 employees who are with us on the call and are listening in. We're really, really glad to have you. I wanna begin by just giving some quick thank yous. I'm gonna start with the folks that initiated this call and have been doing so much work on figuring out how to get our small businesses supported. Ryan Hurley, Nicole Oxendine, Leonardo Williams, Peter Lang, thank you all for being such fantastic advocates on behalf of our small business community. You have been amazing and persistent and strong and smart and just really appreciate you. I wanna thank Christopher Gerrigan from Forward Cities for moderating today. Christopher is a pro at these issues and we're really glad to have him. I wanna thank Amber Wade and Vivian Cruz-Wadko. Actually, Vivian Cruz-Wadko, her name is now for their technical support. Amber started giving technical support this morning to another very large meeting at about seven o'clock, so grateful. And to our small business panelists, really grateful to you as well. I ran a small business for 30 years. I, it was hard then. I can't even imagine how hard it is during a pandemic. And I'm just, my heart goes out to all of our businesses and with the difficulties that you're all facing. And I just really hope that we can do everything we need to do to support you. I will just say that I acknowledge and I believe that we have not been as fast to the support of our small businesses as we need to be. But the, we are moving with a lot of urgency now and I think we're in a pretty good place. The financial support that the city has offered so far is a million dollars in addition to one million dollars that Duke University has offered. And I wanna be clear, I've had another discussion with Vice President Stelfany Williams of Duke yesterday that they're very interested in this being a unified program as are we. We hope we can get more funding as well from our corporate private funders and that if necessary, there could be more public funding coming and we'll have to see how that goes after we're able to allocate of these funds. But the council, the city council has been very clear that we want this money going out in June as early in June as possible. And on June the fourth at a council meeting we'll be hearing final details, including the community development financial institution that's a necessary partner to help administer this work. We all wish that the city money could be given out in the form of grants. Certainly the city administration wishes that because it's much easier and we all feel that way. But it's been made very clear to us that from our city attorney and also from this school of government at University of North Carolina who issues these opinions for local governments that our money anyway has to come in the form of loans. We need them to be very long-term loans and no or very low interest loans. The Duke portion of the funds and Duke is quite supportive of this could be in the form of forgivable loans that would end up being free to the businesses involved. So we think that we can have one program with kind of two tracks and we can make that work. And we look forward to additional funders as well. I do want to mention that one of our priorities is very high priority for us is those historically disadvantaged businesses have not historically been able to share in the kind of prosperity that many of us have shared and also those immigrant businesses that can't participate in federal or other public programs. We know however that there are lots of other businesses that need our assistance as well. And we're looking forward to helping as many of those businesses as we can. So I'm just grateful for everybody for being here today. I'm gonna wrap that up and turn it over to Christopher but very appreciative of everyone's presence and looking forward to hearing the stories from the panelists and the questions and comments from others who were on the call. Thank you. Terrific, thank you, Mayor Shul. So I'm Christopher Gergen for those of you who don't know me. I'm the CEO of a national nonprofit organization called Forward Cities. We work with cities across the country to foster more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems and work as I will be sharing in a few minutes with cities on their rapid recovery processes and so can provide a little bit of context of what's happening in the national landscape. But I'm a Durham resident have ties back to Durham that stem back to 1936 with three generations of my family. So have a deep care for this community and I'm thrilled to be able to moderate this forum and really hopefully help to advance this conversation and help to amplify the voices of our small business community and our small business owners. The way that this agenda is gonna work, we've got about 55 minutes left. So we're gonna try to move through with a reasonable degree of alacrity and we've got 25 minutes set aside to hear from our small business community. We have a number of different business owners and business leaders who have agreed to join us and provide their perspective and their stories. But I think it's important to provide, Mayor Shul, as you mentioned, as somebody who is a small business entrepreneur and owner yourself and have that kind of perspective, this is unprecedented times and how we're navigating these experiences and how we're navigating these times and the kind of support that is required to see us through and make sure that Durham comes out on the other end of this stronger and better than ever is critical at this moment in time. And I feel like we're at this important inflection point and to be able to have this kind of conversation with our publicly elected officials and hopefully engage in not only the conversation now but an ongoing way about how we can really come out of this in a strong, sensible and sustainable way is gonna be important. So we're gonna hear from, again, our business owners for the next 25 minutes or so. And then we're gonna turn it over to Q&A with our elected officials. I'm thrilled to see that we've got, I think full representation, almost full representation on our city council. Actually, I now see Javier here, which is terrific. So we now have full representation on our city council and I'm thrilled also to see that we've got some county commissioners with Wendy Jacobs, Brenda Howerton and Heidi Carter joining us as well. So thrilled that we've got some, I think thoughtful listeners and I know advocates for the small business community and an opportunity, I think, to hopefully engage in some productive Q&A that comes out of this. And then we're gonna bring it to a close with Mayor Schuyl providing a few closing comments. So just to provide, I was asked to provide just a little bit of national context and national perspective on this and what's being learned from other cities across the country. And as I mentioned, I have an opportunity to work with cities every day that are trying to think through their small business recovery. This morning, for example, I was on the phone with Indianapolis and established a $25 million micro loan program that they launched about six weeks ago and are learning a lot of lessons coming out of that. Yesterday, I was on the phone with Washington DC that also has a $25 million micro grant program. They launched that at the beginning of, really at the beginning of this pandemic. And when they opened up, their applications had 7,900 applications for this money. You see cities like Detroit and Denver and Seattle, Philadelphia, Phoenix, all putting together these types of programs that are several weeks ahead of us in Durham. And I think there's a lot that we can learn from these experiences. And then just down the road, you saw that Wake County just launched a $5 million initiative itself to be able to help stabilize its small business economy. So I think we've got quite a bit to learn from, to glean from. I would agree with Mayor Schuyl's perspective that Durham is behind the eight ball on this. We need to get ahead of where we are now and start to accelerate this work. And there's a few different reasons for that. Not the reason why we're seeing so many of these cities launch these local relief efforts is because the paycheck participation program that was launched by the federal government as we have all seen has had some pretty significant shortcomings. It's been slow in the mark, number of businesses that are in most need of these funds aren't receiving them because they don't have the right banking relationships. They don't have the right setup. They don't have the right accessibility. This is particularly true of our most vulnerable communities of color. And so we've got to address where these gaps are and make sure that as we're putting together something here in Durham, that it's addressing issues of both speed and access through this process. One of the things that I'm gonna be sharing as a link in our chat box are some key lessons learned that have come out from some partners that we work very closely with at Forward Cities with Bruce Katz in a group called it's the Drexel NOAC Finance Lab. But they put forward some of the lessons that are being learned from some of the early mover cities. And I wanted to share and reflect on those as we kick into this conversation. And there are three basic lessons that they have surfaced in terms of what's being learned through these local relief efforts. One is that to a city, I don't know any city that has not experienced this, that the local funds are undercapitalized and oversubscribed. So as soon as these funds become available, they are very rapidly oversubscribed in terms of the demands and the needs in the market. And we've got to be cognizant of that in terms of our own experiences here in Durham, that the money that's being talked about currently, I don't think will be sufficient and will be rapidly oversubscribed. The second lesson is that often what is happening is that these funds are a mix of public and private funds. They are frequently catalyzed by public dollars and often they are taking dollars that have already been allocated for some other purpose, but because of the immediate needs represented by the pandemic. And the fact that we now have over 50% of our businesses in America now have less than 30 days of cash in the bank and that's rapidly shrinking, that the need to be able to address these short-term liquidity issues is really key. And so what we're finding is that there's often really good public-private partnerships and relationships. I will say that the move by Duke has caught the attention of other cities. New Haven, Connecticut, for example, reached out to us right after that to say how could they get Yale to the table to be able to participate as a possible lending institution? So I give credit to Duke and I think it's gonna be really important that again, the city and frankly the county step up to be able to think about ways to be able to help support those efforts and we're gonna be thinking about ways to be able to bring these new sectors, the private sector in. And then three is that the local funds are often being used for different purposes. The first approach, which is what we're talking about right now is keeping businesses alive. Just straight, short-term liquidity and making sure that our businesses can live to fight another day. One of the things that we have been so fortunate on the last 10 years and it's been exciting to be here for the last 10 years in the incredible Renaissance of Durham is seeing some of the amazing stuff that's been happening in Durham. We don't wanna be in a situation where we're taking a 15-year step back in this work. There's been too much work done to date not to try to keep these businesses alive and fighting another day. But the second piece of that, that short-term liquidity, the second piece of that is keeping the businesses intact. So it's not just dealing with a short-term liquidity but the long-term solvency issue. Fortunately, the Paycheck Participation Program has actually shifted the way that they're allowing businesses to be able to use those funds to be able to hopefully stay open longer and be able to keep their employees on longer to get to a day where they can reopen. But this is gonna be a combination of both not only access to capital but also thinking about long-term technical assistance and support that's gonna be required to really make sure that our Durham business community is well-supported through this pandemic which is not gonna go away anytime soon. And then finally that leads me to the third approach which is thinking about how do we get to long-term support and long-term solvency that can actually get us to a place where we're not only recovering but we're reimagining what our small business economy is gonna look like and come back in a stronger way. And there's examples of this, for example, Chicago has put together a small business resiliency loan fund which may be a model as we're thinking about long-term solvency for our businesses. So a lot to be learned from for the national landscape, a lot to be learned from from our neighbors just down the road in terms of Wake County, even possible opportunities for some shared learning and collaboration that can serve us out of this. And so as we move forward into this next phase with the support from the city and hopefully the county, these are things that I think we should be taking into consideration. And I'll be sharing more about that in terms of various links and we can follow up as a result of that. For those who are interested, also Forward Cities has a whole COVID resources section where we're tracking a lot of the things that cities across the country are doing and we'll make sure that that's available to everybody on this call. All right, so with that backdrop, I do wanna turn now over to our small business owners. And I wanna start with James Sills and Mechanic and Farmers Bank to be able to provide some perspective from Mechanic and Farmers and from our legacy as a city that's come from some pretty amazing places. Good morning. Thank you, Chris, for that introduction. My name is James Sills. I'm the president and CEO of M&F Bank. I would like to thank for the opportunity to discuss this public from today. My charge is to and I agree and the impact of this pent event. This unbelievable health crisis is touching all aspects of the economy. Small businesses across the country are the backbone of our nation's economy. They create the majority of all jobs in our economy. According to a recent Washington Post article, the number of African-American business owners in the United States has decreased more than 40% since the COVID event has shut down much of the economy. A far steeper drop than other racial groups have experienced in the United States. Most people on this Zoom call are familiar with the history of Black Wall Street and the culture of entrepreneurship in the Durham community for the past 120 years. Durham is truly a unique city compared to other cities that I've lived in. Let me tell you why. Most cities do not have the legacy of a Black Wall Street. This collection of businesses provided capital, jobs, services, but more importantly, hope that lives could be improved over time. It's also the entrepreneurial culture that keeps this community's ecosystem motivated to start businesses, to take risks, to line up investors and thrive in these uncertain times. We do not wanna lose that culture and potentially lose a generation of businesses. All of us on this Zoom call today are standing on the shoulders of some great Black Wall Street business leaders and entrepreneurs. As a banker, I think everybody knows that most of the banks and credit unions in our community have been focused. Most of their attention over the last eight weeks on the Paycheck Protection Program. I wanted to just give everybody a quick update. We've generated 150 loans, totaling $15 million, impacting 1,200 jobs. Many of our customers are small businesses with fewer than 10 employees and minority affirms, and I can tell you this, are being adversely impacted by this event. The Paycheck Protection Program is not enough and local communities will need to step up and do more. As a 30-year career banker, this event is three times more severe than the 2000 Indian Financial Crisis. This event has impacted a high percentage of African-American owned businesses. The street is free of loans and drops. Service business, daycare centers, health proprietors that have had to close or face drastic drops in demand for their services and goods. And as just pointed out in his opening remarks, many of them do not have access to capital or banking relationships. So this program that we're talking about, this potential program is really gonna be critical for our community. In closing, we all have to work together to help minority businesses survive this crisis. We have to support these businesses now and during the recovery phase. With that more support, the economic recovery in Durham will be many, many years. A healthy Durham economy helps everyone. And I just want to again thank everybody for their time this morning and thank you a lot to participate on this call. Thank you. Thank you, James. Very much appreciate that. Okay, we're gonna now turn to Relye Barrera-Grodzky of Cocoa Cinnamon. Hey there, how's it going? One of the US Council Board members. My name is Relye Barrera-Grodzky. I am one of the co-owners of Cocoa Cinnamon and Little Waves Coffee Roasters. We're a 50% Latina owned business. My partner and I, Leon, started building our business here in Durham in March of 2011 because we saw hope here for our small business to flourish. And we were drawn to the grassroots entrepreneurial spirit that's existed in Durham for many generations. Another thing I loved about Durham was just that I saw myself represented here through the flourishing Latina keys businesses on North Rocksboro and the beautiful Greenflea Market. In 2011, with $75 in the bank and no clear way to pay our next month's rent, we were working really hard to plan up and start up by coffee and then Cocoa Cinnamon. With the help of a $10,000 retail services grant from the city, slow money loans, friends, family, and over 2,000 Durhamites, we opened Cocoa Cinnamon on West Gear Street in January of 2013. In January 2020, we employed 48 employees, team members, all making a minimum of $15 an hour. We're a team comprised of 85% women, 74% people of color, and 64% folks who are multilingual. We've contributed over $40,000 to local organizations doing amazing work within five miles of our shops, plus uncounted and kind contributions. We support 95 local and independent vendors and have paid somewhere around $220,000 in local sales tax. When the pandemic hit, we were thinner than normal because we had just invested in the growth of our Rocherie Little Waves coffee. And we had to quickly go back to our startup roots. And with the second stream of revenue so far, we've had to quickly shift and pivot our focus beyond our shops. We would have been out of business within days without the pivot and incredible support of our community and across the country to be able to ship coffee to over 1,000 zip codes since the shutdown. While most of our experience in March 12th has been harried and making payroll and basic bills, one day at a time has felt like sprinting a marathon. In many ways, we've been very fortunate. We've been able to put some concrete asks out to our customer base and been able to keep our business running to be able to continue to pay our employees a living wage. However, each day is not guaranteed and we are by no means out of the weeds. Our retail business has gone down by 24%. And as the state starts to slowly open back up, we want to be very cautious about how we open our spaces back up. My main priority is to keep our team and customers safe. And we're planning this as a probable long-term up and down, open and close situation. And I stand here grateful that so far we've made it this far. And we're planning to work and hustle and urge ourselves forward, but we're scared and hopeful. And yet I know there's so many small businesses and employees who make an important part of the fabric of their community who have not had the chance to try to pivot, whose dreams and lives are being crushed and who have worked to help build the spirit of our community. I know how hard it has been for us to persist. I cannot even imagine what they're feeling. I do know they need much more than alone. We started our business with a grant and that was a key spark to everything that we've done. At the least small businesses need grants. And I know we've already discussed that this isn't a possibility, but I'm here to plead our side. And so, and I think another thing that would be really helpful is for the city to model vigorous and safe support and patronage of our small businesses. I feel like small businesses generate so many jobs for their communities, contribute back to the communities. They keep money local and they add major value to the appeal of a city. Our city needs to look out for its most vulnerable small businesses and most vulnerable Durhamites. And I'm just here to leave you with the question, what do you want Durham to look like on the other side of this pandemic? Thank you. Thank you. That was beautiful. Matt Kelly, rocking the COVID beard. Let's hear from you. And I think you're on mute. Hello? Yep, can hear you now. Oh, Matthew Kelly here. Thanks for having me. Thanks for all the good words from everyone here because we're all in the same position. And I think you're gonna hear a lot of us repeating the same things. My name's Matthew Kelly. I have been working in Durham for 20 years. I started at Ben Rouge and now I have, I had five, but now we have four restaurants. One is closed due to COVID and we're pivoting one of our properties. Most of our restaurants are closed. We're doing one for takeout and give you a little story about takeout. You know, we started doing takeout. First thing we did, we had our landlord show up, landlord that we had for 20 years that we paid on time for 20 years. We're as a great tenant for 20 years. Went from paying $3,000 to $9,500 a month and he said we were killing it. I haven't been paid in almost four months. I didn't cash any of my paychecks so my team could collect a severance. And to hear that, you know, I didn't say anything. I just, you know, listen, like I think a lot of small businesses do, especially in hospitality, we nod, we say thank you and we turn around and we're like, man, I hope people understand that we're not killing it if you're doing takeout. And I am just one of many people on a team who are not getting a paycheck rate. I had 120 employees, we're now employing about four. Two of them are partners in businesses that grew up in our businesses and became owners of companies. And, you know, they learned the hustle, they put their heads down and they go to work and now they're doing the best that they can. How, you know, how these closures have impacted my business? I've been asked this question a lot over the last 18 months because I had one of my businesses interrupted by a gas explosion. And the common question is like, how has this affected your business at St. James? We're closed. You don't bring in revenue. It's kind of like, it gets to the point where it's a little bit of a silly question. When you're closed, there's no commerce. And, you know, I feel our company has had this stance of, you know, our strategy has been this burrowing method of keeping safe, following civic duty until we have a utter standing of, you know, the virus, the pandemic and how it's working. I think, you know, our capital, my capital and our businesses is better used at a certain time, but that capital, you know, after 90 days and 180 days, like these forgiveness periods are wearing out. They're done and it's becoming more critical. And as we see businesses, you know, reopening, trying to reopen, pivot, strategize, you know, there's moments in there where you're starting to use capital and you're bringing in as, you know, you're gonna hear it from everyone. You're doing 80% less in sales. It's a very dangerous position for a small business. You know, once your money, the money's gone. There's no, you know, there's no tooth fairy. There's no restaurant fairy. There's no coffee fairy. There's no hair salon fairy. It's gonna come down and put money under your pillow and you're gonna wake up and pay your bills. One of the, you know, one of the things I've been speaking out about is protections. You know, grant money is crucial, but what about protections for small businesses? I think that's been key. I think we've had a lot of larger corporations extend some times and give us some grace periods. But I know from other friends that are not in the same position than I am have been, you know, bullied by landlords in a very unfair manner. And, you know, all small business owners don't have the experience or wisdom or have put the time and understand that, like, you know, you have a voice and, you know, there are some opportunities and you are gonna be bullied, but, you know, there's times to stand strong but not everyone's in that position or understands that. So I think protections are another layer that are really crucial to helping small businesses in addition to, as Ari said, grant money, grant money. You know, what has to happen for us to reopen? I think a lot of us are still trying to figure that out. We, for us, I don't know if everything is gonna open. And I would say, you know, speaking on this panel and being an established veteran for 20 years in Durham, that's very real. I don't know if it makes sense. I don't know what the other side is gonna look like to put, you know, it's just a scary time. And again, as I said, once it's gone, the capital's gone. How, what do you use? What's the tool to use to reinvest and come back to the opportunity that once existed for your team, for your community and, you know, for your business. Thank you, Matt. Very much appreciate that. We're gonna keep moving because I'm being conscious of the time and wanna make sure we have all the voices and can surface some of the questions. So let's go to Sandy Chronic of Happy Dirt. Hi, everybody. Can you hear me okay? Yep. Okay, excellent. I'm Sandy Chronic. I'm a very proud Durham resident and Durham Public School parent and co-founder and the CEO of Happy Dirt, which recently rebranded after 16 years in operation Eastern Carolina Organics. We aggregate, market and distribute produce and pantry items from amazing farmers to amazing customers, some of whom I'm really proud to sit on this panel with. And I co-own the company right now with 16 North Carolina farmers. We serve hundreds of farmers and customers throughout Durham and throughout the country. And over the course of our operation, we've paid farmers over $38 million for their produce. And most importantly, I imagine for you all, we employ 18 phenomenal people in our team. And we're a certified living wage employer. And we house over 30 people in our building as we sublet space to other businesses and nonprofits. I love remembering that once again, North Carolina farmers large and smaller driving their goods from the countryside into Durham from where it's being shipped anywhere from Chicago to Maine and beyond. And this time instead of tobacco, it tends to usually be like organic collards and kale and something that's something that I'm very proud of and I hope you all join me in that pride. In 2012, we relocated here from Chatham County and we bought our warehouse on East Petticoat Street and it's now labeled an opportunity zone. And I felt so welcomed by Durham and most especially by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. I was really thrilled in fact, to sit on a focus group with Coco Cinnamon to discuss how to attract more social entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses to the community. And I felt really welcomed and I was so impressed. And so here I am just really wanting to partner with you again to inspire comfort and feelings of welcome to all the businesses and people that are suffering right now. I really hope I can be of help. I've been asked to speak about the role, the crucial food economy of our region and the role that restaurants play in supporting small farms and food businesses like farmers markets and distillers and more. Farming and local food are significant economic activities here in Durham. Direct cash receipts on farms totaled $7.3 million in 2007, that's the last data we have so it has to be a lot higher now. According to NC State, Durham Ag provides 18.5 million in value-added sales and contributes a total of 511 million in total value-added economic activity to the county's economy. So the total combined for agriculture and food industry income for the state is $84.5 billion, which is almost 15% of North Carolina's income. North Carolina ranks eighth in the US for agriculture production and I'm really proud that we ranked 10th in the US for organic sales. So I know that the chefs that we're looking for local and fresh and high quality, they literally gave me confidence when I was 23 years old to launch this thing and so it's my job to do everything I can to support restaurants and restaurant workers through this COVID-19 crisis. So I'll tell you what I've been sharing with our senators. When we launched our entrepreneurial dream in 2004 to like fix the problem of core connection and infrastructure between local farmers and buyers, I had the audacity to ask farmers to trust me and the confidence that I wouldn't fail them precisely because of chefs from Durham who told me that they could be counted on to buy product from our farmers. And these chefs have not only been the frontline cheerleaders for regional food and farmers but they've directed us in like supply chain planning and trained us on the value of unique varieties and flavors that only regional family farms can produce. Around the country, the average age of the US farmer is 58.3 and it's steadily creeping upwards towards retirement. So this isn't just a social issue but it's a land use and a food security issue and I know that our happy dirt farmers average age has been coming down through our company history and I would bet that the same thing is happening in Durham and its surrounding counties because the community of buyers like chefs and citizens want this connection-based economy and I think that the pandemic that we're experiencing is really highlighting what many Durham residents have felt all along is that we gain health and we gain wealth from feeling connection and security. So your Durham farms are likely increasing in number and size over the years even though we don't have recent data and your Durham farmland has been converting more row crops into vegetable production. Again, a very critical support for our country especially during times like this and many are transitioning the next generation onto the farm precisely because of the unwavering support that they're receiving from chefs in the Durham community. The economic boost that the restaurant industry has spread to peripheral industries such as agriculture cannot be understated. The COVID crisis is of course not the restaurant community's fault or independent businesses' fault but they're absolutely suffering the worst blows of this economic fallout or some of the worst blows and this is why they really need swift and bold action. Beyond the stacks, we know that the vibrancy of an independent local food scene has attracted national speakers and large crowds to Durham to talk about public health or clean food and water, food access and more. Huge inspirational leaders like Will Allen who's a MacArthur Genius Award fellow and pioneer of the urban farming movement, Chef Dan Barber, the New York Times food writer, Chef Sam Cass, Obama's personal chef, Leah Peneman, author of Farming While Black. These speakers and these topics along with their wisdom and their inspiration, they're bringing their economic impact and their residual effect. And the funny thing is is we've literally hosted here in Durham even as recent as the last 12 months entire conferences that were focused on the economic impacts of a vibrant local food system. I'm just a participant, I'm not an expert in that but I can tell you how our farmers drop off veggies on our dock and there's an order of bags or boxes waiting for them from like not just paper on Main Street. And how fun it is to host our buyers from California or New York to our warehouse and to visit farms and we always enjoy a few good meals at a Durham restaurant and we're staying downtown. The reality is that right now though, there is a lot going on and so I know we all have our minds on a lot of very concerning things and I think the best thing I can do for you and for our community is to just speak for my heart and as I thought about this conversation what comes up for me is just what I love about Durham and what I would guess most and many of us would love about Durham and that's its history and its diversity and its creative and artistic energy. That's our community and we all know who this virus is hurting and harming and killing disproportionately. And Durham should literally be the city leading the way and putting up a shield of comfort and a shield of health and resiliency and support for its people like a protective bubble of compassion and a path forward to protect and prevent more unjust and disproportionate struggle. And we all know that leadership it's like a mess on the national level and it's hard to know right now where to find hope and how to take action. And we should be feeling like here in Durham in our bubble we're straight and we're regarded on our shared values and we're protecting what matters most and that our leaders, they got us and I know that all the fine folks that have been organizing this conversation they spent countless exhausting hours providing a roadmap of what that could look like and I just know what I would like it to feel like and if you look around Durham and the businesses that you love most like it doesn't matter who or what or where they are they all excel in taking great care of people. And so I just wanna like reflect on the fact that on top of all the trauma of sudden business collapse and like your dreams and literally your blood, sweat and tears getting washed out from this crisis on top of all that these people who are so good at taking care of their clients and their community they not only can't do that for their clients but they can't even do it for their employees right now and that is heartbreaking and most of them themselves are suddenly on unemployment and you're worried about their own families and their work families. So that is a heartbreak and then to add to all of this like just processing that overnight you've to literally just become an activist and an advocate and a researcher and a writer and it's just overwhelming. We lost over one. Hey Sandy. Hey Sandy. I'm gonna have to cut you off on that one if it's okay cause we gotta have a couple more speakers I don't wanna hear from the Q and A. But I love the passion and the eloquence so you're speaking for many of us as you step forward with that eloquence. I would just like to say we lost 35% of our business from Hurricane Florence and I cannot even imagine what all these business owners are going through. So I just wanna be there for them. Thank you. Thank you. You also was a great reminder of also how this ecosystem works and how supply chains work and how this entire process works. So if we start to lose some of our key businesses in the middle of that ecosystem it has tremendous ripple effects. The converse of that is that we actually start to also think about ways that we can have better local procurement and better local buying policies to come out of that which hopefully would be a byproduct of a longer term recovery strategy. There's a several questions that are starting to pop up in the chat. We're gonna hear from two more speakers and then we're gonna move into some Q and A in the remaining time. So if you all have some additional questions please continue to put them into the chat and I'll try to synthesize them and make sure that they're being heard. One question from Joyce Fait, the irascible Joyce Fait was making sure that we're hearing from artists and solopreneurs and people who are really gonna represent the artistic community. So with that in mind I'm excited to introduce Nicole Oxendine of Empowered Dance Studio. Hello everybody. I am Nicole Oxendine. I am a proud Durhamite, graduate of Hillside High School, former teacher at Hillside and professor at North Carolina Central. I own Empowered Dance Studio and if you know anything about Empower you do know the impact that we have on this community and the connection that we have on the Durham community. Even to former students and classmates that bring their daughters to the studio I hire Hillside and Central graduates and I've seen these dancers and what their dance means to them and it's their outlet. This is their space, their safe space to be and just come and be themselves. But on March 14th that all came to a halt of our 11 members I had to reduce our staff, 11 staff members I had to reduce them to seven. We moved our classes online immediately at a discounted rate. They weren't able to see Misty Copeland perform at Deepak or see performances at the American Dance Festival for this summer. We were starting a program at the Boys and Girls Club that had to come to a halt. Last year we organized a flash mob for Durham's 150th anniversary and this was following the devastating explosion at Matt Kelly's restaurant on that block and we added a last minute song to that Rise Up by Andra Day. And I'm reminded of that song during this time. Next week we celebrate five years of business and this was a time when our students were to grace the stage at the Carolina Theater. Unfortunately we have to close down. We won't be able to have the performance. And I had one little girl say I pray to God they take the coronavirus away so that I can dance in my recital. You see this doesn't just affect us, it affects our community, affects our children. I'm encouraged when I see them online they bring me life and joy in this very difficult time and I wanna hug each and every one of our students. I'm also overwhelmed by like the cost for us to even reopen what that means in terms of us shifting our classroom schedule, the disinfecting, the cleaning, the wearing of the mask, the things that we have to do to even prepare. So we're in this state where we're trying to figure things out. We're also thinking if we do continue what does that look like? How does, what does that, what's the vision for that? And for me that wasn't the legacy that I envisioned for my business. And it's not the legacy that any business owner especially a black or brown female business owner we a lot of times enter these spaces where we're passionate about our business we're in the community we're affecting change in our communities and we have these amazing and large visions for what we see. And a lot of times we're not supported and we're not supported on the level of capital and funds already before we even get to a major pandemic like we are in now. I speak for those women that came before me the black women who have worked very hard Andrea Harris to set and establish institutions. I speak for the other small business owners the other black women. I speak for the other studio owners. I speak for the artists of this community that are already working to get relief to get some financial relief before we get to this space. People who change, who are using their art to change communities. This is the help, this is the support that is needed. It's time for you all to rise up and create solutions for us as small business owners in effective way and effective modality that will work to help support us not just now, but in the long run. As we experienced deaths from coronavirus we're also experiencing the rising death toll of small businesses in Toronto. So we're here to unite as small business owners and demand energy and attention to these issues. So once again, rise up for your community but more importantly for the children. Thank you Nicole. Very much appreciate that tone and some of that encouragement. I see some questions coming up in terms of like are we gonna get to actionable steps? Are we actually gonna get to some specific recommendations? And so this is the time that that's gonna happen. I'm excited to introduce Leonardo Williams of Zwelli's Kitchen. And Dorell pointed this out but it's really through Leonardo and his wife Zwelli's leadership at McDougal Terrace and also even this morning packing up meals to get to some senior residents that have been impacted by COVID that have continued to demonstrate not only the role that Zwelli's has played in terms of providing some delicious food for those who get into Zimbabwean cuisine, which is I do but also some of the positive social impact that that has had. So Leonardo, the floor is yours. Good morning everybody. And I'm gonna be quick here for the sake of a question and answers. So I'm co-owner here at Zwelli's Kitchen with my wife's Zwelli Williams and we're proud to say we're the only Zimbabwean restaurant in the United States. However, COVID like everyone else has affected us. We started out with about 18 employees and then we're down to about nine. We are still open partially doing takeout and curbside and we just launched a virtual cooking class as a survival method. However, our sales are down 80% and that's obviously not sustainable. Just from who you've heard today, just collectively on the call here, we've contributed about $600,000 in resources just in the nonprofit community here around Durham alone. Also, collectively on the call here we've contributed about 6 million in sales tax which is revenue for our city. So therefore in regard to all this, it's logical that we have to take care of how we're taking care of our city, right? So as Chris stated, we initially jumped in and took care of feeding the families at McDougal Terrace all the way until the last family was back into the apartment. And now we are feeding the elderly as a vulnerable population to keep them inside as much as possible. Now, where we have to get to here is what do we need? What are we asking for, right? This coalition, we're formally asking that the city increase its contribution to this loan fund by 1 million, totaling at 2 million starting out. We're also asking the county to match that. We're asking the county to get involved with this effort and contribute by matching with 2 million, creating 4 million. We spoke of Duke University earlier. So hopefully we can bring all of this together with this public-private partnership and create a fund that would be hopefully two-faced, partially grant, partially extremely low-interest, long-term payback loan format, or whatever the most attractive terms are. We're asking the city attorney, although we know what's been said so far, we're asking the city attorney's office to be as creative and innovative as possible and work with other attorneys across the state and the country to find out how we can formally this loan program to forgive the loan. We can't take on more burden here. When you think about small businesses here in Durham locally, for every $100 invested, $45 stays right here in Durham. Whereas you looking at national chains, only $14 or $15 stays here in Durham. So the logic is there, we have to take care of, take care of our folks, take care of our family right here in Durham. And this is the optimal opportunity to reunite Durham, sustain Durham, stabilize Durham. We're asking that our city leadership give us a signal of hope here. And I promise you, if you give us a signal of hope, we will give hope to our community. So that's what we're staying, that's what we're asking for. I'm gonna make sure that my commentary here is public so that we'll know what we're asking for. Yeah, and we wanna make sure lastly that we are taking care of our most vulnerable businesses as well as our businesses that are more mature that have contributed so many jobs and so much revenue. So that's where we are, Chris. Thank you for this time. And I thank you for the council, the commissioners, the press and everyone else. Let's move to question and answer if we can so we can get some of the questions answered. Thank you. Perfect, that sounds good. So thank you, Leo, for that. And again, if people can use the chat to do two things, one is to provide any additional testimonial that you may have. We weren't able to get everybody's voice in in terms of the broad business community. But I do set a question come in from Dorian Bolden from BU in terms of trying to get some city council members response to Leo's question. So I would welcome an opportunity or to Leo's suggestion just as a quick recap. The idea is a million dollars is great. We recognize it's not going to be sufficient. The request on the table is another million in from the city and then be able to match that at the county level. And we already know that this is going to be oversubscribed as it currently stands. So a million from the city and a million from Duke is going to scratch the surface in terms of what the needs are. So love to hear some reaction. I'm happy to start, Christopher. Appreciate everybody's testimonial and appreciate Leonardo's wrap up. And I know my city council colleagues will probably have words to add as well. I'll just say this, our first priority needs to be to get the combined two million dollars out the door and to get it out the door in a way that is really helpful. And to do that as quickly as we can. That's our first priority. After that, I know that the city and we've discussed this is definitely open to the possibility of more funding. But I'm also sure that our will be, our first priority is to get this out the door, see how that goes, how that's going and then consider more funding. We do have five million dollars set aside in a COVID relief fund that doesn't just include businesses. It includes central city services that might need to be supported. It includes other needs in terms of feeding and rental assistance and all the other kinds of things that we might need to be doing. But some of that money could certainly be allocated towards this business relief. I can't, of course, speak from our county colleagues but just one of the things I want people to realize about the funds around the country is this. The Indianapolis fund is a good example. 3.7, they have an aim of 10 million dollars. They began with 3.7 million dollars of that. This is a loan fund of that 1.5 million dollars was public money and the rest is all private money. That's what we have to have more of than Durham. That's the same thing in all these funds that I see. Birmingham strong, another one of the examples that is in the Brookings report, 1.2 million dollars in public money, 1.2 in private money. Durham received no direct cares funding. Raleigh has received direct cares funding because they're larger. Charlotte does. Durham County has received $5 million roughly in indirect cares funding but Wake County, because in indirect cares funding, Wake County gets direct cares funding of 194 million dollars, more than 20 times what Durham has received. It's a lot easier to do these funds if you get direct cares funding. We don't. So we will do everything that we can but I think we need to be realistic about the fact that we're not one of these larger cities or counties that's getting the direct cares funding. In terms of the loans and the grants, nobody wants to do grants more than we do. I tell you, just as much as you wanna receive them, we wanna do them and I appreciate the call for our city attorneys to be creative and we've examined, for example, can they give money to a third party that could make the grants? And that is apparently also not a legal way to proceed. So we're trying to figure it out but I think what we can expect is a combination of two things. One is loans with the city's money that are long-term and low interest or no interest, hopefully. And forgivable loans, which it would essentially be free to businesses with the Duke money. And there would have to be some sort of work to figure out which businesses qualified for which of those. So that needs to happen, it needs to happen now and we're certainly open to more funding in the future. And I'll ask my city council colleagues, others, if you all would like to respond as well. Actually, Mayor Shul, if it's okay, what I would love to do is potentially hear from a county perspective, if we could. What are you saying, sure. And then there's a couple of additional questions that I'm gonna pull into the mix so that we can try to get a couple of others into the picture. So I know we've got some county commissioners here. I saw Wendy Smile, as soon as I said we wanna bring in that perspective. Wendy, Brenda, Heidi, actually Heidi, I think, oh, she's here, yeah. Any perspective? Sure, I'll just start it off. I think, first of all, thank you all so much. All of you, I'm sorry I had to leave for a few minutes, but I just wanna say that my heart goes out to all of you, you are the fabric of our community. What you all contribute is just, I can't even put a value on it. And I truly wanna do whatever the county can do to support all of you. And I hear the message also just about the trauma and the hope that we need to be providing on our end. As the mayor said, unfortunately, we are not in a good position in terms of the CARES Act funding. It's very inequitable that Wake County and Mecklenburg County have each received $194 million and Durham County is getting $5.48 million. I don't think it's any surprise to say that the needs that we have are great. The county is really responsible for human services. So feeding, food insecurity, housing insecurity. We also, a third of our budget goes for the schools, which is something the city doesn't have to fund. And we have an ask of more than $8.5 million from the schools and we have flat funding for the county. But that being said, I strongly believe that we need to do whatever we can. We had a budget work session yesterday. I raised this issue with our board when we were discussing how we're going to use our CARES Act funding. I've asked that this be on our agenda next week for staff to bring back more information to us. And it is a priority for me that we look at trying to use some of our CARES Act funding for small businesses support. So I will tell you that I, again, I will do whatever I can personally to advocate for this. And I think it is really, really important that we also do our part in the county to see how we can support all of you. And even from a purely selfish perspective, when we look at the structural issues that are involved here with the economic impact of this virus, if we don't invest in all of you, we don't have our sales tax revenue and we don't have our property tax revenue that funds all of the programs that we rely on in the county. So from a purely selfish perspective, to deal with the structural issues that are taking place now, we need to invest in our small businesses. So I will pass it on to my other commissioners for the time. Thank you, Wendy. And I do appreciate the commitment on that. And I know that there will be some follow up that we can have. We only have three minutes left. So I'm actually gonna leave this with a final question and then to have Mayor Schultz. I wanna interrupt for one second. Just to be very clear is that we are requesting and we would like for the city and the county to get back in with some really concrete things. This is what the community is asking for. So I know that you're saying you're thinking you're about to go into budget. We want two million from the city and two million from the county as our request as business, as small business community. So we would like you to go back, figure those things out and come up with some clear things. And I'm gonna- Nicole, I just wanna say as a small business, as a consultant, I've been a consultant for many, many years as a small business owner, I appreciate all of your commitment and what's happening. We are still sorting through how the CARES funding, how we can use that CARES funding. And as of last night, our county manager had a conversation with the Association of Counties. So we should know something, have more insight as to how the board could use that money in a week. So that's where we are with the CARES funding because we really wanna do whatever we can to support our small businesses. And I just want you to know that for me. Excellent. I love to hear that kind of commitment. We do have- Putting in the chat, a note to share just some of my viewpoints on how I've been working locally because I know that we're at a standstill until a decision is made with city staff, so. Sorry, Deidreanna, to the standstill on what basis? Sorry, Deidreanna, you said you were at a standstill? So just in noting, I really appreciate the comment around making sure that we're being creative and I've been asking the same types of questions and I've yet to see anything. So I'm hard-pressed in this. I know that all I can do is grab the nearest edge which has been to work with local folks I've been working with during a faith summit and recognizing the work the communities and partnerships has been doing, it started a fun there and I didn't wanna take up the time because I know some folks wanna ask questions. Yeah, I just, I'm gonna bring this back to say we wanna, I would like concrete solutions. I know we're at a short-term space, whatever the process is, whoever's gonna be managing whatever the next steps are, we are asking you all as city and county to really get on top of this and give us some concrete solutions for this, to work for the small business community. What's happening in the private sector? How can we leverage the private sector to make these things happen? We're out here trying to make things work and we're frustrated and we need your support. Thank you, Nicole. So last question and then Mayor Schull, we're gonna have you wrap up but one of the several questions have come up in terms of making sure that this funding even with a million dollar that's being committed could be made available to some of the less connected businesses who may not have strong credit track record and may need some type of alternative credit strategy to be able to make sure that all businesses within the Durham community, especially the most vulnerable communities are being addressed in this work. So we wanna have one comment on that and a wrap up, that would be great. Mayor Schull, you wanna take both of those? Sure, I appreciate that comment and agree that we need to be, those businesses definitely need to be included in whatever that we do. And I would say especially those businesses because those businesses do tend to be historically just advantaged and it's very important that they remain at the top of our list and when we're thinking of going ahead. I know that we're at the end of our time, I'll wrap up really, really quickly. In terms of concrete actions, I absolutely think that you should expect that from us and that we will provide that. And I'm on June the 4th, we need to know exactly what our program will be and then start rolling it out and that needs to happen. And I will just tell you that all of us are very, very focused on that. But I also don't wanna over promise. I hear what Leonardo's saying that you want us to go ahead and allocate another $1 million. What I'm going to just repeat is that the city has allocated a million dollars, Duke has allocated a million dollars. We hope the county will help and we need more private funders to step up. And that's something I'm certainly willing to help with and have discussed with the group that helped pull this together earlier. But what I'll say is further funding from the city is certainly possible and is very much on our agenda but we're not gonna be allocating that right away. That doesn't, I wanna be clear, that doesn't mean it won't happen. We need to see how it goes and we need to get out there and raise some private funds as well. And so that's the other thing I wanna talk about a little bit. Durham, when I look at the other funds around the country and I've looked at a lot of them, there is a lot of private support, a lot of private support, a lot of corporate support for these funds. Whether it be Birmingham or San Diego or Indianapolis, wherever they are, and we need that. And I'm very happy to work with the small business group that's pulled together to help with that because I think that we can get more private support. So I think that's one of the other concrete actions that I think we need to take. I am so interested in hearing any creative ideas that people have about how to do this. Very grateful for you all for having us. We've had incredible needs to meet in Durham and Sandy talked about our caring community and what it means to be in Durham, what our community should be like. So we're offering about a million dollars in rent assistance. We're offering foreclosure counseling. We're housing our homeless. We are doing so many things that we need to do to make this community caring. But one of the ways in which we need to make it caring is to care for our small businesses. And we will do that to the best of our ability. Please don't hesitate to be in touch with us. I know you will and let us know, but I will do everything I can. And I know that all of our public officials on this call will do as well. So I appreciate the opportunity for those wrap up remarks, Christopher, and I especially appreciate everybody for being on the call. Thank you, Mayor Schuyl. And I wanna echo my thanks and leave us with a few action items. First of all, there is now a Durham Small Business Coalition that is being formed for all of you who are interested from the business perspective to be able to add your perspective, add your testimonials and add your support. That's a place to be able to join this effort with the Durham Small Business Coalition and the link to the Facebook page and how to do that is all available there. Those testimonials and our voices and our support, I think continue to be critical to this political process. And so from both the city and the county perspective, any way that we can help you take this work over the finish line and to be able to get the support that's needed, we're here to be able to make that a reality. And the same thing is true, Mayor Schuyl. I also really appreciate the need for private sector support and I will say that it's, I think, and coming upon our larger corporate entities in the community to be able to lean in to this kind of work and follow Duke's lead in that perspective and hopefully Duke considering putting more money to work in this environment. This will not be the last time, I think we wanna try to pull together and have these types of conversations. As we mentioned at the very beginning of this conversation, this is not going away anytime soon. We need to be thinking not only in terms of how we can keep our businesses alive right now, but how we can come back better and stronger than ever and really make sure the entire ecosystem thrives. And I think this is a testimonial to the value of our overall business community. So I appreciate everyone's time today. Appreciate Mayor Schuyl for you to lean in and provide some additional framing remarks. The city council members for participating, the county commissioners for participating and importantly our small business owners and leaders to be able to share your perspectives on what is a challenging time. But again, I think if we can all come together, we can not only survive it, come back stronger. So more to come. Thanks to everybody who also participated. We had over a hundred people listening in on this conversation and we're all also passionate about the term residents and committed to the small business survival. And I want to particularly thank Ryan Hurley for some of his sort of incredible efforts to drive this work forward with Peter Lange, Leonardo Williams, Nicole Oxendine and others who have really made this possible. So thanks everybody. I hope you have a safe and restful weekend and we will look forward to being back in touch here soon. Go Bull City. Thank you so much Chris. That was awesome. Thank you Mayor. Thank you everybody. I really appreciate it.