 Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good to see everyone here tonight. Good evening. Good to see everyone here tonight. I certainly want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting. Those of you all here with us tonight and those of you all who are watching us at home for this meeting December 2nd 2019. I'm going to call this meeting to order. And first I would like to ask you all to please join me in a moment of silent meditation. Thank you. And now council member Reese would you please lead us in the pledge to flag. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Good evening colleagues members of the public. If it's your practice to do so and if you're able please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands for our nation, our God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much council member. And now Madam Clerk would you please call the road. Mayor Schuyl here. Mayor Pro Tem Johnson. Here. Councilmember Alston. Here. Councilmember Caballero. Here. Councilmember Freeman. Present. Councilmember Middleton. Here. Councilmember Reese. Here. Thank you very much. We're now going to move to a special moment that we have every two years in the life of the Durham City Council which is our organizational meeting. And if you don't have an organizational meeting agenda, they're at the door for you if you would like to have one. I'm first going to recognize Durham County Board of Elections director Derek Bowens and Phil layman the chair of the Durham County Board of Elections for the certification of the November 5th 2019 municipal election. So if you gentlemen would like to come to the podium here that would be great. Thank you Mr. Mayor and members of the council. This is a one of the few fun times we get at the Board of Elections to come and certify an election and honor the successful candidates. Thank you for inviting us and it's a it's a it's a pleasure to be here. The first thing we have to do officially is to present the final certification of the election with all the results broken down by precinct with all with all the totals. This is the official election results signed for by all five members of the Board of Elections. And I'll ask Mr. Bowens to bring it over to the city to the city clerk. Before I present individual candidate certificates I would just like to say briefly that this was a very successful election. Successful for us as well as for those of you who are just elected. Congratulations for that. We had a total of 36,304 citizens voting in the election which represents 18.5% of eligible voters. That is a very good turnout for municipal election. By comparison if we look at the results of the 2015 municipal election which is the last time we had out large candidates elected and a fairly low profile election for mayor the totals were 19,494 votes which represents 10.8% of the electorate. So by comparison you can see that we almost doubled the turnout in 2019 as compared with 2015. So I think we should all feel good about that. We are always trying to get turnout as high as possible but relatively speaking we did pretty well. The election went very smoothly. There were no delays or equipment malfunctions or other significant problems. I'm also very happy to report that we did a hand count of selected precincts as part of the audit process and in all those hand counts the results came out 100% accurate. There was no discrepancies at all. We should get something we feel good about and you should too. And I would like to also recognize and thank the incredible job our precinct voting officials, the incredible job that they do. We had 388 basically volunteer precinct officials to conduct the polls on election day. I call them volunteers. They do get a small amount of compensation but they do it out of civic pride and civic duty and they work from before 6.30 in the morning to after 7.30 in the evening. They're there all day. They don't go anywhere else. And I think that conducting elections which is a very important governmental function but I think this is one of the rare, probably the only one that I could think of where actual regular citizens conduct, you know, take care of the government function. I think that's remarkable. I think they're the unsung heroes of our election process and they deserve our appreciation. I also want to recognize the fact that we now have a very wonderful staff at the board of elections and we have been led by an outstanding director, Mr. Derrick Bowens, who has been with us for about two and a half years and has done an outstanding job as being recognized and rallied around the state for the great job that he's done here. Right now we are looking forward to the 2020 elections and as many of you know today was the first day of candidate filing for the 2020 elections and we expect to approve a or review plans for early voting in about 10 days so we are moving quickly ahead on that. With all that being said I would like to present the certificates for the successful candidates in the 2019 municipal election. I'll have Mr. Bowens, if you don't mind bring them up and present them to the candidates. We'll start with our honorable Mayor Steve Shul. Congratulations Steve. Next our Mayor Pro Tem Gillian Johnson congratulations. And we have council member Charlie Reese. Congratulations. Councilwoman Javier Caballero. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Layman. Thank you very much Mr. Bowens. We appreciate your service. We're glad you're here and if you want to leave early to get home in time for the Duke game you certainly have our permission to do so. But we're very appreciative of your work. Thank you all so much. Really appreciate your being here. And next we're going to have the swearing in and the qualifying of the Mayor by Chief District Court Judge Patricia Evans. And I ask my wife, Layla Rupert, to join me. Mayor, I bring you greetings on behalf of the Durham County District Court where I honor the service of your Chief and all of the great city of Durham, County of Durham's Chief. And now we will raise our hands and repeat after me. And congratulations. Thank you. Well deserved. Thank you. All right. So I, when I say I, you will say your full name. I, Stephen Matthew Shul. Do hear by solemnly swear. That I will support and maintain. The Constitution. The Constitution. And laws of the United States. And the Constitution. And the Constitution. And laws of North Carolina. Not inconsistent. Wherewith. Not inconsistent therewith. And that I will faithfully. And that I will faithfully. And impartially. And that I will faithfully. And impartially. And impartially. Discharge the duties of my office. Discharge the duties of my office. As mayor. As mayor. Of the great city of Durham. Of the great city of Durham. So help me God. So help me God. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, Josh. Thank you. Next on our agenda is the swearing in and qualifying of city council members by District Court Judge Shamika Reinhardt. And I'm going to ask first Mayor Pro Tem Gillian Johnson if she would join Judge Reinhardt and her family. So we can make, well first of all congratulations. All right. Well deserved. All right. You will repeat after me. I state your, do hereby soundly affirm that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States. And the Constitution and laws of North Carolina. Not inconsistent therewith. And that I will faithfully. And impartially. Discharge the duties of my office. As council member of the city of Durham. All right, Judge, are we ready for the next candidate, next council member? Yes, we are, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. And we will now have the swearing in of council member Charlie Reese, who will also be joined along with Judge Reinhardt by his family. All right. So you might need a little help. Well, congratulations, Charlie Reese. Are you ready? State your full name. Charles Edward Reese. Do hereby soundly swear. Do hereby soundly swear. That I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States. And the Constitution and laws of North Carolina. Not inconsistent therewith. Not inconsistent therewith. And that I will faithfully. And impartially. Discharge the duties of my office. The duties of my office. As council member of the city of Durham. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you. And now council member Javier Caballero. We'll join Judge Reinhardt and her family is here with her as well. So congratulations. Are you ready? All right. I will raise your right. State your full name. Do hereby soundly swear. Do hereby soundly swear. That I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States. And the Constitution and laws of North Carolina. Not inconsistent therewith. And that I will faithfully. And impartially. Discharge the duties of my office. As council member of the city of Durham. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you Judge. Always good to have you and Judge Evans here in the council chambers with us. Come anytime you want. We will now have remarks by the reelected and elected council members. And I'm going to start with council member Javier Caballero and congratulate her again on her initial election to be a member of the Durham city council. Thank you mayor. Good evening. Thank you. Thank you to everyone here in attendance and all those watching at home including lots of my family. I especially want to thank my mom. Gracias mamita. Te quiero mucho. It is an honor and privilege to stand before all Durham residents tonight. A few nights after the election I shared the follow. I am humbled by this opportunity and will work hard every day to make progress on the challenges facing our city from community safety to sustainability from housing affordability to inclusive economic development. I look forward to working with everyone to make Durham a city that is truly equitable and truly conclusive. And so I commit myself this evening to accomplishing that vision of a city that is truly inclusive and equitable, a city that is for everyone. How can I actualize this vision? I believe it will take all of us. I think it's possible because I have hope and I believe we can. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent for many in our community. I appreciate Advent because for me it is an important time to reflect. In my house we celebrate Advent a little differently because no one in my house would consider themselves a person of faith besides me. We have an Advent wreath and each of our candles still symbolize hope, love, joy, and peace. But our kids find a quote or reading that represents each sentiment but it doesn't have to be religious. And then we share something we're hopeful for the first week continuing the theme. Since yesterday represented hope I have been thinking through what gives me hope. And this city and the residents who called Durham home give me hope. When faith leaders and community members surrounded Samuel Oliver Bruno's car to prevent him getting detained by ICE it gave me hope because so many came to defend one of our most vulnerable residents. When teachers and other public school allies marched on Raleigh in May and then again a few weeks ago in Durham to demand a budget not only for better working conditions for them but for more and better resources for our kids it gave me hope. When the largest affordable housing bond in the history of North Carolina passed with 76% of voter approval meaning so many more of our neighbors will have housing it gave me hope. And so my challenge to each of you and a challenge for me is to continue to be hopeful. We are witnessing very difficult times here in Durham and the U.S. and around the world. There have been protests from Chile to Hong Kong and it is easy to fall into despair. But in Durham I believe we can keep doing the hard work that is necessary for everyone to live a life of dignity. Thank you. And now I'll call on Council Member Charlie Rees. Congratulations on your reelection. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Council colleagues, city staff, honored guests and people of the city of Durham. For the last 1,455 days it's been my privilege to serve as a member of the Durham City Council. Not that I've been counted. I've worked as hard as I can on each of those days to earn the trust and confidence that the people of this city placed in me when they elected me to this office four years ago. And I'm proud of the work we've done together during that time to make Durham a safer, more prosperous and more affordable city for all our residents. I ran for reelection to the Durham City Council this year. Not because I believed we'd solved all of Durham's problems but because we're making real and meaningful progress toward doing so. And because I wanted to continue doing this critical work with amazing colleagues I respect and admire. And because despite the fact that this is the hardest job I've ever had this is also the very best job I've ever had. Now that I've taken the oath of office for a second time I have 1,463 more days to keep working hard on behalf of the people of this city and I couldn't be happier about that. Now it's time for me to thank some folks and I promise it won't take too long. First and foremost, thank you to my family for your love and support. Folks often ask me how my wife Laura puts up with me and this crazy life we lead together. And all I can say is this, she is the best of wives and best of women. And I owe her everything. Thank you, Laura. I love you. I'm sure all of you will be happy to hear that my daughters, Elle and Gwen, have once again agreed to share their daddy with the people of the city of Durham for another four years. Thank you, my darlings. I love you both very much. I also want to say thank you to my parents, Kenny and Mary Reese, who came all the way from South Carolina to be here with us tonight. Thank you very much. And thank you to my hard-working campaign staff who powered me to victory on Election Day, Dolly Reeves, Phil Seib, LeVon Barnes, and the person who put together in Bull City together, Rachelle Sparco. And finally, thank you to the people of the city of Durham. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for again placing your trust and confidence in me. As I have often said, I work for all of the people of Durham, and I work for all of the cities that I've voted for. That's why I try to be present in as many parts of the city as possible, listening to as many voices as possible, with the understanding that in my spare time, I'm also trying to be a husband and a father. And finally, I want to say a very special word to my colleagues here in the Durham City Council. I think all of us know we've had kind of a tough year together this year. We haven't always agreed on every issue that's come before us, and we weren't all on the same page in this year's City Council elections. That's just fine, and maybe that's even healthy. But it would be all too easy to drag those differences and even a few hard feelings into our next year on the Council together. Friends, let's not do that. If we truly want to solve the problems facing our city, we have to be able to face them together as a Council. For my part, I am ready to start a new chapter in our collaboration together for the good of the people of this great city. I hope and pray that each of you will join me in bringing aside our differences and recommitting ourselves to our partnership together here on the Durham City Council. Because as I've heard it said, not too long ago, we're all in this together. In closing, let me just describe how I hope that we can all try to do our jobs over the next 1,463 days. Where our city is working well, let's build on those successes and celebrate what's right about Durham. Where our city is broken, let's fix it using every tool at our disposal to right what's wrong about Durham. And when we discuss issues of public policy in this body, let's always, always keep front and center the concerns and the voices of Durham's working families. So here's to the next 1,463 days. I don't know about y'all, but I'm ready to get to work. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. And now Mayor Pro Tem Jillian Johnson, congratulations on your reelection. Thank you. And thank you to you all. I'm so excited for this opportunity to continue to serve this community for the next four years. And we'll continue to work hard every day to build a Durham for all to make the city a model for innovative public policy and good governance. I'm going to start with some thank yous first. I want to thank my family, especially my partner, Paul, my kids, Elias and Langston for their support and for tolerating my many evenings away especially on the campaign trail. I want to thank my campaign staff, especially Rochelle Sparko and Marion Johnson, Luke Hurst and LeVon Barnes for all their work to put me back in the seat for another four years. A big thank you to all of the organizations and folks who were involved in the campaign, all the volunteers who did an incredible amount of work to make this happen. And a huge thanks to my council colleagues, Javier and Charlie, who were the only reason that I stayed sane and functional through this long and exhausting campaign. And of course my deepest gratitude for the people of Durham for placing your trust and faith in me to continue to do this work. We have a lot of work to do to make the city the kind of community that we all want and deserve and we know that we have huge challenges facing us and we know what they are. And we've spent a lot of time on the campaign trail talking about our city's challenges. So today I want to focus a little bit on our strengths and the things that I love about this community. Number one, our people love this city. I've seen Durhamites go on full-fledged recruitment missions to get friends from other cities to move here, flying people in, taking them on tours and offering to pay relocation expenses to get people to move to the city. And it's just because they love this community so much and they want everyone else to love it too. People often struggle to tell you why they love Durham because it's not just one thing. The city is a part of us and it's an important piece of who we are. Number two, our robust democracy. Durhamites are not people who sit on the sidelines and wait for things to happen to them. Our communities are engaged. They pay attention. They show up for our neighborhoods. They care about what happens in this city. People join political and neighborhood organizations. They run for office. They get involved in their schools. They organize in their communities. We are a people who are willing to have important conversations and are ready for even more of them. Number three, we truly value inclusion. Durham is a community that welcomes people from all walks of life. We have two refugee resettlement agencies in this community bringing people from around the world to start new lives in Durham. And then we also have people who are descended from the enslaved people at Stagville Plantation whose families have been here for generations. We overwhelmingly reject bigotry and seek to build a community that values all of our residents' life experiences. And finally, we are a city of changemakers. We put our ideas into action in exciting ways. Every month on City Council, we get emails and phone calls from people who live here with new ideas that they want to bring to the City of Durham. Already, our new participatory budgeting program is being used as a model in cities like Atlanta and Richmond. Our program to help residents get driver's licenses restored and old charges expunged is getting national attention at the National League of Cities. And our work across governments to fight back against mass incarceration is being touted as part of a national movement to build safer communities. We have a lot of challenges, but we also have a community of people who are ready to meet them to get real results and to make real change for the people of our city. Some of the changes I'll be working hard on for the next four years are, of course, to provide more affordable housing for low-income folks in our community, to create robust violence prevention and intervention services, to provide more opportunities for authentic relationship with city government through equitable engagement, community conversations, and participatory budgeting, to provide more inclusive economic opportunity and, of course, to move towards a more sustainable community. And I'm looking forward to working with residents and organizations to meet these goals and invite everyone in Durham who wants to get involved to join us. Thank you again, and let's all work together to make Durham a city where all of our residents can thrive. We're all in this together. Thank you. Thank you very much. And now I believe it's my turn. Yes, it is. I'd like to, again, thank Judge Evans and Judge Reinhardt for being with us here tonight, as well as our Elections Board Chair and Director. Thank you all so much for being with us. I also want to say it's our custom to recognize other elected officials who are here with us. I see Senator Mike Woodard. We're glad to have you back in the Chamber's mic. I see Damon Siles, Carver Alderman, who for some strange reason has decided to be with us tonight during City Council, for which we are very grateful. I see School Board Member Natalie Byer. Natalie, thank you so much for being with us. And did I miss any elected official? Was Marcia here? Marcia Morey, Representative Marcia Morey was here earlier and may still be here. And Sheriff Burkhead, thank you, Sheriff. It's great to see you here. Thank you so much for being here. And finally, I want to say we have a former Council Member, Larissa Seibel, here with us tonight. Larissa, glad to have you. I want to thank the people of Durham, the voters who participated in this past election, no matter who you voted for. Thank you for making Durham the rip-roaring democracy that it is, a place where every voice is heard. I also want to thank my fellow Mayoral candidate, Pastor Sylvester Williams for his friendship and for the important ways in which he continues to serve our city. My friends, I feel more than anything else tonight is the weight of the awesome responsibility that falls upon my shoulders as I enter my second term as the Mayor of Durham. In my first two years as Mayor, I've come to understand what a privilege it is to serve in this way, what a gift it is to be entrusted by my community, by the people of the city that I love with this job and all its challenges and opportunities. In the 150-year history of Durham, 35 people have held this position before me. I have been fortunate to know nine of those former mayors and to call each one of them my friend. And here's what I can tell you about all of them. While they sometimes differed in political philosophy or fell on opposite sides of an issue, all of them served our beloved city with deep devotion and I seek to serve with that same devotion. I do feel driven to do this work. I wake up every morning burning to get to City Hall to get the next big initiative moving to confer and strategize and to push us always forward, forward, forward. And it is true as most of you know that I send my last emails well after midnight. What I pray for is the ability to do this work not just with drive but with care with wisdom with patience with a listening ear and an open heart with humility and I ask each of you in this room to please help me along that road. I have so many partners in this work. My wonderful City Council colleagues are amazing City staff community leaders from every corner of Durham and I am especially fortunate to work with professional leadership of our City Government. During my first term as Mayor the City Council hired both a new City Clerk and a new City Attorney and I want to say now to City Clerk Diana Schreiber and City Attorney Kim Rayberg that you were both doing an outstanding job. We are so lucky to have you. You each replaced a elected leader who had served in this community for decades and that's very hard to do. You have big shoes to fill both of you and each of you all has been more than up to the mark. And our City Manager Tom Bonfield Tom now in his 12th year of service to our City and I will say that there is not a finer City Manager anywhere in this country. Durham was recently named by Wallet Hub as the fourth best run city in America. It is an incredible accolade and Tom Bonfield deserves the lion's share of the credit. Tom, thank you for your friendship your guidance your steady hand on the tiller thank you for the fabulous job that you do leading the work of our City. To Tom, to Kim and Diana you all have my full faith and confidence and I know you have the confidence of the Council as well. And then there is my daily partner in love family and in our shared work and yearning for a society that is just my beloved Leo Rupert Babe for 45 years I have been so lucky to share all of this with you and I am so grateful. As a reflect on my first term as Mayor there are two moments that define to me the heart of this great City. The first event took place on April 10th of this year at 150th birthday of Durham when an explosion rocked Duke Street and our community. It was a day of terrible tragedy and loss. We mourn the lives of Mr. Kong Lee and Mr. Jay Rambo. We grieve for their families and the families of the injured. At the same time it was a day that gave me a great sense of gratitude for our incredibly brave incredibly professional first responders. For Mr. Rambo himself who came to the site to try to cut off the gas. For the firefighters who cleared the coffee house and truly saved a dozen lives. For those same firefighters who were literally blown down and concussed by the explosion and who somehow got up and got to their truck and turned their hoses on the fire. I feel enormous gratitude for the emergency medical responders. When I arrived on the scene shortly after the blast with Chief Zoldus and Deputy City Manager Bo Ferguson, I saw people blood streaming lying near the corner of Morgan and Duke Streets. Each of them already attended by a medic administering the care they needed and getting them into an ambulance and off to the hospital. I feel tremendous gratitude for the folks at Duke Hospital and Duke Regional who activated their emergency protocols and provided a lot of patience. Several of them severely injured. I feel pride when I remember watching how our leadership coordinated their work on scene especially our brand new Fire Chief Chief Zoldus who's here tonight literally experiencing a trial by fire. I will never forget the courage of our firefighters standing up against that roiling ocean of fire with their hoses just a few feet away and when they grew tired another wave of firefighters took their place. I'm proud too of the outpouring of generosity from our community in the wake of the explosion the businesses and volunteers who provided respite and food to our first responders the folks who established GoFundMe pages to support the families of the victims and to provide relief to the restaurant workers who lost their jobs from the blast. Eight months after the explosion we continued to mourn and we continued to offer our support and we look forward to the reopening of the St. James restaurant shortly after the new year and we celebrate too a city that can produce heroes heroes like the ones I saw on Duke Street in front of that blazing fire Durham Grid that is what defined us on that day and that is what defines us every day. The second moment which revealed the big heart of the city to me was a very different sort of event and it occurred shortly after the polls closed on November 5th and the results of the affordable housing bond referendum began to roll in I hoped the bond would prevail I thought it would but I had no inkling of the enormous margin of victory it would enjoy a whopping a whopping excuse me one second a whopping 76% of Durham's voters supported the bond the bond won a majority of voters in every single precinct and this just wasn't any bond I'm proud to say that it was the largest affordable housing bond by far in the history of this state the bond program is bold it's ambitious it's complicated to explain and it faced plenty of objections including some political potshots and some very legitimate concerns despite all this the bond won a smashing victory because Durham's people want to share our prosperity we said yes to a tax increase in order to house our neighbors who can't afford housing on their own now we need to implement the five year affordable housing plan endorsed so emphatically by our voters it will start slowly it will take time but in the next five years because our voters said yes to a different future for our city the work we do on affordable housing will lead the state and the nation like our response to the explosion the bond referendum too tells the story of our big hearted city this big heart extends especially to our most vulnerable communities while the Trump administration is squeezing down the number of refugees permitted into our country Randy the UN high commissioner for refugees just spent a full day in Durham touring our refugee resettlement agencies he chose to come to Durham because of the way we embrace our refugee community in Durham we welcome and we embrace all people no matter your gender or religion your race or language your country of origin or your documentation status we want you and we love you if you are a Latinx immigrant struggling to stay in this country you are welcome in Durham you are welcome if you are from Mexico or Honduras or Colombia or El Salvador you are welcome in Durham if you are documented or if you are undocumented the president wants to build a wall of hatred through our border this hatred will not win in Durham love will win in Durham are welcome in our schools in our work in all public places we want you and your family to live and prosper here in security in Durham we welcome with open arms and open hearts when I was sworn into my first term as mayor two years ago I articulated what I believe to be this community's vision of our common future a vision confirmed in the results of this past election we want you to understand here is a vision that we, the people of Durham have forged together we, the people of Durham envision a prosperous, innovative green and welcoming city that thrives on diversity and difference that puts racial and economic justice at the top of our civic agenda that defends the vulnerable among us that cherishes robust, respectful debate on difficult questions that demands nonviolence and in our streets that embodies the belief that all residents get an opportunity to share in our newfound prosperity that serves as a progressive beacon for the south and the nation it is a beautiful vision but forging that vision is actually the easiest part of our task the hard part is still in front of us and that is making this vision real that implementation work is going on every day inside and outside of city government and in my state of the city address in a couple of months I'm going to talk specifically about how we are working to make that vision real on that night I'm going to talk about our plans to take on gun violence about the implementation of the affordable housing bond about our economic development program rooted in our racial justice work and about how we're going to combat climate change at a local level in Durham we all know the challenge we face we know that 20% of Durham's people mostly people of color are still living in poverty in our prosperous city we know the consequences of this poverty we also know that we are responsible for changing this as hard as the task may be which brings me to the word of the great labor leader and socialist presidential candidate of the early 20th century Eugene Debs Debs found his common humanity with those in the deepest need and in the darkest circumstances and he said while there is a lower class I am in it while there is a criminal element I am of it while there is a soul in prison I am not free in Durham we are not yet free but one of Durham's own the great John H. Wheeler the short house was named just a few short weeks ago told us how to change that Mr. Wheeler had a motto the fight for freedom he said begins every morning I'll be here tomorrow morning at City Hall beginning this work anew and I know all of you wherever you are tomorrow we'll be doing the same thing together let's make the city we love a city for all thank you and now we're going to have our designation of the mayor pro tem and it is my privilege as mayor to nominate the mayor pro tem and it is my privilege as mayor particularly to nominate my friend colleague friend of many many years and former student I feel it necessary to say that again tell me everything I know Jillian Johnson to be our next mayor pro tem and I will accept a motion that that appointment be affirmed it's been moved and seconded that Jillian Johnson be our mayor pro tem for the city of Durham Madam clerk will you please open the vote please close the vote and the motion passes 7-0 thank you so much congratulations mayor pro tem mayor pro tem I believe you're now to proceed to this microphone and be sworn in by the city clerk state your full name I Jillian Johnson do hereby solemnly affirm that I will support and maintain that I will support and maintain constitution and laws of the United States the constitution and laws of the United States and the constitution and laws of North Carolina and the constitution and laws of North Carolina not inconsistent therewith and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of my office discharge the duties of my office as mayor pro tem pour of the city of Durham as mayor pro tem pour of the city of Durham congratulations thank you thank you and that concludes the organizational meeting we will follow this with our regular meeting but we will first have a five minute recess we will reconvene at 7.52 thank you all for being here absolutely all right as the time is 7.52 and we're back happy holidays move the consent agenda all in favor I all right the time is 7.52 for Mr. Mayor yeah what's going on how are you it's all your fault you know how you doing I want to call this meeting to order I told you I want to call this meeting to order I'm glad to see call this meeting back to order at 7.52 actually we're at 7.53 and we'll now move to we pat our organizational meeting and we have no ceremonial items tonight other than the ceremonial items that we just had if my wife would please come to order okay well that didn't work and now we'll proceed to announcements by the council are there any announcements by members of the council any announcements by members of the council okay we'll now move to priority items by the city manager thank you Mr. Mayor members of the council good evening everyone and I do not have any priority items this evening but would like to take the opportunity on behalf of the city administration and all of our city employees to congratulate you Mayor Schuyl Mayor Pro Tem Johnson and Council Member Reese on your reelection Council Member Caviera on your election and certainly want to reiterate that all of us are ready to be here tomorrow morning with you Mayor Schuyl and begin the work along with the returning members of city council to help further all of your goals and the community goals for the benefit of our everyone so thank you and congratulations again thank you Mr. Manager I do remember when I was elected in 2011 to the city council at 8 o'clock the next morning you called me on the phone so you're definitely ready all the time we appreciate it Madam Attorney any priority items good evening Mr. Mayor Madam Mayor Pro Tem City Council it's good to be with you this evening congratulations to the newly constituted city council I echo all the remarks made by Mr. Bonfield and we have no priority items thank you very much Madam Clerk good evening everyone and congratulations Ditto what City Manager Bonfield said and I have no priority items thank you very much we will now move to the consent agenda the consent agenda can be removed by a single vote of the council these are items that have previously been considered by the council an item can be removed from the agenda by any member of the public or any council member and if it is so removed will be considered at the end of the meeting the first item is item 1 approval of city council minutes item 2 Durham city county environmental affairs board appointment item 3 human relations commission appointment item 4 Durham and workforce item 5 affordable housing performance audit September 2019 item 6 comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year into June 30th 2019 item 7 the strap exchange affordable housing development option agreement for the reuse arts district item 8 loan commitment to Durham housing authority development ventures ink for the JJ Henderson seniors new construction phase 1A item 9 professional services contract with Raimi Kemp and associates ink item 11 propose acquisition of 54.61 acres of 1041 communications drive Durham NC item 12 design build services with Monteith construction corporation for fire and emergency medical service EMS station 18 item 13 utility extension agreement with pinecrest Duke LLC to serve the pinecrest residential development item 14 utility extension agreement with Eno River dialysis owners LLC FKC Eno River contract ST 302 street repairs and repaving project 202 item 16 contract ST 301 C paving services 2020 item 17 contract amendment number 8 for ST 264 C professional services related to favel road improvements item 18 contract amendment number 1 for additional design services for SW 52 D LaSalle street pedestrian improvements tip number EB 5703 item 19 trenchless pipe repairs ST 2018-03 amendment number 1 you have now heard the consent agenda and I will now accept a motion for its approval so second it's been moved and second that we approve the consent agenda Madam clerk please open the vote please close the vote and the motion passes 7-0 thank you very much unless there is any more business to come before this body I will declare this meeting adjourned at 7 57