Thank you all for being here this evening.

Are joining us.

We may have some people that are looking or reviewing us or being able to be online, I believe, but we are ready to start for our meeting for the Charlotte City Council Tuesday, September the 2nd.

I mean, the time has gone by so quickly.

So today we are going to begin with our committee discussions as well as a deeper dive into the discussions around safety and health and welfare.

We have invited a number of people to join us today in this discussion.

I want to say thank you for all showing up.

I let's see, I see Spencer, I see the chief, and I'm just going to continue and not do this again because then I won't be able to get everybody's name in place.

But we're grateful for your participation in the work that we want to do for this community.

So we're going to start our first meeting.

We're going to do introductions.

Yes, we're going to start with our introductions and be ready to move forward on the next item.

Let's start with our city clerks.

Ariel Smith, lead city clerk.

Anthony Fox, interim city attorney.

Good evening, Renee Johnson, and I'm honored to represent District 4.

We'll give them a chance to chew.

Good evening, Jay Smith or City Council at Locke.

Good evening, Dante Anderson, Mayor Pro Tem, District 1.

Bye Lyles, Mayor.

Marcus Jones, City Manager.

Alcune Graham, District 2.

Ed Driggs, District 7.

Edwin Peacock, District 6.

Good evening, Lawana Mayfield, Councilmember at large.

And good evening.

All right.

Thank you, everyone, for their participation.

We usually start with our very first committee community committee.

And that would be with Mr.

Driggs and the work that we're doing around our mobility plan.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr.

Jones.

Do you have anything?

No, Mayor.

So one of the things that I think is important that we begin to level set what this is and what it isn't.

This procedural vote that we have been in is it and that is intended to align timing actions by the members of the MTC Commission, including that I guess all of us know that those are the towns around us that participate as a part of the MTC.

The legislation requires that a new authority to accept studies opportunities by January 1st, so the body needs to be in place by then.

One, it includes provisions that the city and the county will each appoint at least one transit writer to the authority board.

Council may choose to appoint more.

The MOU sets the floor, not a ceiling.

Two, it specifically provides that the public transportation advisory committee will continue to exist under the new authority.

Do you have a copy of it today?

I have a printout of it.

Okay, that has the layout of the MOU.

So Mr.

Driggs will summarize your email if you'll summarize your email and address any questions.

Thank you, Mayor.

So on behalf of the committee, uh I want to report on our discussion this morning, and I will note first of all, uh I chair the Transportation Planning Development Committee.

The Vice Chair is Miss Melina and the other members are Mr.

Graham, Miss Johnson, and Miss Watlington.

I think it's fair to say that we had a robust conversation this morning for the second time because we did last month as well about the MOU and unavoidably, as we talked about the MOU other topics related to the mobility plan were sort of drawn in.

So what I tried to emphasize this morning and what we discussed was this action on the MOU, and as the mayor pointed out, is really pretty limited.

The MOU itself has got some verbatim text from the state law, and then it has a provision in it that there will be a writer appointed by the city and the county, and that the PTAC will continue to advise the authority as it currently advises the MTC.

In the email I sent out, what I was trying to do was just acknowledge there is controversy about this.

We are hearing kind of mixed reactions to it, and that I think has created concerns in the minds of some people.

What I'm trying to emphasize here, though, is we can take this action on the MOU and not limit ourselves.

So by voting for the MOU now, you're not limiting your ability to engage on behalf of constituents about concerns that they may have.

We have time in order to finish the appointment process, and beyond the appointment process, uh the actual transfer of cats to the authority won't occur until October, probably of next year, when the revenue starts coming in from the sales tax.

And so there will be a lot of time to work further on the modalities for moving it across.