Recording in progress.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to City Hall.

It's good to see everyone.

I want to call the meeting to order at one PM.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Mayor Williams.

I'm here.

Mayor Pro Tim Middleton has been at Grant an excused absence for today.

Councilmember Baker.

Here.

Councilmember Caballero.

Here.

Councilmember Cook.

Here.

Councilmember Freeman.

Present.

Councilmember Rist.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Michael, I am unfortunately uh I was good.

And then I just opened it back up.

So I'm gonna need your help again.

Um I may need to look on your screen or something.

Um I'll follow here.

Uh all right.

Announcements by council.

Um Councilmember Cook.

No announcements, but thanks all for being here.

Look forward to a good meeting.

Council Member Baker.

All right, Councilmember Cavaliero.

Thank you.

I just want to take up the Fourth Amendment resolution on other items at the end of the agenda.

Thank you.

Sounds good.

Councilmember Freeman.

Councilmember.

Um, yeah, I have a couple of things.

Thank you.

Uh, Mr.

Manager.

DCM Wimber's good to see you in the in the chair there.

I don't get paid as much as the manager.

You call me that give me the salary.

Well, thank you all.

Um, and good afternoon, colleagues and uh city staff and residents online and here in the room.

So a couple things.

So um, I just I want to note thank you to Councilmember Baker.

The two of us had a meeting just was it yesterday?

Yesterday.

Um, along with with uh city manager um uh Bo Ferguson and Deputy City Manager Keith Keith Chadwell.

Um, with uh a number of folks who are interested in employee ownership.

Oh, of course, Josh Gunfro D.

So um, as you all may know, employee ownership is not as well recognized in this country, but ten million workers in this country are employed by a firm that either has either has an ESOP or some kind of cooperative model or an employee ownership trust.

So it's a very well known and well utilized uh way to form a business um in the marketplace, but it's it's not as well recognized.

So eight percent of folks in the in the private workforce work for an employee-owned company.

Pretty amazing.

And so the conversation on yesterday was with um was with our North Carolina Employee Ownership Center and a group called the Democracy at Work Initiative that's promoting employee ownership across the country.

And so we were talking about with our new OEWD director how Durham might be involved in a cohort of cities that are promoting employee ownership.

Um this is important because as a city we have a shared prosperity goal, right?

Umployee ownership is a great way to increase wages for employees, increase wealth for employees, but also increase their tenure in their jobs and increase their sort of their uh their involvement in sort of workplace decisions, workplace governance, um, and so forth.

So we're excited about that and encouraged by the discussions that uh Josh Gunn is gonna lead with OEWD about us the city being part of that.

But it's a really important way to think about building more economic empowerment and wealth building within our economy.

So exciting stuff.

Thanks for being there, uh Director Gunn, and we look forward to further conversations about employee ownership.

The other thing I wanted to mention is I think, well, yeah, Mayor Pratem was there on Tuesday morning at Ashton Place, which is the latest latest ribbon cutting.

So Ashton Place is right downtown.

This is an affordable housing project with 51 units, right?

All for seniors.

Um that was initially organized by Cannes, kind of got the city involved.

So this is a project with city dollars, um, both land and dollars, um, uh, as well as our affordable housing partners at DHIC, and then philanthropic partners like Duke, uh, self-help was also involved in the team and also the Elk Foundation.

So a great model for a mission to line developer, building affordable housing units right in the middle of downtown that's gonna serve 51 seniors uh in this community.

So again, thanks to Mayor Partin for being there and representing the city.

I had to leave before the actual ribbon cutting, but it was a great ceremony.

And again, showing that the city in different ways, whether it's through mission aligned developers, through the work that we're doing with DHA and public housing redevelopment of properties, and also through the proffers that we that we approved on Monday night, y'all, we approved 300 units of affordable housing Monday night through that one proffer of 40% out of uh 200 units, and then an other development that had 220 of all affordable units that we approved on Monday.

So I just want to assure folks in the community that this city, this council is uh is on the job to address the affordable housing challenge, and we are moving boldly to address that.

We put a big dent uh on Monday night in affordable housing.

We've also, you know, if y'all read the packet we get every every um every meeting from Sarah Young and the planning department.

We have had three thousand, almost three thousand proffers from private developers in the last five years of affordable housing units.

That's one of the tools we use to build affordable housing.

And that may not sound like a lot, but if you if you divide 3,000 by five, that's like 600 units a year or 50 affordable units per month have been proffered by private developers.

So we don't have tools in this in this city and the state to require private developers to build affordable housing, but we are making use of all these different tools, proffers, mission to line developers in our partnership with DHA to make sure we're addressing this affordable housing challenge.

So I just want to share with folks that I think I'm I'm proud of the city, I'm proud of our leaders, I'm proud of our partners, and I know we're we're not done with this challenge, but we gotta we gotta keep working.

But we've put a big dent in the affordable housing challenge, and so I'm proud of that.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

You uh thank you, Councilmember Riss.

You you've actually taken part of my comments.

I I um I cannot make it back in time.

Um please be careful, people who are hacking airlines out there that will leave you stranded, like me.

Um, but I'm here.

Uh I was not able to make uh the ribbon gunning, but I'm glad that you all did.

And I um oftentimes I know we have community we have challenges in our community.

Um, but we have way more to be proud of in this community than not.

And oftentimes we address things from a very depressive state.

Uh uh, and I um I want folks to know that we are working really hard, you know, considering the you know, doing this in a pre in a preemptive state.

Um you're right.

We have you know over 3,000, 1,000 this year alone, you know, um affordable units in the pipeline right now.

That's a big deal, considering that's just from, you know, like new construction.

We haven't even really got into, you know, um, hopefully we will soon into um, you know, more naturally occurring affordable housing uh and and actually utilizing our triple A credit bond rating to work with developers uh in a public and private way to you know seek more um acquisitions, backing nonprofits who can actually be more competitive in acquiring some of these you know properties that are that are uh coming to term.

So we we're doing, you know, when I say we, I mean we are being a catalyst for for this these resources.

And um, you know, it's not perfect.

Um, but I'm for dang on sure gonna make sure that we celebrate the progress on, you know, and I think that uh that needs to be celebrated.

So uh thank you for being there.

Thank you, colleagues, for being a counsel that you know uh mostly appreciates you know the work that's been done.

Um, and I'm gonna make sure I continue to sing that from the mountaintop as loud as I can.

Uh, there are too many people in this community that think that there is nothing happening, and there are not enough people that know what's happening that's actually correcting that.

So I'm gonna make sure that we know in Durham uh what is actually happening, and that is gonna start with the city too, and our communications.

We are going to start communicating our wins better.

So um thank you all for that.

Uh shout out to the um over 1,000 uh local elected officials from Latin American countries and islands uh and the United States.

Um as I said, you know, recently in Albuquerque, there are folks that are talking about Durham all over the world and some of the innovative and progressive policies that we are putting forth.

Uh I spent this this past weekend um in Virginia talking about you know, just uh our small small business ecosystem here.

Uh left there and went to San Juan, Puerto Rico and addressed over a thousand local elected officials from Latin America and and um Latin American countries and Caribbean uh Allen's uh just about you know uh they were really interested in what we're doing with heart.

They were really interested in what we're doing with you know how our economy is so strong.

Like, how do we have this unique situation of uh top tier universities, you know, uh amazing research organizations here.

Um yes, they're being a yeah, they're being attacked from the top, but you know, our um uh uh like RTI and FHI, like how do we get all these companies here and have these top tier universities and a strong workforce and you know uh and and just a growing a growing economy, a growing tax base.

They wanted to know how we are managing all of that because we are what many cities around the world want to be.

Uh we are a region where many regions around the world want to be.

Uh I just want more of us here in Durham to realize what folks outside of Durham are uh wanting to be.

And so uh I addressed uh the audience on on behalf of our our city and the unique position that we're in, and uh it it was it felt good to wrap Durham on the stage.

Uh but it feels better to be back.

I hate messy meetings, and I watch you all on YouTube.

Um, but thanks for passing those cases with affordable housing.

All right.

Uh let's get going.

We have quite the agenda today.

Um I have a sign up.

Oh, here it is.

Uh I will now go to our priority matters.

I know that council uh Mayor Pro Tem will try to get here after the funeral, um, but not sure if he's gonna make it or not.

Uh we have uh deputy city manager Bertha Wimbush stepping in for both Ferguson and no uh city attorney um Kim Lee Lee Rayburg will get here near the end, but our amazing Fred Lamar is here in our place.

All right, on you.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Mayor Williams, uh members of city council.

I thank you for the opportunity to share our priority items.

Um I have two priority items for you this afternoon.

One agenda item number 18, 2025 second quarter crime report, which is scheduled for 20 minutes.

The presentation we made today at the work session.

Under other matters, we'd like to add a discussion on the December 2025 organizational meeting.

That discussion will be facilitated by Mary Grace Stone King and the city manager's office.

Those are my priority items.

Thank you.

Oh, the you mean organization meeting?

Yes, it's under other matters today.

We're adding asking to add another.

Yeah.

All right.

Um thank you.

Um Madam Madam uh Mr.

Attorney.

Um yes, good afternoon, uh, Mayor Williams and members of the city council, senior deputy city attorney Fred Lamar sitting in temporarily until uh for Kim Rayburg, the city attorney, until she returns.

Um the city attorney's office does have a priority item for a closed session.

Uh the motion for that closed session is to hold a closed session pursuant to NC General Statute 143-318.11A3 for attorney client consultation concerning the handling or settlement of EEOC charge number 433-2025-01026 Delithia Cruz versus the City of Durham.

Thank you.

And if if it would be uh suitable for you all to vote on that now, or we'll go ahead and entertain a motion now, uh, and then we'll execute at the end of the agenda.

Uh so I'll entertain a motion.

Thank you.

As we move the property second or red as the city attorney interim.

Um all in favor, please respond by aye.

All right, aye.

All opposed.

All right, thank you so much.

We'll execute into close uh session at the end of the meeting.

Thank you.

I need I need to do yours, it was just uh let me go back to the uh the manager's priority items.

Uh I'll entertain a motion to receive the priority items by um deputy city manager WordPress.

We move the property second.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

Thank you so much.

Receive Adam Clerk.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I have the board and committee and commission report.

The first nomination for the Racial Equity Commission is Caitlin Kempsky for Ward 2.

The next nomination for the workforce development board under the category of adult education and literacy is Crystal Avant.

Next for the Citizen Advisory Committee appointment for general member is Kayla Rudassel.

The Durham Historic Preservation Commission appointment representing at large is Emily R.

Spencer.

And then the Durham City County Environmental Affairs Board appointment for the youth position.

The nomination is Zora H.

Lentz.

And we've got a couple nominations without consensus.

The Durham City County Environmental Affairs Board nomination for the at-large position.

Um we have three council members who have selected Michelle Carter, two that have selected David Barron and Chris Guy and Benjamin Stockdale have each received one vote.

And just to verify, David Barron was who the yes, environmental affairs board recommended, right?

Yes, yeah.

There was a recommendation on that one.

Could you move?

I don't know if I voted for it or not, but if we can move mine to that if I didn't.

Okay, Mr.

Barron has three votes right now.

Thank you.

Okay, and that makes four.

Thank you.

Can I ask that when they make a recommendation that we include a like an asterisk or something?

Because I think it's you can see it on the memo, but not on the ballot.

Okay.

Oh, you want that on the ballot?

Okay, sure.

The electronic.

Okay.

That would be helpful because usually I try and go with the recommendation.

Okay, we can mark that in the future.

And then for the final um nomination, it's the Durham Planning Commission.

We have three votes for Sahara Gar, two votes for Juan P.

Montes, and two votes for Kamala El Uzel.

Uh would you all like to put it on GBA?

All right.

TBA.

Okay, thank you.

And that's the end of my report.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh at this time, I will read a consent agenda, then I'll come back up and I have one speaker signed up for citizens' matters.

And then we'll excuse the uh agenda here.

Oh, okay.

Can I get that info?

He said it's online.

Okay.

Let me go ahead and just do the uh speakers.

All right.

Uh Ms.

Katie Ross.

Are you here in person?

Yes.

Oh, there you are.

All right, welcome.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Could you turn that mic on?

Just uh press the button on the right down on the platform.

Oh there you go.

All right.

I was already gonna talk about this topic uh before yesterday, which is the importance of public hearings on uh property development matters, but then yesterday, a case came down from the uh court of appeals, barefoot versus the county of Durham.

And that's a case that's been under consideration for years, but it started back on uh November 22nd, 2022, when Robin Barefoot and her neighbors, and I'm in a more distant neighbor.

Uh we came and testified and protested uh the granting of a conservation subdivision of 141 houses in a property that is very close to uh Robin's house and other neighbors within 600 feet.

They are all the actual plaintiffs in this court of appeals.

Uh we lost in the trial court, uh uh the court of appeals reversed that yesterday.

It's not difficult to understand the premise of the decision, which is simply that if the UDO says a conservation subdivision shall meet the following 12 purposes, it means just that.

And if they don't, if a proposal doesn't meet that, then it is cannot be approved.

But uh the planning department took a different view that they could meet one or none or any number that the planning department thought was appropriate, the planning director, and they approved um uh they went forward, and and there was a hearing on this, but it was only on a major use uh special use permit.

So it was a uh quasi judicial hearing.

That was the main point.

I testified to that uh legal point to the county commissioners.

Robin uh asked the um planning director, Sarah Young, who said, well, if the neighbors don't like it and it's administratively approved, then they can uh appeal to the adjustment board of adjustments.

Robin asked, how do they know it's been approved if there's no notice, if there's no hearing?

And she had no answer for that.

So my point today is when you're considering the new UDO, and we will be giving you more details on this as time goes by.

Do not eliminate or reduce by percentages the development cases that are going to be come before you as a public hearing because this is an example.

Robin versus Robin Barefoot versus uh the county of Durham, the Court of Appeals said what they'd been doing was illegal, it did not comply with the UDO.

And yet, had it not been for that uh need for a special use permit, there would have been no her hearing.

We neighbors wouldn't have known about this development going in until the bulldozers showed up, and you wouldn't have known about it.

That's the thing about administrative approvals.

You don't know about it, you representing us.

So that's it.

I just want you to be careful about that and the upcoming UDO and we'll have more for you.

Thank you.

I'm sure.

Uh Mr.

Lamar, I'd like to get more information on that as well.

Okay, sure.

Uh we'll get back to you on that.

Thank you.

Um Madam Clark, uh, how does the clock work?

It goes back up on the COVID.

Okay, all right.

I didn't know okay.

All right.

Uh the next person I have is Mr.

Langley.

Uh so angle, can you hear me?

Yes, can you hear me?

I can.

Thank you.

You have three minutes.

Thank you so very much.

Good afternoon.

My name is DeWarren Langley.

I'm the volunteer executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation, which is an impactful driven nonprofit committed to advancing equity and opportunity for boys and young men of color through competency-based learning strategy centered mentorship, the career focused skill development.

Durham stands at a critical moment in its history.

While our city is rich in culture, innovation, and opportunity.

Many of our boys and young men of color are not assessing the pathways that lead to long-term success.

The challenges they face, academic gaps, limited exposure to careers, and barriers to economic mobility, place them at a greater risk of crime, gang involvement, and cycles of poverty, which would you will see during the crime report that will come before you all this afternoon from our chief of police.

We need a transformative plan, one that is intentional, coordinated, and forward-looking.

Such a plan must begin with strengthening academic achievement, which is why we must get in partnership with Durham Public Schools, ensuring that every boy of color has access to rigorous instruction, tutoring, and mentorship that build both competent and competence.

But academics alone are not enough.

We must integrate skill development and career exploration early, showing our boys the real world relevance of what they are learning and introducing them to careers in high-demand industries and preparing them for their future.

This means providing them with opportunities to earn industry recognized credentials and to prepare them for college, community college, and the workforce simultaneously.

When our boys leave high school, they should not only hold a diploma but also credentials that carry real value in the job market.

With these tools, they can achieve economic stability, moving upward in their careers, and contribute to Durham's prosperity.

The benefits of this investment go beyond the individual.

By creating valuable alternatives to crimes and games, we reduce violence, build civil communities, and strengthen community trust.

A young man that sees a future for himself is less likely to fall into cycles that harm both himself and his community.

This is not charity.

This is strategy.

When boys and young men of color thrive, Durham Thrive.

A transformative plan that bridges education, workforce development, and community safety will foster shared economic prosperity and create the kind of safe, vibrant city we all want to call home.

Now is the time.

And I know the risk of calling for this in an election cycle, but we must do this.

We must act together.

Educators, business leaders, policymakers, community members, community-based nonprofits.

The cost of inaction is too high, but the return on investment for our boys and young men of color is limitless.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Totally agree.

Look forward to you.

Continue to do your part and um and other community members out there as well.

Thank you for the work.

All right.

I am now going to read our consent agenda.

Item number one, racial equity commission appointment.

Item number two, workforce development board appointment.

Item number three, Durham City County Environmental Affairs Board Appointments.

Pull that one too.

Number eight has been pulled.

Got it.

Number nine, contract with Brinks, Capital LLC for Brinks, complete smart safe services.

Pull that one.

Number nine.

Number 10, contract for electronic presentment and pavement processing for the city of Durham with InfoSyn Incorporated.

Pull that one.

Number 10.

Yeah.

Number 11, contract with Brinks Incorporated for Cash and Transit Services.

Number 12, United States Department of Agriculture, USDA Forest Service Inflation Reduction Act, Urban and Community Forestry Expansion Project.

Urban Forestry Tree Canopy Assessment with EcoScene Environmental Group Incorporated.

Number 13, governing service, governing service agreements for on-call professional services, architects, landscape and architects, architects, landscape architects, engineers, civil structural, plumbing, mechanical, and electrical roof and building envelope specialists and building commissioning providers.

Number 14, United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, Forest Service Inflation Reduction Act, Urban and Community Forestry Expansion Project, Tree Inventory and Urban Forestry Management Plan with Arbor Pro Incorporated of CA Incorporated Act.

Number 15, the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, Forest Service, Inflation Reduction Act, Urban and Community Forestry Expansion Project, Right of Way, Tree Planting with Southern Garden.

Forestry Department is busy.

Number 16, U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD Grant Project Ordinance.

Pull that one.

Pull that one.

Pull that one.

Yep.

Number 20.

Construction award to Moffitt Pipe Incorporated for the Eastern Water, Sewer, and Stormwater Replacement Phase 1A Project.

21 construction award to JF Wilkinson contracting company, incorporated for the West End Water Sewer and Stormwater Replacement Phase 1 and Maine and Broad Street.

Phase 1 in Maine and Broad Street Waterline Project.

Number 22, fiscal year 2027, 2029.

The strategic plan refresh will be a presentation.

Number 23, reimaginable Durham Freeway Study presentation.

And of course, uh for our um general body meeting, we have our cases, number 24 consolidated annexation courtyards at Oak Grove.

Uh number 25 consolidated annexation Durham Gateway of Bright Creek.

And uh speaking of those, I would like to uh thank Director Gone uh for joining us.

We have uh had a new project that the council approved out on Hillsborough Road, the old Coca-Cola bottom company.

Uh they did their uh their launch today.

So it was great to see so many community members out there celebrating with the developers to build that part of Durham that will make that community better.

Uh they are at 60% occupancy already committed with you know some big brands uh that are coming to Durham on that part of town uh that was desperately needed.

So really really excited about what's to come in in that part of town.

Thank you, Doc Ray Big God for being out there.

All right.

Uh so we have a lot here.

789, 10, 11, uh 789, 10, 16, 17, and 19.

All right, started with you for a while, Council Member Clinton.

No, we were uncoordinated today, sorry.

Okay.

I think I'm gonna be pretty brief on the first couple.

Good afternoon.

Um, Christina Reardon, budget and management services.

Thank you.

Um, so this is I I just want to bring attention because I think that this is an interesting example of something.

Can you just tell us a little bit for the public record about how this came to be in our budget?

Uh sure.

So this is um a contract with a local nonprofit that um was um uh first uh first started it with the city in 2022 as a council budget request.

So, in other words, the council brought it forth as a council budget request.

You all are pretty familiar with that request process.

Um, we do ask you whether something should be one-time or continuing.

This was um at the time of that council um put in the budget as a continuing budget, and so that is remained at the amount that it was approved at that time.

And so this is to hire an individual.

Do we get any reports back on any on any performance or anything else that comes from this hiring?

Uh we do, we get um a quarterly report um from the organization.

And so this has never been brought back.

So if there was an increase in that person's pay to keep up with uh minimum wage standards or anything like that, that would be something that the organization themselves would have to would have to pay.

Is that yeah?

This is only a portion of a position, it's not a full position.

Okay, thank you.

Um, those are all my questions.

I just um I know that El Centro is doing good work and has come to be reliant on the city for this for the past few years, um, but it's one of the things that's in our budget sort of in perpetuity that um doesn't get to be addressed every year, and um, folks from the community have noted not specifically this one, but this type of reoccurring donation that um feels unfair for other organizations that don't have the an adequate means of competing for this money.

So I just wanted to flag that for today.

But those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm here for agenda item number eight, Amy Belay Lot Communications.

Hey, um, so this is another one that I just want to um flag, it's gonna be very brief, but this is something that's coming up for community members quite a lot.

So I was hoping you could just kind of give us an overview of what's going on, and also I want to know kind of specifically um how much control the city versus the county has in the development of this and what that kind of is gonna look like moving forward.

Okay.

So the interlocal agreement is for the county has the contract with IEM International.

We are in the process now of creating the crisis communications plan.

That plan is underway with the vendor.

The reason these this is before you today is that the county is extending the contract with the vendor because they need a little bit more time.

The contract wasn't long enough, and accordingly, the ILA needs to match the date that is going to be in the revised contract.

Uh, at this point, I see no reason why that should not be completed by late May, early June of 2026.

We're on track to do that, but they want to build an extra time just to make sure if something unforeseen happens, that we won't have to come back again to extend the ILA again, because that needs to match the contract date with the county.

But it is going well.

We've already surveyed all of the public communicators and the city and county governments to get their feedback on what they need, what's working well, what's not working well, so that we know what to address in the plan.

At this time, the plan should be written itself by early winter, and then we will move into training and workshops with communicators to make sure we know how to conduct the plan.

And then hopefully the final deliverable will be May, June of 2026.

But we absolutely realize it's a need, which is why we wanted to get this done, and we really appreciate your support and helping us make that happen.

Thank you.

And so I just want to reiterate what you said, but the plan is going to be written hopefully this year by the time that early or late May, early June timeline comes around.

This is going to be full ready to implement the plan.

Yes, ma'am, that is correct.

And then what who is meeting?

Can you just talk to a little bit about like who had who has say in this in this?

Because I know obviously the county has the contract, but the city is is a part of it as well.

Correct.

Correct.

So on the county side, we have uh meetings twice a month with the vendor as well as emergency management uh and the county PIO team, public information office, as well as the city communications team myself is in that meeting.

Okay, so we have a city representative in all of the meetings.

Okay, thank you.

Those are my questions.

Thanks so much.

All right, thank you.

I uh council member, could you when you say the community, uh, because I didn't heard anything, it's and we don't have a we don't have like a pot of money that that's competing for.

It's just a if someone requests it, then they they kind of go out there with because I didn't heard anything.

Is there like a large group that we need to address?

Are you talking about this one or the one before?

You just said community members had a concern the one before and this one, and I just didn't know anything.

Oh, um, so the one this one, I just this has been a high point in conversation in community members.

There's been multiple like forums that have been organized around disaster preparedness, and um and we've responded, I think, well to those, but people are obviously interested in having a more discrete plan because they want to know what to do in certain types of emergencies, uh, particularly as we're seeing like flooding and these types of things happen more frequently.

Uh so that's what I was talking about with that one.

I just wanted to put it on the record because I think lots of people are talking about it.

You've you've I'm sure you've heard that conversation this is going to address, right?

Right.

Once this yeah, and so I just wanted to I just wanted to like have it on the record because I know folks have been asking about it.

Okay, that's cool.

Yes, ma'am.

Communications is near and dear to my heart.

So we appreciate that.

Councilmember.

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor.

This actually, this is just to your comment about the the comments that have been heard by Councilmember Cook.

I also want to make clear like the sense that somehow El Centro had an unfair advantage, I think is I don't think that I'm not sure that's accurate.

I think there's a budget process.

We all can submit requests.

People in the community can reach out to us about a request, but to say suggests it's unfair.

I don't think that's quite accurate.

So yeah, and I and I want to be clear that has that has been something that's been brought to me from different organizations around the community, which is not maybe that like that one thing happened, but the fact that it's reoccurring, folks don't feel like they have meaningful competition for money moving forward, like that they have to have a champion on council, they have to have the ear of one of the seven of us to put a budget request forward, which doesn't feel fair for a lot of nonprofits that might be smaller or less connected.

So that has been something that's come up, and I'm just raising it because I've heard it from the community.

Gotcha.

And that's why I that's why I I bought that comment because I mean, we just said a small area of plan for Walltown.

East Durham was like, hey, what about us?

I don't want to send the the connotation that only certain people are able to get certain things, like there is a process open to everyone.

Um, but I there's no pot of money that folks are competing over other than the festival money, which I think needs to be more.

Um, but I noted to your point, Councilmember Cook, but I also just didn't want it to come off as you know, El Central has to hook up.

All right.

Yes, go ahead.

I don't think this is about number eight, so I don't want to leave.

I'm sorry, I feel bad.

This is just referring back to number seven, and I don't need staff.

I just want to say that there are lots of nonprofits that get dollars, and so if we're going to um uh have that conversation, then we should have it in a cohesive way and and talk about everyone.

Um so that that was um, I think it was Mayor Schul who brought that item forward many years ago.

Um so happy to have that conversation, but certainly don't want folks to feel like they're being singled out.

Um and uh have had that conversation with colleagues, but if we're gonna have it, let's have it broadly um and talk about where are dollars going and and to whom are they going as far as nonprofits and is it because they um went through an RFP process or whatnot, right?

Because we can say that I mean legal aid got many dollars over time, and there was never an RFP process.

So I think that we can make that conversation or or highlight that in many of the decisions that have been made over the years, and so if we're gonna do it, let's do it broadly.

Thank you.

I also have a question.

Yeah.

Um are there other nonprofits that are getting funded for salary?

I don't think that's a thing.

So I think El Central is the only one.

I think that's why I brought the question forward.

Yeah.

I don't think there's anything to compare to, is what I'm saying.

So El Central would be the only organization or nonprofit organization that is in like in perpetuity in our budget for salary, like for partial salary.

That's not outside of ARPA, which was a specific process, which we all decided on.

That is definitely a difference, whether you think it's an unfair advantage or not, you know, this is it's definitely a difference, that's all.

I'll just add one thing.

I I agree, I agree with the sentiment of um of uh councilmember Caballero.

Um I do think uh the legal aid, you know, is part of a and which now there's an RFP there, but was part of a comprehensive housing strategy.

It was it was a piece, a critical piece of a broader vision for housing.

Um and to Councilmember Caballero's point, I do think that it makes sense, you know, at some point moving forward to have a uh you know conversation about how nonprofits in our community who are valuable nonprofits, um, you know, how they get public dollars allocated to them in a thoughtful logical way.

Thank you.

And I just want to reiterate as I said at the beginning that this was this was not an attack on this nonprofit.

I just it's it's on our agenda today, and it's on my mind because I and I'm sure that my colleagues will join me in saying that what I'm seeing now is that as federal funding continues to get cut, more and more nonprofits coming to the city saying, like, our programming can't continue, what do we do?

Right.

And so just kind of recognizing this in like a broader landscape of of the cuts that we're seeing for like the folks that are doing meaningful work in the community, absolutely not specific to this organization.

And of course, I'll just add that I think it's it's it's definitely valuable to tie it to something specifically so we can show the community why it's tangibly like being done.

So, what's the measure?

What is it up against with the example of the comprehensive like housing plan?

Like, what do we like if it was tied to language access, it was tied to you know interpretation, if it was tied to providing services in the community, that should be something we're receiving a report on, so that we're actually like yeah, it just needs to be a little bit more fleshed out.

That's all that quarterly cross, that quarterly report that we're getting.

This if you could send it to the council um Adam Director.

Thank you.

Um yeah, I I think to you to Councilmember Cook's point, this is not singling out any one organization.

Um it has El Centro on the docket today.

Um, but the city supports a lot of nonprofits in multiple ways.

And um just like the county outsources funding to urban ministries to do homework services, governments catalyzed opportunity in contract organizations and nonprofits to do all types of services.

Um but to council member cover's point, you know, if we're gonna talk about it, let's talk about all of them.

Um El Central is just happened to be on the agenda today, so you're in the hot seat.

But I am grateful for the work that you all do.

Thank you.

All right.

Um let's move on to number nine.

Councilmember Cook.

That's me.

John Reese Finance Department.

Hi, okay.

So I just I thought this was an interesting um thing, and I was just hoping you speak to a little bit.

We are pretty limited on the vendors that we can choose for this process.

Um, and so I was hoping you could speak to that a little bit.

And also if there's been any sort of discussion, I know when we talked about keeping the buses fare-free, we talked about the cost of implementing money collections and what that meant, and so like that was sort of an offset to just funding the buses completely, but like what this looks like sort of in how it offsets money that we collect from these services.

That's a big question.

Sure.

Yeah, I I can start with the um uh the well, let's start with the second one.

So um so this service really is to replace um our existing cash and transit services that we've had historically with our prior banking institution.

So last year we started implementing a new banking relationship with JP Morgan as opposed to Truist.

And previously, Truist had provided umored car services to the city and they covered that fee.

Now we have to pay for it ourselves, and so we had to analyze um kind of the most cost effective ways for us to continue to collect the cash that we have.

And we found a combination of using uh armored car services for City Hall and then these um the smart safes for these kind of outlying locations.

Um it's not really meant to offset um other programming that we have going on, but kind of looking at the most cost effective way for us to collect the cash that we are currently um that we are currently collecting at to various locations.

That's helpful.

So I'm assuming that because JP Morgan was um they have specific vendors that they use.

Can you just speak to that a little bit?

Yeah.

Uh JP Morgan was selected through a competitive bidding process, and as part of that, we can oh Mindy Taylor, City Treasurer, sorry.

Uh they were selected through.

Uh they were selected through a competitive bidding process, and armored career services were considered as part of that agreement.

So going in, we knew that there were a few vendors that we could work with for the service, and we considered that for all the banks that we reviewed.

And this, um, even though we'll be paying out of pocket for these services, we're still saving a significant amount compared to our current banking relationship with Truist.

Okay, thank you so much.

Those were my questions.

Thanks.

Hello again, I'm up for the next item as well.

I think I'll pull that one.

Yeah, thank you, Ms.

Taylor.

Um, so I just want to understand this one.

So I know that we had a vendor that was doing like our our sort of like uh like bills and stuff that was sending them out.

And they just kind of disappeared on us, right?

Yes, that's right.

So we then found InfoSend to like provide that service for us because our other vendor had disappeared.

And then as you as you've been working with InfoSend, it turns out that they can't, there's this kind of electronic payments, this is all complicated payments processing stuff, I know.

But so I understand we've been working with paymentists to do our e-kind of processing payment stuff, but they didn't integrate with InfoSend, right?

Yes.

And so if I can just finish up, so then we're so now we're sort of issuing a contract to InfoSend to do what payment is was supposed to be doing for us.

So do we reduce our contract to payment us?

Like what because there's a lot of this like 4.5 million here, there, so it's a lot of money.

So help me understand this one.

Yeah, so the main driver for this contract is that our current provider, payment is can't integrate with our next gen ERP system on the timeline that we need, which creates down the road still, right?

Down the road still creates very costly delays.

And so we need to start working on that integration currently, and InfoSend is able to do that on the timeline that we need.

With the with the new ERP with the new ERP, as well as get us up and running with their print mail services, so we get the benefit of having everything going through one vendor and the efficiencies of that, but this is primarily driven by the ERP implementation timeline.

Right, right.

No, that all makes sense.

I get that.

And it sounds like InfoSense a better partner going forward because they can integrate with uh with the new ERP system.

But then, like, again, we're paying payment a lot of money, and they're not providing the the same service anymore.

So, how do like do we cancel that contract?

Do we reduce it?

Like, how do we or we double paying for the service?

I guess we won't be paying double, we'll be reducing our services with paymentis as we onboard with InfoSend.

And so the budget that was allocated to paymentis will be spent for this new contract instead.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Cook.

Yeah.

All right.

Good afternoon, Mayor Williams, member city council.

I'm Brayden Korowitz with the housing and neighborhood services departments.

I feel like I'm meeting new people today.

Yeah, I was expecting Maggie saw that.

Um interesting.

Okay, good surprise.

Um, so I was just hoping that you could speak a little bit.

It um I I know we have a lot of grants that are covered by this, and usually we are um I thought we were doing them back a little bit further.

Like I thought that we approved the grants in the future for money to reimburse us for expenditures previously, but these are all current contracts.

I was hoping you could walk me through that process.

This okay.

And then the second thing is that I saw that there was an increase in there, which was surprising to me.

So I was hoping you could talk about that.

Okay, I'll address the second one.

That's the quickest.

Uh the increase is for the home ARP allocation.

In uh May of this year, we received notification from our HUD field office rep that the Department of Housing and Urban Developments did a quality control check, and they realized that we had been misallocated our funds.

Uh the no the calculation they did was $6,510 less than we were legally entitled to.

So they're just adding that to our current home ARP allocation.

When when did that happen?

Did the notification or just when did the misallocation happen?

Um at the onset in 2021, we got notification in 20 May of 2025.

Interesting.

And was that something that happened across other folks who other municipalities and groups that distribute this money, or was this?

I don't think it was just particular to us.

Okay.

Interesting.

Okay.

Um and then could you talk a little bit about because that's this is what my understanding was is that the money we kind of have already have an idea of what we're getting into the future, but these contracts are 2025-26.

Can you just explain why it's laid out this way?

Yes.

Uh so we are we recently submitted last week uh Thursday to HUD our 2025 to 2030 consolidated plan and the 2025-26 annual action plan that guides our spending of this funding.

Um, and along with that process, we submit our grant agreement materials and packages for this um for these four um grant projects.

Okay, so then and the difference between these two plans is just like how we're gonna spend this money versus like what we're seeking in the future, sort of our broader which two plans.

The one that was you said that one was like a comprehensive plan that reached until 2031.

2030, correct?

2030.

Yep.

So it's like a broader.

It's yeah, it's it's a broader outlining after community input um the city's plans for and goals for using these HUD funds.

Okay, those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I uh as we're preparing for the next one.

I wanted to uh make a request.

Is Director Riotin still in?

On number seven, I would like some information.

Could you provide me uh or us just a uh an itemized list of every organization that does get financial support from the city for salary for uh for salary?

So I will say or all rather.

So Christina Reardon, budget and management services.

Um the budget um team has been working on kind of compiling a list of nonprofits or um organizations throughout the city that do receive funding.

We have um heard that kind of as an as a request in the past, it's something we've been working on.

So we've kind of done an initial outreach to departments.

So we're working on kind of um refining that list to kind of make it more usable for you because you know, there to um I think a point uh one of the council members made before.

There's we we provide nonprofit funding in many different formats, and so we um are working on that in something in the next few weeks we could probably provide.

I'm looking back on my notes.

I can count off four right now to get support, and some of it goes to salary organizations.

It is not an uncompletely unusual for us to um provide salary in some of our you know um contracts with nonprofits.

So okay, thank you.

I promise I'd bring it back up.

I was like, to the salaries being tied to some specific program sometimes, like that's tied to something specifically.

That's what it's is several actually.

Thank you, but yes, we can provide that.

Thank you so much.

This is item number 17, Councilmember Wrist.

Uh good afternoon.

Joshua Gunn, director OEWD and James Dickens, you program manager.

Oh, we do mean that.

Thank you so much for being here.

We get to see each other all the time.

I love hanging out.

Yeah.

Um so as you may or may not know, I've been asking a lot of questions about the outcomes we're getting from our workforce development contracts.

So I just want to say I want to thank you.

This contract has some pretty clear goals, which I really appreciate in terms of um placement and employment in terms of retention deployment.

That's the kind of things we we want to see with the youth and all the folks who are who come through our youth uh our workforce training system.

I just have one question though.

On the the goal around median earnings was like 3500.

And I didn't understand what that goal meant.

Yeah, I'll let James speak to that a little bit.

Yeah.

So what that goal means is someone comes into the program uh at a particular dollar amount, we want them to move to a lease um a median income of at least 3500.

So if you came in at 1200, um, we want you to at least move to that 3500, 1800.

So annual income.

I'm sorry.

This is your time, annual income or this is the like the delta, the increase in earnings.

Yes, through going through whether it's a certification or training, whatever, that the increase in earnings would be on an annual basis, $3,500 per year.

Not every annual from that starting point.

So if you came in at that 1200, then we want you to move up to like 15, 500, 50.

Yeah.

Want you to move up.

And then of course, um, if you're in a um, you know, position you're getting your annual raises, but that may not be that medium go for you know going forward in your career.

Yeah, so maybe worth kind of clarifying.

So it's like increase in median earnings, right?

Yes, because it just has median earnings that it didn't work.

Oh, okay, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Yes, yeah.

That's exactly correct.

Okay.

That's it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

And number 19, Councilmember Baker.

Hey there, thanks for coming.

Um I've just uh around.

Parking have heard, you know, we always hear complaints from people about parking.

Um I've never had any issues with the downtown parking before, but um I've heard folks uh talk about there being inconsistency with gates being up at 7 p.m.

I'm not sure if you've you've heard that.

Um then again, I've I've never run into issues myself anecdotally with uh the downtown parking meters, but I have heard from folks that when they're using the the app that it's clunky and a little bit um difficult from a user-friendly standpoint.

Um so I just I just wanted to bring bring those issues to to attention as as we look at this item, uh, just to make sure that that those are those are tightened um when we're you know negotiating or discussing with um with the contractor.

Um and then also I I think I would I would be interested at some point uh re revisiting our conversation.

We we've we've spoken about um parking at length.

Um and I think at our last budget discussions, we didn't really provide clear direction, but I I'd be interested in in having that conversation again at some point um because I've been I've been hearing a lot about about downtown parking.

Obviously, we're way down with the debt from um the large parking garage.

Um, so that that factors into our conversation, but I I'd be interested in having that at some point in the future.

But just wanted to wanted to raise those those two issues um for for you as as we move forward with this contract.

And if you have anything to add to that, I'd appreciate it.

Uh thank you.

Uh I'm Sean Egan, I'm the city transportation director.

Thank you, Mayor and uh City Council.

Uh so uh the first thing that I'll talk about is uh the complaints about um the app, the park mobile app.

One of them came from the Dais here.

Um the mayor um was trying to use uh ParkMobile with Apple Pay because it says you can use Apple Pay.

Uh what we we did a follow-up after that, and what we learned is that each uh client agency has to be individually approved uh for Apple Pay.

So we are going through that process right now, and we've been told by ParkMobile that by the end of this month you will be able to use Apple Pay in Durham uh for ParkMobile.

So uh it is helpful to hear this kind of feedback.

I didn't realize that you needed to go through a one-by-one approval process uh to get Apple Pay access through ParkMobile.

Uh but it turns out that you do so.

Uh we we really want to hear from uh our customers and our community about how we can do better with parking, and when we get that feedback, uh we we follow up uh and we do the work to improve the service that we're offering uh in the community.

Uh gates up.

Um I was walking with um DCM probes past one of our gates last week and it was up.

Uh and I sent uh a message to our team.

Um there was a there was an error code um that had come through the system.

Um so uh within a few minutes uh we had that gate back down again.

That will happen from time to time with our systems where there'll be a malfunction uh and a gate will go up.

Uh we are um but uh we are a gates down operation.

Uh we uh are looking at uh some process improvements.

We had a really good meeting with uh our partners uh at the DPAC, the performing arts center, uh, to talk about how to improve uh when everybody's leaving a DPAC show all at the same time, it can create some real queuing issues.

Um so we're working on a process where we have uniform staff managing a special event.

Uh we uh can then put the gates up uh for everyone exiting at the time that the the show ends and everyone's uh exiting at the same time, and um we're looking at ways to also improve traffic flow uh on church street, for example.

Uh that deck exits on to Mangum, which is one way southbound for now.

Uh and we uh but there is a gate that exits on to uh main street by the courthouse.

Uh so for special events, we're looking at uh lifting that gate to allow that uh egress for um all the folks who have attended that DPAC event.

Um so we're looking at implementing those in the coming months.

Um we we continue to work with our vendors uh to address software integration and functionality issues.

Uh so we're gonna keep doing that.

We've made some progress.

I'm not satisfied with where we are today in terms of that progress.

We're still seeing more uh errors and and issues than I would like to see.

Um, but uh we really are focused on uh significantly improving the uh customer service experience and even uh restructuring our our staff organization to put more emphasis uh on uh customer satisfaction.

Um in terms of a broader parking discussion, I'd I'd defer to the manager or um and uh deputy city manager Winbush on that um I just I would appreciate that broader conversation as well.

Um I think that we didn't spend a ton of time on it during budget season because we had lots of things we were trying to figure out.

Um, but now that we are I think in a different place than we were even two years uh financially with parking, I think it's time to um think about.

I'm I know Raleigh's moved to two hours free parking for the first two hours, things like that.

So I think it's time to at least have some of those conversations.

We may not land there.

Um, and then additionally, Sean, I was just curious how are we doing with the employee parking program for downtown workers?

So uh since the council uh changed the uh parameters for the program last year, we went from 60% AMI to 80%, so we uh allowed more folks at um slightly higher income levels, uh, and then we also increased the discount where it used to be uh you would pay uh $70, and now uh employees are only uh qualifying employees are only paying $35.

Uh we've seen that uh enrollment of the program has tripled um since those changes were made um in October.

Uh so uh we're up uh close to 75 uh active permits right now uh with that program.

So the the changes that the council approved last year, uh we're seeing the impact of those.

Thank you.

And then my understanding is that your staff was willing to go to places to help employees enroll in like one kind of one-stop shop.

That's right.

We've actually done some outreach events uh at one of the local restaurants here where we set up a table so that folks who were working there could come and uh and either provide their documentation or learn kind of what they would need to bring back.

Um so um we've been working with um uh downtown Durham Inc.

uh and their members and uh to share that message.

We're available, we will come to you.

Perfect.

I think for folks who are working with our downtown businesses, um, I hope that they hear that that our transportation department is willing to come to you.

We understand sometimes workers are busy and can't get to T'all's office, and so um back to that kind of customer satisfaction.

I think that that's a tremendous service, and I hope some of our downtown businesses are listening, and maybe some of um the our comms folks can can highlight that and amplify that as well.

That our transportation department is willing to come to you because we want our downtown businesses, our workers to it's a huge benefit, and we want them to um to take advantage of it.

So I think thank you to you and your staff for doing that.

I think it's great.

And then I had one other thing, but I I lost it.

Just gonna piggyback off of that.

Um, one other thing I've heard is that some of the paperwork is a little bit challenging.

Um, that there's certain documents that some service workers just don't have or people who have multiple jobs.

Um, and so I guess my only ask there is uh maybe just listening and you know, if if there's something that we can do to make it a little bit easier for for workers, in addition to you know going to where they are, um, if there's something that we can modify in paperwork-wise to make it easier to to apply um that that would be appreciated.

Yeah.

I can certainly follow up on that.

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor.

Um, I just want to second or third the the suggestion to have a further conversation about parking.

Um I think I mean what you're doing to improve the customer experience to address the the the need to do uptake with workers who could benefit from this is really good that your department is offering that.

I do hear on my role on the DDI board.

I continue to hear concerns about parking.

I think customer Cabero referenced Raleigh having a couple free hours.

So I think thinking about creative ways that we can um continue to I know we have uh we have a enterprise fund for parking, right?

So to continue to raise dollars, but also to be creative about how we do that in ways that could support the the health of our downtown businesses.

So I do look forward to a conversation with my colleagues about parking.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um one last thing, and this is more again for you, Councilmember Roots, who's our liaison of DDI and for transportation.

I I've had some conversations with towntown uh businesses, and one of the things that I do want them to also do is amplify that our buses are free.

I understand that not everyone is on a transit line that is easily accessible or one that is frequent enough, but we are working on that and we are keeping our buses free.

Um fare-free.

Find it.

I should have brought my prop up to the dais with the here.

So um spread the word if um council members would like one of these water bottles that help us spread the word and use the best tasting water in North Carolina, and you can drink it from a bottle that promotes fair-free transit.

Perfect.

I think so that that's it, that we if we can get that folks really amplifying again that our our buses are nice, they're clean, they have free Wi-Fi, have great air conditioning, and you can write them fair-free.

And they have plug-in outlets.

Just one more comment on that.

So I think I had a great conversation with with Mr.

Egan, um, the city manager, I think Lauren Grove was in that meeting, uh, Ms.

Blalock about this large the larger as you've raised about we've got these fair-free buses, they're high quality, we're increasing the the um the frequency of service.

And so when we market all kinds of city events, we always talk about parking available, we kind of norm car travel.

We need to begin to change that conversation, right?

Change how we talk about mobility to norm ways that aren't always car uh transportation to get around, whether it's whether it's biking or walking or buses.

So I think there's a larger conversation the manager has invited to talk about how do we begin changing, and again, thanks, Ms.

Blaylock for being there.

How do we begin changing the conversation about how we norm what kind of ways we get around the town?

So thank you so much for that.

Well, this is music to my ears.

Happen to listen to my small business peers talk about parking and the complications around it.

Um I hope that they're listening.

Um majority of the council is talking about it.

I believe all of us agree that this is something that we need to address.

Um I yeah, I hope they're listening because this is one of the most one of the things I hear about most.

Leo, why don't you guys fix the freaking parking?

So uh thank you.

And thanks to your staff for all what you're doing.

We don't want the water bottles too.

All right, and that was the item that I was thinking about pulling.

So uh thank you, Councilmember Baker.

So uh now to our presentations.

Who's first is that the comments?

Strategic plan.

Hello.

Hello.

The whispers of my hello everyone.

I am Sherry Metcalf.

I work in the um budget management services department, and I help manage the strategic plan citywide.

So today I'm here to um give you an update.

It is a busy year for us.

This uh FY26.

We uh we're finalizing our final year in our current strategic plan, and we are about to dive into a very big refresh to develop our next strategic plan, which um these years kind of scare me, but 2027 to 2029 strategic plan uh that we hope to have up for your uh approval in June of next year.

So quickly I want to uh just introduce the team real quick.

I am joined here with Cecily Hamilton.

She is great and amazing.

Um I want to do a special pres uh uh introduction to Jesse Wren.

You're gonna have to stand, sorry.

But Jesse is it's our second week uh this week.

plan which um these years kind of scare me but 2027 to 2029 strategic plan that we hope to have up for your uh approval in June of next year so quickly I want to uh just introduce the team real quick I am joined here with Cecily Hamilton she is great and amazing I want to do a special present uh uh introduction to Jesse Wren you're gonna have to stand sorry but Jessie um is it's our second week uh this week but Jesse is our ICMA fellow and this is a program um it's a national program that the city has been part of for many years and we've just been so lucky um with folks in the past actually one of them is right over here Mary Grace started as an ICMA fellow with us and we're just so happy to have Jesse if you see her in the hall say hello this program brings in graduate students for um a year to two years and they come in and get some real world experience and we try to instill a love of public service into them and hopefully will last a career or her lifetime so anyway we're happy to have Jesse with us and then last of course but not least we have Andrew Holland who is our who manages all of us in our Office of Performance and innovation.

All right so with that the next few slides may look a little familiar to you but make sure we're all on the same page here.

So a strategic plan why do we have a strategic plan so the strategic plan is a roadmap or if you're closer to Jesse's age it's a GPS to where the city is heading and where we want to go this plan just gives clear direction to staff to residents and our partners about where the city is headed.

It connects our limited resources with our long-term vision helps us to stay accountable by tracking progress along the way so our strategic uh we've had our strategic plan for quite some time we adopted our first one in 2011 and each cycle we we hope we get a little bit better at it we always learn um from things that happen along the way so either you know how we engage with our residents how we engage with all of you how we report out and so this refresh is no different we are doing some new things um we're excited about that we just want to it's just a continuing we're just always striving to have a strategic plan that is meaningful and impactful to our residents all right so our strategic plan elements um strategic plans are all kind of laid out similarly across different organizations but we sometimes use different words so to make sure we all understand our terminology so our mission and the vision on the top that's fairly standard most groups start with that but under that we have our five goals is what we call them these are very big very broad goals and under each goal we have our objectives and those objectives are focused priority areas and that's an important phrase because I'm gonna talk more about where you all are gonna come into that later but under those objectives then we have our initiatives those are the actual the work that city staff does action items that drive us in the right direction and so this structure from vision mission our goals our objectives those you know priority initi um priority areas and our initiatives helps keep the big picture connected to what we as staff do day to day that's the key of a strategic plan.

It's not just some dream out there that we never look at after we adopt it right we want to integrate all of that planning into the work that we do every day.

So our current plan this is a high level snapshot of our current plan which is built upon those five goals we have um each goal has three objectives so a total of 15 objectives along with 41 initiatives and we always want to remind everyone that of course these initiatives don't represent everything that the city does we like to think of it as an iceberg if an iceberg is all of the city services and there are so many the strategic plan really is just the tip above the waterline.

So what are those those priority areas that we show up at the top where the bulk of our day-to-day work continues right below that surface all right our implementation so normally the last two years when I've been in front of you I have half of a presentation about implementation but today we have one slide for you we are in year three the last year of our current plan so the backbone of our implementation strategy is these monthly DSAP meetings we call them there are Durham strategy and performance meetings and these are meetings where our initiative teams come in our executive leadership group come in and there's a conversation where they're sharing out about the work that they're being that they're doing we try to highlight some of their success stories we we like to be a cheerleader in the strategic realm of things but they talk about also the roadblocks they come in they say well we're having an issue here or a problem here and it gives the executive team an opportunity to do some problem solving when needed make sure people are on track.

So that's really the point of DSAP and that is something we've been doing for quite some time it changes and we've been trying to improve upon that pro that process but that is really the key to our implementation.

And so this is something that is available to the public to keep an eye, it holds us accountable, make sure we're doing the things we said we're gonna do, but it gives uh residents an opportunity to go in and see all the good work that these teams are working on.

So this job, all of this together uh just creates kind of a rhythm for our team, and it helps us to uh, you know, a rhythm of monitoring, reporting out and adjusting that keeps this plan a living document, not just something that's collecting dust on somebody's um desk.

Did I say dust or desk?

Anyway, you all know what I meant.

Anyway, so we're happy uh anyway.

That's our implementation.

So that brings us to the really the part that I'm most excited about today, which is our strategic plan refresh.

Um this refresh process, this group, you guys you all know better than most that community priorities tend to shift very quickly.

Um, issues that weren't even on the radar a few years ago are now front and center.

Uh challenges that we thought were behind us have now resurfaced in new ways.

And so, because of that, we do refresh our strategic plan every three to five years, excuse me, three to five years.

Um we've done some refreshes uh since 2020.

Uh they've been a little bit more internally focused on these refreshes, but this year we are bringing you all into this process right from the beginning, um, which we're very excited about.

Hope that you guys will be excited about this as well.

Um this year's refresh is gonna start with all of you.

Um go to the next one.

So this is the overall process, and I'll talk more about this September 18th council visioning workshop, which you all have on your calendars in just a second.

But the overall process, um, first we're gonna look at uh look to you to refine our goals and identify your top priorities.

We're then gonna take those top priorities out to the community, ask our residents out of these top priorities, which ones even more, how do you rank them?

Okay.

We'll bring back all of those results from all that community engagement to you in mid-February, which is when we usually have our uh budget uh budget retreat, share that information with you.

You all can make the decision of we'll have some recommendations, but we'll make a decision of which of those priorities will then make it into that strategic plan.

So again, the tip of the iceberg, right?

And after that, the staff and executive leadership will come together.

We do a pretty intensive uh process of coming up with uh those initiatives and we talk about outcomes that we're looking for, and so all of that plan, that proposed plan will come back to you at late late May, I think is when we have our council, um, our budget uh workshop, sorry, with you all in the late in late May.

So we'll have that come back to you and see what you all have to say about that, and then hopefully it'll um be adopted in June as part of the budget process.

So talking more about these defining goals and priorities is um vision, sorry, council visioning workshop.

Um we have not done this for quite some time.

We're very, very excited about this.

So this visioning workshop is scheduled for September 18th in the morning.

Um this will be a really the kickoff for our refresh process.

It will be a facilitated session designed to bring all of you together to think big picture about where Durham is headed over the next three years.

In advance of the workshop, our consultant will be reaching out to you individually for um some 20 to 25, that's what they're telling us.

20, 25 minute conversations.

Uh, these calls will give you a chance to share your ideas, any concerns, and your priorities on a one-on-one.

Um the consultant will then pull those conversations, so provide a summary, get that back to you before September 18th, but all of that pre-work should put us in a real good spot to just hit the road running on that September 18th meeting.

During the workshop itself, we want to focus in on our current goal definitions, um, reflect on how they might have evolved or changed, and then brainstorm and narrow down five to seven priority areas in each goal.

And you all could probably come up with 15 priority areas in each goal.

That's gonna be the trick is to get that down to five and seven as a group.

And of course, we'll keep you well fed, we'll have breakfast and lunch ready to go.

Uh by the time we walk out of that meeting, though, uh, we hope to have a good solid framework to then take out to our residents for our engagement.

All right, and I I mentioned a little bit about um one of the parts that we're asking you all to do is to really look at our uh goals and how they're defined.

And sometimes they they change a little bit, they shift a little bit.

And so I just want to give you an example just to get get your get you thinking about it.

But for example, if I look at our shared economic prosperity, um, this goal's obviously all about our economy.

When I got here about 12, 13 years ago, this goal was very much focused on downtown, bringing businesses into the downtown area.

Um in the last few years, especially after uh the COVID, the COVID, sorry, after COVID, um, this goal really shifted to be more about small businesses and and making sure businesses that are that we're here are are being successful.

Um similarly, uh or creating a safer community together.

Uh when I first got here, it was much more uh department focused and our our public safety departments, and we really they've really moved to this idea of how do we work with our community alongside to create a safer community.

So they're sometimes minor shifts, um, but these shifts are important, they matter.

And so those are the kind of discussions we want to have with you all of where you think each of these goals and where we as a city are are going in these areas.

All right.

I had all these notes to slow down that I obviously did not listen to because I went through that very fast.

But um, before I wrap up, I just want to thank you again for your time today.

I definitely want to thank you for the for the time you're gonna be uh spending with us in the next few months around this.

Um, the priorities that you help set, even the ones that may not make it into the strategic plan later, uh, they're definitely gonna be used later to shape our budget conversations, help guide staff and help us communicate clearly with our residents of where we're going.

So we're excited to have that that conversation with you and where we can use it in multiple ways.

So with that, thank you again.

I'm happy to answer any questions and um wow, I really could do that very quickly.

So any questions, I'm happy to answer.

Thank you.

Uh I'm gonna pass it around uh in just a minute.

Um regarding consider we're going into a refresh.

Do we have any type of report card on how we've met our goals?

Right.

So we have we're updating our dashboard, which should be that report card of sorts.

Um I don't have an A, B, or C for you, but uh that dashboard does that's supposed to be our report card of how we're doing, where we're going.

All right, good.

And the other is um, I think I've been very public about you know my frustration with how we do community engagement.

Um and I know part of that, you know, is now we have a new community engagement department.

I'm assuming you're gonna be working with through that department, right?

We are, yes, yes.

All right.

So I I um I won't be pre-critical of that.

I want to give it a chance to see how it works out.

But uh, you know, we Durham is notorious of having the same folks show up to everything, and we call that community engagement, and we don't get our a true sample of what the community is.

When it in actuality, we are the community representation, but this is Durham.

Um I'm interested in knowing uh you starting with council and then you're going out.

So when you go out to the community in general, what are you asking about?

Yes, the same questions, or are is council setting based on our priorities in your sorry.

Go ahead.

Yes, so we're asking you to set those priorities.

We're asking for more priorities than we can have in our strategic plan.

So five to seven um priority areas, we then take those priority areas out to our residents and ask them to rank them, which I hate I don't like the word rank, but which three or four um that's what we're gonna ask residents out of this list.

What three or four rise to the top for you?

Um and our our engagement, we do it in two different ways.

We use our resident satisfaction survey to do that.

It's you know, it's it goes out random, right to the community, and then we'll do that more um face-to-face time, which we'll be using the new department to help us with that.

But thank you.

Council McClough.

Oh, just to make sure we're all talking about the same thing.

So you just talked about five to seven priorities, but in your presentation, there weren't priorities.

There were like there were goals or objectives, initiatives.

So, like when you say priorities, is that the same as goals?

So, yes, sorry.

So the object uh they're the same as objectives, they're not the same.

But we take your priorities, okay, and then we would turn we would write those to be objectives, and then those objectives is what we base.

So objectives are these priority areas, it's the terminology.

So we use objectives, but we're we're using your initiative, your prior gosh, I'm confusing myself now, but it's your priorities turn into objectives.

So we have our goals, objectives slash priorities, and initiatives.

I have more questions, but I want to I know you had you were in the queue first, so I have a question.

Okay, so I guess I guess my larger question is like um, and I think again, I'm just seeking clarity.

When the manager sent out the the um description of today's conversation said, like we're gonna like take the goals and sort of you know, then develop new objectives and initiatives.

I mean, are like how much of this is already are we gonna keep the same and how much is open for you know, is for open for revision, right?

Like even the mission and vision statement.

Are the are the goals kind of fixed or are the goals also is that are we also having input on what should be the whether it's five or whatever eight goals or whatever?

So is that is that also open for discussion, or is it more below the goal level?

It is open for discussion.

So we're we're we're open.

Um the city manager has told it we're we're open to looking at the goals.

If you want to look at adding a goal, we're we're open to that.

This is a big refresh.

We want this, we're looking at at it all.

So we could have like five new goals in theory.

I I would hope not, but yes, but I mean that's that's part of the that's that's level discussion.

We're gonna really brainstorm about like what the goals should be.

I'm assuming that these aren't gonna be radically different, but like that that is it's not like we sort of are kind of keeping the same five.

That's what I'm trying to figure out.

We're really open to we're open and we're gonna look if something's missing, if something's not included in our five goals, we should have a conversation about that for sure.

So we're we are we are open to that conversation.

We're gonna see what um you all have to say and and go from there.

I mean, because I will say I know we're we haven't started the process, but like one obvious one is like housing is like we talk about housing all the time, right?

It's embedded in one of the goals.

So, like, you know, do we lift up housing as like a key priority for like key goal?

So I think that's the kind of conversation I hope we have, because I think we want to make sure this plan does reflect who we are, what we need, and where we want to go with the city.

So I I agree.

That's exactly what it should represent.

All right, I look forward to that.

Uh those were actually a lot of my questions, and as you were saying that, I saw a lot of nods in the uh in the budget area.

So I'm glad to see that.

Uh so I guess uh to follow up on that, when we come in on September 18th, and this is my first one, so I've not done it before, but will there be an agenda where there'll be recommendations?

Should we come with some like what what can we do to be best prepared for that?

Right.

So we'll a lot of that's gonna happen with the consultant beforehand in these conversations that they're gonna have with you one-on-one.

Um, we're still working through that.

So some more information will be coming.

We'll do our best to keep you informed and communicate with all, you know, all of that.

Our hope is that when we come together on September 18th, the consultant has spent some time with you all, summarize all of that, and we're ready to yeah, have an agenda and go ahead and get to work.

But the exact agenda I don't have at the moment.

Okay, but as soon as we do, we'll send it and we are gonna have that one-on-one scheduled at some point.

Yes, I hope to have it.

Scheduled very soon.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

And also, I thought we appreciate that you went quickly.

It's all totally fine.

I think even putting the note down is more than I can do.

So good job.

All right, what's it?

Well, thank you.

You did a great job.

Thanks for having me.

You know, well, thank you.

And we'll we'll you'll be hearing from us soon.

So we hope to have those uh phone calls very soon.

So thank you so much.

All right, our next uh presentation.

Should we do fully so we can get back to work?

Yeah, we well, let's madam chief.

I I'm I know the string you all have, so you're just waiting.

Let's get you all in and out.

So uh let's uh let's go with you all right.

So good afternoon, Mayor, our council, um CD City leadership, uh everyone that's present here today.

Um my name is Patrice Andrews.

I am your chief of police, and we'll be presenting to you your 2025 second quarter crime report.

Before I do that, I do want to recognize um two new members of our team in our public affairs unit, um, Alicia Banks and Sydney Breeze.

They are two two two new team members that are doing quite well already.

That they uh that they are doing quite well already.

We have zero concerns about them.

All right, next slide, please.

All right, as you know, our uh crime report covers part one uh violent and property crime.

And so you'll see here as you've kind of heard national trends and even some local conversation um about violent crime being down.

And so this is reflected here in our numbers and overall violent crime being down, nearly 20%.

And so I'll just take each one or just take some high points from these numbers.

So um homicide, um, if you'll see our homicide total um through the second quarter, we there were 19 reportable homicides, and so 17 um of those were criminal homicides with a domestic with one of those being a domestic violence incident.

And then to date, we've had um 20 um 25 reportable homicides.

Two of those unfortunately have been domestic violence related incidents.

So we've seen a shift in some of those cases going down, reduction in the number of cases at each report.

And so we don't really know why that there's now been a shift, and we've seen a reduction.

However, we still continue to encourage people to call, victims to call and report.

So 23% of the reported offenses occurred in prior years.

So we were talking about last year, year before, even five, six years before or longer.

16% of the reported offenses did involve intimate partners or known partners.

And eight of the 17 clearances were reported in prior years.

So what does that mean?

That means if you have been a victim of sexual assault, you can still make a report.

It's never too late because you just don't know where that case will lead and whether or not we will make an arrest, but we do end up making arrests on belated cases.

So our robberies.

So again, those robberies are trending down 8%.

Our commercial and individual robberies are both down in this category.

Individual robberies are down about 11%, and commercials down 7%.

Interesting to note here is 85% of those commercial robberies, those were actually from retail businesses.

So think you know, organized retail theft, that kind of thing.

Now our aggravated assault offenses, we always we that's one of the categories we we appreciate trending downward.

So we've had fewer incidents this year.

As a matter of fact, it's been about a 16% reduction.

But also to note, in previously, we've had incidents where we've had fewer but more victims.

What we're seeing here is that we're having fewer victims per incident.

Um the 26% of those incidents, unfortunately, were domestic.

74 of those incidents were non-domestic.

So whether they uh they knew the person or it was a stranger.

57% of all of our aggravated assaults involved firearms, there were a total of about 57 gunshot wounds overall.

Next, please.

Thank you.

So this is uh just a series of of charts that we like to provide to you just so you can just visually see where we are year over year at about a 10-year average or so.

And so the chart that you see here is our violent crimes through the second quarter, and it's measured over 10 years.

Um crime is variable, and there's also seasonal components to crime, with the second quarter averaging about 11% more violent crimes versus the the second versus the first quarter.

So if you look homicide is always our blue line at the bottom, you see that it's it's not always variable, so there's not a large variation in homicides.

Where you will notice uh the two crimes that we do have, robbery and aggravated assaults are generally the ones that you will see really make a noticeable up-down trend.

So aggravated assaults, highly variable.

Um, however, this year was the lowest uh total over the 10-year period, and then intimate partner domestic violence incidents were about average with 26% of the total, normally 26% as were incidents with firearms.

The robberies is that green line again.

Um we're we're we're trending steadily in our robberies, and that does bode out in the reduction that we've seen in both individual and commercial um robberies.

So you'll have in front of you before we go to the next slide.

Um, you have in front of you the um it there was a request for just a little bit more information about our violent crime rate.

Um, and what you see in front of you is um from FY 12, 13 forward to now to present, this is our rate per 100,000 um residents.

And so as we have noticed, violent crime is trending downward.

Now I do want to just kind of put a little asterisk there and just say to you is what you're seeing is not a result of necessarily a citywide trend.

Okay, because we know that our violent crime is not confined to necessarily one area of the city.

So it's it's not a standard reduction across the city.

But I do want you just to kind of be aware of that.

And I say all that because I think the perception of violent crime as it relates to our numbers trending downward.

If you live in a community where you are most affected by violent crime, right, you are going to, when we present these numbers and see it's down, you're obviously going to say that it's not.

Not in my area, it's not.

Somewhere else it may be, but not in my area.

And so when we we start to talk about on a whole of per 100,000 people, I think we do need to keep that in mind.

Okay, I think I'm okay.

So these are our shooting incidents from January to June.

Again, person shot, shooting incidents, all of those are trending, um have trended downward.

The number of persons shot decreased by 33.6%, and then we've observed those reductions in both fatal and non-fatal injuries, again, as referring back to our overall violent crime trends.

There were 426 firearms seized through the second quarter.

So we're seizing more firearms through the second quarter because we're down in those seizures 22 percent.

Um but these did come from less incidents also, about 326 um incidents total in which there were firearms seized.

So that's just shy of two guns per incident.

Okay.

All right, so this is our cumulative gunshot wounds, both fatal and non-fatal wounds by week and year, and that goes from calendar year 2020 all the way to where we are now.

So as you'll see, the yellow line represents where we are, and so the yellow line seems to be trending right along with where we were in um in 2023.

And so 2023 did have the fewest total gunshot wounds with 207.

The most and the highest, as you see, is the gray line there was in 2020, and then year over year declines have occurred since then.

The 82 gunshot wounds that we did have through the second quarter were well below the trajectory of all prior years, with only 2023 being close to where we were.

As you can see, it's just aligned with where we are currently.

Okay.

And you know, I just want to note that 21 of those gunshot wounds were reported at the hospital.

So they drove a victim to the hospital, made the report.

Officers had to backtrack.

So let's take a look at part one property crime.

Um, it drives some of a crime here in the city.

Again, we're down overall in property in property crime by almost 4%.

So burglary, so through the second quarter, there were about 561 total burglary offenses.

54% of those uh burglaries were to residential locations, but that is down about 19% from where we were same quarter in 2024.

Uh power tools, they're the easiest things to steal.

People don't generally have serial numbers, and so those are the most common type of property that's being stolen.

Also, if there's a lot of construction, you're gonna see that as well.

So our Lars knees are trending downward just slightly.

Uh 37% of our Larsonese were from motor vehicles, and that is down.

30 percent, uh 37% of the Lars needs were also related to shopliftings as well.

And so we tend to see that the number of shops shopliftings.

Again, power tools, hand tools, those are the most common type of property stolen.

Motor vehicle theft, if you were a member, uh not too long ago, we were way over, and we are coming down in motor vehicle theft.

82% of the vehicles that we had stolen, uh, that does not include include attempted thefts or vehicles not registered, um, those have been recovered.

So we are recovering vehicles, but the trend is what we were finding, finding is that vehicles are being stolen, um, those vehicles are being used in a crime, they're being stashed somewhere, or they're being swapped out for another another car.

Umdays are again our most frequently stolen uh vehicle make, and then that's followed by Kia and Toyota.

Not a knock on any of these club, these car companies.

So it just is what it is.

So the chart here, this is our property crimes reported all the way from 2020 to 2025.

Again, it reflects what I've kind of just gone through.

Our Larcenies, you can see it, they they do, they are the biggest ones at Ebb and Flow.

And so our burglaries have trended steadily downward overall.

This year we had two offenses that were the lowest total since 2022.

And then residential burglaries were slightly lower than than average.

The burglaries to retail businesses were higher.

So again, that goes back to what we just talked about.

We did see we have seen some crime series and crime trends involving one particular group or two particular groups that were working together and that that drive some of our numbers that you see here.

Once they are apprehended in charge, which we have been able to do that, that really does help reduce the number of incidents that we are seeing overall.

Okay.

Okay, so this is this graph here represents our cumulative guns stolen week over week from 2020 all the way to June the 30th, 2025.

And so there is there has been a year-over-year increase in firearms being stolen since 2020.

We did have a pretty significant jump in 2024, was a almost 30% increase from the previous year.

Of all of the guns that we had stolen, 73% were from motor vehicles, and that is definitely significantly higher than the normal rate of about 56%, which is still even scary.

So and that was first quarter, but in second quarter, there were 51% of firearms that were stolen, were stolen from motor vehicles.

Of all guns stolen, um 68% in the first quarter, 68% were taken by breaking a window, nearly three times the normal rate.

That's shocking.

So we're seeing a reduction in how people are gaining access to vehicles and stealing those firearms.

So I want to move to clearance rate and go through this pretty quickly.

So we continue uh staff continues to clear many of these cases at a rate higher either there when when where we were last year or higher than the overall FBI rate.

And so the our homicide, if you'll see, we're clearing at 89%.

So as you remember, I believe it was first quarter we reported over 100% clearances.

That's because other cases were being cleared, kind of older cases, and it counts on this current year.

And then we also cleared an additional six uh additional six cold cases from 2023 and 2024.

Uh four clearances are pending right now, and so we're we're looking forward to getting those closed and folks charged.

So I do just want to take a moment to talk about some of the work that we've been doing around arrests and clearances as it relates to violent crimes.

Um our team has been very laser-focused on removing individuals from our community that have demonstrated that they are not responsive to diversion, they are not responsive to first, second, or third chances, and they are committed to a life of violence and crime.

And so we have worked very well with our federal partners through our task force officer program.

Um since January 1st, 2025 to August 1st, 2025, there have been 44 total federal case adoptions.

That's huge.

Um we have kept our district U.S.

attorney's office very busy, and um, and we do believe that that has led itself to a reduction of what we are typically seeing as crime trends that are generally higher.

And so our criminal investigations division since uh 20 uh for the past 24 months, they have themselves there have been 17 federal adoptions on cases.

So whether they're robbery cases, special victims units, so sexual assault cases, those have all been adopted federally.

So I'm extremely proud of the work that the team is doing in collaboration with our federal partners.

Next.

Let's talk about some really great news.

All right.

Um so I get really excited when I talk about this.

So our second quarter staffing.

So currently on a second quarter at the end of June, our staffing rate, as you see here, we were about 72% staffed.

Our sworn non-sworn was 88.4% staffed.

As I stand here today, I will tell you that we are currently at 75.2% staffed.

24.8% vacant, and that means a quick means 401 positions out of 533 are being filled.

How is that happening?

Because we have seen a tremendous turnaround in the size of our recruiting classes, as well as those folks that are actually coming and testing and showing interest in being a police officer.

Um in the area of recruiting and certainly retention and retaining staff.

We are extremely happy about where we're going.

We are going to be graduating an academy class this this soon this month.

That academy class is going to be graduating with 10 recruits, and that's BLET 61.

We started with 22.

We also started a new curriculum with the state of North Carolina.

Tremendous growing pains with that curriculum, and um, and so that's reflected in our numbers.

We have worked through that.

Our training staff has done a tremendous drop job of being resilient and adjusting, and we are hoping that we will be able to keep more of the class that is getting ready to start with 38.

We're starting with 38, and we have two laterals or ALET that are gonna be joining us as well.

So recruiting initiatives, we continue to work on our 30 by 30 initiative.

Um our Durham Bulls partnership as well as partnerships with our surrounding universities.

Um we staff have they formed a DPD run club that has QR code and advertisement.

Um we have officers that travel to certain um events and they run, they participate in certain events in like a uh 5K or even a little bit more than that, and it's and it's advertising, and they wear the shirts everywhere we go, we are branded DPD.

We also have an officer who plays in his downtime.

I believe I talked about this, um plays for the Glomojis, and he pitches, I think the first inning generally in a Durham Police Department uniform.

And so he's um he's throwing about 92 mile an hour ball.

So he's not bad, he's pretty good.

Um, so um I do want to also highlight the most significant highlights from our most recent recruiting efforts.

Um, it's projected to we have increased our Hispanic hires.

Um, we're rising from 10% for Academy 61 to this current academy of 13 percent, which is significant.

Um, our recruitment rate of female officers, we're still recruiting and retaining above the national average, which is 12%, but we are 15.8 percent, and so we are we are very happy at the work that's being done.

Um, we continue to work very hard with um our and doing outreach with our Spanish language um recruitment radio campaign through Lale and other media outlets, and so we do appreciate their ongoing partnership at well as well.

We believe that it is it is working and paying off.

All right, so again, just to take a look at our basic law enforcement training, it's since 2019.

This is kind of what it looks like.

We we start and where we finish.

So the blue line is where we start at, the orange line is where we finish, and um we are seeing now the largest academies that we have seen since um 2019, and so um it's commendable.

We are extremely excited.

Our officers are thankful and excited about what's happening.

We are having new events for focused around mentoring and really embracing our new officers that are coming in so that they stay with us for the long haul.

And with that, I will say thank you for your time, and I will take any questions.

Thanks.

It's quite impressive.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Cook.

Um, thank you, Chief Andrews, for that uh presentation.

Um, I have a couple follow-up questions.

The first is you talked about um not being a citywide trend, and so I was wondering if there was a breakdown.

I think we had talked about it last time, specific neighborhoods.

Um I saw that graph, but I didn't feel like that was maybe.

Yes, we can reusable for we can send that to you.

We did not put it in this particular report, but we can get that and just kind of send that.

Okay.

Yes, I'd like to see it.

And then we talked some about specific victims in the first quarter, and didn't hear anything about that here.

So I wanted to follow up on a couple things.

So the first was that we had there was a string of Latinx folks that were targeted.

And so, and you said that that was a lot of times that there was someone apprehended, I believe, in that in that situation.

And so we've seen a decrease in that, I'm hoping.

So we are still seeing there is a there is a decrease, but we're still seeing that there's a disproportional impact with our Hispanic and Latinx uh victims.

Um 30% of our individual robberies through the second quarter have one plus such victim.

And um, but it was normal, uh, lower than normally what we've had.

So we're seeing a decrease, and it happens in so it there it happens in pockets in spans of time, and um, and and this is again the trend, the groups that that do this work, and so we're quickly able to identify those trends, get some of the information out, and we're ultimately able to make arrests which stop that particular trend.

Okay.

What and you said 30% is is down from our 38%.

Yeah, thanks.

Yes, you're welcome.

And then I saw that there was something about ages in the big report.

Um juvenile offenses.

Um and so I was wondering if you could speak to that a bit.

So our our juveniles, we're seeing um more juveniles that are are committing more serious crimes.

So our juveniles um are it's a disturbing pattern, but our juveniles are are they not committing what I call minor offenses, the ones that you know would it's it's okay.

Well, you know, you we can divert you, we can do these things.

Um we're seeing juveniles that are that are um you know committing crime, violent crimes to include homicide.

And it's very troubling.

Uh we we are catching um juveniles.

We actually recently had um a juvenile that um had been participated in the shooting at of the troopers that juvenile re-offended twice.

Um we were we and were found with multiple guns each time, and we end up also charging that juvenile's parent as well of participating in the behavior.

So it's it's unfortunate, but that's that's what we're seeing with the violent crimes.

And what about victims in that regard?

Yeah, so we're seeing victims uh mostly the ages are a little bit older, so 18 to 21 and older victim range.

Um we're not seeing as many juvenile victims, so to speak, uh, but they are also very young adults.

Sorry to end on a bad note.

It's I appreciate that.

Those are my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Those were a couple of my questions as well.

Um I appreciate you sharing that about about young people and the work uh that we need to do uh around around that important issue.

Um very troubling, I think is the right way to put it.

Um I wanted to ask just one question, uh, which is uh around the hiring of officers, um, and congratulations on on the class.

Um when we're recruiting uh four for new officers, is there any incentive for recruiting of uh people who have skill sets that are relevant to the job, for example, social workers or other folks with those kinds of skill sets.

Is there any incentive for those or or uh are we mostly just recruiting folks who who are on the younger side um physically fit and out of college?

Um yeah, so I I you know I I we do not have specific um incentives for certain um courses of study that they may have taken in college or even life specializations, right?

We don't we don't have we're not doing that um right now our our incentives are pretty broad that focus around language incentives and recruiting um our veterans and bringing folks on in that way, however, one of the things that we do when we're doing the hiring process and even going through the pre-hires, we do talk about um the work that we're doing with heart.

However, one of the things that we do when we're doing the hiring process and even going through the pre-hires, we do talk about the work that we're doing with heart.

We do talk about that because we do work as a co-response team and with crisis intervention.

That is a large part of what we do.

And we certainly want to be able to draw in by having those conversations.

Potential candidates that can see themselves doing that and working in that way.

So and your second question or your third question.

Was that did I answer that?

Yeah, that was.

I want to make sure I got it on.

No, that was my question.

That was my question.

I think I think just uh commentary.

I think having having a police academy and our ability to instill Durham values uh through that training.

Um I think that's uh incredibly useful.

So that we're not just turning to recruiting um officers and from other places and other localities and other states and play and states that have uh more troubling cultures in their in their their departments.

And I think that because of that, wrote years of of amazing work and your work um and and the leadership that that we've seen from the Durham Police Department.

I think it's very unique the the culture that has been built in that department, and I think that's something that we need to hold on to and cherish and and nurture and continue to to build.

So thank you for your work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions as I'm just saying thank you.

I appreciate um the highlight on Latino officers.

I know that that's always a challenge and something that you've you and your staff have worked really diligently on.

So just wanted to appreciate that.

Thank you.

Just similarly, I just wanted to welcome Alicia Brian.

Thanks.

Thanks.

And and Sydney Breeze.

Um be interested to see what it is you're doing.

But yes, congratulations and congratulations on your numbers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor.

Um, thanks, Chief.

Uh, thanks for the report.

Um obviously the high-level numbers are super encouraging.

I know these numbers can go up and down, but I I know that when the numbers are not looking good, we are critical of you and your team.

So like you you deserve a lot of the you deserve credit for the numbers going down because it's a great report.

So you know, you you deserve the when the good news is the good, you need to get the the the uh the uh accolation accolades.

So thank you for that.

Um it is also, I mean, obviously it's you know, at a moment where this issue is being politicized, let's be honest about that, in the nation's capital.

These numbers we are not unlike other cities that are seeing these numbers go down.

So it's it's quite sad that that's what's going on at the federal level.

I certainly hope and pray that that that this is not what's gonna happen to Durham, right?

So um I'm I'm concerned about that as a lot of us are.

So I just wanted to name that.

Um I do have a couple of questions.

I also want to thank you.

I mean, the the clearance rates are quite astounding, quite impressive there.

So I want to thank you and your staff.

I know a bunch of us went on a tour of the forensics lab, which I'm sure is part of that.

So that's like that's amazing work, and you deserve a lot of credit for that.

So thank you.

Um the one question I have is that for the I know we've talked a lot in the past about guns being stolen from cars.

And I know that we've talked about how do we get the word out to folks to make sure their their guns are kept safe and not sort of open to someone to open the door or knocking on the window, but it seems like that's still a challenge.

Is there anything else we can be?

Well, I'm sure you're thinking about what else we could do to address that.

Any any thoughts on that one?

Well, you know, um, we actually put on a gun safety kind of a mini course um after hours.

It was uh a couple of weeks ago, and we had some of our firearms instructors that that came in and um we opened it up to our our our residents and um they came in and they were able to kind of get a crash course on um responsible gun ownership, responsible gun handling, what does this look like on a gun?

What does that you know what is what what are you responsible for when you're a gun owner?

And one of the biggest things is securing firearms.

And um, and so we're we're hoping uh to to continue that and doing that kind of little mini clinic regularly.

And um, and so staff will be will be getting some feedback from that and seeing if that was effective.

Um I really wish more people would have signed up and maybe we need to figure out is it you know, because it was on a certain day or certain in an evening, do we need to do, I don't know.

Um, but we've got to figure it out because I do think that we we potentially could do more um in that space, but um the the folks that we did have show up.

I'm hopeful that it gave them a different perspective on that weapon that they have.

Thank you for that.

I hope our comms department again is helping the police department on that one to get the word out.

So thank you again.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chief.

Thank you.

This is uh this is when I say thank you, I mean thank you to you and your entire team.

Um I will say uh to all of the uh well only CBS 17 is here.

Thanks for coming and reporting on this, Ben.

Uh, but I'll say to all of the media, uh, no butts, no butts.

Um is down, but no, we are trending in the right way.

It's not down enough, but we are trending the right way.

And I know that a lot of this, you know, we're we're we're reporting this in a reactionary way.

This is the last quarter.

Um, you know, it's partly of what's going on in the department, it's part of nonprofits out there doing amazing work.

It's partly, you know, just innovative policies such as heart, and it's it's holistic, you know, it's it's multiple things.

Um and based on what we have coming up, I know that it's gonna get even better with you know, homeless services being addressed through our community safety department and um, you know, and just some of the more boots on the ground um response work that we're gonna be doing around young people.

Uh, thanks for the the graphic that showed where the shots are happening.

I would like to, and and I want to be careful about this because I don't want to have unintentional redlining of communities because we're um and I feel like this is where you were kind of going as well, Council Member Cook.

We want to know that information.

Where is it happening?

But I don't want to unintentionally redline a community because we put in a public setting.

Oh, don't go to this neighborhood because look look at this graphic in city council's meeting.

Uh I I'm conscious of how we communicate information on the public record.

Um I'm gonna think a little bit more about that.

Uh uh, so thanks for that graphic.

I do want more specific information.

I think where Council Member Cook was going, but I want to be sensitive to how we communicate that, if you know what I mean.

Um something else I'd like to see more.

Um I'd like to see the ages.

Um of the offense, the valor crime offenders.

Uh, and I I think having the age range, uh, you know, not even the age rank, like this, the hard data of the ages per case, um, not identity, but ages.

I think that will help us uh as we're trying to have this more collaborative working uh relationship with our schools and the county uh to be uh more targeted in this uh this this proposal that's gonna come soon uh to to for us to consider on how we address youth use violence.

Um I I'm I'm I'm grateful to see the numbers up in the recruitment classes.

This community went through a lot, you know, and and you know, with the outcry of defund the police, I know where that came from, and I think that we Durham did a really good job at responding to it.

It it didn't really mean defund.

Some people did, yes, some people wanted to get rid of y'all, but what it really meant was how do we have the right response at the right time to the right situations, and and I think that Durham has done a really good job at you know responding to that, and and now we're a national leader in it.

Uh and we're still evolving, you know.

Uh, so I think that we're on a really good pathway trending in the right direction right now.

Um, but we we can do even better.

And I think the better we get at this, the more people are going to watch and want to uh try and conceptualize in their own communities what we've been able to do here.

Uh and and part of it is having you know a police force that that's not only protecting or serving certain individuals, or you know, losing their temperature and you know, uh losing control and locking someone up, you know.

Uh I I just really admire the personal relationships that our officers uh build with community members.

Um something between you and Councilmember Baker's conversation struck out about Durham values.

And I I would love to see, you know, I you said it.

People are wanting to join the force for multiple reasons now.

They may want to do the work that we do with heart.

I think that's phenomenal, you know.

Like that is that is so like the fact that you can join a law enforcement and have diverse options of engagement, you know, and it's not just homicide or investigative work, it's it's more it's community work.

Uh that being said, I would love to see, you know, even whether it's marketing or um whatever type of support from us, um, you know, like getting the PALS program back or you know, just getting the numbers back to the point where we could, you know, where the officers were able to go and do the back to school shopping and um uh and I'm not sure if it's stopped, but I know that's it hasn't we still do that.

We just finished up camps and it's been good.

Good, good house and that pals is year-round.

Okay, perfect.

So I I want to personally be able to promote more of that, and and I think that if if it's promoted, um you know spots if the need is there, then we need to create spots.

Um it's a phenomenal program, just changes it it it has a positive view on law enforcement here in Durham.

Yes, you know, and that's something that that we just do very well, and I want to make sure we're promoting the good work that's that's been done, you know.

Uh, and I don't want folks looking at our law enforcement officers thinking that all we're doing is running around locking people up because that's not what happens in Durham, you know.

Uh so I I want to show all of what we're capable of.

Uh and and so I'm just taking this moment to appreciate what has been done, what it's been doing, and what is possible, and and my commitment to help them to you know uh to push those things.

So if someone wants to apply and work for the department so they can do more community-based work, I think that's just phenomenal.

I don't think that's happening anywhere else.

Yeah, so uh yeah, go ahead.

I just wanted to acknowledge you know, this has been a really great conversation, and I think sometimes we also miss that while heart was a critical part of that.

A lot of the work started a long time ago.

I think when what the reason we were able to respond to George Floyd in a different way was that we were already doing the hard work in Durham and had been.

Uh there had already been deep reform in our police department, we already had uh written consent to search, we'd already done a lot of the things that communities, uh yeah, no chase uh policy, things like that.

And so we are seeing lots of incredible, you know, the kind of benefits at the end.

Uh, and it took 10, 12 years, and so sometimes residents, especially when they're new, they don't know that history necessarily.

So it's just when we think about housing and we think about other things that are very hard and very you know, it's systemic, it's hard.

Funding is always uh tight.

We are dealing in a state with not great partners at the state level.

Um, and so it's just a highlight that it to see the kind of fruition of work takes a long, long time.

And I know that that's frustrating for residents, but I do think when I when I think about community safety in particular in Durham, how well we've done, and I'm gonna knock on wood and the ecosystem that's been created here, and that took a lot of thought partners, it took a lot of talent.

I think that that's another piece.

Who the players are and how they interact and how well they work together is a critical component of our success, and I do actually attribute that to you, uh, a lot of that to you, Chief Andrews.

So, and the staff that you lead in the team that you built.

So, I just want to push that out for residents, especially that yes, we we deserve our win here, but it took a lot of work and uh it wasn't easy.

And and I I think you just hit the nail on the head.

Uh institutional knowledge is gonna be so key.

Um the president of the United States has made it very clear that uh mid-sized to major-sized cities that have a black mayor, they're coming after.

That that that is just that's that's not me, that's not faded fodder or anything.

That is on the record.

Um, you look at the cities here that he's named, it's us, you know, and um, but to council member Calviro's point to the work that's been done, I think more now more than ever.

So whoever's in communications for the police department and our communications department, get ready to run the gamut, get ready to itemize everything that's happened and evolved into our department because when they bring that crap to the bull city, we're gonna make sure we make sure that they know what has been done here and how we are trending down with all of this, and it takes it it does take a community effort.

It takes a very holistic approach.

We're not there yet, but we are trending the right direction.

We are going to get better at it, and I think that we're better positioned than most because we've done so much, and it has been a long time coming, but I think we are reforming the way community safety looks.

And um, so let's let's just get ready to itemize that list what the uh what the evolution looks like in every day officer, every employee of our law enforcement should be proud to be to be able to um say I was a part of this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, so are we too are we good?

Do we need to take a quick break?

We have one more presentation of y'all that want to keep pushing through.

Recording stopped.

All right.

Oh.

One, two, three, four.

I just saw these ones.

I'm seeing my job.

Carmel and white cheddar mix that I can't eat because of my design.

And Councilburg Baker can't either.

So if you all want to go in there and grab some, please chop the hill toffee is in there.

All right.

Um Paterson.

Thank you.

And we're excited for this opportunity to speak with you about our community-led vision for the Durham Freeway.

I'll speak a little bit about the community engagement strategy and findings, and then I'll turn over to Aaron to walk you through some corridor options for your consideration.

A little bit about the project purpose.

The goal of the reimagined Durham Freeway study is to develop a vision of the future of the corridor that acknowledges and evaluates the impacts of the freeways construction and reimagines the corridor as a space that reconnects communities and reflects the values of the residents of Durham.

Neighborhoods like the original Hayti was a thriving hub and powerhouse of black owned businesses and institutions.

This self-sufficient community represented economic strength, uh cultural pride and community and community resilience, but policies and government decisions like redlining and urban renewal labeled Hayti and other black neighborhoods as blighted.

And in the 1970s, the construction of NC 147 destroyed and severed these communities, displacing over 500 businesses and 4,000 families, including the complete destruction of the Brookstown neighborhood in the West End.

Promises were made to replace homes and businesses, but those promises were never kept.

The freeway remains a physical barrier and a reminder of the loss to the vital communities of our great city.

To illustrate what we mean about when we talk about reconnection and the importance of it, the map on the screen shows the current Durham Freeway corridor in yellow, overlaid on Durham Street grid prior to the freeway's construction.

Each dot represents a location where there was once an opportunity to cross the freeway, connecting neighborhoods, businesses, and schools, and places of worship.

Of the 50 crossings, uh crossing locations, 34 were eliminated, and only 16 remain today, those in green.

At that time, NC DOT had proposed a project to modernize the Durham Freeway, uh, given that the aging facility is reaching its end of its the end of its useful life.

Um the Move Durham study recommended postponing that project so that a comprehensive study for the freeway could inform any future projects.

And more recently, in 2023, the Durham Comprehensive Plan was adopted to guide future land use in Durham.

This planning includes a policy recommendation to support and resource a community-led effort to re remediate past harms from the development of the freeway.

So these plans have both shaped the work you will see today.

We'll talk a little bit about the project team.

Um the reimagined Durham Freeway Study, which is branded pathways to connection, has been led by the city transportation department.

Uh, we also contracted with Idealisms and Be Connected Durham to lead the development of the of an engagement strategy for the project, building upon their deep-rooted relationships and trust within the communities most impacted by the Durham Freeway.

Our technical team, led by WSP and several sub-consultant firms, includes planners, engineers, and analysts who were able to translate that community vision into feasible data-informed solutions.

These members reviewed key milestones, evaluated corridor options, and provided critical feedback to align the work, um, our work with broader broader policy goals.

Uh NC Dor NC DOT involved in this, um their involvement in the study was critical as they own the freeway uh facility.

Uh we met with NC DOT outside of the technical committee meetings to ensure regular communication and uh feedback on the project.

Uh, we'd also like to uh recognize the Triangle West Transportation Planning Organization, which provided federal funding for the study uh under the unified uh planning work program.

Institutional stakeholders also played a key role in this effort.

Um, these include representatives from Durham's educational institutions, nonprofits, businesses, and civic organizations.

Um of these uh organizations, such as Durham's Community Land Trust, Durham Chamber of Commerce, uh Heytai Reburn Reborn, and Discover Durham among many others.

They have brought valuable perspectives from the organizations that shape daily lives in Durham and have helped us to increase the participation and build the trust and also advocate for the project.

A little bit about the timeline.

We were intentional and began by listening to the community to gathering stories and concerns and aspirations rather than the traditional transportation approaches of coming in with predetermined solutions and asking for feedback that input shape the development of the corridor, which we've refined through continued engagement and technical analysis.

And so we're here to share those options with you today.

The next step is to finalize a community-led vision with your input.

I want to take a moment to also thank members from our public engagement committee comprised of grassroots community leaders and engagement ambassadors who helped uh shape our engagement materials and connected us with events to help us work within existing community networks.

In our first phase of engagement, we gathered information about people's experiences, uh, opportunities and challenges to the freeway.

Um we did so by collecting surveys and also in-person conversations with residents at community events.

And what we heard was that people's biggest concerns were about safety and limited mobility options for physically crossing the freeway.

The major themes that started to emerge were uh how can we reimagine a Durham Freeway to create better connections and crossings?

How can we reinvest in communities impacted by the freeways construction?

And how can we envision a freeway that is designed or even removed?

A little technical issues there.

Okay.

And so as we move through that listening to shaping phase, uh, we introduced a corridor treatment toolbox.

Uh this this toolbox is a set of ideas and strategies that reflect what we heard from the community, and it helped us frame around five focus areas history and belonging, safety, mobility, sustainability, and again, that equitable land use.

Um, these values, these are the values that mattered most to the residents, and it's the lens through which that we um have used to evaluate the future options of the corridor.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Aaron to walk you through some of those corridor options.

Thank you, Evan.

Um, as Evan mentioned, my name is Aaron Conbury, Transportation Planning Manager with the Transportation Department.

Thank you for having us today.

So you just heard from Evian about some of the community priorities that we learned about through our initial phases of engagement.

Those priorities, along with robust technical feasibility analysis, fed into the development of three corridor options that each reflect a different approach to reimagining the Durham Freeway.

The options range from transforming the Durham Freeway into an at-grade urban boulevard to capping the Durham Freeway with land bridges to modernizing the Durham Freeway while reducing its footprint.

Each option is scalable in the phasing of improvements, timing of implementation, and flexibility to incorporate elements from other options into some sort of hybrid approach.

This flexibility ensures that the vision can adapt over time, balancing technical feasibility with those priorities we heard from residents and stakeholders.

I want to mention that these options are at the visioning stage.

We're not yet looking at detailed designs, but starting points for our discussion today.

Additionally, I'll note that the visuals associated with each option that you'll see throughout the presentation, focus on the central portion of the corridor, but the final vision plan will include recommendations corridor-wide.

So our first option that we'll take a look at explores conversion of the Durham Freeway into an urban boulevard.

This concept would transform the corridor by removing the limited access freeway that we have today and replacing it with a surface street that includes things like sidewalks and transit access.

It would reconnect neighborhoods that were divided and could potentially open up land for housing, parks, and other community spaces.

This option supports all five focus areas by reshaping land use and transportation along the corridor.

It honors history by reclaiming some of the footprint of Hayti and other neighborhoods and reconnecting the historical street grid.

It also improves safety with slower speeds and better crossings for all users, and promotes equitable land use and sustainability by creating space for community centered development and green space.

Here we see a planned view of what a boulevard conversion could look like in the downtown area, highlighting the types of things we heard from residents that residents would like to see in the future of the corridor that this option could accommodate.

These are not meant to be prescriptive, but to show the types of things that we heard from folks.

Notably, this option could reclaim up to 20 to 22 acres of land, offering opportunities for reinvestment.

To understand how travel patterns would shift under the boulevard conversion option, we used the triangle regional model, which is a regional planning tool that simulates travel demand and behavior.

The model shows that regional trips, including freight traffic that currently use the Durham Freeway, would largely shift to I 885 and I 85 around downtown Durham.

The result would be a boulevard corridor that prioritizes local access, safety, and community connection while maintaining regional mobility through the surrounding highway network.

To help visualize what a boulevard conversion could look like, we turned to Rochester, New York, where the city removed a segment of I-490 known as the Inner Loop East.

Originally built in the 1950s, the inner loop was a sunken expressway that divided downtown from surrounding neighborhoods, creating a barrier to connection safety and economic growth.

In response, Rochester removed a two-thirds mile segment and replaced it with a walkable boulevard.

This transformation reclaimed six acres of land, enabled over 500 new housing units, 60% of which are affordable, and reconnected neighborhoods that have been separated for decades.

The project also improved safety, eliminated outdated infrastructure, and created new intersections that support local access and economic development.

Rochester is currently working on plans for removal of the next segment of the loop.

So our next option explores the use of freeway caps, sometimes called land bridges, to reconnect neighborhoods across the Durham Freeway, building over the highway and key locations to create new public spaces and crossings.

This option also incorporates certain freeway upgrades to improve Durham Freeway operations and the replacement of aging bridge structures, ensuring the corridor continues to function efficiently for regional travel.

Three potential cap locations have been identified along the corridor, including Fayetteville Street, Mangum Street, and further west at Duke Street.

In terms of land use, this option offers the opportunity to create between three to 25 acres of space above and adjacent to the caps, depending on selection and phasing.

This opens the door to potential land reuse and development opportunities on the caps for parks, plazas, and community facilities directly above what is now the Durham Freeway.

This approach supports history and belonging by creating both symbolic and functional reconnections where the caps are constructed, as well as neighborhood gateway opportunities.

The caps also create new green spaces that would foster social connection and provide environmental benefits.

From a safety perspective, new bridge structures and caps enhance access for walking, biking, and transit in specific areas.

This map highlights the travel pattern considerations that are shared both by the freeway cap option that we just saw and the freeway modernization option that we'll see in just a bit.

In each case, the existing Durham Freeway remains a limited access corridor.

That means that the travel model shows that the regional traffic, including commuters and freight, would continue to use the Durham Freeway as they do today.

So this strategy balances that regional mobility along the corridor with re-establishing local connections that were lost during its construction.

To help visualize this option, let's take a look at the Central 70 project in Denver.

In this case, the Colorado Department of Transportation replaced a section of elevated Interstate 70 that previously divided neighborhoods in North Denver with a lowered section of highway and built a four-acre park above.

This park reconnects neighborhoods and provides space for recreation and community events.

The Central 70 project also included improvements to stormwater management, air quality, and noise reduction to mitigate environmental justice issues in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Lastly, we have the freeway modernization option, which retains the Durham Freeway through downtown while tightening its existing footprint and updating its infrastructure to improve vehicle flow and safety while offering safer crossings on reconstructed over and under passes.

It's an approach that aligns more closely with the former NCDOT project that Evian mentioned for the future of the corridor.

From the plan view visual, you can see that while the Durham Freeway remains in place, this option allows for a reduction to its footprint in the downtown area by tightening the overall cross section into the northern portion of the current corridor.

This could reclaim approximately 14 acres of land in the existing right-of-way, creating opportunities for green infrastructure and stormwater improvements, and the potential for a linear park, which would offer opportunities for walking, gathering, and reconnecting neighborhoods along the corridor rather than across it.

Overall, the modernization option maintains the freeway's function as a regional connector, but does not fully address some of the physical and social barriers that were created when the freeway was constructed.

Next slide.

Thanks.

So to envision a freeway modernization, we looked nearby to the I-40 business reconstruction project in Winston-Salem.

Prior to its reconstruction, the corridor already had a more compact footprint compared to the existing Durham Freeway, opening up consideration of how a smaller footprint could be implemented here in Durham.

Led by NCDOT in partnership with the City of Winston-Salem, the project was completed in 2020 using state, local, and private funding.

The effort included replacement of bridges, reconfigure of reconfiguration of interchanges, and construction of wider sidewalks, a multi-use path through downtown, and two signature pedestrian bridges.

This project offers a useful reference as we consider how to update infrastructure in ways that serve both regional mobility and local community needs in partnership with NCDOT.

So what have we heard about these options?

This summer we brought these ideas back to the community at pop-up engagement events across the city.

We heard the strongest positive sentiment for the Boulevard and Freeway Cap options.

Comments regarding the boulevard highlighted opportunities for reconnecting communities, increasing walkability, and shifting away from an auto-centric downtown.

While concerns included traffic congestion and who would ultimately benefit from the project.

For the freeway cap, participants liked that this option creates new public space to honor neighborhood legacy while retaining the mobility offered by freeway access.

However, there were concerns about cost and long-term maintenance of elevated structures.

Overall, the freeway modernization was seen as a less transformative vision, although better than what is there today.

From a high level, regardless of the options, we heard that there is a strong preference for a future corridor that supports affordable housing, access to transit, and equitable development, and that minimizes displacement of existing residents and businesses.

This will be a critical policy consideration as any project development continues.

So now we circle back to our five community focus areas from the toolbox, each scored using a variety of qualitative and quantitative metrics to provide a preliminary evaluation of each option.

The boulevard conversion option aligns most closely with the focus areas based on features such as reconnections of the street network and the potential for community investment in newly created parstals, which could include opportunities for affordable housing and black-owned businesses.

The freeway cap is next, driven by factors such as opportunities for gathering spaces that honor legacy and foster cultural connections, as well as creation of green infrastructure, stormwater management, and safer crossings.

Lastly, we see the freeway modernization, which performs well in maintaining regional traffic flow and improving some safety features, but does not offer as many opportunities for repairing the disconnections created by the highway's construction.

Additionally, as you've probably noted, this table shows rough order of magnitude cost estimates for each option.

These numbers are based on preliminary vision level concepts and would be refined in any future phases of study, but potential costs range from approximately 350 million for three freeway modernization to 450 million for boulevard conversion.

Looking at the freeway cap option, you'll see a large range of costs from approximately 450 million to 800 million or more, depending on the number and phasing of those caps.

So as we conclude today's presentation, we look ahead to next steps, the next steps for the reimagined Durham Freeway study.

The project team will be finalizing a vision plan that reflects the values, priorities, and lived experiences shared by the community throughout this process, as well as your feedback.

We will also continue coordination with NCDOT and engagement with our stakeholders.

To this end, the city has been in conversation with institutional partners who are well positioned to convene convene and facilitate discussions on future phases of study, such as Durham Next.

So before we wrap up, I'd like to ask Tara Kenshin, the executive director of Durham Next, to say a few words about their role in next steps.

Good afternoon, Mayor Williams, Council leadership.

Thank you for having me.

Um as you know, my name is Tara Kinchin.

I know Aaron said that, and I am the new executive director for Durham Next, so I'm happy to be here.

Um as you know, Durham Next has been formed to serve as community partnership building organization to help move forward projects that enhance our community.

Um we haven't taken a position yet on which of the three options were presented, but we have an interest in partnering with the city's transportation department to further explore components of the project that align with the destination master plan and advanced Durham as the best place to live, work, and to visit.

So if it would be helpful, Durham Next is willing to work with the staff of the transportation department to convene a group of transportation stakeholders that would include the city, NCDOT, RTA, Triangle West, and others, to explore the engineering and financial feasibility of the project and to define next steps, next steps.

These next steps can assess the options in terms of viability, opportunity, and cost, and alignment from the partners whose participation and support will be critical as we move any project forward.

Um and then that information can be brought back to council in follow-up reports on the project.

Thank you.

Um I'll turn this back over to Aaron.

Thank you, Tara.

And to Mr.

Mayor and Council, thank you all for your time today.

Your support and feedback helps us move forward with a vision plan that honors Durham's past and helps us build a more connected future.

We also know that there was a lot of information that was shared today, both in the presentation and materials attached to the memo.

Um so once you've had more time with the materials, you're also welcome to share any additional input with the city manager who will work with staff to ensure council priorities are reflected in the final vision plan.

With that, we are happy to answer any questions you may have today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues.

Councilmember Cook.

Um, thank you.

That was a great presentation.

Thanks to you both for that information.

Um can you can you give us a timeline for the final vision plan?

Yeah, so I think um some of that depends a little bit on what these next steps look like with a potential partnership with um Durham Next, but overall, we will be taking feedback that we get from council, and we are working on develop, you know, all the prior pieces of the project that have will go into the division plan that Pete, those pieces are being worked on now.

I think the remaining question is if the vision plan will include a preferred alternative, and so some of the feedback we hear today and in future conversations will help inform that timeline.

Um, but right now we're aiming for end of calendar year.

Okay, I'm sorry, I think I'm a bit confused.

So my understanding of the final vision plan was that we're I guess I don't understand why there needs we need to know if there's going to be a partnership or not for the for the timing of this of this vision plan because this is a we're working, we're looking at the things that have already been done with all the steps that you showed us in those.

So we could go ahead and and proceed and finalize vision plan by end of calendar year as those conversations continue.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay, so not exclusive.

Um yeah, I guess I guess I'm immediately struck because every time that someone has talked to me about this, they have called it a freeway cap.

And um, and now I'm looking at this, and I'm like, okay, this conversion.

Um I mean, I think this chart is is really telling it's the same or on the earlier end of expense of a freeway cap and it's meeting all of our local focus goals.

Um, in wait, like it's it looks like it kind of blows everything else out of the water.

And and I know you kind of said that there were two projects that were liked more, but I mean, in terms of the popularity and and feedback from the community, like the boulevard conversion seems like it has almost double of the support of the freeway cap.

So I'm just this is not a critique or anything, and just a statement that I want to make, which is that I find it really interesting that this conversation has been called freeway cap when there's like another maybe even more viable option.

Um, and it and it makes me have a little bit of like trepidation because I'm like, what are what are the factors then that are going into why that has been the name that this project has been given?

And like if the community is saying something totally different, like what sort of like other voices are coming into that conversation.

So it's just something that I'm thinking about and just wanted to kind of say out loud.

Um because yeah, it's uh it's it's not that is not the name of this project, right?

And um, and so anyway, that's all.

So I think one thing I want to maybe mention there is I think there are a lot of conversations for years predating this project that have been about the future of the Durham freeway and in parallel with this project.

Um, this project, as Evan mentioned at the beginning, we tried to come in really intentionally without a preconceived notion of what the ultimate option coming out of this would be.

We tried to start with those community priorities.

So this project has not assumed a freeway cap as the intended outcome.

And so that's why we're here today sharing these three different options that all in different ways reflect some of those community priorities that we've heard.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks for that.

Okay.

I I was just gonna ask I know usually we get some information about who this study or who participated in the study.

Do you have that information?

Can you share that?

We do.

So we have um linked, I believe, in the memo, are our phase one and phase two engagement summaries, which include much more in-depth information about um how many folks uh demographics, what types of events and things like we that we participated in.

Um high level, I can share that our first round of engagement really was aimed at um a breadth approach.

Um we were trying to, we were out at a lot of community events, trying to share information about the project, do that listening um piece.

Um we then followed that with several more uh dedicated uh neighborhood community meetings that were intended to um when we got to the point of that toolbox that Evian was describing, it was a little more um meaty and needed some more in-depth discussion.

So those were some more focused neighborhood meetings.

Um and then most recently um with these options, uh staff was out this summer more at kind of pop-up tabling kind of events, sharing information back out with folks.

Um uh worked with our uh community partner organizations to really try to uh identify those events that um might help us reach folks who are impacted by the freeway, but maybe aren't the folks who are gonna come to you know a standalone public meeting, that that type of thing.

But we do, I'm happy to answer any questions if you've got specifics, but we do have that information available as well.

Councilmember the I'm not I'm not sure if I'm seeing what you're referring to, but um the links show like flyers and and like some bars, but is there like a a grid or anything like that?

Um it's in projects.

Sorry, when you say grid, yeah.

Which one are you in?

I'm in the phase one link.

And I have a hard copy of it here if that would be helpful.

Yeah, and it's like it starts on page 20, but then the graphics it goes through a lot of different like questions that you can't.

Council um Ruth, go ahead and we'll come back.

Thank you, Ms.

Comfray, and Evian and the team.

So, first of all, so exciting.

This is it's about time Durham got to this.

I think the more you know people on this council, I'm sure I know Councilman McCavier and I were in Providence at the this year's conference of the that's right.

Oh, Congress from New Urbanism.

So Providence has like decommissioned a freeway, right?

Tulsa's done this.

A lot of communities now.

We we were a couple of we're in Richmond like last year, they got a freeway cap.

So numbers of communities are now getting to ways to address the the as Evan described, these intense harms this freeway has caused this community.

So I'm so glad that we're that we've done this initial work and are thinking about how do we move forward.

It's so critical for Durham.

Um so I have I have one, I have a couple questions, but let me start background.

So Evan, can you say more about this this um previous proposal from DOT to do work on the freeway that I think we you just referenced that, but as I understand there was that proposal, and we kind of we stalled that, right?

So say more about what DOT initially had planned, because I wanted I want to talk more about their role in this whole piece.

Yeah, okay.

Sure.

Yeah, so um there was a previous DOT project um that was proposing some freeway modernizations is the term they use.

I know we're also using that term as well.

Um it was looking at things like uh improving uh ramps, um, as you can imagine with the time frame that the freeway was built, it is no longer up to kind of current design standards.

So uh improving on ramps and off ramps, they were looking at um potentially eliminating some on and off ramps, um given that right now there's some close spacing between those and some safety improvements, um things like auxiliary lanes that help when a car breaks down, making sure you know there's still through travel access for emergency vehicles, things like that.

Um that was in very early stages.

Um as Evan mentioned, uh the move Durham plan uh identified a need for a more comprehensive look at the future of the Durham Freeway Corridor before moving ahead with with that project.

And so worked with DOT to, as you mentioned, kind of press pause on that, let some of this work catch up so that um I think a big part of this vision plan is to be able to say what Durham wants out of a future freeway project versus just maybe not.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, so like so that's helpful.

So I kind of want to go further there.

So um, and I'm not that interested in the sort of like that plan for DOT, but I just wanted to ask that because um DOT still owns the road, right?

And so I guess my question is in part like if we did nothing, like what's the expected life of the freeway?

At some point, like it it's sort of no longer functioning, right?

Is that like five, 10 years?

I mean, what is what does that look like?

Yeah, so I think to answer that question, we can look to the example that we shared from Winston Salem.

Um that facility is about 10 years older than the Durham Freeway, and that project was completed in 2020.

So I will say that in the most recently adopted state transportation improvement program, which um is the state's program, um there the there is not currently a modernization project for the Durham Freeway, and that has a 10-year horizon.

So we have the example of Winston Salem to look at as a kind of time frame reference, but there is not a current DOT project for this upgrade and modernization.

And so right, that's very helpful.

So I guess my question in part is then um as we look at the cost of this, the cost is substantial, right?

Anyway you slice any of the plans.

Um but it seems like, for example, and this in the um in the cap plan, for example, you could cap the freeway, but the freeway itself could be just disintegrated anyway.

So what do so what do you do with the freeway, even though you got a cap over it, if the freeway is crumbling, right?

So to me that that one feels a little bit, you know, we could make a nice cap, but if the freeway itself is not is in need of modernization, that's in some ways doesn't help us.

And that's why I guess the boulevard idea seemed to me seems a little better because we actually are addressing that the fact that the road itself needs to be modernized.

We don't want it to look like it's looked for all the reasons we talked about.

So that seems to me a like a compelling way to think about how do we still have that as an artery, but like dramatically change it and modernize it in ways that that benefit the community we were claiming land.

So um, yeah, I just wanted to reflect on that.

Yeah, and one thing I will mention, um, we didn't get into the nitty-gritty of cost estimates, but the freeway cap cost estimate that y'all saw today does include some elements of freeway modernization to your point of you know, the issue of the aging facility is still part of the picture, even if we are looking at freeway caps.

So those have been folded in.

Some of those costs have been folded in to the freeway cap costs as a cohesive project cost.

And then so of the three options, is it, you know, if you could sort of like just sort of crystal ball, like are there some of those that DOT would might likely pay more of than others?

I mean, what's the what's the DOT expected DOT contribution to the different models?

If you could sort of so the the freeway modernization is the closest aligned with kind of what a DOT project for this corridor would look like.

Um, and so uh in the example in Winston Salem, essentially what happened there is the state pays for what they would do for a project, and then the city um is responsible for what are called betterments.

So any of those pieces that go kind of above and beyond um in Winston Salem, they also had a large fundraising arm that brought private dollars to the project, but that was kind of the breakdown of how that split between state and then any additional funding towards a project like that.

Say the boulevard.

I think that's the one we have the best model for understanding what the state's contribution would look like.

The modernization one.

Correct.

So the boulevard is less clear.

Correct.

And I guess that no, this is all very helpful.

I guess the last thing to say is obviously maybe the elephant in the room is the fact that, like, right, we we started this project when there were federal dollars to do these kind of freeway um things.

Those dollars are gone, at least for now, right?

And so I guess my final question is what's the what are what's the most important thing we can do as a community to be to um to because yeah, the dollars aren't there right now, right?

So what's the best thing we can do to make sure we're ready to go when the next dollars maybe are available?

And is that not really is that not where we are?

Yeah, I think from examples we've seen in other communities.

I mean, first I'll mention that projects like these were happening before the huge influx of funding that came with the previous administration.

Um but in addition to that, I think the thing we see is these projects take a lot of time and coordination and uh stakeholder engagement and keeping that momentum going, even though those dollars aren't there right now, I think helps keep if you look at even of the examples we showed today, and as you mentioned, there are many others across the country.

We're looking at kind of 10 15-year time frames from you know, visioning to any sort of project implementation when you factor in design funding, acquiring funding, et cetera.

And so I think keeping that momentum going, knowing that the landscape could look very different in 10 years in two years, however, um, than it does at this moment in time is this is a long-range vision, and we need to keep that in mind.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your presentation and for all of your work.

Um it's exciting when we get to step back and do a big visionary visioning process, uh, something like this.

I mean, this would be truly transformational.

It could be truly transformational in core parts of our city.

Couple questions.

Um I think in uh councilmember, I think you you got a some of my main questions here, but I just wanted to hear if there was anything else about sort of NC DOT's reading a temperature on NC DOT from this.

It sounds like NCDOT, there's more that we understand about what they would put in if it were the modernization versus uh Boulevard.

Is that right?

Correct.

Um, I will say that NC DOT has been an engaged stakeholder on this project.

Um, we've been working with folks from uh Division Five, from our local district here, as well as um the integrated mobility district division and the transportation planning division.

So they are plugged into this.

They're um we they're a part of our technical committee and we also do regular briefings with them outside of the technical committee to ensure that kind of regular feedback.

We also are very aware that they own the facility, and so want to be making sure that in addition to the community priorities we've really focused on today in our presentation that we're also capturing the metrics that DOT is interested in seeing in some of their decision making.

So they have been along the way, coming along the way with us.

Um, but I think uh were we to move forward with maybe one of the less traditional DOT type projects, um, there would be you know a lot of uh continued coordination needed.

And then um thank you for that.

Um these dollar values, I'm sure they're kind of you know, pretty pretty rough at this point, right?

These are very order of magnitude.

Right, yeah, yeah.

Um so I would imagine they're probably not really factoring in kind of the real estate value that would be created by uh modifications that we add, you know, 25 acres or 20 acres.

Correct.

So these are these are reflected of kind of construction costs.

Um we do recognize that there is that piece of the puzzle.

Um on that same slide, we did include just the the acreage amounts to kind of as a proxy for that.

Um I do think an economic impact analysis is one of the things we've identified as if we were to scope future phases of study that that would be a key element um in some of those next phases.

Thank you for that.

Um obviously the construction of the Durham Freeway was notorious urban planning disaster.

Um I don't think anyone in the room would would uh would deny that.

Um and then in looking at you know our our priorities of the city and our priorities along that corridor, you know, if if costs were not an issue, if NCDOT were gonna cover anything.

I mean, just based on what you're showing us, um, you know, and assuming that there were not major anticipated uh intended consequences or impacts.

Um, you know, the Rochester example that that you showed us in the presentation is a little bit different because it's just a loop around downtown, and this is a regional connector.

So I think obviously traffic flows and I see the traffic studies in here.

Um but assuming, I mean, North Carolina Department of Transportation is uh not always on the cutting edge.

Uh, and so if they looked at the numbers and said, yeah, TriFo Club, it looks good.

I mean, uh the boulevard from the metrics that you're showing us obviously looks like a fantastic example of something that that that we could that we would uh move forward with.

I'm sure there'd be people who wouldn't like that idea of converting it away from uh a limited access uh road, but um, but I mean I I think a lot of the metrics point in a positive direction there.

Um, but really all of these are improvements, they're all improvements.

Um and so, you know, I think there are some that are more exciting than others.

It's hard to really provide clear direction uh to you because of all of the unknowns.

Um, but I do think that you know, setting aside all of the uncertainties, the boulevard option is the most exciting.

But if there was some combination of uh, you know, capping the freeway and modernizing the freeway, I think that would be uh an amazing, an amazing option moving forward.

Um if we had to put in more dollars for the boulevard option than for that other option with local dollars, you know, maybe that would tip the scale, and we want to move in that direction instead because we have other transportation priorities, you know, BRT and keeping the buses free and everything.

Um so I hope this has been clear as mud to you.

Um that's that's where I'm at.

Great, thank you.

Look forward to receiving more information moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for the presentation.

Good to see you all in person and not just on a Zoom, as usual.

Um I had a couple questions.

Um I guess one big question is who owns the land on that acreage?

So, like the the um the slide with all the options, you know.

So the currently that the area we're looking at is all NC DOT right of way.

Um so the question of who would own that land in the future is uh a question that would need more study.

Um that has not been determined at this this visioning phase.

Thank you.

Um I'm just curious because I was I was surprised to see because I was I guess maybe it just depends on what how much you're capping, right?

Is that why the the range is from like three acres to 25 acres?

Correct.

So um if you recall, we showed three different caps that have been identified as the most feasible based on roadway geometry, topography, all those technical considerations.

Um there is a world where Durham could decide to pursue one cap and be looking at you know a much smaller area of land, or you know, thinking very long term, if we're looking at a phasing out of three caps, you know, that gets at a lot more acreage.

Yeah, thank you.

Um I really appreciate all the work that's been done.

We all know that something has to happen here.

Um I completely understand why NCDOT wants to do a modernization.

That's kind of where their visioning lives.

Uh, having traveled on that 421 piece quite a bit.

It is not, it's certainly an improvement, absolutely compared to where it was, uh, but it is not that you're not getting the benefits of what you could do with the land, which I think is what is of interest to community.

Yeah, the old old 421 or business 421, whatever it's named now.

Um that's the route to be.

Yeah.

Like what, yeah, exactly.

I'm always like, wait, what's this one again?

Um but uh and I can see why the the reconnection piece and then the access to land are in my mind, what are the big benefits to um community, right?

Um so I think definitely interested in obviously conversations that need to continue, definitely interested in that economic development piece of it.

You know, what what are what are the I can see, I mean, the reason that they're popular in so many communities is because people have done incredible things.

They've built housing, they've put parks, they've done a lot of community benefit um projects on them, so that's why they're popular.

Um whatever needs to happen to keep us moving on this conversation, like thank you, Durham Next.

Yeah, yeah, I I want it to continue.

I want us to set, no, well, I could be wrong.

I doubt any of us will be on this dais when when there's a ribbon cutting, right?

Like, you know, or maybe if we are wearing we're you know using canes or something.

Um but um but I you know I want whoever gets to really benefit from that decision, whichever generation's coming forward.

I want them to be able to look back and be like, yeah, that that was smart.

Those people back then were so smart.

Um, unlike the people from However 50 50 years ago.

Um, but I think that that having had to work with NCDOT quite a bit, continuing conversations, really having to lobby and push them to have a different vision of what they currently often do uh on these types of projects is critically important.

We will not succeed in any real way if we don't do that.

I certainly believe that um, you know, there was when Durham Next was created that this was the I certainly hope that there would be that community entity to help be a convener in that way.

Um because I know that there's often limitations on on on government, on city government and what they can do.

Um I think that um yeah, I think the piece around the land ownership, you know, because I'm looking at these wonderful, you know, I know they're renderings, right?

But it's like outdoor gathering and celebration space.

You're like, great, but who owns the land, right?

Like that's not going to be an option if it's not something that the city can really help drive.

Um so that that's where my thoughts are.

Again, thank you so much.

I know this has been uh a long time coming.

I am obviously, you know, this was this was all the reconnecting communities, Biden dollars, right?

And Justice What uh Justice 4040, I think is what they were called, well, Justice 2040.

Um it was it was so much of those infrastructure projects that were a deep understanding of how communities were damaged and how to how to fix it.

And since the federal government is the one who, you know, yeah, we we obviously the city had a role, but it was it was a federal program with federal dollars and a federal vision.

And so um it made sense to me that they were the ones who were putting up the money to fix that.

Uh so it it is deeply disappointing that uh now for communities to really fix the thing that we didn't necessarily fund, right?

At least not fully, um, we're gonna get caught holding the bag.

Um and that is that's not a great place to be in.

Uh, I will also say with the NCDOT, for those of us who sit on the TPO, funding is gonna be tight with all of the Helene repairs, and that is a real, we already have so many local projects, so many things in the STIP that we're like, is this even gonna move forward?

Because again, the federal government is also not ponying up at the level that we were hoping on Helene repairs.

Um that's gonna put us in a tricky spot.

And so whoever is helping move us forward, that's all super important context and hard context.

Uh again, thank you so much for this, though.

Thank you.

Any other comics, colleagues.

All right.

Um, she's yeah, go ahead.

Just on the on the land piece.

I think it's a really it's a really important question, right?

Who owns that?

I mean, or who would own that land?

And I think there's a compelling interest in returning that to community ownership on some level.

I know in Tulsa when they decommission a freeway, I think they put the some of the land, all the land in a community land trust.

That's one option.

Um I know also like in in providence, right?

I think when they when they since I decommissioned, what was it, 1950 that went to Providence?

They've actually in Providence, they asked that some of that land be held in.

I think they wanted to return it to like private businesses to have some business presence as well.

So I think there's there are different ways to think about how to use that land.

I'm sure you probably thought a lot about that, but there's yeah, there's different models, and but I think it's an important conversation to figure out like who does own that land going forward.

Uh thank you for this work.

Um to Councilman McCook, you probably heard freeway cap a lot because I've talked about Boulevard or Freeway Cap or something a lot publicly.

Um I just know that something has to be done.

Um, you know, I I we got to get this right.

We have to get it right.

Um, I just want to put some things in the atmosphere.

Uh I don't want to be old and gray when this is done.

Once we decide what way we're going with it, let's make the investment and let's get it built and let's get it built fast as possible.

Um because we deserve it, you know, the community deserves it.

And we need to think big.

We need to think, you know, what is possible, what can be epic, because this is gonna, I mean, this is a main thoroughfare for that goes right through the city.

So let's take advantage of that.

Let's not be modest about it.

Um anything we look at is gonna be expensive.

And I do think, you know, I think uh the federal administration that we have now, it's not gonna be always.

You know, there are going to be opportunities that are gonna come before us again, just like before.

I remember, and I talk about this often because it was so jarring when Secretary of Transportation Pete Budajet, he said, Leo, could you step over here for a second?

Mayor, when are you guys gonna have some direction on that 147 study?

You know, and I I just remember thinking in my head, how much money was going out the door, you know, that we probably probably could have put toward this.

So I don't want to be waiting forever.

I don't want to wait years to restore and repair the HATOC community.

You know, I don't, or, or you know, reconnecting our communities in general.

So I hope that, you know, as you all are moving forward, uh you're thinking about what that looks like.

Durham Next was also, to my understanding, created to help make these things possible to explore all options beyond just the bureaucracy of a traditional government.

You have the agility and the flexibility, and I hope that you know you'll be able, you'll be able to work with us on this and make that happen.

Um, but yeah, it can't be, you know, we study for 10 years and then take 20 to build something, and then 30 years, nobody remember why we even did it.

Uh, and that's just it, that's government, you know, and that doesn't have to be the case.

Um, one thing I didn't hear a lot about, which there's a lot we didn't hear a lot a lot about, um, because we just aren't there yet, but I do want to hear the economic case.

I we gotta stop going with just oh, just the random community member said XYZ.

I'm guilty of that.

We were elected to make decisions and to deliver.

And asking questions forever is not delivery.

That's part of the process.

So I'm looking forward to making a decision on what will be best for the community at large and getting there.

And we have to, and and considering where we're talking, I hope that we are gonna look at where the community, the hate community is because that is what was really torn apart.

You know, um, I uh I you did not use this one.

Uh I I took a visit over to the Clyde Warren Park in Dallas, Texas.

They put an amphitheater on their freeway cap.

They uh in their freeway was dilapidated, it's ugly.

I mean, talk about an eyesore.

And on one side of the highway is the arts district.

On the other side was just some corporate offices or whatever.

They they capped it.

And this is why I talk about the freeway cap so much, because I've seen it work.

They capped it, they created their own authority, and they're generating six to nine million dollars a year in just revenue from the concerts that go to that come out and they that they have at the epic the amphitheater.

They also have restaurants on it.

They have permanent food trucks on it.

And when they built that, there was a there was a core, there was a a uh a commercial district that came with it, and now they're generating almost a billion dollars in just that that area alone in Dallas, Texas.

And it was able to, every community around it was able to benefit from it.

You know, so I think I I think we have an amazing opportunity here.

And I want us to think big.

And I want us to think, you know, like what can be best for Durham.

Um, you know, and and I just don't want to hear another Durhamite say, look at look at Raleigh and what they got in Midtown with their park, or or look at Carrie and their park.

Like we are not Raleigh, we're not Carrie.

You want to beat them, go move there.

You know, uh we're Durham and we can do nice things.

And this is an opportunity for us to prove that.

So I'm interested in the economics around that as well.

Uh that being said, I'd like to see our Office of Economic Workforce Development at the table on this conversation as well.

Uh, when downtown um revitalized, it was out of that office as well.

So I would like to see them in this conversation uh working hand in hand with our county partners, and you know, um yeah, yeah, just we we have to make economic sense as we repair our communities and also be conscious that you know we can be as aspirational as we want, but relationships do matter, and we're gonna have to work with DOT on this.

Uh so I don't want to mislead people thinking that oh, that's the best option.

We're gonna go with that.

We don't even own an acreage, any acreage.

Uh so um, but I do think there's there's an opportunity, you know.

DOT really don't want to do it, in my opinion.

They don't really want to do much with it.

So we can provide them a plan that makes sense.

Uh, you know, and and yeah, they may own the own the land in the right-of-way, but this is gonna be really beneficial for us here.

Um I would be interested in you know, exploring what does it look like to you know, buy that land from them, you know, as part of this to where we own it, or you know, we just determine what goes there, you know.

There are there's so many things we can do, so many things so I just I say all that to say let's not have a scarcity mindset, let's not have a restrictive mindset.

Let's not put barriers in the mid in the front of creativity, and uh, and uh let's just let's go big.

So, council member Freeman.

Thank you.

I appreciate the mayor's comments and um I the what the amount of like there's a butt coming.

You always no no no it isn't well.

I would say I'm very mindful that I live on a road, live near a road that was in the same mindset in 1965, and it's still incomplete today today.

Jesus with highways 55 um and Austin Avenue between Maine and um what is that um one M147?

Um so I'm I appreciate that very clearly, like it shouldn't take over what is that, 60 plus years uh to get to that point, but it's likely that that will happen.

I will say that I was trying to look through the state step, um, the state transportation improvement plan just to kind of see where we are because acknowledging like we've got over 65 projects in that currently, I don't want to knock any of them out of the out of the out of the running, but I also want to be want to be real mindful, like as the mayor said, this community has seen that type of harm um in a way in which we want to be reparatory, and if we have an opportunity to do that, that's this is a great chance.

And so I do agree that it should move forward in planning, but I do understand like you know, um, some of these projects here, you know, they're from 2020, and you know, it's 2025.

And so getting into the STIP to even get the funding from the state, and then also matching that with any federal funding all takes coordination, and of course, um grateful that we have Durham next to kind of usher that through in a very consistent way, um, with uh with a steady hand.

Uh I'm excited that the that this has come forward.

I was excited when um then representative David Price agreed to find the funding to make it happen, and and then Representative Fushi continued to support.

And so I know the thousands of hours that community members have poured into this, which is why I was like, where's the demographic?

Like, how are you not highlighting this?

But I then I had to think about a few things, and I'm I'm good, I'm good.

Don't highlight.

But this is definitely um, you know, the beginnings of what it looks like to address that harm, and it could take another 25 years, and what that looks like, what it does and what it means isn't something I'm gonna be able to tell you today, but I can say that I would like to hear more about the economics.

I would like to hear more about kind of what pots of funding could be in place, and then also what pots of money might not be in place, like because those cuts are relevant, and yeah, there's so many projects.

There's so many projects that have to happen.

And this is one like on the side of this is how we bring the equity back into the way that this our state projects are are funded too.

So I'm I'm like balancing, but I want to be really clear.

What I don't want to do is tax the future on it.

So I don't want us to just say we're gonna put a bond together to cover it, because that's just taxing our future um residents in a way that they have no say so.

Um this is a project that we should be able to figure it out.

Uh I feel like the next five years might it might not happen, but in the five years following, you know, you never know.

You never know, and we should be ready and prepared with a plan.

Let me tell you something.

When you get council member Freeman and me on the same page.

Never.

When this happens usually around economic development, it is around economic development.

In a very African American black community.

I hope you get that.

Let's move.

All right.

Um thank you all.

Thank you.

All right.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, other matters, yes.

Um, we there was there was you have something on other matters, right?

Within your priority items, and then you had the fourth amendment.

All right, we're not done.

Let me go here first.

Uh Councilmember Cook.

Um, so I have talked with everyone here.

Yes, I have.

Um, I am interested in bringing up for our next work session um some code that would go into our um our housing code.

Sorry, I was like not prepared for this.

Okay.

Um, our housing code that is similar to something that's on the books in Charlotte, and I've had several conversations with the attorney's office, and this is being brought by some students at Hillside, their um housing group that they have formed.

Um Riverside.

Oh, I said the wrong one, sorry, Riverside.

It's been a long day already.

Um, multiple jobs.

Okay, so our Riverside Housing Group of students has brought this forward.

It was something that um I had been thinking about, and I think other folks had talked about previously with uh tenants' rights work that would disallow um units that are in failing status on some number of specific dangerous or harmful habitability issues from collecting rent from tenants, um, mostly to be used uh in eviction court by attorneys.

So um I have the some draft language from the students with along with a memo if anybody wants to read that.

I think I sent it to a few folks already.

Um so this is just asking for a thumbs up to have a little bit of staff time so that folks can call their counterparts in Charlotte and just see how um implementation works, and then um, and then also to bring a draft of it on next work session to for discussion and that's just is that a draft of uh resolution or draft of ordinance or what like draft?

It would be an ordinance, yeah.

So yes, I can.

I think that the draft that came from the students is probably not the final that we will present.

They were they were very overzealous, which I appreciate, um, but I think maybe not all of the things that are listed on there are gonna are gonna work.

Um, but I'm happy to send y'all what I have so far and can send you a final version before it comes on the work session.

So you're you're sending that to us.

I think I have it.

You send it to me right.

But what we're talking about today is just having staff kind of look at what's going on in a neighboring municipality, uh, Charlotte.

Yes, and giving the attorney's office some time because uh I think that they will have some comments on it in a couple weeks.

Council member, I just want to ask the administrative is that there it is.

Sorry.

Has the city manager looped in?

Yes, okay, yes.

So this is specific to oh thank you.

Um specifically to grant time to staff to to do some research into that since.

Yeah, because I think we've done our due diligence.

Yes, but I know they need to do some things on implementation and things like that.

Yeah, thanks.

So this would then come back next work session as an agenda item.

Yes.

Well I I think we need to follow.

We we need that we need to hear from staff first.

Um administration.

Well, there's gonna be some legal things we can look at at this as well.

Because I sure and we we've actually previously provided guidance to the council on our feedback on the legal status of this um back when you all were considering full city tenants united, like okay.

So we can circulate our legal analysis of of what's being proposed.

It hasn't changed because the statutes haven't changed, but I think what's important is for the administration to have an opportunity to kind of vet it, talk to their counterparts, see who and how this is implemented and enforced, that sort of thing.

And then there have been changes since you circulated that.

Well, there's been that, yeah.

And public you sent me an unpublished court of appeals case from earlier this year.

That's true.

Yes.

And we haven't, I saw it first today.

So I'm not sure if you're not ready.

Yeah, yeah.

So this would come back then when it's ready, is what, yeah.

Yeah, I would suggest we not put a time on this until we can get an okay from administration.

Okay, then I would ask that we get the okay by from administration at some point in time prior to the next work session so that it can be put on for the work session afterwards, because I don't want it to linger.

Especially since it came from community.

Um so you're suggesting just so it gives enough time, it would basically be the second work session in September, the 18th.

Yeah, that would be great.

Okay.

I just want to make sure that that's we're all on the same page.

Yeah.

If that feels doable.

I don't think it I don't think it's much from what I talked to the manager that he's looking for.

So hopefully that should be a good timeline.

All right.

Yours.

Thank you.

This is just we have a title.

I would like the resolution to just be on our next uh um council agenda, the Fourth Amendment workplace resolution, because I think um uh city clerk Schreiber was asking if it was for the next one.

It's it's for Monday night or sorry, Tuesday because of Labor Day is for Tuesday, September 2nd.

And I just want to make sure that folks are aware.

Okay, that's all.

Thank you.

Council meeting.

Okay, because everyone's seen the language already.

Right, you gave us a physical copy.

I I counted that as been ready given to the council.

So thank you.

Were there any change?

I know there are some changes that no one has sent me any changes.

The only thing we were missing was a title, and uh some well then send them because it's gonna show up on the second.

I thought some questions.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'm gonna ask Mary Grace Stone King to come up and facilitate our discussion about the organizational meeting.

Um good afternoon, council mayor.

Um, so I'm Mary Gray Stone King, assistant to the city manager.

Um, as y'all remember, um, while reviewing our 2026 city council meeting schedule, um council brought up uh the December 2025 organizational meeting.

Um so we wanted to bring this back just for discussion today, um, because many of you and to get really clear guidance on it because um if we are to cancel or reschedule um that regular business meeting, um, we will need to then add an agenda item for a different agenda before that to um for council per year um rules of procedure to adopt an ordinance amending um the meeting schedule for 2025.

Um after some discussion and listening to the remarks um of counsel from um our last work session, um we staff does not recommend canceling the December 1st regular business meeting um as well as the November 20th 2025 work session.

Um the reasoning behind that is because canceling that would be canceling an entire agenda cycle, which would mean potential delays and critical business items such as contracts, project could delay projects and other um public hearings that might come before council.

Uh our uh recommendation if council still does not want to have the um organizational meeting the same night as um the uh uh as the regular business meeting.

We suggest potentially adding a regular business meeting or rescheduling it to December 2nd and having December that night and December 1st um being the organizational meeting.

Um council could also consider inviting newly elected officials to that November 20th work session to attend as residents or observers so that they can be um hear the items and discussions that come up and be informed for that December 2nd council meeting.

So we wanted to um just seek clear direction on whether you want to proceed with December first be business meeting following the organizational meeting, or prefer to add a December second meeting.

Um and if so, we'll do the necessary follow-up to adopt give that ordinance amending if you so choose to change the schedule.

I um I I don't think we should cancel any meetings it will throw things off, throw things off.

Um I again I remember when I got elected on you guys you all have some pretty heavy things on the agenda, and I just remember sitting up there like a duck in a deer in headlights.

Um I am I am I was planning to ask the manager if we could consider some type of orientation of newly elected members.

Um I mean I know I know the orientation.

I'm talking about like going over the actual agenda items prior to um and and then um for information purposes, just so they don't know what they you know will be voting on the night of.

And if it's the same people, then I think we're fine.

We don't need that.

Um I think the best option is probably adding an additional meeting.

Um that would be separate and prior to the first business meeting after the election.

Because we we have that grace period between the election and the first um that that December 1st is the first regular meeting.

So between November, November 4th, and uh between November 4th, so we're talking November 5th through I don't know, the end of November.

Uh you know, considering the holidays, there needs to be an additional meeting uh that would be the organizational meeting.

So it's better to add something special to the calendar rather than cancel.

That makes sense.

Mr.

Mayor, um, I just the the meeting that she was at and was actually having meetings, a meeting two days back to back where the first day would be the organization meeting, the second day would be the business meeting, the work session before would be when you would invite those uh persons to come so that they would hear the items in the work session and then we would have the organization.

That is one option to pick another day.

I think that's the best option.

I'll I'll cut it right right there.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you.

We're the only, I mean, school board and county commissioners get sworn in separate, it's never tied to business.

So figure out how they do it and come back.

I mean, the reason we're separating it is because there has been two different organizational meetings where we have moved um last minute move zoning cases, which I find to be more disruptive because council members who had just been sworn in did not, and this is I totally get it.

I understand when I did it, I was like, this is not good practice.

Uh it is not good practice for the applicants either, right?

Because they have brand new folks uh who are making determinations for them.

So that is where the intent came from.

That is what the procedure intent was that in my mind we are opening ourselves up to some certain things from applicants in the future, and school board members and county commissioners get sworn in in a separate way and are not tied to business, it's not hard to figure out.

So whatever that solution is from them, we need to um the school board members.

I know the county commissioners are sworn in that morning.

But they don't take up business, it's just an organizational meeting.

We pulled the language as an organizational meeting partly from how other places were doing it.

Yeah, so they can just be sworn in that morning and then the meeting.

Yeah.

So that's still gonna be a deer in headlights, whether you do it the day after or not.

Like it's the same.

We'll have that time after that November 20th work session, we'll have time like even up till then.

We have like from November 5th up to that date.

And this is only if it's different people up to that date to prepare for even that work session.

And then from that work session up to the case.

Well, what I would what I would say is if you're looking at the calendar, that whole week is Thanksgiving, essentially.

And you're not gonna get it.

Yeah, so I would just say to just kind of do the morning and then you know, separate it that way.

I'm just gonna put it out there that I am uh not available for a meeting in the evening of December 2nd.

So I won't be there and I would December 2nd if we're gonna do the two nights in a row.

I cannot do December 2nd.

I have a class and it's my final class, and I'm so not available.

Would not like to miss either the business meeting or the swearing in.

So I think this was also sorry.

I think this was discussed a lot with the procedures because there was conversation on how would it get managed because of the whole well could the swearing in happen earlier and because of Thanksgiving, it kept being a problem.

Um that that's the difference on our calendaring.

Um is that, oh, folks could get sworn in earlier, but then you always run into the holiday week or almost always run into the holiday week.

So that's where that I think that's why we left it the way we left it, was because there wasn't a good solution other than there's there's just an organizational meeting on it and and things get moved accordingly.

Sorry, spent a long time on that.

I feel like you have no more information that you came with the Yeah.

Um my question is so I heard a couple of either having a separate organizational meeting that morning before the council meeting later that night, or doing the double up.

Telling the first, right?

Yes, on the December first.

Um is there a overall consensus or um on which would be better or preferences so that we can bring it back to council?

My vote would be to just leave it the same with the organizational meeting and business meeting, and then maybe for the future election that you're prepared with time to kind of build it in.

We we already changed procedures.

We voted on that in June.

That's why, yeah.

That's why I'm kinda like the council's spoken on what the intent was.

Even if you just moved it up to six o'clock, I mean, there's a separation of a meeting or four o'clock or five o'clock.

That's a separation of a meeting.

It's not that difficult.

And and my main concern was just preparation for the meeting.

I I could care less when it happens.

I I I won't be canceling a meeting.

Hopefully I'm here, but I won't be canceling a meeting.

Um, but I will say I totally understood when Mayor O'Neill did it.

Because I I hated that for you guys, but I, you know, we were sitting here like, yep.

What'd you call it?

Zoning?

Okay.

All right.

Do you have enough direction?

I I didn't get cleared.

So we what did we decide?

I'm not sure.

I still don't know.

Do are we just leaving it?

Is I leave research on how other jurisdictions are we could do that.

Okay.

Would if that's a preferred way we could look at some other jurisdictions and how they do it.

I don't have any dog in this fight.

And I I have nothing to do with the agenda process, and I know you all are manag managing a lot, but it might be worth delaying this conversation maybe until the next work session and give folks time to consult peers and figure out how they do an organizational meeting that does not fall temporally on the same day as having to take on a full agenda.

I would I would also offer the the League of Municipal, the North Carolina League could offer you some insights because I do think that across the state it is done on the same day.

Awesome.

Because we're having a follow-up.

Yeah, well, yeah, I think you've got to say what I was supposed to say.

Yeah.

Yeah, what are the procedures say?

What did we got?

Yeah.

If I'm not mistaken, we just said that uh the or it is now an organizational meeting, that when when a new council is sworn in, it is just an organizational meeting.

That's what it says.

If I'm not, I mean, I don't have it in front of me, but that's why we did it that way.

And it was on the list of things that folks brought to us as one something that wanted to be corrected.

So it wasn't it was like, hey, what do folks want to see updated in this thing?

And that was one of the things that was raised because there had been now two organizational meetings where uh zoning cases had been continued because folks did not feel ready to vote.

And it made sense to me.

I rem you know at like I was like, oh yeah, that makes sense.

Especially since neither other local board does it that way.

So so we can still have two meetings in one day.

We could just have it earlier.

Um I think the most important thing is making sure there's some serious time put in.

Uh we we'll just need to make sure staff is like I know around the uh orientation getting new emails and all of that stuff.

I'm treating this as if we are not even here as a whole new people, whatever.

Um like it it will just have to get information to be available earlier.

Although it it it won't, you know, it won't be a um any action taken.

Uh that way we won't have to deal with that.

We can the the current the way we the way that the manager trained us.

Maybe it's the appointments that you're concerned about because I don't think it's for the elections because you they took three days to bring me through all of the cases and all the organization.

Like it was a full-on orientation.

You were appointed and you were appointed and hymen was appointed, but that was different.

No, uh that that all happens after you're sworn in, though.

Your orientation happens after you're sworn in.

My orientation happened before I was sworn in.

Yeah.

I I I got my I think I got my email like a couple of days before.

I didn't have anything, and I was totally lost.

Yeah, I think that's just I mean it was Tom Bonville at the time, so maybe it's just who the manager is the way that they chose to move because once the election is certified, it's not much more.

Right.

When we went through this with procedures about how many days is it post-certification.

I mean, the whole thing is like how many days from election day to certification so that you could bring folks into because really the council that the council who sees the work session agenda and the the one before is not the council that votes on it necessarily.

So you can vote you could literally appoint, I mean swear people in on Monday, November 24th, right?

Or any I mean the the the business meeting, if you're looking at it, is on the first, right?

The work session that you are voting on as a council member is not the same council member who sits in the work session.

So really you could swear in whoever's going to be there on Monday based on election results, but then it was that question again.

We were running against the clock on election certification, I think was the other part of it.

So it was the holiday and election certification.

Which would put you back at the first can we do it the week before Thanksgiving?

In time for the work session.

Is it 10 days?

What it's 10 days after the election.

I need to look at the election laws that to get the timeline down.

But definitely more than 10 days.

That was some sort of factor as well.

Yeah.

So the work session is the week before that Thanksgiving holiday, so we could do it sometime in the 17th.

People get sworn in on New Year's Day.

Like if you know, like I get that Thanksgiving is a right, but people get sworn in.

I mean all of the General Assembly people get sworn in.

Like the the I think the district attorney is on New Year's Day.

Like lots of folks get sworn in and like not the most convenient times, but yeah, that's when you get sworn in.

So if it's different because it's an organizational meeting, so you're it's not a single office.

What I'm saying is that if Attorney Raber can look at the election law and let us know the swearing in could happen and it's still an organizational meeting, and that's the only thing that's happening, and then there's just a regular business agenda for that first Monday, that might be the solution.

I'll just add one more thing here.

Um I'm I'm happy with the staff recommendation on this one.

I'm also happy to go, you know, if the majority of my colleagues want to move things around.

Um I do think one thing whichever route we take, um just communicate with the planning department who has some discretion in when they schedule uh rezoning cases that they do not put a particularly controversial rezoning case on uh a member's first evening.

Every case is controversial.

All right, uh, so I think we have some sense of direction-ish uh moving.

We will see you at the work next work session.

Yeah, we'll work with the city attorney's office and um come back with our centralization.

Yeah.

All right, sounds good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh that was yours.

Yes.

That was yours, that was yours.

All right.

We are going to proceed to the um you need to settle.

Oh, yeah.

Um we're gonna settle the agenda here.

Oh, we did I have for uh consent items one through three, items five through twenty-one, general business agenda, item number four, general bit general business agenda public hearing item number 24 and 25.

Sounds good.

Uh is there a motion to settle the agenda?

So moved.

Second move and properly second it.

All in favor?

Aye, all right.

We will now um proceed to the conference suite uh for a closed session and we'll adjourn there.

I'll see you in five minutes.