I took as your proposal. Again, in our office, we're managing contracts. We're not delivering the service. Again, I have a program staff and a fiscal staff that is essentially working with all of these contractors in order to do the work. And so to me, the ability to take on this additional contractor with a contractor we're familiar with, I think we can absorb that. Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure because we had some, when we'd had the conversation about budget requests, there'd been some concerns from council members about not wanting to give staff more work than y'all can handle, which is of course a very important concern, and we need to always be thinking about that. Thank you, appreciate all your work and these updates, and look forward to hearing more, especially about the new built to last folks. It seems like really exciting. Projects got a lot of community involvement, so I feel really good about where that's going. Thank you. Councilwoman Freeman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to circle back around and know before we got to Ms. Adams, I still had a few questions, and so I appreciate the chance to hear from my colleagues a really good conversation. And I really want to touch on exactly how many staff members are in the office. Right now we have 14 FTE. And in the conversation, we were talking about the YouthWorks program again, just noting if you were to add two and a half more staff members, how would that help? Well, again, we do our budget proposed presentation on April 5th to the city manager, and in that we'll, again, make a proposal in terms of staffing. Part of the challenges that, again, we do have some vacant positions in our department. And again, what I'd like to take a look at is how we might repurpose some of that staff in order to do some of the work. You know, I have essentially taken a model where my staff is not the technical assistance trainers, not the loan packages, not the providers of the service. We are in essence managing relationships and contracts as a part of it. We know the work, we can deliver the work, but I have tried to contract more of these activities out to local organizations as a part of the work. Again, the example that Adria talked about in terms of even our summer program, the RFP on the street is to pay providers to deliver some of the training that maybe in the past staff delivered. Again, it is very difficult to be the experts in so much that's going on right now. I also know that we have some very capable community-based organizations who are eager to participate in this program. And that's why I'm excited about the community navigator program. Because again, there is an investment being made to build their capacity because quite frankly, those organizations in the neighborhoods on the street will always be more effective than we will. And again, it's important for us to sort of develop the partnerships and strategic relationships to help provide the guidance and actually to respond to what the needs are. And just taking from that, your priority five is kind of my priority one. And just acknowledging that the revitalization programs for Northeast Central Durham and Federal Street corridor have been kind of stagnated. I noticed the sign grants have gone away. Are you planning to bring funds back for that? Which signs went away? Business signage grants. Yeah, we're discussing that. Chris Dickey who has managed this program for the city for 15 years, we've been really talking about how we can modify the program. Again, we haven't been doing facade grants and signage improvement grants for a while. Part of that is the combination of quite frankly, having a landlord property owner who is gonna be a partner with us. Again, this hasn't happened, but in some places, we make these leasehold improvements. And if the landlord is not cooperative with us and considers raising the rent as a result of those leasehold improvements, we aren't gonna remove them, but the tenant has to pay those increases. So again, we're trying to figure out the balance around being able to do that. I appreciate that explanation. And just acknowledging that in COVID, I think we had the COVID grants available. And I'm just like just noting that there are ways in which our dollars could be used to actually get out today, acknowledging that that bill to last is, you talked about 24 months before equity fund comes online, what can we do today? That is supportive of the businesses that are existing or starting up right now. And so if you have thoughts around that, I would love to hear what that looks like and what the plan is, acknowledging that there are brown fields and that like the dollars are not there. And I'm just trying to make sure that the businesses don't stop coming online. Sure, again, we'll put some thoughts together as a part of our budget presentation as we move forward. And I would also love to hear more about how you plan to partner around housing, acknowledging that many of our mixed use projects coming online are including both commercial and housing. And the way we were just talking about our trails, there are areas in which businesses are in the area. And if there's ways to partner on funding, acknowledging that there's about $2.9 billion that was announced for transportation and infrastructure. All of those are things that staff could be focused on if they weren't just doing pilots. And so I just wanna make sure that that's clear as a priority as well. Thank you. Any other questions of council? Yes, thank you, mayor. And I direct the pedigree, please don't take my face as frustration. I am for some reason tired today. So I think I wanna understand better and I won't be before you long. This may be a question for the manager. Which, do we have a department of not this one or if this one where we focus on matters that are, I guess, more high level such as economic initiatives that would overall expand the tax base in the city or focus areas that would take advantage of what's happening now in regards to responding from COVID. We had a lot of federal funds come through and we're gonna have more. Spread in the courts across transportation and whatever infrastructure. But what I see here today is what we needed for a long time. And that was a lot of support for the ground level. A small, mom and pop shops. And I'm glad that we finally have that in place. So now I'm gonna move to looking to see, okay, so what's the, putting our big board pants on. The big economic initiatives to say, Raleigh right now, their tax base is three to one, two hours. We're about to catch up and be, you know, they get maybe two to three or whatever. So I noticed a loaded question, but if it's not this department, then where do we do that type of work from the city perspective or facilitate those relationships? And if it is this department, then back to Director Pettigrew. So if you're the main, you know, one of your question is, you know, more macro economic development, Andre can certainly respond to that because there is sort of a delineation of who focuses on building the economy in different spaces. And I think you couldn't speak to that. And if that is not the response, then I'll come back in. Thank you, Williams. Appreciate your question. So we are the organization that works in partnership with the county and the Greater Durham Chamber around the macro economic aspects of the work. We partner with them on a number of the business attraction activities, some of the major development that has come into our community. And again, we essentially do that following the lead of the chamber and the county. So part of that is because we have decided particularly over the last three years and based on our small business survey that in Durham, and again in that small business survey of which over 750 firms responded, most of our businesses are less than 50 and our minority and women owned businesses have less than 10 employees. We have a lot of sole proprietors, independent contractors as a part of this work. And again, you're correct. They did not get a lot of support and COVID actually made us focus more on that group. PPP was really about that sort of emerging business, that middle market business that you're asking for. That is the business that actually has an accountant, has a lawyer and a financial planner and a bank relationship that allowed them to secure the funding. Many of our businesses, not just in Durham, but around the country of color and women owned did not have that capacity. So we've been focused in building that infrastructure and that support. And so there's a middleware there. There's the bigger companies like Clorox, Carzon, the companies that we help play a role in bringing here. But there is a middle ground here and that is that entrepreneurial set of companies that quite frankly the American underground Adam Klein and the work that he has done has provided that infrastructure, that middleware.  And again, we're not working in that space. But a lot of that work is going on. Private equity is making significant investments in our community. In fact, I was looking at the Triangle Business Journal's report in terms of the largest equity investments of companies, again these are privately held companies and are publicly held. And I think five of the top 15 were Durham based companies. So again, they're not small, there may not even be minority of women owned, but there is a vibrant private equity world going on in the Triangle and some Durham companies are participating and you're correct, OEWD is not working in that space. Okay, and that's what I was sort of getting to, I appreciate it. And I think the how robust we've taken on the micro approach to small business sustainability. I do think the direction has to come from somewhere and I think it should be the city. Because if we are responsive to economic development, growth and development in our city, then therefore we don't drive that direction. And we have a convention center smaller by, like Cabarras County's convention center is twice the size of ours. So we don't have a real convention center. And we don't talk about those things. And we don't have enough hotels downtown and we have all of this growth that's coming. We talk about affordable housing a lot. So are we gonna have a lot of affordable housing buildings everywhere? Or are we gonna have a lot of luxury apartment buildings everywhere? At what point do we insert the economic, like Durham is open for business. Durham has convention centers, event space, amphitheaters, concert halls, the things that are economic drivers to the point where we're generating enough revenue to actually handle the social issues and the problems that we have in our city. Because we'll never build our way into it. We're never gonna be able to pay for, we're never gonna in a solo fashion pay for all of the problems we have. So I would like to see us start talking more in the macro area as well, at least setting the direction. I don't think the city can afford to do it alone. And it doesn't make logical sense to do so. But we have a lot of folks in the private sector where we could actually build better corporate partnerships, build better public private partnerships to do this. And I think once we start setting that direction, we have an audience or contingency of people and folks in the private market that are ready to jump on board. But I think that that direction has to come from us. I would personally volunteer to get involved in that conversation. There are folks that are waiting. Sure. And again, my only comment, and again, your comment is fair. Again, the economic development professionals in Durham, we do work together and we regularly meet together. So in addition to the city, the county, the chamber, Discover Durham, RTP, we actually have a regular forum to talk about these things. Again, we have not formalized that strategic plan and maybe that's what you're asking for. What is the formal documentation? The master plan. Yes. Master plan. We don't have that right now, but we do have a solid working relationship again where we're sharing information and leveraging and talking about the macro growth that you're talking about. Again, I'm confident that these discussions will lead to more formal things as a part of the work. This is something that we began, again, out of COVID, trying to make sure that we better understood how we were all working together and trying to anticipate not just the urgent needs, but the important needs going forward. So again, I will take your comments back because I'm sure they're all listening right now and to see how we might further actualize them. Thank you so much. I've also spoken to each of them and they're ready. So let's get to it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Williams. Are there any further comments? Mayor Pro Tem and then followed by Councilwoman Freedman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So back to just a kind of specific budgetary concern. I'm gonna thank Councilmember Johnson because I think she actually put her finger on one of the, what was one of the animating propositions for this presentation today. That's kind of a consideration of bandwidth. And I wanna say philosophically, Councilmember Johnson and I are shoulder to shoulder in terms of the importance of the potential impact of corporate ownership and the model that I very much like. But you said something about ability to handle the work. So I guess my specific question is, it seems that Councilmember Johnson's presentation and SEED, they're similar, but they're not fully conflatable. So I guess if the 75 grand, based on what I'm hearing today on the Councilmember Johnson's proposal comes to you, you're gonna take that money and find somebody to do what it's designed to do. You're gonna contract that out or do RFPs. Would you? Again, if the area of interest is around employee ownership and again, I think that that was her area of interest, I interjected the North Carolina Employee Ownership Center because that is a group that has been working in that space. That is a group that is actually working throughout the state there. Again, I don't know what we would do, but I could imagine an RFP that goes out to solicit someone to provide a scope of work again to be determined. And based on that, the winner would secure a contract from us and we would manage that contract and that relationship according to the terms of the scope of work. Right, and that's the end, so that's what we do. But it's not like we can take this money and just kinda add it to what's going on with SEED. No, no, actually, I think they're different. My point was that, again, the Legacy Program is really about the legacy companies who are gonna be certified as such. Absolutely. We're gonna support them of which this is a part. I think the approach that, my understanding of it, is a much more macro approach where we're actually laying a foundation, an educational foundation within the financial, within the professional community around what this option is as well as with our business owners. And again, my office is not doing that. We're doing that for the businesses who are in the Legacy Program. Right, which would be an expansion of your, is my point. All right, well, thank you, that's the answer, I think. Thank you, Madam Mayor, that's all I have. Council Member Freeman. Thank you. That question just got me thinking about a couple of other things, but I just wanted to just second Council Member Williams' point and just acknowledging that the lack of this strategic plan is actually causing harm to the economics of our city today. And so just acknowledge the way we come out of COVID is with steps. We have an opportunity here with all the ARPA dollars that are coming online to push in on a number of areas that will have impact. So whether it's in women and minority owned businesses or just local grown businesses or what have you, we don't have an on ramp in the same way we have a DOS plan with nine trails and it's frustrating because I've had an accident for that for like at least five years. And so I know from the work that we've done with Andrew Driver corridor, it's taken 10 years to get to where we are and we're not there yet. And I mean, I can't wait 10 more years. So I really have angst about starting something different that doesn't quite cover a large plan that will get us to the next step. And so I'm not concerned about moving forward with the budgeted requests from Council Member Johnson. I'm concerned that we missed the opportunity to actually do what we need to do to cover our businesses here in the city. So that's what I will say. Thank you. Any further comments? Thank you all. Thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you City Council. Thank you so much. Just one additional thing Madam Mayor, if I might. I just want to be really clear that Hispanic is not limited to Spanish. And that is an oversight that folks will make or over compensation that folks will make. And it's really offensive. Thank you. I now turn to Madam Clerk for our Board and Commissions and Task Force nominations. Good evening, everyone. It's after five. I wanted to give the Board, Committee, Commission and Task Force report. The Council's nomination to the Participatory Budgeting Steering Committee at large members are Paulette Jackson, Tanula Starks and Monte Watson. And that's the end of that report. I did have some questions about the at large vacancy process. First off, I wanted to let you know we have received five applications and the names of the individuals are Brenda Hill Pollard, Marky Brown, Shalia Ann Huggins, Dr. Monique Holsey and Tim Alran. In addition, there were a couple questions about processing and I had sent everyone an email about it. And to meet the stated date of March 28th of Council receiving the packet of applications, we do have to go through a vetting process for the election registrations, city residency and tax delinquency checks. And I did wanna check with you, did you want me to send out the applications with that information or just provide it to you as we receive that? Because if we wait to process those items, it may take a few days after the March 28th request date. So I wanted to ask what you would like to do. I'm gonna turn to Mayor Proctham. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Madam Clerk, are we not doing that as we get the applications, just checking there like in real time? Isn't that what we did before in the last processes? Right, we're doing that as quickly as possible, but as we get closer to the deadline, we're getting more applications. The first two applications are done. Now we've got three to do and it just takes some time to turn around because these are outside agencies that provide this information for us. We can impress upon them the urgency, but I did wanna let you know there may be a delay in some of that information that we receive back. Okay, by outside agency, are you referring to the county in terms of their? There's the Board of Elections, there's the tax department, and then we can do the city residency ourselves with GPS. But it's really those two items, the Board of Elections and the tax checks. So we have five now, the process closes tomorrow. Are you saying you need more time to get the? I'm saying I may need more time. I don't know if we just have the five applicants that we have today, I think we'll be fine. But if we get, let's say, five more tomorrow at 4.30 in the afternoon, then that is going to complicate things. Obviously I can't speak for the whole guy. I think we'll be comfortable with giving you a little more time beyond 20th if you need a day or two more to vet. But as far as getting the information, I think in the past we have considered receipt of the application that the vetting is assumed that once it gets to us, we're assuming we're getting that packet because tax status was verified because, so I don't think we need to see that connected to the actual packet. We'll just assume that if it passes you, that those odds were doubted and teased or crossed. I think that's how we've conducted ourselves before if I recall correctly. That sounds good. If I need more time, is it okay if I request more time? Sure. Okay. I think colleagues, we, okay. Yes ma'am. Thank you for letting us know, absolutely. And are you supportive of the applications going into the April 7th agenda packet as a supplemental item? Is everyone good with that? Yeah, I think that's what, yeah, absolutely. Okay. Thanks for the thumbs and that's all I have. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Thank you for your work. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. At this time, I think that we are ready to settle our agenda and I'll turn to our city manager. Well, I think you ever had a supplement. Oh, that's right. You also had. Yeah, I just wanted to bring up an item. Arpa, again, I know we're having a conversation on April 6th, I think at 6 p.m. And so I just had a couple of follow-up questions. One, I've been asked by folks who submitted proposals if we are going to allow public comment that evening. And I didn't know. So I wanted to bring that to you all and see where folks are. So that was question number one and then question number two and really it's kind of more a, well, yeah, I guess it's a question. My understanding is that we would be discussing, regardless of the outcome, we would be taking up the staff process that was introduced to us in December and having a continued conversation from there. The reason I'm asking is again, there's some conversation from folks in the community that they should be resubmitting proposals or doing proposals differently. And there's been some confusion and I want to know that folks, our community partners who've submitted proposals that they do not need to do anything if they've already submitted a proposal, but I also wanted to get clarification from folks. I think there's a lot of some rumors and some concerns and I wanted to allay those rumors and concerns that my understanding is that we were continuing the conversation we began in December. Even if the outcome is, we decide to do something different, we're at least starting there. That would be my assumption. Is there anybody that thinks in a differently or has a different idea that we would pick that conversation up? I would just ask, I thought we were going to be having some evaluation from staff around some of the projects that were duplicate or where partners or folks were engaged and submitting multiple, one separate and one together. No, that was not part of what we were going to be doing at this, we asked for requests for proposals and that's what we received. And that is where we are with that. We had not started working with any of those proposals because we don't know what next steps would be, but we are poised to begin working as soon as you all provide us the additional direction. My proposal, unless anyone has differently, is simply this, I would ask Councilman Mojavejaro along with Councilman Williams, if you all could give us a short process for what that conversation would look like and also a recommendation as to how we will go about having comment, public comment. I think we have, we had like 71 proposals out there so I don't know that that is viable for us to have 71 proposals, persons from each of those proposals speaking to us. I think that Councilwoman Cabrera had already sort of grouped them into different sections of housing. I remember there were some in housing and some in different areas. So if you all could provide us with sort of a short process on how we take those groupings and figure out who we want to talk with and how we best do that. So I'm gonna give you all that mandate to sort of come up with one, what that conversation will look like. Where are we picking, where are we gonna start and how we're gonna direct that conversation? And then the second part of that is the allowance of public comment and how that process should go. The set might take us a little while to kind of figure that out and I'd rather kind of put it in a smaller subset and then you all give us, think about it and give us some ideas since these two folk on the other side of you all have already, you're already tied up with the legislative process so I won't put that on you all but I do think that there needs to be a conversation between at least two of us. Are we comfortable saying, and this can be conversations that we have individually with each of you, but that can we come into that room with having some determinations that some proposals will not be moving forward just to curtail the possibility around, there's 77 proposals but there's agreement on, we're not gonna move this chunk forward then we know we can remove those folks and we can at least let staff let them know or folks at least comfortable with that decision. Councilor Lung Johnson. Thank you. I think, I mean this is just my feeling but I think what would be the best thing to do is if y'all come with a proposal and then we discuss and change it from there, not so that the process is a little bit more structured and not as open-ended as we're gonna just have a big conversation because I don't think that'll, I think that'll be much harder to land on a decision and I think we should make a decision. So if y'all come with like, here's what we think we should do and then we discuss from there, I think we'll actually get to a conclusion in that meeting. I think we have, I would agree that we need to kind of narrow it down. I think most of us have kind of looked at most of the proposals. I've begun to look at them and I have some ideas of where my priorities are. I think all of us do. So it's a matter of kind of narrowing that focus down. In those individual boxes that we have. Yeah, just to be clear, so we're gonna get together and come up with the process of identifying, not determining. Right, just identifying. Okay. So that we can kind of know. Madam Mayor, if folks are comfortable, I mean, each of you received a spreadsheet kind of narrowing that conversation down. If folks are comfortable with those decisions in that spreadsheet, which I think we should add as a supplemental item to the, you know, ahead of time so that the public can see it. That will narrow it down quite a bit because we're then just choosing around some options. But I wasn't clear when I had conversations where I left it with individuals was here's a spreadsheet. How do you feel? And folks were gonna kind of mull it over. And where I was unclear is are we showing up with, are we all showing up with an assumed point at a conversation or are folks like, no, I don't wanna, the spreadsheet doesn't work at all and I'm not interested in having that conversation. Does that make sense? Y'all see, weigh in, weigh in, weigh in. Because there were some assumptions made, you know, they're structured in a way where some things were, we would only potentially use up to half of the money but there wasn't necessarily consensus among the seven of us around that decision. There was, there were some other kind of decision points that we would have to make to arrive around the conversation. I'm hearing both you and council member Johnson want to have, which I think is the efficient way to do it. I just wanna make sure that we're making the decisions now to have that efficient conversation. Councilwoman Freeman, I wanna ask you to weigh in a little bit. I'm not, I'm not sure I'm following completely because I know that this spreadsheet that council member Johnson put together lists, I don't know if it was all 71, all 71 of the projects. But the, I guess the criteria or the grouping, I haven't seen that spreadsheet and I haven't seen, there was something else you mentioned. There was another document, well, whatever. But I'm missing something, that's what I feel like. Council member Freeman, if it's okay council, I mean, Mayor O'Neill, I'll just respond if that's okay. That's the only spreadsheet and that's all 77 projects and it's an assumption of, based on the December conversation that there was not consensus on council around spending all of our ARPA funding on the staff design process, the staff and community design process, but it seemed that there was consensus on spending up to 50% of it. And so we would enter the conversation on the sixth, with that number one assumption made, we are only talking about 50% of the ARPA funding. But when I had individual conversations, I think with you council member Freeman, you were not necessarily on board with spending up to 50% of the money. And that was 50% of the dollars we currently have. We've received all of our ARPA funding, it's around $44 million if I'm not mistaken. Okay. The best process that we're discussing would follow the staff process that we have already had conversations with, we've already received 77 proposals around and we'd basically be saying we're gonna allocate 22 million or thereabouts of our ARPA funding to that process. If we can start there, if we at least can agree to that one, then we can create a better and efficient process for April 6th. I do not feel comfortable coming up with a process if we can't even start with that one kind of consensus. And I'm probably the only one that doesn't want to do the 22. So I'm fine if consensus is around 22, but I think we should be looking at a much bigger plan, so. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Firstly, I thought it was important that the mayor and council member Williams had opportunity to averse themselves and come up to speed and that was built in another part of the decision of waiting April 6th and I think that was the right decision. But the beginning, there were two currents that I think fed our current position, two currents that fed into where we are now. One was there are people hurting in our city that needed the money immediately. And two was that there was enough money where we could do something kind of blitzkrieg at the beginning quickly and still have a significant amount of money left to think about whatever you want to call it, a Marshall plan, investment in legacy neighborhoods, something big and transformative. And I think that the spreadsheet that council member Johnson produced was actually informed by the staff's work. It was more, it was just a graphic depiction of work that the staff did that we asked them to do. The scoring work. And when I first saw the staff's work, I was comfortable at that point with at least, as I eyeball some of the list of those proposals, I recognize a number of those groups doing important work, whether it's maternity issues, housing, eviction, diversion, a number of those initiatives are things that we've already funded in the past that we're already familiar with. I think back to when our small business owners were kind of on us about dragging our feet about getting money out the door in the aid plan to our business owners. And some of them, as we now have another pile of money that we need to get out the door that's available to us. And I don't wanna become subject to those type of critiques again from folk in our community. So I think that for me, the ones I've looked at on this spreadsheet, I think there were a number of cutoff points that we can take action on as a council to get some of those checks out the door for people who need it right now, and still have a significant amount of money. We can accomplish both things and allow for council member Williams and the mayor to have opportunity to look at it. Me myself personally, I have no intentions of reading 77 RFPs in their entirety. That's what the staff is for. I mean, when we're in work session, how many contracts come before the council at any given period? And other than perhaps Steve Shull and maybe Charlie, who reads every page and every jotting tittle of those contracts. So some of those proposals, I know that I'm not gonna read all of them, but I know that the staff is and the staff is vetting. And I think that the work that the staff has done thus far was what we asked them to do. I think it's actionable. I think it was on point. And I think that that has to be, that's a good starting point for us to either we affirm what the staff has done or we ourselves are gonna have to come up with a whole new rubric to judge these RFPs. And I'm not gonna read all 77 of them. I know that, but I'm great for the staff that has. So I think on April 6th, bringing the spreadsheet and kind of going, if each individual council member wants to go, if there are particular proposals that we have issues with or we have questions about, if we wanna bring those folk in, we can certainly do that. But I think we're at a point where we can accomplish holding back a significant amount of money to do some of the big equity, transform the pieces we wanna do, and we can get some help out the door that is desperately needed right now in our city. That's where I am. Just for clarity, you've asked council member Caballero and I to come up with a process for April 6th, correct? Because a lot of the work seems to have already been done. So, yeah, I just wanted to see clarity on it. I don't think we have to recreate the will as deputy manager Bertha Johnson and her staff have already done a great deal of the work. And council member Johnson has organized it with their magical spreadsheet powers. So, council member Caballero and I will come up with a process on how we'll deliberate and facilitate that evening. That's my understanding of your request. Is that right? Yes sir. Thank you. So there are a couple of other assumptions that are in play in that spreadsheet that are not quite in line with what council member, Mayor Pregent Middleton was saying. Primarily that it defers all of the proposals that are focused on more county related functions like health and safety to a future process with the county which was something that we'd also talked about in December. So, if we spend half the money on the proposals that are still in that spreadsheet that doesn't actually leave us a whole bunch of money to do a big thing, it puts us into a situation where the rest of that money is gonna go to a combination of funding those proposals in cooperation with the county or maybe the county just decides to fund them all but I'm not gonna count on it. So, we may, there are proposals under that health and wellness category that I think are really good that I wanna be funded and I think in an ideal world we would enter into some sort of partnership with the county to fund some of those. It also eliminates any proposal that the staff had recommended that we not fund so anything that was below 20 is cut. And that's the way it got to being able to give, that was kind of where I started with just that list to get to giving away that 22-ish million. I think most of them are in the 20 to 21 range most of the scenarios. So, I don't think we have quite as much flexibility. If we go with, if we went with that framework, I don't think we have quite as much flexibility to do a big equity initiative because we haven't considered all those other health and wellness proposals, which I think we should consider or, but we do have the potential partnership with the county and they also have a ton of ARPA money and hopefully they would be willing to be more like the primary funder on those proposals because they are much more of like a county function. If we could make that partnership happen, then I think we're in good shape but because we haven't had those conversations yet, it still feels sort of up in the air. Council Member Johnson, thank you. And I think it's a really, really important clarification. Let me say some of those health and wellness initiatives that would not be funded, I see that as part of that equity kind of piece. Some of those who didn't make the cut are some of those type of initiatives that I think we may want to add into that moving forward. And the math, I guess what I was thinking, when I looked at the 22 million, whatever we don't spend after, if we fund what crossed the scoring threshold, my point was is that what is left over, we're not obligated to take that money and to fund the ones that didn't get funded on that list, that that gives us the bandwidth to do what we want to do. That's purely mathematical, that 22 spent, 22 left, without any strings attached to it or any kind of predetermined obligations for that is where I was getting that. But I think you make an excellent point mathematically and structurally from the spreadsheet. Thank you. Madam Senate Manager, thank you Madam Mayor. What I did want to say, and we've been having conversations internally with staff about when we do receive the direction to move, we're going to be ready to move very quickly. But one of the things that we would do under any kind of process is as soon as a proposal is a proposal and once we have that proposal in our hands, you all are looking at what the person asked for or what the organization asked for, but there has to be a vetting of that between us and that organization in terms of the scope that is in the best interest of the community. So in some ways, the amount is a, up to a amount or a potentially an amount, but the actual contract amount and it would be transparent, you would know what that is. But if someone asked for a million and a half dollars, I'll just use that as an example, and then we go negotiate with that nonprofit and determine that what they're trying to do and we go back and forth with it, that ends up being 500,000, then the number goes up and down based upon those negotiations. So we always knew that at the time that the nonprofit is selected and the amount that they asked for, there would have to be additional vetting around the scope of the service and the amount of dollars that would be applied to that. And we will be coming back to you. Certainly we would never go above an amount that you all had given us authority to negotiate with. Thank you, and I appreciate that explanation. I just wanted to clarify for the folks who have submitted proposals, no, you do not need to do anything extra. I just want to ensure that because I'm hearing some angst out there and you do not need to do anything extra. Your proposal has been submitted. We have it. And additionally, Council Member Williams and I will be figuring out how we could potentially take public comment because that was the second part of things that folks have asked me and I wanted to make sure I address it. I appreciate all of my Council colleagues' comments and I know we will have a very robust conversation and I look forward to working with Council Member Williams although I do leave the country tomorrow. So. And we'll leave next week, so. But we'll get there. I think we've heard a couple of things that we can agree on to kind of give you all a kind of a box. And one is that we want to make sure that we address some of those organizations who can provide urgent help. We also want to make sure that we are following what our staff has already ably done and how they've categorized those at the cutoff point, right? So we're gonna stay above that line. I think we also have agreed that we are going to try to hand out half of the money, reserve the other half with no promises on the other half and how that will be delivered. We're also going to make sure that we're trying to be deliberate about making sure that those that we fund are ones that the city normally funds and not reach across into the county arena. So are those all kinds of things that we can kind of agree on as to a broad box? I want to make sure that we do identify the black lead or black focus organizations as a part of that equity conversation. Anybody have any issue with that? I think by definition, the equity will lead us to talking about the black lead in brown organizations. And some of them are already on that list, some of them are on that list already of the folks that have been vetted. So thank you. That kind of gives you all a broad box to kind of frame us, to frame us. Yep, I'm gonna go back and watch this on YouTube so I can get the instructions. It will be good to go. Emergent, try to stay within the city mandate. We're not gonna go below what the city has already determined. Our staff has already determined. So it's pretty, and it's all laid out on us. I think on the spreadsheet when I looked out, it's pretty much that that's pretty much how that spreadsheet flows. You'll be able to pick it up from there. Okay, makes sense. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Madam Mayor, just real quick. I know this time is coming up, our legislative committee work. Just wanna put it on everybody's radar. I'm on that committee and I think, Mayor, you're on that as well? I believe so. And Julie, okay. So I know that our delegation has been asking for us to get it together. So we will probably be meeting sooner than later. And we wanna think about those legislative ideas that we have that we wanna collaborate with and meet with Madam Chief of Staff, coming to Wallace and get to work on that. So let me put it out. Bless you. Don't remember as I chair the legislative committee, we will be meeting soon to talk about our legislative agenda. Tell the delegation they need to get themselves together. Note it. I'm gonna ask our city manager there to go ahead and sell our agenda.  Again, good afternoon. Madam Mayor, Mr. Mayor, pro 10 members of Durham City Council, before I ask that the agenda be settled, I did wanna have a few more comments around item number 13. I would want to emphasize that the reason that this item is being presented by General Services onto your agenda today is due to the time-bound nature of the project. And there was discussion here about getting additional information that, certainly I have had text conversations as well as some conversations during the break with the staff that would be able to put that information in certain types of memos or format and add it to the agenda item as it moves through the cycle. Before I started to call it out, I wanted to find out from you all's direction whether that item will be on the consent agenda or on the GBA general business agenda. I'm fine with it being on consent, but it only takes one person to put it on GBA. Yeah, I mean, if it's on consent, I'm gonna pull it. So I prefer it to be on GBA so that it doesn't go to the end. So for your agenda, I have items one through 12 and items 14 through 16. For the general business agenda, I have item number 13 and for GBA public hearings, item number 19. And that is what I have for your agenda. Second. Second. Oh, my mic is not on, I'm sorry. It's been moved by Councilwoman Johnson and seconded by Councilman Williams. We are now ready to let us conduct a verbal vote. All those in conformance with settling the agenda, if you would let us know by verbally saying A. Aye. Aye. Aye. I don't know why I would say that. Are there any nays? Hearing none. That agenda is settled and that motion has passed unanimously. Now, are there any other items to come before this city council on this day? If not, this meeting is adjourned. At what time is that? 5.30. 5.30, 7 p.m., but let's say the strong. Warns up. I was about.


Hello everybody! In today's video, I will show you how to configure parental controls in a router. In our channel and blog, you will find solutions to any problem, from installing an operating system or configuring it to fix impossible bugs and errors or optimizing mobile gadgets. Our specialists will answer any questions you ask in your comments under the videos or articles. Sometimes it may be necessary to block access to social media or any other websites for specific devices including smartphones and tablet PCs. This function makes it possible to allow Internet access on schedule only and to specify the web addresses that can be visited or should be restricted. For example, you can disable Internet access for the time when children are supposed to be doing their homework or sleeping. Similarly, you can restrict Internet access inside your office network so that your employees can concentrate on doing their job instead of browsing the web. In some models, the functions of blocking certain websites and restricting Internet access on schedule are combined. I will show you how to configure parental controls with the example of a tippling router. Here we go. Configuring parental controls from a PC. First of all, you need to enter the settings. To do it, type the router address in the browser, enter the login and password, by default, there admin and admin. Go to the tab Parental Controls and enable this function by checking the corresponding box. You can also give the MAC address of the computer, which will control access, that is, the parental PC. The MAC address field shows the MAC address of the computer, which is currently being used to configure the router. If the MAC address of your network card has already been registered with the system, you can click on the button Copy to a bound. To copy this address to the field, MAC address of parental PC. Below, specify the device you want to control. Grab the address of the device for which you want to restrict access or the addresses of the devices to which you would like to apply parental control functions in the field MAC address 1, 2, 3, 4. Otherwise, select the MAC address from the drop-down list and copy it to one of these fields by choosing it from the list. The next tab is to specify the time period during which the controlled computer will be allowed to connect to the Internet. Use when such controls should be applied each day or week and then click End. To remove the time and days you have selected, use the button Clear Skiddle. In the last section, you can specify the Internet addresses that your child or another user will be permitted to access. Click Save to confirm the changes you have made. A little break for a short joke. The guy is smoking and leaving smoke rings into the air.  Smokin' is harmful. The boy replies, darling, I'm a programmer. We don't worry about warnings, we only worry about errors. That's a cool joke, and we always get the best stories to amuse you. And back to work, configure parental controls from a smartphone. Also you can configure parental controls with a smartphone using a tool called tether. For a detailed coverage of the app, follow the link below to watch one of our previous videos. In this app, the function is a bit simplified. To enable it, drag the slider to the corresponding position, just as explained before, set the Skiddle and specify available web addresses. At this stage, configuring these over and parental controls are ready to use. Now the user with restricted access rights won't be able to use a website which is forbidden or to go online at a time different from what has been specified in the settings. Here is one more important thing. If your router still has the default password, admin, to protect the settings, I recommend changing it. Follow the link below to watch another video on our channel to learn how. Your child may easily watch a video on YouTube, open the router settings and block your own internet access. There are underestimate today's teens. Too often they turn up more tech-wise than you can imagine. This way, you can discipline not only naughty children, but also bratty relatives and cunning neighbors. Anyway, I'm sure you will find a way to use this trick. And that is all for now. I hope you find this video useful. Hit the like button and subscribe to our channel. Leave comments to ask questions. Thank you for watching. Good luck!


Five things you need to know about the rules of war. Civilians must be protected. It is illegal to target civilians and civilian objects, things like homes, schools and hospitals. The sick and wounded must be cared for regardless of whose side they're on, like soldiers, the shipwrecked, civilians and medical staff. Detainees are also protected under international humanitarian law. This includes protection from acts of violence and intimidation and special protection is given to prisoners of war. All those who've died must be treated with dignity. Under international humanitarian law, warring parties must facilitate the return of the dead to their loved ones. Humanitarian aid, like food, water and medicine, must be able to reach people. So parties to a conflict must facilitate humanitarian access. And most importantly, the rules of war must be applied without discrimination, regardless of a person's race, sex, nationality, political opinion or religion.


Hello my fellow sniffers welcome back to my channel and for those of you who are new to my channel Yes, there's a crazy cat like flying around if you want to know why Check out my other vlogs They're gonna be a lot different than what I'm about to tell you guys now if you follow me on Instagram at Marlene Mico and you probably know what this update is about but to get everybody up to date I lost my bird. He's my favorite bird. He's my mustache parakeet I know I'm reiterating, but there's a lot of new people here recently, which I'm pretty excited about but I am heartbroken and I've been updating my Sniffers as I call you guys on what's been happening and for those of you who are completely new here check out all my funny videos And for those of you who are waiting for updates on Picasso Let me tell you what just happened. I just spoke with an animal intuitive and this is the second time I've spoken with somebody about Picasso and since you guys follow me on Instagram You probably have been waiting for this message because I saw some of you looking for the update and For those of you who are wondering about things in between videos It's a really good idea to follow me on Instagram and watch my IG TV Which is Instagram TV because I'm finding it to be so Helpful in keeping you guys updated in between videos and I'm gonna continue to do that all the time and also I've been doing life with the parrots and crazy life with the birds there So you don't want to miss out on that unedited action Okay, so back to the intuitive She was amazing first of all this is the second time I've spoken to someone and Both of them said that Picasso is alive and well now for those of you who don't believe in things like this Hear me out these kind of things give me such a new hope and a new energy and a new drive to do something new to Find Picasso because when you lose a bird it can get really exhausting any animal. It's heartbreaking. It's exhausting It's tiring emotionally So just having a little bit of new hope and good news even though there is no clear evidence of good news Makes me feel Really really good. So here's what happened She had emailed me and I hadn't gotten back to her because I just have hundreds of emails from you guys And I appreciate them so much and you guys are writing such amazing things like Unbelievable like if Picasso wasn't missing. I don't think I would even know what an army of Incredible souls you are I mean I knew but just like I don't know I just love you guys so much more now and I feel like we're such a strong team and I Read her email and I meant to get back to her like I mean to get back to a lot of you and I will and then I Forgot about it and then she emailed me again and in it. She wrote really I just want to reach out again for the sake of Picasso and I just She donated her time and I just feel like I just felt the love her love for animals and her love for Picasso in general and her empathy so I contacted her and I spoke to her for a very long time today and She gave me this glamour. She was like I could be wrong and I don't know I actually have a really good feeling when I responded to her She gave me details on where she thinks he might have gone and she said I don't know Are there stores near you is there like a main street with lots of stores and she doesn't live anywhere near me and That made me before I even responded to her I went and put up flyers if you saw on Instagram TV with a reward last night along the boulevard So then I spoke to her today and she's like I see a white sign with blue writing and I don't know and it was really weird She said I see like folded clothing or fabrics and things like that and Basically After she sent me that email Before she told me about the fabric in the sign. I said, ah, there's kind of a cleaners nearby. I wonder if You know that would be somewhere he could go like I just got this vibe and then When I called her she was like, I don't know if there's a sign near you Maybe you could look on Google Earth and sure enough when I got this instinct to like check that sign It's white with blue writing and there's other details. She gave me but long story short That was just confirmation for me that that could be at least the right Direction just that the sign matched exactly what she was describing and on top of that It matched like where I thought maybe That could be the direction based on her first email to me her second email or a third email. Sorry Anyway, I'm gonna keep this short I'm gonna go out today and I'm gonna start over there And I'm gonna bring some flyers and I may need some help So if any of you are in the area and you want to help don't feel free to email me I need to get things up. I need to get to every store legitimately in my town and See if I can get any leads and there are people that literally are not good with the internet They don't speak English like they just may not know How to get Picasso back or a lot of people just want to keep birds until they know who it belongs to so I'm changing my whole direction now and I'm working on the stores and the businesses if anyone wants to help me let me know if you live in the area obviously and And that goes for my friends too and I'm feeling very hopeful and very positive And I don't know. I just like things have changed Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm not saying I'll find him before tomorrow, but I really didn't think I'd have to spend my birthday without my bird My beloved bird like my bird that I love So much and I don't even know what's gonna happen But that's the story tomorrow is my birthday guys and I wanted to give you guys a little update Cats here cats still here. What are you doing here? But not near the birds the cat actually like has already kind of picked her room and it's kind of like she likes upstairs Don't know if I'm keeping the cat. I'm just saying and For those of you curious about the cat There is a potential really good home for the cat so it's not like she would be abandoned by me She's getting a lot of love, but George is in love with the cat So that's the cat story. I love you guys so so much. I can't even convey I'm feeling very positive. I don't know if I'll get a birthday miracle. I do need some help But I think that I don't know I just intuitively feel like now we're going in the right direction So that is all I'm not gonna edit this. Sorry guys. I just want to get it up I just want to get to Picasso quickly. I love you so much. Don't forget to subscribe Hashtag bring Picasso home and thank you guys on Instagram for all of the accounts because I think they're so amazing Maybe you guys could tag businesses now in Encino Tarzana Sherman Oaks. I don't know. I love you guys That's it. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram because you're really missing out. I love you guys. Bye