Good evening, everyone, and welcome to City Hall.

It's great to see so many people in the House tonight.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Mayor Williams.

I'm here.

Mayor Pro Tem Middleton.

I'm here.

Councilmember Baker.

Here.

Councilmember Caballero.

Here.

Councilmember Cook?

Here.

Councilmember Freeman?

Present.

Councilmember.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

At this time we will have the Pledge of Allegiance.

You want a moment of silence?

My apologies.

I'm just going to put these glasses back on.

The words are moving around on their own.

We will now have a moment of silence.

Thank you.

We'll now have the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

It's our practice to stand, salute the flag and say the pledge together if you'd like to join us.

I fled to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation, under God, individual with liberty and justice for all.

Now, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Mayor Williams.

Mayor Williams.

I apologize.

I was looking at the other agenda, the organizational agenda, and the meeting agenda, so I'm I'm a little confused.

My my apologies.

I would now go to the appropriate agenda for the organizational meeting.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, at this time uh we are officially in the organizational meeting.

Um, and I would like to call to the podium, Mr.

David Boone.

And Mr.

Derek Bowen.

Durham County Board of Elections Director, Mr.

Bowen, and uh Chair of the Durham County Board of Elections, Mr.

Boone.

Welcome.

Well, thank you.

There is that mic in front of you.

You can press the button with the little um it's on.

Okay.

There you go.

Good evening, Council members.

As chair of the Board of Elections, I'm delighted to be with you all this evening to present ceremonial certificates of election to newly elected members of council.

Our director, uh Derek Bowens, is here to assist me.

The Durham County Board of Elections and staff honors administered honest, fair, and accurate municipal elections for the 2025 cycle.

The certified election results have been approved, uh been provided to the city clerk for uh for both elections.

For the October primary election, 211,598 residents were eligible to participate.

On October 7th, 2025, 25,458 residents voted, yielding a 12.03 percent voter participation rate.

For the November general election, 215, 129 residents were eligible to participate.

On November 4th, 2025, 46,572 residents voted, yielding a 21.65 percent voter participation rate.

While turnout was not as high as desired, we appreciate the resilience of Durham voters during this election cycle.

The canvas results for the November 4th, 2025 election confirmed.

Leonardo Williams is mayor, Matt Kopak is council member for Ward 1.

Shanetta Burris as Councilmember for Ward 2, and Chelsea Cook as Councilmember for Ward 3.

The mayor has been elected to a two-year term and other council members to four-year terms.

We are always appreciative of the diverse field of candidates that participate, which speaks to the vibrancy and inclusivity of this of our wonderful community.

So thanks to all of those that participated.

SD's results have been officially certified by the Board of Elections, and upon authorization of the clerk pursuant to the agenda, we will now present ceremonial certificates of election for the 2025 municipal general election for the City of Durham.

Mr.

Bowens will distribute their certificates to each elected member as announced.

For the mayoral contest, Leonardo Williams with 26,402 votes.

For Ward One Council Contest, Matt Kopak with 23,633 votes.

For the Ward II Council contest, Shanetta Burris with 31,090 votes.

For Ward Three Council Contest, Chelsea Cook with 33,803 votes.

And thank you for your time this evening and congratulations to all newly elected members.

Thank you all so much.

And please don't leave uh just wait around for a few minutes.

All right.

At this time, I would like to um provide remarks on for our complex.

That's what I'm doing.

I'm going to provide y'all some remarks.

You're trying to get out of here too fast.

I'm I'm letting them know I'm going to provide some remarks, and they're just everybody yelling at me down here.

At this time, I would like to uh present service uh plaques to my colleagues and provide space for any colleagues that would like to make any comments or remarks.

All right.

I'd like to take this moment to provide just brief remarks uh just on my colleagues and thank them for their service.

As we all know, you know, um as I was telling my son just recently, um thank you.

I was telling my son, I was like, you know, as a musician, you know, music is most interesting when it has dynamics.

But a song that's just one steady note is the most boring thing to listen to.

So what do you what type of song do you want to be in life?

Do you want to be a one-note song or do you want to have dynamics?

And that is how I view our council.

Oftentimes we get criticized because it's easy for someone to just look online and look on TV and say what things should be.

But you don't know what drives the passion of each one of us on this council.

You don't know how our relationships are when we're not on TV.

And they're actually pretty good.

And so I just want to take a moment personally to say thank you to my colleagues.

And it gives me great honor to be able to provide this.

While I can never meet the measure of the service and dedication that Councilmember Friedman has provided to this community.

This is just a humble token of appreciation.

So please take a moment to provide remarks.

And I'm so appreciative of you.

Well, she's gonna provide for Nidai, so I'm gonna ask that we just have one moment to uh have me approach him join me as well.

When I say Didriana, you say for the people.

Didriana for the people you say Didriana?

Thank you.

Did you love you?

Didriana, we see you, Didiana.

When I say Didriana, you say for the people.

Didriana for the people.

For the people.

When I say for the people you say, do you say for the people?

Didriana.

For the people.

Didriana.

For the people.

Didriana.

When I say we thank you, we say Didriana.

We thank you.

We love you.

We see you.

Drive.

Yeah.

We're gonna breathe into the dice as well.

Who shows up?

Who shows up for the people?

Dia.

Who shows up for the people?

Dio.

Who stands up for the people?

Dio.

Who stands up for the people?

Drion.

Who fights for the people?

Driana.

Who fights for the people?

Driano.

Who walks alongside the people?

DVD.

Who do we love?

Dia.

Who do we see?

Dia.

Who do we say?

Dia.

Thank you so much.

You go, girl.

Thank you so much.

We make you.

Did you?

We see you.

We love you.

Didriana.

When I say Didriana, you say for the people.

Didriana.

All the people.

Didriana.

For the people.

When I say Didriana, you say for the people.

For the people.

Didriana.

Didriana?

For the people.

When I say for the people, you say Didriana.

For the people.

Didriana.

Didriana?

For the people.

Woo!

Didriana.

For the people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I really appreciate you all being here this evening.

And I have to first say thank you to my husband, Mr., if you could stand up.

I know I rarely ever say it.

And to my sons, Ansel and Antoine, and my daughter, Adriana, if y'all can stand up too.

I just want to say they've they've grown up here in this space, and it's not lost on me that this is connected to my family and will always be a part of what we do and community.

And so I'm grateful to them for being my bass and letting me do this work in community.

I'm gonna get teary, but but um, yeah, it means a lot that they've been here the whole time from the start to the finish, and uh to whatever comes next.

I know that each of you got my back, and I've got yours.

So uh I do want to also just thank all my friends and my campaign team for all your support over the years.

Uh, there's so many people in the room.

If I start naming names, I'm gonna be in trouble.

But I gotta say a big shout out to Cameron and Ernest and Kathy and Eileen and Nikki and so many others that have been the source in all of the work that got done to make sure that I was running really well in um the three campaigns that I um ran, or four actually.

And I will say that we have we we we have so much more time, more time to laugh and to enjoy one another's company, and so I look forward to all of that.

And to everyone, everybody who's here, I know you're not all here for me, but thank you for being here tonight.

It really is important that there is a room full of people paying attention when folks are sworn in and um recognizing that this is a point of accountability, and so it's great that we can transition from one to the other peacefully, but it's even um more or even greater when we transfer the trust of community and transfer the the relationships in a way that makes it so that we continue to do the work that needs to be done.

And so I I want to thank all of the city staff.

Um, if I start naming names again, I'm gonna be in trouble, but I I gotta say a big shout out to to Norma and Tabo and to Gina.

I did get your card, thank you, and to Bertha and to Keith, um, and to those from past um, you know, Wanda Page and Tom Bonfield, who were a big part of um the work that happens here.

Uh answer my calls, emails, texts, and many, many, many questions and requests.

I want to let you know that I'm only going around the corner, and so those will continue.

I uh I have a deep love and respect for the people of Durham for far too much to say goodbye.

So instead, I'll say until next time, because the journey will continue.

And as I look back a bit, my journey towards public office began long before I knew that what a city council even was or what it did.

And so I was out stumping for candidates like Senator Kay Hagen and then Senator Barack Obama, uh, working with organizing for Obama and working for organizing for action back in 2007, seemed so long ago.

And even when President Obama was in office, I didn't imagine I would run, but others did, and they encouraged me to get involved locally.

And through my work with organizing for racism and my four years on the Durham Planning Commission, the path began to reveal itself to me.

And I will say that my voice and the political process grew, and I finally decided to heed the call to run.

And when I was elected in 2017 on my platform to see Durham, and I was social, economic, and environmental justice, focused on um focus around my purpose developed.

And I and I was committed to the equity, diversity, and inclusion, fighting for social, economic, and environmental justice.

I committed to engaging residents and building tools and resources that supports prosperity.

I remain fully committed to that vision.

And here we are, more than a decade later, I'm trying to wrap up eight years of service, three mayors, three city managers, two city attorneys, two city clerks, 12 colleagues across eight different councils in like about eight minutes.

So bear with me.

From the many six-hour and 15-minute meetings to the rare 45-minute miracles, I gained some something unimaginable from this work, and I'm ever grateful for every moment of over 4,2360 minutes of service.

Let me say it again.

4 million, 203, 360 minutes of service.

And this great symphony of Durham, the hard notes, the soft ones, and everything in between, because I believe in holding folks accountable, and I will continue to hold folks accountable.

I also appreciate the investment made in my leadership and knowledge as a member of this council.

It has allowed me to pour into the communities to the children and to the families who deserve the very best of their government.

I've been in awe of how this city runs from keeping the flow of our water clean and our sewer sisters sewer systems operating to also understanding how land use shapes our shared future.

Witnessing how our city staff, many I named already, but I have to say some more.

And so I have to say it would be irresponsible to not share it.

When Councilmember Middleton and I were sworn in in 2017, his nephew was here.

Now they are both with us in spirit, along with Representative Mary Ann Black, Dr.

E.

Lavona Allison, and so many others who have gone ahead.

Fighting for the city, for the people, for fairness, for truth, and for justice.

And I will continue.

I do want to just take a moment and just thank them.

If we could just give them a whole round of applause, there's so many who've served.

And if I could just get Miss Jackie Wagstaff and any other electeds who have served on this council to stand, that would be great.

And Madam Mayor Pro Tem Coracole McFadden.

My sister in love and her great husband, Mike.

We have so much, so much more.

So much more time to do things.

Learn the business of your city government.

I say it again.

Learn the business of your city government.

Those are your tax dollars.

We must work together as one for the Durham community.

To the next city council, you will face many voices, many opportunities, and many challenges, but you will find more people ready to help, more partnerships to build, and infinite possibilities to keep the Bull City gritty and strong.

So I will end with this so long to the long council meetings, and I wish you the next council great success in protecting the collective public interests and the public purse of the city of Durham, both cities strong.

And I just forgot one last thing.

Be ready.

And again, both cities strong.

Thank you.

And thank the mayor for uh presenting the plaque.

I do want to just read it and say it's the City of Durham Outstanding Service Award for Community Advocacy and honoring Didriana Freeman, elected Durham Ward 1, Councilmember November 7th, 2017, re-elected Ward 1, Councilmember November 2nd, 2021 to December 1st, 2025.

Thank you.

When I say Didriana, you say for the people.

For the people.

When I say Didriana, you say for the people.

And you're ours.

For the people.

When I say Didriana, you say for the people.

For the people.

For the people.

For the people.

When I say Didriana, you say for the people.

For the people.

When I say for the people, you say Drianna for the people.

Didriana.

For the people.

When I say Drianna, you say for the people, Didriana.

For the people.

Didriana.

For the people.

When I say Didriana, you say we thank you, Didriana.

We thank you.

Didriana.

We love you.

When I say Didriana, you say, we see you, Didriana.

We see you.

De Rihanna.

We see you.

And I see you all.

You say we love you, Didriana.

We love you.

We love you.

Didriana.

We love you.

Deedriana.

We love you.

We love you.

I love you too.

Before we every time you said, you know who's the community, I think you know who the community is now, sir.

Before we proceed, I would like to uh just take a moment.

Uh obviously we've had a lot going on in the last couple of weeks.

Uh, and it's been overshadowed by the uh the disruption of our lives here in Durham with the invasion of ice uh in border patrol.

So we have some things going on that we did not get a chance to talk about.

And before we proceed, I'd like Mayor Pro Tim to read and recognize what the City of Durham received uh while in Salt Lake City.

Thank you.

Good evening, Your Honor.

Good evening, honorable colleagues to our staff to all in chamber with us this evening.

Uh just uh a few weeks.

Durham's always collecting awards, and I was honored uh to be along with Councilmember Freeman in Salt Lake City last week, week before last, uh, where Durham was once again honored for our groundbreaking uh and paradigm shifting work in digital.

Um, the digital area and and in uh integrating digital and and technology uh into our city services.

Uh Digital Cities 2025 survey winner, City of Durham, seventh place for cities with a population of 250,000 to get this 499,999.

Just under 500,000.

So they they cut it off.

But congratulations, Durham once again for being recognized for our exploits uh in the digital world.

And I don't know who I'm gonna get this.

I need to turn this over to somebody, but uh so that'll go to our TS department.

Thank you all for your your amazing leadership, uh technology solutions.

Um thank you for uh resetting my password when I lose it, and thank you for winning a half million dollars.

Mayor Pro Tim.

It is uh been a journey to work with you.

Uh as it has been with Councilmember Freeman.

Uh obviously you and I have a close relationship.

You're my brother.

You are um someone that I've relied on.

You have served as my mayor pro Tim.

Um that I followed your lead on learning how to do this council thing.

And I just want to say that I am grateful for you.

Please share a few remarks, if you will.

Thank you.

And let me apologize for any slip-ups.

They're all attributed to me, and the exploits and victories are attributable to you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor and colleagues, and to everyone in chamber.

I want to firstly acknowledge my sister, Didranna Freeman.

Our careers have had a quantum entanglement over the years.

So I hope that you will find time and space to rejoice.

No one in this chamber knows better than me that you aren't finished yet.

No one in this chamber knows better than me that you aren't finished yet, and that your voice will not be silenced.

I congratulate you, and as a citizen of Durham, I want to thank you for your service.

This election is over.

And the people have spoken.

We've got something going on in our public square right now where there are some people who cannot exist without conflict.

This election is over, and it's time to govern.

There is a germ in our public square where there are some folk who define themselves only by enemies.

They cannot conceive of a context of building without strife, without conflict, without rancor.

It's almost as if they are afraid to operate in an environment of peace and mutual respect.

There are some people in our public square who can't get through a conversation for the life of them without insulting someone before it's over.

So I want to say to the people of Durham, those of us that are in the overwhelming majority, resist.

Rob it of its oxygen.

Turn it off.

Unplug it.

It's time to govern.

I know all of these people on the dais, and I know all of the people that are coming in.

We have eight, seven exceptional people that will lead us.

They are all brilliant in their own right.

You don't have to agree with them on everything, but respect them.

Challenge them, yes, challenge them vigorously, but give them the benefit of their humanity.

Be impatient, yes, be insistent, but be open.

Stick to your principles, stick to your ideas, but realize that there is a disease going around that has infected some.

And it's given folk the ridiculous proposition that they're always right.

Press, but be patient, and do not deny these eight exceptional people their humanity, because at the end of the day, they are our servants, and the crappiest people on the planet are the ones who treat their servants poorly.

I salute those that are coming in.

I want to congratulate Councilmember Elect Shanetta Burris, my council member as a War II representative, Councilmember Matt Kopat, Councilmember Chelsea Cook, and to my brethren friend his honor, Mayor Leonardo Williams.

They deserve our respect, they deserve our engagement.

I'm asking those of you that are so inclined to please pray for them and lift them up.

Yes, engage.

But remember they're human, and they're doing it because they love the city, each and every one of them.

Tonight I want to thank particularly the people of Abundant Hope Christian Church and my family.

I see you out there.

Where my flowers at, man.

I asked for gift cards anyway.

I want to thank the people, particularly of Abundant Hill Christian Church, my actual real job, who permitted me to do this.

There's an instinct amongst people when they love you to want to protect you, uh, to jump in front of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

And these folk have watched for eight years and swallowed that instinct, muted that instinct to come to defense, to engage in the fight.

You have shown great character in the face of some characters, and I thank you for that.

There's a saying in my faith tradition that says, May the work I have done speak for me.

You don't need a whole lot of long valedictory addresses tonight because tonight is not about what has happened.

Tonight is about what will happen.

What an unlikely place it is for me to be tonight.

I was born in a neighborhood that was considered the crack capital of America.

I fell asleep listening to Uzies go off in the park at night.

And then I woke up in the morning and had to deal with your mama jokes with a speech impediment.

So some of the stuff I've dealt with in Durham politics has been adorable.

Comparatively speaking.

But how unlikely it is that with all of those things that I would be on this day is tonight, speaking to you as the mayor of Pratim of the City.

It was a joke.

The proposition of me doing any of this was a joke.

So tonight, Durham, I want you to know I count it all gain, and I count it all joy.

So in this season of light and expectancy and hope, may God bless and keep each and every one of you.

May God grant wisdom and peace to our mayor and to this honorable council.

And may God forever shine a light, protect and keep the greatest city in this nation, the city of Durham.

Middleton out.

All right, thank you.

Colleagues, I I know this is not necessarily printed, but if any of you all would like to provide any remarks, I'd like to honor that at this time.

Councilmember Cook.

Thank you.

Um I just want to say a few words about Didriana.

Um I started this role, Didriana was the only council member with institutional knowledge who called me to check in to make sure that I knew what was going on.

She's been a mentor to me since day one on the phone with me, going through agendas, helping me understand uh the the way that the process works.

And I know she served that role for many other people as well, but it's been really meaningful for me.

I'm gonna try not to cry as well.

Didriana is also working behind the scenes, and I try and tell her this all the time, she already knows it.

Um, but I'm gonna tell it to y'all as well.

When we are going through agenda items, and there is a piece of information that is equity-centered, more often than not, it's because Didriana asked for it to be there at some time in the past eight years.

It's incredible.

Every time I'm like, wow, this is so great that it's here.

Didriana's like, yeah, I asked for that.

I put it there.

Um amazing work on an in an equity lens and also for the environment.

Uh Didriana is also a person who responds in a way that I don't I really don't even know how she has the time and energy.

We get emails all the time to to the broad council email, and they'll be asking us oh, I have an issue with a sewage leak in my backyard.

And by the time that I answer the email, Didriana has already been to the house, always.

She is a person that shows up and she goes in person, and that is why people love her so much.

And the fourth and final thing that I think is really special about Didriana is that there are a lot of folks in this city who have historically not had a voice in this governance.

And Didriana has been a voice for those folks.

Consistently, unabashedly, folks who are able to find their voice in local government through Dedriana Freeman.

We as a city need to think really carefully about whose interests we represent up here and who is reflected in our leadership.

It's not just about race or gender, although those things are important, but it's also about class and it's about history.

I'm proud to have served with some money who took her role in representing the working class folks, particularly those of color, and I'm gonna try my best to stand up for all Durhamites, as my mentor has consistently shown me how to do.

Councilmember Freeman, you are leaving a huge legacy behind you, and I hope that we'll take seriously our role in picking up the mantle moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you all for being here this evening.

Uh tonight is bittersweet.

We're gaining so much tonight with new voices on this council, and we're losing a lot tonight.

Mr.

Mayor Pro Tem, get to call you that still.

We've had our moments up here.

But I have also learned so much from you over the past two years since I started.

When you take a position on something, when you speak for something, it's kind of like we have two or three extra council members on this dais.

Um you've so firmly stand on the issues that you believe in, and that's something that I have learned so much from over the past two years since I've been here.

And there's so much that happens behind the scenes, not on the dais, uh, that I have learned from as well.

You know, your office has been on the opposite side of mine, so you frequently pass by and we we catch each other in the halls, and those have been incredibly positive moments and moments where we've been able to share uh we've been able to share in in conversation that I have always found uh very useful.

Um and so I'm gonna I'm going to miss that.

Uh Councilmember Freeman.

I've known you very long time since you first ran for for council.

Um that was maybe the only time when you first ran that I wasn't quite sure about you.

And then when you came on to council, and then I soon soon thereafter I joined the planning commission and got a front row seat to the governance that happens here in the city of Durham.

I got to watch you because I watched council meetings.

I got to watch you and I got to see you.

It was one of those things where you show up to events and you always see the same person who's always there.

Um like Councilmember Cook, you were you have been a mentor since before I joined council, someone who I have learned so much from over the years.

Um, someone who I've looked up to, and then when I joined council, someone who was there who who I got to learn from uh just by knowing you for so long.

Uh you've been on also in the the uh uh office right next to mine.

And we really are losing um some important voices here tonight.

Also two voices who have been here for a very long time.

Um that's not something that should be lost on us.

We're getting fresh new voices, which is exciting.

We're also losing two people who have been on the Durham City Council and ha carry with them huge amounts of institutional knowledge.

And um we'll feel that.

We will feel that up here.

Um we will learn quickly.

Uh we still have folks up here who have institutional knowledge, but that shouldn't be lost on us either.

So uh thank you so much for all that you have put in, all of the work, all of the millions of minutes that you've put into your service up here, but also in the community all the time.

It never really shuts off, does it?

Um thank you so much for all that you've done.

Uh you I want to say you will be missed, but I know I'm gonna see both of you around.

Uh so um, and I look forward to that.

I look forward to the to the continued work and engagement of you both.

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor.

Yeah, uh, we are this is a bittersweet moment tonight.

Um we are losing, as Councilmember Baker said, two of the more experienced members in this council.

Um, folks who I've learned from, who have been here doing the work, um, and whose voices and and and spirit and leadership will be dearly missed on this council.

As Councilmember Cavier was saying this evening, I think you're the you'll be now the longest serving council member, right?

So we are losing a lot of experience.

I'm also losing two seatmates here, you guys, so it's gonna be a little bit lonely up here.

Um, but I know we also have two great people who are gonna take your places.

Um to Councilmember Freeman, I just want to say it has been an honor to serve with you.

You have the biggest heart on this council.

And I think you heard that in the audience tonight.

You have the biggest heart.

And that's been that's been a lot to me.

I've learned a lot.

We've not always agreed, but I've always respected the heart, the voice, and the focus you bring to your work here.

Always about equity, always shining a light on the on the things we often forget to look at in Durham.

So thank you for being here for serving with me, and I'll look forward to seeing you soon.

Mayor Pratem.

As I've told you many times, I've learned more about governing from you than anyone else in this council.

And I'm so glad in your remarks you talked about the election being over, and now it's time to govern.

And the people of this community expect us to govern, to govern wisely, and to deliver for the people.

And so your focus on governing, and again, we also haven't always agreed on things, right?

But on governing on what's next, uh and on the process of doing the city's business is something I'll never forget, and I will miss serving with you.

So thank you so much.

You've taught me so much, and you'll always be in my mind as I sit up here on the dais.

Thank you so much, brother.

Thank you.

Um I have worked with both of you all for eight years.

Uh I think when council member Freeman and I were both we were the only moms of three.

We were the only ones who had cids so close together.

Uh we had a lot of uh shared um shared moments in that.

Um it's a hard thing to do this job, uh, especially if you have little kids.

There are lots of nights that you don't get to be home.

There are lots of things you miss, and there's lots of sacrifices you make uh to do this job, and I know that deeply, and it's something that um I know we both struggled with over the years.

Um it will be in some ways a very lonely place for me on this dais.

Um we have all three of us with the councils before have experienced in some ways like with the family, honestly, a lot of shared trauma.

Um, and incredible moments of Durham successes.

Um but no one will remember Tom Bonfield and his lack or impeccable poker face in the same way.

Um one will remember what it felt like to shut a city down in the first week of COVID.

No one will remember what happened or how it felt to have a building explode and have a mass crisis in this city.

Um we have a lot of shared memories and moments uh of transitions of council members joining, retiring, um, moving on to higher office, and that creates uh a relationship, and so I know that you all will both be very, very active in the city.

I would expect nothing less.

I also expect to see you all much lighter on the other side.

Everyone I know who's gotten to the other side just looks so incredibly stress-free.

Um, and I am deeply envious.

Uh and so I just want to say thank you to both of you.

Uh, again, we didn't always agree.

Um, and that's okay, that's part of this job.

Um, but there's not a lot of folks in the city who I can say, yeah, we live through some things together, and nobody else really can understand that experience.

So thank you for your service to the city.

Um I am now the second oldest member up here.

I think Gen X just got decimated.

Um classic Gen X.

Um I look forward to continuing to serve as your one of your elected representatives.

Thank you.

Well, I've I've given my remarks and uh and uh in short, and I'll keep this short.

Um yes we've gone through a lot.

But um you know, I I think what baffles some people is when they say, you know, um, you know, gosh, you guys argue all the time, you disagree on that, you disagree on that.

Yeah, we might fight.

Yeah, we may fuss.

But I don't know if you remember this, but when we first opened our restaurant, Zwelly and I, um we had an event there for Elizabeth Warren, and I wasn't an elected official, I just looked at you all like you were crazy.

But you and Josephine um were the last to leave out.

And I was like, all right, Judge, I'll see you.

And I was like, all right, I'll see you later.

I'm Leo, and you said I know who you are.

And that stuck with me because I was thinking myself, like how how is she know who I am?

But you were paying attention.

You were paying attention to people in this community.

I also remember, you know, how folks always talk about, you know, you guys don't get along.

But it was D.

John and Antoine that stayed out.

And I think it may have been raining when I had a flat tire.

Stayed out and would not leave.

And I said, oh no, no, you good, I got it.

Would not leave.

That is who we really are, folks.

The fact that she gets on my nerves.

But I'm fighting back tears that you're about to leave.

I know you're not going to go anywhere.

But that's who we are.

So for everyone that likes to make it seem like it's corporate media, and the world is coming to an end.

We're supposed to debate.

We're opposed to play tug of war with policy.

It's a molding process to get the best outcome.

The friction, the tension that is created.

It takes all of us.

And it's that friction and tension that molds the best possible outcome for you.

That's what it's like being up here.

So I appreciate you more than you know.

And I'm so grateful for the service that you have provided in this community.

I know you probably remember when I first got up here, I was like, well, DJana is the equity watchdog.

In other words, she's not going to let anybody get screwed over.

And she holds on to that.

That's what it's like.

I remember when I was starting to get interested in local politics.

I was doing statewide consulting.

And uh there was a um, there was an opening uh or position or something to fill counsel.

And I was all right, I'm gonna just do it.

And uh I got a call.

I I remember doing statewide consulting, and they said, hey, you you uh no Republicans are gonna answer your call if you're a registered Democrat.

So I was like, all right, cool, you know, work with Governor Cooper, and I go and change my status to independent.

Then I get ready to run for local politics, and someone who wanted me to actually run really bad, said it is not your time.

Someone close to me was that honest with me.

He said, You're not even a Democrat.

You you need to get your affairs in order if you're gonna be in local politics.

You know, he's supposed to be like, you know, filling my head up about all of what I'm capable of doing.

But he was brutally honest, and that is why Middleton and I, that is how we got so close.

Because he didn't care about who I was, he didn't care about the fame, he didn't care about the popularity.

What he cared about, if you're gonna do local politics, you gotta be committed to local politics.

Your statewide consulting, that's cute, but Durham is different, and the appreciation and commitment and love that he had for this community and has for this community was a model for me to follow.

Because it required me to start looking at myself.

It required me to truly reflect.

Because of Durham.

Mark, you have taught me so much.

I think I've learned the most from you as well.

I've seen you go through the most treacherous of times, and I I could see it almost exploding inside of you, but somehow you are strong enough to just hold it together because you knew that it was bigger to you.

You knew that there was a young man looking at you and thinking the world will present you with the impossible, and yet you have to show the strength of what a black man has to be able to handle.

And I think both of you all for the friction and tension that she created.

Welcome everyone.

We are officially we have done our organization meeting.

Now at this time, I will proceed with swearing in of our newly elected council members.

And I will start with Ward Three.

It is actually Ward One.

Mr.

Kopak.

Welcome.

We will now proceed with your swearing in.

And I see that you have uh Superior Court Judge Shemika Reinhardt.

You may proceed and invite your guests to the middle of the uh floor in front of the daisy.

Come on here.

Yes.

Put your left hand above and raise your right.

I state your full name.

I Matt Kopak.

Have read, have read, understand and subscribe, understand and subscribe.

To the code of ethics.

To the code of ethics of the city of Durham.

Of the city of Durham.

And do hereby and do hereby solemnly swear.

Solemnly swear that I will support that I will support and maintain and maintain the Constitution.

The Constitution and laws and laws of the United States.

And the Constitution and the Constitution and laws and laws of North Carolina.

Not inconsistent therewith.

Not inconsistent therewith.

And that I will thankfully and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties.

As a city of Durham.

This is what this is what you are doing.

You understand.

You feel it in your heart.

Oh, Matt Holta.

As my former teacher once told me, no, I'm not sure.

With your permission, can we start that again?

All right, so are you coming back?

Okay.

And we'll try this again.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

If you put your left hand above and raise your right.

I state your full name.

Matt Kopak.

Have read.

Have read.

Understand.

Understand.

And subscribe.

And subscribe.

To the code of ethics.

To the code of ethics.

Of the city of Durham.

Of the city of Durham.

And do hereby.

And do hereby.

Solemnly swear.

Solemnly swear.

That I will support.

That I will support.

And maintain.

And maintain.

The Constitution and Laws.

The Constitution and Laws.

Of the United States.

Of the United States.

And the Constitution and Laws.

And the Constitution and Laws.

Of North Carolina.

Of North Carolina.

Not inconsistent therewith.

Not inconsistent therewith.

And that I will faithfully.

And that I will faithfully.

And impartially.

And impartially.

Discharge the duties.

Discharge the duties.

Of my office.

Of my office.

As a city of Durham.

As a city of Durham.

Ward one.

Ward one.

Council member.

Council member.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations, sir.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, are we endorsing our uh okay?

You just took office as Ward One representative of the city council channel.

We have another copy of that, Madam Clerk.

I think the Superior Court judge wants to be on council.

I did that.

I'm sorry.

That's what's going on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up, we have Ward Two.

Being sworn in by District Court, Durham County District Court Judge Dorothy Harrison Mitchell.

Uh we have Council Member Elect Shanetta Burris.

You want me to hold my daddy good.

All right.

So when I say I, you say I in your name.

Okay.

I shouldn't have read, have read, understand and subscribe.

Understand and subscribe.

Understand and subscribe.

To the code of ethics.

To the code of ethics of the city of Durham.

Of the city of Durham.

And do hereby.

And do hereby.

Solemnly swear.

Solemnly swear.

That I will support.

That I will support.

And maintain.

And maintain.

The Constitution.

The Constitution.

And laws.

And laws.

Of the United States.

Of the United States.

And the Constitution.

And the Constitution.

And laws and laws.

Of North Carolina.

Of North Carolina.

Not inconsistent.

Not inconsistent.

Therewith.

Therewith.

And that I will faithfully.

And that I will faithfully.

And impartially.

Impartially.

Discharge.

Discharge.

The duties of my office.

The duties of my office.

As a city of Durham.

As a city of Durham.

Ward two.

Ward two.

Council member.

Council Member.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations.

Next up.

We have been sworn in by Superior Court Judge Shuka Reinhardt.

Council member.

Chelsea Cook.

For the War Three.

She's a burning one.

With you.

Hold anything.

Sure.

Well, you can have your left hand.

Yeah.

You can bring all your supporters.

Miss Cook.

I'm ready.

All right.

Hopefully I won't get interrupted.

All right.

I state your full name.

I Chelsea Cook.

Have read.

Have read.

Understand and subscribe.

Understand and subscribe.

To the Code of Ethics.

To the Code of Ethics.

Of the City of Durham.

Of the City of Durham.

And do hereby solemnly affirm.

And do hereby solemnly affirm.

That I will support and maintain.

That I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws.

The Constitution and Laws.

Of the United States.

Of the United States.

And the Constitution and Laws.

And the Constitution and Laws.

Of North Carolina.

Of North Carolina.

Not inconsistent therewith.

Not inconsistent therewith.

And that I will faithfully.

And that I will faithfully.

And impartially.

And impartially.

Discharge the duties of my office.

Discharge the duties of my office.

As a member of the Durham City Council.

As a member of the Durham City Council.

Ward three member.

Ward three member.

So I affirm.

So I affirm.

Congratulations, Chelsea.

Okay.

Looks better.

How does this mean?

All right.

And uh lastly, I will uh proceed, and I'll ask my wife, mother, and Sandra, my brothers, and my team to join me as well.

And I'll be sworn in by Durham County District Court Judge, Dorothy Hurston Mitchell.

All right, sir.

If you could put your left hand on a bobble and raise your right.

And when I say I, you say I your name.

I Leonardo Williams.

Have read.

Have read.

Understand and subscribe.

Understand and subscribe.

To the code of ethics.

To the code of ethics.

Of the City of Durham.

Of the City of Durham.

And do hereby.

And do hereby.

Solemnly swear.

Solemnly swear.

That I will support.

That I will support.

And maintain the Constitution.

And maintain the Constitution.

And laws of the United States.

And laws of the United States.

And the Constitution.

And the Constitution.

And laws of North Carolina.

And laws of North Carolina.

Not inconsistent therewith.

Not inconsistent therewith.

And that I will faithfully.

And that I will faithfully.

And impartially.

And impartially.

Discharge the duties.

Discharge the duties.

Of my office.

Of my office.

As the City of Durham Mayor.

As the City of Durham Mayor.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Mayor.

Yes.

I won't keep it.

All right.

Colleagues.

Welcome.

You are officially council members.

Thank you.

All right, at this time.

I will um just for a lot some brief remarks.

Uh, we'll have brief remarks about our new council members who are joining the dais, if you will.

Uh, council member COVAC.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you all so much for being here with us this evening.

Being able to sit up here on this dais and begin service representing the city of Durham as a member of the city council is just such an incredible honor, and I feel really overwhelmed at the opportunity, and I'm so grateful.

I ran for City Council because I love the city so deeply, care for our people so deeply.

This is home, the only home my kids have known, and the home we've chosen and are so grateful to be a part of.

And I ran because I wanted to see Durham with time become a city that is more affordable, more just, more sustainable, and hopefully with time one that is more united.

This is a place of close friendship, of tight-knit community, a city that welcomes everyone, and where we look out for each other.

I am humbled, in part because I have seen such incredible examples of service to this community over the years by many of you in this room, and also humbled because I desire so strongly to live up the expectations that you have for all of us who have the privilege to serve in this body and sit on this daisy.

And together, along with you all, be able to work to serve this community.

In taking on this role, I give you a sacred promise.

A promise to always listen, a promise to be accessible and transparent, a promise that if you stop me on the street and say Matt, there's this thing going on in my block that I will listen and that I will respect and honor your perspectives.

Grateful for my family, my incredible wife, Sarah, who supports me through this and through all things in life.

My wonderful boys, Evan and Eli.

I am most proud of all things of you boys.

Grateful to my mom, of course, without whom I would not be here, and has shown me such love and encouragement and support throughout my life.

And to my campaign team, volunteers, supporters, the folks without whom I absolutely could not have done this and would not be here before you this evening.

Thank you to all the voters who trusted me enough to allow me to serve.

And for everyone else, I ask that you give me a chance to earn your trust.

Because I desire to serve all of Durham.

I'm particularly proud to be able to serve Ward One.

And intend to give my ward special attention as I seek to serve all of Durham in this role.

Finally, thank you to everyone here for your care, for your willingness to push, to question, to dream bigger for the city we love.

If we're going to accomplish the goals that we have for Durham, we're gonna need each other.

We're more connected than we'll ever know.

And there's always something we can learn from each other, and always some good we can do together for this community.

Thank you again.

I look forward to working together with all of you.

I am so excited, and I can't wait to get started.

Thank you.

Councilmember Burrus.

Hello.

Good evening, everyone.

Um this is new for me, so give me space, please.

First, I want to give all honor and glory to God.

This is not my moment to impose my religion upon you, but I know without God, I would not be in this seat seat right here tonight.

And so I want to thank God for all the blessings and cover me on this campaign trail.

This campaign cycle was not easy.

I will not be before you long as my campaign site is still up.

Everything I said I was gonna do, I intend to do on this day is with all of you.

First one give thanks to my mother and my father and my bonus dad who are here tonight.

They've been with me since 1987, and they've heard every gripe, every story.

I recall when I decided to launch this journey in August.

Well, no, sorry, April, I called my dad and I was like, Dad, I think they might run for city council.

He's like, Well, I guess we've run up for council then.

And so we did it.

So I appreciate you, Dad.

I appreciate you all for the tears, for the comfort for the late night meals.

My Uncle Marcus, we're only 10 years apart, but I appreciate you still too.

My Uncle Marcus for being here with us.

Um, Marshall Williams, who has been a tremendous help, Marshall was with me at every campaign event, answered every call, was there to tell me to slow down, slow all the way down, maybe speed up a little bit, but I appreciate you and the sacrifice you made to help me on this campaign cycle and journey as well.

My Aunt Trina, I love you so much.

Thank you so much for always being a pillar of my life and making sure that I am a strong, proud woman.

I appreciate you for that.

I appreciate you all, all the 30,000 people in Durham, over 30,000 people in Durham who decided to vote for me.

You had faith in me.

As you know, I was the lowest fundraising candidate, but my message was powerful and my commitment was even more powerful to the people of Durham.

I am proof that it is not about how you start, about but it's more about how you finish in this world.

So don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it.

I am a living witness of what it is when you put God first, you stay honest, and you operate your integrity to Councilwoman Freeman.

Well, former council, my bad.

It's new for me too.

Um, we've been doing this since an MPA program at NCCU.

I appreciate you so much for all your teachings, your learnings, and even times we had that knockdown drag out fight.

I still appreciate you.

Um, Solar Dorothy, thank you so much for always encouraging me on a campaign trail.

I appreciate you for just seeing me when no one else saw me, and I appreciate all your kind words and wish you all the best of luck, moving for Anjanet, Pablo, everyone I campaigned with this campaign cycle.

We had a real community.

We had faith in each other.

We uplifted each other.

And I know you all would continue to do the work and also hold me accountable.

So I appreciate you all.

I'm not gonna come in here and give this long speech tonight because honestly, I'm already overstimulated and ready to go home.

So we're just gonna keep this nice and cute, but again.

I appreciate you, Durham for the UE150 family, all of those who stood out in the rain, hand out flyers, everyone.

Again, I'm immensely grateful for this moment.

I promise that I don't need any more friends.

I am loved, I love myself and I love my family.

I'm here to serve our community and to make sure those people are not voiceless, we just don't listen.

So I won't bother you with all the talking points and cliches.

Let's get the word.

Let's do it and hold everyone this board accountable.

Thank you all for your time.

Councilmember Cook.

Thank you.

And um, congratulations to my colleagues.

Uh, it is a heavy night to be celebratory.

I think that we've all sort of been sitting in the in the shadow of ICE or Customs and Border Patrol returning to our community.

And so just a shout out to the folks who have been willing and ready to stand up, put their bodies on the line.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to witness that organization.

And I just want to acknowledge that before going into my talk.

Y'all heard a lot from me during the campaign trail.

I'm not gonna rehash all of my um campaign promises, but just like my colleague council member Burris just stated, um I hope that you will hold me accountable to all of those things.

I do want to say that I'm proud of the campaign that I ran in collaboration with so many others.

We built off the work of so many before us and pushed for the rights of people over profit.

We push for transparency, for care, for centering community, and will we continue to prioritize the working people of Durham.

I look forward to holding you all, or for you all holding all of us accountable as we move through these times.

And I want to thank a few people specifically.

First, I want to thank Laurel Shulman who could have make it tonight.

But Laurel is a friend of mine who volunteered to be my treasurer.

And those of us sitting up here know how difficult that job is and um how much she had to fight with technology and um deadlines, but she did an incredible job and it was all volunteer, and I'm just eternally grateful.

Um next, I want to talk about my community.

I'm so humbled that people haven't continue to show up for me.

Uh the folks here, Sarai, Savannah, Julieta, and Sophie.

I've got so many more people.

Um it is the real pride of my life that um I've got people in my corner, and it's not related to my political leanings or anything else.

They just are here for me and they care for me.

And during this campaign, they checked on me and supported me in a way that it's just has made me eternally grateful.

And um, and I know when this is all over and done, I'll still have that community.

And um, I just couldn't be more honored.

Uh most importantly, I want to thank my spouse who is didn't really want this to happen.

But will you stand up, please?

Give us stand up, stand up.

Um, uh this year alone, Mike has been a wedding planner, a campaign manager, the dog walker, the sounding board for me.

Um I'm able to be here today and installed in this position, which is one of the greatest that I've ever been uh able to do because I had a foundation of a person who loves me all the time through all of it.

And um I promise you that one day we will have a break.

We will be able to enjoy being married and have a life.

Um but it's not this day.

Um he has been through behind me every step of the way.

I'm eternally grateful for you.

Thank you so much.

Didn't know what you were signing up for, but here we are.

Um yeah, I'm just so grateful.

I'm fully rooted in love, and I am looking forward to serving my favorite city in the world for the next four years.

So, Durham, let's get ready, the work continues.

Thank you.

Well, I'll uh try and keep it short.

Um, I want to thank everyone who's come out tonight.

Um everyone that you don't have to love me, you don't have to hate me, you don't have to have any association with me.

All you have to do is love this city, and that's what matters to me.

That's why some people I may despise, but I still embrace you because there's a difference in personal Leo, and there's a difference in your commitment to this community.

For me, that's what matters.

Um I am so grateful to uh have our new colleagues on the council.

Uh one, because I I've I've gotten to know your family for that matter.

You know, uh Mike, you're you're an amazing man.

And and one day you will get a break, but it won't be any time soon.

I'm just gonna be honest.

And and just, you know, um talk to Zwilly, and um, yeah, we'll we'll start a spouse's club.

I've talked about this some time ago.

Um for uh you know peer support.

Uh we love the city and it's you get addicted to this work, you know.

Um and and Sarah, you know, I remember years ago I sat on what did it did they leave?

Stupid kids.

Oh, okay.

Uh I sat on you guys back porch years ago and and just chop it up.

And the the boards were so small then and ran into mom and the boards at a train station, catching a train to Raleigh.

And Shanetta, thanks to your mom for giving me candy at church uh not long ago.

Uh I really needed it.

Uh, just amazing, amazing people.

So the family of the council grows, and I'm just, you know, um, yes, I'm grateful for my colleagues that have you know stepped down from the council, but I'm I'm just as grateful to uh bring fresh legs to the team.

I want to thank my brothers, uh my fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.

I thank you guys for always being there with me, always having my back, moving in silence, but moving with power.

I appreciate that.

More do you know?

Um Miss Sandra, my soldier, that I have to calm down sometimes.

Thank you so much for your love and support.

I know that you don't sleep because you're the only one that sends me a Facebook message of some quote at 3 47 a.m.

But thank you.

Because when I I always respond because most of the time I'm up thinking about something in this city.

Um, but thank you for always being there.

Um I have another soldier.

I have a lot of soldiers, actually.

Uh these are folks that I just try to get them to keep calm and be quiet, and they won't.

Um so Miss Ms.

Thelma.

Where are you at?

You and Shay back there, and yeah, thank thank you all.

Thank you all so much for just riding with me, you know, cutting through the noise and and just knowing that we we we have our eye on the North Star.

Um my campaign team, the very unconventional group of people who are not politicals.

There's always about one or two people on my campaign team that knows anything about politics.

The rest are just good people doing their thing and good at something, and that's something it's always contributing to this community in their own right.

My team has always been made up of just normal everyday folks who love this city, whom I have the people who have the force to pay, I have to force to pay them.

So my campaign team, I know it's a lot of you all that are not here, so for you all who are listening online, which are texting me right now, thank you.

And if you are in the room, just wave your hand.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My mom.

My mother, thank you so much.

True definition of a mother.

I know that because my siblings give us hell.

And she still stands right there like they're the most innocent people in the world.

And no matter what, no matter where she parks, whether it's a mile down the street because she can't find City Hall, whether it's another mile down the street, and we'll walk here.

You will always be here, and I appreciate that.

And I love you for birthing me and bringing me into this world.

Thank you.

I am so grateful for you and our son Isaiah, who wanted to be here tonight, by the way.

He is uh doing homework.

But I am so grateful.

I think that I'm the mayor of this city because I married you.

You helped me see more in myself than I ever could have imagined.

I tease people when I tell them I was the happiest Brook teacher you'd ever meet.

You came into my life, and you proved to me, you showed me that I could be an even better teacher, and an even better principal, and an even better school administrator.

And then we challenged each other to take risks.

We built businesses together.

We built a life together.

We have fed thousands of people together.

And we're leading this city together.

So I am so grateful for you.

I thank you.

I love you.

Thank you.

And to everyone, all of my supporters and all of the elected officials.

We have county commissioner members here tonight.

Thank you for your support and being here on a night that you don't even have a meeting.

Chair Alam, Commissioner Jacobs, and your colleagues.

We're so grateful for you and your service.

And thanks for supporting us.

This Durham politics is unique.

And we embrace it all.

We show the true diversity of conflict and camaraderie.

We show the true diversity of politics from one spectrum, one end of the spectrum to the other.

But I will tell you what I, as mayor, will be relentless on.

We are going to work together to make this city a better place.

That does not mean that you have to become besties with someone.

It does not mean that you have to cowtell and be nice to everybody.

But in order for us to move forward, there must be mutual respect.

And you even have the choice not to be a part of that.

And I don't make promises that I can't keep.

But one thing I will promise is the city will move forward.

It will grow, it will build, it will develop.

And we're going to make each other better.

And if you're not on that train, just remember that's a choice that you made.

You can yell to the top of your voice.

You can scream, you can spew hate.

Don't regret when you're left behind.

Because Durham will move forward.

Agreements and disagreements alike, but there will be progress.

So I'm going to get to that.

And we have one more thing to do.

I have to select a mayor proton.

Mark Anthony Middleton is gone.

And I put some thought into this.

Councilmember Javiera Caballero.

I would like to ask you to be my mayor pro tem.

You currently serve as an at-large Durham City Council member.

You have won two terms, initially appointed in January 2018, and is now serving in her second full term as the first Latina council member.

Javiera has worked diligently to amplify the voices of all Durham residents she represents.

She has advocated for better language access policies and improved engagement with immigrant communities.

Javiera has also led important housing policy work through the City County DPS Housing Task Force.

Javiera came to the United States from Chile as a child.

She represents so many of the vulnerable communities right now.

Her family eventually settled in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She has been fortunate to have lived in several places across the United States from Boom, North Carolina, where she attended college in Chicago, Illinois.

Javiera and her husband Mark are the parents of three fantastic kids.

And I'll add.

But in order to move forward, you do have to have an open mind.

And I listened, and I started to learn.

I learned more what we agreed on and more what we disagreed on.

There were some things she would say, and I didn't like the way she said it.

But then there were some things that she would punch through adversity, and I will be thoroughly impressed.

And over time, I realized that.

You know, some people are just relentless.

They're going to achieve a goal.

And that's when I started to see the juggernaut in her.

And I appreciate that.

This is someone who we our relationship has evolved significantly.

When I came on council, it was rough.

And now I seek advice.

I seek her advice on her purview, her lens on housing policy.

I seek her advice on some of the toughest situations.

And I assign her some of the most rigorous assignments on council last year without being mayor pro tem.

If anyone has worked for this position.

So that being said.

Madam Clerk, how should we proceed?

Can you open the vote, please?

Certainly.

You have to vote, ma'am.

Thank you.

Please close the vote.

For the first time in Durham's history, we now have the first Hispanic Mayor Pro Tem.

Madam Clerk, will you please change the placard?

Colleagues, at this time, I will indefinitely recess the organizational meeting.

Mr.

Mayor, pardon me, Mr.

Mayor.

You need to administer the oath of office for Mayor Post.

Oh, that is right.

I retract that statement.

Councilmember, I'm sorry, Mayor Pro Tim, Caballero, please proceed to be sworn in the swear out with some class.

I couldn't move.

Speak into the microphone.

I state your name.

I, Alejandro Javiera Caballero, have read, understand, and subscribe.

Have read, understand and subscribe to the Code of Ethics, to the Code of Ethics of the City of Durham, of the City of Durham, and do hereby solemnly swear and do hereby solemnly swear that I will support and maintain that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws, the Constitution and Laws of the United States, of the United States, and the Constitution and Laws, Constitution and Laws of the State of North Carolina.

Discharge the duties of my office as the city of Durham Mayor Pro Tem.

As the city of Durham, Mayor Pro Tem.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations.

At this time I would now indefinitely recess the organizational meeting and resume to our regularly scheduled programming.

Certainly.

I'm here, I'm sorry.

Mayor Pro Tem Caballero.

Here.

Here.

Councilmember Burris.

Present.

Councilmember Cook.

Here.

Councilmember Kopak.

Here.

Councilmember Rist.

Here.

Thank you.

I skip one part.

Uh colleagues, I need to recess this for about five minutes.

Five five minute break.

And then colleagues, if you can meet me right in front of the diet.

Okay.

So I'm just going to go here.

I'll get to the big election next time.

Yes.

That's a lot more balanced.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I work out with the screen.

I know the lot of things not ours.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Yeah.

I know the difference between the speaker material.

Like I've got a remote still.

It would say unless we want to buy it as much.

But like they have a show.

So we're gonna do three different shots here.

And Kim, if you're doing it in the uh yeah, she's coming now.

And everyone who will land the chicken cheese.

I don't remember all this.

This is it.

We got one break smile saved up some music with one piece of cheese.

Testing, testing.

All right, here we go.

We are we've had the roll call.

Uh we've opened up we're gonna have brief announcements, colleagues.

If you have announcements, let's have brief announcements.

I do have a few and we'll get on with the agenda and uh get out here and get home.

All right.

Council Member Kopak.

Welcome to the first seat.

All right, thank you.

Well, I already had the floor, so I'll keep it brief.

Um, you know, it's been remarked.

The experience Durham has had with the invasion of ice and kidnapping of our neighbors.

And there's been talk of the community response to that, how we've come together.

This is a policy body, but it's also a body powerful for organizing with the access we have to connections and resources.

And I want to acknowledge the work that's happened this last week around food distribution.

Um, supporting and building on the important food security network that already exists.

Um groups like El Centro Hispano, Durham Public School Foundation, Durham for All, El Futuro, and then you have food pantry coming together to form uh Durham Public Schools Strong.

And I want to acknowledge Mayor Pro Tem Caballero's role in this response, helping use her connections and relationships along uh with uh the deep work of folks in community to pull that together and serve thousands of our neighbors in the last week who are fearful of leaving their homes.

Um so I want to thank you, Councilmember Caballero and everyone else in the community who responded in this way in the past week.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Baker.

Thank you all.

First, uh, just want to acknowledge and shout out um the people's table.

Go ahead.

Um, who are serving hot food on a cold night right outside of City Hall.

Um so thank you all for the for your service and for being for being out there and serving people.

Um I also want to call out uh by now everyone has has probably heard about um immigration enforcement coming once more to the triangle, coming to Raleigh for the next 30 days, and the terror that this brings to families uh in Durham and across the triangle.

Uh they are not welcome here.

Uh our our immigrant communities are welcome here.

Uh we do not want uh immigration enforcement in Durham.

I think that that uh it should be made loud and clear from all of us uh who believe that.

Um we don't we do not want ice here, we do not want uh border patrol here.

Uh in response to that, uh we do have amazing communities stepping up to support one another, um, to keep an eye out.

Uh whistle kits being put together and being distributed, um, folks who are step uh stepping up uh to support one another and um distribute aid, mutual aid groups.

So for everything that is happening, um, as usual, the bright light is the people of this city.

Um the community that come together uh to help one another.

That is the that is the bright light in in this terrible, terrible situation that that we're experiencing that our that our uh many neighbors are experiencing.

So I want to lift that up and and um and uh uh show appreciation and just show the awe uh that it inspires um the the community coming together and organizing.

Um that's something that we're gonna need not just for this moment but over the next three years is and and beyond is is um there is no uh light at the end of the tunnel but for community stepping up and organizing, getting organized, uh building unions, uh getting organized in neighborhoods, um, tenants, workers, and neighbors united.

So that is uh that is the hope that I see.

That is what inspires me every single day to be up here.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wrist.

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor.

Good evening, colleagues again.

Thanks again to um or congrats again to my colleagues who have served so well who will no longer be with us, and also to my new colleagues on the on the dice.

It's great to have you all um and look forward to working together with you on this new council.

Um yeah, and congrats to the new mayor pro tem, what an honor that is.

Um I did also want to say I want to echo some of the comments about the the response here in Durham.

I am so so proud of this community for responding the way it has to the tremendous concern about ice here and families who literally did not want to go out um to work or to the store or to school.

And so um I was so glad to be part of the Durham Community Care Collective.

I think Councilmember now Mayor Pro Tem Caballero and others helped to organize that.

What an amazing effort.

I was so proud to be at WG Pearson a couple times in the last week, working with so many community members, including my friends Eric and Elizabeth, with with whom we worked in the freezer, like loading frozen blocks of ground beef, incredibly uh freezing work, but but great work.

And I'm so proud of all the folks, friends I've known for forever, and new friends I met at WG Pearson, all working together.

By last count there were, I think they distributed 23,000 meals.

This is this this is just a Durham community care collective, right?

23,000 meals to over 1100 families in Durham who are so desperately in need and so fearful of the raids going on.

So proud of our community for stepping up.

Um, and yeah, we we'll keep doing what we gotta do to protect our neighbors.

So uh thank you all for who all the folks who've supported that with money, with time and other uh with food and so forth.

I also if I can maybe scoop the mayor in this one.

I want to recognize also someone special in the room tonight.

Um the former mayor of St.

Louis, who's also a really good friend and old colleague.

So Tishara, thanks for being with us here tonight.

So glad to see you here in the Bull City and uh look forward to you coming to join us many more times.

And I know your son's a big star, and I look forward to seeing a couple of games at Southern with you.

So thanks for being here.

Well, good evening for like the fourth time.

Um yes, I think I've made my statements, and I uh just want to respect everything that's been set up here with response with regard to um ICE and uh customs and border patrol and the community response.

I'm super proud of.

Um just gonna talk about a couple of things really quickly.

The first is that I want to recognize that it is world's world AIDS Day.

Um I the more I talk to folks in the community, the more I realize how many people are deeply ingrained in the work of um of supporting folks who are living with HIV AIDS and also of ending the epidemic.

We have a quite a high rate of folks living with HIV AIDS in Durham.

Um, and I want to give a shout out to the coalition to end HIV.

Is that right?

I can't remember.

That's a long time.

But anyway, a coalition of lots of awesome um activists and groups in Durham that are working tirelessly on that.

So I want to give them a little shout out.

And then the last thing is that um I had the opportunity to do the intro speech at Jordan High, who was selected from around the country as the school that got to do the premier partnership with Broadway and put on water for elephants.

It was so amazing.

So Water for Elephants is coming to DPAC, the Broadway version um already, but we in Durham had the opportunity to have kids at Jordan High who trained with Broadway staff.

Um it was a fully uh youth supported production, so they did all of the set and the costuming and the music and the directing and the lights.

Um, and it was, I mean it see it felt professional people were literally like doing uh they were hanging from like ropes in the sky and like doing acrobatics.

It was amazing.

Uh so shout out to Jordan High, so incredibly proud that Durham uh got to be that premier partnership and excited to see how other schools adapt it after um Jordan got to put their stamp on that.

So that was really exciting.

Those are my announcements.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you.

Uh good evening, everyone.

Um, thank you to my colleagues for your support.

I look forward to working um even more um in this new role.

I want to welcome um new colleagues and welcome to Councilmember Cook on the other side of from being an appointee to an elected.

There is a difference sometimes.

Um I have a a lot of announcements, but I just wanted to extend greetings um to new colleagues and uh look forward to working with you.

Uh my door is always open.

Uh I have a a lot of institutional memory in this brain at this point, um, and happy to answer whatever questions you may have, whatever quirky thing that may be a thing that nobody really understands why it's that way, but it just has been carried from one tradition from one council to the next.

Um and um I know we're gonna get a lot of incredible things done for our community.

Uh I want to also thank my colleagues for bringing up um the the continued um kind of difficulties and challenges we're faced with when we have both Border Patrol and ICE in our community, and we know that there's uh potentially month-long planned um enforcement over the next, you know, over the holiday season, which will be really, really challenging.

Um, and then finally, I do want to talk about the work of the Durham Community Care Collective.

This is a group that was pulled together very quickly.

Uh we had a brainstorming uh Zoom the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Saturday, we had our first distribution.

So you have to think in 96 hours.

We stood up an entire food operation and fed 600 families on it at our first one.

Uh we fundraised over 100,000.

We were extremely grateful.

We were extremely lucky, and I'm so grateful that student you, because of the Thanksgiving week, uh that they weren't doing programming in the WG Pearson uh building, and so they opened their doors uh and let us come in and use so many of their spaces, which would not, if we had not had that space, we would not have been able to distribute the amount of food we were able to distribute.

Day one relief, they would do um crisis like natural um disaster relief, and so have a lot of logistical experience uh who came in and and helped us get lots of folks through the doors, lots of partner organizations, uh groups from LEAP to El Futuro.

I want to shout out so many teachers, guidance counselors, principals who spent their holiday making sure that the kids in their buildings and the families in their buildings were getting fed.

I want to shout out Kelly in the city attorney's office, who I think I saw at least four times.

Um I want to shout out every single person who spent hundreds and hundreds of hours over the holidays uh over Thanksgiving, ensuring that we were able to feed I think we fed 600 families the first distribution, 600 families, the second distribution, and 800 families the third distribution.

Uh we moved thousands and thousands of pounds of food.

Um, and it was all volunteers from all across Durham who showed up and made sure that their neighbors were fed um and had other basic necessities like diapers.

Um that is what Durham is.

That is what Durham will always be.

Um I think it is in those moments where I see the deep strength and resilience of our community.

Um it is in those moments where I understand and and and see uh hope in action.

I see resiliency in action and I see the deep commitment to neighbors.

Uh I also want to shout out the heart team.

They delivered 80 meals to individuals across the city for folks.

And the way that we structured it is we don't know who the end users are.

The partner organizations may know that, but the folks distributing food don't know that, and targeted communities aren't in the building doing the volunteer work.

And that was the way we felt was the safest uh way to get needed needed resources out.

Um it will continue uh because we are still under deep threat, and now we have the the fear that is also then turned into major uh necessity because folks didn't go to work for days.

And so now we're gonna have the crisis of lots of people not being able to pay their rent or their light bill or their water bill because they weren't able to go to work for four days.

Um and that also has a um economic impact.

There were several restaurants who are closed in Durham because they didn't have workforce.

There were several construction sites that were closed because they didn't have a workforce.

So for those of us who think or those folks out are like, well, I'm not an immigrant, this doesn't really impact me, it really does actually impact you.

When you have thousands of DPS students not in school buildings, guess what?

Student funding is tied to numbers.

If those kids aren't in DPS, the funding gets cut.

That impacts your kid too.

That means that the teachers don't there's not as many allotted teachers, there's not as many as many allotted guidance counselors.

So it is everyone's fight because we all are part of the city.

We are all what makes this city go and work.

Every single one of us, whether you're an immigrant or not, every single one of us have a right to have a life of dignity.

And so this is not going to end, but I know that Durham will come out on the other side stronger because we always do.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um and shout out to the uh the previous council for approving the offer funds to make that community kitchen possible.

Um what a way to use it.

I uh have quite a few announcements that I'm gonna say really fast.

Um Stoma Thunder.

Thank you to my friend Sashar for uh hanging out in Nabull City to Shara Jones, uh, just a sister mayor who I look up to and was really leading uh leading the way and so many on so many fronts.

And we serve on the board of the African American, the National African American Mayors Association.

And uh when she texts me, it's like, hey, I'm in the Bull City, I was like, come to City Hall, we hang it out on Monday, and mayor speak, you know, it's kind of exciting.

It's like our hangout spot.

Uh so thanks for hanging out with us tonight.

And um, yeah, we'll we'll hang out more uh in a in a little bit.

Uh briefly, uh we we lost two giants in our community, uh Rodney Rogers, who was a hillside basketball player who uh went to uh Wake Forest, and then former NFL over here.

Uh and and uh then went off to the MBA and I mean was a powerhouse.

Uh it was, you know, uh unfortunately he had an accident that left him paralyzed, and uh, but his his spirit became even bigger.

And uh he was just such a giant in our community recently passed.

Uh as well as um we we had someone else to pass, and I'm drawn a blank.

Willis Witcher, another political giant in our in our estate from Durham, who has shaped much of the political spectrum in Durham.

I mean in North Carolina as well as Durham.

So just really grateful for their service, but the outsized impact that they had on our community.

Something technical, I'd like to bring our friends who are still here two hours and 30 minutes after they uh were supposed to leave our Board of Election folks.

I have a question for you.

I'm putting this on the record tonight.

We just recently spent about one million dollars on this evening, what you saw tonight.

Tonight, all of the festivities, all of the things you saw, that was one million dollars.

What I mean by that is this election that we just had was one million dollars.

The price goes up every year.

And I am formally asking for the Board of Elections to come back in to City Hall and provide us an analysis on the elections on the schedule.

If if you can just come up real quick, uh right now, Durham has an election every um every two years, on odd years.

So uh would it be possible that you guys could come back in and give an analysis on what we're spending in elections, um, when the election schedules are, just so we can begin that formal conversation for us to consider.

We would love to.

Thank you.

That was a two and a half hour wait to say we would love to.

Happy to do it.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

I I just wanted to make sure you all were here when I formally ask uh for us to uh for you to be able to, you know, um bring that back up for us to talk about uh because there are there are a couple of things uh colleagues I think we should address.

I wanted to wait until after the election.

Um the mayoral term is two years.

Uh I love it may not be may not be me in this seat, but I'd love for us to consider that being four years, and as well as uh moving our election to uh either years or at least looking at the pros and cons of it.

Um what you know, just an analysis of voter turnout, the amount of money we're spending and uh from our taxes from our tax base from our residents.

So uh if you guys would be amenable to that, uh I'd love that.

Thank you.

Have a good night.

All right.

Uh we're gonna get moving.

Uh again, welcome to our new colleagues.

Um, Mayor Pro Tim Caballero.

It's great to have you in this position.

Uh, thank you.

Um and I believe that's all of my announcements.

Oh, yeah.

Uh you've heard it, you've heard it mentioned uh tonight.

I won't read the statement, but I will be publishing a statement.

Uh I know there's a lot of you know uh anticipation of you know we are gonna have uh more ice rates or you know, we're gonna have border patrol back in our city.

I've heard that there will be.

I don't know.

I cannot confirm that information.

I want to say on the record, the mayor cannot arrest ICE.

I don't arrest anyone actually.

Uh and the city manager cannot direct the Durham Police Department to arrest ICE officers.

Um we didn't also did not invite them to our city.

They do not have to let us know when they were coming.

They do not have to give us any information.

As a matter of fact, they uh told me to get off get out of the building when I was in DC, trying to ask questions.

Uh I was frustrated when I went, you know, and talked to some Congress members uh about it.

They were worried about Epstein fouls.

Um when we have a cr we had a crisis on the ground.

Um Congresswoman Fushi, uh we sat down and met, and she she was really concerned, and I appreciated that.

Um but yeah, DC is a very strange place right now, and uh hopefully uh we'll just continue to remain resilient.

I will say that uh, you know, there is a lot of misinformation that can get out there.

That's only because I don't think it's I don't think it's ill-willed.

I think that we're all just, you know, we're really we're scared, to be honest.

Um and so according to the law for entry, uh private property must be respected.

There's no entry allowed unless they unless they have the proper paperwork.

Regarding that proper paperwork, it must be a judge signed warrant with the specific name of the person they're seeking.

And Miranda rights must be read if someone has been arrested or detained.

Now there are a lot of community groups.

Um I'm not even going to start naming because there's so many, but I uh I will say as mayor, I'm going to try and get them as much funding as possible to support them and continue the work that they're doing because they're leading and with the organizations that are leading, it allows us to keep the integrity of the city from being a target of this administration and still allow Durham to be as resilient and defiant as we need to be.

And I appreciate each and Larry last one of them.

I appreciate the mutual aid uh campaigns that have been happening.

Um Durham is defined by our values, not our fear.

And uh I will uh release this segment in full to the uh to uh media outlets, and as soon as we do hear something, we're constantly and tirelessly working to source information to be as concrete as possible so we don't cause an alarm, but we do and we must remain diligent uh as a community.

So uh thank you, Durham, for for being who we are.

With that being said, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

I became one year older on Friday after Thanksgiving, and I uh had a very adventurous nap.

I slept.

That was my gift.

And my family, thank you all for all you did for my birthday, and including that amazing food.

All right, guys.

Let's get to work here.

Let's get through this agenda.

One last thing, we're gonna start this in the next meeting, guys.

But I will say, colleagues, um, we're going to uh see some of our procedures start to be activated here to help us get the meeting going and moving forward, you'll receive that email and then at the opening of the next meeting.

I will talk through those so the public can be aware as well.

But you'll see that already we have a different seating chart on the diet.

We will have a different seating chart in the work session.

Our offices have changed.

Um we will have uh we will have a new way of uh addressing um our uh uh drawing up like questions and debate or whatever on cases zoning and annexation cases.

But I'll get into all of that in the next meeting.

Uh the time is late, so let's get through this.

I'll uh now provide space for the city manager to uh address any priority items.

Thank you and good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council.

Uh first, on behalf of the over 2600 employees uh in the city administration, I want to offer congratulations to Mayor Williams, to Councilmember Cook, and to Councilmembers Burris and Copac, all of you on your successful elections.

We look forward to serving with you.

I also uh extend the administration's congratulations to Mayor Pro Tem Caballero on uh your naming to this important post.

Uh, we're excited that to continue the great work of this council.

For priority items this evening, uh I would just note that agenda item number four was referred back to staff to be placed on a future uh agenda, and we'll be bringing that forward.

And agenda item number seven, that's the subrecipient agreement with the housing authority of the city of Durham for the Calvert Place and Main Street Town Homes rehabilitation.

Additional information that was requested from council during the November 20th work session has been attached under agenda item number seven.

Those are my priority items.

Thank you so much, Madam Asserney.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Madam Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the City Council.

I echo the manager's congratulations to those who have recently won re-election or new election.

I look forward to serving you.

I will be in touch with you, Councilmembers Burris and Copac about getting your arms around the legal aspects of running a city very soon.

Uh and I have no priority items other than that.

For the record, I did ask her.

I said just give them a little time because it can be a lot, breathing from a fire hose.

All right.

Uh Madam Clark.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, and welcome um Madam Mayor Pro Tem and new council members, and um really enjoy watching the the changeover of our democratic system.

It's been it's been great to see without any insurrection.

Um I did want to mention that uh the citizen advisory commission vote has been completed for the nominations and council has selected Michael Jones and Benita Green as the nominees for the um appointment.

And if we could have a motion for this uh vote this evening, um we can have them uh installed.

Thank you so much.

She that's her priority.

Yeah, she's asking for me to that what you're asking.

Okay, all right.

So wait, so we don't what about GPA?

Well typically I announce you just yeah, let's just do another voting committee right now during my um primary items.

But if you want to wait, we can wait.

No, we can do it.

I'll entertain a motion to accept the uh Michael A.

Jones and the leader green.

So moved.

Ms.

Martin.

I think second.

Oh okay.

All right, sorry.

Um Madam Clerk, please open the vote.

Thank you.

Please close the vote.

The motion passed unanimously.

Thank you so much.

All right, at this time I'll read the consent agenda.

Item number one, Durham City County Environmental Affairs Board appointment.

Number three, appoint approval of city council minutes.

Number four, designation of 500 West Main Street.

Number five, second amendment to contract number 20626 with open table ministry incorporated to provide temporary weather-related emergency shelter and supportive services.

Number six, Lake Wood Avenue Stream Stabilization and Enhancement.

Number seven, sub-recipient agreement with the Housing Authority of the City of Durham DHA for the Calvert Place in Main Street Town Homes Rehabilitation.

Number eight, contract with ESRI incorporated to adopt the new ARCGIS.

ARC GIS licensing model.

Got it.

Number nine, amendment one to the professional services contract with C DM Smith incorporated for the miscellaneous waterline replacement phase one project.

Number 10, amendment two to professional services contract number 17641 with Hazen and Sawyer PC for the Williams Water Treatment Plant Basin Improvements Project.

GBA number two citizens advisory committee appointments were just approved.

Mr.

Mayor, yes.

I just forgot we have a we have that as a pulled item from the public.

I don't know if she's still okay.

Oh I didn't see this but up here.

Okay, number two has been pulled.

Yeah.

All right.

It wasn't pulled, it was on GBA already.

It was that was the one you guys took.

But we just took action and there was a resident that pulled it.

Yeah.

Um so I'm gonna have to retract that vote because it was pulled.

You can't retract it.

But you can still hear her.

You can hear her comments.

You can't retract the vote.

You've already voted.

Okay.

Just one moment, stay right there.

Ain't no C.

Uh and number 12, which we have speakers.

Okay, that's the zoning map change.

All right, number 14 municipal elections results.

We already did that as well.

Um, but it has to be approved formally.

All right.

That is the consent agenda with item number two.

We'll hear we've already voted on it, but we need to hear her comments because you're signed up for it.

Okay, what was the vote?

I'm sorry, I was outside running my mouth.

Yeah, we we we voted to approve, but I did not see this up here.

So I didn't want to, I didn't want to miss your comment.

All right, who did y'all approve?

Uh Benita Green and Michael A.

Jones.

Okay.

So that was my comment was gonna be about making sure that Ms.

Green got approved, but since y'all did that.

Um can I use my time on this?

Well, no, it has to be to that board.

It ain't but hold on, because I'm not sure.

I I'm not to the comments yet.

So I'm not to the comments yet.

So let me ask for comments.

We don't have public comments.

To item number two.

That was it number two.

Yes.

Okay, got it.

And she's asking if she can use the oh no, no, no, gotcha.

We don't do public comments.

No, you it has to be germane to the actual agenda item.

And that was number two.

It was number two, but um, y'all already approved her, but y'all previously I wanted to know why y'all hadn't approved her, but y'all did approve her, which is fine.

And um, if y'all don't want me to say what I gotta say to Dijonna, that's fine.

But what I will say to this new city council that we have, I'm gonna say the same thing I said in 2017.

I would like for any and all of y'all to please take some time out of your day and come over across those railroad tracks and be actually in the community with us so you can see exactly what we do in the community.

And you know, I live in ward one, so Matt, thank you.

I would love to make sure that we work in the community together and do the things that need to be done for ward one because it is a lot of things that need to be continue to be done that Digi Ronda was doing.

And um, I mean, I know, but I I probably had two minutes.

And so we need more communities on the city.

I'm not acknowledging that right now.

Huh?

I'm not acknowledging those comments right now.

That's the same thing.

He's not acknowledging the comments, but he is the seat for ward one and the rest of y'all so y'all work for the people that voted for y'all.

And I'm just saying that I'm asking that y'all take time out of y'all day and y'all schedule to come to the case.

Yes, ma'am.

Be with the community.

I didn't say anything negative on it to any of y'all.

I assume that's the same.

I could have our one.

We are right now.

But um it is what it is.

But also I want to say thank you again, DJana.

I appreciate you.

And I know that you're gonna still be in the city rocking out with us.

And if y'all want to be half the woman in DJana is make it your business to come across those tracks.

Thank you.

I'll make a motion to adopt the consent agenda.

Second.

Properly second it to approve the consent agenda.

Please close the vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

All right.

Item number twelve.

Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Ten Caballero and Honorable Council members.

Good evening.

I'm Aaron Kane with the Durham Planning and Development Department.

I'm happy to be here with you tonight.

Before I begin, staff would like to state for the record that all planning department items, hearing items have been advertised and noticed in accordance with state and local law and affidavits of all notices are on file in the planning department.

A request for a zoning map change has been received from Neil Ghosh of Morningstraw Law Group for two parcels of land totaling 3.35 acres and located at 1911 and 1915 East Gear Street.

The current zoning is residential rural and residential suburban 20.

The applicant proposes to change this to Plan Development Residential 6.573 to allow up to 22 townhouse units.

The properties are currently designated apartment and townhouse neighborhood on the place time map.

The proposed plan development residential 6.7573 zoning is generally consistent with the designated place type.

Staff and the applicant are here to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Colleagues, are there any questions technically for staff?

Councilmember Cook.

Thank you.

Um just a couple of quick questions.

There was some conversation about cutting through to 85.

I know this is a textual development plan, uh, but this was brought up by neighbors during the planning commission.

Has this conversation happened?

Do you all have any information about that?

No, and I cannot imagine NCDOT would allow this development to have direct access to IP five.

Okay, that was my question.

Thank you.

Um my next question is when we hear concern about specific traffic issues in these projects.

Do we um have conversation with those neighbors about possible traffic calming options?

That's not usually a part of the zoning aspect that could be incorporated in any future site plan.

Um yeah, that's not you not typically um involved in any zoning.

Yeah.

If the if neighbors are concerned about traffic and want to uh we can direct them to members of our environmental and street services department that could talk to them about what traffic calming measures might be available.

Okay, yeah, because I know we just added uh traffic.

Well, I know we just sort of like did a little bit of a uh re-org, and I know that we added streets.

A street person to your team.

I just want to make sure that we're like not that we're being efficient when we have complaints come up.

And so if we already know that there's neighborhoods that are looking for traffic calming mechanisms that like we put point them in the right direction so that we don't have to have citizens duplicating their efforts.

Right, we'll be happy to do that.

Uh uh yeah, if you can direct anybody to me, I'll make sure they get to the right person to discuss it.

Cool.

Yeah, that was just some comments that came up during uh the planning commission as well.

And then um, and this might be a question for Mr.

Grish when he gets up here, but there was also some uh a question about road placement and wetlands impact.

Again, I know it's a textual development plan.

Um information that you would have about road placement and requirements on those uh I can't speak to that specifically right now.

This is really strong.

Um I can't speak to that right now.

Um there is a stream that is near Gear Street that will need to be crossed.

We're aware of that.

Stream uh roads are a an allowable use to cross a stream.

Um it is required that it be minimized as much as possible.

Um, but a road or driveway or anything like that would be allowed to cross that stream.

I can't speak to specific wetlands at this time.

That's maybe something that Mr.

Ghosh can.

Thank you.

Those are my questions.

All right, there are no other uh questions for staff at this time.

I'll declare it a public hearing open.

Mr.

Ghosh, how much time do you think you need?

Ten minutes.

All right, could you put 12 minutes on the clock, please?

And uh thank you, Mr.

Kane, for your presentation.

Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, and members of the city council, congratulations to our two new uh members and a heartfelt thank you to Council Members Freeman and Middleton for their years of service and support and dedication to the city.

Uh I'm Nil Ghosh, uh, an attorney with the Morningstar Law Group at 700 West Main Street in Durham, and I'm representing the owners of this property uh on this request for rezoning.

Um to begin, I want to tell you a little bit about my client here.

They are a small team that generally has done home rehabs.

Their company is four people in total, and this is their first venture into a new construction subdivision.

They've been working with the folks at PAPS Design to put together a well-thought out concept, and they've made some strong commitments based on you know the development projects they've reviewed in Durham.

Uh this is an infill project uh in that we are already within the city limits, and generally speaking, there is residential development surrounding us.

At over 6.5 dwelling units per acre, this project represents a more efficient use of land than what has previously been developed in this area.

And to keep things in perspective, let's not lose sight of the fact that this is on 3.35 acres.

So we're talking about a total of 22 townhomes.

Uh so it's a small project.

Even still, uh they've committed to handling the hundred year storm.

They've also committed to some green building techniques like EV charges and um energy star specs.

And they've committed to reducing their impervious to 65% and using native plant species.

They've also made some commitments here with respect to infrastructure.

They've committed to a 10-foot wide multi-use path across their frontage, and they've committed to providing a bus stop if Code Durham wants it across their frontage.

There is an active bus line that goes by this property.

I believe it's Route 3, which provides service between Durham Station and the Walmart on Glen School Road.

Uh currently there are stops about half a mile from this location in either direction on Gear Street.

Uh while this project is expected to generate one additional student, my client has committed to contributing $5,000 to DPS because of the size of the project, 22 units.

But anyway, um the recommendation was not without homework.

Primarily there were three uh items that came up.

First was the tree coverage, and at that time I explained that because of the size of this project, no tree coverage is required, but we already were planning to have tree coverage.

It's just that I did not know how much we were planning at when we were at planning commission.

So today we can commit to a minimum of 20% tree coverage, which obviously is well in excess of the amount required by the UDF.

Uh next, there was a question about the perimeter buffer.

Generally, the UDO does not require buffers between residential developments, though in this case, there actually would be some required in some locations in other areas along our perimeter.

No buffer would be required.

So we thought it would make sense to maintain a consistent perimeter buffer around the property.

Um so on this project where it's already required by the UDO, I believe is a point two opacity buffer, which typically is 10 feet wide.

So we're committing here to providing a 10-foot wide buffer on uh project boundary buffer along the perimeter of the property.

Um there was a question about the location of open space relative to environmental features on the property.

So here's what I can tell you about that, and I'm not really sure how to form this into a commitment.

In the southern section of the property, meaning the frontage along East Gear Street.

There are some wetlands.

There's also some riparian buffer, not a riparian feature, riparian buffer that uh goes onto our property.

We are not impacting the riparian buffer.

Um, but those wetlands are located essentially across our frontage, those wetlands will need to be impacted to some degree by infrastructure.

So the 10 foot wide multi-use path, um, the driveway to the site, the bus op if it's implemented, those would all impact potentially the wetlands.

So our concept is to uh surround the rest of the wetlands that aren't impacted with our open space and tree cover areas, and I'm not really sure how to codify that.

We don't have exact figures, but we're trying to minimize impacts of wetlands in part by surrounding them with our open space in Treesa.

Um at the end of the day, I think this is an aggressively conditioned rezoning request for such a small project to begin with.

Uh in my opinion, the developer here has actively demonstrated their commitment to doing quality development.

They have explored every piece of feedback they've received and have addressed each piece of feedback with a zoning commitment where it is reasonable to do so.

Um this is the type of small scale invel development that is going to contribute meaningfully to the overall housing stock and quality of life in our city, bringing the ultimate vision of the comprehensive plan to fruition.

Uh, when we can densify within the urban growth boundary, particularly in areas that are already within the city limits, we make better use of our existing infrastructure, further stemming the tide of suburban sprawl.

I want to thank you all for your time and consideration tonight.

Like the planning commission, we hope to have your support on this project.

Our team is available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, and um Jin Witchman Wickman is here.

Welcome.

Thank you, Council.

Welcome, you have three minutes.

Excuse me?

I said, welcome, you have three minutes.

Oh, let me set my timer.

Uh, you good right in front of you.

Uh no, look over.

There it is.

Yeah.

There it is.

Madam Clark, you can start over.

There you go.

Okay, thank you.

Um, my name is Jen Wickman.

My name is also um my new married name is gentrifier.

I like to go by that.

Congratulations.

Fourth.

Thank you.

The fourth time's the charm.

Um I would also just like to thank the council for enforcing decorum tonight, because I really feel like we live in a society where being polite and respectful is what greases the wheels.

And I just really want to say if you don't like what's happening, just do what we all do and get your rich friends to give you a lot of money.

Um, create a rumor about a black woman poking you.

And then, yes.

Yes.

I I have to have your comments, germaine to the topic.

Oh, yes, I'm getting there.

Yes.

So this is how you create change.

And what I want to say about change is I fully support this project.

I really hope it goes through.

And I'm just so glad whenever I see something called market rate, because I think those two words just really do a lot.

Um, two of my favorite words, along with gentrification, which is my favorite word because it's so close to my name, gentrifier.

So everyone who's ever studied Reaganomics or read abundance by Ezra Klein, my new favorite book, um, or talked about that city builder group that I really like them.

They were so sweet.

Um they were so sweet at Mordeco.

They know that the way to lift people out of poverty is with expensive condos.

Market rate does so so much.

And I mean, if people don't like gentrification, they should just get jobs that pay enough money for child care, health care, um, insurance, elder care, mental health care, dentists, groceries, medicines, car, car insurance, um, rent, plus, you know, how you have to pay the mortgage on your investment properties, and of course, cold plunge and sauna, and um Pilates classes.

So I really don't see what's so hard about any of that.

Um, like my mother, I'm wrapping up, I'm wrapping up.

I oh, I've got plenty of time.

I don't even need to wrap up.

Um so yeah, we can just keep flooding the market with extremely expensive uh sorry, market rate housing, and that will just lift people right out of poverty.

And like my mother used to say in conclusion.

Well, she said two things.

She always said to me, you cannot put too many reasons in the potato salad.

That was thing one.

And thing two is uh when people don't like gentrification in their neighborhood, you just have to say, thank you.

You just have to say, well, here comes the neighborhood.

Ms.

Wigman, thank you so much.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

All right, that would that was it.

All right, those all the comments that I have.

And I'm gonna declare the public hearing closed and back before the council.

Colleagues.

Of course.

Councilmember Cook, go right on ahead.

Okay, attorney gives just a couple of really quick questions.

Um yes.

A couple quick questions.

Okay, could you repeat what you're attempting to do around the open space?

And also maybe this is also a staff question.

Like, was there a proffer?

Is there something that we have worked out?

I know I could say that he didn't know.

There's no proffer.

What I was saying earlier, I don't really know how to turn it into a proffer.

There's some wetlands, so the comment from Planning Commission was related to whether it would be possible to locate open space around uh environmental features.

The answer to the question is yes.

Now, how you make that a commitment, I don't really know.

Um there are some wetlands on the site.

I think we could probably commit to not impacting the riparian buffer.

Which is a feature that the riparian the riparian feature is on an adjacent property, the riparian buffer is on our property.

We're not impacting it.

So I think we can make that a commitment to not impact the riparian buffer.

Um then, you know, generally speaking, our open space is going to be centered on the wetlands that we're not impacting.

There will be impacts of the wetland because of where the wetlands are located.

Right.

They're right at the front of the property.

Right.

So is it safe to say that outside of the like necessary wetlands just disturbance due to the infrastructure that y'all will not disturb the wetlands otherwise?

Is that a fair thing?

I think that is, yeah, I think that is safe to say, yeah.

I think we could make a commitment that the only impacts to wetlands would be for infrastructure.

I'm getting some like not psyched, but like rough nods from staff.

We yeah, we can work on the final language afterwards, but we can we can work, we can work with that and come up with a final thing.

Sure.

Yeah.

So I I I would say what the developer is intending to do here, I believe, is consistent with that policy in the comprehensive way.

How you formulate a uh uh zoning commitment to reflect that, I'm not exactly sure.

But I think we can make some commitments about impacts of the riparian buffer or not having impacts of riparian buffer and limiting impacts of wetlands, which the way we're doing that is by putting our tree save and open space around those wetlands.

Gotcha where possible.

Okay, great.

Um sorry, I've lost the map.

I'm trying to pull it back up.

Um there was some conversation that y'all thought maybe you did not have to have the ingress egress over the wetlands, that there might be a different entrance to the site.

So I said that.

Yes.

You did say that.

After after following up with uh Dan and his group, the reality is there's wetlands all the way across the front.

Yeah.

Okay.

You can't avoid them.

Okay, thank you.

Those are all my questions.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, thanks, Mr.

Ghosh.

Um, could you tell me in terms of the 22 units what the sort of price range is on these units?

I'm sorry, say that again.

But you want to know the price range.

Price range for the units.

So this uh this developer doesn't have a specific model or price range in mind.

That's because as I mentioned, what they have done typically this company has done uh rehabs.

So this is their first um endeavor into new construction town.

What what I don't know what they're gonna cost.

I would say that they are going to be, you know, what is competitive in in this market.

So those numbers are in the like the typical sale numbers, I think are in the staff report.

That's what I would expect that these would be around those same prices.

Um they instead what they did what they've done is try to figure out how how they can get uh townhomes on this property and then add all of these, you know, what I would call robust commitments to the zoning.

One of the things I didn't mention, they have made a commitment to I think it's uh I think it's three units being accessible units.

Three with first floor.

Yeah, right.

So you know that's something that you don't typically see, particularly in town home development.

That's something you know, that's what they're trying to do is without the use of stairs, right?

Yeah.

Provide a development that that is going to you know provide a little bit of something for everyone.

Um, but the price point is not something that that they have you know nailed down.

They've not built this before.

They've not built new construction before.

Yeah, well, I think you I mean I you know, I think if we were to do this, I think you could build five homes on this or three.

What's the what would if we didn't approve this, you could build five homes maybe on this parcel.

Oh, under the current zoning?

Yeah.

Um staff knows that.

Yeah, I think that would be safe to say you could build five on here, maybe six.

Because I think most of the property zone are 20.

Yeah, it's all right.

The assumption is five single family.

Yeah.

Under the current zoning.

Yeah, so I think you know, this is a good info project.

It's on a but it's on a transit line.

Um it's a small project.

Um I appreciate the proffers.

You know, based on the latest analysis I've seen, you know, in the next as of 2029, we're gonna need about 32,000 units of housing based on the population estimates from our um from the folks who run those numbers.

So this is I you know that's this is a small chunk of those numbers, but we need more rental.

We need more um for sale units, and so I think this is a great info project on transit.

Appreciate the proffers and I'll be supporting this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, go ahead.

One more question.

Um these are gonna be for sale.

That's the incentive for this development.

Um and you were talking about your client earlier, and it sounded like they were gonna potentially maintain some of the management here or or no.

I mean, they're I'm not sure what you they're for sale.

So I mean that the intent would be that they would sell them and they would not be involved in them.

Do we know if there's gonna be an HOA?

I believe there has to be an HOA with this development because they will have some shared infrastructure, which is like stormwater.

Um would y'all consider doing a um like all of the units capped at like 200% AMI.

Oh, I hadn't been asked that.

The client is not here, so I really don't know the answer to that question.

Okay.

Just think about it.

No, yeah, I appreciate the question.

Okay, thanks.

Hey, thank you.

Um just one question for you.

I I'm curious if you would be interested in if your uh your team would be interested in uh voluntarily uh moderately increasing the contribution to the dedicated housing fund.

Increasing it.

No.

Um, I think when we looked at it, we looked at what had been um uh uh you know uh approved in the past for monetary contributions to the dedicated housing fund.

And we did look at it on a per unit basis, which I recognize that's not actually how those numbers are figured, but on a per unit basis, this is a very aggressive um uh number that they have at 20,000.

And I'll just be honest with you, I can't ask them because they're not here, so I don't actually know if they would be interested in in increasing it.

But 20,000 was targeted because it's very aggressive based on other projects that have been approved with the monetary contribution, which are typically smaller projects to begin with.

Um, but this is you know almost a thousand dollars a unit.

I just want to thank the applicant and staff for addressing questions that I had posed in advance that were follow-on from the planning commission meeting requesting additional commitments uh around the project boundary buffer and the open space requirement, uh which were not required um uh under the comprehensive plan, and so I appreciate that offer and also under policy 81, the location of the open space.

And I hope you're able to work with staff to come up with something that's that's very specific in that vein in order to minimize the impact uh uh on the wetlands and have as much of the open space and the environmentally sensitive areas uh as possible.

I know that those were the uh the main outstanding requests from the planning commission, uh, and so I appreciate you fielding those uh and and having um um um answers uh and proposals to those tonight.

So thank you all so much.

Heard all the questions.

So I will now entertain a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of residential rule, residential suburban 20, falls Jordan watershed, overlay district B, Major Transportation Corridor I eighty five, and establishing the same as Plan Development Residential 6.573, Falls Jordan Watershed Overlay District B, Major Transportation Corridor I eighty-five.

So moved.

Second.

So we moved the property second.

Madam Clerk, please open the vote.

Please close the vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

And I'll also entertain a motion to adopt a consistency statement as required by North Carolina General Statutes, Section 160 D-605.

Move consistency.

Second.

It's been moved to probably second.

Madam Clark, please open the vote.

Please close to vote.

Mr.

Mayor, can we redo that, please?

Please open the vote.

Please close the vote.

Motion passes 7-0.

Congratulations, Council.

Our first unanimous vote on a case.

For tonight.

Look forward to seeing you all on Thursday for our work session at 1 p.m.

Thank you all for coming out and bearing with us.

Meeting adjourned at 1012.