 did you say one minute? Can you hear me now? Okay, we're ready. Thank you. Good evening. I want to call this meeting of the Durham City Council to order at seven o'clock on Monday night, September the 21st. And I certainly want to welcome everyone here today, both those of you all who are with us on the call as well as everybody who was streaming the meeting or hearing it in some other way. We're very happy to have you with us tonight. Before we have our moment of silent meditation, I do want to mention the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Yes, one of our heroes of jurisprudence. Someone who did as much perhaps for women in this country as any other person has ever done. And as we have a moment of silence now, will you please keep her in your thoughts? Thank you. Councilmember Reece, will you please lead us to the Pledge of Allegiance? Well, Mr. Mayor, let me get an appropriate background on my computer here. A Pledge of 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 so much, Councilmember. Madam Kirk, will you please call the roll? Mayor Shul? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson? Councilmember Caballero? Here. Councilmember Freelon? Here. Councilmember Freeman? Present. Councilmember Middleton? I'm here. Councilmember Reece? Here. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. And we're now here. I want to just let everyone know ahead of time that the clerk is flying solo tonight. Our assistant clerk, our deputy clerk, Ashley Wyatt, is on vacation and the two of them have been tag-teaming these meetings. So I just want to thank the clerk and we'll all have all the patience we need to tonight, Madam Clerk. And we appreciate all the great work you've done making these meetings happen. Normally we would move into ceremonial items, but we have a very special item tonight. As you all know, this is the final City Council meeting for our extraordinary City Manager, Tom Bonfield. I have invited a few special guests to speak tonight. And so I'm going to ask our guests to speak first. So I know some of them will want to speak and have to leave. But I'm so glad to have them with us. And then we're going to follow that with remarks by the Council. And then Tom may want to say a few words to us himself. Tom's at the City Council chambers. And we're glad to see you. I'm going to here's the order that I'm going to ask our speakers to speak in. And so maybe this will be helpful to the tech folks. I'm going to ask Mayor Bill Bell to speak first, followed by Mayor Pro Tempore Cole McFadden, City Council member Diane Catati, Bill Calcoff, Anthony Scott, former City Council member Farah Ali, and Senator Mike Woodard. And I'm going to begin with Bill Bell. And if we could, there he is. Hello, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, you have, please keep it under an hour. Okay, I'm glad you started out right because I have a few words. Tom Bonfield, I don't know where you are, but I'm glad to be here and sorry we can't do this in person. I'm here, Mr. Mayor. I probably should let you know that the Mayor initially gave me less than three minutes to speak. And then Anthony thought about it. He said, okay, you can have less than an hour. I said, okay, I'll do 59 minutes. Then core Cole McFadden said, well, in that case, I'll give up my three minutes. So Steve said, well, in that case, you got 62 minutes. Then I told the mayor, I told the mayor, I said, look, I'm glad you gave me that bill. I was going to spend about 59 minutes thanking Tom for all the stuff he had to put up with for the past three years while I served as his mayor with you. And I'll spend the last three minutes, spend what you wanted me to say. Then he changed his mind again. He said, well, you no longer have three minutes, you got less than two minutes. I guess we figured out how to make this work. But seriously, Tom, and to my good friend, Mayor Sewell, it is really been an honor to have had the opportunity to work with you as the city manager of Durham. And I said to you both publicly and privately, I've had the good fortune over the 40 plus years that I've served as an elected official both on the county side and the city side to work with some great managers. But you by far and most are the best managers I've had an opportunity to work with. And I say that without any exceptions. You are a true professional. I always gather that you fit everybody out of the same spoons showing no favorites among council members. And you brought to the table your sincere thoughts in terms of what direction we should be going once we set policy. And even though you may not have agreed with everything, you carried out those policies very diligently. And I said, I've worked with a lot of managers, not just as an elected official, but I've seen managers across this country and have had an opportunity to interface with them. And Durham was well, well served by you deciding to become our city manager. It just seems like a few years ago that we were sneaking you up the back corridors into city hall to have our interview. And I guess you must have wondered what you were coming into because we were under construction when that was happening. But by and large, you came, we talked, and we were all unanimous that you should become our next city manager. I just want to wish you and your wife and your grandchildren and your children all the best as you transition to this next phase of your retirement life. And wish you the best. And it's no question my mind. If there's anything that I, many of us can do to assist you as you move forward, I would hope that you wouldn't hesitate to call on us. I missed the lineup of conversations that you had this past week. I had just had a conflict and I knew how large it was. I probably wouldn't be able to get into it. But I'm thankful to Steve for inviting myself and others to have this opportunity to say thanks, thanks, thanks again for all that you've done. And again, we wish you the very, very best as you transition into this life of retirement, grandfather, father, traveling, whatever you're going to do, but just wish you the best along the way. So thank you Steve. I don't know if that was three minutes. I know it wasn't 59 minutes, but I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me to have this opportunity to speak. And I don't have a time on. I feel bad. Tom's sitting up there for time on. And of course Steve's got his bow time on, but I feel a little out of place. But when you retire, Tom, you can do it. I'm at home relaxed and join the evening. So again, thank you and the best. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Bell. Great to see you. Tom, since I was on the call before on the other Zoom call, I won't say a whole lot. All that I can say is that I just thank God that he enabled the City of Durham to have a manager of your caliber, a man of integrity. You are just awesome. I have worked like Bill. I work as an employee in county government. Then I moved to city government as an employee and then as a council member. And you are by far the greatest among all the managers that I have served with in this city or county. So we've been blessed to have you and Karen and your beautiful grandchildren. And it's an honor to have been able to work with you. You have done so much for the city. And as I see employees, I have a chance to talk to solid waste employees, street maintenance and folk who are out in the field at all times. And they seem to be doing well because of the environment that you have set for them. And I want to thank you for your humility and your staying focused on those things that really matter to the citizens of Durham. My daughter gives you her regards and my grand dogs too. And so I will try to explain to them about your leaving. They are very intelligent little dogs. You do know Dallas and Frankie. But and I have a poem that I want you to go online and Google because it is a poem about a person of integrity. And it's called myself. And I will read a line. I have to live with myself. And so I want to be fit for myself to know I want to be able as days go by always to look myself straight in the eye. I don't want to stand with the setting sun and hate myself for the things I've done. I don't want to keep on a closet shelf. A lot of secrets about myself. I love you for being the kind of person who's transparent. And if you read this poem, you will get a new lease on life because this is you. You are awesome. A God fearing man who everybody who has since loves. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you, Cora. And we're saddened by your departure. But you will be a citizen of this great city. And thank you for choosing Durham as your home. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Bell. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden. It's wonderful to have you. And I want to say Mayor Bell did extremely well with his time limit, I thought. And I'm going to now recognize our former colleague, Diane Katani. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, for the opportunity to share some remarks in honor of Tom. Tom, I think the world of you and your stewardship of the city of Durham, you just jumped around on my screen. So I have to be sure I'm looking at you. I've often remarked and still think that hiring you was most important and best decision that I made while on council. And as many of you know, there were thousands of other decisions. In management of this city, all roads lead to you, Tom. You have reshaped, reorganized and realigned so many departments, systems and plans. You've led us through challenging times and budget shortfalls, always with an even hand and listening spirit. Whatever your personal views were, I could rarely guess as you were always the height of professionalism and neutrality. One of the things I've missed most during my, sorry, one of the things I most appreciated during my years on council and have missed the most since leaving council is my weekly meetings with you to discuss issues. You could always kindly provide another perspective if I was fretting about some challenge or decision. Tom, you are always forward thinking, concerned about the health, well-being and satisfaction of our residents. Perhaps most importantly, you have brought out the best in our employees, clearly articulating goals and values and implementing a culture of service. Tom, you've attracted a wealth of talented staff to the city. I'm always impressed by the hires you make and the commitment to excellence that you inspire. All this has served the city of Durham very well. And Tom, I have so enjoyed working with you. I so appreciate your commitment and service to Durham. I'm so glad you chose to join us here. I wish you and Karen all the best in retirement. Thank you again for all you have done. Thank you. Thank you so much, Diane. If you all keep this up, it's going to be a long, tough night for me, you know. You can take it, Tom. You're a tough guy. Next, we'll hear from Bill Calcoff. As you all know, Bill is the former director of Downtown Durham, Inc., and so central to the renaissance of Downtown Durham and worked so closely with Tom during that time. And let's see. Madam for the tech folks, can we make Bill available to be seen? There he is. Good evening, Mayor Schuyl and members of the council and on this special leave. As Tom explained in his retirement letter, he is really retiring for all the right reasons, both professional and personal. During my career, you know, leading the Home Builders Association and then Downtown Durham, Inc. had the opportunity to work and a good fortune to work with six city managers. I was able to form good partnerships with them and help our city grow. But Tom stands alone at the top of my list. When Steve, you asked me to say a few words tonight, Don or Tom, and thank you so much for the opportunity. I wrote to several of my friends and business colleagues to ask if there was one word or phrase to describe Tom, what would it be? So the words of these business and community leaders were trustworthy, steady, solid, reliable, focused, caring, honorable, pragmatic, authentic, earnest, visionary, a mentor, especially to his colleagues in city government, and a stabilizing force in Durham. We do have about three minutes, so let me share some perspective about Tom as our city manager from my point of view. Tom always looked out for the city and the Durham taxpayers in all the times we worked our projects together, always. Tom built a great team in City Hall, a team that was focused on how can we help you get things done, rather not telling you this is why we can't help you. He was always willing to have what I call temperature reading meetings about potential projects. I would vet projects and the people behind those projects, and if they quote unquote passed my criteria, my review, I would schedule a temperature reading meeting with Tom. The concept was to get an early sense about the city's interest in the project so that we did not waste anybody's time, not Tom's, not mine, not the private sector partner, not the council. And over the years, the private sector partners came to really appreciate this process. When it came time to begin serious negotiation about any project, as was his style, Tom wanted to see the numbers. If the private sector partner could make his or her case, a fair deal was negotiated in a manner which benefited the developer, the city, and especially the Durham taxpayers. Tom and his better half Karen have been very visible members of our community. Before the pandemic, and you know, we will get through this darn pandemic. You would see Tom and Karen at business and political events, and also enjoying what makes our community so wonderful. Our amazing restaurants, Durham Bulls games, DPAC shows, festivals, the list goes on. My point is, is that Tom not only worked here, he really lives here. You know, in closing, Tom, our community was so very fortunate that you chose to be our city manager 12 years ago. And when you retire next week, you should know that our community is in a better place to live, work, play, and raise a family. And better than today than it was the day before you arrived. On a personal note, Tom, I consider myself so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from you. And most importantly, I'm honored to call you my friend. You know, congratulations on your retirement. Best wishes in your next chapter. We're going to be a part of it. Cess and I, Cecily and I, look forward to seeing you and Karen Friday night. And I'll see you out on the golf course. Congratulations. Thank you, Bill. Thank you so much, Bill. Our next speaker will be Durham Housing Authority Director Anthony Scott. Welcome, Anthony. Thank you, that I met Tom for the first time. It's not too long after my tenure here at DHA. So during that meeting, I explained where DHA was and the various issues that we face and how we intended to address those. I also talked about a renewed and expanded vision for how we could improve our public housing communities, including not only preserving the existing number of public housing units, but how we could expand affordable housing and build great communities. I shared how our plan would not only preserve the 447 units in the downtown area, but how it could also bring even more affordable housing for all income groups. So when I finished outlining my plans, this was Tom's reaction, kind of like that, you know, that emoji with the two eyes and a straight line underneath. So he asked a few questions and that was it. But basically throughout the entire time, there was no approving head nod, no facial expression, one way or the other. So I kind of began to think to myself, well, did I articulate myself? Well, does he get it? Does he even care? Does he get housing? So shortly thereafter, I learned that rather it wasn't important that I articulated myself well, that it really didn't matter because the reality was that he got it. He understood it. And most critically, he put his support behind the cause of affordable housing for dorms families to make it a reality. So Tom, as I said at the work session last week, I've worked in several cities, including Los Angeles and Baltimore. The leadership that you have exhibited seconds to none will miss your steady site. I will miss your thoughtfulness that has led dorm to being one of the best cities to live in. I wish you all the best in your retirement. Thank you, Anthony. It's been great working with you. Thank you so much, Anthony. And now we're going to hear from former city council member Farad Ali. Can we? Yes, there he is. Welcome, Farad. What's up? What's up? What's up? Good to see you, Tom. You know, you have an A.K.A. named GSD, but we're on public television, so we will be approached. No, seriously, thank you, Mayor Shul, for giving me the opportunity to speak with this robust group of people that are close to Tom. I just want to really tell the citizens of Durham that, you know, we need to be really grateful for such a great time. When Tom came in, we were in the economic downturn, and the financial fitness of our city was critically, and it was pivoting on what we were going to do and financing. And, fortunately, Tom had the background to help us to get through that current economic challenge, and not with the standpoint of looking at where we were, but where we were going. And at that time, there was no strategic plan for the city. I clearly remember deeply admiring Tom, your coaching style of leading people through a way that they could be inspired to be transformative in goals and lay those out in a way that we now have a strategic plan. And interesting enough, your coy and courageousness in your intelligence was amazing, because then you got all the council members to sign it publicly. And it was so amazing. I said, look at you. We moved on. We got all the council members to make it a big deal. They were signing a strategic plan and the commitment to these goals and timeline and processes. But I really celebrate your leadership because I really admire and acknowledge the challenges that Durham had with our staff. And you went after that with our council, and you went after that with our invested partners, and you went after that. So I tell you, the city's physical infrastructure has improved under your leadership. And that process for reviewing a strategic plan annually is reflective of your leadership, providing clearly stated priorities before the budget meeting is a result of your leadership. And your commitment to prioritizing the needs of people over politics, as you've heard, is really a reflection of your integrity. Brother, I pray that you, to God, that he continues to bless you and Karen and your family abundantly, as you have abundantly blessed Durham. So I say to you, Shalom, Salam, peace, my brother, all the best. Love you, Farad. Thank you so much, Farad. Next, we will hear from Senator Mike Woodard, one of our former city council members as well. Let's see, can we make Mike visible here? There you go. I have an entrance. Yes, you do. Well, thank you. Thank you, Mayor Schuyl. Well, Tom, you see there in the picture, a couple of former first basemen. My career ended in Little League. Yours got a little bit further. You actually were a professional baseball player, but the Yankees thought Chris Chambliss was probably a better fit for their plans. So the Yankees lost, however, was a gain for good government in Florida and, of course, for the past dozen years here in Durham. I told the story last week. I've told it a few other times that we were reviewing resumes for our city manager back in the spring of 2008. I went through the stack that our consultant had sent, and I was marking one or two or three depending on where I thought they ranked, and found a great application, and I ranked it number one, and I set it aside. Yours was near the bottom of the pile, Tom, and when I read it, I thought, wow, this guy looks pretty good. So where do I put you? So I wrote 1A at the top. I still have your resume in my desk drawer, actually. So Tom, from that day until right now, you are in fact 1A. It really has, Tom, been an honor and pleasure to work with you over these years for four years and four and a half years on the council and for the last eight years with my new job over in Raleigh. The things I've enjoyed, Tom, about working with you, as others have said, you're thoroughly professional, and I've always appreciated that. Haven't heard this one, but I think everybody would agree with me that you are totally unflappable, at least in public. Occasionally, we might see you get a little flapped up, but publicly, always unflappable. You were patient. I think Anthony Scott had it right, that emoji face of yours that I've come to appreciate. Because see, I had the pleasure, some of us did, of serving with two of the great poker faces in government, yours and Bill Bell's, two of the truly great poker faces. We've heard about your vision, Tom, and I think that is certainly true. The great thing and a skill you have is that you hear others' visions, certainly the seven of us who were your bosses. You heard the public's vision, but you always managed to slip yours in there, too, and we so appreciated that joint vision that we had. You're incredibly knowledgeable, and I always appreciated that when I had questions or needed something, the insight you provided from your experience was incredible. I always admired that you built and managed a great team, and we're still reaping the benefits of that as well. Another characteristic of yours, Tom, that I always like and admired was that you married well. I recognize it because I did, too. So I can't let this pass without being sure to give a shout out and a big thank you to Karen and to your family for supporting you in your service with us. Tom, thank you for all you've done for the City of Durham. As a community, we're going to continue to reap the benefits of your service and leadership for many, many years ahead. I want to wish you good luck and Godspeed. Thank you, Mike. Thank you so much, Mike. Tom, as you know, I could have had a whole lot of people, other people invited here tonight. I invited people that I knew were special to you and people that I knew had special things to say about you and felt the same way about you. There are so many more, and I know that you have heard from and will be hearing from more of them as well. But I really want to thank those that have been here with us tonight. And now I want to turn to members of our Council for any remarks that they would like to make. Who would like to start us off? Councilmember Reese. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I want to thank all of our distinguished guests tonight for coming to share some remembrances of our City Manager, Tom Bonfield. It's been quite a star stud at a fair. I'm really grateful to see old friends and colleagues and folks who paved the way for those of us serving now. And it was so glad we were able to have you. Tom, I don't know if you remember this. Actually, I take that back. I'm certain you remember this, that the first time you and I ever engaged in a dialogue about an issue we didn't actually meet. I gave an interview suggesting that the City do a thing. You gave an interview saying, that's not a great idea. And to this day, to this day, we have not done that thing. And so I just wanted to put a pin in that, that even though it may sound like I have all the answers, I think one of the things that has been great about your leadership of the City and how much I have benefited from it is that, is that, hold on a second, I'm good. Thank no, I'm good. Thank you. Sorry about that, everybody. One of the things that's been so great about our partnership is that you have helped me kind of flesh out ideas that I might have had that might not have been so great. And so that's been a really important part of my relationship with you, Tom. Someone mentioned your patience earlier. And I think that's been something that has served me in good stead. And my time on the Council has been your patience with me, whether it was my very first work session, when you had to gently remind me not to go after the staff quite so hard on an issue, or whether it's my enthusiasm for a particular course of action that maybe isn't well fleshed out, your ability to ask tough questions, and to always tell me what you think, not tell me what you think I want to hear has made you, in my experience, the best City Manager that I've served with. Of course, you're the only City Manager I've served with. But still, you're awesome. Totally awesome. The last thing I wanted to say is that I know if there's a harder job than being a member of the Durham City Council, it's being Durham City Manager. And I couldn't have done this job and can't do this job without the support of my family. And I know that's doubly true for you, Tom. And so as much as grateful as I am for your service to the City, your steadfast leadership, your appreciation of innovation, and a spirit of active government to solve problems in the lives of real people. As much as I appreciate all that, I also want to appreciate your family's support of that work, especially here in Durham, because we have all benefited from that. And so, Tom, as you leave us, I know that you're not leaving Durham, which is fantastic. And I just want to say that I hope you will enjoy partaking in the midst of your fellow residents, the benign influence of good government and fair, free laws that I know is the ever-favorite object of your heart. So good luck to you and don't be a stranger. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you, Council Member Reese. Who would like to go next? Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So when I was thinking about what to say, I was thinking back to the first, when I first started on City Council, Tom, and you gave me a tour of the City Manager suite. And the thing that was the most surprising to me was that the City Manager's office had a shower. And I was like, this is terrifying. You're actually working so much that there's a shower in the office. This job sounds really hard. And that was just my first insight into how difficult the City Manager's job really is and how much time it takes and how much personal sacrifice it requires to really do this job well. It's notable, I think, that you came to Durham during the major financial crisis 12 years ago. And now you're leaving in the middle of another incredible crisis. And I really believe the work that you've done in between those two moments is what's really gotten us ready for the City to be able to deal with the economic situation that's coming our way. I feel like we're on really good, steady ground because of your leadership over the last 12 years and the lessons that were put into place from that situation in 2008 that we are going to be able to apply dealing with COVID and the economic crisis here in 2020. And all the work that we are so excited about moving forward, the work on racial equity and expanding the people who are able to participate in the process and building thousands of units of affordable housing, all of that work really depends on a strong foundation. And you can't have a racial equity initiative if you don't have your streets getting cleaned and your garbage getting picked up and your water that's clean and safe and delivered to everybody's house. And all of those pieces have been in place in Durham for years and years. And that's due to the work that you've done to really move the city forward so that we're able to now have all of these really exciting conversations about new initiatives and work. So I just want to thank you for building that foundation for us over the last 12 years and hope that you really enjoy your retirement being able to shower entirely at your home and not in your office. We appreciate you and thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Who would like to go next? Councilmember Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Tom, it's almost, I think, Shakespearean that on this evening, you would be sitting alone. I'm going to assume almost alone in our chamber. That room is cavernous and it conveys the gravity of our government and how important the issues are. But on this night, you sit so solely in the room. And I think that's such a wonderful metaphor and graphic depiction of your leadership and leadership, period. These large decisions, these multifaceted decisions ultimately comes down to one person in one desk. And you have managed it marvelously. So I'm glad to be talking to you while you're in the chamber by yourself tonight. About five years ago, while I was still a private citizen but publicly active person, you and any administration tapped me to participate in a fact-finding trip to Boston to find ways we could perhaps improve community and police relations here in our city. And I came back and we had some conversations. And I remember a particular conversation where we were preparing for a press conference, a post-trip press conference we were going to have. And we were discussing some things and I was talking about some of the things I wanted to talk about. And we had a rather pointed discussion, always respectful but sometimes pointed. And you expressed some things and I expressed some things. And I remember saying to you, you know who you invited. And at that time, my focus was on who, meaning me. But in the intervening years, I realized that the focus should have been on you invited. You knew, but you still invited. And for me, that just wonderfully displayed one of the aspects of courageous and well-grounded leadership. Grounded leaders don't require sick of fans or an echo chamber or clones. They're unafraid to invite folk with differing opinions to the table and engage them. And you have done that marvelously and we are a better city for it. I was driving in the rain last week and it occurred to me that we put headlights and windshield wipers on our cars. Because somewhere along the line, we decided that even though it gets dark and stormy sometimes, we still have to keep moving forward. And this city is facing some challenges now. And it will fall to us to determine how we drive the car and where we drive the car. But one thing is irrefutable. This car is roadworthy. We are properly equipped and it is sound. And that, sir, has a great deal to do with your stewardship over the city. It has been an honor to cross foils with you and it'll last to lock arms with you. May God richly bless and keep you and your family as you start this next great chapter. Hail and farewell, sir. We have the watch. Thank you, Mark. Very nice. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember Middleton. Other Councilmembers, Councilmember Caballero. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening. So I've worked with you, Tom, for a little bit over two years. And some of my observations, I have seen you roll your eyes once during a meeting. Don't know if anyone ever caught that roll of eyes, but I remember being very subtly rolling your eyes and I was like, oh, he does emote during meetings. Good to know. I always genuinely appreciated that during our one-on-ones, you always asked about my family, you always asked about my children, and that you genuinely cared how we were doing. That was something that I always deeply, deeply appreciated. I've always appreciated that you have respected and treated the folks that you lead and cared very, very much about their thoughts and their opinions, and often would say I'm as good of a leader because I have them with me. And I've always thought that that is a mark of a truly remarkable leader. And finally, when I first came on Council, you know, I was a little bit afraid to peek behind the curtain. I worked as a consultant long enough to know that sometimes you get hired and there's a lot of chaos, and that's why you actually got hired. And I was very relieved when I saw that the City of Durham worked so efficiently and remarkably well, and that peeking behind the curtain was not going to be completely overwhelming. So thank you so much for all years of service. I can't think of anyone who deserved retirement more than you. I hope you enjoy your grandchildren and your wife much more than you've been able to because you've been giving us so much of your time. Thank you so much. Thank you. Council Member Freelon. Hey, we've only overlapped a few weeks, but you've been very kind and knowledgeable. And I've been kind of watching and studying as I think about the big choice ahead of us to bring on a new City Manager. But I actually want to take it back. I remember when I was running for Mayor in 2017, Tom, we sat down at Cocoa Cinnamon and I was discussing my ambitious plans for a job guarantee. And I just remember thinking there's like seven or eight candidates. Remember Mayor Schuyl? It was a crowded field. And I thought like out of all the things you have going on, you called me, you know, to meet one on one. And to hear me out, you offered me critiques and gave me some great feedback. And I was really appreciated that. And you told me a story about your history, your personal history as a baseball player, and how it influenced your leadership style. And I have a, you know, personal relationship with baseball, having grown up in Durham. I remember when Bull Durham came out in 1988. And I remember telling you that, you know, my dad designed the Durham Bull Stadium. And so your experience as a pro ball player, I just thought it was really cool and intriguing to me. And I've seen in your leadership style, just the discipline, the focus, the skill, the teamwork that you've taken from that practice as an athlete into your role as City Manager. And I just got to say, you know, echoing Mayor Bell and Mayor Pro Tem, Core Cole McFadden, you know, they said, you know, you're the best they've ever served with. So I just wanted to congratulate you and thank you and just say, you knocked it out of the park. Enjoy your time. Best of luck to you too, new Council Member. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Freeman. Thank you. I want to thank you, Mr. Mayor, for bringing those voices in so that they could share all of the history of, you know, of Tom here in Durham. Knowing that we're, you know, we're mostly new here as Council Members. I was afraid that some of that might get missed because that conversation on Friday was really rich. And I kept thinking about all those words people kept using and we kept rising and rising. And I want to say that Mayor Pro Tem's Core Cole McFadden's poem myself spoke exactly to that and acknowledged just how much your integrity speaks in the work that you do. I'm going to hold it together today. I'm not going to get into tears. But being the only manager that I've served with, I can honestly say that you've set the bar very hot. And I don't give, I'm not one for like gratiation in that way. And so when I'm saying these things to you, I understand it doesn't, it's not a comfortable thing for me to just kind of pour it on. But I feel like it's necessary acknowledging that you, you've spent 42 years of service and 12 of those years here in Durham. I've learned a lot from you and I appreciate all that you've been doing to make sure that we're on track and fiscally strong here in Durham. I know we first met at an event at the Cotton Room at Goldenbelt. And I can remember because during that very brief but detailed conversation, we talked about, you know, this great new idea you had about a trolley going east to west, you know, something around buses. And I tried not to take it personally considering that I was, you know, about, I don't know, like, seven, eight months pregnant with twins. And it's just acknowledging that you weren't staring at my stomach when you said bus, but I kind of felt it. But who knew that that fair, free, you know, Bull City connector would come to life. And I would be the one encouraging writers to ride it with clean energy Durham and continue to kind of cross ways with you on transportation and issues in the communities around neighborhoods and historic preservation. And so many zoning and planning cases where we weren't quite seeing eye to eye, but I always understood where you were coming from. I know that as you leave, I appreciate Councilmember Cavalier pointing out, you know, the peeking behind the curtains, I have been one to take it for granted that I don't have to look behind the curtains because I've always felt comfortable with the way that the city operated under your leadership, knowing that you put the right people on the bus, and they were in the right seats. And so I'm grateful that you're not that Wanda page is not leaving with you and knowing that her leadership will will sustain us through this search. I know that there is so much more that I want to say, but I won't. I appreciate during the virtual celebration that there was so much conversation around your integrity integrity integrity, I think that word must came up at least about 30 or 40 times. And noting in that word integrity is this grit. And that grit is what I'll always remember you by and acknowledging that your ability to challenge with with sternness and kind of focus that is even is something that I will be working towards and trying to be as even as as you've been in the years that I've known you. And I want to thank you. I want to make sure I know that you've left us with all the tools to build the shared economic prosperity that the city deserves and to make sure that race equity is at the center of that conversation. And knowing that, you know, probably when I first started on council, I wasn't quite sure where you would go with it. I have never been more grateful to how to watch you perform and to pull it together in each of those budget cycles and budget meetings. And I mean, that's the most that we interact during budget season. And I am eternally like in awe of how you pull it together and how you make it seem so effortless every year from alligators to broken eggs in a basket. I definitely learned a lot. I want to make sure that I don't forget to thank your wife, Karen, and to congratulate you on on taking the step to make sure that you spend more time with your grandkids. I want to also note that my husband sends his regards and that you must keep your cell phone number for at least two years unable to reach you. Thank you. Thank you. I pulled it together. So yeah, I didn't cry. Good job, Council Member. You did beautifully. Colleagues, thank you for those wonderful remarks. Tom, so much has already been said tonight about your remarkable qualities as a manager and leader. And I have a few to add of my own. But first time, I'm excited to let you know and to let our community know that in your honor, an endowed scholarship has been established at Durham Technical Community College. The Tom Bonfield Scholarship will go annually to a university transfer student with a special interest in government or policy. And this too will be a permanent part of your legacy. And I'm very excited. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Thank you. It's been my deep privilege to work very closely with you for the past nine years. Six of them as a city council members and three as mayor. We've had a wonderful partnership. We've struggled through many challenges together, shared so many candid conversations, lamented the failures, reveled in the successes, and built a deep and abiding friendship, which I will always challenge. There's so much about you, Tom, that I admire your genuine humility, your preternatural calm, which so many people have already talked about your intense loyalty to our city, to our city government, and especially to the people who work for the city government and who know that you always have their back. I admire the way you face every problem directly and right away, how you never shy away or push it off until tomorrow. And I'm really trying to learn from that, Tom. I admire the way that you encourage your staff to innovate and how you have built a truly innovative organization. I admire your exceptional ability to make sure we are conducting the basic functions of local government at the very highest level, as Madam Mayor Pro Tem mentioned, what you call, Tom, blocking and tackling. It's no wonder that in the past few years we have consistently ranked as one of the 10 best managed cities in the country. You can be so proud of that, Tom. I admire your ability to push back against the many, many ideas that come your way, including from council members, including from me, how you test our ideas, how you probe them, how you make sure staff vets them, and how, once the council majority is clear, you absolutely crush it. Once the council adopted participatory budgeting, our staff did it better than anybody anywhere. Maybe two months ago, the council voted to analyze our hundreds of thousands of 9-1-1 calls to understand which might be answered better by people other than the police. And in those two months, you have gathered a coalition of cities to join in this work. You have found a great technical partner, and you've made it happen in a way that will be a model for cities everywhere. And that kind of action is so characteristic of your work. Tom, I admire your ability to deliver a tough message in a straightforward way. I admire your ability to say no, and you have to do that a whole, whole lot, because the ability to say no is what keeps us focused on our strategic goals and what keeps our finances in such amazing shape. I admire your helicopter management style, your ability to stay at 10,000 feet to think strategically, and then when something truly needs your close attention to swoop down to the ground and get enmeshed in the details until it's fixed. Many people have commented on your demeanor, Tom, your poker face at our city council. But it's really a lot more than that. When the politics are swirling around the council chambers, when we're all making our speeches and our residents are fired up, your demeanor tells the world that there is a bedrock of stability and forward motion of nearly 3,000 city employees during their good work every day that is more powerful than the latest issue or the most recent rhetoric. I admire your ability to hire the best. You have assembled an incredibly capable, incredibly diverse management team. As you know, these are the Jewish high holy days, the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the days of awe. This is a time to pray, a time to fast, a time to repent, a time to commit to doing better, and a time to reflect. And during these days, I have found myself reflecting a lot on your work. You haven't just done it well, and you have done it very, very well, but you have done something more. The daily decisions go by one by one, and they are easy or hard, they're fulfilling or disappointing, and then you're on to the next one. But over your four decades in city management and in your 12 years as our city manager, these decisions have added up to a proof, a case, a ringing defense of government and the good that it can do. Slow, laborious, full of endless process and public input and legal limitations, often the target of anger and frustration. Good government is difficult and be set on all sides by critics who want to tear it down. But if I can switch from my faith tradition to yours, each of your daily decisions is a brick and a cathedral built over many years. You have built something good and glorious and strong. I am so glad that you are in the council chambers tonight and I'm sorry we're not together in those chambers, because I love that room. It is our sanctuary. It's the place where we come to do the sacred work of government, the work that you have done. Your life's work is a testament to what good government can and should be. You haven't just done this work well, Tom. By your daily devotion, you have consecrated it. You have made it holy. Tonight I want to end with a poem, one that I have read once before at a council meeting several years ago, because I think it applies so well to you, Tom. It's about the work. This is a poem by Marge Piercy called To Be Abuse. The people I love the best jump into work headfirst without dallying in the shallows and swim off with shore strokes almost out of sight. They seem to become natives of that element, the black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half submerged walls. I love people who harness themselves and ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done again and again. I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are not parlor generals and field deserters, but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out. The work of the world is common as mud, botched it smears the hands, crumbles to dust, but the thing worth doing well done is to shape the satisfies, clean and evident. Greek emphoras for wine or oil, hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums, but you know they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real. Tom, no one's work has been more real than yours has. Godspeed to you and Karen. Enjoy the kids and the grandkids. The city will really miss you. I will really miss you. And now, before we ask you to say a few words in response, we have a short film. Beverly, are you ready? Yes, we are ready. I'm Viv. Thank you so much, Viv and Beverly and everybody who worked on the video. I'm now going to turn it over to you to offer us some words. I say wow. Mr. Mayor, before I begin, I want to apologize to all the employees who are waiting to start the council meeting and that their night is going to be delayed a little bit longer. This is amazing. Mayor Schuyl and members of council, it is certainly with honor and humility that this evening I attend and participate in this last city council meeting of my professional local government career. It has been an honor for my public service career to have spanned over 40 years in four different communities. I thought back and went back and counted and I have worked for eight mayors, 62 council members, and have spent almost an entire year of my life over 8500 hours simply attending city council meetings, work sessions, and council retreats over the last 42 years. I'm truly humbled by tonight. It's hard to imagine and by the outpouring of appreciation and well wishes that I have received over the last two months since I announced my retirement. And while many of the comments credit to me with many credit to me with many things, none were possible without the talents of our entire organization working collaboratively with you, our elected officials. The last six months of global pandemic have brought unprecedented challenges and adjustments to all of us. And it's certainly not how I had anticipated closing out my public service career. But the way our organization and employees have adapted and responded to assure continuity of government services continues to be one of my proudest moments and for which I am truly grateful for them for. I do want to take this opportunity to thank many of those who we heard from tonight, Mayor Bill Bell, Coral Cole McFadden, Eugene Brown, Senator Mike Woodard, Diane Cattotti, Fraud Ali, and the late Howard Clement for having faith in me and making the decision to bring a Floridian to North Carolina under some very unusual conditions. The past 12 years in Durham have definitely been the most personally fulfilling of my career and of which I'll always remember. And Mayor, I too want to appreciate you and all of the Durham's council members that I've worked with over the years and the willingness to collaborate with staff to advance the aspirations of the community. The most difficult part of my retirement system is knowing that a decision is knowing that I will no longer be working with the most talented group of local government professionals I have ever been associated with or that exists in any city in North Carolina or likely the country. It has been an absolute privilege to lead them and call them colleagues. The executive and department leaders in this organization are thought leaders in their profession. Acknowledging our community is blessed with many engaged residents, I do urge you to appreciate the value of the vast professional experience, expertise, and guidance that this staff offers to you, absence of politics, and personal preference. When I began my service as Durham city manager in 2008, the city was entering the depths of the Great Recession and I am extremely proud of our leadership's team's accomplishments that brought the city to a path of financial strength and strategic governance, an organization that has continued to flourish and be consistently recognized nationally and within the state of North Carolina for its management, innovation, and accomplishments. I am confident these foundations as was said earlier this evening will be the organization's strength as Durham and the organization recovers from and responds to current and new challenges and priorities. Throughout my career I have been blessed to have had the support of my wife and life partner Karen, who has been with me every step of the way, always attending community events, being a part of the community, and caring for our family even when dad sometimes seemed to be married to the job. In retirement I do hope to make up for some of the time I was indeed married to the job. As previously noted Karen and I plan to continue making Durham home and while life apart from day to day workings the city government may be a challenge, we look forward to watching Durham's recovery from the pandemic and progress toward reforms and aspirations that are needed for progress that is shared by everyone in our community. In closing I would like to continue a tradition in my career where at my first and last city council meetings in a community I recite the public oath of ancient Athens which creed has been adopted by city manager Tom you're muted Tom you muted yourself just now in closing I would like to continue a tradition in my career where at first and last city council meetings in the community I recite the public oath of ancient Athens which creed has been adopted by city managers the Athenian oath we will never bring disgrace on this our city by an act of dishonesty or cowardness we will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city both alone and with many and we will revere and obey the laws and we will do our best to incite a like reverence and respect and those above us who are prone to annul them or set them at naught we will strike unceasingly to quicken the public sense of civic duty thus in all ways we will transmit this city not only not less but greater and more beautiful than when it was transmitted to us thank you Durham it's been a great ride thank you Tom yes thank you Tom thank you it has been a great ride and there's plenty more out there for you thanks everyone I'm overwhelmed Tom I'm I'm we're going to move into the regular meeting now but don't worry about having delayed our business meeting it was an hour well spent thank you all right colleagues I want to thank our guests I want to thank all of our guests who are here tonight Bill and Bill Bell Bill Kalkoff Koroff or Rod Diane Mike um Anthony I think I've got everybody thank you all so much for being here we really appreciate you and come back anytime all right now we will move into the rest of our agenda and we will begin with ceremonial items and I'm going to get begin by reading the proclamation for national preparedness month the beat goes on even if Tom is ready to retire whereas national preparedness month occurring annually in September since 9 11 creates an ideal opportunity for every resident of Durham North Carolina to join citizens across the United States preparing their homes businesses and communities for any type of emergency including natural technological and human cause and where else the federal emergency management agency announced the 2020 national preparedness month theme of disasters don't wait make your plan today and whereas 2020 requires extra precaution due to COVID-19 and additional provisions to keep our residents and their families safe and whereas planning now before a disaster is the best way to improve community resiliency from disaster and whereas the city county emergency management division partners with federal state local tribal territorial private and volunteer agencies to educate individuals on local hazards and how to prepare for them and whereas the city county emergency management division informs residents on how to take action to its alert Durham public education campaign and whereas all residents of Durham North Carolina are urged to plan ahead for disasters and encourage their family and friends to do so by visiting the county's preparedness campaign website at alertdurham.com now therefore i stephen m shul mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hear by proclaim the month of september 2020 as national preparedness month in Durham the theme of disasters don't wait make your plan today i encourage the community to observe this month of preparing for emergencies before they occur witness my hand and the corporate seal this is the 21st day of september 2020 i think we should applaud national preparedness day since we're as we normally would i'm sorry there's no one to be here in person to receive it but thank you all for thanks for the people that submitted and the second proclamation and the final proclamation tonight is diaper need awareness week whereas diaper need the condition of not having a sufficient supply of clean diapers to keep babies and toddlers clean dry and healthy can adversely affect the health and well-being of babies toddlers and their families and whereby national surveys and research studies report that one in three families struggles with diaper need and 48 percent of families delay changing a diaper to extend their supply and whereas purchasing enough diapers to keep a baby or toddler clean dry and healthy can consume 14 percent of a low wage family's post-tax income making it difficult to obtain a sufficient supply and whereas without enough diapers babies and toddlers with infections and health problems that require medical attention and may prevent parents from attending work or school thereby hurting the family's economic prospects and well-being and whereas the people of Durham recognize that diaper need is a public health issue and addressing diaper need can lead to economic opportunity for families and improve health for children thus ensuring all children and families have access to the basic necessities required to thrive and reach their full potential and whereas Durham is proud to be the home to trusted community-based organizations including diaper bank of north Carolina that recognize the importance of diapers and ensuring health and providing an economic stability for families and thus distribute diapers to families to various channels and whereas diaper bank of north Carolina staff and volunteers serve in the front lines of Durham's COVID-19 pandemic response helping families in our communities weather the crisis now therefore i steven m shul mayor of the city of Durham north carolina do hereby proclaim the week of september 21st to 27th 2020 as diaper need awareness week in Durham and hereby thank you for mentioning diaper banks their staff volunteers and donors for their courageous service during the crisis and encourage the residents of Durham to donate generously to diaper banks diaper drives and those organizations to collect and distribute diapers to those struggling with diaper need so that all of Durham's children and families can thrive and reach their full with this might end the corporate seal this the 21st after september more applause please thank you and thank you to those who submitted this evening's proclamations and now um we will move to um announcements by members of the council colleagues are there any announcements council member reese thank you mr. mayor and good evening again colleagues um before i get to my announcements i just wanted to say that with all due respect council member frame and i would advise uh the city manager to change his phone number as soon as he pulls out of the garage on his last day otherwise many of us are going to be calling him for advice and uh and you've got bigger fish to fry uh at that point um so just uh just that's my advice on the subject second uh and my first announcement um i got my flu shot last week everyone else should do the same that's really really important especially this year that we all take care of ourselves as much as possible and so to my colleagues in the council the city employees and of course the residents of the city of Durham please go out and get your flu shot as soon as possible uh second um the census is coming to a close very soon at the end of this month and uh it's no uh exaggeration to say that it's one of the most important things that we're going to be doing as a country this year uh the census of course is an enumerated count of the number of people living in the united states it is the basis upon which many many government decisions are made uh and the the math behind that means that the more people that do get their census turned in uh the the more that north carolina and dermal benefit in terms of state and federal funding so encourage i'm sure everyone here uh who's listening to my voice has already completed the census but encourage you to reach out to your family and friends and go to 2020census.gov and learn more about how to you can complete your census today and certainly by the end of the month it's super important uh third i um sent an email uh mr. mayor to you and my colleagues the city manager and to our transportation director shawneegan this afternoon about an issue that we've all been hearing a lot more about over the last couple of weeks and that is the led streetlight replacement program that the city entered into uh on april 1st 2019 last year with duke duke energy um and i said in the email and i will say tonight uh that i hope that duke energy will put a pause in the light bulb replacement program so that the city and duke energy can work together to get our arms around the concerns that many folks have raised throughout durham about the unceasing brightness and um unpleasant and perhaps unhealthy color tint of the lights themselves things that i will absolutely 100 percent confess never crossed my mind when i joined each of my colleagues and voting unanimously for that contract um and so i think it's really important my hope is that and of course i'm only one member of the council uh so this is just a request i don't have the power of the city behind me but what i do hope is that our friends from duke energy when we get to the agenda item that is relevant to their interests might take a couple of minutes to talk to us about how that might work because i know there are folks here in durham who are eager to begin digging in on how we can do better with that program and finally mr mayor on a sort of a meeting conduct and personal behavior note i want to say that i've been a little bit discouraged at the length of our meetings lately not because um i don't think the job should be hard but i think that during this time of coronavirus and we're having remote meetings so often we're all doing for the most part doing this in our homes and those of us with families and kids these long meetings have real impacts on how our families can move around in our homes and so to that end mr mayor it's my intention to begin tonight all the other thing i wanted to mention is that i know that i am largely responsible for the for the length of these meetings because i can be a pretentious gas bag from time to time and suck the air out of any room that i'm in and often do that in these meetings even though you're not in the room with me that's how powerful my ability to speak at length is and so i will begin tonight putting myself on the clock as i did with my remarks about the city manager and we'll try to restrict my comments to five minutes on any one agenda item and we'll be very very reluctant to the point of nausea before i try to get a second bite at the conversational apple with my colleagues i am not egotistic i have a big ego but i'm not egotistical enough to think that good ideas only come for me and so i'm going to try to conform my conduct i hope that will shave some time off our meetings and make our lives and the lives of our employees and the folks listening at home a little better and those are my announcements thank you mr mayor thank you councilmember are there any other announcements councilmember cabillero thank you i just wanted to say that uh he's been a carriage month kicked off last week and the city will be doing its proper permission october 5th and i just wanted to wish Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras and Nicaragua Alamos Mexico and my beloved chile felices fiestas patrias all of them celebrated independence day last week uh and uh i made sure to celebrate well on the 18th which was Friday uh additionally i appreciate councilmember Reese's um ask of duke energy and i'm also interested to hear what they can what they have to offer later this evening because i know that that is a issue that is affecting many many residents right now including our house where my middle child has him for me that the light is keeping them up at night as well thank you councilmember any further announcements councilmember meadowton thank you mr mayor i want to thank you as a native brooklyn i the old brooklyn not the new brooklyn i appreciate your shout out to the notorious rbg uh at the beginning of the meeting and we we bid her hail and farewell and i'm thankful for her service uh very briefly mr mayor i just want to keep uh faith with a request that was made of me of a mother of this city since our last meeting gunfires continue to ring out in our city several young people and vixen seem to be getting younger over the last 48 hours where we're injured in our city i had a conversation with the mother of one of the children one of the young people that was injured in their car on their way to grandma's house and um she told me to keep talking about it as as many people have so i'm going to keep talking about it um we faced we talked about leadership in in fedding tom this evening and i think this is a leadership moment and we have a lot of challenges facing our city cobit being one of them uh when cobit will pass we will get by cobit uh our concern is that when cobit is done that many residents will still live under the burden of gunfire uh in their communities just saying that you know when america catches a cold black folk catch pneumonia uh you could say black and brown folk uh catch pneumonia it's always exacerbated the impacts on on our communities uh so i want to to say to those that are watching tonight um that we continue we will continue uh to keep uh hammering on this issue uh and keep giving it the attention that it deserves um i'm often asked now what are we going to do or what are we doing i'm i'm pleased uh that we will be receiving in i believe early november a report from from the staff concerning of the possible on ramp to the expansion of violence and corruption i want to also say to folk that are watching um parents and and grandparents and uncles and mentors and ministers and and non ministers and religious and non-religious folk anybody who cares about our community that we do not need permission to save our own lives um the one talk that we have about how our children should comport themselves around the police there's another talk that we're starting to have uh more vigorously in our communities and i want to just continue to encourage folk to love our children uh and to to place ourselves in the way uh and to to inject ourselves and insert ourselves uh into every aspect where there's non-ramp for us to do so while continuing to press this government uh to bring the bear all the tools we possibly can on this issue uh mr mary i i want to uh wish you blessings and to all of our jewish brothers and sisters as we approach the high holy days during this season there's a wonderful story uh from your faith tradition mr mary uh david and goliath a lot of people read the david and goliath story as uh an underdog story but malcolm gladwell has a very interesting perspective uh that we think david was the underdog but naturality in the technology of that day david actually brought a gun to a knife fight pardon the uh the metaphor it was goliath who was outmatched uh when he realized that it wasn't going to be a toe-to-toe brawl but that he was about to get taken out from far away because david had the technological advantage in that day and then i would just say that as daunting as covet and gunfire are we're david and these issues of the goliath and we have everything we need as a city uh to meet this challenge and not with standing reticence on the part of the federal government or hesitancy on the part of the state government we have what we need here in derm to bring our ingenuity our creativity and our resources to bear uh to demonstrate wholly and fully to this country uh that children in this city black ones and white ones are just as important brown ones and yellow ones are just as important and worthy of investment uh and intervention as any other child uh in this city i'm going to thank you mr mayor for continuing to give voice uh and focus uh to this issue uh we continue to pray for those that have been victimized and continue to be victimized and for the victims who are not shot uh but who live under the scourge of gunfire every night in this city it is a quality of life issue that persists whether it's getting covered or not and those folk need to know that we hear them we understand it and now that we know about it we bear the moral responsibility to address the issue whether you're hit by a bullet or not so we continue to press forward thank you mr mayor god bless derm thank you councilmember are there any further announcements councilmember freeline thank you mr mayor um i just want to echo council member middleton's sentiments this weekend um council member freeman and i were uh in the hoover road projects with an organization called blast building leaders for solid tomorrow they were doing some amazing work uh just uplifting the community there um and it was really really powerful um part of the the one announcement one of two i wanted to share uh with the people of derm is that um i emailed my colleagues last week um after a weekend of shootings and talking to community members and organizers and parents uh and children about a plan to reduce violence what are we going to do about it um i think we've got some innovative options ahead of us and i too am looking forward to talking more about violence interruption and also the work of the health and safety task force which is uh going to be underway in the weeks and months to come uh because i think those solutions are really uh are really going to come from the community i'm excited to allow those um processes to unfold um and participate in that um the other thing i wanted to mention is about uh derm for organizing action has a plan that that just hit our inboxes this afternoon to provide public transportation for those who need a ride to go vote i think it's really important um you know that we that we consider that and leverage our resources to help make that happen so uh you know i've signed that council member freeman senator mckissick and many others have signed on to try to see how we can get our public transit involved and help and get folks uh rides to the polls because it's not as easy as it was pre-covid just to put someone in your car and whip them to the to go vote and back um so i would urge uh colleagues everyone to kind of take a look at the email we've all received from derm for organizing action and uh see if we can move that forward to help increase voter participation this fall uh those that's it thanks so much mr mayor thank you council member any further announcements council member freeman thank you mr mayor i appreciate all my colleagues and touching on many of the announcements i would have been forced to make myself um i appreciate council member riz on the census and uh council member javier caviero on the hispanic heritage month and uh i want to add um my sincerest um frustration around the gun violence issues and appreciate council member freelance um digging deeper into exactly what it could look like and i want to encourage them to continue knowing that i'm in full support i i also want to just note um the work of the folks with blast and many others um who are much smaller um grassroots organizations that don't have the funds to do what they're doing i want to encourage us to really start to talk to those folks as well because their voices um are often missed in the community's conversations because they don't come to council meetings they don't push for council members to be at the events that's not the norm for them and so uh there there are a variety of opportunities to meet community leaders that are there and encourage them to support the children in those communities that are um Durham public i mean Durham housing authorities locations and around those neighborhoods i also want to appreciate coach keenan and continuing to host these safe spaces um events with our Durham police department and the full support of chief davis and not just Hoover road but also at at cornwallis after that shooting of the young man that nearly broke me um in his bed i um acknowledged the quality of life issue that gunfire has presented for a select folk a select group of folks in in different communities um that we all are aware of and i want to make sure that the people who don't experience that gunfire also um acknowledge their their privilege in that and get to get to understand what's happening out here and just kind of reach out because folks in this community are hurting and i want to note that this month is also suicide prevention month and acknowledging in the midst of COVID how much depression and um anxiety can manifest itself and how it manifests itself not just as adults but as children in very different ways again and it's not getting better so just noting that please check with your children ask them the questions and if you need a resource um terms together for resilient youth offered a lot of tips on how to ask the children questions i uh lastly just want to note that um the email you received um regarding the public transportation is is truly um an opportunity for us to demonstrate what it means to have more people involved in our democracy and so i just wanted to to note that this is going to be an important moment or important piece and it's COVID related and so i'm hopeful that there will be funding available to make sure that folks can at least ride the bus um and and get to the poll locations as necessary throughout early voting and on election day thank you thank you councilmember all right any further announcements all right uh thank you and now we'll move to a priority items uh are there any priority items by the city manager uh thank you again mr mayor good evening again uh before we begin i did want to make a mention that uh we uh had a former retired solid waste employee who had come back to to work with us and some of you may know donal kimbrough uh passed away unexpectedly the last couple days and solid waste department has had a tough few days with an employee being you know hit while collecting the route that employee is doing better don't want to get in too much detail there but also uh want to ask you to keep your thoughts and prayers into the family of mr kimbrough he was a great great employee and it's been a shock to all of us that uh that his passing occurred in the last couple days so wanted to pass that um agenda items for this evening mr mayor agenda item number 11 the contract to support transit community engagement and performance management with texas a and m transportation institute pursuant to your request some additional information has been provided in the updated attachments number one and two agenda item number 18 consolidated annexation the sikes property attachment number 16 has been added and then agenda item number 26 which is the franchise and duke energy caroline is public hearing item i am requesting uh that this public hearing be moved up as the uh the first public hearing on the agenda and that attachment number seven and seven through nine have been added in addition to that that material i think you already know that just wanted to ask that most most importantly that we move that public hearing item up to the first public hearing that's all my eyes mr mayor thank you mr manager and we will move that item up uh accordingly to the top of the public hearings every single thing you do today tom is the last the last it's your last priority items thank you i know there's a whole lot of that going on right now madame attorney uh do you have any priority items good evening mr mayor the city attorney's office does not have any priority items but uh since we are in the occasion of congratulating the manager on a job well done and a race well run i wanted to add my personal congratulations to tom and just express how grateful i have been that my first year as city attorney has at least overlapped um with a full year uh with you and i've learned so much and you've been such a wonderful mentor and friend and colleague and i'm just very very grateful congratulations thank you madame attorney madame clerk any priority items tonight good evening mr mayor and city council members um the city clerk's office has no items and i'd like to wish mr bondfield happy trails take care thank you madame clerk we'll now move to the consent agenda the consent agenda can be approved by a single vote of the council these are items on which the council has previously worked during work sessions uh and an item can be pulled from the consent agenda by an individual member of the public or by a council member and if it is pulled from the agenda it will be heard at the end of the meeting i'll read the items consent agenda item one approval of city council minutes item two affordable housing implementation committee appointments item three carolina theater of Durham board of trustees appointment item four Durham city county environmental affairs board appointment item five Durham homeless services advisory committee appointment item seven Durham's mayor's nominee to the Durham Performing Arts Center oversight committee appointment item eight international city council city county management association local government management fellow interlocal agreement item nine long-time homeowner tax deferment program item 11 contract to support transit community engagement and performance management with texas ann m transportation institute item 12 generator maintenance and emergency repair services service contract award to national power corporation item 13 sanitary sewer flow and rainfall monitoring comprehensive service and maintenance awards to ads llc item 14 alpine road culvert replacement sd 2020-04 amendment number one item 27 shannon road culvert replacement sd 2021-02 you have heard the consent agenda and i'll now accept a motion that we approve it so moved second it's moved by councilmember reese seconded by councilmember freeman that we approve the consent agenda madame clerk will you please call the roll mayor shul hi mayor pro tem johnson hi councilmember caballero hi councilmember freelon hi councilmember freeman hi councilmember middleton have or die councilmember reese hi thank you thank you madam clerk the eyes have it motion passes unanimously we'll now move to the first public hearing item which is the franchise with duke energy carolina's llc let me just also say before we get started here i know that the manager is going to be at city hall mr manager until the end of this item and then i believe you will be going home for the rest of the meeting and and miss page that will be here in your stead while you're in transit is that correct that's right mr mayor thank you all right thank you i just want to let everybody know in case uh if you're not here for a few minutes with us hello mr ferguson good to see you good evening mayor members of council members of the public and certainly mr bonfield it is very good to see you in that chair one last time my name is bo Ferguson i'm deputy city manager for operations and this item is before you this evening to hold a public hearing and receive public comment on the proposed duke energy franchise renewal operating agreement and memorandum of understanding city staff have worked with staff from duke energy over the last eight months to develop these agreements to the mutual interest of both parties the documents were presented to council and discussed at a work session on september 10 2020 duke energy and city staff have received copies of written feedback from the public and will be receiving the feedback presented by the public this evening during public hearing staff will be prepared to respond to questions from council at their work session on september 24th where this item has been uh scheduled and also receive respond to any comments or questions received from council this evening thank you that concludes my comments and we're ready to proceed with the public hearing thank you so much deputy city manager ferguson we appreciate you and all the work that you've done to lead this process um um colleagues you have heard the report from staff and want to now declare this public hearing open we have a number of people signed up to speak and there may be others who haven't signed up that would like to speak tonight but first i want to ask does anyone want to begin with any questions for uh staff before we hear from members of the public all right then we will begin by hearing from members of the public let me just look at my list here uh for this item i'm going to ask people to speak in the order in which they have signed up um and so uh madam clerk um if you can help me hear first we will hear from melissa chapel and if you can make this chapel available to be heard good evening mayor shul and city council members my name is melissa chapel and i'm executive director of institutional advancement at durham technical community college i just want to take a brief second to add my congratulations to mr bondfield and say we're honored that our students will be the beneficiaries of the gifts in honor of your legacy of service however i'm here to provide comment on the long-standing partnership that durham tech and duke energy have enjoyed over the years duke energy is invested in program development and equipment upgrades on our campus they've also supported students on the path to in-demand jobs in our community for example in recent years they've provided two grants totaling approximately 326 000 to launch and sustain a new electrical line technician program at durham tech this investment helps give students access to new short-term training opportunities helping power our local workforce and preparing these students for jobs that pay a living wage right here in north carolina throughout the process duke energy has worked hard to collaborate with institutions like ours and listen to workforce development needs they care about equity and access and commit their time as well in our case serving on our foundation board and other advisory committees at the college we're grateful for their partnership and their corporate citizenship efforts in our community thank you thank you so much miss chapel i do want to say and i should have said before miss chapel started and she did admirably well but uh the time limit on each of these speakers tonight is three minutes so when you speak please hold your remarks to three minutes our our second speaker tonight will be jeff durham madame clerk can you make mr durham available to speak and following mr durham will be stefanie foreman uh mayor sure well i thought we and i talked ahead of time i had the 59 minutes no i mean i forgot about that jeff you have the 59 minutes that bill bell didn't use exactly thank you well good evening mr mayor mayor pro tem members of council and uh welcome uh council member freelon you and i haven't seen each other in this setting yet so congratulations and welcome and i'd be remiss if i didn't also all for congratulations to manager city manager bonfield i'm jeff durham a ceo president of the durham chamber 300 west morgan streak duke energy is an important community partner contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to local organizations every year they are also a key economic development partner as we continue to create and sustain prosperity for durham residents and ultimately your bottom line we appreciate the dedication of city staff who work so hard to provide recommendations like this to keep our community operating with predictability while also elevating issues like sustainability which the chamber is supportive of it's a privilege to be a part of a community of citizens and groups who turn their positions into actions and we are encouraged by results like the clean energy mo u that reinforce our shared values the chamber supports moving ahead with these agreements thank you and have a good evening thank you so much mr durham and now we'll hear from stephanie foreman madam clerk can we make miss foreman available to be heard and she will be followed by tom cambell good evening mary schul and city council members i want to echo support for the environmental affairs board's recommendations that the franchise and operating agreement should be no greater than seven years that durham will retain the right to be an independent power producer with the rights to store and discharge power and to sell power to the grid at independently established prices and that the city has the right to purchase solar power from independent producers for the purpose of supplying clean energy for our community i also want to say that as a resident of a durham neighborhood that uh was recently affected by the new led lights um we've seen time again that duke can be out of step with the city um this week they rolled out these bright nuisance lights in our neighborhoods thousands of cities across the country and internationally have nailed the led transition and we didn't and i suspect that that has a lot to do with our one sided relationship with duke thank you thank you very much miss foreman and now we'll hear from tom cambell uh before mr cambell speaks i do want to say that mr cambell is a former member of this body uh having been elected to the council in i believe 1981 uh and and reelected as well and so uh mr cambell we are glad to have you with us thank you very much so as you can tell by mr schultz's introduction i'm a person of a certain age um at this point um but i'm still uh engaged in the community and i would like to again echo the um uh support for the environmental affairs board energy committee's september 18th memo that i think you all have before you um where they uh asked for um five outstanding issues that uh they think the city could do better on so that we can really become a um a partner in in fighting against climate change and two of those issues in particular um the the term of the agreement uh they're asking for at least seven years i know duke energy is saying well it takes them is just taking them so long to come to this agreement with with their own that um they'd rather not have to do this again uh in in a short period of time and uh that is perhaps because their business model needs some major changes if they had a if they had a better more climate friendly business model uh these negotiations would have not taken very long at all um and again they also are saying um that there are certain things that they can't do that we want to do because uh there are regulatory and legislative changes that are needed to be made to enable those and uh i think it's pretty well known that duke energy has a bit of influence um let us say uh uh with the uh the state legislature and the state utilities commission and uh if they wanted to help us on these uh all they have to do is say yes we will work with you and i'll bet you between their their efforts and the efforts of the city some things can get changed to the city's benefit so i i advise you to look carefully at the EAB's september 18 memo thank you thank you very much mr. cambell and welcome back to these chambers uh colleagues i do want to mention uh the manager mentioned um and a couple speakers have mentioned late uh in this uh or sometime this afternoon we had three additional attachments added which included the EAB's most recent letter i do remind you all that we have plenty of time to talk about this on the work session uh and so the fact that we um this came late in the process and uh we haven't been able to uh fully absorb it i know you all haven't been able to um we will get to talk about this again on thursday so i just wanted to let people know that when you're hearing the reference to that to that letter all right um now we will hear from healer rechia gullberg to be followed by madeline parker miss uh miss rechia gullberg welcome thank you so much uh good evening mayor and city council members thank you for the opportunity to speak to the council tonight about the topic in consideration today i'm here to speak about Duke Energy as a corporate partner that had supported us as an organization and the community we serve and we truly committed to social responsibility Duke Energy has been a long-standing partner with the Durham community from investing in local nonprofits and educational initiatives through their foundation to support in our business community the central has appreciated their support and ongoing collaboration with the latinx community collaborations have included a crucial funding for those members that cannot afford their heating and cooling bills as well as annual disbursements of backpacks with school supplies for those families that don't have the resources to purchase them on their own today i'm proud to talk about Duke Energy as a good corporate citizen because it supports us and several other nonprofits in the community which is appreciated we hope the city council continues its collaborations with Duke Energy as well of particular interest is how the latinx community can engage in the discussions and future future action plans around the clean energy mou we recognize that this is a very important process and i appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight thank you thank you thank you miss rechia gullberg we will now hear from madeline parker to be followed by tom feltner um miss parker welcome and you also have three minutes thank you um i will keep it very short and sweet uh i mostly just want to um cite appreciation for the amount of energy and time that y'all have um spent on this issue and continue prioritizing um with the community so i really appreciate that um i'm glad to hear that there has been a recommendation for seven years i think that is a lot better than the 10 years or 10 plus um they had been kind of talked about um in the past couple of weeks and i think that um that recommendation for for seven years plus the continued prioritization of making sure that there is um room availability for um you know more clean energy more renewable sources to be um able for the city to be able to pursue those um as things are shifting really rapidly um in you know the technology and the the current landscape of um electricity generation and i have heard some folks talk about you know the importance of cooperation um with the city and with duke energy but i i do think that that's a a two-way street in that um you know duke energy is a a huge corporation that um really would be behoove um by by making sure that they listen to community and listen to the folks um on the ground that are saying we really need more renewables in this state and so i hope that um they will you know prioritize that in the years to come in working with our city so thank you all for all that you do thank you so much miss parker and thank you for your involvement throughout this um we'll now hear from tom feltner to be followed by katie rose levin mr feltner are you able to be heard i'm here uh good evening mayor shul members of the city council and thank you for the opportunity to speak uh earlier today i submitted written comments on the impact of the new led lighting across the city for me this is really had a profound negative impact um it's unshielded that's unfocused it's far too bright and the result has been our home is now with some neighbors have called perpetual daylight a movie set or football stadium the uncontrolled glare has affected our sleep and it's so glaring that we can't sit on our porch we can't stand in our front yard at night even sitting in our living room has meant that we've had to cover a lot of our front windows with cardboard to be clear i support the transition to energy efficient responsible led lighting i'm going to also urge a stronger commitment to renewable energy as part of the duke energy franchise agreement laid out by the environmental affairs board i also support the much shorter term for the overall agreement as many other speakers tonight have suggested my written comments i also propose some immediate actions that we can take to address the very real problems with nuisance led lighting uh let me summarize those uh an act of moratorium on the institution on the installation of additional led street lights until existing concerns are adequately addressed provide relief to Durham residents who have been impacted by newly installed nuisance lighting by replacing shielding dimming and removing nuisance lighting without delay whole public hearings on led streetlight installation within 90 days to determine whether the existing concentration vocation and brightness of street lights is necessary and within 90 days to commit to working with neighborhoods to develop lighting plans so that we can prevent the installation of nuisance lighting in the first place i'm making these adjustments on my own experiences and likely there are many many others out there uh uh who've had similar experiences which is why i think in addition to prompt redress of existing problems community engagement has to play a central role in the broader response i also want to thank council members Middleton Freelon and Freeman for reminding us all that this is not the most pressing issue facing our city in our nation uh but the city and the duke energy are the only entity entities that can address this and collaboration can make a real difference here uh finally i want to commend the transportation department staff for being really responsive to and working really hard to keep up with community concerns the street lighting team in particular has taken this on with compassion and that compassion has shown through in my neighborhood discussion over the past weeks and days thanks for your consideration and i look forward to progress on this important issue in the coming days and weeks thank you mr feltener and we'll hear later from our transportation department on this and now uh next is katie rose levin miss levin you also have three minutes to be followed Russell Thompson can you hear me yes we can excellent i'm katie rose levin the executive director of trees Durham we're an environmental justice organization that combats climate change by making our tree canopy more healthy sustainable and socially just and we would like to speak in support of partnering with duke energy with this mou and talk a bit about of our experience working with them towards creating a more healthy sustainable and just Durham um when we were concerned that some of the trees were being removed under power lines and not being replaced duke energy worked with us and keep Durham beautiful to provide a large grant to replant trees under power lines when we were concerned that some of our neighbors never had those trees in the first place duke energy provided a large grant to launch and sustain trees Durham then indira everett herself drained our board to help support us as we work to address the environmental racism that exists in Durham's tree canopy due to racist redlining programs from the past in this way duke energy has gone beyond simply addressing trees under power lines but reaches out to address larger environmental justice issues in the community they serve when we were concerned that climate change was accelerating and damaging the very force that trees Durham works to preserve duke energy inviting invited us to a meeting with their president to discuss how they would move forward with their transition to renewables we discussed our desire to move quickly and they just expressed their concerns on the impact of low income ratepayers we don't always agree on everything but we did agree to continue the conversation and continue working together towards a more healthy sustainable and just world trees Durham and duke energy are different organizations with different goals and different drivers even so we've always found the people who work at duke energy to be open and honest willing to compromise and willing to work together to find a solution that pushes us both to be better community members this mou lays out a vision of a future that involves us working with an energy provider to create a healthy sustainable and viable energy system for Durham we support this type of collaborative visioning and look forward to continue to partner with duke energy as a problem solver by our side thank you very much thank you very much miss levin we will now hear from rustle thompson to be followed by michael page mr thompson are you able to be heard yes good evening good evening welcome you have three minutes for the past 13 years i have served as director of utilities and engineering for duke university and i'd like to thank the council for their time tonight as you can imagine dependable electric service is critical to supporting the university's missions of education research and health care many people in the Durham community and surrounding areas depend on our hospitals and clinics for the health care especially during this pandemic i can attest that duke energy's performance and delivering electricity to our facilities has been excellent during my time at the university as one of the most critical suppliers we have worked with duke energy on a number of projects initiatives programs in regards to reliability and sustainability for example in support of the university's climate neutrality goal we have recently entered into an agreement with a third party solar company to provide up to 50 percent of the campus's electricity needs by duke energy through the green source advantage program and we hope that the city the university and and duke energy can continue to work to convince the state legislature to provide more access to programs like this we also hope the city and duke energy working together on this agreement that will provide reliable cost effective and sustainable electricity to the Durham community i want to thank you and i also want to wish tom the best from all of us at duke thank you so much mr thompson uh we'll now hear from uh mr michael page thank you every page welcome it's good to have you with us it's good to be with you thank you so very much and please allow me i'm going to speak but i got to say thank you to calm bombfield everybody's so untarget he's such a noble gentleman with full and integrity and i enjoyed my years of work with him and so glad to know he's going to stay in Durham i hopefully we'll see each other around thank you tom for being the manager that you have been thank you right again i'll greet you tonight on behalf of our chancellor at north glennison university chancellor johnson oh actually and the entire north glennison university family we are grateful for this opportunity to speak with you tonight on this franchise agreement with duke energy this is an important step tonight and duke energy has long been a partner with the Durham community and particularly with north Carolina central university we value our relationship with duke energy and being critically important to voice our support of this agreement tonight i want to applaud the city of Durham staff and duke energy team and working diligently through this agreement to serve the community we all love and we enjoy serving him back in 2016 duke energy was instrumental in helping north carolina central university stand up its dual enrollment program with north carolina state university where students earn a dual bachelor of science degree in physics and electrical engineering that program is still thriving and duke energy has provided the college to date over 135 thousand dollars in grant funding to support this program not only does this investment help give students scholarships but also new experiences at another major university this grant funding helps north carolina central continue its recruitment efforts and target academic support to increase the number of workforce ready graduates this is just one of several ways that duke energy has been a community partner and because of this commitment this company has shown our community we want you to be sure you know we want you to be sure you know that we appreciate how long they have been impactful to the Durham community we support tonight the efforts to work with the city of Durham on these important matters before you uh as as you continue to impact our communities as well we support continue partnership with them in an ongoing collaboration around the great possibilities that a clean energy mo you will bring thank you again for this opportunity to speak and as always we appreciate your service to this community thank you thank you so much reverend page you're welcome now madam clerk i'm going to ask if there's any other attendees this is a public hearing who would like to be heard on this matter i'm going to ask anyone who would like to be heard if you could raise your virtual hand uh in the um or or make yourself known in the chat box either one i'm looking here i don't see anyone having raised their virtual hand and i don't see anything in the chat but i just want to make sure since this is a public hearing mr mayor we have two members of the eab the environmental affairs board here i believe they would like to address the council i see that matt copack would like to address the council and miss levin would you like to speak again if you if you can unmute them madam clerk matt copack and katie rose levin mr copack are you available to be heard he's unmuted mr copack are you available to be heard can you unmute yourself uh let's see mr copack um yeah i see that your hand is raised madam clerk are you sure he's unmuted yes mr mayor okay okay we're going to go now to um we'll come back to you mr copack maybe i think you are muted i think you've muted yourself there not sure but i think so and uh madam madam clerk we're going to now go to tully graves man's who has his hand raised if you could unmute mr graves man's that would be great okay he's ready good evening even taller graves man's here i'm an entrepreneur in the community and also have run a nonprofit and do a lot of work focused on um supporting the african-american business this year in derm just want to support indira and the work they're doing at duke energy as i know they have showed up and been in the room and sponsored and uh shown other forms of support for the advancement of entrepreneurship and diversity including across the city and i think that they will continue to be good stewards of um of their resources as they um help and support the agenda of african-american entrepreneurship and diversity across the city thank you thank you very much mr tully graves man's thank you for being here uh how about mr copack can you be heard now is mr copack still with us i don't see him okay uh well uh i'm sure between now and our work session mr copack will make his ideas known to us all right um i think we have heard all of our speakers and now i'm going to uh colleagues here's how i'm planning to proceed and would love to hear any thoughts that you have on this first of all i'm going to ask mr bill judge who's here uh to talk about the um the street lights uh after mr judge does that we'll have any questions that you all might have on that um and then um if there are any questions uh at this point for uh staff uh concerning the the mo u the franchise agreement the uh operating agreement or the mo u this is one opportunity to ask them and of course we have another opportunity at our work session one uh this coming thirsty so mr judge yes welcome and uh i think you know that uh one of our topics tonight is the uh the new led lights that the council approved gosh seems like a couple of years ago now um and was uh you you've been involved in and you've heard from members of the public and i was wondering if you could just help us uh understand where we are on this right now yes thank you mr mayor um so yes so council did approve and i believe was march or april of 2019 mr judge introduce yourself i don't think anybody uh bill judge uh assistant director of transportation uh city council did in uh it was either march or april of 2019 did approve a uh program to convert a little over 21 000 high pressure sodium lights to um led lights uh we had been working with duke energy they started that in late june of 2019 and as of last week they had completed conversions on 18671 of those lights so they're about 95 percent i'm not 95 85 complete uh with the with the program and uh unfortunately yeah the lights have generated a few complaints not um nearly as widespread there's been a lot of activity the last week um in particular but in total we've had 95 requests or concerns about the lights um we've been working with duke energy um about 60 about 64 about two thirds of those we've already resolved the other third probably come in within within the last week or two um but so we we can work with duke energy they can install shielding on the lights if the lights are particularly located in the front yard of somebody's property if there's either light particularly if the house is real close if there's light coming backwards from the light or if you live across the street what we call glare um they can install shielding on the lighting um we don't typically install those unless we know or can document that there's a problem because there isn't at a cost for those shields of about a hundred dollars a piece to the city so obviously we don't want to necessarily go in install 21 000 shields if we don't really need them if we only need 100 um so we have been we have been working with duke energy on that and and try and get that message out um the other thing we've heard a number of concerns about is the color temperature of the lighting the um the the lighting that they're using is uh 4000 kelvin and it's very similar to lighting that's widely used throughout many municipalities in north carolina and across the state in fact progress energy city of raleigh a number of other municipalities that were progress energy had previously converted to these same lights many years ago or a couple of years ago and uh it's actually been the same light that we've installed in all new installations since about 2014 in durham so prior to the program beginning we already had close to a thousand led lights that they had very few complaints on so um that's the yeah the primary i mean i did uh hear some concerns or desire to halt the program i will say um that's certainly if that's council's desire or something that we could do uh there could be some impacts with duke energy they have brought in additional crews to dedicate for this task to in order to accomplish this program if they um suddenly send those crews away i don't know what the how long it might take the to get them back to complete the program whereas if we continue on we would anticipate that most of the program likely be complete probably in the next month and a half to two months and uh and typically once we do get complaints and are able to um work with Duke energy to address them typically within yeah within less than a month two to three weeks i would say we're able to get the shielding in and that that generally satisfies the complaints that we're hearing from residents mr judge could you remind us of the the reasons that we undertook this program why have we chosen to change our lighting yeah so there's uh two reasons primarily um one is the improved uh energy efficiency of the lighting and the reduced greenhouse gases overall the the lights will uh require much less energy to operate um be perfectly honest the city doesn't see the city as the community sees the benefit but financially there's not that much benefit to the city it's not that we pay significantly less for these lights even though they they generate less less electricity usage because the cost initial cost is higher for the equipment so it's not really a monetary savings for the city from transportation standpoint the the white light color over the high pressure sodium orange color we feel has great potential to improve pedestrian bicycle safety particularly at night uh that orange color makes it very hard to distinguish uh features and pedestrians bicyclists where the the whiter uh blade of the led makes it much easier to to identify pedestrians at night but primarily uh the reason was energy savings is that correct correct i would say those two factors the overall energy savings for the city as well as the improved safety potential thank you mr bondfield did you have a comment thank you mr i just wanted to make sure mr judge was communicating what's the process by which residents can file complaints and concerns uh i'm not sure we've completely articulated that might be helpful just to reiterate that for the record and then he addressed the other issues about the responsiveness and how timely a response could happen once a complaint was received yes thank you um so we have uh we did try to send out some additional information post some additional information last night over last week as uh we became aware of growing concerns within the community but essentially they can contact our if they contact our office one of four ways they can either call our main transportation number nine one nine five six zero four three six six and press one for street lighting um they can speak to somebody or leave a message and we will get back with them the same day to so let them know that we've got their uh complaint we do need a specific location though it can't just be yeah we're concerned about the lights in general so we we need a specific address or or a location and a way to contact the person um they can email um move durham at durham nc dot gov or myself or terry tomson um so there there's a number of different ways or you can also contact durham one call and they will refer refer to a complaint to us thank you judge um mr judge would you do us the favor of summarizing uh the the the information about this the the uh how much um uh you know the the how far the program has gone already the you know the you know just give us something a little a written report on this in the next few days so that we can be able to be well educated and be able to talk to our our residents about this uh how do you know the things that you've told us the situation with the program so far while we initiated the program how far along it is um the the shields you know how to get them that sort of thing yes we will uh follow up to the council members with all that information all right colleagues i'm now going to ask uh i'm gonna we do have one more speaker i believe that um mad copac is um back with us and he would like to speak and then i'll ask council colleagues for more questions and comments mr copac are you able to be heard now um mr copac are you able to be heard mr mayor can you hear me yes at long last welcome wonderful thank you mr mayor members of the council um first of all congratulations and thanks to manager bonfield for your tremendous service before i begin i would like to hold up the community concerns around street lighting but primarily today on behalf of the Durham environmental affairs board i'm pleased to speak about the agreements with duke energy which are before the city i first want to commend staff and representatives from duke energy for what was no doubt significant labor to arrive at the documents that were proposed at the same time on the eab we believe the stakes are so high that we must push ourselves even further the love we share for our community and future generations must and will win over today's legal regulatory and institutional limitations that we face we have submitted written comment which you have heard some of and i'll reiterate first i'll say the eab eab believes that this process could have been improved by bringing in the wisdom and ideas of the broader community sooner with an emphasis on communities of color who are already most impacted by climate change on the franchise agreement we recommend that the term of the agreement um be no greater than seven years and we support the retention of the rights of the city to be an independent producer of power to store and discharge power and to sell power to the grid independently establish prices on the mou we provided revised language to the city that speaks to the changes that would benefit residents businesses and the entire Durham community these include but are not limited to development of community solar programs creation of on-bill financing programs for solar and energy efficiency improvements and third-party renewable energy transactions finally we believe Durham should openly discuss with duke energy its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and its proposed integrated resource plan scenarios for transitioning north chowan is electric grid to carbon-free generation duke energy has been a strong partner and that's important to acknowledge um but this is not mutually exclusive with a transformation of our energy model that is necessary for Durham and the state if we are to have a healthy sustainable and just world to borrow from console member middleton this evening we are david climate changes goliath and we can win if we choose to make it so thank you thank you so much mr. copack all right uh colleagues i'm now going to ask if you have any questions uh let's try to let's do it like this let's first talk about the street lights and say if there any questions or concerns about the street lights particularly and then we'll move on uh and discuss the franchise agreement in the mou and the mou anybody you have questions or comments for staff around the street lights mr reese thank you mr mayor i want to thank all the folks who logged in to provide public comment on the franchise agreement i think that's very helpful uh to hear from folks with concerns and also to hear from folks who i want to tell us all of the good works that duke energy is doing on our community and i think um if we didn't already know uh now we know um so that's pretty awesome but i didn't want to talk a bit about the street light issues if mr judge is still here i had a couple of follow-up questions um if they can come back thank you mr judge appreciate it also want to echo what some other folks have said about uh transportation staff uh who have been working on this issue i've heard really really positive things about the staff uh that's been working with residents on the street light issues so i just want to want to say how grateful i am for that uh that hard work um mr judge you mentioned that we had that the city had received somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 ish complaints about the new led street lights is that number directionally correct yes um 95 in total since we started the program yeah and you mentioned that something in the neighborhood of 60 ish had of those complaints had been resolved correct they had been they were seen more than a month ago and have been resolved already what does it mean in this context for a complaint to be resolved um yeah generally it means we've been we've ordered and installed shields with duke energy either on the front of the light or the back of the light depending on whether who yeah who was causing the problem for which side of the street from the light and um the remainder you think have come in uh more recently and haven't been through that that's that process correct there's still being evaluated by duke energy to the make sure that there's not an installation problem or something else that the shield will actually resolve the issue before it gets installed um the some of the emails that i've received have said that the prospect of of getting a shield installed was going to take months and i i wonder if you could respond to that and give us your sense of how long it's actually taking kind of in the real world yes so generally i would say it takes um upwards of a month slightly less hopefully hopefully it's probably more like three weeks but um i would say a month just to be on the safe side conservative side uh there has been uh two or three locations where um the lighting was actually the lighting level was actually previously increased at request from the police department under the our bright in our streets program so in those cases where the lights were the lighting levels were increased 10 or more years ago we're actually going back to the police department asking them to reevaluate whether or not the higher wattage lighting is still needed to see if we can further help resolve that issue by reducing the wattage of the lights so those could potentially take a little bit longer i still don't think that would be necessarily be months but um but yeah that would require some evaluation by the police department that that may add a few weeks so there are situations in which um not just shields but but somehow the wattage is being reduced of these new from for these new lights correct um so they're most of the ones in residential or the absolute lowest wattage what we call 50 watt LEDs but there were some places legacy places and we still even today if we were to have requests or from the police department to increase or provide a higher wattage light that obviously produces more light um that we have a program to do that so so there are there are a few locations where where that is higher wattage lights got put in that are typically more put in on long like a major thoroughfare roadway versus versus residential area do you know mr judge whether or not uh there's there any data to support the idea that uh when the police department requested uh brighter lights in a particular area particular neighborhood that uh crime rates changed as a result of that that installation could i interrupt mr mayor sorry mysteries i mean that that program is one that is i mean it probably predates me maybe a decade or more old so i'm not sure mr judge is going to be the person who's going to be able to respond to that council member reese um i'm not sure to what extent that still is active that was a resident driven program as i recall uh by the pack many years ago so uh i think before we start conjecturing about that when maybe we could go back and look and get some history about just how many times that still is being used i don't recall even hearing about that lately i know when i first came here that was a very active discussion in many of the pack pack meetings but build it do you know how frequently that that comes up now yeah so we still have the program we did not seize it but yeah the demand has gone way down from what it was a number of years ago so the number of lights that we're installing under it or are much lower changing um but it is is still an active program thank you you're correct i don't have any information on the the crime statistics before after we'd have to talk to the current police about that um i guess my last question has to do with the brightness of these lights um i um i've heard we've heard from a lot of folks that the lights are having a negative impact on their lives both in their homes uh but also like the enjoyment of their outside spaces and i wonder if you are aware or cut or could comment on some guidance issued by the american medical association about four years ago that indicated that the the kind of the color temperature of these kinds of outside street lights should be no greater than 3000 kelvin for really for public health reasons and these lights are obviously you know a third brighter than that so yeah so i'm aware of that recommendation and report we did we have spoken with Duke Energy and some of their lighting engineers have told us some information on it and i guess the sort of the industry response or the industry standard is um is the 4000 kelvin they don't necessarily um are in agreement with that american medical association uh my understanding and like said i'm not a medical researcher is that a lot of the research that went into making that recommendation was based on older led lights in a more industrial setting that were at a much much higher level of closer to six or seven thousand kelvin on the temperature scale much closer to blue light versus white light and that that those were the the findings or the basis but yeah basically nationwide the 4000 is the industry standard thank you mr judge i appreciate the additional information certainly didn't mean to invite you to conjecture about stuff outside of your bailiwick just was curious if that program um that you mentioned partnering our transportation with the police department had yielding actual results and so i think that'll be something we can talk about later mr mayor i didn't have any other questions for mr judge i just wanted to mention um that uh you know i i want to take full responsibility for my vote on this matter um back in on april 1st of 2019 i never asked how bright the bulbs would be i think logically uh i assumed incorrectly that because so much less energy would be used for each bulb that the bulbs would be certainly no brighter than the ones that existed previously the high pressure sodium bulbs it seems clear to me from the reaction from a number of folks in Durham that that was an incorrect assumption um and take full responsibility for not asking more questions about that at the time but i think we're here now uh hearing from residents and i've heard folks uh are actually contemplating litigation against the city because it's uh i think mr feltner whether he knew it or not alluded to that by the use of the term nuisance lights uh that's a that's a legal term um any lawyers ears will pop up when they hear that um and so those the the the negative impact that the lights appear to be having for some folks the other the other issues around that uh gave rise to my desire uh to to pause the program while we figure out exactly how to how to better handle that but i will say that i'm heartened by mr judge's representation today that the that the shielding process takes about three to four weeks from request uh to installation that is a much quicker timeline than i've been led to believe and so that's fantastic news um and so i think the other thing that we can all do is make sure that folks in our networks know about the how to contact the the right uh city department and employees to begin that process um and uh but i as i also understand i think the environmental affairs board is going to be looking at the broader issue of light pollution and Durham and how these specific lights in particular but also of the proliferation of street lights throughout the city more broadly uh impacts that issue and i look forward to hearing from them soon that's all i wanted to really say about that mr mayor thank you thank you mr race thank you councilmember any council members any other questions for mr judge hasmer millton thank you mr mayor thank you mr judge good to see you i want to thank my colleague councilor reese who really kind of captured uh some of some of the uh inquiry and concerns i had first let me just say uh you know my bad um i remember the discussion about these bulbs and you know i thought it was a good thing we we we thought we were doing something good and uh so let me just say i apologize to those that have been negatively impacted our friends in the medical profession when they take their oak i think the first line is first do no harm uh and we certainly certainly was not our intent to harm folk i remember as a matter of fact the questions i remember specifically asking were about the seeming non savings that they were pretty expensive and i remember asking what's the benefit of them uh and and why are they so expensive and i remember having a conversation about lower energy usage and and i believe something about carbon footprints as well but but we we thought we were doing a good thing but obviously our actions have had some some negative impact and you know when you when somebody's hurt you just say sorry and on up to itself so i apologize um with that said mr judge i thought i heard you say that and i'm paraphrasing if we decided to halt um but did i hear you also say that we've already achieved 95 percent penetration of our target uh goal is that is that correct i think i misspoke it's about 85 percent we've done 85 yeah about 18600 of 21,000 that's still pretty high so the roughly how many does isn't that 15 percent that's undone uh it's probably about 2500 to 3000 lights um somewhere in that range and and just to be clear the the only remedy that we have is the shielding we're not uh lowering the the voltage or or change it evolves to a to a lower intensity above the only remedy that we're we're deploying or is the shielding uh for about 95 98 percent of the cases it is the shielding there there are those few where um where there were higher wattage lights installed previously uh under the crime prevention brighten our streets program so in in those cases we are asking the police department to reevaluate whether or not the higher wattage is still needed or if we can go to a lower wattage that the further help the problem and those are the only cases in which we're changing bulbs or changing the level of the brightness um other than that the the way the program's designed it's a it's a conversion to basically the equivalent led from what the high pressure sodium was generating okay um i i know you don't have access to our to our in i don't think you have access to our inbox uh that it's public domain you could but but we we've been getting a number of emails and i know that even a couple of hundred emails is a lot but but to put things in perspective as a decision maker i know there's just a couple of seven hundred thousand people that live in the city but for those people that's the issue at the moment it's important i'm wondering is it possible that the folk we're hearing from have already been some of them have already been captured in the formal complaint process or have you has there been a spike in complaints formal complaints to the city recently regarding these bulbs but the the brightness yes so there there was a spike that started early last week um in sort of conjunction i guess it started getting some attention on some of the local list serves in a near particularly those near downtown um so so we did see an increase that's why i said before total um we've received 95 document complaints of specific locations um and of those about two-thirds or or more of those were well over a month or more old and have already been resolved and and completed so we're on we're only at about 30 some active that we're currently investigating or trying to resolve and hope to have resolved within the next um month or less now the the percentage that represents the recent spike are you able to to um identify when though those bulbs were were were installed in those cases where it's been kind of the recent spike are are they just getting them and just um being impacted by this or has it been some times as they've been installed i think it's a little bit of both um there certainly are some that they're they're currently acting or working on the the streets within the last week or two um some of it i think is also probably being contributed to oh well yeah they didn't know or yeah you know maybe one resident yeah they're seeing it on the list serves and now they're they're knowing how to complain or seeing seeing how to relay their concerns to us um where it's older i would also say the earlier uh darkness at night with cooler temperatures i think is led to increased activity outside so folks are probably noticing a little bit more the last week or two as well or maybe light might have been changed out in june or july but they didn't notice it as much final question the the cost of the shielding to remedy the issue are are these costs that um are readily uh absorbable at current funding levels i mean do you guys have the money to do this or is this going to potentially uh require um additional bulking up of financial resources or can you kidding you can answer that yeah no we uh we can absorb it in our existing street lighting general fund budget at the the rate at which we're seeing it um right now it's less than one half it's around one half or one percent of the lights that we're actually adding them to so um so yeah so at that rate we we can we can absorb it obviously if to wholesale go in and install shielding on all the lights then no we would not financially be able to do that thank you uh bill appreciate the hard work you folk do over there thank you mr mayor thank you councilmember other questions or comments for mr judge all right um mr judge uh if you could um as i said uh if you wouldn't mind just producing a a written summary of the situation uh and how people can you know the number of light bulbs installed the period over which they've been installed um anything else that you think is important that we would want to convey to our constituents uh as well as how to request the shields and so forth yes we'll follow up and provide you that information and uh if council members have other uh suggestions and thoughts uh about how any other things around about this uh i see councilmember cabillero go ahead yes i just wanted to share that i have uh asked the environmental affairs board to if they have room on their next agenda to discuss this and then uh have been sending emails to individual residents um with the link from the city's website from the department of transportation and through the reach out to thank you i think that's a great forum tip for discussion councilmember freeman thank you along those similar lines i um was just going back to the work session to acknowledge how i guess this um kind of how how we're all like focused on this now considering the backlash of the community on this and i just want to note that this is the similar situation that occurs when you don't account for people in the community involved in the process and acknowledged in that as as um our outgoing city manager said the agreements like were were set by his predecessor and so just acknowledging that there are some other areas where this could also be an issue i really do believe that a race equity commission will be helpful in trying to address some of those things that are already in play so that we're not trying to kind of backtrack on the backside of this and kind of catching it beforehand and acknowledging that there are a lot of of balls moving or rolling that have the tendency to move in this direction acknowledging that the focus is on one area where i think we were having conversations around um energy efficiency and savings and you know i think it was like 468 thousand dollars that would be saved and you know moving to carbon neutrality and all of that conversation without acknowledging what could have been acknowledged as light nuisance acknowledging that all of these pieces were in our purview so to speak in that they're they're all it's all public information but it's not something we're focused on and so just noting that this could be a helpful um piece of uh support and and creating enough an account like the accountability advisory partner um around some of this information and i too along with um councilmember riece and councilmember riddleton want to apologize to the community for missing this and acknowledging that i i do need to pay closer attention um to that aspect of how the when we talk about racial equity it's not just race it's all of the things in between because there are the bookends so thank you thank you councilmember mr judge thank you you always do such great work and we're so lucky to have you thank you so much colleagues i'm going to now just ask a question to our administration and then i'll ask if any of you all have any questions for the staff uh to mr fergusson the we have now received some further recommendations in the last few days i believe staff received them at the very end of the week uh from the energy committee of the environmental affairs board uh involving the length of the franchise and also some suggested language changes in the mou and a couple uh changes in the franchise agreement but uh some language changes in the mou that are predominantly uh in the in the areas of um revising the vision somewhat and the goals and to what they feel is more reflective of our community's desires i'm wondering how staff will be responding to that and um especially prior to our discussion on thursday if they will be able to do that and get any thoughts that you might have about uh staff's response in there thank you so those documents uh were received by our staff they've spent a good deal of time today with the city attorney's office as well in reviewing some of those suggestions and recommendations our desire is to to work on those uh over the next few days and to come prepared to the work session on the 24th uh to present any modifications or changes that we feel like we can make that respond to that feedback uh obviously in the in the interim we'd be working with Duke Energy as well uh these are agreements that uh we need to be able to sign but the Duke Energy needs to be able to sign and so it's our desire to find if if we're able to find language that we believe is responsive and then also Duke Energy is comfortable with to bring that to you where we cannot do that i think we would highlight for you on the 24th uh those changes we were able to respond to and those that we felt like we could not perfect that's what i was hoping you'd say and i really appreciate that um i'm very grateful to the folks on the environmental affairs board and others who uh have worked together over the past couple of weeks to bring us some suggested changes and uh i'm grateful to the staff for already jumping in and working on that and that sounds perfect but i think that's a that's a really good way to proceed all right um other other questions or comments at this time mr bombfield i just was one to clarify procedurally mr mary you had mentioned previously about uh you were going to make a decision about whether to close the public hearing but not take any action until the october 5th meeting or continue the public hearing until the october 5th meeting so we just need clarity around that um so mr manager i was planning to close the public hearing but not take any action until the october 5th meeting is that acceptable oh yeah yes i think that's fine okay so uh if there's no one else to be heard at this time i'm going to close this public hearing uh and colleagues our plans then are to discuss this you you will have you've received and will have in the work session packet these additional attachments uh which are essentially an mo u that's been edited suggested editing by the eab energy group uh and a letter from the eab um discussing some of their general um their general ideas and concerns not that's a fairly short letter and then we will have also then we'll have uh i'm sure documentation from staff that after they have consulted figured out what they can recommend and work with Duke Energy around that um they will bring that to us as well just so to just to clarify the process that'll be this coming thursday and then uh it's my intention uh that all this will be worked out and that we would take a vote on october 5th which is the last day that the the current was the day the current franchise um expires i see our city attorney madam attorney thank you mr mayor yes i've been having some back and forth with a couple of the attorneys who are you know the experts on this area and we think it would be cleaner actually just to continue the public hearing so keep it open um so that you all can receive additional commentary and have additional deliberations so you'll come to the work session and then it will be continued again to the october 5th meeting at which time you'll take action all right thank you instead of that will be a little cleaner sure thank you instead of closing the public hearing i will now say that we are uh continuing the public hearing until october 5th thank you madam attorney well and just to clarify your first continuing it to this thursday's okay that would be a public hearing you're gonna well it's just open discussion of a public hearing item all right because you've indicated to folks that you will continue deliberating at the work so let's just keep it open gotcha i will now uh reopen the the i will now keep the public hearing open until we need to close it thank you for that advice i appreciate it uh and now um we're going to move on to our next item i want to i want to before we move on i want to thank the folks from Duke Energy i want to over here i know there's a lot of them who've been working on this i want to thank the folks from general services i want to thank the folks in the city attorney's office i want to thank uh both Ferguson and everybody who's been working so hard on this for so long thank you we are we're we're we're getting closer all right uh we're now going to move back to our first public hearing item and that is item 17 consolidated annexation nc highway 55 abc store and we will first hear from stan good evening i'm emily struthers with the planning department i would first 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 with the planning department requests for utility extension agreement voluntary annexation and initial zoning map change have been received from andrew porter of culture jewel tem's pa for two parcels located at 5608 and 5612 nc 55 highway totaling 11.97 acres the annexation petition is for a contiguous expansion of the corporate city limits the site is presently zoned commercial neighborhood and residential rural and staff recommends an exact translation of the zoning designation the proposed annexation area is designated on the comprehensive plan's future land use map as commercial and in areas corresponding with flood zones recreation slash open space which is consistent with the zoning request if approved this request would become effective on september 30th 2020 city and county operational departments such as solid waste fire police and ems have reviewed this request and have not identified any significant negative service impacts the potential impact of this annexation at full belt out while not yet known at this time could result in some reduction in the level of service provided by the police department the public works and water management departments have determined that the existing city of derm water mains have capacity to serve this project sewer service will be provided by the county the budget and management services department determine that the proposed annexation will become revenue positive immediately following annexation additional information can be found in the staff report staff determines that these requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable policies and ordinances three motions are required for this application but first is to adopt an ordinance annexing the property and entering into the utility extension agreement the second is to adopt a consistency statement and the third is for the zoning ordinance thank you and staff is available for any questions thank you very much mr others you have reported you've heard the report from staff on the cloud this public hearing open and i'll first ask if there are any questions for staff by members of the council all right seeing none i'm going to i see one person is signed up to speak on this item and that is mr andrew porter mr porter madame clerk could you make mr andrew porter available to be heard it's available mr porter can you be heard yes good evening city council members of marshall my name is andrew porter 5714 williamsburg way dorm i'm a registered landscape architects and work for colter drill temps pa i'm here this evening on behalf of nidale solivan general manager germ county abc we don't have a formal presentation this evening emily has run through the the staff details um we believe the request before you this evening is pretty straightforward and further request approval um based on staff recommendation for approval i'm available for any other questions the uh if there are any thank you thank you mr porter now let me ask is there anyone else who's president among the attendees who would like to be heard on this item this is a public hearing matter if you were an attendee and you would like to be heard could you please put your raise your virtual hand or uh please let us know in the chat i don't see anyone else who would like to be heard and so now i'll ask if there any questions or comments by members of the council at this time all right seeing none i'm going to declare this public hearing closed in this matter is now back before the council we would need three motions to um um on this matter the first will be to adopt an ordinance annexing nc highway 55 abc story to the city can i have a motion to that effect i moved second it's moved by council member reese and seconded by council member cabrera i believe um madam clerk please call the role mayor's tool i mayor pro ten johnson hi council member caballero hi council member freelon hi council member freeman hi council member middleton i vote i council member reese i thank you very much the eyes have it and the motion passes unanimously uh item motion two to can to adopt the consistency statement so moved second moved by mayor pro tem seconded by council member reese madam clerk we please call the roll mayor shul uh mayor pro tem johnson hi council member caballero hi council member freelon hi council member freeman hi council member middleton hi council member reese hi thank you uh thank you madam clerk the eyes have it the motion passes unanimously third we'll need a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the udo so moved second moved by count mayor pro tem seconded by council member freelon that we um adopted an ordinance amending the udo madam clerk will you please call the roll mayor shul hi mayor pro tem johnson hi council member caballero hi council member freelon hi council member freeman hi council member middleton i vote i council member reese hi thank you thank you madam clerk the motion passes unanimously uh thank you mr porter for being here we'll now move to item 18 consolidated annexation for the sites property uh and we'll hear the report from staff good evening mayor and council members this is grace smith i'm sitting in for um staff this evening jamie lawson has uh left the city county planning department to pursue a job with the city of burlington so i'm filling in her for her this evening and um so uh we will miss her uh as we move forward but i wanted to make sure you knew that we are here tonight and we are representing so thank you we're always glad to see you well thank you good evening and again i'm grace smith with the planning department this request is for the utility extension agreement a voluntary annexation and initial zoning map change from just the cardesty of macadams for two parcels located at seven zero zero eight and seven zero one two leased full road totaling 40.36 acres the annexation petition is for a continuous expansion of the corporate city limits there's a conservation subdivision also associated with this parcel case d20 00010 for 80 single family lots you can find uh you can find more information about that in attachment 14 it might be actually attachment 16 for you it's the site plan uh the site is presently zoned rural residential rr and the staff recommends an exact translation of the zoning designation the proposed annexation area is designated as low density residential and recreation open space on the comprehensive plans future land use map which is consistent with the zoning request that staff recommends if approved this request will become effective on september 30th 2020 the city and county operational departments such as solid waste fire police and ems have reviewed this request the potential and uh impact of annexation um a full build out is not yet known completely at this time but it could result in some reduction in the level of service provided by the police department the public works and water management departments have determined that the existing city of Durham water and sanitary sewer have capacity for this proposed development and the budget and management services department determined that the proposed annexation will be positive excuse me revenue positive immediately following the annexation additional information can be found in the staff report about that recommendation the staff determines that the requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable policies and ordinances there are three motions required for this action the first is to adopt the ordinance annexing the property into the city and entering into a utility extension agreement the second is to adopt a consistency statement and the third would be to adopt the zoning ordinance and staff is available if you have any questions thank you very much miss smith colleagues you have heard the report from staff i'm going to declare this public hearing open and ask you first if there are any questions by members of the council for our staff councilmember reese thank you mr mayor i can even give me miss smith thanks for pitch hitting from his lawson and if she's listening which i doubt she is best of luck to you in burlington um we're just a train right away um can you uh help me understand if there are any other pending uh annexation requests um in adjacent to this particular property so at this time there is uh it's my understanding there's not any any request it's actually adjacent like adjacent parcel wise there are several in the immediate area but not any that i knew of that are adjacent parcel wise okay um and you will hear you'll actually hear more about that at work session on this thursday there's a presentation that will talk a lot about the different um petitions that are that are pending in the area yes great um i must have missed the description of how many units this plan will build on this property can you help me with that since we have a fight i was muted i was muted it's proposed for 80 units um so they'll develop roughly half the property and leave half in a conservation subdivision and undisturbed great thank you very much i appreciate those are my quick thank you thank you council member hi there council member freeman just noting i i'd recognize that there's no attachment for planning commission notes and i just wanted to make sure that i um just got some clarity on this this case didn't go before the city cap but i'm not the the planning commission and it's just coming straight to us um yes ma'am it is a direct translation of zoning so it did not pass through planning commission you're correct okay any other questions for miss smith council member freeland yes uh thank you um my question is about the other half of the property that's not going to be developed is there um something from the developer that assures that that will not be developed in perpetuity or is that just they're not going to develop it for now could you talk a little more about about that part all right so it's a proposed to be a conservation subdivision and under the udo there are specific requirements that the uh the proposal would have to meet to actually be considered a conservation subdivision one is what one of which would be the conservation of all the the open space and the 20 acres that i was talking about that would not be disturbed it's roughly 20 acres um but it's it would be approved and would have to be executed and developed for that site plan that would be approved i think council member freeland was asking would that be in perpetuity what what is the length of the commitment oh i'm sorry so the site plan is is is valid for a certain period of time and if they don't execute the site plan within the amount of time that is valid they would have to seek another approval to develop the site at that time however if they were to develop the property based on the site plan that's approved that's what they have to build once they start their construction they're they're they're actually um tied to that approval and the conservation and the conservation i'm sorry council member freeland go ahead well yeah so i guess the answer would be forever once they why once they start building and and they were to execute that site plan yes it would be unless they came back in for a different approval for the site then they would not be able to change anything okay got it thank you thank you council member other questions for staff at this time councilor caballero you said all single family homes on the site on the part of the lot that's getting developed correct um let me double check that i hang on one second okay thank you uh huh yes it is it's all single family and since there's not a builder associated with it yet we don't like have a price point um i would have to let the applicant answer that question i'm not sure um 100 sure if there's a builder or not so um if someone from McAdams is on the line or someone else representing the application they could answer that thank colleagues we do have members of the public here to speak who's not heard yet so maybe we should go ahead and hear them and then we can direct those questions to them that's fine thank you mere thank you council member all right um we have uh three people uh who are so far signed up to speak on this neil gosh erica letham and stephanie berry uh and i'm going to um all of the um so this is a since this is a an annexation case i want to make sure that we understand that people are proponents or opponents um mr ghost and mr lee miss letham are proponents i'm not sure about miss berry we'll find that out when she's ready to speak so we can make sure the time is divvied up barely uh mr ghost uh welcome uh mr ghost i'm going to give you three minutes um and we'll see if you need more time after that will that be enough mr ghost probably so and i'm i don't think uh miss letham who's my client will be speaking necessarily unless there are questions all right why don't you start with that uh and then if we need more we can do that all right thank you and and good night i guess mayor shul mayor pro tim johnson and members of the city council my name is neil gosh i am an attorney with the morning star law group at 112 west main street in durham i am representing the applicant for the proposed application and also on the call with me tonight is erica letham of mi homes i'll start first by thanking uh miss smith for her presentation as was mentioned this is a request for annexation of about 40 acres which will facilitate the development of a conservation subdivision off leesville road this particular project will serve as the next phase of the existing andrew's chapel neighborhood which currently is being built by mi homes now the existing andrew's chapel neighborhood which is roughly west of the subject property is zone pdr 4.793 naturally i think the question is why isn't the developer requesting a similar density on the subject property and the answer to that question is exactly why the concept of a conservation subdivision was introduced into the udo the existing andrew's chapel pdr is about 115 acres but the major difference between the acreage between that acreage and this acreage are the environmental considerations there is a stream and some floodplain features that run through the property essentially cutting the property into three areas it would be possible to get more density on the subject property but the question is at what cost the site plan for this project which is included in your packet of information includes exactly zero stream crossings on the property the conservation subdivision concept allows this property to be developed at a sensible density given the environmental constraints the conservation subdivision site plan for this property preserves about 20 acres in total but nine acres of that are totally developed those nine acres are unencumbered by floodplain or riparian buffers or anything like that the only thing preventing them from being developed is the current zoning if instead of an annexation we propose a rezoning to pdr it might be possible to fit 10 to 12 more homes on this property but doing so would would require at least one but probably two stream crossings moreover sacrificing nine acres of preserved open space and committing to some costly infrastructure which would have significant environmental impacts for only about 10 to 12 more homes simply does not make sense it doesn't make sense from a planning standpoint doesn't make sense from a financing standpoint and it doesn't make sense environmentally it is not worth it at all as I said this project is an exemplar of a scenario where a conservation subdivision is preferable in this instance the conservation subdivision will allow us to preserve 20 acres almost half of which otherwise is develop it allows us to prevent stream crossings it also allows for a sensible density near environmentally sensitive areas if you think about the requirements of a conservation subdivision we're at two units of the acre on the overall acreage but we are committing to the preservation of 50 percent of the acreage so in a sense the development is at about four units to develop to the developable acre with the added benefit of the required preservation of environmentally sensitive areas in some developing this acreage as a conservation subdivision makes all the sense in the world more importantly though it makes sense for the city of Durham because it helps to provide much some much needed housing while respecting environmentally sensitive areas we hope to have your support tonight we're available to answer any questions about the project you may have and thank you for your time and consideration thank you very much mr. gosh um miss letham uh if you would like to be heard you could raise your hand in the chat uh of course if you're just here to answer questions we're glad you're here um I also see that bob zumbwald uh in the chat that he is here to potentially speak on this item uh mr. Zumbwald thank you for being here as well um and if you uh would like to speak please raise your hand in the chat I'm not sure if you're here also uh just to potentially answer questions but if you would like to speak please do raise your hand in the chat or send me a message in the chat okay great just for questions thank you we now have here Stephanie berry um madame clerk could you make miss berry available to be heard mr. mayor I don't see a miss berry in the attendee list okay um there is a call-in user I don't know who that is a call-in user yes uh how would she if she was the call-in user how would she let us know that I would allow her to talk and then she can respond okay why don't you do that is this miss berry are you uh on the phone all right apparently not um is there anyone else who was here was an attendee at this meeting who would like to be heard on this item this is a public hearing item is there anyone else uh that would like to be heard on this item um colleagues uh you have now heard from uh everyone who would like to speak at this public hearing uh and I'll now ask if there are any more questions that you have either for the applicant or for um or for staff and and councilmember cubby here I think you had a question that miss smith felt might best be answered by staff I'm sorry about the applicant I think my question was um was it all single family homes which and then if we had a price point oh if we have a price point okay uh mr gosh could you speak to that sure can you guys still hear me yes we can um so we don't exactly know the price point but I think the best indicator of that as I said am I homes is building the other portion of Andrew's chapel so currently homes are selling uh there in the 300 and 315s although I will say that I believe those are mostly town homes uh but we do believe that the price point in this will be the low to mid 300s keeping that same range as the as the next phase of development and just to give you an idea um the homes are roughly 2300 to 2900 square feet so it's a great value uh at that at that price thank you mr gosh councilmember cubby are any other questions or comments no thank you thank you any other questions or comments colleagues councilmember reese thank you mr mayor uh good evening uh mr gosh thank you thank you for being with us today it's good to hear from you um by applying for translation zoning um you missed the opportunity to get the feedback from our colleagues at the planning commission and so uh given that and given that the tight face on the um on the attachment that shows the development plan is too small for me to read some of the uh text in there I thought I would just ask you um one of the questions that commissioner miller likes to ask about and that are that is design commitments intended to reduce monotony um and make this a visually appealing community the other thing he likes to ask about is a mix of housing types which this doesn't have um and that just is what it is but I'm wondering if you can talk I like I don't know if the big text block on the first page of that plan includes some of this stuff because I can't read it so can you help me on with that and by the design commitments I hope you know that I mean um you know front-facing garages porches um that those the kind of diversity of materials that kind of sure so let me I'll just say that what we have in the staff report there is not a development plan that's something that you might be used to seeing with the rezoning that is the site plan that has been submitted for the uh conservation subdivision so it should show you the kind of lot layout and and um I think it's attachment 16 on on in your agenda uh and so it shows you the lot layout and kind of a street layout for the community there are no design commitments listed on the site plan and that's typical site plan would not include those items so I guess I would say that there are not exactly any design commitments uh contained in the site plan or something that we could point to but I will say in my homes is the builder of Andrew's Chapel and so what they're planning on building here is essentially the same thing that they've been building in Andrew's Chapel in Andrew's Chapel I knew I knew there was uh both you and Councilwoman Caviera mentioned that uh you know had questions about whether there was a mix of housing so in this community this section for which we're applying for annexation uh there's not a mix of housing in Andrew's Chapel there is uh as I mentioned the current homes the MIs building are townhomes thank you mr gush so I think that just to put another just to add a little something further I believe that since this is not a rezoning it can't have a development plan associated with it is what I'm thinking is that correct miss Smith correct mayor show this is not a development plan rezoning um the site plan that's attached is an administrative site plan approval and because there is not a development plan um in play here there are no design commitments or other text commitments being made and so in the administrative world where there's not a development plan involved for an administrative site plan we would not be able to require design commitments on single family because state law prohibits that right right thank you mr gush uh but I think uh just to push council member Reese's uh question a little bit farther uh maybe you or maybe mr zome waltz or someone else or miss lethem could talk to us about what an mi home might typically look like here and I think neighborhood I think miss lethem probably would be the best person to discuss the uh homes the mi plans in this neighborhood madam could you please make miss lethem available to be heard hi can you hear me yes we can welcome right thank you thank you for um the opportunity answered that question so um as nil said the homes we build in andrew's chapel are subject to design commitments they have everything mr Reese um talked about front-facing garages mix of materials porches um we are a commitment as a move-up builder so we we like to uh we take great pride in the exterior of the house as well as the inside of the house um so the while there aren't any design commitments and I understand that what I say here isn't the same as a design commitment we would be building exactly the same homes on this piece of property that we are currently built or we have built in the andrew's chapel community thank you miss lethem other questions for the applicant or comments councilmember freeman thank you I I I acknowledge that the design commitment aspect of this is left out because it's not a rezoning and just acknowledging that this is 40 acres of uh annexation and an area that is a two-lane road and I appreciate the 9.5 acres being committed for conservation but I'm concerned um in our previous conversation we acknowledged that there was a kind of a slight oversight and acknowledging that there could have been some unintended consequences with the lights and I'm feeling the same angst in this conversation acknowledging that very narrow opening um for is that I'm sorry I could barely see the the um the street names and all from the like the pdf because you're making it like you're expanding it from the small size into a large size so it's not very clear and I really appreciate an opportunity to view this site because I did not realize until this evening that this this this actually did not go to the planet commission and so um I understand it's a translation and not a rezoning but I want to make sure that I I actually do the due diligence and making sure that this property and the area arounding or surrounding it is um is supportive of where we're going and our conversations around um housing in that area and so I would love to have um some feedback from my colleagues on whether or not it would be possible to kind of delay this um a cycle and try and just just allow me some time to do some due diligence I I would greatly appreciate that opportunity thank you council member other comments colleagues questions for Ms. Latham the applicant or for staff hi this is mrs. Latham can I just um add one more thing of course um and I I understand that it's hard to view that pdf the the way the the site plan lays out is there's about half of the units access leisville road directly and the other half access farm pond trail which is um a main drive in andrew's chapel that then goes out to um andrew's chapel road uh so to um council member freeman's point we've we've looked at that and kind of managed the access until leisville road you've managed the access because some of the traffic you're saying is going to be going out uh through andrew's chapel that's that's correct yes thank you oh you need a free lawn i'm sorry oh yeah um my question was just building on council member freeman's question about uh delaying a cycle um and this question is for the uh folks here on behalf of the project are there any you know serious obstacles to being able to put this project in in motion that would be you know undermined i'm wording the pet question poorly but i'm saying would it be a big monkey wrench in your plan if we were to delay things by a week or two hey can can you all hear me we can yes we can now okay sorry um so uh i would turn that question to my to my client we haven't had an opportunity to speak about that so i i can't answer that right away but erica is on line not to put her in the spotlight there but um i think that question would be better directed to her i also just wanted to make sure to clarify that uh there are 20 acres that are being preserved here uh the point i was making about the nine acres is that oftentimes in conservation subdivisions um all of the acreage being preserved ends up being part of a riparian buffer or floodplain uh in this community that's actually not the case there are nine acres that are being preserved which are totally developable um except for i guess the density allowed in the zoning and the and that was the point i was making earlier we could rezone but in order to get those extra units on that nine acres it would require one or two stream crossings which just did not seem uh worth it in any sense too too many environmental impacts for 10 or 12 extra homes yeah i appreciated that hearing that by the way mr americ can you hear me this is bob zomal yes mr zomal welcome thank you good evening everyone i i just wanted to mention um farm uh farm pond trail is a collector street and um of our 80 lots i think it's 53 of them are going to be entering on to leesville road not all 80 just 53 and we are widening leesville road to a three lane section and providing a turn lane into the site so i know that's hard to read on the pds but um we are widening the road to provide a turn line into the site so thank you thank you very much mr zomal all right colleagues any other questions uh or comments for uh madam mayor pro tem thank you mr mayor i think that some of this will be cleared up by what we hear from the applicant regarding a delay but i am in general you know concerned about proposals for this area because of because we haven't really had a conversation yet with our planning department and as a council about what the overall plan is for this region regarding the lift station realistically though i also think this proposal because of its location in the environmental features is unlikely to support anything other than residential so that when we're when we're looking at the broader area with like where could the commercial go where could the office go i doubt that this corner is going to be an area in which anything other than residential actually works but um a delay beyond the presentation at the work session around the larger vision for the serals area would be consistent with my general feeling that i you know i'm less comfortable moving forward with plans for this area until we've had that conversation so if the applicant is amenable to a delay i would be i would be happy for that thank you madam mayor pro tem i will give the applicant a minute to figure that out thanks if you can hold on one minute sure now why don't you all just take a minute to discuss this and you can i have this vision of you all texting and stuff sure yeah just a minute i know these things take a while in the covet age take your time mr mayor we need a dj for moments like these that's why we appointed you i think this is a time for black space um maybe a cypher or something like that could be arranged for these moments and down you can play music through the zoom true as long as we have our copyrights on it licensing i love it double point yes pay artists mayor shul yes sir mr gush so i just wanted to confirm uh would we be delayed to the october 5 deadline if so that would be uh agreeable yes we would we would hold the public hearing open until october the fifth and we'll consult with the attorney about that but that's the plan that would be the plan mr mayor yes council member i think i don't remember we continued the leesville assemblage road from uh september i guess tent which is i think almost next door to this or very close to this project and i i don't remember the date that we that staff gave us from that time i'm just bringing it up because i know there's been two other cases that were continued i see miss yon miss yon help us out yes a good evening mayor members of council um council member caballero to answer your question the leesville road assemblage case was moved was continued to the next meeting october 5 there was an additional case that was moved to the first meeting in november as well but i just wanted to i know we're trying to be conscientious of y'all's time and the public's time we already have three additional cases beyond that for the next meeting so i just wanted to be very transparent about that and respectful of y'all's time miss yon thank you for being respectful of our time i'm not sure how respectful we are of our own time but um that's your problem um colleagues uh you have heard the request from the applicant that we delay there that they would accept a delay until the october 5 council meeting uh can i see some thumbs on that please i'm seeing some thumbs most of the thumbs i think maybe all of the thumbs okay i'm going to now hold this public hearing open until october the fifth madam attorney is that good that sounds good mr mayor yes thank you i want to thank the applicant for your flexibility and we look forward to taking this up again on october the fifth thank you very much have a great night thank you colleagues i do want to say we you all know that our we we were as you remember we didn't do a whole lot of we didn't hear much for a long time we didn't have public hearings for quite a while our staff is now really working hard to plan for us as you heard from as young about our public hearing schedule we are now throwing like giant wrenches into our public hearing schedule i do want to just so so when we have these long meetings with lots of public hearings i do want to remember who it is that's doing that okay so let's just i'll keep that in mind all right uh we'll now move on to our next public hearing item this item is item 19 unified development ordinance text amendment development agreement and we will first hear the report from staff thank you very much uh michael stock with the plan department and also presenting is dono tool with the city attorney's office i am going to leave my video off because it tends to save the bandwidth and you're able to hear me more clearly and less scattered wise if that's okay tc uh two zero zero three as a city initiated text amendment for establishing rules and procedures for statutory development agreements as with any text amendment proposal council we first asked to vote an applicable consistency statement found in attachment b and then the ordinance itself um there's going to be two parts and we're going to try to be as concise as possible due to late hour um for our staff report and the second part to start with that oddly enough will be just a presentation um that don and i will go through on this text amendment and and statutory development agreements and there is um the first part is an issue that was raised uh through a council member through an email that was sent to us earlier today the issue uh the concern that was raised was that there was a proposed text amendment i think don is pulling up the draft ordinance now um did not address or adequately addressed uh whether the planning commission had the ability to continue a development agreement hearing for three cycles as is allowed for uh zoning cases uh staff did review the proposed text and although it determined that the existing text would allow for such continuance uh we have proposed a minor revision to make it more explicit and if don scrolls down um you will see it highlighted uh we are now referencing in in in accordance with uh item c a public hearing by the planning commission in accordance with paragraph three five nine action by planning commission uh shall be required for any development agreement application that proposes modification to standards of this ordinance or is associated with the zoning map change the highlighted yellow part is the new part and that specifically references uh not only the notification requirements for uh the zoning public hearing but also uh the allowance of a uh three cycle continuance or maximum three cycle continuance and if plan commission does not act after that then they then the case moves forward without a recommendation um that that's what we just want to bring your attention and this is the this is the ordinance that we would ask for you to uh uh take action on tonight is attachment c noted revised nine twenty one twenty uh for this date and again as highlighted um that the specific highlighted phrase is in accordance with paragraph three five nine action by the planning commission that's the only change that was proposed um now on to the power point presentation and we'll try to be as brief as possible through this and again don is going to navigate for me um tc uh two zero zero three is uh for development agreements statutory development agreements are allowed per state statute um we listed the sections there and as recodified in 160 d one thousand one uh and all um the enabling legislation for cities and counties has been reorganized and consolidated into a new chapter called 160 d so that's why we reference that udos prohibit prohibited them until 2015 until text amendment removed that prohibition but there was no additional language that was put in the ud o so why now um there was a zoning proposal that you will ultimately see in at your october 19th meeting so don't add any more cases to that meeting um that was submitted to the city um that proposed for market rate additional or uh density bonus for market rate units using uh for the construction affordable housing units or land um that proposal didn't fit within the ud o affordable housing bonus provisions and thus planning and consultation with the city attorney's office determined that uh the develop a development agreement statutory development agreement was a potential pathway um and basically in short and don's going to go into more details about it it's an allowed regulatory tool for cities and counties to basically enter into contracts uh to obtain community benefits that zoning regulations cannot um and i the quote up there i'm not going to read it but that quote um comes straight from the statute um and ultimately just like any rezoning case um just like the case you had before you just now um it's up to city council or the board of commissioners depending upon the jurisdiction as whether the excise the tool and to whether to approve a development agreement or not it's a legislative decision um it's different from other uh development agreements the term is bandied about um often within city and county government um such as the old police station it's it's this is actually has statutory authority and procedures that go along with it and um there are other cities that use development agreements i haven't listed them all but we're out uh carry uses them chapel hill uses them extensively with u n c wilmington high point um i believe um uh pittsboro um and there are some others maybe i mentioned also in the state that were located uh reference in the staff report i'm sorry um and then now don's going to take over the actual statutory requirements good evening mayor and council this is don o tool from the city attorney's office like mike said just want to run through some of the statutory requirements that the city must go through before approving a development agreement just like any uh rezoning or text amendment um before entering into a development agreement newspaper notice and a public hearing is required in addition the statutes require that prior to that public hearing the development agreement copies of it must be made available to the public and as mike indicated there is if this text amendment is approved there is a development agreement that council will consider at one of its upcoming meetings um planning is making extra efforts to make sure that that development agreement is available to the public and anyone who wants a copy can get one um the other thing that the statute requires is the development agreement much like a rezoning or a u d o text amendment has to be approved through an ordinance adopted by um the governing body whether it's city council or the board of county commissioners um additional statutory requirements um a development agreement can either be standalone zoning for a property in that it could include all of the requirements or the development agreement could just be based on the the base zoning district and then the development agreement either supplement supplements or modifies that base zoning district the development agreement that you would see in a month or so it falls into that latter category it basically just supplements and slightly modifies the underlying zoning district um the statutes list out a bunch of uh different things that can be addressed through development agreements and that list is provided there permitted uses density building type intensity placement design features um what public facilities if any the development would provide to the community it can also include reservations or dedications of land for public purposes um an additional feature is it could also include additional protection if there are environmentally sensitive areas on a piece of property um another requirement of a development agreement is there actually has to be a development schedule that's part of the development agreement the agreement if it's approved and um signed by the parties it then gets recorded in the register of deeds and so it does what's called in legal circles as runs with with the land um you can also address in development agreements whatever public health safety and welfare concerns um may exist relative to that property that's a concern for the community um in addition development agreements um under conditions specified in the development agreement can be amended by mutual agreement of the parties in the development agreement that council will consider in a month only minor modifications to the development agreement are permissible if if a major modification were to be made it would need to go through the development agreement procedure approval procedure all over again and like um mike and i have said before approval of a development agreement um goes through all of the essential processes that are part of the rezoning of a property um planning commission must provide comments on the development agreement and just like any other rezoning that council is familiar with approval of the consistency statement is required so um so upon consultation with the city's attorney's office um it we went to jcc pc with um the three basic factors that we're going to go into the text amendment that you see up on the screen and that was also the same text that went to the planning commission for their consideration and through their public hearing and affirming the statement about doing development agreements that you do requirements if they were to be modified needed to be specified within the development agreement and eliminating a limit additional limiting factor that development agreements couldn't allow uses or housing types that were not otherwise permitted by the underlying zoning district so in the example that we've been talking about um it was the current zoning for that site is rs 20 they're asking for multifamily development they do need to rezone it and you will see the rezoning to a district that allows family rezoning um during the public hearing i'm sorry um during the public hearings there were uh additional like just just second mike hang on say Beverly i think you're unmuted beth i think you're unmuted okay good go ahead mike yeah no problem um so during the public hearings based upon a request from planning commissioners we added uh additional text um to add explicit requirements uh that uh the case does go to the p planning commission if associated with the rezoning or would modify udo standard um that it would follow uh the consistent with the zoning map change process in terms of requiring pre-submitted meeting neighborhood meetings and such um and then also staff added additional limitations they felt we felt were warranted in terms of uh not allowing any modifications to environmental protection standards um that includes tree coverage requirements additional stream buffers um steep slope requirements and and such uh watershed overlay a lot of that is state mandated but also the udo does go beyond state minimums in a lot of uh instances and that would uh that that's um added text there would prevent prevent any of those changes also so for um quick comparison uh city's attorney's office and planning department put together this uh kind of comparison chart here um regarding the proposed text language and whether it exceeds uh statutory requirements um uh only very only very udo requirements through a development agreement approved by apical government body it basically reiterates or makes explicit what the state statute says um cannot vary underlying allowable uses of the zoning district this is more restrictive uh shall not reduce environmental requirement uh more restrictive uh the um requiring a public hearing with uh the planning commission um it makes it more explicit uh to do it um and it does actually seem to exceed state statutory requirements where uh it appears that the statutory requirements only require going to city council um having a pre-submitted meeting and a neighborhood meeting also are not required by state law so that would exceed the requirements there um that's it for our presentation uh uh staff will be happy to answer any questions thank you very much thank you very much mr stock and mr otul we so appreciate all the good work you all have done on this and others that uh have worked on it thank you um uh colleagues you have heard the report from staff and i'm now going to declare this public hearing open i'm going to first ask if there are any questions uh for by members of the council for members of our staff and we do have uh when the time comes we do have three or four people it looks like signed up to speak on this colleagues any questions at this point for members of the staff i'm a council member freeman thank you i just had one question i'm recognizing has this been shared with the county already or are we first in this conversation i'm just making sure i just want to make sure that there are also in line for this same presentation oh sure yes they uh they will hold their hearing next monday on the 28th okay thank you um thank you i have a number of questions but i'm going to hold them until after the speakers but just want to make sure is anyone else has a question for mr stock or mr otul okay then we'll hear from our speakers um i have four names here um thomas merrigan talib graves man's michael rogers and edward llamas uh mr llamas is says he's not speaking um which if he wants to change his mind he can certainly do that i see he's here um and um so and then um yeah that's those are the ones that we have signed up uh mr merrigan is listed as an opponent uh the others are listed as proponents so i'm going to start with the proponents which is our uh custom and begin with talib graves man's mr man's are you with us still madame clerk is mr graves man's with us mr mayor i don't see mr um graves man's i don't either i think he may have left the meeting okay thank you uh we do have a call i'm sorry we do have a call in user and um they're available to speak and they have a hand raised okay uh could the call in user please identify them spells uh yes hello mayor shul this is ellen plus and i am speaking as an opponent this evening thank you miss plus miss plus we're going to begin with the proponents and then we will get you in of course thank you thank you so much um michael rogers mr rogers is here uh and madame clerk if you could make mr rogers available to speak yes mr rogers welcome and you have three minutes well thank you make mr mayor members of council and congratulations and thank you to mr bonfield as well um michael rogers from dh ic and here tonight just to offer my support for this measure i think it offers another important tool in the toolbox to put affordable housing on the ground and can offer some opportunities that might not otherwise be available to get affordable housing integrated into other development plans so for those reasons i think this could be a useful tool and i know myself and dh ic would look forward to be availability to use this to get more affordable housing developed as part of our thank you thank you mr rogers and while you're here mr rogers i am really enjoying seeing the construction going as well as it is uh on willard street and um so thank you all for that very exciting to see it see all that brick and mortar there thank you and uh we we really look forward to giving you a closer look i'm excited i want to cut a real ribbon not a virtual ribbon okay sounds good to me okay um thank you mr rogers we'll now hear from mr mr llamas would you like to speak uh you wrote down here you don't want to speak uh if you would like to speak please go ahead and just raise your hand okay um i will now ask um so uh let's see okay so deon nelson his sign-up speaks a proponent ron stort his sign-up speaks a proponent and uh and mayor pro tem is very funny okay um check her out in the chat um so uh we will uh we will begin we will continue with our proponents and we'll we'll not go now to miss deon nelson um if you could please make deon nelson available to speak madam clerk i believe i am open is that correct yes you are thank you welcome and you have three minutes thank you good evening i'm deon nelson i am president and ceo of laurel street residential we are a north carolina based mixed income housing developer uh it is our desire to do more affordable housing development with you in Durham and accordingly i'd like to express my support for this item it is our belief that development agreements will provide an additional mechanism to document the commitment in often cases of market rate developers to support affordable housing we have seen this tool used in a number of different other jurisdictions um where we have been able to collaborate with other developers to bring affordable housing in a into a larger scale often uh master plan community and we believe the tool can be used um in a like manner in Durham lastly i would say that this additional flexibility we believe could also be leveraged to support what is often complex affordable housing development processes so i'd like to use the expression we are often trying to thread a needle and really trying to work with multiple sources of financing multiple time deadlines multiple um complications that make affordable housing development sometimes difficult um i think that is probably one of the reasons you've you've seen your you've not seen your density bonus for affordable housing used because the realities of the work we do sometimes don't line up with the technicalities of the way we have written our rules and so this tool gives you the flexibility to decide when it's appropriate to make a different choice and hopefully that will allow us to serve you in the community of Durham um more frequently thank you thank you miss nelson and we're so so we're thrilled to have laurle street working so much in Durham now we're really glad you're here thank you thank you sir and now we hear from mr ron stort could you make mr stort available to be heard please madam clerk good evening can you hear me yes uh you have three minutes mr stort welcome great thank you mr mayor um again my name is uh ronald steward i am senior vice president of lull street uh again thanks for having us uh to kind of reiterate uh several points that dion made previously we believe uh i want to speak in uh in favor uh of this text amendment uh and i want to make kind of i guess uh four key points so one from a planning perspective i believe that development agreements have been instrumental instrumental in allowing creative land use because the agreements can facilitate projects that would not have been allowed under otherwise applicable zoning regulations uh additionally i believe that development agreements provided an alternate alternative when literal compliance with the zoning ordinance prevents uh the desired outcome it was stated earlier that the density bonus that's currently in place has not been utilized to date by entering into development agreements communities can avoid the uncertainties around land use since the components and the requirements uh embedded in these development agreements are agreed to in advance uh with planning staff and uh city council members and then lastly i would like to say that the fact that a development agreement is recorded provides a convenient mechanism for binding future owners to the requirements and the obligations that's been created by the agreement so again uh you know lull street is very proud to be working into them and we think this is a very valuable tool that aids in our ability to provide much needed affordable housing thank you thank you so much mr steward all right um i see miss plus and i also see um katie rose levin as a speaker miss levin are you a proponent or an opponent could you let us know in the chat i asked because we have to be careful about time give everybody the time they need opponent okay thank you okay all right um i'm going to um first uh go to miss plus and madam clerk uh if you could please make miss plus available to be heard uh miss plus uh the opponents have up to nine minutes and so i see two speakers who are opponents so you could have up to you know a little over four minutes if you need it can you hear this less uh yes hi i wasn't sure if i was unmuted i'm so sorry yes hello good evening thank you for the opportunity to address council tonight um on this um i am opposed to tc two quintuple zero three as it is currently written and ask that you please vote against this item um i am concerned with the language that was proposed to members of derms planning commission on august 11th i see that there's been a very recent um change in the pending text language according to mr stock's presentation um however i'm currently looking at the udo uh 3.5.9 section 3 which reads except in the case of expedited hearings pursuant to paragraph 3.5.9 c excuse me expedited hearing the commission shall make its recommendation within three consecutive regular commission cycles approximately 90 days total of its initial public hearing um and i guess my problem is that uh one of the reasons the commission specifically it was actually commissioner baker specifically asked for that language was because of course the commission has been placed in a very awkward position uh on the zoning case that is going to be following this amendment that is then in case b 19 triple zero 36 fairington road which i believe laurel street is a party to and um so if i understood the meaning of commissioner baker's inquiry correctly he was trying to make sure that in no way could the planning commission's ability to continue an item or form a subcommittee be negatively impacted in future issues involving statutory development agreement um the way that the article that mr stock just referred to is written still continues to contain the ability to seek an expedited hearing i feel that an expedited hearing is not in the public interest with regard to a statutory development agreement because of the unique and complex durable and long lasting implications of this specific type of zoning tool this is not the same as the development plan this is a very different animal that locks in specified custom tailored zoning for a prolonged period of time it's almost like purchasing a form of zoning insurance um and because of that uh it is unlike anything that is available to normal citizens under the u d o and so it does create a separate and unequal method for performing development in Durham going forward if this is approved um as a long time during Durham resident i have a problem with that the fact that we've all lived under the u d o together for a long time has actually served Durham well and i think creating a separate and unequal way of performing development is not in Durham's best interest um let me see i have a couple of notes here as well uh let's see yeah i i think it is a problem uh to have our city in a position where it could be placed in a conflicted position of essentially selling zoning insurance for trade while simultaneously being tasked with writing and enforcing the u d o and developing the new comprehensive plan it's kind of like we're offering insurance against those policies while we're developing those policies and i'm i'm just not comfortable with that um Durham does support affordable housing initiatives absolutely um and we've heard calls from your other speakers using this device for the purpose of seeking affordable housing but there's nothing written into this text amendment despite multiple statements uh by not only members of the community but also by your planning submission are many people have asked you know why isn't this just being reserved for affordable housing we still do not have any specific definition as to what other uses this could be used for the lack of scope the lack of specificity of scope is a problem um your public doesn't know how you intend to use this going forward beyond the one case where it is being used for affordable housing and there's been no offer to rein it in so i would really appreciate for you all if you could to please narrow that down for your public and tell us exactly how these powers are going to be used beyond affordable housing in Durham um i'm sorry for my lack of not my lack of organization here beyond that i would just ask that you please understand the expertise uh that was put forward by your planning commissioners they are experts and expert opinion is not misinformation commissioners Baker Busby Morgan Miller Santiago Alturk Johnson Williams Landfried and amondolia all voted against this they determined that it was neither responsible nor in the public interest and that it is not consistent with the comprehensive plan please council join them and vote against this inappropriate and underformed text amendment or try to restrict it solely for the purposes of seeking affordable housing and capturing that thank you very much thank you miss plus and i would say your remarks are never disorganized you always present um highly organized and uh and uh important argument so thank you for being here uh we'll now hear from katie rose levin and madam clerk if you could make miss levin available to speak uh miss levin welcome and you also have a little more than four minutes thank you very much i appreciate it i'm actually sort of an opponent and also a proponent at the same time um in the same way i am proponent for led lights but an opponent in the way that they were implemented so development agreements are a very powerful tool that could do really good things for Durham and the fairington road uh zoning is a great example of it however they've been rushed through fairly quickly and the expert people you've nominated onto the planning commission but anonymously uh sorry not anonymously unanimously against them because they did not contain the type of public outreach and the type of guardrails that Durham needs to ensure an equitable process one of the things that the planning commission and you all are hearing on a regular basis is that some of our less well connected less well resource neighborhoods really have a hard time getting their voices heard during development um development agreements and the way it's written hasn't addressed this at all in fact it aggravates it a bit because uh the development agreements can be worked out completely with the planning department and to a pretty finished form prior to public notification the other thing is as we're doing a comprehensive plan and these development agreements move forward they would supersede what the public is saying that they want in the comprehensive plan earlier jillian uh i'm sorry commissioner johnson was referring to the idea that we're not quite sure what we're doing in one area of the city well if there's a development agreement worked out there it wouldn't matter what you want to do because it's already there um so the reason why i'm an opponent is because the way it's written excludes public input doesn't list and um does not incorporate the expert advice from planning commission for limiting of scope or addressing the very real problem of our particularly communities of color not having authentic buy-in to the process but the reason i'm a proponent is if this is delayed and sent back to the planning department to put in those guardrails we really could use it as a very effective tool not only for affordable housing and environmental amenities but to create a vision for Durham where we hold developers accountable so i would uh i would request that taking lessons from everything we've heard of tonight with the led lights of a good idea but needs to be more thought out and questioned in the execution and some of the rezoning requests very pro trees Durham very pro conservation subdivision make sure it's appropriate here in the same way development agreements can be a really powerful tool as long as it's made more appropriate for Durham based on the expert advice of your citizen advisory boards and also the people who've written in who honestly are pretty confused because the process itself of putting together a development agreement has been pretty confusing and that doesn't bode really well for the plans that would come out from using the development agreements so i know that that is a little more nuanced than just opponent or proponent but my final request is to send it back to planning to put in those guardrails at the planning commission requested and then do vote it forward so we can have this really effective tool that is both engaging of all of our communities and promotes environmental sustainability and equitable development thank you you thank you very much thank you very much miss levin all right is there anyone else here who would like to be heard on this issue okay i don't see anyone else all right colleagues is are there questions at this point for members of the staff council member reese thank you mr mayor we heard from a couple of opponents about the planning commission vote on this item i just want to clarify the report that we have uh from the attachment d in our agenda item agenda materials it's number five um indicates the vote was four to ten so four planning commissioners um voted uh would have recommended approving the ordinance and i believe commissioner baker was one of those four staff could confirm that for me that would be great i miss plus mentioned uh that commissioner baker voted against the ordinance and his levin indicated that the vote was unanimous against the ordinance i just want to make sure that we have that the staff report is correct uh so if someone would let me know that that'd be great it was a vote four to ten and uh do you not do i think that cal's member reese is also asking if you know who the four were i would have to look that back up i don't know off hand okay thanks all right uh i have some questions um um a couple of planning commissioners have written that elected officials will help form the development agreements and then vote on them what will the role of elected officials be in this process mr stock the role of elected officials would be the same as roles that they play in any of the zoning or text amendments uh role of elected officials would be to hold their legislative hearing and also be able to ask questions of staff as they see fit prior to the hearings and then vote vote on it accordingly just as with any zoning or text amendment it would again it would be legislative and it would be up to council or board of commissioners if it was their jurisdiction to vote it up or down so council members would not be participating in any negotiations prior to the uh you know negotiated development agreement prior to it coming to us that sort of thing that i believe they could if they so chose um again the processor we're implementing would be exactly the same as um the zoning cases uh that go before you if if there is a change in the proposed change in the udo standards or it's associated with the rezoning they would have an opportunity to discuss their issues with the applicants and make staff aware of the concerns that they have prior to any public hearing which is the process now correct but uh let me just say this um when i'm trying to get at us staff in in having that discussion with the developer would not be bringing elected officials in not at the current process in terms of the early proposals um if they if um council so choose we could work that into the process no i don't i don't think we so choose okay no mr. mayor i would like to have talked to council staff about that i that's the first i've heard of even that being a suggestion yeah the reason it's a suggestion is it's been suggested by the planning commission that we would be doing that i mean i i'm just saying clearly we would not be doing that we have no desire to be in on that and and uh uh you know that's not our role um i i agree that you know mr. stock that that we we all of us meet with developers and we meet with neighborhoods and we meet with all kinds of people around these developments development plans that we get now i would anticipate as you said that we might do that same thing but we're not going to be asking to any negotiations between staff and and uh and developers uh and i just want to say i think that's appropriate and and i and that was a major concern that i saw expressed at least by one of the planning commissions i just they'll really feel the need to put that to rest um how is the public input process proposal for development agreements different from what exists now for development plans and how will public notification to neighbors be the same or different any differences as proposed as proposed no differences um we actually with in reference to the the case that will be coming before you in october once it was uh understood that in order that that the development agreement process was was the the best process to use for this particular proposal we had asked the developer to go ahead and do a neighborhood meeting even though they already had the rezoning in and they went ahead and did that but the same notification has gone out to to all property owners using the same notification that was used for zonings and going forward the notification process would be the same the public meeting requirement would be the same as with development plans is that is that right correct how will the role of planning commission vary with development agreements from what happens with development plans um as proposed it wouldn't be any different um again um if there is any if the development agreement touches any modification of the udo or is associated with rezoning then it will go through the planning commission uh public hearing process prior to going to any elected body and and and the the concern that miss plus raised about expedited hearings um would there be any difference but in expedited hearing or procedures with development plans and development agreements not that i'm aware of uh those are completely uh at the that they are only a request made to a governing body and there's specific uh criteria to even granting uh for the governing body to even consider uh granting an expedited hearing and is and um it's the governing body's choice whether to uh require the planning commission uh to not continue the case beyond its its first uh hearing date it also does not require the governing body to um make a decision at its first public hearing case the governing body can so choose just because it's an expedited hearing uh they can so choose to continue it as long as they felt necessary so the for an expedited hearing the council would have to again approve it as we did with the current with the recent case is that correct and you also did that i believe with the police station rezoning site too the um how is the way staff will relate to developers different or the same from what happens now with development um i don't see it any different um beyond the fact that there's a lot more um and maybe don can go into it a little bit more um a lot more legal work involved um because it is a contract a binding contract uh with a with an entity to start off with but does run with the land zoning runs with the land too um we shouldn't make any uh uh questions about that um and both can be changed through a legislative process um but i don't know if don wants to talk a little bit more about the city attorney's role in development agreements over their experience with development plans sure uh may or should to answer your question and again don a tool from the city attorney's office there is no doubt that a development agreement is more complicated to put together than development plan text commitments or graphical commitments the development agreement associated with the fairington road affordable housing project that's a 40 page contract um and i i don't i don't drive policy for the city but i i don't really see development agreements being used that frequently because it is sort of a complicated thing to put together um in this particular case we used we we propose using a development agreement because it's the logical best legal tool to effectuate this project and um it was community development's opinion planning's opinion i i worked with those departments we worked in consultation with the manager's office um we believe that this project because of the affordable housing that was being offered that it fit within the policy that has been expressed by council and that's why that extra effort of putting together the development agreement um that's why we went through that effort with respect to this project thank you mr otul um and you've already answered my next question uh regarding um development agreements will not be able to weaken existing environmental rules that means among other things not being able to weaken tree planting regulations and so forth is that correct mr stop that's correct the language before you would prevent that from happening can you wonder some other um there there's been concern expressed about that uh they're more um that this agreement allows different kinds of things to happen as part of a development agreement beyond affordable housing that the other things could be um part of the development agreements uh could you talk about that mr stock and what your thoughts are about that i i think it it's it's going to be hard to pinpoint it um the best way i could answer that is that there's going to be a range of community benefits that uh governing body council or even board of commissioners is going to uh make a parent um and that a development agreement may be able to add not just affordable housing but maybe workforce development maybe there's uh some uh uh benefits on both sides of the city and when whoever part entity they're going into agreement with that that can create some uh benefits that aren't can't be realized through rezoning um through those um there's also other jurisdictions have done capital improvement projects um and how they are uh built and proposed and paid for through development agreements um so there's a wide range of things um that could be done through a development agreement affordable housing we've seen as one of them and seen as a a viable tool for that and i assume the planning commission would then take its guidance from the council as you have with this priority that is uh i assume that that the planning department would be working with council's priorities in terms of any any uh anything that was anything they were negotiating with developer in terms of in terms of the development agreement is that true yeah absolutely um and we would be working it wouldn't just be the planning department we would be working with other partner departments too as we had with the current one community development city attorney's office and consultation with the manager's office so these could have other community benefits could a community benefit be a park possibly sure yes um could a community benefit be you mentioned uh some sort of workforce development um and and when you say capital projects in in other cities um um did you have anything particular in mind mr stock um i know the one i referenced in the staff report was carries and they were uh theirs was their development agreement was also part of rezoning um and theirs was a focus on capital improvements the schedule for when they were going to be done who is going to pay for them that that kind of that kind of thing there was a number of other items in their development agreement too but that was one of the things that they focused on but what kind of capital improvements were uh infrastructure uh i see the connection that kind of stuff i see thank you and so that was okay i understand okay um i believe those are my questions any other questions colleagues council member freeman thank you i really appreciate um the speed at which uh our staff has been working to try and incorporate some of the feedback from the community and from our planning commissioners and i had a question regarding who can initiate these developer agreements just like a rezone not just like a rezoning but most likely with most rezonings uh any entity or person so the community would be able to request a developer agreement and say walltown with the neighboring apartment complex being or being proposed um i think at at a basic level yes i think it gets more complicated because it is a contract where there needs to be a legal advice on all sides of the contract and just noting so i hear the the conversation around why you wouldn't restrict it to affordable housing acknowledging that there's a workforce aspect and there's a you know open space aspects is there any reason why a time limit hasn't been considered for this land use developer agreement the time limits are built into the development agreement itself there's an actual schedule that's built in and that's required by state statute can you say more about that time limit well it depends upon the development agreement um but the one that's going to be coming forward before you um in october uh sets the provision of construction guarantees for the affordable housing units to jen uh june of 2024 um and in which case if that is not actualized then the city can um and done correctly if i'm wrong um the city can exercise this option to purchase the land for ten dollars uh you said there's a city option built into this agreement the one that's going to come forward for you in october yes yes part of the development agreement yes and then just acknowledging uh there are many instances where developers kind of call meetings with council members that could be seen as um non-transparent and acknowledging that they're involved in a development conversation with planning staff and that might be what communities talk about when they say that maybe councils the point that they should direct to um to have public engagement because this does not provide them a public engagement access point until the prop to the agreement is fully put together and so um i just want to note that and then there's also just that comment um that miss plus made about it being separate and unequal that strikes me as appalling um acknowledging that the udo was set up and these piecemeal approach to adjusting it with text commitments has always caused me a little bit of angst and i acknowledge that this um these this developer agreement tool is the the only tool or the tool that we're talking about right now but there needs to be a lot more handles or rails as um miss uh rosen levin gave me some language around uh that would be helpful that could actually like spur on shared economic prosperity so to speak and so acknowledging that that is not included in this developer agreement conversation um it concerns me that we've turned the word affordable housing into a keyword that is thrown out by developers and folks uh think that that's enough so just acknowledging that this this issue around affordable housing is not just about the house it's actually about the affordability and for communities like walltown or um bragged town and many others that are experiencing a huge increase of developer presence and developer um attention they're not sure what their um kind of access points are in these conversations and it would be great if that could be spelled out a little bit more clearly so that people in the community can feel like they're a part of the conversation at at and what points they should be offering input to make sure that we're all on the same page because uh as you mentioned the legal ability of folks in the community to to address a 40 page contract might be cumbersome and so if we're not creating a level playing field it feels like this becomes another tool for developers and not so much for community and I just want to make sure that's um clarified I would also add that they there was a so the expedited hearing aspect I'm I'm trying to to kind of wreck to kind of part or piece it together or parse it together parse it out because I acknowledge that the developer agreement aspect was removed or the language was changed to remove it and so it appeared like it was like it was prohibited and so we're trying to rectify that issue but I feel like we're going to create an unintended consequence of locking some folks out of the conversations that they're currently in and I want to give them some assurances like we're giving developers assurances that there will be ways for them to to give input and um other than that I think that was all I had so far but thank you thank you council member council member freeline thank you mr mayor um wow it's late um I just had a couple questions uh so am I correct in hearing that there's something is going to come before us in October that this development agreement was thrown together to allow and that there's this kind of specific project we have in mind that this would be that we're implementing this for is that correct mr on tool council member freeline so the there are currently development agreement statutes under north carolina law and there is a proposal that is going to come to council at its october 19th meeting that's the farrington road affordable housing project so that that does include a developer agreement that agreement could come to council before council without this proposed text change but I hope it wasn't lost on council one of the slides that Mike presented was that the development agreement text change that's before council tonight that actually imposes additional restrictions on development agreements here in Durham so development agreements are legal in the state of north carolina durham could enter into a development agreement without this text change the proposed text change before council tonight includes additional guardrails addition uh environmental regulations cannot be lowered um it's got to go before the planning commission and adhere to the planning commission procedures um that's what this text commitment does it includes additional restrictions on how durham uses development agreements and and these restrictions wouldn't only pertain to the october uh farrington project but it would just be that's correct these text changes will be incorporated into the udo and any other future development agreement would need to follow the procedures in the proposed text language and would be subject to these limitations okay uh okay yeah that was my question thank you thank you councilmember that's one of the dangers of being appointed as things happen before you got here and so I understand there's a learning curve councilmember middleton thank you mr marron i want to thank the staff for the work they've done on this issue um you know I can pick up a knife and use it as a murderer i can use it with the precision of a surgeon that's the nature of tools um there isn't a tool that's been invented that cannot be or not not be abused um any tool in the government arsenal uh is subject to abuse or or brilliant employment for the good of people just run down a list you can do it alphabetically and and we can come up with an abuse or a good employment of it there's nothing uh at least in my assessment that's been inherently moral or beyond corruption particularly in the hands of a government um and and elections have consequences one of the things we've been most frustrated about in Durham is having our values frustrated by federal structure and state structure we we even invented a phrase to Durham work around how can we get around things that block us from demonstrating and concretizing our values gun laws keep us from acting um we can't force developers to do affordable housing because the state won't let us this is a tool that already exists in state statute this is one of those things where Durham could take it in Durham's way and actually use it to do some of the things that we've been frustrated in doing in other areas this is one of those moments where there's there's there's a crack of light if you would in that dark facade that that the state legislature oftentimes puts up in front of us um so so with that said you know one of my heroes is is is Maynard Jackson former mayor of Atlanta uh who's in league with the current mayor that I'm on with tonight uh one of my heroes is Maynard Jackson um who one of the reasons why Atlanta was able to build this incredible uh black not only middle class but wealthy class is because there uh mayor Jackson could use um they didn't call them development agreements but they were de facto the same type of things to to secure uh uh contracts uh and benefits and set asides for the black community uh in Durham that airport that bears his name is one of the examples of being able to leverage government power uh for the good um the when I was uh my days with Durham can our sister organization in Baltimore um when Under Armour was looking to build uh their campus uh in Baltimore uh they were able to to our sister organization in Baltimore was able in working with the city to secure I've it was a ridiculous amount of money uh millions and millions and millions of dollars in in community development and other things uh in order to allow Under Armour to build that water facility that that water facility uh in Baltimore so this tool um is something that I think we can do a lot of good with um beyond affordable housing I mean there are a there are a number of things we can do and and if you Durham elect uh uh elected officials who you trust with power and access and influence if you elect people who are going to be cutting deals with uh developers and and using that access to kind of short circuit our values and shame on us uh elections have consequences so so I'm not going to pretend that any tool we have could not be abused but but this is one of those tools where alas we have an opportunity to because listen the the truth of the matter is our affordable housing density bonus it don't work nobody uses it uh it has not worked and it's been on the books for a minute um here we have uh an opportunity a tool that we can use a la Jackson made our Jackson to to to forward our values uh and I take very seriously every concern every critique every criticism that the opponent's raised tonight it's the kind of stuff that that I entered politics to fight against um but I do want to point out that that that July 21st 2020 meeting where that vote was taken some other things have been added and I heard the term guardrails used and there are some language that speaks specifically to those guardrails um and finally with respect to to council members getting involved in negotiations and I want to associate myself with the mayor's admonition that we shouldn't be doing that here's how we do insert ourselves in negotiation the staff listens to us it's our job as elected to to clearly articulate the vision and values of the city and our staff is the number one group of people in the country that it's certified they're award-winning uh in taking the values of the elected uh representatives of the people of this city and integrating them and concretizing them in their negotiation and what they bring back to us our staff knows the heart if you will of this council and the values of this city and time and time again they have been trusted to go and do their due diligence and bring us back proposals and recommendations that align with our values sometimes we adopt them wholesale sometimes we have to tell them to go back and work on it so we you know if this thing runs the way it's supposed to run we don't really need to insert ourselves into the nuts and bolts of negotiation because we've already clearly articulated through our comprehensive plan to our strategic uh vision um um uh through our values to our value statements what it is we expect uh as a council and what we'll ultimately vote for the staff is not interested in wasting their time and bringing us back something that they know is totally contrary to what we've articulated uh police headquarters is one of the examples the the the 505 West Chapel Hill Street one of those examples so I with that said I hear every critique I am satisfied that the staff has has done their due diligence and crossed the threshold where we can finally take something uh a tool that the state makes available to us and operationalize an a la Durham uh uh according to our values and and have people in place that will insulate us from abuse of this tool surgeon or serial killer tools neutral it's who's employing it and who picks it up uh that makes the difference um so with that I'm prepared uh to adopt this text amendment thank you Mr. Mayor thank you colleagues thank you staff and thank you to the residents and citizens who came out tonight and are holding us accountable and keeping us focused on who we need to be thank you Mr. Mayor thank you councilmember Middleton colleagues I'm going to close this public hearing and um now uh and we I'd like to hear from other colleagues but I think I'll go ahead and make my remarks because I'm tired and if I go another five minutes I probably won't remember my remarks um I just want to say everything that councilmember Middleton said uh is absolutely spot on absolutely spot on um and I am you know when I think about the the the critical the number one priority in our community is affordable housing the concerns that ever so much is associated with that and you know our our recent community survey again shows that this is as councilmember Middleton said a tool that we have never been able to use and now will be able to assertively use our staff to try to help us get some more affordable housing and you saw you heard two and we've already heard from CASA through email and then we heard from DHIC and Laurel Street tonight those are our preeminent affordable housing developers who say this will be a useful tool for them what we get now is the problem what we get now is development plans where we have no ability to get any community benefits and here we are with a real opportunity now and and and mark Anthony said this to be able for our staff to be able to interpret the the priorities of the council and and Mike Stock said this as well to work with developers to try to negotiate for some of these important community benefits that we have been wanting and not been able to get this is important this is a an important positive change this has the same protections in it as the as our development plans do and in terms of special treatment my sense of where the special treatment will be special treatment there won't be special treatment what there will be is the developer that comes in and says I want to include affordable housing in my development which we have been trying to get someone to do we'll get the attention of the staff and as Mr. O'Toole said it takes you know it takes time and energy to work these things out it's not special treatment that's the treatment anybody ought to get who's doing something good and bringing us some community benefits right now we exist in a system of special treatment where the developer comes to us and and there's no way we get any community benefits from them we can ring almost nothing from it that's special treatment worried I'll just be honest with you about what I see is the planning commission's disinterest in housing affordability whether it be through their actions on this or their actions on expanding housing choices and I am really concerned that that is not an important part of their perspective that they don't give it the priority that it deserves and I don't think that's representing our community's values I do think that there's something important that we need to continue to do and we need to really be pushing forward in our planning with our planning department and that is we've got to be doing more small area planning I'm going to continue to bang this drum and we've as young as talked about that with us recently and I think when we talk about the Searle's area we can talk about that more but I do I am concerned as planning commissioners are as Ms. Laban is about community input but I don't think that that is in any way lessened by this by these development agreements I think that in fact our community's values get much more assertively activated in this so I think it's really important and it's it's it's I'm very grateful to our staff for bringing it to us okay other comments council mayor pro tem there we go thank you mr mayor I also wanted to thank our staff for all the work that has been done on this proposal I think that reading through the emails of residents who have concerns about the proposal I feel like our planning staff has been able to respond constructively to the majority of those concerns around this being a tool that could be used to that there would be less public input that it could be a tool that could be used to reduce environmental restrictions all of those pieces I think the the one piece that is just difficult to address broadly because I think it's inherent in any kind of um it it's exist in any sort of zoning conversation that we're already having is the is this idea of um of what what you said mayor shill about developers getting special treatment or council members cutting backroom deals with developers and that there's this sort of untransparent um conversation that's happening in between between council members and developers or between our staff and developers and that that's somehow creating um it's it's kind it's like this sort of a a conspiracy that there's a conspiracy going on to to make these things happen and I just wanted to speak directly to that conversation because I think that it's being deployed at this specific instance when in reality this is just another tool for zoning and if we're if if what we're concerned about is the power that developers have um to to shape the city and that we're concerned that residents don't have that same power that already exists in in what we have in our zoning code um a lot of which is beyond our control and is dictated by um by the state what this tool I think allows us to do is to actually is to actually go beyond some of the restrictions that we face and create agreements that that benefit our city and that illustrate the vision that we have as a community um this gives it doesn't just give developers flexibility it also gives us as a community flexibility to create the kind of developments um that we want and yeah there there's a certain amount of there's a certain amount of distrust that I think is inherent in um just you know the attitude toward government all government all the time and that's you know it's not unreasonable governments have done a lot of bad things we've made a lot of mistakes um but I think in this case we as a council have made our intentions extremely clear that our goal with regarding like as regards these zoning cases and planning cases um that one of our highest goals is to provide more affordable housing for the community and through this we are we are following that vision and we are applying um we are applying ourselves to that goal there there really isn't any other agenda it's it's this is what we want to use the tool for this is what it's for um I think that there may be other circumstances in which this tool would be useful for things like you know like providing more open space trails parks all these things that we have trouble getting now from developers because of the restrictions that we're under and also in those cases I think it would be very clear to our residents what our priorities are what our vision is and how we're using this tool to um to enact that vision much like any other zoning conversation you know there we do have power in this community we are you know we are elected to um to hold a certain amount of power over over how these decisions get made but that isn't going to change um because of a new tool that's that is um that is just inherent in the system that we have and so what I would invite residents to do is is to you know is to watch what we do and to hold us accountable to our stated values and goals we are saying our priority is to create affordable housing um and we are voted in based on that priority and if we aren't serving those goals and we aren't serving our our stated values and priorities then we should be held accountable for that um but I I believe very much that this is a tool that will allow us to further the vision that we have all expressed of the kind of community that we want to build um and that our voters are perfectly capable of um our residents are perfectly capable of you know expressing when when we fail and holding us accountable for um for making wrong decisions if we if we were to use that tool for you know for for any purpose other than moving our community forward so I I appreciate the opportunity to um to implement something that might actually help us build more affordable housing in our community and greatly appreciate our staff for all the work that they've done um to bring this proposal this is going to change a lot of people's lives and we we need we need more housing for for folks in Durham and it's just it's got to be top priority for all of us thanks thank you councilmember would anyone else like to be heard at this time anyone else councilmember reese thank you mr mayor um are you guys able to hear me okay okay great um I want to I intend to support this ordinance tonight and I just want to call out something that councilmember middleton mentioned about the fact that um we are elected to um achieve good for the people of this city um and this measure adds another tool I think it could be a powerful tool our friends in the affordable housing development community tell us it's a really powerful tool but I think it's another tool we can use to achieve good for the people of this city and it's not just about affordable housing there's lots of other ways it can be used um and we uh many of us most of us maybe all of us uh ran for office uh with the promise that we would get more um out of the things that developers want to do in this city I know I did um now our staff has uh heard us and heard the people of this city and they have come to us with this tool um not only is it a powerful tool for doing good it's also got the same in fact more transparency and engagement uh than is required by law um and is nearly identical in form and content to the existing zoning process that we have now and there's lots of problems with the current zoning process uh I'll be the first to admit that but it's no worse than that um and the final thing I will say is that I've heard a lot of folks we got a good number of emails on this uh unfortunately most of them were the same text cut and pasted and one of the sentences in that um in that email says I think we can build more housing in Durham without casting aside the principles of equity and good government as this amendment would do there's nothing in this ordinance that would do that nothing um and let me just make this pledge today that I'm a member of this city council that's going to vote for this ordinance and this council has the ability to change this ordinance in a month or a year if we see it being used that way um I'm certainly not going to vote to approve um a development agreement that casts aside principles of equity and good government that that proposes or it supposes to tell the people of a community what's good for them instead of engaging with them about what they think they need in order to live lives that are successful uh and and have value um that's not why any of us are here um and so all that is to say that my pledge is to not have this be a situation where we vote for an ordinance and then forget about it um because I don't think that's going to happen we're going to have developers that use it uh especially that our friends in the affordable housing community um and so we're going to see these come through it'll be a great opportunity for us to see if it works um if we think uh after we see some of these that uh the the community engagement is lacking that the developers aren't taking it seriously we have the power to change that we can make it harder um but I'm willing to give it a try because I told the voters of the city that I would do that um and so I intend to vote for the measure again thanks thankful to staff for coming up with this and also thankful to members of the planning commission I don't sometimes I disagree with some of the things that some of those members say but the truth is their involvement and desire to improve this ordinance has given us a better product past tonight so I'm grateful to them and hope we can continue to engage with them um on how uh how we can translate our values into actual good for the people of the city thank you Mr Mayor thank you council member other comments council member freeman and then council member cabillero thank you I I um I just wanted to make sure that I clarified the point I was concerned about the misconception around affordable housing there's a big difference between affordability and affordable housing and I want to be clear that the the focus that I have is not on affordable housing it is about affordability and making that sustainable and just making sure that it's clear that the this I agree um with what council member middleton and mayor pro tem johnson and um council member reese I have already stated and I can imagine that council member cabillero will as well but um I just wanted to just make sure that we're clear that the the guard rails will need to be um aligned as well around shared prosperity because the I think the affordable housing conversation continues to be a drum that is not getting us to affordable housing and I am concerned about the communities that I mentioned because there is an angst about the way in which planning and zoning has been conducted since the inception of planning and zoning um and how it's had impact on communities of color so just noting that this this conversation around affordable housing doesn't get to the crux of what actually is um an angst that people have had around being displaced in communities that are experiencing gentrification and why that's happening so these disinvestments like it has to be a deeper conversation around what um the affordability of housing means because otherwise we're going to continue to get cases where um there's no site plan and we can't see what's happening to develop any anyway I just want to make sure that this is not missed in this conversation because I completely understand why we would support the development agreement tool but I just know that that's not enough and so as a progressive community it's going to be be holding to us as a council to make sure that we're putting the guard rails in place um as we move forward so thank you thank you councilmember councilmember cabillera thank you I plan on supporting um this this evening and I just want to thank staff for all their diligent work the memo is excellent I think that we you know as um Mr. O'Toole said earlier this could have gone without all of these extra uh guard rails that have been put into place we were allowed to do this through state statute and the fact that staff acknowledged that it wasn't to the standard that we need in Durham specifically around environmental concerns community engagement that it needed to be more robust is why we're here tonight and so I just want to think again that we caught this we were able to make something stronger better um we will also be able to update it if needed if if developers for for whatever reason abuse this tool and I am really really excited and what I also heard really loud and clear is that our affordable housing partners are also really really excited and uh that is tremendously important I know that folks in laurels folks like laurel street have done really good things around this in charlotte and in other communities and so I'm excited to see what we can do here in Durham thank you thank you councilmember one councilmember reese thank you mr mayor I I misspoke earlier uh when we were talking about the vote at the planning commission on this particular ordinance uh it was 4 to 10 uh recommending denial but the four were commissioners kenshin durkin low and mackyver I misspoke earlier not apologize thank you councilmember all right colleagues um if there are no other comments um we can proceed to action on this the first motion will be to adopt the appropriate consistency statement so moved second moved by councilmember reese second by councilmember milton madam clerk we please call the roll mayor shul uh mayor pro tem johnson hi councilmember caballero hi councilmember freelon hi councilmember freeman hi councilmember middleton hi vote aye councilmember reese hi thank you I'm sorry madam clerk what was the vote I missed it was it um seven seven to zero seven to zero thank you my mind is wandering at this hour the motion passes seven to zero the second motion will be to adopt an ordinance amending the udo so moved second moved by councilmember reese seconded by councilmember freelon I think councilmember milton sorry we we all look alike oh my god oh that woke me up it's late but it's not that late lord of mercy I agree that you and councilmember reese look it's okay oh dear oh dear yeah council moved by councilmember reese seconded by councilmember middleton that we adopt the ordinance amending the udo madam clerk will you please call the roll mayor shul hi mayor pro tem johnson hi councilmember caballero hi councilmember freelon hi councilmember freeman I so want to vote nay but yay councilmember middleton I vote aye councilmember reese I so want to vote yeah and I'm voting yeah thank you councilman thank you colleagues the the eyes have it in the motion passes seven to zero uh don uh mike and everybody on staff uh who brought this to us thank you very much we appreciate you thank you uh mr manager um I think this is the last minute of your last meeting do you want to well mr mayor I just wanted to say thank you uh all again for a wonderful wonderful evening uh but I want you to know I'm terribly disappointed that you didn't make it midnight because I wanted to add another I wanted to add another full hour to my uh my clock you know we could sit here for 18 minutes no we can't um no we have a work session on Thursday you're more than welcome it is now we're getting closer to my full year thank you all again we'll see you Thursday Tom thank you colleagues I'm gonna turn this yeah thank you I'm going to adjourn this meeting at 1141 p.m thank you colleagues for hanging in there good night great work tonight