 How about you? How are you? It's good to see you. It's good to see you. I was thinking of you because of this debate about solid waste fees. And I remember going through that with you. Another tough budget. Yes? It's good to see you. All right. Good afternoon. We'd like to call the Durham City Council meeting to order at 7.04 p.m. I certainly want to welcome all of you that are here with us this evening. We'll just take a moment for silent meditation, please. Thank you. Yes? Councilman Clement, you want to lead us in the pledge? This is all right. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll please? Mayor Bell. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden. Present. Councilmember Brown. Here. Councilmember Cattati. Here. Councilmember Clement. Here. Councilmember Moffitt. Present. And Councilmember Shul. Here. We have two ceremonial items this evening. One, I had the honor and pleasure this morning of attending a reception for the new Chancellor of North Carolina Central University, Dr. Deborah Sanders White. And she was invited this evening to be here and I'm pleased to see that she's here. And I would ask if she would care to come to the podium for any comments that she might make. Well, good evening. Good evening. It is truly my pleasure to stand before you this evening. Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, I am one of your newest residents and it is with great pride that I return to North Carolina and to this great city. So thank you for allowing me to be here this evening but I must share with you I did not come alone. I would like to take a moment of privilege if I could to ask all the members of the Eagle community to please stand faculty, staff, students and alumni. It is with great pride this morning that I accepted the key to this great city from Mayor Bell and I want to share with you as the 11th Chancellor of North Carolina Central University. I plan to make it a priority to strengthen the relationship between our premier institution and the vibrant Durham community. A relationship that we have been fostering since Dr. James E. Shepard founded our institution in 1910. In fact, it is this strong bond between NCCU and the greater Durham community that helped us become this nation's first state supported institution supporting liberal arts education for blacks in 1925. Let me just share with you in the context of where we are in the 21st century. No institution can stand alone. We need the community, the Durham community, we need the state of North Carolina, we need the federal government to understand that public higher education is a national good. And so I stand before you this evening saying to you that I am proud to be the 11th Chancellor. I look forward to working shoulder to shoulder with you as we continue to move this great institution forward. Thank you for the opportunity to come this evening to greet you. I look forward to getting to know all of you and becoming a good, solid citizen of the great city of Durham. Thank you so much. Well Dr. Sanders White, again we greatly appreciate the fact that you've taken time to be with us this evening and we look forward to many more great occasions when we'll be in your presence and you'll be in our presence and look forward to helping in any way we can to strengthen the partnership that you spoke about between the city of Durham and North Carolina Central University. Now I know you've got a lot of work to do so you don't feel bad if you have to leave while we go through our meeting. We have one other, well this month we have another exciting event that's taking place in the city of Durham and I'd like to ask Phyllis Cooley and Gary Jones if they are present, if they would join me at the podium. This month we celebrate the North Carolina African American Independence Day. As many of you know it's June 10th and this proclamation speaks to the fact that it commemorates the day freedom was proclaimed to all slaves in the South by Union General Gordon Granger on June 19th, 1865 in Galveston, Texas. More than two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. It speaks to the fact that former slaves in Texas begin to serve, begin to observe June 19th as anniversary of the Emancipation and coined the term June 10th. And it speaks to the fact that June 10th is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States and it's also known as June 10th National Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, African American Independence Day. Where as June 10th commemorates the survival due to God given strength and determination of African Americans through extreme adversity, hardship and triumph and today emphasizes African American education, cultural, art, history and achievement. Where as the 19th of June along with the 4th of July completes the cycle of freedom for Independence Day observers in America. Where as 41 states including North Carolina recognize the 19th day of June as June 10th National Freedom Day to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States and to demonstrate racial reconciliation and healing from the legacy of slavery. Where as to celebrate this important commemoration in the city of Durham, triangle cultural awareness foundation and its founder Phyllis Cooley in conjunction with Spectacular Magazine another Cooley event, YRAG Entertainment and its founder Gary N. Jones is sponsoring North Carolina's premier celebration with the 9th annual North Carolina June 10th celebration on June 13th to June 15th, 2013. The celebration begins on June 13th with the Spectacular Magazine Man of the Year Awards Banquet that will honor Durham City Councilman Howard Clement and 24 other African American men for their achievements and contributions continues on June 15th with the Bridges Builders Youth Nunchin designed to build a bridge between positive African American men and our youth and the Unity March for the eradication of modern day forms of bondage, gangs, drugs and etc. The celebration culminates with a festival in CCB Plaza in downtown Durham free and open to the public. Now therefore, I, William V. Bilbell, Mayor of the City of Durham, North Carolina do hereby proclaim June 15th, 2013 as North Carolina African American Independence Day in Durham and hereby urge all citizens to take special note of this observance and all residents and visitors are invited to participate in these events. Again, with my hand and the Corporate City of Durham, North Carolina, this is the third day of June 2013 and I'd like to present this to Phyllis and Gary for any comments that you all may have. Thank you. I want to make sure that you all mark your calendars. First, we start our event off on June 13th, off on the 13th where Howard Clement will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Let's just give him a round of applause right now. And then we will go with our youth luncheon on Saturday. Youth luncheon is also free and we're asking all African American men, we're asking youth between the ages of 10 and 17 to please come out and you can just go to our website spectacularmag.com and register. And then we have our unity march for the eradication of modern day forms of bondage as the mayor said and we go down to the CCB Plaza where we have our big festival. Standing with me today are members of the Juneteenth Planning Committee and I'd like to recognize them. First is the co-chair Gary Jones, Ms. Leela Rooster, Rachel Green, we have Betty Reynolds and Keith McKinney. And there's one more member of our committee who cannot be here today and of course our photographer, Mel Brown. So we look to see you all at CCB Plaza, June 15th, 1 o'clock from 1 to 10 p.m. anytime come out we got great entertainment, food, all of that as we celebrate not just the ending of slavery but we're celebrating freedom. Yes, Councilman Clement. Chancellor taking time out of her busy schedule to visit with us finally to just take note of the fact that while we are speaking there's a tremendous event going along in our capital city that I just couldn't ignore and I would hope that this Council at its meeting on Thursday will adopt a resolution in support what is happening in Raleigh with respect to the Reverend Dr. William Barber and his wonderful group of colleagues and supporters. The Durham City Council and during my 30 years as a member of this great body we've taken on issues that some may question as to their relevancy to our program. But I don't see how what's going on in Raleigh with respect to the Reverend Dr. Barber and his colleagues should be departure from what this City Council and during my 30 years has stood for. Fair representation and fairness. We need Mr. Mayor, I'd like to add to the agenda for Thursday a discussion of how we the Durham City Council can support what's going on in Raleigh and I'm talking about moral Mondays. If y'all know what I'm talking about you should be no hesitance in supporting that effort. And if you'd include that on the agenda for Monday or for Thursday I'd appreciate it. Thank you so much. Welcome. Let me recognize Councilman Schultz who had 10 seconds at the time. My item is not as important or serious as Councilmember Clements but let me just say that on the way in today I did back my car into a public works vehicle and so I'm expecting a bill from the city in the morning. Yeah it was my good car. I thought we might have done your favor. I could just donate the car Mr. Mayor. Let's recognize the city manager for any prior items. Thank you Mr. Mayor, members of council good evening. No priority items. Likewise the city attorney. Thank you Mr. Mayor. No priority items. Likewise city clerk. No items Mr. Mayor. We proceed with the agenda. First item being the consent agenda items and I'll just read each one and if it's pulled we'll deal with it at the appropriate time. First consent agenda items. Item one approval city council minutes. Item two is the Durham cultural advisory board appointments. Item three is the housing and appeals board appointment. Item four is the mayor's nominee for appointment, Durham open space and trails commission. Item five is the bid report for April 2013. Item six is a resolution concerning Duke Energy proposed electricity rate increases for North Carolina and I'll pull that item. Item seven is the merger of next step housing Inc. and community alternatives for supportive boards. Item eight is contract amendment with community partnerships Inc. to provide workforce investment act youth framework services from July 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 and I will pull that item. Item nine is a contract amendment with achievement academy of Durham to provide workforce investment act youth program element services from July 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 and I will pull that item. Item 10 is purchase contract between Moscow sports lighting LLC and the city of Durham for stadium lights lighting at the Durham Bulls athletic park. Item 11 is purchase contract between American seating company and the city of Durham for plastic sports chairs at the Durham Bulls athletic park. Item 12 is contract for transfer, transport and disposal services. Item 13 is a contract for processing and marketing recyclable materials. Item 14 is parking fees change. Item 15 is selection of electronic bill presentment and payment vendor. Item 18 through 25 items that can be found on the general business agenda. It's public hearings. I entertain a motion for approval of consent agenda items with the exception of item 689. It's been properly moved in second. Madam clerk, will you open the vote? Entertain a motion for approval of consent agenda items with the exception of item 899. It's been properly moved in second. Madam clerk, will you open the vote? Open the vote. Is it open? It's not open or mine. Does everyone else have that button? Oh, it's open now. Okay. It's open now. Closed. Passes seven to zero. Thank you. Moving probably a little bit ahead of the agenda. As probably some of you know tonight we're doing a little addition to the normal public budget public hearing process. But we think it's also new, but we also think it's rather innovative. In addition to comments during the public hearing, we're conducting our first ever e-town hall to provide an opportunity for people who wouldn't normally come to City Hall, a chance to interact with council members. And for residents that are at home, some of you have already submitted your questions via the emails or YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. And we're still accepting questions and Facebook and Twitter addresses are at the bottom of your screen. It should be at the bottom of the screen. For people who are here in the audience you may also submit your questions on a blue card that's at the table to my left over in the clerk's office holding up some of those cards. And the staff would take those cards with whatever questions you might have. And now since this is a public hearing and for those of you who don't have a question but have a comment about the budget, you still have an opportunity to comment at the end of the e-town hall at approximately 8.30 this evening. All we ask you to do again is fill out the yellow card. As you've used, done in the past if you have a comment, again a comment for the public hearing. And again at the end of the e-town hall I will continue the public hearing as we normally do. I know there's an item that's on the budget that people want to come to speak about the proposed bus fare increases. We aren't going to be taking any action on that item tonight. We simply are opening the public for comments. So I would invite you to make your comments if you like during the public hearing part of the session for the budget public hearing. Again we're running a few minutes ahead of our time but I think we need to go ahead and get started. So I'd like to introduce Anthony Wilson who will be our moderator. And Anthony probably most of you know is the weekend anchor and report at WTVD 11. And Anthony will explain more about how this e-town hall will work. Anthony. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Good evening and welcome to the City of Durham's first budget e-town hall event. I am the moderator for tonight's forum. And joining me are Mayor William V. Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Cora Cole McFadden, Ward 1 Council Member Howard Ward 2 Council Member Don Moffitt, Ward 3 Council Member and Council Members at Large, Eugene Brown Diane Cattati and Steve Shul. Now the City Manager Tom Bonfield presented the proposed 2014 budget to the City Council at the May 20th City Council meeting. After that the doors were opened for the first time for the first e-town hall. The city began accepting your questions and your comments online. Now as we move forward through this process the City Council will evaluate the proposed budget. Members are again seeking your feedback. Tonight we are gathered to discuss that proposed 2014 budget and the issues the City Council faces in making final decisions about the budget. Now Durham and the entire county as you know have been through several challenging budget years. The City has experienced decline in revenues while the demand for services has remained constant in some instances it has increased. Positions were eliminated. Department streamlined and programs and services scrutinized for better efficiency and maximization of resources. Now clearly those resources are limited. So the City Council wants to hear from you now to make sure resources are invested where you want them invested and that brings us to our first question of the night. Mayor Bell this question is for you. What is the city doing to create more jobs in Durham? And let me say first of all that the city tries to run as efficiently as possible which means we try to minimize the amount of persons we have to bring on to do a particular task. But having said that I think the City Council has been very proactive in trying to create a new type of environment that would encourage developers to want to expand or to come to Durham. And I think you've seen a lot of that happening particularly in our downtown area but more importantly even on some of the areas outside of downtown. Now construction is probably one of the houses one of the things that leads back to the economy. And we're beginning to see an uptick in the request for new building permits and likewise the city itself is taking on a very Herculean task by developing the Roland Hill site which is going to provide for construction and jobs. But I think we are more an enabler and trying to create the environment to want persons to invest in Durham to continue to invest in Durham and we try to facilitate that process as much as possible when new development is coming on board. All of that has a backdrop for creating jobs in our community. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I did not mention earlier and not that any of you need this information. I'm going to limit your responses to about two minutes. So we can keep things moving here. We have several questions and they're still coming in. Council Member Cattadee, the Ellerby Creek Trail Extension Project can get over a million from federal funding if we can just put up $270,400. The $75,000 this person said will make us lose the opportunity this year. Why short change the Ellerby Creek Trail? Well thank you for that moderator and Anchorman Williams. It's a pleasure to see you tonight. I would say that I flagged this item at the budget hearing last week and we will have additional discussion on Thursday but it is still very much in debate as to whether those federal funds are accessible before 2016 or 2015. So the fact that we have dedicated $75,000 in right of way acquisition for this year may in fact be as much as we could possibly do. I do serve on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Transportation Advisory Committee and the MPO would have to authorize the CMAAC funds I believe and so again we'll have additional information on Thursday and keep discussing it. But if we do think we need additional funds to collect those federal monies this year then I will certainly advocate for that. Again I'm not sure that that's the case and in fact if we did we could jeopardize those federal funds which is something that has not been discussed with the public. Thank you. Any follow-up comments from any of the members? Mr. Mauthe. Good evening Anthony, thanks. I just wanted to add that even if we allocate $75,000 now if in fact we do get to a place where the design is done and the easement is in hand we can always come back and adjust the CIP later. Thank you very much. Mr. Shul, this question is for you. The citizen asks, how does the city plan to pay for all of the affordable housing work we still need to do in the northeast central Durham area when you are planning to use all resources on rolling hills? Thank you very much. It's a great question. We're not planning to use all of our resources on rolling hills. We have substantial resources invested there and that's a very large commitment on behalf of the city and I think a worthy one. But we also have now, we passed last year, a penny for housing which is one cent on the city on your taxes to pay for affordable housing in Durham, in all parts of Durham and we do a lot of things with that money. We have $200,000 a year that we invest into rapid rehousing to get homeless people into permanent housing quickly. We have, we support second mortgages for people who have habitat homes in southwest central Durham or northeast central Durham. We have rental, we have repair support for low income elderly. We have lots of other things that we're doing with this and then what we have also with the penny is we have a fund where people who have affordable housing projects that can be leveraged state money and other private and private development money to come to this fund and apply for that money and we have a process for that and over the years 2000 and fiscal year 2014 to 2018 we have about six and a half million dollars in that fund. So there is plenty of availability over time and we need the low income housing developers whether it be the Durham Housing Authority or the nonprofit developers to come forward with great projects that are well financed and make sense financially and will advance our affordable housing goals. Thank you sir. Follow-up comment? Thank you Anthony. That was a very good question and a few of us were somewhat critical of the Rowling Hills project though at the end I supported it. I felt that in many ways it was a better deal for the developer than for the citizens of Durham because the cost of coming in is about $180,000 per unit which is really high. We also just learned that we're not going to be able to integrate the lower income housing with the regular housing in the apartment buildings because due to a variety of issues and challenges not the lease of which was from Dina, the state agency that were behind on the schedule. And so in order to gain the tax credit the project has to be completed by the end of the year and by that I mean the tax component project. So in some way I think eternal vigilance is still needed. I look forward to the completion. It's a great site and so we're in it now but we need to make sure that the buildings are done correctly and that the citizens of Durham are served including the taxpayers and those citizens who end up living there. Thank you. Any other follow-up comments? Alright moving on. Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden this question from the citizen what is the city doing to provide employment opportunities for our youth? As you know some years ago we started the mayor summer youth program. That program is now in the auspices of the office of workforce and economic development. What we're hoping though is that people will understand that the city cannot do everything. We need our business owners, vendors etc. to cooperate with employing our youth and I hope that some of them are listening right now so they will know that they too have a responsibility to assist with employment opportunities for our youth. Thank you. If you're just joining us on television you're watching the first ever E-town hall on the budget for the city of Durham. We continue now with another question for council member Katati from a citizen who asks instead of spending so much money on the south side project couldn't the city just give the land to a private developer and let them make something nice of it? Thanks for that question. I think that over time many years of analysis we've looked at that and didn't think that the private sector funding was coming in without investment in infrastructure. So this council chose to invest in infrastructure roads and matching funds. I think that we feel strongly that we are developing the area and creating a tipping point where we hope it will prove attractive in the future for private investment. I'll stop there. Well I'll comment council. Council member Brown a citizen would like to ask you this question are there other ways of paying for solid waste that put less cost on individual taxpayers? Excuse me I assume that question is related to the budget discussions that we're going to have on Thursday at our work session and what has been proposed by the city manager is that in order to pay for the infrastructure of our solid waste department including garbage trucks which are number one very expensive and number two give out pretty easily over average lifetime I think it's five to six years that we add a dollar and fifty cents per month to the water and sewer bill and of course that equals eighteen dollars a year. And this would be a fee for those who actually receive the services. A lot of people do not realize this but if you live in a large apartment complex the developer pays for garbage collection and it is not done by the city and the same for large businesses. So the question to us that we will discuss is do we increase overall taxes by one half of a penny or do we impose the fee and so I look forward to a good and vigorous debate on that come Thursday at our work session. Thank you Mr. Brown. One citizen I need to mention this was so concerned about this issue that the next issue not the one we just talked about that a video was sent in along with this question can we roll the video take a look at this. This is what we put on an everyday basis every single day we have to live with this so I'm wondering what can this situation repair. Each time anybody whether it's the mailman whether it's the trash trucks whether it's UPS whether it's the meter readers whatever or just the wind blow we have to deal with it every single day and the truck is long gone but the dust stays behind for minutes. As you see the truck is completely gone but we still have the dust clouds that we live with on a daily basis. It will be wonderful if we could get this repaired. This is the corner of Leonard and Turner. He wants to make sure you know exactly where this unpaid road is. One of several roads that still remain in the city as everybody here knows but the question from that citizen Mr. Bell is for you. Why does it take so long after City Council approves a dirt street petition to actually get the street paid? That was a very good question and video explaining what the issues are the process is first that persons have to apply and assuming they get enough persons along the right way to sign up for it then if the City Council approves the paving of that street that's the first step and once that is done a capital improvement request a CIP request is submitted as part of the city's annual budget and you'll see some of that later on as we go through the process requesting the funds be set aside to purchase right away or to construct the paved roadway it's a time consuming process it's a process of design, it's a process of permitting it's a process of requiring the necessary right away if necessary and theoretically it could take up to 12 months to get that done and this obviously varies depending on what property owners are going to be impacted by the project of this type and once these steps are completed then it has to go off a bid and once the bids are received and the contract is awarded the timing of the beginning of the construction can take up to 6 months depending on the time of the year and of course one of the most difficult challenges we have in doing paving so theoretically it could take up to 18 months after the council has ordered the dirt street to be paved before it is ready to begin construction and that assumes that the money is there for that to happen I'm not sure about this particular street but I'm sure the manager is seeing it and he'll come back with a report to the council as to the status of that dirt street paving isn't available but we don't have sufficient funds then that gets rolled over to the next year and it gets a part of the list of dirt streets that have to be paved but the bottom line is the function of money being available, the petition process, permitting process design process and getting a street dirt street paved but again Mr. Manager I'm sure we'll look at that and give us a report on that at our next meeting. Any other council members have comment? If I'll just do a follow up myself I'm sure that person would like to see that get fast tracked now that they went through all the trouble to show that so we will keep an eye on this process and see what happens. Moving on another question for Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden why not make city bus services free like they are in Chapel Hill? That's a very good question Tom why can't we do that? What are we willing to give up to make that happen? That would be wonderful for the city I don't think we have the resources that Chapel Hill has to do that maybe one day we'll be able to do that with perhaps increasing taxes or come up with some other resolution for doing that but at this juncture we just cannot afford it, the resources are not there. I would like to add to that what Chapel Hill has that we don't have is the University of North Carolina that helps pay the city for the free bus service so that's primarily the way that Chapel Hill is able to offer free bus service the University of Chapel Hill would prefer to see people on buses rather than having to be able to park in lots and provide that type of infrastructure so that's the reason that Chapel Hill is able to do that and we in Durham are not able to do that in this particular time. Anthony we've spent nine million dollars subsidizing currently Councilman you had a comment I'm sorry I just thought you raised your hand just to add to that that's on the Chapel Hill comparison that's really on Apples and oranges because as the mayor has just mentioned the bus service in Chapel Hill which has been free now I think for about six years but that it's not there's no such thing folks as a free lunch or free bus ride someone pays and in this case in Chapel Hill it is the University now we have tried to reach out and are doing a much better job than we have in the past in terms of trying to get Duke involved with some subsidies from them in fact they are in terms of our bus system which is free they are kicking in about three hundred thousand dollars a year which is very helpful that's the Bull City connector. The downtown route. Yeah that's the downtown route and also to the University and particularly the medical complex you know we can all say we'd like for Duke to step up a little higher to the plate and hopefully they will in the future but every day that Mark Aronson walks well let me put it this way when he walks into his office on January 2nd of every new year he's already at least nine million dollars in the hole so this is a difficult complex issue again we're not a business but this does not mean we should not use good business practices and it's there's some difficult choices here and we want to keep the ridership as high as we can make it thank you. Mr. Clement I'm sorry you had your hand up earlier if my memory serves me correctly thank you Mr. Moderator there's a certain segment of the population that can ride the bus without charge that's the segment I belong to the senior citizens now if my memory serves me correctly the senior citizens upon presentation of appropriate evidence if you qualify I'm 79 years old so I certainly qualify I can ride the bus at my pleasure am I correct in making that and I don't want us to forget that because I think that's very important I'm one of the few bus riders sitting around this platform tonight and I'm proud of the fact that in my age you ride the bus free one question quickly you say appropriate evidence is presented what sort of proof other than your own face do you have to present in case a bus driver asks if you are indeed not you personally but the rider is a senior citizen well that has not been an issue for you but those individuals and I don't want to get caught up in this ID thing that's going on over there in Raleigh and other jurisdictions but the fact remains is people of good faith get on the bus knowing that they are 65 years old are entitled to ride the bus free of charge and I don't think that is ever presented an issue since that ruling went into effect so I want the public to be aware of that and that portion of the public is entitled is a growing segment people are getting older and living longer thank goodness councilmember clements exactly right anyone 65 or older rides free but so does anyone 12 or younger so we want to make sure that people understand that a large segment is already riding free the second thing is that if we made the bus completely free the fares that we collect today actually contribute $3 million towards the bus system and that is another funding hole, funding gap that we would have to fill and the last thing I want to say is that our fares in Durham compared to pure cities across the country are some of the lowest anywhere so we are working hard we understand that buses are used by people who have the least we are working hard to hold the line in a way that is reasonable for the entire community clarification appreciated anyone else on this topic is a new fire station in south Durham really necessary? Well again we rely very heavily on our staff in terms of their requests and presentations that they make I'm not a fireman but we've had recommendations as to where fire stations should be located and they're considered judgment they feel it's appropriate that a new fire station would be required in that particular area anyone else? Council? I'm sorry go ahead Mr. Schultz I'll add just a slight bit to that which is that not only do we rely on staff but they don't use just subjective judgment it's based on measures, it's based on response times the locations for those stations are carefully selected and there is a point at which the development of any community question becomes you know how long are we willing to stretch the measures and at what point do we put the station in I was thinking ahead my eyes were ahead of my brain here I do have a question for you Mr. Schultz and this is from a citizen who asks are city public safety employees compensated adequately for pay and benefits Good question and an important question what I would say one good indication of this is that we have 13 positions for sworn police officers in our community and we have zero vacancies in the department so that says to me that we are not only because of our pay and benefits but also because what it's like to work in the Durham Police Department that we are doing a good job we have a special pay scale for our police officers that other city employees do not have a pay scale that goes from 3 to 5 percent pay increases each year and we do feel that this helps us to keep the police officers that we have and what does that translate to that translates to a police force that is solving crimes at a quite a bit higher rate than the national average and even the state average and it also helps translate to a falling crime rate in Durham falling also the crime rate nationally has fallen over the last 20 years the violent crime rate the murder rate and other violent crimes but in Durham it's falling faster than the national average and so I think having a well equipped well paid police force well managed makes a tremendous difference whether or not she's talking about crime on the American tobacco trail or crime in communities and so paying our police adequately is critical and I can hear a siren in the background they're going to catch somebody now I hope they're not coming for Tom Miller who's out here in the audience yes Mr. Brown yes if I can add to that and Steve was not on council but about seven or eight years ago we were having serious retention problems within our police department that is to say that quite often we would train them and Durham is noted for having one of the best police academies in the state and then they would very quickly lead to cities in surrounding areas because the pay was simply not keeping up with their performance as a result we had to make a hard decision and that was to increase taxes but some things you just have to pay for folks and I've always said that you can't have a great city unless you first and foremost have a safe city and so now to see the turnaround is really a very refreshing to all of us as elected officials and we want to thank the taxpayers for understanding that as well for the follow up comments council yes Mr. Cattari thank you just a few follow up comments I wanted to expand that it's not only police but also fire that have a separate city band and that just last week we got new data in graphic form that I'm sure our staff would be happy to share that shows that our pay is well in range and in line with our pure cities and one of the quotes that came out of the tragic happening in Boston with the marathon but a quote that I actually posted on my Facebook site that I think is really important is that emergency personnel police or fire run toward explosions not away from them and we really value their work and think this money is well spent the other thing that I wanted to say that we'll get into probably further is just in terms of our general fund our police and fire councilman Schull mentioned 513 sworn officers we have another 300 fire personnel so just fire and police alone about 48% of our budget so when we make changes it's significant there's not a lot of room to do a lot of other things thank you thank you do want to acknowledge there are questions coming Anthony can I mention one more thing on fire one of the recent one of the figures that we learned the other day in our budget deliberations is the fire department last year answered 19,000 emergency calls 19,000 so keep in mind the tremendous need that we have here in our community for these firefighters thank you Mr. Schull so as I was saying the audience is giving us some questions as we move through the evening we want to acknowledge some of these questions this is one for you Mr. Bell came from the audience the question is what is the city's policy on granting tax incentives to businesses and how can we make sure these are sound investments for all citizens of Durham? Again that's a good question and I probably when I was asked early about what does the city do in terms of trying to create jobs that is one vehicle that we have providing incentives for certain companies depending on certain standards and one of the standards is the number of jobs that are going to be created and also the level of pay that those jobs will be creating so that is an incentive and the question is how do we make sure that they do what they commit to do that's the responsibility of the staff to follow up on that there's an agreement that's signed between the city and the company that receives incentives in terms of certain measurement marks that they are expected to meet and if they meet those marks they receive incentives if they don't they don't receive incentives Mr. Brown? Well I would suggest that what we're talking about here is public-private partnerships and we're beginning to see more and more of those throughout the country particularly in the urban downtown areas and for those of you watching at home as well as here I would mention two projects to you and you can answer in your own mind that these are viable and worthwhile and that would be the new I say new it's now 18 years old it's hard to believe that but the new Bulls Park downtown Durham and the American tobacco complex and if you look at both what they provide for us in terms of entertainment for business for jobs for recreation I think the sponsors overwhelmingly they were two good deals quickly what happened there is that the county built what is called the south garage and the city built the northern garage but that project would not have taken place without the incentives coming from both the county and the city and one reason that we have incentives too in closing is that the cost of parking is so much more expensive in your downtown areas averaging between $12,000 and $15,000 per car but if you go out to even South Square mall we have a flat surface and it's open parking your cost there is going to be between $1,500 to $2,500 so that's one of the reasons for these incentives. Mr. Moffitt this question from a citizen for you why are some council members in favor of a tax increase while others favor increases in fees? Both of those are the intent is to raise revenue when we have a gap in our budget our choices are either raise revenues or to reduce spending reduce services and when we start looking at increased revenues then either of those increase taxes or imposing a fee increase or a new fee or ways to do that and people who support increasing the tax revenue from property tax believe that it's at least less regressive that it spreads the pain if you will over the entire community. Those who favor fees point to it's a fee for service so only those who are using the service pay the fee it's just a question of who pays and who gains. For the follow up council. Mr. Brown a question from the audience for you why do we continue to raise water and sewer rates? In some ways that's a difficult question and yet in other ways it's easy and that is why for you as citizens when you turn your tap on in your kitchen or bathroom we want to make sure that the water you are receiving is good quality and it's safe and it's pure and these things cost money folks. We still have some pipes believe it or not in the city that are approaching 100 years old some of them are actually terracotta pipes or clay pipes one can argue that in the past Durham has not necessarily done the infrastructure job that we should have been doing all along incrementally but now that we're catching up with that there are also federal demands as well as state demands in terms of pure water and also storm runoffs so all of these are driving costs up but we're trying to do as best as we can to make sure that the taxpayers not only get good water but a good bang for their buck from our water department. Thank you. Mr. Bell another question for you when is the city planning to build the new police headquarters and where will the facility be located how much will it cost? Well I've got about three questions. Three questions yes. You may or may not know that we recently began public hearings on two proposed sites for the new police headquarters so one is on the federal street area which used to be the federal street projects, development housing and others on main street, east main street close to where Hendricks Auto used to be and so what we're doing now is going out to the public trying to get feedback from the public in terms of their comments and responses to those two locations once that has been done and we've got in the budget I think about six million dollars for planning and etc once the site has been chosen the manager will come back with a recommendation to the city council and depending on whether or not we adopt that recommendation then we'll proceed with the planning stage. Once the planning has been constructed it depends on what approach we take whether it's a design deal or construction management at risk we will then begin the process of constructing the police station in terms of the amount of dollars that we're talking about. I think the latest dollars, that's about 46 million that's been planned for that police headquarters and there are a lot of variables in that. Obviously we have the present site that has to be sold. It's a question of whether or not we combine the facilities over on Hunt Street at the new site but all that will be a part of the recommendations come back to the council from the management staff to make a decision at that point in time. I think this plan will begin construction in 2014 if that's correct. Follow up from me if you will so you just said that the present site would be sold, I guess that means it won't be demolished at least not by the city. Well we don't know I mentioned that because the next question is where you're going to get the money from and a part of that comes from existing projects to the resource for building the police headquarters. My thought will be that we try to sell it and let whoever buys it do what they think is appropriate. I think it's very interesting that right across the street now we have a new apartment complex that's going up for primarily dedicated for students but I think it's going to change the environment and I could very easily see somebody in that corner where the police present headquarters is for maybe a similar project. That's in your neighborhood Mr. Brown that would probably affect you. Do you have any comment about that? I will comment for sure on that. What was there was really unacceptable for too long to all of Durham citizens. We had close to 15 to 18,000 cars a day going past there. It was an embarrassment for all of us and the firm that bought it is from Memphis, Tennessee they're going to spend about $46 million there for 320 apartments and they know what they're doing and they deal primarily with universities that try to get graduate students first because it's easier to deal with them but they have student complexes such as this from Syracuse University to Cal Berkley, California and here's the catcher. They built Grandville Towers in Chapel Hill and that was the first private student apartment complex one of the first in the southeast and they still manage that building so they do a good job and we're very pleased they're here. Will they pay taxes? Absolutely pay taxes and the value of that site and of that property will increase immensely and I think based upon the activities we've seen combined with their past histories that they will be good corporate citizens as well. Thank you for clearing that up. One last audience question this is for you Mr. Shul. Thousands of kids participate in youth soccer programs shouldn't a city invest in more soccer facilities and improvements to existing fields? Yes. I I've been a youth soccer coach for 18 years from the Y to Riverside High School and yes we need more soccer fields in Durham no question about it we need and that's not the only recreation improvement enhancement that we need and the Durham Parks and Rec Department is in the final stages of putting together a master plan that will talk about all the things that we need not that we'll be able to afford all of them but all the things that we will need in terms of for example there's an outdoor swimming pool on the list. There's many other different kind of recreational facilities that people want in soccer fields are on the list we have thousands of kids and adults in Durham who are playing soccer and we don't have the room for them so we need that but we need it as part of a plan and I think one of the things I think we need to be thinking about in the next year and is how are we going to be funding what we need in terms of maintaining our parks and fields and trails and how are we going to fund adding to them because well Diane pointed out for example how much of our budget is devoted to public safety. We have a tight budget and parks and rec and maintenance of parks and rec and trails and open spaces competing with so many other needs so one of the things I'm interested in us thinking about is how to set aside some sort of dedicated funding for these parks and rec and open space and trails needs because I think as a central part of the quality of life in this community while people are flocking here it's absolutely critical and so it's soccer fields yes and it's particularly close to my heart but I think many other recreation and outdoor needs as well. Thank you Mr. Schult. Opportunity now for all you members to make some concluding remarks. Two minutes less would be good but we have a little time so if you want to go along but not too long that's okay. We'll begin with you Mr. Clement do you have anything? This approach represents in my opinion an outstanding innovation for the city of Durham bringing more people into the equation in terms of discussing what we may do. I like that and I want to commend staff and public relations people and you. My favorite TV announcement. Please keep talking thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Brown I think we made a good choice with you Anthony to head off this first and hopefully not our last town gathering and much rather do it this way than coffee with councils but that's just me because this is really Durham is known as a participatory democracy type town and we have many many active citizens some of them will be here this evening and I think that's terrific most of the time but no we're very proud of that and we should be and this is like a New England town hall meeting it's the closest to it that we have in particular with those viewers watching at home in terms of the budget I think it's really very simple every year we begin with the premise that we have more needs than revenues. That's it folks we have more needs than revenues and so we have to deal with that everything then becomes an issue of priorities and indeed I often said that forget about the political speeches and the white papers and all of that show me your budget and I'll tell you what your priorities are so it's always a good hard strenuous combination of debate discussion and it's really crucial and we appreciate all of your input your suggestions and please if anyone can find a grove of money trees growing somewhere in Durham City let us know so we can gather up a few more dollars and I would conclude by suggesting also that it is just a delight to work with these elected officials and especially to our city manager Tom Bonfield who's been here going on five years now boy that seems like a long time and our city attorney as well and clerk I think we have and I think Howard has said this too in the past and he has more of a long range analysis but I think objectively this is one of the best city councils in the city of North Carolina and I am very, very proud to be a part of it. Thank you Mr. Brown. Ms. Cole McFadden? First of all thank you Anthony for being a part of this process and thanks to Bertha and everyone, Beverly and everyone on staff who helped to make this night possible. Each year we collectively work as an elected body to craft a budget that meets the critical needs of this community and very special to me are the needs of our youth and they must be addressed as a part of our budget process and normally we don't hear a lot about our youth we cry out about a whole lot of other things but not about what's happening to our children what's happening to our youth and the budget will help us meet many of the needs of our community's youth from funding to positions which I should have shared earlier for the Durham system of care to continue funding for the Durham youth work internship program and I believe these items will improve opportunities for our at risk youth. I also want to thank our residents who participated in tonight's E-town the input and feedback we received from our residents is vital in crafting a balanced budget that will move this community for it it is because of the residents who care about Durham and take time and effort to get involved in local government that we are a place where great things continue to happen thank you for coming and participating in this process I apologize for my voice I have laryngitis we heard you though Mayor Bell well I don't know if I can add much more than it's already been said by my colleagues and I'm sure the remaining colleagues will have similar things to say but this is always an interesting time of the year for me I've been through 26 budgets on the county side doing 11 budgets on the city side so I have somewhat of an appreciation of what it takes to get a budget done and I think the value that this council brings is that each one of these council members takes this role very seriously there are certain areas that each one probably has more focus on than others but I think collectively when we have an opportunity to discuss the merits of what's being proposed we all value everybody's input and respect their input and we ultimately make a decision and as I said before we know we don't please everyone but I think in the end we're hopefully doing what's right for the city and what will continue to move the city forward in a very positive fashion so again I want to thank you Anthony for your efforts here I certainly want to thank all the residents that have participated and those that participated through the ETown and as we get into further discussions on the public hearing very seriously and trying to derive a final decision on our budget Thank you Mr. Shul. Thank you Anthony and thanks so much for being here and leading us tonight and I want to second what folks have said about having this ETown hall I think it's great and what I want to just mention a little something about is the budget process that we've been through so everybody will kind of understand it from the council perspective of course our staff is working months on this and what we kind of intersect with the process is this some months ago we get initial budget information to read through quite a bit of it and then we sit for two days with a large group of staff over at Durham Tech in a room for big room for couple of days and then we get lots of presentations about the state of the economy both locally and statewide and then we get lots of presentations from different departments about revenue potential and what it might look like and then we get all kinds of information about what the spending priorities might be and what kind of choices we face and then we lay out a set of budget guidelines after those two days city manager goes back with the staff and the finance staff and they come up with then they're working on proposals and meanwhile we're going out and we're meeting with the public at the coffees with council at all the packs and we get input there and then we come back together and the city manager and the staff has prepared a budget book here it is it's large it's thick and what I want to say about it is this it's fabulous it's fabulous the process is amazing the amount of input that we get what we hear from the departments the level of accountability and the document is tremendous if you are interested in reading this budget document first of all the numbers are totally transparent the detail is profound I mean it's a lot of detail and the pros is very unusual for bureaucratic pros it's clear and it helps you understand and I have been this is only my second budget not the 38th I guess Mr. Mayor but I can just tell you that it's coming to it fairly new the level of information and the level of explanation that we get to try to make good decisions is terrific and then what that leaves us with and we spent the last we spent two days last week again two full days together hearing again from the departments having read this book more presentations and then we flag for this coming Thursday and we'll hear again from people tonight we flag items that we will discuss on Thursday at the work session and then we'll come together at our next meeting and approve the budget and what I have come to realize is of this in terms of thinking about the consensus on the council and mainly the job that our manager and his staff has done in bringing this to us is the budget is about 381 million dollars the items we flagged are about 2 million dollars so when you think about it we've already come to agreement on about 379 of the 381 million dollars the other couple million dollars we're talking about how do you fund it should we the budget was asked about the solid waste fee versus taxes for example there's been questions about the bus fares there are a few other items that we're talking about there are a few other items and there are important items which we have talked about should we fund it can we fund it and how but because of the work that our staff does we already have reached a consensus on the vast majority of the budget it doesn't do everything that we wish because we don't have the money that we wish it is a great process and I have so much confidence in our staff our finance staff our deputy city manager Wanda Page Bertha Johnson and all the staff that are putting this together it's just been a great education for me and I think that if you want to learn about our city read this book so I really do appreciate the work of our staff very much on this so thank you Anthony for hosting this and thank you to budget and public affairs staff for putting this together and especially thank you to the manager and management staff and all the departments for all the service that you provide to our citizens you do a tremendous amount of work and really under tightening resources this is my 10th annual budget and we have had essentially less money for discretionary services over time I also want to thank the citizens for their very thoughtful emails and input I tried to respond to all of them I did not respond to the last 125 that came in since I left for work this morning so I look forward to the additional budget deliberations this Thursday and echo the comments of my colleagues so thank you keep the input coming thank you Mr. Mothin did any of you leave me anything I don't think so but I'm sorry you're going to bear with me for a moment I'm going to tell you that some of the things you've already heard the budget is tied very closely to the city's strategic plan which is written through input from stakeholders like you resident staff partners against crime districts and others transparency and engagement are key values of this council preparing the budget it starts with coffees that are held around the city conversations it includes a visioning process to explore goals projects activities surveys are used to get more feedback and residents and emails and call with their input our process of engaging citizens participation has been recognized nationally and I thought I was going to get to do this but even this got done but I really want to call out and appreciate two of the architects of that process who are usually in the background and who put together tonight's ETAL meeting that's Beverly Thompson I want to give these guys a round of applause for the city's public affairs office and Bertha Johnson who leads a terrific budget team and Anthony I want to thank you for your moderation tonight. Thank you Mr. Marford and thank you for pointing out the architects I was going to do the same thing DB2. Anthony council member Katati pointed out to me they even coordinated their clothing yes that's very important well we have come to the end of this thank you all for joining us tonight electronically you came down to City Hall for this ETown Hall hope we found it helpful now in the event that your question was not addressed make sure you visit the city's website DurhamNC.gov the council will review all questions and suggestions and they will post responses now your continued involvement throughout the budget process is not only welcomed it is also encouraged stay connected via the city of Durham's Facebook page the Twitter page and the website I just mentioned all resources and documents referenced tonight regarding the budget can also be found at the budget page which is on the city's website thank you again for all your questions participation hope you have a wonderful evening and tomorrow we'll be back after you guys thank you okay we are now going to move into the public hearing part of the budget and the process will be that this is a comment public hearing we here to hear your comments on the budget proposed budget persons have signed up to speak on the yellow cards I would ask is that anyone else that would like to speak at this budget public hearing that is not signed up if so we'll ask you to go to the clerk's office place desk to the left and sign up I have 15 persons that have signed up to speak on the public hearing and Farron is to the fact that you're here and you said through it I'm going to say let's take three minutes each for your comments that's plenty and if you don't use three minutes you can write something down and we'll follow up with it so I'm going to call the names if you could come to the podium to the right and there's a clock in front of you for those of you who have not been here to speak before that will keep the time in terms of your speaking and again we don't yield time so you've got three minutes to use we have Steve Korn is that correct come to the right Steve Hopkins Steve still around come to the right Larissa Seibel Aidan Rowley Graham is that correct Marina Hawkins Susan Brooks Marie Eisen Barbara Garrett Tony Williamson Sandu DeZimmick Harry Godwin Goodwin Dan Williams Donna Rudolph Victoria Peterson Call RIS and is there anyone else that would like to speak that has not spoken that's fine Mr. Korn Korn I'm here to talk I hope one last time about the funding for the extension of the West Ellaby Creek Trail which you already had a question about I'm the president of the Ellaby Creek Watershed Association but in this matter I also have the backing of many other groups and many other individuals the Durham Open Space and Trails Commission the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission the East Coast Greenway Alliance Neighborhood Associations and Old West Durham Old North Durham Watts-Hillendale and also the Inter- Neighborhood Council representing all of Durham's neighborhoods have all passed resolutions in support of funding for the construction of this trail as soon as possible First I want to thank Tom Bonfield for including in his proposed city budget an initial $75,000 to complete the right of way acquisition and I especially want to thank Mr. Bonfield for making what I understand to be a firm commitment to fund the rest of Durham's portion of the construction money in the following years city budget but second I want to remind the council members that with a somewhat larger allocation this year leaving less to fund in the following year the city can get the process moving as quickly as possible to secure the federal matching money more than a million dollars that has already been approved for this project but not yet clinched. I know there have been questions and confusions about how long the easement acquisitions might take but the trail supporters intend to do all in our power to help move that process along as quickly as possible and as smoothly as possible if it gets done in six months or less then we want to be ready to move on to the next steps not meaning the project would move right into the construction phase which we know is not possible yet at that point and might jeopardize the federal funding but rather meaning the city would move right into the process of fully securing the federal funding that is needed for the construction to begin what we definitely do not want to happen what we fear is for the million plus dollars of federal funding to haul through because the city did not move fast enough to put up its matching share. A commitment from the city manager is great but that's not enough to secure a full commitment with federal funds for that as I understand it the city's matching share needs to be fully budgeted and as we all know from bad surprises of all sorts what happens. Bad things for the trail funding can happen in the federal budget process or in the city budget process. The longer we wait the more bad stuff can happen. By putting an additional amount less than $200,000 into this year's city budget rather than promising to put it into next year's city budget put it all into next year's city budget you will allow the process of securing the federal matching funds to begin as soon as possible not a year from now which could turn into two years from now or ten years from now or never. Please don't take a chance of letting these approved federal funds slip away because if that happens this trail might never get built. That's why I'm asking you to commit the extra funds needed to secure the federal match this year. Let's make sure we get this trail built so bikers, walkers, runners and commuters can benefit from it each and every day. Thank you. You're welcome. Steve Hopkins. Mayor, City Council, Steve Hopkins, 1117 apartment 10 Gurley Street and I usually don't break this hat out but with the new chancellor at Central I'ma equal, okay? Alright there's a couple of things this budget is huge and there's a lot of things that I need to say about a lot of things which I'm not but I'm going to pick out a couple of things that is really important to me and I'm speaking as a private citizen, I don't represent any group just me and my biggest concern right now is our impact team. You know your measurements and everything said that they are doing a great job and they are but they can't keep up folks. You know there's weedy lots, boarded up buildings, they have to more lawn, they have to do graffiti and everything and one several man team cannot keep up with all of Durham. Folks we need another impact team to help keep Durham beautiful. Secondly jobs. You know we can train folks and train folks and train folks but if there's no jobs for those folks we have a well trained unemployment line and there are work that needs to be done but nobody wants to pay to have it done. We need to get this work done and I'm talking about more lawns boarded up houses and these are jobs and the federal government through their AmeriCorps process will help with the stipends for these folks. We need to put people back to increase our tax base. Now we're getting jobs coming in and the bad thing about that is the employers that are coming in is bringing their staff with them. That's how we grow. The people that are here that aren't employed are still unemployed. They are not getting these new jobs because there's no new jobs really coming. The jobs are coming in but they ain't bringing new jobs with them and that's a sad fact. Now our housing stock is getting a little bit better the boarded up and the dilapidated ones that we have and we need to address that and I'm asking the city to rethink some of your decisions in your budget and hey I don't mind you raising bus fare if you put in parking meters. Thank you. Hello I'm Larisa Seibel and this evening I've been asked to represent Durham CAN which is a diverse group of people who want the entire Durham community to benefit from the city budget. We know our city budget reflects our priorities and we all want every person to have safe quality homes as well as be able to get affordable transportation. But we may not know how critical these homes and transit are to the entire Durham community. The two largest expenses for residents of Durham are number one housing and usually number two is transportation and many individuals work more than one job just to be able to keep their homes and as you know a stable healthy home is critical to the health of all of our residents and also critical to the success in school of our children. So try to get to work without a car. Try to keep a car running on a minimum wage job. I know I have. The A says it costs about $9,000 a year for a car. That's $173 a week and $4.32 an hour. Durham is actually at a crossroads with our budget we can put the funds into continued suburban sprawl outside our transit system outside of the reach of low income residents to be able to get to jobs or we can build quality affordable homes along our existing bus lines and our proposed transit station. But we need to move forward now. We need to put money into planning affordable housing around transit stations and bus lines now before the land is all taken up with development. We need to put money into homes, affordable homes for people with disabilities, seniors, homeless, veterans and other extremely low income residents so the people who use transit will support transit and we need to keep transit affordable so everyone in our community can get to work, to school, medical care and other things. I want to add one thing that Durham can did not have time to address before this meeting but it appears that there's a proposal to eliminate a housing inspector and in the past Durham can have strongly supported housing inspections to provide quality housing for all and I hope that you will flag that item and discuss it further and see if we can find some way to preserve that housing inspector. That would be the last position I would cut from neighborhood improvement services. I appreciate your consideration. Thank you. So I actually want to start by asking everybody to think back a couple hours to the downpour that happened around six o'clock if you weren't actually in the downpour just think about a downpour that you've been caught out in and then actually so think about that and then imagine yourself down at the downtown station. I don't know if you've stood like how many of you all have stood under the shelter at the downtown station but I definitely have and I know I often will like look around to try and find like a dry spot on the concrete where I can stand to get shelter and unfortunately there's not one there. So my name is Aidan Graham. I'm here with People's Durham and I came to speak out against the proposed bus fare increase and I've actually spent the last three weeks me and some of the other people from People's Durham talking to hundreds of riders who have signed this petition that I want to submit for the public record that says the riders who signed this say no to the fare increase. They want you to hear this. They say no to the fare increase. They say no to service cuts and they say if the city really cares about what riders think you have to give us enough time and information to really be able to give our opinions. So as I've had these hundreds of conversations with people down at the station on the buses at the bus stops in the neighborhood I've talked to folks who can't put an address on the petition. Can't put a phone number on the petition because they have to make tough choices all the time about what bills they're going to pay to survive month to month. They're living at the homeless shelter. That's the only address that they can put down here. So to me these are not folks who can afford another $15 a month and these are the folks who rely on the day pass to be able to get around to where they need to work if they have a job to where they need to get food to where they go to school even. So that's just one thing that I think is really important. And another story that I want to share is that one of the folks that I talked to, a young man, tall, lean guy who's kind of standing off to the side at the station, I walked up to talk to him and a group of his friends and he looked at what I had and he said you know that's worth less than an ashtray actually. And my immediate reaction was that my heart sank. I took it personally. I'll admit like when I walked away I was like ooh I did a bad job. But then as I walked away I realized he wasn't saying that I did a bad job he was saying that he thought his voice doesn't matter. And him and his friends laughing, that's actually heartbreaking to me. So I'm here because I believe actually I know that many of you on City Council believe that public transportation is really important. That you stand behind public transportation and I have the hope that you're going to hear these voices and think back to why is it that a multi-million dollar station downtown isn't able to protect you from the rain. It's because riders were not allowed enough input in the process where that building was designed. Thank you. Welcome. Rena Hawkins. Good evening everybody. I'm also with Pupils Durham here to pose the bus fare increase and my first experiences with riding public transportation was when I was a student at UNC. My first three years I was a student there I didn't have a car so I had to depend on the bus to get from class to class and also to go from Chapel Hill to my job in Durham. I enjoyed the independence that working allowed and I also enjoyed the mobility of the bus system and although I'm already graduated and I have a car now I can still relate to the struggle that the Durham riders face. I remember what it was like to not have an alternative and to be dependent on the bus to get everywhere and I also was at the station listening to people's testimonies and I'm hearing their stories and getting them to sign our petition and I love public transportation too. The buses ensure that Durham riders can keep their jobs, go to the grocery store, even go to a Durham Bulls game if they want to and I think it's our responsibility to maintain the fare because it's exploitative. It targets the people at the bottom who have the least money to pay for this increase and it just makes me think back to when I was a student in Chapel Hill there is no bus fare and I could go anywhere in campus, I could even come to Durham and I didn't have to pay for anything but my proposal isn't for a free fare it's just I want a fare fare. I want a fare that doesn't burden the riders any further and I've experienced another system and I know that it doesn't have to go up there are other ways that the deficit can be met and so I just want to ask you to vote against the fare increase. Thank you. You're welcome. Susan Brooks. I'm here too to speak against the proposed bus fare increase not with an organization but pretty much as just a private citizen who has been using the bus system by choice, not because I have to. I've been using it for many years. I have been involved with the bus system when data had their board of trustees so I'm well aware of the many challenges that there are with funding of really, you know, world class bus system or at least one of the best in the state and actually the southeast so I know that but to have this bus system funded especially on the backs of any increase of the people who can least afford it does not seem to me the right thing to do. That seems to be the wave of what's happening now all across the country with many kinds of services and the people who are writing data not by choice but because they have to are people who are working minimum wage jobs, mothers who are trying to get their kids to a school maybe that's not their zoned public school but it's a better one that they think is the right place for their children to be and you know they're just for students for instance who happen not to be Duke students I work at Duke and I'm very fortunate to have a go pass. I can ride the bus for free. Duke has made a lot of investment in that and I have taken advantage of it so just to put this fare increase on the backs of the people who ride the bus and as we all know those are people who really are the least who have the least funds just doesn't seem right to me there are other ways to do that a tax increase would be one and one of you said yeah there are people who prefer what is it is by the people who use it there are others who prefer that everybody in the community pay for something that is a community resource and this is a community resource and also if you want to attract more riders who can ride the bus if they want to but have a car sitting at home upping the fare is not the way to do it and there also will be people you may really lower the ridership there will be people who ride the bus and who will not be able to afford it so I just think it's not the right thing to do for those reasons Durham is on its way to becoming a nationally recognized city in many ways and having a really good public transportation that's attractive to all of our community would be one way to do that so I'm not even going to take up my three minutes I just wanted to thanks for hearing me my name is Marie Hill facing and I came tonight to speak against the proposed fare increase I attended two of the meetings at the terminal and I was very disturbed at the information that I received about the proposal for the increase for the buses I work for Paris Transit and I transport handicapped elderly people on dialysis that depend on the service so I would like to commend you for leaving the fare as it is because I see firsthand how people struggle to pay the fare this is one area that we don't need to increase the fare and so I would just like to say thank you and I appreciate it I don't use the service myself but I drive the vans and I transport the people that ride one there and it services a lot of people that really need it and every day you hear accolades of the service from the people I mean there's lateness and there's a lot of problems but the service is there and that's pretty much what we have to keep going no matter what and the buses is equally important because when people can't ride the Paris Transit they need public transportation and so I would just recommend that we try and expand our vision of what we see public transportation to be in the future and not try and take away from that but to add on to it we have as was told before we have an increasing elderly population but what I see is a lot of people here that will probably be riding the van still in the future because it gives a service of independence for people and they're able to do things and another disturbing thing at the meeting that I heard was that with a fare increase for the buses the ridership would go down and that's the wrong direction we don't want ridership to go down we want to encourage people to ride it I ride it I go to other states and ride public transportation I'm a firm believer in being able to get to where you have to go without a car and the other good thing about public transportation is that it's good for the environment so what I'd like to see is more green thought for Durham encouragement for people that even have cars to ride public transportation let them know that it's efficient it's safe and it's the way to go you know and then we'll save our environment so thank you for listening to me and I hope you'll entertain that thought thank you welcome let me call these names again I'm calling them as they signed up Barbara Garrett Tony Williamson Sandlow Pisma Harvey Goodwin Jan Williams Donna Rudolph, Victoria Peterson, Carl Riss linear Blum and Jim O'Reilly Good evening my name is Barbara Garrett I'm here to talk about the bus fare increase I'm a lifelong Durham member of the Durham community I'm a graduate from NCCU and I'm unemployed for me on some days it's and I own my own vehicle on some days it's very hard for me to get the $2 that it takes for me to ride the bus and so I'm asking that you all would not increase would not allow them to increase the bus fare to leave it as it is for people that's like myself that are in a position at this time where we really can hardly afford the $2 that it is at this time and so I ask that you all consider it thank you Tony Williamson I know I'm butchering this name but is this Tony coming Sandlow Pisma I can't read that no so I wasn't originally going to speak tell me what is your name thank you I wasn't originally going to speak last time I did public speaking in front of public officials was at the county commissioner meeting and we got to yield time so I was going to give some of our folks a little bit more but I have been riding public transportation since I grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan I rode the buses there in a town that's about the size of Durham I rode public transportation in New York City and I've been riding public transportation here in Durham and you know the ritual of about going to get on the bus is going by the change thing by the door right and I have to get there half an hour early because it's going to take me a little time to dig through find the quarters or the nickels of the dimes or whatever and the idea of adding another 50 cents to that for a day pass right like it seems like a small amount you think like 50 cents it's not that much but as somebody who goes through that process every day or around other people who go through that process every day 50 cents actually does make a really big difference and people's Durham the organization that I work with our work is primarily with folks who are low income mostly in the Hattie area in the south side southeast Durham right and you all know us from the Lincoln apartments fight I was walking down the street the other day and I ran into two people who came from Lincoln apartments Miss Barbara is one of those folks there was another young lady who was walking down the street and what struck me in a conversation I was having with her is just all the different things that are coming down on top of our folks right now right and you all know that as people who are working at the local level trying to build a city that's progressive but on the everyday level there are so many things that are happening to our folks and adding even small pieces is tremendous right so what we're asking folks to do here is to think about not just small number right but the impact that that has on somebody's everyday life the other thing I want to say is that a public transportation system isn't just for poor people I am a poor person I want to have a public transportation system that I can afford but a good public transportation system is actually the blood system for a good city right and right now you go to 147 you see that blood system working through cars we want to see that working through buses y'all have said you want to see that working through trains right we believe that a public transportation system that's based on buses and that puts forward riders is what's really going to build that blood system that heart for the kind of city that we want to live in thank you Harvey Goodwin yes I'm Harvey Goodwin and thank you I come today back to budget too and I'm a tax payer and I come as a person that represents the people that are retired and social security they're not getting any raises and people that are unemployed I'd just like to go over this a budget is more than just a budget a budget is made up of the salaries a budget is made up of the work they do a budget is made up of the waste a budget is made up of many things and I want to go over one first I want to go over the manager Mr Goodwin could you pull your microphone a little bit over so we can 185,192 dollars 143,575 20 cents 140,000 146,087 18,000 also they get hospital insurance holidays and whatever just the budget on this was 668,785 dollars that's over a half a million dollars that's high for a budget okay the next is a city attorney Baker makes 182,694 dollars and the raise I think he got was 3,581 dollars and 41 cents and the people that are out is paying the taxes or struggling they cannot pay their light bill they cannot get their medicine they're not getting raises they're not getting bonuses like the city has got bonuses they get bonuses they get raises that's not fair for the city taxpayers they cannot afford it the city assistant attorney 112,026 dollars 15 cents attorney 118,354 dollars and 29 cents and the assistant he got a raise of 5,500 dollars and then the other senior assistant he got 2,321 dollars then assistant assistant attorney 102,421 dollars and 18 cents and he got a bonus I mean a raise of whatever 6,695 dollars the next senior assistant 112,299 dollars and one cent his increase was 5,500 dollars I'm going to speak for my husband I'm going to get based we don't yield time what I would suggest I think we get the trend of where you're going I'm sorry I said we don't yield time okay but if you like you can leave your notes with the clerk it'll be a part of the record and I think we'll understand your concern salaries well I'd just like to say too that these talking about the if you don't mind Ms. Goodman you've really gone over your time you can leave your information with the clerk and any other remarks leave that with them also okay thank you my name is Jan Williams and I am program director of Healthy Families Durham we serve about 150 families of young children we do home visits and all of these families are low income families who are struggling to make ends meet every single day so I'd like for you to think of me representing these 150 families I realize what a tight position the city is in related to the transportation budget and I realize that some of the bus fares will need to increase but I am here to speak specifically against that 50 cent increase on the $2 day pass over the 16 years that I've been doing this work I am convinced that that $2 daily pass is the one most frequently used by our lowest income citizens many of the families in my program use this daily pass to get to their pediatricians appointments their WIC appointments to Department of Social Services to mental health appointments to their work and to Durham Tech though a $10 a month increase 50 cents a day might not sound like much to us for some families this is a 25% increase that would take money away from diapers, formula food and clothing for their children and unfortunately many families do not have the $20 all at once to purchase a multi pass I know that they could save money by doing that but they just don't have that $20 all at once so I also have a question I think about sometimes at my work we hop on the bull city connector to go eat lunch at Brightleaf or to go downtown and we pay nothing so I have a question about why would we not charge something for that bull city connector instead of raising the increase making an increase that penalizes our lowest income citizens so I really ask that you reconsider that 25% increase on the $2 day pass because I think it penalizes the people who can least afford it and I'm here to represent them so thank you. Donner Rudolph I don't know how we do this because I have two hats tonight and so do I have a three minutes as Donner Rudolph starting now I'm Donner Rudolph and I live on 751 South in the subdivision of Eagles Point at about as far as the city goes but I'm concerned about the city the whole city it's my city it's where I am pleased to call home and I'm concerned about homelessness and I'm a member of the housing committee of People's Alliance and on behalf of People's Alliance I want to draw your attention to the fact that a count of homeless people made in January revealed 759 homeless persons 93 of those were homeless veterans and 87 of them were chronically homeless individuals and several advocacy groups have stated a goal homelessness in Durham in the next 10 years within 10 years and for veterans and chronically homeless persons by the year of 2015 so we're asking in order for these people to be able to call Durham their home that the city budget in the physical year of 2013-2014 allocates $750,000 to build new supportive housing for extremely low income people with a priority for homeless veterans and people with special needs people who are disabled and for those who are chronically homeless now I want to speak about a development that's proposed on 751 South and I my main concern personally is getting out on 751 because I can't get home if I don't use 751 and the traffic's already rather intense several times a day on 751 South and if you use the statistics of the last census and the number of cars per people per home 1300 housing units in this southern Durham development will produce about 2.2 cars per household so I'm looking at probably 3000 car trips coming in and 3000 car trips coming out a day beyond what are already on 751 so there's that cost to build and maintain a highway but the items I'm most appalled at I don't see how in good conscience Durham can approve this development because there are 80 of this 166 acres 81 of those acres will be paved over and the carcinogenic runoffs from asphalt paving into the lake which Jordan Lake is the water source for 500,000 people and I think you can think of another matter that is astonishing to me is if you allow this development to occur then how can you say no to other developments that violate the existing environmental standards and density statements thank you. Victoria Peterson. Mr. Mayor for the e-commerce you have sort of allowed the city council members to answer questions I just have really one question that I would just like to ask particularly the city manager, why are we losing money? This is a public hearing for comments. Okay well I would like to still ask and somebody can write me back why is the city losing monies again? This is the second year that we are losing monies on revenue at least from what is in the report and I remember last time the city manager gave the report a revenue dollars were down on the last budget but I would like to just share this Mr. Mayor and city council members. I still have and I live in this community and a lot of folks talk to me about the crying and other issues and someone on the council stated that the crime was going down in Durham. If crime was going down in Durham then somebody really needs to call the county commissioners because we just built a 64 million dollar courthouse you don't build a courthouse and you don't expand your jail because crime is going down. I really think that this community really needs to look at bringing on a new police chief yes. I'm tied to the shooting, the killings, the murderings, the stealing the breaking into the houses that's going on in this community there is something terribly, terribly wrong with the part two crimes. I know the police chief brings in the part one crimes and I've told you numerous times you need to ask him about the part two crimes. When you add the part one and you add the part two we're talking about close to 20,000 crimes that are being committed in this community annually, yearly. We have a huge population of young men that are unemployed in this community if you cannot work you're not taking care of your family and you're not taking care of your children if you don't have jobs we have all these projects that is coming to this community and very few and I'm hearing it even from the African American general contractors and contractors Miss Peterson we hear you down here we see you somebody needs to tell the mayor that we are not getting the jobs go across the street to your huge project that is going on today in this community and you're going to see very few young men in this community working on that project we have a police department that has asking for $52 million $52 million that's a lot of money that's a lot of crime money do you know what we can do with $52 million in this community but anyway Mr. Mayor I'm just asking that we really look at this budget and the police chief we need a new one and thank you sir Mr. Mayor members of the council my name is Carl Rist I live at 809 Watt Street and I'm here representing the Durham People's Alliance we are 700 members strong in Durham and growing I have three brief recommendations for you regarding next year's city budget number one the city council should support modest funding for supportive stable safe housing for extremely poor residents as my colleague from the People's Alliance just said we recommend the council fund $750,000 per year to provide supportive homes for residents with special needs this is a smart investment to help end homelessness in Durham and to ensure that all can call Durham home secondly the city council should oppose the proposed $18 annual fee garbage fee because it hurts working families a fair approach would be to increase property taxes by half cent per thousand dollars of value per home this would raise the same amount of money but cost the owner of $100,000 house only $5 per year if your home is valued at less than $360,000 per year you would pay less than $18 per year third as many here tonight have said the city council should oppose the proposed increase in bus fares because it too hurts working families we've spent the past 10 years moving in the right direction toward more free public transit now is not the right time to shift direction public transit doesn't pay for itself any more than highways and roads and bridges do we should be investing in options that support non-drivers as much as we invest in options that support drivers so again I urge the council to oppose the proposed bus fare increase thank you very much Jim O'Reilly yes Jim O'Reilly thank you I'm here to talk about Durham housing for people in poverty along with linear bloom will present the second half of this Durham's five-year community development plan has two priorities one is housing for extremely poor households many of these neighbors suffer disabilities and so require supportive services to maintain a stable decent home a 2009 HUD report found that in Durham 7800 extremely poor households rent deficient dwellings and or dwellings they can't afford in January of this year Durham counted 759 people with no home at all 706 live in temporary shelters and 53 outside housing is the key to health not only of individuals and families and of neighborhoods there are the practical key to the health of communities studies have repeatedly document that the public cost of providing stable decent supportive housing is far lower than responding to the damaging consequences that go along with being homeless for example in Los Angeles they found the average cost of supportive housing is $605 a month whereas the typical cost of a similar homeless person is $2,900 five times greater than their counterparts who are housed for the next five years from all sources the city has so far allocated funding for building up to 45 only 45 homes for very low income renters 16 and rolling hills four and south side and up to 25 for seniors at witted schools that's less than 10 a year for this year the community development budget published in November requested proposals for $250,000 of dedicated housing funds for supportive housing this $250,000 is the only funding now allocated for supportive and very low income housing that amount of leverage might add about five permanent dwellings so what can we do if Durham's very key priority is to end homelessness and especially of veterans and chronically homeless individuals and people with disabilities and families by 2015 and to end homelessness in 10 years and if it's one of the two priorities of our community development budget what can we do in 2013 and 14 in addition to the funds the city has reserved for witted school the city should now allocate from the dedicated housing fund $768,000 to build new supportive housing and housing for people with extremely low incomes according to the community development department budget these funds are and will be available but they have not yet been allocated for this or any other named purpose so please allocate that money for this purpose very low income housing and until Durham does reach its goal of ending homelessness the city and counties five year community development budget should continue to allocate at least $750,000 a year for extremely low income households along with funding housing Durham should preserve existing housing new housing Durham should preserve existing housing that is well managed and affordable to people with incomes below 30% of area median to expedite this development we need the city to put forth and adopt a process with a predictable schedule that will allocate these resources and select projects these funds need to be carried forward from one year to the next so that the city and its partners can plan development of varied sizes this policy will support a range of projects that meet the diverse needs and opportunities of different types of housing in different neighborhoods this strategy will enable high performance accountable non-profit local providers to plan and propose viable developments that will remain affordable for decades to come the county and city should also maintain and build on the coordinating and coordinate resources for health care and supportive services for homeless and extremely low income residents should also be able to provide affordable housing for those with a low income population Durham really needs policies that include and encourage supportive housing in all new large developments particularly those for which local and state agencies are providing financial and infrastructure assistance we have for example just completed this whole big plan for the transit station and the units built and planned there is not a single low income affordable dwelling in that project but we can change that also we need to prioritize the location near transit so that the people who need transit the most and housing the most have access to each other thank you so much it's really good to see that let me ask is it anyone else that is spoken that would like to speak on this the public hearing on the proposed budget is it anyone else let the record reflect that no one else asked to speak I will close the public hearing on the proposed 2013-2014 budget I entertain a motion to accept comments that have been presented second it's been properly moved to second Madam clerk will you open the vote close the vote it passes 7-0 now the next item on the agenda was to move to item 20 before you do that Steve was to move to item 8-19 item 25 was the proposed bus fare increases and when I started out early I indicated that if people wanted to make comments on that item doing the public hearing for the budget would be appropriate to do that I want to find out is it anyone else that wants to speak on the proposed bus fare increases the reason I'm asking is as Steve makes his comments I'm going to move to the proposed bus fare increases as a public hearing item open it accept persons that want to speak I understand no one else wants to speak but I'll close the public hearing but the point is it's anyone else that wants to speak on it okay Steve thank you Mr. Mayor I just want to make a few comments on what I heard tonight and because we're going to be thinking about this on Thursday and afterwards and the first thing I want to talk about is the housing what I want to say is that we have the money in the budget and it is allocated and we had a great discussion about that at the council meeting the council meetings last week in which it was you know we asked many questions of our community development people the penny has created a pot of money as it was intended to do for people housing and it's not just a matter to come forward with their projects there are two categories and that I think are particularly relevant one of them is the match gap financing with people homeless people with special needs and the other is the match gap financing for projects with for the low income housing tax credit and this could be mixed income projects and so let me give you some sense of how much that is because I think this is important there's roughly a quarter of a million dollars each year in the match gap financing for housing with persons with special needs specifically for that in fiscal year in the match gap financing for low income housing tax credit fiscal year 15 there's over 840,000 dollars fiscal year 16 there's 1.6 million fiscal year 17 1.7 million fiscal year 18 1.9 million the staff has made it abundantly clear that that money is available for these projects to come forward and so what I would really like to do now because I think it's really important that we kind of reassess this is challenge the housing community to come forward with these projects if you want us to fund these projects there the money is there and it's really time for the housing community to come forward with these projects and then we can help all willing to fight for projects that will help the homeless that can use this money especially mixed income projects which I think we all know are the Holy Grail but we cannot do that building it could be the housing authority and it could be the nonprofit providers but I really feel very strongly that we need to shift this the thinking that we have about this now there is a pot of money here and I know that I will go to bat for those projects and I know that other council members my colleagues will go to bat for these projects if the projects come forward that we can use to leverage private financing and other government financing such as a low income housing tax credits and so I just want to challenge our community and especially our housing providers of which we have this wonderful group whether it be the housing authority or the nonprofit providers to come forward with projects and I do think we have a process you know I am concerned that we only have the October deadline we may need a second deadline every year I know the community development department is thinking about that which they discuss with us so that we would have a second opportunity for people to apply during the year but that's something we can deal with if people will come forward with projects the other thing I want to say is I would just mention a couple other things I really appreciate the fact that we gave the manager a task and he did it which was coming with a balanced budget with no tax increase and what he did was he took all the tools at his disposal both to cut costs and I want to say something people talked about pay and job positions there are 16 job positions in this budget that are going to be eliminated most of them only four of those people those jobs are filled now so there won't be layoffs that will be moved to other jobs but I just want to make clear what the manager did in terms of efficiencies in this budget again cutting a very lean staff to make it even leaner and that makes it harder on our other employees but those were decisions that were made one of the things that he did and I give him the credit but I give our whole staff the credit is to move some of that money into our bus service so about 1.1 million dollars or about half a cent worth of your tax dollars has been moved from other things in this budget into the bus service so most of the way we're filling the hole in the bus service is through general fund money already and I want to commend and I want to thank the manager for that I do think that to 240,000 dollars that we're trying to fill through the day pass we should not be filling that way and my hope is that we'll be filling that through I would much rather fill that through general fund money and I'll get to that in just a second similarly with the solid waste fee there's no question in my mind that it's regressive for homeowners and I also am convinced that it's regressive for renters it does exempt renters in large apartment complexes but not those people in smaller rental units and I will be showing some of my, in fact I've already sent my colleagues today some math that Mark Hellman a very committed Durham citizen did in terms of the regressivity for renters of the fee versus the tax and the other thing I want to say about the solid waste fee is this interestingly it's also in many ways not helpful for those people at the top end of the income spectrum and here's why if you have an $18 solid waste fee and you're an itemizer you itemize taxes which the most tax about 30% of American taxpayers itemize and of those 30% they're obviously at the higher end of the tax range those people can't deduct that from their taxes they can't deduct that $18 fee from their taxes but if you are an itemizer and you have are paying the property tax instead you can deduct that from your taxes so if you're in the 35% tax bracket you can deduct $6.30 of your $18 fee from your taxes so not only is it regressive and does it hurt people at the lower end of the income spectrum more but it also I think in the long run financially is not advantageous it's disadvantageous to people at the higher end of the income spectrum so if you own one of those houses those over $360,000 houses in which you might have a break even point between the tax and the fee but that's not true anymore if you count the deductibility of the property tax versus the non-deductibility of the fee all of a sudden the value of the house that you would have to have goes even much higher than that so not only is it regressive but it hurts people even at the higher end of the income spectrum so I really hope my colleagues will consider that as we go forward and of course we have the LRB Creek Trail on the table and I think Diane did a great job of describing the information that we need to get and I am hopeful that if we need to fund that this year to be able to get the additional money that we will make that decision and we will find out about the timetable on that on Thursday and I know the staff is going to give us some great guidance on that and then I also wanted to say something about employee pay we wanted to raise our employee pay higher we wanted 3% that was our original guideline and the manager came in with a very responsible decision to raise it 2% because that's what we could bear but I am very hopeful that we can do more than that and I would like to at least be able to give something like a mid-year bonus if we can't raise the base pay more than the 2% budgeted. I think our employees deserve it and I would like to be able to do it and then finally I want to say something about how to fund it. It would not be responsible of me to advocate against a solid waste fee increase and a bus fare increase without talking about how to pay for it and the way we need to pay for it is property taxes. No one wants a property tax increase but for less than a penny we could cover the day fare pass increase, we could cover the solid waste fee we could fund the Ellaby Creek additional money if it does become clear that it is necessary and we could give our employees another small bump. We can do all that for less than a penny. Durham is in its golden age that's what we're in now. People want to come here and one of the reasons they want to come here is that we invest we're going to invest publicly we have got to be able to pay for it and people have got to be willing to pay for it to pay for the services that we need. We don't want to be the highest tax people around but we want to be able to tax it so that we can build the infrastructure that we need. We want our streets paid and we want them well paved. We want trails, we want good parks, we want ball fields these are amenities that people want. We want a really good bus system and if we want these things then we need to invest in them and I think we can make the case because I think that's what's going to make us a great city and I think it's at times when you are in a time of prosperity which Durham is relative to the rest of the country and will continue to be when you're in a time of prosperity and when you're in that golden age that's when you invest because we will have the money to invest. Let's invest let's do the kind of infrastructure creation that we want. We're invested in our affordable housing. We're ready to do it. Okay let's build it and so like I say for less than a penny we can do all the things that I think we want to do in this budget without having to raise the fees that are aggressive. I know this is not an opinion shared by all my colleagues and I know that there will be differences on these various items but I just think that we have a real opportunity here and that we ought to think about we ought to think about the big picture about our budget and try to fund it in a way that's progressive. Thank you. Thanks Steve. That's a very healthy commentary and I'm sure when we get into discussions Thursday we'll have a few more. The only comment I would make at this time is I know we don't want to be the highest tax city around and I think one of the reasons that we are where we are is because some of the other cities do not serve as not through their property tax but through these fees and I just think we need to look at where we are relative to what other cities are doing and make it a judgment. Do we want to continue down the path that we're doing providing everything out of property taxes or do we want to provide it out of some of these fees which we find some of the other cities are doing but we have that discussion Thursday if you try to get there. Having said that the public hearing has been closed with the comments. I am going I know people waiting here and trying to move it along so we can get it out. I'm going to open the proposed bus fare entries which is item 25 to conduct a public hearing to receive comments on the proposed bus fare increases. I'm going to open the public hearing and I'm going to ask is there anyone that wants to speak on this particular item. I recognize Victoria Peterson. Is there anyone else who wants to speak? I don't want to go through that. If Victoria wants to speak is anyone else who wants to speak? If not, Victoria you have three minutes. Mr. Mayor, last year a lot of folks here in the community who were volunteering and persons who were being paid we were out in the community on registering persons to vote and one of the places that we worked was over at the bus area and it was shocking to me and I would just like to make some suggestions on how I think the city could actually generate some income. That whole second floor is empty. It's built up but there's I believe the police department or there may be a private officers that go up there and walk around but that whole upstairs is empty. We have persons who are outside who vendor why not allow them to come inside rent a space very reasonable and start generating some income off the upstairs off the upstairs in the bus station because there's nothing going on upstairs and you have that huge space up there. Also I'm not sure if the Greyhound or the Bull City bus that sort of sits on the outside. I'm not sure if they pay rent or not, if they don't they should. We have the Greyhound that goes in there we have the Mega and they come there what two and three times a day with all their clients bring them inside rent space to them to me these are ways of generating income where we may not have to raise fees at all Mr. Mayor. Also I agree with the young man some of us stood out there in that hot sun how that thing is built it's not long enough to even deal with the sun even if you sat out there on a nice day that sun just cooks you. So I heard the gentleman complaining about the rain you get wet but you also get baked also when the sun is high and bright. But thank you Mr. Mayor. Anyone else who wants to speak on this item has been the fair increases for public transportation. I'd like to reflect on no one else as to speak I'm going to close the public hearing with understanding that the comments made relative to fair increases during the budget public hearing will be folded into the public hearing we're just closing it on bus fares and when the council meets Thursday as we go through this discussion the manager can have the staff to present the bus fares for presentation that they were going to do this evening. That being the case we're going to move open Madam Clerk I entertain a motion to close the public hearing. It's been a property to move in second. Madam Clerk will you open the vote. It passes seven. Thank you. Now we're going to move back to the item 2019 which is the public hearing on the proposed economic development incentive agreement between GE Aviation and the City of Durham outside the community development area and within the city limits. With staff person Kevin Dick Directive Office of Economic Workforce Development. Thank you Mr. Mayor and good evening Mr. Mayor City Council members of staff and Durham holders I'm Kevin Dick with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and I am appreciative of the opportunity this evening to present a proposed economic development incentive agreement that would be executed between the City of Durham and GE Aviation. I also want to take a moment to recognize my colleagues from the Durham Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Casey Steinbacher Vice President for Economic Development Ted Connor certainly recognized their recent recognition and award from the World Chambers Federation. Congratulations again for that. I also want to take the time to introduce representatives from GE Aviation Mr. Mike Wagner and Eric Madison seated in the front row here representing GE this evening and I'd like to point out that my presentation this evening will consist of a short video about GE Aviation and then a few informational slides that will just provide a little bit of clarity about the proposed incentive agreement. I'm just throwing them around whenever I could. I always wondered how everything worked. How did an airplane get in the air? To design and create the next greatest thing takes a lot of imagination and a lot of courage. I always wanted to be one of those guys that had that kind of responsibility and that kind of technical expertise. In aviation we build jet engines. We lift people up off the ground to 35,000 feet in the air. These engines are built by hand with very precise assembly techniques. I definitely feel responsible to these customers. You can't pull over on a side of the road and see what's going on underneath the hood. These have to be perfect every time. We make jet engines and I think the inner nerd in me is really excited about that. When you build one up and wrap it up in plastic and out the door it goes and you know that it's out there somewhere. This machine you've made is serving an even bigger purpose. GNX is the latest and greatest. It's edge of technology. It's going to fly people around the world safely and better than it's ever done before. We are building engines that are literally making the world smaller. We built this engine up but never get to experience its glory. See and smell and touch your life's work. I would love to see this thing fly. It's a dream honestly. Here it is today. We're going to go out and see it. I think a lot of people when they look at a jet engine they see a big hunk of metal. But when I look at it I see Seth, Mark, Corrine and Tom and people like that work on engines every day. Just keep going in. A few feet right there. That's where my part is. People say there's no such thing as perfect. They don't make jet engines. They come out here and actually see my baby strap to the bottom of somebody else's and those creative energies coming together to make such an awesome product is just a real treat. To see that thing on an airplane and flying around. If you work at GE Aviation it doesn't get any better. We built jet engines. And now for the brief presentation. GE is a global leader in jet engine and aircraft system production. The company produces engines and parts for the airline industry. They have a major manufacturing presence here in Durham off Miami Boulevard in an area adjacent to the research triangle park. They are considering a significant investment across North Carolina in new technology. This technology would lead to increased fuel efficiency in jet engine aircraft and better fuel efficiency means increased economic and environmental benefits. The local investments they're planning combined with additional investments in advanced manufacturing technologies would eventually amount to more than $200 million in North Carolina operations by the end of 2017. 29 million would be invested in the Durham facility over the next five years. This project will create 50 jobs within three years at average wages of $60,000 per year plus benefits. And statewide the project is expected to create a total of 250 additional jobs including those in Durham by 2017. The capital improvements that are planned, the $29 million investment is expected to yield $157,000 in new tax value over a five year period. We are proposing an incentive payment of $400,000 to be paid out over five years between fiscal years 16 and 20 which would yield a net of 157,000 and net tax revenues to the city. This dollar amount is part of a statewide incentive package that has the involvement of not only the North Carolina Department of Commerce but four other municipalities. And I do want to point out particularly in light of many of the comments tonight that no funds would be paid out until the thresholds are met. In other words the capital investment thresholds and the job creation thresholds. These benchmarks must be met and they must be verified by staff. GHE has indicated to the state and to us locally that they would be considering moving this manufacturing technology into green field areas in the Midwestern United States if the incentive package from North Carolina were not offered to them. And the Durham package is part of that statewide package. As I stated the company must provide the city with documentation to improve expenditures on the aforementioned capital investment amounts. The company must complete and return the workforce development plan that would utilize the Durham Job Lint Career Center system as a source of recruitment. This is an opportunity or this would be a vehicle by which we provide Durham residents opportunities to recruit for to be recruited for the 50 new positions. I also want to point out that with the manufacturing technology that would be produced in North Carolina it provides the opportunity for further growth with the Durham assembly plant that's off Miami Boulevard. So not only with the 50 jobs be created there would also be other opportunities for Durham residents in the future as more manufacturing technology is produced in North Carolina and then assembled at the Durham plant. To further the process of documentation collection the company must provide to the city a certified copy of the company's employment insurance filings with the North Carolina Department of Commerce Division of Employment Security. This proves job creation. And so in summary we believe this project will provide the opportunity to manufacture cutting edge technology in Durham provide 50 new jobs at competitive wages with the opportunities to produce more perhaps if technology continues to be robust. The opportunities for Durham talent to find employment and for Durham businesses to compete for contracts related to the capital investment and expansion. And finally significant tax new tax revenues to the city. I'm free for questions at this time if there are any. Thank you. Again it's a public hearing item. I would ask first of the comments or questions by members of the council on this item. If not as anyone in this public that would like to speak on this item. Recognize whoever wants to speak if you can come up and how many speakers do we have. Well there's two chamber folks. Okay. I'm trying to figure out the time that's why I'm asking. So is anyone else who wants to speak we've got three people without speaking. In that case let's try four minutes each and see where we go. I'm geared for two, three's fine. Good evening members of the Durham City Council and the Durham City staff. I'd like to recognize and thank Mike Wagner and Eric Madison GE Aviation Managers for joining us tonight and sitting through our interesting meeting. It needs to be said that manufacturing is not dead in Durham. It has grown significantly in the past 10 years as we have seen expansions at Merck at Cree at EW North Carolina and now again hopefully GE Aviation. It would surprise a lot of folks here in Durham to know that the largest growth in Durham's gross domestic product or GDP over the last 10 years has been in manufacturing which has increased 170%. The really exciting part of this number is that the leading edge technologies have really helped fuel this growth in our GDP. Just looking back a little bit in a little view in history. In 1993 Durham brought its aviation division to a Durham facility which had been vacant for several years. It's a mammoth facility that had been vacant and at that point began assembling the CF6 engine. Over time GE has added new engines for assembly such as the newer and much larger GE90 and new Gen X engine that powers the Boeing Dreamliner. GE's Durham plan is the forefront or I should say is at the forefront of manufacturing processes delivered and developed by GE Aviation. Currently when new engines are developed assembly generally takes place here in Durham. The Gen X engine is currently the cutting edge smart and fuel efficient engine of the time and leads the industry. But GE is already working on a new engine for the future known as the leading edge aviation that's a tough one or LEAP engine. This engine really represents the next generation of smart fuel efficient engines in the world which we hope will be assembled when it's ready in Durham. Today GE employs 320 assembly workers, 35 staff members and more than 50 contractors as a team to assemble the best jet aircraft engines in the industry. It was brought to my attention recently that during its history here in Durham GE Aviation has never laid off one of its workers even during some lean times. I should also add and as Kevin noted that GE Aviation will be investing up to 30 million dollars which will be generating some sufficiently or some substantial new tax revenue for Durham. What we ask the Durham City Council tonight is to approve the incentive for GE Aviation tonight in order to push this project forward and hopefully it will land in Durham. Thank you. Mayor, members of council, thank you so much for the opportunity to address you. On behalf of the greater Durham Chamber of Commerce I'm Casey Steinbacher president and CEO and you heard Ted a few minutes ago talk about the production and activities that go on actually in the GE facility. But I think equally as important as you get to know this company is that there are much more than just engines to get the opportunity to really get to know the people that work there. When GE actually started that new plan it organized the production process within that assembly facility around self directed work teams composed of 15 team members. Other than the work teams there's obviously some administrative staff that work there but everyone actually belongs to a team and the work team really addresses the whole comprehensive process of the assembly of the engine which includes resource issues, supplier issues, vendor issues, engineering challenges computer systems, disciplines and rewards. The facility really is one of those few that you get a chance to see that are totally self managed and everyone is treated as equal at the facility. It really allows the assembly team members future opportunities to learn the process within the facility and increase their personal skill sets and expand their future career opportunities within the company. I think you saw evidence of that earlier in the video. You also heard Ted mentioned just a minute ago that they've seen significant growth steady significant growth over the last several years during a time when the aviation industry has not necessarily seen that kind of growth and they have not in their tenure since 1993 when they began that operation here ever as Ted mentioned saw a layoff at that facility. What I really wanted to emphasize with you guys tonight was some other things that they do there that I don't think most people are aware of and that specifically recently I had the opportunity to attend a meeting that GE held with some local officials and some education leaders in the region. Recently their local, Durham's local at this facility women's leadership group within the plant which they strongly encourage women's and diversity within the plant. They had been working with GE officials. They went to actually the leadership of GE and suggested to them that they thought that there was an opportunity for GE to get more involved in creating aviation related opportunities within the Durham Public School systems and the community colleges in the region. And so GE administration worked with the local leadership group to put together a presentation with the Durham Public Schools area community college and quite frankly all the way up to the North Carolina education department in which they talked about the opportunity for the creation in the area of avionics, aeronautics academies within the Durham Public Schools systems. They brought in some experts that have been doing this in about 10 high school systems across the United States and talked about the various ways that Durham Public Schools in our community could actually invest in that and as part of that presentation we had the opportunity to hear how they would engage students directly at the facility to meet Vice Chair's Mayor Pro Temps position here about internships and talked significantly about how the aeronautic academies across the United States that were successful were actually to engage students in those internships in their communities. And as you can see here and we believe there's really no more exciting field to be engaged in as a young student. There's certainly no more better opportunity to be involved in cutting edge technology and as you can see also tonight there's really not many better paying fields than the aviation industry so we're really excited to be working with them on that behalf. We think it's pretty obvious that this expansion will yield new manufacturing assembly jobs, net tax revenue for the city and ensure that GE aviation stay here and continue to grow in Durham. We would strongly urge you to help us send that message back to GE. Thank you very much. Victoria Peterson Mr. Mayor, when I first came to North Carolina it was in the late 70's and before I came probably very few people know this but I have training, I have experience in flying. I was flying the Cessna as well as the Beechcraft. I don't know if that's still on the market but the Beechcraft is a very very nice plane. I was very disappointed because I could not continue on with my flying to get my flying license. I had the flying license in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania a young person could have training. There is a need and it would really be nice to have our young people to get involved really with this industry and actually years ago when I came to Durham there was actually an African American flying club that we would go out towards Roxboro. I don't think they're still around but if any of you know Mr. Stevens, the insurance gentleman, he was one of the gentlemen that was in that flying club. So we had Durham does have some of the old timers who are flyers. But I think it would be good to have something like this young men and women, Durham Tech, North Carolina Central, even some of these kids that might have dropped out of school could get back in the school if they could see something new. Flying is awesome to be in that sky. It's like being with God. I mean very close on a beautiful clear day with the clouds and the sky. It's just a beautiful feeling and I would really love to see young people in this community really have that opportunity to fly. You know there's a song on that. But I do I would like to say this though. I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky. I would like to see Mr. Mayer to make sure that the African American community, our young men, and I'm hoping that this company has been here for a few years. But I'm hoping that they are reaching out to young African American men and women in this community to make sure that they get some skills. I'm hoping that maybe Kevin to try to see if there could be a job training program added in the future where some of our young folks could get trained and get certified. Because a lot of companies will hire you, they will train you, but they won't certify you. Because if you get certified then that means you may want to stay with that company five or six years and move on and work with another company. But when that certification does not happen, they're sort of there. But I say good luck to this company and I wish I could fly. And thank you Mr. Mayer. You're welcome. No I didn't. Thank you. That concludes persons that have signed up to speak on the public hearing item. Anyone else not that direct reflect, no one else has to speak. Close to public hearing as a matter of fact for council. The proper movement second. Recognize council and market. I'm just going to take a moment. Somebody asked during the E-town hall meeting what council does to create jobs and you know, I'm looking at this project and we've been looking at it for a few weeks and you know I look at the scale and I say look on the one hand they have they've got, they're an established community citizen. G is a minimum $20 million investment estimated at 29. A minimum of 50 jobs. Permanent full time estimated $60,000 per year average. And they're going to work with our job link career system. And that doesn't count all the additional jobs that are created by creating because it's exponential. And on top of that they're going to pay an estimated $557,000 in extra property taxes over five years. And what's our part in it? $400,000 over five years. And why, why would I, 25% of our children live in poverty. We need jobs. We have too many unemployed. And opportunities like this are something we should reach out for. So I appreciate the time to make that comment. Thank you. Will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven to zero. Thank you. We'll move on to item 20, comprehensive plan amendment 800 West Cornwallis Road. Good evening. Excuse me. Good evening. Steve Medlin with the Durham City County Planning Department. Before I again, I'd like to certify that items 20 through 24 have had proper legal notice provided in that affidavits are part of the case files for public review. Plan amendment case A-1302 800 West Cornwallis Road is a request by FZH management to change the future land use map designation from medium density residential to commercial for a .174 acre track. The site is located in the urban tier north of West Cornwallis Road west of Hope Valley Road and south of Durham Chapel Hill Boulevard. In reviewing the application, staff determined the request to be consistent with criteria for plan amendments in the unified development ordinance and with policies found in the conference plan. Staff is recommending approval of the change to the future land use map. The Planning Commission heard this case on April 9th of this year and by unanimous vote, recommended approval. I'll be happy to answer your questions the council may have. You've heard the staff report. It's public hearing. I'll create a public hearing to be open and ask other questions by members of the council on this item. Is there anyone in the public that wants to speak on this item? You have two minutes. You can set your name. We're getting all these former city council people speaking tonight. Kim Griffin. I'm Kim Griffin. I'm with Griffin Associates Realtors. Proud to see you here tonight Howard. At this hour of the evening, I'm brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. So if I fall asleep, please wake me up. I'm representing Ferris Hannah who bought 2715 Durham Chapel Hill Boulevard. We've leased it out to the pennies for change. Thrift store for the Durham Crisis Response Center. When he bought the property, we had some dead trees next door. We went and talked to Mechanics and Farmers Bank, our neighbor. They said that they'd like Mr. Hannah to have the lot versus them so he purchased it. And it's got a lot of pine trees that were diseased so they've all been taken down. We've run out of parking. The thrift store is done very well. The restaurants across the street have done very well. The folks come and park on his property to go to the other surrounding businesses and so what we'd like to do is expand the parking a little bit. And I'd be glad to answer any questions you have. Anyone else that wants to speak on the side? Thank you. If not, let the record reflect. No one else has to speak. I'll declare the public hearing to be closed as a matter of fact before the council. Move the item. The property moving second. Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. Get past the 7 to 0. Move item 21, zoning map change, 800 West Cornwallis Road, Z-13000003. Good evening, Steve Medlin with the Durham Planning Department. Once again, Zoning Case Z-1303800 West Cornwallis Road is a request to change the zoning designation of a .174 acre track located at 800 West Cornwallis Road from residential suburban 10 to commercial general. Staff has determined that their request is compliant with the future land use designation of the conference of plan, which designates the site as commercial. The Planning Commission heard this item at their April 9th meeting and by a vote of 13 to 0 recommended approval. Again, this is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. You've heard a staff report would ask the first questions by members of the council. If not, I have Kim Griffin that has signed up to speak for item 21. Does anyone else want to speak on this item? I'm sorry, I recognize Councilwoman Cattati. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to ask staff to please clarify the buffer requirements and if any additional plantings will be required. There will be an opaque buffer required between the commercial general zoning and the adjacent residential zoning on Cornwallis. We're looking it up. We'll verify. The current ordinance provision would require a 20 foot buffer. In essence, yes. Is that it? Again, I have one speaker, Kim Griffin. Anyone else want to speak? I'm not recognizing Kim Griffin. She was not to speak. Let the record reflect Kim Griffin. I would say the same thing. Let the record reflect that no one else wanted to speak on this item. I'll declare the public hearing to be closed. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. It passes 7-0. Thank you. Move to item 22, conference plan amendment Enoeconomic Development District A-12-0-0-0-12. Good evening, Steve Medlin with the Durham City County Planning Department. Enoeconomic Development District Plan Amendment Case A-12-12 is a request to make the Durham Flume Future Land Use Map consistent with the Orange County Land Use Plans. The Planning Department is recommending a number of changes to the Durham Future Land Use Map in an area known as the Enoeconomic Development District which is located west of the City of Durham near the interchange of I-85 and US-70 in Orange County. These proposed changes come at the tail end of a process that began several years ago. In 2008, Orange County adopted a small area plan that did two things. First, it laid out a vision for the area to become a hub of economic activity with light industrial distribution office service and retail uses. And second, it endorsed the idea of an interlocal agreement between Orange County and the City of Durham to extend water and sewer services to help support those economic development initiatives. The interlocal agreement regarding the water and sewer extension was approved in 2011 and the engineering process for the extension of the utilities has begun. After 2012, Orange County amended their future land use map for the district to economic development. The purpose of these proposed planning amendments is to be more compatible with Orange County's future land use map and the intent of the Enoe Economic Development District small area plan. While this planning process has been largely, excuse me, largely led by Orange County, Durham planning staff believe that these proposed land uses are reasonable given the investment in water, sewer infrastructure and the presence of major transportation corridors. These proposed changes are strictly policy changes and do not impact current zoning. The zoning in this case is still in Orange County's jurisdiction. Planning Commission recommended approval of these amendments at their April 9th meeting on a vote of 13-0. I'll be happy to answer your questions as the council may have. Again, this is a public hearing item. You've heard the staff report. The public hearing is open. I would ask first of the questions by members of the council. We have five persons that have signed up to speak. But let me hear your comments, questions by members of the council. If not, Darcy Wilson, if you can come to the podium to the right, Sarah Glass, Chris Zekirby, Joseph Henderson, Dr. Tom H. Arvick. Each have three minutes. Hi. My name is Darcy Wilson. I live at 5315 Old Hillsboro Road, which is also Old NC 10. The area across NC 10 for me is proposed that it's changed from residential to industrial. This area also adjoins adjacent to other residential areas. This proposed land use change allows large areas of industry adjacent to and surrounding existing residential communities. This will destroy the neighborhood and disrupt the homes and lives of the people who live here. Development should enhance the existing community, not destroy it. It is important that development include areas for shopping, working, schools, childcare, medical facilities and jobs in a balance. Transitional zoning should be utilized to shield existing and new residential areas as well as environmentally sensitive areas from industrial areas. The current proposal has the majority of the Enoeconomic Development District classified as industrial. In the 80s when the district was created, the plan was for mixed use development that would be sensitive to the Enoe River Duke Forest as well as existing residential areas. This proposal does not do that. I believe it would be in the public interest for the City of Durham to consider changes that address these issues before allowing this proposal to move forward. Thank you. You're welcome. Sarah Glass. Thank you. My name is Dr. Sarah Glass. I live in Weldon Ridge Court, which is just south of the area in the Enoeconomic Development District. Two FYIs I'd like to start with. One is that our neighborhood was actually not notified of the meeting that Mr. Medlin has spoke about where this was actually approved. Although we were on the list the affidavit which Hannah Jacobson provided, none of us in our neighborhood for some reason received this, since we were unable to actually influence the planning board in this decision making process. Also importantly as Mr. Medlin highlighted, this is consistent with Orange County. What Orange County has not passed along is that the property owners who are affected by this plan have actually not had their concerns sufficiently addressed. So I'd like to highlight four concerns that I personally have as a new mom, a scientist, and a community member in Durham in the city that I love and choose to raise my family in. The first concern that we have really is around environmental water concerns. In the plan, the Region 2 which we don't have in front of us is changed from very low density residential to industrial. This area includes the Stony Creek Wildlife Corridor and the next Reno River Strait Park to the Duke Forest. So zoning changes in 2008 which were mentioned led to an industry called Gorilla Industries Moving In which resulted in stormwater rain off that come from mountains of materials that are of unknown origin and these all go into Stony Creek which then contributes to the new water supply or Falls Lake. So my question is does the planning board have scientific data that has actually evaluated the effect of this stormwater rain off into the Stony Creek and if Gorilla or a similar industry went into these proposed areas does the planning board actually have data to say that this is not going to have a negative impact on our environment. Secondly as a mom and someone raising my family I have significant concerns about the air quality. Obviously increased industry really has impact on increased heavy equipment for transporting materials which during which a line of pollutants is generated from the point of origin to the destination. Old NC-10 is a primary root affected here. Studies actually suggest that mortality and disease rates including cancer and severe respiratory rates are higher in residents who are affected in close to industry areas. And so this is actually worsened if the products are transported through the residential areas as are along NC-10 which is 100 feet from my back door where I open up every day to let this beautiful North Carolina weather in. Third is safety and I would encourage a lot of you to just drive through this area. It's a beautiful rural road, it's too lane, however it's a curvy road that's bookended by two railroad tracks that are low bridges. There have already been two individuals who have died at the intersection of Old NC-10 and Mount Harmon Church. I would like to ask the planners has this been sufficiently addressed? What is the impact of all this new equipment driving on this Old NC-10 going to have? What is it really going to take? Is it going to take another death before the officials and the city actually consider our concerns? That's it. Thank you. You're welcome. Again if you have written remarks if you have written remarks you can leave them with Chris Kelsey? Kelsey, yes thank you. So I have two primary concerns regarding the Durham Comprehensive Plan Amendment First in my opinion there's been insufficient public involvement and opportunities for public input in regards to the Durham Plan. Second there's been a lack of communication and or planning in regards to this area. So for example the public really became aware of this about two years ago when a neighborhood meeting was held right in our neighborhood that Orange County kind of chaired. There was some involvement by the Durham Planning Board. There was another neighborhood meeting. There was two meetings by the county commissioners in Orange County and overall the public response to this was decidedly negative for many reasons and because of public input Orange County decided not to change the zoning from rural residential to heavy industrial and light industrial along Old NC-10 in the surrounding area. There's really been minimal involvement by the Durham Planning Board in regards to this and these are really really big changes. This is changing a rural residential neighborhood into a big industrial footprint and so in my opinion I think there needs to be more input from Durham, the Durham Planning Board communicating with the neighbors and getting input. For example I personally would recommend a neighborhood meeting where the Durham Planning Board came and spoke to the neighborhood and discussed their plans. For example the very first neighborhood meeting there was many many people that showed up which I think gives the Planning Board an idea of what the public feels about these proposed changes. Second there's also been a lack of planning and communication in regards to three things. Environmental safety and land valuation. So as Sarah commented on one of the areas that's earmarked for industrial involves the Stony Creek Wildlife Corridor which was set apart in August on August 5th 1996 to connect the Stony connect the Ena River State Park in the Duke Forest and this industrial area which is currently rural residential becomes industry and there's been no comment from the Durham Planning Board on how they're going to protect this area and this wildlife corridor. Second there's no talk about safety. There's no access to I-85 South from Mount Herman Church Road. So these big industrial trucks go up to old NC 10 the road that I live on which is a two lane rural residential road with multiple low clearance railroad trestles with very tight blind S curves. This road is not equipped to handle the heavy traffic that industry would provide. And third there's been no discussion about how a big industrial footprint is going to affect the rural residential neighbors who are there first. So I would recommend more public input and more neighborhood meetings. Thank you. Welcome. Joseph Henderson. Good afternoon Mayor City Council members. I'm here to speak for Miss Lucinda Harper who is the owner of the acreage at 316 Old Hillsborough Road. She couldn't make it here this evening but said she welcomes her presence from the city of Durham. Old Hillsborough Road is probably one of the most bucolic and beautiful entrances into our city. And I think that as you move ahead on this you really shouldn't think about how you're going to do it because only one time it's one of the times when you really get a chance to sit back on the drive and say I am coming into the city of Durham. And I think this is a very special thing. And some of the things I think from Mrs. Harper's standpoint that you need to consider on doing this is to take a stance now in your proposal to allow multi-tier apartment buildings along that acreage. Also maintain a two unit per acre limit on that on those properties going down old ten. I think that's fair within and just in keeping with the general beauty that surrounds there. Also on 70 say no right now to any drive through restaurants. I mean that is one of the things that we have enough of as we move further down Hillsborough Road and we certainly don't need anymore as you go on 70. Also I want you to really think very to move slowly in any kind of economic development along that property. As we move forward you can at any time legislate big box development. Anytime you can do that. But you only get one time to legislate beauty. So let's take our time on this project and ease into it and really preserve that driving view into our city that we have going on old ten. We will all enjoy it for many many years to come. Thank you. Welcome. Dr. John H. Harvick. Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen of the City Council, thank you for your attention. By being present tonight I have demonstrated my respect for your expertise and for your service to the city. That is I have been retired over six years and I love it. But I don't shave and wear necktie and stay up this late for just any old butt. Last week I sent each of you a brief email detailing my concern about the proposed comprehensive plan changes with Orange County. In it I presented data and information about the risks of placing commercial and industrial operations in close proximity to residential areas. I reiterate here my deep concerns about the probability not possibility probability of higher rates of cancers respiratory and cardiac diseases as was mentioned by Dr. Glass and the loss of quality of life near Highway 70 in old NC-10 should such operations be approved. I understand that Durham did not request this alliance with Orange County has no mandate to perform but should not accept the liability for the increased risk that is inevitable should this area be re-zoned from rural residential to industrial activities. The area included in the Eno Development District has been zoned for residential use for many years and it contains a significant environment protected area. The area is served by old NC-10 and is an area of beauty and of historical significance. It has already been violated by at least one serious pollution source of airborne particulate matter and if you recall the video you saw earlier in the evening of the truck going down the road and the dust coming out just think of that as the entry way to this one business that has been allowed in there. Please let's not encourage another. I ask your positive consideration of my written concerns and that you grant my professional concern that the respect that over 50 years of experience in scientific research, health safety, business management and economic development should deserve. Thank you for your attention. You're welcome. Is there anyone else that wants to speak on this item that has signed up to speak? If not let the record reflect that no one else asked to speak on this item. Before I close the public hearing I guess I want to make sure you understood Steve the question about notification on this item. I'm speaking to the point that the gentleman raised about not having actually been notified. We did, I was made aware that there was a concern that notification was not carried out in accordance with general statute of review. By law we are only required to put the letters into first class mail and we were able to verify that those letters were mailed on time and we have affidavits to that effect that they were mailed. Unfortunately once it gets into the U.S. postal system we have no control over whether they actually get returned. I did verify with Ms. Jacobson the case planner on this that we did not receive any mail back from the postal service so we're not sure exactly what happened but we have fulfilled our legal requirements. Yes whoever raised the question the point. Dr. I think one of the problems that we have here and that we have all had as residents of this new developed area some years ago is there are two Weldon ridges in Durham. The letters did not go to our Weldon Ridge. It went to the other Weldon Ridge which is some considerable distance away that is not affected by this change. Let me understand. Weldon Ridge, I thought they were mailed to individual houses. We did verify that the addresses were correct for these citizens. So the documents that were provided on the website and that we received by email from Ms. Jacobson suggest that that's not the case. As you look at Weldon Ridge and it has it different. It's like Tyler Cork or something like that and not Weldon Ridge Court which is our home. Let me ask again before I close the public hearing. Are there any comments, questions by members of the council on this? I recognize council member Cotadi. Thank you mayor. I have a few questions and I do appreciate folks coming and staying this late. Complaining staff please clarify exactly what the jurisdiction is between Orange County and Durham City and then also the water and sewer status and then I have another question. Sure. Erin came with the planning department. This is an area of Orange County that is still under Orange County jurisdiction. So all Orange County zoning currently applies and will still apply no matter what action you take tonight. But it's a portion of Orange County that is included on the future land use map of the Durham Comprehensive Plan because there have been talks for many years between Orange County and the City of Durham about extending water and sewer services to this portion of Orange County as an economic development node for Orange County. So we participated with Orange County from 2006 to 2008 on putting together a small area plan for the area and the action that we're asking you to take tonight would make our future land use map congruent with what Orange County adopted in their small area plan in 2008 and the changes they made to their future land use map in 2012. Thank you. My next question is about Orange County zoning. I mean I know what Durham's UDO says but I don't know Orange County's rules. What is the buffer the zoning buffer from industrial to residential? Do they have a transitional use area like we do? I don't know that they do and I could not speak at all with any certainty on Orange County zoning ordinances or zoning regulations. I don't know. Steve behind me was planning on saying something. No? Okay. So then another question if you look at the map, the land use map, the bulk of it was in purple before so industrial. There's one small parcel. I don't mean small by any stretch but I mean on our map area number seven that has gone from I believe very low residential. I'm not looking at the map. You're looking at area number two I believe. It's going from very low density to industrial. No I'm looking at area number seven. So low density to industrial which seems like the most extreme transition for that one parcel and then the other areas five I guess five went from thank you Steve low density residential to office. But seven seems the most concerning to me and I'm not familiar with that. It's sort of internal to the parcel. Can you comment on that? Excuse me. Only that we've got to remember that industrial does not necessarily mean heavy industrial. In Durham parlance industrial could mean anything from heavy industrial resource extraction that sort of thing typical smokestack industries to warehousing and distribution to self-storage to those types of uses industrial means a very wide range of uses in Durham. So we don't expect that this area would all eventually become some sort of heavy industrial. We don't expect that at all. What we do expect is that there would be eventually should water and sewer be provided to the area some land agglomeration some land aggregation in the area so that higher intensity uses could be used. Take advantage of the water sewer and take advantage of US 70 and the interchange with I-85 which is expected to be improved over the next I believe it's eight to ten years. So we're taking a very long range view of this. We don't expect any of these changes to occur in the near future. Probably sometime after the interchange improvements in the next eight to ten years. And just lastly if it was if water and sewer were to be extended it would come with a voluntary annexation petition even in Orange County? Correct. They would in order by policy and it's acknowledged in the small area plan that Orange County adopted in 2008 in order to be able to get access to the city of Durham water and sewer services. It would be through a voluntary annexation as if there was anybody in Durham County looking to tap on and become a member of the Durham City. And just for the record what is Durham's UDO policy and transitional area from sorry buffer from industrial to residential? Is it 150 foot? It would be a point eight which is any or 60 foot buffer excuse me. 60 foot. Thank you. You concluded your comments questions. Are there other questions or comments on this item? I have to admit I'm a bit befuddled about this because I know we had spent a considerable amount of time talking about extending water and to this area because of Orange County's desire to change the economic development area over in that particular part of the county. But I didn't realize the impact that we were talking about having on persons on outside of the line over in Durham. So I don't know what can be done to address the questions that the persons have raised. I know what could be done. Just wouldn't approve it. But I'm not so sure I'm at that point. Do you have any suggestions from the staff on this item? I think one thing that was brought up was environmental concerns especially along Stony Creek and to remind everyone that we do have rules in Durham should it be annexed and developed under Durham standards we do have minimum 50 foot buffers if it is in a protected watershed it would be a minimum 100 foot buffer on either side of the stream. So there would be some stream protections in those areas and they would not be able to build right over the streams. We do have stormwater regulations that require stormwater treatment before anything is discharged. So we do have some pretty strict and for North Carolina we have some quite strict environmental standards that would need to be upheld as part of any future development in that area. Yes, since you've raised a lot of questions. Stony also has those strict regulations and the reality is and we've actually sent letters, numerous, many letters, photos, everything. The reality is even if these setbacks are in place 50 feet, 60 feet, 100 feet, 150 feet does it really make a difference if you have a mound of 50 feet of dirt that's just sort of piling. If there's 50 feet and there's storms like we had today it's going to go into the stream. The reality is it's going to go there. If I live half a mile away am I going to see a smokestack? Absolutely, absolutely. So I think with all due respect to the setbacks and everything I think it just also needs to be acknowledged that setbacks when it comes to industry next to residential don't really actually do what they're designed to do. Thank you. Alright, we need to take some action on this. I haven't closed the public hearing. I'm about to close the public hearing or continue it so let me any other comments on this? I just wonder if some of you know I'm I guess I'm surprised to hear these comments and I'm not sure you know maybe that's because it's an Orange County matter and that haven't heard from people I did get your one email but you know I'm a little bit I think you used the word befuddled Mr. Mayor. I'm having a little bit of the same feeling about it and just appreciate some more guidance either from my colleagues or from the planning staff about you know kind of you know what people are thinking about proceeding from here. I am a little bit disconfident about the notification I understand from Steven totally believe that you sent them it also does seem to me that they didn't get it and I don't understand what process Orange County went through and what folks could participate in because we're not in Orange County and so you know it's kind of an unusual situation usually I think we can really count on our process because it's our process and I know that I have a tremendous amount of trust in it here I don't know exactly what these people have gone through so is there any other guidance that you could give? Certainly I would appreciate the comments that were received this evening from the public I think certainly an option before council is just to refer this matter back to planning staff allow us time to work with the community sounds like there's a little bit of education that needs to occur specifically about what is actually on the table and also allow us time to try to address some of the concerns that have been raised this evening I've heard a motion second it's a discussion on a motion questions raised councilor Moffitt I just wanted to raise one question. City manager had a comment coming back to the councilor Schultz comment about the process so could you clarify for the record what communication or relationship our planning staff has with Orange County planning staff I don't know if anybody is here from Orange County this evening on their professional staff that might comment obviously when we have these things come before us because we have a joint city county department we know the folks are one and the same but seems like there may be an opportunity for this body even at some point to hear from the Orange County planning staff in conjunction with your consideration rather than us try to interpret or communicate on their behalf since it is a little bit different than we're used to. Sure I would like to ask Aaron to respond to that first question there involving the engagement side of the process here he and his staff were the ones that were most directly involved. So I was the original staff person on the small area plan representing Durham on the small area plan in Orange County I participated as well as Ted Voorhees from the city manager's office from 2006 to 2008 we had at least six meetings of a steering committee that was also open to the public and Orange County to the public in the area and many came. The primary concerns at that point were bringing out the water and sewer services and what would be the rules and regulations that would need to be followed for extension of water and sewer but the idea at that time the idea of non-residential development of greater intensity of development for economic development in that area was pretty much understood and accepted by those who participated in that process once the small area plan was adopted in 2008 Orange County began its process to put together the interlocal agreement that you all approved in 2011 and then once that interlocal agreement was approved they moved forward with doing the land use changes and we decided to let Orange County do their land use changes first for the future land use map and then for the zoning and then once Orange County approved theirs in the fall of 2012 we began our process on the Durham side. We did hold the one neighborhood meeting as required by the UDO in the winter of 2012 at the Morphery School over in Orange County and continued to field questions and answer questions as they came to us but this was something primarily driven by Orange County but we did have staff participation both at the planning staff level and at the city managers level as well going back to 2006. We have still discussion that Councilman Clement and I was going to recognize Councilman Moffitt, Councilman Cotati but I deferred to the city manager to get this question and that's, I recognize Councilman Moffitt. Thank you. I'm going to pass. I guess my question is do we need a date certain or we just send it back and that's it. You'll bring it back when at this juncture I would just simply refer it back to the staff will we advertise and we notice obviously when it does come back partly because we're not sure I'm not sure how quickly we would get something back to you at this point. Well in that case I'll close the public hearing if you will re-advertise it. That's correct. I have a motion on the floor to refer it back but I'm going to close the public hearing now and entertain the motion. The motions are made. Any further questions on the motion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you open the vote? It passes 7-0. So that deals with 22 when your comments on 23. Good evening, Steve Metland with the Durham City County Planning Department. The evaluation and assessment report the EAR serves as an opportunity to look back over the previous calendar year to evaluate progress towards implementation of the conference of plan to propose changes to policy language and to rectify any differences between the city and county future land use map. This year there are two new sections that we've added. The first is a technical update to the open space and agricultural layers of the future land use map and the second is a report prepared by graduate students at UNC Chapel Hill on the topic of forecasting land use and planning trends. Staff would like to publicly recognize and thank the two students who volunteered to put together the report Holly Safie and Daniel Band. I think you've seen the report and I think it's outstanding and staff really does appreciate it. I think we're going to see that it's going to serve as the foundation for a lot of our work that we're going to be doing in the next year. The staff's recommendation is that the council approve the evaluation assessment report specifically by rectifying the future land use map by accepting the one plan amendment approved by the Board of County Commissioners which was the Alexander Park Development case A1108 adopting changes to policy language proposed by individual departments and agencies and amending the recreation, open space layer and agricultural layer of the future land use map to reflect updated information received about land held in permanent conservation easements. The planning commission recommended approval of the evaluation assessment report by about a 13 to 0 on April 9th of this year. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. This is a public hearing matter. I'll be declared a public hearing to be open. You've heard the staff report and I won't ask other questions by members of the council on the staff report. Questions or comments? Recognize the councilman. I just want to agree with Mr. Mendel's assessment of the report. It's extremely high quality and at appropriate time I'll be happy to move that we approve it. Any other comments by members of the staff? I mean the council. Is there anyone in the public that wants to comment on this item? Neither for or against. Let the record reflect anyone else who wanted to comment on this on the public hearing. I'll declare the public hearing to be closed. Matters of fact, before council. Move approval. Second Madam Clerk. We open the vote. Close the vote. Passes 7 to 0. Thank you. We move to item 24. Consolidated annexation item 751 South. I recognize the planning director. Good evening. Steve Mendel with the Durham Planning Department. This is a consolidated annexation item which includes a utility extension agreement and voluntary annexation petition for the 751 South Development and the adjacent 751 Investment Assemblage. The sites are located on the west side of 751 South of Stage Coach Road. The extension agreement would allow extension of City Water and Sewer to the project. The proposed effective date of the annexation is June 3rd 2023. You've heard the staff report. This is the public hearing matter. I recognize the city attorney. Mr. Mayor and members of the council, there have been revisions to documents based on some occurrences that have taken place since you took action on May 9th to adopt a resolution requesting special legislation to amend section 2.3 of the City Charter that would allow you to delay the effective date of annexation for up to 10 years. At the time that the documents were prepared, there was an anticipation that we would have that legislation in place by this time. We do not have that legislation in place at this time. In fact, there is a hearing scheduled for 8.30 tomorrow morning in the finance committee. It's been made clear to me that the General Assembly wanted the city to act first on the annexation and utility extension agreement request before they would put in front of the body the City Charter request that you've made back in May of this year. We have changed some of the language and the tweaks that I had mentioned to some of you earlier today essentially make this entire process the items that are in front of you contingent upon the General Assembly actually passing that request for the Charter amendment to allow us to delay annexations for up to 10 years. If they do not take that action in this session, then anything that you do tonight will fail and be null and void because it is now contingent upon that legislation piece. We've also made adjustments to the Meats and Bounds attachment essentially the piece, from what to better term call it the Culvered Farms piece, the Meats and Bounds were put in four separate tracks but we really needed one single track with the perimeter on that and those changes have been made and have been uploaded to your agenda. If you have any questions about that item just let me know. Are there questions on the City Attorney's comments relative to this item? That being the case are there any comments on the Council before I go to the persons that want to speak and sign up to speak? We'll move with those that have signed up to speak on this item. I have one, two, three, four, five, six persons that have signed up to speak. I'm going to call the names let's try four minutes each. Helen Fisher Steve Aquino, Victoria Peterson Susan Sewell, Donna Rudolph Carolyn Aronson and as anyone else that wants to speak whose name I didn't call Tom Miller anyone else? Okay. Helen Fisher Hi, yes, thank you. All great cities protect their watersheds. New York City and Boston City leaders recognize the necessity to have clean water and protected theirs. Certainly private companies have their place but is an LED company which claims to be energy and environmentally conscious really so if it's willing to foul all our water for the profit of a few. Privatized gain and socialized risk this company's influence did not allow an impartial survey by county commissioners to clearly and fairly draw the critical watershed lines. They sanctioned the private survey approved by the former planning director done during a severe drought when the water level was so low that the 167 acres in question fell outside the line. A second survey not done during a severe drought showed 751 South to be inside the critical watershed. Over and over the agenda item for digital billboards kept returning. What goes into digital billboards? Isn't it LED lights? A former county commissioner said the agenda item had been turned down so many times it had literally been beaten to death. I guess no never really means no if they don't respect you. It keeps resurfacing. Large digital billboards filled with LEDs not on our road sides but over our highways. Don't these lights factor into the private company's profits? And in the last two months we've heard from the DOT what a great idea is to have stoplights at the end of every highway ramp. How have we ever managed to ride on highways and interstate since the 1950s without having stoplights filled with LEDs at every entrance ramp? A private company subsidized by taxpayers. And now we as consumers we've been offered the opportunity to purchase LED light bulbs for the incredibly low $49 per light bulb for one light bulb. Again private gain for the company. I ask you is this the vampire squid on the face of Durham? I recommend voting against extending utilities to 751 South and against annexation. If the state legislature passes a law mandating cities to extend utilities don't give them political cover. Let them stand and fall by their decision. If we in Durham have more needs than revenues don't give $10 million of our taxpayer money to a company which already exerts undue influence and is profiting at our expense. Thank you. Welcome. Steve Bocchino. Steve Bocchino 7340 Abram Drive in Durham. Mr. Mayor, City Council, good to see you Mr. Clement. We all know why we're here tonight. It's extortion, pure and simple. And who are the extortionists? The very same people in the General Assembly behind voter suppression, behind women's oppression, behind racial regression. The reason a thousand people assembled in Raleigh tonight and adiated them from Durham. Now they're holding a gun to your head. They say pass this annexation or else. The extortionists are led by one Tim Moore, Republican from Kings Mountain out in Cleveland County, 120 miles away from here. He's from Kings Mountain but now he thinks he's the king of Durham. If you vote for this development you're given the extortionists exactly what they want. In my experience that's not the way to discourage them. It would be truly a hollow gesture to pass a resolution. A resolution supporting Memorial Monday after voting to support these extortionists. You'll be able to hear their laughter all the way from Raleigh maybe even from Kings Mountain. They'll be saying how mighty Durham has fallen. Thank you. Victoria Peterson Mr. Mayor, many of us in this community and a lot of them are not here tonight. We support. I supported the 751 project from day one. I continue to support it. We have funded numerous projects even when the voters voted against the ballpark. When persons in this community voted against all this building going on downtown by the second richest man in this state. A few weeks ago this council approved for that project downtown again to get additional dollars. Tax dollars have been used for years to take care of the Durham Bulls stadium plus the other projects that's going down there downtown Durham. Now my understanding unless something has changed here about the 751 project. That those individuals are going to pay for this out of their own pocket from day one they have stated that. My understanding that Durham residents will get jobs. I'm hoping that when they build some buildings down there for jobs for companies to move in for small shops. That that will also be possible not trying to embarrass anybody in this room but somebody write a letter to Mr. Goodman and ask him how many African American businesses are down in the American tobacco project down there of all the tax dollars that have gone downtown on that project. Where many of us pay taxes in this community as well as African Americans. Tell me how many black businesses is downtown on that project. That is there that they have an office on that project. How many African Americans do you see even working down on that project. Now the 751 individuals have made a commitment to this community that people in this community will be employed. I don't know what the problem I don't know if it's political Mr. Mayor I don't know what the problem is fix this problem approve this and let's get this project going and moving and I'll tell you something else. I've heard this I've heard the city manager say and in that report and I'll show you if I'm wrong it should not be in there. That this city is losing I'm sorry that the city is losing dollars. The tax dollars we're losing 4.2 million dollars. Is that right are we losing monies or are we not losing monies. Last time when you worked on the budget still again we were losing not tax dollars. If this project is going to generate tax dollars to this community why are we jerking these people around and trying to hinder their project and the amount of monies that they're spending going to court and going here and going there they could be putting that monies into this community. Have we lost our minds stop jerking these people around. It's ridiculous you're supposed to be professional people on the move having a good understanding of this government and what this community needs and this community is losing tax dollars and we need this project and thank you very much Mr. Mayor. You're quite welcome. Susan Sewell Thank you it's Susan Sewell I live on Legion Avenue in Durham. I'm here to oppose the current proposed agreement with 751 South. Back in 2010 I presented a letter on behalf of Tuscaloosa Lakewood Neighborhood Association to the county commissioners during a zoning hearing. I want to take a moment to highlight some of the reasons we oppose this development at that time. It would drastically alter our county's development direction. They have manipulated the UDO's to sidestep important planning considerations by using required stream buffer areas to double as green space and buffer requirements. This plan includes much less open space than other plans its size. Good planning requires all interested parties participating in an open process which has not been the case for this plan. Perhaps most disturbing to us is that the development plan has few committed elements this is not typical of large development plans or of good planning practice. The developer's refusal of reasonable and typical committed elements and processes indicate that they are not willing to work with citizens and planners to ensure that what they build contributes positively to our region. These are decisions the developers made and this city has been very supportive of understanding those issues up to this now and I thank you for that up to this time. These issues are still evident in this development plan they will cost the city if we annex. I urge you to postpone this agreement so that you can include the surrounding neighbors and other stakeholders to at least mitigate the worst of this development. I hope that we can add additional commitments that can mitigate some of the issues and help pay for the consequences of others such as transportation that we've been trying to deal with in the budget. Thank you. My name is Donna Rudolph and I live on 751. It's my way to get home tonight and out every morning and contrary to what one speaker said, is it Victoria? Yes. They are not paying for everything. The costs that will be inherent in putting the traffic, 1300 housing units and 600,000 square feet of commercial and office space will generate a great deal of traffic and what so the road 751 will have to be completely redone because I see the traffic now that goes on there and I cannot imagine the heavy construction traffic for this project let alone the 2.2 occupants times 1300 houses that will have car trips coming in and out and for example the developers will set aside a spot for a school with as many inhabitants as they're going to have they may need an elementary and middle school and who takes the brunt of it while they're getting enough the bond issued pass so that all Durham pays for the schools, Creekside and Parkwood will be overwhelmed. But in addition to the traffic and the police and the fire services all of these cost money what happens is all of those that the developers don't pay for which are most of them are going to be on the backs of all of the existing Durham residents so what is the best plan for Durham growth south to build a whole new town on the borders of Jordan Lake or to develop other pockets of Durham within the comprehensive plan that were designated before as important development areas. But I want to ask a very, very essential question. Where is the extra water coming from? The American Water Works Association says that the average householder inside the house, that's not the lawn that's not washing the car, the house inside your washer you're brushing your teeth taking a shower, 69.3 gallons a day. If you take that times the number of people who are going to live in the 1300 houses based on the census I get 288,833 gallons of water a day will be needed by those 1300 houses and when we have a minor drought where do we get more water for Durham? The people who have 500,000 people depend on Jordan Lake for their water supply not only is it going to be stretched for these people who are wanting for this development that will take nearly 300,000 gallons a day but it's going to be polluted. Jordan Lake can say goodbye to any control on pollution. I pointed out 81 acres of this, 166 acres will be paved over. In fact if you picture it anybody's owned an 80 acre of land if you're not in agriculture I grew up on a farm and that's a lot of land to pave. But look at it at 61 football fields paved and that's how much runoff will go because the impermeable surface in this development is so great and it is in the water boundary runoff of Jordan Lake where I'm telling you again that 500,000 people depend on for the water supply. So I think it's a devastating abuse of environmental laws and it also puts a great deal on the back of existing Durham residents and if you put it to a vote would rather see other parts of Durham more rationally developed. Thank you. Hi I know it's late but this is really something so important. I want everyone just to take a big breath and just forget about the history of this development and just think about today right now and think about what you're facing. One of the groups that I'm involved with it to me has taught me so much as I'm a Rotarian and one of the things that we always say every meeting is, is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendship? And fourth will it be beneficial to all concerned? Those to me are the words to live by. Those words sum up the way we need our politicians to be. We need you to face the truth. Have the people that have been involved the developers been honest and truthful. We can look at the history. I don't have to remind you of all those details. We've all been living it for four years. And I personally have been paying for it because I pay the attorney fees because I believe in the rights of citizens to have a protest petition. I mean I'm just a naive Democrat. I can't help it but I really believe in the truth passionately. And I really admired you more than you can ever imagine last year when you unanimously voted against annexation and you voted that way because you were voting for the truth. Even if this is forget good or bad development. Personally I think it's a bad one. But look at the way they're going about this. Is this the way we want the politics of Durham to be in the future? We are at a fork in the road. We've all had those forks in our lives. Whether to go for the truth or whether to lie. Whether to stand up for ourselves and be strong. Even when people are trying to knock us down. Or whether to just give in to the easy way to adapt to make excuses. We've all had those chances. We all have. And this is a chance for each and every one of you to stand strong for the truth. It's a test. It's not just about 751 anymore. It's about each of one of you looking in the mirror tomorrow and saying was I honest? Was I honest? Did I vote for the citizens of Durham? Did I keep integrity? I found a thing of yours, Eugene Brown that was dear to my heart when you were writing in The Independent about what your mission statement was for the city of Durham. And I thought my God I love this man. He sounds like my mission statement. It was about integrity which is dear to me. And when I think of their approach and the developers threatening Durham with the state law and going to those measures. Whether it's a good or bad development it wouldn't matter to me. It's the principle. And to me sometimes I don't know. I feel like Ms. Aronson goes to Washington or Mr. Smith goes to Washington. I saw that movie too many times and I loved it and I would stand here all night long and filibuster till I fainted if that would make a difference. But I only have 23 seconds to tell you be honest with the citizens of Durham. Don't sell us down the river to the developers. Don't be manipulated by them. Be honest so tomorrow when you wake up and you look in the mirror the vote that you made was a vote from your heart a vote for the truth. Thank you. Mr. Mayor and members of the council my name is Tom Miller and I live on Virginia Avenue. And for all the reasons that the previous speakers have laid out before you are I urge you to vote against this tonight. But I'm not going to raise a policy issue. Whether you intend to adopt this annexation agreement or not you can't do it tonight. For the simple reason is you don't have the authority. It's a well settled principle of North Carolina law that a city or a local government only has the authority that's been expressly given to it by the General Assembly or those with limited implied powers that must necessarily flow from an express grant of authority. Well if the General Assembly hasn't given the city of Durham the authority to do an annexation ten years in the future you cannot do it. You cannot do it conditioned upon it becoming law later. And then we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. There will be a public hearing in the finance committee. That ain't enough. You just can't do it. You cannot do something the law does not permit you to do if you don't have authority. You cannot do that which is illegal today conditioned upon it becoming illegal at some point in the future. Now if the city of Durham gets the authority to do this annexation because the charter is amended well then fine. At that point hold the public hearing, consider the agreement and annex this place if that's what you want to do. You cannot do it tonight. It is not legal. Thank you. Let me ask other persons that want to speak on this item. Again this is a public hearing. I'm going to reserve closing the public hearing until I have an opportunity to hear from members of the council. So I haven't said that unrecognized persons that want to speak unrecognized councilman Cotati, councilman Moffitt in that order. Thanks. Let me start by noting for everyone that the original request was for 167 acres. This request actually includes an additional 86 acres which is the Colbert farm. The request now includes 253 total acres. We did not do a cost benefit analysis on the entire parcel. When this council or most of this council unanimously rejected it a year ago the cost benefit analysis was upside down for many many years. I ask the questions that Mr. Miller raised to the city attorney right before again one last time do we have the authority to pass this or to use the date of June 3rd 2023 and so I'll stop now and ask the attorney to address that and then I'd like to continue my remarks. Thank you councilwoman Cotati. Where we are with the legislature is that I made the request of both the developer and representative Moore for the same reasons that have been addressed which is that we need the authority to do this now. I was told under no uncertain circumstances that that authority would not come now it would come after the city has adopted the annexation agreement. So my hands quite frankly are tied. What I have done through the research in terms of who would have standing to block the annexation the primary standing holder would be the property owner and we have required the property owner to agree in this document to not challenge the validity of the passage of the ordinance tonight and to make this entire document contingent upon getting that authority in this general assembly session. So that's essentially where we are right now when we are negotiating with folks you know my preference clearly would have been to have the authority today. We are not going to get the authority until you move forward so this is the best that we've been able to put forth. I believe that certainly the property owner has bound not to challenge the annexation ordinance should you pass it tonight and we'll have to see where we are tomorrow. But this is the best that I can do in terms of where we are tonight given the constraints that have been put on or at least delivered to me by the general assembly. I appreciate that response and quite honestly I do appreciate your efforts and your entire staff's efforts. This has taken a lot of legal interpretation but I'm still not clear that we actually do have the authority to use a 2023 10 year annexation date whether conditional or not but I'll leave that for now. I will say that I'm surprised that the developers of the applicant isn't here. It's most unusual never in my 10 years of experience has the applicant not been present in front of council to respond to questions. I actually consider it highly disrespectful. I'll leave it at that. I will just remind citizen people that the developers Alex Mitchell and Neil Hunter the co-founder and former CEO of Cree are not here nor is their attorney former Democratic Senate candidate Bill Cunningham. I recommend that you all remember those names. I want to thank everyone quite sincerely for the years of effort on this project. It's been I know more heartache than I can imagine to see what all of you as citizens have fought really hard for and of course for the funds that have been invested in the lawsuits. I also want to thank folks for the very thoughtful and unique comments that we've gotten in the most recent email barrage. This was not a one liner. Here you go. I was really taken back by the hundreds of emails with personal stories. Many people I'd never met or heard of before residents in the area all over the city. These were heartfelt messages. This was not a routine email campaign. So thank you all for that. So I'm going to say that I appreciate my colleagues position on bringing this forward. The water and sewer extension request in the face of threatened legislative sorry can't talk legislative action but I personally cannot ignore the many maneuvers related to the rezoning of this property that have gotten us to this point. This project is a poster child for land use planning bad poor land use planning backdoor schemes and intimidation including administrative amendments to the lake boundary disregard of sound science on the lake survey lawsuits and subversion of our citizens right to a protest petition with a very controversial land donation to NCDOT among others. In this most recent batch of emails we got emails from former NCDOT staffers that had very specific comments about this. I'm telling you this was a very wide ranging express concerns from our citizens. So I'll just say that I've expressed concerns about this project in the past. They're all a matter of public record. I stand by those concerns and I'll be voting no and I sincerely hope that my colleagues will join me. If the General Assembly wants to force us to extend water and sewer let them do it. This council should not do it. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I want to say this was not a simple decision for me. I find it to be a complex issue with many facets but I intend to vote no. The deciding factor for me is that the project this is the deciding factor for me. The project completely undermines the comprehensive plan. For some the COMP plan is merely a document and a formality but for me it represents the community's vision for our city, the city in which our children are going to live. It was developed over an extended period of time by representatives from across the community and it should not be disregarded. The irony of this situation is that there's a site that's ready to go for this project with approval for 1300 homes, a million square feet of office and 150,000 square feet of commercial right where it belongs near I-40 on Page Road. While on the planning commission I voted to recommend approval of that project. This developer plus that location could be glorious but the location of 751 South will drive sprawl all the way to the Chatham County line and beyond. The choice we face is whether we want to be like Atlanta with brutal car commutes and stop and go traffic or whether we want a better denser urban environment where development is focused along the transit corridor. The community spoke through the comprehensive plan and I cannot vote to undo that work and that vision. Thank you. I'm trying to recognize persons that want to speak on this item before I make a comment. Recognize Councilman Brown and Councilman Shewell. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was fond of saying that on occasion we all need a lesson in the obvious. So here's mine tonight that regardless of how we vote tonight 751 will be built. I do not necessarily say that with joy but with the harsh reality I hear from the many colleagues I've spoken with members of our local delegation as well as representatives from the League of Municipalities. There are arguments for supporting this. Some of which can be compelling. Well if they're going to build it anyway then we might as well get something from them. That is a promise to enlarge 751 up until the interstate highway. Additional cost of around 2 million dollars. Now I applaud our Mayor for trying and apparently getting an agreement done after long negotiations and I will add to my colleagues' comments that I've been here for 10 years and for me this is one of my more difficult decisions and I've pondered and gone back and forth and way into the night. And my record on development and development projects is usually in support of development and indeed I do not believe that the D in developer stands for devil but I must say I'm troubled by this one. I don't like the fact that very few concessions have come from the developers particularly concerning density. I don't like the fact as Diane pointed out that we have gone from 167 acres now to 253 acres. And so what we're talking about here ladies and gentlemen is another Woodcroft size development next to a major water supply in Jordan Lake. And you do not need a PhD in environmental science to realize this is problematic. Indeed some people would say idiotic. Concerning the highway expansion I've been in real estate for over 30 years and I have perhaps more than anyone else sitting up here some idea of what sells houses for the development unless there is a decent and adequate transportation system to move the residents of these rather expensive homes from their home to their work unless the road is enlarged this development may go south. That is a top priority of anyone really buying a home and particularly to one that's in the price level of 5, 6, 7, 800,000 dollars. Now some of you don't know this but when I left Capitol Hill in Washington I moved to Denver to be the director of communications for NCSL which is the National Conference of State Legislatures. It's a non-profit very much like the National Governors Association except we represented all the state legislatures and legislators nationwide. I've learned many things from that experiment and especially what works and what doesn't work about state legislatures. Now I realize as Tom pointed out that cities are and were created by the state but I must say what we're seeing in Raleigh what we're seeing with this General Assembly with their intrusion upon local governments and indeed even local school boards is not the use of power it is the abuse of power. Now do I exaggerate perhaps? Talk to the city council members in Asheville where the General Assembly forced them to regionalize their water department or speak with the city and county leaders in Charlotte where the General Assembly has ordered their airport authority to be reorganized and look at what they have done in Wake County and Greensboro by forcing changes from the outside to everything from the voting districts to moving from non-partisan to partisan elections to even the tenure from two to four years for school board members. Now with some it is said that to rise up and vote against this development tonight by the Durham City Council may be the equivalent of giving the fingers of the General Assembly and they may in return respond by giving us their fist. I hope they're not that petty but call me old fashioned but I don't like being intimidated by anyone. Be it on the playground or in the halls of our General Assembly bullies are not welcomed by Durham citizens. So why should we sell our public soul for the sake of supporting the development that is too big too close to Jordan Lake and too upsetting to too many surrounding neighborhoods. So tonight let it be said that at least here, at least in Durham, we do not like negotiating with a gun to our heads not here, not in the bull city. Recognize may I approach him and then Councilman Shul? Thank you Mr. Mayor. We all know what got us here every trick in the book has brought us to this point every back door legal maneuver and as we acknowledge in our six to nothing vote not very long ago we know this isn't good for Durham. Where is the developer and why won't he show his face here I think we all know that reason too and we need to not be rolling over for these shenanigans it's one of the speakers calls it extortion. It is extortion. There is no sense in taking a road in exchange for our acquiescence in this. There is a $600 million development that eventually does get built down there they're going to have to build that road anyway. Let's don't agree to this so that in exchange for a road they would eventually have to build anyway. Let's don't agree to foul our own water supply and let's don't sell Durham's soul for a road widening. Our community does not want this. No matter how much campaign money was spent here by the developer our community has spoken on several occasions and it doesn't want this. So I hope that we will defeat this and if the General Assembly makes a decision so be it but I don't think we ought to be acquiescing in it and as I said let's sell our soul for a road widening. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I just have a question for our attorney and I hate to put you on the spot because you're not a politician. Now what happens if we vote not to approve this item and the General Assembly passes a bill stating that we force in us to do so do we really have to do it then or do we go to court and what would the cost be? Madam Mayor Pro Tem you raised some very good questions and of course I'm speaking hypothetically. A lot of it depends on what if anything the General Assembly did in response to a vote to deny water and sewer to this parcel but as I've mentioned before we would look at whatever comes out if something comes out and certainly advise you at that time as to what you could and couldn't do. I've seen drafts of what may come down but having not seen a live proposal statute what have you I'm really at a bad situation in terms of actually advising you on what might happen in the future based on a statute or a directive from the General Assembly that they haven't actually made yet but I would tell you that we would review it and then advise you in terms of what your options could be at that time if that situation occurred and council directed we could file an action I believe that Asheville has filed an action as it relates to the situation with their water system but again I don't know what would be coming down and what I would recommend based on it's my understanding that Asheville has filed a complaint to enjoy the enforcement of that statute. They're challenging that statute. Before that anything is I thought that we would be able to get that tenure annexation clause in place and we are seemingly there waiting to see what we're going to do even with that. It is not in my nature to do anything mandatory fashion because I don't think that we will prosper from that but somehow I just don't trust any of the players in this process and so I'm going to have to meditate over the next few moments to see which way I'm going to go with this. I'm really troubled that we are at this point in the history of the North Carolina where we have spirits that are, I don't know how to describe them that are taking us back to slavery times and that's the way that I see this now is as if we are slaves to the General Assembly that's not a good feeling and I'm supposed to be on voice rest so I'm going to stop talking. If no one else wants to comment I'm going to share my thoughts with the council on this issue. I don't think anyone is surprised at my comments and I guess first of all I need to say for the record and for persons who have spoken I'm being truthful with myself and what I say and what I do. I have no reason to be any other way but that. I've probably been closer to this situation than any of my colleagues on the council not because of my choosing because I'm the mayor of the city of Durham and I think we just need to recall the only reason we are here tonight discussing this issue about the extension of water and sewer is because when it came up last year in the General Assembly it fell by one vote at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning in the senate side it had already passed the house but not for the work of Senator McKessick and others and I give floor credit because he stood there. It fell but I should also tell you because I think you need to understand this I should also tell you that shortly after that I received a comment from a very reliable source from one of the leaders in the house to say that if the city and the developers were not able to resolve their disagreement that this surely would come back to the General Assembly in this session both on the house side and the senate side. You can call that a threat you can call it whatever it is but that's the statement that came back and I had no reason to not consider that so I began giving some thoughts as to what our alternatives were. I was being the city council in view of those comments and my rationale was not just for the present future of the city council but future city councils and looking at that project. We were dealt the cards we have. This was all a county zoning matter. The city never set the zoning for this issue. When the developers came to us and almost demanded that we respond to their request for extension of sewer and water utilities we said unanimously no. Different people might have had different reasons why they said no but my rationale was that we have said very clearly that we were not going to entertain the issue of extending water and sewer utilities until the litigation had been settled and some of you know there was some litigation going on others might have had other reasons for it. So we said no. And it was after that that they went to the general assembly and got legislation which I just described which came within a vote of passing on the senate side. Since that time I'm convinced I'm convinced and that's why I'm telling I'm being truthful. I'm convinced that no matter what action we take tonight you look to say yes or no and it's pretty obvious that we know that the general assembly is going to pass legislation which will force the city of Durham to provide water and sewer utilities to that development as it presently has been zoned by Durham County. That's my thought. I could very well be wrong but I'm telling the rationale for why I've taken the position that I've taken and will continue to take. So if I believe that I'm not saying what's going to be built if I believe that there's going to be a requirement that water and sewer utilities be extended to that development my question is what type of things can we get out of that from the city. And there were only two things really. I mean because the development had already been zoned it wasn't a question of going back reducing densities or changing this. There were about 46 plus committed elements in this development and one of them being a commitment to affordable housing. Those weren't issues to be discussed. What were to be discussed was how can we get 751 wide to accommodate the resultant traffic that this development would bring in the event that it was developed to as fullest. And that's part of the agreement which the attorney didn't speak to this in a part of that agreement that the developers will widen 751 up to Renaissance Parkway with the exception of the portion that they would depend on other developers to widen. The other issue was which was a lot more broader than just 751. We've been fortunate as a city and cities across the state to be able to grow and develop and expand because of the annexation laws which basically said cities could involuntary annex properties if they saw it to be to their benefit. I mean I set on this sort of reminds me of when I was chair of the Board of County Commissioners and we were going through this whole issue about whether or not we should approve the development of Traven, watershed issues etc. and I was on the county side when the city side but a part of that was that Traven knew that at some point in time when it became feasible for the city they were going to be annexed to take advantage of the resultant tax base. The way the laws have been written now that's not going to happen. It's going to be very hard to annex any piece of property unless persons voluntarily want to be annexed. One of the things that we did and I'm repeating it but I think it's important one of the things that was done even when this was being considered for annexation when it was made to request annexation the staff went through and did the financial feasibility as to when it would be financially feasible for the city to annex this area such as services we provide it would not be at a law city it would be a net gain and the estimation was that it could be anywhere from seven to eight to ten years depending on how soon it developed. So that was another reason as a part of this discussion with the persons over in Raleigh on the house side was to get our charter changed so that in the future anytime someone came to us and asked to be annexed we could make that decision up to ten years rather than the three short years our present charter require so that's another part of the provision that was in this. So having at least gotten a commitment on the part of the developers as the attorney has described in the written contractual agreement and a commitment from persons in the house that that would happen left me with the position that I would rather see the annexation take place with a guarantee that the road was going to be widened the fact that we had up to ten years to annex this property and also would allow for any other pieces of property that come to the city's attention for annexation that would be in the same situation and I'm convinced again that the general assembly is going to require the city of Durham to provide water and sewer and if it does under those conditions whether 751 gets built or not it certainly isn't going to be built by the developers I don't necessarily agree that the developers are going to spend their money to do it they may that's good and the other part about it is that we won't have the annexation change in our charter so it doesn't put it puts future councils in trying to deal with annexation issues I haven't tried to pressure anyone on this council to vote either way on this issue I've simply presented my best guess my best rationale for saying what I've said and I respect their choices in terms of how they vote we'll deal with this and move on to the next issue so I'm going to call a question on I'm going to close public hearing on this item I'm going to call a question on what's before us and what's before us is a request for annexation of this particular property which would include the extension of water and sewer utilities condition on the fact that the general assembly passed legislation which would change the charter for the city from annexation from three years to ten years I think that is the question that was before us and I think we all know we phrase the question in the process so people can vote negative for it and recognize the mayor pro term let me just say Mr. Mayor I have a lot of respect for you and the work that you've done on this and even though I am still troubled by how this has all come about I am going to vote in support of this item not feeling good about it but I do respect the way that you came across in the explanation. Again ask I can't make the motion but I would entertain a motion on the item recognize council member Katari I move the item with the intention of voting now. Is there a second to the motion please. It's been properly moving in a second. Madam clerk will you open the vote close the vote it fails three to four with mayor bail voting yes council member Clement voting yes and mayor pro Tim Cole McFadden voting yes let's move to the items that were pooled as item eight on the consent agenda. I'm waiting for it to show up thank you for my minutes all the timing okay you have two minutes I'm sorry two minutes can you start it over again do I have three minutes two this is a consent agenda item all right Mr. Mayor just wanted to just to sort of ask some questions here quickly I was trying to add some numbers up here and you know I support trying to help our youth in the community but this budget here on number eight well over well over 50% of the budget is going towards staff and I just have a little concern about that it says $92,000 for staff and then you have 26,000 for health benefits but it doesn't tell you how many staff members this budget was really taken care of and I just I would sort of like to know that also I would really like to ask the city manager if he could get some kind of report of how many youth with some names of the youth that this company has tried to help they have here somewhere in something I was reading that 93 of the young folks are still in limbo it doesn't state that they're employed it doesn't state that they're in a GED is just that they're still working with 93 and in the report it mentions GED as well as employment and as well as job training and I would like to see if we can at least get how many young folks are actually employed who are they employed with how many of them it does mention about the GED but it doesn't mention about what kind of training what kind of job training are they doing also is there a possibility of some of the projects that's coming down that this organization is working with some of the new jobs so that some of these young folks can get hired assuming if some of them are going to college then they must at least be 18 I was also curious of the age but anyway Mr. Mayor I don't know if anyone can answer those questions but I would like to see some kind of written report of how many young people are actually working because a lot of numbers are thrown out and as I said they're asking for 175,000 and they added up about 140,000 is being put on staff do we have any comments on this? Mr. Mayor and Council again Kevin Dick with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development Ms. Peterson mentioned several questions and so I'll try to take them one by one number one I would encourage the staff members that are employed by Community Partnerships Inc. for the Yes program provide career counseling I believe there is a program manager and three career counselors to help provide framework services which are basically intake career counseling, case management planning and this life guidance to 150 140 youth per year and so basically young people that receive these kinds of services that are out of school that are hard to serve cannot career counselor case manage themselves so staff salaries are required the youth, the age group of the youth that are being served are generally between the ages of 16 and 21 93 people that are currently still enrolled in the program are in some form of either career counseling intake or case management activity many of them are in educational activities such as GED or high school diploma pursuit the federal common measures that govern the program actually have various outcomes that youth are trying to achieve not just employment so there's a positive outcome rate that relates to either being generally speaking employed enrolled or enlisted there are skill credential attainment goals as well as literacy and numeracy gains and so as I said the young people that are being served range of age from 16 to 21 so employment is not always the goal for those particular individuals another activity that a young person could be involved with is occupational skills training but there's a myriad of services there's a myriad of job preparation activities that young people are involved with you know to ask exactly how many are being employed by the program I don't have that number right now but what I do know is that this provider over the past several years has helped our region to exceed the youth goals that are based upon the federal common measures that govern Workforce Investment Act programs so hopefully that addresses it the information is public record could you provide that to Ms. Peterson with numbers but not names okay entertain a motion on item second Madam clerk will you open the vote close the vote and finally item 9 Ms. Peterson again Senator 9 contract Amendment with Achievement Academy of Durham provide workforce investment for that youth program element services from July 1 to December 31 yes Mr. Mayor you have two minutes yes Mr. Mayor same thing again I think that if we're going to be allowing these programs to receive dollars we've got to get some better reporting here and it should be in the reports how many of our young folks are employed how many of them are working on their GED and what kind of training they are if you have a hundred and some young people that are in this program ten of them are working on their GED twelve of them are at Durham Regional Hospital in the Nurses Aid program thirty of them are working over there at Duke there should be a breakdown not just somebody coming out throwing out numbers not really showing improvement when we had our program at least we have our program but when we were dealing with the federal dollars we had to give an account names and social security numbers to show that these people were actually in the program and for several years now we come in there's city money state monies and government monies given to these programs but that doesn't seem to show our young people who are really active in these programs we have still a huge a large numbers of juvenile crime going up in this community if we have all these programs then why is it that juvenile crime is growing do we have an area for those young kids who have committed crimes those are in some of those programs are they in these programs to get the job training to get the GED I just think that there needs to be some better reporting not trying to get on anyone just some better reporting here on how many young people being funded and thank you Mr. Mayor you're quite welcome so maybe I can get a report on that also Mr. Bondfield he can talk to you at Atherwitz you don't have to go through it now I say he can get with you Atherwitz entertaining the motion on the item he's been properly moving second Madam Clerk will you open the vote close the vote it passes 7 to 0 are there any other items to come before the council as we adjourn at 1142 p.m. thank you Mr. Mayor