Always had music in me like it was the only way for my body to be always quick to buy the lyric, never hard for me to hear it.

I got a melody, I sing inside of me.

Got it running through my head, I belong.

I bought it down like I'm supposed to, and I don't hear but we most do.

I got a melody that could go out.

Music in me.

Got the music in me.

I remember the first time in my life.

Singing standards in the background every night.

Got a hundred bucks and a couple of drinks.

We talk and her bulb beacon links.

Always drink that'll be on the big stage of life.

That was enough to keep me going.

Steady riding down these words, ever no big twenty night, being the boat child's eye.

That was the moment I knew music save my life.

Yeah, I got the music.

Oh hangable.

Yeah, I yeah, I got it.

Oh, yeah.

It is always been this way.

You're watching WS TV Digital Media.

This weekend, the first one of those will be June 9th at the Georgia Taylor Neighborhood Center from eleven to two.

And so they're open.

We encourage high school age students, generally from freshmen through seniors, the uh opportunity to get by go behind the scenes of law enforcement, meet officers and specialized units, ask specific questions, and gain a better understanding of what policing looks like in our community.

So if you notice anyone that's interested in that, we encourage you to have them apply on our website.

And we received feedback from members of the committee and also subsequent to that meeting.

So what we are doing tonight is staff is seeking the endorsement of the census tracts that are uh depicted on maps number one, three, four, twenty-two, and twenty-three uh for submission to the Department of Commerce.

If there's an opportunity to submit an additional uh track, we will submit that uh depicted on map number eleven.

Uh I'll briefly cover why uh there are the strong suits of each track that that we're seeking endorsement for uh on map number one that includes uh both the Whitaker Park area as well as the grounds uh area where investment is underway.

Maps three and four are the areas around Smith Reynolds Airport that presents opportunities for both residential and uh industrial development, uh, and then areas on maps 22 and 23 really build on the choice neighborhoods initiative uh and provide opportunities for uh additional affordable housing there.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Millett, and the council did uh your feedback to the manager to you uh after our committee of the whole there.

So any questions from Mr.

Millett?

Is there a motion to approve the recommendation?

I move for approval of the recommendation.

Staff recommended census tracts for submission to the Department of Commerce as opportunity zone nomination.

Thank you, sir.

Second, second, second by councilmember Jorner and Councilmember Hall.

Discussion.

Not all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no?

And that is unanimous.

Thank you, Mr.

Millett.

All right, item uh G two, please.

Item G two, public hearing in consideration of zoning petition of B VJ properties, LLC from RS 7 to RS 7S, located on the east side of Hemlock Drive between Delaware Avenue and Sherbrooke Drive, containing approximately 0.40 acres located in the northeast ward.

Thank you.

Uh this is a public hearing on this rezoning.

Is there anyone in council chamber who wishes to be heard on this proposed rezoning?

Seeing no one, I'll declare the uh public hearing closed.

I'd recognize Councilmember Burke if uh she's ready for a motion.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I move for approval of one, the statement of consistency for the approval of this item and two W-3680.

Second.

Second by Councilmember Hall.

Any further discussion questions?

If not, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you, Councilmember Burke.

Item G three.

Item G three, public hearing and consideration of zoning petition of a FICIA companies LLC from RS9 to RM8S.

Located on the north side of Century Point Lane across from Guardian Court, containing approximately 11.17 acres located in the South Ward.

Thank you.

This is again a public hearing.

Is there anyone in the council chamber who wishes to be heard on this proposed rezoning?

Seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed and I recognize Councilmember Jorner.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I move for approval of the statement of consistency for the approval of W3681.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Councilmember Scipio.

Any further discussion or questions?

All those a favor of the motion, please indicate the voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you very much.

Item G four.

Item G four, public hearing and consideration of zoning petition of high heat marketing LLC and M Legacy Properties, LLC from RS9 to RSQS.

Located at the northwest intersection of Jerry Street and Lansing Drive, containing approximately 0.62 acres located in the northeast ward.

Thank you.

Is there anyone in the council chamber who wishes to be heard during this public hearing on this proposed rezoning?

Seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed and recognize Councilmember Burke.

Thank you again.

I move for the approval of the statement of consistency for the approval of this item and two W3683.

Second.

Second, Councilmember Sipio.

Any further discussion?

Questions?

Not all is deferred to the motion, please indicate but voting yes.

Anyone opposed?

No.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you, Councillor Burke.

Item G five.

Item G five, public hearing in consideration of a site plan amendment of Everly Development LLC to modify previously approved townhome development to a single family planned residential development.

Located on the north and south sides of Teague Road, east of Teague Meadow Lane, containing approximately 37.21 acres located in the southeast ward.

Thank you.

Is there anyone in Council Chair who is uh wishes to be heard on this proposed uh rezoning?

Yes, sir.

You are you uh just a moment are you a proponent or opponent?

Opponent.

Okay, hang on just a minute.

It's the proponent will we will hold the public hearing.

So we'll hear from the proponent.

So you would have 15 minutes for presentation.

The opponents will also be given 15 minutes.

So if you come forth and give your name and address for the record, the proponent.

Oh, I'm Stephen Phillips.

Hello, I'm Stephen Phillips.

Um you want my business address?

Yes.

Thank you.

And with time properties.

Um this land uh was originally way back when zoned as single family, and the prior developer wanted to put in town homes.

And so he rezoned it from single family to town homes and had a plan for 99 homes.

As the market has changed and we looked at what we could do and what's sellable and what would be better for the community.

We have recently changed it to be 62 single family homes.

So we've put it back to the original uh presentation or the zoning, but we need to come to you again to ask to put it back to what it was.

Um as 62 homes, we're very excited about it.

We did have outreach with the entire community.

There were two people who asked for something south of Teague Road, and we told them we would help them with that.

There was one person who had a concern about what would go on north of our property, but we pointed out that there is six acres of open space between our development and their development that we are not going to touch.

It's across the stream, and we're not looking for any stream crossing or anything else.

It's just part of the land.

So uh that one person had spoken up at the planning commission.

I don't know if it's the same fella here.

But as it is, we're very excited about being able to bring 62 single-family homes to that area of Winston Salem.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Anyone else for the proponents?

Okay, for the opponents, if you would come forward, please, sir, and give your name and address for the record.

Uh so thank you for the opportunity to voice my concerns.

Uh, my name is Mohammed Geber.

I am the owner of um 4260 uh Morning Star Lane.

And uh I live across the stream from the uh proposed development.

And uh my biggest concern is 11 properties in the proposed development are located in the 100-year flood uh plane or the flooding like zone.

And um, in actuality, we think that this is um historic.

Um like um this is the history of the area.

Like what 11 properties are located in this like flooding uh zone.

However, like in actuality, in reality, the the floodplain is much like wider.

We have seen that the uh water comes to our doorsteps uh in in in the past like uh few years.

And um we just like want to make sure that the development doesn't increase the flooding occurrences, uh, and it does not come to our houses.

So um I see that in the current development there are 11 houses, and uh we would love for those like houses to be moved or not not be built in the flooding plane.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Anyone else opposed to this rezoning?

All right, the proponents you would have three minutes for any rebuttal you'd like to give.

First thing, uh time properties spelled T H Y M E.

Just for the record.

Um the we have developed the property to have proper storm control measures.

There are no properties in the hundred-year floodplain.

There are three that currently show a portion of their backyard would extend there.

But we're working on recertification of that because we don't believe they will be in the floodplain.

Um, so I'm surprised to hear him say that.

We're outside the stream.

And um I don't know what else to say.

Thank you.

But we don't we can't build in a floodplain because we can't sell homes in a floodplain.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Phillips.

Uh you'd have three minutes for rebuttal if you'd like to say anything.

The map that I was provided shows that eleven uh properties are in the 100-year flood uh plane.

So I'm not sure um why the gentleman is saying they're just three.

They're actually 11.

They are properties numbered 11 to 21.

And as I say, in actuality, we see flooding coming like we our properties are not in the 100 year flood like uh plane, and yet the flooding comes to our uh like doorsteps, like my neighbor uh had to put like bags of sand to prevent like the flooding from getting into his house.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Um I'll close the public hearing.

Mr.

Perfect, could you comment on the uh you're gonna give your report at the planning board now?

Could you also comment about building in the 100 year floodplain as well?

Good evening.

Uh yes.

Uh, this is a uh I'll just go through the whole presentation.

It covers uh kind of the waterfront on uh the point of contingent that was mentioned.

I actually have some uh graphics that show that.

Uh the petitioner, uh the petitioner is uh Everly Development LLC.

Again, it's a 37.21 uh piece of pro acre uh parcel located on the north and south sides of Teague Road, east of Teague Meadow Lane located in the southeast ward, and this is a site plan amendment.

Uh this is the subject property shown on the Ford 2045 growth management area plan.

Uh it is located within GMA 3, um mile and a half or so north of the uh Davison County for Scythe County line as the crow flies.

Uh this is the subject property highlighted in yellow again on the north and south side of Teague Road.

You do see the uh the faint line of the floodplain.

Uh you have a floodway and a floodplain.

The floodway is actually the you know where the main channel of the stream is, the floodplain spills out beyond that.

Uh so the outside line is the floodplain in the in this context, and there are 11 lots that are located within the floodplain, and I will explain that in a second.

Uh this is a better image on the aerial that again shows the floodplain, but again on the north and south side of Teague, subject property highlighted in yellow, outlined in yellow.

Subject property shown on the South Suburban Area Plan update.

It is uh located in an area recommended for single family residential zero to eight units per acre.

This property was rezoned two or three years ago from single family residential to RM5S for townhomes.

Had it never been rezoned, this project would have simply gone to the planning board and had been approved as a uh as a subdivision uh planning board review at the planning board level, but because it had been rezoned, they're bringing it through as a site plan amendment.

Uh again, they are reducing the number of uh units from 96 down to 63.

Um here are some photos.

Uh this is looking west along Teague Road, the southern portion of the property is to the left, so this is on the south side of Teague.

Uh this is looking uh north into the subject property from Teague.

So this is looking at the north side of the subject property on the north side of Teague.

Uh this is looking east along Teague Road, the southern portion of the site is to the right.

Uh this is looking west along Teague Road, the northern portion of the property is to the right.

This is the proposed site plan.

Again, you see development on both the north and south sides of Teague Road.

Again, 63 total homes.

I want to say there's probably about 40 on the north and about 20 some on the bottom, give or take.

It'll be a challenge to build them without going through the process that the petitioner mentioned.

You can go through the Army Corps of Engineer to do what's called a conditional letter of map revision where you look to actually increase bring in some fill and elevate the pad sites out of the floodplain, and that's what they will attempt to do on those seven lots right there.

The other the other four lots that were referred to that are in the floodplain are up off Pepper Corn Court at the very northern edge of this project.

I'll go back.

But those are on the back side.

It looks like there are there's ample room for uh a building pad to be put on those four lots, so they're not requesting a letter of map revision in that area.

Just in summary, the request is consistent with the general recommendations of Ford 2045 and the South Suburban Area Plan update.

Uh the request the request would allow for uh needed housing units uh within the serviceable land area with direct uh direct access to a minor thoroughfare.

The general layout and design of this request is consistent with the original approval.

And again, just keep in mind had this not been rezoned for townhomes two or three years ago, this could have been done at the planning board level.

With that, it was heard by the planning board at their April 9th, 2026 public hearing.

There were two speakers in opposition, primarily concerned with traffic, floodplain issues, potential loss of trees in the floodplain, and potential negative impacts to property values.

One of those speakers is the speaker that we heard from tonight.

Uh following the public hearing, the planning board did vote unanimously to recommend approval of this to uh the city council.

And with that, I stand ready to answer any questions.

Any questions of Mr.

Murphy?

Uh Councilmember Hall.

Thank you, Mayor Joins.

Thank you, Director Murphy.

Uh, for that the um EPA, I think is the federal uh agency that's responsible for floodplain timing and 100 year designation.

Is that true?

It's Army Corps of Engineers.

Okay.

Do you know what the time stop is on the 100 year for that particular area?

Thanks.

Like when the map was last updated.

When that area would no longer be designated as being a floodplain or be back up for review.

I have no earthly idea.

Okay.

Um and the recertification that the gentleman talked about for the properties that were located in the floodplain, is that what's going through the um is not.

The recertification that is.

And who mentioned recertification?

I'm sorry.

The proponentation, yes, those lots right there will go through what's called a conditional letter of my provision through the Army Corps of Engineers.

That's what I've got down here.

That's what I was trying to ask.

Okay.

I just want to make sure again, you know, keep in mind, you know, floodplain through FEMA is FEMA, not EPA.

Thank you.

Uh the FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineer kind of work closely hand in hand, and they it's been probably it's been a pretty long time since they've recertified our floodplains.

So again, the information that we have is it's it's the legally binding information, but it's several years old.

And I wanted to make sure you weren't talking about when they were going to be redoing those lines because that will be on a time frame that doesn't have anything to do with this particular development uh proposal.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

So, Mr.

Murphy.

All right, thank you.

Uh I will turn to Councilmember uh Taylor for a motion if he's ready.

Thank you.

Mayor may approach them members of the council.

Before I make a motion, the first thing that I want to say to the petitioner, thank you for bringing your business to this community.

Mr.

Gammer, thank you also for bringing your concerns up.

Um I think that after hearing from planning staff and after hearing some of the questions that were asked here today, I think there's a sufficient uh plan in place to address those concerns.

Um it sounds like this is a situation where potentially we were looking at 96 homes.

Now we're looking at something around 62 or 63, a little bit less intrusive, uh more involved with the community.

So therefore I move for approval of one, the statement of consistency for approval of this item and two W-3682.

Second.

Second by uh Mayor Pro Tim Adams.

Any further discussion?

Questions?

If not, all in favor of the motion, please indicate the voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you, uh, Councilman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Item G six.

Item G6, public hearing in consideration of UDO C C 34, a text amendment to modify chapters two, three, and four of the unified development ordinance to comply with North Carolina House Bill 926.

Thank you.

Before we do the public hearing, I'll ask Mr.

Murphy to give us just a brief synopsis of what we're doing here to get consistent with Alex Bayroll to 926.

Yeah.

I can speak in generalities.

Basically, this is this there were there was a bill, House Bill 926, which was approved back in the last session.

There were 25 to 30 changes, only four of which related to our unified development ordinance.

There was a change related to if you will recall under the um the current UDO.

Uh there is a waiting period if a uh rezoning is denied, and that is for two years for the same request and one year for a different request.

The general statutes were changed to get rid of that tolling period so you can resubmit repetitively if you want to.

I don't know if you would want to spend the money if you've been told no once, but that's someone else's prerogative, not mine.

Um section 29 of those statutes uh further clarifies vested rights for previously approved development and amends the standards for uh development petitions within split jurisdictions.

So the language before you basically addresses that, and there are four different changes uh and where we've gone in and modified the section to basically mirror what's required by state law.

So at the end of the day, uh all we have done is made those four changes to be inconsistent to be consistent with the statutes, and with that I'm glad to answer any specifics.

Any questions for Mr.

Murphy?

Councilmember uh Andrew Bowen.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

So with these changes, if if if the petitioner comes back on several occasions, are they required to change or modify their original plan, or they can just keep mod uh bringing the same plan over and over again?

I mean, I I think I would, if it were me, I would probably modify it.

Uh but they do they would not be required to.

You are a reasonable person, I expect to do so, sir.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

This is a public hearing.

Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to be heard on these proposed changes to our uh unified development ordinance?

And mayor would be remiss if I didn't say it was a recommended approval by planning board and also by uh the uh general government committee.

Very good.

Thank you, Mr.

Murphy.

Seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed and uh recognize Mayor Protino.

She's ready for a motion.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move for approval of one, the statement of consistency for approval of this item.

And two, U DO 634.

Second by uh Councilmember Joyner.

Any discussion, questions?

All those in favor of the motion, please indicate but voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you very much.

Item G seven.

Item G7, public hearing on proposed city of Winston-Salem budget for fiscal year 2026-2027.

Thank you.

I'm going to turn the meeting over uh as soon as Mr.

Tesh makes a brief uh comment of there to Chairman of the Finance Committee, Mr.

Clark.

Uh Mr.

Clark, I understand there are 32 people signed up for the list.

Uh the city clerk will have to list it.

She'll be bringing it up.

Okay.

So I don't know if you want to limit uh comments to two minutes.

I'll comment on the case.

Okay, all right.

Good speak first.

Mr.

Tash, go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor.

Mayor Brute and members of the city council.

This is the statutorily required uh public hearing for budget adoption as part of the 26-27 budget.

I have just a few slides.

I will say all of these are information that have been seen before, either by the presentation done by the city manager two weeks ago or in the budget workshops that you have been a part of.

Would encourage people to go and watch those videos.

Again, the 27 budget priorities include maintaining the current levels of service that we are providing, making strategic investments, looking at those facility condition assessments that are coming in to prepare for future debt funded priorities, and as always, maintaining compensation and benefits that make us a regional employer of choice.

Total budget for the year just under 703 million dollars.

If you were looking at that again year to year, there is a significant increase in debt because of one time uh one-time debt payoff in FY26.

You have operating increases of just over four percent and the capital improvement plan for 27, again, about the same, just over one percent.

In terms of uh property taxes and user fees that are in the proposed budget, there's a property tax increase of four point six percent, which would be roughly five and a half dollars a month for the median value home that is allocated all to the general fund for general government operations.

The utilities commission uh has requested or recommended five percent average water and sewer increases.

There would be a $1 per ton increase at all of our solid waste disposal facilities, an increase of 4% effective in January for the stormwater fund, I believe is the third year in a row of 4% increases in that fund, and then various other fees in recreation and parks, uh the city clerk's office and some other places.

In terms of what this means for the average household, the increases in property taxes, water and sewer charges, and stormwater would result in about eight and a half dollars a month for the median valued home and average residential customer for those uh motor vehicle privilege taxes are are not increased in the FY27 budget.

Just to quickly note there are several things that are not in the budget.

Departments have requested more than 20 million dollars worth of operating, and as we looked at the capital improvement uh workshop last week, there are more than a hundred million dollars worth of other capital improvements that are unfunded as well.

So uh, although there is a property tax rate increase recommended, it is not to fund everything uh that has been requested at this point.

And I uh want to note that I will be available tomorrow evening at the Sprague Street Rec Center along with neighborhood services.

I was included along uh with another one of uh their meetings last week.

I will say that I have received probably in the neighborhood of 40-ish voicemails, uh emails, and forms from the website about the FY27 budget.

Thematically, most of those have centered around the property tax rate increase, not around specific services to either increase or reduce.

We do have, as the manager said, a budget workshop scheduled for Thursday at two o'clock, and then budget adoption is slated for the evening of June the first.

Happy to answer any questions before the public hearing.

Questions, Mr.

Tesh.

Uh Councilmember Andrew Bullen.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

The May 19th budget information session.

How long should that be going through?

That is uh neighborhood services is hosting that as one of their turn events.

I am generally speaking doing about 50.

So I have been embedding with uh planning when they did area plan updates as well as neighborhood services and some other departments.

So I'm doing about a 15-minute um kind of update on the budget, and then there's also information on neighborhood services there as well.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Tosh.

Mr.

Clark.

Thank you.

Let me remind everybody if it hasn't seemed to be apparent.

We're actually getting ready to have two different public comment periods.

The first one is the public hearing on the budget.

The second one, which I will run, the second one, which the mayor runs, which we have every month at the second meeting of the month, which is a general public comment period that you can get up and comment on whatever you may want to comment on.

But the first one, which is the budget one, we will uh limit that to comments on the budget.

We have 34 people signed up.

More than that.

I'm going to limit all comments to two minutes.

Uh hopefully we can get this done in about an hour.

I would ask you to be sensitive to time, and if there's three or four people from the same organization, you might want to consolidate uh and have one or two speak.

Anyway, I'm gonna call the names and if you'll come up, give your name and address for the record.

You will be able to see the clock tick you down.

So we will start with Jamie Southern.

If you'll please give your name and address to the recording, you have the floor, ma'am.

Good evening, Mayor Joins.

Mayor Pro Tim Adams and Council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

My name is Jamie Rogers Southern.

I serve as executive director of bookmarks.

Our grant request in this budget is not about creating programming, but about expanding access to programming that already serves tens of thousands of Winston Salem residents every year.

For 22 years, Bookmarks has been part of this city's cultural and civic life as a literary arts organization and as a nonprofit bookstore.

Each year we present more than 150 programs for the public, including author talks, book clubs, writing workshops, poetry readings, and story times.

Programs that are free and open to the community.

Our annual festival of books and authors, the largest annual book festival in the Carolinas, brought more than 32,000 people from more than 30 states and 50 North Carolina counties last fall during our 20th anniversary celebration of stories.

These programs draw people into conversation that span literature, history, culture, and lived experience.

In a time when communities are increasingly experiencing isolation and disconnection, spaces like this are essential.

The caliber of authors we bring to Winston Salem is high and consistent.

We host a wide range of recognized authors, writers, alongside important local regional voices, ensuring access to culture and intellectual experiences that might otherwise not exist, except in much larger cities.

A one-time investment of professional equipment equipment and assisted listening devices will allow us to expand our programming, making it more inclusive, accessible, and welcoming to a more diverse range of citizens here in Winston Salem.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, ma'am.

Brooke DeJone.

Uh Brooke DeYoung, 3050 South Stratford Road.

Um I am with the dwelling.

Um good evening, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem Adams and members of City Council.

As I said, my name is Brooke Young, and I serve as the Deacon for Advocacy Education and Development at the Dwelling.

I'm here tonight to say thank you for consideration of our funding for evening meals program.

In Winston-Salem, there is no consistent place for unhoused and vulnerable neighbors to get an evening meal, and that matters.

Hunger does not just make people uncomfortable.

Hunger makes it harder to think clearly, harder to access care, harder to follow through on appointments, stay connected to support, or believe that tomorrow can be different.

Last year, through our current meals program at the dwelling, which does not include evening meals, we serve just under 40,000 meals to the citizens of Winston-Salem.

That's 40,000 moments where someone was seen, welcome and fed and invited to do more, to be more.

At the dwelling, we have a farm partnership up at CrossNore.

We provide and receive local food from local restaurants that might otherwise go unused, and we turn that food into nourishment, community, and connection.

So when you invest in the dwelling, you are also investing in a larger, greener ecosystem for Winston-Salem.

So thank you for considering this investment, and thank you for recognizing that food is not only food, but it is care and sustainability and connection.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Terry Taylor.

Good evening.

My name is Terry Taylor, 3716 Prize Road, East Bend, North Carolina, and I'm the president and CEO of Old Salem Museums and Gardens.

Um, first of all, thank you for your time this evening.

Old Salem is more than a museum telling the story of the Moravians who settled here 273 years ago.

Um we think of ourselves as one of Winston-Salem's defining places.

We're a historic district, we're a living classroom, we're a major tourism destination that other cities envy.

We're a preservation leader, a public gathering spot, and we're a deeply meaningful part of this community.

Old Salem is also a significant contributor to the economy.

We estimate that the direct impact on Winston-Salem for Syph County is more than 14 million dollars and expanded to 23 million dollars when you look at the entire region.

We support tourism, local jobs, restaurants, hotels, small businesses, and we contribute to divide of downtown and the surrounding communities.

Financial support from Winston-Salem City is very important to us and our 117 employees.

We also and welcome 17,000 school kids on school trips.

Countless other people visit the historic district getting their old Salem experience, but just walking through without the purchase of a ticket or a product in our stores.

Thank you for your continued support and consideration of Old Salem.

We appreciate you.

Thank you, Mr.

Taylor.

Ken Mullins.

Okay, good evening, Mayor Joins and members of the City Council.

My name is Ken Mullins.

I'm vice president at IFB Solutions.

I live at 428 Green Arbor Lane in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Proud resident.

Um and this is my boss, Ken Edwards, COO, also at IFB Solutions.

Um want to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and consideration for the funding to support the expansion of our manufacturing facility located at 7730 North Point Drive.

90 years ago, IFB started with six employees.

And today we employ more than 500 in the Winston-Salem area.

The expansion will um add about 25,000 square feet, which will allow us to be more productive and more efficient and compete and supporting jobs that are critical to people who probably couldn't get a job anywhere else.

You probably can't tell by looking at me, but I myself am visually impaired.

I came here to Winston Salem for a low vision evaluation, and that low evaluation the low, simple low vision evaluation led to so much more.

It led to an opportunity for a job or career.

I already worked at a Fortune 500 uh company before, but lost my job because as my vision began to deteriorate, they couldn't see how I fit in a world of manufacturing and how dangerous it was for them.

I came to IFB Solutions and gained an opportunity, a career, and have moved up to through the ranks.

Many of my comrades, many of my people who are on my staff have the same opportunities.

I thank you for the consideration for this this time, the opportunities in your budget, and thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Will Elyn, Council.

My name is Will Ely.

I reside at 120 East Devonshire Street.

And this is my colleague Richard Sebastian, who lives at uh 1514 Cloverdale Avenue.

Our active consolidation.

Um we are on behalf of PMO Environmental Alliance.

We are your local environmental organization committed to building a more just resilient and environmentally sustainable community.

As an ARPA enabled grantee, we have sparked more than $6.3 million of new clean energy investment locally, which includes two of the largest solar projects in our state's history.

Our city's first ever all electric school bus, its first solar powered school, and its first ever clean energy workforce training program with our solarizer triad partners with housing and energy prices at all-time highs.

We have helped capture more than three million dollars of federal climate funding since 2024, and we want to bring millions more with our energized Winston Salem program.

It's 208 million dollars of such funding at the state level to help low and moderate income North Carolinians make critical energy upgrades to their home.

We need the city's investment in our organization to continue to be that last mile to make sure that our nonprofit affordable housers, local residents, and our local contractors maximally benefit.

With your financial support, um, we can improve lives, make our city more resilient, and make sure that jobs match the work that needs to be doing.

And briefly, just a reminder that these funds in these tight budgetary uh times help in uh help with some of our own city's uh goals.

Our priority is to maintain an updown and uh update infrastructure and facilities, address housing, affordability, and homelessness, improving economic mobility and reducing poverty, and strengthening relationships and facilitating connections between community and partners.

We think this is a really smart investment of the city's budget.

Thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen.

I have Barbara Stowe and Charles Moore.

Well, good evening, Mayor Alan Jones.

May and Pro Temp Denise Adams, City Manager, William Patrick, City Budget Director Scott Tash, and City Council Member.

My name is Barbara Stowe.

I am the executive director of Rejuvenation Support Services, Incorporated, and I am here tonight with Charles W.

Moore the third, the co-founder of our organization.

At Rejuvenation Support Services, we work with individuals who are often overlooked and in need of second chance.

Many face challenges related to incarceration, homelessness, disability, addiction, mental health struggles, and opiate addition.

We provide transitional housing, recovery support, mentorship, workforce development, life skills, training, and education assistance for individuals working towards obtaining their GOD or their high school diploma.

Our goal is to help people regain hope, stability, confidence, and independence so they can rebuild their lives and become productive members of our community.

Residents in our program receive housing support, three meals a day, hygiene supplies, accountability, and guidance turn a long term term success.

One success story involves an individual who came to us after living under bleaches at our baseball field with nowhere else to go.

Through support and structure, he regained employment, rebuild stability, and successfully transition from our program to 100% self-sufficient.

As you may fund the decision during this budget process, we respect X that you keep rejuvenation support services in mind so we could continue helping individual move it forward in life.

Thank you for your leadership, your service, and your consideration.

Thank you in advance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Folks, Elizabeth Dampier.

Good evening, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pratem Adams, Finance Chair Clark, and the rest of the council.

My name is Elizabeth Dampier.

I'm the CEO at Collideum, located at 120 West Third Street here in downtown.

Thank you for your past investment in Collideum.

At its core, we exist to help make Winston Salem a place where people want to live, work, and raise a family, and where they can see a future for themselves.

Collideum is a regional destination.

Each year we welcome more than 200,000 visitors into the heart of downtown.

Forty-two percent of the general admission visitors are from outside Forsyth County.

That's not just museum attendance, that's foot traffic, economic activity, people eating and buying in our community, and energy that supports the continued vibrancy of our city center.

But what matters just as much is who we serve.

Through our opportunities, nearly 20% of our visitors come through free or reduced cost admissions, including museums for all, community access passes, Blue Star Museums, free field trips and programs for our schools, and more, which represents nearly half a million dollars annually in direct community investment.

This work directly aligns with the city's priorities.

We are supporting livable neighborhoods by creating shared spaces for families.

We are advancing equitable access to the community.

We are strengthening downtown vitality, and we are contributing to workforce development by providing programming and literacy, engineering, robotics, and other critical STEAM skills while helping young people build curiosity, confidence, and critical thinking skills.

We are deeply grateful for the city's past support, which has made this work possible.

As you consider future investments, we hope you will continue to see Coladium as a partner in building a more vibrant, connected, and opportunity-rich Winston Salem.

We ask you to see the museum as necessary in our community, not simply nice.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Angie Murphy.

Sure.

We just had several people leave.

If there are any more people in the other room, they can certainly come in.

I didn't mean for everybody to leave.

Officer, can you see if check the other room?

And I'm gonna let the lady continue.

But okay, she's got them.

Okay, good.

Here we go.

Just hang on, your time's not gonna be dark.

I want to get everybody in here.

Okay.

Miss Murphy, you have the floor.

Thank you so much and greetings to the mayor and each member of the council.

My name is Angie Murfree, and I am director of development of Crosby Scholars.

On the surface, our request for funding may seem simple, but actually is critical to how we serve our students and their families.

In this day and time, a website is often the first and sometimes the only point of access for information, guidance, and support for our students.

For many families, especially those navigating the college process for the first time, it's where questions begin.

We are seeking funding to create an updated, user-friendly and modern website that reflects the quality of support Crosby Scholars provides every day.

All students and families across our community need reliable information about college access, financial aid, and planning for the future.

This funding is about equity.

It's about making sure that every student, regardless of background, can find clear, accessible, and trustworthy guidance.

Crosby Scholars is a longstanding partner with our school system, and that partnership today is more important than ever.

School systems are increasing or facing increasing demands, and counselors are stretched thin.

On average, a high school counselor may serve around 346 students.

Our counselors serve 50 students for personalized and in-depth guidance.

This funding request is more than just a website.

Is it an investment in access partnership and our students?

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Lewis Finney.

Good evening, Mayor.

I'm Mayor Potem, City Council.

Most of you are familiar with the organization.

We pretty much do the systems level change for early care and education, serving about 20,000 children and families throughout Forsyth County.

What I'm not going to do is spend this two minutes because I do have some people that I'm going to defer my time to that will give you some specifics as to why our application is very important, but also what this impact would be for that particular community that we're serving.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Glennis High Smith.

By the way, every speaker gets two minutes.

You don't need to.

And you have your two minutes, Ms.

Smith.

Hi Smith.

Thank you.

Good evening.

We are a bit out of order.

So I'm going to allow if it's okay.

Okay, fine.

If you give your name and address for the record, sir.

Indeed.

Good evening.

Miller joins Millpro Tim Adams, members of the City Council and Manager.

My name is Jawan Crowell, Director of Development and Community Engagement for Smart Starter for Site County.

And I'm also a proud native and product of Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Before joining Smart Starter for Site County, I served 15 plus years in West Salem for Site Foundation School Systems in every capacity you could think of.

I and then transitioned to an educator for Laurence Middle School on Thurman Street in a very community.

This investment will serve.

I show up there every day.

I taught those children.

I know those families, and I can tell you from direct experiences that this community has always had the strength.

What it has lacked is the investment to match.

Boston Thurman Happy Hill.

These communities were not chosen at random.

They were chosen because the need is urgent, visible and deeply rooted in Western Salem.

Boston Thurman is home to roughly 3,600 residents and Happy Hill residents, one of the city's most historic company community, excuse me, including the site of Western Salem First Public Housing Development.

These neighborhoods carry history, but they also carry the weight of long-standing barriers to opportunities.

For families in Boston Thurman and Happy Hill, access to reliable, high-quality child care is still too often out of reach.

And when child care is often out of reach, everything else becomes harder.

Keeping a job, increasing income, maintaining stability, and making sure children enter school ready to learn.

It is a workforce issue, and it is a West of Salem issue.

We're not asking the city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Smith.

At this time, I'll I'll pass it to Glenise High Smith, our chief impact officer.

Thank you.

Ms.

High Smith, you have the floor.

Thank you.

As Jawan stated, I'm Glenise High Smith.

I'm with Chief Impact.

Officer for Smart Starter Forsyth County.

And just to expand on what Joan already shared, right now, more than 300 families are on county subsidy wait list.

And in this target initiative in the for this targeted initiative, the barriers we know are real.

They exist.

And providers who need continued investments to move from short-term assistance to measured, measurable lasting quality improvements is on a struggle.

This initiative directly supports providers serving families in Boston Thurmond and Happy Hills specifically.

Providers like MM, Safe Haven, Bethlehem Community Development.

James C.

Coleman Learning Center, Gullick Learning Center, located right in Boston Thurman and operated by Cassandra Gullick, Treasurer for our newly established Foresight Early Childhood Community Network Incorporated and Advocacy Group of Childcare.

Several are already positioned for growth.

Happy Heels holds five stars.

Co JC Coleman holds three stars, but with the right investments, they too can be strong and ready for to incur more funding, as well as serve more children.

Higher star ratings, open eligibility for North Carolina partnership, excuse me, NC Pre-K slots, subsidies, as well as sustainable revenue needed for more families from to move off of the wait list into quality care, which means sustainable being able to sustain their families.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

The address is 102 West Third Street, suites 460.

Thank you for your consideration of our request for funding.

We have appreciated the support of the city of Winston-Salem for many years.

At legal aid, we represent clients in civil legal matters, specifically representing tenants facing issues with either evictions or habitability concerns.

Your support has allowed us to expand our ability to conduct and take at the local level.

This allowed clients who had court dates quickly approaching to be served more effectively.

Because of your support, we we are able to represent tenants in eviction cases, and they would almost certainly not be able to afford counsel.

Additionally, we are able to serve clients who walk into our offices, and our attorneys provide immediate advice about how to handle their cases.

All of our housing clients have to qualify financially for our services, and we are almost always their only option for legal counsel.

Landlords often have legal counsel, so our presence is an attempt to level the playing field.

Our attorneys work very hard to build a positive rapport with opposing counsel and so whether private attorneys or housing authority attorneys work hard to find solutions that will lead to long-term housing for our clients.

We've long valued our partnership with the city of Winston-Salem and the great support that you have provided our office.

We're fortunate to have a mixed revenue of federal, state, and your local support for our services and working hard to ensure that continues.

However, additional local support is needed to continue our work.

We have been especially impacted by federal funding cuts in the statewide IOLTA funding freeze, losing over 11 million dollars in the last year.

We had to make difficult decisions in the fall, including reducing the staff in our office by two attorneys.

Other parts of the state where the local municipality were not cut.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Matthew Mayers.

Really being the one council member who has ever spearheaded a major sustainability effort on the city's park that both saved money and improved our environment.

I've talked to, of course, about the the five.

25,000 free lights, yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Street lights up upgraded to LEDs.

Save us a bunch of money, save us a bunch of uh carbon emissions, kind of two delicious things, two great tastes that go great together, right?

Like chocolate and peanut butter.

But I think you can you can tell by looking at me when there's peanut butter cups in the house.

I don't stop at the one.

Maybe there's two.

Look at that, yeah.

Two, three, I don't know, ten.

But the great thing about these energy efficiency updates that you could be putting in your budget is they're not gonna expand your waistline like mine.

They're going to trim and fit your budget because you start saving immediately, and then they start self-funding over the years once they've paid for themselves in a few years.

It's a good deal.

Can we afford it?

When I ask myself that question, I I like to think about a young person that I love.

Maybe you do too.

For me, it's my my six-day old great nephew Zane.

And I think in 15 or 20 years, when Zayn calls me, calls us crazy Uncle Matt and says, What did you do to preserve the earth in a healthy state for my future?

I want you all to have good answers for that young person in your mind right now.

So for the budget, please include these things.

We need improved energy efficiency.

I left 18 seconds, Bill.

Bill Blancado, 1860 neutral court.

I live in the South Ward.

You get two minutes.

We have a new speaker.

She'll reset it for you.

Well, I'm out of order.

I don't want to take it.

Go ahead, finish.

I'll give you 30 seconds.

I'll tell a story.

My wife and I own an electric vehicle.

And last year we spent just under $700 on electricity for that vehicle.

We probably went about 18,000 miles.

If we had to buy gas for the car, it would have been about 2100.

Was two-thirds the cost.

There are many people coming in front of you today with very worthy causes.

Very important things we're trying to do for the community.

If you follow Matt's advice, you'll save money and help fund some of those other worthy causes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And what was your name again, please?

Bill Blancado.

Rob Yober.

Yoder.

Hello all.

Rob Yoder here, 118 Craftman Street.

I am in uh Councilmember Hall's district.

Thank you for your representation.

It is a tough act to follow up a story about peanut butter cups, but I will try.

But as a community advocate, I'm never going to turn down a chance to get a microphone.

So I just wanted to rise in solidarity for the tough job that you all have as a city council to allocate and find funding for all these great organizations that have risen to speak.

As we know, every dollar invested in community organizations is returned multi uh multiple times in benefits to the community.

So I also want to stand in solidarity with the working families of our community.

We are taking it on the chin from every direction.

Housing costs are up, health care is up.

So many things demand more and more of our income.

And uh it is a struggle for everyone to make ends meet these days.

Um I do not stand in solidarity with the state legislature who has whiffed on passing a budget for three years now, and that is pushing more and more of these obligations down to the county and the city and the municipality levels.

And so I understand the difficult decisions that you all have to make.

Um but that's why I rise to speak for the working families to get people into the state legislature that can actually pass a budget that can make fairer choices that benefit working families, and don't uh send all the money into the corporations into the profit banks that they're trying to build.

So uh I do rise in support of Jen Wiles, District 75.

Uh, she's a great person.

That is um I I would highly recommend uh that we all send her to the State House.

Thank you all for your time.

Thank you for letting me stump a little bit.

Thank you, sir.

Bye-bye.

For those out there that are here for general comment, if you'll just hold tight, the mayor will have that public hearing.

Uh and I can assure you, if you're here to speak, you will get a chance to speak.

With that, we will now go to Alexandria Shaw.

Good evening, uh, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tim and City Council members.

I'm Alexandria Shaw at 206 North Green Street.

And um, I just want to start by saying less than one percent.

That is the percentage of commercial airline pilots that do not look like me necessarily.

Not woman, not black, not a diverse set.

Uh, when you fly commercial right now, you don't really see a lot of pilots that are of diverse, you know, representative of our city nationwide.

Um, I'm the executive director of Jim Shaw Ace Academy, a youth aviation nonprofit that has been in this community now for 15 years.

Uh, we have touched many lives through summer aviation programming, steam programming, and festivals.

Um last year we served about 90 students, and of those students, a couple of them will be studying to get their airplane airframe and power plant license to work on planes.

Even if you don't fly commercial, planes are so integral in our everyday lives, whether those Amazon packages, whether it's you know, business and you need to go meet somebody or to see family.

So right now there's a crucial time for pilots, but there's also a crucial time for mechanics.

Our students have also gone to Elizabeth City to fly in the U.S.

Coast Guard, and these are all local students who studied right here in the Winston Side County School System.

That is the impact that we're bringing.

That is the impact that we'll continue to bring, not just through our summer program where Dreams Take Flight, but also through our festivals.

Like I said, the Skybound Flight Festival had over a thousand people that did drones, some of you were there.

Um they were able to see jets, they were able to see people that look like them doing things that they want to do in the future, and that is again what we will continue to do at Jim Shaw East Academy, and that is why I'm here.

Um I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all today and to talk about the impact of what we've been doing at the aviation programming for over a decade now, and I will continue that important legacy that is just so integral to our community.

So thank you for your time.

Ruth Burkow.

Well, good evening all.

I am Ruth Burkall with City with Dwellings 502 North Broad Street.

We partner with the city to coordinate key parts of our housing focused system of care, including coordinated entry, street outreach, and supportive housing.

Um right now, more households than ever are living on the edge of housing loss.

Rising rents and financial crises quickly spiral into eviction and homelessness.

Many existing programs are difficult to access quickly in emergencies, and that's why rapid, flexible prevention assistance is so important.

Last year, through a small assistance fund, we helped stabilize 150 families at an average cost of 400 per household.

That small amount prevented many evictions and kept families housed.

But we had to turn away six times that number because we had a lack of funding.

Our grant request would allow us to expand this rapid response housing stability work and intervene earlier while families can still stay housed.

The housing stability fund is a shared priority of for Scythe IAF, which is a nonpartisan collective of more than 30 civic organizations.

There's a few waving maybe behind me.

They're working together on important community issues.

Um, and we're also engaging for Scythe County, healthcare systems, business leaders as part of a broader strategy to scale this housing stability and prevention effort.

We know how expensive homelessness becomes once housing is lost.

This fund helps us intervene earlier before families fall through the cracks.

So thank you for your confidence in us for your consideration and for your continued partnership in this work.

Thank you, ma'am.

I'm gonna add a uh end of Rup just meant, add a um editorial comment.

City budget is complex.

What we're technically talking about tonight is the money out of the general fund that we allocate to various nonprofits.

I do want to call to your attention.

We also get money, not just local money, but we get mostly a lot of federal money for community developed block grants, home funds, housing and financial assistance funds, et cetera, et cetera.

They add up to I would say well over a million dollars.

They are handled a different part in the budget, they're important.

But if you really want to know the total impact that the city makes, you have to look at both the general fund allocations as well as the allocation of those funds.

If you happen to see one of these, the budget books, they're in Roman numeral 26 as X VI.

Uh, I just mentioned that in that the dwelling, city with dwellings, habitat, some other folks are listed on that page.

So understand not only are we having two different public hearings tonight, but there's several different pots of money that we use to allocate the various organizations.

And with that, we will now go to page two.

Melissa Smith.

Uh Mayor joins uh Mayor Print Adams and Council members.

My name is Melissa Smith, and I'm the associate executive director of the Shepherd Center of Greater Winston-Shalem, 1700 Ebert Street.

And I'd like to thank you for your support for the last 11 years as a state certified senior center of excellence in our 41st year.

We served over 8,700 aging adults in 2025, which is which is a record number.

Um, our most recent report to the city shows a return on investment of over $22 for every dollar the city has invested in our programs.

And we estimate that collectively we are saving the older adults.

We serve over $500 million annually.

Currently, 65% of the folks we serve live below 200% of the federal poverty level.

And many of you, I think know this that there are now more adults age 60 and over in Forsyth County than there are children 17 and under.

We are assisting uh aging adults who need transportation to medical appointments and grocery shopping and also using this funding to provide supplies for minor home repairs that our volunteers are uh doing.

We believe a budget is a moral document which reflects the value of a community, and uh we request um that our request be strongly considered in light of the services we offer and also in light of for the first time in our history.

We have a medical transportation waiting list because three Medicare Advantage plans that used to provide transportation are no longer doing that and are giving out our phone number.

So thank you so much for considering.

Thank you, ma'am.

I'll close on that one.

Good evening.

I'm the thula Barron.

I'm with an organization named My Face, which stands for Females Acting in Confidence and Empowerment.

And we're located at the SG Atkins Enterprise Center on Martin Luther King Drive.

Uh we started officially, I guess you could say, or maybe unofficially, several years ago, in providing services to single mothers.

I was a single mother.

Many people who are on our board and in our volunteer group or have been single mothers, and we realize how difficult it is to raise children alone as a as a single mother.

And so we came together to form this alliance or this coalition of of women primarily to serve mothers.

Historically, African American and other women of color have been disenfranchised and have not really started on an equal level with many other people in our society.

And so we're our our aim is to pull them up.

Our mission is to empower them to become more successful, more um educated, more socially and economically competitive in the world.

One of the things that we're doing now is we're working with several women from all over Forsyth County and Winston-Salem.

And when we first started, we were actually working just in the Boston Thurman community.

And we've realized that a lot of the women who came to us that were referred to us lived in other parts of the cities.

So now we're serving to 7101, 27105, and 27107.

And you know, so that's Southside Boston Thurman as well as East Winston communities.

We're really grateful that we were able to help the women that we are, and that they believe in us, we're committed to this cause, and they need our help as well as we need your help.

So please please consider funding us for this for this wonderful opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good evening, Temby LaCovington, 313 in their mills court, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27101.

As stated, my name is Tim Bila Covington, and I'm here on behalf of Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods.

NBN has been a part of Winston-Salem's neighborhoods for more than 30 years.

NBN's work is in helping residents organize, lead, connect, and respond to the needs they see every day in their communities.

So tonight I'm asking for your support of our resident-led neighborhood wellness proposal.

Our work focuses on neighborhoods in 27101, 27105, and 27107.

These are places where residents continue to face health inequities, barriers to services, and a need for stronger neighborhood engagement and support.

This proposal is about more than programming, it's about helping residents be connected here and empowered while improving access to wellness resources and strengthening neighborhood relationships.

Our ask to the city is 32,500.

Neighbors for a better neighborhood continues to fill important gaps by doing work that is with trusted communities, grassroots work, residence-centered work that many systems cannot do alone.

We are also prepared to be flexible and adjust if needed while still doing this work to deliver meaningful outcomes and neighborhood impact through this project.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor Putem in Council.

Thank you, ma'am.

Jenny Easter.

Jenny Easter, 4035 University Parkway, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27106.

Good evening.

My name is Jenny Easter, and I serve as president of the Fersythe County Association of Educators, our public school staff union here within Winston-Salem for Syth County Schools.

It feels unusual standing here tonight talking to City Council about school funding.

Usually we take that fight to the county commissioners because on paper, we know that they and the state are the ones primarily responsible for funding our public school system.

But just because the state is failing at its job, and the county is scared to do more than bare minimum.

That does not mean everyone else gets to throw up their hands and say, well, that's technically not my job.

What is happening in our schools, especially right now after this year, is bigger than any jurisdiction debate.

Our children still need safe, stable, fully staffed schools.

Our families still need support, and our public school workers deserve working conditions that do not come at the expense of their own well-being.

When schools are not stable, nothing around them stays stable for long either.

You see it in the workforce issues, youth violence, mental health crisis, housing instability, and public safety.

Eventually, every part of local government deals with the fallout.

What I'm here tonight to ask of you is that we need more help from the city, especially since most of our schools lie within the city limits.

If it cannot happen this year, I am asking you now to intentionally and consistently factor Winston Salem for Syth County Schools into your planning for the year 2027 to 2028 budget because our workers in the school system and in the city need more.

Thank you, ma'am.

Michael Moran Hello, uh City Council and uh Mayor Joins.

Um good evening.

My name is uh Michael Moran.

I am the executive director of the River Run International Film Festival.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you this evening at the city's proposed 2026-27 budget.

For 28 years now, River Run has been bringing people together through film.

This includes not only our festival, which runs nine days in April, but also year-round programming, which includes six free screenings through a range of programming.

Our organization reaches people of all ages, races, faith, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

This year we approximately had 12,000 people at the festival.

Of our free films with approximately uh uh with our films of class program, we served 11 students from the age uh kindergarten to uh seniors in high school.

Uh what is the festival's value to City and Winston-Salem and why should the city support it?

Um there are two main reasons quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative, we generate money for Winston-Salem.

Uh America's uh Americans for the Arts is a national nonprofit entity that studies the economic and social impact of the nation's nonprofit arts and culture industry.

Every five years, they produce a study that is called Arts and Economic Prosperity.

The most recent report was issued in 2023 using data from 2022.

Uh the studies are conducted per county and state, which result in very specific data on economic impact of the arts and culture sector.

Using our numbers, uh we bring in uh for our local residents, uh they spend about 505 uh thousand thousand dollars for non-uh local visitors about a hundred and eighty-two thousand dollars.

That's a total of six hundred thousand dollars.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much.

Jordan Googe.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh Mayor Pro Tim.

Uh since its founding in 2002, authoring action has led the grassroots effort to cultivate a community-focused engagement via the creative writing process.

As the program grew, the experiential experiential uh learning aspect of the program expanded into broader forms of artistic expression painting, sculpting, interpretive dance, and our expansive filmmaking program, walking our artists through the process of writing, storyboarding, location scouting, casting, directing, scoring, uh, and editing.

Our Just Us program, which Lynn Rhodes is going to speak more about later, uh, works with uh our court referred teams and has produced dozens of young professional storytellers and filmmakers helping them find their voice and transition uh into a much better uh uh path forward.

All of these avenues for growth uh held a single vision, further develop emotional maturity and the ability to communicate that maturity in a thoughtful, inclusive manner, respecting diverse perspectives and lived experiences.

Authoring Action has a successful track record of investing in the emotional, intellectual, societal infrastructure of our greater community.

And if our goal as a greater community is to meet uh to meet our calling for a plentiful community where folks can live, work and play, we need to actively invest in programs that are leading the charge to help young folks develop their best possible selves and best best citizens for our community.

Uh better citizens make better communities, and authoring action is uh taking a lead role in that movement.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, sir.

Rebecca Sigbury.

Dear Um Mayor Alan Joins and members of the City Council.

My name is Rebeca Severe, Executive Director of the Valuable Woman Mujer Valiosa Community.

Thank you for the opportunity to present the grant proposal for the Latino Entrepreneur Success Program LESP.

So we are we are not new to this work for over four years.

Our organization has actively engaged with the Latino community in the city of Wisdom Salem, building trust and breaking down barriers through monthly business connection meetings, collaborative workshops, strategic partnerships with the Central Library of Sight County and others and the Small Business Center.

Last year alone, we serve over 400 Latino individuals with the desire to start or grow their business.

It's a structured six-week workshop series conducted quarterly that equips Latino entrepreneurs to launch or grow their business.

It includes practical hands-on education, personalized mentoring, and could culminate with a Latino Business Day, a public event that amplifies participant voices and showcases their products to the wider community.

But LEFS is not just business classes.

Yes, we teach practical skills, like business business, marketing, planning, compliance, but we also teach the entrepreneurial mindset needed for long-term success.

Confidence, leadership, leadership, decision making, resilience, and we believe that these their ideas matter.

We are also incredible proud that Victor Aparisio, which is next to me, director of SLES program, received the recognition from the mayor and the city of Wisdom Salem with the Dr.

King Jr.

Dreamers Award for this year for his mentoring and the Latino community.

So tonight we're asking for your partnership to continue the LES program to expand in the area of year-round mentorship to cover the technical aspects of launching a business like registering EIN numbers, understanding compliance, and prepare employees.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tim Adams, and Council Members.

Thank you.

I'm Lynn Rhodes, and I'm co-founder and executive director of Authoring Action.

And along with Nathan Ross Freeman, who's the co-founder and artistic director, and many amazing professional artists in this community.

We have served Winston Salem Youth for 24 years.

We invite you to our birthday party, June 7th.

Authoring Actions Just Us program was developed in 2014 at the request of the Fersythe County Juvenile Justice Council to provide interpersonal and life skills development for youth at risk of juvenile court involvement who may have prior referrals to juvenile court, a history of runaway behavior, use and abuse of drugs, felony offenses, weapons, you know, negative peers, school fighting.

You get the idea.

In Just Us, teens use creative writing, film production, and critical thinking to explore life challenges and to develop original short films.

So from pen to screen, youth gain hands-on filmmaking experience using storytelling to not only tell their stories but to address real life issues.

They're in a stipend and professional film credit.

This gives them scholarship opportunity and career opportunity.

We invite you to the next screening, June 13th at Aperture Cinnamon.

Just as fortifies teens, giving them not only the tools for creative writing, but film planning and production, critical thinking, problem-solving behaviors, as well as awareness of this challenges that undermine their success.

Teen voices are present throughout the process.

Just us reduces our risk of losing youth to lives of crime and self-destruction when we fortify them with the facility of language.

They have the opportunity to become citizens.

Thank you, ma'am.

Marilyn Lacunza.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

My name is Marilyn Mandola Lacunza de la Cruz, and I'm not your constituent, but I am here wearing many hats all the way from MEBIN, North Carolina.

Tonight I stand before you as a board member of uh rejuvenation support services, also as a directly impacted community member affected by the recent gun violence at Lineback Park and a founder of Forts Triad, a non-monetary grassroots rapid response group that serves immigrants, refugees, and the marginalized community.

I'm here tonight to ask for your support in allocating funding towards programs that are actively addressing some of the most urgent challenges face in our city.

Homelessness, addiction recovery, economic instability, youth vulnerability, and violence prevention.

We only respond after lives have been lost.

But we all know true public safety requires lots of work and prevention.

It requires investment in systems that truly provide stability, dignity, opportunity, and hope for crisis before crisis escalates.

Rejuvenation provides a foundation for rebuilding lives and a true second chance.

Our residents are provided safe, fully furnished housing, essential utilities, vacational opportunities, and equip them for long-term independence alongside this work.

Um, like Miss Rebecca Sehibre said at LESP, they empower Latino entrepreneurs through culturally accessible business education, mentorship workshops, and Spanish language resources that create pathways to economic self-sufficiency, historically underserved families.

And these are more than simple programs.

They're lifelines.

Too many of our young people are being systemically pushed toward gang violence because of lack of financial opportunity, moral guidance, mentorship, and emotional support.

They're crying out for help.

I'm begging that we invest in marginalized communities.

We reduce the conditions that contribute to desperation, instability, and violence.

Every dollar invested in housing support, recovery, workforce development, mental health, youth, entrepreneurship is an investment to a safer neighborhood, stronger families, and more resilient ones in Salem.

And prevention also means addressing our physical environment.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Gina Puckett Hello, my name is Gina Puckett.

I am here with Childcare Resource Center at 102 as 3rd Street Suite 750 Winston Salem 27101.

Good evening, Mayor Joins and Mayor Pro Tem Adams and Council members.

Your um, it's a small line item that has an outsized impact on working families, child safety, and the local economy.

Your decision impacts real lives.

I'm gonna provide some examples.

A week ago, Friday, we had a foster parent call us that was receiving a new child placement on Friday, and she needed child care by Monday so that she could get to her work to her work at the Department of Corrections.

She worked with our child care navigator who verified openings, hours, a DSS voucher acceptance, along with and then provided three secure options for her.

Um by Monday, that child was um enrolled uh in a program along her commute so that the child was safe and she could get to work.

There was another family that uh that called one of our parent advocators a short time ago.

The family is moving here for school full-time that um and they needed child care and they need help paying for child care.

Um, our navigator talked with them, guided them through the process of applying for financial assistance, worked out the timing for that application so they could be here and the um they would have their income and everything reviewed.

So that family um now has a plan for how to get access to child care.

Another was a Spanish speaking parent who needed part-time care, and she um our navigator got on the phone and talked with the program and helped her get child care.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Torah Jackson.

Hey, I'm Katrina Jackson, uh, executive director of Child Care Resource Center.

Um, thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak today.

I also work with Gina.

Um, Mr.

Mayor, Miss Mayor Pro Tim, budget chair Clark.

Uh we just want to say thank you for your past services, your your past support of CCRC services, and to ask you to consider our proposal for this year.

Childcare resource center is the only child care resource and referral agency serving for Scythe County in the city of Weston-Salem.

We help families uh learn about child care.

We help families find child care.

We have the only database in the community across the county um that is accurate, up to date, and it also um helps families um birth to 12.

I'm trying to keep my time going.

Uh so last year we opened the or launched a new database, find childcare nc.org.

I hope you'll go and check it out.

Um it is a user-friendly tool for families.

So we have that database, and then we also have um people who can talk with people who aren't as technology savvy, I guess.

So we and Gina gave you some examples of the work that we do on a regular basis, and um just would like to say thank you for your thought in the past and hope that you will continue to support us in the future.

Thank you, ma'am.

Before the next speaker comes up, let me make two quick comments.

First, we are coming to the end of the folks that signed up.

After that conclusion, I will ask if there's anyone else in the room that would like to speak.

Everyone will have an opportunity to.

Uh once that is finished, I will turn the meeting back over to the mayor, and he will have the general comment period at that point.

Secondly, uh, to further compliment uh comp complicate matters.

I mentioned that we have uh federal money that we allocate.

We also have our own general operating fund.

There's a third group uh of funds that we have.

Oh, if you spend the night in a hotel in Winston Salem, you pay a hotel tax.

That money does come to us to allocate.

We tend to allocate that towards things that bring people into town as they uh say putting uh heads on beds.

But just want to let you know uh there's even another fund that we get to allocate as well.

With that, we will continue.

Meg Kleinfought close, maybe no.

What is your name, ma'am?

My name is May Kelly Fat.

If you say so, go ahead.

Yep.

Uh good evening, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tim Adams and City Council.

I am May Kelefat.

I'm the executive director with World Relief and Triad.

We are a refugee resettlement agency.

Resettlement I'm using very loosely.

We do not have a whole lot of new arrivals currently entering our country right now.

And so what we are doing is turning our attention to how can we serve the over 8,000 refugees we have been resettling in the triad since 1992.

Historically, our programming has really focused on affordable housing access, employment access, and enrolling children in school, and just really helping families who arrive here, who we've welcomed here, who we have vetted and said that we you are all here to start a new life in America, has really been more of a triage and humanitarian response.

We now have the rare opportunity in this landscape to actually focus on upward mobile upward employment mobility by going back to so many of these individuals who started off in more low-wage income jobs, have been here a while, have greater English access, and have the potential of actually moving up.

The project that we have sent before the council before the city has been to focus particularly on a demographic that we call the lost boys and girls of refugee resettlement.

They are the 17 to 24-year-olds who often get overlooked in our traditional resettlement process because we are so focused on the employable adults.

Yet these are the ones that have the most potential of accessing a language faster and gaining employment and entry level into different um certification courses or or employment or education programs.

So this money is going to allow us to really focus our efforts on these young people and help them propel and really raise their families up.

So many of our clients who arrive have been waiting in displacement on average for 10 years.

They've been waiting so long to start their lives, and we just want to make sure we can help them do that here.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Lashon DeMilner, 1200 North Trade Street.

Good evening, Mayor.

Mayor Pro Temp Council.

As executive director of operations for the Union Community Development Corporation and born and raised here in Winston-Salem, I am proud to be serving uh for the past three years at our Steam and Reed program, um, where we are focusing on K through 12, 27101, 105, and 107 students.

Um, parents have supported this program.

Our students have trusted in our certified teachers.

We have partnered with um the data sharing project program, along with using our daily assessment tools, and from that data, I am proud to report today from serving 126 students this year that 87% of our program children improved in reading comprehension.

92% develop stronger interest in STEAM, and from that partnership, data has shown that we have very high impactful um on hands activities.

Our children are comfortable in asking questions and that they are challenged being challenged.

As we know from data, um, without additional instructional time, literacy gaps widen, and I feel that Steam and Reed is a very high impactful program that is closing the gaps on those uh percentages.

I do take this work very personal along with our team as we are teaching also civil agency.

We know that this is not a startup program.

The investment that we're asking of you all is to protect a program that is working and that has been managed well, and we believe that the 27101, 105, and 107 neighborhoods deserve these opportunities that are creating um academic positive academic um outcomes and closer relationships with families.

Thank you again for your support, and we hope that you all will continue to support us for another year.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

She out shabaz.

She had to leave.

She had to leave.

Sorry, she's left.

Quamaica Shavers.

My name is Kwame Kia Shavers.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the council.

Three words disconnected, disengaged, and performative.

I studied the budget as I wanted to get a full understanding of the council's vision for our city, but I'm a bit confused about how services that ensure health, safety, and well-being of Winston Salem residents will be delivered at quality, at the quality expected by the residents.

Those were your words.

As I review the community grants, I noticed that community and economic development expenditures account for 4.5% of the total budget, while recreational and cultural represent 5.7.

With organizations, organizations like Calladium receiving over 100,000.

That's 172,000.

She just got up here and admitted that they make um what half a million.

So what do they need the city's money for?

Arts Council receiving over 200,000.

What do they do for our youth?

I find it concerning that organizations like South Side Rides, which helps at risk youth, requested a modest 20,000 dollars, and y'all recommended 10.

Similarly to the Winston Salem Urban League requested 170,000, but y'all recommended 50.

Staples, community staples in our community, like Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

I was a participant of Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Requested 80,000 and y'all recommended 25.

What they gonna do with that?

Given these allocations, I asked, how exactly is City Council actively and aggressively addressing youth crime and gang violence?

Those are two different things.

Performative.

Why is the city and its leaders holding a meeting tomorrow evening at the same time as the NAACP membership meeting and the for Safe County budget public hit hearing?

Performative.

If your intention is to truly support the community, especially the youth, I would like to point out that I have hosted not one but two events focused on summer employment for the young people, and none of you showed up, none of you supported.

I don't care if you like me or not.

Hopefully, this is not the face that looked like it does care because I don't.

But when it comes down to this community, when it comes down to this youth, you can count on me to show up because it's not about you, it's not about me, it's about them, and y'all need to catch a grip.

Jeff Maxwell.

Jeff here, Maxwell.

Oh.

Come on up, sir.

Good evening, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tem Adams, City Council, City Administration leadership.

I'm Jeff Maxwell.

I live at 121, Fern Leaf Lane here in the city.

I came tonight to share some constructive feedback about the proposed 2026-2027 budget.

You heard earlier, actually, you saw on a slide that the um entire 4.6% property tax rate increase for FY2627 is dedicated to the general fund.

The proposed budget has been characterized as a maintenance and stability plan.

It's a budget about keeping existing services, facilities, and systems working reliably and with minimal change.

The wording in the proposed budget does not suggest an operational efficiency plan focused on getting more service for the same or fewer dollars.

A maintenance and stability plan is a budget posture.

An operational efficiency plan is a management strategy with an eye towards the future, delivering services better, faster, and with less waste.

It encompasses amongst other things, process redesign, workflow improvements, restructuring service delivery, consolidation of functions, and fiscally tied performance metrics.

Respectfully, I ask city council members and city administration, leadership to more thoughtfully consider a disciplined budget with a modernization theme of core operations to support enhanced service delivery and a restrained approach to adding permanent costs.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the room that would like to comment on the budget?

If not, I will turn it over to the mayor and he'll have the general comment period.

If you do, please please come forward.

Yeah, I wrote my name down.

Might be on the other piece of paper.

What's your name?

I'm a Santa Benson Bailey.

Is she on the other one?

We got two public hearings tonight.

It's about the budget.

Okay.

Well, you got two minutes, ma'am.

Okay.

All right.

Asante Benton Bailey, for 5005, Pressman Drive.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

My name is Sante Bitabailey.

I am a member of Housing Justice and advocate against gun violence and was in a Winston native.

I'm here to today to make two critical points about the city budget.

First, I urge the city council to relocate a portion of the police department funding toward housing justice.

The ongoing delays in completing Cleveland Avenue homes are contributing to housing displacement, instability, and homelessness for many families, including my own.

When families are displaced and people lack stable housing, it creates greater vulnerability to poverty and crime.

If we truly want to safer communities, we must address housing as a public safety issue.

Second, Wisconsin Salem should establish an office of violence prevention that can work directly with organizations like for Sif Winds and Atrium Health Week Forest Baptist to prevent gun violence through coordination community-based strategies.

As a victim of gun violence, I know firsthand how deeply it ruins people's chance of a full and healthy lives.

We cannot continue relying on primarily on policing while underfunding the real solutions that create true safety, redirecting a portion of police resources into prevention, housing, and community support would strengthen our city for more than expanding training facilities that would deepen division.

Data consistently shows that community participation in violent intervention reduces violence more effectively than criminalization alone.

Cities like Baltimore have a stem demonstrated that investing in prevention rehabilitation and community led program can lower violence.

We need investment into people over punishment, prevention over reaction, and healing over division.

I urge this council to adopt a budget that would prioritize housing justice, violence prevention, and stronger communities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are you conte?

Yes, you're up.

All right, here I go.

All right.

Uh revolutionary love to the mayor, council members, uh, and of course the beloved uh Forsyth community.

My name is the Don Bay.

I'm a community uh violence and prevention organizer with North Carolina Against Gun Violence.

I come before you today as a survivor of gun violence with deep respect, urgency, and a hope for Winston Salem's future.

First, I want to acknowledge the important work already being done through Forsyth Winds and the hospital violence intervention program, HM Health Wake Force Baptist.

These initiatives are proving that community violence intervention works, they are saving lives, interrupting cycles of harm, and creating pathways towards healing.

I request that the city assist with funding Forsyth wins.

The county has already been doing so.

But Winston Salem now has an opportunity and a responsibility to go further.

I strongly urge this city to take the lead in establishing a dedicated office of violence prevention, similar to neighboring cities like Greensboro and Charlotte.

Such an office would create an infrastructure necessary to con to coordinate and strengthen violence prevention efforts across cities or across the city.

It could support hospital-based intervention, sustained expand Forsyth winds success, um, and it can go into you know more additional high-risk areas where the work is needed.

And it has future group violence invention strategies in partnership with law enforcement, because I know that's what I want to do, and uh work with community leaders.

This is not just morally necessary, it's fiscally responsible.

According to National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, every homicide cost the city approximately 624,000, while every non-fatal gunshot wound costs only 330,000.

With 26 homicides in Western Salem in 2025, that represents 16.2 million dollars in direct costs from homicides alone, not including the millions more associated with shootings, trauma care, policing, loss productivity, long-term community harm, etc.

Uh, and I say I got seven seconds left, so I just want to say thank you again to everybody who came out tonight and uh followed the money.

Thank you.

Power to the people.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak for the budget?

Ms.

Henry.

I got an email from you a minute ago since you won't speak at the other one, but if you won't speak tonight, you can't for this one, you can't, or you can do the next one.

Okay.

Uh good evening, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tem Adams, members of City Council and the City staff.

I'm Shannon Henry, the new president and CEO of the Arts Council of Winston Salem or Forsyth County.

First, thank you for your continued investment in the arts and for recognizing their importance to the cultural and economic vitality of in Winston Salem.

The Arts Council of Winston Salem and Forsyth County was the first arts council in the United States.

And now for more than 44, excuse me, 75 years.

Um, we have served as a c cornerstone of this community's cultural fabric, and we remain deeply proud to serve Winston Salem as both a steward and connector for our local arts ecosystem.

Your support helps sustain our beautiful downtown arts campus.

It further sustains opportunity, access, creativity, education, tourism, small organizations, individual artists, and shared community experiences that make Winston Salem unique.

Because of the city's partnership, we are able to support community theaters and creative spaces, provide provide grants and programming support to local arts organizations and artists, expand arts education opportunities for students, and create space for wide range of voices and traditions to be seen and celebrated.

The arts council wears many hats.

We are a grant maker, we are a convener, a collaborator, and a piece of cultural infrastructure that helps hold this creative community together.

We are also the largest funder of arts education in Forsyth County, helping create thousands of students or experiences for thousands of students and families.

As I've spent the first oh, I'm running out of time.

Okay.

So I just want to say thank you so much for listening and express our gratitude for your continued partnership and support, and thank you for helping to ensure that the arts and culture remain accessible in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Okay.

Last call is anyone that would like to speak in the arts, I mean in the uh budget area.

Sir, come on up, give your name and address for the record.

Uh in my defense, I had a couple peanut butter cups before I signed up.

So I signed up for the wrong hearing.

My name is Ron Schultz.

Um, my address is 1414 Brewer Road.

Thanks, sir.

Uh it has been since last October.

For the uh three years prior to that, I did not have a physical address.

Um success story of City with Dwelling, and I wish I had time to tell you the heartbreaking story about how I went from a white collar career to being on the streets without the aid of drugs or alcohol.

Um, just suffice it to say that it was a series of life catastrophic events that could have happened to anybody.

And uh every time I thought I was getting things turned around, life kicked me in the teeth again until I found myself on the streets.

I'm here today speaking uh support of City with Dwelling has applied for a community grant to assist with their housing stability fund.

And um, I'm just here to say that is something that had it been available, and I knew about it as I was making my downward spiral.

That could have feasibly kept me from being on the streets.

It's far easier to keep somebody uh from losing their home than it is to pull them off the streets and get them back in the house.

And after all, we all want to see you know, speaking for the homeless, we all want the same thing.

Y'all don't want to see the homeless people wandering around the streets.

Well, we don't want to be there either.

And this won't help reduce the homeless population, but we'll definitely help keep it from increasing.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, last call.

If not, Mr.

Mayor, I turn it back to you, and you may do the general card.

Thank you.

I will close the public hearing on the budget uh for this this year.

We'll now move to the uh public comment period.

This is the time once per month at the city council and I invite citizens to uh voice uh your opinions on matters that are germane to city government when each uh comment uh person is called forward, you will be given three uh two minutes for uh the and the comment period will be limited to a total of 30 minutes.

Do you have our list available?

Okay.

Uh first person, uh Jen McGarvey.

I gotta whoop.

Uh good afternoon.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Jim McGarvey.

I live at 2860 Holyoke Place in the historic Northwest Ward.

I'm the parent of a lifeguard for the city of Winston-Salem.

Uh you met him, Mayor, just a few weeks ago when you recognize the young ecos for their sustainability efforts in our community.

He was a six-foot-six guy that towers over everyone.

He's been a lifeguard for the city for two summers, about to start the third.

Last year, on June 24th, uh, the heat index for this for our area rose to 105.4 degrees.

My son is a physically fit swimmer for Mount Tabor Swim Team.

Uh, he and several other lifeguards for waterworks, uh, as well as other pools were rushed to the ER for heat exhaustion.

My son had told his supervisor that he was not feeling well, and he was told to drink more water and go back to his post.

Even at 105.4 degree heat index, their rotations were not shortened.

It is an hour and a half rotation at Waterworks.

Around the same time that my son started feeling ill, other lifeguards at the poll started fainting.

The EMS was called, and four individuals from Waterworks were uh express delivered to the emergency room.

Uh he gave me a call, and me and his dad met him at Brenners because he is a child.

He was monitored for several hours for signs of heat stroke, monitored his heart.

His care team at Brenners were very upset that he was allowed to get to this point.

My hope is that we take reasonable steps to avoid this in the future with common sense regulations when the heat index is so high.

Not only does this help our children, my son could not properly uh supervise children in the pool while he was feeling ill, but I can just imagine the tens of thousands of dollars that were spent on these four individuals plus additional others that week in emergency room visits and EMS trips.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Ron Schulz.

I was you, okay.

Forrest Bully.

Forrest Pulley and I, my wife and I moved to one park Vesta Lane in downtown uh West of Salem in 2001.

It was exciting to see the city come out of COVID and with the downtown became vibrant again with people, businesses, activity, and energy.

Downtown reputations and experiences are critically important to the vitality, energy, and long-term success of cities, especially stell.

Over the past year, downtown Western Salem has increasingly become a cruising strip for cars, motorcycles, amplified music, and other vehicles, loud engines, mufflers, and all sorts of noise levels that exceed 85 to 100 decibels.

Residents, businesses, visitors, and hotel guests are all experiencing the impact.

I'd like to suggest several approaches.

First, increasing police presence and enforcements during peak hours, even periodic enforcement sends a strong message.

Second, strengthening and publicly communicating the existing ordinances and clearly defining limits and enforcing penalties.

Third, consideration of anti-cruising measures such as designated no cruising zones or restrictions.

Fourth, using technology to identify noise detection cameras to exceed the legal limits and support's efforts without requiring constant patrol presence.

I want to thank the city for all of the efforts they've already made, and we do appreciate everything that has happened and encourage you to take up stricter requirements.

People choose to live, visit, and invest in downtown because of the reputation and experiences.

But unfortunately, they can also choose to not and avoid downtown because of the reputation experiences.

Thank you.

Shantae Bailey.

Okay, Olivia Doyle.

I don't require stay lively here.

So Olivia Doyle, 215 North Peace Haven Road Street.

Um I'm here with Hate Out to ask that Mayor Pro Tem Adams and Councilmember Andrew Bowen formally sponsor the fair justice and public safety ordinance that we've proposed, given that you've expressed your support via email already.

If passed, the ordinance, among other things, would cite existing North Carolina laws to mandate citations in lieu of arrest for marijuana possession.

It's really a common sense proposal to reduce the time that cops waste on arrest for a substance that the state itself is thinking of regulating.

And these arrests are being made.

The WSPD just confirmed last week to us that they arrested 10 people from marijuana last year, and our own research on the police to citizen portal identified around 15 arrests during the Easter week of this year alone.

We can't afford people being arrested for a substance that Councilmember Taylor sells or that I buy in Councilmember Clark's ward from the dispensaries on Jonestown and Country Club.

And that is not a dig on CM Taylor.

That is not the intention.

What I'm doing is I want to point out that if any council member opposes this ordinance proposal, you are essentially saying uh yes, I want black people in Winston-Salem to be disproportionately arrested for possessing a substance that this white girl just told me that she buys and uses in council member Clark's ward without consequence.

People are selling this legally.

But if you need extra motivation to sponsor this proposal, consider that mandatory site and release could save some money on arrests and generate a little revenue as citation fines are paid into the general fund.

We could put that towards the school system if we really wanted to.

We've gotten support from just about everybody that we've canvassed except for Chief Penn.

And he has said that he, quote, does not want to tie his hands with the mandate.

We're a little concerned that our police chief, and it's just the chief, it's not everybody in his agency, as we've heard from Pam Peoples Joiner, Dr.

Peoples joiner as well that she says that she ports.

Um we're concerned that he wants to make these arrests when he legally does not have to.

Like why?

Because it doesn't have to be done.

So that's my main point.

Sponsor this.

Pass it through.

It's a good idea.

Miranda Jones.

Miranda Jones, 405 Corona Street.

Mayor Jones, Mayor Pro Tem members of City Council.

Every morning I walk the halls of a school in Guilford County, um, but I did so for nine years here in Western Southern South County, and my day largely begins with smelling marijuana um in the halls and sometimes in the restrooms, and I step into the bathrooms and I tell young people to put away their vapes and to get to class.

And some of you might wonder why I don't call an SRO.

Well, I'll tell you why.

I will not report a prohibited substance, not because I'm indifferent, but because there is nothing, and I mean nothing in me that seeks to criminalize largely black children in a system that's already been criminal towards them.

I exercise the discretion I have because I know what is stake when I what is at stake when I don't.

This is not new.

It's been happening for years.

We see we've seen it play out and what hate out is documented, and what we call the latrine lockouts.

I am most afraid of what happens to young people if they are pulled over by a law enforcement officer because we know the truth.

Any encounter between a black person and law enforcement carries with it the risk of injury or death.

And here's what I need um to sit with you.

Last year, the Winston PD confirmed that 10 people were arrested and more than 574 were cited for marijuana, marijuana related offenses in this city.

Ten people now carry the weight of the carceral system, the criminal records, the barriers to employment, to housing, to education.

And this city and anyone who's not yet demanded otherwise has decided that 10 arrests out of 584 enforcement actions is acceptable.

I'm here to tell you it is not.

We've heard the refrain.

Isn't marijuana already basically legal?

The WSPD isn't really arresting people for wheat.

Dispensaries are open.

One of our own colleagues has Green Wood.

Shout out to this story, green wood that was destroyed by white supremacists.

He's in the business of selling it.

But the data does not match the comfort of that narrative.

Without a mandatory site and release ordinance, a patrol officer still has complete discretion over whether the product in someone's hand is worth a citation or an arrest.

That means handcuffs, transport, fingerprinting, and for some incarceration.

We know as a North Carolina Department of Justice data makes plain this is simply unacceptable.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Jones.

Maryland uh, have you already spoken or yes?

Go ahead.

Thank you for your time.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, and city leadership.

My name is Marilyn Mandela La Quinza de la Cruz, and I stand here today in support of hate out Winston Salem proposal for mandatory site and release and a lowest law enforcement priority for simple marijuana possession in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

This is not a call to legalize marijuana.

Decriminalization and legalization are not the same thing.

Legalization creates a commercial market.

Decriminalization simply means a young person is not handcuffed, booked, and pushed into the criminal legal system over personal use possessions.

Tonight, this is about more than the cannabis policy.

It's about whether a city will continue allowing minors that possess uh marijuana to be convicted and charged and put into the pipeline.

Um this system disproportionately impacts black and brown youth and families.

If my dog suffers from separation anxiety, and the only thing that calms him while I'm away is illegally purchased CBD gummy from a dispensary.

He gets caught chewing it.

No one's first instinct is to send him to the pound.

We recognize contacts, we respond with proportion and common sense.

Yet when a young person is found with a small amount of marijuana for personal use, too often the person, too often the response is handcuffs, booking, and beginning of a criminal record.

What starts as a minor mistake can miss can become missed school, miswork, court fees, housing instability, employment barriers, and crushing message that the system has already decided their future.

That is how hopelessness begins.

North Carolina's own data shows marijuana enforcement disproportionately impacts black residents despite similar use, usage rates across racial groups.

This is not just insufficient, it's inequitable for everyone that is targeted by the system.

The law already permits site and release.

The question is whether Winston-Salem will Winston-Salem will have the courage to use the discretion it already has.

If city leadership truly supports decriminalization, then codify it.

Adopt mandatory site and release, make it simple.

Possession, the lowest law enforcement priority.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Matthew Mayers.

Still Matthew Mayor is still at 2844 Wesley and Lane and still hungry.

But I'm really here again to thank you for something you did a couple of a couple of hours ago.

Um to little fanfare, which was to vote to approve the appointments to some of the councils and boards.

Um hardly everyone's mentioned, but there's a couple that I did want to uh call out for the planning board.

Uh, my friend Salpatino is I'm so glad that he has been reappointed.

He's gonna be a terrific voice in uh as you're seeing new um UDO amendments for making our city uh more amenable to um sustainable development as well as gentle density and housing affordability.

And on the sustainability council, um you reappointed uh another friend of mine, Jose Salcedo, who uh is a community organizer and it will be an excellent voice, will continue to be an excellent voice for how sustainability and environmental justice issues impact many of our neighbors.

Pay attention to him, please.

And another new one.

I I don't know Miss Burke, but I do know Oliver Mead and his expertise as a professional engineer in the architectural area in sustainable architecture is going to be invaluable as you start looking at the um the report that you get back on your facilities condition.

Um, for a long time, the sustainability council has kind of been a place where people get sent, you know, tree huggers get sent to talk amongst themselves and more or less get ignored.

Truth.

Um I urge you to not continue that path to really uh take advantage of and pay attention to the professional expertise and the real knowledge and uh ethical compass of the people who have volunteered their time to do these things and uh pay good attention to what they have to say.

Thank you very much.

Hi, Alfred.

Good evening, Ty Olford, good evening to the mayor and the council.

You know, to give all of you a little bit of flavor of the noise that we experience at downtown residents on a nightly basis.

I was gonna come up here and just scream for two minutes, but my wife told me not to do that.

But you know, I did want to thank Mr.

Roe for his work on the new noise ordinances as well as Ms.

Hall, Ms.

Joyner, uh Ms.

Devane for their interest in working with the residents to find practical solutions to mitigate the excessive noise downtown.

You know, as residents, we appreciate all the downtown businesses as well as the vibrancy of the city.

All we're asking is these late night establishments who operate outside on public sidewalks, and motorists who come downtown, be good neighbors, have respect for our city, and follow the established ordinances.

Decibel levels routinely reach above 85 past midnight, which I think we all can agree is very unreasonable.

And these violations predominantly stem from two sources.

The first is bars who routinely blare music from their sidewalks.

They serve alcohol consumed outside the sidewalk barrier, and they stay open outside well past the 1 a.m.

and 2 a.m.

operational hours, all in violation of the sidewalk permit.

The second source of the excessive noise is the vehicles and motorcycles with modified mufflers and deafening stereos.

There was a lot of spirited debate at this council months ago regarding the new amphitheater and the impact of noise to Crystal Towers.

Many downtown residents completely sympathize with the Crystal Tower residents and the impact this will have on them.

However, what seemed to be missing in that discussion is the current violation of ordinances late at night.

The absence of a robust enforcement mechanism is only going to be count compounded more once more people flood the downtown area when the amphitheater is open.

Thank you for your time.

Brittany Crandall.

Evening, Mayor and Council members.

Uh, my name is Brittany Crandall.

I'm the director of operations with Grub Properties in the Link Apartments Deals downtown Winston-Salem.

Um I'm here this evening to respectfully ask the council to consider stronger clarification, consistency, and enforcement regarding noise and outdoor bar activity and what I consider our mixed-use district.

First, we are going to define and regulate amplified noise in certain contexts, and I believe bar-related crowd noise should also be clearly defined within our ordinances.

There are definitions and thresholds for amplified noise related to venues like the amphitheater, then crowd noise should also be addressed within those same conversations.

Right now, there appears to be a gap between amplified sound regulations and the reality of what residents and neighboring businesses are experiencing late into the evening.

In many cases, it is not just music, it is the large crowds shouting and congregation associated with these bar environments that create the disturbance.

Residents do not necessarily distinguish whether the dress disruption is coming from a speaker system or people gathered outside at midnight.

The impact is still the impact.

Second, the sidewalk corrals that were originally created during the pandemic to support outdoor dining have in many areas evolved into late-night bar gathering spaces with minimal, if any, consistent enforcement.

I am respectfully asking to consider establishing a defined cutoff time for activity within those sidewalk corrals, specifically 11 p.m.

I believe this creates a more reasonable balance between supporting businesses and respecting the residents who live nearby.

The area where many of these establishments exist is not strictly entertainment only, it is mixed use.

One of our communities is located directly in this environment, and the late night noise can be extremely disruptive to residents simply trying to sleep and live comfortably.

I believe the question we should all be asking ourselves is does it improve my city?

As soon as we begin viewing these issues through that lens collectively, the sooner we will all experience the kind of growth vibrancy and success that we want for Winston Salem.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Carolyn Warren.

Good evening, Caroline Warren, 2330 Light Street, Winston Salem.

I'm here to speak on heat safety in what we're going to do for the extreme heat this summer for our lifeguards.

I am a special ed teacher at Glenn High School in the summer.

I've been a lifeguard the past three years.

I like to swim.

Yeah, I'm not the oldest one, almost, but um most of our lifeguards are high school students.

The managers have to be 18, but the vast majority of our lifeguards are 15, 16, and 17-year-old children.

So as Ms.

McGarvey bravely told y'all last year, we had an incident at Waterworks.

It was a heat warning.

I don't know if people know the difference between a watch and a warning, but a warning means the dangerous heat is here.

We knew about this because WXII talked about it in advance.

They said, do not go outside if you don't have to.

I know this, I know the city knows um what extreme heat is because um on July 26th, the following month, uh you issued a public service announcement about your cooling centers and the free buses that people ask agitated for, and you all came through on.

Um your statement, it says if the heat index feels over a hundred and you work outside and you don't have access to a cool to cooling facilities, you can come use our cooling facilities.

I love our pools.

They're wonderful facilities.

They do not have cooling facilities.

These basket rooms are not air conditioned, they have fans.

The fans help during normal heat.

After a heat advisory, it does not help.

The day that four lifeguards passed out from heat, and by the way, passing out means you have entered into heat stroke category.

My friend Jen Wiles will confirm that.

She's a PA.

Um, they had said hours earlier that they felt unwell and that they we needed to close part of the lazy river.

Their manager called the aquatics director, who told them no, keep going, tell them to drink some water.

There were six guards who passed out this past year.

Four of them were at waterworks, who I'm focusing on, but we'll continue this conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Jen Wiles.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, and community members.

My name is Jen Wiles.

I've been named a few times tonight.

I'm not talking about a lot of the things that they have been named to talk about today, but I did send an email about the heat advisory thing earlier today.

I'm a candidate for the North Carolina House advocating for the legalization and decriminalization of cannabis statewide.

However, I'm here tonight in support of the Winston-Salem Fair Justice and Public Safety Ordinance because I believe this proposal recognizes a reality that many North Carolinians already understand.

Criminalizing marijuana possession has not made our community safer, but it has harmed families, strained public resources, and disproportionately impacted black residents for decades.

The proposal before you takes practical steps forward through site and release policies, lowest law enforcement priority protocols, and reinvestment into community care.

These are not radical ideas.

Across the country, cities have recognized that spending taxpayer dollars arresting and incarcerating people for low-level marijuana possession is ineffective, expensive, and out of step with public opinion.

And frankly, local governance cannot governments can always wait for the North Carolina General Assembly to do the right thing, as we are well aware of.

Our cities and counties are constantly asked to solve major social and public safety issues while operating under severe state-imposed budget limitations and restricted local revenue options.

We know Winston Salem and for Scythe County need more investment in housing, youth programs, mental health response, violence interruption, and economic opportunity.

Policies like this allow local governments to focus more effectively on the issues that most directly impact community safety and quality of life.

Thank you.

Cynthia Hurson.

Okay.

Mikhail Holt.

Better get close to this microphone.

Quiet talker.

Um Michael Holt.

I live on 3364 Country Club Road.

And I am here to talk about the fair justice and public safety proposal.

But before that, it would be really cool if y'all could do something about the noise coming from Forsyth Country Club down the street from me on Friday and Saturday nights.

It is lit.

And it gets up to 80 decibels and stuff.

Okay.

So anyway, there are things that have been done and can be done to make our city more inclusive and more welcoming to its citizens.

All of us citizens.

So back in 1977, marijuana was classified as a schedule for drug in North Carolina.

And while that did not entirely decriminalize it, the act was meaningful as a signal to citizens and lawmakers.

Now when we were doing our research, I'm I'm the one that dug through the data on Easter week to see what was going on and how it ended up and all of that stuff.

And it's in the data.

If you'll dig around hard enough for it, um both the city of Winston-Salem and the Forsyth County Sheriff's Department don't make too many arrests for marijuana possession.

Um and they do actually see it in a lot of the incidents, but it's not true that it never happens.

And when arrests are made, those arrests seem to disproportionately impact young people and black people.

Um I am here to speak in support that this council recommend a policy of the lowest level of criminal enforcement for this matter or site and release for marijuana possession.

Thanks for your attention.

Thank you, Ms.

Holt.

We have time for one other speaker.

This is all had signed up.

Anyone else want to be heard?

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening, Mayor.

Mayor Pro Tem Adams and Count City Council members.

How are you this evening?

You give us your name, please.

I will.

My name is Tanya Sheffield.

I uh live at 2700 Rinolda Road, Apartment 1401, and the zip is 27106.

On behalf of Forsyth IF sponsoring committee, you are cordially invited to attend our novel public meeting on June 14th at four at 4 p.m.

at Emmanuel Baptist Church, 1075 Charlemagne Drive in Winston Salem.

This gathering will bring together more than 500 delegates representing 30 diverse city civic institutions in addition to uh decision makers from the city of Winston Salem, Forsyth County School District, the county, Forsyth County uh health systems, and the business community.

The purpose of the meeting is to formally introduce the organization and present its initial agenda comprising a priorities for education, community-led affordable housing, develop uh affordable housing development, housing stability, and mental health.

We will respectfully invite you to share your name and role and to indicate your willingness to meet with our leaders to begin building a public relationship and build working uh and begin working on our shared agenda.

Your presence and willingness to relate to our collective would mean much.

Over the past five years, hundreds of leaders from across Forsyth County have partnered with the Industrial Areas Foundation to build the foundation of a broad-based citizen citizens organization through intentional relationship building across faith, race, income, and neighborhood.

This effort brings together people from all walks of life.

We have trained leaders listened to more than 1,100 residents to determine the direction of our work and identified research shared community priorities, resulting in a clear collective vision for the future of Winston Salem and Forsyth County.

Our approach to change is grounded in building respectful, accountable public relationships among leaders from the public, private, and civic sectors.

Thank you.

Thank you much.

I'll close the public comment period.

Um council members who might have a comment.

Entertain a motion to adjourn.

Mr.

Mayor, just real quick.

We do have this Thursday, it's the last committee meeting on the budget, and everyone is invited.

It's at 2 o'clock.

Two o'clock.

Two o'clock this Thursday.

All right thank you Mr.

Entertain a motion to adjourn.

Adjournment.

Aye.

Anyone opposed we're adjourned