I get the sadest books for you.

I just want us to stop until you want to be about you, baby.

Just for me, just want to stop you.

And if I get the back, I think the back of the back.

And ask the city clerk to call the roll, please.

Councilmember joyner.

Present.

Councilmember Clark.

Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Here.

Councilmember Scipio.

President.

Mayor Pro Tim Adams.

Here.

Councilmember Taylor.

Present.

Councilmember Hall.

Present.

And Councilmember Burke.

Here.

Thank you very much.

We do have we'll be uh in the past, we'll we'll do the consent agenda and then we'll turn the various uh committees over to the appropriate uh chairman to move forward.

Uh Councilmember, are there any items on the consent agenda you'd like to have removed?

So you know when uh I'll declare uh for a motion.

Thank you.

Second second by council member Hall.

All those in favor of the motion to approve the consent agenda, please say aye.

Aye.

When opposed, no, and that is unanimous.

Thank you.

We'll now go to the finance committee, and I'll turn the meeting over to the chairman.

Uh Mr.

Clark.

Sure.

Where is Rell?

I see you out there.

But first items city clerk, please read the first item.

Information on the financial statement audit, single audit, and the annual comprehensive financial report.

Okay.

Ms.

Rao, I'll let you or Ms.

Latham, whoever wants to talk may talk.

Good afternoon, Chair Clark.

Mayor joins, Mayor Pro Tim Adams and members of City Council.

Um before I turn it over to our auditors, Cherry Beckert, um, Dan Gogerty is here.

Um, I have been asked to brief you um on the penny rounding situation.

Um, given the fact that the Secretary of the Treasury has ceased production on the penny.

We are beginning to have some shortages uh with our penny change fund.

And the banks also have a limited supply of pennies, therefore, um I believe you were briefed on Friday that we are implementing a rounding policy, much similar to what USPS and some of the other larger companies are doing.

Um this is called symmetric rounding, where you round up or down.

Uh it's in the increments of two pennies.

This is um based on some legislation that has been recommended, so it's possible, although not known, if the U.S.

will eventually adopt this method for rounding, but this method is used in Canada and some of the other European countries.

So we are proposing to begin using this payment rounding method tomorrow to address our shortage.

Um in the long run, we plan to review our rate structure and work towards setting our rates so that we're the payment rounding will not be required.

Do we need to pass does the council need to pass a policy here?

No, we actually talked with the school of government and there's no action needed.

We just wanted to make you all aware.

And we will be posting signs at all our payment locations and working with marketing on a press release.

So if it's one or two cents, you round down three four your round up.

Oh one, oh two, you round down three and four, you round up, and so on.

So yes, so six and seven, you round down and eight and nine you round up.

It's a little complex, so that's why we will be looking to change our rates long term.

Um to the big show now.

Yes, with that.

Um Dan Goggerty uh with Cherry Becker is here to talk about the annual audit.

Uh before he comes up, I would like to just take a minute to thank our staff in finance and accounting who worked long hours to meet the deadline this year and uh to to ensure the audit was complete.

I have our deputy director D P.

Singla and our assistant director Nora Cowan here.

And I just want to thank them for all their work as well as our full team in accounting and reporting.

Thank you for having me here today to discuss the results of our audit.

If you'll please give your name and address for the record, and then you begin.

Um Dan Gogerty of partner in Cherry Beckert.

So going right into it myself as a partner on this engagement.

Um we also had a senior manager that's been working on this job for the last four years, and then we had some new faces with Emily Bennett and Alan Bond uh come on to the team in the last two years.

For the results of our audit, uh we audit the financial statements of the city in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards.

We also audit the financial statements and accept it's with uh government auditing standards.

That's all in which to form an opinion and provide an opinion uh reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement.

I'm happy to say we issued an unmodified opinion, which is also known as a clean opinion, and it's the highest level opinion that we can give under our auditing standards.

We also perform audits in in compliance with your federal and state awards.

On a rotational basis, we are to select the larger programs that you have based on the federal guidelines.

Uh we if we test those programs to make sure you're in compliance and you also have controls and planes to continue to keep you in compliance as it relates to those grants.

Uh usually each year the federal government will issue a compliance supplement, which is what we use as our program to test these grants.

Uh, that is usually issued in May.

That was not issued until the day before Thanksgiving this year.

Uh due to the delay, I cannot provide you with uh the issued financial uh issued single audit report uh as of today, but we are looking to try to finalize that in the next week or so.

And the local government commission had given an extension for the single audit per piece of it uh to be issued at a later date.

Could you give us an example of of what what one of these single audits would be?

Yeah, so these would be your federal grants, such as maybe your federal transit administration grants, uh transit cluster that you use for your operatings of the transit system, uh, also be your drinking water grants, uh, clean water grants, uh, and then also your POL bill funds.

So that's your uh state uh funding for well, gas tax funding for uh streets.

Okay, thank you.

And you just rotate different ones each year.

Yep, we have to test uh anything that's over 500,000 for state and anything over 750,000 uh for federal on a three-year basis.

Unless we five have any findings, then we have to test them more often.

Thank you, sir.

Please continue.

This slide is a long way of just telling you that uh while we look at controls over your financial statements and over compliance, we do not give an opinion on the effectiveness of those internal controls.

If we come across any controls where we think there's either something lacking in a control or control just does not exist, uh we need to identify those and develop the severity of those findings.

Uh, those can be as much as a material weakness, which is something material either has gone undetected or could go undetected without the control working properly, our significant deficiency being one less than a uh material weakness, but still important to let you know about.

I'm happy to say we did not identify any control deficiencies that we believe to be a material weakness this year.

Uh and any of the deficiencies we reported to you in the previous year have been uh corrected by management.

These are the list of programs that we have audited in terms of the federal and state uh thing.

It has been through my review, it's just going through a second review right now, and then once that is complete, uh we'll be able to issue this with these reports.

Uh but as of now, we do not have any findings to report.

Um we do the drinking water uh revolving loan fund this year just due to the size of the program.

We needed a certain coverage to we have to test at least uh 40 percent of your programs.

Federal transit cluster was another one we looked at on a rotational basis.

Uh and then you had two state programs that were newer this year, Midtown Economic Development Project and the Motorsports Grant Fund, capital projects uh with state monies that we tested this year, and then we also tested as you can as you start to spend down your opioid settlement funds that you receive.

As part of our audit, if we come across any adjustments that we need to correct as part of the engagement of the audit, we need to make you aware of that.

I'm happy to say we have no uh corrected adjustments, so there's nothing that we found as part of our audit that management had to correct because of the material nature of it uh being needed to be corrected.

This page and the next page, you're gonna see uh a number of items related to uncorrected adjustments.

An uncorrected adjustment is something where we might find as part of our audit something that needs to be or should be corrected by management because it needs to be corrected, but uh it's not material in nature that requires it to be corrected.

Uh I will say two things about these uh entries as I go through them.

Uh just to understand that these are technical accounting issues in in all these cases that I'm noting here.

None of this relates to anything related to your cash disbursement, cash receipt processing.

Um, this all relates to uh general accounting uh GASBY information.

And then also these were also found kind of later in the audit process, and in order to make sure we could uh deliver you a financial statement before the holidays and get that issued, which I will say as well, just commend the finance team.

You know, we issue the last financial statement due to other issues in the prior year back in May, I believe it was, and pretty much seven months later to be able to issue your next financial statement is quite an accomplishment.

So the first one here, uh this was refining related to last year that just kind of rolled over into the current year and just had to do with capitalizable costs.

There are certain construction costs that the city had been capitalizing for a number of years based on old policy uh that we write off when the project was complete.

Uh those costs should be written off when they're determined not to be capitalizable.

And so that's just uh uh uncorrected adjustment, not restating the financial statements because the error was not considered to be significant and found by management and purport to us as part of our engagement.

Uh the second one has to do with some litigation that changes in how uh the litigation was determined to be either estimable or probable.

Uh at first it was considered to be probable later on in the engagement, it determined that it was not as probable, so it shouldn't be recorded.

It was already recorded, so we just did not uh reverse that accrual.

This first one on this page has to do again with the non-capitalizable expenses and uh deals with the transit fund this time.

Uh solid waste, it was just an error in a formula that created a small difference in the landfill liability.

Landfill liability is about a 22 million dollar liability, so for comparison to 248,000, it's it's a fairly small adjustment.

Um, and then the capital projects fund just had a duplicative um receivable recorded to it.

Next few slides are just general uh information that we need to uh confirm with you on a yearly basis.

These things we've heard you've heard from me before in the previous years, but things under our standards we are required annually to uh assert to you.

Uh note one is the where your syndicate accounting policies lie.

You did adopt a new standard this year.

This was the compensated absences standard under the governmental accounting standards board.

Uh this basically uh prescribed a new way to estimate your uh compensate absences.

Nothing changed as it relates to vacation accruals and what you've done with that in the past, but there was an accrual for sick leave uh that needed to be accounted for, and that is what's more likely than not to be used in the given time of an employee uh staying at the city.

Uh, you do not pay out any cash on your sick leave.

You just pay out you just pay them as your regular payroll on a year to year basis as they use the sick leave, but GASBE still wanted you to accrue a liability.

So there is no cash flow uh effect of this, but it is a record of a liability based on the GASBE standard, and that was about a five million dollar uh adjustment from the previous year.

No related party issues, nothing with any arms length transactions being of any issue as part of our audit, nothing with a related party that we were not that we found as part of our audit that we were not already made aware of by management.

There were no significant or unusual items, so significant or unusual being outside the normal course of business of the city uh that we found as part of our audit.

Estimates are a critical part of any financial statement that is developed, especially for governments.

Uh, there's a number of liabilities calculated off of them, such as your pension liabilities, your other post-employment benefit liabilities, compensated absences, leases, uh your depreciable assets, accounts receivable allowance, all these estimates we looked at the inputs that management used.

They were consistent with the previous years, and we didn't find anything, issues with any magic bias as it relates to those estimates.

Financial statements were clear, neutral, and consistent.

Uh, we do uh have so non-attest services, so it tests being audit services, so any non-audit services that we perform for you all.

Uh we do have a separate group within our firm that does help with the drafting of the financial statements uh and does help with some of the tax credit work that we have we're doing for you, energy tax credit, and then also uh implementation of GASB 101.

In all cases, management takes over responsibility of all these services.

They oversee the services, they make any management decisions.

We are not making any miscisions on management's behalf, and so that's how we can remain independent while we do these services.

And we are not aware of any independence issues as it relates to us and the city.

Counternote significant difficulties as part of this engagement, no disagreements with management, no consultations with uh between our audit team outside of our audit team.

Uh, we receive the management representation letter, which is date the date of the financial statement is December 22nd.

Uh no management consultations, so no shopping for an opinion with outside auditors, no other findings or issues, no fraud or illegal acts noted, and uh no going concern noted that need to be evaluated.

These three bold uh blurbs here talk about just what we uh do in our responsibility of the annual comprehensive financial report as a whole.

Uh we audit the financial statements and the notes to the financial statements.

Uh everything else outside of that, we either give an in relation to opinion that in relation to the financial statements, nothing is considered to be uh materially misstated or materially uh presented, um, or we provide no opinion whatsoever.

Um so that's the manager's discussion analysis, your your statistical table and your required supplementary information where we provide no opinion, and then everything else in the back uh in terms of your budget uh schedules and your combining and individual fund statements.

I mean we provide that in relation to opinion.

There will be two new standards next year that the city will implement.

It will be GASB 103 and 104.103 will just change a little bit how the MD the management discussion analysis reads and looks, uh giving a little bit more information about the changes year to year.

Um, and then your uh enterprise funds will also look a little bit different in terms of what is defined as an operating versus non-operating or subsidy uh being presented on your income statement.

And then 104 will have uh little to effect on you, but mostly just uh how the disclosure for capital asset roll forward looks um from what it looks like now.

Local government commission, we complete a data input form for the local government commission, and based on the data that's entered based on your audited financial statements, they will come back and tell us if there's any financial performance indicators of concern.

Uh, there were no financial performance indicators of concerns, so there is no letter that needs to be sent to the LGC this year.

Nothing that needs to be explained.

Uh, you had budgeted uh tax levy within three percent of uncollected.

You have effective pre-audit uh process to avoid pervasive budget violations, and no late debt service payments or debt covenant compliance issues were noted.

So, with that, I'll open it up if if anyone has any questions.

Let me just make a comment.

Uh and we spoke, I guess, earlier in the week.

The integrity of public accounting has been challenged in this county due to the uh issues at the school board.

Uh I made this comment to you then.

I will make it now in public.

If there's ever anything that you have concerns about, this is who you report to, and you need to let us to be aware of it.

Uh, secondly, to my fellow council members and to the mayor, you have just had a presentation, and he has told you that they found gave us an unqualified opinion.

There were no major adjustments, this, that, and the other.

But this is the type meeting that oftentimes we just take uh yawning.

But this is has been a very important presentation in that our independent auditors have just informed us that based on their audit, everything looks good.

And I would ask from Ms.

Latham, when will you actually publish uh financial statements for the year?

And by the way, this is the year that ended in June of last year, by the way.

Yes, this is uh June 2025.

So we do have a financial report and a financial statement um opinion.

We are waiting for um the LGC's approval, and then we will post it.

Okay.

Um we would also prefer to wait until we have the grants compliance section and opinion, which our auditors hope will be later this week.

Um so I would say within a week to two at the most, we would like to have it posted on our website.

Okay.

It's currently available for for you all to review.

Okay, so we will actually see year in numbers.

Uh, and we all need to look at those just to be sure we we're in good shape there.

But anyway.

You do have that in your packet as well.

Okay.

Your financial statement audit with the financial statement opinion.

Okay, thank you.

Anyway, Miss Ms.

Adams, you hit a yes, thank you, Councilmember Clark.

Uh Councilmember Clark and I and staff met with Mr.

Dharty and them, Gardy and them uh last week.

Um, again, as councilmember Clark has stated, it behooves all of us now to understand how important these audits are.

And I know sometimes I would go off rail and talk about timing and notifications and NOFAs.

It's important because the our constituents in our city look to us to be doing our due diligence, to be asking questions.

And even if you don't have questions or understand how to ask the questions, that's what you get with finance to staff.

Rao, uh Mr.

Tesh, and others, and they'll help you understand what this means.

I think as Mr.

Clark said, not just here in Winston Salem, but if you put in Google accounting issues with city government for North Carolina, you'll get a list of cities.

And I want to thank Ms.

Latham and the staff for doing such a great job all these years.

You know, it doesn't mean that we're perfect, and even with the uh technology issue we had last year, year before last.

Was it 24?

25.

It seems like we just 26 has got me all messed up.

Anyway, but uh thank you guys for putting in all of the time.

Thank IT.

Uh it wasn't easy.

Thank you for you and your organization working with us to to close and everything, and we appreciate it very, very much.

Again, to my colleagues and uh city employees and citizens.

Please go read the financials.

When your city or business or company that you work for, post their financials, their statements, their audit findings.

It is important that you read it.

Again, if you don't understand it, you need to ask somebody.

Again, thank you so much for everything that you and your company do for us.

Thank you.

I think okay.

That's all for that item, I believe.

Uh well now uh city clerk, please read number two.

Resolution approving a new Microsoft Enterprise Agreement with SHI International Corporation.

You have the floor, Tom.

Uh good afternoon, Chairman Clark.

Mayor joins, Mayor Pro Tump and members of the council.

You hear me okay?

Uh Tom Kreska, CIO and Director of the IT department.

And the item I want to talk about today, and request your approval, is the renewal of a three-year enterprise agreement with Microsoft Corporation.

Um we have typically we've been doing this since 2008.

This is I think the seventh time I've been up here, and we do a three-year agreements.

Uh there's cost savings, obviously, through the multi-year, and it helps manage our licenses, and it also helps them share continuous services over those three years.

Um, I know you have a lot of those are funny, but it we have a lot I want to share with you.

I think it's important you understand this is a big contract, a lot of pennies.

Um we uh we use these services for a variety of purposes.

We have our data center, all our servers and storage and databases are licensed to these contracts.

All our desktops are all 25 or so hundred city employees.

All our business applications use it.

We use the services in the cloud.

We use it for our outlook and our email hold and discovery.

So it's used for a lot of various business needs, and I'll try to give a good sense of that.

Um the current contract expires on February 28th.

And if we if you approve this, we would start the new license on March 1st.

Uh I do want to mention we will be purchasing this agreement or executing the contract with SHI International.

They're a um third-party uh MWB firm here in the state.

Actually, they have an office right down the street, and they have been awarded the state contract for Microsoft products.

Uh the estimated cost for the three-year agreement is 3.9 million.

I know you have these numbers.

First year, which would start March 1st is uh not to exceed 1.18 million.

Second year is estimated at 1.2, and the third year one point a little below 1.5.

And the second third is estimated because if we had a lot of employees just to track employees, they will fluctuate.

But the total cost is just a shade below 4 million for the um four three years.

The first year would be finance through funds in our current 25-26 IT budget.

Second year, we have put requested funds in our submission to the manager in the budget office for next year's budget.

Uh if I could just take a few minutes telling you what's in this contract, not all four pages.

It's a big contract, one of our biggest.

But I think it's important to show you at least a breath of it.

We currently today have this things I'm gonna talk about.

We have today, we're just gonna continue, but I want to share them real quick.

So we have 250 licenses for all our data center servers and both data centers.

That includes free use of uh development test servers.

We have 10 what's called SQL licenses, which runs all our databases to our data centers.

We get credits for using storage and servers up in the Microsoft Cloud, Azure Cloud.

We're starting to move more and more systems to the cloud.

We have 1,310 employees.

They typically don't, they're not in an office.

They log in through a punch clock.

They're using the skinny down version of Outlook that you all use.

And email so much they're running out of space.

And that's a good problem.

Our employees are using the tools.

We have 1,630 office employees.

That's all the other departments, including PD and FIRE.

And those licenses include the Outlook you run on your desktop, the Microsoft Teams, Word, you know, Excel, PowerPoint tools like that.

And we currently have 30 project manager licenses across departments, 77 Visio, 17 development tools, and all city employees today have access to Microsoft's AI solution.

It's called Co-Pilot Chat.

So that's their base AI tool that all city employees can use today.

So what's new?

What are we adding for the price increase?

We will be buying 250, it's called M365 copilot add-ons.

These are those base AI tools beefed up to allow some of our folks to do more AI programming.

All our office workers have full access to Power BI, which is uh say spreadsheet on steroids, you know, data analytics and dashboards, et cetera.

All our few employees will have access to those dashboards.

Uh e-discovery solution, we work closely with the attorney's office on the FOIA requests.

We we get them weekly, sometimes daily.

Uh we will be getting a new beefed up tool that is driven by AI to help with those searches.

And I mean, that's somebody uh show me all emails that Tom Kreska received in the last year that has the word data center in it.

We might give Camille and her staff 1,200 emails to go through and redact.

So these tools will help with that tremendously.

Uh another item we're getting new is we we have a product cut in tune.

Today, if you have an issue at your desk in this building at your network, you can call our off uh service desk and they'll help you.

They'll say, I want to log in and they'll look at your PC.

Well, with this new tools, we'll be able to do that remotely for your laptops, your iPads, and iPhones.

So if you're sitting at the beach or in Phoenix at a conference, our staff will be able to, through the internet now, take take hold of your device wherever you may be in the world and see exactly what you're seeing and troubleshooting.

That helps allow with remote support.

Along with that, we'll be able to install applications remotely.

So if uh uh our manager is in a conference in Phoenix and he's running our financial system, FMS, and it's scrobbed up on his laptop, we'll be able to literally reinstall that on his device as he's in Phoenix and we're sitting in our office.

So a lot of power with the remote devices, and a lot of our staff are out in the field nowadays.

Um I will mention that there is a there are some tools that we have today that we will get rid of, disable and throw away costs because with this new Microsoft suite, we'll be able to get rid of some existing tools.

I would like to give you a dollar amount that we'll save by getting rid of those tools.

I I really can't give you a definite number until we start using the tools, but I feel very safe in saying it will probably be at least 50,000, could be maybe 100,000 at least that we'll throw away of the existing tool, not throw away, save with the existing tools.

Um last thing I will mention is that again the quote is probably four pages.

I've used the term cyber a lot and security.

Um there are several tools we'll be getting used for staff to use for cyber analytics.

Um I did not list them in your console action form because there are so many, and and quite frankly, we don't want to tell bad people what tools we're using.

So that's I said a lot, and I apologize.

I know it's a big contract, and I will answer any questions to the best of my ability.

Ms.

Adams.

Thank you, Mr.

Koreski, you and your staff as well.

Uh these types of changes and updates with what we know now about AI and cloud.

How uh how do you feel about the training of our employees?

Has have all of them been trained on this?

Have they been educated?

Are they comfortable?

Uh is there further training if they're not, you know.

Um great question, thank you.

And I didn't ask you to ask, but I'm glad you did.

So Microsoft offers co-pilot chat to our employees, and the answer is no, and not many are trained.

And it's basically a training and awareness, marketing, whatever it is to get your employee population aware of the tools, how to use the tools.

And we will be working with them and our staff as needed.

If we have to visit departments and do demos, we will.

Yes, that's a chance to take advantage of these tools that we're getting.

And that's on our active work plan right now.

So thank you.

When these employees are trained or go through this seminar, uh it's basically checked off, certified and edited to their employee record.

Yeah, there will be some certification kind of tests for sure.

Um we want to vet employees too.

Uh and as likewise, we want to make sure our data is safe.

So, yes, and I will mention the Microsoft AI program.

One thing that's great about it is uh if you run an AI script and you say, whatever, I show me all emails from Mayor Joins and a lot.

Microsoft does not share that data with other competitors.

A lot of these AI companies, they share data with each other for for you know learning and experience and building their library, just like you know, Instagram and Facebook and everything, they share all your information.

Microsoft contains all our inform use of AI in the Microsoft Data Center.

They don't share with that's one reason we like it.

It's it's tight and locked down.

Okay, Ms.

Ipio.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um Mr.

Karaski, I have a question.

We heard not too long ago a lot of um technology requests from the police department.

Does this these licenses allow them to do some of the things that they are proposing?

Yes, these licensed disagreement, and we work very closely with PD, uh grant manager and their IT director as well as our command staff.

This agreement covers all PD and off-fire off city employees, even uh seasonal employees, when you know lifeguards, whatever, yes, public safety.

They've been they work very closely with we don't go after this without getting their involvement.

We meet every Monday morning, and we just met this morning.

They are well aware of this, and we'll work closely with us as we bring in these tools.

Thank you.

Yep.

You had a question, comment.

I have a comment.

Thank you, Councilmember Clark.

Uh Mr.

Kreska, how are you?

I'm doing well, Councilmember.

Um, I would just like to say um one to you and also to my colleagues that um I've been using co-pilot AI recently, and I love it.

So this is actually something that I'm really excited about.

Um, happy to know that CD employees are already using this, so this is something that continues on, and um also is amplified um with some of the other things that are coming out with co-pilopilot AI, but I'm really excited about this and and glad that you all are continuing the um contract with uh Microsoft.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Tom, uh great job on pulling all this together here.

Um I'm very pleased to hear the enhancements to our cyber protection there.

You feel pretty good about where we're at now with with these additions.

I do.

I do, you know.

Um if I had to walk out in the street and talk to one of my neighbors as not only your CIO, but as a taxpayer, I feel very comfortable telling them what we're doing.

And I again I know this isn't cheap, you know.

I joke, this isn't pennies, it's dollars, but I feel good.

Um I feel good today where we are.

There's just what happened on December 26th of 2024.

But these tools will just take us a whole level higher, and I do feel good about it.

And I'm as your CIO, you think I'd be always pushing technology.

I I've got to find that middle point in my role.

It's because of security and innovation security.

So I I always look for the sweet spot, and I think we're in a sweet spot right now.

Thank you, Tom.

You're welcome.

We need to approve this.

Do we need to do it as a committee or a committee of the whole?

I never can re figure this out.

Since you're in a committee of the whole, everybody can vote.

But it will still go to the regular council meetings.

Everybody can vote.

Can I get a motion to approve?

I move to approve adoption of the resolution to approve a contract with SHI International Court for Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.

Second.

We have a motion or second.

We voted verbally or by computer.

Okay, it should be on your screen.

That is approved, and that's all.

Thank you all for your consideration and support.

Thanks, Dem.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

We will now go to the public works committee and uh recognize Councilmember Burke.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, everyone.

We have one item.

Uh City Clerk, would you read item number one, please?

Resolution authorizing agreement with North Carolina Department of Transportation for Greenway Wayfinding Signage Project.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Fansler.

Thank you for presenting this item.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tim Adams, members of the committee and council.

Appreciate your time this afternoon.

And I'll say as we kind of kick this this item off, I appreciate your continued support for helping uh letting staff kind of embark on some of our improvements from our adopted master plans because the item before you is really a consideration of agreement with NC DOT for the implementation of a greenway wayfinding program.

This was a key recommendation from our 2019 bicycle master plan.

And so staff went out and I'll highlight the great work from Ben Wober, who's with us today, our bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, because he really kind of spearheaded some work with a consultant to identify where we need to improve the wayfinding for our greenway system.

So very simply put, this item before you is consideration of a greenway uh an agreement with NT DOT for some funding that our department applied for through the CMAC program that would fund Greenway wayfinding signs along our greenway system.

So the financial summary is really a total project of about 640,000.

That is an 8020 split.

About 512,000 would be the federal grant portion of that and 128,000 uh being from our local uh required match that we have worked with the budget office to appropriate.

I'm happy that you see on the screen there kind of what as we work with the consultant what this system will look like.

You see a lot of different types of signs, and one of the key components of this analysis was uh identifying where each type of sign should go based on the significance of its location.

So I'll save you the the kind of science behind that.

Just know this is a very comprehensive treatment that will have everything from mile markers to very uh intense monument signs that will really enhance the experience along the greenway system.

So, in all, we're asking for consideration of uh the 2019 bicycle plan master uh master bicycle plan recommendation and agreement with NC DOT that allows us the the funding uh needed to do a purchase and installation contract to install these signs along our greenway system.

So with that, I'll pause and happy to take any questions.

Thank you.

Any questions for Mr.

Fansler?

Councilmember Scipio.

Thank you very much.

You know, being able to find your way around is is critical for uh everything.

But what I was noticing was that the exhibit, the signage, um looks almost similar to our parks and rec signs.

Uh I assume that was due by design, because most of this will go through some of our parks.

So are they uh close enough that they don't they don't look tacky?

So that that's a great question.

And we actually had to adopt a color pant for this, right?

And so we had some community engagement there to adopt a color scheme for this.

This was where we landed.

But the font and the size of the text will certainly be indicative of a more comprehensive signing package.

So you'll be able to see these and they'll stand out in my opinion a little bit uh better, and largely because think about a motor user that may be on a bicycle traveling at 15 or 20 miles an hour, they'll want to be able to navigate and see that as well.

So uh for that user experience, you're gonna see these a lot more, I think, appealing to it to your to the to the users.

Thank you.

Councilmember Andrew Scott Bowen.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Uh this is great.

Thank you.

Um so I have two questions.

Um, what is the after the vote and what is its highlight of getting these out so where they go?

And the second part is as we add in new greenway space, is there a mechanism in place that to install new signage?

Councilmember, I appreciate that question.

Two, I think very clear answers.

The good thing, and y'all hear me say all the time is going into the design phase, which means hurry up and wait, right?

Um the good thing about this this project it is a purchase and install contract.

So a lot of the legwork, I got to give Ben a lot of credit.

He's already done that, right?

And so we've we know where they're going, we know what they're gonna say, we know what they look like.

So we're gonna advertise that as a purchase and install.

Uh a big sign manufacturer is gonna fabricate these signs, and we're gonna work with them to install those.

And so I think within inside of 12 months, let's call it this calendar year.

We expect to have uh this on the street to the extent that it the materials available.

So I'll caveat that with it with the understanding that assuming the material is available.

So this this calendar year is our plan.

The second piece is as we continue building our greenway system.

I think it's intent one of the key things with this study and that yielded these recommendations for where they go with some really some some criteria for how we build on that.

And so what we have as we grow our greenway system is a set of criteria where as we expand, we could reference that criteria to see where new signs could go.

And I think that's a key takeaway from the analysis that allows us to expand at the staff level without having to go back out for additional study.

Any additional questions?

Well, thank you, Mr.

Fansler.

I do believe this will enhance the experience at our greenways.

Can I get a motion to approve this resolution?

Move for approval.

Second we have a motion and a second.

We're ready to vote.

It passes.

That concludes the public works agenda.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Burke.

We'll now go to the general government committee and Mayor Pro Tem Adams.

Thank you, Mayor.

Would the clerk please read the first item?

Overview of forward 2045 area plan process.

We have Miss Amy Crum.

I know most of us and our citizens have heard about this plan.

It's about like when we do it, we're doing the 2030, and we won the award for the best song, the jingle.

So the 2045, I can tell you and staff, you guys have done a pretty good job of getting it out because when I meet it with people, you got you're gonna get questions about 2045.

So you're doing good.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

Thank you, Chair Adams, members of council, Amy Crum, assistant planning director.

I'm here today to basically give an overview of the area plan process.

Um we have some new faces on the board who may not be familiar with this planning process.

It's going to take several years to complete.

So we just wanted to give an overview to inform you about the different stages and how these work in our grand scheme of planning and and different plans.

To just start off a quick history lesson on how we've been doing area plans in the planning department.

We've been doing area plans since the 1980s.

Um, and in the 80s and 90s, they were very specific, either areas, neighborhoods, corridors.

Um they did not cover the entire city or county.

Um we sort of moved away from that in the 2000s after the adoption of the legacy comprehensive plan in 2001.

And the goal with that was to create a proposed land use map really for the city and also to create parcel-specific recommendations.

Um, and this went over the city and parts of the county.

Um, and then looking into early 2010s, we did what was called uh the rural area plans, and this was for growth management area five, which are rural areas out in the county, so it doesn't impact you, but it will come into play here in a bit.

Um, these did not provide parcel specific recommendations, they were very broad brush uh recommendations for our rural areas.

There was two of them, the Northeast Rural Policy Area, which is up around uh Blues Lake, north of Kernersville, east of Rural Hall, up in that area, and the western rural area is sort of west of Louisville and Clemens along the Yakin River.

So those were were done in 2010 and 2012.

And then in 2012, the legacy 2030 update comprehensive plan was adopted, and so with that adoption, we redid the comprehensive plan of the area plans that we had in place.

We updated those to be consistent with the legacy 2030 update.

And they look very similar to what was done in the early 2000s, same information, just really an updated recommendations.

And those are what you've been using and will continue to use until the new area plans are in place.

And then we moved in to do some corridor interchange plans.

We had the Peter Street Parkway corridor plan, the Woodacro Parks strategic plan, um, the Rell Drive interchange plan.

Those were all done in the late 2010s up until the beginning of the COVID pandemic when we wrap those up.

Those are very much design-based plans.

They did not make any sort of land use recommendation at all.

And then after those were done, we really went into Ford 2045, and that took a number of years to um complete and have adopted, and it's been adopted by both y'all and the county.

So it now acts as our comprehensive plan.

So it is the broad based um planning document for both the city and county.

And so for 2045 creates those high-level, really broad recommendations regarding future land use and development.

They're very high level, and then we sort of start to funnel down and how we implement that.

Area plans are one way we implement those broad recommendations and also UDO text amendments.

On a side note, we're working on a number of those right now, so you'll probably start to see some of those coming in the future.

But area plans are one way that we sort of implement the broad goals of for 2045.

Um, they do create parcel specific land use recommendations that help guide rezoning requests and development proposals.

And so you'll see that if you look at a rezoning request and our staff reports, it'll tell you the area plan that it's in and what it recommends and and those sorts of things.

One thing, and I really want to stress this is that area plans do not change the zoning of a parcel, they are a recommendation only.

So property owners, no matter what the area plan says, they can still use their property per the zoning of it.

So a quick overview on the new uh set of plans.

So these will be a new series of area plans.

They will not be an update to the update, they will be brand new.

They will have a slightly different format and slightly different process than what we've done in the past.

One key factor here is that they will cover every parcel under Winston-Salem and Forsyth County zoning jurisdictions.

If you remember those rural policy areas, they do not have a parcel-specific uh land use recommendation for those.

And when I show you the map, you'll be able to see a little bit better, but it's coming into play for us as development sort of expands out along Lewisville and Clemens, along Lewisville Clemens Road there, that's an issue, but also with the interchange in the new beltway.

Um, and I'll show you this on the map because it's a lot easier to see.

But there's areas just north of the beltway that currently do not have a parcel specific recommendation, which will be an area, an issue once we start getting more and more development pressure out there.

Um they will be shorter, very similar to 42045, and that there'll be less text, more graphics, people are much more graphic focused, visually focused, and some fewer maps.

Um we just found that either some maps were redundant and unnecessary, or we could combine maps again, really cons consolidating the plan and making it much more user-friendly and digestible for folks.

A key difference from what the past has been, it will focus solely on land use recommendations.

Um, in past area plans, we've had we've sort of taken the recommendations from just Fansler's uh uh house there with the um comprehensive transportation plan and metropolitan transportation plan and the bicycle plan and pedestrian plan and green rain plan and the park plan and all these things, and we sort of reiterate those in those in the area plan process.

We won't be doing that this time.

These are really much documents about land use.

So we really want to look focus on what's in the plan is the land use because that's how they're used.

Um we will be looking at those other plans when making our recommendations, um, but we just won't be sort of regurgitating that information, those recommendations, because it became it becomes overwhelming and it gives a false sense to the public that this process is a process by which they can start making transportation recommendations, and it really isn't.

Um so we would just want to make those sort of clear for everyone.

So talking about the public outreach process, we're still looking at having three, four, maybe five if necessary, meetings with the public.

The format will be different because again, it will focus solely on land use.

The first meeting will be presentation plus some input, followed by different meetings related to um land use specifically.

We will be doing stations with maps and have people you know get down and and start you know putting dots on maps, writing on maps, really looking focused on that geography there, and also have questions similar to what we did with for 2045, and that they were dot questions or this or that type of questions, or open-ended post-it note questions so that we can really get people's input that way.

It's a good way for us to want to get quantifiable data on how people responded, but also to get responses in the participants' own words instead of planning staff having to sort of summarize or sort of talk about well, our impression was this.

Now we actually have real quantifiable data and uh residents' own words, which is helpful.

There will be an online survey, it'll be through MetroQuest, which is the exact same platform that we use with for 2045.

Um, and the questions will mirror exactly what as close as possible, what was asked during the public meetings, um, so that way if folks can't make a meeting, they can provide this very similar information and we can look at those together because they'll match.

And we'll also still try to have meetings within the planning area or as close to planning area as possible.

So, as I mentioned, this is sort of the outreach and adoption process.

So the first meeting, we're looking at you know, just straight introduction of the process, some map exercises, and some open-ended or pointed questions general.

Um, we'll start looking at those initial proposed recommendations broadly regarding land use.

Meaning three, we'll start getting into those very specific areas, namely our activity centers.

It says SLUKAs up there, which I'm sure everyone knows what sleukas are.

Um, but there are special land use consideration areas and then interchanges.

Um, just any area that's really we need some really detailed conversations on.

And then the fourth meeting would be the draft plan recommendations that people can overview.

Again, if we're in an area that that is not changing much, has not seen much change, we may be able to combine meetings two and three, maybe, or if we find we need more some more discussion about a particular activity center or interchange, we can add a fifth meeting there as necessary depending on what's going on in the discussion that we have.

Um, the adoption process falls very much the same, similar process we've had in the past, uh, namely with Ford 2045, where it will go to the City County Planning Board for public hearing, then council committee, then city council public hearing, and then if there's county uh property involved, it'll go to the Board of Commissioners afterwards.

We've taken a lot of initial steps since the adoption of Ford 2045, and actually before the adoption of Ford 2045 to start doing our research and background.

Um we've looked at peer communities and how they handle area plans, and um just to let y'all know, nobody does area plans.

We do like we do area plans.

So um, so we're sort of out on our own with that.

Um we've also looked at plan websites to see if there's anything new or revolutionary there and how we display information.

We've looked at how they handle growth corridors and industrial use.

We've also looked at general dimensional requirements, just real broad brush for commercial and office and industrial uses, so that when we make a recommendation, it's actually a feasible recommendation for say commercial, um, that the parcel itself, as it's currently sized, as we look at it would actually work for commercial site.

And if not, if we have to add extra another parcel or extra land around that, does that recommendation still hold?

And to make that as best as we can, um, trying to make sure our recommendations are actually feasible recommendations, and we're not having to pull in other parcels, which can create problems.

Um we've done some research on office to residential conversions.

We held housing meetings, housing land use meetings in the fall.

A lot of the information that we heard from there will be in used to inform our recommendations in the area plans themselves, um, as well as UDO text amendments that may come in the future.

Um, and then we just sort of talked to our staff and and did some our own research.

What worked in the past plans, what didn't work, what do we need, what it would make us useful.

You know, we talked to our land use admin staff who use these on a daily basis, what would be helpful for y'all, those types of questions to make sure these are the most usable documents that we have.

And then we um created new area plan boundaries.

Um the new area plan boundaries, they are new.

So they are not that some of them will be the same, some of them will be different, but they are new.

And one thing I really want to stress is that they do not follow ward boundaries, where boundaries change with the census, and they have different criteria for creating more boundaries.

We looked at existing major minor thoroughfares, natural features, interchanges, municipal boundaries, development characteristics, all those when creating those boundaries, which aren't really factors when you think about ward boundaries.

Ward boundaries are really much more about the population, and also the area plans make um contain multiple wards, or they may contain county-only property, and they may contain city and county property.

So it it um we tried our best to try to make the most sense of the area of the plans that really looked at the different um factors going in.

So we didn't like we didn't want to you know cut uh an interchange into multiple plans that didn't make sense.

We didn't want to split an activity center, those sorts of things.

So this is probably very hard to read.

Um but these are the area plan boundaries.

And another thing that to note about these, the names really don't mean a whole lot.

They are really just geographic nomenclature to help guide a resident roughly to where their area plan would be.

Um and so we found that using things like east, northeast, suburban, rural, central, those things really help sort of guide the public and a developer or a property owner to the proper plan versus saying area plan one, two, three, and they're too large to be used as a neighborhood or a corridor.

Um so we just found that the geographic um naming helps the best.

And I don't know, I don't know if you can see this or not without the mouse.

But you can see on there um the interchange there along the top, um, going through rural hall.

Ooh, yeah, there you go.

Um, that's the new beltway.

Um, and you will notice why we picked some of the top ones that we are doing first is really because of the beltway.

Um the beltway changes, dynamics of that area dramatically, and it will cause development pressure.

And if you look up in there, the um so the orange and the pink that area and then going over to the um the pink area in the corner, that those areas did not really have land use recommendations on a parcel specific basis.

So it creates an issue when we start getting that development pressure from those interchanges from the beltway.

We want to make sure that we have a land use parcel specific land use recommendation.

So again, the first plan we will be doing is the Northeast Suburban Area Plan, and that's um goes up to the county line, and it will be both city and county property.

Um it contains a good chunk of that beltway and those interchanges.

Um the meeting, the first meeting will be January 28th.

Um it'll be at Forsyth Tech Transportation Technology Center, which I didn't know existed, honestly, but is on Patterson.

Um so we will be doing that.

That's a new venue for us to to utilize a new partner there.

Um we've been doing existing conditions analysis um starting back in November, and again, it's really critical for our staff because we've had to basically create an existing land use map from scratch because we didn't have that because it was a rural policy area, that northern half of this area.

Tentatively looking out, um, we will do rural hall and then east suburban, that will get us the full um beltway, and then going over and doing west southwest Forsyth County.

That's the other rural policy area between uh Lewisville and Clemens and the Akin River, where we've had a number of cases come in along Louisville Clemens Road that does not have a land use recommendation and that's created issues for us going forward.

So we want to sort of address those key main areas first out the gate.

As to what we go on beyond that, we still need to have discussions as to what follows.

But that's the next two years of area plans.

It'll take uh probably six or so years to get through these.

Hopefully, once we get a first couple through, we can start going a little quicker with them.

But right now we're looking at doing two a year.

And that's all I have.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Again, thank you so much.

Um I really think again back in the day, we didn't, some of us did, we didn't have a beltway.

Yeah, and we knew what 15, 16 years ago, that everybody had a beltway but Winston Salem here.

And we knew that if we didn't get one, we would never be able to develop or grow our city or the county or uh businesses, anything.

And even though uh people are surprised when they ride 52 north and 65 and 50, you know, going back 74 uh east, that housing development, as soon as we seal that deal, Mr.

Fansler, Mr.

King, Mr.

Murphy, on the beltway, and Mayor Allen joins Clark.

We hadn't even bought the houses yet from the people that had the houses that had us hostage for like 20 years.

So once that was done, if you come on the north side of 52 king, housing started going up like overnight, and people were like, why are they building those houses over there?

Because the beltway is coming.

Uh Councilmember Burke and your ward, Walker Town, your pace center, your apartments, get right off Walker Town Road.

People want to be able to get on, get off, go to Greensboro, wherever they're going.

And I think this plan will ultimately define who we are and what we become in the next 15 to 20 years, this plan, because we didn't have the beltway.

Now we have the beltway to have the updates of 52, which becomes 74.

What is it?

74.

So we're on our way.

Any questions or comments?

Councilmember Messipio, Councilmember.

Okay.

Councilmember Scipio, Councilmember Jordan.

Thank you, Mayor Chair.

Um, Ms.

Crumb, thank you for this great plan.

You know, always having a plan we're gonna follow is always good.

Uh so it's great.

Um had two concerns.

Um this is a plan that you said was going to focus on land use.

But we will overlay the other plans that we have, like transportation, the bike and pedestrians when people come to see that.

They'll see where those things are.

Yeah, we'll go forward.

Yeah, there will still be in the in current area plans.

There's a I think we call it community facilities or community amenities map where you can see where different things are.

Um we just won't include all the text.

Yeah.

Yes, that sort of thing.

But yes, the map of showing where everything is, but the text just won't be there, where we had pages and pages about transportation recommendations and that kind of thing, which really was just a regurgitation of what's in the CDP and MTP, which are brand new.

Um so we will we do have our both the city's planning department website has information about the area plans and as well as the Ford 2045 website has information, there's more information on area plans, and we do include links directly to those plans, like here's where you find that information, and that's one of the things we're looking at at the meetings themselves to say, you know, if you got a question about sidewalks, here's the correct person you need to speak with, and or or what have you.

So we have that information available to the individuals.

And my second concern is um or recommendation, is that I think it would behoove us to be intentional about including the voices of our young people and our young adults because this plan is about 20 years from now, and hopefully they're going to be our dominant residents, and to get their input now of what they see they that they might want would be great.

So I hope we're going to do something intentional to get our high schoolers' voices involved and our college students that are here.

And that's thank you.

Council Major.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh, two questions or concerns.

Um you talked about the plan, the vision, the use going forward versus what the owner or other property might be doing with it now.

If those two things are adverse to each other, does that property owner have any way of continuing or doing what some balance of what they want with their own property?

They can along under zoning.

So it doesn't change the zoning, and for anybody who's watching who doesn't know what zoning is, is the it's a legal um sort of framework by which land can be used.

So it dictates can it be used for a commercial entity or an office or a residential, and then things like height and SEPEX and parking calculations and and things like that.

So let's just, I'm just gonna an example would be let's say you have a property that's currently zoned for office, and you're a property owner and you want to keep it as office and you've been using it as office.

No matter what's in the plan, you continue to look use it as office.

Um but if the plan says we should take this office recommendation and make it for multifamily residential.

I'm just spitballing here.

Umless the property owner decides to one develop, redevelop their site for multifamily or something other, or sell it to someone who wants to redevelop it for something other than office.

That the area plan recommendation has no bearing whatsoever.

It's only when it comes in for either if it's a vacant parcel for development other than what they're allowed underneath their zoning or for redevelopment.

So the onus is always on that property owner to say I want to do something different than what I'm legally allowed to do, or I want to sell it to someone who wants to do something different than like legally allowed to do.

That's when that area plan recommendation comes into play.

Otherwise, it otherwise the property owner can continue to use their property, or they can redevelop it if they're like, well, my office is too small, I want a different office, I want to be they can they can continue to use it as an office, any or redevelopment as a different office, or use it for something that's allowed underneath that zoning district.

So there are multiple uses allowed within different zoning districts.

So thank you.

The other question is within the outreach process, you said three to four, maybe five meetings if needed.

Over what period of time would each area get that time.

So the meetings were roughly a month apart.

Okay.

Um so and again, this this was our first one, and we're doing things a little bit differently, so we're kind of like, okay, it may tweak a bit because we get in there and like what we thought would work doesn't really work, or no, we need more time.

But really, right now they're scheduled a month apart, and that's what we would continue to to aim for based off availability and timing.

It would be about roughly a month between meetings.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

Any more questions or comments?

Yes, this is just an overview for information.

Thank you, Ms.

Kroll.

Thank you.

City Clerk, please read the next item.

Update on homelessness initiatives.

Ms.

Floyd and Dr.

Wright Lanier will chime in as Nita.

Good afternoon, Sharika Floyd Neighborhood Services.

This is the second part of a presentation that was started in October of last year.

So we talked a little bit about homeless services here locally and what the funding in the beginning.

Now we're going over what we have done in the last year.

So we brought back Project Homeless Connect.

Project Homeless Connect is a one-day event that'll bring services to those who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness in one location.

This year we did it at across from Salvation Army, so Union Baptist, and we were able to provide services.

A lot of the agencies came out, city staff are there as well, DJ Food Services all in one location.

This is the second event we have had since 2000.

I want to say in nine is when it had ended, and we brought this back to bring services in one location.

We increased our city and county partnership.

So the county gave out 181,000 in local agency funds for shelter operations, including the winter shelter project.

County Commissioner, Commissioner Woodbury joined the Commission on Ending Homelessness Board, and County appointed four individuals on the Commission on Ending Homelessness Board.

They provided staff to help manage the homeless caucus on behalf of the city and the COC.

They also provided ongoing assistance with events and needs for the community, such as providing supplies and volunteers for the point and time count.

I'm at Project Homeless Connect.

They gave out flu shots, suppliers, and also provide provided volunteers for the winter shelter.

They are doing flu shots in the morning for individuals who are standing in the winter shelter that are interested, as well as we are leasing the NX2 building on Highland Avenue for winter shelter operations.

And then day center or one stop conversation.

So those conversations have started around how we can partner better together to bring services in one location.

Thank you.

I have a question for you, Miss Dr.

Right Lanier, the city manager.

The 181,194, that's just from the county, or is it the county and the city together?

That's just county funded.

Just county.

And somewhere, if you guys could let us know in the next communication, how much we contribute before the next meeting.

County commissioner represented on the commission on ending homelessness is County Commissioner Woodbury and County appointments of four.

Do we have appointments on the city council?

Do we have appointments on this commission?

Air, city.

And then we do have city staff myself that also assists with that group.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

And then there has been an increase in attendance at all of the Casima Care meetings and in any initiatives that we have brought forth by county staff to partner to work better together.

Our winter shelters, our rental shelter opened the Monday before Thanks, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving this year, last year.

We have Annex 2, which is an overflow shelter with 35 beds for men.

We have St.

Timothy, we have dwelling, Calvary Moravian, which is for families, and then we have some new story overflow, which is for men as well.

As of January 4th, 75 women and 167 men were served.

And we did do something different this year.

These are the COS that the city supplied to utilize in these winter shelters beforehand.

There were mets that were provided.

So this year we did provide COTS to be utilized in the winter shelter.

Is this number lower or higher from last year?

I can check.

Okay.

Thank you.

You will.

So other things we have done, we have revamped our coordinated entry system.

The coordinated entry system is the front door how you get into homeless services or how you access those services.

So that front door system was revamped.

The original contract holder was United Way.

When they decided to pull out last year, the city, along with City Wood Dwellings, and Family Services filled in that gap.

So what we did was we started to provide in-service locations at the Dream Center and at City Dwellings.

There is city staff located at the Dream Center, and then there is Citywood Dwellings that does their even their walk-in hours.

We look to provide more ways to connect to services, so whether that's in-person phone, email, or through a website.

We also did more marketing of the COC with events such as Project Cloneless Connect.

We have our monthly connections over coffee, and then we started to increase our sponsors and local partnerships.

So meeting with people and businesses in the community to build those relationships.

A revision of our prioritization policy.

So we used to have a intake where it would collect numbers.

So it was a number base.

So if you scored 25 points, you were placed at the top of a list to be connected to housing.

Now we are increasing connections to resources and case management.

So trying to house a lot of people instead of without with the limited funding that we have through partnerships.

We have also utilized where we your length of time homelessness, homeless is where it places you as a prioritization.

So that decreases wait time and increase the number of people served who are long-term homeless.

And then we created a light touch assistance program.

So if you become homeless and you only need security deposit, or if you only need just that assistance looking for a unit, we now have a city case manager who assists with that light touch assistance program.

So those are the individuals who don't need that long-term case management that keeps them from having to wait in the system for long periods of time to be connected to a program.

24 7 call center contract.

So we did do a contract with NC211 to provide call center and resource connection.

So they do already provide 24-7 call center, but this gives them access to our HMIS system and allow them to record record real-time data information from the call center.

This also connects them to our 911 dispatch team where they're able to connect with 911 dispatch and bear team to assist individuals after the five o'clock when staff have already gone home.

We have increased our training, increased membership and participation.

So we have re-educated individuals within the CLC on different things such as FMR versus rent reasonableness.

This allowed the difference is that with FMR, there's a set amount with rent reasonabless.

We are able to increase the amount that we pay the landlords, allowing us to access more units, progressive engagement.

So we have created time limits and requirements for individuals while they are in housing.

We have advocated for housing first policies and provided trauma-informed care.

We have great done a great job of increasing our membership.

So we brought in different local religious organizations, Goodwill, Novant Health, Balton Properties, as well as Firstyth County Department of Social Services into that membership.

And we have increased participation at our full team of care council meetings and increased participation by creating action groups for each sector of our work.

This allows us to focus on each sector throughout the year, then taking instead of taking a piece of it at a time.

Our current needs, even though we have done all of this, we still have needs within the system.

There still was the wage study that was done in 2022 that shows 60% of the frontline staff earn below the living wage, so finding ways to increase the funding to increase the pay for staff.

We still need to increase and develop interim housing.

So shelter opportunities for families and single women is still very limited, as well as non-congregate shelter options for those with high barriers such as mental health.

Supportive services, so finding ways to provide additional mental health and substance abuse services and increase those wraparound services for people when they are in housing.

Our affordable housing opportunities, so we do have shelter beds, however, since it is limited, just finding affordable housing options where we can place people into housing once they are in shelter or once we meet them and they are ready to go into housing off the streets.

So being able to utilize our housing choice vouchers and rapid rehousing rental assistance funds, especially for individuals who are making at or below 80%.

And then housing retention.

So finding a way to keep people from coming into a system is easier to keep people housed rather than for them to fall out of housing and have to place them back into housing.

So if something happens, been able to have prevention money that allows us to keep people housed.

And then what do we still need?

What we're looking at has been master leasing.

So master leasing allows a nonprofit or local government to lease a building of units at one period of time, and it allows us to master tenant and place tenants in those units while paying the landlord or having the landlord pay directly in rental assistance.

It allows us to house quickly without waiting for affordable housing options and taking case management staff to look for these affordable housing options for the funding that we have.

We have also looked at rehabbing assistant city owned properties or purchasing and rehabbing properties for sale.

So taking abandoned units or things like that and rehabbing them for rental properties.

And then this is just a picture of Burton Street.

This is in the Northwest Ward, where we are currently doing renovations for housing.

North, I am sorry.

This is in the North Ward, where we are currently doing renovations for permanent supportive housing.

This would be 10 units.

And then rehab of multifamily investment properties.

So this allows the landlord to keep ownership of their property while we renovate the property.

And then it allows us to kind of again master lease that property since we did do those renovations for a number of years and be able to assign case managers to individuals that are going to those apartments, and it allows us to rapidly house people again.

So taking large um warehouses or other underused areas and creating spaces.

Sometimes either be more like bachelor pads or things of that nature.

It can sometimes be cheaper than building from ground up.

And then cottage homes.

So this is a Eden Village in Wilmington.

So this is a project that we have been watching closely where they took an abandoned mobile home park and placed these 400 square foot RVs.

I won't to create.

So this is another cost efficient way.

This is what we've been talking about for 15, 16 years.

And with an aging population, along with homelessness, along with people's incomes being not so affordable, that is the way to go.

And it doesn't take, like we already knew, two or three years to build the project.

It can be done in a matter of months.

If we can just find somewhere to do this, I'm I'm telling you, there are there's populations of people that are ready for smaller houses, more efficient, as it says.

You know, you don't have to give the utility companies a thousand dollars a month for a gas bill when it's cold, like it is now.

But uh I look forward as as Dr.

Lanier right knows, right Lanier knows I have been talking to her, and uh where's Miss There she is back there with claim and you.

This is what this is the next for us.

I think would get us money readily.

We're going to DC in March to lobby at congressional cities, and it would be great again.

And I know the city manager and we got the retreat, and we're gonna put together a more succinct uh legislative package of our ask and expectations, but I do believe we could get funding for project like this, even if it's a prototype launch.

Sorry, uh Ms.

Floyd.

You can go ahead because you know how excited I get about the little houses.

And then additional services for the unshelters, so providing those basic needs services, such as shower, food, and laundry, um, kind of meeting them where they are so that we can move on to those housing conversations while also providing those basic needs services.

And then another project that we um looked at is a Tampa Hole project.

So this project is in Tampa, Florida.

There is two different versions of this that is working very well there in Tampa.

Um, it's a former warehouse in Tampa that houses 300 to 350 individuals at a time on a 10-acre lot.

Um, there is a gradual process of where individuals start in a tent and then they are able to move to pallets and then into housing.

So this allows them to get case management supportive services and housing all in one location, um, similar to transitional housing.

Um, it is designed with dining space, shower, storage, and case management services.

Um, it also has um 24-7 staffing security and service delivery.

So um, this is one of the projects that we are looking to bring forth as well.

Any questions or comments?

I see councilmember Jordan, Andre Bowen, and then Councilmember Scipio and Councilmember Hall.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Ms.

Floyd.

Um, a lot of information, a lot of good information, and a lot of uh eye-opening information, I believe.

Um you didn't touch on public restrooms.

Yes.

Have we done any research on how we can get some public restrooms on the streets in the streets?

So we did hold a community meeting with individuals who are experiencing homelessness, myself and um our um angel right linear.

So in that meeting, there was a conversation around the need for public bathrooms and transportation.

So that is something that has been brought forth, the need for public restrooms because when they are out there, there is nowhere to utilize restrooms, which does cause issues with them using this places they should not be using the bathroom.

So there has been conversations from that meeting that we had about what can be done.

I would uh suggest you would do a little more research with what Asheville has done with public restrooms and having them readily available in the downtown area.

The other thing is the uh tiny houses I am so much like Mayor Pro Tim.

I am uh all about tiny houses for homeless, for just moderate income, the low income to just better use of space because we have too many, too many material things and not enough um finances to keep a roof over our heads sometimes, unfortunately.

Um how much space do you need to put up uh tiny homes?

So the ones that we have looked at um are 400 square feet.

Um we have also looked at um they some that fold down to 18 inches.

So there are different ones that we have options for.

Um I could definitely provide you more information on some ones that we had come out as well to um just do a demo of what can be possible.

Okay, and my last thing.

Last year we had uh uh information um about some collapsibles that could be in place for um one day less than six months and then be moved somewhere else which would hold anywhere from one to two individuals per house.

How have we moved forward with that?

And is that still something we're um looking at doing before this time next year?

I am hoping that it definitely will be before this time next year.

Um we are looking at expanding it into something similar to Tampa Hope project, so not only having those um fold down units, but creating somewhat of a program instead.

So having something that's gradually um done as well as having the case management, the um community services site or the community services building on site, a one-stop center, all of that's happening at the same time.

Thank you.

Thank you for being willing to put boots on the ground and sitting in the hot seat right now.

No problem.

Councilmember Andre Boyd.

Thank you, Mayor Pratim.

Um one question and a comment.

Um you had the uh some numbers of 75 women and 167 men.

Um how many of those um are our children?

So we have not had any children or families um attend our winter shelter this year.

Okay.

So we do have a dedicated location for the family shelter.

Um I did reach out to Salvation Army, and they have not had um anyone that they could send over as well.

So we have not had any families.

Um the last family we had was in November, and that was one family.

Interesting.

Thank you very much.

Um so as Mayor Pratimer said earlier that we have our uh strategic plan meeting uh later this week, and um I read over this uh your report yesterday, and I'm I have some notes that we'll kind of I hope that we can address as we move forward this week and and look at more uh pinpoint things and and be strategic about these things because a lot of these things are things that I I I fully support.

I love the idea of of a lot of these things, so trying to find a way to make these happen.

So I'm looking forward to having uh further discussions around this week.

Thank you.

Councilmember Scipio.

Thank you very much.

Um great report.

Um this is a continuing opportunity for our community to deal with those who become unhoused and those who are chronic and those that are temporary.

Um it is important though that we also understand um the total cost of providing that service.

So I certainly agree with uh Mayor Pro Tim with getting what our contribution is as a city, but there's also that piece where you have sponsors, and I'm assuming they are doing in kind, um, and that we need to monitorize that so we can see the total cost that's being placed for those that we are serving.

So that would be one suggestion is to try to figure out the actual cost of providing for those who are in this situation.

And that's the Sacramento community, Sacramento, California, they have a very severe homeless problem.

And they have taken a couple of different tactics to provide for that.

One is a large pallet area.

And then I'm gonna send you I think brochures on a couple of other options to the pallet homes that council member Jordan and I uh looked at at our national leagues in Utah.

They are there are a lot of different options for us to consider.

And but I think that this is a continuing issue.

Um temporary housing and transitional housing are both issues that we've got to get a grasp on.

So thank you so much.

And please stay healthy and continue your passion in this area.

It's it's not an easy job that you're doing and keep motivating all of those who are in the continuum of a care that you do so well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um the with the budget in the October meeting, there was a budget breakdown um that showed the comparison of how much federal funding, how much funding directly from local funding that and then how much funding for state that we receive locally.

So that is in the um presentation from October, and then it's compared to about six other cities.

So if you could kind of send that back out to that.

Thank you, Chair Adams.

Uh I had a question going back to the slide about um the revamp.

We talked about light touch, and I hate that I didn't get a um opportunity to, yeah, okay.

Light touch assistance program.

And you had mentioned that we have staff now, so so one of the changes is that now we have staff, city staff that's able to kind of give rent assistance or something like that.

Is that a part of um rapid rehousing, or is that something totally different?

And if you don't mind maybe telling me how one would go about that.

Is it a referral from another community agency that comes into us?

Or is that I mean, I'm sure it's not somebody calling City Link and then being transferred up to the office.

It could be.

So rapid rehousing is a program that's from zero to 24 months.

So that program um before we revamped the COC, everyone was receiving 24 months of assistance.

So since that is not a best practice, what we did was we revamped the rapid rehousing program to provide provet progressive engagement services.

So what that means is you're meeting with this person every month, and you're seeing what has been done and what can be contributed towards a housing cost.

And you're having those hard conversations of, okay, where have we looked for employment?

Have we tried here?

Um, I'm paying this amount this month, you're gonna have to pay this.

And we're giving those case management um those case management, we're giving them case management so they can become self-sustainable.

So we're not promising 24 months anymore.

We're gonna start with three months of assistance, and we're gonna prepare you to become whole.

So that has changed.

So we are um ramping down the insistence and not wrapping up.

This allows us to assist more people, and this allows for people who may have employment to they'll get a leg up, but they're not gonna stay on the system for 24 months.

So that light such assistance program, what it does is um instead of having to wait for a case manager.

If you, for instance, have a Section 8 voucher or you have employment where you can stay in your own home, but you need maybe moving costs of one month, one month of assistance for the security deposit in first month, you're able to get a referral from one of the partner agencies who are showing proof that you are homeless.

So they're writing a letter on your behalf saying this person is homeless, I need this paid, they found a unit.

Um, we don't want them waiting for a long period of time for a case manager or someone to do the paperwork.

So that person, they don't have a caseload.

So the idea is that they are quickly able to process that paperwork and still check in as a team, they can check in with that individual via phone and um be able to process that paperwork quickly to move people in a lot faster.

Um so that pro that light touch assistance program, it is under rapid rehousing.

So we carved out that zero to five, zero to three months, and we created someone that was specifically focused on people that fall in that bucket.

So that way we're quickly able to house him.

Thank you.

And I have one additional question.

And well, actually, maybe it is a comment, actually.

So I went to Utah for the NLC conference with Councilmember Scipio, and there was um there was an example that I really liked, and I can get with you offline.

Um ACM Lanier can get with you about what these public restrooms are and what they look like.

It's okay.

Um, of what they look like, but I think that they were um very nice, but more importantly, more suitable, particularly as we go into um next century, what we think about and what it looks like to be able to kind of have those um and not just for uh and just whoever needs to use the restroom because we all need to do that from time to time.

Um so I'll I'll get with you all offline to be able to share that with you.

Thank you.

Um the revamping of continuum of care, I think was a major next step for us, and getting all of the stakeholders that do the work.

I'm not talking about the office Mac people, that's what I call us policy people.

The people that actually do the work like you and others, City of Dwelling staff, Bethesda, Samaritan that do the work, that we were able to bring all of you together to understand, as you said, a lot of things that the public thought we should be doing, we can't do.

It's not sustainable.

And if you want to do this, then let's take a survey and and raise some more taxes.

That's how this goes.

Uh Councilmember Clark said we got one knob to turn.

What's that knob, Councilmember Clark?

Property tax.

Property taxes.

Uh, I want to commend you also for uh I did talk with uh the staff at City of Dwellings.

I think that the point of contact count, we need to maybe do it a little different, and they seemed open to it.

You know, instead of going out when it's dark.

Who who we gonna find in the dark?

I mean, we got I know we've done it, but I said people that are unhoused, they are out in numbers in the daytime, and maybe we do a 50-50 split.

If we do the daytime and hit all the spots to transit center, the parks, the you know, the places, and most of us know where they are, that we probably can get a better count, but it is definitely going to be important going forward with this administration, that our numbers when it comes to these type numbers, that we are able to advocate, whether it's with our governor, our legislature, Raleigh, or even the county commissioners.

So uh I know that I told them that I'm signing up.

I want to do the count this year.

I'm hoping that we can increase the numbers.

Uh as someone said, young people, council and Scipio, young people and others, so they can see up front and close how this issue affects all of us.

And it's not just the people who are experiencing it.

But again, I want to thank you, your staff, the department.

Ms.

One more thing.

The point in time count for this year, we are not doing the point in time count this year.

So the point in time count is only required biannually.

Um, we have had a large decrease in volunteers.

As volunteers are getting older, we have had a large decrease in volunteers.

Um, HUD does make the rules on the timing, when how often so um it does require us to do it after sundown.

So that is a HUD requirement that we um wouldn't be able to change.

Um, so that was kind of one of the things what we did decide to focus on a lot this year is more about education and community engagement.

So instead of doing the point in time count, the COC has talked about ramping up community engagement, education around what is needed, education around what the continuum care is, and um looking at how to better increase our volunteers, not only for point in time count, but for project homeless connect and also for our local COC partners throughout the year.

Just like the census, though.

We do the census every 10 years, but we do census every year, all year in different pieces.

Uh I would like to discuss whether we put together our own initiative to do our own count, even though it can't be used for data, but it can be used to explain the why to our policymakers.

Uh, I think we get more volunteers if because people don't feel safe being at night.

I don't care what we do to try to make them give them all the flashlight, headlight, it won't work.

But I believe if we just dealt with it from a just a different perspective.

Okay.

You know, not saying that we got it's it's well, I'm not gonna say is it's legal.

We can do that on our own without HUD to be able to back up against the numbers.

If we're saying when we do the count, if we got 400 plus people that are unhoused, we know we did it a year ago in the daytime and we had over a thousand.

Then something is wrong, and maybe that's how we lobby HUD when we go to DC to change their policy.

But again, thank you all for doing what you do.

Thank you, especially, like I told you, don't leave us.

We'd be lost without you.

But thank you for everything that you do in this community to educate the community about this situation.

No problem.

Thank you.

Mayor Pratem.

Yes, Mr.

City Manager.

Uh, just real briefly, and we'll they'll they'll get this information to you.

But Ms.

Floyd did put all this together last time.

And and just to give you some perspective on the numbers, so you so you have those as part of this.

And our continuum of care, she was selling over three million dollars going went into that.

Our North Carolina emergency solutions grant was a little over 200,000.

Emergency solutions grant, which is from HUD is a little under 200,000.

And our CDBG block grant going towards homelessness was a little over 300,000.

So about 3.7 million of dollars going towards the homeless uh issue in the city.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hall.

Thank you, um, Chair Adams.

I would say uh really quickly, if we choose to do that, if we go that route, whether it's this year or even for a point in time next year.

Um I think this past, I think in 2025, Councilmember Andrew Bowen wasn't there, I think it was a I think we had a council, there was a there was a uh conflict with the pointing time.

So like I don't know how the scheduling, something we were doing.

And so certain ones, even on council, if we wanted to participate, we couldn't.

And so Councilmember Adams, as you're getting with um Mayor Pro Tim Adams, as you're getting with staff, if we could at least think about that, if there's a time that we can coordinate where other council members can actually go and it's not a conflict with our schedule.

Thank you.

If there are no more questions there, I had to the general government committee will send the best for last, the public safety committee with Council Recipio.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Well, welcome to public safety.

Uh in January.

Um, public safety, the fire and police emergency emergency management is all the time.

Um, but we only have one item on our agenda today.

Uh so we will um have that, Madam Clerk.

Winston Salem Police Department District 4, one year progress update.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, uh, Mr.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, City Council, City Staff.

Uh my name is Jason Gates.

I'm a captain over in our patrol division with the police department.

I'm here to give you an update on District 4.

I'd like to start with uh just giving a little bit of a background, uh, just a brief background.

So we started talking about creating this new district uh for district four back in 2023.

Uh we had uh we rolled it out through a press conference um in April of 2024, and then we offici officially launched it and implemented it in September of 2024.

So what I'm what I want to do today is just talk about um some of the goals that we had set uh early on, which is just overall improved public safety uh for all of the well, downtown and in some of the surrounding neighbors uh through just deterrence of crime in general, uh building better community relationships and improved response times.

So I got a few charts here to illustrate where we're going with it.

Um this first one is a three-year comparison with uh the one on my far right here would be the most recent one since the implementation of district four.

Um we're trending in the right direction, I feel like.

Um if you'll notice uh with the code one, that would be the light blue one on uh the left there on my left, you'll be yeah, my left.

Um it went up slightly by about 40 seconds if my math is correct.

Um I'm not real sure why that happened, but the other two came down by over a minute.

Either way, uh we're uh we feel like we're doing a fantastic job with just call response as a whole.

Uh these are amazing numbers uh considering the call volume that we have.

Uh next is uh highlight improved case closure for part one and part two crimes.

Uh again, we've broken it down over the last three years uh with the one on the far right being the one that list right there is from uh the implementation date of district four up until August 31st of 2025.

I've highlighted uh some of these numbers here in red.

Um the top one is cleared by arrest.

So I was very excited to see that number because that what that illustrates is 11.8 percent increase in cases that were cleared by arrest.

That's pretty significant, we feel.

Um the next one is uh closed cleared, and then that these are these are case closure dispositions.

Um that was uh about a 27% increase, and then um close non-reportable.

Now, what that means is that's like a report that was written, a case that was investigated, it turned out not to be a crime.

So that stayed about the same, that's to be expected.

Exceptionally cleared.

That one went up by about seven percent, and then the inactive, that was another highlight that I wanted to point out as well.

So we had a eight and a half percent decrease in the number of cases that were closed since the implementation of District 4 where the case was closed inactive.

Um that's I feel like very significant, also.

It's eight and a half percent increase.

Uh some of that can be attributed under the cleared by arrest numbers that you see at the very top, and a lot of it, I feel we feel, is attributed to the real-time crime center.

We have a lot of participation in that program in the downtown area, so a lot of these cases is quite honestly are getting solved very quickly with with partnership with that real-time crime center.

The um at the bottom there, you'll see the total calls or the uh total crimes reported under part one and part two, and they stayed fairly consistent.

And I could the under the community engagement piece.

Um, that's just a list of some of the meetings that myself and some of the other district four staff attend on a regular basis.

Some of them are monthly, some are biannually, some are annually, and this list is not all inclusive.

We we will have a meeting at the drop of a hat.

So if somebody has a complaint, wants to meet in person, wants to do a zoom, we'll absolutely do that and try and address their problems appropriately.

Um another piece for a community engagement was the addition of uh retired Sergeant Kevin Bowers.

Uh he was uh made our uh downtown community liaison, which is a part-time position uh after he retired in April of 2024.

That was a huge loss, if any of you know Sergeant Bowers.

He's uh a wealth of knowledge.

He spent about half of his 28-year career serving downtown, and he was willing to come back and serve in this capacity, and that's just some of the things that he does uh to help uh District 4 and the police department as a whole.

Um he's been a huge proponent and a participant in the bike safe uh program of Northwest North Carolina, and he still uh is big into that.

He helps Miss Louie Beckles with HRM Health to provide those classes for young children, pass out safety equipment, helmets, uh gives them all kinds of uh guidance and instruction on uh bike safety.

Uh building for the future.

So in October of 20 2024, we sent two of our officers to the law enforcement bicycle association.

We just call it LIBA instructor course.

Um that was uh a really big deal because what that allowed us to do, allows us to do now is train our own officers to be bicycle officers.

You know, it helps with our liability and gives them some great training, uh great tactics on how to patrol on bicycles.

Previously we've been relying on other agencies, which was spotty at best.

So, in order, since we do have uh an auxiliary bike patrol now, we wanted to implement this program uh to to have better trained officers, and it's been very successful.

Um we hosted the LIBA instructor course for that organization that's based out of Texas.

They asked us to be a host city this past November, and and we were more than happy to do that.

It gave us some great exposure.

Um we had uh students, all police officers from uh all over the United States and Canada, so that was a real big deal for us.

And then, of course, there at the end, I mentioned the auxiliary bike patrol already.

Um we still uh encourage our officers to come out and ride while they while they uh do the augmentation work downtown and the surrounding areas.

So that's been pretty well received.

Okay.

Um this is our current staffing levels.

When we first started, we had 20 officers, so we've increased that by four, and that's one per squad as staffing increases, so the number of officers assigned to downtown.

Uh, we're slowly digging out of a hole on them, Chief Penn and some other staff have mentioned that before, but things are looking up and things are improving, so I have no doubt that District 4 will be part of that increase.

Uh another piece here.

I was I didn't get a chance to get it into the PowerPoint, but we have uh Miss McKenzie Cates Allen.

She works with our community engagement team now, and we have uh she schedules a lot of the coffee with a cop um events throughout the city, but the very next one will be directed for downtown, and we're gonna host it at the downtown bike patrol office at 414 North Cherry Street on February 19th.

So that fits into the community engagement piece.

We encourage everybody to come if they can find the time to do it between eight and eleven that morning.

Um and the final slide here uh in September of this year, and that was right at the year mark.

We started seeing the need to adjust, and we knew this on the beginning.

From now on, there's always going to be tweaking things that need to be improved upon throughout the police department, particularly in District 4, and we're really always ready to accept those challenges and make changes as necessary.

Um, but we recognize that West End will probably be a better fit uh for District 4 just based on its location and proximity to downtown.

So I've highlighted here in purple that particular area, which is the entirety of West End, was brought into District 4, and then what's highlighted in green was taken back into District 3, and West End came from District 3.

So just a minor tweak there.

The call load stayed the same, more or less the same, and uh so far it's been I feel like very successful.

Um just one final thing, just in the spirit of making changes and making um improvements constantly.

One thing we'll do we'll do changes in leadership every now and then.

So Sergeant or uh Captain George Jenkins will be the new district four captain coming up here in the next few weeks, and I'll be taking his place in District One.

I'm excited for that because I've been working with downtown for about three years now, and I think it's great to have uh new leadership, new ideas coming in.

So I'm excited for George and the department.

All right.

Oh, any questions?

We're excited to have you back in District One.

Oh, thank you for that.

Thank you.

Are there any questions?

You know, I always have a couple.

Thank you.

Councilman Scipio, I just had one question.

On the graph, the chart when you listed the improved case closure.

Yes, ma'am.

I apologize.

I don't know what it's what exceptionally cleared means.

Right.

Yeah, I I brought the description here because I thought that may be a question.

So exceptionally cleared means uh that's that's a case that's worked to the end.

The officer knows who it knew, knows who committed the crime, and there could be charges taken out, but circumstances prevent that.

For example, the death of the offender, of course, that would prevent it.

Prosecution was declined by the prosecutor's office.

Um the person was in custody in another jurisdiction, it would prevent an arrest.

Uh the victim refused to cooperate.

That's the bulk of the ones that we see.

You know, somebody's a victim.

They if they're not willing to come to court, it's uh very difficult, if not impossible to prosecute.

And then uh if it's a juvenile and there's no custody involved, that would be another instance when that would be exceptionally cleared.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

This is uh thank you for this update.

Um I'd like to ask Chief Penn, um, not you don't have to come forward.

It's something that I'd like for us to have because uh when we created district four, there was a lot of uh discussion about how is it going to affect the other districts.

So it would be great if we could see those um that data that we've seen on district four for the other districts because uh we we knew this was going to be a unique kind of district, but to make sure that the public knows that we also served every other area just as well.

Uh I think that would be advantageous.

Um I like the fact that uh you talked about the golf the golf carts patrolling downtown, and I hope they have been uh very useful.

It's very interesting to see them.

Um they've been very well received by our staff, and uh I think uh the public mixed mixed reactions on that, but I think overall they like seeing them.

Yes, ma'am.

I have a cut another question for you, um Captain Gates.

Um the bike officer training, and it showed that we had 28 officers certified.

Does that mean they all are assigned to downtown, or are they throughout the system they can they're throughout?

Uh so we have many members that are assigned to district four that are certified.

I would say half of them are.

And then we have uh officers that come in from other areas in the city through patrol detectives, um, wherever.

And uh they have an opportunity to be getting training as well.

Great.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

We're gonna try to get everybody pushed through in the first six months to a year.

Great.

Thank you.

I think it's people need to know that we our officers are trained, and um they actually are trained very well, as are police off uh our firemen, uh, because uh we train people in-house to be a trainer to others, and therefore we save a lot of money.

Uh so we are really an educational oriented public safety department city.

So thank you for that.

And one other request, the map that we show with the boundaries changing.

It's hard to see the streets that uh make up the boundaries.

So if we could get that electronic so we could read the streets, uh, because I couldn't determine uh where that southern end began.

Yes, ma'am.

That'll be great.

Are there any concerns or comments for public safety?

If not, Mr.

Mayor, I think.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Um, did a lot of good work today.

We covered four committees in two hours.

That was pretty good.

Uh I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday as we begin the two-day strategic planning session.

Some of the things we talked about today.

A Wednesday, I'm sorry.

Uh we can come more if you want to.

No, we start Wednesday and Thursday.

Uh a lot of ideas were talk talked about today.

Uh Councilmember, I mean Mayor Pro Tim talked about funding for some of our housing initiatives.

One of the things I want I'm looking forward to talking about as a potential bond issue coming up that we can meet some of our capital needs uh in our city.

Uh so uh without uh objection, uh take a motion to adjourn.

Motion by uh Mayor Pro Tim, second by Councilmember Burke, all in favor adjourning, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Well, we've done it, but