 Okay, okay good evening. We'd like to call the meeting during City Council meeting to order at 7.03 p.m. on Monday October 17th and certainly want to welcome all of you there with us this evening. We just take a moment for a silent meditation please. Thank you. Recognize Councilman Davis to lead us in the pledge. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll please? Mayor Bell, Mayor Pro Tem Cole McFadden, Councilmember Davis, Councilmember Johnson, Councilmember Moffitt, Councilmember Reese, and Councilmember Shewell. We have two recognitions this evening. The first like to recognize Mom's Rising Steering Committee member Jessica Burroughs. She would join me and her troops. Thank you very much. On behalf of all the moms and kids you see here we're all Durham residents as well as the 41,000 moms rising members in North Carolina. We want to thank you for focusing on the early education of Durham's youngest citizens. And we want to present you with a thank you card signed by children ages one to five and parents. Thank you. Thank you for passing a resolution to all of you. Thank you for passing a resolution supporting the creation of a task force to explore expanded access to high quality pre-K with the long term goal of establishing universal pre-K in Durham. So that one day maybe Sammy here will be able to participate in pre-K. So thank you for having the vision. Thank you, Mayor Bell, for reading to children every year during week of the young child and for focusing and raising awareness on early child education. Thank you for caring about our youngest citizens. Just to show how important and notable this work is, National Moms Rising has created a booklet highlighting just a few cities across the country that are doing extraordinary things to help our youngest citizens. And on page on the first page, page two, Durham is highlighted for your important work. So our superheroes here are gonna pass out medals to each of you thanking you for your service as well as a copy of these booklets and coloring books for you to share with your children, grandchildren or we won't tell you can color them yourself. So thank you. Would anyone else like to offer thanks? We're all very grateful. It is a huge investment in our children. We all know that it doesn't just help families. It helps the economy. It helps businesses and we appreciate you very, very much. And we are lifting Durham up all over the country. We're doing deliveries to mayors. We are doing one in Dayton, Ohio tomorrow, lifting up cities and city council members and mayors that realize that this is the future of our kids. And so we appreciate you. We are proud to say we're from Durham and we're proud to be lifting you up across the country. Thank you all. Well, let me say on behalf of the Durham City Council and certainly all the citizens of Durham, you honor us by recognizing us, but we all recognize it as to see our most precious resource our children. And certainly when we have an opportunity to recognize them and also thank them for what they do and the young leaders of tomorrow, some of the leaders of today, we're very appreciative and certainly have to want to thank the parents and all the relatives who also participate and make this possible. So we're really honored by this recognition and appreciate it. Our next recognition is a continuing program that we've initiated. It's the Neighborhood Spotlight, where we highlight and spotlight a recipient who has worked in their neighborhood for the month of October. And this evening, we're honored to recognize Miss Sue Watson. Sue, if you would join me, please. I think probably everybody, certainly on the council knows, Sue, Steve, you know, sir. How you doing? Good to see you. Thank you. Sue has been very active in her neighborhood. She can be seen regularly picking up litter around Forest Hills. It's the neighborhood that she represents and Third Fort Creek and taking care of neighborhood cypress trees. She also is a welcoming person for new neighbors and connects them with the rest of the neighborhood. And when it's a problem in Forest Hills, you can always know you can count on Sue to help conduct have the proper persons to help them in any way they can. I've known Sue, I guess I know safe forever, but a few years. And she's certainly been a very good friend of this community. And I consider it to be a friend and I'm honored to present this spotlight award. And it reads, this certificate is awarded to Sue Watson in recognition of valuable contributions to the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association, making Forest Hills in Durham a cleaner, safer and more engaged community, welcoming new neighbors and connecting them with the rest of the neighborhood, picking up litter around Forest Hills Park and Third Fort Creek and taking care of neighborhood cypress trees. And it's signed by Tom Bonfield, the city manager myself. And again, on behalf of the City Council, we're pleased to present this to you, Sue, and certainly if you have any comments, we'd like to hear them. My only comment is my biggest fan club member is here tonight, my mother, Jerry Watson. Mr. Mayor, let me just say that I did work every day with Sue for 30 years. And for that, she also deserves a medal. I agree. She does 30 years for you. Yeah. Okay. Let me ask first, are there comments by council members? I can ask Councilman Reece, the mayor pro town in that order. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As you know, two weeks ago at our city council meeting, we were joined by some of the folks from the Durham Crop Hunger Walk. And they asked us to consider participating in something called the snap challenge. Essentially, this is a five day project by which an individual, in this case, myself and my colleague Jillian Johnson commit to eating no more than $4.20 worth of food per day. That is the that is this year's snap allocation for folks that receive snap benefits here in North Carolina. The purpose of this project is twofold. Number one is to raise awareness about just how living day to day on that amount of food changes the way you think about what it takes to prepare meals, what it takes to make food choices within that very restricted budget. I can tell you after just about 24 hours, it takes a lot of work and a lot of many planning that normally you don't have to put up with. Because if you walk out of the house without your lunch, you can just go across the street and get something. That's not really possible on $4.20 since today. And while I don't think it's possible or even the purpose to give any participant the full experience about what it's like, what the impacts of poverty really are on people on a day to day basis, I do think it's important to raise awareness of just how little money folks are expected to live on when it comes to their food under this program. The second way that this program helps folks is that we are encouraged as participants to look at what we would normally spend during a week on food over these five days. And then donate the balance. That is what we did not eat this week by restricting ourselves to $21 of food over five days and donate that to the Durham Crop Hunger Walk. And as soon as I tote that up, and I know Jillian already did that work to do the math to figure that out. But we're both going to contribute that to the hunger walk. So I just wanted to raise that up as something that's going on all across our city this week. People are choosing to go through this experience. And I just want to say thank you to the Durham Crop Hunger Walk and the other participants in that program, specifically Durham congregations in action in hunger Durham and Durham cares who are also sponsoring this event. Thank you. Thank you, Johnny. Recognize the mayor pro tune. Good evening. I actually brought remarks yesterday at that at that function and challenged them to have us do that during Thanksgiving time, when it would really be difficult to do. And that's my challenge to all of us. So many great things are happening in Durham this past weekend. The North Carolina Central University Eagles celebrated our homecoming. A part of the homecoming celebration was a football game. And which we actually beat down Savannah State University. I really felt sorry for them. They were visitors. And we normally treat our visitors with care here. But it was a beautiful day for football. And then yesterday, the farewell of the battle of the bands at North Carolina Central was held. And Adrian Carroll is moving on to a different kind of calling where he will still be working with historically black colleges and universities. And tonight I wear this orange ribbon out of awareness for leukemia. In fact, today at my church, I attended a home going celebration of a young man 50 years old father of two who lost his battle with leukemia on on last Tuesday. So we need to be aware of and edge educate people about leukemia and other kinds of diseases that we need more funding for for research sickle cell anemia, breast cancer awareness, all those kinds of things. I'm just excited about being in Durham. There are wonderful things happening everywhere. I go and that's all I have to say. Right now, Mr. Mayor, I'm just overcome with the beauty of where we live and we need more people to talk about Durham and the great things that we do because we really care about other people. Thank you. Let me ask there other comments or questions. I said this was weekend was was really a lot of activity in Durham, the Black Wall Street, which was I had an opportunity to attend. And the others did also. And I just happened to be downtown Surrey for one thing. And I couldn't help but see all the energy that was happening in downtown at the ballpark at the art center. Just just all around town. It's a beautiful day. And there's so many people out. And I make sure you feel good that you have a city such as Durham to enjoy it on a day like we saw this weekend was really great. What was interesting, because nobody knew who I was. You'd be walking behind people and you could hear them when I say that. Okay, these people didn't know. You know, just walking behind people and you can hear them talking about Durham this, Durham this, Durham this, and that's that's what was really, really amazing to me. But having said that, we need to do it to city's business. So I'm going to ask the city manager for his priorities. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Priority items this evening regrettably are continuation of the deferral excuse me of six public hearings item 15 through 20. We recognize this is the second time that these public hearings have had to been deferred. And both cases do a publication oversight at the Herald Sun. For the people who are affected by this, both the the developers and the petitioners as well as members of the community who want to appear before the council to voice their approval support or concerns. The administration does want to apologize. I've talked to a number of folks who are very disappointed that they haven't been able to have their day before the council. But I believe all of the issues associated with these glitches have been corrected and clarified. And at this time, items 15 through 20 are now being deferred to a public hearing on November the 7th, 2016. Thank you. Entering a motion on the city manager's prior items. It's been proper to move the second. Madam clerk, will you open the vote? Close the vote. It passes seven zero. Thank you. Recognize the city attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No priority items. Likewise, city clerk. No items, Mr. Mayor. Therefore, we proceed with the agenda. First item being consent agenda. An item can be approved if an item is removed from the agenda by either council person or member of the public. We discuss it at the end of the agenda. The first item is Carolina Theodore Durham Board of Trustees appointments. Item two is the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau Tourism Development Authority appointment. Item four is the Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission appointment. Item five is the Durham Historic Preservation Commission appointment. Item six is the Inventory Performance Audit for June 2016, dated August 2016. Item seven is the Resolution to Support the Equal Rights Amendment. Item eight is the Professional Services Agreement Amendment number four for the DCHC MPO Database Enhancements and Application Support. Item 10 is the Contract for Professional Engineering Services for the Emergency Action Plan for Critical. 48-inch sewer main crossing. Item 11 is the Resolution Authorizing City Auction. Item 12 is August 2016 Bid Report. Item 13 is Construction Management at Risk Guarantee Maximum Price Amendments for Balance of Trades with Leachase Construction Services for the Police Headquarters Complex and CIP Ordinance Amendment. Item 21 through 22 items that can be found on the agenda as public hearings, entertain a motion for approval of consent agenda with the exception of item 13 and item seven. It's been properly moved in a second. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes seven and zero. We'll move to the general business agenda public hearings. Item 21 is an Amendment to Economic Development and Center Agreement with A&J Capital Corporation. Mayor Bell, members of council, my name is Chris Dickey with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. The item before you recommends the approval of a contract to amend the agreement between A&J Capital Incorporated in the city of Durham related to Economic Development's Center of Contract awarded to A&J Capital Incorporated on February 2nd, 2015. A&J Capital proposes to renovate an underutilized and blighted building at 406 South Driver Street, which is located along an OED Office of Economic and Workforce Targeted commercial corridor located in Northeast Central Durham. The plan is to redevelop an 8,500 square foot building into a mixed-use commercial building. The A&J contracts typically state capital investments totaling 395,000 would need to be in place by February 2nd, 2016, and project close must be finalized by February 2nd, 2017 in order to receive the $170,000 grant incentive. Staff is requesting that you authorize the city manager to execute an amendment to the agreement between A&J Capital Incorporated and the city of Durham date of February 2nd, 2015 that would extend the deadline for project completion to December 31st, 2017. Is there any questions? I'll address it. This is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. You've heard the staff report. I would ask for the first questions by members of the council on the staff recommendation. If not, is there anyone? I'm sorry. Councilwoman Johnson and somebody else. Councilman Rees. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Is the applicant present to answer questions? Yes. Hey, thank you. I just wanted to ask you a couple, if you could just briefly tell us your plans for the building, the current status of the project. Well, the status of the project is... My name is James Rogers. I know many of the people here was a city employee for about 15 years, a long time ago. My plans... Mr. Rogers, could you speak into the microphone please? Thank you. My plans for the building... I've owned it now for a couple of years and have started doing some work on it. It has five commercial spaces on the ground level and the upstairs level was used for residential and I plan to put two apartments there. I have... There's a barber shop that's currently in the building. It moved in a couple of months ago. There's a mini-mart in the building. You may have heard Eastern Pie Company plans to move into the building. We have a letter of interest. I have not done a contract just yet, but hers is a new pie company. She actually lives over in that part of Durham and we're both excited about her moving in. There will be a beauty salon in one of the corner spaces. All spaces are actually occupied. There's going to be a virtual office in a smaller space, a 700 foot space. We've already planned that out. We have a creator website that's going to be totally automated so people who need an address in Durham and who need a business office in Durham can use and who wants to be in Northeast Central Durham can have an address there. Closing is scheduled for the loan to... I believe you also have something on the second floor. Do you not? Yes. Yes. There'll be two apartments on the two residential apartments on the second floor. About 25, 2600 square feet. Those apartments should be pretty nice as well. Everything there will be new. I really like the view upstairs in that building. There's a corner spot with windows on both sides and the view is just really phenomenal. The neighborhood is changing. You know, I've always thought that that building was the focal point of this particular community. When I was in college in North Carolina Central back in the late seventies, early eighties, there was a shoe store in the corner spot of that building. They sold second-hand shoes and that is where I went to buy my shoes. I'm really looking forward to renovating this building and bringing some life back into that neighborhood because I think this is a focal point. If I can get that building done, then I think it helps to stimulate growth in the whole neighborhood. Like you guys, I really love Durham. I've been here since I came to school here and I have seen so many changes. I was police officer for a long time. I was attorney for the police department for about eight years and I remember patrolling in downtown Durham when nobody was there but the police cars and everything has just changed so significantly in a positive way. I think that's, you know, Mayor Bale deserves, as well as the council members, deserve kudos for that. Mr. Bale has been around for a long time and he's seen a lot of those changes as well. Thank you. Could you give us a sense of what the rent is going to be for those apartments and also for their retail space? Currently the rents are for the the folk who are there now. There's about a 700 square foot space that's rented by a young man who has a minimart there. That was there when I bought the building and it has remained there. The rent there is like 650 dollars. The rent for the barbershop is about a thousand dollars was a thousand dollars. The apartments will rent for I think about a thousand dollars each but they're they're both, you know, rather rather large. The corner spaces, the pack companies rent is going to be about 1100 dollars. The salon is 900 dollars in the virtual office. We don't know what that's going to be. We just kind of selling leases and spots to people but we're, you know, hoping that we'll make at least six, seven hundred dollars a month for that. That all sounds really affordable. Thank you for giving us that information. One last question. The folks who are currently doing the renovation work are those contractors being paid living wages? They are. They are. Most of the subcontractors that I've used so far, they've been Durham contractors. I've even managed to use some people from the community. There are a couple of folk who live over our pettigrew, a couple of young guys. One guy, I remember his name is Chris and I don't know Chris's last name but he hangs around the neighborhood and he's always looking for something to do and, you know, I try to, even though I don't really have a job for them, I find some work for them to do because if I keep them busy and keep them coming there every day, they may learn something from the electrician. They may learn something from one of the carpenters and, you know, I can show you a line of texts where Chris calls me, texts me every day, Mr. Rogers, you got a thing for me today and I always like to say yes and sometimes if I don't, I'll just come over and we'll, you know, have a drink or something, a Pepsi, at the minimum and we'll talk. But yes, I do pay living wages. You know, I don't believe in the seven, eight dollars because, you know, I think people deserve more than that and I also believe that you get what you pay for. Thank you so much. I really appreciate those commitments and your commitment to the community and the work that you're doing here. Thank you. Councilor Maurice. Thank you. I just wanted to mention that I am, generally speaking, not a huge fan of public dollars going into private developments. I don't think that's going to be surprised to anyone on the Council. Having said that, I did manage to go back and review the plans for this project that were presented, I guess back in February last year, does that sound right? I actually watched the Council's conversation about that and went on to learn some more about you who I never met but I now know quite a bit about and I just wanted to say that based on what I learned after looking into the project and the answers you gave to my colleagues' excellent questions, I just want to say that this is exactly the kind of project that we need and exactly that spot and I think it says a lot about how you feel about the city and that particular neighborhood that you're willing to put yourself into something like this. So thank you for everything you're doing and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. Thank you. Recognize the Mayor Pro Tem. Hi James, thank you so much for after we allowed you to graduate from this right university, you decided to stay right here in Durham. I fully support what you're doing, especially your compassion for Chris and keep him busy. You are a positive role model for so many young black men in that area. Thank you. Thank you. Although the Council comments, if not, does anyone in the public want to speak on this item? This is being a public hearing. I'll let the director reflect on no one else that's to speak on this item. I would put them here to be closed as a matter of fact before the Council. Move the item. Second. It's been properly moved and second. Madam Clerk, we open the vote. Close the vote. It passes 7-0. The next item is item 22, economic development agreement between Durham, ID Phase 1, developer LLC and the city of Durham. Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayor Pro Tem, members of Council, senior members of the leadership of the city administration. I'm Reginald Jones, acting senior economic development manager in the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. The item relates to a modification of the current agreement regarding the construction of at least 21, 271,000 square feet of new commercial space and associated on-site structured parking facility, publicly accessible open space known commonly as Phase 1 of the Durham Innovation District. Durham ID Phase 1 located in the Durham Central Park District of downtown Durham. On September 21, 2015, the Durham City Council held a public hearing where Council authorized the city manager to negotiate a proposed economic development incentive agreement between Durham ID Phase 1 developers LLC for the properties being redeveloped at 224-301 and 302 Marsh Street in the downtown Durham tier of the city of Durham. The total incentive payment amount is not to exceed five million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars over 15 years. This agreement was passed. This item before you now is requesting that the you authorize the city manager to execute the revised economic development incentive agreement between Durham ID Phase 1 developers LLC and the city of Durham for capital investments associated with the construction of Durham ID Phase 1 for the total incentive that was mentioned earlier five million two hundred fifty thousand dollars over 15 years. Thank you. You've heard the staff report I would ask first other questions, comments by members of the council, recognize Councilman Schuhl, Councilwoman Johnson, Councilman Reese in that order. Thank you very much Mr. Mayor. So as I read this it involves a number of really substantive changes in the agreement. So is the representative of the developer here, Reginald, who could speak to some of these? Yes, with your permission. Is that all right with you, Mr. Mayor? Jessica Brock with Longfellow real estate partners. Thank you. Ms. Brock, the this, well I've got a number of questions but let me let me take it from the top. The there's a change in the minimum capital investment required as I read this from 87 million dollars to I believe 78 million three hundred thousand dollars which is a potentially a 10 drop in the minimum investment. Did I get that right? You did. Yeah, so I guess I would say to our administration that we don't have a pro-formal on that so it's unclear to me what that means in terms of the return to the city. Does it still fall within our incentive guidelines? Do we, you know, so I'd be I'm reluctant to vote for this let me just say tonight without some sort of pro-formal. This is a significant change in the financial formula that existed when we passed it so let me just say that Ms. Brock I know that's not your problem but I do want to say that to our administration but let me also understand the change in the parking space is just to make sure I'm clear. I believe the original plan was for 820 spaces and that we were that the city was to be able to use 410 spaces for at nights and weekends for members of the public and that now that that has changed to a maximum of 410 spaces that would be available to the public. Is that right? It is it's a maximum of 410 which is the same as that originally was so it's 820 which was 410 and so it's still 410. Right but I think the difference as I read this is that you all also reserve uh well it's changed as to now it's not 820 spaces it's 820 spaces or as much as 10% less than that which is a change from the new agreement and that this the number would be reduced at the developer's you know initiative is your choice by as many as 82 spaces so that would potentially mean there would be 738 spaces over which as I read this agreement the city would have no control and that would leave potentially but but the the you all would still have access to 410 spaces leaving this public with access to only 328 spaces in that situation so at least that's why I'm sure that's how I read it and Reginald you can correct me if I'm wrong. The 10% only applies to the overall investment it does not apply to the number of parking spaces that would be available on nights and weekends. Well if you look at the agreement the agreement if I can find this 2.11 is where it says that an amount within 10% of the 87 million dollars I don't see where the 10% applies to us being able to reduce the number of parking spaces. That doesn't but keep looking at the agreement for some reason mine has now disappeared from my iPad but I'm trying to get back. I mean weekend I'm happy to look at the agreement further that's certainly not our intent is not to reduce the number of spaces that are available on nights and weekends by less than 410 spaces so we need to clarify the agreement to make that abundantly clear I'm happy to do that. Okay that would be great because you can read it but the way I read it is is a maximum number of spaces for the public of 410 and if it was therefore reduced that you all it's not it doesn't say that you all would reduce the public's but I just want to make sure that this that the that the public is happy to make that clarification because that's certainly not our intent at all to reduce those number of spaces. Great great now on the on the open space and you can maybe help me here too it's my recollection that originally there was a particular parcel of open space it was identified to be kept open to the public for public use and to be maintained by the developer. Correct. And was that parcel is that where the 0.22 acres and size comes from was that the size that part? Yes it's the same it's just applying an exact acreage instead of a percentage but it has not changed. Okay so it says here in the agreement that that the it sounds it doesn't it doesn't specify that the parcel will be where that parcel is now that is to say the parcel could be somewhere of the developers choosing after consulting with the the downtown open space plan and that kind of thing I'm not necessarily against that but I don't exactly know what it means either was that in the original agreement or is that a change in this agreement? I think that was in the original agreement spaces is where where it was originally if we need to make it more clear of exactly where it is it's in the exact same space and so we have identified it exactly where it will be. Okay why don't you take a look at the agreement and see if you agree with me what I what I think it says is that it kind of can be anywhere after looking at the downtown open space plan so I think that in my mind it would be important to have some more specificity about that. Was there any reason that you changed the or that that a change is made in the agreement from the 7.23 percent of the acreage to the 0.22 acres? That was at a request of our lender that our your lender as we go as we move from conceptual to actual financing the project to making it a reality they ask that we move these from percentages to actual but there is no change it's the exact same space all right moving it from a percentage to an acreage. Okay okay um so again you know I would just say uh thank you Ms. Brock I appreciate it. Sure. I would just say to our administration that I would really like to see I'd like to see a pro forma that would explain what 10% less investment might mean in terms of our incentive. Right I think the way the agreement is structured though it all will float if the investment goes down then our incentive goes down by the by the same percentage. That is our understanding on a sliding scale and so it isn't okay our incentive is if the investment goes down our incentive will go down by an equal percentage. Okay I didn't understand that from the agreement. That's the intent behind the agreement. Yeah well let me let me let me study it for a minute but if that is the intent then I mean if that's that's what happens then that's very reasonable. Right. And that's typically the way we do all of our agreements. Yeah maybe somebody from the administration can also be looking at this and help me because I didn't see it but of course I just may have missed it. Okay those those are my questions for now Mr. Mayor thank you. I can ask Councilwoman Johnson. Thank you Mr. Mayor. So that answers one of my questions which was that if there was 10% less investment would our incentive also would have my 10% so I'm glad to hear that that is the case. My my second concern was that in the in the memo in point three where it's being described the changes from a percentage to a fixed number of units that this allows the project to be scaled up without a corresponding city benefit being scaled up so for example under this this example that's listed here if you were to construct more commercial space then then we wouldn't 65% of that additional space wouldn't be required to be continuously occupied or if you were to construct additional parking that 50% of those additional spaces wouldn't be available for the public and so my question is are you intending to to scale up the development or is this just a technical change? It's more of a technical change as you move to permanent financing off again a conceptual a conceptual plan we one thing in order to get this project finances we have to put actual numbers to it our intent is to open the project on nights and weekends we've agreed we've agreed in this agreement for 50 percent however more than 50 percent of that will likely be open as we are big proponents of providing more parking in downtown Durham however as we move from conceptual to reality and again as we try to get permanent financing on this we have to take numbers that are out of the conceptual into the actual and that is the purpose of the amendment to this agreement. I recognize councilman Reese for the questions by members of the council recognize councilman Moffitt. Yes sir I'm sorry do you um are there people signed up to speak? Okay I just had a couple of comments um Mr. Baker the the section of the agreement that councilmember Schul was speaking to about the parking parking section 343 3.4.3 is the one that I think is going to need some revision to reflect what we heard tonight. There are two two sections in the agreement that conflict with each other. State does again 3.4.3 3.4.3 yes that's the one that gives the um applicant the right to designate 410 spaces for the uses of whoever they want to use them and if there were less than 820 spaces that would cut into that. The other thing is on the previous I've been sitting here looking back and forth as I'm listening to the conversation previously when we heard this in September last year there was a map that showed the open space on it and I think councilmember Schul that's what you're speaking of and I wondered why that map wasn't provided tonight or whether the intention is to adhere to that map that was provided back in September. It is nothing's changed okay open spaces. And uh and I'm also with councilmember Schul I've been looking for where in here it says that our our payments are reduced based on how much they invest so if someone could find that point that out to us I would appreciate that. Thank you. Other other questions to question us councilmember? Thank you. I had a question about how the council or how our staff has reviewed these TISER proposals in the past with an eye to the percentage of incremental tax value that we're willing to to give to a developer in an incentive. I pulled the pro forma financial that was put together for this original incentive agreement back in September of last year and it looked to me that the percentage of incremental tax value that the city agreed at that time to provide to this developer as an incentive to get the project underway was about 70 percent does that sound about right to you? Yes. Is that higher or lower than we have done in the past I haven't made the practice to go back through and look at all of the projects we've done within a certain period of time I just don't know how to judge that percentage as opposed to any other project that we've incentivized. I don't have access to that information off the top of my head would have to go back and review that. Councilmember Reese I don't have the exact numbers off the top of my head I can tell you in my experience it has varied. Typically 80 percent has been a number that we've tried to stay under although I think there's been some situations for some some major project we might even gone over a hundred percent not you know not obviously for you know a specified period of time but every every deal the staff looks at whether or not the money is required based on a lot of factors what are the costs what are the rates of return this deal is a little bit different because Durham County was involved as well as had had an incentive which doesn't always happen and then the other kind of more intrinsic situations that that happen in terms of moving that percentages is this an incentive that's going to be a catalyst for something else I can tell you in this particular case you know this clearly was a project that was probably on the high side of where we wanted to be but was seen to be a catalyst for really you know setting the mark for this Durham invention you know invention district and was very important other cases where we've had say the Chesterfield building or the 21c building you know where that was a little bit different situation we were trying to get a big empty building that had been empty for a long time you know to to be redeveloped I think in the Chesterfield case you might even have been at 80 percent so it it there's not a there's not a hard and fast rule of thumb again in this case I think it was as much the the really getting the the district off the ground that was was the high priority and as Jessica knows and developers know that as phase 2s and 3s and 4s of this project assuming they come forth I would expect we would have a different conversation about the level of incentives that would come forward that work I think I've been here long anyone that's counsel with exception of the mayor pro tem I've been involved in an area incentive deal that this council has done starting with the american tobacco corporation and all of my unique you know we've I personally tried to usually rule rule of thumb no more than 70 percent because we always want to have money left over to pay for police protection all the other stuff that comes along with it so you don't give the whole wax away but by the same time but I think you look at what does it bring at the time and what else are we looking for so you know why there there's no hard and fast rule I think the council has to look at each individual project differently and decide if in fact this is what you want to do for this project and what are the other things that it brings to it pretty much what the manager said but like I've been here I've seen it and I know the thought process that the councils have gone through since I've been here when they give incentives for different projects I like to have a hard and fast rule but you know all depends on what you what else you're trying to accomplish with that particular project and what else it brings to to the community a potential to bring to the community recognize councilman sure thank you mr. mayor so I support I supported this project when we did it and I support it now I do think though that we ought to hold a public hearing open for the following couple reasons I've looked at the contract again at cursorly I read it earlier today and you know I certainly could have missed it but I didn't see anything that talked about a reduction in our incentive relative to any reduction in the investment amount and I don't know if the city attorney has been able to find that either so so that seems like I wouldn't want to support this without that change and I understand that that is your intention as well mr. and then the other thing I do think that the the parking the way it reads to me now is that well as I said originally which I think is problematic I think that if there's a reduction in parking spaces that should be equally shared and or but or the city should have 410 if there's a reduction I wouldn't mind you know some sort of equal sharing and you can talk to the administration I don't think our attention our intention is to reduce it at all so the clarifying points need to be that we need to reduce the incentives proportionally if the actual gmp comes in less then that is something that we're agreeable to and then we also are agreeable to fixing the parking at 410 no matter okay right fluctuates or not thank you and then maybe some more specificity on that parcel that openspace parcel we can reattach the map that has where okay and then my other comments were that I really am glad that we now have the patrick the included the section on the the contract of workers which is a good improvement in our incentive in our incentive structure agreements and appreciate that and that's a I think that's that's significant and hope that you know of course we all hope that we don't have those situations and I had more comment too oh yeah just to mention also to you all reginald that you know we had the recent audit that some of our incentive recipients had not been doing a good job of reporting their employment numbers and that germans department brought to us and I just wanted to emphasize with this this incentive that we need to have really good oversight with this project and all of our incentive projects in terms of holding the developers to their agreements in terms of our employment and I just hope that you'll pass that on to the department yes thank you thank you mr. mayor and if I wouldn't mind at this point if you're ready mr. mayor to move to continue this or to keep it up recognize the mayor pro tem I'd like to ask patrick if can we close the public hearing tonight and then instruct staff to make the changes in the agreement and can you do that by Thursday so we can dispose of this because there are some financial considerations that the developer has to meet never been asked that close the public hearing we've typically just just continue the public hearing but I understand you're here your question I know typical yeah I you know I I think that you can close it if you anybody else here who wanted to speak on it you know just in terms of just having some business sense and respect for it I would offer a different approach that we close the public hearing instruct staff you to have the agreement ready by Thursday so we can dispose of it at that time because it's not a lot a whole lot that you have to do is it um in terms of what I you know I've written down the three things that have been addressed I'll I'll meet well Fred and I will meet with you tomorrow to make sure that we've got clarity of it we'll reach out to your folks as well to make sure everyone's on the same page I don't know that there's it based on everything that I've heard I don't know why we couldn't have something to you on Thursday to consider yeah we need to dispose of whatever we can in this cycle because we have a lot of things let's do this because I I want to respect those who raised the questions and also respect the issue that the developer has the people have raised a question the colleagues do you have a problem with that I'm speaking specifically to Steve since he's raised those questions so I wouldn't be able to vote in favor no matter when we did it of anything that didn't have these corrections well yeah that's what I saw you know that I just want to make that clear in terms of closing the public hearing I don't have a problem with it that I can think of as long as we're you know we get these corrections made so what about councilman Moffitt since you raised the question yeah I don't have a problem I do not have a problem voting on it on Thursday I would like to make sure I hear the three items repeated just to make sure that we have them all in if we're gonna press this forward so I didn't write these for for repeating but I said 10% less investment equals 10% less city and incentive so there would be a scale a percentage ratio clarify the parking spaces to be fixed at 410 in the section that you you raised councilman Moffitt 3.4.3 and to specify the open space for the three areas that I thank you mr. Baker at that I and yeah I've been scanning back and forth through it not only did I not find anything in here about a 10% reduction in our investment I couldn't find anything regarding the capital investment required of the applicant now that it may be in here I'm just missing it but if you would just ensure that that is also included Mr. Mayor, can I ask councilman Rees thank you I maybe I'm the only one here that doesn't understand so I'm going to ask the question why are we departing so radically from our normal procedures in this instance I'm sorry why are we proposing to to depart from our normal procedures in such a radical manner I again I understand people don't have a problem with it I get that but I'd like to know what the what the problem is I don't understand so I think what we're trying to do is to get questions that have been raised answered to satisfy those who raise the questions to respect the timetable that the developer is on and the fact that you don't have anyone here that wants to speak on this item from the public now you might say if you hold it open people will come in that's always the case but assuming you don't have that type of an issue simply trying to get the questions answered respect the developer and make a decision Thursday and it might turn out that Thursday that you still might not have enough votes to pass it if it is that's what it is I guess the there's been a couple of oblique references to the developer's timetable and I didn't know that I missed part of the memo was that communicated to others I don't know what that means so it's been announced we have a lead tenant we're in the we have the ability to build both buildings at the same time and the parking deck however we have to close our financing which is contingent upon this agreement so we've been working at this the city manager and I don't know for three or four months and so continuing it just will further delay the project which ultimately will put the lead tenant in jeopardy I have to hit a timetable with them and so if I'm not able to do that then they will not be enough you might have wanted to lead with that okay nobody likes too much pressure right and John I didn't have any more information you did I just sense that that was a developer issue so you heard just I heard the same time you heard for the first time I can let me say it that way yes if you don't mind I move Mr. Mayor that we close the public hearing and ask the city attorney to clarify in the contract agreement the items that were posed this evening is that enough by Thursday do I need what's the date October the 23rd October 20th for one o'clock any other specificity I got it is there a second to that motion okay it's been proper moving second Madam clerk we open the vote close the vote it passes seven it's zero thank you thank you we move back to the items that have been pulled item seven their proton pulled out items resolution in support of the Equal Rights Amendment and so ladies would you introduce yourself because I'm too excited to introduce you Gloria de los Santos Action NC statewide director of state with women and families campaign here in north Carolina hi I'm marina growl I'm a Durham resident I am the chair of NC for ERA and the co-chair of ERNC state alliance I am also a Durham resident that adds to the excitement and this is the resolution resolution in support of the Equal Rights Amendment whereas the city of Durham forthrightly supports equal rights for the citizens of Durham and women constitute over 53 percent of the citizenry of Durham that's power I'm sorry I didn't mean to say whereas mayor William v bill bell witnessed in the women's equality day proclamation for august 26 2016 that women play a critical role in families the workplace and in society as a whole contributing to our economy and advancing our nation and whereas women continue to confront a lack of political parity workplace discrimination healthcare inequities disparate rates of poverty rate and rape and domestic violence assaults and whereas the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly guarantee that all rights that it protects are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex and whereas the 14th amendment's equal protection clause has never been interpreted to guarantee equal rights for women in the same way the ERA would by situating sex as a suspect category invoking strict judicial scrutiny just as race national origin and religion do and whereas state laws are not uniform and federal laws are not comprehensive additionally these laws can be repealed or reduced and whereas the amendment would help correct systemic sex discrimination and whereas the ERA was passed by Congress in 1972 and ratified by 35 of the 38 states necessary to put it into the Constitution yet was assumed to have expired in 1982 and whereas Congress can alter time limits in the proposing causes of amendments and the deadline for ERA appeared only in the preamble and not in the actual legislation and whereas Senator Floyd R. B. McKissick Jr. and Representative Carla Cunningham introduced ERA ratification bills in the North Carolina General Assembly in 2015 long session with Senator Mike Woodard cosponsoring the Senate bill and Representative Michelle cosponsoring the House bill and our legislators will introduce like bills in 2017 and whereas U.S. representatives G.K. Butterfield David Price and Alma Adams cosponsored bills in the 114 Congress to pass an ERA and to lift the time limits on the states for ratifying the ERA therefore be it resolved that the city of Durham calls on Congress to pass into law a bill to pass an ERA and remove the time limit for ratification of the ERA so that ratification shall be achieved upon the affirmative votes of 38 states of which 35 have already been ratified and be it found and resolved that the city of Durham calls on the North Carolina General Assembly to pass into law a bill to ratify the ERA to the U.S. Constitution as proposed by Congress on March 22nd 1972 and latest let me just add I am a member of women in municipal government on the state and national level and I will be taking this car this resolution with me to their meetings one is in this month and the other is in March thank you so much for being a part of this momentous occasion thank you I appreciate her yielding and letting me talk for just a moment I want to reiterate the gratitude that we feel especially when we're talking about women's civil rights to be recognized in this kind of a forum it's critically relevant right now we've actually been shocked into a national conversation about sexual discrimination so the act that you're taking tonight is historic this is the first municipality to re-engage with the Equal Rights Amendment since the 70s and the 80s you're actually witnessing to not just Durham but to this entire state and our country that yes women's civil rights are important so thank you so much thank you so much entertaining emotion on the item so moved second it's been proper to move the second madam clerk will you open the vote close the vote she passes seven to zero thank you we moved item 13 construction manager at risk guarantee maximum price amendments for balance of trades with Lee Chase construction services for the police the court headquarters complex and cip ordinance amendment recognize councilwoman johnson thank you mr mayor i don't have any additional comments on this item i just wanted to vote on it separate from the consent agenda it's been proper to move the second madam clerk will you open the vote you close the vote it passes six to one with councilmember johnson voting no let me ask are there any other items to come before the council at this time if not the council will adjourn at 8 0 8 p.m thank you