Come on up.

Come on up here.

First Protestarian Church.

I gotta make sure I get my contribution in this year, so it's a good reminder.

Whereas the city of Durham proudly recognized the month of March as International Women's History Month, a time to honor the contributions, leadership, and impact of women who have shaped our community and strengthened the social, economic, and civic life and of our city, and whereas women across Durham have long played vital roles as leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, advocates, caregivers, and innovators, contributing their staff, their talents and vision to continue growth and success of our community, the leadership and dedication of women who have helped build stronger neighborhoods, uplift families, inspire future generations, and drive meaningful change throughout Durham, and whereas women in public service, business education, health care, nonprofit organizations, and grassroots community initiatives continue to work every day to create opportunity, expand access, and improve quality of life for residents across our cities, and whereas the Durham's Mayor Council for Women remains committed to supporting and uplifting women and girls through advocacy, leadership, and community engagement.

The City of Durham affirms the dignity and contributions of all women, including transgender women, and recognize the importance of fostering respect, safety, and opportunity for women, girls, and gender diverse residents throughout our community.

And whereas Women's History Month provides an opportunity for all residents to reflect on the achievements of women, past and present, and to celebrate the leaders, mentors, and change makers who continue to move Durham forward.

Now, therefore, I, Leonardo Williams, mayor of the city of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim March 2025 as International Women's History Month in the City of Durham and urge all residents to take note of this observance and celebrate the contributions of women, uplift their voices, and support opportunities for women and girls to lead and thrive.

Witness my hand, the corporate seal of Durham, City of Durham, North Carolina on the 16th day of March 2025.

Good evening, everyone's a good thing.

We love Durham.

We especially love women and children in this community who helped make this city strong, passionate, and full of promise.

As we honor International Women's History Month, we recognize the women who have shaped Durham as leaders, educators, caregivers, advocates, entrepreneurs, and change makers.

Their work has strengthened families, uplifted neighborhoods, and inspired future generations.

This proclamation also reminds us to support all women, including transgender women, and to continue building a community rooted in dignity, safety, respect, and opportunity for women, girls, and children.

Today we celebrate the voices and the contributions of women across Durham because the past, the present, and the future of this city is unmistakably imprinted with women.

Thank you.

Colleagues, I'm gonna have us do two minutes each since we have lots of speakers this evening instead of our normal three minutes.

Um I'm gonna start uh to my left with Councilmember Kopak and then just go down the dice.

Thank you.

Good evening, Councilmember Kovac.

Good evening, uh everyone.

Thanks so much for being with us uh tonight.

I want to start just by saying I was really proud to present a proclamation on behalf of the mayor last week to the North Carolina Peace Corps Association in honor of Peace Corps Week.

I spoke to a room full of people who have served across continents and decades as ambassadors for peace, connections across culture and sustainable development.

Uh I left 25 years ago just after 9-11 to live and been in West Africa, where I work with women's shape butter cooperatives and other entrepreneurs, learn new languages and ways of living, and made friendships that endure to today.

So happy Peace Corps Week, Durham.

Uh also just want to say I appreciated uh attending the Cornwallis cookout yesterday and the chance to network with residents, including our youth, uh, and community groups who are advocating uh for a shared commitment to bringing peace and reducing gun violence in Durham.

Uh we can't accept the status quo, and it's really important that we come together around short-term and long-term solutions to stop the loss of life and reduce the terror that so many of our our neighbors are living under.

I want to give a quick shout out to Bike Durham for its Fair Free Summit, El Central for their La Loteria, and all the organizations that hosted communities over corporate profit.

Uh I enjoyed all of them.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has submitted budget uh comments so far, and all of you who came this evening to give your input on the budget.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Baker.

Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for for being here and for watching at home.

First of all, I want to say thank you to all of our city workers who uh did a lot of work preparing for um what was anticipated to be inclement weather here.

Um it was pretty widely anticipated to be inclement weather.

Uh it's still a little bit touch and go, but I want to say thank you to everyone that did all of the work to prepare for it.

Tonight we have the public hearing, the first public hearing for the fiscal year 2027 budget.

I want to be pretty honest with you.

It's gonna be a tough year.

It's a tough year in cities and counties across the United States for reasons that I think most people already know.

Um the Trump economy is hitting everyone quite hard right now.

Durham is not immune to that.

We are feeling the same effects as everybody else.

I do think that there are some things that have been um that have been uh self uh self-inflicted.

Uh, but I think that for the for the vast majority of the issues that we're facing, uh many of them have been imposed uh upon us um historically and also from the federal and state governments, and they are things that we are just going to have to deal with.

And so I I want to be honest with people as early as possible that this is gonna be a challenging budget, but we are going to succeed um and come up with the best possible budget that that we possibly can.

And and I appreciate folks for turning out here tonight, and there will be a second public hearing, and of course, uh going on to to a vote.

So now is the time to to engage because uh you're engaging early.

So thanks again.

Councilmember Burris.

Thank you, and good evening to everyone watching here in the um audience, but also those who are watching at home, excited to be with you all and also happy that we did not receive the inclement mother at this point.

So excited about that.

I had the opportunity on March 4th to participate in our sister cities International Women's Day event, which is a conversation led by um City Com sorry, County Commissioner Michelle Burton with author Abigail Leonard and um talking about the book for Mothers, A Journey Through the First Year of Parenting in Four Countries, which I found to be a really interesting and unique conversation, talking about the evolution of feminism, but also what motherhood looks like with for those in other countries that have made more support or better policies to support motherhood.

Also was followed by a resource fair, got to meet a lot of amazing organizations that are doing work in the communities to make sure that parents have resources support.

Um so super excited about that.

Last week also was a bit of a rough week.