 Welcome to the city council work session for this the fifth day of May 2020 at 1 p.m. here in our city hall plaza and first floor council chambers we want to welcome those of you who are here with us today in person as well as those who are joining us remotely. Madam clerk would you please call the road. Mayor O'Neill I am here Mayor Pro Tem Middleton I'm here Councilmember Caballero here on some member Freeman as it comes a member Johnson here on some member Williams present thank you thank you I will now turn to our colleagues my colleagues to see if we have any announcements up for today and Pro Tem followed by Councilman Caballero thank you ma'am good afternoon Madam Mayor and to my honorable colleagues and to all in the chamber today and those watching from wherever you may be remotely happy Thursday to everyone Madam Mayor I just wanted to briefly acknowledge that this is Asian American Pacific Islander month in our country and we certainly want to celebrate the incredible achievements and accomplishments that members of those communities here that are part of the Durham fabric contribute to our city daily and weekly so I did not want the opportunity to go by without acknowledging it officially from this day it's on record and let those folks those members of our community here in Durham they represent the Asian American Pacific Islander community that's we are so grateful for the contributions they make to the rich and diverse mosaic that is Durham and indeed our nation so happy API month to all of our beloved Durham residents and citizens thank you Madam Mayor thank you for that and we will certainly echo those sentiments we value all of our members that's what makes us a great city that we are diverse and we value everybody so thank you all for your many contributions to Durham I will recognize councilwoman copy arrow for her announcement thank you mayor good afternoon everyone I just again want to remind everyone that we are in early voting until May 14th I will probably be announcing at every single meeting we have until the primary which is on May 17th you can early you can register and vote during early voting you do not have to I'm not sure what's going on with my mic I apologize and the primaries on May of the Lord anyway you can't register to vote on voting day so that's my reminder for folks thanks thank you thank you for that without the voters out there we would not be in these seats today so we remind you of that important uh civic civic responsibility councilman William yes I failed to mention recently councilmember johnson you might have removed this thing again we we have this thing where it is it's in our way over here I failed to mention a lot of time about the league municipalities of significant news the city of Durham received an award and kudos to our just amazing staff and leadership making this happen we received the award of most entrepreneurial town award city of Durham with the town of Lewisville so as far as large cities we received that award and I was recognized at the past conference and this is based on honoring municipalities that in the face of financial challenges completed a project or initiative without the utilization of federal or state dollars and a winning initiative innovate Durham initiative which was uh recognized so just wanted to state that on the public record thank you councilman Williams and as usual we show up when we show up all right are there any further announcements we will now turn to our priority items by our city manager page good afternoon madam mayor o'neill mr mayor pro tem middleton and members of the Durham city council I do have several priority items for you and I will walk through them at this time agenda item number six jfk towers jfk towers north carolina tc lp development loan commitment the administration is requesting that you suspend the rules today to allow the city to provide the required letter of commitment so that the developer can close on permanent financing and secure a current interest rate agenda item number seven the administration is also requesting that you suspend the rules today on this item and it is cedar terrace apartments taft mills group llc development loan commitment by suspending the rules today the at this work session it will allow the administration to provide the developer of this project with the required letter of commitment for their final tax credit application which has a due date of may 15 2022 additionally we have item number five which is an interlocal agreement renewal for Durham city county strategic youth initiatives we are asking for a 25 minute time slot to make a presentation along with this item agenda item number 12 proposed water and sewer rates for fiscal year 2022 2023 we have a 15 minute presentation for this item agenda item number 20 is the fiscal year 2022 2023 proposed budget and fiscal year 2023 through 28 capital improvement plan our cip a presentation will be made on this item at the may 16 2022 city council meeting and finally agenda item number 22 fiscal 2023 stormwater rates we do have a presentation for this item and a public hearing on this item will be conducted during the may 16 2022 city council meeting that is all i have this afternoon thank you city manager page you have now heard the city manager's priority items i am ready to entertain a motion for their approval so move second it has been moved by councilwoman freeman and seconded by mayor pro tem that we approve the manager's priority items all in favor say aye aye all those supposed to have the same right hearing none the ayes have it and the motion passes unanimously we will now turn to our city attorney for her priority items good afternoon madam mayor mayor pretend middle 10 and members of the city council it's good to see you today i do have one priority item today i would request that the city council hold a closed session at the conclusion of all regular business at the end of today's work session we can hold the motion until we get to that point of the meeting but i do ask for that closed session please thank you so much i recognize uh we're not ready to entertain a motion to accept the city attorney's priority items so moved second been moved by a councilwoman councilman williams and seconded by councilwoman johnson to accept her priority items uh we will now ask that we vote all those in favor signed by saying aye aye all those supposed to have the same right hearing none the ayes have it and the motion passes unanimously and then we will entertain your motion to closed session at the end okay all right let us briefly now return back to the request by our city manager to suspend the rules for items item six jfk towers jfk towers nc tc lp development loan commitment number seven cedar trace apartments taff mills group llc development loan commitment and i am ready to enter madam mayor i move that we uh suspend the rules to vote on items six and seven second it has been moved by councilman williams and seconded by councilwoman johnson that we suspend the rules uh we are now ready to vote all those in favor would you sign my saying aye aye all those opposed have the same right i oppose please note that we have one in opposition uh and the ayes have it madam mayor i move that we approve that we authorized the city manager to issue jfk towers and ctc lp or its designated affiliate approved by the city a conditional binding commitment of permanent financing in an amount of up to 1.5 million dollars in affordable housing bond funds for the rehabilitation of 177 affordable rental units at 4900 old farm road in Durham known as jfk towers is there a second to that motion second it has been moved by councilwoman johnson and seconded by councilman um williams at this point in time i'd ask for all those in favor if you sign by saying aye aye all those opposed have the same right i oppose we have one in opposition uh councilwoman freeman the ayes have it madam attorney do we need to vote on each motion yes okay um i move that we authorize the city manager to execute any and all documents and instruments necessary reasonable and appropriate in order to carry out the purpose and intent of this conditional binding commitment of permanent financing is there a second and moved by council and williams and seconded by i'm sorry moved by councilwoman johnson and seconded by councilman williams at this time i'd ask for those in favor would you sign by saying aye aye all those opponents have the same right hearing none the ayes have it i move we authorize the city manager to make necessary and sundry changes to the conditional binding commitment of permanent financing so long as the changes do not increase the financial obligations of the city and the changes taken as a whole are not less favorable to the city second it's been moved by council woman johnson and seconded by councilman williams we are now ready to vote all those in favor would you say aye aye all those opposed have the same right hearing none that motion passes unanimously i move that we approve item seven to authorize the city manager to issue to taff mills group llc or its designated affiliate approved by the city a conditional binding commitment of permanent financing in an amount up to six point nine million dollars in affordable housing bond funds and or home investment partnership funds from the u.s department of housing and urban development for the development of 180 affordable rental units at 3400 car road in durham known as cedar trace second it's been moved by councilwoman johnson and seconded by councilman johnson councilman williams all those in favor would you sign by saying aye aye all those opposed will have the same right i oppose we have one in opposition councilwoman freeman the eyes have it a move we authorize the city manager to execute any and all documents and instruments necessary reasonable and appropriate in order to carry out the purpose and intent of this conditional binding commitment of permanent financing second it's been moved by councilwoman johnson and seconded by councilman williams all those in favor would you sign by saying aye aye all those opposed have the same right hearing none that motion passes unanimously i move we authorize the city manager to make necessary and sundry changes to the conditional binding commitment of permanent financing and associated documents so long as the changes do not increase the financial obligations of the city and the changes taken as a whole are not less favorable to the city second it has been moved by councilwoman johnson and seconded by councilman williams all those in favor would you sign by saying aye aye all those in the opposition have the same right hearing none that motion passes unanimously all right we will now turn to our city clerk for any priority items that she may have good afternoon madam mayor mr. mayor pro tem and council members i would like to pull item number four and i'll read that item it's the nominate and appoint a city of Durham resident to fill one vacancy on the at-large seat of council i'd like to pull that for discussion and to suspend the rules in order to vote all right now i would entertain a motion to accept our city clerk's priority items second it has been moved by mayor pro tem milton and seconded by councilman freeman uh would we all sign all those in favor sign by saying aye aye all those in the opposition have the same right hearing none the motion passes unanimously thank you i'm ready to entertain a motion to suspend the rules in accordance to our request by our city clerk move to suspend second it's been moved by mayor pro tem milton and seconded by councilwoman freeman all those in favor would you sign by saying aye aye all those opposed will have the same right hearing none that motion passes unanimously we will first read our agenda through and then we will come back to our pooled item by our city clerk all right so we are going to read our administrative consent items item number one the Durham bicycle bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission appointment item two the Durham historic preservation commission appointment item three the mayor's Hispanic Latino committee appointment item four which has been pooled is to nominate and appoint a city of Durham resident to fill one one vacancy on the at large seat of council we now turn to our departmental items item five the interlocal agreement renewal for Durham city county strategic youth initiatives item six which we have already dealt with is jfk towers jfk towers nctc lp development loan commitment we've already also resolved undisposed item seven which is cedar trace apartments taff meals group llc development loan commitment item eight the contract was dixie lawn service incorporated for right away mowing and litter removal services madam may would you pull that item please yes sir item nine the second amendment to contract number 17430 supplemental agreement number two with kim lee horn and associates the Durham county transit plan madam mayor can you pull that item you would like that item pooled yes item 10 the 2022 through 2025 transportation on call contract number 18920 supplemental service agreement number one us 70 access and connectivity service study i'm sorry item 11 the award of a service contract to tailor meter technologies for the large meter inspection and testing services project madam may would you pull number 11 for me please you will item 12 the proposed water and sewer rates for fy 2022 through 2023 item 13 contract agreement for services with made in Durham item 14 fiscal year 2022 to 23 agreement to fund economic development programs programs and services operated by downtown Durham each using city of Durham funds madam i don't want to pull it but i did want to send the record i'm really appreciative of the work that this organization has done and um thanks for weathering through the pandemic and looking forward to more coming madam mayor i didn't want to pull it as well so i was just going to hold it but uh because councilman williams mentioned i do want to say that i think that the services that are provided in our downtown area are exceptional and i think we have to figure out a way to make sure that more of the underserved businesses in our community actually have that type of service as well that's all thank you and we thank miss nicole thompson who is here with us in in the city chain versus afternoon thank you for all that you're doing item 15 the national league of cities hispanic i can never say this word entrepreneurs pilot program grant award and grant project ordinance madam mayor i don't want to pull it but i was just really happy to see this and i want to thank uh oed for working really hard uh to to organize around this thank you thank you madam mayor i didn't want to pull it but i would hope that oed will work to acquire more than 15 000 um to make sure that this is successful i concur thank you so much item 16 contract amendment for st-317c utility locate services item 17 contract sw-86 public works street maintenance repairs 2022 item 18 street and infrastructure acceptances madam mayor can you pull that item that was councilwoman freeman item 19 sw-89c project management and inspection services item 20 which is under our presentations fiscal year 2022 through 2023 proposed budget and fiscal year 2023 through 2028 capital improvement plan cip a presentation will be made at the may 16 2022 city council meeting public hearings item 21 and consolidated annexation and your avenue apartments item 22 this f y 2023 storm water rates and there will be a hearing on a public hearing on may 16 2022 that will conclude our agenda madam manager here's what i have for the pool of items items four item number four item number five item number eight item number nine item 11 item 18 item 12 item 18 and item 22 are we in agreement yes ma'am that's what we have i do not see any citizens matters just to make sure great all right now i am going to turn it over to our mayor pro tem middleton and councilwoman johnson who have headed our legislative committee to return back to the priority item from our city clerk thank you madam mayor and again good afternoon to you and to all of my honorable colleagues and to those of you in the chamber and those watching at home we come now to deal with the matter that our clerk and i want to thank our clerk for the work she's done in in a quarterbacking this selection process for us as chair of the procedure committee i want to thank you madam mayor for your insistence on transparency your insistence on public participation as well and for us to be deliberate and really this most sacred choice perhaps second to the budget that we pass for the city this might be one of the most significant and serious choices that we make and decisions we make as a council it's a it's an inferior process and when i when i say inferior secondary to an election in that these seats are the property of the people of derm but every once in a while in filling these seats the responsibility the sacred responsibility falls to us and we're called to act as surrogates in place of the almost 300 000 people of this city that's not to be taken lightly it's to be approached with the utmost seriousness utmost sobriety and utmost respect for the fact that we are acting as surrogates for the people the best way to fill these seats is through election but as circumstance has played this opportunity this option and this responsibility falls to us legally and morally as a council as chair of the of the procedures come in i want to thank my co-chair jillian johnson who's been wonderful in this process and making sure that we've honored standing customs and practices and traditions of the council when it comes to when these times fall to us to fill these seats and i want to thank her she's been a great partner in this process as chair it falls to me to to start the discussion and either the honor or the burden of casting the first vote and starting the conversation belongs to me i guess history will determine what that is but it's an honor to start this conversation madam mayor and colleagues we are blessed in derm we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to people that are civically minded that love our city that are possessed of our values that are animated by the spirit that makes derm such a special city in this country and that has been really really illustrated in this selection process first with the 20 some odd folk who initially put their names in a hat and we want to honor them on behalf of a grateful city for their willingness to step up and serve on what sometimes is a thankless hard job but it is incredibly rewarding and then the final four who are with us in the chamber today each of you have profound profound gratitude and respect not only from this council but from every resident of the city every citizen of the city this is perhaps one of the most impressive group of people i've had the honor and privilege of considering it was umbling reading through their accomplishments through their credentials and i particularly was moved on on tuesday night uh when we had uh folk for each of of the four candidates come and speak so passionately so convincingly not just about their their accomplishments and and their their vitae but but them as people as human beings and i i my belief in in love for this city uh and belief that we have the absolute best people in this country living in derm was reaffirmed uh during that conversation but lo alas it it comes down to having to choose one uh and madam air in my deliberation process one of the things that guided me was was what would deepen our debate and our considerations as a council but i also considered what we have available to us as a council when it comes to our staff as well uh not just our experiences and expertise on this podium but what our staff brings us as well uh and they bring us a lot a great deal of expertise a great deal of insight and when we ask the right questions when we provide the the appropriate runways and on ramps our conversation is deepened greatly by the staff so in considering what staff brings to us our professional staff and what we have up here my question was what would uh deepen what perspective um are we not exposed to either through each other or through our incredible staff on a regular basis uh and that's what what brought me to my decision i want to say uh to dr price dr holman dr mccoy and to nate baker we would win with either one of you and the solace i take and having to only choose one person today is that to a person each one of them uh committed that they would be interested in seeking to serve this city moving forward uh i find comfort in that because either one of them sitting up here would add incredible depth uh and incredible reach uh and and another aspect to this council but after uh consideration uh deep dives and listening to what the people have had to say and again looking at the makeup of this council and looking at uh what is available to us via staff i'll be casting a vote today for dr monique hall holman high holsy hyman uh to fill uh the at-large uh vacancy seat i think that her perspective uh from her work as a social worker um from what i heard from the members of the community who spoke on her behalf uh would be a welcome uh and deepening um a deepening addition and by deepening i mean providing a perspective uh that i think oftentimes uh goes not covered in some of the debates we have uh we've got a lot of policy wonks at our disposal as a council uh we've got a lot of lawyers uh we've got a lot of folk who have worked on policing and other issues but i personally uh am intrigued by having our debate challenged and shaped by someone who has been in human services and and and particularly uh with her social work background so i am be casting my vote for dr hyman today uh to fill uh the at-large vacancy left by our good friend councilmember charlie reese i think it would would honor his service and commitment i think it would set us up for success moving forward uh and i look forward uh to the other three candidates uh if if my candidate should should um win the day today i look forward to the other candidates uh continuing their engagement in our public square and deepening the life of our city thank you madam mayor we're going to proceed down the the podium her honor will go last uh so i'll yield at this time to counter member freeman i would pass thank you what do you mean pass are you not okay councilmember copierre good afternoon thank you um so i think the part that was very uh amazing about our process at least for me was tuesday night i sent all four applicants the supporters that they brought the commitment and dedication that they have shown Durham and that was very evident by all of the folks who came and spoke uh from them for them we have a lot of talent in the city we should be very very proud of that talent um every single applicant was extremely strong every single applicant uh was very genuine and thoughtful and caring this is not an easy process uh after reading applications i thought maybe i had somebody that i was leaning towards and then interviews maybe somebody else and then after tuesday evening i was even more flummoxed um but i will be casting my vote for dr monique holsy hyman i think the part that really i think challenged me was that we definitely don't have that perspective on council and then also very much her passion for youth and mentorship we need it uh we know that we're struggling uh with our youth in the city for many many reasons and i look forward uh to being a colleague to her and also to help her because i've been in this spot uh the fire hose is definitely in your face for several months uh it's a very challenging um position to be in when you are appointed because you do not seek election you have not been for three or four months running a campaign preparing potentially i want to thank every single applicant who applied i know Durham has a very very bright future because you are here with us i hope that you do see kyer office we will um we have elections every year in Durham north carolina there are many many seats uh so thank you again for applying thank you to your supporters who came and spoke on your behalf uh thanks that's all thank you member thank you council member copy or else i'll yield at this time now the council member williams thank you uh yes this this is a pretty tough moment i had to be drugged to vote on this because i did not want to uh i think i was on public record just a little over a year ago um when i was in you know the position of trying to seek an appointment and the first statement i said was i wish this was just taken up in her election you know um and up until the very last minute you know before today's meeting um i gave in to the pressure of our reality and you know this city has a capacity of seven seats to um be at the top of the food chain and running the city and i struggle with so many things uh leading up to this point simply because one we i was so appreciative to have so many people willing to make such a sacrifice to serve in this uh in this capacity but down to the four uh the final four um one i did not know as well but i was extremely impressed with what they had to provide um one i two i've sought advisement myself from and uh another i've engaged with and just in the community and you know it just in general and have been extremely impressed um and i will i will admit i i came into this with my biases and i you know i have my interest and then i have my you know just time spent and i could not come up with the decision and i said i wanted to just not take on this pressure and lead it to an election let it go to an election however pressure is a daily reality that we have to um face in this capacity and um it's something you can't run from and you don't always make the right decision but you make your best decision and that is how you sleep at night uh and while i it clung on while i was clicking on to my biases you know the folks that i was like you know this this person is extremely smart but so are the rest as well all of the things that i was factoring i thought about taking my i had to take myself out of it i had to take myself what i would prefer out of it and i had to think about what you know what are we missing i think uh just listening some others did the same process what are we missing you know what do we have you know as a city government you know what do we have as a council in regards to expertise but most of all what does the community need in this moment in time and while it can sometimes be a burden that we have an election every single year it's also a good thing we have an election every single year because we can always have the opportunity to refresh uh so while each of the candidates i have a great deal of respect for you and even just being honest going against what my my personal bias would be i am going to go with who i think can address the need of our community right now and that's building a whole person that is building a whole person from the interviews to the applications to the speakers um and just reflecting on all of that i too i'm going to go with dr monique moseley harman thank you thank you council member at this time i'll yield to council member johnson thank you mayor pro tem um i want to echo my colleague's appreciation for everyone who has taken part in this process especially the applicants um we were really blessed to have a fabulous group of people applying for this role and especially the four finalists we absolutely could not go wrong with any of the four of you um this is the third time i've done this appointment process and um it's never easy there's always a lot of really um a lot of really fabulous candidates who are who are excited about about serving our city and we are so fortunate to have to have so many um civically minded and and politically engaged people in our community who are excited about um about serving our residents i'm also going to be casting my vote for dr monique holsey hyman for a couple of reasons i am really excited about her um expertise in social work which is something that um we you know that we that we don't have right now amongst um amongst our body and is something that i think is really important to bring to the table now that we are um especially in in our consideration of different ways to provide community safety we are relying a lot on people in the human services field social workers and um and other mental health workers to to really change um make some some big changes in our in our safety systems and and i think having that expertise on the council um will be will be really valuable for us um i also just want to mention i was really touched by the first speaker um for dr holsey hyman at our at our tuesday um at our tuesday public comment the the way that she um the way that she described her her leadership and mentorship um was just really really inspiring and and touching for me and my mom was a social worker so i also just a lot of respect for um for the profession and and think that it's um it'll be a great skill set to add um to add to our body um again i want to appreciate everybody who applied you all have amazing skill sets and knowledge and um a real heart for our city and i hope that you'll all continue to stay involved in um in the work for the city that you're doing now or in other um and other projects in the future and look forward to to continuing to work with with all of you thank you thank you councilmember johnson madam clerk before i yield to her honor the mayor who will have the last word uh council member freeman has indicated that she's already made her vote known to you would you report that for the record please absolutely council member freeman has voted in favor of dr monique holsey hyman thank you her honor the mayor good afternoon bull city and Durham north carolina and two our candidates uh who applied for this process as you know for council men weems and i this was our first time uh being a part of this process and first of all i'd like to thank our leaders who have guided us through this process mayor protib meadowton and councilwoman johnson who have uh worked really hard uh in in front in the public eye as well as behind the public eye to make sure that this process has gone well i'd also note that our city clerk and all of our staff our county manager and our county attorney you know they make sure that these processes go well for me as as your newly elected mayor in my consideration um of how i would go about casting a vote it was really important for me one as a person um to make sure that i was being true to what i had promised the citizens of Durham as a mayor also to consider um our council um and how we could build a more more cohesive a group knowing that democracy does require um differences but there are some things in some places where i believe that it is important that we have agreement and then the third is to the accountability to the people who elected all of us and how we stand in the place of them uh for this particular junction so for me personally you've heard me say it over and over again from the very beginning of my quest for this boots on the ground leave no one behind and there has to be a place where folk who have traditionally been left out are included for me as the council the things that have been important to all of us primarily violence and community safety we all want to save Durham we all want to address violence and we all want to figure out how we can get into the space to to really get some expertise in their area and thirdly to the citizens at large which is pretty much what they've all told all of us how do we begin to address some of the deep-seated issues that have plagued our city in terms of some of our most marginalized communities and so i too will be casting my vote for dr moley hoesley hyman because i think she can provide for us a mechanism for boots on the ground she can provide leadership that will help us leave no one behind we have an ability to as my mayor pro tem has said to kind of learn some of the other things and and we appreciate all of the knowledge but on this one this particular uh at this particular time for such a time as this i think that we do need a person who can provide the deep dive into humans and their behavior and how to address it so i thank you all for applying we look forward to her joining us up here on this dais and i hope that you all will continue to be civic minded and continue to be engaged so thank you all and congratulations to you dr hoesley hyman you have received a unanimous vote of the council thank you madam mayor just a couple more responsibilities the discharge as chair of the procedure committee by my assessment dr monique hoesley hyman has received the unanimous vote of the council and is now council member designee dr monique hoesley hyman um just a word about madam clerk how we will proceed in onboarding dr hyman um we will leave it to you to work with her and her family to identify a time between now and next week for her official swearing in we want to give her opportunity to have any folk that she may want to have in addition to i see her husband is in hello husband in the chamber in addition to any folks she may want to have there for swearing hand opportunity to also do some light onboarding uh before she crosses the legal threshold of being sworn in uh it happens to us here so she has our profound congratulations and our profound thanks and congratulations to all of the candidates as well we are a better city because of each of you and i look forward to your continued engagement uh in the public square council member designee hyman congratulations ma'am we look forward to welcoming you it's going to be a very short honeymoon period because there's a lot going on in our city and these are challenging times but we're confident that with your skill and your passion we will be a better council and a better city you have our profoundest congratulations and our support of each and every person on this day congratulations to you thank you madam mayor i'll turn the gavel back over to you now ma'am thank you thank you for a fine job thank you to you both and to you all for your participation in this process and now we will return to our pooled items and we will begin with item number five which is the interlocal agreement renewal for darm city county strategic youth initiatives and we will receive a presentation our resource person is this laura khalil yes hi good afternoon mayor o'neill mayor for tim middleton and council members and everyone dialed in it is great to be here with you and thank you for the space and time to hear our presentation i'm laura khalil uh pronoun she her i'm the city county youth initiatives manager and i'm joined by another member of my team today who can introduce herself hey everyone uh glad to be here my name is elise frazier my pronouns are she her and hers and i am the youth engagement manager for the city drum's office on okay great let me see if i could figure out this technology um all right i think the slides are showing so as you read in the meeting materials we're here to talk about the city county interlocal agreement or i la for youth initiatives which is expiring at the end of june we are here to make recommendations for a renewal of the i la and also seeking your approval for it as well and also want to share that this past monday we presented to the board of county commissioners they were supportive of the proposed i la and they requested one small revision which i will share later in the presentation all right let's see great so this is how we plan to spend our time together we'll start with a very brief refresh of the i la backgrounds and share some highlights of our accomplishments over the last four years we're going to try to squeeze that in two um 10 minutes or less and um we have been giving updates throughout the years pretty regularly so this is a high level view of the arc of our progress rather than specific project updates and then we'll share recommendations for the i la renewal and have time for discussion all right let's get started okay so we've used this slide and the next one in past presentations just wanted to do a quick refresh uh the i la the youth initiatives i la began in 2017 when the city and county made a commitment to fund an initiative that could build on derms past efforts to support youth success so there have been a lot of work done and this is a continuation in the legacy of work to support young people both agencies entered into an i la and that established a city county position that would lead the new initiative and that is the position that i've had the honor of serving in for a little over four years and that position is based on the office on youth and the city manager's office where uh complimentary programming was already happening at the time and over time kind of the key takeaway here is that there were a lot of goals of the initiative um and over time we worked to fully integrate them as goals of the office on youth so that our efforts were in sync so the initiative became a way to advance office on youth goals and vice versa oops okay so this is an old visual we've used for a few years to show how the office on youth goals connect to the initiative you can see the challenges um that have been identified on the left and then the manager's responsibilities intended to address those challenges and then how all of those things come together to form the office on youth goals which we'll be touching on a little bit later in the presentation so what did we build in four years we're excited to share with you our top five before we dive in i did want to do a little context setting for what we're about to share um our work focuses on the long-term strategy we have plenty of short-term impacts that's for sure um as you'll see and we're also building new pathways for those most affected by our community's pressing problems to have power in shaping solutions to those problems um you might have heard of the saying nothing for us without us and that is a guiding principle for us um and so what we're building in the office are ways or mechanisms for doing this that are scalable and we like to think applicable beyond just youth initiatives right beyond just young people and we we believe that they have the potential to be really transformative for our agencies so i'd ask that you hold that context as we share today so what did we build there was a drum roll can i get it now um i get to kick us off with number one this is a foundation and a blueprint for the work so being clear about our vision and how we will get there and how we will stay true to our values has been an anchoring practice for our office we began our strategic planning process immediately with hundreds of meetings with lots of different types of stakeholders and it's been an iterative process ever since um it has helped us focus which has also helped us maximize our resources and our impact our process incorporated equitable community engagement uh that allowed us to hear from hundreds of young people and their families and service providers this is our youth listening project which you're familiar with um and they told us exactly where to focus they gave us a very specific roadmap for how we can make derma a better place for young people and i just did want to highlight that that blueprint reflects the needs and dreams of black and brown youth lgbdq youth um immigrant migrant youth youth who are not working and not in school and youth who have experienced economic hardships houselessness and interactions with law enforcement and our work continues to center these and other often excluded identities so we're happy to say that the youth listening project report has been catalyzing a lot of really exciting things ever since it's helped us direct uh government dollars thousands of government dollars to initiatives that are actually responsive to what young people said was needed it's informed our work and has also been uplifted and informing the work of many of our partners locally and beyond and so the last thing i'll say on this slide is none of this would be possible without our relationships i'll say that again none of this would be possible without our relationships and our partnerships and the trust that we have built and that we hope to continue building that these are part of our foundation as well so it seems only right to just share what all of this has yielded before we jump into our other highlights just quickly to uplift our values and our vision and mission this is what we're about we believe that young people's voices are important and that they deserve to be part of the decisions that affect them and their communities that they are key stakeholders and leaders in our community right now and that we have to work intentionally to achieve equity so that all young people under them have what they need to thrive and to feel seen so our work is really about creating spaces and structures for this to happen and doing it in partnership with young people and their families and other people who work with youth so the two key strategies we use are youth engagement and collective action with stakeholders this is this is we believe these two strategies will get us to the outcomes that we want to see in Durham ultimately leading to happy safe well young people who are celebrated and affirmed in every direction of dimension direction of their lives so I'll stop there and I'll turn it over to Elise yeah thank you Lara um thanks um so one of the second kind of areas that we really built out in the last four years has been equitable youth engagement um Lara mentioned that a key strategy for how we do this is really about creating opportunities for young people to be leaders and decision makers within local government um so we do this work in two ways and we've talked about it before but we work with service providers so adults and creating the spaces that are needed for equitable youth engagement to happen right we know that youth power does not happen inherently it does not exist inherently so those spaces have to be built um and then on the flip side is that is that we work with young people to build up their skills um to connect them to opportunities and all the play all the things that they need in order to thrive in these new decision and leadership roles so a brief example of that would be our work with the comprehensive plans plan policy working groups so first we connected with the planning department staff to allocate youth seats on the policy working groups from there we met with the adults and the young people who were recruited for the policy working groups to do a training and like what does youth adult partnership look like and how do you build successful youth adult partnership um and then after those trainings and the work began we didn't just leave the young people we supported them throughout the process and their tenure on the policy working groups we met with them regularly um to help like how do we continue to strategize so that you can be most effective in this space so that's some examples of how we do our work um I have a couple of quotes that I want to share from some young people who were on the policy working groups uh one young person says uh through this experience I have learned how to communicate my opinions and thoughts in a group full of adults this is the first time I've ever been in a space where my voice and opinions hold the same weight as those of my adult peers another young person says I was able to have a voice and I finally felt important I'll repeat that I finally felt important everyone was respectful and understanding um um so that's kind of examples of how we do our work and so I want to talk a little bit about what success therefore looks like for us um so really it's a heightened awareness that young people are key constituents within Durham and then it's also about more departments and organizations seeking us out for support and creating youth engagement and youth leadership because they really value and see the value of youth voice and then this last piece of success is really about like high impact projects like the comprehensive plan which I mentioned and um participatory budgeting for example creating new roles for young people to be decision makers um I want to say that this can be like kind of hard to measure quantitatively right but we do have a couple of measures that you'll see on this slide um so one is that we are tracking a number of new decision-making opportunities created for and filled by young people you can see on this slide that we're now have over 50 oh excuse me now we have over 75 my dyslexia just popped out a little bit so I was about to say 57 um but we now have over 75 um and our numbers growing now that we have our youth ambassadors on board I do also want to emphasize that this number looks different than our kind of like broader youth engagement where we have engaged over thousands of young people we hope this 75 or the 76 that we currently have will surpass 100 by next year um the the last measure I kind of want to mention that we use is we track the number of systems and structure changes that have allowed for like youth leadership and decision-making to happen so these are changes like new seats new youth seats on boards and committees but also new and revised operating procedures so today we have over 25 like our work has led to over 25 new systems and structure changes so this is 25 new ways of doing things within the organization uh next slide please um I'm actually for time the second time I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this slide I'll just say that this is kind of an illustration highlighting our wins um and the ways in which we build and supported youth leadership over the years um so next slide please okay um so the kind of third area that we've really been focusing on is how do we build provider networks for better alignment um when Laura was speaking a moment ago she talked about like two of the key strategies being one youth engagement but then also the other being collective action with stakeholders so we often talk about better alignment um in connection to service providers as a way to enhance our overall goal of enhancing youth services in Durham so this looks like finding areas of natural alignment among providers and then also convening and skill building around those areas um so today we have done this work with over a hundred organizations um currently our most effective mechanism for facilitating alignment is through our Durham Youth Leadership Fund we talked about the fund I believe we came and talked about it in August so I won't talk a lot about it but just kind of like an overview I'll say through the fund um we are supporting 13 community organizations to advance the projects of to advance the priorities of our youth listening project um and we are really operating as a cohort with the Durham Youth Leadership Fund grantees so we meet regularly we do some skill building with them but we also incentivize them building and collaborating outside of us um Laura mentioned that our processes are very scalable and so we believe that this community grant mechanism is not only scalable but it can be used for larger investments to bring about alignment amongst other youth priorities um and then next slide please thank you um so the fourth area is really about communication and connections or resources so for us communication and connection is not simply just about awareness right so we really think about it is like how do we make youth services better fit the needs of young people and also more relevant to the needs of young people in Durham um we had to start with a deep understanding of what those needs and barriers were and as Laura mentioned we got this through the youth listening project I'm not going to talk about the youth listening project a lot today because we've talked about it previously but what I will say is that one thing that we heard from young people is not simply that they do not know about resources but sometimes the communication of those offerings are a barrier in of itself and we recognize that service providers don't always have the time or the marketing skills necessary to really do this effectively so we see in our office that we have a role to play um in addressing these challenges so you'll see that we are requesting a new information and communications position and this person will really dedicate the time needed to really work through um creating solutions and expanding our impact here um I'm not going to talk a lot about the rest of this slide but I will mention that we have our your Durham text line which is a way for us to send resources directly to young people in the community um so as opposed to young people having to seek out resources we send the one way text messages we also have our instagram page and we have our uh your dorm listserv which has over 300 service providers to date um and let's see yeah I think that's all that I want to share about this um can we go to the next slide please and finally I just kind of want to talk about our own internal capacity and infrastructure building we have been focusing on building our own capacity as an office to really not only do our work but also support other departments and organizations and building their youth leadership um so you'll see that we've done this in a lot of ways but one thing I want to highlight is because of some additional funding and support from the city we were able to um hold leasing space at the W. G. Pearson Center uh this has been vital to our work because the center is really a hub for youth serving organizations and is really broad in our partnerships and our networks and access to organizations outside of the city and county and then the other piece um this additional support was able to allow us to have our youth ambassador program um I'll say that we've done a lot with a relatively small budget um there are five members on our team two of them are full-time and then we have three part-time members and you'll see from this slide we've really been holding at two FTEs for four of the last four and a half years of this initiative um and so we really hope to like to continue to grow as an office and continue to do the amazing work that we've been able to do with such a small team um the last thing that I'll note here is that our budget did jump substantially this last fiscal year and that was because of two things one we got a one-time funding from the county for the dorm youth leadership fund that I mentioned earlier the city also awarded us some carry over funds to put to the fund as well and then we received an award for $15,000 from United Way as a part of our our partnership with protecting our dignity coalition um so for the sake of time I'm going to pass it on to Lara um to continue about what we are where we are going from here but if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them later thank you Elise all right so where do we want to go from here um all right first we want to share our vision for the coming years with you we want to see young people as key stakeholders in the issues that we all face in the community and we want to see this normalized we want to see their full partnership in our youth violence prevention efforts uh transportation the way we determine budget priorities and among other things uh we know the community gang assessment for example was just released and we want to see young people as equal partners in the action planning that follows up or follows up that release of that report uh we want to see more coordination and alignment among those who support and work with young people we want to see them be more responsive to what young people need and want especially those who have been most excluded and we want to see young people celebrated for their brilliance uh and contributions that they're making as of today so to that end we're proposing that the renewed iLA encompass an initiative with these three goals currently it is focused on a position so it would expand into a goal focused iLA there are a few strategies that are explicitly mentioned in the iLA but in general we want to keep it broad and evergreen enough so that it can be responsive to whatever's emerging as community priorities um for goal one we will continue our consultation that Elise talked about for building youth leadership hosting our ambassador program um and we are we are requesting funds from the county to actually expand that ambassador program by five to make it 15 um first started for goal number two we're looking at ongoing youth engagement ongoing data collection so we can stay relevant so we can continue to iterate continue to be responsive to what people in the community are telling us that they need and want and more intensive support for smaller cohort of providers so this would be around two of the community grants that Elise mentioned that were also part of our county budget request for the upcoming fiscal year and last but not least um this goal that we're super excited about is uh a lot there's a lot of youth led work happening in Durham supporting that work shining a light on it is actually part of an overall strategy towards hearing from more people seeing them as leaders following their lead and just being in general reminded of how brilliant they are uh just a couple of highlights of the renewed ila we did want to note that we are recommending a narrower age range focus the age range currently specified in the ila is five to 24 which i don't think i need to tell anyone is a huge range there are lots of different needs in that range it's not really a possible for us to effectively address all of them so we're proposing this narrower range of 13 to 24 years this is where when we look at our three goals where they intersect right in this age range it allows us to have more focus uh economies of scale and we also know as we've even heard earlier in this meeting there are a lot of pressing priorities um in our community right now such as jobs and violence prevention which impacts this age range um and there's been a lot of investments over the last four years to address the needs of younger children so it's not exclusive but it's more of a focus and we'll continue to collaborate with our partners who work with the younger age group um so that we can coordinate across the age spectrum and um i mentioned that at monday's meeting the commissioners had asked for a slight amendment to the ila i'll note that here which is just they wanted explicit language about regular reporting of updates to both of the boards so we'll add a statement to the youth initiatives manager responsibilities for at least annual reports to both the city council and board of county commissioners all right so this last slide is really just a picture i'm not going to talk through every element of it of the city and county investments and the fiscal year 23 budget requests related to the overall youth initiatives work uh the takeaway here is that since the initiative is based in the office on youth and the work of the office and the ila are aligned we look at the total office on youth budget when we talk about total investments and strategic youth initiatives so in other words the ila is budget is just part of the overall youth initiatives budget you can see the ila part highlighted in blue and so if for example all the new city and county requests are funded the ila will compose about 50 56 i think of the total office on youth budget um so yeah for the renewal we're proposing ila commitments that aren't split exactly in half as they are now but move the overall investments from the city and county closer to parity um and i think with that i'll stop and we can have a conversation and take questions wow wow wow can i tell you i'm up here i have been up here dancing in my seat i am so i mean literally dancing in my seat that that made my day right right there um i'm gonna open up to my colleagues um thank you for a fantastic job well done when done you have my my brain spinning um just wow wow wow wow so i'll open up to my colleagues for any questions or comments they may have before i'll finish with a few councilwoman johnson thank you madam mayor um thank you laura and alise for the presentation um and for all of the work that y'all have been doing over the last few years it's really great to get this update um and to learn a little bit more about all of the exciting changes and plans that y'all have for the office i was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about how the transition is going um to the uh the change by youth ambassador program um and just a little bit more about the work that the um that the youth are doing in that program and um how it might how you feel it's more uh impactful than the Durham youth commission and are like are y'all satisfied with with the new program and how everything is going i can start us off there and then if laura has anything to add um so i'll say i'll start by like kind of setting some frame for the dyc or the Durham youth and um Durham youth commission so towards the end of the dyc we had about uh or when i came when i was hired we had 30 dyc members um while we had some kind of racial diversity amongst the dyc we really had mostly young people who were really high achieving in school and the dyc really focused on service learning so they went out and did community service projects um and volunteerism right so they would go to some of the food shelters and pass out food on weekends um they did an annual event around uh toys like a toy drive so trading like kind of violent toys like guns um for like nonviolent toys um and then they were part of a youth state youth council network so really the scope of the dyc was mostly around volunteerism and service learning so though we had 30 young people i would say that the impact of the dyc was really on the the young people who were mostly engaged and we had a lot of turnover throughout the year and we would have about maybe 15 young people who were really engaged throughout the year right when you're doing service learning and volunteerism you want to have a lot of numbers so that you can pull right you can pull a lot of people into different opportunities but since we shifted our scope to youth leadership and decision making it made sense that we shifted the scope of the dyc as well right so right now with our change by youth ambassador program we have 11 youth we were budgeted for 10 but we had some extra funds in the office so we were able to hire an extra young person these young people are not working on volunteer opportunities they are consultants youth consultants to the city of Durham um and so of our 11 young people they have worked on a total of 18 projects so far this year that includes comprehensive plan that includes the county's kid voting Durham um we have some young people on the DPS foundation's mental health initiative um when we did a youth count for young people experiencing houselessness in Durham we had young people there as well um and I'm just oh and then the DPR's Durham Parks and Rec new aquatics community advisory board we have young people in there as well um so we have our young people with the ambassador program are really consultants and have decision making um authority and the roles that they have where the dyc was mostly just volunteering right and so to answer your question council member I would say that I am very excited not just about what the ambassador program has been able to do right because this is quality the quality of their work is really what we've highlighted as our values in our office um and we are hoping to expand to another uh five young people to have 15 seats we see this as something that could be scalable right but this is our pilot year we really want to take our time with it um and I wish yeah I'll stop there did I answer your question and Laura do you have anything to that yes that was great thanks Elise I will add oh sorry go ahead I will add that in as a parallel and kind of connected effort also we have started looking at the various boards and commissions uh between the city and the county to look at the youth seats that exists on those boards and commissions and which ones um could have youth seats and starting a process of assessing um sort of areas where we can bring a robot a more robust youth adult lens to boards where it makes sense we've been working with the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee for example or BPAC um in their expansion of youth seats promoting for those seats we're also doing training for that commission um around youth adult partnership I think in a couple weeks here and we'll also be supporting the young people who fill those seats and we've been doing some similar work with the racial equity commission as well doing some targeted recruitment because I know those seats were kind of hard to fill and we're in the process of that right now so um we're that we see that as kind of part of this overall purpose and focus on youth leadership youth adult partnership in areas where decisions are being made policies programs recommendations to council and commissioners etc thank you we had the um a youth representative appointment for BPAC on our agenda today and had three great applicants so thank you for for doing that work yeah protein thank you madam mayor and uh thank you uh our great folks from the office of youth you know not really a question but just commendations and celebration um I've always I've always been amazed how um societies and culture have been able to identify and foster prodigies in genius when from classical pianist to gymnast when they're very very very young uh so I'm very excited I'd love to see that type of energy when it comes to government and leadership as well to creating those environments where we we foster this type of engagement with our young people when they're very very young as young as possible as you do in other areas and I think this this goes right to the heart of it this I'm so excited about the work product coming out of this office uh and this initiative uh councilman johnson I like the way you always manage to get into a cool picture with these kids as well you you're always up like where's Waldo right in the middle of them uh so so kudos to uh to the work they're doing I hope that all of the recommendations and requests will make it into the manager's ask uh for the budget uh this year I look forward to supporting them congratulations on great work we look forward to celebrating and continuing to support what really is and should be of the future of our city nay the right now of our city thank you madam mayor thank you councilwoman freeman thank you madam mayor I also just want to echo my colleague's support and just acknowledge that there's been a huge transformation that has occurred um in the office on youth and I want to thank madam mayor madam manager page for really taking hold of that and supporting the way that you're actually rotating not just in your own office but also in in collaboration with the county in the work that they're doing and so I want to say that I'm excited um and so I appreciate mayor pro tem middle 10 mentioning you know how far back can we go because you know I like to work with the babies as as early as as possible and I know that this this work is just getting started and so the visits that we had from the third graders recently is just one piece and so what that looks like for third fourth and fifth graders fifth sixth seventh and eighth graders I really want to hear more about that um and I also would love to know um how you're engaging with the workforce and economic development to make sure that these 1500 slots are actually getting filled and so I know on this agenda we have made in Durham you know pushing out trying to get some work product together to make sure that their business is aligned and their opportunities for these youth but I really really want to see a lot more collaboration across um our city departments and our county and I would not limit it to that I would also say that we need to go on the road and show other cities how to do it so I appreciate looking and I appreciate any opportunity to to talk about what you're doing and I thank you for the report I'm sorry I'm looking down at the zoom I was looking out but yeah thank you to my colleagues I want to make sure that everybody has had their say before I take a brief moment to just say some things kudos kudos great job well I like I indicated earlier I've literally been up here dancing in my seat it's always amazing to me to see the um to actually see and hear and feel the good work that the city of Durham is doing in this arena and how much how far we are and so I thank you all for for doing great work in purpose for work I am I am a believer in mentors as as a mayor I am I am still being mentored and and hope to mentor more so I understand the need for us to prepare our young people as soon as possible for these roles so I have been talking with the city manager up here we've been going back and forth a little bit about some of the things that the city council is going to be doing and we hope to engage you all in this process and our young through you all our young people city council hopefully will be taking a deep dive in the area of housing so this is a prime opportunity for us to engage our young people in that necessary conversation as we attempt to learn what housing in Durham really looks like also in the area of transportation there are a lot of moving parts to that and I will encourage a deeper conversation I'd love to be able to do that with you all about how we can engage our young people in that and the one thing that I do want to that I've noticed just across the spectrum in in Durham that there is a lack of knowledge sometimes about how the governments work here in Durham, Durham City, Durham County you know the the court system and I am very interested in trying to produce some type of video that we can showcase our young people telling their their colleagues exactly what we do and how this is made up and I know I'm looking at my fellow council folk and I know that they will all be willing to engage just so that we can begin to teach you all in an early age what this process looks like and how to get ready to prepare the next generation of leaders so thank you all for a fantastic job you've made my day today made my day today and we thank you so much for this opportunity we will now turn to our next pool of item which will be item eight and item eight is the contract with Dixie lawn service for right away moving and litter removal services I believe that the item was pulled by Mayor Pro Tem and our resource person is Mr. Alexander Johnson. Good afternoon thank you Mayor O'Neill, Mayor Pro Tem Middleton and members of council I'm available for questions I don't have a comprehensive presentation to show you I just wanted to indicate what this contract is for and answer any questions that we have. Thank you thank you so much good to see you and I appreciate you being with us is there a representative from Dixie lawn service here he has we do have the president of the of the company and he has Mr. James McHenry yes ma'am all right thank you thank you and Mr. President thank you for being with us today just a couple of questions about Dixie lawn service I know the um company's been been engaged with us since 1999 and I know there's a tendency in government sometimes it's kind of do things by inertia and when the relationship's been established but I did have some questions about um the demographics uh of your workforce if you don't mind is Mr. President can you hear me are you on? Madam clerk. Mr. McHenry. Name is James McHenry. I'm sorry could you repeat that? James McHenry will be the president of that company I believe he's on virtually he did sign up rather. Mr. McHenry is not in the queue Madam Mayor. I believe his telephone number is indicated with a 704 prefix he may be on Mr. uh Mr. McHenry we can see your telephone number but we probably need for you to unmute it if you can you may try star six to unmute yourself sir. Madam Mayor the telephone number is no longer in the queue. Madam Mayor in the interest of time I'll be trying to get him back if you'd like to move on to the next bullet I'd be more than happy to wait. All right we'll see if he'll come back. Yes ma'am. On mine and we'll turn to item number nine which was uh the second amendment to contract number 17430 supplemental agreement number two with Kimley Horn and Associates Durham County Transit Plan our research person is Ms. Mario Klein I believe this item was pulled by Councilwoman Freeman. Thank you Madam Mayor I just had a couple of questions um just reading through I acknowledge the the three areas or factors that are extenuating the 257,000 for um essentially more engagement with the community I'm assuming but I just wanted to get some more information about the partner agencies and the plan around the uh I guess what the plan looked like around that type of um engagement and specifically I'll say I wanted to know if you were recovering responses around the bus service and if this engagement will include committees like our public facing Mayor's Committee uh with people with with different nobilities or even the mayor. Yes sorry um Erin Kane with the DCHCMPO uh yes we will be using a process similar to what we used in the first two rounds of engagement under Durham Transit Plan it will be multifaceted uh we will uh be meeting with a variety of stakeholder groups um including uh NCCU, Duke, the Mayor's Committee on People with Disabilities and a variety of other groups uh we've met with about two dozen of those kinds of stakeholder groups last time and we plan to reach out to them again in this phase in addition to that we will be continuing our engagement ambassadors program uh working with Ideal Ortiz to reach back out to those folks to make sure that we hear from uh previously underrepresented groups and make sure that they have a chance to weigh in on uh the preferred scenario and make adjustments based on the comments we hear from that as well as um doing what we call pop-up events going to areas of right height or high ridership uh such as the Village and Durham Station and engaging people one on one to get comments through that program thank you it would probably be really helpful if just a statement that you're going to use the city's current equitable engagement process or procedure um was included in the memo that way I already know that would be the best the best thing and then just acknowledging that $257,000 I'm hoping that there's a lot of in-person meetings and not just virtual that's all yeah yeah we will we will meet in person whenever possible and whenever the folks we are meeting with are comfortable with that absolutely thank you that's all okay thank you both are there any other questions for for this item it's not I think we're still attempting to I think the president of Dixie is going to try to rejoin us so we'll move to our next pooled item and return once he's joined our next pool item would be item 11 of the award of a service contract to tailor meter technologists for the large meter inspection and testing service project our resource person is Jerry Monroe and we also have a person um from tailor meter technologists Mr. Corey Taylor on that line this item was pulled by council uh mayor pro tem middleton uh good afternoon mayor O'Neill mayor pro tem middleton members of council uh don really water management here to answer any questions that you have concerning this item thank you madam mayor good afternoon don good to see um hope you're well just very quickly the large meters are are these all commercial users of these uh meters um yes yes they are the the largest meters um they serve do university do medical throughout the um the county you know nccu uh the the large industry is out at rtp and um out of trade burn um so they're they're they're all they're all commercial meters the the process and I remember maybe a year two years ago we were um having issues with with connectivity between some of our drivers driving around and using you know signals to check meters on private homes is it the same process checking these meters is it done remotely with a a sensor or do you have to actually get out and and and read these no we we have radio read meters on these meters um to to read them monthly okay so it's it's it's the it's the same at least in maybe not in scale but in in process it's the same as when we're reading meters at private residences uh as well correct and and this is to this contract in in front of you is concerning to make sure that the meters are reading accurately so the meters will be tested to make sure they're accurately registering the water that's going through them what was it's is the frequency of issues with the meters um I don't I don't know failings the right word but I remember that we had a number of people that had problems with water bills because of issues with either trees blocking the sensor or whatever batteries is the frequency with uh commercial ones uh similar to the the frequency of issues with commercial ones similar to ones in private residences and is this what this contract is seeking to to mitigate no we've actually had uh very much success with our larger meters when it comes to the radio read meters um they very rarely you know we find any problems with being able to read them or with the batteries or the meter um what this is about is the larger meters over time can lose their accuracy and usually when meters lose their accuracy they tend to under read the volume of water that is going through the meter so this is to ensure that the meters aren't losing that accuracy and um and to recalibrate the meter if need be got to all right thank you that that's all I had very helpful I appreciate you good to see you thank you Madam Mayor thank you councilwoman Freeman just one question I just wanted to know if there was a specific tier for the commercial meters around the one million and up I guess mark I just wasn't sure no all of our commercial accounts were billed at tier three all of them so regardless of however much um water they use it's just tier three correct and is there any conversation or looking into like I guess research into how that's having impact for some of the some of those that aren't using a million um that's evaluated annually when we when we have the rate presentation I can elaborate a little bit more on that but every year we look at whether or not those you know how that should be adjusted and you know how much income revenue those meters are brought in so that's reviewed annually thank you I just wanted to give you a preview of some of the questions thank you thank you both so much thank you Mr. Greeley I appreciate you today I believe unless there are any further questions on that item we can return to Mr. James McHenry for item number eight which councilman I'm sorry may I pretend Middleton had pooled thank you madam mayor this president can you hear me and if you would press star six on your telephone Mr. McHenry that may allow you to unmute hello oh yes I'm sorry I'm I'm can you hear me now yes we can Mr. McHenry James McHenry with Dixie good afternoon sir good afternoon sir thank you more camp in the Middleton here Durham City Council I just just had a couple of questions about your item I you may I don't know if you heard my initial on ramp comments but I recognize that you've been in relationship with us and others since about 1999 is that correct yes sir absolutely I was looking at some of the your contract or workforce diversity questionnaire and some of the the demographic information on your workforce in 1999 is a significant amount of time to be in relationship with us and I noticed that you have you have 265 employees in the entire company correct yes I do I do work all over you know the several states how many of your employees are African-American in your universal workforce I could answer that question without you know having to go back through I've since we're a seasonal business we use a lot of h2b workers that we bring in from Mexico and South America just because of being a seasonal business you know we can bring them in and we use a lot of those people who were in the past I guess we've used more you know people from the United States but it's just been so difficult to hire anybody you know hire people that you know we rely on that program a little bit more but we try to hire all the local people that we can and we're actually in the past we worked with a subcontractor who's a minority there in Durham to do you know that we subcontract our litter work too so the number 265 is that number static or not do you have at this as of today how many employees does your company have we're very close to that number now because we're in the middle of the moment season you know eight months out of the year we've got a large number of people working for us and then during the winter time our you know our workforce goes down to uh you know less than 50 people that are you know full-time people and uh so we're very seasonally oriented business so uh so it's kind of close to 265 today and of that number you have no sense as to how many black people work in your company um those are not i mean i i mean i don't want to tell you nothing that's not correct i mean i know um you got a ballpark as i have any black employees you have i send it to you i'm sorry i said we could compile that information and try to you know get it back to you this is um on the um on your questionnaire the the the information for the local um employee for the primary location that would be Durham is filled out and by my reader there are eight they're going to be about eight people doing the work in the field they're all um hispanic is that according to this uh document is does that sound familiar to you 100% of the folk are hispanic that are going to be working in the Durham area Hispanic and then i mean there's a there's a spanish and then we use i mean we've got a um a lady that we use uh sherry and she does our litter and she's some other people so yes so 100% of the folk that are going to be working in the primary area which will be Durham are hispanic correct yes i'm sorry i don't have a real good connection here and i keep breaking up and i'm and i apologize for that that's all right we'll have very good internet connection william we'll get through it we'll take the time you need the so on your workforce diversity questionnaire part b employee diversity breakdown for the consolidated company is not filled out at all why not and staff if you want to chime in as well as to why this part of the questionnaire wasn't filled out um whoever the relevant staff person is feel free as well mr president did you hear that question i can answer the question um per the instructions on the contractor workforce workforce and diversity um diversity questionnaire uh it's a uh if then statement so if the staff that are being applied to the work of this contract are going to be pulled from the larger um staffing resources of the company then they need to fill out table b but um so my understanding of the instructions basically necessitates the vendor to fill out section a if they intend to supply a specific workforce to work on this specific contract and not draw from their larger pool of personnel resources absolutely and i did see that i i've been looking at a lot of these things over the years and i've never seen one not usually folk when they do have diversity throughout the company they've usually seen that as an opportunity to kind of brag on it and kind of buttress their standing whether they were pulling from it or not so uh you're right and i saw that parenthetically listed but it would seem you know i usually companies want to let us know uh about their overall company particularly since they've alluded to their universal workforce i mean there's obviously not 265 people working in Durham it's only eight and since that total workforce number was part of what's being reported to us you know to me that provided sufficient on ramp to ask about the makeup of their their total workforce um but mr president getting back to the um questionnaire um there's a question that says when you recruit for employees do you only recruit by word of mouth you said no and um do you focus any recruit in reference to the local Durham area you said internet ads facebook and posters where where is your company hung posters in Durham um i'm not sure you know i i guess i answered that question pretty much as far as what we do universally i mean maybe not there in um we well and hence might well hence my question is about the universal make a note for the dot but and we put out a poster for that paperwork well the you're breaking up a little it says if yes please provide examples how you focus the crew hello i i'm i'm sorry i i'm only hearing about maybe at best every other word so i'm i'm not able to answer these questions very well because i can't hear from okay if do you have access to zoom or perhaps another connection because we this this matters before us and and i i think these are really important questions that we get some answer on um you know pursuant to our approval of this contract so do you need to find a more secure connection mr president actually jobs are very very limited cell phone connection i mean we we can would you like to try and get on zoom or or have staff provide you or do you want a soldier through right here can you hear me mr president can you hear me no i i cannot hear you okay all right i heard can you hear me that did staff can we do something maybe to kind of work with him to get a more secure connection but i'd like these questions answered and if i don't want to take too much time wait so if we can find a better connection for the president madam i'll yield back at the connection with her sorry madam clerk do we have have a better way of making sure that the president is able to fully answer mayor pro tem's questions madam mayor a quick question if uh mayor pro tem middleton is open to it could we have staff provide us the information via email or if the if the gentleman is willing to send us an email with the information since we're having such a hard time thank you i don't think the staff would be able to to answer these questions for on his behalf go ahead madam clerk and excuse me a moment i tried to call mr mchanery and the call went to voicemail madam mayor i'll yield back at this time but i'm going to ask it this item be placed on gba if we don't get him back today all right we will do that that will be item eight we'll place that on gba if he's not able to reconnect with an invitation for him to attend that meeting on that monday all right we will now move to item 12 i believe which is a proposed water and sewer rates for f y 2022 the 2023 that our resource person is going to be miss vicki westbrook this is a presentation i wanted to look and make sure that we are ready to proceed with this one or would you rather take a break we do have to we do need to be able to give our enclosed captioning persons a break after the two-hour mark i believe which would be a little bit after this so just at your pleasure council we're ready to we're ready to proceed with this one and then we'll take a break okay all right well we will proceed we'll take a little short break after this one all right is that okay all right we'll take a little break after this believe us miss westbrook was our resource person uh good afternoon again uh mayor mayor pro 10 members council is on really uh department of water management i'll be presenting today um i hope you can see the presentation in front of you i'd like to start out first uh briefly before i get started um two quick comments one i'd like to thank you mayor o'neill and members of council for your ongoing encouragement and support of uh encouraging our residents in Durham to fill up their water bottles um with our award-winning water rather than by bottled water um i've heard numerous comments from council members and yourself um doing that and i want to extend our appreciation from our department and also um on behalf of the department i'd like to thank uh city manager page and deputy city manager johnson for their ongoing support of to meet the needs of the city's water and sewer utility especially around our increased operating costs our capital improvement program and the utility rates which are in front of you for consideration today um with in proposing the 2000 the rates for the next fiscal year the rates are based on a 10-year financial model um we work closely with our financial consultant which is raptellis financial consultants as well as the finance department it's a joint effort that reviews all the inputs to the financial model our goal is to try to smooth out any rate increases that might um so and to minimize rake shot with all of our um our residents and customers um a quick utility overview you know we the department of water management um oversees our two reservoirs our two water treatment plants our two water reclamation facilities as well as over 2500 miles of water and sewer lines numerous booster um stations as well as lift stations we serve over 300 000 people and manage over 99 000 um accounts is the screen advancing uh it's advancing on my screen but i'm not it's advancing on your screen there we go there's a little delay um next slide um the outline for today's presentation will be reviewing the rate objectives um strategies and key issues around the rates uh we'll talk briefly about the capital improvement program and customer consumption since these are important inputs into the rate models and you're getting the rates as well as talk about the proposed rates themselves um in looking at our rate setting objectives as in prior years we have three objectives with setting rates the first is affordability to make sure our rates are fair and equitable to our customers that our rates are sustainable in that we address all of the increased operating costs for the utility as well as to fund the long-term capital needs of the utility and we also want to encourage water efficiency and conservation um we want the rates to we continue with our tiered rates approach to promote conservation and that the rates are cost-based meaning that the residents have control of of uh you know their consumption and and how much water they consume and therefore how much water they're billed for um when we talk about affordability um as i mentioned we want to empower our customers to manage their costs um we want to minimize the impacts to customers in the lower tiers um and we want to implement programs to assist low and fix them income customers um but you know especially you know when you think of um a lot of times we think of low and fixed income customers who are in the lower tiers but that's not necessarily true because um large families or single-parent families with large children could be in tier three and tier four so we really want to make sure that the our rates are set to to not impact or to impact them as little as possible looking at historically um our rates the graph that will come up shortly um gives you an overview of where the rates have been over the last several years and where we're projecting to bring the rates and this is the shows the average monthly bill that the different tiers receive will note that over 95 percent of our single-family customers are in tiers one two three and four and you know and certainly you know tiers one and two represents almost 75 percent of our customer base so once again it's really important for us to when we look at and build the financial model and look at any rate increases we want to minimize the the impacts and keep any rate increases small and to which in turn keeps the overall bill that they're receiving monthly um to be as low as possible um another portion of making sure our rates are affordable comes around to you know dealing with our customers you know we um are at any given time we are willing to make payment arrangements with our customers um here and to assist um to be able to spread their payments um out over time if need be this allows the customer's flexibility on the dates of when um they might be able to pay we've seen a drop this year in payment arrangements but certainly last year we had a last fiscal year we had a a large number when we transitioned back from um not doing cutoffs to doing cutoffs um currently we have um about five five hundred customers this year have come in and asked for payment arrangements and they can be anywhere from moving a payment out a couple weeks to spreading payments out over several months or even longer up to a year so um kudos to our staff uh how do you hack it the utility finance manager crystal harris and kathy compton who are billing managers and our customer service managers who oversee our staff in working with our customers to make sure that um we can work out payment arrangement that that meets our individual customer needs um for those customers who are still struggling to be able to afford their utility bill you know the city has a hardship fund which um customers can qualify can receive up to 240 dollars annually to help pay their outstanding bills um if this offers kind of a clean site for customers to for their bills going forward we also work closely with um two other programs um for the larger bills um in other words a partnership with access hqo which provides assistance for larger bills and frequently customers that that qualify under that program see most of their their bill um assisted so they can get their their water and sewer bills back into standing wood so that's been a tremendous program the hardship fund itself um um this year um 150 thousand dollars was allocated out of the general fund for the hardship fund year-to-date spending on that hardship fund is about 81 thousand almost 82 thousand dollars we anticipate spending another 30 thousand by the end of the year um for a total of about 110 thousand dollars um we're spending less in the hardship fund um um that's been um then years past and that's because of these other programs that we're working with the access h2o and the low-income household water assistance program um that's we uh partner you know which is a state-funded program that's managed through the Durham County Department of Social Services so we work through them to um help me um customer needs when it comes to paying their water and sewer bill um overall um when it comes to customers our billing continues to be um less than half it was pre-covid when it comes to cutoffs a lot of that had to do with all of the outreach that our customer billing services staff did when we resumed um cutoffs after the hiatus when you know COVID first started and suspended cutoffs um and because of that we were able to reach out and touch a lot of customers who were struggling in the past so we've been able to maintain that much you know less than 50% cutoff rate um for the last year and that continues to trend um stay relatively flat which is very encouraging um and also because of all the hard work from the staff and all the outreach that we now do with our customers and moving to the overall rate strategies when it comes to managing the rates and setting the rates our goal is to continue to have small annual rate increases to minimize the impacts to our customers as I mentioned earlier to cover all of our operating CIP and regulatory costs we need to continue to build infrastructure to access our Durham Lake allocation and to meet future demand as I mentioned we try to smooth out our borrowing as well as manage the debt to the benefit of the rate payers not necessarily the bond ratings and of course the utility bond ratings are extremely high the capital improvement program um hopefully when we look over the next um five years it totals almost for appropriations uh 766 million dollars this is for appropriations the rate model is built on actual spending as opposed to appropriations but appropriations are needed an authorization to spend that money is needed to be able to move forward with our projects you see 280 million um for water projects and 484 million dollars for sewer projects for that is broken out on the next slide um into uh where that 766 million dollars is allocated 77 for dams and reservoirs 73 million for our water treatment plant um 205 million for the water reclamation facilities 129 million for the water distribution system 276 for the sewer collection system and a little bit for facility paving um a lot of the infrastructure for the distribution and collection system that we're rehabilitating and replacing is over a hundred years old and um most of our projects take anywhere from two to six years with the larger water resource type projects like the um getting access to Jordan Lake through our western intake partnership project is that's a can take up to 10 to 12 years to to construct please stop me at any time if you have any questions um when we look at another key component into looking at the rates and the rate model is the usage and consumption um what you see here is the average daily demand um of our system which is when you look at it although it goes up and down it seems relatively flat and you know at first glance this is surprising considering all the growth that we've had in Durham um but I think a lot of the there's a couple different factors that play into that certainly we've had a lot of redevelopment and the redevelopment in Durham you take out very inefficient or water fixtures and put in water efficient fixtures and that actually lowers the consumption um a lot of the industries have looked at their water practices and have improved how they can potentially recycle or reduce their water consumption there's been a move away of some industry water um high water consumption industries have moved away and been replaced by other industries so um overall it's growing slowly but it's still not you know surging up which is um which is a good sign for us because we don't want to see a big spike in consumption um but um in looking at the single family residential by tiers um once again this is the information that was shown um on the affordability when you look at the percent of customers so majority of our customers are in those first four tiers and certainly the over almost 75 percent of our customers are in tier one and tier two so it's once again really important to keep those those costs in those tiers low the proposed rates for fy 23 um the proposed budget um the overall budget for the utility is 120 million slightly over 120 million dollars um 34 percent of that is personal services 27 operations and maintenance expenses 24 percent rate funded cip and 15 percent debt service if you look at overall projecting the overall needs of the utility over the next um several fiscal years um if we didn't adjust rates you know there would certainly be a shortfall in each of the next several years if we wanted to continue if we did not increase our rates and once again i apologize for the lag in the the slides from my speaking um the proposed rates for fy 23 there'll be a modest increase in the service and consumption charges i'm going to let the slides catch up if you don't if you just bear with me a minute and i apologize for the technology delay area um there'll be a modest increase to the service and consumption charges to all the tiers will continue to have the penny per tier increase for the watershed protection you know based on usage customers will see different percent increases to their actual bills based on their consumption and where they fall within the tiers um all single family customers um you know use water the usage moves into the higher tiers and then build at the higher rates so um once again the it's it's um building blocks if a customer moves out of it's typically in tier two and then moves into tier three um you know the first part of the bill is build at tier one the second part is build at tier two and then the next part is build at tier three so um whereas um we build the commercial multifamily resident multifamily residential industrial institutional customers at the tier three rate so all of their water is billed at the tier three rate and irrigation accounts are billed at the tier five rate we're continuing to propose the double rates outside the city limits um those customers that are served by the Durham County wastewater plant will see slightly different sewer charges based on the county's adoption of their their rates for their sewer treatment the overall proposed increases um will cover the department's operating costs for FY 23 any paper performance um that's enacted with our staff pay as you go capital improvement program funding all of the debt service as well as the utility fleet replacement fund for replacing any of the utility utilities vehicles um and that's managed by the fleet fleet maintenance department um and then the general transfer that for services provided by the general fund that their bill the utility fund is billed for um the proposed rates maintain the necessary debt covenants and maintains the minimum of 180 days operating and maintenance costs for reserves the next slide shows the overall increases both for the service charges and the individual tier of rates so a 42 cent increase on the service charge for water a 41 cent increase for the service charge for sewer and then small incremental rates for the the different tiers the next slide shows graphically shows the increase to each of the tiers like a tier one will see a dollar the average tier one customer uses about 108 cubic feet of water monthly um so their bill will go up a dollar and five five cents the um the next slide shows a price comparison of what that actually represents when you actually look at the um cost of the increase that is roughly the equivalent of 120 ounce bottled water or two-thirds of a cup of coffee um at starbucks um and as or you know for tier tier five that represents seven of original placed deliverance from crispy cream once again we use this slide to show um you know how customers um could easily save money by you know using filling up their water bottles with cd Durham water um because you can see one gallon of our tap water only costs 0.0048 cents per gallon or dollars per gallon we think that's a great deal and next we show the uh comparison for the monthly commercial um inside rates so a five agents meter commercial account we'll see a six dollars and 59 cent increase on their bill so for the the proposed rates um for the next five years uh as shown on the next two slides um is 3.9 percent and that's for the typical tier three customer that includes a 4.1 percent increase for water and a 3.8 percent increase in sewer certainly the future increases are needed to support the infrastructure renewal programs in the cip and any other growth related projects and certainly you're starting to see the impacts from from jordan lake um also what's impacting the rates um is the um the fact that over the last several years we've been spending down our operating reserves um to keep the rates lower and um we've gotten to the point now where we spent down the operating reserves to close to the 180 days that's that we need to to keep in the reserves and um and also we're seeing a significant increase in operating costs especially around chemicals and electricity um have jumped drastically um this year and we anticipate that that to carry over into next year we are although you know we've been very fortunate to be in that the two percent three percent or last several years um but as I said with with all of those factors entering in we're seeing the rates creep up um Durham itself is still very fortunate both regionally um in north carolina and in southeast to have still relatively low increases um one of the the larger one of the check-ins that we do every year is with the UNC environmental finance center and comparing ourselves to the other large utilities in north carolina um this is a screenshot of the dashboard from the UNC environmental finance center um looking at a typical bill of consuming 5 000 gallons per month um and looking at those larger utilities in north carolina and you can see by the the dials to the right that the um we fare very well in the bill comparison compared to the other neighboring utilities um our conservation signal with our tier rates is um is recently strong um we have a good cost recovery and the median affordability which is probably the most important dial um on this graph is uh which is looking at the annual modern sewer bills as it compares to the medium household income and according to the UNC environmental finance center um you should shoot for having making utilities should shoot for having that to be less than two percent of the median household income um and that shows that we we are we're about 1.4 percent however we also realize that you know in Durham with all the development and certainly the gentrification that the median household income is is going up so you just can't look at that actually could you speak up just a little more please sure in and of itself you know looking at that that measure um you you can't do that because the medium household income in Durham is rising and that doesn't necessarily reflect some of the challenges of our um tier one and tier two customers so but once again it's still a strong signal at 1.37 percent um comparing a 4000 gallon um per month customer against our larger utilities in what's being proposed by the other utilities across the state we show we're we're fair we fare very well um we don't know the increase in Greensboro so that's why the Greensboro is not shown on that graph um we are not proposing any changes or increases to the our capital facility fees for FY 23 and with that I will um open it up for questions um first off I just like to thank um some of the staff that has um the and all the hard work that that goes into both this presentation but also working on the rate model and that's certainly Vicki Westbrook um one of my assistant directors Heidi Hackett and her team the utility finance manager Jerry Morone the engineering manager who spends a lot of time um looking at our spending schedules for all of our projects and also I want to thank the finance department of Tim Floor and his team to help support the the rate model and the utilities functions so with that I thank you and I'll open up for questions. Thank you Mr. Greeley for your time today and the hard work of your staff I turned it over to uh any questions my colleagues may have. Thank you Madam Mayor and thank you Mr. Greeley uh Don good to see you uh again um firstly I I can't speak for the rest of the council but I would appreciate it in the future if you're not actually going to bring donuts not to use them in your graphics because it's uh you mess with my concentration uh from moving forward let me say um I always appreciate um this presentation from from the water department and look forward to it um the one because it gives us an opportunity to brag on just how great Durham's water is uh how clean it is how good it tastes it's award winning uh literally uh award winning and and we appreciate the incredible work one of the most impressive behind the scenes things I've gotten to see since being on the council is visiting our wastewater treatment plants and just the incredible amount of technology and that goes into it and and the the vigilance and and diligence and the science it's just incredibly impressive what it takes to keep our water safe and to keep it tasting so good and smelling so good so I want to just give kudos to you and the entire shop uh who's up you know around the clock uh when we're sleeping monitoring our our water supplies and making sure that when we get up in the morning and turn that tap on it flows um I also want to want to just celebrate you know our continued commitment to delivering high quality water with really really small incremental increases in our rates as much as possible and I want to thank you and the shop for honoring that value of ours and our commitment you know the the plan it's mostly water so the notion of charging people for it is you know we understand it's things we got to do to clean and make it safe but but I I I appreciate our commitment as a city to making it as affordable as possible um and in that in that vein what and you already alluded to the the the hardship fund the the fund and you said something about it not being exhausted perhaps because of the other opportunities for folk to take advantage of of getting assistance is is the current level of $150,000 in your assessment enough for our needs based upon what you've seen and and and trends or do we need to look at muscularizing that and some more moving forward um you know that's something we followed closely this year um especially since you know we had come to council last year to get increases in in the fund because we were using um that money up fairly quickly and you know really appreciate city council's commitment and increasing the amount of funding in in that fund um I think at that time when we increased it there wasn't as the support programs that we see now um weren't all the way in place and because of these other programs being in place right now we think the $150,000 if it's carried forward into next fiscal year will be enough but once again we'll be monitoring that closely and coming back to you if we think we will be depleting any funds before the year is out but you know as I said we're projecting to only spend about $110,000 under the $150,000 cutoffs are less than you know 50% of what they were pre-covid now we have these other programs in place so um we really think that where we are now with $150,000 should put us in a good place for next year but we certainly will be monitoring that closely and more and we'll bring that to certainly manager page's attention should uh we see an uptick in that fund thank you so much that's encouraging and I know that that's gratifying for all of my colleagues uh and out of here uh that you'll keep vigilant with that I didn't want to ask a question about the and and I get this question from from residents and citizens often about the the kind of what what undergirds the consistent rate um increases each year and is it is it tied just to the incredible expense of of capital and the equipment we need or is it or is there some component that's also tied to projections on population growth and let me give me let me tell you why it says there's some years we don't raise taxes but we still see increased revenues because the tax base has grown and our rate increased for water is it seems to be consistent notwithstanding how many people are paying for water so is it is it more tied to the capital needs the actual equipment needs of providing safe water for our city or is it is there every year we can not raise it because we've got more people or is you know paying for the water like we have with tax rates sometimes right um you know it's a good question um I'd love to be able to say yes um but from from where we're projecting not anytime soon and and that's based on a couple things certainly a lot of our infrastructure our our linear infrastructure our water lines and our sewer lines as I mentioned are over 100 years or approaching 100 years old and those lines need to be replaced most of those lines are under pavement so replacing those um uh lines are very expensive you know we currently have completed all the line replacement within the Durham town out downtown area and Durham Central Park we're completing the kind of the initial phase of the American tobacco um project project which is replacing the water lines kind of west of Blackwell um we are in the permitting to start construction on the lines east of Blackwell we have a large project um replacing uh in east Durham and uh just kicked off a project in west Durham and all of the east and west irms are at areas adjacent to downtown and all of those projects you know you're talking or in the neighborhoods of anywhere to 30 and 40 million dollars um for each one and then as we look at meeting our new regulatory requirements and replace replacing some of the aging infrastructure that we see um that you know we're doing a full kind of facelift on the lake nicky dam um that's you know over 100 years old we're completely replacing all of the pumping electrical mechanical equipment within the dam because they've outlived their useful life so there's all of these ongoing as we continue to move around the city and replace that old infrastructure unfortunately those costs continue to go um and then certainly um adding new um water supplies to meet our overall long-term needs as a community for increased water as we see our community grow and develop you know it's important to bring the um our allocation from Jordan Lake online which we hope to do in the year 2031 to 2032 and that's a you know that's that's a 500 million dollar project and we're working closely with our western intake partners um Pittsburgh and um Chatham county and Owasa to share those costs but still that's a very expensive project so when you layer all of that on top of increased operating costs as well um it's it's hard to see that we won't have increases but once again we're trying to smooth those increases out and keep them relatively small and still meet all of those needs yeah thanks for that and that that that's an excellent primer and and I'm glad that you know folk watching have an opportunity to hear that just when we turn that tap on the incredible amount of investment and work that goes into getting that water to us I I know kids run up to firefighters and police officers often but I wish they run up to water workers as well you know recognizing how much you do to serve our city in the heroic efforts you all do to keep our water clean and safe and drinkable thanks much I look forward to uh considering the rates and our upcoming budget deliberations thank you madam air I yield back are there any further questions for mr greener all right thank you so much I think at this time we're going to take about a 10 minute break and then we will come back and resume with item 18 I was looking for an opportunity and um an old friend of mine suggested that I apply at go Durham the community really relies on us on go Durham public transportation well I like driving a bus because of the friendly culture I love it in the morning when people greet me good morning they give me a freaky wave they appreciate you and that goes a long way being a bus driver in go dorm anything can be achieved here um you can come in at the bottom and you will be able to excel in a fairly a short amount of time here I started as an operator and I'm here now as a operator training specialist so as long as you stick to it you can't excel the perfect candidate that would excel at go Durham is someone with tenacity someone would drive someone who wants to make a difference for their community you have to be people oriented you have to be experienced and you have to be on hands ready to go but with the proper training it's just like driving a car so as a new driver with road training come in and you see me and I'm going to make sure you have all the tools to succeed they give you a lot of input and they work with you step by step so you won't be alone in this to anyone considering working for go Durham you won't regret it please come please apply we would love to have you join the go Durham team we the people sublogue we the people hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal and shall be afforded the inalienable right to fair housing the city of Durham and HUD are committed to ensuring that everyone is treated equitably when searching for a place to call home there's no place like home home is where the heart is hey can I help you oh thank you thank you so much it is our place of safety and warmth home is where love resides memories are created and laughter warms the heart that's why the Durham human relations division is committed to enforcing the fair housing act which prohibits unlawful discrimination based on race color disability religion sex familial status or national origin every year seven million 911 calls are made in north carolina will you answer the call every second counts you can be that lifeline people in crisis look to us for assistance we provide guidance and support until physical help can arrive at the scene join us and make a difference in our community be the calm in the chaos be the voice in the dark it's the hardest career you'll ever love will you answer the call discover more at it.nc.gov slash 911 careers all right y'all we're ready to start back okay we're now ready it is now 336 and we're now back in uh session but we will uh we will continue on with our excuse me miss johnson uh page staff staff we're ready to get back it's time it is now time all righty we're we will now turn our attention to pooled item 18 street and infrastructure acceptances our resource person is mr joiner and i believe that that was pulled by councilwoman free that's the madam mayor just uh i'm just trying to make sure i'm following where these items are the selection of these streets are being pulled in from wasn't it was identified through a cip process or were different um process that that the staff was going i'm not talking to who staff was going through to identify the locations this is robert joiner from the public works engineering division um all of these projects are in development currently and so what these are is these have passed through all the stages of development where they've been uh evaluated the inspections have been completed all the punch list items have been completed and functionally all of the houses in that area have been built and and so just so just for at the end of that yeah sorry go ahead sorry just for future reference is there some place i can look to see what roads are coming online just acknowledging like out this is a large number right now like yes and we will have many more coming due to the nature of my concern is and so just acknowledging i know we're annexing in the county and there are other developments all coming online at the same time how much of this is going to kind of raise our cip costs like trying to have an evaluation in my mind or a resource to kind of look to it would be help it would just be helpful to this no because i know through our planning and zoning process there are um streets that are coming online but i don't know how to see i guess a list of them only through this process here for council acceptance as the streets are completed um they're completed on developers timetables there's no specific timetable uh that can be looked at or that information is not available it's it's as the development completes each phase of their project and on their timelines and i guess the the kind of wrap around that is is when we're discussing i guess some some of our stormwater issues or some stormwater concerns how much and i guess because there's no timeline or no timetable or it's only on the developer's timetable how do how do we kind of plan to address some of the ongoing flooding issues that i'm noticing i think i shared a video with some staff um regarding one area of our community um i'm just trying to get my head around how what what we might be able to do to try and be proactive in addressing some of the kind of runoff issues that have been arising and without the heavy rains um so i'd have to defer to the stormwater division of public works department to answer some of those questions but i would note that as a as a function of development review a lot of your flooding concerns and things of that nature are looked at as a part of the development review so you'll see mitigation measures that will start from both the water quality aspect they will also look through the flooding aspects and in Durham you would detain up and you could detain up to the 10 year which is standard but in some cases you could detain up to the 100 year storm and particularly if you're adjacent to existing development that could that could have improper infrastructure downstream of your new development and i just just to and i'm assuming this question is for stormwater i don't know if we're at the point where we've already made the 100 year stormwater requirement a requirement actually it's a requirement not for all just for not all projects it's looked at on a case by case basis okay thank you i will follow up and um try to get a briefing around it thank you yeah and just one other item if you were looking for a measurement standard when you approve a zoning uh typically when you go through all of the process the earliest you could expect those streets to come online probably would be five years afterwards that'd be a good measuring timeline thank you thank you so much and i believe we now return to our last pulled item which is a presentation number 22 f y 2023 stormwater rates and mr paul wibki is our resource person good afternoon good afternoon good afternoon uh madam mayor o'neill and mr mayor pro tem middleton i'm paul wibki with the department of public works i'll share my presentation with you i'm presenting the stormwater fund and the proposed stormwater rates f y 23 the stormwater fund is an enterprise fund that does have stormwater fees as its primary source of revenue our f y 23 annual operating budget is approximately 11.7 million dollars supporting 104 fge's our full-time employees this funds stormwater management stormwater maintenance and our street cleaning functions as well as our capital projects address stormwater infrastructure improvements on within the right of way on city owned property and some on private property we also address watershed planning efforts to identify projects to perform stormwater retrofit designs and constructions to meet our requirements and obligations with our state rules primarily uh falls lake and upcoming jordan lake rules that were going to be readopted and we also comply with our upper new server basin interim alternative implementation approach which is uh just an alternative to uh what this falls lake stage one rules were um we'll also begin to address our total maximum daily load that's what tmvl stands for our response plans for improving and getting the pollution control under control for our third fork creek and northeast creek watersheds i'll explain a little bit more about that later there are impaired for turbidity or sediment and bacteria we also have floodplain mitigation projects which we perform through our FEMA partners through hazard mitigation grant projects most of that is grant funding from the federal government and some through our state partners and our activities are requirements of our national pollution discharge elimination system permit we have a permit that's reissued every five years that we comply with we're actually responding to an audit right now from the state on that and basically the permit is for developing programs and implementing them that make our waters fishable and swimbable again because there are impairments our key issues for the program we are seeking a rate increase for the upcoming fiscal year for ongoing operations rate increases are proposed through fy 25 supporting our capital spending needs and the aforementioned projects needed to comply with our state rules falls like jordan lake and our news rules and our our actual load reduction plans for bacteria and sediment we have a bacteria issue in northeast creek and sediment is identified in 34 creek and we've got programs in place and ongoing to address those issues we have had rate increases in the past and i'll get into that a little bit more in a future slide our capital projects as you'll see will peak in fy 23 we do have much aging infrastructure much as you've heard in the water and sewer water management presentation the stormwater infrastructure is quite old within our right away and city and property as i said before our jordan lake rules and falls lake rules are going to be rewritten and that process is beginning shortly there have been meetings with jordan lake one water and the jordan lake rules and falls like rules read out the falls lake rule the adoption process begins a little later in january 2024 and we're continuing our relationship with the upper industrial innovation association we appreciate council support for that effort this next slide shows our proposed rates for fy 22 through fy 29 of note on this slide particularly is our end balance here the second line is our end balance at the end of the fiscal year with after operating reserve and operating reserve is important in that you were able to secure debt funding go out for debt should you have a sufficient operating reserve so the goal with the rate model is to ensure that stays stable and you'll see that fy 20 and 2022 the figure is 24.4 million dollars but it's rather solid but through some capital funding expenditures rather i should say the figure drops to 8.9 million a million in 2023 and continues to drop somewhat through 2026 but does not go negative or go to zero so we're in good shape there next slide i'll show you more about our more information on our cip spend particularly in fy 23 reason for that large drop was we have a projected spend in fy 23 of 21 and a half million dollars which is quite a lot and nearly half of that is due to uh or over half of that is due to our south illyby storm water rescue excuse me mr wipke it's it's a bit difficult to hear you sometimes i'm sorry you can adjust your microphone or maybe speak up i'm it's really important stuff you're going through so certainly let me find that and uh bump that microphone up i'm sorry that you can't hear me oh no worries just some time to time you trail off a little bit sorry about that um i'll try not to trail off um the uh the cip spending in uh fy 23 is 21 and a half million dollars total and the majority of that is in our south illyby creek project south illyby storm water restoration country i should say we have a number of our stand but standard items in the uh cip major stormwater infrastructure is is uh is stormwater infrastructure in the right of way uh we have a private property program we find that about a half million dollars per year watershed planning fluctuates from year to year depends on when the watershed plan starts we have a new one starting sometime in fy 23 probably the latter part of it for lick and briar creeks and we have drainage repair of city-owned property that's arcs trails cemeteries basically properties the city owns that's not in the right of way floodplain mitigation we have a small amount there just due to the fact that most of the funding we have in that program is grant funding stormwater retrofitting is just that it's smaller scale retrofits and we also have an algal flowway or algal turf scrubber project we're we're working on and that's a very promising project and we've got work to do on that emergency watershed protection that's another grant project uh where we get funding from the north kawai department of agriculture as well as the u.s department of agriculture for stream bank stabilization and we're also through the cip funding part of the renovation at the public works operation center from fy 23 through fy 27 at just over a million dollars per year and the last line here you see under the different projects is our stormwater fleet funding which is funded there the bottom line well not the bottom line is the project project totals but they're inflated they're there's an ad for inflation on the out years so that's why you'll see a little difference between the the next to last line and the last line uh our as I said before our cip funding and fy 23 does peak and we could not sustain 21 and a half million dollars for each year so it does drop off to 12 million in 2024 and 10 in 2025 and then fluctuates between 12 and 13 million dollars in some years and then the out years it's it's a little considerably less but the projects are less well defined on that far out this slide shows our customer bill impact for the upcoming year that we're proposing residential tier one customers or customers that have residential property single family home on property that has less than 2000 square feet of impervious cover uh the rate would go from 375 per month to 420 an increase monthly of 45 cents or five dollars and 40 cents per year um tier two residential properties have impervious cover of 2000 square feet to less than 4000 square feet of impervious cover with the rate going from 776 per month to 870 per month or an increase of 94 cents per month or 11 dollars and 28 percent 11 dollars and 28 cents annually tier three residential customers have over 4000 have 4000 or more square feet of impervious cover on their property and their monthly rate would be going from 1555 per month to 1742 per month or dollar 87 per month increase or annually at 22.44 cents per month or annually i'm sorry i'm gonna say that uh our non-residential rates or commercial rates are increasing by 94 cents or 2400 square feet of impervious cover commercial properties are billed according to how many portions of 2400 square feet they have it would be multiples of that if uh FY 23 or the rate were to pass if somebody had 4800 square feet of impervious cover their monthly bill would be 17 dollars and 40 cents um the next slide i'll show you the our estimated accounts and revenue by tier we have approximately 6500 commercial accounts and 77 000 residential accounts those you can see on the left are broken out by tier tier two is by far the largest number of customers we have on a residential basis at 38 500 of note though is on the right revenue by tier and by by category our non-residential or commercial rate payers pay 67 or approximately 15 million dollars of the 22.4 million dollar estimated revenue for FY 23 residential customers basically pick up about a third of the revenue for the utility through the different tiers that you see on the right hand side our storm order rates as compared to our communities in the area our tier one rates compare very favorably lower on the lower end of the scale here our tier two monthly rates are a little bit higher than the middle close to the middle but not quite and our commercial rates are similarly on the higher end of the middle of our rates as a comparison our rate history from 2010 um we had rate increases from 2011 through 2015 and then remain steady from 2015 through 2020 and 2021 we began the series of rate increases that's somewhat typical of the utility here at least for stormwater anyway we go through a series of rate increases and we're projecting rate increases through 2025 and should remain steady once we reach that point the next slide is how we're planning to meet our AI AI or Falls Lake Stage one requirements um we're looking at the south LRB wetland to provide us about 21 of our reduction needed there our existing projects that we have contributed about 12 of the years that we've accumulated stormwater additional stormwater retrofits will provide about 13 green infrastructure still a rather small part of what we do uh infiltrating water in Durham is rather difficult because the soils in Durham are clay and infiltrating water through that material is extremely difficult our innovative technologies for nutrient removal are quite good and the testing has borne out well and we we're going to get significant reductions from that practice to give you a little update on our some of the larger projects the south LRB stormwater restoration we've begun the soil removal portion of the project and that should be concluded at some point this summer and then construction of the final wetland will be late fall possibly early winter of 2022 um we also have an elbow flowway or elbow turf scover that we've uh we're still working on the sites for that you believe we can find a site for a full-scale plant and we're finalizing a communications plan to get word out on that at some point and I'm available and I'm here for any questions you may have any questions thank you madam man thank you Mr. Wipke for uh it's really important uh presentation just under algae turf scrubber site suitable for 10 10 mgd plant identify what's mgd stand for million gallons per day got you all right and and that's that's something where you'd just be the water would pump out and would be it pulses across a a flowway that algae would grow on and in its return the water body probably within about 10 or 15 units how how large a footprint are we talking about for a site for something like this um the actual flowway is 500 feet long by oh probably about 500 feet wide for something that's 10 gallons per day but you you'd need 15 or 20 acres minimum to work all the grading out it kind of depends on how flat it is right okay and how the existing property lines intersect with that i've been on the council for a minute there's never a year that goes by where i do not learn something new about this uh this whole process of storm water in our water in general uh appreciate the presentation thank you madam mayor yield back thank you sir for your presentation today it's always a learning curve i can't wait to visit you all to actually see some of the things that you all are doing and i have some a couple of visits planned are there any questions regarding councilwoman free um just just in in light of um the presentation i just wanted to just ask the question if if there was a uh any update on where we are with duke died in fitness center i know that that was a large project that has been moving forward and i didn't see a timeline did you see the the project is in phase two they're removing soil from the site they're doing the grading the preliminary grading the constructed actual wetland construction will begin we'll go to bed late fall of of this year possibly early winter sometime probably november maybe possibly december um we're working out some final details on the plans right now thank you councilwoman color they are quickly thank thank you mayor um good afternoon just wanted to say it's been exciting to see the the progress of the south island restore and water restoration they are doing a lot of digging there um you know i've lived near there and having seen not a lot happening and then all of a sudden all the soil removal and so just wanted to highlight that and um thank you for the great presentation thanks everybody i think now we are moving to our boards and commissions and our task force nomination process ma'am ma'am clerk good afternoon everyone i wanted to start with the Durham bicycle pedestrian advisory commission nominations for the category of youth representative between the ages of 15 and 24 um there was no confirmed vote on that so i wanted to ask if um anyone wanted to change their vote there is there anyone who has three like what is the breakdown i guess james barns received three votes isabella miller two and camille sherman one i think i was isabella miller so that's fine okay to james barns all right thank you and in the same board for the walking biking pedestrian community for marginalized groups the council nomination is cesar castro moving on to the durham historic preservation committee for the category of real estate agenda developer and builder is rakeem you chambers and then finally the mayor's hispanic latino committee reappointment is italo medalleus and that's the end of my report thank you madam clerk thank you for that i believe now we are at the matter of selling our agenda thank you um madam mayor uh before i start reading um where items will show i would the administration is requesting that item number eight be returned to the administration for an additional cycle the technology issues that we had here as well as some additional questions that i'd like to have asked i have have verified with the staff that an additional cycle would not impact the service itself so i am requesting that and you will note that in my request for settling the agenda so for consent i have items one through three item five and items nine through nineteen gba item 20 and gba public hearings items 21 and 22 thank you madam city manager is there a motion on a second to settle the agenda move second it has been moved by councilwoman freeman and seconded by councilman williams that we settle our agenda on the set items all those with signed by saying i i all those opposed will have the same right hearing none our that motion passes unanimously now we will return to our city attorney's request for a closed session this afternoon and we are ready to entertain a motion to hold a closed session madam mayor i move that we uh have a closed session there a second second i think we need the language authorizing the i need to i need to get the specific language because there are different types of closed sessions uh this particular one is to hold a closed session pursuant to north carolina general statute 143 3 18.11 a 3 for attorney client consultation concerning the handling or settlement in the cases listed below daryl howard versus city of durham 117 cv 477 middle district of north carolina thank you madam attorney welcome my apologies move this is red second all right it has been a motion by uh mayor pro tem melton and seconded by councilman williams are we ready to vote all those in favor would you sign by saying i i all those opposed will have the same right hearing none that motion passes unanimously and we will now i go into closed session don't we go out madam mayor i'm working on locking down the meeting i'll get down i was like i can't do it madame clark the city council is going to recess to their conference room for the closed session and then we'll return okay thank you