It's my pleasure to call to order this uh uh meeting of the Winston Salem City Council and ask the city clerk to call the roll, please.

Councilmember Joyner.

Present.

Councilmember Clark.

Here.

Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Here.

Councilmember Scipio.

Here.

Mayor Pro Thim Adams.

Here.

Councilmember Taylor.

Present.

Councilmember Hall.

Present.

Councilmember Burke.

Here.

Thank you very much.

Would you please join the City Council meeting in a moment of silence?

Thank you so much.

Would you join the City Council meeting in a pledge of allegiance?

I played allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which he stands one nation undervisible with liberty and justice problems.

Thank you very much.

Recognize our Sergeant in Arms tonight is Lieutenant James Singletary.

Thank you for being with us.

And our fire marshal is uh Fire Marshal Bradley Watson.

Thank you for being with us as well.

Keeping us safe here tonight.

I'd like to uh uh recognize uh well let me first just say this that uh we televised this meeting live tonight on TV 13.

And it will be replayed tomorrow at 9 a.m.

and again Wednesday night at 9 p.m.

Of course, you can know that copies of our agenda as well as videos of our previous meetings are always on available online and the city's website, and just click on the watch meetings online option.

So now I recognize the city manager Pate for his update.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh couple a couple of different things this morning, but first, uh, as the council meeting, I want to start by just um saying thank you to the city staff for all their work that was done over the past several weeks running the city during two major dual winter storms.

Uh I've responded to a variety of citizens on on issues, and here's some of the things that I have have told them.

Uh during the storm, we saw employees working around the clock for two weeks, making roads as passable as possible to most individuals that needed to get to places like medical facilities or grocery stores.

And so they could do that in a reasonably safe manner.

These uh individuals showed up for work despite having to traverse the same ice-covered neighborhood roads that everyone else was facing.

I saw sanitation workers come to work ready to pick up solid waste routes as soon as the neighborhood roads were deemed safe enough to travel.

They were not able to pick up the first week after the ice storm, but did pick up garbage the second week despite the eight to ten inches of snow that fell that preceding weekend.

Utility staff continued to maintain 24 hour coverage to make sure we had clean water.

Police and fire department employees responded to every 911 call for emergency.

Mechanics showed up at fleet maintenance to make sure that vehicles could continue to operate despite the stress of long-running hours and intense weather conditions.

WISTA staff went above and beyond to ensure paratransit riders could get to all of their dialysis appointments.

Vegetation management, properties and facilities management, recreation and parks, and fairground staff all picked up shovels to make sure that their fellow staff members and the public could safely access city facilities.

And our emergency management team facilitated coordination of both events.

Additionally, as you're well aware, members of our marketing communications team kept the public updated.

And the human relations staff translated messages to make sure we were reaching all of our Spanish-speaking community.

City link filled in numerous uh calls of questions of of how things were coming.

And our neighborhood services team worked with the county and several community partners to ensure that the unhoused in our community were safe.

I could continue on, but suffice it to say the City of Winston Salem's one-team approach was on display.

While we certainly have takeaways and lessons that we've learned and how we can be better prepared for and respond to future weather emergencies, overall I am very proud of the staff efforts that were made to provide and continue services during this unprecedented storm and prolonged below freezing weather.

And those two combined really made a difference.

Or really three.

I want to invite Keith Huff, our traffic field operations director, who was responsible for the bulk of cleaning our roads to come up for a few minutes to share some additional information on how we address the storm response.

Mr.

Huff.

Have you caught up on your sleep yet?

Working on it, sir.

Good evening, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tim Adams, members of the City Council.

Manager Pate summed it up very succinctly on what's gone on the past couple weeks.

As you know, you've lived it.

We've had a generational storm event occur in our area and uh a lot of city response as he is he very well mentioned.

And a lot of this is reviewed to you on how we attack the hierarchy of our road clearing, starting with our major roads, our CBD, and our critical care routes.

Then once those are cleared, we drop down to the collector streets.

Then once those are cleared, you know, we go on to those residentials, those tighter roads, smaller areas, tougher to get into.

But this storm event or series of storm events, I should say, had thrown us a curveball because once we got those majors and collectors cleared and started on the residentials, then comes another 10 inches of snow.

And then you've got to re-clear those collectors, the CBD, those critical care routes.

And that's where our citizens might have seen some delay, more delay than we like anyway, as staff for getting into those residential routes.

All the while we're assisting fire, police, EMS on their calls as well.

So uh a very tall task uh for a very dedicated group of uh people.

So very proud of those folks.

Uh again, as the manager said, worked uh two 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, and they were clearing roads up until last week, those very uh back of the woods, cul-de-sac areas and whatnot.

So uh efforts went on to totally clear those streets.

Um your resources.

Basically, what did this work?

19 plow trucks, four brine trucks, four motor graders, and four F-250s with uh plows and spreaders.

So uh, you know, pretty good effort for as far as resources, but you're talking about uh 1,250 center line miles to clear.

So very tall task when you have to go back and repeat it.

And again, this storm event didn't play fair, where the ice, once you plow off the snow, you've got to repeatedly get that ice off, and it takes sometimes 10 passes.

So again, that's the reason for some of the delayed clearing later than we'd like anyway.

So um we talked about the frigid uh the snow events, also the frigid temperatures, the fact that we stayed in the teens or single digits in subsequent days that that did not help our efforts there.

So again, Mother Nature didn't play fair on this one.

We we didn't get a good hand on that.

But uh we are looking at things, uh, our team as far as marketing communications, trying to deal with every aspect of the media, uh, you know, going through everything that they asked for, yeoman's effort there, fleet services repairing every piece of equipment that came to them, just excellent work.

All the other departments that gave equipment or resources as far as personnel, as the manager said, true one-team effort.

Are we learning from this?

Absolutely.

We're learning on what we can do better for the next time around.

So, with that, thank you for the council's support and answer any questions you might have.

They deserve a hand.

We had every we had a snow plow on every piece of equipment that would fit, basically.

If it was running, sir, uh we tried to get it on the road.

Okay, good.

I've tried to tell people that the ice was just intractable, and we had to get motor graders on some areas just to break it loose.

Motor graders were needed or things with downward pressure to get that ice off.

And uh Mr.

King and I were talking about it as sometimes you would scrape it and you get enough for a snow cone in your hand.

So it was coming off quick.

The question is for Mr.

Huff.

Uh uh Councilmember Joyner.

Mr.

Huff, do you have um do we have enough supplies for one more this season?

Okay, great question.

Joiner.

So we used approximately 2800 tons of road salt for the the events that just occurred.

We have about 900 tons remaining in our stock.

So we are a lot better off than a lot of other communities uh uh trying to be a good steward of that resource.

So depending on what Mother Nature brings to us the remainder of the season, we hope we're in decent shape.

But we've also placed an order, actually, these the end of the first week of the the snow events, we placed an order to our supplier to get more salt on the way.

So we are in line for another infusion assault.

So I'm going to hop I didn't jinx us.

And we're just ready for next season.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Huff, and please pass along.

I know speak on behalf of the council to all the employees who spend those 12-hour shifts for about two weeks, roughly there.

So please pass along our thanks for all that hard work.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Keith.

And as he mentioned, we're there there are certain certain things we're looking at.

Uh additional salt in advance is one of those things that we're we're looking at for future uh budget years, and so we'll you you may see that as a part of the budget request in this uh upcoming year.

As we mentioned, uh solid waste collections were delayed one week, but uh currently they are doing their full operations uh of solid waste last week, including the first what they call the blue week of recycling, and then the second week of recycling and all other services began today.

So uh collection operators have also been instructed to pick up overflow trash bags bes placed beside the carts for trash if residents accumulated more than what would fit in one container uh during that two-week period.

Um if you have excess recycling materials, we're asking people to store those until their next recycling pickup if they can't fit it all in the one container.

And we do appreciate the community's patience and cooperation as Solways team manage this higher than normal volumes uh during this recovery period.

Leaf collection will also resume in quadrants three and four, which are in the west and the northwest sections of town uh next this week.

A couple of other items, nominations are being accepted through February 27th for the Arts, Culture, and Entertainment Memorial Walk of Fame.

Nominees must have sustained excellence in their artistic field, be deceased, and former residents of Winston Salem.

If you'd like more information, you can visit our website on that.

And we also did a uh a couple of different broadcasts of that to let people know that it's out there.

Recreation and parks is excited to formally invite the public to view Bellevue Community Center on Tuesday, February 17th from 530 to 730 for an open house.

And says they will have light refreshment.

So that's uh Bellevue Community Center Tuesday, February 17th, 530 to 73.

Wistel will hold public input meetings to present updates to the bus system in our efforts to make the network more efficient.

We went over this a lot with council at a variety of times and including the retreat.

The service changes include faster travel times, new and modified routes, some route eliminations of the lowest used routes, and micro transit, more microtransit in some areas.

There's gonna be three meetings this month.

February 23rd will be virtual from 530 to 7.

February 24th, they'll be at the Forsyth County Central Library from 530 to 730, and then on February 25th at the Clark Campbell Transportation Center from 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

The last two meetings will be in March on the 4th at the Sprague Street Community Center, again, 530 to 730, and March 5th at the Haynes Hosiery Community Center from again from 530 to 730.

So we hope that'll reach all areas of the community and folks can come out and hear what we're looking at in terms of trying to make the bus services more efficient and more effective for our transit riders.

On Wednesday, February 25th at 530, we'll have the Northeast Suburban Area Plan discussion, public input or public input meeting at the Forsyth Tech Transportation Technology Center on Peterson Patterson Avenue.

I'm sorry.

The meeting was rescheduled from January 28th due to the weather.

So again, that's Wednesday, February 25th at 530 p.m.

at the Forsyth Tech Transportation Technology Center for the Northeast Suburban Area Plan.

And then the final um event the to let you know about in the public electrify the triad is a free new community program to help triad area res homeowners learn about plan and improve their properties' energy use needs with afford and affordably acquire the latest energy efficiency technology.

So they're gonna electrify the triad will have a launch from 10 to 1 on Saturday, February the 28th, 10 to 1 at the Piedmont Triad Regional Council Offices located at 8138 Carrollton Crossing Drive in Carnersville.

The event is free and open to the public again 10 to 1 Saturday, February 28th at the Piedmont Triad Regional Council offices, 1398 Carrollton Crossing Drive.

And with that, uh Mayor, I'll be ready to stand it.

Any questions for Mr.

Bates?

Thank you very much.

A lot of the coverage of our ground there for us.

So we'll now uh move on to our agenda, which is comprised of two parts the consent agenda and the general agenda.

It's always practice of the city council to take the consent agenda.

It's the first order of business.

Uh items on this agenda have been unanimously recommended by a committee of the city council or are being rec uh recommended with uh by established city procedure.

There'll be no discussion of these items unless a council member so request, in which event the item will be removed uh from the consent agenda and uh considered individually.

Items not removed will be enacted with one motion.

Council members, are there any items on the consent agenda?

Councilmember Jordan.

Um I'd like to remove C5.

C five, thank you.

Is there a motion on the balance?

To approve the balance of the consent agenda.

Second.

Second by council member Hall.

By the way, we'll be voting uh manually tonight.

Uh so all those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no?

That's unanimous.

Thank you.

Maybe we'll have item C5.

Item C five, consideration of items related to the physical year 2025-2026 budget ordinance.

Mr.

Tesh.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Proten, members of the city council.

This is one of our standard budget amendments.

There are three items associated with it.

Councilmember, do you have a specific question about one of those items?

I do.

Um, if you could go through the solid waste and water uh debt insurances, please.

Uh sure.

Uh so the attached budget amendment appropriates principal and interest payments for both the water and sewer system and the solid waste disposal system.

Um I believe our chief financial officer has brought you the information on the actual issuances themselves.

The item uh is correct in stating that originally we were going to issue that debt probably in the August or September time frame after looking at um the capital projects that they are supporting uh and working with the appropriate uh bond council and financial advisors.

They have decided to issue that debt a little bit earlier as a result of having done that.

The budgets need to reflect that those principal principal and interest payments will be made in the current fiscal year instead of next fiscal year.

Uh but these are enterprise funds that are managed with cash flow statements that included these PNI payments.

We're just making them a few months earlier than anticipated.

So you'll still have 20 years worth of payments.

You'll just finish them a year earlier and start them a year earlier.

It doesn't affect uh other parts of the budget.

No.

Well, there was a lot of different proposed amendments in a very short period area.

So just needed a little c clarification for that.

Absolutely.

That one is uh specifically in water and sewer and solid ways to support capital projects in both of those enterprise funds.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You'd like to make a motion, Councilmember.

Yes, I make a motion to approve.

Second.

Second by council member Clark.

Any further discussion?

All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you, Mr.

Tesh.

We'll now go to the uh general agenda and it includes our state legislative agenda that we uh pass each year and ask our delegation to help us with.

That's a public hearing on the downtown improvement district service, as well as a public hearing on street renaming.

When these public hearings are called, the persons in council chamber will be given an opportunity to speak.

If there is opposition to a public hearing item, the proponents and opponents will be each given 15 minutes for presentation and three minutes for rebuttal.

If no one wishes to speak, I'll close the public hearing, and the city council will consider the item.

May we have item G1, please.

Good evening.

Sorry.

Item G1 resolution adopting the City of Winston Salem legislative priorities for the 2026 legislative session.

Assistant city manager Lanier.

Thank you, sir.

Good evening, Mayor Joins, Mayor Tim Adams, and rest of the members of City Council.

You can't hear the microphone.

Can you hear me now?

Okay, I just need to get closer.

Tonight I'll be walking you through the intergovernmental relations efforts.

Uh for those who are watching and may not have any idea what intergovernmental relations involves.

It involves a coordination and collaboration among federal, state, and local governments.

Uh it focuses on policy alignment, funding opportunities such as grants and community project funding, which used to be called earmarks, and advocacy.

The city council passed the federal legislative agenda back in January.

And so we're gonna now take that federal agenda to the National League of Cities, which will be held March 16th through March 18th.

At the National League of Cities, we'll have the opportunity to meet with our Federal Congressional staff as well as our representatives to talk about the items that were on the federal legislative agenda.

But tonight I'll be discussing the state legislative agenda as the short session will begin in Raleigh April 21st on or about April 21st, 2026.

We put together a new format for ease of viewing.

We've also added a general agenda which will allow us to be able to act more quickly if things emerge.

So we're continuing uh to advocate for items that didn't go or didn't move in the long session, but those items were non-conforming signs, downzoning, exemption from system development fees uh for affordable housing.

And finally, we're requesting a bill to enable the city to confer the authority for rezoning a property to the city county planning board with certain rights of appeal and review before the city council.

As a reminder, we're gonna host the city's legislative breakfast on March 27th, 2026.

That'll be from 8 30 to 11 a.m.

on the second floor in the committee room.

We'll have our city council there as well as several other members of our state legislature.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Attorney French and Deputy E City Attorney Contos, along with Dr.

Shaylene Miller for their work on these efforts.

That is the end of what I have for you tonight.

I uh stand waiting for any questions if those there are uh particular questions that I am not the subject matter expert for.

I'm hopeful hopeful that somebody in the council will be able to answer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Lanier.

Are there any questions by our agenda?

Councilmember McClark?

I should know the answer to this, but I don't.

Are we allowed in a short session to do local bills?

Yes, sir.

Yeah, we are.

Okay.

Thank you.

For the unanimous consent of the entire delegation.

Okay.

Council or Mayor Pro Tim.

I know this is the so thank you, Mayor.

I know this is a short short session uh agenda, but I want us to uh make sure that the council understands, and I know we're having uh meetings for us to better understand, but I clearly believe that we as a city or county council does not really understand all the ins and out of the workforce development piece.

We hear it all the time about like affordable housing, but we don't do a very good job to me of explaining it to our citizens as well as this council and staff and everybody else.

Uh I was at several meetings this past week, and workforce development came up as usual in all of them.

Housing came up as usual in all of them.

But the real caveat is there has not been an opportunity of a do a clear definition and actions of what these, especially the workforce development piece, because we know that agencies and others, government are given money and funding, much so for housing as well, but we never really explained to the community or help them to understand.

Okay, we're getting workforce housing.

What does that mean?

How does it affect my community?

Who is doing workforce development, and do we ever see the real numbers of workforce development?

And I know that there are employees that sometimes don't want to deliver their numbers, but to me, if you're receiving taxpayer money, you should be a you should be telling us how many people were hired from the city of Western Salem, how many people are working, what jobs are they working on, what were the requirements, and yet we never see any of that.

So uh assistance city manager right lanier, that's what I'll be looking for as we go forward when we meet with our advocates in Raleigh and DC, as well as our staff when we put this to paper.

There needs to be some amendments or attachments, just like we did with housing in the city.

We now need to explain what that means for us and our citizens because frankly, I I think it's uh it's a travesty.

We keep using that, and we got people that don't understand what it means, not just us, but our citizens don't understand what that means.

Thank you, Mayor Council, for the time.

Thank you.

We do have a resolution that we need to approve.

Uh Mayor Pro Tim, do you I move for approval of item G1.

Thank you.

Sir Second.

Second.

Second by Council Member Joyner.

Any further discussion?

If not, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you.

Item G2.

Item G2, public hearing in consideration of the downtown improvement district service needs.

This is uh action required by state law regarding our bid, our business improvement district.

Uh, where we're getting ready, I think, to accept proposals and we recognize uh city manager Bao for uh comments on this.

Good evening.

Mayor joins Mayor Pro Tempori Adams, members of council.

If we could pull that, thank you.

So as the mayor stated, uh, we're required under state law uh when we are considering entering into a a new contract for uh business improvement district services.

That we have to do two things.

One, seek input uh from the public uh about the type of services that the committee wants to see provided in that district, and then secondly, a uh required public hearing, which we will be doing tonight.

Right there is uh sorry, is the bid uh the downtown What's the Salem Business Improvement District?

You can see the boundaries there.

The uh the RFP that will be issued um later this week will focus on four service areas, a cleaner environment, enhanced physical appearance, stronger marketing and promotion, and economic development.

Uh so as I mentioned, we're required to hold a public hearing, which we'll do tonight in terms of you know how we want to go about seeking uh additional input about bid services.

We will be posting an online survey uh on the city's website so residents can uh submit feedback about that.

Not just those who live and own property in the bid, but throughout the city.

But in addition to that, we will be mailing postcards to residents and property owners who live or own property within the bid to also uh give them access to the survey.

So we'll compile that feedback and and consider that when we receive proposals uh and make a a a recommendation that we'll then present to the finance committee in April.

Be happy to answer any questions.

Raoult, just for public's information, this was uh uh a vote many years ago, Jason.

I can't remember how many years ago, but probably ten years ago, something like that.

But the property owners in that district we just saw voted to apply an additional nine cents per hundred dollars valuation tax on them for additional services.

And so what we are doing tonight and over the next few days or weeks will be to gather information on what should be um uh done with it with with those extra dollars.

Um Jason, did you want to add anything uh to kick it off?

Would it be okay if I made just a public um comments that okay?

All right.

Don't normally write down my remarks, but I wanted to today, and so thank you.

I'll be brief.

My name is Jason Thiel, and I'm at 515 North Cherry Street.

I'm the president of the downtown Winston-Salem Partnership.

Back in 2013, the downtown partnership worked closely with property owners, community stakeholders, and the city to establish the downtown business improvement district, and that was the map and the properties that you saw there before.

One of the things that at the time, this was we were one of the only cities, the only city in the state of North Carolina that was larger or in the same size bracket that really didn't have this bid at the time was Wilmington and Asheville, and that includes a lot of other small towns, so we are really separate, but there's a lot of reasons for that.

And so we were able to get around to it in 2013, and it's been a wonderful tool for us to do a lot of different things.

I know that while the streets aren't part of our responsibility, the sidewalks were within the downtown business improvement district, and I know that the business owners uh appreciated that.

Um that made a big difference, although the last couple of weeks have been very hard.

I wanted to recognize my board chair, Miss Heidi Schwartz.

Schwartz.

We have a dedicated group of volunteers and stakeholders in our downtown.

Now, from the beginning, the purpose of the bid has been very clear to supplement, not replace services provided for the city.

So these services that we provide help us do things that are related to clean and safe, uh picking up trash, removing graffiti from walls, and it goes on and on.

We do have an annual report which outlines all of the spending and all of the benefits on our website at downtown WS.com.

And you're more than welcome to call me with any questions, and we'll be sharing the survey link as well with stakeholders at downtown.

We're very thankful for this opportunity.

This happens every five years, and it's a good process for transparency and for good government.

And so we appreciate the opportunity to provide input and get input.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Steele.

All right, this is a public hearing.

Is there anyone in Council Chairman who would like to like to be heard on um suggestions for services to be provided by the bid business improvement district?

All right, seeing no one, uh I'll declare the public hearing close, and we'll talk about this again in uh yes, ma'am.

Yeah, this is uh this is the item related to services to be provided by the revenues from the business improvement district.

Okay, thank you, ma'am.

All right, I'll declare the public hearing close there, and we'll move to item G3.

Item G3, public hearing in consideration of the renaming of Baumgartner Street to Barton Mews Lane.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing.

Is there anyone in the council chamber who wishes to be heard on this proposed renaming uh Baumgarner Street to Barton Meuse Lane?

This did come from our committee of the whole with recommended approval.

All right, seeing no one, I'll declare it a public hearing closed.

Um typically would come through the public works committee, so if it's okay with you, uh, Councilman Burke, I'm gonna recognize you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I move for approval of item G3, the renaming of Baumgartner Street to Barton Mews Lane.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by several people, Council Scipio and others.

Any discussion of this item?

On all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no, and that is unanimous.

Thank you.

We now go to the public comment period, which is a time that we set aside once per month uh to give citizens a chance to voice their opinions and thoughts on items that are germane to city government, and which uh when these uh once comment period is called, each speaker will be given three minutes for presentation, and the comment period will be limited to a total of 30 minutes.

We ask that speakers be uh courteous towards uh council members and uh make sure that uh there's no vulgar language or vulgar actions, and we will uh take appropriate access if necessary.

So um can you put the list of speakers up, please?

No, we can't see it on ours.

Oh, there we go.

There, that time is not working.

Okay, we we got it now, I think.

Okay, uh first person is uh Richard Sebastian, please.

Six state name or address for the record, please.

My name is uh Richard Sebastian.

I live at 1514 Cloverdale Avenue here in Winston-Salem.

Uh Mayor, uh Mayor Um Mayor Pro Tim, City Council, thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight.

Um I was excited to hear City Manager Pate mention a program that's launching this Saturday called Electrify the Triad.

If you don't know about it, you should know more about it.

But among other things, it will provide uh low to moderate income families up to $32,000 in rebates on energy efficiency and weatherization.

Uh, but that's not what I'm going to talk about.

Uh I'm here to talk about the city's own weatherization and energy efficiency.

Uh in 2021, you passed uh really admirable uh ordinance committing to achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050.

And since then, it's been five years, made little progress towards that goal.

Uh I get it.

Uh it's tough.

There's a lot of tough decisions to be made, but there are also some really easy, low-hanging fruit you can uh reach for in order to advance our climate goals, and that is around energy efficiency.

You don't have any staff or anything really dedicated to monitoring the city's energy usage.

Uh HVAC, lighting, I don't, you know, uh none of that's being monitored, and therefore the uh a lot of the savings that you may get from solar panels you've installed, so uh uh other kind of large uh renewable energy projects is being wasted because your HVAC's running on too long when it doesn't need to, or at temperatures it doesn't need to be, your lights are on longer.

Uh so you know it's a very easy uh solution to dedicate some small real resources to staff or maybe it's software uh to um help uh prioritize low-cost strategies, such as you know, getting timers on your HVAC systems, using efficient LED light bulbs, uh improving window weatherization, et cetera.

Uh it's estimated you could save up to 40,000 per year just for making these changes.

Um wasteable spending on energy, among other things is a waste of tax dollars.

Improving energy management not only reduces our city's carbon footprint, makes some progress in that or uh in that area.

It also signals to local businesses, organizations, universities that the city council and city managers are serious about meeting your sustainability goals.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you, sir.

I think uh Matthew Mayers was uh uh Sheila Britain, please.

Breedon Ms.

Breden, if you'd state your name and address for the record, please.

Okay.

My name is Sheila Bruton to the Honorable Mayor and the City Councilman.

I'm here tonight.

Um requesting for improvement in consistent services.

We are not receiving in the east in the in the uh Southeast Ward.

Did you pull that mic, Dale in just a little bit?

Yes.

There you go, thank you.

I also like to say thank you, Councilman Taylor.

It's good to see you.

Um the residents and property owners are submitting this petition to formally voice our concerns regarding the current state that keeps reoccurring garbage, leave, brush, and recycling uh collections.

We request a formal response regarding those issues.

Issues.

Hopefully, we will be hearing from you soon.

Thank you.

The residents of the Southeast Ward.

I like to submit this to my councilman Taylor.

And also I'd like to tell Councilman Taylor, I thank you for the times that you have helped get some of those problems solved over there, but they keep reoccurring.

Soon as you you know take care of the problem, it keeps reoccurring.

The things that are reoccurring, I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous.

This is my first time.

Second time.

The cats, when they lift um when they um pick up the recycling cuts, and they put them back down, they are thrown in the street.

I've called several times to see the link, and I thank City Link for the times that they have gotten the messages out to us.

They do an excellent job in getting the message out to the superpowers.

Some of my neighbors have to get out of their car and move their trash collections out of their driveway so that they can drive down their driveway.

I live on a retirement street.

Most of my neighbors are 91.

And I'm they're not able to go back out there and pick up those carts and things that are being thrown on the street.

I've witnessed several employees parking on my street, city employees parking on my screen for four and five hours.

Um to the house to smoke they weed.

I've sent pictures to the supervisors and things because when I did get some contact with supervisors, I was told that it it was always going to be three against one, but I'm I'm a mighty powerful one.

Um garbage.

I've sent pictures to the supervisors.

When they empty the garbage cans, um they dragged the garbage clean up the street.

Um I have more, but my time is up.

So thank you, Ms.

Bruton.

And I'm sure you'll give the uh petition to uh Council Taylor Hill.

Okay, you'll jump right over, I'm sure.

Right there.

Oh, thank you so much.

And uh okay.

Thank you, Miss Breed.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Good job.

Matthew Mayors, please.

Okay.

Good to see you.

All right.

Good evening.

Uh my name is Matthew Mayers.

I live at 2844 Wesley and Lane.

Uh, thank you again for this opportunity to speak.

Uh, I also would like to echo what um Manager Pate said, thanking the city staff for all that work during those storms.

Uh I know some of my my neighbors were complaining about you know the snow wasn't gone and all that sort of thing, but that was that was something.

So thank you.

And thank you, Mr.

Hoof, too.

Um, thanks for the announcement about the Electrify the Triad um launch event, which is on the 28th of this month.

Um thanks to all of you because the city is one of the sponsors of the Electrify the Triad campaign.

Um so I think you should have in your emails an invitation from me to uh attend that event.

It should be fun.

There's even gonna be a little bit of food.

So come on down and you know, manja manja a little.

Um there's one small correction I would make um that uh in in the announcement.

Uh this is not just for homeowners.

Electrify the triad also applies to um renters and anyone with low income because we are trying to channel some of the funds, a lot of the funds from the Energize, sorry, Energy Saver NC program, which is federal dollars and is specifically aimed at low and moderate income families.

There's over 200 million dollars for the state for that.

And it can apply to renters so long as they can get sign off from their landlord.

Uh meaning landlords can get property improvements and tenants can get lower uh energy bills, which to me is a win-win all around.

It's it's affordable housing wrapped up in a beautiful package.

So I hope you'll all come out.

Um of the reasons that I think it is important for public officials to show up to events like this is that despite the fact that you uh see and hear me just about every month come here and tell you, you know, change your light bulbs and get better HVAC and all those sorts of things, which you should do.

You know, clearly those things should be done.

The the amount of um environmental damage done by city practices is tiny compared to community-wide.

And the real power that you all have is in being leaders and helping the rest of us see the potential and what we can accomplish as a community.

And what we can accomplish starts with uh, as Mr.

Sebastian was saying, the low-hanging fruit.

We can all be more efficient in our homes and our businesses, um, as can the city in your operations.

Um, but you all can be the public face of saying this is the right thing to do.

It's an economically viable thing to do, and it's the right thing for our children and our grandchildren.

So thanks, and I hope to see you all there having a little snack.

Thanks.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayors.

Uh the next uh speaker is Cynthia Harrison, please.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

Good evening.

Hold on.

My name is Cynthia Hurtson.

I'm sorry, 1200 Willie Davis Drive.

My name is Cynthia Hurtson.

I am here as a mother.

And as Winston Salem resident.

My daughter Christina Hayden and her poor kids are facing imminent displacement.

There is no issue yet, which means there is still time to prevent homelessness.

What we have received from this city is so far is one suggestion: a shelter.

With respect, that is not prevention.

That is crisis management after failure.

I'm here to talk about houses just justice.

The city talk about redevelopment.

City talks about equity, but when a family with four children ask for help before eviction, the answer cannot simply be go to a shelter.

Christina has attempted to relocate.

She has sought clarification about relocation assistance.

She has sought housing stability.

What she has not received is coordinated intervention.

Once the Salem has rapid rehousing fund, eviction, diversion mechanism, housing trust re resources, nonprofit housing partners, redevelopment oversight authority, city-owned property.

If those tools cannot be used to prevent one family from becoming homeless, then what are they for?

We are not asking for you to override anything.

We're asking you to activate your administrative authority before displacement occurs.

Prevention is cheaper than shelter.

Prevention is cheaper than emergency respawn.

Prevention is what?

Responsible city do.

Tonight we are asking for three things.

Immediate referral to housing stability stabilization staff, activation of homeliness prevention funds.

Coordinate with aspire to pause displacement while housing is secured.

This is not about politics.

It is about whether this city acts before children become statistic.

You still have time to prevent this.

And I'm still looking forward to hearing from one of y'all, some of y'all, but all of y'all.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Harrison.

You spoke with two us about this uh at the last meeting, I believe, and we looked into it in in detail, I believe.

So we'll we'll follow up and make sure you get the information that we got for them.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who'd like to be heard during the public comment period?

Yes, sir.

Good evening, Mayor.

Council, ladies and gentlemen in the audience.

My name is Tariq Blargin.

I've been here a few times to discuss a project that I've been working on for a few years, called the Home Sweet Grown Farm Project, which is Salem's first tiny house community.

So it's a three-tier or four-tiered system that's designed around not just housing, but employment opportunities and farming, training, workforce, et cetera.

I'm here to talk about the farming section of the plan, which is the first section we're moving forward with, and I just wanted to share my plans with you guys.

So part on the South Side specifically, but all throughout the city, part of the issues that I think the city is having is we don't just have food does this, but we have economic and employment does it as well, where there's far and few job opportunities that exist on the south side and throughout the city in general, outside of the dollar stores and the food lines and all the stores and shops that we're all familiar with.

So what I'm proposing and what I'm starting is not just a farm, but an employment opportunity for people in the South Side and for people throughout Winston to be able to come, not just enjoy the farm and first crops, but to be able to have a place of employment.

So I'm just here to introduce the program to you guys and just keep you guys all in the loop, spread it around for anybody that wants to be involved.

Wishing everybody the best and everybody have a great week, great night.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate your work in that.

Sound like a great program.

Anyone else like to be heard?

Yes.

Uh huh.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Tanya Sheffield, 2700 Rinolda Road, Department 1401, 27106.

Good evening, Mayor.

Good evening, good evening, Mayor Pro Tim and uh council members and uh city workers.

I'm forgive me.

I didn't intend to speak, but I I heard the gentleman talk about there are some sessions gonna happen about the bus routes coming up this month.

I would love for you to also look at the bus buses, the bus seats, their cloth, and you have a lot of homeless people that take the bus, and those seats are disgusting.

So much so that the other day I ride the bus.

I don't ride it every day, but when I do, what I notice is how nasty.

I'm saying dirt.

I have photos.

I take photos and videos of this.

I've actually submitted to someone at um the uh office at uh downtown.

I think her name is Brandy Peterson, and I she said that every week they're supposedly steam cleaning these buses.

They're not.

They may write off on it, but they don't.

And when I say disgusting, if someone from uh whoever inspects these buses, if it was a house or something, you would shut it down.

That's how disgusting it is.

I'm saying dirty.

So not only discuss what routes you're gonna cut, please take care of this situation because it it is so unsanitary, and it's so disrespectful to the people that have to ride the bus.

We cannot stand up while the bus is moving.

They won't move.

But you force us to have to sit.

I was on a bus the other day.

There were not one seat that wasn't stained.

Please address this.

It is very important.