 Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Durham City Council order for the meeting of January the 7th 2019. First I want to wish everyone a happy New Year and say how happy we are to have everybody back and to be back and we're looking forward to a great year together here in the City of Durham. I certainly want to welcome all of you all here tonight. And now I'll ask you to please join me for a moment of silent meditation. Thank you. Councilmember Reese would you like to lead us in the pledge? Thank you Mr. Mayor. Good evening everyone. If it's your practice to do so and if you're able please rise as we say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you Councilmember. And now Madam Clerk would you please call the roll? Mayor Shul? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson? Here. Councilmember Alston? Here. Councilmember Caballero? Here. Councilmember Freeman? Here. Councilmember Middleton? Here. Councilmember Reese? Here. Thank you very much. And now we're going to proceed with our ceremonial items. Our first item with Parks and Recreation Accreditation designation. And I'm going to ask Councilmember Reese to join me at the podium and we will welcome our, he's already gone. Great. And he will welcome our guests. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight. This is really exciting. Tonight we're going to read a proclamation honoring our Parks and Recreation Department for their recent accreditation. I just wanted to take a moment to say that back in April was it? When the folks were here? April sounds right. Back in April of 2018 a number of us had the opportunity to visit with the folks from Parks and Rec and the folks from the commission that does this accreditation. And I was really struck by how impressed they were at our Parks and Recreation Department. And this recognition is truly well deserved. This is a proclamation for the Parks and Recreation Accreditation designation whereas Parks and Recreation provides fun places to be physically active, enjoy nature, and socialize with friends and neighbors. And whereas Parks and Recreation provides essential environmental and aesthetic benefits that make Durham a great place to live, work, and play. And whereas agency accreditation is a quality assurance and quality improvement process. And whereas accreditation through the commission for accreditation of Park and Recreation agencies is a five-year cycle that includes three phases, development of the agency self assessment report, the onsite visitation, and the commission's review and decision. And whereas agency accreditation is based on compliance with 151 standards for national accreditation. And whereas a standard is a statement of desirable practice set forth by experienced professionals. And whereas the standards provide an effective, incredible means of evaluating a Park and Recreation agency's overall system. And whereas Durham Parks and Recreation has met all of the national standards of best practice. And whereas there are currently 174 accredited Park and Recreation agencies in the United States. Whereas and whereas the department Durham Parks and Recreation is one of 12 accredited agencies in the state of North Carolina. And whereas the city of Durham recognizes the benefits of a nationally accredited Park and Recreation agency. Therefore, I, Stephen M. Shule, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, along with the entire city council extend to Durham Parks and Recreation our sincere congratulations on achieving national re-accreditation from the commission for accreditation of Park and Recreation agencies and call upon all cities to wreck all citizens to recognize the significance of this event. With this, my hand in the corporate seal city of Durham, North Carolina on the seventh day, January 2019. Okay. Thank you all so much. I have to be remiss if I didn't thank the city manager and our deputy city manager, Bo Ferguson, our city council and DPR employees for all the support to accomplish this. If you saw on the first picture, that was our entire department. I want to thank also our, we have our deputy, our assistant directors back here, Joy, raise your hand, Tom Dawson, Jason Jones. And we couldn't done it without the leadership of Gina Bray, who is our accreditation coordinator. She keeps us on track. We are committed to continue striving to be one of the best parks and recreation departments in the nation. And we are will continue the hard work that we started back in 2008. And I would like to also take this time to introduce Michelle Wells, who is our executive director for North Carolina Recreation Park Association and Keith Jenkins, who is our president. It is indeed our honor to be here tonight to celebrate with the city of Durham and Parks Recreation Department this wonderful continuation of their achievement and acknowledgement of how important it is to set forth to be the best of the best. I think if you caught in the proclamation, they achieved 151 of 151 standards. And if we were teachers giving them a grade, that would be an A plus plus at 100, correct? Durham does a great job. They're actually one of the departments when I get called and people say we're looking for someone to pilot, to partner with. We have a pilot program. Durham's one of those departments that comes to mind. Not only are they willing to do it, but they have the skills and the knowledge and enthusiasm to do it. And I always hear great things about that. And they are also a great partner with NCRPA for us to offer educational programs and opportunities for fellow professionals, not only in the region, but across the state. So we're delighted to be here tonight to celebrate with you. Thanks, Michelle. My name is Keith Jenkins, president for the North Carolina Recreation Park Association. It's an absolute pleasure to be here this evening. I'd like to ask that Mayor Schull is joining us and also, Mr. Bonifit, if you could join us, please. If there are any other parks and recreation staff or members of the Recreation Advisory Commission in the audience tonight, please stand. We know this took the support of each and every one of you. I can certainly say as a member of the town of Cary, we're one of the accredited agencies and I serve on that panel as well. The work that these individuals have to put in to meet those 151 standards is outstanding. It's a laborious process. As they mentioned, 174 agencies across the entire nation are accredited. So you definitely are in the top 1% of all those agencies. So now on behalf of the North Carolina Recreation and Park Association, the National Recreation and Park Association, and the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies, it is our honor to present this recognition to Durham Parks and Recreation for being in the top 1% of Park and Recreation Agencies in the nation through your achievement of accreditation. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you for the opportunity for Michelle and I to recognize the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department this evening for a job well done. That's your wife, you're taking the picture out. Come on, everybody. You got to get in front. Come on, Michelle. Charlie. Can we see Joy? Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. I want to thank Keith and Michelle. Michelle has always been a wonderful partner for Durham and we really appreciate the work of the State Association that we're a member of and you all have been a great partner. We really appreciate it. So thank you, everybody. Thank you and the council members. Thank you for your support of Parks and Recreation here in Durham. They're doing a fantastic job and your support's very important and appreciated. Thank you. All right. That was a fun item. And now we've got another fun item. I will tell you this is this is a special item for me. I got a call from or an email for Mr. Bill Schaefer. Mr. Schaefer is in the audience. Would you raise your hand? Mr. Schaefer wrote me a couple of months ago and said, did I know that we had in Durham the National Women's Chest Champion who was about to compete for the International Chest Championship? Which I did not know, but which I was thrilled to find out. We often honor athletic champions in this chamber, but I don't know that we've ever honored a chest champion. Mr. one of the things I want to say about it, it is a Mr. Schaefer is his neighbor to our chest champion while I'll introduce in a moment. I just want to say first of all, what a great act of neighborliness that that he would reach out. He suggested that I call our champion before she left for the International Championship. So I did that, which was a lot of fun. Having never spoken to a chest champion before and wished her Godspeed and her endeavors. But I just want to and so at that point I knew that we needed to have Sabina Fosor our US National Chest Champion down here to Durham City Hall to receive this proclamation. So Sabina, I'm going to ask you and all of your friends that you've brought with you to please come forward as we make this proclamation honoring the contributions of Sabina Francesca Francesca Fosor. Whereas in November 2018, Sabina Francesca Fosor brought international acclaim and glory to herself, her country and the Durham community with her competition for the title of women's world champion of chess in Conte Montiusk, Russia. And whereas Sabina Fosor was born in Timosora, Romania, immigrated to the United States of America in 2008 and settled in Durham in 2017 drawn by the cultural diversity and welcoming attitude to the city. And whereas she achieved the rare and prestigious title of women of woman grandmaster of chess in 2007 at the age of 18, based on beating elite players and international competitions. And whereas Sabina's bravery, determination and consummate skill to dramatically win the 2017 US Women's Championship with a spectacular queen sacrifice in the final round, while at the same time grieving the loss of her mother before the tournament began is an encouragement and example for all who face personal loss and grief. And whereas Sabina success in a traditionally male dominated sport and her passion for encouraging females and youth to believe in their ability to compete and grow in the intellectually demanding and rewarding discipline of chess has enriched the lives of many. And whereas Sabina has volunteered her time and personally invested in the lives of youth by giving inspirational talks and lessons and by seeking to instill a love for chess which will reap lifelong benefits of logical thinking, discipline and respect for others. And whereas the Durham community is proud to have among our residents this national champion and international championship contender at the highest levels of chess competition. Now therefore, I, Stephen M. Shull, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina to hereby proclaim January 7th, 2019 as Sabina Francesca Foisor Day in the City of Durham and hereby urge all residents to take note of this occasion and celebrate it in honor of this esteemed Durham champion. Witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, the seventh day of January, 2019. Sabina, I'm going to present this proclamation to you and ask you if you would come forward to say a few words to us. I'm usually very nervous, so I wrote something. Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much for having me here today. Thank you, Mayor Shull, for this invitation and city council members and guests. I am very thankful for my family and my friends because without them, I wouldn't be here today. I'm also thankful for my fiancé who is here tonight. Can celebrate this with me. Thank you, Bill, as well, and your wife, Leslie, for being here for me tonight. Carol, I'm really humbled and honored for receiving this award. Jess has been my everyday companion since I was four years old. My parents taught me and throughout the years I learned that Jess can teach us a lot, can help us have a better memory, have a better critical thinking, strategic planning, but also have patience and also taught me never to give up. I've had a lot of struggles in my chess career, so it's been tough to overcome these difficulties, but I learned to never give up. It's the type of game that teaches you something even when you are actually losing the game. Without chess, I probably wouldn't be standing here tonight, so I'm thankful to Jess as well for that. It also gave me the chance to study in the United States, and I'm very grateful for that and for having chosen Durham to be my home now. I've moved here in 2017 and both my parents and I decided to buy a place to stay here for good. One last thing that I want to say is that this award is a new motivation for me to continue using chess as a way to return to the community, and I have some projects in mind that I hope I'll be able to do, like thinking about collegiate chess. Actually, this year, at the end of this year, the Pan American Team Championships, which is an event for universities, is going to be coming in North Carolina in Charlotte, so I hope I'll be able to find some, to talk to universities from around as to if they're interested in competing, but most importantly, I want to use chess as a means to empower females girls to to succeed in a male dominated sport. Thank you very much. Take another picture. Please do. Thank you. Congratulations. It's great to have a national champion in the house. Next, I'm going to ask my colleague, Mark Anthony Middleton to come forward for the, excuse me, proclamation, celebrating and honoring the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And I'm going to ask Dr. Warren Langley also if he would come forward to receive the proclamation. Good evening, everyone. And happy New Year. My thanks to the mayor. I'd like you to step up now. My thanks to his honor, the mayor for allowing us to participate in what you what you can see as one of the coolest prerogatives of his office. And that's reading of these proclamations and resolutions. My suspicion is that the fact is not lost on the mayor of the place that Dr. King holds in my personal pantheon of American heroes and leaders. So I thank him for this this wonderful opportunity. Honoring the life of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Whereas champion of justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. devoted his life to strengthening the content of the American character, and fought unrelentingly for the civil rights of all Americans, and taught us through non violence, that courage displaces fear. Love transforms hate. Acceptance dissipates prejudice, and mutual regard cancels enmity. And whereas Dr. King helped to organize efforts, plan events, and lead marches to advance the rights of African Americans to vote, for desegregation, for recognition and respect for labor rights, and to ensure other basic civil rights. And whereas Dr. King was one of the leaders, one of the leaders of the successful Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, and helped found and served as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the South. And whereas between 1960 and 1964, Dr. King made addresses in Durham, at White Rock Baptist Church, the Durham Business and Professional Chain, Hillside High School, Jack Tar Hotel to the Southern Political Science Association, North Carolina College now North Carolina Central University, and Duke University urging civil disobedience and nonviolent protest to end racial segregation and discrimination. And whereas Dr. King helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that drew national attention to the struggle for civil rights, and the hateful and brutal responses of local law enforcement, and helped organize the march on Washington, during which he delivered his eloquent and moving, I have a dream speech. And whereas Dr. King helped to organize the monumentally inspiring Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, to advocate for passage of the Voting Rights Act to guarantee African American citizens the right to vote. And whereas Dr. King was supporting the garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee, and planning the poor people's campaign to promote economic justice, when he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. Now, therefore, I, Stephen M. Shull, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina, do hereby honor the life and work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to a free and just world, hereby urge all residents of the City of Durham to join us in reflecting on and advancing Dr. King's life and fulfilling his dream, witness my hand in the corporate seal of the City of Durham, North Carolina, the seventh day of January 2019. Thank you, Councilman Middleton. On behalf of the Durham MLK steering committee, we would like to thank the City Council members and the mayor for this proclamation, but also to invite members of the community out to the different events that we'll be having throughout the month of January and recognition and honor of Dr. King. So I wanted to share with you all the list of events that we have for 2019. On next Monday, January the 14th, we will receive a proclamation from the Board of County Commissioners celebrating and honoring the life of Dr. King. On Saturday, January the 14th, at 12 noon in CCB Plaza, we will have a refland ceremony in honor of the life of Dr. King. On Monday, January the 21st, we will have in partnership with the Triangle Martin Luther King Committee, the 39th annual Martin Luther King Triangle Interfaith Prayer Breakfast with keynote speaker David Crabtree. That will begin at 7 a.m. Breakfast will be from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. We will have the Unity March and Rally beginning at North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company proceeding to First Presbyterian beginning at 10 30 a.m. We will have two day of service events. One will be in partnership with the Book Harvest. We're asking members of the community that attend the March and Rally as well as our annual religious service to please bring new books for donation to children. We will also have a day of service event with Jubilee Home from 230 to five at 404 East Umstead Street and then we will conclude our events with our annual religious celebration with keynote speaker Reverend Dr. William C. Turner and at that event we will also award academic scholarships as well as the 2009 Keeper of the Dream Award which goes to one individual and one member of our community. So if your schedule permits we will welcome members of the community as well as council to please be present and attend. Thank you so very much. Thank you very much council member Middleton and I'm going to ask DeWarran to stay here and I'm going to ask my city council colleague Javier Caballero if she would come and do the honors now for the National Mentoring Month proclamation. There are a number of organizations that are present from the Long Ball Program as well as Emily Kaye Center, TMA Leadership Academy as well as Project Proud. Please come up and join me at the podium. Good evening. Whereas in 2002 the Harvard School of Public Health and Mentor the National Mentoring Partnership created National Mentoring Month and whereas the goals of National Mentoring Month are to raise awareness of mentoring, recruit individuals to mentor, encourage organizations to engage and integrate quality mentoring into their efforts and motivate youth to excel and whereas a mentor is a caring person that provides a consistent presence and devotes time to a young person to help that young person discover personal strength to persevere, achieve their potential and thrive through a structured and trusting relationship and whereas nobody succeeds on their own, mentors provide young people the chance they need to move forward and set their sights even higher where they're helping young people study for a test, learn a new skill or lift their heads up after a setback and whereas quality mentoring encourages and empowers young people to make positive choices, promote self-esteem and character development, support academic achievement and introduce young people to new ideas and whereas mentoring programs have shown to be effective in combating school violence, discipline problems, substance abuse, incarceration and truancy and whereas development experts agree that youth mentoring is critical to the social, emotional and cognitive development of our young people and helps them navigate the path to adulthood more successfully and whereas research shows that young people who are at risk for not completing high school but who had a mentor were 52 percent more likely than their peers to skip a day of school, 55 percent more likely to be enrolled in college, 81 percent more likely to report participating regularly in extracurricular activities, 46 percent less likely than their peers to start using drugs, 130 percent more than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team and 78 percent more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities whereas mentors help young people set career goals and use their personal contacts to help young people meet industry professionals and find jobs to improve professional outcomes for young people now therefore I Steven M. Schulmeyer of the city of Durham, North Carolina do hereby proclaim January 19th as National Mentoring Month in the city of Durham and hereby call upon all public officials, business and community leaders and educators and encourage all citizens to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities and programs in order to recognize the men and women who serve as staff and volunteers at quality mentoring programs and help our young people find inner strength and reach their full potential acknowledge that mentoring is beneficial because it facilitates healthy identity development encourages educational achievement reduces juvenile delinquency expands career readiness improves life outcomes and strengthens communities promote the creation expansion sustainability and funding of quality mentoring programs across Durham to equip young people with the tools needed to lead healthy and productive lives and support initiatives to close the mentoring gap and promote critical mentoring to support boys of color with mentors who perceive and understand social political and economic oppression and to take action against oppressive elements of society witness my hand in the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this seventh day of January 2019. Thank you all so very much for this proclamation I can recognize in January as National Mentoring Month as you all know as a long-term member of this community I've always supported mentoring as a means for helping to advance the lives of our youth this evening we have a few organizations that work with young people in this community and I wanted to provide them with an opportunity to share what they do and how it advances to work for young people in this community. Hello everyone my name is Emmanuel Beattie I serve as the director of community affairs for Thomas Mentoring Leadership Academy we serve as about 30 boys right now between the ages of nine to 14 we serve as young men who come from single mother household or live with a grandparent or foster parent so those are the demographic of kids that we're working with on a daily basis I'm ensuring that they're making the right decisions and staying away from at risk behavior so Thomas Mentoring Leadership Academy you can find us at tmlacademy.org or tml academy on facebook as well. Good evening my name is Dwayne Campbell and I represent MLK Center we are a college hub in Durham North Carolina or job is to ensure that there are more students matriculating into college there are far too many of our students who missed the opportunity to get enrolled in for your quality for your education programs and we've recognized that Durham's youth has a lot of have a lot of potential and we want to ensure that these students recognize that there are so many opportunities beyond just MLK Center and but there are other opportunities that will come their way if they get post-secondary education access and we have four major programs and our main programs are for elementary to middle school students and then we have a second program that's a closed program for secondary school students we have another program for students who are on college campuses who need the support to transition to colleges and the program that I had is called game plan college and we go across Durham North Carolina ensuring that all high school students know that they are able to get to college and we provide them with the necessary support and we ask that you support MLK Center's work thank you good evening I'm Pat I run the long bar inner city baseball program and we push education there are 167 kids in our program and I'm glad to announce that this year in July the weekend of July 18th we will be bringing 500 athletes to Durham to compete in the regionals which is a major league program and the first time major league will host a tournament in North Carolina and Durham was selected we have a hundred percent of our kids there in school we have no dropouts we have we're like the parents we're like family to the kids we push education and make sure that they understand that they can go to college and quite a few of our kids go to college I had 23 young men on the A honor row so I'm so proud and I want Durham to come out and please support this program when the regionals come in town our opening day will be May 28th at the Durham Bulls athletic park the old Durham Bulls park mission is always free thank you everybody we appreciate it all right we had a lot of good ceremonial items tonight more than usual but fortunately we don't have a very long agenda so that's a good thing we'll now proceed to announcements by members of the council any council members have an announcement hearing none I'll ask I'm sorry I just wanted to take a moment to just congratulate all of our recent investors Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls and also goodness Clayton Jones Dave Parney yeah judges judges and Josephine Davis as well as general assembly and all of those in the general assembly and yes it's been a lot of movement I'm excited about the year ahead thank you any other announcements if not mr manager any priority items thank you mr mayor members of the city council a good evening and on behalf of the city manager's office and all of our employees we too want to extend everyone a happy new year and say that we are looking forward to a great 2019 this evening we do have one priority item which is agenda item number nine uniformed unarmed security guard services for the city's parking facilities this item needs to be referred back to the administration thank you thank you mr manager I will now accept an item I'm gonna accept a motion on the manager's priority item moved second it's been moved and seconded that we refer item nine back to the manager's office madame clerk will you please open the vote please close the vote the motion passes seven zero thank you very much mr attorney do you have any priority items thank you mr mayor members of council I have no priority items for your agenda but would like a moment of personal privilege if I could yes sir for members of the staff that are here and the public we held a special meeting this evening at six o'clock in which we adjourned into a closed session to discuss a personnel matter I was the subject of that personnel matter and I'd like to read into the record a document that I submitted to the city council during that meeting this is a letter addressed to mayor Steve shul copy to council members count the city manager bonfield and city clerk diana schreiber dear steve pursuant to section 13 of my employment contract with the city of Durham please accept this memorandum as my notice of intent to resign my position as city attorney of Durham effective March 8 2019 serving you this and past city councils and administrations as well as all of the past and current residents of the city of Durham over the last 21 years has been the honor of a lifetime on behalf of my wife ran and my children Griffin and Chloe we cannot express enough our appreciation for all the opportunities afforded to us in this amazing community I will have much more to say about my tenure with this organization and community as we get closer to that departure date sincerely Patrick W Baker city attorney a couple things that I didn't include in that note is that for members of the public and staff I have accepted the position as the Charlotte city attorney and we'll be starting my work there on our about March the 11th and I will be using the next 60 days to ensure an absolutely seamless transition with this organization as we move forward I think I've got a great staff of attorneys and look forward to making this transition as smoothly as possible for you thank you Patrick that's not the kind of thing one claps for let's just I just want to say and we'll have many other opportunities to say this on behalf of my colleagues and on behalf of our city staff on behalf of our community that while we recognize this as a tremendous loss for Durham we also want to wish you Godspeed in your new job and we know that you'll do the same fantastic work that you have done here in Durham that you'll be doing in Charlotte but we will miss you terribly not only personally as friends but also for the incredible professional work that you have done in Durham I want to say to the members of the public you may not know this Patrick may be one of the only people in the country who's ever been about the city manager and a city attorney of a city you serve us for 21 years with incredible distinction when you told us Patrick told me recently and council members and then we had a as you said a closed session just earlier today that you were leaving we all felt the same thing which was happiness for you at the same time as a sense of gratitude for your great work here and a sense of loss because we really are going to miss you in every way so just wanted to say that wanted to tell you that we really are rooting for you and your new job and and and when I see the mayor of Charlotte that will be the end of our friendship it's on that I'm gonna I'm gonna ask now if any of my colleagues have any brief remarks they would like to offer we'll have more chances of course to to celebrate you before the before the next two months are over but I do want to say we also should add that we appreciate that you're giving us this two-month transition and the council will be working and has already started thinking about the interim the interim city attorney to be covering your work but we appreciate very much the responsible way in which you're doing this leave taking and we'll just miss you a lot Patrick the whole city thank you colleagues anyone they're going to be nice right now thank you senator all right well we'll have other opportunities to do so and Patrick maybe now we should offer you around anything after this is going to be kind of melodramatic or anticlimactic I think the word is not melodramatic anticlimactic thank you Patrick madam clerk any priority items could we make it an item that he stays I have no items thank you madam clerk we'll now move to the consent agenda the consent agenda can be adopted by the council with a single vote the members of the public or members of the council can pull items from the consent agenda which will then be taken up at the end of the meeting I'm going to read the consent agenda items item one approval of city council minutes item two Durham historic preservation commission appointment item three Bloomberg mayor's challenge grant this item has been pulled by Ms. Victoria Peterson item four elected officials travel authorization expense reimbursement policy item six expansion the environmental affairs board item seven developer agreement option contract for phase two of the willow street apartments the self-help ventures funded DHSC Inc. item eight habitat for humanity of Durham affordable housing project this was also pulled by Ms. Peterson item nine uniform on our security guard services for the city's parking facilities has been referred back to the administration item 10 agreement with the Durham Chapel Hill Carver Metropolitan Planning Organization North Carolina Department of Transportation for the congestion management process web application and grant project ordinance item 11 agreement with the Durham Chapel Hill Carver Metropolitan Planning Organization the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the update of the web-based transportation improvement program TIP and grant project ordinance item 12 bid report November 2018 item 13 hazard mitigation grant program HMGP 4167-0014-R grant project coordinates item 14 hazard mitigation grant project management HG HMGP 4167 of em at number one I will now ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of items three, eight, and nine. So moved Mr. Mayor. Been moved and seconded we approve the consent agenda Madam Clerk will you please open the vote please close the vote Motion passes seven zero thank you very much we'll now move to item three Ms. Peterson you have three minutes yes I'm Mrs. Peterson Victoria Peterson first thing that was a little shot to my spirit to hear about our attorney Mr. Attorney Baker leaving he knows I'm going to miss him sorry to see you go I hate to see you go do I need to make a phone call to the Charlotte Mayor but anyway we'll talk about that later I'm very concerned about this amount of dollars a million dollars to help bring about some form a way of transportation I don't see anything and I don't I'm hoping maybe the person will be speaking on this I apologize to light bothers my eyes I don't see anything and I tried to read a little bit about it I don't see a job program connected to this million dollars that's going to be coming into this community to bring about new ways of encouraging people not to drive the vehicles there should be a component here to make sure that our young men and women are going to be employed I was at a county commissioner meeting today 20 million dollars is being appropriate for a project out in the county not one not one dime is being set aside so far these folks have been working on this project for four years nothing is set aside for job development and to make sure that our local men and women are getting jobs in this community and I'm going to tell you why we had another three people that were murdered on New Year's Eve in this community another person shot I'm sorry not New Year's Eve New Year's Day two young folks were shot already and the last five days what is going on in this community these young people need job training if they're not going to go to college they cannot afford to go to community college or vocational some of these dollars should be used for training whoever's going to bring in this program I want to see their office sighted over at the T.G. Jakes the recreation center that sits vacant all day over there until around three o'clock over near the public housing in Maduga Terrace you have a rec center that sits there every day finally somebody has put some kind of a center in there for the kids but that only goes on there for a few hours there's not a GED program thank you Ms. Peterson thank you Ms. Peterson we appreciate it but Mr. Mayor please let me finish saying my thought and I'll sit down Ms. Peterson you finished in one sentence excuse me one sentence talk about the murders just to place in this community this week and what are we going to do about it and how can these dollars bring about some training to get these kids off these streets from shooting and killing one another Ms. Peterson thank you thank you Mr. Mayor just to say for members of the public just so people who are watching understand this is a grant application that we received million dollars from the Bloomberg Foundation in order to to follow up on some great work that we did that our city staff did trying to get people coming downtown in ways that are other than in their cars so that we can change the way in which people travel in Durham that we can encourage people to bike and ride the public transit and walk into downtown instead of driving their cars it's a way to fight climate change it's a way to improve our quality of life it's very important we do have of course many community centers many many community centers throughout the city they're open for our young people we have free programming for our teenagers it's at many of our our community centers every single afternoon and they're serving hundreds of them and we'll continue to do so I'll now accept a motion on item three been moved to second that we approve item three Madam clerk we please open the vote please close the vote motion passes seven zero thank you very much well now we have to item eight Ms. Peterson you again have three minutes here's another program that I do not see anything dealing with economic development and Mr. Mayor I'm sorry when Ms. Weeks was shot the other week by a group of young black men they still have not been taken off the street I have a friend a neighbor at least a sister in my church daughters having some issues with the young man that is threatened to murder them he's damaged two cars we see a four hundred and ninety seven thousand dollars and I think Mr. Johnson is handling this 25 new homes are going to be built in this community and that's awesome and that's great who's going to be doing the work do we have a construction program being done in house and Holton school I know a few years ago we talked about that I don't know if that program has ever got up and started running I see the city manager shaking his head maybe we are doing something we need to make sure that if we're going to be giving tax dollars out for these various programs then we need to make sure that our young people African-American boys and girls are being hired and trained to get these jobs and as far as I know the only program that was going on over at the Holton school a few years ago was a barbecue program to cut hair there's nothing wrong with that but we need to have more than that going on and T. G. Jakes can be used for a GED program it can also be used for a construction program there's nothing going on on my side of town I live in walking distance to McDougal terrace we had killings and shootings going on over in that close to that community and I don't want to just bring up McDougal terrace I can bring up North Carolina Central University they've got issues going over there on that campus the crime is running rapid and the fourth district the fourth district do you know where the police station I mean not the where that satellite station is where the fourth district it's way out there on Alexander Drive do you know how long it takes to get out there to come to my house when I had to call the police of all the gun shooting that went on on New Year's Eve shooting and shooting and shooting it was unbelievable I want you to do something somebody texted me the other day and said did you know that the majority of the city council members now are persons of color I want to know what program are my brothers and sisters putting together on this city council to address the murdering the murdering crime that is going on in our community it's not going on over there thank you miss Peterson thank you miss Peterson I know you want to shut me down mr mayor miss Peterson I don't want to shut you down your three minutes are up oh I we need to do something about the murdering going on in this community particularly with black folks being killed and shot two young folks were shot miss Peterson please say something to do something you have to obey the rules in this this chamber just like everybody else you had your three minutes thank you let me just say nobody cares about what's going on in terms of violence in this community more than the people on this council we think about it every day and we work hard on it there are many ways in which we can fight the violence that goes on our community we have a superb police department under terrific leadership we have we hire the best we train them well and we support them well we'll continue to do that and we also work hard to fight the root causes of violence and one of the ways that we work to fight the root causes of violence is by trying to work on affordable housing to make people who live in communities have a decent safe place to live that's what this item is miss Peterson this is around five hundred thousand dollars to support habitat for humanity for low income people predominantly people of color to become first time home buyers in an affordable way it's a good thing all right i'll accept a motion on item eight so moved second Mr. Mayor before you move forward miss councilman I just want to make sure that we're clear clarifying I think she means Te Grady not T.D. Jakes T.E. Grady T.E. Grady T.A. Grady T.A. Grady T.A. Grady and I just want to acknowledge that I recognize what you're saying as far as programming and I would like to make sure that someone from staff does reach out to miss Peterson because I don't think she knows about a lot of the work that we are doing and I would like to make sure that she's well aware by department thank you thank you I'll accept emotional item eight so moved second Madam clerk please open the vote please close the vote motion passes seven zero thank you I don't believe there's any more business to come before this body and other than saying again godspeed to our city attorney I will declare this meeting adjourned 750 Victoria I think what you