 The right name, is that my name right there? No name. No name right there. Is there a name right here? Is that me? Okay, good. So how's your day been? I had to serve on an affordable housing panel in Cary for the good evening. Ooh, this thing is picking up everything. Oh, I know how to mute it though, so. Impresses in the room, so don't say anything. You don't want to know. Come on, 6.30. It looks like we need to reschedule this. You gonna make the recommendation? I don't know. Yeah. Sure. Good deal. Well, there are lots of things going on. There's a young professional meat. Joe Riley is here from Charleston and I'm supposed to be there as an elected official. Is that a state fair? A state fair? Yeah, I had speaking engagements yesterday morning and this morning, so I'm about to drop this right now. Time is sort of important. Are we ready? Good evening. I'm John Martin, past president of the Interneighborhood Council of Durham, which is sponsoring this forum. The Interneighborhood Council is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates or political parties. I would like to thank Durham's Television Network Channel 8 on Spectrum Cable and Channel 99 on AT&T U-Verse for producing and broadcasting this event. Close captioning is provided courtesy of the Interneighborhood Council. At this time, please turn off your cell phones and refrain from taking pictures or videos of this forum. Please hold all applause until the end of the forum to save time for more questions. The participants in the forum tonight are candidates in the November 7th, 2017 election for the Durham City Council. Although each candidate represents a particular ward and must live in that ward, all city voters can vote for one candidate in each ward. The candidates are in alphabetical order, Ward 1, Cora Cole McFadden, Deidreana Freeman, and Ward 2, Mark Anthony Middleton, John Rooks Jr., and Ward 3, Sheila Ann Huggins. Bernetta Alston, the other candidate in Ward 3, was invited but informed us yesterday that she had another engagement this evening. Each candidate will make an opening statement of one minute and a closing statement of two minutes. Candidates will be allowed a minute and a half to answer each question and the buzzer will sound when their time has expired. The candidates are asked to observe time limits. All questions will be asked by the moderator. If audience members have questions they wish to submit, please do so at the table at the back of the council chambers. The first question will be a different question for each candidate and will ask about a position they have taken. The second question will be a general question asked to all of the candidates. The remaining questions will be policy questions and in order to include as many questions as possible, each question will be posed to only three of the candidates. However, each candidate will be asked an equal number of questions. Let's begin with the opening statements. Ms. Cole McFadden, one minute for your opening statement. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I am Coral Cole McFadden. I presently serve on the city council and most likely this is a seat I hold every first and third Monday nights. I'm a native of Durham. I'm a graduate of North Carolina Central University. I have served on numerous city council committees, chairing so many of them. I'm a champion for youth for affordable housing, alternative transportation modes. I am involved in the Durham community. I love Durham and I'm running again because I think we need institutional knowledge, consistency, wisdom, and of course a knowledge of Durham's rich history on the city council. And I represent a population known as seniors. And we need a council that is homo, that is not homogeneous. It needs to represent every facet of Durham. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Freeman. Hi. Good evening, everyone. I'm Deidre Anna Freeman and I am running for the award one seat and as a committed community member and resident in this community for the last 10 years, I've worked in the various capacities to make sure that folks in the community had their voices heard. I wanna step back and say that as the oldest of six children, living in a single parent home, I've experienced being a first generation college graduate and chasing after those Pell grants. And I've experienced receiving and meeting the services of food stamps, Medicaid and a variety of others in order to maintain a standard quality of life. I wanna make sure that as an entrepreneur and committed community organizer, I've been committed to doing the same in regards to poverty and oppression expecting poverty and oppression. And it's gonna take bold leadership and I would like to provide that bold leadership in this community. Thank you. Mr. Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Moderator and thank you fellow citizens. My name is Mark Anthony Middleton. I'm seeking the war to see on the Durham City Council. I wanna thank the INC for what they do for this city and what they're doing for our democracy on this evening. I think it's fitting and proper that we are meeting in this particular room. And I think it provides a particularly powerful graphic because there's not just one chair up here. There's multiple chairs, which means that not one voice should rule or one position or one group should rule our city. These multiple chairs represent the need to build consensus and relationships. And for over 20 years in the city I have built relationships across cultural, political, racial, sexual orientation, lines to affect and impact some of the most sadest issues that we talk about in this city from affordable housing to economic empowerment to policing. I'm looking forward to a substantive debate this evening and I'm looking forward to the questions that will come. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Rooks. Good evening. John Rooks Jr. I am an EDI consultant or I would say EDI engineer, but I do consulting work as well. I am co-chair of an organization called Love over Hate and See. I'm also a part of an organization called Men of Vision. That's a great community source organization. I also helped my daughter, my wife and I helped my daughter with an organization that she started. She's 14 years old. It's called Real Kids United, which teaches youth about being responsible, enterprising, active and life principles. I'm running for essentially the reason of our people. Walking through these communities, I hear the stories directly from the communities that are dealing with some of the most pressing issues that address them. And I just wanna make sure that those voices are heard. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Huggins. Good evening. My name is Sheila Huggins. I'm running for the Ward 3 seat. It is a little different for me to sit up here because I actually worked for the city for almost nine years and I'm used to sitting over there. And so during that almost nine year period, I worked in three different departments under five different department directors. I managed budgets. I managed projects. I managed people. I handled the city's real estate. That includes every sale, lease, purchase, donation that went through the city. And so I understand a lot of the challenges that go on behind the scenes. So when the city council votes for something, I understand how the department and the divisions have to go back and carry that out. I also come from a family that's been committed to public service for a long time. My mother serves on the Pitt County Board of Commissioners now, my father served several terms on the Greenville City Council. And so I grew up knocking on doors, registering people to vote, attending precinct meetings. And I understand what it takes to be out in the community. So I ask for your support. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm not going to ask a series of questions, different question for each candidate. And I'll begin this with Ms. Cole McFadden. Ms. Cole McFadden, the People's Alliance questionnaire asked all of the candidates, quote, if the city could adopt an ordinance concerning the civil rights of members of the LGBTQ community, what provision should that ordinance contain, unquote? Your answer in its entirety was, quote, our legal staff takes the lead in crafting ordinances, unquote. The question, of course, is what kind of an ordinance would you support? Are there any measures you would not support? I would support an ordinance that covers sexual identity, identification, if we could do that. You have a minute and a half if you want to add anything to that. Well, it is my feeling that every citizen in Durham should have equal protection. However a person wants to identify himself or herself, it's OK. Sexual identity, sexual orientation would be the new coverages, I believe, that our ordinance don't cover now. Thank you. Ms. Freeman, in the questionnaire that you submitted to the People's Alliance, you said the following, quote, in order to make affordable housing a reality that is sustainable, the city would need to make an intentional investment of $100 million over the next 10 years with social impact bonds that address housing, unquote. Two questions, would issuing these bonds have a negative effect on the city's AAA bond rating? And if the housing units cost, say, $100,000 a piece, $100 million would buy 1,000 units. Would 100 more units a year for 10 years really make a dent in the problem? Thank you. I just want to take it piece by piece and say the first part is that the impact on the AAA bond rating would not be negative in that there's already an existing push to make a value capture bond. And I'm just pushing to make it a value capture that addresses the social impact issues around affordable housing. And then just making sure that you acknowledge that there has to be a process in place to make sure that we're not just looking at housing, we're also looking at how jobs are used in that bond, how supporting small businesses that might be starting out and figuring out ways to support through incubation. The bond itself would not be the only measure to affect affordable housing or sustainability in housing. There would also need to be a partnership across the board and making sure that there are businesses and nonprofit organizations that are also at the table and having the conversation on how we actually address affordable housing. I know that the Durham Housing Authority is leading that charge for the city right now in this Equitable Development Conversation to make sure that there's affordable housing options for people that are low to no income levels. But we also have to have the conversation about how we address affordable housing for people that are at moderate to mid-income levels as well. So there are multiple conversations. There are multiple levels to this. And it's not a simple like just apply 100 million to affordable housing. It's actually a process in which we would have to have community conversations about what was on site. Thank you. Mr. Middleton, in one of your answers to the People's Alliance, you said, either the city can totally cease and desist on improving zoning for projects that fuel and satiate the epicurean taste of gentrifiers, or the city can summon the political will to do what is necessary to stabilize existing and off times historic neighborhoods with our municipal treasure, unquote. But in many neighborhoods, rezoning is not even necessary. Small houses and duplexes are being torn down to build expensive new houses with the same zoning. What would you do about that? Thank you for the question. The first part of my question was it was responding to what I thought was an air of unrealistic, of unrealism in the conversation. And that is, we talk about gentrification as if it's an exotic thing and not a byproduct of capitalism and market forces. So the first part of my answer was to place the conversation in proper context. We who will be elected officials cannot pretend that we don't understand market forces and that there are some things we can do that can actually contribute. I'm going to suspend for a minute until the time is right there. It's a minute and a half. All right. Thank you. It's a bit distracting. Address the impact of gentrification. I think the city can creatively use our tax incentive powers to bring in developers who will do affordable housing. Legally, we cannot compel people, developers, to do affordable housing. We legally cannot do that. But we can creatively use the power of tax incentives to bring in developers that understand our culture and our values in the city and do affordable housing through creative partnerships. Point of order. Yes. I don't understand this moving about and distracting candidates. I don't think that's fair. I just say that because I'm a customer. I agree. I don't know quite what I can do. I tried to indicate that I wasn't taking. Because I don't have to go through this. And I apologize. But I don't have complete control over that situation. Are those 21 seconds fine? I'm sorry? Are those 21 seconds fine? Yes. OK. And we've seen the city also get involved in promoting and promulgating developments. We look at Southside, Rolling Hills. And we can talk about the impacts of it and the city's efforts to deal with the impacts of it. But the city can get involved in promoting affordable housing. And we can bring in exceptional corporate partners and developers who understand our values. And we can incentivize those partners through creative use of tax incentives. Thank you. Mr. Rooks, you have apologized for the answers that were submitted in your name to a questionnaire from Equality North Carolina. Those answers, as the Herald Sun described them, quote, were not supportive of LGBTQ equality, unquote. But why did you rely on someone else to answer the questionnaire? And why didn't you review the answers before they were submitted? Thank you for that. Can you hear me? Thank you for asking that question. I'm glad I finally get a chance to answer it out in public. Honestly, I can just say it's just a flaw in my part. I've been very adamant in making sure that I let those people know that have been most hurt by those questions that I ended up posting on my website. That's my form of being transparent. And it's just one of those flaws that I allowed to happen. It's just a mistake. So that's really it. I mean, I definitely support the LGBT community. As I stated in my questionnaire that was submitted probably more than a month earlier, my support for the community. So yeah, I mean, that's really it. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Huggins, another questionnaire asks candidates who supported an increase in affordable housing, quote, where will the money come from, unquote. You said in part, I am always ready to support and fight for funding for affordable housing. However, my support for affordable housing will be evaluated along with needs for funding for basic services, unquote. Isn't that precisely the problem? For the city to build even one more housing unit costs a lot of money. And the city has other obligations it has to find. Granted, there are nonprofits and private entities working on the problem, but where do you propose to get city money for more affordable housing? I think we need to take a comprehensive look at our budget. That's where we start. As I said before, I worked for the city for almost nine years. I handled the budget process at the department level. I handled the budgets at the division level for two different departments. And I can tell you that there are certain basic needs that have to be met first. And then after that, we take a look at making affordable housing a priority and then finding the money for that. There are some things, though, that we do need to make sure we're taken care of. Thank you. All right, I want to ask the following question to all of you. In turn, I'll start at the other end this time with Ms. Huggins. You are running against one other person for your ward seat. Why would you be a better council member than your opponent? I think I'm going to sound like a broken record to some people in this room. But I think it's very important to understand that when you come to the table with a certain amount of experience, that experience means something. And I know that in some of the articles and in some of the endorsements, that experience has not been thoroughly shared with the community. So I've stood up in front of council before. I've presented in front of council before I've had council ask me questions. I've written agenda memos and sat down with other departments and pulled together teams to get things done in this community. So I know what the challenges are, how hard it is to pull together people to get things done when you don't necessarily have the money for training or you don't necessarily have the support that we need. I know how hard it is when we're talking about finding funding. That is always a big issue. I've had to put together reduction budget plans when the economy was going down and managed to still keep all of my employees and not lay anyone off. And so if you think that right now times are okay and we're looking for money for affordable housing, imagine what times are gonna look like when they're really tough and we don't have people on the council who understand how to work hard, put things together and get things done. So I think that this is very much experience that is needed on the council, people who have been doing this kind of work and understand because I think it really matters. If we wanna impact our basic services like affordable housing and police protection and fire protection and water, then we have to have people who know how to get things done. Thank you. Mr. Rooks? And I guess the question is- Sure, you're running against one other person for your ward seat. Why would you be a better council member than your opponent? Let me do this first. There you go. Well, let me start by saying this. Everyone's been paying attention to the election thus far and with early voting over and Tuesday just happening, I've done some numbers and 56% of the people either voted for myself, the other great candidates such as LeVon Barnes, Robert Flute, Deanna Hall and Dolly, okay? And I believe that those people, I believe their voice is loud and clear. They're looking for someone that is in the community. They're looking for someone to basically inspire their children. They're looking for someone that is just a grad's roots individual that is pretty much concerned about their concerns and their issues. I walk in these communities pretty much on a daily, weekly basis and I hear the stories from women that are sleeping in their cars, from men that don't have jobs. Like I talk to these people directly and I think if you're going to say that you want to represent a community, I think you have to be able to talk to that community on a regular basis to understand what their concerns are. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Milton? John Brooks is a man of character in great integrity and we've become friends during this process and I'm proud to know him and I want to state that publicly. We're both in the community. Anyone in this city that has any degree of familiarity with me knows that long before I got television coverage or news coverage, I've been working in this community. This conversation about our community involvement has only taken place in one room in this city and that's because it's the only room it would have played in. This conversation is had on the other side of town with a group of other folk. The question of our community involvement would not even, it wouldn't last two minutes, the conversation so I want to say that. Why would I be a better city counselor? I think that the skill sets require to be a good counselor and this is only a matter of time and engagement. Not that John doesn't have the skill sets but I think the demonstration of the skill sets, there's a record there for me. I'll say what the indie week said when they endorsed me, that I have a proven depth of knowledge and that for years I've been involved in the conversations and in movements that have changed policy in the city. One of the great honors of my life has been part of the leadership apparatus of the largest grassroots, non-partisan, multi-ethnic, most diverse organization in this city. A Durham can and in that work, I've worked on every issue that's important and yes, I've walked neighborhoods before any television reporters were asking my name. Thank you. Ms. Freeman, would you like me to read the question again? No, I'm okay, thank you. I want to be clear in stating that my opponent is only my opponent based on her address and it's not personal so it's not an attack on her character that we're in this race together, it's just based on where we live. I would point out that there's a difference in style I guess and a difference in the lens that you bring to the work that you do and I always look to collaborate and work from a grassroots level from the bottom up rather than from the top down. Beyond that, there's not very much I could say to differentiate, I think we agree on many of the issues, we agree on many of the concerns in the community but how we would go about addressing them would be different and I think that I would look to be more of a convener and more of a in the community kind of person about how we move forward in addressing issues that residents actually have, not just citizens of this community, thank you. Thank you. Ms. Cole McFadden, would you like me to read the question again? No, I can just speak for who I am. I have a wealth of experience in local government having begun my governmental experience with Durham County and retired from a position with the city of Durham and so I've learned how to partner with Durham County around issues that impact all of us. In addition to that, I think it's important that the city understand that it needs to wrap a relationship with the North Carolina League of Municipalities and the National League of Cities and I am on boards of both of those. So I'm a mentor, I've adopted Lakeview Alternative School and so I'm all over Durham. I have experience on just about every city board especially the Youth Commission which was founded some years ago when I've been their advisor and so I'm needed for consistency, institutional knowledge and just because we need a senior citizen who looks like me on this council, nobody can speak for me up here because they are in a different age group but we can't afford to have a homogeneous council because this is not a homogeneous city and so that I think is enough of that. Thank you. Thank you. I said that the policy questions were asked to three of you and rotated it. One of the questions, the first one I'd like to ask to all five because there's several people in the audience who brought up something about this question that I can't read everything that they wrote but I would like to put that in there and have all of you deal with it and the question concerns the Durham Housing Authority which houses approximately 5% of Durham residents and is our largest by far provider of affordable housing. City Council and the mayor appoint all the members of the Board of Directors and provide funding for land acquisition and development or redevelopment of properties owned by the Housing Authority. What do you think the Housing Authority needs to do better to meet the needs for affordable housing in Durham? And what I want to add to that is several members of the audience brought up a question talking about how a number of residents in Odom Towers, JJ Henderson, Maureen Court, Delmont Court and others will be displaced and dislocated permanently while Development Ventures Inc. is doing I guess renovations and reconstructions of some of those projects. So I'd like to ask you just to address the question of how the Durham Housing Authority should deal with that and what you think the Durham Housing Authority needs from the council. We'll start with Ms. McFadden. Cole McFadden. Yes, for years I have said, well, we understand that the Housing Authority is the largest provider of affordable housing. However, I think as much as possible, the public housing sector should be a transitional kind of housing for citizens who are able to move on into the private sector. And so I think more emphasis needs to be placed on human infrastructure. And I understand they need to build buildings, but we need to build people as well. I would not support them displacing residents for rehab or any other purpose. They will need to have some sort of housing in place before they begin whatever their rehabilitation is. Another piece that they need to do is take careful attention at how they place persons in places like Oldham Towers. I'd learned from one of the directors that they paid no attention to the age or anything as long as there was a disability and that kind of thing. They would place them with seniors and that's not fair because it's proven that there wasn't a healthy situation. Thank you. Ms. Freeman. So acknowledging that it would be great if we did focus on the human development side of this and recognize that there are issues around systemic and institutional racism that haven't been addressed. So when we look at how the Durham House of Authority moves forward, if we're not institutionalizing how they do move forward and making sure that there are stop gap measures to prevent the displacement of those folks in JJ Henderson, Oldham Towers or Delmont Court, we're gonna do a disservice to our residents in this community as a whole because there will be an impact similar to how there is where there is homelessness. There is, I mean, unless we're willing to have the conversation around racism and poverty and really acknowledge how there's a lack of wealth building happening in the model that's set up with the Durham House of Authority. I mean, the House of Authority director has started to try and implement this program where there's an equity building for five years of living in the house, but this is new, this is like one year. You can't go in and displace 300 people and expect for that to work. There has to be a slow moving train on this and there has to be a lot more conversation with the people that are in the housing around how they need to be supported to move forward so that they're not just moved because we're in a process of doing the development project. So we have to look at how we move forward carefully and slow this train down so that they're not displaced. I would not support moving forward in a development process where we don't do that. Thank you. Mr. Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. I would like to invite citizens to go to my website at Middleton for Durham, Middleton, the number fordurham.com. And I've written about the issue of housing and other things. I'd like you to read that at the All Voice All Durham platform. But in the interest of time, I want to speak directly to the question. Firstly, I'm glad that we're parsing out the use of the term affordable housing because there's affordable housing in the political term and there's the actual term that we have to operationalize to make policy. I was part of a group of citizens that negotiated with the city and with Anthony Scott Durham Housing Authority to get back Fayette Place into the city's clutches. And hopefully that'll be part of the mix when we talk about moving forward with affordable housing. About 12,000 residents live in Durham's public housing complex and they tend to be our most vulnerable folk. Those places are crumbling and need to be fixed. They deserve to have a decent place to live. Now how do we do that? While we're doing it, I will in no way support them being permanently moved. And I've heard this story bandied about that there's a plan to permanently move people. Firstly, insofar as we get federal funding for our public housing, we can't legally permanently move people out of federally subsidized public housing. So, and I haven't gotten anyone on record who's in any position of authority in the city to authenticate that story. So I know it's floating around out there. So I just wanna say that. I will not support any permanent moving because we can't but I will support the redevelopment of those housing complexes because I think those people deserve to have a decent place to live. Please go to the website and read my plan. There's a lot to say on it. Can't do it in a minute and a half. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Rooks? Yes. I mean, this part is very pretty much personal to me but I definitely challenge some people to actually go into some of these housing developments and walk through some of these communities, walk through some of these homes and you'll see that there is definitely a need for upgrades and possibly redevelopment, okay? But I'm definitely not gonna support displacement of families, especially on a permanent level. That model has been done in places like Chicago and that has been nothing but chaos. It just doesn't work. So I think if we are going to create a new location for residents to live, I think we need to also be looking at what's in that location. Meaning I think there needs to be options for mental health. I think there needs to be options for financial support. I mean, there's a host of resources that need to be in that community while we help those residents transition. So thank you. Thank you. Ms. Huggins? Thank you. When my husband and daughter and I first moved to Durham, we lived in Watts-Hillendale where we still live now. But at the time we rented the home, we were told that DOT was going to be widening I-85 and that we would eventually have to move. And so when I was given this letter earlier this evening about people being moved from Oldham Towers, that's what it reminded me of. And that's tough. I know that's tough because we had to move and we were sent letters saying, you have been previously told to vacate the premises at. But I had a young daughter, I was in law school and my husband was working and it was very tough. We did not find a home that was in the price range that we were paying. We had to pay more. And so I know what that looks like. So this is tough. And in the situation and the environment that we have in this city now, we know it's going to be hard and it's going to be very difficult. I would never support having people move without a comprehensive plan that takes into account what their living environment is going to be like. And it's not just the home. So you have to think about what the lifestyle is, how they get to the grocery store, how they get to the jobs. All of these things need to be considered. And so I tell you now, I'm sitting here because I know what this looks like. This is going to be a challenge and I will not support this as it currently stands. Thank you. All right, I'm going to ask some of the remaining questions to three people and we will be rotating through. The first one, and I'll start with again with Mrs. Cole McFadden is an audience question. It says there are currently gaps in the city's code dealing with environmental hazards, specifically cleanup of lead. How would you propose to work with citizens to address this issue that affects families, especially young children? I am relying on Peach. We're going to have, we're working in partnership with Peach now to help us with this issue. As a matter of fact, on Monday night, Peach will be outlining some of the strategies they will be using to address this problem. So I'm relying on the Norris Smith and her staff to help the city with this. Thank you. Ms. Freeman? I'm sorry, I just, that's why, I mean, Peach has been in Durham since 1996. It's a little odd to just start working with them in 2017. But I, yeah, that's a lot. There are a number of lead hazards and predominantly minority and people of color communities. There has to be a more collaborative effort around how you support an organization like the partnership effort for the advancement of children's health, which is Peach. And recognizing that it's not just lead hazards, there's also environmental hazards like toxic mulch in the Eastern Park that's shredded and children can mouth. And understanding that there's cancerous material or cancer causing chemicals in the materials that can be mouth. These are not very hard issues that you can't wrap your mind around or wrap your hands around. These are very simple things that you can do. Just making sure that Peach has the support it needs to make sure that they have a housing organizer on staff, making sure that that toxic mulch is not put down in place of wood mulch. I'm just not willing to accept that we as a city can't see that this has been an issue for a long time and we are now just gonna address it. And it's just kind of frustrating to continuously hear now we're gonna address it. Thank you. Mr. Middleton. Yes, sir. Working as a community activist in the city, one of the things I observed and had confirmed is that oftentimes environmental disparities do indeed cut along socioeconomic and racial lines. I remember one of the most moving things I worked on in the city was in McDougal Terrace, there was a stream that was basically poisoned and there was an activist named Farrell Wisdom who worked with Durham Cannes to get that stream cleaned up. I think it was Brintag and forgive me if I've gotten the wrong company that was doing it. We had to work, work, work. I can't imagine that happening in Hope Valley or any of a number of neighborhoods in the city. I'm running to be on this council because sometimes the other thing I learned is that the squeaky wheel doesn't need to get the oil. There are some people who aren't organized and won't come downtown and bring their voices into the chamber. So I'm running to be that voice and that gas fly on the chamber. We've got a lot of the things in place. We've got the mechanisms in place. We've got the apparatus in place. The problem has been the political will to order them to operate equitably and across the board. And if I get elected to this council and I see those disparities, I'm gonna be a problem. And if they're doing the job great, they'll have no fierce or ally. Thank you. The next question I'm gonna begin with Mr. Rook. One of Mayor Bell's signature projects has been Southside. Has it been a success? Who has benefited from it? I don't think many people have benefited from it. I think I had a conversation with a gentleman that works in that community quite often, okay? And his response to me, and again, I'm grassroots. I like to listen to the people. I like to listen to what their voices and their concerns are. And he's just stated that there have been a lot of people in those areas that are unhappy. They feel like they've kind of been left out. Yeah. Just basically going by what some residents have said, they just weren't happy. Thank you. Ms. Huggins? Could you repeat the question, please? One of Mayor Bell's signature projects has been Southside. Has it been a success? And who has benefited from it? I think it depends on how you define success and who you're asking. Probably the biggest issue I'm going to have with this is the idea that government is leading a process or taking a significant role in a process that results in people who were once living in an area no longer being able to afford to live there. And so government then needs to take the lead to work on rectifying that situation. So when we talk about success, if we're talking about adding homes that are now in a quality state of condition and repair or making sure that we have more people housed than maybe it's successful, but I don't think that what we should be looking at. We would also want to know whether or not people who were there before have quality homes that they're living in now. And my understanding is that is not the case. I've been out in the community at events over in those neighborhoods and I've listened to people say, hey, my aunt grew up over there or my grandmother grew up over there and now they've redeveloped the homes and it doesn't look like the neighborhood that we lived in. The people who we grew up around no longer live there. And so there is this feeling that it's okay now to fix it up and put money in it, but where was that fix up in money when we were living there? At that time there was city disinvestment. And so now that we have city investment, we also need to take that a few steps further and the city needs to take the lead on doing better. Thank you. Ms. Cole McFadden, would you like me to repeat the question? No. Okay. I have it. When we started work in the South Side neighborhood, we worked with the neighbors there. It was our hope that the work that we did would benefit the neighborhood through alleviating crime, improving housing and beginning a single family home development. We had partners there, self-help credit union. The Duke University had hoped that their employees would be able to live there by them sharing with them a second mortgage. What we did not anticipate is that we would run into all kinds of problems with lack of credit, preparation from so many of the people. Then I talked with some folk who had lived there in the past who said, and I just happened to live on the periphery of South Side anyway, who said that they just didn't want to go back there because all the crime issues had not been resolved either. If we had known that the cost of housing would escalate the way that it did, I think we would have taken a different look. I was at a, never mind, okay. Thank you. Next question, I'll begin with Ms. Freeman. How good a job is go-triangle doing in serving the needs of people who depend upon public transportation? Do you believe that the proposed Durham Orange Light Rail will adequately serve those same people? I wanna first say that I think that within the constraints of their budget, they're doing a good job. And however, I would lead into the light rail conversation and saying that similar to how Mayor Pro Tem Corko McFadden just said they didn't anticipate that the prices of housing would just magically rise. I think that the same outcome is likely to happen with the light rail project as well, which is why I think myself and others within the Durham Cannes organization have been working to make sure that affordable housing and transit are tied together with jobs. And there's a lot more to the go-triangle work that has to happen in order for it to be as successful as we would like as a city. I think that the bus service, I mean, there's always room for improvement. I mean, the bus rapid transit line, I mean, if we could get to 15 minutes rotational transit lines, we would be in a better position to bring in light rail and to have more people using it. So right now the demand is not there. I know that with population growth it will get there. We cannot wait until we're at population capacity and no one can move on the roads like Atlanta. But there's just some kind of slowing down, some stepping back and recognizing that if we don't have an anticipated response based on the previous history of how things have happened in redevelopment or in gentrification, we're gonna have the same outcomes. Thank you. Mr. Middleton. Thank you, sir. I have some particulars about transportation on my website again at Middletonforderm.com and I invite you to read them. No city can be truly great unless her citizens can negotiate that city and access that city, whether you have a car or not. I believe Durham's on the ascent and I think Durham is worthy of an integrated transportation system that allows our citizens to access every part of the city. With that said, Go Triangle, I think is doing a good job for its current mission and for its current riderhood. About 20,000 people roughly ride our buses every day. Most of them are low income, elderly and disabled. I think we've got to remove the stigma from, I grew up on public transportation. I love the egalitarian nature of buses and trains and being next to all kinds of people. I think we've got to remove the stigma through fleet modernization. I think we've got to improve routes and I think a better bus system that has more access to the city, that's affordable, that's electric preferably, combined with smartly integrating light rail. I think with the strategic forecasting of where our city is going, I think it would be unwise for us not to start looking at how to integrate light rail with our surface transit. That might mean adding HOV lines, high occupancy vehicle lines for our buses and integrating with light rail. The light rail's got to have clusters of affordable housing around the stops. It can't be isolated from housing. So if we've got to connect our buses with the light rail stops, there's a way to do it. We can't be a great city if we have some citizens that can't access our, everywhere. Thank you, Mr. Rooks. Yes, I'm just not, at least right now this moment, not a super fan of the light rail. I think I would like to really make sure that we are focusing on some of the affordable housing and some of the other major issues that we're having. I do understand that with the population that's going to be coming, maybe in the next 15, 20 years, there is going to be a need for it. I just like to possibly mimic some of the other cities that are around us with possibly free public transportation because from the information that I've read or seen was that public transportation is not going to really benefit, I mean, not public transportation. The light rail is not going to really benefit everyone. And if everyone's tax dollars are actually going to be used to fund this, I think everyone should be able to utilize it. And I think with the rate that it's going to be, it's only going to be for a small group of people. So I just like to make sure that we are, we are definitely going to, if we're going to travel down that road, make sure everyone is at the table, make sure everyone is kind of in on those decisions. Thank you. Thank you. Next question I'm going to begin with Ms. Huggins. What do you think of the mayor's anti-poverty initiative now called Transformation in 10? What do you believe that it has accomplished and would you change anything about it? Well, I haven't had a chance to look at it in depth, but let me say this. I think there are a number of things that we should be doing to tackle poverty. I think that we need to focus a little bit more on jobs and job training. I have had conversations in the past with some of our community organizations that provide job training. There's one in particular that I'm thinking of and the conversation sticks in my head because it was not necessarily a good one. I was going through a tour of the facility and I asked the person, what are you doing to train these young people for jobs for the future? And I was told, well, they don't have the aptitude for some of those types of jobs. And so when we're deciding who we're going to work with and what types of services we're going to be looking out for our, especially our youth in our community, we have got to set our expectations high. We have got to be looking forward to the future. And so in order to talk about what poverty looks like and how we start to impact that, we've got to hold people accountable and we've got to say, look, when you're coming to our city and your company and you're talking about incentives which may not be needed as much in the future, we want to know what you're going to do for our youth here in terms of jobs. We want to know what you're looking for so that we can make sure that our residents are the ones that get the jobs and not that you're bringing people in to fill those jobs. We need to be making sure that our school system is working well with us and that they understand what our expectations are and what the needs are for our kids. Is Cole McFadden? Drag me to read the question, Ken. No, I'm good. Okay. Well, I haven't been a part of the housing task force. I think we have at least focused on an area and try to effectuate change there. Poverty did not happen overnight and we have lots of more work to do. I am in favor of focusing more attention on jobs and that is creating entrepreneurs within that census tract because there's a possibility that there are people there who have skill sets that can be used and they can make money within their own neighborhoods. All kinds of skill sets are there. I'm sure. However, what I have sensed recently for some reason, there seems to be a sense of apathy within not just this area, but throughout the city. And unless we can bring some sense of hope to people and some sense of uplift, we hear a lot of negative things about Durham and unless we can bring some sense of hope instead of just sort of criticizing everything and pulling the village together around making progress, then I don't know if we're gonna be able to do. Thank you. Ms. Freeman. I think it's important to be honest and forthcoming and saying that if we're gonna talk about poverty, we need to make sure we're talking about racism because the bookends that hold poverty in place, start and end with white people and the land transfer rates that we have lack of. There is a project called the Derm 150 and it demonstrates exactly what that looks like for Durham over the last 150 years as of next year in 2019 and recognizing that there was a boom in the Black Wall Street era where there was black ownership of land 20 years, 30 years, 40 years later, this boom is dissipated and the rate of ownership for people who are of African-American descent, the former descendants of slaves, like this issue is much larger than just being nice and kind about what people need in the community. These are very complex layered issues that we really need to tackle head on and acknowledging that there has to be a conversation about how people end up in poverty and what that does to them. There's toxic stress that you live in and not being able to pay your bills every month. There's toxic stress you live in and looking at a child that you know that you should be able to cover every month, like every day. I think it's important that I'll say more later. Thank you. The next question I'll begin with Mr. Middleton. Another question from the audience is very straightforward. What major changes should be made to the UDO? The UDO of course is Unified Development Ordnance, our zoning code. Thanks, that's a, it's a multilayer question and it really hinges on what is your vision of the future of the city? I do think we're on the right trajectory. I'm gonna take it this way. I don't think there's so much of problem with the UDO in its current construct. I think the issue is how many voices are involved in who's going to implement it and what it's going to look like. And by that I mean that the contractors that are gonna do the work that keep us in compliance with the UDO. I will say that I think that some of our gateway, gateways to downtown, some of the money and some of the attention that goes to some of our gateway approaches to downtown aren't equitably considered. I'm thinking of Phoenix Square and Fayetteville approaching downtown. And my question is, is the UDO big enough and comprehensive enough to include some areas that don't seem to be getting the attention that I think they should be getting? But as a document philosophically, I don't really think there's anything that needs to be tweaked substantially with the UDO as it's written, but I do think the implementation of it and the breadth of it leaves something to be desired. And I think there's some things we can accomplish without radically amending it. Thank you. Mr. Rooks? Yes, I don't have all those answers. But I guess just in the nutshell, I just like to make sure that all people or as many people that can be be involved at the table when the zoning is just being discussed. Just from my little knowledge on that in regards to what needs to be changed, I can't really speak on that. Just making sure that many people are involved in the process. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Huggins? I think we've talked a lot about affordable housing. And so when I hear a question about the UDO, it brings you back to something that I've been saying a lot during this political process. And that is it's not just affordable housing that we're concerned about. It's really the affordability of land, okay? So we have to talk about housing and we have to talk about commercial development. Because what I see going on is not just the depletion of housing, of quality housing, but I look at our historical black legacy institutions in Durham, like North Carolina Mutual. And we know that that building's been sold and the sign is coming down. I see Mechanics and Farmers Corporate Center on the market. I know that the Black Taylor Shop and the Black Barber Shop that used to be downtown are now gone. And so there's still a place for them to go downtown. And it's just as hard for them to find other places to go to in the city. And so we have to start looking at how we make the space, the land available for everyone, for whatever that use is. Because what we're talking about is the best use of the land in the city because we only get one piece. And so the UDO is just one aspect of how we do that. The other piece is hearing from people in the community about what they think the city of Durham needs to look like. And that conversation, I'm afraid, sometimes does not include everyone. Thank you. A related question that came from an INC member. It relates to zoning. One of the items that the council will have to vote on fairly soon is the Old West Durham Neighborhood Protection Overlay. What do you see as the benefits or disadvantages of such an overlay? Could other neighborhoods in Durham benefit from something similar? We'll begin with Mrs. Old McFadden. Well, this is my take on it. I listen carefully to residents. I listen carefully to what they have to say and I don't want to superimpose my values on them. So I will go with what the neighborhoods want. And I do think that perhaps other neighborhoods, if this is what they want, could benefit from the same kind of overlay. Thank you. Ms. Freeman. Can you repeat the question? Sure, one of the items that the council will have to vote on fairly soon is the Old West Durham Neighborhood Protection Overlay. What do you see as the benefits or disadvantages of such an overlay? Could other neighborhoods in Durham benefit from something similar? So I want to say yes. Other neighborhoods would benefit as my own neighborhood, Golden Belt has benefited from the local historic district as a Neighborhood Protection Overlay. Recognizing that what happened in Old West Durham has been happening over the last 10 years. With that Ninth Street compact design district and everything that came out of that development or all of the development that happened across that that sphere, there's been a push or kind of a smush on the people that are in Old West Durham. And then recognizing that if they don't have the protections in place, this one property owner who's been tearing down and redeveloping is the way in which the market works. We know what the levers are. And if we don't put protections in place to keep property owners in their homes, we're gonna continue to have this issue of gentrification occur. So similar to how Cleveland and Holloway occurred, if we don't support this Neighborhood Protection Overlay, Old West Durham will start to see the same thing. Dramatically increase property values, dramatically increased tax values, dramatically increased pressure on property owners to move out. This is not the only tool that can be used. I do know that there are negatives to it as far as this in the same way that with any tool that you put together, that there's a negative outcomes that can occur. But I think that for right now in this time that this is the best tool for Old West Durham. And that's what the Neighborhood has been saying for the last almost 10 years now. Thank you. Mr. Milton. Thank you. I alluded earlier to the, I think sometimes a charade we engage in when we talk about gentrification and not talking about the reality of market forces. I think the very existence of overlay protections points to the fact that we understand how market forces work. That's why we came up with the protection overlay. So in short, I would support it in other neighborhoods as one of the arrows, however, in our quiver to making sure folk aren't pushed out or priced out. The city just did a stabilization grant for Southside residents. I support that as an arrow and I support protection overlays. I'm not against development, but I think we have to do it smartly and we have to do it in a way where folk are included. I'm not calling for any moratoriums on development. I don't think that would be wise, but I do think that there ought to be a moratorium on check development. And I think overlay protections are a powerful tool. They're not perfect and they're certainly not a panacea, but I think it's a tool that can be used. Thank you. Related question about development and I'm gonna combine two questions. One of them is from the audience. The original question from an INC member was, are you happy with the way downtown is developing? What would you like to see done differently and how? And an audience member said, what do you consider affordable regarding housing specifically downtown? So you talk about downtown development, what you see as problems and issues there. Begin with Mr. Rooks. I think everybody in here will agree that downtown Durham, you know, it looks beautiful. It's definitely something I guess to be proud of. But it definitely came at a displacement of some people, so I'm not really excited about that. Affordability downtown, but it's this way, I can't afford to live downtown. I think we need to, the development that's happening downtown now, I'd like to see pretty much where that is. I don't necessarily feel like we should be putting any more money into downtown Durham. That's just not, I don't feel that way right now. I'd like to make sure that we are using some of those funds to look out for the rest of the city. I think it's a little unfair that only one section of the city just seems to be prospering while the other, I mean, just across the street, just across the railroad tracks, you have homeless people. So, although I believe it's beautiful downtown, I'd just like to make sure that we make it, we start concentrating on other parts of the city. Thank you. Ms. Huggins. I don't know if I can answer this in a minute and 30 seconds, but when I worked for the city, one of the projects that I led was the RFP process for 102 Mar Street. And for those of you who don't remember what that was, that's good, because now there's a cupcake shop, bicycle shop and some other things down there. So, I can't say that I'm necessarily pleased with everything that's happened. I would like to see, you know, there isn't a good representation of our entire community downtown, okay? When I go downtown, I see Armada Hoffler, okay? They're not from here. I go downtown, I see cute little boutique shops that look like they were dropped in from Cameron Village. I see nice restaurants that most people I know can't afford. And so, I'd like to see some sort of matching there. We're talking about affordable housing and that's what I'm saying. We don't have affordable commercial places either. And so, we have to commit to doing a better job for that. People make their wealth for their families, usually through their homes and through their businesses. And so, if we talk about what we're going to do on poverty, that's where we have to start. And affordable downtown, no, I can't live down there either. Thank you. Ms. Cole McFadden? Not long ago, we were questioning downtown Durham Inc about the existence or non-existence of black businesses downtown. And so, I'm really not pleased with the exodus of black businesses in the downtown area. So, we asked them as a part of their deliverables to please look at, number one, the number of black businesses downtown, the numbers that they have deliberately recruited to be in downtown and to look at what the needs are to assure that more black businesses are downtown, whether that is some sort of subsidy like we've given to the richer businesses, those that we've helped with incentives, but something has to happen to make the space downtown more affordable. In terms of the housing piece, one of the things that we cannot do is to do rent control, is to do rent control, that we are preempted by the General Assembly. I am doing that maybe Mr. Woodard, because sometime I'll have his colleagues to take another look at that. But we're just limited in what we can do in terms of affordable housing, except for the Jackson Street project that we're looking at. And perhaps we can look at affordable housing too in the old police department site. Thank you. Next question, I'm gonna begin with Ms. Freeman. Again, relating to development and zoning. Recently, the council voted four to three against the expansion of the Cleveland, Holloway local historic district. Three of the four council members who voted against the expansion will leave the council in December. Would you favor the council holding a new vote on this issue, and what is your general attitude towards local historic districts? Yes, I would favor revisiting the Cleveland, Holloway, pretty much the neighborhood protection overlay of the local historic district. And I would encourage us to have a very substantive conversation about which properties would be included and excluded just for the general safety or pretty much the general overlay protection for the city and then of the history that lies in that city as a gateway to black ownership in the Eastern area. I would say my general stance on local historic districts is that it has historically been a tool used to displace people of color. And in the current times, it's been a kind of shift where I know for my specific neighborhood, we've used it to kind of keep people of color in place. So in my neighborhood, it was predominantly a vacant community that had some property owners. I should say there was probably about 15, 20% of homeowners who actually lived in their homes or property owners that lived in their homes prior to that neighborhood protection overlay and then just working on multiple levels with different tools to address it with a developer like scientific properties, we pushed to make sure that there were protections in place to keep them in place and then did the development to move it up. Thank you. Mr. Milton, would you like me to read the question again? No, I've got it, thank you. There are a number of votes I'd like to revisit that the council's done over the years. I think though, in the interest of the sanctity of the process, I'm not gonna telegraph specifics now but in general, yeah, there's a number of things I'd like to revisit. Historic districts, I think that as city councils, all of us are gonna be de facto brand ambassadors for our city, every opportunity we get, we should trumpet that our city is the best place to live, retire, work, get educated. And historic districts help draw people to our city. They're very beautiful, they're powerful. However, oftentimes giving that designation to a neighborhood has put undue burdens on people. And I think what makes a neighborhood historic are not only the facades of buildings, it's the people that live there and have oftentimes been there for years. So I think people are more important than the buildings. So I love historic districts, I'm a history buff, but I don't wanna place undue pressures in terms of maintaining the house, undue burdens in terms of code of violations for elderly people, the people that have been there and maybe low income. So if we can smartly do it, I think they draw to the city, they add character to the city, but what makes a neighborhood historic for me are the people over the buildings. That's why HATI is still a historic district because of the people. Thank you, Mr. Rooks. Yes. People that I talked to that just recently come here, like maybe been here maybe four or five years, they always say, well, I came to Durham because I like the culture, I like culture, I like the history. So yes, I would definitely like to revisit that vote. But I think we should really do everything within our power to make sure that we save our historic districts. I think that's what the people come here for. Most people that I talked to, they don't come in hopes that Durham is gonna one day look like Charlotte. They come for the history, they come for the culture. So I'd like to do whatever I can to make sure that those things are still in place. Thank you. Thank you. Next question, I'll begin with Ms. Huggins. The city manager, not the mayor, appoints city department heads and oversees their operations. Are you satisfied with the operations of the city government or their areas in which you think improvement is needed? Oh, I always think we should be looking to improve our city government. I've been away from the city for a couple of years now. And so that provides an additional perspective. And so once you've been working for the city for a while, you're in there, you're on the ground, you see the challenges, you know what people are trying to get done, you know how hard the employees are working. But once you step away, it also gives you an opportunity to be back out in the community and to hear from residents about the challenges that they're facing. And so for instance, I'll give you an example. The impact team on Driver's Team is no longer in that building, they're now back out on Fay Street. Well, when you talk to them, the staff, they talk about how members of the community might stop by and tell them about things that were going on in their neighborhood. And so one of the questions I had to ask myself was, well now if we say we're neighborhood improvement services, then why are we taking services out of the neighborhood? And so when I talk about improvement, that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a comprehensive analysis of how we carry out our services, how we do them better, how we do them more efficiently, and how we respond to the needs of the residents. I think we can always look for ways to do it better. Thank you. Ms. Cole McFadden. Having worked in city government, in government all my life and now being on the other side of it, there's always room for improvement. One of the greatest areas though that we have made improvement in is the diversity of the workforce. We have, I can recall when we had very few women who were in leadership positions. And now I guess we have, that's about over half of them in leadership positions. I can recall when we had very few black men in leadership positions. And for the first time in the history of Durham, we have a black man who's a public works director and director of transportation. And so we've come a long, long way in Durham. I hear very few complaints about the city except for sidewalks and equitable distribution of trails and parks. And well, I'm going into a whole lot of complaints now and some other things. But we need to improve to make sure that our services are equitable, equitably distributed. That's one of the problems. Thank you. Ms. Freeman. I'll echo both Mayor Pro Tem and Sheila Huggins responses and saying, yes, of course, there's always room for improvement. I have to say that the planning departments, new customer service process has been phenomenal and the way that it's all rolled out so smoothly where they're providing the customer being the city resident or the developer or whomever is coming for services, an opportunity or kind of a different feel in approaching planning and development, or approaching the planning and development department is an example of how city government can be improved. There are many areas that I would love to address but I would like to defer to the city manager and having those conversations and making sure that I'm following his lead as the person that's in place to manage all of the city government departments would speak to the diversity. I would like to push that a little further and making sure that diversity also included equity and making sure that there were LGBTQ persons and leadership as well and making sure that there were more accountability measures to make sure that there were equity in all departments across the board so that it's not just top down. I know we often talk about janitors and people who are in the lower paying positions being of color. I like to see a lot more people moving through that and I would like to make sure that our services include more around the Latino or Latinx community as well. Thank you. Next question I'll begin with Mr. Middleton. I will say I did not write this question. It's a very pointed question however. All of you have been endorsed by various political action committees. What will you owe them when you vote on issues before the council? What if any are issues that might lead you to take a stand that would risk losing their endorsement in a future election? I don't owe them anything. One of the things I'm proud of in this electoral cycle is that my political brand was built in the city not beholden to any particular partisan group or particular candidate. I worked in an organization that focused on issues. We have a saying that there's no permanent enemies, no permanent allies, just permanent issues. So I'm very proud of the public resume that I've put together. If you actually look at my endorsements, some of the groups that have endorsed me, AFL-CIO, Triangle Labor Council, North Carolina Sheriff, Police Alliance, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, Friends of Durham. If you look at the array, some of them on its face may seem diametrically opposed to one another, philosophically. I'm proud of that because what that means is I've built relationships across lines. The highest compliment I've gotten in this process was Middleton is a quote, Middleton, we don't like your politics all the time, but we trust your integrity and we trust you to listen. And we've watched you, end quote, paraphrasing. Now we've watched you over the years, working the city, working issues. We didn't always agree with you, but we like the process you engage in. So I don't know them anything. You guys read the paper, I was supposed to be the guy that was supposed to get all the endorsements in this process. It didn't happen and I'm glad that it didn't happen. I'm not, on Tuesday night, the voters of this city made me the first place finisher in my ward. And that's not because of endorsements, I think that's because of a record I built of building relationships. Thank you. Mr. Rooks? Yes, I'm probably one of the only candidates up here that may have only received actually one endorsement. And that wasn't because they were looking for someone to fit their mold. They picked me because of what the community asked for. So I don't feel like I owe them anything and I don't think they're really expecting anything from me other than to do what my heart basically says to do, which is serve the community. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Huggins? Trying to be good with this answer. So I received the endorsement from the Committee on the Affairs of Black People. Last time I checked, I was born black and I'll die black. I don't owe anybody anything. Good one. Okay, well, thank you very much. Unfortunately, we've had more questions, but we've kind of run out of the time that we can ask questions. So at this point, I would like to give you each two minutes for your closing statement. Since we started with Ms. Cole McFadden for opening statements, I'll start with Ms. Huggins for closing statement. Well, first of all, thank you all for coming. I tell you, I stood out in the front and at about 6.20, I realized again, we just are not as loved as the mayoral candidates. That is okay. You are here and I'm glad that you're here. As I stated to you earlier, I worked for the city for a number of years. I currently practice a lot. My law office is right across the street there. And so I'm sort of still here, but I work with people in this community every day trying to build their businesses, trying to build wealth for their families. I understand how important that is. My husband and my daughter and I have made this our home now. We consider the residents of Durham to be our family. And family is a big deal for me because as I continually said throughout this process, without my mother and my father, I wouldn't be here. And so thank you for having me here. I hope I've been able to provide you with some answers that will be instrumental in helping you make your decision. I hope you understand how important all of these races are and that you have the opportunity to put together a team of four who you feel like will lead this city into the future. I feel like I am the best candidate for Ward 3, given the amount of experience that I've had and what I bring to this position. So I ask for your vote. Thank you. Awesome. Mr. Rooks? Been in Durham for over 30 years. So I've seen a lot of things happen. I've seen a lot of things change. There's a lot of beautiful things that have happened in Durham. But I think we're really all aware of some of the trouble spots that we have in Durham and some of the major issues that we have. I'm not. I didn't get in this race because I guess a title or anything like that. I got in this race because there are some people out in the city that are hurting all over the place, not in just small pockets. And I want to make sure that I bring something to the council in what I would call just transparency, making sure that everyone has access to the information, making sure everyone is at the table when these decisions are being made for the city. As Sheila mentioned, please, it's important that you take a look at the team that you are actually going to be putting on city council. It's not about one person. It's about a team of people that you feel can actually work together. So I would definitely appreciate your vote. And just remember that I'm actually what I would consider doing this for you, for the city. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Middleton? Yes, thank you to the members of the I&C. Thank you, John, and thank you to my fellow candidates. Communities don't speak in endorsement meetings. Communities speak in elections. And on Tuesday, there are 16 precents in Ward 2. I won 14 of them. The community has indeed spoken. And they've spoken loudly and clearly. And I'd like to serve that community. I got into this race, and I called my platform Our Voice Our Derm, because as a child, I struggled with the speech impediment. The proposition of me doing this seemed very unlikely. And because I was afraid to read out loud, I would cause disruptions when they called me to read out loud in class. So they labeled me a behavioral issue. But I noticed something. My voice went silent because I was afraid to act up. But I noticed that kids that read out loud, their voices when they got heard, good things happened for them. They were chosen for school plays. They were chosen to be a part of student government. They were chosen to be hall monitors. Because they stood out. And I made a connection very early that when you suppress people's voices, sometimes good things are withheld from them. I'm running to make sure, because I'll never be quiet again, I'm running to make sure that voices are heard and no good thing is withheld from any sector of Durham. I trust my odds if you do your research. Read our questionnaires. Go over them. Don't trust endorsements. Go the endorsements away. Do your own research. I trust the people of Durham. I trust my odds. And I'm looking forward to serve you as your next city council from ward two. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Freeman. Thank you. Members of INC, as a former or past president, I should say, it's important to make sure that this forum is highlighted and it provides the service of, giving folks the opportunity to see and hear from the candidates in a very unfiltered way. I would say that it really is a great opportunity to have a chance to run for office in the city. And though great things have been happening, I think that it's important to recognize that there are some that it hasn't happened for. And I'm in this race and I've been working in my community and I will continue to work in my community because that's just what I'm called to do. I think that there's a lot that all the candidates have to offer. And I would say that whatever your choice may be, you have an option in this race. I'm not here to say that I'm better than or less than or anything of that sort. What I'm here to say is that we have to address these issues head on and we have to be ready to have the conversations that we need in order to address it in a different way. Otherwise, we're gonna continue to get the same results where we have displacement and children living in the streets. And I mean, the list goes on and on. We have a lot to be proud of in this city. We have a lot to look forward to in this city, but we wanna make sure that we expand the opportunity and give as many folks the chance to not only be a part of it, but to also lead a part of it. And I think that I would like to offer the city the chance to do that with myself and whomever is on council because I believe that I could work with anyone. I'm running this fall. I would love to have your support. And thank you. Thank you. Ms. Coleman-Fadden. I'm running because I still have the energy to do so. I have the time. I have, I have grand dogs. I don't have grandchildren. So they don't require my time. So I'm just a governmental person anyway. But I think that I have a lot to contribute to Durham. I have a complete understanding of our employees and their needs. I understand the role of a city council person. We have 2000 plus people in our workforce who actually do the work. And we supervise three, the manager, the attorney and the city clerk. And I respect the roles of all of them. I have the experience. I have the knowledge. I have relationships with people from all walks of life. I have friends who are six weeks old. I have friends who are toddlers who are in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. And one of my friends just celebrated her 100 and fifth birthday on October 10th. So I can relate to everybody in Durham from all walks of life. I came from a family of seven children. I was the youngest, the only one who completed college on time. My dad had a stroke when I was 10. He passed when I was 15. My mom died when I was 19. And I have been out here struggling and working in Durham all my life. I love Durham. Durham shaped me for community service. And I don't want to be in community service as an elected official until I die. But I want to be here until I finish the course of God's purpose for me to do in this particular position. So I ask for your support. Thank you. And would you give a round of applause to... We're gonna conclude the forum at this point. I hope maybe the candidates will be able to stay a few minutes. So if you have questions that weren't asked and you would like to get some answers, go have some mercy on them. They've been through a very happy campaign. Thank you. Let me just write a campaign for you. Thank you. Yeah, how are you? You could see.