Good evening and welcome. My name is Deidre Anna Freeman and I want to welcome you to the 2015 general election forum sponsored by the Inter-Neighborhood Council of Derm. Thank you to our candidates for participating in our forum tonight and thank you to the public for attending and watching us on Derm Television Network. Organized in 1984, the Inter-Neighborhood Council of Derm is a coalition of Derm neighborhoods and homeowners, homeowner associations as well. Our mission is to promote the quality, sustainability, and vitality of Derm's residential neighborhoods. Just as many heads are better than one, neighborhoods gain strength by working together. 2015 marks the fourth year in a row that we at Inter-Neighborhood Council have sponsored a candidates forum for the local offices. INC, which is the abbreviation of the Inter-Neighborhood Council, is a nonpartisan organization that does not endorse, oppose, or support candidates or political parties. I wish to thank City Council, I'm sorry to thank the City of Derm for letting us use the council chambers and the Derm Television Network for broadcasting the event tonight. This also goes to the Greater Derm Chamber of Commerce for underwriting the event and closed captioning tonight. Now I'd like to introduce our moderator, DeWarne Langley. DeWarne has an outstanding record of civic engagement in Derm. He is the chair of the Citizens Advisory Council, the vice chair for the Civilian Police Review Board, and the vice chair of Kids Voting Derm. Among many other public service roles, among many other public service roles DeWarne holds. Like to welcome DeWarne Langley. Thank you DeGiorna, it's a pleasure to serve as the moderator. Candidates are seated from left to right as they appear on the ballot. For mayor we have William Bell and James Lyons, and for at large council seats we have Ricky Hart, Jillian Johnson, Charles Reese, Steve Shull, Mike Schifflett, and Robert T. Stevens. All questions will be asked by the moderator. The questions come from INC members as well as those submitted tonight by the general public. The table in the hallway has a place to submit questions. Please give your question to our volunteer. The question will be asked of each candidate starting with the first candidate and the second question starting with the second candidate, so and going left to right. Questions will be timed allowing each candidate one minute for each question. The candidates will be making opening and closing statements of two minutes. Closing statements will be in reverse order of the opening statements, and there's a clock right there for you all to keep track of your time, and if your time runs out I will say time, and I will respectfully ask you to stop speaking at that point. All registered City of Durham voters are eligible to vote for mayor and at large seats. Please bear in mind that the major services provided by the City of Durham are inspections, planning, community development, emergency communications, economic and workforce development, fire, parks and recreation, police, public works, solid waste, transportation, and water management. Let's begin with the opening statements. Mayor Beall, two minutes. Thank you, and good evening to all of you here this evening. I want to thank the INC and the Durham Chamber of Commerce for helping to pull this program together. As many of you may or may not know, I've had the privilege of serving as the mayor of Durham, North Carolina, since 2001. You also may know that I've announced publicly that this will be my last election win or lose. It's been an honor and a privilege to have an opportunity to serve. Not only as mayor, but as a member of the Board of County Commissions for 26 years and 12 of those years I chaired that board. I await your questions and answers and I look forward to comments also from our colleagues on the council. Thank you. Mr. Lyons. Thank you. Thank you to the INC for granting me this opportunity to come before you this evening. My name is James Lyons. I'm a Durham native and I'm 42 years of age. I'm employed with Tom Warner Cable in Morrisville, North Carolina. I've worked in our community in the City of Durham for 18 years, mentoring young people. I've worked with the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaign as well. I've conducted voter registration drives and I've also done big brother programs as well. The reason I decided to put my name in the hat to run for mayor in this particular election is number one. I think the problems that we face in our city requires a platform. Any other position in our city council did not allow me that opportunity to direct our city in a direction in which I think we need to head at this particular time. I wanted also to encourage others in our community, especially some of our younger youth and millennial voters to get involved in what goes on in our city and to step up to the plate and be in charge and do things in our city. Some of my priorities and my platform issues are affordable housing and rent, address our public safety and crime, and also to prioritize some of our disenfranchised communities. Again, thank you for this opportunity and thank you for coming out this evening. Mr. Hart. Good evening. I'm Ricky L. Hart and I run for Durham City Council at large. I'm a native of Durham, born, raised and educated. The only time I was away from my beloved city is when I served 12 years in the United States Army Military Police Corps as a diplomatic security advisor. While in the Army I received my bachelor's in business and my master's in criminal justice. There are three main issues that I look at that stand out. A strong and diverse economy that results in providing opportunity for living wage, soft-skilled jobs, vocational training, and a better standard of living for all. Safe and secure communities that is based on a shared responsibility model wearing law enforcement agencies, work with the community in an effective, responsible and supportive manner, building those bridges of trust, respect, and accountability. A well-managed city where the city's needs are recognized, prior to rise and actualized through exemplary accountability and transparency to the citizens. Currently I serve on the Durham Human Relations Commission as a member and past chairman and Lincoln Community Health Center Board of Vice President. I will work to provide opportunity for those to build a self-esteem and encouragement to be successful. I will work to put community centers back into our neighborhoods for our youth and seniors. We must use communication, respect, and cooperation to build understanding and trust for the safe city that we live in. I ask for your support and your vote and I am the heart of Durham. Thank you. Ms. Johnson. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight and to the organizers for putting this event together. My name is Jillian Johnson and I'm running for city council. I've been a community organizer in Durham for 16 years. I have two sons. My oldest is in the Durham Public School System and I've lived in the West End neighborhood since 2004. And I'm running for council because I believe that we are facing some real important choices and challenges in our city. I think we're at a turning point. And the way that our city is growing and changing over the last few years has really made some of those choices clear for us. And we have to decide what kind of a city we want to live in. Are we going to be continue building two separate and unequal cities where development benefits a few folks and the rest of the city is left out or are we going to come together and really build a city where everyone can thrive and can live and live well? So in order to do that, I want to focus on a few specific things. Number one, we need housing that working people and families can afford. The housing prices in downtown are completely unaffordable for ordinary working folks. And I think that if we want a city where people can live and continue to live and live well, I think that we need to really focus on making sure that families can live in our city and especially in downtown and the neighborhood surrounding downtown. Second, I think we need to focus on community safety and strategies that keep us safe while respecting the dignity of every human being in our community and really focusing on a broad based economic development strategy to lift our communities out of poverty and fight the root root causes of crime. And finally, I think that we need to really focus on equity. Whenever we make decisions, we need to direct those resources to the people that need the most and center the voices of people who are most impacted by injustice and our decision making. Thanks. Mr. Reese. Good evening, everyone. My name is Charlie Reese and I'm running for Durham City Council because I love this city and I want Durham to remain the very special place that it is, a city that is diverse and inclusive and prosperous and safe. When I say I want a diverse Durham, I mean that I want a Durham that is racially and economically diverse. Durham has to be a place that has to remain a city where working families can afford to live and work and raise their kids. That's so critical to our self-identity, to our economy and our culture. We have to remain that place. What that means is Durham has to have housing that's affordable for working families and we have to have jobs that working families can do today that pay a living wage. When I say I want an inclusive Durham, I want a politics in this city where all voices are heard, not just those of the powerful. And a politics and a policy environment that is about the concerns of working families. When I say that I want a prosperous Durham, I want a Durham where our economy results not in the enrichment of a few, but in a prosperity that is broadly shared across our city. Our growth has to lift up all parts of Durham, not just a few neighborhoods. And that's why one of the most important reasons I'm running for City Council. And finally, when I say that I want a safe Durham, I want a city where all of us feel safe in our homes and safe in our neighborhoods. A city where we have a relationship of trust and confidence between the police department and the people they protect and serve. I believe that the hiring of a new police chief gives us a golden opportunity for a fresh start between the police and our community. But I also think we have to recommit to a policing strategy that gets police officers out of their cars and walking beats in neighborhoods, creating those one-on-one relationships that will rebuild the relationship between the police and our community. I've got a lot of other ideas about how to fight crime in Durham. I hope we get to those as we go along. But I just want to thank you all for being here tonight and look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Reese. Councilman Schull. Thank you very much, DeWarren. My name is Steve Schull. I'm an incumbent member of City Council, and I want to humbly ask for your support for a second term. I came to Duke in 1969, 46 years ago, and been here, except for one year away, to graduate school ever since. I have been lucky to have a wonderful life here in this city, and I love it very much. And that's why I'm running. It's been an incredible honor to serve, and I hope that you will give me the chance to do it again. My first job out of school was at North Carolina Central University, where I was instructor. But most of my life here, my working life, for 30 years, I published the independent weekly newspaper. And for the last 15 years, I've been a professor at Duke in public policy. I was four years on the board of education, where I was vice chair. And I've done a lot of things civically, but I just want to mention one. I've coached youth soccer in Durham for 18 years, and I think maybe that was the best thing I've ever done civically. What I believe is that the city we love must be a city for all. And I think that's the challenge that we face. I have three issues that I want to talk briefly about. One, and we'll talk more about them tonight, one is gentrification and affordable housing, which I work on every single day. Second is policing that effectively fights violent crime and does so without a hint of discrimination. And the third is, as Durham prospers, are we going to invest in the crucial assets that will give us a really wonderful future and a wonderful quality of life? And I look forward to talking about all of those tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Michelle. Mr. Shipplett. My name is Mike Shipplett. I've lived in Durham for over three decades, moved here in 1984, and have raised four of my children, all attending Durham public schools. I've been a businessman and a business owner during the last 19 years. But before I start going into my history, I want to mention one name that a person isn't sitting here tonight. It's Phil Azar. Phil Azar was a past president of INC. I think he was a very good qualified candidate for city council. And unfortunately, he didn't make it past the primary. And when you see the people sitting up here, it is a grueling task. It's not easy to answer all these questions, but I got to know Phil even better being at these candidate forums. I have a list of things that I have done in the past 20 years and it's sitting outside. And I was going to go through the whole list. But Steve, mentioning his highest accomplishment, I feel the best thing that I've been able to do over the last 10 years has been involved with the Neighborhood Hero Awards. That's where we take regular citizens and recognize them. We've had over six of those Neighborhood Hero Awards and we've recognized over 120 regular citizens just like you. We've sat there and done something special in their neighborhood. And as a city councilman, I will look forward to working with you when you have a problem or recognize you when you do something above and beyond for your community. I think that's what a city council member should be doing. Not trying to tell you what to do or how he's going to lead, but being able to listen to you and have the ability to be able to have a discussion. I will discuss more opportunities with you later on. I think it is better to debate a question without an answer than to answer a question without debate. That would be my motto. Thank you, Mr. Schiffler. Mr. Stevens. Good evening, everyone. My name is Robert T. Stevens. And I'm running for Durham City Council. I'm a Winston-Salem State University graduate, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. I have a master's degree in public policy. And I'm a former public school teacher. And I decided to run for Durham City Council because I believe that when something is wrong, you do something about it. You don't sit and wait on the sidelines for someone else to jump in.  My parents taught me that. My father taught me that. I think four years ago, when I received the phone call that my father was out raking the leaves, it was a huge forest fire. Because when I'm from the country, we burn our leaves. City doesn't come by and pick it up. So my father was raking the leaves and he burned them. And he went in the house to get ready for a doubtless appointment. And my father looked outside the window when our yard was on fire. My grandfather's yard was on fire. And my father made a choice. He taught us that you do something. When something is wrong, you jump in there. So my father ran out there, grabbed the water hose, tried to put the fire out, couldn't do it. He saw a carpet. And he grabbed underneath my grandfather's carport. And he went to the neighbor's house because the neighbor's house was directly in the line of fire. And he'd knocked on the door and told the children to come out, but they wouldn't come. So my father stood there. And he beat that fire until he prevented it from burning down their house. My father died right there. He had a massive heart attack. But my father died believing what he lived. When something is wrong, you do something about it. We have some fires here in Durham. And I'm prepared to do something about them and work hard to put them out. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. Now the first question will go to Mr. Lyons. Public perception is that public safety has declined over the past year. Why do you think this has occurred? And what do you think you could do about it? I think that's a great question. I think public safety has declined in Durham. Number one, we hadn't prioritized it. In anything in life, in any environment, if you don't prioritize it and make it a priority, it will decline. And what we're seeing now, we're seeing the results of what we've neglected for so long. And we put our priorities in other areas and we've neglected public safety and crime. And basically, we're just reaping the fruits of what we neglected. What I would do about it is I would prioritize it. I would definitely make certain that public safety and crime is the top list of my platform items. I will put all of our city's resources, focus, and energy into public safety and crime. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Hart. I believe the issue is because the police department and the community have a disconnect. They do not have that trust between each other. They do not have that fellowship between each other because the police department, the law enforcement, they go through the neighborhoods they drive through. You don't get those law enforcement officers that walk through the neighborhoods anymore, getting to know the neighbors. It's more of a reaction instead of being proactive. And I think that's the disconnect that we have with our law enforcement. And part of it is with the crime. When we see crime and it comes on the television, majority of the time it's always under investigation and called crime stoppers. Why is that? Because a lot of the neighbors don't have that disconnect or that trust with law enforcement to go out and talk to them. So it's a hard job that we have to, the community, have to engage again. And law enforcement have to be approachable with the citizens of Durham. Thank you, Mr. Hart. Ms. Johnson. People who have meaningful economic, social, and educational opportunities rarely commit crimes. I believe that we should tackle the problem of crime and Durham through a broad-based economic development strategy that prioritizes affordable housing that is safe and well-maintained for families, living wages, jobs that pay well so that folks can provide for their families, educational opportunities for young people and for older folks, workers who may need some retraining or some new training to get better jobs. And also social opportunities for our young people so that they're able to live healthy and productive lives. I think that if we prioritize really the development of our people and the lifting up of our communities and working to get people out of poverty, that that will have a profound effect on issues of crime in our city. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Mr. Reese. I think there's no issue facing our city that's more important to me than the recent increase in violent crime. Through the first six months of this year, violent crime was up 13 and 1 half percent over last year. So there's both a perception and a reality that there is an increase in crime in Durham. I think Jillian was absolutely right in pointing out some of the real causes to crime, people that have decent jobs, people that have access to affordable health care, that have some connection to their community. Those people, by and large, don't commit crime. And so from a macro perspective, I think one of the things we have to do is focus on an economic development strategy that lifts up communities that have been held down for generations. And that's one of the things I want to do if I'm elected to city council. But more short term, I think bringing in a new police chief who can restore the relationship of trust and confidence between the police and the people of Durham is really, really important. And I think a commitment to community policing will help that along. I think we also, as Ricky said, need to start setting some new priorities about how we spend our scarce law enforcement resources. Thank you, Mr. Reese. Councilman Schull. Thank you. One of the problems with these forums is by the time it gets to you, if you're fourth or fifth in line, a lot of good stuff has already been said. So let me agree with pretty much everything that everyone has said so far, which has been very good, I think. But let me also just say a couple of other things. I ride with officers relatively frequently on Saturday nights, young officers who are out there doing their best. And one of the things that they feel is that they don't have our support. And one of the reasons they feel they don't have our support is because it goes both ways. The community, many people in the community don't feel a lot of trust in our police right now. We need a police chief who's gonna restore that on both sides, who's gonna make the officers feel like they have total support and also helps build the trust in the community that we need. And I think the number one way to rebuild that trust tactically is true community policing. People talk about it a lot, but we need it, we need police out of their cars, we need them walking neighborhoods, we need them building trust with the community. Thank you. Mr. Shiflett? Thank you. The benefit of being number six or seven, and also being past Steve Shul, he's already said a lot of things I've already was gonna mention. I'm gonna take the one a little bit further about having the community get to know your police officers and your law enforcement. There are opportunities for a citizen to do that. Last week in this exact room we had the graduation ceremony for the Citizens Police Academy. And I think that opportunity should be extended to everyone outside this room. The partners against crime have been around for 20 years. As somebody who's been involved with the partners against crime, I've served as a chair for three years. I chair the Durham Businesses Against Crime. I think there is an opportunity for people to get to know the police department law enforcement. To finish up, I'd love to be able to see the police chief have an opportunity to be able to live here in Durham for a number of years. I'd love to be able to see a trainee work their way up to the point where they could get into the position where we'd have five or six employees that could be hired as a police chief in Durham. Thank you, Mr. Schifflett. Mr. Stevens. Thank you. When we look at it, one in 24 individuals have the ability to be victims of crime in Durham based upon our statistics. Crime is up 15% from last year to date. When we talk about the root issue of crime, the root issue of crime is poverty and lack of resources. What we have to do is find a way to make sure that neighborhoods which have been traditionally divested in, which have been traditionally left out of the economic conversation have support. We have to also make sure that we provide a pathway to entrance for individuals who've made a mistake in life and want to come out of jail and have a good life. We have to make sure that we, I support banning the box, which makes sure that all those individuals who went to jail can have a fair shot at getting a good job. Additionally, when we talk about the police chief, many of you all know I held a press conference about a month prior to the police chief being asked to resign. Time. Thank you. Mayor Bell. Well, I would agree with many things have been said, not all of them. But just let me, and this doesn't mean anything if you're a victim of crime. I understand this. But in 2001, our city had the highest level of crime for 100,000 people. Our city has grown tremendously from 2001 to the present. We're now the fourth largest city in the state of North Carolina, 251,000 people. But if you look at crime index for 100,000 people, with the exception of what's happening this year in 2015, crime has gone down. Violent crime has gone down. Property crime has gone down. There are the facts. Things that happened in 2015 are, normally, it's an issue that we have to deal with. I just had a meeting this past week with the police chiefs from the major cities in North Carolina. The subject was dealing with violent crime. So the issues are not unique to Durham. But that doesn't mean anything for us. We're trying to deal with them in Durham and we're about the business of trying to do that. Just in some of the issues which we think are some of the causes of crime in our community. Thank you. Thank you. INS promotes civic engagement. Can you all tell us how you have been civically engaged in public life here in Durham and what you have achieved? And we will start with Mr. Hart. Being involved in the public life here in Durham, I've served on the, as I said before, I've served now on the Human Relations Commission. I also serve at the Lincoln Community Health Center Board. I've also served as the chair of the Durham Boxing Commission years ago. And I've been involved. I've helped those and used to coach football for those young men that had issues and a blemished record. So I've been involved around this city and this county all of my life. Only time when I didn't was, like I said, when I was in the military. But for me, it's being involved in talking to those young men and young women, the young people and trying to help them through life when they have issues and try to give them words of wisdom. So being involved in this city, I have been involved and I will continue to be involved. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Johnson. I've been involved in the community primarily as an organizer since I arrived. I spent my first four years in Durham as an undergraduate student at Duke and did a lot of campus organizing there with the labor movement, the student anti-war movement and the Women's Center. After that, I moved into the community and worked a lot with the labor movement here in Durham. I was a co-founder of the Triangle Jobs with Justice Coalition. I'm currently on the board of the Durham Solidarity Center, which is a co-working space in the basement of the Haytai Heritage Center. And I'm on the board of Inside Out, which is an LGBTQ youth organization that works to connect young folks in Gay-Straight alliances and schools around the Triangle. I've also been an activist in a number of social movements here in Durham. I was arrested with Reverend Barber at Moral Monday in 2013. I helped co-found the Durham Chapter of Occupy and I'm currently involved in organizing Black Lives Matter work. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Mr. Reese. Thank you. My first civic involvement in Durham was with one of the county boards, the Community Justice Advisory Board, which spends its resources to help individuals who are coming out of the prison environment get rehabilitated and get refocused back into the community. I served on that board for a year and a half until it was disbanded by an act of the General Assembly as part of the Community Justice Reinvestment Act. I've also been actively involved in the Durham Democratic Party, serving as a precinct chair for about a year within the last couple of years. But my most important civic engagement has been through the Durham People's Alliance, a group that I served on the board of until February of this year. And last year, I led the People's Alliance's efforts to push for reforms in the policing system here in Durham to reduce the incident of racial profiling and traffic searches. And I was really proud of the work that we did in partnership with the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, the NAACP in Durham. Thank you. Councilor Micheal. Thank you. I've been here a long time, and so I'll hit some highlights. I've been on the board of Urban Ministries of Durham, been on the board of Durham Tech Community Foundation for 21 years, and I chaired that board for a long time. I was president of the EKPOG PTA, so I'm the board of the Arts Council. Mayor Bell appointed me to the School Merger Task Force a long time ago, and I edited the and wrote most of that final report for the School Merger Task Force. I've been on the boards of WUNC radio, WNCU radio. I co-founded a group called Crayons to Calculators, which gives away free supplies to Durham Public School teachers, given away almost a million dollars the last few years. I told you about the coaching. And then I also have this, I think of as my kind of activist resume, like Gillian. I was also a Marl Mundy arrestee. And I could list more, but the bell rang. Thank you. Mr. Schiffler. It's going to take longer in a minute. I've been a board member of my neighborhood association. I've been a president and board member of the Inter-Abra Council. I've served on the local emergency preparedness committee since 2002. I've served on the adequate public facilities task force. I've been president of the retired and volunteer program. I serve on the board currently with Durham Liberty Arts. I've been a member of my church for the last 21 years and Sunday School Superintendent. I'm the chair of the Durham Business Against Crime for the last six years. I've been a member of the last 14. I was the chair of the kids voting up until this election period. I'm a member of the Wake County Wakeup water quality team. I'm a member of Keep Durham Beautiful, Ellerby Creek Waterside Association. And the list goes on and on. That question was meant for me. I don't know who submitted it, but thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Schiffler. Mr. Stevens. Yes, so I created an organization called ARC, which is Acts of Random Kindness. And what we do is we feed the homeless for Thanksgiving and we feed the homeless for Christmas. And the last thing that we do is we make sure we adopt senior citizens who are on fixed incomes, who take care of their grandchildren or other youths. And we make sure that they submit a wish list. And we get those kids one out of those three items on the wish list because everyone should have a great Christmas. And everyone, no matter if you're homeless or not, should have access to food on Thanksgiving. I mentor students at Northern University. And I'm a proud member of the Black Lives Matter movement. I've organized, I was arrested and organized and led the protests at South Point. And I think the biggest thing, I'm young, right? So we know how Durham seems to operate where if you're not a little bit older and in the end crowd, you may not get these recommendations to board. So hopefully that'll change after this election. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. Mayor Beall. I obviously have had an opportunity to serve on many boards. I came to Durham in 1968. I was president of my neighborhood association at that time, Emmerwood's neighborhood association. I had friends who were involved in politics. I helped them. I was elected to office board of county commissions in 1972. And as a result, I've had an opportunity to serve on probably the most major civic educational health boards. I've served on for-profit boards and non-profit boards. And it's just been an honor to have an opportunity to do that. And of course, having been in Durham that long, you would expect that I would have served on many boards and I have. And it's been a privilege to be able to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Lyons. Thank you. I presently served on the board of directors for Keys to Life, Incorporated. It's a non-profit community organization. I also serve as the managing director on the same board. I volunteer yearly for John Avery Boys and Girls Club. I also volunteer with the Easter Seals every holiday season. I've also volunteered for numerous Big Brother programs throughout our city. And I also conduct voter registration drives every election period. Thank you. Thank you. The next question. The unified development ordinance is a city-county document that controls how and where Durham's development will take place. It's complexity favors developers over the average citizen. Can you suggest how you will help to even the playing field? And we will start with Ms. Johnson. So one thing that I'm very concerned about is the fact that the General Assembly recently took away the protest petition, which I think was a very effective way for citizens to have their voices heard in issues of zoning. But I think that this issue, like many other issues, requires council people to just go out and listen to the community. There are a number of folks who are organizing campaigns around proposed zoning issues in their communities. And I think that we really need to make sure that those people are heard and that when there is a development issue, that the community that's going to be most impacted is listened to. I agree the UDO is extremely complex and I wouldn't expect most folks to dig through that. But I think when specific issues come up, that that's when city council can have a role in bringing in more input. Development, there are always gonna be folks whose full-time job it is to promote certain viewpoints. And so I think it's up to us to make sure that other viewpoints are heard. Thank you. Mr. Reese. Well, you're certainly right. The UDO is not intended for the general public's consumption. It's designed, written and implemented by lawyers who know that area of the law extremely well and who use it to their advantage. And so of course it tends to favor developers and that's one of the most important reasons why we have a planning commission that's made up of ordinary citizens who have an interest and a passion for this and who spend their time learning about the UDO and learning about the merits of various proposals and petitions that come before them. I think as a member of the city council, we need to make it our business to know the UDO as well as regular folks can who aren't lawyers who focus on that area. Although I am a lawyer and presumably I can learn it eventually. But I think Jillian is exactly right. We have to stay focused on the needs of the individual neighborhoods that these petitions are about. I mean, these are real people's homes and they're livelihoods and we have to make sure that we listen to the voices that they're raising up on these projects. Thank you. Councilman Schull. I think the main thing that we have to do is make ourselves incredibly accessible to regular folks who are being influenced by these development decisions. And I try to do that. We have to visit places that are, if there's a rezoning, we need to go out and we need to look at it. We need to talk to the people who are there. We need to make sure everybody's very well informed about what the effects might be on their community and their neighborhood. And we need to be listening really well. We do need to be reviewing what the planning commission says because those commissioners are often making really, really valuable comments for the council to look at when we evaluate these development proposals. It is true that the system is stacked in favor of developers and that's where the council comes in. We have got to be very vigilant in listening, in reaching out, and in making sure the communities are heard and their interests are represented. Thank you. Mr. Schiflet. Thank you for the question. Several years ago, the Internevering Council was asked whether we would support a neighborhood advocate that would be working with the neighborhood for zoning cases, board of adjustment cases, and as part of my North Cape Park Neighborhood Association, we voted it down because it was, position was proposed to be under the planning department, which at the time we felt like it was going to be a conflict of interest. How could you be advocating for a neighborhood but working for the planning department? I agree there's a significant disadvantage for neighborhoods. And so the proposal that I would submit would be that we do have a neighborhood advocate that would be a staff person that could work with neighborhoods so they could better understand, be taught how to work with the planning department and be under the city manager other than the planning department, maybe neighborhood improvement services or maybe under the community development, housing and community development. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. Absolutely. So I think one issue that some of my colleagues have highlighted is the fact that a UDL was not written for ordinary individuals. And that draws light to the lack of transparency within our governmental process. The fact that individuals are not aware of what's happening and we as a city council have to do a better job of illuminating those things. If you look at our city council budget, most citizens cannot decipher what's going on or where the money is going. So one thing that I would be in favor of is making sure we have a live, actual up to date budget on our website that shows in common language where money is going and I will also make sure that I am accessible as well. As a public servant, the best thing that we can do is be available to answer. And that's what I would do. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Bell. I guess I would disagree to a certain extent to say that it's built for developers. UDL was really designed to provide for orderly growth in our city and county. I recall when we had two separate planning boards when I was chair of the county commissioners we merged them. We now have a single planning board and that is why we had the UDL. And I would say the real test is when we have public hearings because generally what happens is people only concerned about what impacts them. And when we have a public hearing they have an opportunity to express their concerns. They go through the details. They educate us to a certain extent and we make a decision. It's been my policy and my practice that I never make a decision on any matter until I've had the public hearing. That's been a practice and I do it all the time. I listen to neighborhoods, I listen to developers but I wait until the public hearing when I've had full information before I make a decision. I agree. One thing that was taken away was the protest petition. It hurt us and I hope that somehow we're able to get that back. But I think the UDL has written for them a special purpose. Thank you. Mr. Lyons. Thank you. I do think the UDO in zoning project I think what we've got to do really is we've got to listen to our communities and listen to those in our neighborhood. They're the most affected by these changes. Anytime there's new development or any type of zoning issues that entered into our city it's those that live in these communities that are most affected by all of these changes. A prime example, one of which I'm sure we'll get to a little bit later would be the LRT, which is our light rail transportation. Throughout my campaigning since January I've had phone calls and emails from numerous amounts of concerned citizens throughout our city that had these exact same concerns that we're discussing now. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hart. I agree with majority of those that are talking and some of the comments they're made but I look at the biggest point is what is the needs, wants and desires of our citizens when it comes to development. But we also have to look at the other side of it as I think the mayor was saying as far as growth and then also the investment that we're going to put into our city we need long-term investment that will continue to keep us going when things go bad or things go down in the economy. So, but our people, our citizens need to be more involved. We need to keep them informed and we need to be transparent on these developments that come through. What's going on? How long are they gonna do? What is gonna help? How is gonna help? And what is it gonna hurt? Thank you. Thank you. The next question will go to Mr. Reese starting with Mr. Reese. The proposed light rail has had some rough spots this year. What does the city council need to do now on light rail? Well, I think first of all, I wanna make it clear to everyone in the room and everybody watching at home. I believe that light rail is the future of Durham. I believe that this project will bring a lot of great benefits to our city. I think it'll reduce traffic, it'll reduce pollution, it'll increase people's options and getting around the city. And I think it'll do it safely and economically. I do believe that the General Assembly did us a great disservice by putting in an annual cap that was very low for state funding that can be dedicated to light rail service. And I hope that when the General Assembly comes back next spring, that a bipartisan group of legislators will find a way to remove that cap. What can the city do now? We can continue to push go triangle to be as responsive as possible to the concerns of citizens who live along the proposed light rail line. There are people who own property in and around the light rail that will need accommodations and I certainly hope though they can do that. Thank you. Councilman Schull. Last week, the council passed unanimously a letter of strong support for the light rail. And what I wanna say about the light rail is this. This is a generation's decision. This is a decision that's a 50 year decision. And it is absolutely critical that we have light rail in Durham. And while the General Assembly did undercut us with the funding, this still needs to happen. We have a quarter of the funding locally from our own taxes and Orange County's taxes. The federal government will fund it with half and we will find that other quarter eventually in the next few years from the General Assembly when sanity returns there. This is a decision that's absolutely crucial unless we're gonna have our roads so congested 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 50 years from now that we're not gonna be able to drive them. I see people here in the audience who I know have very legitimate concerns about specific aspects of the light rail. We need to fix that. But we must build a light rail. We must be totally committed to it as a community. And then we must draw Raleigh into it as the second leg. Mr. Schiffler. So most of you know I've been involved with this discussion for the last 20 years back when TTA first started discussing a rail project or actually it was a monorail going down from Raleigh to Duke down Irwin Road. And I was fortunate enough back in 2007, 2008 to sit on the Special Transit Advisory Commission where we discussed a number of these issues. I believe with the change in the state funding formula will give us a chance to maybe answer some of those questions about a maintenance facility, about extending it to Austin Avenue and support the city council's resolution. I agree with Steve completely. This is a generational decision. Think back to what we would be like if we didn't have RGU, if we didn't have RTP, or if we didn't have Duke, those took visionary people to make that happen. And I think we're at that point right now to be able to make a visionary decision. Thank you. Mr. Stevens. I think in our city we have to be visionary, right? We have to be able to look and see not what is this in front of us today but what we want to be tomorrow. With that being said, before I fully give my support to the light rail, I wanna commission a community and racial impact study because I wanna make sure that the individuals who live along those lines where we want to build affordable housing are not gonna get pushed out of their house. I wanna make sure that when we build this light rail, neighborhoods that have been in Durham and are pillars of our history are not gonna get demolished. So we need to make sure that we make a decision for the future, not for today, but we need to also take into consideration the people who live there. And it's always about the people, always about the people. Thank you. Mayor Bell. I have had the opportunity to serve on the Go Triangle Board, which was previously the TTA since it was established. Obviously I support the plan. I recognize that there are challenges. I recognize that there are concerns that have been expressed by the neighborhoods and especially those neighborhoods that are gonna be impacted by the system. I think Steve has adequately indicated what city council position is on that. As chair of the Go Triangle Board, I will work hard as I can to try to see if it's possible to make those changes that are necessary to minimize the impact that have been raised. I would do that. But ultimately it's the federal government that's gonna make the big decision as to whether or not we have funded a night for this. And that's what the draft environmental impact statement was about. It gives people an opportunity to express their concerns. Those concerns will go to the feds who built a lot of light rails. So they understand that. And if they choose not to fund it, it won't get built. If they choose to find it, it will get built as soon as we can get the funds from the other sources we've identified. Thank you. Mr. Williams. Thank you. I am in support of light rail to a degree. And that degree is considering, I guess going back to what the last question that we had when we were talking about zoning and seeing what the impact was of our communities and neighborhoods and getting the feedback from our citizens of Durham. I am in favor of light rail. I do know that light rail transportation, it can. There have been cases and studies shown where light rail can entice employers to relocate or to bring their jobs or their companies to our area. And I think that's a great thing. However, I guess what's tugging me to be, I won't say against it, but not prioritize it. At this time, I think we have bigger fish to fry presently in Durham. I think we need to prioritize our city's resources into affordable housing and rent. We need to tackle our crime because we're so worried about the influx of our population growing. But we won't see that population grow if our crime numbers don't come down if we don't improve our school systems. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Hart. For my research, it looks to be a $1.7 billion project and the state has capped it, and I think it a half a million dollars. At this time in its current form, I look at it as a disadvantage to the Southeast Durham section. There is no station, no rail system going through North Carolina Central or Durham Tech for those students. It's also impacting and disenfranchising and economically deprived and low income areas in South Durham. And I think it needs to be revised to include them instead of being exclusive. It needs to be inclusive to that area in Southern part and Southeast Durham. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Johnson. I support the light rail. I think that building it is critical to our community's future. I do wanna make sure that when we are deciding on locations for stations and where to add bus service and a future service to Raleigh that we're really prioritizing, serving folks who need public transportation to get around. So we're folks who depend on transportation live. I think that's where we need to focus our resources and those communities tend to be disproportionately low income and people of color. So I think it's an issue of equity and making sure that our resources go to the folks that need them most. There are no communities in this country where people say, I wish we had worse public transportation. So I think that this is something that we need to do. I think that we're gonna look back and we're gonna be glad that we did it. Thank you. Makeshift developments were initially adopted to encourage, were encouraged in dense growth zones. Now they have been proposed for much less dense areas, sometimes without vertical mixed use. How should the council proceed? And we will start with councilman Scholl. So I've had the opportunity to vote against a couple of those supposed mixed use developments which are not really mixed use developments. We have had several of those come before us and I have voted against them and I will continue to do so. I think if people come in out of the mixed use zoning, it should be a true mixed use project. It shouldn't just be a few apartments tacked on to what is next to really just a gas station and a quick stop. This ordinance exists for a reason and people have at times used it to try to slip in things that we really don't want in certain zones by calling it mixed use. I think we have to be careful of that and one of the ways we're careful is to do the kind of listening that a lot of us talked about before to the communities who were nearby. And so I think it's pretty clear and pretty easy and I think we need to just be vigilant about it. Thank you. Mr. Seifler. Yes, I believe that the mixed use terminology ought to be changed a little bit to be called mixed income. Being able to provide opportunities for people to have entrepreneurial spirit to be able to start businesses that we should be local. I think one of the issues that we've been dealing with in the last city council and the county commissioners have been incentives. I believe those incentives have been focused in downtown. And although I think the focus should always be in downtown, it shouldn't be the only focus. I love it to be able to see some mixed income or mixed use developments to be extended out into our neighborhoods. We have a number of shopping centers that have been blighted and neglected for a number of years. Let's put some incentives in the neighborhoods where people could really have access to jobs, have access to banks, have access to grocery stores. Let's start moving that out into the neighborhood. That's where we need the money. Thank you. Mr. Stevens. So when we, the clock isn't right. So when we fix, when we talk about mixed use and when we talk about mixed incomes, one thing that we have to discuss is the fact that individuals in this city have to have access to affordable housing. And when we look at mixed use, we know that a lot of the city council members have voted against making sure that we have individuals because we don't want to warehouse poor people. We don't want to warehouse individuals and have them downtown where they are no longer having access to all the amenities that they should. So I support mixed use as long as we're making sure that individuals have access to jobs. So people live there, they have access to good jobs and they have access to what they need to be successful. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Beall. Again, it depends on the project that's coming before us. Whether it's mixed use, mixed income, residential apartments, I look at each individual project on a case by case basis. And if it meets the criteria and I've listened to the public input, then I make a decision. So the mixed use ordinance was developed with specific guidelines in terms of how people should use it as long as they're using it and as long as I don't hear anything adverse to what has been supported, then I tend to support the development. Thank you, Mr. Lyons. Thank you. I tend to support the development. However, I think it's something that we should look at on a case by case basis. We've got to be sensitive and listen to the needs of each individual community. If mixed use development would benefit a certain community or neighborhood, we've got to listen and I think we should vote on it accordingly. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Hart. I would look at it as mixed use for whom? From what the projects that are coming for downtown now is not for the regular 40 hours a week regular salary person. The new 26 story century tower that's looking to be built downtown. When I read it in the read the article saying that the penthouse is gonna be $1.4 million. Who in this area has them? Sure are some, but the average condos are going at $3,200 per month. That's the way outside the means of the regular working class person. We must be inclusive when we're talking about mixed use income. We must be inclusive and a lot of these are looking at being exclusive for certain ones that has the kind of affordability of money to live a certain kind of lifestyle. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Johnson. I agree with what Councilman Shul and Mayor Bell stated earlier around needing to consider these things on a case by case basis and that if folks proposals are meeting the requirements that they should be considered. I do think that when we are building mixed use property we do need to think about places being affordable. People being, you know, ordinary folks being able to live there and having commercial enterprises that are accessible to them. And I think that's a, you know, a continuing problem in our city no matter what kind of development we're talking about. Thank you, Mr. East. No, I think the mixed use development guidelines are open and subject to some abuse, as Councilman Shul mentioned. I know there have been a number of attempts to try to get certain development proposals through. And I think the city council and the planning commission have been vigilant in making sure that projects meet the letter of the guidelines. And so I think one of the things that we can do as prospective members of the city council is, as Councilman Shul said, remain vigilant to make sure that projects that include, you know, a gas station, a bank, a grocery store don't toss in a couple of apartments on the edge of the property and suddenly they become a mixed use development. I think without naming names or locations there's a current proposal that's being floated in the northern part of our city that may fall into that category but we'll have to see what kind of petition they end up filing. But I think the most important thing we can do is listen to the community, listen to neighborhoods that are impacted by these developments and make sure we follow the letter and the spirit of the guidelines. Thanks. Thank you. We will start this question with Mr. Schiffler. The location of the new police department has drawn criticism. What do you think about locating it on Main Street and what are your thoughts on this issue? I think with the new police chief coming to town that will give us an opportunity to be able to have him be involved in this discussion. I think the current plan has raised enough controversy with the cost of the proposed plans. I understand that Durham area designers came up with a sixth plan. I don't see any one of those being perfect. I think the involvement of the community in deciding what it wants. Several years ago there was a plan that was put forward by a previous administration that included two major divisions, north and south, and more substations. I think this is an opportunity for us to take a breather to answer some of the questions about how much money do we want to spend, but I definitely believe that the current situation when the current headquarters is inadequate and it does need to change in the next couple of years. Thank you. Mr. Stevens. Yeah, so I think the first thing we have to look at is why was that location chosen? And from what I've been able to ascertain rent in each Durham now is average rent is $1,200. And the current location, in my opinion, and from what people in the community have said to me is are we looking at that location because of gentrification that's happening and we want to make sure that those individuals are protected? And when we also look at that location, we need to think about what does it say to the people who live there? What does it say to the individuals who live there? What message are we sending to have the police station located very, very close to the homeless shelter to individuals? And are we, is it another example of what I like to call broken windows policing that we know plagues and hurts a certain subset of our population? So those are a few of the questions that we need to discuss when we talk about the location of the police department. We also need to talk about the price tag. And it's estimated at $72 million. There are a lot of things that we can do. So let's renovate the police station and let's give some of that money to build affordable housing here in Durham and make sure our citizens have what they need to be successful. Thank you. Mayor Bell. You know, this is pretty analogous when I was on the board of county commissioners. At that time, we had to build a jail. And people were saying, why are you gonna build it there? Well, first of all, we were gonna build a jail because the court said if you don't build one, we'll put you in jail. There was a need for it. Nobody was asking to have the jail built in their neighborhood. Same thing with the police station. I've heard no one come up and say, I want the police station built in my neighborhood. The concept has been that one, we need a new police station of police headquarters. There's no question that the cost is an issue. We looked at several sites. We want to keep our public buildings in the downtown area, not out in the suburbs. So there hasn't been any other choices. We had three choices. I didn't agree with the choice that initially we have now. I wanted to be on Fayetteville Street in a neighborhood where people wanted it. But because the Durham housing thought it had dibs on that property, we couldn't do it. So the next place was Fayetteville Street. I'm on Main Street where it is now. So my issue is, what other location in Durham has someone proposed for police headquarters? It hasn't come to us doing any of our discussions. Thank you. Mr. Lyons. Thank you. My primary concern on the location of the police department is not so much the location of the police department as is the cost. I'm more concerned about the cost. I don't really care where we're building it at in the city. I'm concerned about the cost. I'm a firm believer that those dollars can be spent somewhere else where they can be. We can get more of a benefit. We keep tossing around this idea of affordable housing. We keep talking about crime. We keep talking about we don't have money or allocated funds for our parks and rent for the DHA, the Durham Housing Authority. So those would be some areas that I like to kind of dive into to look at and see where we're spending money at. What are we prioritizing and what things are we not prioritizing? So again, I'm not so much concerned about the location as is the cost. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Hart. Same with me. The location is not a big issue. Again, I'm for reference to the cost of 70, 72 million. It was at 80 and it got down to 70 something million now. But what keeps going over in my mind is that, you know, there's money that has been found to build a police station. It's needed, all well-finding, good. But then again, we have young children, youth at these recreational centers that's not being fully utilized because they have to pay to participate in those. But we find the 70 million, 72 million dollars to build it, that's good. Can we find money to help those children not have to pay to participate in those recreational centers? But it's what we needed, is now it's done. So it's going to happen more likely. Thank you. I think both the location and the cost for the new police station are highly problematic. As our, you know, downtown advocates have been telling us, we want to activate the street with street level retail and commercial opportunities, not close off another entire block, especially in East Durham, where again the population is primarily low income and people of color. And we want those folks to have the same opportunities to walk downtown and have street level engagement with buildings downtown as other folks in other parts of the city. Folks have brought up concerns around the safety of our officers in that location. I think if we can't secure the safety of our officers while also engaging the community, then the building needs to be located somewhere else. And while I understand that the current police station is in a state of disrepair, I believe that we could repair it to a reasonable standard for far less than 72 million dollars. We have a lot of priorities in our city and I think we need to really consider where we're putting our money and our resources. Thank you, Mr. Reese. I haven't heard a single person who's talked about the site for the new police station say that they're really excited about the site for the new police station. It seems clear the way that the debate unfolded that most folks liked a different location that wasn't available. This was what we could get. And so this is what we're doing. And while I think when we bring a new police chief in, he or she will have an opportunity to review the plans to talk about what types of structures and investments we need to make in the new police department, it seems unfortunately clear to me that it's this site or nothing. And I think given the current state of repair of our existing police department, we need a new headquarters. I think it's fine to say that we could renovate it and we probably could. The problem is the annual upkeep for the current facility would eventually dwarf the accumulated investment in doing that would dwarf the cost of the new police station. Thank you. Councilman Scholl. One thing that strikes me about this discussion and a lot of the forums is that most of the decisions we make are not things that we're really talking about up here in a way. They're close calls. Mostly they're close calls and you try to make a wise decision out of a lot of different factors. And that's what this police station one was. And I feel like given the choices we had, I think it's a good location. The cost will be amortized over 30 or 40 years. Yeah, it's gonna be $70 million. It's a lot of money in. But I think we need to remember that as well. I favored the Durham area designer proposal to keep the Carpenter Chevrolet building because I did think it would activate Main Street. I lost that one again, a close call and people can make different decisions on that and they can all be good, honest calls. We need to activate Main Street where that police station is and we need our architects to help us do that. That means glazing, it means public art and it means walkability and we need to insist. Thank you. Mr. Schiflick. I thought he started it off. You did? Yep. Okay. Aren't you giving him a second chance to answer that? Next question will start with Mr. Stevens. Will you support the city property on Jackson Street adjacent to the bus terminal to be used for affordable housing? Absolutely, we'll support that. I think it's key that we have affordable housing close to our public transportation. When we look at who utilizes public transportation, who needs it most? It is the people who do not have access to a lot of funds, our low income individuals. We have to make sure that they are put in a place where transportation is easy for them. One thing that we also have to talk about with transportation is making sure that we improve it. So it's such that buses are running on time and I know some people will say, oh, we have these surveys but the fact of the matter is that average citizen who I'm talking to is talking about buses not running on time. They're not able to get to their jobs because buses are not coming to them on time from East Durham and I think that we have to make sure that not only do we put affordable housing downtown but we also put, we increase our services for our buses, make sure that they're running, they're running on time and people have access to transportation and they can get back and forth to their jobs, to the communities, the same way individuals who have cars can. That's our job as a city council, thank you. Thank you, Mayor Bell. When I speak about affordable housing, I'm speaking about housing for persons whose family incomes are below the median income. I support mixed income affordable housing. I think in this day and age, we do not need to be using city dollars to segregate families by income. If you're talking about mixed income, such as we've got over enrolling hills, the lofts and et cetera where you've got 140 plus apartments, 40 of those are for market rate, the balance of 100 are for people below medium income, I support that. I support the same type of development downtown but I don't support putting city dollars into a development where you segregate families by income only. And if you did something that was skewed more towards below medium income families and had a mix of market rate, that is what I support. The project that came before us that was presented to us was segregated by income fall families. You didn't have market rate. If they come with a program that said 20% market rate, 80% below medium income, I could have supported that and that's what I would support. Mr. Lawrence. Thank you. Yes, I would support the project on Jackson Street. Reason is I think affordable housing need to be in that area. I think citizens in our community that deserve and need affordable housing, they need to see the city's growth. They need to experience that. It boosts their self-esteem. It motivates them to wanna be a part of the growth that's going on. Do better, better themselves, go back to school and be a part of everything that's going on in or around our city. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hart. I agree with that. My definition of affordable housing is what my salary says I can afford. And I think that's for a lot of people. When you're making minimum wage or below minimum wage, you can't afford to live anywhere except staying at home. When you're making that wage of $8 an hour you still can't afford anything. So that living wage is gonna be a big impact on as far as when they say affordable housing. And we all know, when you only making $30,000 or $40,000 and you living in an apartment, you trying to make ends meet, that's what you can afford at that particular time. So to me, my definition of affordable housing is what my salary says that I can afford. But I am for that project on Jackson. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Johnson. I am a strong supporter of the self help in the Durham Can proposal to build affordable housing on Jackson Street. And I wanna point out that the proposal is for 100 units for folks at 60% or below of the area median income which is about $40,000 for a family of four. So we're not talking about a lot of money but we're not talking about people who are facing severe material poverty. I don't believe that this project would be warehousing folks. And I think that we would be creating a mixed income neighborhood. While mixed income developments are desirable, a mixed income neighborhood we could actually achieve with the help of federal tax credits which means that this project might actually be built. I think the city needs to be focusing on putting our resources into helping as many people as possible. We have a goal of making 15% of the housing within a half mile of our future light rail stops affordable and right now we have zero units of affordable housing in downtown. So I think that we really need to move on this and I think that that proposal is an excellent way to start. Thank you. Mr. Reese. I also support the self help credit unions proposal for the property adjacent to Durham station. I agree with everything Jillian just said. So let me just add this, that the free market's created a lot of things and the free market is benefiting Durham to a considerable extent right now by creating a large amount of residential development downtown in the form of luxury condos. Those condos add a lot to our city. They allow add to our tax base, but they don't do anything. In fact, they exacerbate the affordability problem we have in housing for working families. If we want Durham to remain welcoming to working families, the city has got to be active and aggressive in leveraging city owned resources including city owned real estate to develop affordable housing in Durham. And the self help credit union proposal while maybe not perfect and maybe not addressing every problem that could be addressed in a development was a huge step in the right direction. And I've definitely supported it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Mitchell. I do support this. In fact, I brought this proposal to the council and proposed it there. It did not pass the council. There were some, there was considerable opposition for various reasons from some of my colleagues. And, but yes, I think it's very important that we do it. If we don't use our publicly owned land downtown to leverage affordable housing, it will be an epic failure. We have a tremendous asset that can help us leverage affordable housing and we need to use it. And this is a really good example of how. I think that our city administration is gonna bring back a proposal for us that will have some market rate mixed in. And if it's in the right percentages, I think it could be a great proposal that we could all go with. But this needs to be predominantly in my mind an affordable housing community. Thank you. Mr. Schiffler. Does everybody know where we're talking about this? You know where Jackson Street is? You know where the transportation hub is? You just look a little bit south of it. It's a green grass area. What a perfect place to put something that we're calling affordable housing. And I think we're having a problem with the definition of affordable housing is the connotation that people have with it. And for me, I think the right term is mixed income or mixed transit housing. This issue actually came out of the coalition for affordable housing and transit. And I think this is the perfect location for the city to take action and either work with self-help credit union and self-help credit union has extended itself by saying we're open to have other developers come in and do something, not just self-help. So I think that was a great proposal by them. I think they were very open in allowing another opportunity for another developer to come in. I wanna mention one more thing about transit and affordable housing. Federal funding is a 15% minimum affordable housing component for funding. The next two questions will be yes or no questions. And I will ask the candidates to respond with a simple yes or no. We will start with Mayor Beall. Race relations is a hot topic across the country. If elected, would you support a public forum dealing with cultural heritage? Yes. Mr. Lyons. Yes. Mr. Hart. Yes. Ms. Johnson. Yes. Mr. Reese. Yes. Councilman Scholl. Yes. Mr. Schiffler. Mr. Stevens. Yes. Thank you. Okay, here's the next one. If elected, would you support working with the Board of Education to restore construction training in the high schools? And we will start with Mr. Lyons. Yes. Mr. Hart. Yes, sir. Ms. Johnson. Yes. Mr. Reese. Yes. Ms. Councilman Scholl. Yes. Mr. Schiffler. Mr. Stevens. Yes. Mayor Beall. Yes. This next question will start with Mr. Hart. Can you, and it's a three-part question. So listen carefully. Can you tell us about how much time each week you will devote to council work, how you will balance your other commitments, and third, how many council meetings have you attended prior to this past spring before running for city council? And we will start with Mr. Hart. Okay, I think the first one is time to council, is that correct? I have time to do what I need to do as a council member and to allocate that time and manage my time well. The second question was, I wrote it down, I can't. Balancing commitments. Balancing commitments, yes. I've managed my time and I've balanced things in prior to RISE, all those things that I need to do from the day I start, all the way through the next week. And the last one is council meetings, I have attended four of the council meetings prior to running for office. Okay, Ms. Johnson. My current plan is to devote around 30 hours a week to city council work. I have a 10-hour week job with the youth organization that I would like to keep, but you know, if duty calls and duty calls. I balance my other commitments extremely well. I've always worked both as done paid work and done quite a lot of work as a community organizer and activist, I also have two kids and I've been able to manage all that pretty effectively thus far and I believe I'll be able to continue to do that on city council. I think I've attended around five or six meetings before now, before beginning to run, I have been in city council when important issues have come up and community organizations have asked folks to turn out to support, you know, the agendas that they felt were important, so that's when I've been in council. Okay, Mr. Reese. By the way, I think this is a fantastic question because city council is a job. They pay you like a job, but it's certainly more hours than most folks realize. Based on my research, I think I'll probably spend anywhere between 30 to 40 hours a week on city council business. I think I have a full-time job. That will obviously be a challenge, but like Gillian, I'm the parent of two young children. I'm active in the community and a number of local and state organizations and so learning to juggle my time as a skill that I had to pick up pretty soon after our first daughter was born. And how to balance. I think once you're elected to city council, you obviously have to take time to reorient your priorities and I would look at my other involvements and determine whether or not I continue in those. How many city council meetings have I been to before deciding to run for public office? Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 20. I can't even count, but it's been a lot. Thanks. Thank you. Councilman Schull. I've been to a lot of council meetings. I try to come every time Mayor Bell comes. I really like my mayor a lot and when he calls a meeting, I like to be there. I have part-time employment and I'm pretty much a full-time council member. You know that because most of you all have written me a letter or come to see me or call me on the telephone. And I spend a lot of time trying to be accessible to people and I spend a lot of time reading and trying to learn the issues. And so it's hard work, but it's a privilege to do it. Thank you. Mr. Schiffler. I agree with some of the previous commenters that it's gonna take 30, 40, sometimes 60 hours a week to thoroughly fulfill the requirements of city council. It's just not meeting on a Monday. It's all the meetings that you go to to be able to learn about the community meetings. I'm just pulled out my calendar and that's my current schedule. And I'm looking at my wife at the front here and she says, Mike, I never get a chance to see you. I want you to run for city council so I can get you to cut back on some of your volunteer work. And how do I balance that? Some of you are aware that I just recently retired. I've raised my four children. They're off to college. Just took my daughter back to college yesterday. I have the time. I have the experience. I have the knowledge to be able to be one of the best city council members. So balancing the requirements of the meetings and the community volunteer work, I think I've proved that I can do that. How many meetings have I attended? I think I mentioned back in the 90s I was involved with my neighborhood association. That was my first exposure to showing up at a city council member. Thank you, Markham. Mr. Stevens. Absolutely. So I think that time management is what we really want to talk about here. Like many of the other individuals, I have a full-time job. I'm a father and my family is very important to me. If you see me out at campaign events, you usually see my daughters in my arms because being a father means a lot to me. When we talk about how many council meetings I've been to, I'm not sure. I truly try to show up when important issues are on the docket. But what I always do is watch city council meetings at home. That's why I'm so thankful that we televised them. But lastly, I want to address one thing. If we're concerned about how many city council meetings that individuals have attended, how many city council meetings can the ordinary citizen come to? How many work sessions when they're being held at one o'clock when we have a lot of people in our city who make less than $15,000 and who are on hourly wage jobs? So when I am elected to city council, one thing that I will look at doing is making sure that our meetings are accessible to the public because we are public servants. Thank you. Thank you. Well, over the years, I have found a way to manage my time. I've served as an elected official. When I was a county commissioner, I was full-time employee at IBM. That's where I learned time management. I'm still employed. And I find time to manage my responsibilities here as the mayor of the city of Durham. For example, this morning, I started at 7.45 at Foodline, another Foodline. I had a meeting at my office. I had a meeting for Chinese delegation. I had meetings back at my office. And I'm here tonight. I don't know how much time it is, but I find the time to do the job. And I think I've been effective doing that. And we'll continue to do that. Thank you. Mr. Warren. Thank you. I think I'd be willing to devote as much time as it took in order for me to see the results that I like to see. As far as putting the number on that amount of time, I couldn't do it. It would vary from issue to issue. But as far as seeing results, I would invest the time that's needed to make certain those results are seen. As far as balance of work, I am a great prioritizer. I do know how to prioritize. I am great at organizing as well. I'm also a great planner. Taking all three of those things in that totality, I think balance of work in life would not be a problem at all. Lastly, how many council meetings have I attended? I've attended four in the past. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to thank each of you for respecting the rules and giving well thought out responses to the questions that have been asked of you tonight. Now we will start with our closing statements in reverse order from the opening statements. You have two minutes starting with Mr. Stevens. My name is Robert Stevens and I'm running for Durham City Council.  But I tell you what, this is what I'll tell them and I'll tell you the same thing. How long do I have to live in this city before I know that bus shelters need to be built? That people, we just had rain for two and a half weeks that people were drenched going to work. How long do I have to live if they know that 70% of those kids in each Durham and across the entire city are growing up in poverty? How long do I have to live here? Second thing they'll tell you is that I'm young. You're right, I'm young. But I'm also challenging the status quo. And the status quo is that people who are young have no place to lead in this city. If we look at the median age of city council members now, what is that? If we look at the opportunity, who is represented on city council, do we have a full representation of our city? And that's what the problem is, no offense, you all. That's what the problem is. The fact that it matters, we need to make sure that the city council is representative of our entire city. We need to make sure that there's someone who's gonna listen when we have problems and our city council will be responsive to the needs of its citizens. And that's why I'm running for office. I didn't receive any of the PAC endorsements like that.  I believe in the message that you're saying, Robert Stephens. So I'm asking you to join those 2,500 people. And when this election comes down on November the 3rd, get out there and give me your vote so we can change Durham together. Because there's a population here who believe that you know what, we have to be responsive. And most importantly, they believe that our city can do better. There's two dirhams right now. The people who live across Roxboro and Mangum, they see it differently than the people who live in these $3,200 apartments. And I'm running so that we can build a bridge and we can cover that gap. Thank you. Thank you so much. Mr. Schiffler. I am a gray hair. I just turned 60 this year. I think that brings a maturity sometimes that you need to balance with the passion that younger people have. I have been involved in my community. Back when I was a lot younger, and my hair wasn't as gray as what it is now. I've had the, I've been accused of having yesitis, which means that I volunteered for a lot of things. When somebody comes to you and says, I want you to help us with something. I've said yes way too many times, but not enough. This is an opportunity for me to take that knowledge, the experience, the history of living in Durham for 31 years and apply that. I have the energy, I have the time. I like to be able to think that that's what you're looking for in the city council member. If you want to tell what a city council member is going to do after they're elected, don't look what they say while they're sitting in a form like this. Look what they've done in the past. Look at their history. Have they done something to help Durham? I like to be able to think that I have a proven history of being able to help all segments of Durham. I like to be able to think that in the leadership roles that I've filled, I've been a positive contributor. I've been able to listen. We have a candidates forum coming up next Thursday with kids voting. I've had the opportunity to be able to watch and teach children, your children, to learn how to vote, how to become a better citizen, not just a resident of Durham. I've heard a number of people say here, I love Durham. I'm gonna take it one step further. I am in love with Durham. It's a participatory involved engagement. I like to be able to take that and move that to the next step. That's actually the council member. Councilman Schultz. I'm just glad that if you take the four youngest people on this podium and you add them all up that they're older than me. The, so we're in a prosperous time in Durham and we're on the cusp of a golden age, I believe. And then, so the question is, what are we gonna do with it? What are we gonna do with it? One of the things we haven't talked about that I wanna mention just for a minute is we need to invest. We need the light rail, but we need a lot more. We need to maintain what we got and we need more. We need more parks. We need more miles of trails. We need more bicycle infrastructure. It's critically important. We need more sidewalks in every neighborhood in Durham. We need to restore our tree canopy and we need to make sure that that tree canopy is equitable all across the city because it's not just an aesthetic issue, it's a health issue, it's a quality of life issue. The other thing about our prosperity is we need to keep our city services that are so essential and are so well run, our basic city services run in exactly that way as we continue to grow and prosper. We have 22,000 bus boardings every day. When you turn on your tap in Durham, you're one of somebody, you're one of the people who's turning on 27 million gallons of water that come out of your tap every single day and you want it to be clean and you want it to be safe. We need to make sure that we're doing that and we've built in the reservoirs that allow us to keep up with our growth. We have 19,000 emergency calls that our fire department's answering every year, including mainly for medical emergencies. We got 30 miles of trails and pretty darn soon, we need that to be 40. These are the kinds of things that we need to do, we need to invest in with our new prosperity. And then finally with our prosperity, as I began, the crucial thing is this, is the city we love going to be a city for all? Can everybody share in that prosperity and how are we gonna make that happen? And I look forward to being part of that. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Reese. Thank you, my name is Charlie Reese and to help you understand a little bit about my vision for the city of Durham and why I'm running for city council, I wanna share with you a little bit of a little bit about my personal story. I am a 10th generation North Carolinian and I know that sounds very fancy and very grand, but on the day that I was born, my parents were 16 and 17 years old. But they worked hard, they went on to graduate from high school, they often had to work two jobs to make ends meet. But they taught me the value of hard work and the importance of getting a good education. Because of their sacrifices and because of the grace of God, I went on to become the very first person in my family to go to college. That's the dream I have for every child of Durham. And as a city, together, we have it within us to make that dream a reality for children that live in every corner of our city. But it won't happen overnight and it won't happen by accident. We have to choose together what kind of city we want to build for tomorrow. On November 3rd, when you go to the polls, I want you to ask yourselves these questions. Do we want a Durham that is welcoming to working families where working families can afford to live and work and raise their kids? If you do, I hope you will vote for me. Do we want a Durham where our economic growth is turned into a prosperity that is shared all across our city? If you do, I hope you will vote for me. And do you want a Durham that lifts up communities that have been held down due to decades and generations of neglect and disinvestment? If you do, I hope you will vote for me. My name is Charlie Reese and with your help on election day, we can together keep Durham diverse and prosperous and safe and together with your help, I hope I get the chance to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Johnson. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight. My name is Jillian Johnson and I'm running for city council. I believe that we make the best decisions as a community when everybody is at the table. And when we center the voices of those who are most impacted by issues of injustice and equity. Here in our city, we have one of the highest median incomes in the state and also one of the highest rates of income inequality. We have a growing rate of child poverty. And I think we have some real questions that we need to ask ourselves around what kind of city we're gonna be and how we develop and how we grow. Are we gonna grow through inclusion, bringing people in? Are we gonna continue to develop two separate and unequal cities? I wanna talk a little bit about my campaign because I think that what we're doing now shows my dedication and my commitment and my ability to fulfill that vision. Our campaign is reaching out to people all over Durham. We're out in the streets, we're going door to door, making phone calls, we're gonna be riding the buses, trying to talk to folks who ride the bus to and from work or school. A number of people have told me that they've never voted in a municipal election before but that they're gonna come out and vote for me. I've talked to people who've said that they aren't even registered to vote and have asked us how do I get registered? They've never felt like there was a campaign or a candidate that spoke to them and spoke to their needs. And so I think that's what we're doing with this campaign. We're reaching out into the community and we're bringing people in. And I think that in order to make those sorts of decisions that are gonna make our city a Durham for all, that are gonna build a community where everyone can live and thrive and do well, we need all those people's voices at the table. And that's what I'm committed to doing on City Council and I hope you'll support me. Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Hart. I counted all joy. It's a honor and a privilege to have this opportunity to participate and to serve. I'm seeking an election as one of the officials for Durham City Council to represent you. I ask you, the citizens of Durham, do you feel that I'm worthy as a native son to serve as your representative? I believe we can make Durham a more proud place for everyone to live and call home. I'm a proud father of five and five grandchildren, three ladies and two gentlemen. And I'm very proud of all of them. And talking to them, it is important that they know that their city is a city to be proud of. And that's what I want to represent. There's a song that says, if I can help somebody along the way, then my living will not be in vain. I support our Mayor Bell and his vision for our city. I ask for your confidence, your support and your vote to move us to the next level for all. Let me be your heart of Durham. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Linus. Thank you. Again, I wanna thank everyone for coming out this evening. Thanks again to the INC for granting me this opportunity to sit before you. Again, I wanted to run for Mayor. I feel like no one else was raising their hand to get involved with the process. It was time for someone that was qualified to step up, to make themselves available, to take the torch and make our city, and will continue to make our city the great, beautiful and prosperous city that it has come to, has become. I also like to make our communities and our neighborhoods a safer place for everyone. I also wanted to be an influence for our young people and encourage them to get involved in the process. So many of our young people have not been involved with the process. As I was speaking with the Board of Elections earlier this week, the numbers that our young people have been voting have been very dismal. They do not feel like the current leadership can relate to them. They do not feel like the current leadership speaks to them or for them. They feel like they've been left out of the process. All too often, our young people feel that way. When they can see other people or other young people that they can identify with, that can relate to them, that they feel like has their best interests at heart, it encourages them to get involved in the process. Excuse me, I'm not sure what's the problem is with my mic, however, I like for everyone in the community to go out, encourage your church family, your neighbors, and everyone to vote for change this time. When you step into the polling booth this November or early voting season, ask yourself, when I'm driving through the city of Durham, when I step out of my door, what can I directly say I've benefited from? If you cannot honestly answer the question of what you've benefited from from the past few elections or from the present city council members that we have, then vote for change, thank you. Mayor Beall. Durham has been good to my family and I, my wife and I have four children, all that finished the Durham Public Schools. We now have five grandchildren. It has been an honor to serve as the mayor of the city of Durham. For seven terms it has been your support, your voice, your energy, and vote that has afforded me this exceptional opportunity to lead and govern this dynamic city. It is truly you, the people of this great city that I know and people that I meet every day from all corners of our community that are the core, the heartbeat of Durham, that continue to support and inspire me to work with you, to work with our council members, to work with organizations and businesses to build a greater Durham. Together we stand strong on the shoulders of those that have paved the way and saw a greater vision for what Durham could be. Today we stand strong, able to give force to that vision. As a community, we embrace the tremendous attributes and accolades that the rest of the country are stole. We already know we're also an outstanding and know there's a collective partnership that has made it so. I'm running for reelection as mayor and I humbly ask for your support and for you to put your faith in my leadership one more time. Together we are Durham, the city that works, the city of diversity, the city that invigorates, the city of innovation, the city that builds, the foundation to strengthen the quality of life for all of us. I ask for your vote and I ask for your support one more time to continue the work and realize a greater vision for our city, for Durham, the city where great things happen. Thank you. I would like to thank each candidate for their participation in the forum tonight. Durham is very fortunate to have a talented and dedicated group of candidates. Thank you for participating in the INC forum, now for closing remarks from DeGiorna Freeman, the president of INC. I wanna echo DeWarn's, Mr. Langley's remarks in saying thank you for participating this evening. We really appreciate your attention the time that you've taken to answer the questions of the people this evening. I especially wanna thank you for all the time and hard work that you've poured into this election and also acts that regardless of the outcome of the election that I hope that each and every one of you will continue to maintain your engagement and public service in this city. And for those present and watching, I wanna make sure that I thank you for taking the time out to listen to these questions and answers and to take this feedback out with you and use it for your own voting decisions. I wanna make sure that I point out that the hope in knowing that you will all vote, early voting begins October 22nd and runs till October the 31st and the municipal election will be held on November the 3rd. Thank you to the city of Durham, to the Durham television network and to the greater chamber, great Durham Chamber of Commerce, sorry. And at last, I'll note to thank all of the INC volunteers that have put this together this evening. Thank you all. And if the, I just wanna ask that the candidates would remain for a few minutes afterwards for some meet and greet with the public here. Thank you.