 That's all I need to know, so I'll see you around right now. It's a nice time, Mr. Mayor. It's a nice time. And with that, dramatic introduction, I'm going to call this meeting of the Durham City Council to order on October the 21st at 7 o'clock, and I certainly want to welcome everyone here tonight. And also all of those who might be at home watching our proceedings on television. And now I'd like to ask you if you would please join me in a moment of silent meditation. Thank you. I'm going to ask Councilmember Freeman if she would do the honors tonight on the Pledge to the Flag. I'm not sure that Councilmember Reese, given the state of his physical health tonight, will be able to do it. So Councilmember Freeman, would you please lead us? I would be honored. It was your practice to do so, if you would please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Councilmember Freeman. No problem. And Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Mayor Schuhl. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Here. Councilmember Alston. Here. Councilmember Caballero. Here. Councilmember Freeman. Present. Councilmember Middleton. Here. Councilmember Reese. Here. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. And now we're going to begin our ceremonial items. And our first ceremonial item tonight is a proclamation for the sister cities of Durham Week. And I would like Bob Ashley to please come forward, Bob, and see Brady and there may be others who you would like to bring up with you. Yep, come on up. And I'm going to read this proclamation presented to you. And, Bob, if you have a few words to offer, we'd be delighted to have them. The sister cities of Durham, Inc. is celebrating its 30th anniversary being founded in 1989 with sister cities partners Durham, England, Kostroma, Russia, and Toyoma, Japan. And whereas sister cities has expanded Durham's international family by adding Arusha, Tanzania in 1991, Juzhao, China in 2012, Kunshan, and Zanin, China as friendship cities in 2013 and 2017, Kavala, Greece in 2017, and Tilaran, Costa Rica, Salaya, Mexico, and Sibiu, Romania in 2019. And whereas sister cities has a variety of exchange programs with their international partners in the areas of education, business, medicine, art, music, local government, and environment, which have provided many opportunities for citizens organizations in Durham to enhance their international understanding and to develop friendships around the world. Now, therefore, I, Stephen M. Schull, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim October 19th to 27th, 2019 a sister cities of Durham Week in Durham, and hereby commend its observance to our citizens. Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, this 21st day of October, 2019. Congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. On behalf of sister cities of Durham, I want to thank you for the proclamation. We're grateful to you, to all of the Council members and to the staff for the strong support for our mission in fostering grassroots citizen diplomacy. We are continually honored to showcase our diversity to delegations from our sister cities abroad. And thank you very much for this proclamation and, again, for your support. It's been a great year for sister cities. We've added three sister cities, and as the proclamation says, it's been a very great year, a lot of wonderful work on behalf of the folks that do that, and thank you so much. Second, we're going to have a recognition, a very special recognition, presented to Fire Captain Stephen Witt, Fire Driver Mario Herrera, Firefighter Todd Hoffman, and the folks from Jamie's Dream. If you all could please join me up here, that would be great. And I believe Natasha Murray is here from Jamie's Dream. Great. Great. Come on up. Do you have anyone else who would like to come up with you? I have Lorenzo and his family. Fantastic. Fabulous. Come on up. Wonderful. Super. So we have a very special presentation tonight for our fire department. And I'm going to introduce Natasha Murray from Jamie's Dream, who's going to describe Jamie's Dream and the work that they've been doing. And I'll turn it over to you, Natasha, and look forward to hearing what you have to say. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. My name is Natasha Murray. I represent Jamie's Dream Team. It's a non-profit organization out of Pennsylvania. Jamie's Dream Team helps folks that have life-threatening disorders, disabilities, that really just need a helping hand. Our mission is to offer hope when there's little to ease the burden caused by serious injury, disability, trauma, or catastrophic events. In July, I received a call from Jamie about Lorenzo here. Lorenzo has a disorder called ALD, Gerendic Disorder. His two brothers had this disorder as well, and they had since passed. Lorenzo's dream was to have a tree house built where he can just be a kid and have fun and maybe groove his brothers and just have a space of his own. I reached out to the Durham Fire Department and they came in so strong. A project that was supposed to take two months took half the time. They came every day and helped build this amazing tree house for Lorenzo. He has a TV, he's got video games, he's got a bed, he's got a little duck, he's got everything he needs to just have a great time and be a kid and maybe grieve his brothers in times of need. So I wanted to thank the Durham Fire Department for all of their efforts and their time. It was truly amazing. Everything that you did every day to help us with this dream. With that, I'd like to present to you this plaque, which has cute little Lorenzo's face on it. Thank you so much for everything. I think Chief Genese wants to get everybody's picture. Y'all stand up here with Lorenzo in front. Let's get that plaque out there. There you go. Thank you. Thank you guys so much. Lorenzo, come on up here for a minute. I have a question for you. You have two brothers? Yes. Are you going to let your brothers play in the tree house? Yes. Good job. Okay, thanks a lot, man. I'm going to also read the names of any other Fire Department staff who participated in the project. If any of them are here, if you would please stand when I call your name. From engine 13, Jonathan Lease, Jason Mask, Marcus Pereira, Thomas Scasafava and Sean Walls. From ladder 17, Greg Ferrell, John Whitfield, James Fields, Wade Olive, Don Smith, Adam Morris, Spencer Hamlet, N. Holman, Scott Rapalea, David Lynn, Benjamin Schaefer, Mario Herrera, I'm sorry, this is from engine 17, Mario Herrera, Zachary Griffith, Morgan Nelson, John Wilkerson and Christopher Bain. From ladder three, Stephen Witt, Gray Holliman, Corey Kelly, and Cole Lemoine, Lamone, I'm sorry. Engine eight, Walter Morris, Shannon Scott and Christopher Burris. Engine nine, Daniel Morgan, Jeffrey McMillan, Brian Tumulak, from engine one, Benjamin Stahls and Richard Chavis. Squad one, Todd Hoffman and Squad four, Annie Alvarez. And I just want to thank all of those folks. You can see how committed our fire department was to making this happen. And this is just a wonderful project. And again, congratulations to those fire department members who are here. We really appreciate you. We're now going to have another very special presentation and this is going to be the induction of our Durham Youth Commission. If we could, let me just grab my notes here. One of the great things about doing this job is that people really tell you exactly what to do and if I would just follow my directions, I can do it well. And I have here before me the information about how we're going to do the Durham Youth Commission induction tonight. We have a very special ceremonial item and I always love this. This is always one of the most enjoyable ceremonial items that we have every year was the induction of our 2019-2020 Durham Youth Commission. Since its inception in 2005, the Durham Youth Commission has been a place for young people to engage our local government through service learning and volunteerism and develop good civic leadership. Today the Durham Youth Commission challenges Durham to go beyond the idea of young people as just recipients of programs and services and embrace a new partnership where young people are co-leaders, co-decision makers and co-creators in our growth and development as a community. When youth are engaged and share power in the city's decision-making processes, everyone benefits. The Durham Youth Commission strives to be an example of authentic youth engagement in Durham. It is the goal of the commission to be a representative body of the diverse lived experiences of youth in Durham while continuing to acknowledge and amplify the voices of youth who are not currently represented. This year we have 14 DYC members representing eight high schools across Durham. The DYC will work with the Office on Youth to develop new platforms for young people to share their experiences and the issues that are important to them with elected officials and Durham decision makers. The DYC will also continue to build strong relationships with other youth groups across the city and state. So at this time I'd like to invite DYC inductee Leslie Gonzalez to come to the microphone and share on behalf of the Durham Youth Commission. Leslie? And as Leslie does this, I'm going to ask all the members of the Youth Commission if you all would come up and join us here on the dyes. Come on up. Hi everybody and hello city council members. My name is Leslie Gonzalez. I go to Northern High School and I'm a senior and the spoken word that I'll be sharing with you all today is called 15 things you should know about watching your neighborhood become gentrified. That's how it starts too. So 15 things you should know about watching your neighborhood become gentrified. Number one, first you wake up one morning and everything looks just fine. Number two, you wake up the next and everything's flipped within the blink of an eye. Number three, one house starts to change then that family goes by by. Number four, hire the right contractor because construction is going to last a while. Number five, more houses on the block seem to start getting bought. Number six, even old folks from the east side get surprised. Number seven, the rich don't just drive by but now they park their cars in the houses right beside and I'm not playing because my neighbor drives a Tesla. Number eight, property taxes go up now my folks rent is so high. Number nine, affordable housing isn't affordable if my friend's mom needs three jobs just to survive. Number 10, you live in the east side and your car breaks down now you don't got to drive. 11, at least there's not as many gunshots in the middle of the night or even in the summertime. 12, you're only 16 so they don't want to hear your cries supposedly we don't know enough about this life. 13, we live around the crime and our minds are already doing time y'all require us to go to school but see I told myself how to rhyme. 14, watch as time flies by less and less cops will ride around at night because fear feeds their intuition to do us right. 15, all the little things that coincide with the white man pushing our needs aside is all the more reason why you and I should fight and that's just 15 things you should know about watching a neighborhood become gentrified. And if that isn't enough to show you why we got to be tough let me give you one more reason to really start. Have you ever heard those people who start yelling with pride like a let's go boo city and they rep the 919 well let me tell you about these people who only rep Durham post gentrified. They're just chasing cloud watch them follow the hype they don't care about your city and we're just not their type. Use your intuition to speak up because it's not right. Let's not lose any more homes to the rich and the white. Thank you. Yeah, so there's some powerful testimony folks. If you want to know what the Durham Youth Commission is all about it's a lot of truth telling. Very powerful testimony lesson that was fabulous. So I'm now going to ask beginning with Leslie if you all could each come here to the mic and just tell us your name, your school, your grade and your term on the Durham Youth Commission. And I have all of you all do that. Okay, Leslie, why don't you go first. So my name is Leslie. I'm a senior at Northern High School. This is my first term on the Durham Youth Commission and we were also supposed to also come up with a word that defines us and I think my would be bold. Hey, my name is Kevin. I'm a senior at Jordan High School. This is my first term during the commission and I'm an artist. Hi, I'm Laura McDowell. This is my first term on the Durham Youth Commission. I am a sophomore at Carolina Friends and my word is that I'm an activist. Hi, my name is Ashley Padilla Ayala. I go to City of Medicine Academy and I'm a sophomore there. This is my first term and a word I would use to describe me is a communicator. I'm Susanna King. I'm a junior at Durham School of the Arts and this is my first term on the Durham Youth Commission and I'm a listener. Hi, my name is Henry Cruz-Royez. I'm a senior at City of Medicine Academy. This is my second year on the commission and a word to describe me would be unafraid. Hi, my name is CJ. I'm a freshman. I go to DSA. This is my first term and my word would be unique. My name is Rebecca Sausby. I'm a sophomore at Durham School of the Arts and my word would be risk taker. Hi, I'm Julia Haas. I'm a junior at Insight Co-Learning Center and I am a historian. Hello, my name is Asa Patterson. I am a sophomore at Durham School of the Arts. This is my first term in the DOIC and I'm a performing artist. Hi, my name is Annika and I'm a senior at Durham School of the Arts and this is my second term and a word that would describe me would be musician. Hello, my name is Fedora Parra. I'm a junior at Insight Co-Learning Center. This is my first term in the Durham Youth Commission and I am an innovator. Hello, my name is Helen. This is my first term on the commission. I go to JD Klamma Early College. I'm a freshman and my word to describe me is different. Hello, my name is Mari Jouf. I'm from Middle College. I'm a junior. This is my first year on the DOIC and a word to describe myself is an environmentalist. Thank you. Well, we have an awesome, fabulous DOIC group this year and I'm going to ask my council colleagues if you all will join me down here and let's all have our pictures taken so we can become famous one day from knowing these young people. I'll wave. I'll wave. Squeeze it in. Hold on. We're going to get the official one. All right. And we look forward to seeing a lot more of our youth commissioners this year. We have another proclamation tonight, an important proclamation for Memography Awareness Day. And I'm going to ask Susan Sharpless for Alpha Zeta Omega Chapter and the president of Alpha, Kappa Alpha Sorority to please come up and anyone else that you might like to bring with you, Ms. Sharpless. Oh, here she comes. Good. Okay. And I'm going to ask councilmember Vernetta Austin if she will do the honors for the presentation of this proclamation. First fan, what up? Whereas October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is dedicated to increasing public knowledge about the importance of early breast cancer detection. And whereas National Memography Awareness Day is observed annually on the third Friday in October as part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month established during the presidency of William J. Clinton in 1993. And whereas October 18th, 2019 is the 26th anniversary of National Memography Awareness Day. This day serves as a reminder to all women that mammograms are the best method of early detection of breast cancer. And whereas Alpha Kappa Alpha, sorry, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and the leadership of international president Dr. Glendick Glover is seeking to raise awareness on breast cancer through its 2018 to 2022 international program exemplifying excellence through sustainable service. And whereas, I'm going to get it right this time, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated encourages women ages 40 to 44 years to begin annual mammography screening and strives to help 100,000 women by sharing information concerning breast cancer and the risk factors that contribute to breast cancer. And whereas Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated launched the Alpha Kappa Alpha mobile mammography unit on the campus of Texas Southern University providing mammogram access to the uninsured. Now therefore I, Stephen M. Schulmayer of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim October 18th, 2019 as mammography awareness day in Durham. And hereby encourage all health care services, hospitals, clinics and insurance companies to deliver affordable options so that every woman at every income level will have easy access to mammograms and be informed on their risk for breast cancer through continuous screening. Congratulations, thank you. I want to say it's just a lot of pressure to have four AKAs like standing behind me while I try to say that. Thank you. Good evening. I am Susan Sharpless and I'm the president of the Alpha Zeta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. Since 1928, so for over 91 years, the chapter has been an integral part of the Durham community. My sisters and I are deeply gratified and appreciative of the Durham City Council proclaiming October 18th, 2019 as mammography awareness day in Durham. By doing so, you honor and lend support to our sororities efforts to highlight the importance of mammography screening to the early detection and treatment of breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among black women. An estimated 34,000 new cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2019. And over 6,500 deaths from breast cancer are expected to occur among black women this year. These statistics underscore how vitally important it is for women to begin annual screening mammography between the ages of 40 and 44. In addition to acknowledging mammography awareness day every October during breast cancer awareness month, our sisterhood joins in other efforts focused on increasing awareness of breast cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and funding research to find cure for breast cancer. Some of the engagement activities this month include sharing information about the disease to educate our members and the community, encouraging members and friends to perform breast self-examination and schedule mammography mammograms annually. We also salute our breast cancer survivors in our chapter and encourage them to share their stories on social media. And we sponsor and serve as hostesses at Lincoln Community Health Center's Breast Cancer Awareness Workshop. In addition, earlier this year, we participated in the Common Walk for Cure here in the Triangle. Again, thank you for joining us and acknowledging mammography awareness day this year and our ongoing efforts to combat breast cancer. At this time, we'd like to share a pink ribbon with each of the council members. And we would ask that you wear it for the rest of the month of October in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Thank you so much, Ms. Sharpless and the members of the sorority for bringing us this very, very important awareness. And we just want to express our appreciation to you all for being here. So thank you. Our final ceremonial item tonight is for National Arts and Humanities Month. And I'm going to ask Sherry DeVries, Executive Director of the Durham Arts Council, and Jenny Levine, Humanities and Adult Programming Coordinator of Durham County Library to please join me and anyone else that you all might want to bring with you. I see you have Connie and maybe Margaret as well. All right, great. Thank you. We're glad to have you all. And joining me for this proclamation, I will be Council Member Caballero, who I believe is already here. Thank you all. Good evening. Thank you for being here with us. Whereas the arts and humanities enhance and enrich the lives of all Americans, positively affecting every aspect of life in America today, including the economy, social problem solving, job creation, education, creativity and community livability. And whereas city and states through their local and state art agencies representing thousands of cultural organizations have celebrated the value and importance of culture in the lives of Americans and the health of thriving communities during National Arts and Humanities Month for several years. Whereas the humanities help diverse communities across the United States explore their history and culture with the support and partnership of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the 55 state and territorial humanities councils, libraries, local, educational and cultural institutions. And whereas the arts and cultural industry also strengthens our economy by generating 166.3 billion in total economic activity annually, 26 billion in government revenue, and by supporting the full-time equivalent of 5 million jobs. And whereas the United States Conference of Mayors has actively participated in National Arts and Humanities Month since 1984, and whereas the nation's 95,000 non-profit arts organizations, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the nation's 4,500 local arts agencies, the Arts and Humanities Council of the 50 states and the 6 U.S. jurisdictions have regularly issued official proclamations on an annual basis designating October as National Arts and Humanities Month. Now therefore, I, Stephen M. Shul, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim October 2019 as National Arts and Humanities Month in Durham and hereby urge all citizens to take special note of this observance and to celebrate arts and culture in our community. Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, this 21st day of October 2019. Good evening. Thank you, Mayor Shul and City Council members for your support of the arts and for your recognition through this proclamation of National Arts and Humanities Month. I'm Sherry DeVries, Executive Director of the Durham Arts Council. As a special remembrance of Arts and Humanities Month, we are pleased to provide each of you with a CD from several very talented local musicians who have been recognized and supported in the Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Program, including Al Strong, Annalise Stahls, Michael Grigoni, and Rissy Palmer. They are just a few of the over 600 emerging artists that have been recognized in that program. And I'd also like to recognize and thank Councilman Charlie Reese for serving on our Board of Trustees at the Arts Council. And I'm also pleased to thank and introduce the Board President of the Durham Arts Council, Dr. Constanza Gomez-Jones, who is also Executive Director of the Center for the Global Learner at Durham Technical Community College. Thank you, Sherry. Good evening. Durham is home to nationally and internationally celebrated arts organizations and artists that express the vibrant personality and cultural traditions of Durham. The arts are helping to make Durham a highly desirable and livable city for businesses and residents. And the non-profit arts sector in Durham also generates $154 million in annual economic activity. For 65 years, the Durham Arts Council has supported and developed the arts, showcasing and nurturing the creative talent in this community. The Durham Arts Council was an early leader in the community arts movement and was the first major arts organization to move downtown Durham in the late 1970s to help spur the revitalization and renaissance of our city. Today, Durham Arts Council serves over 400,000 people of all ages and showcases and supports the work of 2,000 artists and over 300 art and cultural organizations each year. Last year, the Durham Arts Council provided $1.34 million in direct cash support to the arts sector through grants, arts commissions, and over 1,200 jobs. And we welcome 34,771 visitors to Centrefest just last month. Thank you. Thank you again for the City of Durham support in this proclamation. And I now would like to introduce Jenny Levine, Humanities and Adult Programming Coordinator for the Durham County Library, representing the humanities aspect of this month-long celebration. Thank you, Connie. At the Durham County Library, we work to present humanities programming that appeals to those in our community who are interested in exploring art, history, film, literature, dance, philosophy, and ethics. In FY19, we hosted a total of over 6,000 programs and had over 145,000 attendees. We want to connect the community to challenging topics, relevance in partnership with the Durham Library Foundation about Durham's rich history, such as Home Movie Day, and popular presenters such as the Family Friendly Drag Show, the Readers' Party, and presentations from our friends at the Nasher Museum, Playmakers' Repertory Company, and the American Dance Festival, and many others. Also, the Durham Arts Council and H.I. Heritage Center have provided us amazing location support while Maine Library has been under construction. On behalf of the Durham County Library, I thank you for this excellent honor for the arts and humanities. All right. That concludes our ceremonial items. We had some great ones tonight. And now I'm going to proceed with announcements by members of the council. Can I ask if any of my colleagues have any announcements at this point? Councilmember Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I want to just express deep condolences and sorrow over the tragedy that struck over our skies on yesterday evening. A small plane on approach to RGU, as we all know, crashed into lives. Our loss to RGU, of course, is our gateway to the world, our cultural gateway, our economic gateway. And we certainly want to commend all of the incredible work that first responders did and RGU staff did in working through the night to find the wreckage and recover the lost souls from last night. So I just want to go on record commending those that worked diligently. It was a multi-agency response. Magnificent work across lines, city lines and agency lines. And I want to go on record acknowledging their valiant efforts and send our condolences and prayers to the Partridge family. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much, Councilmember, for that important statement of empathy and concern. Any other Councilmembers, any other announcements? Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to take the opportunity to remind folks that early voting for the 2019 municipal election is open now. There are four early voting sites that you can find on the Durham County Board of Elections website. And early voting will be open until November 1st. That's a Friday. So there will not be early voting on the weekend before the general election, which will happen on November 5th. I just want to encourage everybody to get out and vote. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor Pro Tem. Any other announcements? Just a special note that this will be the cycle where on Election Day, November the 5th, that the buses will be free. Thank you. Yes. There will be free bus service from the city of Durham on Election Day. Thank you for that important reminder. I also have one announcement. I believe for the eighth year, maybe the ninth, I'm a little bit unclear, but I have sort of by accident many years ago. I challenged as when I first got on the City Council, city employees to a race. Since that time, this is, let's just say, mushroomed and is now part of the city's health and wellness plan. Now it is called Run with the Mayor, although I don't know if you can call what I do exactly running anymore. But we had a wonderful, wonderful run with the mayor on Saturday. We had 64 of our employees participated, 10 spouses and friends, 10 children of our employees. We, we have a five mile run and then other people run and walk and ride their bikes and go as far as they want. It was a fabulous day. And of course the weather was amazing. I did get to wear bib number 1869 to recognize the 150th birthday, not of me. I just want to be clear about that. But of the city of Durham and we're very proud of that anniversary. I want to list the people that beat me in the race. Okay, that's, that's the tradition. I'm going to read their names. First was Jason Botchard. I'm not sure if I'm saying Jason's name correctly of technology solutions. Rob Dammon of Neighborhood Improvement Services. Dana Horne Cole from Public Works. Deputy city manager. Sorry. Chief. Chief. Chief Christian Nuzzi of the fire department. Chris has gotten faster in recent years. Robert John from Transportation. John Scott from Human Resources. Sean Tuttle from Public Works. Paul Wiebke from Public Works. Also, I should say the first three finishers. Robert John from Transportation in a time of 3339. That's pretty good for five miles. John Scott from Human Resources and Jason Botchard from Technology Solutions. And also to beat me was, I will have to just say now, the fastest female in the city, Mariel Klein from the city manager's office. Congratulations to Mariel. I tried to keep up with her to no avail. So it was a really fun day and we'll do it again next year. And look forward to having even more employees. I want to thank the folks that made it happen from Human Resources. Keana Bailey, Gwendolyn Burnett and Veronica Jackson and Drew Bullard all did a fantastic job and also Department Director Regina Youngblood. It was a great day, a really fun event for the city and for all of us who were there. And I want to thank the folks that put it together. Okay, I've now humiliated myself enough for one evening. This gets a little bit longer every year, Mr. May. It does. Thank you for pointing that out. Now you've humiliated me with okay. All I will say is I won my age group. How many people in that age group, Mr. May? That would have been one council. Good job, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. All righty. And now we will move to priority items by the city manager. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council. The city manager's office has no priority items. Thank you very much, Madam Attorney. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayor and Pro Tem, members of council. The attorney's office has no priority items. Thank you, Madam Clerk. And good evening, everyone. The city clerk's office has no items also. Thank you very much. We'll now move to the consent agenda. The consent agenda is items that the council has previously worked on. The consent agenda can be approved by a single vote of the council. Members of the council or members of the public can pull an item from the consent agenda, in which case it will be considered at the end of the meeting. Item one, approval of city council minutes. Item two, Mayor's nominee for appointment, human relations commission. Item four, Durham city county appearance commission appointments. Item five, request to carry over funds from fiscal year 2018-19 to fiscal year 2019-20 budget and other budget ordinances. Item six, Vermillion homestead LLC loan amendment for Vermillion townhomes, 1311 Cook Road. Item seven, Southeast regional lift station contract two projects. Award of construction contract to J.F. Wilkerson contracting company, Inc. Item eight, 2019 dam inspection and maintenance project. Award of professional engineering services contract to Schnabel engineering, I believe it's Schnabel engineering, South PC. Item nine, amendment number three to the demolition of decommissioned wastewater treatment facilities contract. Item 10, 2019 Durham water management roof replacements project. Award of construction contract to Baker roofing company. Item 11, resolution authorizing the city auction. Item 12, interlocal agreement with Chatham county in the city of Durham fire department for fire and rescue services. Item 13, Duke energy storm resiliency grant award. Item 14, additional construction services with cadet construction company at Valley Springs Park. Item 15, temporary staffing. Item 16, contract SW 75 public works operation center concrete repair 2019. Item 17, contract amendment to contract SW 44 D with SEPI engineering and construction for professional services for additional design services for SW 44 D carpenter Fletcher Road, and pedestrian facilities project. Item 18, contract SW 75 C request for qualifications RFQ for inspection services for various city projects. Item 19, contract amendment to contract SW 45 D with altar planning and design ink for professional services for additional design services for SW 45 D Cornwallis Road, bike and pedestrian facilities project. You have now heard the consent agenda and I'll accept the motion for its approval for consent. We'll move to second that we approve the consent agenda. Madam clerk, would you please open the vote? Please close the vote. And the motion passes seven zero. Thank you so much. We'll now move to the general business agenda public hearings and begin with item 22 consolidated annexation high fox. And first we will hear our report from staff. Good evening. I'm Emily Struthers with the planning department. I would like to state for the record that all planning department hearing items have been advertised and noticed in accordance with state and local law. And affidavits of all notices are on file in the planning department. I will now present the high fox consolidated annexation case. Request for utility extension, voluntary annexation and initial zoning change have been received from Sean Gorman for 1.878 acres of land located at 1106 and 1107 high fox drive. The area is presently zoned residential rural and falls Jordan watershed protection overlay district B. Staff recommends an exact translation of this zoning district. Should the council act favorably approval of the annexation petition and zoning would become effective on December 31st, 2019. City and council operational departments such as solid waste, fire, police and EMS have reviewed this request and have not identified any significant negative service delivery costs or impacts. The public works and water management departments perform the utility impact analysis for the two utility extension agreements tied to this rezoning and determined that the existing city of Durham water and sanitary sewer mains have capacity to serve the project. The budget and management service department performed a fiscal impact analysis which determined that the proposed annexation will become revenue positive upon annexation. Staff determines that these requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable policies and ordinances. Three motions are required for this application. The first is to adopt an ordinance annexing the property and entering into two utility extension agreements. The second is for the consistency statement and the third is to adopt the zoning ordinance. Staff is available for any questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Others. You all have heard the report from staff and I'm now going to declare this public hearing open and first I'm going to ask if there are any questions from Mr. Others by members of the council. Hearing none, I'm going to now ask if there are members of the public who would like to speak to this item. I have no one who has signed up to speak to this item. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this item? Yes, please come forward. Give us your name and address. Sean Gorman, 5011 South Park Drive. Mr. Gorman, are you speaking in favor of this item? I'm speaking in favor. I just want to let it be known that I'm here for any questions. Thank you very much. I would appreciate if after the item is over if you would please go to the clerk's desk and fill out a yellow card. That would be great. Thank you. Are there any questions from Mr. Gorman by members of the council? Is there anyone else who would like to speak on this item? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to speak on this item? If not, I'm going to declare this public hearing closed and the matter is back before the council. We will need three motions to approve this. First would be the adoption of the ordinance annexing High Fox into the city of Durham. So moved. The motion has been made that we adopt the ordinance annexing High Fox. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Madam Clerk, will you please open the vote? Please close the vote. The motion passes 7-0. Thank you. The second motion required will be to adopt a consistency statement is required by NCGS 168383. So moved. Second. Madam Clerk, will you please open the vote? Please close the vote. The motion passes 7-0. Thank you. And third would be the motion to adopt an ordinance amending the UDL. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Madam Clerk, will you please open the vote? Please close the vote. The motion passes 7-0. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Mormon. Thank you. We'll now move, and thank you, Mr. Others. We'll now move to item 23, Brody Duke Warehouse Partial Appeal of Landmark Designation. And I'm going to ask for the report from staff. Welcome, Ms. Rosenberg. Good evening. I'm Carla Rosenberg with the Planning Department. And I'm here to present Case LD190001, which is a request for a partial repeal of Landmark Designation for the Brody Duke Warehouse. This was received from Zach Spencer of Graystar for one parcel of land located at 311 Liget Street, equals 1.46 acres. At the time of the Landmark Designation in 1999, the parcel encompassed more than three acres. Since that time, the southern portion of the parcel, not containing the primary structure, was paved over for parking. And this year, the owner subdivided the parcel into two lots, one containing the landmark structure, and the other containing the parking lot. The present proposal is to repeal the Landmark Designation for the parcel containing the parking lot. Historic Preservation Commission gave its recommendation 6-0 for approval on August 6, 2019, and the State Historic Preservation Office has issued a letter of recommendation on June 18, 2019. So staff is recommending approval of this request based on the land no longer holding historical or archaeological significance, and based on the fact that there is adequate land still surrounding the landmark structure to protect significant views of it from the street. Thank you, Ms. Rosenberg. You have heard a report from staff, and I'm now going to declare this public hearing open, and I'll first ask if there are questions for Ms. Rosenberg by members of the council. Councilmember Freeman. I just wanted to clarify, what would be the land use designation for this lot if it were removed? It's, I believe it's D-D. I do believe it's a downtown design district. It's a support one or two. I'm sorry, I don't have it written down specifically, which would be a downtown design. And what's allowed in support one and two? What is allowed up to six stories in height, and there's no regulation on the actual use. It's more about form. Thank you. Any other questions for staff? Ms. Rosenberg, just to confirm the memo, if we were to do this, the tax break that the applicant has previously received on this property would be recovered. Is that correct? They would be... The preceding three years. That would be just over $27,000. Okay, so the tax, and they've been receiving the tax break for how long? They've been receiving it since 1999. Well, the parcel, whoever has owned the parcel since that date. Right, not necessarily this owner, but I'm not sure about the ownership history. Okay, thank you. So that's essentially 19 or 20 years of ownership. 19 or 20 years of... Tax break. Yes, of tax break. Yeah, thank you. All right, I'll have some questions about that for the applicant. Let me just ask you all around that. Again, Ms. Rosenberg, is that standard? We've done this before. We have done this before. Specifically the Venable Warehouse Building on Pettigrew. Yes. That's the only one to my knowledge. And did we have the same time period of the tax break recovery? I believe it was 2003 that that one had initially been designated and then the repeal was in 2016, so a little less time. Did we also just require three years of recovery of the most recent taxes? Yes. Okay. Do you have any comment about why that's the chosen period of time? I do not have that expertise. I will check and see if somebody else might be able to answer that. Okay. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of Council, Pat Young with Planning Department. I have to confirm this, but I'm quite confident that that term is specified in state law. I'm going to need to pull up the state law because I don't think it was in the report, but I don't believe that was locally said. I believe that was statutorily dictated. I'll try to confirm that while this item is still under consideration. You agree with that, Ms. Rosenberg, as far as you know. I have a feeling it's in the machinery, I guess. Okay. So you will confirm that as we're before we vote. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. Any other questions for staff before we move to members of the public? Okay. I'm going to now move to members of the public. We have two people who signed up to speak on this item. The first is George Stanzial. And the second is Brian Sherrick. Welcome. We're glad to have you here. And I'm going to give you each three minutes. It turns out there's more need. You will, you can have it. Thank you. I won't be long. Good evening, Mayor. And I'm meeting with the members of the public, and then we'll get started. Mr. Schuelfer member of this office. My name is George Stanzial, 115 Cofield Circle. In Durham. I'm president of STIRC. Representing the applicant measurement incorporated, the owner measurement incorporated. And I have here with me, Mr. Brian Sherrick, of measurement in case there are any questions. I'll not belabor the report given by staff. We have been through a lengthy process to remove this parkings. We have a lot of parking lot. A portion of the property with full support from ship. As well as the Durham Preservation Commission and your staff. It was determined by all 3 that historic significance on the site did not exist. In subdividing the property. We're leaving a 115. Parts of land south of the building to preserve the property. It is necessary to be developed as a public space. Connecting Durham Beltline. To the west and ultimately central Park Durham Central Park to the east. Removing the designation of the remaining parking lot will allow for continued development of the innovation district. We're happy to answer any questions would greatly appreciate your support. Thank you, Mr President. You're welcome to follow-up. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Brian Sherrick 3 West saving place here in Durham. I am with measurement corporate in direct real state and come just to help answer any questions might have. Thank you so much. Alrighty. Now going to. Ask if there anyone is else here would like to speak to the site to this item. This is a public hearing item. Is none. Then I'm going to ask now if council members have a question please please come to the microphone and give us your name and address. I'm Mary Ann Maple Osterbrink 500 Cobb Street Durham apartment 317. I just had a quick one that Ms. Carla was talking about it could be a six story building but then this gentleman was talking about per preservation and view shed and that's I'm a little confused about what would go there perhaps an apartment building or something like that I'm just curious. Okay thank you very much and if when when this items over if you could go into the clerks of desk there and fill out a card that would be great thank you. I'm going to ask Mr. Stanzi al if he would like to respond thank you. That's a good question. The the remaining parcel that includes the building also includes an area a piece of the site south of the building that will be left for view shed and also for public space. The rest of it the new parcel that's been created on the parking lot will be the part that the designation comes off of. Thank you very much. Thank you for the question. All right I see someone else who would like to speak to this item if you could please come forward and give us your name and address. My name is Katie Rose Levin I'm at 4 1 1 0 cobblestone place. Thanks. I was just wondering this is a parcel that is in a downtown area it's very fully comprehensively developed in this particular place has a pretty good series of large street trees. There's also large trees within the parking lot itself but if as you're walking around that location it's one of the few places that does provide shade some is really hot areas changing from what it is into a design similar to the surrounding areas would typically eliminate those trees and wondering if there's been any consideration about preserving them as part of the new development. Thank you for the question and if you would fill out your card at the items over that would be great. Mr. Stanzial or Mr. Sherrick. It's hard it's hard to say really at this point because a new development isn't hasn't been really designed but any any new development that would go there would be required to provide street trees in accordance with the ordinances. So yes there there are probably some large larger trees there on the perimeter not in the parking lot at all on the perimeter and those would have to be replaced. I'm sorry they're the trees in the parking lot would have to be replaced because you can be building on the trees that are in the parking lot are on the perimeter they're not in the parking lot on the perimeter and my guess is that with any new development they would have to be replaced you know as part of the new development and they would be replaced with street trees in accordance with the ordinance. Thank you. We'll be discussing that subject later tonight. All right any other questions any questions for the for the applicant or for staff any questions. Just for the sake of clarity I know that those young lead young lady came up to ask about the height and noting I just want to make sure that it's clear like that there's up to 6 stories that they would be allowed within the form but I think that with the height with the height of the historic structure is only a certain percentage is allowed to go over so that's what I'm talking about with a view so it's not going to block and it shouldn't overshadow that structure if that helps because I don't think that was clear. Yeah that that's correct those that was discussed at length at this dark brothers preservation Commission meeting and and that's the reason for this additional piece of property that extends beyond the building it's 115 feet. Thank you very much. Any further questions for my councilmember Middleton and then and then we'll get you Mr. Young. Thank you Mr. Marin thank you all for being here the I know fewer more passionate gatekeepers in historic preservation folk the fact that you got to stayed in the local folk sign off on it is compelling to me. I do I do want to ask about the just so I'm clear the buffer the green space is not incorporated into the buffer be the buffer than a green space then the development how much of the that green space is is how much of the buffer is constituted by the green space or is that as their buffer and then linear park or green space or could yeah it it's probably not appropriate to call it a buffer it's it's a it's a it's a certain distance from the building out to the new parcel line and but the word was used I'm sorry I thought I heard the word use I'm sorry forgive me yeah well the idea of providing that space is to is to allow views to the to the existing building that will maintain the historic designation and also to provide for appropriate distance for a building that might be built that would be built there to not impose on this the existing structure I wouldn't call it a buffer because it's not really a buffer it's it's a it's a distance that has been determined to create that view shed between what will be the the new designated line and the existing building I understand the purpose of the unimpeded site line my question is you mentioned the great space the the park green space is that is that part of that site or is that in addition to that 115 foot site unimpeded site line no that the the public space would be included in that site so it will it will go fairly close to the existing building and be part of you know it'll be a space that will occur from the front the face of the existing building to the face of any new building that was my question yeah thank you thank you councilmember mr. young thank you mr. Mayor members council the the staff report sites North Carolina General Statute section 105-2771 which is a relevant statute but the time period for which taxes are due to be reimbursed to the local government is 105-278 and that does specify through fiscal years so that is interstate law fiscal years thank you I'm going to suggest that our legislative council legislative committee put that on our agenda for the next session and I'm going to ask councilmember Austin I believe you're our legislative committee chair making a note right now and I see Carmichael Wallace our senior assistant to city manager if you all would consider putting this on our I think it's problematic it's not your fault but I think it's problematic that our we have the folks have been getting a tax break for 20 years and we can only recover three years of those back taxes when the designations lifted there may be good reasons for that that I don't know but I would appreciate if we would put that on our legislative agenda for consideration for for the next session and maybe councilmember Middleton you might want to find out if the legal cities is are the North Carolina legal municipalities has thought about that at all absolutely well thank you so much as I say I may be barking up the wrong tree there may be a good reason for this but I haven't been able to think about it yet so thank you all righty any other discussion of this item any other questions or discussion of this item if not we need one motion here which we to repeal the local historic landmark designation and I will accept a motion on that item second and moved in second to repeal the local historic designation madam clerk would you please open the vote please close the vote motion passes seven zero thank you let me just also say I think I forgot to say and I want to declare this public hearing closed I want to declare this public hearing close and now we took a vote okay thank you so much sorry about that we'll now move to item 24 and this is the United Unified Development Ordinance tax amendment tree coverage and landscaping revisions and I will go now hear a report from staff good evening I'm Scott Whiteman with the Planning Department good evening tax amendment TC 1805 is a series of changes to the unified development ordinance intended to increase the preservation of existing trees and to minimize the effects of mass grading some of the key provisions in this UDO amendment include increasing the instances where natural project boundary buffers are required and incentivizing the use of natural rather than planted buffers in other circumstances increase buffer width requirements in the suburban tier along the urban tier and when mass grading is used in residential developments change tree coverage requirements in the suburban tier to require preservation of existing trees and only allow replacement planting when there are not enough existing trees on the site to meet that the requirement increase tree recover tree coverage requirements for all uses in the urban tier and require one additional tree planting on every residential lot at the time of construction in addition to these changes the planning department in conjunction with the general services and public works departments has committed to working with trees Durham to develop a pilot program for new streets in the suburban tier in which tree trees would be required in the right-of-way this will be brought to council as a separate UDO amendment in the near future staff recommends approval the Planning Commission recommended approval by a vote of 10 to 1 at their February meeting with that I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you so much we've now heard the report from staff and I'm going to declare this public hearing open and I'm going to first ask are there any questions for staff by members of the council just one in the hiring of the arborists to review the landscaping plans will there be any review around maintaining or addressing maintenance that may not have occurred on trees and I want to say like all of the crawl like the planting that's invading and crawling across the sidewalks and so say that the the arborist to review plans would only be affecting new developments where new trees are proposed I'll say one of the reasons why we're recommending that we do a pilot program for new streets is because creating a street section which is wide enough so that the trees can fit in the right-of-way and can survive in the right-of-way and there's not conflicts with all the utilities underneath it's critical for for the health of the trees and for the future maintenance costs for the city I'll just add that it might be helpful to review what is currently the the tree situation I would say in Easter and recognizing that there are many trees that are that are much larger and in that review if there are some that are brought forward like if there are some that are identified if we could if we can find a way to address it that would be helpful certainly I know it's not in planning but in going through a kind of evaluating along the way we can certainly best get that thank you Matt calcium refreeman I see folks here from general services who I think might be able to address that and maybe I could ask the if I I'll believe that we have a current survey of trees in the right-of-way and their condition and a city-wide and I wondered if if you all would like to comment on that Kevin Lilly Department of General Services and yes sir we do have a current inventory of our trees and a canopy study that identified trees throughout the entire city of Durham with a concentrated inventory in the downtown and neighborhoods outside of that bull's-eye for the city itself we are actively managing the trees in East Durham as well as throughout the rest of the city some of the issues that Councilman Freeman is addressed are being looked at right now with a tree removal contract and a stump grinding contract that will also take care of the trees that are infiltrating the sidewalks and causing issues for egress is removal the only option in some cases yes we have worked with public works Ed Venable was key in developing a plan that looked at a floating sidewalks sand over top of the existing base and concrete over top of that to preserve root systems in many cases with the willow oaks that have simply aged beyond what we can actively manage removal and replacement is our next best option thank you thank you Mr. Lilly and thank you for the question Councilman Middleton thank you Mr. Mary and I thank my colleague I want to associate myself with Councilor Freeman's comments I plan I intend on supporting the text amendments tonight but I do want to go on record Mr. Mayor saying that oftentimes the one of the predicates of expanding our tree canopy is equity in our city and making sure that underserved areas and and poor areas have a tree canopy and just to dovetail and Councilor Freeman's comments the other just this week this past week on Wednesday I was walking on Holloway Street at night with some local activists there between Guthrie and Miami and literally at some areas on the sidewalk had to walk onto the street because the roots were just buckling the sidewalk and it was incredible overgrowth in one of the neighborhoods that we often cite as part of our equity motivation for our tree program going to support this but but and and I thank my counselor colleague for bringing this up but if we're going to be citing these areas as the reason why we need to include include our tree canopy then we need to be very aggressive and make sure that these areas are serviced with the trees that they already have sidewalks are virtually impact and passable on Holloway between Guthrie and Miami so while I'm excited about these text amendments I I would be very much interested in in our timeline and in our plan of attack on the trees that are already impacting these neighborhoods that we cite as part of our equity concerns thank you thank you thank you very much all right any other questions at this point by members of the council for staff okay we have one person that is signed up to speak on this item and that is Katie Rose Levin miss Levin welcome miss Levin welcome you have three minutes thank you hello again Katie Rose Levin for 1100 cobblestone place first I wanted to acknowledge all of the citizens who have come here to support these amendments and have been working hard with staff if y'all could stand up and we have more coming but last time we were last we didn't talk until 1030 so appreciate coming early first off I really want to thank the council mayor mayor pro tem for their work and supporting this and asking staff to bring it back for a second round of revisions so thank you very much I also want to thank staff we've been working very closely with all planning with Kevin and Gina in their office as well as others to come up with something that is a very good step forward so we do want this round to be supported and then go for the next step which will include preservation in commercial spaces as well as a street tree plan I want to talk a little bit about some of the issues that we're experiencing now when the trees were originally planted we planted great Danes in kind of apartment spaces so they're breaking stuff they're getting in conflicted with power lines they're breaking sidewalks and one of the things that we're hoping to do with planning is to create a streetscape where we're putting small trees where there are small spaces and big trees where there are big spaces so that will not only make it easier for maintenance but it'll prevent walking issues and it will make things safer for people who are walking and people who are biking so that is part of the street plan that we look forward to seeing and developed through the planning department the second is the preservation piece we need both forest entries just like we're working to balance and take care of folks who are here and folks who are coming we need to be really deliberate about preserving the forest are here as well as appropriately planting the trees that are coming right forest to a lot for us we've had a lot of flooding because of the rains force help prevent flooding the more force we remove the more flooding we're gonna experience and you see that particularly in areas that are downstream or low lying the force or like sponges absorb the water as we get more development and we lose more force we're gonna have more flooding so that's one reason to preserve our trees the other and the reason why there's some urgency to get this done is that you can't replant a forest effectively you can only replant trees so we really are trying to keep all the benefits of the forest while we have them and then when the comprehensive plan comes we can do something comprehensively so holding on to what we got until we decide what we're gonna do with it is the idea here so we are available to help support with any questions and we just want to say thank you very much and we hope you support this but ask for give a clear deadline for the next steps thank you very much miss Levin are there any other people here now who if you all are gonna come in please come in and take a seat and don't hold a sign in front of anyone else if you're gonna be in the room please come take a seat and please don't hold a sign up in front of anyone else's view come on in I have another person who was signed up to speak on this item may so maple Osterbrink is Osterbrink welcome thank you have three minutes oh okay I went to miss Katie's tree sterm event it was wonderful and I'm all for trees for sure but I had one little concern over time about solar panels and I'm really you know into that and making sure that our climate as you guys are also into that and aware anyway I just wanted to put it out there about solar panels being able to get as much sun as they need and I'm not sure about that I've read some of the ordinance and proposal about the trees I didn't read every sentence of every part of the document I might have and I skimmed a bunch of it but I'm not sure if there's any rules about over time not being able to cut down trees like restrictions you may not cut down trees and if someone has finally is able to afford solar panels in this Duke monopoly state and make it worth their while to finally have their solar panels I wanted to be able to be get that sunlight and not be have it blocked by a tree and not be able to not cut down a tree and not have solar energy because of the trees that's all I wanted to put out there I don't know what exactly to do or say but that's my concern thank you very much is there anyone else who would like to comment on this item is there anyone else here in the public who would like to comment on this item this is a public hearing item all right I'm going to now ask if there are any other questions or comments by members of the council Mr. Mayor Hedlund councilmember Javier and I thought this came up and I can't find it but what was the final on native planning like what's going to be the focus on what we plan to the Plain Department does have a landscape manual that applies to all required plantings it doesn't exclusively require native plantings but it is designed to that any exotics are not invasive okay thank you thank you miss Whiteman on page 4 of the memo at the top am I to understand that the lower opacity requirement and the lower canopy coverage requirement in the buffer area is intended to encourage the use of the natural buffer that's correct so if the natural buffer is not used what are the opacity and canopy coverage requirement so they're the old ones they are the old ones yes okay and can you explain what the ordinance will do to protect specimen trees I wasn't entirely clear about what the changes are so we didn't make any significant changes to the specimen tree requirements basically what the ordinance requires is that if in an area where tree preservation or a buffer is required there a specimen tree exists then you must preserve that specimen tree okay so no no changes in that regard okay that's right we just we made it clear that you do have to actually preserve the tree yeah okay I see thank you all righty any other questions for staff of members of the council it would it would probably be helpful to just kind of address the question that the resident raised and just making sure that we are accounting for solar panels having a sunlight it's certainly so this would currently there's one street tree required for each residential lot this would require an additional tree planting somewhere on the lot and it would allow it to be an understory tree which means a shorter one with only two trees required that should leave plenty of room for solar access so before we close the public hearing I wanted to raise a couple of issues that we have heard from our public and have given me concern as well and those are the issues of the fact that we're not requiring tree preservation during commercial development and we're still not requiring developers to plant tree trees and I'm wondering where we are on the thinking around that and what is the department's plan for moving forward on considering those things if there is such a plan so the commercial development does require tree preservation it's just less than residential development at the moment and it's not required preservation and the along with requiring the street trees being the right of way those will be in the we can and will address those in the subsequent text amendment that will be bringing you sometime in the near future probably by next summer so it's just just to be clear well both of both will the street trees be addressed in the text amendment and will there also be commercial tree preservation in commercial development also in that same text amendment there definitely will be no okay I like that okay great thank you very much mr. Young did you want to comment further wanted to just elaborate slightly and clarify what mr. Whiteman said which is of course correct but the text of him that comes to you will allow us to do a pilot to do a cross-section that will allow street trees in with not conflict with utilities sidewalks and other built infrastructure components I'm deploying street trees citywide is definitely an aspirational goal that we as a department have and I think the city in many of our residents have but deploying it citywide is definitely going to be a resource issue in terms of a new level of commitment to maintenance there's a slight liability issues that go along with that so we want to study that further before it goes community-wide so I don't want to over set expectations unduly high we definitely want to get towards that outcome we share that we've worked very closely with the advocates for about two years on almost before you tonight but before we want to do the get the pilot authorized in law do the pilot and then go from there it may let you all assess the impacts particularly the fiscal impacts but then if that makes sense thank you we will look forward to that it sounds like approximately next summer so sort of six to seven months from now roughly great and I just want to say that I think this is very important I continue to think that we are the preservation of our tree canopy and the equitable distribution of trees in our city continues to be I believe a very high priority and this what you're what you presented tonight is a really big step forward and I want to thank the staff I also want to thank the folks from Trees Durham and others who have worked so hard on this this is a big step forward and I think that we're going to be well served by the text amendments tonight but I do still think we have some work to do in terms of preservation of trees during commercial development as well as how we're going to handle street trees and I look forward to your usual thoughtful consideration of those issues so thank you so much and again thank you to the folks who are here tonight and who have been such good advocates on this this is an important quality of life issue personally don't clap we haven't passed it yet other comments just remember free just a note just a side note that we might want to have some of this conversation on legislative agenda as well because I noticed that mass grading is at four acres and I was wondering if maybe we could look at how we might be able to have some impact in making sure that there's more natural grading that occurs in large developments that are over four acres thank you we will put that on we will put that on our agenda for consideration okay so we've got two agenda items for our legislative agenda tonight all right I'm going to now ask if there are any other questions or comments by members of the council if not I this public hearing closed and the matter is back before the council and to pass this we will need two motions the first to adopt the appropriate consistency statement move to adopt and moved to secondly adopt the consistency statement madam clerk please open the vote please close the vote the motion passes seven zero second the second motions to adopt an ordinance amending the united unified development ordinance so moved it's been moved and seconded with the adopt the ordinance amending the UDO madam clerk please open the vote please close the vote and the motion passes seven zero thank you so much all righty and thank you all for those who came tonight and now not on our agenda but I've at the request of some of our employees I have agreed to let two employees of Parks and Rec speak tonight and if they would please come forward over here to my right that would be great and I'll just let you all know that Charlie Reese is standing up because he's got an injury and so if he walking around just know he's trying to be here to listen to you okay each of you all has three minutes welcome and if you could come the whoever wants to go first please come up state your name and address we're glad to have you here and you have three minutes good evening my name is Kelly McLean and I'm a recreation specialist with the city of Durham I've held this position for about three years full-time and previous to that I work with the city over 13 years part-time with various programming I've also been a Durham public schools educator for 13 years working with special needs individuals ages five to 22 years of age I come from a long line of educators in my family and I take great pride and responsibility in educating the youth that I impact every day I'm here this evening because there is a great need for fair grievance policy with the city of Durham employees I personally have been affected by it not being a policy by excuse me by being wrongfully evaluated and disciplined without a fair say with my management team as well as with HR things keep getting turned back over to the department and from there a constant hostile work environment has been created a heavier workload for myself compared to my other co-workers has been placed on me as well as things that are not being asked of others this has created a very very stressful environment environment for me as well as previous employees that we have had and actually lost due to this type of management style and with this management style we have had a eroding of employees that have left within the past two years at least 11 full-time staff members the management style has basically retaliated anytime someone had a complaint or was coming to speak with management for concern I'm here because this has caused sleepless nights several doctor's appointments for myself others is causing insomnia nightmares and to go speak to therapists for the type of retaliation that we are dealing with on a daily basis and we're asking that this type of behavior be looked into by the human's rights commission and the workers rights commission to come in and do a thorough investigation and hear the complaints of the current employees and the previous who loved doing their job working with children of various ages and that's what I come to to speak to you about this evening personally I would it would really impact me as well as the department if someone would come in and actually do a thorough investigation there are a lot of programs that are at risk because we're understaffed and the current staff is there are constantly being asked to work several hours without lunch breaks I see this about my time so I wanted to say thank you and I hope this is taken in consideration thank you for being here hi did you give us your name and address and you also have three minutes good evening my name is Chandler Mussen I'm a 155 sand trap lane in pilot mountain but I am a former recreation specialist with Durham Parks and Recreation I was in the school aged care unit I was stationed out at Holton Resource Center from April 29th 2019 until June 26th 2019 I resigned the position on June 26th and offered to work out my two weeks notice this was because of gross risk management and competence constant toxic pressure as well as dangerous situations that I was forced to place my staff and my campers in for example we had exorbitant ratios the American Camp Association does not recommend any higher than two to 25 however we were forced to do one to 15 which not only is higher than 225 but it allows it forces people to be individually in a group and does not allow individuals to deal with any sort of problems that come up for example I had a child alope from a group and the counselor had to make the choice of do I stay with these 14 children or do I go after the child that's running off and is in distress these types of guidelines we need to follow camp guidelines as opposed to daycare guidelines we do not have the admin or support staff many of the staff are in group even the full-time staff are in group with children five six seven hours a day we do not have the ability to go and help other participants this also creates issues because staff it's unable to go to the restroom or attend any sort of personal need while on the clock staff training is inadequate inadequate at best there is no written policies every time we ask for written policies we are not given one my staff reported to me that they felt infantilized and demoralized at every single staff training meeting and anytime we were allowed to speak individually to our staff members we were forced to stick to a strict outline that we had to practice beforehand workload is physically impossible to keep up with the demands of a full-time job when you have 15 campers that you are responsible for for seven hours of your day and unfortunately that becomes disciplinary issues because we cannot keep up with our workload because we cannot be with the campers and do what we're expected and needed to run a camp lack of supplies I had no medication lockbox for several days in my camp that's forced me to leave Ritalin unlocked in my desk with my supervisor's knowledge for multiple days and was unable to do anything to prevent potential of it being stolen we ended up with just waste of money in terms of they when we did get supplies they were duplicates of things that we already had whereas we anything that we actually needed we couldn't get let's see I had a suicidal camper and I was left by myself for two hours without any sort of backup and was unable was forced to put them into group and told not to fill out an instant report afterwards thank you for your time and I appreciate you listening and I hope you will take in consideration thank you very much thank you I'm gonna I'm gonna ask deputy city manager Ferguson if he has any comments at this point mayor only to update you that the union submitted this request on September 25th that's been passed out in front of you the city manager received that the city manager launched an investigation on that day involving staff in the city manager's office and from human resources at this time that investigation is ongoing and as is our practice and policy we're not going to talk about personal matters in a public setting and I'll defer to the city manager by council and update as to the outcome of that discussion in that process thank you very much thank you all for being here we take what you said very seriously as I'm sure deputy city manager Ferguson does as well we are it's very very important that all of our employees be treated with the utmost respect and supported in a way that they can do the job that they need to be doing those who are dealing with our children and those who are doing any kind of job in the city so we're grateful for you all being here we're grateful for you all the words that you brought to us we take it very seriously so thank you I did want to make an exception to hear you all tonight and I appreciate you being here all right thank you very much it's now 833 I'm gonna declare this meeting adjourned thank you