Good evening, everyone.

Great to have everyone here in City Hall tonight.

If you will, um Madam Clerk, if you will, go ahead and call the role.

Mayor Williams.

I'm here.

Mayor Pro Tem Caballero.

Here.

Councilmember Baker.

Here.

Councilmember Burris.

Here.

Councilmember Cook.

Here.

Councilmember Kopak.

Here.

Councilmember Rist.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If you will, please join me on a moment of silence.

Thank you.

At this time, I'll pass it over to Councilmember Rist for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

If it is your practice, I invite you to rise with me and uh recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you so much.

I pledge allegiance to the plan of the United States of America.

And to republic on which it stands one nation under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll start off with our ceremonial items tonight, starting with our proclamation, National Girl Scouts Day.

Wow.

We'll be read by Councilmember Cook.

Do we have a representative from the Girl Scouts?

There we go.

Hello.

All right, good evening, everyone.

Read the proclamation, whereas March 12th, 2026 marks the 114th anniversary of Girl Scouts of the United States of America, the largest and most impactful leadership program for girls in the world.

The Girl Scout movement began on March 12th, 1912, when Juliet's Juliet Daisy Gordon Lowe, a native of Savannah, Georgia, organized a group of eighty 18 girls and provided them with the opportunity to develop physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually.

And whereas, for over a century, Girl Scouts of the United States of America has advanced its mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place.

Today, more than 50 million women, trailblazers, visionaries, and leaders, are Girl Scout alums who have made the world a better place.

And whereas, girls say that Girl Scouts supports their mental health and is an accepting, secure space where they feel free to be themselves and where leaders and other girls are sources of support during difficult times.

Girl Scouting is a powerful force for social connection and creates positive and uplifting national and global network among girls.

Girl Scouts play an indispensable role in engaging girls both in and after school and through out-of-school programming and experiencing that expand their world and allow them to tap into their inner community builder, innovator, change maker, and leader.

And whereas, at a time when civic education is missing from many schools, Girl Scouts engage girls of all grade levels in civics programming that deepens their understanding of community action, demo democracy, and government, prepares them for a lifetime of civic engagement, and motivates them to take action on issues that are important to them.

Girl Scouts offers girls 21st century programming and science, technology, engineering, and math, and outdoors, entrepreneurship, and beyond, helping girls develop invaluable life skills, and whereas, as a member organization of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts is a part of an international sisterhood of 10 million girls and young women in 152 countries and is committed to offering girls more opportunities to engage with communities worldwide, making meaningful global connections, and exploring global citizenship.

Girl Scouts North Carolina Coastal Pines serves 17,407 girl and adult members across Central and Eastern North Carolina.

Now, therefore, I, Leonardo Williams, mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim March 12th, 2026 as National Girl Scout Day in the City of Durham and encourage residents to join in celebrating the 114 years of civic engagement and providing girls a secure and clear inclusive all-girl space to hone their skills and develop leadership abilities.

Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina.

This is the second day of March 2026.

My name is Kylie and Pride Troop 3750, and I am proud to be a Girl Scout.

Today we celebrate Women's History Month, a time to honor the courage, leadership, and impact of women who have shaped our world today.

From scientists and teachers, entrepreneurs and community leaders.

Women have broken barriers, created change, and open doors for future generations.

Women like Rosa Parks, who stood for justice.

Dr.

May Jemison reached for the stars.

And Juliette Gordon Lowe, the founder of Girl Scouts, who believed girls can do anything because of their bravery and vision, most of the costs of empowered to lead, serve, and make a difference.

As because we promised to build courage, confidence, and character to make our world a better place.

Happy Women's History Month, and thank you.

Hi, my name is Jaina, and I am also from Troop 3750.

For so many girls, from so many Girl Scouts that the USA is more than an organization.

It's a place where members discover their strengths, build confidence, and learn how to lead with courage and kindness.

Here in Durham, that mission shows up in powerful ways through service, leadership, friendship, and opportunities that help girls grow into the best versions of themselves.

I want to say thank you to the troop leaders and volunteers who give their time to the families who support their girls and to the community that believes in investing in young people.

And to the Girl Scouts themselves, thank you for your energy, your leadership, and your commitment to making a difference.

Happy Girl Scout Day.

Thank you all so much.

I I always tell this embarrassing story, but I was a member of Girl Scouts because I was a mama's boy and she was a troop leader, and I didn't want to leave my mama when I was a kid.

So but then all my all my all my boys, all my friends, they were going the other ways.

I was like, I'm going with them.

Yeah, I started out with my mom, so um thank you all so much for the work you do.

All right.

And I get to do the fun part here.

I'm gonna read a few remarks first before I ask these heroes to step up.

So fun fact.

Did you all know that we had enough city-owned streets in Durham to stretch from Durham, North Carolina to Dallas, Texas?

It's a lot of roads that we own right here in the streets of uh right here in the city of Durham.

And that's not even in combination with uh uh state-owned roads and of course uh the federal interstates.

But tonight we have a special occasion and uh it's quite quite eye-opening.

So here we go.

It's about GoDurum.

Go Durham's fixed route bus operators drive 40-foot buses on the city streets of Durham for eight to ten and occasionally twelve hours per day.

Five days a week.

They do this in an uncontrolled environment while stopping at bus stops every block or two, picking up and dropping off bus riding customers who are traveling to and from places of importance.

The intensity of this kind of operation cannot be overstated.

Even minor laps lapses in concentration can have disastrous results.

That is why I don't take offense when I waiver they don't wave back.

They do not know yep, it's you.

Do not she they never take the hands off the steering wheel.

Um, 10 and 2.

Here I am talking and losing my place.

Uh small errors can easily result in costly damage to equipment, property, or other vehicles.

GoDurum's top priority is safety.

Part of GoDurum's comprehensive approach to delivering the safest transportation services possible is to recognize and reward safe working behaviors and achievements by our valued employees.

In 2022, GoDorm started a new program called the Million Mower Club.

And they get cool jackets.

Uh, to be in this club, a bus operator must have driven one million miles or more in service in a fixed route, 40-foot bus, and over the course of those miles, avoid incurring a single preventable accident.

On average, it takes 12 years of service to travel a million miles.

For obvious reasons, achieving achieving this milestone award is a very difficult and amazing accomplishment.

Those who have achieved it are very few and now a part of an elite club at Go Durham.

So over the last three operators, over the last three years, uh over the last year, three operators reached this elite status.

And I would like to call them now to join us in front of the dais.

Tremetta Springfield, 12 years.

And Gregory Fudge, 12 years.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Sean Egan.

I'm the director of transportation for the City of Durham.

Uh, and I am so proud to be joined here uh tonight by Tremita Springfield, Gregory Fudge, and Michelle Bowling, the newest members of our Go Durham Million Milers Club.

So at Go Durham, as the mayor said, our priority number one is safety.

But we also are focused on dedication to the Durham community.

And what you see with these bus operators is people who every day, day in and day out, are here and helping and providing critical transportation in our community, and that dedication has paid off.

And the third thing that I want to just emphasize is the the commitment to excellence.

They approach their job every single day with a goal of providing excellent service, excellent safety, and an excellent experience for our customers and our community.

So we're so proud uh of all of our uh latest inductees into the Million Miler Club, and we want to thank them for their focus on safety, their dedication to this community, and their commitment to excellence.

Thank you.

Can we get everybody open over here for just a moment?

Three, two, one.

Three, two, one.

That will prevent what's happening tonight, right?

Because it will move to overnight.

All right.

Thank you all so much.

At this time, I will uh proceed with council announcements.

Starting, I'll start tomorrow right.

Uh Councilmember Wisconsin.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Good evening, colleagues, city managers, the attorney, folks in the audience, and folks joining the line, good evening to you all.

I've got a couple of good news comments to start with.

So, first of all, for the million mile drivers there, they leaving the building.

I just want to say thanks to Tremetta, Michelle, and Gregory.

Um, as Mr.

Egan said, this isn't a this is a really important role that these folks play in Durham, providing important safety for riders, the dedication to their work, and also the excellence they bring to their work.

I think what's really critical to note is that these drivers, even though this is a job that it's a critical job, but not many people think about bus drivers in the same way that like maybe here on the council we might.

Like we've spent a lot of time meeting with the public, but these bus drivers, in fact, are probably the better the best ambassadors we have for our city.

They're sp they're meeting with residents day in, day out, thousands of or hundreds of them every day.

And so they play a critical role as ambassadors for the city.

I just want to thank them for the important work they do and really lift up the safety they're providing for bus riders.

It's great stuff.

Um the second thing is I want to uh give a shout out to DDI.

I think the mayor was at the groundbreaking for the market on market.

So DDI has opened up a new um facility right next to the parlor, which is a retail incubator for small businesses in Durham.

There's now three new businesses there.

Um one is called Be Well Co.

It's a local apothecary.

The second business is Echo, which sells eco-conscious jewelry, body care candles and apparel.

And also is it is a blank space, Mr.

Mayor?

Is that what they uh um that sells kind of interesting stickers and stationary and stuff.

So if you are interested, check out Market on Market there on Market Street, and also encourage you to check out all the downtown retailers in Durham.

Um I also want to say big thanks to the conference of minority public administrators for inviting me to the president's reception last week that coincided with their annual conference here in Durham.

This is a 50-year-old organization committed to empowering minority students, public servants, administrators, and government officials.

And I want to say a special shout out to my friend and uh uh and NC NCCU Professor Nicole Diggs, who is a current president of the conference for making it all happen for bringing that annual conference to Durham this year.

So big thanks to Nicole.

I also want to say congrats to the Triangle Labor Council of the AFL CO for last Saturday's committee event at Phoenix Square.

I want to shout out President uh Terrence DeBerry, who's the who leads the Triangle Labor Council, and all the staff and members of the Triangle Labor Council for being such a strong voice for organized labor in the triangle.

Um now for the other stuff.

So we actually we just talked about with a million miles, we talk about safety on our roads, right?

We talk a lot about vision zero here on the council, the vision of having zero deaths on our roads, whether for pedestrians, for bicyclers, or also for drivers.

Um and uh this weekend, sadly, um we had a tragic runway crash on the uh Sunday morning on the Durham Freeway that killed both drivers, including a state trooper who was killed in the line of duty.

Um his name is Master Trooper Stephen Perry.

He was only 30 years old.

He has a son, an infant son, um, and worked in Durham County throughout his career as a trooper, his six years in Durham.

Um so I want to there's a there's a GoFundMe campaign for him that's been set up for the family for those interested.

But our hearts and prayers go out to the family of Trooper Perry, and we honor his life and his legacy and his service.

Um and finally, you know, today it's kind of a colder dark day here in Durham.

Um and I think also that reflects probably the way a lot of us are feeling in our hearts.

Um it's hard to believe the the news we saw this weekend, um, the horrible news about the latest bombing in Iran, the latest war in the Middle East.

Um and this news now more recently of an expanded conflict there and potentially an sort of extended conflict in the Middle East.

Um our track record in wars in the Middle East is not good.

Um the goals of this war are unclear.

And once again, opinions on this war are divided among our elected leaders on both sides of the aisle.

Um we also have U.S.

troops in the harm's way, once again.

Several have died.

Hundreds, including school children in Iran have lost their lives.

And Israelis are scrambling into bomb shelters across their country.

It's hard to know where this is gonna end.

And I know our job here at the local level is is dealing with local government foreign policy is not our our our job.

But yet we know when we're spending money on munitions and warships, it just means less for schools, for healthcare, and for housing.

So I encourage residents here in Durham and elsewhere to reach out to your representatives at the federal level, express your feelings, let them know how you feel, um, and that we just don't want more endless wars in the Middle East.

So thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Um next, Councilmember Cook.

Thank you.

Um I will be very brief.

I just want to say thanks to everyone who's here watching and watching online.

I want to give a special shout out to my graced folks in the back.

I had the opportunity to meet with them this past week and do an interview and get asked some really hard questions, and I had to go home and do some extra research, so that was exciting.

And a shout out to all the community members who have also volunteered their time to work with these youth.

We have some folks from NCCU I see sitting there with your uh video on.

And um and other folks in the community who have uh volunteered and brought their expertise in, which is really awesome.

And um and just incredible young folks who are uh future leaders there um asking us the hard questions.

So and I really appreciate you all for coming out to this meeting tonight and for the work that y'all are all doing in the community, um, every single one of you that's a part of GRACE.

Um and I also want to say that we had on Friday a uh second of our budget retreats.

It was a tough day, I think, for most of us sitting up here.

It's a big responsibility.

Um being a person who makes decisions for a city of 300,000 people is a really um heavy thing to hold.

It's such a privilege, and also it's it's really difficult.

We have limited money and sort of unlimited ideals of what we would like to see and do in this city.

And um we're gonna have to make some tough choices this year.

So for folks who are interested, it's a long day, but might be worth going back to do a rewatch of some of the conversations we had, including um some pretty large funds that we're gonna be limited in this year, especially budget.

You heard from the council a um uh restatement of our priorities, and many of us, I think maybe all of us are really committed to continuing fare-free buses.

That was a top priority that we discussed.

Um, but some of these things come with really, really big costs.

And so just uh just to state that we're really working hard up here.

And if folks have ideas, feel free to bring them to us.

And I want to appreciate the manager and staff for setting up and working on the budget.

And um it's gonna be an interesting season.

So, colleagues, I know we're in it for the long the long haul here.

Um, but just want to appreciate everybody who for their work so far and um and for their work moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Colback.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, and good evening to everyone here this evening and joining us virtually.

Um also want to echo a sincere congratulations to our million miler operators.

Uh grateful for their service, uh, as I am to all of our operators and Go Durham staff uh for being the ambassadors and the incredible service providers that they are to get so many of us where we need to get uh across Durham.

Uh second, on the consent agenda, I just want to highlight the uh expansion of the low-income homeowner relief program, uh, which exists to help uh residents be able to afford their their property taxes.

And I just want to encourage folks who may need support to reach out to the county, social services.

You can look online for information.

Um we want to see as much update uptake as possible on this program and look forward to hearing more from staff about what we can do to promote awareness and access uh to this important program for our residents.

Uh next, uh I think it's of note that this year uh the holy months uh holy times of Lent and Ramadan overlap.

And I want to wish everyone who's engaging um in self-reflection and deepening spiritual practice and awareness throughout these holy months the very best.

I was really appreciative to be invited last uh week to a Ramadan Iftar to celebrate alongside Mayor Pro Tem Caballero and many leaders from across uh the region was uh very privileged to take part in that.

Um echoing Councilmember Cook, just want to thank our staff for the budget retreat on Friday, uh Director Riordan, uh the manager, and all the staff who are helping us to navigate uh this budget cycle, which as uh my colleague said uh is going to be a difficult one.

Uh I was glad to see priorities like fare-free buses, emergency home repair, eviction diversion support, immigrant defense, living wages, you programs like youth works, um, and others rank uh highly uh as priorities among council members at the front end of the process.

Um and we are gonna have some tough choices with big price tags coming up, but I know we're gonna do our best in good faith to listen and serve residents as we go through that process.

I want to encourage everyone to attend the first budget hearing on March 16th, um, which uh is an opportunity for you to come and express your priorities in the budget.

Um it's important to express your voice at that time versus waiting, I think, for the managers of maybe official presentation of the budget.

Um so we do want to hear from you.

Please uh mark your calendars for that evening.

Primary election day is tomorrow, so if you have not voted yet, please uh consider doing so and joining in that important democratic process and happy uh women's history month.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Councilmember Baker.

Good evening, everyone.

It's it's so good to see you all here.

Um just want to lift up the the silent heroes or the quiet heroes of of our city, which is um all of our city workers, um, the the folks that that keep things running every single day that wake up early and and stay late and work all night long, um, emergency service workers who are showing up to people's uh worst moments of their lives and and bad days.

Um really, really challenging moments that take a toll on physical health and mental health um and that requires support and solidarity across our city and um our hearts are heavy for for uh losing folks uh in our city um uh because of the challenging work that that people have.

And um and I I just want to I want to say thank you to to all of them uh and everyone who who puts their heart into making Durham a better place and for committing their their time, their valuable time to working for the city and and everyone else and um want to lift up, especially uh the the million milers who who aren't here at the moment, uh Michelle, Tameta and Gregory Um have been with the city for over 10 years.

Um what what a feat to be able to um drive that amount and and serve the people of Durham.

Um we got to um chat about many of their war stories uh before this before this uh meeting uh and and learn all sorts of things from them and just want to show deep appreciation for them, all of our bus drivers, all of our emergency services workers, uh everybody who who um who works so hard uh for for the city.

They are also um our million milers in local 1493, they are in a union uh and uh several of my colleagues have lifted up um some of our challenges that we are facing, both locally, nationally, and and beyond.

The the way that we charter a way out of this is through unions, is through collective action, is through organizing, is through uh is through uh empowering um folks in uh the working class and showing solidarity.

Uh so when when we go and and uh support workers who are trying to unionize in a factory or uh or a warehouse, um oftentimes our firefighters union is showing up.

Um our solid waste worker uh union and low-wage worker union is is showing up uh as well as uh DGSU and and other unions across our city are showing up because they see the power in uh workers coming together and demanding uh better conditions.

So I do think that is vital.

I think it creates better conditions, uh it creates negotiating power.

I think one reason why we're able to keep uh drivers here to be able to accomplish this amazing feat of a million miles is precisely because they are there in a union.

So um thank you and look forward to the meeting.

Thank you, Councilman De Burris.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us tonight.

Those who are in person, those who are joining us virtually.

Glad to see you here on the second of Monday in half sorry, step in March, and happy women's history month.

Um, I want to uplift all the women in our community who have been who may not actually get recognition but have also been dedicated to doing the work of organizing, maintaining family women are also known to be maintain mainly caregivers.

So want to celebrate all women who have paved the way for me to be sitting in this position tonight.

Um I had the opportunity last week to do a couple of exciting things.

I will say the my favorite event last week was I participated in the Black History Story Hour at First Presbyterian Day School, and it was a joy to read to um little kids.

It was really interesting to be in that space and watch how some little kids are better behaving than adults.

And it was just really exciting to see the joy on their faces as we um read some really entertaining books, but also little kids will tell all their parents business.

So I learned a lot about their parents' boo-boos and who broke their leg.

That was really fun and entertaining.

Um I had an opportunity last week to participate in two um panel discussions as my councilman um colleague has already stated.

Um Conference of Minority Public Administrators was held here in North North Carolina and Durham, North Carolina at NCCU, my Alamada.

And so I got to participate in a really engaging um panelist about policy power and purpose and um building leadership pipelines from HBCUs of public office.

We're representative Zach Hawkins, um Representative Jordan Lopez, and former um Durham City Councilman D.

Johnna Freeman, and also got to participate in the second point um panel about down payment assistance.

So we facilitate by the CEO and former Durham County Commissioner, Namashina Burns.

She is a master of facilitate and being the panelists at the same time.

So kudos to her.

Also um to primary election day is tomorrow.

So just reminding everyone if you have not cast your ballot to please go out and vote.

As we are in uncertain times, make us think about some of the actions of 2024.

I won't get political here, but I just want to remind everyone in watching some of the language and banter around his election cycle.

It costs absolutely nothing to be kind.

I look at people every day and think about how some folks are what the young folks would say are crashing out behind certain candidates, but you're gonna come back and want to work with people towards November.

And so we must not be so divisive in community.

If you don't like a candidate or whoever individual, um, I think that is it's just a character flaw for to come out and rep misrepresent that, or also just thinking about the dog whistles that have been very loud this election cycle, and just know that there are those of us who will not forget that.

Um also to associate with my colleagues have said, just thinking about what's happening in the Middle East right now.

Um as someone who was raised on the military base in Goldsboro, North Carolina and come from a military family.

I was a child whose parent was deployed, and so just thinking about what that does to a family dynamic, or just not also knowing if your parent may not come back from war, but also land on um a quote from the late Tupac Shakur.

We have money for war, but we can't feed the poor.

So we see where our nation's priorities are right now in terms of how we treat our own people and what we have going on at home and someone's willingness to go and conquer a land we don't belong in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh good to be here with you.

I appreciate all of my uh comments by my colleagues.

Um I just I'll be brief.

Um we have a hard budget season ahead of us, I'll quite frankly say it'll probably be the hardest one I've been a part of, and it's my ninth one.

So that just tells you where our uh the the hard choices we're gonna be facing.

And uh I appreciate Councilmember Burrs's uh lyric quoting.

Uh I was uh thinking, I I listened to uh Masters of Masters of War, Eddie Vetter's version, uh, for for all you Gen X pro Jam fans out there.

Um and what made me think about it was that my daughter, she goes to App State, it's where I went.

And um for me, App State is where I became an activist, and where it started was uh School of the Americas going down to Fort Benning, Georgia, and protesting uh US American imperialism and militarism expansion.

And she was posting around the Iran war, uh 20 23 years later.

So quite frankly, it was a a pretty depressing moment to have your child at the your alma mater in the same town that you were in protesting decades later for another completely useless war that's gonna kill.

I don't even want to know how many Iranians, and I don't know how many US American service members.

Uh and I'm proud of her.

I'm glad that she's standing up.

Um she's been doing a lot of political work up there.

Um it she was raised right.

But it does not help those of us, and I think about the generation before who were standing up and fighting against the Vietnam War.

So it seems like that's actually our tradition in this country.

Our tradition is to start wars, create violence, and then not be able to have the money here at home, and the federal government leaving in our laps and county commissioners' labs and school board member laps.

Terrible decisions.

And we're the ones who face you regularly.

You're gonna run into us in community events, you're gonna run into us at the grocery store.

We, you know, local government is the power closest to the people.

And uh so it's not lost on me.

On Friday, we had a really hard day trying to figure out how are we gonna make this work, and then seeing quite frankly, the bullshit that happened over the weekend from elitists who will never suffer, who will never struggle, who will never have to send their kids to war or worry about how they're gonna pay their rent or how they're gonna help their kid pay for college.

That's not the decisions that they make.

They don't have to.

So I hope tomorrow when folks vote.

Please go vote.

Please vote for folks who are actually on your side and are not going to continue this endless cycle of violence and war.

We all deserve better.

Humanity deserves better.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues, for your very uh moving and powerful comments tonight.

Um it is women's uh history month.

Really excited about that.

And uh look forward to our young leaders, including Ava, if she's still here, uh, continuing to pave the way for us.

Um you're all a spot on about yet another senseless war that's started by someone who actually used a poor excuse to dodge a war and allowing your ego to uh, you know, uh I I cannot fathom wording, you know, if I was in leadership to say we're gonna lose some Americans, that's just part of it.

I don't even know.

That's that's soulless.

So uh here we are.

Um America, but it's up to us to uh make it the country we want it to be.

So uh in and tomorrow is another opportunity uh doing that, doing just that.

So please go vote uh and do your part.

Um I too want to thank our young people for showing up tonight.

Uh Gray Stink.

Uh thank you, Grace, for showing up.

Um thank you for always showing up.

You all show up in the community no matter what.

And many of you all are living in the daily struggle in which we are trying to fight on a daily basis.

Thank you for not being afraid.

Thank you for sounding the alarm.

That gun violence, especially amongst young people must stop in this community.

And I look forward to you all to continue to show up.

And thank you for everyone who's supporting these young people and the work that they're doing.

I look forward to being on your podcast and answering the hard questions.

Uh I was with uh GLO, which is a girls' group.

Uh uh young girls uh that go to middle school here in Durham, who are mentored by young women at NCCU as well.

And I was on their podcast this weekend.

And uh also went to the community health fair at the Holden Career Center.

Had a closed door community meeting with the Cornwallis community, and I'll be doing a few of those throughout the city.

Um that was quite eye-opening.

And it's their stories to tell.

And I will not speak for them.

I'll speak with them and support their voices at the appropriate times.

Um let's let's go ahead and get to work tonight.

And um let's let's shouldn't be a long night.

I'm not jinxing us.

I think that we're gonna be out of here fairly soon.

Uh we can get through this agenda.

And uh, yeah, let's get to work.

And please, if you like me, take your clarity because I think spring is like two weeks away, and I think it's here already.

This this pollen.

Uh but anyway, Mr.

Manager, I'll pass it over to you.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pratem, members of council.

The city manager's office has a priority item, and that is to just update you that for agenda items number 12 and 15.

Uh additional information that was requested during the February 19th work session has been added to the packet.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Attorney.

Good evening, Mayor Williams, Mayor Protim Caballeto, and members of the council.

It's good to see you.

The City Attorney's Office has no priority items tonight.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Madam Mayor Pro Tem and City Council members.

The City Clerk's office has no priority items tonight.

Thank you.

It's time, I'll go ahead and read the consent agenda.

All right, item number one, Mayor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities appointment.

Number two, Durham Historic Preservation Committee appointment.

Number three, fiscal year 2025-2026, second quarter financial report.

Number four, Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation, Grant Budget Ordinance.

Number five, Mayor's Council for Women 2025 Annual Report.

Number six, contract BR 11, National Bridge Inventory Structural Repairs 2026.

Number seven utility revenue refunding bonds series 2026.

Number eight, 2025 Equal Business Opportunity Program, and your report, participation participation goal review and ordinance extension.

Number nine, in a local agreement with Durham City, Durham County for joint funding of the low-income homeowners relief program.

Number 10, limited obligation bonds, series 2026 A and B.

Number number 11, 2025 Recreation Advisory Commission Annual Report.

Number 12, which has been pulled.

2025 fourth quarter crime report.

So resource person.

Okay.

Number 14, Advanced Meter Infrastructure AMI meter transition project, phase one through seven.

Contract.

This makes Councilmember Burris very happy.

All right.

I will start with our poll.

Oh, I'm sorry.

At this time, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda.

It's been moved.

Yes, with a with absence of the polled items.

So moved.

It's been moved and properly seconded.

Madam Clerk, please open the vote.

Please close the vote.

Motion passes 7-0.

Thank you.

I'll start with our online speakers for item number 12.

Speaker Donald Hughes.

Can you hear me?

I didn't get a link today.

Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Hughes is not in the clear U.S.

Okay.

Sounds good.

I'll come back and need it.

All right.

At this at this time now go to our in-person speakers.

First up, uh Tiffany Swoop.

Followed by Rafik Zaidi and Amanda Wallace.

Good evening, Mr.

Welcome.

You have three minutes, but press that button right there on the right.

I can't see if it's uh oh, there she is.

Can you hear me?

Oh, there you go, you're on.

Welcome, you have three minutes.

I apologize, I left my glasses.

Good evening, uh mayor, uh city manager and council members.

Um I'm not here to overly criticize you all, but I am here to uh be transparent to share some of my fears and offer recommendations from my um professional experience and also from my grassroots work in Cornwallis community.

I want to first start off by saying thank you all for showing up two weeks ago after the uh peak and crime that occurred in the community.

Thank you for allowing the residents to be seen and to be heard.

Um, thank you for uh seeing them as individuals and not as statistics, um, which sometimes occurs uh from a corporate perspective.

Um my fear is um one, I don't want to lose another child.

I know these children.

I love these children.

I hug on these children, they're real people to me.

I see their potential, I see their hopes, I see their, I hear their dreams.

Uh I would like to see their dreams come into fruition.

And I also uh see a great opportunity uh for the city and the county to come together and make the uh most um the best decision for the community, and I commend you all for the work that you're doing.

Um I would like to one uh recommend uh from my professional experience.

Um I'm a gentrification specialist, and what I've seen, I've done community development in many cities.

I would like to recommend that Durham engages with the city of Birmingham, Alabama, uh Baltimore, Maryland, Chicago, who have all taken innovative measures and uh reduce the crime and the deaths in their city.

Um it's possible, and this is a great opportunity.

Um, I would also like to compel you all to come out to the community more and connect with the people aware the crime is really taking place, get to hear uh their recommendations, get to see what their real needs are, and that's where we'll find the real solutions.

Um also number three.

Um, just come out connect so that you can see the kids as um real individuals, not as their actions, because their actions probably stem from trauma.

Um, and their psychological patterns are going to be shaped by the experiences that they're living through.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome to you in three minutes.

My name is Rafi Zaid.

I reside at 807 South Duke Street, Nation of Islam Protocol.

Um I would be remiss.

I have many things to say in these three minutes, but I would be remiss not to mention Brother Andre Mohammed, Sister Carla Mohammed, who was murdered on the 22nd of February during Ramadan, as we go to our national event, Sabers Day, Detroit.

Brother Andre and Sister Carla was instrumental in mentoring me when I came to Durham in 2002 about street violence, gang violence.

One of our main initiatives that we were working on prior to their death was the murder of Manura Spirals, the two-year-old who was murdered by a grab by shooting, Carl Wallace Road.

One thing about these crime reports is that they never mention the cases that are being investigated.

This baby was murdered in a gribe-by shooting on June the 20th, 2023.

City manager, police chief, law enforcement, cold case falls.

One thing we are tired of, we're tired of our babies being murdered.

And it's almost like the whole community goes into a state of amnesia.

If it was a white baby, I guarantee you, we would have heard something from Bo Ferguson, city manager, or Patrice Andrews by now.

So I'm not here doing Ramadan to get emotional, but I am very compassionate about my black babies.

Um warning you, you got to do better than this.

In Baltimore, we are calling on people from Baltimore to come here and to help us.

But one thing you miss learning from their incidents and their crime reduction in Baltimore, it has increased.

Baltimore's crime has surged.

So why would you be enlisting elements from Baltimore when apparently it's just like Bull City United?

The crime goes up when we enlist the wrong people at the wrong time.

So I'm asking you to study what you're doing and give us a better outcome than this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome, you have three minutes.

Hello, my name is Amanda Wallace, and I'm here today as a resident of Durham.

And I have to take a breath because even when I come into this space, it just feels so delusional to have to sit up here and listen to everybody speak.

And that's how I felt when I was listening to the crime report in the presentation from the chief.

I had to actually turn down the volume, especially when the council members were asking questions because again, it made me feel delusional.

And I picked something to try to do some education today.

And I picked it from the NAACP because even like white progressives and petty bourgeoisies believe in the NAACP, so I wanted to get something that was might resonate.

And it says the origins of the modern-day family police, I mean the modern day policing can be traced back to the slave patrol.

The earliest formal slave patrol was created in the Carolinas in the early 1700s with one mission to establish a system of terror and squash slave uprisings with the capacity to pursue, apprehend, and return runaway slaves to their owners.

Tactics included the use of excessive force to control and produce desired slave behavior.

And the oath that they had to take was I, the patroller's name, do swear that I will, as a searcher for guns, swords, and other weapons among the slaves in my district faithfully and as privately as I can discharge the trust reposed in me as the law directs.

And you know, they said their oath to God.

And so again, when I hear the council members praising the police, when I hear the council members praising that we have more police positions, it makes me feel delusional to live here.

When we know what people need, we don't need more policing and more surveillance.

People need housing, people need child care.

People need their needs met.

But y'all know that.

How many more task forces?

How many more round tables do we have to have in order for some implementation to happen?

And I went and dusted off my safety and wellness task force book that was, you know, being passed out in the community as and all of the recommendations in here.

And one of the things that I really noticed was with the recommendations, everything said, not yet implemented.

So if the recommendations that you guys have spent millions of dollars for to convene these people that spent time putting this together, why why are we going to Maryland?

Why are we going somewhere else?

Well, it is because the city has no goal of solving this problem.

It is not going to be them.

It is going to be the people that solve gun violence and all of the other systemic issues in this community.

Next up, I have.

Next up, I have Anaya Henderson.

And I've heard Cheruku.

And Kevin McGyver.

Welcome.

You have three minutes.

And if you can just pronounce your name, make sure I got it right for the record.

Good evening, Mayor Williams.

Members of City Council and our Durham community at large.

I am Ia Henderson, a sophomore social work student with a minor in political science at North Carolina Central University, and I am originally from Richmond, Virginia.

But today, I'm not just coming to speak as a student.

I'm speaking as a student who is tired.

Tired of scrolling and seeing another shooting in Durham.

Tired of hearing the my grade school students that I do service with say that they have to go to sleep to gunfire like it is a lullaby.

Tired of watching mothers bury their children.

Gun violence in Durham is not new, and that's the problem.

It has become something that we expect instead of something that shocks us.

It should always shock us.

It should always disturb us because every single number is a name.

Every single, every single statistic is someone's child, someone's sibling, someone's friend, someone's cousin.

As a social work student, I am trained to see humanity behind the headlines.

Violence is not random.

It grows in places where opportunities feel limited.

Where trauma wait, hold on, sorry.

It grows in places where opportunities feel limited, where trauma goes untreated, where young people feel unseen, unheard, and unsupported.

We talk about prevention, but we cannot talk about the about policing after the fact.

We have to talk about investing before the crisis even begins, which is what we are asking this council to do today and going forward.

We have to talk about safe spaces for youth, mentorship opportunities for our youth, mental health asset access, community programs that give young people a purpose and protection.

Because when young people feel valued, they move differently.

When communities feel supported, they respond differently.

Durham is resilient, Durham is brilliant, and our people deserve more than just surviving.

They deserve to feel safe.

And I am asking this council to treat gun violence not just as a crime issue, but as a but as a public health emergency.

Invest in prevention, invest in healing, invest in our youth before they become the next headline.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Welcome.

Anaya, can you please email your comments?

Thank you.

Welcome.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Ab Harry, and I'm a fourth-year undergraduate Duke student.

For the past couple of years, I've been blessed with the opportunity to serve as a tutor and mentor with the greatest organization at the Weaver Street Recreation Center, supporting teens and families from Cornwallis.

I've been helping these kids with their school work and have been opening conversations about college, their futures as adults in their respective communities, and mental health.

I could say with certainty that the recent gun violence has shaken our community.

I'm watching young, dedicated individuals become distracted, anxious, and afraid because of what's going on outside.

Frankly, this is unacceptable.

Some are scared to walk home, some are struggling to sleep, and still they're trying to learn to grow, to believe that their future is bigger than what they're seeing around them.

I believe that it is a city's responsibility to support them in this endeavor.

Tonight's fourth quarter crime report is more than numbers to us.

It's names, families, and kids I sit with each week.

We're asking the city to respond with safety and hope together.

For immediate safety, we need working cameras and a visible, consistent presence around Cornwallis and youth spaces.

We need to invest in after school programming, mentors, tutors, and paid youth opportunities to keep teens engaged in positive pathways.

We need more trauma informed mental health supports like Grace that are accessible in the community, not just on paper.

Our families deserve to feel safe.

Our teens are the backbone of our future, and they deserve the chance to thrive.

We're ready to partner.

Please stand with us and act with urgency.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Abhey, could you please also email your comments to Ms.

Wallace?

Can you please email your comments?

Thank you.

Mr.

McGaver, welcome you have three minutes.

Good afternoon.

My name is Kevin McGyver, and I am the chairman for the Durham County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council.

And we have been in partnership with Grace for the last three years.

And I have been in the great in the Cornwallis community on multiple occasions.

The young people, if you've seen me in your community more than once, raise your hand.

More than twice.

More than three times.

I'm there a lot, even as a member of a board in this county.

I show up day, night, or any time.

I represent this community as much as I possibly can while working a full-time job while being on the capital improvement plan for the last four weeks as a budget delegate, looking through those and scoring at least 30 of those different projects that this city has.

I also work at a psychiatric hospital with children, day and day night.

I brought my family here with me tonight because we live in this community.

I take the time to go out in this community and to see what goes on with our children.

That's what I'm asking you guys to do is to go out in the community, come out to Cornwallis, come out to see them, do their Thanksgiving, come out to see them during the summertime when they have projects going on.

I'm asking you.

These kids are not getting the treatment in their own communities.

Some of them don't have the insurance or the care or the way to get to the appointments.

But we have grace, we have social work kids.

We have kids coming from central from the psychology department.

We're doing all we can for these communities.

These kids are dealing with trauma every single day.

We sat up here and we talk about Iran and what devs people are going to, but we have a war going on in our own community.

So when is it going to be enough?

Is enough and y'all start to show up and show out.

I do appreciate the mayor because he always answers back.

I did send an email out to every one of you on the panel.

And I got one back, and that came from the mayor.

And if it was sent back, it wasn't just because it was a Melody Domain.

If I didn't get your address, but every single one of you got it, and I got one response, and that was from the mayor.

He always answers my text messages, and he reaches back.

And that's what I'm asking for for the rest of the community.

So thank you all.

And please start to show up.

Thank you.

Uh I provide just a brief uh closing remark.

Just uh I try to uh and thank you everyone for your comments.

I tried to uh promote and amplify uh this this overall plan.

Um we are working with the city, the county, the schools, everyone, finally getting everyone on the same page.

My personal bias is it takes too long, but we do have to follow a plan to get something in place.

Uh there were some remarks made tonight uh about the community and safety community and safety wellness, safety and wellness task force.

Very valid.

Uh there are there were comments made, hey, look at Birmingham, look at Baltimore, look at you know Chicago, very valid.

Um there were some comments of we don't need to go anywhere else, look right here in the streets of Durham.

Very valid.

And the reason why they're all valid is because the plan, the organization that we're working with, does not bring a plan to us.

They help us work with our boots on the ground, our local assets.

And that's why I'm asking you to email your comments because all of your suggestions.

And young people, I want yours too.

Um said we don't need another task force.

I disagree.

I want our youth to have a task force to where they can speak directly, directly to at least me and and with this council to provide your suggestions.

So what this organization, uh, the Violet Crum Reduction Center does is they go it come into your city and they work with your organizations and they create a framework.

The framework is there, but they create a plan with our local assets.

It's just asset mapping.

It takes everybody who has an idea, everybody who's doing something already.

Um, and and it basically puts all of that together.

It takes every because we've had uh recommendations before.

We had the gang reduction recommendation, we had the community safety wellness task force recommendations.

We have all of this data, and it's just all out there, and we have to stop creating recommendations and then putting it on the shelf.

So this this valid reduction initiative is bringing everything we've ever done and everyone that is doing something right now and bringing it all together and putting a dollar figure with this so we can stop cheaping out lives.

It's time for us to truly invest into making sure that we're saving our young people's lives, that we're getting to the root cause of it.

Because what we're saying, and I and I this is the former teacher in me.

I don't I do not want to invest in crime.

I want to invest in positive reinforcement.

That's that's what we have to do.

And so I appreciate everyone's comments, and I appreciate comments for people who agree with me and people who don't disagree with me.

You know, but when crime is high, we gotta stick to the plan.

When crime is low, we gotta stick to the plan.

There is there is some capacity that I'm working on to where we can do some activity like right now, and then we have the overall plan that's gonna take some time.

And I wanted to highlight once again.

Uh March March 13th at 1130 a.m.

Um this is uh the at first I was like, why are we doing this in the middle of the day when people are at work?

But then there are folks that work during the nighttime.

And this is the first of many community meetings.

So uh the next one is March 13th uh at uh 1130 and 1130, and then we will have uh, if you will, just just go on the city's website.

I think March 20th as well, like the next Friday.

Yeah, March 20th, March 21st.

Uh, but these are going to be throughout the day.

There's going to be in the mornings, they're going to be in the evenings, afternoons, so that we can get to people who are working around the clock to make sure everyone has an opportunity.

And these are community listening sessions.

Please bring your ideas.

And then we're going to ask you to come back and we're going to ask you to be a part of building out the solution.

And then we're going to have everybody contribute to actually being a part of executing this.

When you mentioned Birmingham and Chicago and Baltimore, all of them used the same framework.

All of them used the same.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, it was one at the top of the first behind.

Yeah, it was uh okay.

I'll I'll get to it.

Yeah.

Uh so yeah, I just wanted to highlight that there is some work being done around this.

I hear the comments.

I hear folks saying we don't need to go outside of Durham.

We're we're not going outside of Durham.

We're working with an actual framework that has been proven across the country to work with us here locally.

So I can I ask everyone, I beg everybody to please get involved, get engaged with this, and and do know that you know this is gonna be built with us by us.

All right.

Um there is, I don't know how the the form came in tonight.

There was uh one speaker whose name was atop of the grid, which I missed.

So uh do we have uh Adon Bay in the room?

My bad.

I did not mean to miss you.

Yeah, come on up.

And I was wondering actually when I saw you, I was like, why didn't he speak tonight?

But welcome.

Welcome.

All right.

Revolutionary love to the mayor, council members, and to our beloved community.

This is Mike on, y'all hear me?

Cool.

Uh my name is Kanaya Don from Udez Bay.

I'm a resident of Durham.

I live in Central Park District.

Recently there was an issue with the sidewalk in my neighborhood.

It was repaired in less than a week.

I appreciate that responsiveness, but I know that is not the experience of every resident in the city.

This is uh uh open, so there's an open sewage drainage issue in Oxford Manor currently.

Um there's another open sewage uh draining right in front of the bus stop on Fateville Street, um, next to Food Lion.

Uh so these are not small cosmetic issues, these are environmental safety hazards.

And I bring all this up because on October 17th, uh we had the joint city county meeting uh to kind of introduce the violence reduction plan.

I said at that time, and I say it again tonight that Durham needs a true community violence intervention plan.

Uh, not just enforcement, not just reaction, but direct intervention.

Community violence intervention includes a sector called ecological design.

Ecological design means transforming the built environment to promote safety, health, and social connection, reducing violence before it happens, and interrupting it when it starts.

That includes green infrastructure like bio whales and tree canopies, uh improved lighting and drainage, of course, um, and uh designing public spaces that increase visibility and social cohesion.

When neighborhoods are neglected, when infrastructure is uneven, when some areas are fixed in a week and others wait indefinitely, that sends a message about whose safety is prioritized.

This is a deep correlation between gentrification and violence.

We cannot police our way out of structural neglect.

While the hope that we can work towards establishing an office of violence prevention one day, uh, and hopefully that works alongside the office community safety, which I strongly support.

Um, we need a community violence intervention strategy now.

The office community safety is important, but they cannot and should not do it all.

Community must be centered.

And here's the cost analysis I wanted to share tonight.

In 2025, Durham had 39 homicides.

The National Institute for uh criminal justice reform says it's about 625,000 per homicide.

So that's 24 million dollars spent in 2025 on homicides.

Again, 24 million dollars.

As of February 19th, 2026, we have already had nine homicides and 20 people shot, which equals more than 10 million dollars already this year that we spent.

Imagine if we invested even a fraction of that into violence interrupters, which is the major difference between group violence intervention and community violence intervention.

Uh imagine investing in ecological design, youth employment, community-led initiatives that does not share information with Durham police or the city government because trust matters.

Violence interrupters must remain independent to be effective.

And I'm a CBI organizer in our client against gun violence.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Earlier we had a speaker online, uh, Donald Hughes uh here is online now.

Yes, Mr.

Mayor, are you able to hear me?

We are welcome.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Good evening, uh members of the council.

My name is Donald Hughes, and I'm a resident of Durham.

I'm gonna talk a little bit about the budget today.

A budget is a moral document, it's a values document, and it tells us what and who we are willing to invest in.

As you prepare for next year's budget, you're making a decision about what we truly value in this city.

Since many of you had praises for the Reverend Jesse Jackson upon his passing last month, I want to remind you what he actually said.

America's real deficit is not in its budget, it's in his compassion.

While we were hear from you that the budget is tight and that there are competing priorities, the real question is whether we have the courage to invest in our young people.

Young people in our community, especially black youth, are dying.

Families are grieving, trauma is compounding, and as Reverend Jackson also reminded us, poverty is violence.

When we fail to invest in jobs, mentorship, housing people can afford an opportunity, that absence is not neutral.

It is in fact active harm.

In a recent interview, Mr.

Mayor, you said that you are sick of commentators and you won't work with us.

But where will we be without commentators in our society?

I challenge your notion that commentary isn't part of the solution.

And it didn't succeed, excuse me, because leaders ignored critics or shut down dialogue.

It succeeded because advocates, citizens, commentators, activists, they all spoke truth to power, demanded accountability, and forced institutions to act.

Voices outside City Hall are not obstacles, but they are essential partners in realizing justice, safety, and community well-being.

Where will we be without the piercing moral commentary of James Baldwin?

Where will we be without the prophetic voice of Reverend Jesse Jackson?

Without the chorus of clergy like Dr.

Reverend William Barber and organizers and writers and everyday citizens who refuse to be silent during the civil rights movement.

Commentary is not noise, but it's conscience.

Commentary helped bend the arc of history toward justice.

So when residents raise their voices about youth violence, about disinvestment and lost opportunity, that isn't obstruction.

That is engagement, and that is a love for our city.

So here's at least one solution that we know works.

If we're growing Durham's economy and building these beautiful buildings, but fail to ensure that our young people have boats, then that growth is not justice.

So as you finalize the budget, let it reflect compassion.

Let it reflect courage.

Let it reflect the belief that our young people are worth the investment.

If we have to temporarily pause programs like participatory budgeting and giving two million dollars to escape from the city.

Thank you.

And I appreciate the time.

Thank you for your comments.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's um fix almost piercing issue.

Let's make the community safer for our young people and everybody.

We are you need to adopt the item, proceed the report.

Oh, number 12.

Yeah.

I'll uh entertain a motion to accept item number twelve.

Second.

Madam Clark, please open the vote.

Please close the vote.

Motion passes seven zero.

Thank you.

I believe that's it.

Have a good night, we're adjourned.