Joint City-County Committee Meeting – February 11, 2025
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Joint City-County Committee Meeting – February 11, 2025
The Joint City-County Committee met on February 11, 2025, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Durham City Hall. The meeting covered youth initiatives, Durham Public Schools transportation challenges, and community safety updates. No public comment was taken due to time constraints. The meeting adjourned with the next meeting scheduled for April 8, 2025.
Consent Calendar
- The committee approved the draft minutes from the December 10, 2024, Joint City-County meeting (5-minute item, no discussion recorded).
Discussion Items: City-County Strategic Youth Initiatives Update
- Lara Khalil, City-County Youth Initiatives Manager, presented an update on the Office on Youth. She reported that the office has engaged over 300 young people in leadership positions and that a listserv of 480 youth practitioners exists. The office manages a $300,000 grant program for youth organizations.
- Commissioner Burton asked how the office scales its reach, how many young people are served, and how to better market positive youth stories to counter negative narratives about Durham.
- Khalil responded that the office focuses on building relationships among providers and creating mechanisms for youth input in decision-making. She noted the office’s new goal to amplify youth leadership stories.
- Commissioner (unidentified) asked about outreach to refugee communities and mental health support. Khalil acknowledged ongoing connections and pledged to bring concerns back.
- Another commissioner asked whether the office works with Durham Public Schools (DPS) counselors and teachers. Khalil said partnerships with DPS exist through the Kings and Queens program, and they encourage direct outreach.
- A council member asked how to reach the most marginalized youth. Khalil replied that the office centers its work on disconnected youth and relies on partners like Project Build and My Brother’s Keeper.
- Mayor Williams suggested incorporating a youth center into the future redevelopment of the Durham Convention Center. Khalil supported the idea.
- One commissioner noted the need for a cohesive “state of the youth” report to track metrics like attendance, graduation, truancy, and justice involvement.
Discussion Items: Durham Public Schools Transportation and Safe Routes
- Dr. Larry Webb, DPS Chief Operating Officer, presented on transportation challenges. He cited national data: 88% of school districts report driver shortages, up 10% from the previous year. DPS has added 15 new drivers since January 6, 2025, and all routes have been covered since January 23. Family responsibility zones (walk zones) were implemented for 21 elementary schools based on safe infrastructure.
- Dr. Lewis (Superintendent) emphasized the need for a city-county-school partnership, noting DPS cannot solve the bus driver crisis alone. He highlighted retention efforts, including compensation, stipends, and improved working conditions.
- Ms. Brookshire (DPS school planner) discussed Safe Routes to School programs, transit access improvements (e.g., GoDurum schedules, shelters), and the need for infrastructure investments like crosswalks and crossing guards. She noted that city transportation staff expressed willingness to explore pilot contracted crossing guards.
- Councilmember Cabrera asked for a meeting of city, county, and DPS staff before the next joint meeting. County Manager Hager confirmed they are working on a joint infrastructure group and will report back.
- Councilmember (unidentified) requested data on how many high school students actually use DPS buses versus GoDurum, and how to shift high school students to transit. She also asked about capital improvement projects near schools.
- Commissioner Rogers praised DPS innovation but noted the ongoing crisis. She highlighted a walk audit at Oak Valley Elementary conducted by BPAC and requested immediate collaboration among staff.
- Chair (County) noted that many BPAC recommendations apply to all schools, not just Oak Valley, and called for equitable attention.
Discussion Items: Community Intervention & Support Services Update
- Krystal Harris, Director of Durham County’s Community Intervention and Support Services (CISS), presented an update. Her department includes Project Build (gang intervention for ages 14–21) and My Brother’s Keeper Durham.
- Project Build serves 95 active youth (75 male, 25 female), with a budget of ~$1.7 million department-wide, including $160,000 from city, county, and JCPC funds. The department also receives $130,000 from JCPC and $11,000 for MBK operations.
- Harris highlighted recent successes: Project Build is fully staffed; a youth engagement survey showed top needs are food security, mental health, housing, and transportation; partnerships include Duke HVIP, Bull City Woodshop, and others. She announced plans to expand Project Build to ages 10–13 in the next fiscal year, requiring additional funding.
- Councilmembers asked about diversion from gangs and collaboration with fraternal organizations. Harris confirmed partnerships with Divine Nine groups.
- Commissioner (unidentified) asked how a new comprehensive community safety plan would differ from previous assessments. Harris said those assessments are several years old and new resources exist, so duplication will be avoided.
- Mayor Williams expressed deep frustration that despite investments, youth violence continues. He stated, “Kids are dying in the streets… we’re not addressing it.” He called for more direct action and questioned the scale of funding relative to the crisis.
- Commissioner (Nida?) defended the county’s upstream investments (pre-K, guaranteed income, mental health) and noted that gun violence is heavily influenced by state laws beyond local control. The exchange concluded with agreement to continue collaborative work.
Key Outcomes
- Approval of the December 10, 2024, meeting minutes. (Consent calendar)
- The committee directed city-county-DPS staff to meet before the next joint meeting to address transportation and infrastructure issues related to school walk zones and transit.
- County Manager Hager committed to reporting back on the formation of a joint infrastructure staff group.
- CISS will continue developing a comprehensive community safety plan in coordination with city partners, with a focus on youth ages 10–13 and data hub creation.
- The next Joint City-County Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. in the Durham County Commissioners Chamber.
Meeting Transcript
I don't know if it was coming to the colour. Um, thank you so much for your presentation. I really enjoy listening and learning about what the Office of Youth is doing. Um I guess I had more of a comment than a question was it? It's a question. One of the things as I'm in this role now, and I've transitioned out of being an educator, teacher, school librarian for 30 years, and being in the public schools, and you have all these programs, right? And somehow you feel like they're just not connected, right? There's all these things going on, and like using a presentation of these silos, right? And there's like, for example, I'm hearing of there was a youth center in East Durham, many of you may have heard of it called POOS, and then um and it was needing resources, and then um a colleague, former colleague of mine came to me about another situation with youth. I wondered how many, how can this be scaled up, or the better question is how many young people is this serving, because we know the needs are great, right? Um, and we know so many of our young people in Durham need this. So I want to know how many of young people is this serving. I want to know, okay, how does the message get out? Is it primarily work through nonprofits? And then also how can we market it better? Um one of the concerns that I'm having is you know, people I love Durham, I love Durham County, I've lived here for 32 years, and one of the things when I look at Instagram reels as something I like to do in my spare time, and I'm seeing these Instagram reels with young people saying how dirty and dangerous Durham is. That doesn't sit well with me. So how do we market it? How do we scale it up? How many young people is this serving, and you know, what can we do better to have that impact on young people? Yeah, thank you for those questions and comments, Commissioner Burton. Um that's yeah, there's a lot of questions there, so let me take them one at a time. Uh, regarding the silos, yes, that is something that we hear about, we continue to see over and over again. And through our grant program, we can do that on a very boutique scale, right? With just our 18 grantees, we can really nurture them together as a community, and what we've seen is a lot of blooms from that investment, right? Relationships, new partnerships that are emerging, and also people are working together on shared goals, so you're seeing that kind of collective impact. What we want to do is scale that up. So right now what we have is a listserv. Essentially, this came out of COVID times when we couldn't gather together, and there's over 480 practitioners working with young people in Durham on this listserv. Um we know there's a lot more than that, and it grows every day as people hear about it. And what we want to do is actually start convening that group and beyond in person together to to have more of those conversations around what's happening in Easter, what's happening with footh, how can other people support? What are you working on? What am I working on? How can we collaborate and really like get ourselves aligned and more cohesive and connected? And that happens when people get together, right? When people are are coming together in a space and building relationships. And so our our hope is that we can have some additional resources to be able to do that and to gather with our providers across Durham on a regular on a regular basis. So we just having that like I think I think our for our office relationships are key. Having those relationships is what really is going to build this collective impact that we're hoping for. Um the numbers being served. So our office is specifically focused on building up youth leaders and consultants. And so we work with, you know, to date we've engaged over 300 young people in those types of positions, and then they are engaging thousands of other young people in all of these opportunities that are coming up for decision making, such as participatory budgeting or the comprehensive plan or the transit plan. Um so our role our role is more about creating mechanisms for young people to be at the table where the decisions are being made, because that will in turn impact a lot of other young people in Durham because their perspectives will be reflected at those decision making tables. In particular, just about what we do, or yeah, I guess it's about and maybe this goes back to the the nonprofits that are being served, how they can better get the word about what they are doing. Um because there's this you know connotation, and you know, I've I've been hearing this since I've been living in Durham. It never bothered me. I could care less, but a lot you know that our young people are not doing what they need to be successful, and clearly we are, right? Our kids are great. I believe that our children in Durham are doing really great things, right? And they are successful, they are powerful, and how do we shine that to the world?
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