 open the lights and then the lights yeah okay I know they have our youth and our elders here tonight you got it thank you do you want it do you want to guys want to come over no I don't I don't I don't think Joe Biden's gonna make it this time I'll just ask the president to come a different time you know you know how Barak is any chance yeah awesome it's great oh yeah they'd love yeah so we're gonna do that every week every time we're gonna do that it's done back to the dawn I don't know I haven't seen her was she upstairs she has that proclamation I'm sure she'll be here just stand in for good evening evening evening I'm gonna call this meeting of the Durham City Council to order and I certainly want to welcome everyone here on the 19th of August at 7 p.m. so glad everyone could be with us here tonight and as our first order of business I'm gonna ask you to please join me for a moment of silent meditation thank you councilmember Reese would you lead us in the pledge to flag thank you mr. Mayor good evening everyone actually I'm not going to lead us in the pledge tonight mr. Mayor we've got the Scouts from troop 400 who are here they'll make their way to the front of the room I'm gonna ask them to lead us tonight great I'm center gentlemen loud and proud let's do this thank you guys thank you gentlemen appreciate your help tonight thank you very much to our Boy Scouts thank you councilmember Reese also and now we'll have the roll call madam clerk mere shul here mere pro tem Johnson here council member Alston here councilmember Caballero here councilmember Freeman present councilmember Middleton councilmember Reese here thank you very much we have some very exciting ceremonial items today the really this is one of those evenings sometimes when you just have a lot of great stuff going on at the Durham City Council meetings that have nothing to do with the straight business agenda so really glad to hear to see so many people here for some of these items the first of these items is Sierra Leone day proclamation and I'm gonna ask my colleague councilmember Freeman if she would do the honors tonight evening everyone evening and I'm just gonna ask that the Dr. Prince Heisebel and any others that are here with him come up to accept this proclamation might be running a little bit behind so I'm just gonna read the proclamation that'd be great thanks so whereas Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa and whereas this area was known as a place of refuge for returned slaves in the 18th and 19th century and whereas Creole descendants Union North Carolina was established in 2011 and in it and is a spinoff of Creole descendants Association in the triad and whereas Freetown became a cultural melting pot with a society comprised of four levels of indigenous inhabitants the poor the black poor from England the Nova Scotians from Canada the Maroons from Jamaica and the liberated Africans together these make up the Creoles of Sierra Leone and whereas descendants of these settlers from Sierra Leone West Africa have dedicated their ceremonial time to celebrate as a family reunion as a global heritage weekend whereby various chapters throughout the US throughout the USA and their global affiliates come together in peace unity and love to meet celebrate and remember significant historical facts about their heritage their symposiums celebrations thanksgivings and exhibits and to help pioneer their roles and efforts in helping to make their country Sierra Leone again Sierra Leone gain her favorable and honorable global position now therefore I Steven Imshul mayor of the city of Durham North Carolina do hereby proclaim the 20th of August as Sierra Leone day in Durham and hereby urge all citizens to honor their contributions to Durham North Carolina by participating in relevant ceremonies activities and programs witness my hand and the corporate seal of the city of Durham North Carolina this the 20th day of August 20 2018 thank you very much councilmember Freeman and we will make sure that that proclamation gets to the right folks thank you thank you and now our second ceremonial item I'm going to ask councilmember Middleton to do the honors and join me at the at the podium we're going to be recognizing for the neighborhood spotlight award Gina Chung and so councilmember Middleton thank you your honor I'm gonna ask of Ms. Chung and her guests would come up so we can love up on you it's my honor to read this Gina Chung is the recipient of the neighborhood spotlight for the month of August 2018 neighbor spotlight award recognizes community members that have gone above and beyond in volunteering their time to serve the community this month Gina Chung a resident of the old North Durham community was nominated and selected because of the wonderful work she has done in her neighborhood including but not limited to coordinating block parties and Sunday night dinners to build relationships between neighbors providing general support for neighbors by connecting them to resources and providing food to those in need volunteering to support students in her neighborhood and at the Durham Nativity School congratulations Ms. Chung on being the August neighbor spotlight for the city of Durham and thank you for all the work you do to improve our Durham community there are any other residents that have shown up in support please stand all her folk please stand up all right thank you I want to give my thanks to my family my husband my two boys without whom I wouldn't be able to do this good work they show up to help me set up for parties and prepare foods and clean up the house but thank you to all my friends and family my church family my friends that I've known for so long and for so short to you support me you encourage me you work with me side-by-side and just want to thank you all for that congratulations congratulations again that's a wonderful achievement I'm now going to ask my former colleague and Durham's public historian Mr. Eddie Davis if he would please come to the podium and introduce our history moment and I see he's brought a lot of people with him to help him do it thank you mr. Mayor I want to thank you and your colleagues very much for giving me another opportunity to share one of the many nuggets of history from the 150 years since April 10th 1869 60 since the April 10th 1869 incorporation of the city of Durham by the North Carolina General Assembly the last century and a half has provided lots of opportunities to bring about equity and inclusion in so many aspects of life in our great community even with the progress that we've made thus far we still have to be ever vigilant and consistently aware of equality issues August 26th is designated as National Women's Equality Day in honor of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution which spoke to the rights of women to vote although that right was not totally universal this amendment did make substantial progress in the ongoing quest for equal suffrage in addition to the commemoration of women's equality day we find ourselves in the middle of discussions and debates about judicial issues on the national state and local issues look local levels therefore I thought this might be a great time for the city council and our residents to look back and to spotlight two Durham women who have who were trailblazers trailblazers in the area of females and the judiciary in 1934 Mary Rebecca Mamie Dow Walker was appointed as the first judge for the juvenile court for Durham City and Durham County through this appointment according to the North Carolina sorry according to the dictionary dictionary of North Carolina biography which is published by the University of North Carolina Press judge Walker became the first woman judge in the state of North Carolina judge Walker was a Durham native she lived on Liberty Street she was born in May of 1880 therefore she lived through and was probably involved with much of the struggle for women's suffrage except for one term in 1941 through 42 judge Walker served until her retirement in 1949 judge Walker continued to live in Durham until her death in July of 18 I'm sorry 1960 actually I would like to just say one thing about that that one term in which she was not reappointed at that time it was an appointment by the city council and it appears that she had decided to work with a multicultural team of people that included people like W. D. Heal and John Havery names that we know of today here in Durham but after that the outcry that came when she was not reappointed she was appointed again and served until she retired normally we would have with us tonight some of her relatives one of them who is known by many of you all here is Milo Pine judge Walker was Milo Pines grandmother and her judge Walker's daughter married Milo's father who many of us know as the renowned architect George Pine Milo though is in Mexico exploring the rainforest other things that are associated with the work that he does Milo also asked us to ask his cousin Maryweather Walker to come but she was afraid that the rainstorm that was predicted might be problematic for her return to to Raleigh tonight so she is not here interestingly enough when judge Walker retired in 1949 around that time around the time when she was retiring Karen a child named Karen Galloway now Karen but they are shields was born in the method community in our neighboring county of Wake according to an article listening to history by David Silski published in the January 12th 2003 edition of the News and Observer Karen Galloway but they are shields was one of the first black students to graduate from Broughton High School she would let want me to say though before she went to Broughton High School she went to the renowned Barry O. Kelly High School in the method community she also was one of the first she went to East Carolina at a time when East Carolina also was not admitting a lot of African-American students and then she went on to become one of the early female graduates of the Duke University Law School according to and justice for all a website that documents the art wall at the Durham County Courthouse Aaron but they are shields became the first woman elected by the voters to a judgeship in Durham County after having been appointed to a vacancy by Governor Jim Hunt she was later elected by the people in the fall of 1980 we're fortunate to have attorney and former judge Karen but they are shields with us this evening and if you don't mind Mr. Mayor we'd like to ask her if she would just come up and talk a little bit about her achievements and the people that she has with us with her wonderful please come up good evening good evening thank you City Councilman and thank you Mr. Davis I was thinking what I would say I think I have about an hour no three minutes first I want to let you know that I'm here because of people that pray for me that supported me when I was a child and all through my adult life I got a letter about a week ago saying that next year will be my 45th class reunion from Duke Law School and I thought about how I felt when I was waiting to hear from Judge Hunt whether or not I would be appointed as the judge and I was scared very afraid and my grandmother looked at me and she said I'm gonna sing a song to you I don't feel no ways tired and that became my theme song and I realized over all these years I don't feel no ways tired because of the support that I've had the love I've had I have been blessed all my life and that's why I wanted to serve as an attorney to represent black people and poor people and I am still passionate about the law even though I've been practicing for a long time as a judge I love being on the bench helping people trying to be fair tonight I am proud to have not only my legal family judge Hardin judge O'Neill now Dean O'Neill my church family pastor Newkirk Mrs. Newkirk and also my other pastors friends from New Hope Missionary Baptist Church my church is Oak City Baptist I have lawyers in the audience I have church members would you all please just stand this is the reason why I have made it this far my aunt cat who's standing right there the pretty lady right in the front my niece some way around here right behind me figures all of my friends who have prayed for me and still pray for me I don't get tired I still want to keep on serving whatever I do thank you and I feel humble in glory to God for all this honor in conclusion that's judge Mimi Dowd Walker and judge Karen Galloway Bethlehir Shields helped to carry the quest for justice equality and inclusiveness for Durham for North Carolina and for the United States of America thank you Mayor Shul Mayor pro Tim Johnson other council members and staff members for the opportunity to salute these judicial pioneers thank you very much thank you very much Mr. Public historian we appreciate one more fabulous history moment thank you so much Judge Shields thank you so much for being with us we really appreciate it we're not going to try to keep you all here we know you probably have other things to do than to hear our business so you're not going to hurt our feelings if you decide to leave we're so glad you were here and thank you so much for being here thank you all right thank you so much and now we have our last ceremonial item the the Durham Youth Commission induction are you all going to join me all right so tonight we are going to induct the new members of Durham Youth Commission the Durham Youth Commission is an absolutely wonderful organization that I'm going to tell you all a little bit about tonight and we're then going to welcome the new members of the Youth Commission and and swear them in are they going to be sworn in okay great fantastic authentic youth engagement requires that young people have actual authority and responsibility as well as opportunities to develop the skills necessary to make sound decisions when youth are engaged and share power in the city's decision-making processes everyone benefits youth gain invaluable decision-making skills and a sense of community belonging and purpose the community benefits from the expertise and lived experiences of young people growing up in our changing world the Durham Youth Commission strives to be an example of authentic youth engagement in Durham the DYC was created in 2005 to actively involve young people in policies affecting them broaden the scope of youth leadership in Durham's affairs develop good see civic leadership this year we have 25 DYC members 13 returning and 12 new representing nine schools across Durham the DYC is one of many youth steering committees and advisory boards across the city they're creating opportunities for youth engagement and fostering the core values that we uphold here in Durham values such as civic engagement integrity community teamwork leadership open communications and fairness the Durham Youth Commission will also be working hand-in-hand with the office on youths new city County strategic initiative to develop a strategy to authentically engage youth in local government create a network of youth committees and boards and help facilitate coordination between between Durham's youth serving programs and services it is crucial that we recognize that youth are not the leaders of tomorrow but instead the leaders of today young people have the power to impact and influence the world around us they can be the catalyst driving change in our schools communities state and country this is why it is imperative that we support young people in Durham and use our power to amplify their voices and opinions so at this time I'd like to and I'll actually at least I think you're gonna do the introduction is that right we changed the program I'm gonna invite at least up to do the introduction come on up at least thank you mr. Mayor counsel my name is Elise Frazier and I am the advisor for the Durham Youth Commission I'm also the youth initiative analysts in the city in the office on you for the city of Durham I have the pleasure of tonight to introduce and welcome up here an amazing young woman Jenny Uba who's also a senior at City Medicine Academy this year Jenny is going to come before us and tell us about her experience in the dyc can I just have a round of applause so welcome Jenny and good evening everyone my name is Jenny Uba and this is my third term on the Durham Youth Commission the Durham Youth Commission is by far one of the best organizations I've been a part of being on the Durham Youth Commission has enabled me to meet new people be active in the community form connections and be a well-rounded person without joining the organization I would not have been but I would not have been volunteering and been involved in community in the community as much as I do now the Durham Youth Commission allows the youth in Durham to have a formal role in the city's decision-making process the organization serves as a bridge between the youth and the local government in Durham as members we attend conferences around the state to collaborate and learn from other youth councils and participate in various various service learning initiatives serving on the dyc allows members to take initiative in strengthening the leadership and collaboration skills while undertaking projects and presentations such as this cloudbook or advocacy projects we complete each and every year dyc also enable me to network those connections have a strong work ethic problem-solve and which are all good qualities to have and skills to acquire my membership has allowed me to complete over 80 hours of community service throughout my terms all I enjoy enjoying myself and having fun waking up on Saturday mornings to assist with buying groceries at mobile market or attending parents night out on Friday night to spend time with kids who live with disabilities makes me feel like I've done at least something productive within my day I always find volunteering to be fun productive rewarding and worthwhile and I'm glad I get to experience that on serving on each term for my final term on a dyc as a senior I am looking forward to working on new projects and expanding my knowledge while working with our members in which I consider my dyc family for the new term the dyc is shifting our focus from mostly serving service learning to youth advocacy and engagement I'm really excited for the new term and I can't wait to work with to work with and get to know all the new members hope they will enjoy this new experience on the dyc and find their involvement in the organization to be productive and fulfilling as I did mine I am hopeful and eager in making this term on the dyc another great one like the ones prior thank you I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge you I see members who who would not join us tonight Ray Palmer Riverside High School 12th grade 4th term on a dyc Larry and Whitehall City of Medicine Academy 12th grade 2nd term Blake Armstrong Dean Hillside New Tech 11th grade 1st term on the dyc Anaga John Dan Durham School of the Arts 11th grade first term on the dyc now if all the members of the dyc join me in front in the front and everyone can join me in a round of a pause to welcome them my name is Jake Terry admins I'm an 11th grade at Durham School of the Arts and this is my first term in the Durham Youth Commission my name is Holly Taylor I go to Jordan high school I'm in grade ninth this is my first term in Durham Youth Commission good evening everybody my name is Jessica Uba I'm a senior City of Medicine Academy and this is my third term in the Durham Youth Commission my name is Henry Cruz Reyes I'm a junior at City of Medicine Academy and this is my first term in the Durham Youth Commission my name is John Pachello I'm a senior at Jordan High School and this is my third term on the Durham Youth Commission my name is Miles Leathers I'm a rising senior at Hillside High School and this is my third term on the Durham Youth Commission my name is Tino Mervere I'm a junior at Trinity School of Durham in Chapel Hill and this is my first term at the dyc hi my name is Rita Kibicho I'm a senior at City of Medicine Academy and this is my third term in the dyc hi I'm Rebecca Sausby I'm in ninth grade at Durham School of the Arts and this is my first term on the Durham Youth Commission good evening my name is Lamika Chubb I go to Voyager Academy this is my second year on the Durham Youth Commission hi my name is Wendy McIver I go to Jordan and I'm a junior and this is my first year on the Durham Youth Commission. Good evening my name is Azari I'm a sophomore at Jordan High School and this is my first term at the dyc. Hi I'm Amy at Conspiracy I'm a sophomore at Jordan and this will be my second year on the dyc. My name is Will Goodman Swore I'm a senior at City of Medicine Academy and this is my third year on the Durham Youth Commission. Hi my name is Melissa Mervere I'm a junior at Trinity School of Durham in Chapel Hill and this is my first term at the dyc. Good evening my name is Sarah Patterson and I'm a senior at Durham School of the Arts and this is my third term on the Durham Youth Commission. Hi my name is Buddy Balmsie I'm a senior at the North Carolina School of Science and Math and this is my third term on the dyc. Hi my name is Kailin Provet I'm a junior at Jordan High School and this is my first term in the dyc. Hi my name is Amitari Edmonds I'm a rising junior at Jordan High School and this will be my first term on the dyc. Yeah or just stay up. Just a selfie or just gonna be a photographer. You want to stand here up there? Okay. They're all gonna be taller than me. Oh my god. You got to tell us what to do. As a last little piece of that ceremonial item I'm gonna ask the parents and families of those young people who are here if you wouldn't mind standing. Family members who are here. All right thank you very much. You're most welcome to stay but I know you have homework. No you don't have homework yet do you? Well you have parties to go to so please go out and enjoy yourself. Really great wonderful night of ceremonial items and thanks to all for participating and now I'm gonna ask council members any announcements by members of the council any announcements. All right prior priority items I'm gonna miss deputy city manager any prior priority items. Good evening mr. mayor members of the city council item 18 on the consent agenda was updated on your agenda about five this afternoon the city attorney has a brief summary of what those updates entail so that would be my announcement this evening. All right thank you very much I don't believe we need to take a vote on that. Mr. attorney any priority items. Thank you mr. mayor members of council I have included an agenda item number 18 an edited memo and then the clean version and also an edited in a local agreement and a clean version as well. The edits are fairly straightforward but of course I wrote them so I think they're all straightforward but if you have questions this is on consent I'm happy to to take this right. Great thank you very much mr. attorney. Madam clerk. Good evening mayor and council I do have an agenda item I would like to invite Shilia Arias Abonza forward please. Ms. Arias Abonza is a member of our participatory budgeting steering committee and I would like to administer her oath of office. Please raise your right hand put your left hand on the Bible. Would you like to swear or affirm as I say state your name. I state your name. Shaila Arias. Shaila Arias. Do hereby solemnly swear. Yes. Repeat after me. Hereby solemnly swear. That I will support and maintain. That I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina not inconsistent there with and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of my office as a member of their participatory budgeting steering committee so help me God so help me God I have read I have read understand understand and subscribe to and subscribe to the code of ethics for the city of Durham the code of ethics for the theater of Durham congratulations congratulations we're so glad to have you as a member of our participatory budgeting steering committee that's wonderful thank you thanks for being here tonight thank you madam clerk and now we're going to move to our consent agenda the consent agenda can be approved by a single vote of the council items can be removed from the consent agenda by members of the council or by any member of the public and if removed will be considered at the at the end of our meeting tonight Mr. Mayor I'd like to pull item 18 we'll get there thank you yes so I do not have item 18 yeah so if you did that item came in late and so if you haven't if you hadn't updated your agenda you may need there is an email that was sent to our Durham NC gov email as well that has the that has the item also that has the changes to the memo thank you so let me just look at these folks who signed up here before I okay for the consent agenda item 1 approval of city council minutes item 2 Carolina theater of Durham board of trustees appointment item 4 recreation advisory commission appointments item 5 Raleigh Durham airport authority federal aviation administration FAA grant offer FAA AP grant number 3-37-0056-050-2018 item 8 proposed acquisition of the Durham Beltline property item 9 proposed lease for dirt police district number 2 sub station and 5285 North Roxburgh Road item 10 building inspections online payment functionality module item 12 this item can be found in the general business agenda item 13 to 15 these items can found on the be found on the general business agenda public hearings item 18 contract with the Durham Convention and visitors Bureau for implementation of the city's 150th anniversary celebration in 2019 and that item has been pulled for consideration at the end of the meeting and those are the consent items can I hear emotional the consent items with the exception of item 18 so moved second madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote the consent agenda passes 7-0 thank you very much all right we will now move on to our general business agenda item 12 is the 2018 second quarter crime report presentation we do have one speaker on that mr. Chris Tiffany but we will hear the report first then we will hear mr. Tiffany's comments and then we will have questions and comments by the council welcome chief good evening everyone good evening blinks me pleasure this evening to present to you the Durham police department's second quarter report for 2018 this report will cover our part one violent crimes a part one property crime part one index crime clearance rates response times to priority one calls and staffing levels in addition I will respond to some very specific inquiries made by some of my council members and briefly discuss some of the 2018 second quarter highlights covered in more detail in the companion document that both that that most of you have received already so we'll start with part one index crime January to June 2018 this slide illustrates reported part one index crime which is a total of part one violent crime and property crime part one index crime decreased by 13.5 percent during the first six months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 reported crime was down in six out of seven crime categories as well or overall part one violent crime and property crimes homicide was the only crime that showed an increase property crime made up 84% of all reported part one crime one category larcenies comprised more than half 57% of all part one crime there were double digit percentage decreases and reported rates robberies aggravated assaults larcenies and motor vehicle thefts these decreases are attributable to a variety of factors a renewed focus on uniform patrol staffing successful apprehension of key repeat offenders that had been on our radar much coordination in the Durham DA's office with the investigators and our rivalry task force particularly in the case review process increased involvement in community support which we've seen and in many of our communities to provide information and intelligence in order for us to be successful in these cases and continue hard work on the investigators to try to get timely resolve in some of these instances next slide here is part one violent crime part one violent crime includes homicide rape robbery and aggravated assault part one violent crime was down significantly by 28% during the second quarter due to double digit decreases in robberies and aggravated assaults a focus for the last several months has been the reduction of robberies and aggravated assaults throughout the city particularly in some hotspot areas chief yes sir I usually don't interrupt you but I just want to for one minute yes because on everybody in this room and everybody who's watching this at home to wrap their mind just for a minute around that 28% figure each that is a tremendous achievement we know we can't do that every quarter every half but to have violent crime down 28% for the first half is over last year is a remarkable achievement and I've usually I don't cite the you know because that there's so much variability quarter to quarter in these statistics and they go up for a few percentage they go down a few percentage and I usually think doesn't matter much but that is a big number and I just want to congratulate you I want to congratulate your other chiefs that you have here today in the entire department for this achievement thank you Mayor Schill well well noted sometimes you hit a sweet spot and we we tried several different activities and operations to try to see what we could do with what we had in order to reduce some of the violent crime that we were seeing in the city we have had some good weeks over the last six months and we're working to continue that and I appreciate that and so does my team here a lot of work and a lot of work from the officers who are remaining vigilant and visible which has been very helpful thank you there we go so this chart really sort of illustrates a little bit more about the first six months of the year it's a weekly comparison of reported violent crime during 2018 compared to the same week in 2017 you can see the ebb and flow before we had spikes from certain weeks and of course around our summer months as we start getting into the summer months is it's not unusual for us to see a bit of a spike we're still in the negatives as it relates to our reductions the number reported violent crimes were the same or lower as weeks in 2017 in all but seven weeks during the first six months of 2018 there were 14 homicides during the first six months of 2018 compared to 10 in the same period of 2017 five of the 14 cases remain open at this time the number of reported sexual assaults dropped by 11% six of the reports represented sexual assaults that occurred in prior years robberies dropped significantly during the second quarter 2018 to the lowest second quarter number since 2012 investigators arrested several people who were each charged with committing multiple robberies throughout the city the number of aggravated assault victims dropped by 25% that was huge for us too as aggravated assaults were also a thorn in our side for for several weeks we count aggravated assaults incidents by the number of victims as you know and the number of actual incidents dropped by 22% the number of victims and multi-victim firearm incidents decreased by 36% 34% of all aggravated assaults during the first six months of 2018 were from multi-victim firearm incidents versus 39% during the first six months of 2017 our target is to reach a 30% these are the lowest percentages since 2013 so overall part one property crime was down by 10% this was a 10-year low for the first six months of the year burglaries were also at a 10-year low for the first six months of the year property crime makes up 84% of all part one crime this is a similar chart reflecting property crimes this chart similarly depicts the ebb and flow also of the property crime on a weekly basis for the first six months of 2018 compared to property crime during the same weeks in 2017 and as you can see come June we get those little spikes in our crime reports property crime was down during 18 of the first 26 weeks of 2018 this chart breaks down part one property crime by numbers of incidents overall part one property crime was at a 10-year low for the first six months larceny's comprised more than half 57% of all part one crime 45% of all reported larceny's were from motor vehicles or involved thefts of auto parts and accessories more than 25% of all larceny's involved shoplifting we noticed an uptick in the number of larceny's from motor vehicles particularly from unlocked vehicles with valuables in plain sight we continue to utilize media sources to inform our community members about these reoccurring trends and offer crime prevention tips via social media and other means in order to try to suppress this type of crime of course again the Honda Accord continues to lead in the most sought-after vehicle to be stolen which has been a constant target for the past seven years so all you Honda Accord owners lock them up part in the pun the mayor pro tem it you did you hear that I hear it every every quarter I lock it up good so to our clearance rates we compare our department's clearance rates to other departments our size to FBI statistics in 2017 our population grew so we are now in a higher category of population as shown our clearance rates were bought better than the average for cities our size in all categories during the first six months of 2018 I've highlighted some of those which for me is huge to get these types of clearance rates the homicide clearance rate is at 100% because there are several cases from 2017 that were cleared in 2018 we attribute some of this to like I said before better coordination a laser focus approach from our investigators on on individuals and bans of individuals who are committing certain crimes in our areas these individuals are often involved in other activities like aggravated assaults and gang activity as well so our priority one calls for service there were 4,420 prior to one calls for service in the first six months of 2018 which was a 5% decrease from 4,634 priority one calls during the same period in 2017 our average response time was at 6.1 minutes which was below the target of our 5.8 minutes we answered 51.3% of priority one calls in less than five minutes in the first six months of 2018 which did not meet our 57% was in a better place than it was in the previous quarters I'm also I'd also like to respond to Councilmember Austin who made an inquiry in reference to our priority one calls and the fact that we can we constantly stay at this six minute spot what I did is a little bit of history to see how we got to the 5.8 to and in and doing a little bit of digging I found that between 2001 and 2004 the goal for the Durham police department was set at 6.5 minutes and in 2004 to 2006 the goal was set at 6.1 2006 to 2007 the goal was set at 6.3 2007 to 2011 the goal was set at 6.5 so in 2012 with an increased population and urban sprawl in the city we went to 5.8 we're still holding it down at 6 which is some seconds off that 5.8 but it it it makes you consider the fact that you know the cause for service the goal has gone down and we're still managing to hold on to at least six over the last actually last couple of years since I've been here sort of goes from right at 6.0 to 6.3 from time to time so we will continue to evaluate that as we increase our staffing I'll talk a little bit more about staffing to don't want to change the 5.8 because I'm saying I'm not saying that it's not doable but it does give you some context about where we came from and where we are now thank you so our sworn staffing was at 91% at the end of 2000 the June 2018 quarter today it is now at 98% our non-sworn staffing was at 87% at the end of June 2018 it is now at 88% 19 recruits from basic law enforcement training Academy number 47 graduated recently on August 9th and thank you for those who were in attendance 33 new recruits started in BLT number 48 on August 13th so we graduated a class and immediately started a class this Academy is scheduled to graduate in February class number 47 and 48 represent the department's efforts to achieve diversity in its ranks seating a mix of Caucasian black Hispanic Asian and female recruits we also have three officers in the advanced law enforcement training a let program right now this is an accelerated program for officers who are already certified in the state of North Carolina so in an effort to assist in the investigation a successful prosecution of certain crimes the Durham Police Department reviews applications in the you non immigration status program this program known as you visas is an immigration benefit for victims of certain types of crimes who are currently or have previously assisted law enforcement or who are likely to be helpful in the investigation or prosecution of reported criminal activity by reviewing the certifying applications department seeks to secure the assistance and testimony of crime victims who may otherwise become unavailable due to their immigration status on January 15th 2018 the Durham Police Department updated its you visa policy for certifications historically most cases were denied due to the lack of workable leads the new policy allows for qualifying cases less than four years old to be certified even if the case is inactive we still look for those workable leads however under this new policy modification more requests for you visa certifications are being received and more are being approved today the Durham Police Department is taking a more proactive role in helping crime victims take advantage of this program when eligible using Spanish language radio interviews and social media platforms to communicate policy changes for the first and second quarter 2018 there is a 50 percent increase in requests and a 67 approved 767 percent approval rate compared to 21 percent approval in 2017 due to the increased number of cases reviewed in recent months the department will reevaluate the program in 2019 to consider extending the time window beyond the four-year period and at this time I think this might be an appropriate time to maybe respond to an inquiry by Councilmember Cabrera the reason for someone who might be declined it could be different reasons besides the four-year window it could be that the person or the individual on the report was not actually the victim of the crime we get some of those sometimes we get cases where the individual actually closed the case several years ago themselves in the case is late dormant without any leads or any type of activity because of that individuals request we've had some of those and as I mentioned before of course I have Captain Bond here she doesn't necessarily need to come up but if there are some additional questions or if you think we need to have more discussion I'll be glad to do that yeah I do have some additional questions but I'll let you proceed and then we can come to it okay thank you mm-hmm so our community engagement unit the community engagement unit which was formed earlier this year of the 10 officers that are assigned to the McDougal terrorist community and now also cornwallis of the Durham Housing Authority have been very active they have also been involved in attending meetings in the Durham Housing Authority communities as needed in recent months part one violent crime homicide rape robbery and aggravated assaults and McDougal terrorist dropped by sixty two point five percent on June 2nd the Durham Police Department held a community cleanup in that particular community in an effort to bring community members together and to try to improve the environment in which some of our citizens lived it was well attended we had individuals from keep Durham beautiful fidelity investments of course the Durham Police Department our aka sorority local sorority in the Durham Housing Authority to include parks and recreation we're on hand to help pick up trash residents of McDougal terrorist participated as well in the cleanup in an all more than 1200 pounds of trash was collected that day and of course in your written document there several highlights about different community activities of bingo night that was hell trips that our officers are involved with with some of the young people in that community to try to establish a different kind of relationship between the police officers assigned there and the community members and in our young people they also have gone over to North Carolina Central University some of the young people that live in McDougal terrorists had never set foot on the campus of North Carolina Central University before and were able to meet the football team over there with some of our officers they have been in swimming programs during the summer have partnered with parks and recreation and various types of sports activities and 100 children were taken to the Durham Bulls game by Durham police officers not just in McDougal terrorists and also the Cornwallis communities DPT staff met with DHA employees to discuss turning an old water park that's out there in McDougal terrorists into an outdoor theater this has been some ongoing communication to find other things for our young people to do so they've been working on cleaning up debris from the area trimming back vegetation and power washing the area and now they are working with the department the housing department to identify funds to erect a theater in that area so these are just a few highlights in some of you are already familiar with officer Rousey who assisted and was kind and compassionate in her assistance with a motor vehicle a motorist who was sort of stranded and her loved ones were looking for her and officer Rousey took it upon herself to make sure that this woman was taken off of the freeway she was stranded on I 40 and was just sort of a lost in her you know place and was able to make sure that she got to her her family members officer goss and officer Rogers also assisted an elderly veteran and cook breakfast for this gentleman who was also somebody that was sort of lost in their way and needed to eat and they actually cook the breakfast meal for this gentleman and it was duly noted and appreciated that they didn't they didn't have to go out of their way to do that but they did I liked that the report actually listed what they made for breakfast sounded very good when I saw that I said that does sound pretty good and then the last but not least of course there are others but these just sort of stood out that investigator Gardena was assigned a call about a woman who was more who's motorized wheelchair was stolen from outside her apartment where she had to keep it because she couldn't lift it to bring it inside the apartment investigator Gardena purchased items and built this woman a ramp on his day off so she could get her wheelchair into the apartment in addition he ended up donating a vehicle not a vehicle but a wheelchair a motorized wheelchair for this person this motorized wheelchair was one that was owned by one of his relatives and he donated it to this woman so that she could be mobile and get around and last but not least our new headquarters is in its final stages right now the building is on East Main Street and it's on its track to be completed by the end of 2018 new headquarters will house the current headquarters staff in Durham emergency communications as well as Central District 5 and forensics public open house and festivities is scheduled for October the 20th I also have a response that I want to provide an additional response council member Austin on the speed enforcement operations and how are speed enforcement locations selected so large-scale speed enforcement operations have been held monthly in an attempt to reduce the number of serious and fatal crashes in Durham last year the number fatal crashes was at a five-year high in the city and we're currently ahead of that number this year the locations are chosen by the North Carolina Department of Transportation's top 10 accident locations reports and also complaints from citizens who will sometimes call me directly sometimes call other city officials or call the actual district to to complain about traffic issues and that's how we sort of identify the various locations we are also somewhat limited in choosing locations because of the number of officers that have to be situated in order to run these types of operations so it has to be an area that's safe and logistically feasible in order to set it up but it is driven by data and not just on a whim so to speak and another inquiry into the juvenile arrest so there were 206 juvenile arrests and out of those 206 your inquiry was really about how many were from the school system after taking a deeper dive into the 206 there were nine that actually came out of the school system not too many not so significant that it looks like a problem or anything but the age ring was was from 12 to 16 years old one was a weapons violation simple assault two were burglary one was a vandalism two were larceny charges a stolen property charge and that just kind of gives you an idea of what those different charges were and I think that was it for your inquiry thank you very much okay and I did want to mention as well while I'm here that citizen complaints are down they're actually down 80 percent which is huge the actual numbers of citizen complaints from 2018 2017 went from 525 complaints this time 2017 to 5 this time this year our administrative investigation is those investigations that we actually initiate are up about 75 percent which means that we're doing a little bit investigating internally more on various types of infractions so I wanted to share that with you as well and as I say at most of these investigations investigations were initiated by the Durham Police Department and I think that might conclude my report thank you chief thank you for a great report I'm going to council members before I excuse me before I ask for your questions and comments we do have one speaker on the item mr. Chris Tiffany mr. Tiffany if you would come to the podium and you have three minutes and then we'll get the chief back up for questions and comments thank you chief how to lie with statistics it's got cartoons and examples of some of the ways PR experts lie deny and hide from reality official reports are PR documents they are and they are PR experts skilled at public relations media relations and government relations management think critically about official statistics what's missing what are they not telling us for example complaints and crimes reported by the police they're not the same as crimes and complaints reported to the police you can make a complaint but that doesn't mean that they'll file your complaint it's practically impossible to see what they fail to document like ticket fixing or misconduct complaints may just to go away and in bureaucracies it's undocumented it's invisible as if it never happened when you hear the word undocumented think undocumented crimes and undocumented use of force by the police they told council that they do not document pedestrian stop searches or even use of force against pedestrians unless they suffer reportable injuries and they don't report pedestrian searches unless they report taking contraband search and seizure of contraband for pleasure or profit is armed robbery and I've seen cops commit armed robberies but don't complain seeking ordinary criminals on complainants it's just one of many ways they can make complaints and complainants disappear into week reported the cops threatened witnesses and even family members of complainants and witnesses and after she was brought in to replace chief Lopez singled out by WNC and investigates for not documenting force use of force David said in response to a policy complaint about use of force not being documented by the police or she said civilians report use of force to the review board amateurs they don't take complaints and after her last quarterly report when I re when I complained and tried to tell her about efforts to stop public searching she got me off and said surrounded by her command staff I don't want to hear about it and turned her back and walked away again first asked from the front desk all the way up the chain of command knows she does not want to hear about embarrassing complaints the department does more to deter complaints than to determine the conduct I've handled about a thousand complaints mostly inherited from predecessors but we had professionals to take document and file complaints forward to complaints to operations me to investigate and take corrective action including revising operations policies and during one call could do the same thing here but not unless you let them do their jobs and treat complainants complaints about the police department the same way there's complaints about any other department receive document and file complaints with tracking numbers and require a response within two weeks not say two years later we'll take a look at it fix the complaint system that and other policy failure thank you mr. Tiffany all right your reports your remarks are duly noted sir thank you council members I know we have some questions and comments council member copy here I know you have some things to ask about the UV's would you like to ask those questions yeah thank you for entering my questions earlier I really appreciate it I also appreciate you sending the extra documents that was helpful and so I just wanted to note that and so I have a few questions so some of it is around quarter one and then quarter two reviewing those documents that you sent to me it seems that there was 13 in the first court first quarter and then 12 in the second quarter so 25 people total whose UV's has been denied and in the documents that you sent me the explanation was either four years old comma inactive comma not pending prosecution I understand the four-year limitation I just needed a little bit clarification around the not impending prosecution and the inactive so and Captain Bond can help explain she works with the DA's office also on our UV's the complaints and that when they look at these packages they make a decision whether or not a case is going to be prosecutable so I'll let her to explain thank you good evening good evening Mary and Bond captain with the Durham Police Department what you're talking about the 12 and 13 that are inactive they're basically cases with no workable leads the way our policy is written case that is over four years old needs to be pending prosecution or have solvability factors and so those 12 are cases that there are no other leads for the investigators to move on so I sort of lumped it together so if they're over four years and there aren't any active leads then it would go into that category or if they're over four years old and the prosecution was declined which occasionally happens but the majority of them there's just no workable leads okay and it's for either one of you how familiar are you with the federal recommendations around UV's I've seen the law enforcement guidelines okay and so do you think that this policy aligns with what the federal recommendations are I'm asking because my understanding was that it wasn't around it was whether the victim was cooperative or not and whether it met the type of crime that was a lot you know the fulfilled an obligation right so those are two of the categories it has to be a qualifying bond could you come up to closer to the microphone thank you that has to be a qualifying offense on the i-918 form they have to be willing to prosecute and have been cooperative with the investigation and then they don't have a time frame frame per se but there are all the others other factors are required so besides the time frame all the other limitations on it are from the federal yes from the federal process right so I'll give you another example we get a lot of cases that come in that are robberies and a robbery is not a qualifying offense right but part of a subcategory of a robbery would be a kidnapping so the statutory elements have to be similar from the broader category of the i-918 the uvisa qualifying offenses to what our statute says so when I get ones that are say robbery which are a good portion I'll use the qualifying offense as either unlawful restraint or a kidnapping because most of people aren't free to leave in those situations okay thank you yes ma'am I had one last question and typically how long does it take you to process a uvisa certification either through denial or approval depends on the case so I can get some and go through reading the report contacting the investigator and then looking into other databases sometimes in 30 minutes I have one that's been on my desk now for two weeks there's a discrepancy between the victims name that we have and their date of birth and what the attorney sent and the last thing I want to do is fill out the form incorrectly and then then have to go through the whole process and the victim have to pay the attorney more money for taking it back before before the the hearing so I'm waiting for a response from the attorney thank you so I just want to say and I know we've had this conversation before and I appreciate the work that your department has done around this and I I know you're looking at in the new year you know at least reviewing the current policy and my hope and expectation is that we will get rid of the time limit that's currently there which is four years because that does not align with what the federal program has allowed thank you okay thank you very much other comments or questions council members council member Reese thank you mr mayor hi chief how's it going hey i'm good how are you great report I just want to state for the record when you were last here for your first quarterly report I believe the mayor was really playing down the progress that you made and was like we we we can't draw too many conclusions from this first quarter as I recall I was effusive in my praise and I want to say that again the work is speaks for itself I think one of the unsung heroes of this of this type of work is the deep community engagement that you and your department are engaged in you personally are always in the community we were ran into each other a number of times on the national night out a couple weeks ago and just the the level of the level of caring that you bring to this job and the people this city is really extraordinary and I want to thank you for that I want to single out an an area that I'm hoping you'll have someone take a look at that I've become aware of over the last couple of weeks as you may know we recently installed a new bike lanes on south Roxbury road in south Durham I believe that's district two on that side of Hope Valley district three district three I'm sorry I should know that's my district the one that I live in the the lanes are finally installed and as you may know that called for each direction of travel to be reduced from two vehicle lanes to one and the other lane that's now no longer a travel lane there is a barrier area that's been painted off as a crosshatch portion and then a bike lane a fantastic bike lane that I saw some folks riding on earlier this weekend and it looked fantastic thanks for you guys doing all the great work in transportation but one thing I have noticed on the neighborhood listserv especially next door is that there are constant reports of drivers using that bike lane as a second lane of travel and because it's on the right side they are passing people on the right not only endangering any cyclists who may be in the lane but also people in the actual travel lane who are trying to turn right into their own neighborhoods so I just hope you'll reach out of the folks in district three and have them be vigilant about that particular area because it's it's a new traffic pattern and the reason they did this change in the in the configuration of the street was to try to calm down some aggressive drivers my suggestion is that without without some additional enforcement that might not be successful so I wanted to put a bug in here about that. Speaking of aggressive driving I wanted to heap some praise upon some folks in district two over the last couple of months there's been a driver they call him blue Prius man and old North Durham and Watts Hillendale who's been engaging in some very unsafe behaviors threatening behaviors with his car I want to sing like Captain April Brown Sergeant Tammy Tuck and Lieutenant Melissa Bishop who've worked with folks in those communities to identify this person also we just have to say that we did Lieutenant Bishop in an email to one of the community folks who are working on this issue from the neighborhood side it struck me that her her description of their investigation of identifying this person was such that she was really concerned about this person's mental well-being and identified the ability to try to put them in touch with resources as opposed to sending a SWAT team in that's the kind of leadership that I really appreciate and I hope you'll let those folks know how much we appreciate that on the council the last thing I wanted to say and again I will let you go is that I I want a second Councilmember Caballero's remarks about the U visa program first and foremost you have done an amazing job at transforming how those applications are reviewed in the police department I know Captain Bond is a big part of that that's why I thank her as well but I also know that this has got to be taking up more and more of her time in doing this work and so as you move into planning for next year and as you begin to take a look at the the resources necessary not only to accomplish what you've done so far but to broaden the time scope of the applications that will accept I hope you'll talk to us about the resource needs you see in your department and whatever we can do to make that option available to more folks in our community I think we'll be willing to do so thank you for considering that as the as the year progresses look forward to hearing more about that thank you chief absolutely thank you thank you mr. mayor thank you councilmember race other council members with questions or comments councilmember Middleton thank you mr. mayor good evening chief and to your command staff that are here good to see all of you first I want to say how much I have appreciated attending the graduation ceremonies from basic law enforcement training it's it's it's difficult or challenging not to sit there and get to sense that these officers aren't being drilled with what we expect and and the best that we expect and in a constitutional democracy and and upon from those that we bestow that badge upon and that those that that air or stray from that it isn't because they weren't told and it wasn't drilled in them and I just want to commend you um on the job you've been doing command uh commend this command staff and commend those that train officers they're very moving uh ceremonies and umbling ceremonies and kind of reset uh ceremonies for me as well as I ponder um our democracy and ponder what it looks like um to be accountable to one another um and and the civilized constitutional democracy so I want to thank you for that and I enjoy attending attending the ceremonies I want to ask you about the community engagement units and the success and I think that uh particularly in mcdougal terrace um I think a lot of the success can be directly attributed uh to the community engagement unit that's there I think it is a vindication of why you're here and I think it's a vindication of what a lot of us have been saying in this city for years regarding the power and efficacy of community policing I want to ask you how do we replicate it now and I heard you uh I saw in a report that you've been having uh conversations in other communities I talked to people in oxford manor my church is uh partnered with oxford manor and we talk to folk in oxford manor all the time um from a staffing point of view is there something we can do how do we replicate that uh around the city and I know it's you're probably gonna say money staff but but talk to us about the success of that and and what can we do uh to give gas to that engine yeah um I don't think it's money you know a lot of the success in that community has a lot to do with people having the heart to be in that community and um individuals that know how important it is to have good relationships with the community members that live there and those little kids that live in that community who in another five to ten years will be adults and have some impression of who police are and to replicate that throughout the department that's part of the cultural competency that we are working on in helping our officers to understand that community policing is who we are every day is is how we engage in everything that we do taking opportunities to show a different side of humanity um I have to to add this I if you haven't watched it there is a documentary out called king in the wilderness it's a new documentary and that documentary is about Martin Luther King and it's probably the most intimate um taping of his life and his encounters with the least of these but it is a start reminder to anybody in a leadership position that our work is not about us it's not about us and there were people who died so that I could stand here today people died so that we have council members that don't look like clones and there is a level of commitment that I have to the community in which I serve every day so the uniform is what we do but serving humanity is who we are and who we should be and if we don't have that part right then we need to work on changing the mentality of our officers so that cultural dynamic that we see across the country has a lot to do with the speed of the leader the speed of the leader is the speed of the troop and I believe that so that's why my staff here they know how important community engagement is to me not just from a policing standpoint but as a member of the community and that we all should be held accountable to do what we can to impact change and to have a department we're in a position to be a model agency we really are there people that are trying to emulate what Durham is doing in spite of what people might think we're trying to do some good things it takes time to evolve into that there have been challenges there have been distractions but I remain focused on what I've been called to do so we are going to continue to work on the culture of our department to be servants in the work that we do every day so I didn't mean to digress not at all that's sort of you weren't digressing you were preaching it was brilliant amen thank you chief and and final final question the point question everything you've just said has been concretized we we actually have an engagement unit in mcdougal terrors yes in cornwallis I guess my direct question is are there any plans to do this at our other housing complexes in the city and in perhaps in other places as well absolutely those happen to be the communities that seem to have the most challenges and we know what those challenges have been there are other communities that I I feel deserve that same level of service and that same not just from the Durham police department from other areas in city government that that can partner with us to try to impact change in you know how young people stay out of criminal justice systems in the first place you know I've said it before I would love to see somebody put the police department out of business then we will all live happily ever after but if we don't work and be more proactive in those other communities that you speak of with that same type of engagement that my guys and mcdougal terrors have then we'll continue to be doing these reports and things but with that said we plan to continue to grow on that that model you know and other housing areas and other apartment complexes too thank you chief thanks to the men and women of your command thank you mr. mayor thank you councilmember any other council members questions comments I have a few questions of my own and comments I just want to again acknowledge the very significant drops in violent and property crime and I will continue to say I think it's going to be hard to sustain but I'm thrilled about where we are and chief uh councilmember reese is right I was I didn't think we could sustain it into the second quarter and good job thank you I'm wrong on occasion chief I'm gonna try to put a pin in it I don't know yeah now that's fantastic I mean the the the robbery and aggravated assault figures especially are great uh clearly the robbery task force making a huge difference and not you can tell that not just in the drop in crime but also in the clearance rates yes which I think are something like twice the national average for robberies and so congratulations that congratulations and to be above the FBI average and clearance rates in every single category is fantastic I noticed that the drug violations are about 50 percent below 2016 again I think I know that this in large part due to our pre-arrest diversion into the misdemeanor diversion program I want to again uh encourage the continued use and support of that program and appreciate you command staff and the officers in the department for making use of the misdemeanor diversion program which I think has been really effective in in keeping people first-time offenders potential offenders out of the criminal justice system so that they don't start to start their life with a record that can follow them forever and I think what we're doing with the misdemeanor diversion program in terms of the supports that are offered they are great I've been really pleased with a lot of times we don't have the ability to follow up in terms of the services and so forth needed but I think in this program we really have and I commend the other agencies that are working with you for that the police recruits I noted that one of the things I noted that we have had some uh in the past where we have seen a lot of recruits in the in the charts that you give us who have failed the tests especially the written tests but written or physical I noticed how few of these recruits had failed that test and I'm not sure why that is maybe selection of the potential recruits but uh do you have any comments on that well you know I don't know if it's the selection or if it's the effort of the staff to try to make sure that our young people that are going through this training they understand how arduous it is and to work with them in their study habits and being very intentional especially on some of the blocks that are very complicated there are a couple blocks that are very complicated and quite frankly our young people don't do do very well I now sit on the North Carolina Commission for Training and Standards and in my first meeting one of the conversations was that test and the actual re-evaluating the test so that is something that it is in the process because of that very reason the failure rate so I was glad to see ours that had our failure rate had really gone down that was great the UVs at figures I again want to say I really appreciate the change of policy that you initiate the beginning of this year I think it's making positive difference in a lot of lives and I think that's making positive difference in a in in the life of our community as well and I want to thank captain bond for her work on that and it's great to see those numbers go up I do I'm very hopeful that you'll be re-evaluating at the beginning of the year and that you will be extending the time past the four years with that may induce a small surge of people who are coming in after that but I think after that we will be back into kind of our regular order of applications so I hope you'll give that strong consideration absolutely so many of the uh as the the report which I know that we publish on our website has so many individual stories of officers who have done so many terrific things either as community members some of the some of the officers that you cited but also just the simply the great police work that some of these folks have done the robbery task force the mentioned officer Gardino for the wheelchair donation but also he was extremely effective during the same period as an investigator the officers who performed CPR mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save lives and the officer's doing a great job in reducing violent crime so to me um well let me just mention one thing that I think is uh on there's a slide with part one violent crimes and I just want to ask you all to look at it looks to me like burglary it says burglars are down less than one percent I think burglars are actually down when I did the numbers about 4.5 percent but anyway take a look at that for the future no need to check on that now but it is something that I meant that I did that I did see and I think my math is right um we are in a way uh I think that when you just look at the numbers I think that we are in a place in policing in Durham that we haven't been in a long time and this is a tribute to you all who lead the department and the officers and that is this place which is violent crime is down tremendously property crime is down significantly and at the same time we are greatly reducing the criminalization of small acts especially by young people through the misdemeanor diversion program and our and also through our written consent to search policy I think we are doing what we hoped we would do which is reduce the criminalization of small acts and devote our resources to the reduction of violent crime and I think what that means we're doing that we're reducing violent crime at the same time as we are building trust in the community and that is a sweet spot and all tributes to you the department and all the other community partners that are helping to make this happen I'm I do have one question that of concern that I wanted you to address and we have we during between during this last quarter we had an officer involved shooting in the last couple of weeks and I think whatever that happens we all have to ask ourselves very very deep questions I know this the SBI is investigating and the and your standards division is investigating as well and so I know they're ongoing investigations I'll just express my concern and and then just would love to hear any comments you have I have in the past I have thought that there were two times over the past few years when I have felt that the department could have improved what we have done regarding people who were mentally ill and had a gun or what was thought to be a gun and ended up in both times in an officer involved shooting and the death of those two people one of them was the young man in ccb plaza several years ago the other was and I believe his name was Derek Brooks the other was Levante Biggs in both of those situations I have been concerned that mentally ill people who were in an unstable situation that we I was concerned that we did not use the requisite patients that we we needed to be spending more time if necessary waiting out people and I have been and I've raised these concerns both of these chief were prior to your arrival but I know that the other chiefs here have heard me raise those concerns I believe that this situation was significantly different than that than that in the sense that at least from my understanding of the situation there was a this was not a situation where someone was known to be kind of holed up somewhere with a gun and we you know could have surrounded and waited but this was a mentally ill person a person who clearly was you know in many ways at least from reports during the day a dangerous person had been doing dangerous very very dangerous things but was also mentally ill person and I'm not asking you to to say what you know exactly you think would have happened or could have happened because I know there's an investigation but I just wondered if you could offer some perspective on how the department ought to be thinking about approaching people who are mentally ill you know who have a gun and and you know kind of how you would differentiate differentiate certain situations that kind of thing so that was a long question comment but if you had some comments I'd appreciate it well my response to that and of course it is an ongoing investigation as you said Mayor Schill is that we have to always look at the training that we provide for our officers and we want our officers to exercise utilize the training based on the situation at hand none of these situations have mirrored the others especially the ones that I have been involved in and most of them haven't even come close I can say that I think this is one of those situations that once the SBI has concluded the investigation that we will continue to look and evaluate our training our officers are trained in crisis intervention they utilize crisis intervention on a regular basis and have have proven that and I do believe they utilize that on that night as well and I'm going to leave it at that okay yeah yeah that's fine thank you and I appreciate your continued continued attention to that I think we all know the role that mental illness plays in some of these crisis situations so I really appreciate the training I really appreciate the fact that I know officers including on this night are in very dangerous situations and have to react quickly absolutely I'm very cognizant of that and I'm not critical but would appreciate all the attention you can give to this because I have said I have believed in the past that there have been situations where waiting longer could have saved a life I'm not contending that's true in this case but I hope you'll give attention to it all right other council members mr. mayor yes council member freeman thank you I also attended my first graduation I want to say that it was interesting I want to echo Middleton's comments around the experience of recognizing how much is poured into each cadet or that's the right word recruit cadet you're absolutely right that's fine but I was really touched by how much of a commitment each of the trainers made to each of those moving from trainee to service I also wanted to make sure that I I mean I'm just in awe this the police and policing side of things is not my wheelhouse so new to that area and I'm learning a lot I also wanted to say that I really appreciate the expansion that I'm seeing with the police athletic league and recognizing on a much more positive note I don't want to leave on a negative one that there there's a lot of officers who spend a lot of volunteer time um serving on these serving as coaches and I really want to figure out that there's a way to support them as as best as possible with the more city services well we appreciate that one thing about the police athletic league and this is a not just for the police athletic league here in this city but the success of police athletic leagues is primarily because a lot of the young people that our officers deal with on a day day-to-day basis some of them are pretty tough kids and they're the kind of kids that get kicked out of parks and recreation and some of the other facilities that you know they might want to go to and our officers give them a little bit of tough love sometimes they have kids and they help these kids get by some very difficult places in their lives especially at the age of 10, 11, 12 and 13 after that it's a little bit too late so I appreciate that support I don't have an opportunity to talk about the sacrifice sometimes that they do make on their own personal time and the kind of contributions they they deposit in some of these young people's lives but coming from council that is a very positive thing to share for them and I'll let them know that thank you thank you thank you council member freeman chief thank you thank you we've held you a long time tonight and but we appreciate your report to your staff thank you very much we're very appreciative of the work you do and please pass that on to the department absolutely thank you thank you too all right well now move on to the general business agenda public hearings and the first agenda item is item 13 a zoning map change for 1900 hillandale road 2 and I will ask if we can have the report from staff thank you jica begins with the planning department before I begin I'd like to note that all the planning items this evening have been noticed and advertised in accordance with both local and state laws and affidavits are on file the planning department noting such so for this item this is a request received from Pamela Porter for three parcels of land generally located at 1900 hillandale road comprising approximately 1.3 acres the subject site is present presently zoned residential suburban 8 the applicant is requesting a zoning designation of residential urban multifamily with a development plan excuse me if the development plan is approved this will permit a maximum of 15 townhouse units at this site some key commitments on the development plan the aforementioned 15 unit maximum some additional buffering along the eastern property line of the subject site the side access points as well as design commitments the Durham planning commission at their June 12th 2018 hearing recommended approval by a vote of 12 to 0 staff determines that this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable policies and ordinances two motions would be required to approve this item the first would be to adopt a zoning excuse me the first would be to adopt a consistency statement and the second would be for the zoning ordinance and i'll be happy to answer any questions that you all may have thank you very much mr wiggins you've heard the report from staff and i'll now declare this public hearing open and first i'll ask if there are any questions for mr wiggins by members of the council just one specifically yeah uh so i noticed that this one this zoning map change has a development plan is that just because or is there some specific particular reason why it was included it was the applicant's choice this is the the argument is not a district which requires a development plan so i really want to thank the developer for using their right i meant yeah i imagine he's here so thank you appreciate it you're getting a thumbs up from the developer back there councilman okay um thanks um other questions at this point for the for for staff all righty uh i am do not see any speakers for this are there any does any is there anyone that would like to speak on item 13 is there anyone who would like to speak on item 13 any members of the public who are here there's a public hearing who would like to speak on item 13 all right uh if not uh council members um any other questions or comments i have one any other okay uh go ahead councilmember carbietto um i'm just looking at the the b-pack comments i'm just wondering if there was any updates yeah that was my question as well the off-site sidewalk from the property to dartmouth and if the developers here maybe you could comment on that thank you uh this is the the come on up and i'll you want to you go ahead ask the question if you'd like and i'm just really i'm just noting that the response from the applicant which is user uh was to um not provide the suggested pedestrian access access on the development plan and i'm just curious as to why sure um simple answer is can you introduce yourself yeah i'm sorry my name is jim anthony and i am the developer of this lot and unfortunately we've got some of our neighbors here that we've worked with over months to get this brought to your table today um we had discussed uh the opportunities of installing a sidewalk along the street which we intend to do along our frontage on the street did not want to carry it beyond that frontage we have not had any sort of conversations with the neighbors whether they want a sidewalk crossing their lot or not we didn't feel like that was our place to force them to accept a sidewalk thank you welcome thank you yeah i i uh you know this was raised in a couple of the items denied and is often raised about the off-site sidewalks uh small segments that could help us complete our sidewalk network and i understand mr anthony's point you know that these are other neighbors and that they have their own choices about that but it is also um you know it is something that i in one of the planning commission members several times recently mr al turk has mentioned in his comments the need to reevaluate this and and how we view it um so i think that's a good idea i also know that their people have property rights and uh it's it makes it for a complicated situation but thank you for raising that councilmember middleton thank you mr mayor very quick question what are the anticipated price points of the units you're seeking to develop that has not been finally determined but i am guessing that somewhere in the 200 to 250 thousand dollar price range okay okay thank you all right you have heard the the answers to the questions and um have any more comments or questions anyone on public wish to speak on this item if not i'm going to declare this public hearing close the matters back before the council any any uh do i hear a motion to adopt the consistency statement so moved second moved in second to adopt the consistency statement madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote the motion passes seven zero thank you and the second motion is to adopt an ordinance of many the udo by taking property out of the commercial neighborhood with a development plan so any district can establish in the same as commercial neighborhood with a development plan move back in it's been moved and seconded that we adopt the ordinance to amend the udo madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote ordinance passes seven zero thank you very much i had met with some neighbors uh concerning this previously and i want to say that i think this is a much improved uh proposal and want to appreciate you all and i want to appreciate developer for working with the neighborhood thank you well now move to item 14 zoning map change 5246 north roxford road mr ma'am uh jacob wiggins of the planning department i would leave the previous motion that was read was for the next case and not this particular case i was just trying to trick you thank you it almost worked all gone you were paying attention okay that was i'm sorry that was motion two we'll do it again to adopt in order to amend the uda by taking private other residential suburban rsa zoning district and establishing the same as residential urban multifamily development plan rumd i'll move that mr ma'am thank you is there a second madam clerk will you please open the vote and my apologies close the vote the motion passes seven zero thank you very much thank you very much mr wiggins for correcting me and now we'll move to zoning map change 5246 north roxford road thank you jacob wiggins again with the planning department this is a zoning map change request for property located at 5246 north roxford street totaling approximately 1.9 acres the subject site is presently zoned commercial neighborhood with a development plan and the applicant is also requesting commercial neighborhood with a development plan the development plan governing the site was approved in 1987 and restricted the use of the site to a family care home the current development plan in front of you would permit any uses allowed in the cn district save for those that do not trigger the need for a traffic impact analysis some key commitments on the development plan associated with this request would be a maximum of 20 000 square feet of commercial floor area a potential transit stop along north roxford street side access point as well as design commitments at their june 12th 2018 hearing the planning commission recommended approval by a vote of 11 to 0 and the staff determines that this request is consistent with the comprehensive plan two motions are required one for the consistency statement and the second for the zoning ordinance and i'll be happy to answer any questions the council may have at this time thank you very much mr wiggins you have heard the report from staff and i'm now going to declare this public hearing open we have one member of the public who's signed up to speak on this mr jim clark mr clark you have three minutes good evening my name is jim clark as you said i work for paps design group local engineering firm in raleigh and i'm speaking on behalf of this application representing the ownership as well as the professional engineer that prepared the development plan and i'd be happy to answer any questions that you all might have or anybody in the audience might have from an engineering standpoint or questions about the application itself thank you mr clark are there other members of the public that wish to speak on this item are there any members of the public that wish to speak on this item council members do you have question for the applicant or for staff if not i would if the state just a statement to say that i appreciate once again the included development plan thank you uh i'm going to declare this public hearing closed and the matter is back before the council there are two motions that are required the first is to adopt a consistency statement the second is to adopt an ordinance amending the udo is there a motion to adopt the consistency statement so moved second moved and seconded madam clerk will you please open the vote please close the vote the consistency statement passes seven zero thank you do i have a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the udo so moved second been moved and seconded to adopt the ordinance amending the udo madam clerk will you please open the vote please close the vote ordinance passes seven zero thank you thank you mr clark we'll now move to item 15 consolidated dated items hillsborough at coal mill road good evening i'm jamie sunyak with the planning department requests for a zoning map change has been received from dan jewel for nine parcels totaling approximately five point zero seven four acres located at thirty thirty five seventy eight hillsborough road the subject tracks are currently zoned industrial and industrial light the applicant is requesting a zoning designation of one point five six three acres of commercial general with a development plan to expand the existing convenience store with a gas station and add a car wash and four point one four one acres of industrial light with a development plan to build a hotel up to 90 feet tall the applicant also requests to change a portion of the future land use map designation from commercial to industrial to have the industrial light designation coincide and conform to the future land use map in addition there is a portion of christian avenue shown on the development plan which is proposed to be closed key commitments on the development plan associated with this request proffered commitments of the uses stated above and the street closure as well as cross access easements between the two properties and connecting christian avenue avenue to coal mill road the Durham planning commission at their June 12th 2018 meeting recommended approval of the proposed by a vote of 12 to 0 staff determines that these that these requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable policies and ordinances three motions are required for this application the first is to amend the future land use map the second is to adopt a consistency statement and the third is for the zoning ordinance i will be happy to answer any questions you have thank you very much miss sunyak you've heard the report from staff i'm going to clear this public hearing open and first i'm going to ask if there are any questions or comments questions for staff by members of the council any questions for staff at this point by members of the council all right if not we have one speaker on this item signed up mr dan joule mr joule welcome you have three minutes thank you mr mayor good evening mr mayor members of the council i am dan joule with culture jewel tims i'm here at the request of homes oil mr edward homes who's with me here this evening to make this zoning request to you this site was occupied by miller truck body for many many years those of you are familiar with the site know it's covered with big metal and concrete block buildings parking lots that are starting to break up and barbed wire fences around the outside there's also an old convenience gas station at the corner our proposal calls for a hotel of up to 220 rooms up to 90 feet in height as well as a new convenience store with wash bay we think this will be transformative for this corner provide more property tax base bring people to this neighborhood who will spend more money in the community and in general be a huge appearance upgrade to the neighborhood we will be providing stormwater runoff management for the entire site where none exist today as the staff report says we are actually reducing the number of cars from what could be done under the current zoning on the property and of course there are no school impacts associated with this this proposal will also create an internal connection from wordham and christian out to coalmill road so that folks won't have to negotiate that crazy dangerous intersection at coalmill and hillsboro that i think you're familiar with and most importantly 75 to 80 jobs will be created here where no jobs exist today in other words we think that by every measure this proposal will have a positive impact on the neighborhood and a positive impact on Durham and at the neighborhood meeting we held last fall there were in fact no detractors but there were several folks who wanted to know how quickly we could get started well we can get started soon and hope that you will agree with the planning commission on their unanimous approval recommendation for approval and the staff and allow us to move on to the next step thank you thank you mr jule are there other members of the public who are here tonight who would wish to speak on this item is there any other member of the public here tonight who wish to speak on this public hearing item all right if not i'm going to ask council members if you have questions or comments for staff or for the applicant council members i do mr mayor council member reese thank you mr mayor mr jule i had a question for you you mentioned uh first of all i think this is a great location for hotel because it is approximate to one of my favorite restaurants on Durham Cookout right across that busy intersection what's the word used not busy it was crazy crazy thank you that's right and in light of that i wonder if you would speak just briefly uh to your to the applicant's position uh on the BPAC comment concerning pedestrian access in that area yes sir yes sir those comments often come up as you know at many meetings in this case though we we countered back to the staff person in charge of BPAC that there are two uh not just compelling but legal reasons why those improvements can't be made first at coal mill in Hillsborough if you have ever gone through that intersection westbound you don't stop if you're turning on the coal mill road dot is designed a very wide gracious through lane which i tested the other day and i could drive through it at 30 miles an hour and make that turn on the coal mill road without slowing down so i think it would be extremely dangerous to just add a crosswalk and a pedestrian refuge in there i think if it's the the will of the city to make that intersection pedestrian friendly it's going to take some major redesign of that intersection to make work now secondly in terms of the christian avenue frontage and the the front of the taco bell kentucky fried chicken that's in the corner there owned by loon properties so there is insufficient right of way on both sides without moving the existing power poles to put a sidewalk in my client mr holmes actually happens to know the owner of that property and he approached them he said would you be willing to either put the sidewalk on your property or allow the power poles to be moved onto your property because they're to make room for a sidewalk and they declined that i will say in terms of the i also always appreciate mr al turk's comments but in terms of consistency and comprehensive plan i i noticed that we have four relatively new fast-rude restaurants now along that stretch of hillsboro you got zaxby's the crispy cream which we did the most important project ever in durham as far as i'm concerned uh the bojangles and the kentucky fried chicken i certainly don't think that crispy cream was more important in the bojangles all this is true this is debatable there you go but if you notice only one of those properties was required to put a sidewalk along the front the crispy cream the rest of them do not so might be time for a kind of a holistic look at it pedestrian circulation through there maybe the hotel will provide a shuttle over to the cookhouse there you go so i'll talk to him about that thank you mr james you never know what's going to come up with these meetings do you papa i said the same thing about being the most important project in durham other way i can see we're going to have some contention here about our favorite fast food we'll discuss that later we'll discuss that in closed session absolutely council members are any more questions or comments for the applicant or for staff anymore okay i i'll just comment that i think this is a a great place for this project and will be a huge improvement and look forward to it um if not uh if there are no more comments i'm going to declare this public hearing closed and uh the the matter is back before the council the it'll take three motions to do this the first will be to adopt the resolution admitting the future land use map do i hear such a motion moved to a second moved and seconded madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote the resolution passes seven zero thank you now we need a motion to adopt a consistency statement so moved second been moved and seconded madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote motion passes seven zero thank you and now we need a motion to adopt an ordinance admitting the udo still moved second been moved and seconded madam clerk will you please open the vote close the vote ordinance passes seven zero thank you thank you very much we appreciate you we have one more item on our agenda tonight which is item 18 which will on the consent agenda and has been pulled uh and is the contract with the durham convention visitors bureau for implementation to seize 150th anniversary celebration in 2019 um and i'm going to uh asked uh councilmember freeman i believe pulled the item and if you wanted to make some comments and or ask any questions and i will proceed in that way sure i i i really appreciate the the work that's gone into presenting and putting all this together for the germ 150 and uh the questions i pose to our city attorney around making sure that we included um specifically some first nations folks and uh people of color language in the document is not there and so i just wanted to make sure that uh that it was noted why and and then also noting that there were jobs outlined but there was no mention of the livable wage which i also asked them how i'll i'll take those in in the order that you presented them in the memo i did incorporate that language that you had raised in and it's in red there the challenge with putting it actually in the interlocal is that the interlocal is what the durham convention is visitors bureau they're not actually going to be the entity that's going to be making those determinations in fact they're they're essentially a pass through as it relates to receiving money to temporarily hire these individuals it's the convening committee that that actually hires the individuals and and would be the entity that that assures the the equity that you had had raised problem here is that the convening committee isn't a legal entity it's sort of an oversight board over this entire project so what i try to do next best thing was to put it in the memo as a charge to the convening committee and that was based on on on my understanding of the the process and in consultation both with shelly green and of the convention visitors bureau and everly thompson i'm not sure if the mayor has any comments about that but that seemed to be the best place to put that and to highlight that that was the entity that that would be overseeing those equitable issues and then just a question regarding the convening committee is that going to be designated by the durham convention visitors bureau or is it determined by city council when i ask i want to ask shelly green if she wants to come and talk about the uh the convening committee thank you council mayor um the convening committee was can you introduce yourself yes sorry i'm shelly green and i'm president and ceo of the durham convention and visitors bureau and the convening committee was put in place by mayor shul so he asked myself and patrick mucklow who is the executive director of the um museum of durham history to chair that committee and then eddie davis serves on the committee beverly thompson serves on the committee susan amy our chief marketing officer at dcvb serves on the committee we just added uh pilar uh rochka goldberg i always mess the right thank you uh and i'm forgetting somebody else i think i think um emily aggy is she on the emily aggy so that that is the convening convening committee um the only other people that right now we're planning to add to that are the committee chairs of all the subcommittees so we have a fundraising committee we have a opening ceremonies committee a closing ceremonies committee um we have a finance committee that oversees the internal controls and how the money comes in and out and those kinds of things so those people as we gear up with those committees they will also be added to the convening committee thank you and just the one additional question around uh i think i lost my thought on it on the livable well i mean i feel sufficient the sufficient folks and that understand the living wage ordinance that we put in place or on the convening committee yes and and some of the positions are hourly positions and i can tell you that they would have a living wage um and then some of them are contract positions where if you're the um event planner for the opening ceremonies it's it's not an hourly position it's a position by the job and then i'm not sure if i brought this question up in work session and not around making sure we coordinate what i think i did coordinate well with the parks and rec to make sure that the there's enough overlap in the communications and the logos and everything else around marketing to make sure that it's incorporated into a lot of what we do already and so i'm not sure who i'm not sure who i should be maybe we should address that to you shelly first i'm gonna make sure i understand you want the durham 150 logo incorporated into what the city and parks and rec does so specifically the parks and rec is is currently the entity that usually plans special events for the city and recognizing that you know the events like the latino festival this past wasn't the past weekend before where it's the or durham 150 making sure that that's incorporated into that means having a conversation with them on a regular basis yes and that logo will be available to anyone who is hosting a durham 150 themed event um we just haven't gotten to the point where we've put all of the standards in place for how you use the logo and that's what i'm trying to incorporate like trying to make sure that you incorporate people who have been doing this into the process so that they're not just being told what the logo is and the standards and everything else about it on corporate got it okay thank you for those questions and comments and i think that um those are very important uh issues that councilmember freeman's been raising uh in terms of the wages and the and the uh the equity and diversity we want to see represented i know you all are highly cognizant of that but i appreciate her raising those questions absolutely all right are there any other questions or comments councilmember middle yeah mr mayor i just like to say i'd like to echo your comments about councilor freeman's comments well i i just want to go on record saying that i'm if if we just list in the contract should not be viewed as exhaustive and if we think of anything else after the contract is signed i at least certainly reserve the right to make some noise about it so don't view this contract as if we don't put it in there we can't bring it up afterwards i would just like to make sure i'm sorry thank you mr mayor thank you councilmember mr may if i could just be sure to let me know when the convening group meets if i do have these concerns i can bring them up okay well i'm sure that uh shell you can make that make our councilmembers aware yeah thank you okay let me just uh say one quick word about this just to remind people of the structure that we have so uh this is the the group that is getting all this together is private people doing it on their own time we are going to be financing through this part of their work but they're also going to be raising hopefully quite a bit more money to make this work and the whole principle here is that we are not trying to uh that this is this is not a centralized 150 celebration we want to let a thousand flowers blossom if you don't mind me quoting chairman mal and um i think that uh that's the kind of that is the kind of um that's the kind of celebration that we want here in Durham that's going to be very grassroots that for the for brool city 150 we want 150 organizations or more to be celebrating in their own way schools churches civic groups uh it just was uh with the uh some folks at d-pack and urge them to be participating and i know they got right in touch with you shelly so let's urge everybody we can to participate in this uh and we know that participation will be very different for different groups some of them will want to have a big party and some of them will be wanting to do very serious things about important issues in derms uh last 150 and in the next 150 so i'm excited about it uh and uh appreciate you shelly for stepping up to the leadership eddie davis patrick beverly and others who uh who have who have stepped up to this so thank you very much okay i'm now going to accept a motion one more thing mr i just want to let folks know in the community that i am open to all 150 events please send me a notation exactly good i good point yeah i'm sure we'll be hearing about it let me just also say the first email newsletter has now come out that's uh if you are interested in both city 150 and you want to know what all those events are you can sign up for the newsletter in fact i think you've probably got all council members on the list at this point right yeah so uh council members you should be getting uh as these as this as these events come up they'll be added to the calendar and we should be hearing about all of them to remind everybody the official kickoff will be with the holiday parade and we'll take it from there okay i'll i'll accept a motion now on this item so moved second it's been moved in second that we pass item 18 madam clerk we please open the vote close the motion passes seven zero thank you very much the number of items to come before this council i'm going to declare this meeting closed this meeting adjourned at nine 13 thank you council members thank you madam deputy