 one minute to air the live stream has started recording in progress the afternoon good afternoon Bull City Durham North Carolina we are here today and beautiful downtown Durham and our city hall and council chambers for a special meeting this afternoon for the ARPA funds that we will be talking about today on May 18 2020 here at 2 p.m. I'm gonna ask our clerk if she will call the roll I do know that Mayor Pro Tem Middleton is running a little late but we'll be here and once we call the roll I am going to turn this meeting over to our two colleagues who have been leading this effort and that will be Councilwoman Javier Caballero and Councilman Leonardo Williams madam clerk if you call the roll Miro Neil I am present Mayor Pro Tem Middleton is delayed councilmember Caballero here councilmember Freeman present councilmember Hyman here councilmember Johnson here and councilmember Williams here thank you right you're capable hands thank you Mary O'Neill good afternoon everyone thank you for joining us either via zoom or in in the audience today today we'll be taking up the long held up and we apologize ARPA process I want to do a little bit of background and context of where we are in this moment to to let us kind of reframe the conversation so that my colleagues know what we are undertaking today I want to first thank councilmember Williams for helping me along this process and all my colleagues for having really good one-on-one conversations I think last summer staff city staff undertook a community-driven ARPA process and I think that I can speak on behalf of all my colleagues to say that we are very pleased with the process it took a lot of effort both from community members and city staff to get us to this point and I also want to thank everyone for applying and for being part of this process with us in December we as council council members received a work session item that laid out where we were with the staff process and the staff recommendation at that time council was not ready to make a decision both Mayor Elaine O'Neill and Leonardo well councilmember Leonardo Williams had just been sworn in and it was a large undertaking a large decision to make so we paused the process and decided that we would continue conversations knowing that none of us on council or very few of us on council were completely prepared to follow the staff recommendation at the time from that point mayor O'Neill asked me and councilmember Williams if we would take up the charge and councilmember Jillian Johnson was gracious enough to come up with a funding Excel formula spreadsheet that was shared with the public that would help us move the process forward and allay some of the concerns as council members I would be one of them for some of the projects that were not funded in that initial staff recommendation today what we will be deciding is which process which we are honoring the staff process but some decisions that we made as a council to date are that we were only going to use up to 50% of our ARPA money that was a decision that council made probably about a month ago during a work session because we understood that we wanted to have a chunk of money set aside for another process or for some other projects that may come up or other needs today as a council what I am encouraging our colleagues to do is to make a decision based on the funding the Excel spreadsheet that's been shared which honors the 50% ARPA commitment it also honors the staff process that was undertaken that is based on community projects that were submitted and after we hear from colleagues on which way they're leaning so today basically what I'm asking my council colleagues to do is to choose either the staff recommended option option a option b option c or option d on the Excel spreadsheet and we will also take public comment from some of the folks who are here today either via zoom or in the audience but first I would like to hear from my council colleagues any questions or comments they may have I see one thumbs up I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page on the decision that we're trying to make today okay so everyone has the spreadsheet we are choosing meaning there will be and hoping mayor pretend Middleton will be here in time to choose one of the options option a option b option c or option d on the Excel spreadsheet and I will also let staff give us an update on what what would happen next in the process so again I'm just going to ask anyone on on council if they have any questions or comments and then if not I was going to pass it over to council member Williams to see if you could let the folks who signed up for public comment make their comments seeing as we have no comments or questions at this time council member Williams if you don't mind letting the folks who signed up for public comment go ahead and thank you council member Carbillero just briefly on the actual spreadsheet you may have noticed a change in the text whereas it was there they're just a small adjustment on the wording of encouraged to the joint county city process instead of you know having that forwarded to a space that was unknown because we've yet to have that solid conversation with the county it is a recommendation that it's not included in the current projects proposed for funding that falls under the city's purview so that was a small technical changes to have a bit more clarity and at this point I'll go ahead and call for public comment and council member mayor pro tem Middleton is walking in now we'll go ahead and call the first person we have here Ethel Salmonetti are you in the in the chambers or online member Williams miss Salmonetti is not in the queue all right we'll move to the next name Shamika McNeil council member Shamika is in the queue she is okay go ahead and call her up please makes McNeil are you able to raise your hand to be recognized virtually I'm sorry did you say Shamika make me up yeah I'm here yes Shamika McNeil thank you and this is just public comment for a supporter to provide commentary on their application their proposal here and you'll have three minutes I'm sorry did you I want to make sure that you're having sorry hello yes can you hear us I can hear you a little bit better now what I wanted to say with the proposal that we're going on I think this would be would be a really great project for Durham County residents as we showed before in our healthy opportunities pilot a lot of the resources that are needed in the community community health care workers and CBO such as myself provide those services for people who have been underserved or overlooked in the program we found different places that we had no idea that was there and we were able to serve these clients very well in hopes for them to be able to get healthy and stay home and that was a great success I think these funds are needed for CBOs and CHWs to promote health and wellness across Durham County and I also provided a lot of jobs for the CBOs to help the economy too so I vote in favor of favor for the offer funds thank thank you miss mill could you state the project title and what you're speaking on oh sorry I think it's the healthy community with Duke University could you repeat that please miss McNeil could you repeat the project title biggest the community health fund with Duke University okay thank you you're welcome all right next we have Mrs. Marie Fason miss Fason are you able to be recognized Councilmember Williams miss Faizon is not in the queue all right sounds good miss Benita green miss green is in the queue all right miss green as you're getting prepared to speak please state start by stating your name and the project title and what you're speaking on behalf of good afternoon my name is Benita green I live at 831 Center Street Durham North Carolina and I'm speaking for the Merritt Moore improvement protections Merritt more community protections project the reason why you know we feel that this is important because we feel that it is definitely important for communities to have a say in how they are developed and this would be our opportunity to do that as we are a small community in Durham it would also provide an opportunity not only for us to provide affordable housing but as well protect green spaces that are within the community and I'd also before I sign up like to say that I am aware of the the application social Durham social determinants of health network and that's going to benefit quite a few communities within the Durham area thank you thank you miss green next we have John Colleen can you hear me again yes we can hear you welcome you have three minutes great I'm signed up just behalf of the community driven planning for prosperous future proposal I work data works the which data media based here in Durham but we are sort of fourth on the application behind the Braggtown Community Association and Walltown Community Association and American more community associations you just heard from us Benita green from more who's an author of the proposal as well I'm glad to speak in brief about the project and why we think this is important but I'm also here to sign up to be responsive to questions you all might have so that's another reason why we've tuned in today this project is I think unique and special because it is built on several years of community development is saying that's happened what they related to real estate and land control in all of these communities and we've been involved it as the support behind those community organizations in each case so you probably familiar with the work that walltown Community Association led up to establish a better future for the proposals for Northgate mall same thing with Braggtown Community Association's pretty monumental improvements of real estate proposals for the Carver assemblage as well which over the last two years have gone from being an unacceptable generation project that is actually inclusive of percent am I affordable how and that's to the credit of the pricing of the neighborhood involved this is true for you through communities and the work that we've done with them and a knowledge has been built up within those neighborhoods and the people involved in organizing that can benefit each of the groups in collective so this proposal is really to take time to slow down processes which are often by development pressures by by public planning processes even to and to develop a consensus and develop shared learning and a shared analysis of what's happening of these communities and what their priorities are to take a couple of years to do that together in a slow and protected way and to another year to develop a plan for strategies and goals and implementation of what shared priorities would look like if implemented and the other feature of our proposal is to to fund to put money into the pen for the goals established during that slow planning process across these communities that have been impacted directly by the history and legacy of institutional systematic and geographic racism of our community so that the last piece of this after we've done that slow work of building and developing an analysis and shared learning together and calling in folks to to scale up on specific topics and some of it and that's a crucial piece of it and so some of the proposals to different versions of funding these proposals that would drastically reduce the amounts of being requested might be a problematic but one of the key questions we come to you all with is what latitude applicants would have in also the design of proposals if it reduced in funding. Thank you Mr. Colleen. Thank you for sharing perspective on your application. All right. Next up we have Thomas McQuiston. Thomas. I'm here. Okay. Good. Yeah. Hi. I'm I'm with most specifically with the reintegration support network and we are part of a collaborative proposal that is focused on reentry support for citizens coming out of incarceration and into Durham. You all probably are aware that Durham I have to say does so many things so well in terms of reentry but the needs far exceed the available programs. So our proposal focused on reentry and in our partnership uses peer support. So we are building a cadre of peer supporters people formally incarcerated who have done and well and succeeded on reentry to help others who are reentering to help ensure that they can be successful. So these are essential programs for the hundreds of people who come back to Durham every year. We have a wonderful team of folks that are involved in the program. We worked collaboratively for a long time and then on this proposal. So this is not a single organization but a team of organizations that has done some of the best work that could be done in Durham to make it a leader not only locally but in the state and perhaps nationally in terms of reentry work. So reentry work is kind of a shining star in Durham and we want to enhance that and and make it even greater. The needs still far exceed the ability that we and others have to to meet those needs. Well, I'm part of wounded healers. We want to be known not as just people who help people transition and succeed. But we want to be known and I think this is true of all of us involved in this program to be healers within the community. We want to be known as a positive influence on the Durham community. Those coming out of prison cannot only exist in Durham but make Durham a better place to live for those who have suffered their time are trying to redeem themselves and trying to make Durham a better place to live. Thank you so much. Mr. Quiston, McQuiston. Alright, next we have Maya Jackson. If you could start out with the name of the project title. Yes, the name of the project title is Mame Inc. It Takes a Village. I am the founder director of Mame Inc. We are a community based maternal health organization here in Durham. We provide holistic maternal health services to black brown and indigenous people across the county. We are requesting funds to expand our services before COVID. We were tackling the black maternal health crisis here in Durham and the crisis is still happening. Durham alone has been recognized as having a C plus by the March of Dimes of having poor health outcomes for black infants. And we are seeking funding to expand our work to ensure that all families of color and those who are historically excluded have full access to maternal and reproductive health care as well as ensuring that the barriers that play on these poor health outcomes such as systemic racism that impacts their overall economic aspect for their families is also decreased. So with the funds we are looking to create a family community center which will cover a clinic which will cover a cooperative child care center which will also be our training grounds to train women and other people in the community who want to become peer-to-peer mental health workers. So with that way they can advance their career path and also pursue economic justice by having a sustainable wage. Thank you so much, Ms. Jackson. Thank you. Next up we have Afia Carter. You have three minutes. Please start with your project title. Okay, so I don't have a specific project title. I am representing Back in the Black, a coalition united to increase awareness and support my community who has been historically and economically disadvantaged for generations. Through this process, the Back in the Black Coalition was formed to advocate for equitable funding allocation for black funded, founded and black-led organizations who traditionally have been overlooked or denied funding. This proposal was presented to our community to dream big. Unlike most grant writing processes, the ARPA proposal requirements continue to change even days up to submission. Once we learned how inequitable the review process was and saw the results, most of the members of the coalition learned that members of the community did not get to read our proposals. Feedback was based on bias. There were obvious conflicts of interest and the process continued to change going into the new year. Since then, our community is dealing with more challenges as evidenced by multiple policy papers, including those by Resil NC and the National Black Child Agenda. After reviewing the recommendations to council, we are advocating that the council adopt option C with an additional recommendation to form an ad hoc committee to provide clarity in this meeting that applicants refer to the city county process will indeed have an opportunity for funding. The committee should be challenged to ensure that the end of the ARPA process, through the end of the ARPA process, and when all funds are allocated and that the city has mastered, exceeded its goal to allocate funding to those who don't normally receive it. We lastly continue to ask for the funding approvals and allocations to be made public and disaggregated by race. According to the results for America. Dashboard, the city and county of Durham are not rated as providing a clear investment to building and strengthening data and evidence capacity. Thank you. And that's all my comments. Thank you, Miss Carter. Next up, we have Brie Davis. Miss Davis, are you available to speak? Yeah. Councilmember Williams, Miss Davis is in the queue. All right, thank you. You have three minutes and please start with your project title that you're advocating we have on behalf. Can you hear me clearly? Good afternoon. You can speak up a little bit for us. Adjust the moment on me. Adjust my sound. Can you hear me better? Just a little bit. Can you hear me now? Yes. Better. All right, thank you for your time. I'll make it brief. I just want to make sure that I follow up with everyone regarding, you know, the advocacy of the Harriet Tubman Project and many other spots in Durham where we have underrepresented folks and folks that are being overlooked as a long-time social entrepreneur. I learned a lot about Durham's history. I've been in various circles and, you know, I'm hoping that this particular budget process, the resources reach the people. You guys will vote on it on my birthday, June 21st. And so that is a very powerful day for me and I'm hopeful that each of you takes in consideration everyone that has come to the table today. And like I said, I'll make it brief. Y'all have a lot on your plate today. But, you know, those of us in the community that are advocating with our families, with our resources, please don't overlook us this time. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Davis. Next, we have Sharon Strudwick. Council Member Williams, there is no Sharon Strudwick in the queue. However, we do have a call-in speaker and I'm not sure who that is. Okay, we'll come back to that person. All right. Next, we have Larisa Seibel. Hello, my name is Larisa Seibel and I was speaking on eviction debt relief funds. I actually don't know who the agency is that applied for that, but I support it. It's not enough. We have 1,500 people on a waiting list who applied for Durham rent relief and they did not get help because the city ran out of the funds that they had allocated. And I beg you to consider allocating these one-time ARPA funds, additional funds for rent relief, Durham rent relief to help people who desperately need the funds. I was there today when a gentleman, his son, and his mother were going to be evicted today. I have a lady who has only stayed in her home the last few months. I go and visit just to see if she's still in her home, just because Legal Aid has helped her stay in her home and get repairs. And she got the email from the city saying that she wouldn't get funding. And one day I went by and the mom wasn't there and the 10-year-old asked me how long before we're going to be put out. And it's a 10-year-old, a 7-year-old, and a 4-year-old in that one bedroom home, which is all they can afford. They can't find anything else for $700 a month. I have another lady who actually became homeless when she had to double up with someone and her housemate left and she became homeless. She was living in her car with her dog. She couldn't even go to the shelter because she had a dog. When she did get to the shelter, she was just getting so sick from the stress she ended up in the hospital and she's still in a facility now recovering. It's a great need to prevent eviction, especially right now when there's just nowhere for people to live. So I hope that you will consider more funds for Durham Rent Relief for the 1,500 people who are waiting for help and other people who desperately need help to stay in their homes. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Seibel. And next we have Mr. Robert Kroom. Council Member Williams, there is no Robert Kroom in the virtual queue. All right. Would you help me identify the call-in? For the caller to speak, they need to dial star six to unmute. All right. If you're calling in, please press star six to identify yourself. Yes, this is Robert Kroom. Okay, Mr. Kroom. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Kroom. All right. We'll now move to speakers in the chamber. The first card I have here is Edgar Vergara. Right over to your left and you have three minutes. Bless you. Good evening, Major O'Neill, esteemed council members. My name is Edgar Vergara Millan. I'm the pastor and executive director of Iglesias Las Vegas. My name is Edgar Vergara Millan. I'm the pastor and executive director of Iglesias Las Amillas here in Durham. Iglesias Las Amillas is part of the Durham Healing Collaborative application. And that application includes nine different CDOs. And I know it's on the second category, I guess, of do not fund, but encourage to reapply or something to that effect. Could you repeat the name of it? Durham Healing Collaborative. Thank you. So yes, Iglesias Las Amillas from the very early stages of the pandemic has been providing support for Durham area families, mainly through food assistance early on. And also PPE, back when masks were a dollar apiece, disposable masks, you know, a box of 30, 50 masks was like $50. And we have been serving the community with all of our hearts towards the end of 2020. We're part of the state of North Carolina's community health worker initiative. And our focus was connecting families to resources in the form of social support that should ensure families could quarantine if a family member had contracted the virus or if they had had contact with someone who had tested positive. When vaccines became a reality, our community health workers began our vaccination campaign here in Durham and in the surrounding areas. Ever since then, we have been able to directly help over 50,000 residents receive a vaccine. We continue our work today. We were part of the Durham vaccine equity initiative as well. And I just want to make an emphasis on that because I just want to thank you for that, because through that initiative, you provided the resources necessary for self-empowerment. Empowerment comes from the people, right? But the people sometimes lack the resources that are needed for self-empowerment. That initiative ended early for us early in December. And as you know, the Amicron variant reached its side late in December. So our community health workers continued working without proper resources. At that time, we provided over 1,000, not provided, performed over 1,000 COVID-19 tests for the Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latinx community in the area of Durham. And so this application process frankly was confusing and frustrating. And so we just request some clarity in terms of what the recommendation to apply to county funding or reapply or what that entails. We would really appreciate that. The work continues. We just lack the proper resources to continue this work. Currently we're... I would appreciate that. And you're in my prayers, by the way. Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson. You have three minutes. All right, thank you, Lenor. My name is Fred Johnson. I sit in the Division of Community Health in the Department of Family Medicine at Duke. I'm here to speak on a proposal that's not on your list. Not sure why, maybe. I think it might have been put into that joint pile. It's the Durham Social Determinants of Health Network. I have a copy. If anybody wants a copy, they can come and read. Could you repeat the name of it, please? Could you repeat the name of the project title? Durham Social Determinants of Health. It was submitted way back. And as Edgar just mentioned their work on PPEs, let me just tell you a little story about this network. It represents about 20 community organizations in Durham. Three years ago, we won an award from CARES Act money to supply rep round services to Durham residents. And just to give you an idea, the first person you heard today was Shamika McNeil. She's the CEO of Slice 325. She alone in a seven month period delivered over 50,000 meals to Durham residents so they would stay home while they're quarantined. We cut over a six month period, $400, $700 and $1,200 checks to over 2,772 Durham household residents. We also delivered over 7,000 food boxes. And as Edgar mentioned, La Semilla was part of the group. They also delivered food, PPE kits. We delivered over 5,000. This network has now submitted the proposal to you all to expand on a Medicaid program that's being piloted in three other regions that will go live in about three years. And we're hoping this funding will transition our CBOs from being grant funded to a revenue stream based on the delivery of a specific service. There are 28 services in this proposal. They target the CDC SVI census tracts, many of which are the same census tracts you all discussed months ago regarding gang activity. Housing, transportation, food and interpersonal violence. My question to the group is what happened to her proposal? My time's up. I'll keep talking. You're very good at that. You have 29 seconds. Do you have an idea what happened to her? Because all the groups are calling me up saying, why aren't we listed? I'm the lead organizer and part of the backbone organization. The funding will mostly go to the groups to deliver the services. Yeah, so while you were speaking, I sent a notification to our budget department and they should get back with me in just a moment. I've also asked the clerk to look into it as well. Because I worked directly with Leela and she confirmed they had it. And so did Simeon White. Yeah, so today we won't be making a final determination. We'll just be moving it to the next process. So we may not have it on this sheet, but I'm sure they have. We're asking for $6 million. And we're also suggesting it be split between the city and the county. We have a $12 million commitment to do the same program in Wake County. Do you want one? Thank you so much. Standing up in the black coat over here. Thank you so much. Right over here. All right. Next we have Ajax-Wooley. Welcome. You have three minutes. Please state your project title. Good afternoon, Mayor O'Neill, Mayor Pro Tem Middleton, members of council. My name is Ajax-Wooley. I live at 408 Bonn-Air Avenue. And I'm a co-chair of the Durham Cannons affordable housing team, also a guest organizer in the Grant Street community. I'm actually here to speak to you today about four different proposals. Three are from one partner that we work with. Dash, the Durham affordable sustainable housing proposal. Mass M-A-S-S, the multifamily acquisition support and supply proposal. And D-H-H-I-P, the Durham homeowner and home buyer initiated program. I want to tell you a little bit about the experience that we've had at Grant Street with community controlled planning at a very small scale with the lots that council redonated back to Grant Street about a year ago on May 3rd, 702 704 Grant Street and 917 Grant Street after a couple of years of organizing by the leaders in the Grant Street community in conjunction with the Durham Cannons affordable housing team. The authors of these proposals have been extremely sensitive and accommodating with their time, their attentiveness, their flexibility, their responsiveness to the group that we work with. They've attended meetings sitting on the corner under the mulberry tree at the corner of Umstead and Grant Street. They've attended other community meetings that we've invited them to even when they have not necessarily been directly affiliated with their projects. When we realized that there was a need for a redesign based on the character of the lots, they were willing to essentially erase the chalkboard and start from scratch to accommodate the wishes of the residents on the block. So I think it speaks to a commitment to a sort of philosophy around community controlled and community driven planning and I'd just like to offer a little bit of that storytelling by way of a positive experience on reflection for those three proposals. Similarly, as a resident in the greater Braggtown area where the Braggtown Community Association serves, I need to pull up the name of the other one. I'd like to speak in favor of the community driven Planning for Prosperous Futures proposal. I'm speaking on that proposal as an individual who is a resident in the Braggtown area. So thank you. Thank you very much. Next we have Leslie. First name Leslie. Okay. Sorry to be informal. I couldn't see the last name spelling, so. Not it. Okay. Leslie, not it. Good afternoon, Mayor Lerner and Neal and Council folk. I'm here just learning that I can speak on the part of the proposal we have with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. I'm an attorney. We have a North Carolina field office and during the pandemic we served a lot of residents who are undocumented in Durham who are otherwise not eligible for legal services and partnered with Durham Crisis Response Center and with people like Larissa for folks facing eviction. And our proposal is basically to continue the pandemic related work that we have for those who have no, especially I think our proposal focused on domestic violence victims and those who are not able to afford rent such as Larissa's clients providing legal assistance for folks who have no ability to get legal aid due to being undocumented and literally we're on the streets where we more or less helped them with wraparound services like diapers, food, transportation, job training, but most importantly homelessness prevention and domestic violence relief and applications for visas with the U.S. Customs Immigration Services such as U visas, trafficking, asylum, things like that. So I actually haven't really read, we have very little feedback on what's happening other than I know there's A, B and C and I guess we would advocate for any allocation that gives a percentage to everyone because we support all the projects that we've heard today. And anyway, thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Knight. Next I have Sherry Taylor. You have three minutes if you can start with your project title. Good afternoon, Mayor Neal and Council members. My name is Sherry Taylor and the projects that I'm here talking about today are DASH, Derm, Affordable, Sustainable Housing, Mass, Multi-Family Acquisition and Support and Supply and Derm Home Buyer and Home Owner Initiate Programs. I'm Asset Manager for Derm Community Land Trustees and we are advocates and developers of affordable housing. We've been in the city since 1987 and we realize that the market that we are in is very challenging both on the rental side and the homeowner side of things. So these three proposals will help us increase production of affordable housing in three different ways. DASH is a sustainable, 100% sustainable Net Zero project. It will be the first Net Zero project in the city of Derm. We would appreciate any funding to help us get there. It's especially important for a community in East Derm that has been suffering with environmental justice issues. Mass will help us that's the Multi-Family Acquisition Acquisition Supply and Support Program. That will help us acquire naturally affordable housing. At this point in Derm, we have a lot of competition when purchasing rental housing and the competition is coming from outside of the state, outside of the country and the prices are not affordable to us to acquire. We would like to provide more and acquisition is the fastest way to do that. And lastly, the Home Buyer and Home Owner Support Program will help us really work with homeowners who are struggling to maintain their homes and also home buyers who need a little bit more down payment assistance. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Taylor. And as I'm about to call the last name if you are here to speak on behalf of a proposal and you have not signed up with the yellow card over to your right where the clerk's desk is please do so. The last card I have here is Crain. If I mispronounce your name, please correct me. It's Crain or Cron. It's Crain. You got it right. I'm just my handwriting is bad. Thank you so much for having me here today, guys and hearing all these amazing proposals. My name is Kelly Crain. I'm the executive director of Farmer Food Chair here in Durham. And so I'm speaking on behalf of our proposal it's called Rebuilding Capacity to Pre-COVID Levels. If you're looking forward it's the county process health and wellness kind of bucket that you guys have lined out. So for those of you guys who don't know about Farmer Food Chair already who we are is we're an organization that both fights hunger and supports our local farmers. And so we source from all North Carolina produce in Durham County and the counties surrounding it from the farmers that grow it. And then our motto is fresh local food for all. And so we make sure that that food is at level level in our area. So not just high wealth individuals who can afford to go to farmers markets and upscale retailers but folks who are experiencing food insecurity as well. So the way we do that is we aggregate all of that local deliciousness at our warehouse and then we distribute it either through institutionals institutions and businesses like restaurants and Duke dining. We've worked with the Durham public school system in the past but we also work with local food banks and food pantries to distribute that to our neighbors experiencing food insecurity. And so last year for example about 50% of the food in our food hub ended up on the plates of families and individuals experiencing food insecurity in our community. So our proposal is kind of broad in breadth but essentially what it is proposing that we do is both maintain the sort of hunger relief efforts that we have going now that we started really ramping up in light of COVID and also to resume some of the activities like the educational activities around uses and access of food that we're doing pre-pandemic that weren't really possible during the pandemic because of school shutting down and stuff like that. So yeah, that is what we're asking for and we hope that you will take it under consideration. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much Miss Crane. If there are any others in the audience please see the clerk and if there's anyone online virtually that is interested in speaking on behalf of a proposal please raise your hand. Use the raise your hand option or star 6 to unmute and announce your name. All right. I would also state on the record that if there is anyone that would like to provide commentary on a proposal to feel free to the City Council and we all will receive it. All right. Thank you so much Council Member Williams. Thank you so much for everyone who came today to provide either in the audience or on Zoom a public comment on the projects. I do want to just remind folks some of the decisions that were made prior to this meeting. Prior to this meeting some of the decisions we made were to pull out some of the projects that we identified and we wanted to make sure that those projects perfectly fall under the county's purview in hopes that they would take some of these projects that are community led. The reason we, the initial spreadsheet said for a joint city county process in the future. At this time at least from my understanding is the county is moving forward in a different manner and so we felt that it was not fair to community members in this space and just to say very clearly we were not funding those projects. I do want to remind folks that the county also received ARPA funds slightly over $60 million Durham Public Schools also received ARPA funds and so did the city. Each branch of local government is choosing to do this process very differently from one another. The city of Durham from day one has decided that we would take a percentage in fact about 50% of our ARPA money and do a community led process. We understand that there's a lot of need in Durham and we understand that we're not going to be able to fund everyone but I did want to share some of that context so that folks had a better understanding of why maybe their project didn't move forward even if it was a very very good project. The projects that we are undertaking today are on our own identified projects we are putting this money back out into the community. That is a harder process and I really want to thank everyone for their patience. After today and the decisions that we make today the next step will be back to move it back to staff so that they can move these projects forward I'll let City Manager Wanda Page speak to that a little bit more I don't want folks to leave today saying oh we've got this money we are following a federal process and there's rules that we have to follow or we pay the money back that's the bottom line and we're going to honor that process because I know that I don't think anyone up on this dais wants to pay the federal government any money back for ARPA so I just wanted everyone to understand in the community that we also have to follow the rules and we have to understand what we're undertaking so at this time I want to open it back up to Council colleagues for any questions or comments again I'm urging us to stick to the spreadsheet in front of us and to make a decision on columns or options A, B, C or D option A is essentially the staff process anything that made above I think it was 24 was the cut score we would fund at that level and it totals out at the bottom option B is basically a tiered approach so the projects that scored higher would receive funding and we'd slowly work down funding that is listed option C would be everyone gets up to 70% of what they're asking with a max of $1 million and project and option D everyone would get up to 100% of their request with a max of $1 million but that option does go over the half amount that we had agreed to earlier I just want to name that so at this time I again opening it up for any questions or comments that my colleagues may have yes Council Member Johnson thank you Council Member Cabrera are you interested now in our thoughts on which of the options we should move forward with yes and any other and again you know folks may have different opinions but I was hoping that today we would leave with one of these instead of you know belaboring the process longer and so folks yes thank you I agree I think that the goal should be to leave here today with a path forward there are a lot of really good proposals here and it's you know it's a hard decision I appreciate the clarity on the question about the joint city county process I know that the mayor and Chair Howerton were discussing possibilities for that and I hope that those conversations will continue because I do think that it would be best for us to work together with the county to make this happen if we can but that to you know to make it clear that we do not know yet what that process looks like or whether these projects are going to be able to be funded through the process is good is good clarity for community members and I appreciate y'all figuring that out personally I think that speed is of the essence at this point we've been trying to figure this out for a while and you know this money does no good in the city of Durham bank account I wanted to be out in the community doing work as for the four options personally I lean a little bit towards option B because I because I think it takes into account the quality of the proposals as evaluated staff in the determination of how to fund them and it stays under our threshold of spending half of the available funding right now I don't feel super strongly about option B but that would be that would be my first choice I think my second choice would probably be option C to which is just a flat 70% of all the projects up to a million dollars I think that there's been enough concern expressed on the council about keeping some money for a round two a future process that I think option D is not going to be the best for us because I think there's enough concern about making sure that we have the resources for that second process that we shouldn't go over but we shouldn't go over the threshold that we set and I think I would rather fund more I would rather fund more proposals than fewer which is why option A would not be at the top of my list so first choice B second choice C and would absolutely would really like to be able to direct the staff at the end of this meeting with how we want to move forward for the distribution of at least this first of the funding thank you thank you councilmember johnson at this time councilmember freeman thank you councilmember and thank you councilmember johnson for putting this spreadsheet together and laying it out as clearly as possible there's a lot that's happening I do want to just highlight some pin points and some of what some of the tensions are I will note that the the fact that these are all projects listed and funding requests based on the spreadsheet that councilmember johnson put together I do want to highlight the fact that the invite to reapply that fall below the 24 that have been pushed off of the list or that are above the 24 that would have been pushed off this staff's list kind of precludes some of the ones that we did identify as city and county and so I do want to make sure we do pull some of that back into the conversation noting that that would probably add another 14 million to this conversation so I want to say that and then just based on that context of how I appreciate councilmember johnson kind of pulling putting her perspective on which projects kind of falls city county and that we shouldn't do but I do want to say that it does give me a little bit of self acknowledging like there was one specifically around mentoring that I did mention that I did think would fit nicely in our kind of office on youth workforce development kind of push and so just there was just some massaging that I felt like needed to happen I would really like to see our staff take a stab at reorganizing this list based on some of the feedback we're giving based on how all of this has been set so this framework is helpful but the equity side of it still is not being applied and so I'm mindful the timing is everything and that folks have been waiting a long time since December to move this forward and so I would be very happy to move forward with option C but I do want to have a conversation about what it looks like to include up to the 24 items that were removed that the staff thought should be funded. Thank you council member Freeman. I'm sorry and just one more point just noting that the if we need to have some conversation around the 14 million that would be added the 8 million that would that were actually advised by staff to be invited to reapply should be where we have some tension and conversation around which way we could go to get the number back to around 20 million. Thank you council member Freeman I'm going to see if anyone else has any comment before I address council member Freeman's suggestions council member Williams. I think it's important that we understand that there's still a lot of deliberation that has to happen with staff and the applicants so the numbers that we have here I think one key well two missing keywords is up to up to the actual desired amount so we're not we should probably be really careful about discussing hard numbers I'm just going to use an arbitrary example someone may have applied for one million dollars it's not ironclad that they're going to get one million dollars it's up to one million dollars so part of the conversation let's say council member Freeman you want to talk about adding those four projects back in there I think in regards to corporate for the horse we want to have to determine maybe another phase or another step I'm not sure but staff has to do their due diligence to work with the applicants to determine what would be the appropriate amount to fund up to within their desired amount does that make sense and that's going to give us one thing we have that's a heart line we're not going to go over 50% so if we're going to fund up to it may provide more capacity to fit within that amount of 20 million so I was going to say I appreciate that just to clarify what I'm hearing is that and this is for everyone the next step in the process is going to then be staff led because around contracting you're going to have to work with our staff and we're going to have to make sure and I'm sorry from treasury thank you but if there is some capacity because we have leftover money then what I'm hearing from council members is that we may be willing to look at some of the projects that are listed in the do not fund right now but I do want to remind everyone that we have from my understanding had a consensus not surpassing 50% of the ARPA money on this specific process and I just want everyone to understand that so I hear council member Freeman that there may be some opportunity in the future for some of these projects where we're saying do not fund again I'm reminding folks that those projects are listed as do not fund because typically they are areas that the county tends to fund and more in their wheelhouse so are we still on the same page that we are making a decision today about column A B C or D and if there's capacity to fund more because of how the staff process moves forward we will do so can I get a thumbs up if that's where everyone is okay based on how we move forward with staff what we're coming up with today is still we're making a decision about column A B C or D and if there is money essentially because we're saying okay let's say this person asked for up to a million but they only got 500,000 right if there's left over from that half then we could look to some of these projects that are do not fund I would add if then at the invite to reapply section of this list you mean you would stop at the spreadsheet it's the ECH COVID recovery initiative everything above that is what we would prioritize so everything above that priority would fall there's 12 projects would fall under option C and then once you work through option C then you would include all of the funded options all of the staff recommendation fund and the invite to reapply and the invite if then and so yes a whole like formula in here so if we have funds left then we add the additional fund section that staff recommended and the invite to reapply you are you anticipating that we would I just want to make sure that staff are real clear on what we're saying and I don't want to confuse anyone further at this point what I'm hearing from you you would want to look at all those projects in the same vein or you want to prioritize these 12 projects that say fund next to them first prioritized 12 projects okay thank you I'm going to clarify just because I want to make sure that I am stating what council member Freeman has said and that staff has got some direction from us council member Freeman's suggestion sticking to either option A B C or D if there are funds left over and when I say if I'm saying within that first basically $22 million if there are for if there are any funds left over we would prioritize the 12 projects in the current bucket that says do not fund encourage for a county process that the first project in that column or the we are for the long haul and it ends with the ECH COVID recovery initiative all of those have fund next to them and so that would be the next bucket of projects we prioritize thank you thank you I'm going to call on manager page and then mayor pro tem so I would just for clarity and I know we are this is new territory for all of us so I appreciate the opportunity to speak first but that if we have and you know something then something that we actually do do the process that you all select here and bring those results back and make it very clear that we're not just going to move to another phase without further guidance from you so that would be my preference I appreciate that manager page that would be my preference as well can we see there's consensus around that I'm seeing some thank you so yes I appreciate that thank you thank you madam mayor good to see you welcome home I don't perhaps staff can help I don't really see how money will be left over because what I'm reading is up to a maximum of $1 million so 70% is 70% so if you're 70% exceeds 1 million you're just going to get 1 million I don't see this as a staff change I mean and staff can help me when I'm reading our I mean 100% is 100% if there's ranking an option B 100% to 50% based upon rank that seems to me that's a pretty precise calculation pretty precise algorithm and then where it says fund all projects recommend to fund recommended to fund are invited to apply at 100% of request up to a maximum of 1 million meaning that 70% is 70% but if you if your request exceeded 1 million it would just be capped at 1 million there's no there's no tiering is is that am I reading that right manager page yes so I would just like to bring a little bit of clarity into this to this part so what we are looking at is we are looking at proposals with dollar figures and general scopes of service when we would get into the contract negotiation or discussions with the proposers you know layering that against treasury rules that could be a whole portion of someone's requested scope that may not meet treasury requirements so there's you know there's going to be funding for what the proposal intends to do but it could be that that organization either no longer has capacity to do that or that portion of what they were going to do may not meet treasury requirements but we would be very very diligent with our negotiations with the proposer so the numbers that we're looking at in A, B and C D it may be our intention to give that organization that amount of money but they may not be able to get that amount of money I would say at this point in time though that I would not rely on there being a lot of excess capacity in those proposals to fund a lot I don't want to predict it because we haven't gotten to that process yet but I wouldn't count it being hundreds of thousands of dollars thank you and that was kind of my point I didn't really know that it would cross the threshold where we can kind of make contingency plans here today but I'm fully on board with choosing an option today option A if we do anything other than option A it seems to me that in the de facto sense we are effectively making the score 20 that is threshold crossing and I want to honor the staff's work but I think that we just need to keep in mind that effectively we would be moving the floor the threshold you cross to get money effectively from 24 whatever it is down to I guess the lowest score is 20 and with that in mind as we think about future things we may want to fund if that is precedent setting or what type of message that sends I'd like many of us I tend towards wanting to give more than less and get as many projects as we want but my assumption is that there was some type of logic or rubric that the staff employed to cut it off at 24 and I know that that original swing they took was based upon direction from the council so whatever we decide today I do want to the record to reflect that essentially we are moving that score and whatever message that may send to the public in terms of what projects cross that threshold I think we need to keep in mind when it comes to future deliberations thank you councillor thank you mayor pro temendleton out of curiosity is there an option that you would prefer or you say you prefer option A well I I'm kind of leaning towards C myself but I do want to hear if there was going to be any other discussion from my colleagues about what are we effectively saying if the staff saw merit in the score 24 and we're in effect changing that to 20 as a council will that have any implications on how we deliberate in the future and how we look at projects other projects even the ones that we're talking about looking that aren't on this initial list is 20 I guess the new threshold is what I'm asking but to answer your question directly council member I'm leaning towards C thank you thank you mayor pro tem does anyone else have any questions or comments mayor o'neill thank you first of all I have to say thank you to our two leaders in this effort they have done a great and excellent job and we really appreciate all of the time and this has taken some time for them to do and I just want to acknowledge that this has been in addition to all of your other duties in our life and you found time to do this so well and also to council woman Johnson who put this spreadsheet together to make it so much easier for us to kind of grasp it especially those of us who are in this still kind of new vein thank you for that so I wrestle back and forth and I always like to listen to my seniors on the council to come to a decision so I've gone back and forth but I do think that in looking at option C I'm talking between option C and option B so I could go either way C being first but not a strong first or B so I'm there thank you mayor o'neill councilmember Williams do you have a preference yep I just want to complicate it a little more now that I am thinking about it and looking at it we are going to select an option and I feel bad because I was on the committee with you to work on this so sorry we are about to give staff directors on heart numbers but the process after this are not heart numbers it's several conditions that has to be considered so I would you know I'm leaning toward option C however I would like to lean toward option C with conditions that staff have the flexibility to assess whatever factors that are in play when they are speaking with the applicant and it doesn't it doesn't make it doesn't put them in a position of saying well I have to give you 70% that's a key phrase of up to 70% so what I would say is anytime we have not developed a full scope of service in a contract there's going to be negotiations around the allocation to the project and the scope of service that can be provided so it is not a donation it will be a negotiated scope of service with the proposal who's going to do the great work in the community so that's not a complication the reason I brought up the we would come forward to every one of these contracts would have to come to council but before we would come forward with you know contract after contract after contract we would come back with a report of you know our negotiations you know in an interim basis with these proposals thank you manager thank you council member hyman I was just curious I know this is very new for you and I don't want to put you on the spot but I also don't want to not give you the opportunity to share any comments or questions you may have well thank you so much I just want to say thank you also for the organization of this because this is new for me but the layout of this gives me some sense of being able to understand it and so again I too I am honestly torn between option B and C leading more towards option C but yeah more towards option C because I think that the work that has already been done in terms of the view in the proposals I think this would basically add to giving a good option option C thank you I'm going to see if anyone else has anything to add and then if not I would like to share where I'm kind of sitting okay thank you so I am leaning towards option B partly because of what Mayor Pro Tem Middleton did say which is that we did lower the score to accommodate more projects but that funding formula does basically reward I understand it's an up to but they would have an opportunity to be closer to their full funding ask if we went with option B I am leaning that way I'm fine with option C as well obviously option D because it surpasses that commitment of going over half of our ARPA money I'm not in favor of that one and then option A because I'll own it on one of the council members who was very hard pressed to stick to that hard 24 partly because there were some community projects that were very close to that cutoff score in communities that had received very very little help to date so I will say that that's one of the reasons I was one of the council members back in December who asked for the pause and wanted it purely because I knew that there were some projects in there that I wanted to see if there was a way we could move forward that's why I'm leaning towards option B I'm going to open that up again I don't know where we are let's see I think we're kind of divided right now between option B or option C so I'm curious to see if anyone is willing to move one way or the other well I've got right now I've got let's see council member Freeman is option C council member Williams is option C Mayor Pro Tem is option C and I think council member Hyman you were either option B or C but okay so then we have landed on C so we need to call for a motion on this I don't think so because this isn't it's informal so I so that the public are aware the council has come to consensus on funding all projects that staff recommended to fund or invite to reapply at 70% of their request up to a max of a million dollars obviously the next step will be staff led these folks will be entering into contracts with the city of Durham and we'll have to adhere to the advisory department's rules and so we really do want to emphasize the up to because there's components that they will be working through with the project proposers for all the folks who did apply we have an immense amount of talent in the city it was evident in these projects that were submitted by our community members we know everyone worked really really hard we also understand that folks may be disappointed today but I think all of us can say we are also disappointed because we recognize there's deep need in our city and that need wasn't 100% met I want to thank all again thank everyone and thank my colleagues and I think our business as far as I can tell is completed any final remarks councilman Williams from you and then we'll wrap it up thank you to my colleague council member thank colleagues for your patience thanks to the community for the patients on this we will churn this out to be the best results and after we get this process pretty much done we'll begin the process of what the next phase looks like in regards to community investment and engagement once again I'd just like to say thank you to my two able colleagues and councilwoman Johnson who led us through this process and to our staff this process had already started by the time councilman Williams and I were elected and we were in full mode the county I think has started their process and I do want to reiterate that I have been in talks with chairwoman howerton about there being a joint effort with the remaining funds that we have and whatever they decide to do and if they have any remaining funds all hope is not lost that is very much why we have decided as a group to say that we are going to hold on to half of those funds in order to allow the county to catch up and figure out their process so that we will be able to come together so for those who are not funded today just hold on a little while longer and let us get through that process to those who are still about to enter into the phase with our able city staff we thank you for your patience we thank you for your love for the bull city and as usual bull city strong unless there is anything else we are here by adjourn at 319 thank you all for today