City Council Zoning Meeting - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Now call the meeting to order. Good evening and thank you all for joining us in person here and those watching online for our August 24th business meeting. Now we'll begin with introductions around the dais, starting with our city clerk to my right.

Billy Tons, Deputy City Clerk. Andrea Leslie-Fight, City Attorney.

Good evening, Dimplege Mayor. At large. Good evening, I'm Victoria Watlington and I have the pleasure of serving you as a member at large.

Good evening, Joy Mayo, representing District 3.

Marcus Jones, City Manager.

Rob Harrington, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. James Mitchell, Mayor Pro Tem.

Good evening. Kimberly Owens, representing District 6.

Malcolm Graham, District 2. Ed Driggs, District 7.

Good evening. Luana Mayfield, Council Member at Large.

Good evening. JD Masueta-Arias, proudly representing the East Side, District 5.

Good evening. I'm Renee Johnson, and I'm honored to represent District 4.

Thank you. We begin our meeting with an invocation, expression, or inspiration, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The invocation is intended to solemnize our proceedings. We celebrate the religious diversity of our community, including those without a religious faith. Tonight, Councilmember Dr. Watlington will give our invocation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. For those of you that would like to, please join us and bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight grateful for this city and for the trust placed in us to serve it well. Lord, give us wisdom beyond our own understanding as we deliberate tonight and as we hear from the community. Give us humility to listen to each other and to the neighbors who aren't in this room but whose lives are shaped by what we decide here. Lord, where there is disagreement among us, let it be rooted in respect. Where there is doubt, grant us clarity. Where there is division in our city, use us as instruments of healing rather than discord. Lord, we ask that you guide every vote cast tonight toward justice, toward mercy, and toward the well-being of every person who calls Charlotte home. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Amen. Please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Before we move to voting on consent items, I want to take a quick moment because we have a representative from Anson County, who I think has a special message and recognition from some of our city staff. I'll now recognize Chairman Cottle of Anson County.

Take your time, everybody.

Right here would be great. We've got another one right behind you.

Yeah, right behind you. This one's much better. It's a little bit taller. So good evening, council. Good evening, mayor, staff. Thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight. My name is Jamie Caldwell. I'm the chairman of the Anson County Board of Commissioners. I call it a neighboring county. We're just a few miles east of here. But again, I appreciate you letting me speak tonight. I just want to address a situation that we had in Ansi County back on July the 7th. Ansi County experienced a countywide water system loss. So we had a complete depressurization of our water system across the entire county. 95% of our citizens were without drinkable water at that time. The next couple days after that line break, our focus was to restore water service for the basic principle of fire protection to all residents and businesses. Once that was achieved, our focus then became on restoring quality drinking water to all the citizens of our district or our county. During that time, it became apparent that our utility staff was going to need some help in getting that restored. So we began to reach out to our neighboring municipalities, neighboring counties, and the city of Charlotte being one of those. I'm here tonight to tell you thank you for the assistance that you provided to our county during that time. I want to thank the elected officials, I want to thank the city staff, and most importantly, I want to thank the men and women who had boots on the ground who helped us restore that service to all of our citizens in our county. We are all North Carolinians, and that's what makes us the greatest state in the country to live in. It's North Carolina. When we need help, we always lend a hand to our neighbors, and that's exactly what you did for our county and Anson County. Your willingness to lend a hand, or in this case several hands, just shows the type of character that you as leaders exhibit and also your staff. You sent nine to ten highly skilled and trained crew members each day for two or three long days, and I want to specify long days, that worked diligently to help us restore the water service. I can't name them all. But I do want to especially thank Mr. Marion Sanders, and I know he's in the audience behind me here. He is truly a remarkable person and a true leader in that department. And so he was on site with us in our EOC Operations Center, and Mr. Sanders was there every day. And I just want to thank him personally, but also, you know, the staff. And also, I have not met this person yet. I did not physically talk to her on the phone, but I was on the phone conversations with her. Ms. Angela Charles at your water lab. Yes. And she may be here tonight. I wouldn't know. So Ms. Charles, she did whatever was necessary to get our water samples fixed and tested. She offered extended hours on dropping off water samples, accommodated us, our county, in whatever way she could do. She provided technical support on obtaining the water samples. That way we could lift our boil water advisory and our citizens could go back to consuming the water. Most importantly, she gave our citizens a trusted resource that they could believe in the water sample was passing and was able to be consumed. So I want to say thank you to Ms. Charles, Mr. Sanders, and all of the staff. I can't name all the staff members. There were way too many people coming in in that building that day. So tonight, I just want to present you with this plaque. and grateful recognition of your invaluable assistance, extraordinary partnership, and unwavering support provided to Anson County during the July 2026 water emergency. Your dedication to public service and commitment to helping our community during a time of need exemplified the highest ideals of local government and emergency response. So with sincere appreciation and gratitude, on behalf of Anson County Commissioners, Anson County staff, and most importantly the Anson County citizens, we say thank you for your partnership.

Give our credit to the city. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you Chairman Cottle and thanks to all the staff at Charlotte Water for your hard work helping our neighbor community.

All right, we'll start that again.

Thank you, Chairman Cottle, and thank you to all the staff of Charlotte Water for your hard work helping our neighboring community in their time of need. That's a wonderful way to start the meeting, so thanks again to everyone that's involved from Charlotte Water. And to the chairman. I'd like to thank again all of you for joining us on behalf of the entire city council. I ask that audience members be civil and courteous while in the chamber. We want to ensure that everyone has a positive experience while attending this meeting. We will start our meeting items with consideration of consent agenda items. Before we take the vote, are there any for comment or for a separate vote? We will vote on the items not pulled first and then address any item pulled for a separate vote later. Council Member Esmere.

Item number 20, just for comment.

Are there any others?

Okay, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items 13 through 32 with the exception of item 20?

So moved. Second.

Any further discussions or comments as to the bulk of the items? All in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? All right, that passes. Since we have comments just on one, let's go ahead and take that now. Council Member Esmir.

So first I'll make a motion to approve item number 20, and then I'll make a comment. Second. Second. Speaking of Charlotte Water, I just want to highlight Charlotte Water again. They are a champion of the circular economy. And Angela Charles and her team does an excellent job of meeting our CF goals. We have seen that when they unveiled Renew Brew. And this is item number 20. It's just another example of how we recover our valuable resources like phosphorus and nitrogen from wastewater to support a circular sustainable economy. And this is going to result in almost $2 million. So let me say that again, sustainability and economic development and cost saving goes hand in hand. So Angela, thank you for your leadership in helping us meet our CF goals as well as our sustainability department. Thank you for your leadership.

Thank you, Council Member Ajmera. We have a motion and a second to approve item number 20, the motion. Now we're ready for a vote. All in favor, raise your right hand. Any opposed? All right, the passes and we're complete with the consent agenda. Now we move to open forum. Public forum I'd like to thank you all for joining us on behalf of the entire City Council I ask that all speakers and audience members be civil and courteous in their use of language Speakers are encouraged to address counsel and should refrain from responding to audience members Likewise audience members should be courteous of each speaker and not yell out or interrupt speakers We want to ensure that everyone has the chance to be heard tonight since there are more than ten speakers Each speaker will have two minutes to address counsel. Thank you, and now I'd like to call the first speaker, and that will require me to get my list. I think the first speaker, apologies if I mispronounce name, but Yazan Hamadeh. Dr. Hamadeh, here. All right, second speaker is Mike Homan. Great. Next speaker is Jim Berry.

Eventually I'm going to stop striking out here.

The next speaker is Manolo Betancourt. Unfortunately, there's a waiting list, but we look forward to hearing from you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, dear friends of our city council. I had a very nice speech 24 hours ago that I wrote for all of you, but everything changed 24 hours ago when Greg Bovino showed up at my parking lot at the bakery. And he's the person who brought sadness, darkness, and hate to our city this past November. And I'm the baker. I should be selling cakes and bread. I shouldn't be condemning this person to show up in our city. I'm here to ask you to be extraordinary people. Extraordinary people are the people who create a good change in our society, and ordinary people are the ones who live our daily lives. Our city is full of extraordinary people. I saw that this past November, when everybody show up in my bakery, when everybody show up in Central Avenue and brought love to us. But ICE is still in Charlotte. Every single day they are taking people away from our streets. Our business going down. Our children are going back to school tomorrow. They are in trauma. They are sad. They are worried. And nobody is raising their voice. I've been begging for 29 years and this is worse than COVID, this is worse than 2008 recession. We all can combine and create solutions. If we feel proud to bring big CEOs from another company, from another state, and we feel so proud that all 500 million fortune company came to Charlotte, we should feel proud that we take care of our small business and our minorities. So I'm here to invite you to create solutions. Thank you so much.

Our next speaker. Our next speaker. Our next speaker is Yatra. I'm going to mispronounce your name, but Pietrzec.

Is he here?

Great. Next speaker is Daniel O'Raya.

Yes.

Hello, Council. My name is Daniel Orria. I live in District 2. During a recent conversation that this council was having about the Model Cities Initiative, there were concerns brought up about flock cameras and similar technologies and potential expansion of use of that technology. And during that conversation, another council member commented about that and said the following. The last portion of what I'll say is connected to this technology piece that we've talked about because just a short while ago, we approved red light cameras that are going to track vehicles and other things that come within its purview. And we have 621 cameras on intersections all throughout the city of Charlotte. The reason this was concerning to me is because it made me realize that some members of this council may be catastrophically misinformed about the issue of surveillance technology. This is hugely concerning to me. The ACLU described what was going on with Flock this way recently. The cloud automatic license plate reader company Flock is building a dangerous nationwide mass surveillance infrastructure. They go on to say, if your community adopts this technology, you need to know it's doing more than just recording what car is driving where and at what time. I also would like to follow up and say that Axon is another company that is doing a similar thing. Their technologies are developing and growing at breakneck pace. If this council waits another year to confront this issue, it will be too late. I call upon the council. To do three things, ask CMPD about their current use and planned use of technologies from Flock, Axon, and other surveillance companies. Gather information about this topic to ensure you are educated. And three, have an open discussion and make deliberate decisions about where Charlotte is going to draw the line to protect our rights. This is a critical issue, and I urge the council to please address this issue as soon as you can. Thank you very much for your service to the city, and I look forward to action on this.

Thank you, Mr. Rio. Our next speaker is Masa Kene. Next speaker is Ashante Williams.

Good evening, Mayor Harrington and City Council members. My name is Ashante Williams and I am an unaccompanied minor escort at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport servicing American Airlines passengers. While I'm trusted to help keep the airport's most vulnerable passengers safe, I was recently put into a situation where I wasn't given the training I needed to do the job safely. I stepped in as a wheelchair attendant during a staffing shortage and was expected to push two passengers at the same time. I had no help, no guidance, or any idea how I was going to push them both through a crowded airport. I made one mistake that was a security violation. Because of that mistake, I paid a hefty price. I didn't know I had to do security too. Nobody told us these things. My airport badge was suspended for 67 days. and it's because I had poor training. When Charlotte Airport Security reinstated my badge, they said that my employer, Prospect, gave me insufficient training. For nearly 70 days, I went without pay, my bills piled up, food was limited, and I had to fight for my life to survive. Stories like mine happen when workers are overworked, understaffed, and being asked to fill gaps without proper training and the support that we actually need. And when you add bottom of the barrel benefits and low pay that doesn't allow us to support our families, you have a recipe for disaster. I love my job and helping people travel safely, but the airport workers at CLT deserve better. Mayor Harrington, Charlotte City Council, the new airport lease at CLT, can change things for the better. Give the public 45 days to review the lease and require airlines and their contractors to publicly report their training and staffing data so we can improve airport services and stories like mine don't happen again. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Williams. Our next speaker is Ava Wilfong. Ava Wilfong. Next is Leslie Brown. Next is Alicia Brown. Ms. Brown, if you could, since I was going so fast through names, if you could state your names just so we have them clearly.

I'm sorry?

Oh, if you could just state your names, because I was calling a bunch of names. I want to make sure everybody knows who's talking.

Very well. Good evening, Mayor and members of the Charlotte City Council. I am Alicia Brown. I'm the founder and executive director of For the Struggle and the managing partner of Justice in Action Law Center. I'm speaking tonight because what we've heard from the community with respect to this curfew is that criminalization is not the answer, resources is in fact the answer. And the fact that investing in resources to alleviate this problem was not the initial response is concerning, at least. Let's be honest, you all have heard and we've already acknowledged that this ordinance will have a disproportionate impact on black and brown children. That is something that we already know. We know what's happened in the past and we know what will continue to happen even with this particular ordinance. What's even more concerning is criminalizing parents for children engaging in children activities and children behavior. We work with parents every single day, low-income parents struggling every single day. And the idea of criminalizing a parent for a child's activity is not only concerning, but it shows me that whoever wrote this ordinance is completely out of touch. We do not support a blanket 9 p.m. curfew as proposed. If an immediate measure is necessary, it should be temporary, and the attorney in me needs to say, it needs to be narrowly tailored and evaluated alongside non-criminal alternatives. After speaking with our youth, again, Criminalization under these circumstances is unrealistic and it's not the answer. You've been offered alternatives. We've seen the city pay astronomical amounts for studies to come up with solutions. Well, this is the time to employ your community experts in impacted communities to come up with a real solution. The scope is far too broad. This, in practice, again, will criminalize children who are not engaging in any criminal activity. My problem, even further, is that, again, it will have a disproportionate impact on black and brown children. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Brown. Next speaker is Zanae Brown.

I believe the person after me is one of our students, Jamaya.

Jamaya. Zanae.

Oh, it says Zonet. She's speaking in the place of Zonet.

I'm sorry, if we're not signed up, we can't allow it. I apologize. Okay. Thank you. All right, the next speaker is Reverend Dr. Janet Garner Mullins.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. I'm here tonight to respectfully ask you to stand firm and maintain the six vote position opposing the current I-77 South Toll Lane proposal. This issue is about more than transportation. It's about public trust. Residents attended meetings, submitted comments, contacted elected officials, and made their views known. After hearing those concerns, this council voted to oppose the project. The question before you is simple. What is change? The transportation needs have not changed, the concern raised by residents have not changed, and the burdens that toll roads place on working families has not changed. What appears to have changed is the pressure on local government to revisit decisions that already reach through public engagement and care for the liberation. Let me be clear. We all want transportation improvements. We want safer roads, reduced congestion, and better mobility throughout our region. But working families should not be asked to pay twice. Once through their taxes and again through tolls used on roads they've already paid for in the beginning. And for some residents and neighborhoods, this proposal is not merely about traffic patterns. It's about the potential disruption of established communities. Families losing their homes they've worked for for many years, and sometimes generations to build. Charlotte residents deserve transportation solutions that are affordable, transparent, accountable to the public. So tonight, I urge you to hold your position. Continue advocating for transportation solutions that reflect the needs, values, and voices of our people. Because roads can be rebuilt. Budgets can be revised. But once public trust is lost, you can't get it back. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Gallagher.

Our next speaker is Ricky Singh.

Ricky Singh. All right, next speaker is Nathan Hoffman

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Nathan Hoffman. I'm an uptown resident, president of Frenzel Fourth Ward, and a member of the Center City Safety Task Force. I'm here tonight in support of the Youth Protection Ordinance. I understand some of the concerns surrounding the ordinance. A curfew alone will not solve the challenges facing our young people. We absolutely need greater investment in youth programming, mentorship, safe places for teens to gather, mental health resources, and opportunities for young people to thrive. But I don't believe we have to choose between these investments in giving CMPD a reasonable tool to protect young people and our community. This ordinance creates clear expectations and, importantly, allows officers to intervene before a situation escalates. not simply after a crime has occurred or someone has become a victim. Used properly, this should not be about criminalizing young people. It should be an opportunity to engage them, reconnect them with parents and guardians, identify those who may need additional help, and connect families with resources. As an uptown resident, I've seen how quickly large, unsupervised gatherings can change the environment for residents, businesses, visitors, and the young people themselves. This is why implementation matters. It must be fair, consistent, compassionate, and accountable. Pair this ordinance with visible policing, youth engagement, community partnerships, safe youth spaces, and meaningful resources, and I believe we create something much more powerful than a curfew. We create a proactive, preventive strategy. On behalf of the residents of Uptown and all those across the city, I respectfully ask council to support the youth protection ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hoffman. We will move on to the waiting list since we've got several spots still open. And first on the waiting list, the next speaker is Michael McBride. Got even more space on the waiting list now. Nancy Cook. Bishop Amare May. Jamal Snow.

I think he's still coming.

Mayor, council, we need to be honest about what this ordinance actually will do. If we already know black and brown youth face disproportionate harm during police encounters, why would we pass a policy that guarantees even more encounters? And why criminalize parents when the system is already stacked against them? First, the curfew increases police youth contact, especially for black and brown teens. Charlotte's own data shows 1,532 juvenile-related incidents this year. Only 30% happen after 8 p.m., So why create a policy that affects 100% of teens for 30% of the problem? Cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Minneapolis, Nashville, Raleigh, and my hometown of Fayetteville have already learned this lesson, curfews don't reduce youth crime, but they do increase police interaction in communities of color. Charlotte cannot afford to repeat those mistakes. Second, criminalizing parents will hit families already on the screen. Under the current ordinance, parents can already be charged which contributing to delinquency of a minor, a class one misdemeanor. We know exactly who will bear the brunt, black and brown parents, single parents, families already struggling economically. A misdemeanor means fines, courts fees, miswork, even jail time that destabilizes housing, employment and family structure. Criminalizing parents doesn't solve root causes. It deepens generational harm. I urge the council to remove, revise this section. Third, we need alternatives that actually work. If the goal is safety and protection, then invest in strategies with proven impact. For example, hotspot analysts. So we know where youth gatherings are happening and can target solutions instead of blanket curfews. From community organizations already trusted by youth, Credible messengers, violence interrupters, neighborhood peace teams, these models work in Baltimore, New York, Chicago. Create a youth hotline. Replace criminalizations with support and provide safety technology such as doorbells, motion alert sensors for families in hotspot areas who need help keeping their kids safe at night. Charlotte has the talent and the organizations and the leadership to build something real, sustainable, and rooted in trust.

Thank you, Mr. Snow. Next speaker is Brandi Williams. Brandi Williams.

Not here. Okay.

Next speaker is Jemiah Pittman.

Okay. Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. My name is Jeremiah Pittman. I am a SLU student and a young person connected to the Charlotte community. I do not believe in earlier curfews the best solution. Young people gathered together does not automatically mean we are causing trouble. Sometimes we are simply spending time together after school, work, or an event. A curfew could also affect jobs, transportation, family responsibilities, school activities, and social lives. Young people who are not causing trouble should not be punished for the actions of someone else. Instead of focusing mainly on enforcement, I am asking the city to invent safe places for us to go, reliable transportation, mentors, positive activities, and the trust of the adults who will help conflict when this begins. Having someone who will listen in a calm situation could stop a problem before it becomes worse. Before making a decision, please listen directly to young people who will be affected. If the curfew is changed, make it temporarily and publicly reviewed whether it actually makes Charlotte safer and whether it's being applied fairly. Young people are a part of this community, too. Our experience, opinions should be included in decisions about our safety and freedom. Thank you for listening to my voice.

Our next speaker is Robert McCutcheon. Robert McCutcheon.

Good evening, Mayor Harrington and fellow city council members. My name is Robert McCutcheon. I have the privilege of leading the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. Over the past several months, you've heard many passionate voices about I-77 South. But I want to speak tonight for some of the people you haven't heard from. Because while they may not be in this room, many of them are sitting on I-77 South right now. They're coming home from work, picking up their kids, heading to an evening shift. They wear suits and scrubs and steel-toed boots. They teach our children, stock our shelves, build our homes, drive our trucks, and serve our meals. And they share two hopes, spend less time in traffic, and make sure every neighborhood in Charlotte has the opportunity to succeed. These are not competing values, they're Charlotte values. The debate over I-77 South has too often become about winners and losers. But what if Charlotte can do something bigger? What if we can reduce congestion for hundreds of thousands of people and reconnect communities divided for generations? What if we can improve mobility and bring a meaningful investment and opportunity to neighborhoods that have waited for decades for it? This isn't choosing one Charlotte over another. That's choosing all of Charlotte. Council, you represent the people in this room. But you also represent the parent trying to teach daycare before it closes, the nurse driving home after a 12-hour shift, and the worker losing an hour every evening to traffic. And you represent communities that deserve investment, opportunity, and reconnection. Their voices matter too. History rarely remembers whether leaders choose the safest path. History remembers whether leaders choose the future. Let's choose a Charlotte that moves, a Charlotte that connects, a Charlotte that invests, a Charlotte that leaves no neighborhood behind. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. McCutcheon.

Quiet, please. Quiet, please. Next speaker is Sagar Raffi.

Sagar.

Sagar. Sagar Raffi. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, members of Council. My name is Sagar Rathi. I'm here in support of regional growth, and as a resident of District 7, I'm here in support of moving I-77 forward. Three key things I want to reiterate. First, I drive this corridor every day to the airport, to South Charlotte. into uptown, it is unreliable now and it's not getting better. I don't think anyone here would argue otherwise. And it's not just my experience. This is honestly one of the most traveled corridors we've seen in any major metro in the US. It's not meeting the needs today and it's not changing anytime soon. Our region is growing, and this problem only gets worse the longer we wait. Second, I know there's been a lot of discussion regarding tolls and whether they're useful, beneficial, or helpful. And in this instance, I think there's something pretty unique about how we're funding this structure. Right now, the way tolls are set up, we actually get the benefit of over 40% of the people paying for it coming from out of state. That's not a tax necessarily on our community. That means everyone pays their fair share. If this were to change to some sort of tax-funded alternative, that means everyone else here in this room is paying for it. That's a challenge. And third, I want to be clear, this vote coming up, what it does do and what it doesn't do, it doesn't finalize anything. It only keeps our progress moving forward. We have been talking about trying to advance and improve 77 for over 20 years. Now is the time to try to make a stand and make something happen. The work that's been done over that time period has been really to drive the growth that we're living and seeing every single day. And it's not slowing down. So let's not stall it. Let's advance it and keep working towards it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Raffi. Next speaker is J.Q. Freeman. J.Q. Freeman.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is J.Q. Freeman. I was born and raised in Charlotte, and I'm a proud graduate of West Charlotte High School. Good. C? I'm here to speak about the proposed I-77 toll lane improvements that are currently on hold. I own a property that's being directly impacted by the proposed improvements being made to I-77 South. We all know that I-77 is currently broken. It's getting worse every day, and it must be improved. However, councils were sending support for this project has effectively wiped out the marketability of every property that will be impacted by I-77 improvements because the project's now on hold. No one is willing to purchase a property that could be subject to condemnation by NCDOT in the future. Furthermore, I have a loan on my property, and I'm sure many other property owners in the same situation as me have loans on their property. With a looming condemnation in front of us, banks are unwilling to refinance properties. We are suffering under this cloud of condemnation. because the project was announced, then the project was approved, and then the improvement plans and subsequent property condemnations were initiated with people like me. In city council members' own words, you don't want to kill the project, you just want to change the proposed design. But the design is only 10 to 15% complete. The concerns raised about this project can be addressed as the design progresses through the same public process that produced caps and stitches and community benefits already on the table. By putting this project on hold, city council members are hurting the very communities and residents they hope to protect. There are many property owners and homeowners like me who are now living and working under this cloud of condemnation, causing us more and more financial damage every day while we wait for the eventual conclusion. While you delay, we suffer. The public's with you if you vote to move forward. A July poll of Charlotte's registered voters found that 52% support moving ahead with the I-77 South expansion.

Thank you, Mr. Freeman.

Next speaker is Damian Smith, followed by Rob Nanfelt, just to be prepared.

Socialist.

Good evening, council. Many of you already know how I feel about this. You've heard from me plenty over the last year. Now, the fact of the matter is, is that many of us on the west side, we share the concerns about wanting people to be able to get to their homes. We share concerns about congestion. What we've said the entire time is is that the solution that has been proposed does not work and that is supported by the data, both economic, engineering, and it's been shown for 80 plus years that toll lanes and highway expansions don't work. And conservative publications like The Economist say that they don't work and that they are a bad use of public dollars. even if they are public-private partnerships. that you should invest in mass transit and alternative transit and providing people freedom and options of how they get to and from their jobs to see their friends, to see their family, to pick up their children from school. And maybe, here's a brilliant thought, allow your kids to be able to walk and bike home from school or take the bus because we provided safe... infrastructure because that's how most children got to and from school until the last 30 years. So, and those investments for biking infrastructure and things like that have a 10 to 25% X return. And by providing residents of Rock Hill and providing residents from Mooresville and from Gastonia and from the region other options than getting into a car is what we need. It's what's going to actually address the needs of the region. And as a Westside resident...

Thank you, Mr. Smith.

Yes. Thank you. As a Westside resident, we do need investment.

Mr. Manfield.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council. I'm Rob Nanfeld. I'm the executive director of the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, also known as RIIC. I'm here to ask you to reconsider your recension of the I-77 project. I was actually on I-77 on Saturday night, 6 o'clock, going to visit our in-laws and hit two backups on the way south. And the poor folks coming north were in a huge backup as you reach the South Carolina state line. And I will tell you, that's a Saturday night. Clearly, I think everybody knows something has to be done. My request to you is to reconsider your vote because If we do keep this on track, it gives an opportunity for a lot of the concerns that have been raised during the course of this to be addressed. There's new money, apparently, that could be used for benefits. There's also mistakes that were made on the northern section that can be reconsidered for the southern section. There's caps on tolls and other benefits that can also be associated with that. So I ask you to reconsider and consider moving this forward because in the next month or so, if a change is not made, then this will eventually come off the state list of plans for projects. And once that happens, It could be a decade or more before we can go forward with this project, however it looks. So I'm asking you to get folks back to the table so that we continue to have these discussions. Because if we don't, it'll be many, many years before this can be put back on the table. So it's obvious a problem. We've got different ideas on how to get to that solution. Get back to the table so you can get to a solution. Because right now, that's going to be a long ways off if we don't. So thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Nantell.

Our next speaker is Joseph Williams. Joseph Williams. Who will be followed by Connie Proctor.

Take your time. Hey, Jack.

All right, I was not expected to get off of. Wait list, so let's see what's, um.

Yeah, it's a real.

As GBT says.

I love your switch.

I'm really curious about, yeah, so I, it's not known, I live in the Wilmore neighborhood. Wilmore is a neighborhood that would be drastically impacted by the I-77 South project. I think some things to consider is there's 35 plus homes. That's 35 neighbors who live in Charlotte who aren't sitting on I-77 every day to get to uptown, to get to work. Quilmore is an overburdened neighborhood. We've been living next to the pipe boundary. We've been living next to this wonderful thing. I-77, North Carolina widened it in 1994. Didn't put a nice sound wall in for us, even though it was required. Law says that they should have as a temporary project. We're going to come back to this thing soon. Here we are 30 years later. As you guys know, we are still talking about this project. Really, you know, I think that keeping this project rescinded, I know Mr. Hall up there is going to disagree with me on this one. Well, this is a great opportunity to reconnect the corridor, and I think we should take advantage of that. Let's pull this thing off the stip. Let's go back to the state with our priorities known, understand. Council Member Watlington, I love your idea about independent study. Let's really go back and relook at this project. What makes this successful for Charlotte? How do we set up our corridor to be successful for the next 50 years? Not something that just solves a short-term problem. Let's make this a long-term fix and let's protect our inner city neighborhoods and not bulldoze them. It's not the 60s, it's in the 70s. We can, we should do better. We need a better project. We need a better partner with the state and Appreciate it. Thank you for the time.

I believe our final speaker will be Connie Proctor.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Connie Proctor. I have spoken to you before and asked you to envision a better city. A city where people of all ages and abilities have mobility choices. A city where children and older adults have the autonomous mobility they need and deserve. Expanding an urban highway is not a way to achieve that vision. Expansion will divert precious resources from achieving it. We like to talk about how we do not want to become Atlanta. If we add just 10 more acres of highway right-of-way within a mile of uptown, we will overtake Atlanta. We have been chasing quicker commutes since the 1950s. We have thrown trillions of dollars at that problem. What do we have to show for it? The same average daily commute time. We literally haven't saved a second. I asked you to envision what the General Assembly is trying to force us to build. The year is 2086. You are standing in Fraser Park below the I-77 flyover. The elevated toll lanes are crumbling and they will soon be handed back by the private toll company to the public for maintenance. Doing nothing is literally not an option because pieces of the lanes are in danger of falling off. Now the choice must be made whether to dismantle or repair them. You were 10 in 2026. You are now 70. You wonder why anyone thought building them was a good idea. They never did reduce traffic. This is not the future I want for either of my children. I urge you to stand firm in your rejection of this plan because not even the full 300 million in community benefits can make up for the damage already done to our community. I have said it before, the only way to solve traffic is by providing viable alternatives to driving. Let's work to make those viable alternatives possible so we can actually reduce traffic. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Proctor. That brings to an end our public forum. I thank everyone who participated, including those who had no idea that they would actually make it 12 spots off the waiting list. But thanks, everyone, for participating, and thanks for the audience's attention. We're now going to open the public hearing on a resolution to close a portion of Pete Brown Road. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers? Do we have a motion to close the public hearing and to adopt a resolution and close a portion of Pete Brown Road?

Second.

Second. Are there any questions or discussion? Council Member Mayfield.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have shared once before, but since our manager is joining us tonight, I am sharing again that I have a concern when we have both a public hearing and opening as well as an adoption of a resolution to close whatever the public hearing is on on the same evening as an A and B action. If we're opening a public hearing, this, like a number of other items, should be us identifying a public hearing date, not for us to open a public hearing and because no one showed up tonight to have Action B be to adopt the closing of a portion of Pete Brown vote. So I want to make sure that I share the concerns that I have when it seems like we're trying to fast track certain conversations. versus going through the process of setting a public hearing date.

Thank you, Council Member Mayfield. I want to defer to the manager and also to the city attorney to the extent there are any responses about the process of this particular item.

Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Mayfield, thank you for the comments. Just as a reminder for the public, this item was referred to the BGR committee and it was taken up today during a special call meeting under the leadership of that committee, Chair Graham, and at this point the committee will continue to explore the concept and make recommendations back to council. The other thing that I would note about the specific statute that governs this road closure There is notice by publication for four consecutive weeks ahead of the item being placed on the agenda. And it's by publication in the local newspaper. And so just for transparency to the public, those notices are made available so that people can be aware of the public hearings that are being scheduled for consecutive weeks in advance.

Council Member Mayer.

Can she repeat that?

I was just going to say.

You said, what did you say, about four weeks? The door is still open, so we're not able to hear you as clear. Sure.

This particular statute requires publication in the newspaper four consecutive weeks ahead of it being placed on the agenda. And so that is another opportunity for the public to be made aware of the matter being on council's agenda ahead of time.

Council Member Mayer.

I was just going to acknowledge what the attorney said before she said it, that that is something that the BGIR committee chatted about today in our meeting and we'll be talking more about in September. So thank you for continuing to raise that concern so that we can address that.

Council Member Mayfield.

Thank you, Mayor, for a follow-up. And I appreciate the fact that BGIR had an additional meeting to have this discussion. I want it to be very clear that what I am suggesting is that we have a hearing date separate from the decision. I don't even know how many people actually has a subscription to a newspaper today. So to say that we have the information posted in the paper is the equivalent of someone getting a divorce today and putting it into the paper. They ain't ever got to worry about that person challenging it. So we use social media for other things. I'm asking for a clear, just like we have other items where we are setting a hearing date to just be consistent, set a hearing date and not just say, well, we have listed it in newspaper when newspaper is not the main form of communication for a lot of residents today. And we could see that by the fact that unfortunately we just had another one of our local channels closed down. I would just like for us to be clear that what I'm asking for is a separation of a hearing date and then later an actual decision on that so that those who are able to watch us online or attend in person also know that this information is happening in their neighborhoods.

Council Member Grant.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Again, we had that conversation today. I chair the committee. We look at a wide variety of options, not wanting to debate the committee meeting right now. But your point has been taken and is under consideration in terms of how we move forward or if we move forward. So it's still up for debate.

Council Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So This item went to the committee to discuss potential improvement or change to the policy, is that correct?

So just to be clear, I think the item that went to the committee is an overall item, not a particular motion that's on the table for tonight.

Right.

There is a, sounds like there's a discussion to be had in committee about process, but that's not in the motion that's for tonight. Just to make that clarification.

So council member Mayfield, you've brought this up at least two or three meetings. I would think that we would hold off on moving forward with that current process.

If we're debating potential improvement, the other discussion, I, I, again, w we are looking at the process question and committee, uh, one council member brought it forward. The committee is discussing it to see if it's appropriate. If any changes will be made at all, the committee is still discussing it, so it's still on the table.

Right, I understand.

Any council members who have not been heard, I just want to make sure that there are other council members that have been heard, because I think we're sort of debating process instead of this particular motion.

Can I clarify my question?

But let me come to Council Member Ashmer, and I'll come back if there are other council members who have not been heard who don't want to speak.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Harrington. So, Council Member Johnson, just so that I understand your question, why are we sticking with the existing process if the conversation is in the BGIR committee? So from what I understood from the attorney is that till the new process is adopted, we have to continue with the existing process. Am I correct? That's correct. So I know that this is going to be coming in front of the BGIR committee for a follow-up next month, and this month the BGIR committee had two meetings, and this was... Number second item on our agenda tonight to today earlier today. Okay, they're being prioritized to your question.

Any other council members who would like to be heard who have not been heard? Okay, there is a motion and a second. We've had discussion all in favor of the point of order.

That was a follow up point of order.

Are we not able to seek clarification or follow up on our questions?

You can seek clarification, follow up on the question, but we're still gonna at some point call the question on this particular motion. So one more round of questions on your question about process and then we should move on with, I believe, with the motion. But if there's a question.

Thank you. So the last couple, last month if I'm correct, we deferred, didn't we defer because there was more than just one council member who was concerned about it. So is this some process that we have to move forward on or was this a choice? to put this on the agenda because if it's in the committee and we're looking at improving a process or changing a process, I would ask or hope that we kind of hold off until we, because all we're doing is just digging a deeper hole or doing things opposite of what council is desiring to do.

Is there a motion to defer this motion or any other ancillary motion to this motion?

I mean, I can make a motion to defer this. All right. Let's close it.

Is there a motion? Yes, a motion. Is there a second?

Second. So there's a motion on the floor, I believe, to close the public hearing.

Let's close the public hearing on this and then move to the discussion. Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

You have a motion, you have a second.

Second. We're going to come back to...

I have a question of clarification. The way this is presented, it is presented as A and B. A is to close, B is... A is to close the public hearing. B is to adopt the resolution. I do not understand how we are attempting to close the public hearing when you still have B on this item, which is what triggered the entire, my original question, because to close the public hearing is by default adopting A and B. A, to close the public hearing, and B, to adopt the resolution. to close the actual portion of the street. So please clarify that.

So we could entertain a substitute motion simply to approve A, to close the public hearing and move on from there and then have the discussion on the substantive motion. Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

I make a motion to close the public hearing. Just the second.

Is there a second? Kimberly second. Any further discussion on closing the public hearing so we can go on to the discussion of B?

Okay.

All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Now, is there a separate motion to adopt to approve the motion itself?

To defer?

Is there a separate? We do not have a motion yet. So there is a motion and a second to adopt the resolution.

Move to defer B. Adopt the resolution to close a portion. Move to defer the adoption, which is B.

Okay. All in favor? Any discussion of that? Council Member Owens.

If I may. Thank you, Mayor. If I could ask the city attorney, the way I had understood in our conversations earlier today, this was something that was brought by a resident. Is that correct, how this particular motion came forward? Correct. Can you describe that to council, how we got where we are and what this particular motion is?

Sure. So the property owner has requested. to close a portion of the driveway, or the Weona Drive, Weona Avenue, excuse me, and notified the adjacent property owners to see if there was opposition. Apparently there was no opposition, and so this is the property owner's request, and it has not been challenged.

Mayor, if I may, I will not be supporting a motion to defer because I find it inefficient to do so in circumstances such as have been described. As I understand this motion, it is ripe for determination on this evening, even though we have had the public hearing in the same context of the meeting. I think that this is a ripe situation.

Council Member Esmir.

Yes, so. Madam Attorney gave us legal guidance earlier today at the committee meeting. So what I'm concerned about is if we impose a different process and take it out when we have not adopted a new process, I'm concerned about the legal challenge. So, Madam Attorney, if you could speak to that.

Certainly, Council Member Ajmeret. 168-299 does provide an appeal mechanism to Superior Court for any decision that's made by counsel concerning one of these public hearings. And at this point, without opposition, there could be opposition to that via appeal to Superior Court. That's all I have.

Okay. Is there any further, Council Member Graham, on the motion to defer? No.

And I'll be, I'll be voting against that as well. And I think council, if you would allow the committee to process the request that you made, and we don't know what the committee is going to recommend. We don't know what the council will eventually vote on what we have done to start a discussion. And we have to keep the rules as they are today, and they may or may not change tomorrow. So I think we need to plow forward and allow the council and the committee, the process, the work that you asked us to do. It is not ready. It's been prioritized. We'll be talking about it again in two weeks. I think we need to move on. We're having a debate about having a debate.

We have a motion on the floor to defer the motion to adopt a resolution and close a portion of Pete Brown Road that's item four in the agenda. All in favor of the motion to defer, please raise your hand. All opposed.

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve B.

Second. Just for the record, the motion to defer failed the motion to adopt the resolution now. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, it's further discussion.

All right, all in favor, raise your hand. All against? All right, the motion B to approve the resolution regarding a closing of a portion of Pete Brown Road has passed. That brings us to public hearing and decision on resolution to close a portion of Weona Avenue. We're now going to open the public hearing on a resolution to close a portion of Weona Avenue. Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers on this public hearing?

No, sir.

Is there a motion to close the public hearing? I'm going to do that separately this time. Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

So moved. Second.

Is there a second? Any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Any opposed to closing the public hearing, please raise your hand. All right, that passes unanimously.

No, there was one against. Not unanimous. Mayfield was against. Was that just A or all of it? No, this was just to close the public hearing.

So, Council Member Johnson, your vote is in favor?

Yes, we can close it.

So, unanimous to close the public hearing. Is there now a motion to adopt the resolution to close a portion of We Honor Road as described in paragraph 5?

Move to adopt.

Is there any further discussion there? All in favor of adopting the resolution and close a portion of We Honor Road as described further in item five on the agenda, please raise your hand. Any opposed? All right, the ayes have it and that has passed. And that brings us to the city manager's report policy.

Thank you, Mayor, members of council. As we discussed previously, we have the police chief here today to utilize the time for the manager's report to give you an update on the youth protection ordinance. With no action, just more information answering some of the questions that you provided. And Mayor, before I turn it over to our police chief, there is something that Mayor Portem would like to provide.

The floor is yours.

Okay. Thank you, City Manager. Thank you, Mayor and Council. We have one of our deputy city managers who, after so many years, has finally decided she's going to start another career. This young lady has made me a bella public servant over the years. And in particularly, council, we had to stand up an MPTA process with Councilman Mayfield, Councilman Madrigs. And this young lady worked tirelessly to make sure that we had a process in place so we could select our candidates. And so I would like to give a special recognition to Deputy City Manager Liz Batson for your outstanding leadership, dedication to make Charlotte a better city. Liz.

I'm gonna miss you.

You know I'm gonna miss you.

You come down the hall singing.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and members of Council. As we continue this conversation concerning the youth protection ordinance, I wanted to be sure to address the questions you raised at our last Council meeting on August 10th, and also to highlight a few points and provide some updates concerning this ordinance. I have been listening attentively to comments today and even those that have been brought to me by other community members and we want to be sensitive to that because we know that there is concern on both sides and so in our last meeting since our last meeting I should say I had a meeting with seven civic and community leaders along with a number of residents who have had general questions as well so I'd like to share some of them with you I'd like to start off by saying first and foremost we have gotten the question repeatedly what are we trying to solve or what are we trying to do with this ordinance I would tell you very plainly that we are trying to reduce the number of teen takeover events where there is crime, where there is property damage, and where we have seen harm to the community. We want to make sure that we are also being cognizant of victimization of our young people. We want to minimize that as much as possible. Now, we know that an ordinance is not the save all, be all in doing that. We know that there's still going to be victimization. We know there's still going to be victimizing. But we want to mitigate it as much as possible, and so this ordinance gives us or this modification to the ordinance gives us one more tool for law enforcement to be able to create safe spaces for our youth and also prevent or reduce victimization. I want to reiterate what I've heard repeatedly and even tonight that this ordinance change or modification is not intended to criminalize our youth. We do not want to create pipelines to prisons or where our youth are just doing things that youth do and be subject to the criminal justice system. In fact, in a little bit, I'm going to ask Attorney Battle if she will talk about the process if someone is cited for youth violation under this ordinance. Also too, with the implementation of this ordinance, if passed, one of the things we want to do is make sure that we're working very closely with community partners. I've already started those conversations. CMPD has always been good about working with the community and different groups in that regard. Next slide, please. So there are a couple things. Oh, do I have it here? I'm sorry. Here we go. So a couple things I just want to reiterate and highlight to you is, first, the recommendation. The overall recommendation is that we modify the curfew age to include all minors 17 and younger, and also, too, that the time will be 9 p.m. every day of the week. Also, too, a lot of conversation has been had about the exceptions or the exemptions. Many people have stated that this is a blanket curfew, that there are no exemptions. We want to be clear that they are. We spoke of this last time, but I think it's worth mentioning again, especially with CMS schools starting on tomorrow, it is important that we understand that youth who are going to and from football games or other sanctioned youth events by schools, religious or recreational events that are accompanied by an adult or that are supervised by an adult, those individuals will be OK. They will not be subject to the curfew. Additionally, those who are running errands by their parents or their guardians at their direction, they will not be subject to the curfew. Will this mean that an officer may not stop this person or talk to them? Of course not. We want to make sure that the youth is safe. However, we will not be taking that youth into custody or such or doing a juvenile arrest. Additionally, exceptions exist if there is an emergency. Also, too, if that youth is traveling to and from work. One of the things that I have gotten conversations about or I've gotten questions about is concerning a 17-year-old who is in college. I want to reiterate, again, we understand that individuals like that are in school. They're doing the right thing. We are not going to have a curfew police. We're not going to have our officers patrolling the streets of Charlotte looking. for individuals and trying to determine their ages so that we can do a juvenile arrest or that we can take them into custody. That is not the intent of this. Again, we are trying to have a tool that when we have teen takeovers, we have these mass gatherings, we're able to address them effectively and in a way that prevents harm to our youth. One other question I wanted to make sure that we were addressing and to update you is concerning some of the studies related to curfew. In the document that you should have received, we outlined some studies in there. We found where there were three studies in support of positive impacts for curfews. There were four that were mixed impacts. And certainly, I know that people have found studies that suggest that curfews are not effective. What I would say is that many of the studies that have been used or we have looked at are not current studies. They do not address the issue of teen takeovers, which we have seen. It's a phenomenon that's new that we have seen probably in the last year, year and a half. mainly this year that we have seen in Charlotte. So because of that, I will suggest that we look very closely at our data, that we would move forward with this so that we can gain data, we can work with some of our local universities to be able to capture the proper data for our community, and then we can know whether or not this is something that is effective, that is meaningful for our community. One other area that we wanted to address And one of the main reasons for the modification that we're looking at is because we want to reduce or prevent the victimization of our youth. I believe it was Dr. Wallington in the last meeting asked us if we could break out the youth victimization numbers to show the different time frames. And so we were able to do that so that you can see that particularly at nighttime, outdoor juvenile victimization is still driven primarily by firearm and aggravated assaults. When we look at the charts, you can see in the different time frames. So from 9 p.m. to 5.59 a.m., we saw an overall 431 victims of crime in our community. This is youth that are outside or in those open spaces. If you look at that also, too, we see that the ages 16 and 17, that's roughly 30%. And the majority were ADW or assault with gun cases or victims. Also, too, looking at the demographics, 91%. were youth of color. We broke it out between 10 and 5, 5.59 PM or 6 AM, and you can look at the numbers there. They go down slightly, but we still see victimization happening throughout those hours and throughout the early mornings. The percentage of our brown and black youth that are victimized is still in the 90s, which is concerning to all of us. Having raised two African-American males in my household, that was always a concern that they would be a victim or that they would be out doing something innocently and end up hurt. So it is a concern not only for me, but I know it is for many parents and those in our community. One other area and update I want to provide is speaking to community members, the question arose repeatedly concerning juvenile arrests. What does it mean if we enforce this ordinance? What does it mean for our youth? Particularly does it mean that they are going to be arrested? They're going to be placed in handcuffs. Do they go through the criminal justice system? There's a lot of conversation even tonight that we're criminalizing our young people. We want to be very clear that that is not what happens necessarily. And I'm going to ask attorney Jessica battle. She'll come forward to talk a little bit more, but I do want to emphasize the point that with a juvenile arrest, most of the times those youth are returned to their families. We call their parents. They're guardians. They come and they take possession of that youth. At no time are they going through the sheriff department or going to the jail or anything like that. There's instances in which there are criminal activity that occurs that necessitates them being in the criminal justice system. But the majority of these juvenile cases of curfew are not what we're finding. So I'm going to ask Jessica if she'll come forward to talk just a little bit more about the process so that we can understand that a little bit better.

Good evening, Jessica Battle with the City Attorney's Office.

As Chief stated, if there is probable cause to charge a juvenile with a violation of a curfew or any particular charge, officers would have to make an on-scene decision about whether or not they were going to charge that juvenile. They look at many different factors, including the severity of the crime, the juvenile's behavior on that particular encounter, and also their full juvenile history of any charges, investigations, or arrests. One of the first factors that officers will consider after they look into the juvenile's history is whether or not diversion is an option. Diversion would mean sending that juvenile to some sort of youth program in Charlotte to look at their behavior and look at the sort of overall holistic view of that juvenile to make sure that they stay on the right track and complete that program in order to avoid any juvenile charges. And so they will review their arrest history. And especially for six years old through 17-year-olds, those are the ages that are subject to juvenile law. And they will look at those prior arrests per CPD policy if the juvenile has a history of any prior arrest they would not be subject to seeking a diversion program based on that policy. However, whether or not seeing PD officers were to divert the juvenile to a youth program, the Department of Juvenile Justice and the juvenile court counselors in the court system could still send that juvenile to a diversion program prior to it getting to the courthouse. And let's say that the juvenile court counselor chooses not to send the youth to a diversion program, district court judge in juvenile court still has the final decision to decide whether or not they will send that particular youth to a diversion program as well. And that applies for curfew violations or any sort of violation that is not divertable. When we talk about the particular juvenile arrest process, and again, this is a general overview, not just related to curfew. One of the decisions or things that an officer will have to determine is whether or not They need a secure custody order. You'll see that abbreviated as SCO, and that means that the juvenile would be taken to a secured facility like a juvenile detention facility. Juveniles will have to, or excuse me, officers would need to seek a referral from the juvenile court counselor to get that secure custody order if the crime is a felony, if it involves gang activity or weapons, or if it involves an aggravated assault. So if any juvenile committed one of those particular types of crimes, they could not be sent by the officer through a diversion program, and the officer would seek that secure custody order with the juvenile court counselors. Let's say that it is an option for officers to divert. They would do the police report to enter the facts and information of what occurred, and then send that juvenile through the diversion program. Or else, if it's a crime that is It can be diverted, but based on that particular juvenile's history, the officer does not divert them. That juvenile would then enter the juvenile court process by way of a petition. This is governed by Chapter 70 of our North Carolina General Statutes and would involve that child going to the eighth floor of the courthouse where a juvenile district court judge would hear that particular matter. It's important to state here that these charges would not automatically initiate a neglect case against that juvenile or their parent. However, I will say that the juvenile court system takes a very global and holistic look at each juvenile. And there could be any sort of crime before a juvenile court judge where that matter could end up in a case where the family has an open DSS investigation for abuse, neglect, or any sort of thing, but it does not automatically flow from a curfew charge or any particular charge. Our officers, our juvenile court counselors, our district court judges all have a duty to report. And if there were to be something in the factual circumstances of, for example, a curfew charge that required reporting to DSS, then that would open a file. But it is not an automatic part of the juvenile arrest process. A big thing people think that when juveniles are arrested, it means automatic handcuffs. The chief said that they are taken to the sheriff's office. They are not, generally speaking, with a juvenile arrest. The parent or guardian of that juvenile is called to come and get them. And from there, diversion and petition decisions are made about whether that case will go to court or be diverted. Now, sometimes when detained, officers do have legal authority to use handcuffs on juveniles. depending on the particular act committed on that date and other factual circumstances. But the juvenile arrest generally involves the juvenile's parent or guardian being called to pick them up. And if there's a secure custody order, then that juvenile would be transported to the secure facility after that juvenile arrest. And with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Stewart to talk about our spaces for youth opportunities.

Good evening, Mayor, Manager, members of Council, Rakesha Stewart, Office of Youth Opportunities. I wanted to take a moment to share some things that I shared in our previous meeting on August 10th as it relates to what the Office of Youth Opportunities has been doing as it relates to third spaces. So we were a little bit ahead of the game as we have been working with third spaces for over a year. We've had a great partnership with the YMCA where from June to December, we were able to provide 200 passes to all of the wise across Charlotte. And then this year we were able to create a great partnership with Mecklenburg County park and recreation, where we were able to provide 250 passes to the rec center. And we're working on expanding that. I also want to share that Chief Patterson and I on last Tuesday had a great meeting with the CEO of the Y and her team to discuss what we can do to partner to reimagine third spaces for our youth. So we left out of the meeting feeling very good about some opportunities and my team and I are now working on ideating a pilot with the YMCA to offer third spaces over the next 10 months. Some of the additional things that we're doing as it relates to third spaces is I did mention we have a partnership grant that we are working on finalizing. So once I have an opportunity to get that to my leadership, the goal is to have that out before the end of September. This will give us an opportunity to work with other partners across the city. to create additional third spaces for youth. And lastly, we have already started working with CMS and other partners as it relates to teacher work days, because we understand it's not just the weekends that the youth need something to do. It's not just after school. It's any time that they are left alone. So the great thing about the Office of Youth Opportunity since its inception is we have looked at the child as a whole. So we're not just looking to give them somewhere to go and play. We're looking to give them programming. We're looking to give them exposure. We make sure that our partners do provide wraparound services and provide mentorship. So we will definitely keep you posted on our pilot, and we will let everyone know when the grant opportunity becomes available. So I will turn it back over to Chief Patterson.

Dr. Stewart. And one final thing I would note is that with the implementation of this youth ordinance, if you so desire, we will make sure that we do a full-scale education campaign regarding this. We would want to make sure that, first and foremost, all our officers will be informed that, again, this is just a tool to help us to ensure that our young people are safe and they're in safe spaces. any interaction that our officers would have with any member of the youth, as is our policy right now, they have to wear their body-worn cameras. So we would be able to track information to ensure that this is applied fairly, equitably across the city, and again, that those exceptions that are in place would be considered and would be part of this ordinance. So with that, I will open it up if any questions that you may have of us concerning any of this.

Thank you, Chief Patterson and team. I know we have, let's see, we have at least three questions starting with Dr. Watlington.

We've got three more now.

Okay. Dr. Watlington.

All right, I've got four quick. If we could go to, yes. Chief Patterson, if we could go to slide three. I want to make sure that I understand what the numbers are telling us here. Can you walk me through what is the story that the data is telling here? What is the... hypothesis? Yes, ma'am.

So the story that's telling us is that we have youth victimization happening from 9 p.m. to 6 o'clock in the morning. And when we look at the percentages, one, I think it's just we should note that 91% throughout the night and into the early morning are people of youth or of color, I'm sorry, are black and brown children, I think, which is From what we hear, is a concern. So how do we get this number down? How do we work to get it down?

So I'm sorry, I just want to make sure I'm clear. This dark blue is total victims. This light blue that says ages 16 to 17, is that victims or offenders?

These are victims. Okay. This is all victimization. Okay. Yes, ma'am. And so, if I could just break it down for you. So from 9 p.m. to 5.59 a.m., we had 431 victims. These are actual victims of crimes during that time period. From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., the number shrinks a little bit, but we had 300. And then from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., 266 victims. And so at 9 p.m., from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., 127 of these total victims are ages 16 to 17.

Yes, ma'am. And then at 11 p.m. That number is 77. So basically the difference between 122 and 77 is what you're saying you're hoping to reduce victimization.

Yes, ma'am. And then that percentage as well, trying to get that number down as low as possible to protect our youth.

And can you, just a quick follow-up, can you then help me understand... The reason I'm asking this question is because I think about the alternatives to violence work that we're doing. And so my immediate question, especially as I see ADW and gun here, is how many of those are addressed through that retaliatory violence piece versus through the curfew? I'm still not quite clear on the mechanism that's changing.

So our desire, our goal is that we get that number down, the number of victims of crime as well as offenders of crime that are youth. And so I think for us it's just being able to, you know, knowing that when youth are out, the theory is when they are out, then they're being victimized, and some are also causing victimization. So we would like to reduce both of those. The curfew, we believe, would help us to do that, because when youth are out, then they're getting in trouble, but when they're not out, they're not victimizing.

And then just too quickly... I asked this last time, but I'm hoping that maybe we can dig into it a little bit deeper here. Right now, the sun sets somewhere between 8 and 9. We know in the wintertime it's going to be somewhere between 4 and 5 o'clock. What is the thought process during the wintertime of how this applies? Tell me what your thoughts are.

We want to be reasonable with the time that we set this curfew based on what our data shows us. You know, at 9 p.m., you have more victims. So we certainly felt like 8 p.m. was unreasonable. We looked at other cities, what they're doing, just to benchmark. I believe firmly that if we go with a 9 p.m. curfew, that is enough time that if youth start to gather, if they start to congregate, we can dismantle it. We can prevent them from having harmful events or being engaged in something where they victimize or they can be victimized. I don't know if I'm answering your question fully.

Well, for the summertime, sure. In the wintertime, that's four or five hours where youth would still be permitted to be out, but it is also dark and people are likely inside. So I'm just curious as to how we're thinking about how this applies during the winter months.

Sure. I think in the winter months, as you stated, people tend to be inside more. I think there's more opportunities to have events for our youth, meaningful events, things that they can do so they are not outside, they're not out during that time.

And then just finally, are you suggesting as part of your proposal, a pilot to gather data? Are you suggesting full on implementation at the start?

We would like an implementation. I think a pilot is something that could be considered, especially if we want to get substantive data. I think that's an opportunity for us to do that.

Thank you. Thank you.

Great. And next is council member Mayo. Thank you, Dr. Watlington. And that was sort of thinking time. That was three to four minutes. If we could try to keep our comments and try not to be too repetitive, redundant, but also keep our comments somewhere in that range, I think we can... have a good discussion of an important issue.

Thank you. Um, I've asked that the map be shown for district three. Um, and I'm sure some of my colleagues may want their district map shown as well, but I thought this is really good data. Um, this is something I've been talking about. probably almost 10 years since I first moved to Nations Forward. And I know this is an all-city investment, but I just want us to be thoughtful holistically, particularly when we're talking about young people. We want to equip you with everything that you need in order to decrease victimization for our young people, but how can we also encourage our county counterparts to help do their part? Mr. Manager, are we able to get that up there? Sorry, we talked about it earlier. Okay. Should I come back? Should y'all come back to me? Yeah. Okay.

Want to do that? Okay. Council Member Esmir, we'll come back.

Thank you, Mayor Harrington. You're doing an excellent job keeping track of all the hands that's been raised.

You're all helping.

First, Chief, thank you for your leadership. I understand that you are asking for a tool in the case where there is a teen takeover that could turn violent. I certainly appreciate and respect your leadership. I would like to see if we can do a pilot to gather data and then based on the data, it will tell us whether this is something that will work in our region or not, right? Because your department and alongside Dr. Stewart's office gave us studies. And I appreciate that it was objective, right? It wasn't all pro-curfew, it wasn't all anti-curfew, it was somewhere in the middle, right? We had some studies that shows mixed results. There were some studies that shows it works. So for us to really not have an objective study done, I think our data can tell us whether this will work or not. So my question to you is, would you be willing to do a pilot program and see whether we are able to see improvement in teen takeovers that turn violent.

Yes, ma'am, and thank you for that. I would be willing to do something like that. I think it is reasonable, and it allows us in real time to be able to see, is this something that would be effective here in Charlotte, especially based on what we're seeing. I don't think that we can, as I stated before, just rely on the studies. They're in different parts of the nation. They are 20, 30 years old. I think we can get real data if we look here in Charlotte and do a pilot.

I appreciate that. I would like us to explore that alternative so that we are looking at real data that is local. Also, Dr. Stewart, I appreciate the report that your team put together. I appreciate how Office of Youth Opportunities have touched over 5,000 lives. And I know that we are not going to stop here. We are going to continue to increase our investments. But I just want to give kudos to you and your team, because I know this is relatively a new team that was part of our last year's budget. So I appreciate the work that you do. I was, myself, alongside Council Member Watlington and Council Member Graham, were at Civic Engagement event last weekend, and this topic had come up. And I met two youth members who have participated in some of our programs, and they had great things to say. So thank you for all the work that you're doing. That's all I have.

Thank you, Council Member Esmeralda. Council Member Mayo, are you set yet? I don't know. Okay, we'll go to Council Member Owens and come back to you.

He's working on pulling it up.

Thank you, Chief Patterson, and I appreciate the presentation. I had a conversation over the weekend with a constituent who may or may not be one of my three children about the curfew. And his question to me was one I could not answer. And he said to me, why don't you all do what they do when we go on spring break? And they've got rules that are focused on the size of a congregation. They're focused on a gathering. They are focused on enforcing curfew against a mass and depending on what number perhaps we settle on so that we're not potentially putting at risk kids who are out on a date and kids who are coming to and from events. Can you address that? I haven't had an opportunity to do my own research on whether some of these things that you see in Destin or some of the destinations where people do congregate, where they are effectively able to break up large masses of unaccompanied minors. Can you speak to that?

I will try. I'm not sure totally that I'm understanding.

The question would be that it would be a curfew that was tailored more against Congregation, I've heard you use the phrase congregation and gathering. It feels like to narrowly tailor this so that we're not just not enforcing it against kids. The face of this would enforce it against people on a date and a movie goes long, okay? You're saying to me that you would not expect your officers, nor do you have adequate officers to enforce that as a curfew police. Can we more narrowly tailor the curfew? such that it wouldn't apply to two couples who are out on a date versus a group of 10 individuals who are under age. So you're really targeting more of the congregation aspect than just the age.

Sure. So if I understand you correctly, so we're saying that if you have youth that are gathered in a particular area of the uptown, perhaps just focus, Just in that area is what you're saying.

I wasn't specifically speaking of that area, although that's another way of narrowly tailoring it if you wanted to have it on certain areas of the city where are more frequently occupied. I was speaking more to say you've got 10 youth together. Your officers are going to ask them what's up and- enforce the curfew versus a couple of kids on a date and go see a movie that lasts past nine. I mean, I just, I personally couldn't answer the question that was raised of me as to, are we exploring all ways that we could more narrowly tailor this and have it address what we're really trying to get at, which is gatherings.

Sure. Yes. And I would say that, you know, we thought as the beginning stages of this, we thought about locations where we have tend to see the teen takeovers and The problem with that is they're all over. They're everywhere. And if you try to just narrow it to one location, if we put all our resources, say, in the uptown area, then we've seen where they would go to the university area, North Lake area, Huntersville, Frankie's, all these various locations where these youth like to hang out. And so we want to be able to have a tool that wherever they go, we're able to go there and start to break that up and improve. make sure that we don't have incidents as a result of it. So I don't know that narrowing it down to just one particular area would be effective in trying to prevent them in the first place kind of thing. The other part that you said, you know, looking at congregations or areas, I think I understand you're saying that if we were to just focus on a group, particular group, Are you saying to give those, to violate those individuals for?

So I'm saying that I've asked our staff to look into and I would ask you to also have folks look into what destinations that frequently are able to disperse large gatherings of unaccompanied minors are doing that is not putting at risk folks who are otherwise just doing the things that kids do in couples or in small groups of kids. There is a big difference in my mind between someone going to see a movie or coming back from, you know, whatever they're coming back from at night and they happen to be alone. I would like to not have them have an interaction with the police for no reason. And I appreciate that you've told us that that is highly unlikely to happen because you just don't have the officers to do it. I'm asking instead, could we look at tailoring this curfew so that that isn't even an issue? So that unless you're in a group of ten people out as a minor, you're not going to have that interaction with a police officer.

Sure. That is something to consider. Now I'm understanding what you're asking.

My apologies for not articulating it well.

Yes, no, I think I understand what you're saying. I mean, and certainly if they're in a group together, they're in a safe space together, then we would not want to enforce it necessarily. That is something that we can consider. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Owens. Council Member Mayer.

ready yeah I just really wanted to highlight the map and actually having the entire Charlotte region is really helpful I think to see gaps not only in district 3 but in district 6 in district 7 and 5 when I think of when you all mentioned partnering with the YMCA I know that still Creek lost its YMCA maybe like three years ago. So I mean, I don't know who you would necessarily partner with when there's no why there. And even when you look at more closer, can you tell us more about what you would do with the high schools? Because I saw your dots in the high schools. Are you doing programming in the high schools? Just curious what that looks like.

So with the high schools, it's more of the teacher work days. But when you speak about the gaps, those are the things that we're looking at. So that's why it's taken us a little bit of time to put the grant application together. because we want to make sure we're leveraging not only where there is a lack, but that we're leveraging CMPD data. So we're really wanting to be intentional.

I really appreciate that. As a former teacher, I love data. Always one of my favorite things to look at, teaching math. But I just want to encourage all of our various partners, particularly the county. And they know I get on them quite a bit. But I see some gaps. And I hope that our residents will have some conversations with their county commissioners about investment. I'm just going to be very frank with that because it's not something that you all can do by yourselves. That investment needs to occur everywhere so that our young people have things to do and not getting in mischief. So just want to put that out there. I'm excited to see the work that y'all were doing. I think that y'all were doing great work. I'm very appreciative of it. I guess my only concern is when we talk about giving passes to young people, There's nowhere for young people to go in some of these districts for those passes. And that's why we really have to get to the root of the issue, which are the gaps.

So I just want to say, so that's the different with the partnerships. We're not looking at just handing out passes. We're looking at being intentional. When we met with the, why we looked at every local, we looked at, we looked at their map to see where they had locations. We bounced that off chief to talk about different things that were happening in those communities. So just know that we are being more intentional. We're not just passing out passes, and we definitely want to make sure that we're addressing the need. Thank you.

And I might just add to that, we've had a number of nonprofits, we've had business community members coming to us saying, we want to be a part of the solution, finding those third spaces for our youth. So I think that is all the conversation we've been having about this has really garnered some good responses.

Very excited. I know Ricky Singh was supposed to talk today. Unfortunately, he was not here, but he had some great maps to show as well, and excited for him to share those. so that we can see the solutions that you are working with with your various partners. So I'll stop talking.

Thank you, Council Member Mayo. Council Member Mayfield.

Good work.

Thank you, Mayor. Chief and team, thank you for the information. I have a number of questions. One, I'm going to encourage a pilot where we actually talk to our youth before versus adults coming up with what you think is the option. Last week, I had the opportunity to attend an event at Spark House where they basically had a team takeover. And one of our CMPD law enforcement officers were there where you've came up with an Basically a mini shark tank where they came up with different opportunities. I have concerns what the possibility is because what I'm not going, what I cannot discount is that it was one of our youth officers who was an adult that while on school property interacting with a youth slammed a child on the ground. It has been our officers that we have had multiple conversations with over years with interactions with adults that has resulted in a number of lawsuits. So I'm definitely concerned about how you interact with children without hearing a number. I personally don't think that number is 10. If we're saying hundreds of children upcoming are gathering together out of those hundreds of kids, we have 12 to 15 that unfortunately cause a challenge. What is that number? Is it 25 young people together? Is it 50 young people together that's going to trigger someone to interact? I'm concerned as far as these exceptions. So what are we saying? They have to walk around with a pass? That gives me quite a bit of concern. I think about, unfortunately, since both of my parents had passed when I was young, I was working at a young age. Nine o'clock wouldn't have worked. for me to get home. So what type of information are we asking them to provide moving forward with a nine o'clock time versus actually working with spark house, working with some of our other groups that already have successful programs where they're engaging with three to 500 youth first is concerning not having the youth at the table to help identify which I learned, evidently, young people like pickleball. I thought that was for old people, but evidently that is a thing that young people like as well, and there's a whole... group that's out there. I agree that we need to be working with the county with parking red with access. You mentioned some of the locations where young people have gathered. If they gathered at Frankie's, when was the last conversation at all? If we had with Frankie's as far as those passes being available, we, it was mentioned that we passed out 200 passes here, 250 passes there. We say we have three to 500 youth that's gathering. So exactly who are those pastors going to? And are the pastors going to the same youth? Because if they're going to the youth that's through Generation Nation or through our current program, that's not the youth that's out in the community. So what is the real connection and interaction? I am really hoping that versus saying that 9 PM is the number that we really look at expanding The programs that are led by teens, for teens, and we already have the partnerships that are doing that work, and that goes beyond the YMCA, because as was mentioned, unfortunately they have closed a number of their offices. But also that's a certain, that's a targeted group of young people that go into the YMCA. There are other groups out there that are doing amazing work on the ground. There's a two week program that happens at John C. Smith every year that directly invites young men into the space. Young people should be the ones that's leading this versus adults thinking what we need young people to have access to by the nine o'clock time period to punish the majority for The incidences, which are real, and the loss of life is very real. I don't think more enforcement and trusting cameras when we have had to have arrests of our own law enforcement is the answer. I think it's more communication with the community that's being impacted to say what they would support and what they would like to see. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mayfield.

Mayor, I was wondering if I could just say one thing to the Council Member. I agree wholeheartedly with you that we should not be making these decisions alone, that we include our youth. I will share with you that earlier this year in March, after the incidents in Birkdale, members of our team, our Community Services Bureau, met with teens under the Safe Summer Charlotte initiative where we heard from youth what they wanted to get some ideas from them. They had about 15 meetings. the last one being in May. So we are trying to seek the voices of the young people. I was very impressed with the young lady who spoke tonight. I believe that that is a critical component. We do need to hear from our young people. So that would be part of what we would do with this ordinance as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mayfield. Council Member Masuera-Arias.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, staff. Really appreciate the effort and always the broader goal at hand, which is to keep our residents safe and to keep our youth safe. And Chief, I appreciate our candid conversations. Although different perspectives, right? But that is what this is all about, to make sure we come to a comprehensive solution that works for everyone. I had a few questions. So I noted and I looked at the memo before the council meeting tonight. I noted data indicating that across the different times, 9 p.m., 10 p.m., 11 p.m., There is little to no net change in overall criminal activity involving 16 and 17-year-olds. If anything, trending slightly lower as the night progresses. How would you expect the 9 p.m. curfew to change that data, right? We saw 30% for 9 p.m., 30% for 10 p.m., and 29% for 11 p.m. What do you expect would change with the curfew?

Yes, I think as we educate people more, as we talk about it, we will see that number go down. Um, to below what it is now, 29%, it's still, I feel significant because if it's my child and they're part of that 29%, I would not want them victimized. So our desire, our hope is the more we educate, the more we're out, the more officers are talking to people about this curfew, that that number would go down. Victimization would be reduced.

Thank you. Um, so. When I was looking at the memos, looking at the studies, and I did just a quick ChatGPT AI, and those were the same studies reiterated to me through ChatGPT. I would love to see if there's any more comprehensive studies out there, and particularly not just positive and mixed, but also the negative studies. I want to get a whole picture, right? I think... I want to I'm a data driven person. I want to see what works and I understand your concern. This is specific. I agree with my colleagues that perhaps we look at local data and see what works and what doesn't work. But I really would like to see more studies that are available out there rather than those that are popular with other cities. But while on that topic, while studies suggest that curfews often lead to an increase in arrests, overall crime rates largely have remained static throughout. So if overall crime doesn't drop but juvenile arrests go up, do we think this is going to be effective or proactive public safety strategy? I think when you're measuring success, let's say, if there a pilot program does happen or the curfew is voted upon this council, What do you think is the indicator of success there? Arrest or a drop down in crime?

Success for us looks two ways. One, a reduction in victimization, less juveniles being victimized, and yes, less crime, period, that our juveniles are creating or anybody across the city. I think I've spoken repeatedly that we want to make Charlotte one of the safest large cities. We want to reduce crime, whatever that looks like is getting the crime numbers down. So I think it's twofold, victimization and Thank you.

Two more. Sorry, Mayor. I know you said two, three minutes. You're close. Got it. Thank you. With the current proposal creating uniform rules, I saw in the statutes our current ordinances when it comes to the exception groups, there is still H-tier interpretations there. So I think we might have to revise that if this council so decides to do this curfew because right now one of them was like the errands, running errands. Yes. There's a certain curfew for 13 year olds for running errands. And then there's a certain curfew for 17 under. So if, if I just want to make sure that we're consistent, right. If it's a blanket curfew for 17 under completely, that I also would apply to those exceptions as well. Sure. And then my last question would be, I, How much conversation has been had with Center City Partners as we've seen they've taken an approach when it comes to food trucks, which I certainly disagree with, but given that a lot of this activity is happening in their footprint, according to the memo that we just read, Not to say that it's not immune to just that area. I would like to see what prevents business districts or private public partnerships from sharing that load or enforcing localized safety in that way.

I think we have that interest there already. I haven't spoken to Center City Partners specifically about it, but we've had conversations with other partners like Bank of America, Fifth Third Bank, who have asked me specifically how can they help and what kind of youth programs can they provide. or support towards. So I think we have it in the private sector.

Thank you, Chief. And the last thing is, I mean, I have my 18-year-old sister here who wanted me to ask the question, but if she gets stopped by an officer, how are they going to believe that she was at work, right? She works at volleyball courts at 9 p.m. until 9, 9.30, 10 p.m. Kids are getting misjudged for being part of these teen takeovers. How is CMPD going to promise that they're not misjudged for being on the road after work?

So I think we approach it the same way we do with any other interaction we have with the public. We can do a voluntary contact where we go up to the person, talk to them, and then just try to determine, ascertain what their age is and also to call their parents, whatever the case may be. If we cannot determine the person's age, then we can't violate them, right? We cannot say that they're in violation of the youth ordinance. We do our best to try to determine that information. And quite naturally, if a youth is telling us they just got off work and we look in the car or we see that they have an apron maybe coming from work, and they say, I'm going home, our officers are very reasonable. We have that discretion to be able to say, okay, this person is doing something meaningful, they're not out getting in trouble, and that they're headed home. We're not, again, I don't think I can say it enough that we are not going after youth who are doing the right thing. We are trying to reduce victimization. We are trying to reduce crime across the board. So we will take every measure we can do to do that, and educating our team, I think, is really important to make sure that that happens.

Thank you, Chief. And last thing, Manager, I saw that map of youth opportunities. We have a big gap in District 5, so we should talk about that. Thank you.

Obviously, if there are additional questions, Chief, I assume you would take questions that are made offline to go in writing or not. Council Member Johnson.

Thank you. Mr. Jones or Council Member May, I'd like to get a hard copy of that map. That would be great. Thank you. Chief, thank you for your presentation and thank you for the intent to reduce violence and stop the teen takeovers. Since we've been talking about this, has there been any reduction in the teen takeovers?

Yes, ma'am. We have had a reported 40 teen takeovers and seven of those were, I'm sorry, three of them we were able to prevent, to get ahead of. And so we are starting to see where that number is going down. I think the word is getting out. I think parents are hearing what we are talking about and they're encouraging their young people not to be in those places or they're making sure that they're not part of teen takeovers.

Okay, so there has been a reduction and the point of this curfew is to reduce those teen takeovers, right?

Yes, ma'am. It's been a reduction since we have been talking about it.

Thank you. Is curfew violation probable cause for a traffic stop?

Thank you, Council Member Johnson. And so in order for an officer to conduct a traffic stop, they would have to have reasonable suspicion. That means reasonable, articulable, and specific facts along with the inferences from those facts that a crime has or is about to be committed. And so in order to determine whether or not there are facts that the curfew is about to be violated, the officers, for example, would have to see a juvenile out and try to make a Visible assessment of their age and if that child were to appear to be less than for the example the changes changed to 17 if they appear to be a minor that would be reasonable suspicion for an officer to pull that car over Okay, thank you I

Kind of off topic. And is the smell of marijuana still probable cause for even if it's legal CBD, it's still probable cause to search the car?

Yes. The site and odor of marijuana is still probable cause to search. And there was new case law. Forgive me for not recalling that name right now, but there was a case as recently as last winter that the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed that site or odor of marijuana is probable cause to search. even with the existence, excuse me, of legal CBD and hemp products.

Okay. All right. That's a whole, you all know. Okay. All right. Next. I would agree with the pilot. I'd like to see us taking more action. I spoke to someone today. Thank you, Dr. Stewart, for the work you're doing. I spoke to a community partner who's going to

I think be running the schools out Charlotte program.

And so I think we need more programs like that. I'd like to see this going to the intergovernmental committee so we can bring County partners, CMS, uh, partners to the table, perhaps putting a date of birth on this, uh, children's ID. And then we can look at more graduated, uh, curfew if we needed to. Um, another thing, Now youth summit council member Brown. We know that she had a great youth summit. I think this would be a great time for us to bring youth together and maybe Dr. Stewart's department manage something like that. Okay.

Good.

Already in the works. Good. Yeah. We need some, we need that right now. Thank you. It was a youth that spoke today. She she'd be great as well. Yeah. I I'd like to see a, a pilot program before we implement the, Let's look at more partnership grants, intergovernmental committee, more opportunities for third spaces, a youth summit, and bringing youth on board perhaps to volunteer to look at social media because we know we don't want this to impact the students who are trying to work and date and do normal teenage stuff. I think that they will be on board in helping us. So they could get involved through that youth summit, through volunteering and reporting where these teen takeovers are being held. We could have a tip hotline or tip website or something like that. I think this is the time to engage the youth and really help us. We have heard that just talking about this and addressing this, the teen takeovers are already reduced. So I think more outreach and engagement with the community is our solution through a pilot program. And then let's revisit after there's been some. We established baseline data before the pilot and perhaps report back after six months on juvenile violent incidents, arrests, teen takeover events, repeat offenses, and just overall activity. Thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you, Council Member Johnson, Council Member Graham, and then Council Member Drake's.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I didn't have a 9 p.m. curfew. I had to street light, right? I would be on the tennis court and I'll be riding that bike as fast as I can to get home because I knew if I didn't make it, there was accountability at the end of that ride. And so I want to thank you for your leadership in bringing this forward. This is a part of a crime reduction strategy, big picture strategy. Going back, Council Member Wallington, me and you met two years ago in my basement when there was a shooting on New Year's Eve, right? And we've been looking at a wide variety of ordinance to update, to enhance, to ensure that we are doing everything possible to curb crime. And this is yet just another example. For the record, there's already a youth ordinance. I think we should say that. This is nothing new. We're just amending it to reflect current environment of what's happening on the ground. I think I agree with my colleagues that it should be a pilot program, narrowly tailored, youth-led. And then secondly, there are a wide variety of organizations in the community, I see Sean Kennedy up there, does a great job bringing 300 kids together. Kay Marie is doing the Charlotte Soul Fest, September 5th, family oriented for the youth, mothers, fathers, grandmas, grandfathers, all coming together, a safe environment, great activity. I'm doing a tennis camp for 80 kids, September 12th, so there's a lot of people in this community I'd love to work with you, Dr. Stewart, to ensure that there's balance between the ordinance, narrowly tailored, youth-led, pilot program, which is, again, pilot. Your work is ongoing, and it can't be done when there's an issue on the table. It has to be done when no one's looking, in terms of being very intentional about working with our youth. We solved the problem about proximity. We have a school in every district in the city, in the county, middle schools, high schools. On weekends, when football season is over, the gyms are empty, the fields are empty, the track is empty. Year-round, there has to be a way for us to rally around this community, getting the resources necessary to do proper program throughout the year for our kids. We can't do it when there's a a shooting or a stabbing we can't do it when there's a teen takeover we got to do it because it's the right thing to do and so i just encourage us to move forward uh parallel with working with dr stewart to ensure that we're doing everything that we can to include others churches non-profits the school mecklenburg county because they have parking wreck they have rec centers right But more importantly, boy, there are schools throughout the county, high school, middle school, that on weekends are empty. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Graham. Council Member Driggs, you're the final discussant.

Chief, takeovers are a problem. We asked you to do something about it. You're proposing this. I think our strong inclination should be to back you up. You're the expert in these matters. We are making you responsible for success. So I will certainly want to see us proceed with a curfew. I will say that some of this comes down to how you imagine it's going to work. And I believe that some people are painting a criminalized, and they're painting a really difficult picture. In practice, what I imagine happens here is that young people kind of go about their business. They probably fall under these exceptions. They're not going to be accosted and stopped on the street because they will be kind of presumed to be out legitimately. You can't judge a person's age just by looking at them. And so not only do you not have the resources, I just don't think it's your intent to go around and challenge every individual. And I'm willing personally to trust that. So that means that on the other hand, when you see something that your officers recognize as being something dangerous that could be taking shape. And they want to go up and do something about it. They can't just walk up to those kids and say, guys, please go home. And the kids just stick their tongue out. And so I envision this as a way of the officers, if necessary, requiring somebody who isn't cooperative, by virtue of the ordinance, to go home or to leave. So that's kind of a question of how you expect it will work. And I have thought also about the pilot idea, and I agree that something like that needs to happen. My only issue about a pilot, as you think about this, is how long, right? So if you realize that over the span of a year, there's a cycle, right? There are different conditions in the different seasons. So do you do a pilot for a year? That sounds like a long time. or due to a pilot for six months, not sure. So one possibility I thought of is we go ahead, we implement this curfew, and then we just get ongoing reports, ongoing, we listen for complaints or for feedback from the community at any time. We can change it. This council has the authority at any time, if we don't like the way it's going, to just change it. So it may not be that the pilot is missing. I'm not at all opposed to it. I'm just saying in practice, I wonder if we should just start down this road and sort of see how we go. And I do think that we can get the kind of information that was suggested from you. We can hear about how many incidents there have been or how many of these takeovers were averted. Is it working? The problem with data is this is not very scientific. I think the data from another community with a different mix and different circumstances and at a different time before takeovers became vogue, is not going to be a good guidepost for us. The best guidepost for us is what happens as we start here. And you know, if there's a backlash immediately and we get a whole lot of reports of kids saying, oh my God, you know, I was in handcuffs because I'm 16. You know, I'm sure that would cause a lot of us to think again. So please keep working on this. I look forward to how you process what you heard tonight. I just want you to know that I do support what you're doing and the idea of a curfew. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Driggs. Chief Pedersen, do you have any other comments? And then I don't want to invite any other discussion because I think everyone who has asked to be heard has been heard. We want to make sure there's no other business from Council. But Chief, do you have any?

I would just close by saying that I've listened to everything that council members have stated. Thank you so much for your input. At this time, if it's agreeable to you, we'd like to explore the specific provisions of a pilot and also talk about the partnerships that would become as a result of it. So if that is okay with the council to proceed in that manner, we would like to do that.

Anything from council?

Okay. Thank you. I have a final question. When you want to move forward with the pilot, is that moving forward with this 9 o'clock time or we're staying separate? We're moving forward with the pilot first to start that conversation. Are you interpreting the yes from this council as changing the current 11 p.m. curfew time down to 9 p.m.?

Yes, I'm interpreting that we move forward with a 9 p.m. so that we can gather data on a 9 p.m. curfew.

And I am a no. I am fine with us moving with a pilot. I am not supporting under any circumstance us moving that time down to 9 p.m. as we're going back into the school time because a lot of what we have seen has happened over the summer, not during the school period. So to even move forward with it, it is concerning.

So we do not have an action item tonight. As I understand it, Chief, you will make the suggestions that you've made just now. You'll make those proposed changes. It will come back to us for an action item. At that point, there'll presumably be a vote on a motion. So I think we are finished. And Chief, is there anything new? Thank you. Would you like to?

I don't think she's alone in her interpretation.

But I think we've got a time for a motion on that and a time for an action item there.

Mayor, we're not talking about a motion. What the chief just asked for is a nod from this council for her to continue down this path that she started on. What I am sharing is the concern that I have is the path that she has chosen is a dual path of first adding the 9 p.m. and looking at a pallet. We've heard multiple variations of that conversation. So in order to be clear, since it is the manager's responsibility... to implement council's objective through staff. I am not saying that I am signing off of this staff member to institute a 9 p.m. time. That is what I just asked for the clarification of. If your interpretation is to move forward with both 9 o'clock and a pilot.

There is no action from this council tonight based on what's before us now. There presumably will be something further that's presented to us. Perhaps at that point there'll be a motion and then there'll be a discussion of that if there's a second. So I think for tonight what we've had is an information session. And I presume the chief will come back to us and propose some type of motion that we'll take up at that point. And we'll have a full discussion of the merits of that item.

Yes, sir.

Okay. With that, thank you, Chief. I appreciate, we appreciate your presentation. And that takes us to anything else from the manager? All right, our next policy item is amendments to the Charlotte Streets Map and Charlotte Streets Manual. For item seven, is there a motion? Move for approval of A and B.

Second.

Is there any discussion? All right, all in favor of approving the motion for A and B in item seven, which is amendments to the Charlotte Streets map and Charlotte Streets manual as described in that item seven, please raise your hand. Any opposed? All right, there's one opposed. All right. That takes us to the other policy item, which is our next item is parking on sidewalk ordinance amendment. For item eight, do I have a motion to adopt an ordinance approving an amendment to Chapter 14, Article 4, Section 14-130 of the City Code as recommended by the Budget, Governance, and Intergovernmental Relations Committee? Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Councilmember Mayfield and then Councilmember Johnson.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I have a question for staff. I want to get clarification on this sidewalk as far as where does the policy language land when it comes to these scooters and these other forms of transportation that are currently blocking sidewalks. And if there is a bike lane, you're starting to see them show up in the bike lanes as well. So exactly How does this no parking on sidewalks help in area and in community where sidewalks are now seeing other forms of mobile transportation?

Thank you, Council Member Mayfield. Lisa Flowers with the City Attorney's Office. So scooters and e-bikes and regular bicycles are allowed to park on the sidewalks. There are permit requirements for our e-bike and e-scooter providers that require them to educate riders of where to park. They're supposed to leave four feet space for pedestrians. They get a complaint. They're supposed to remove that scooter or move it within an hour. We also have provisions that allows the Director of Transportation, Debbie, to revoke a permit if we get lots of complaints or reduce the number of bikes and e-bikes, e-scooters that they can have in the right-of-way. So the scooters and bikes can park and can ride on the sidewalks. This just addresses the driveways and impeding the sidewalk at driveways where vehicles cannot block the sidewalk.

So we're really looking at mainly residential area. And I had mentioned previously that we are building smaller units and also shorter driveways. But we're also allowing development happening on much more narrow streets. So there's no on-street parking. The driveway itself is a short driveway. So part of the vehicle may be blocking the sidewalk. So I want, I'm thinking of the individual that's in the motorized wheelchair. And when they're trying to get exercise, go out through their own community, how that's actually going to be enforced with the number of neighborhoods that we have and the number of neighborhoods that we keep improving. how effective this is going to be when our policy language has created shorter driveways and vehicles are blocking the driveway. I just want to understand how enforcement would look on that.

We did look into a driveway length, so we have a minimum in the UDO for driveways. They have to be a minimum of 10 feet. 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. And that was done specifically to avoid the issue of vehicles impeding sidewalks. Cars, of course, have gotten larger, but it still will cover a full-sized vehicle. Smaller vehicles you may be able to fit to. Two-car garages are going to be at least 20 feet wide, and the driveway is going to also be that wide, so that provides some more. But the bottom line is that it's an ADA violation to block the sidewalk. The issue with the scooters and things like that, it would be a separate-type ordinance that we can certainly look at making it an ordinance instead of in our permits, but right now our ordinance... provides an exception for bikes and e-scooters and e-bikes. Thank you.

Council Member Johnson.

Thank you. Thank you for that information. If it's an ADA violation, does the exception in the ordinance excuse the violation?

No. No. Again, our permit requirements are that they should be educating their riders We can look at what they're providing on their app to make sure that they're doing that. They also are to provide 24-7 support. So anybody, rider, non-rider, the city can contact them when they see something that's not right, either parking or somebody speeding, driving recklessly, that sort of thing. They can report that. Who is going to report to whom? Well, they can call 311, but they can also call the, there's provisions on the app, on the, I forget who it is. Debbie's here. Who we have, I think it's Lime, like for instance, Lime. They should have something on their website that provides a number for a rider or non-rider to report. And then in the app, they also have those provisions to where you can report a problem. Are you talking about scooters?

Scooters and e-bikes. Oh, e-bikes. No, okay. So, no, my concern, you talked about residential driveways needing to be 20 feet. The same information from Sarah Hazel, the full-size car is 16 to 18 feet. So only one, if the driveway's closed, or if they don't, excuse me, garage, or they don't have a garage, only one full-size car can fit in that driveway. That's correct. So we just can't have it both ways. We just don't get to have it both ways where we're building so much density, shorter driveways, no parking on the street, density, and then not allow residents to be able to park in their driveway without a code violation. So I won't be supporting this for that reason. You know, this is a very expensive city. Um, more than sometimes more than one person or one family live in a home and they have cars. So I think that, I think we should be more focused on scooters on the sidewalk. Um, my husband almost got hit by someone riding a scooter on the sidewalk. So I think that's a priority and I get the whole ADA violation. I don't know what the solution is. but I won't support fining individuals who are parking in their driveway when we know our ordinance only allows for a minimum, or is it maximum? Is this maximum? It's a minimum. Minimum. And some developers are only building minimum standards, one car in the driveway. So that's my comment. Thank you.

Are there any other comments or questions? And I would ask you to clarify one thing. You referenced the ADA in there. Just how does the Americans with Disabilities Act fit into this discussion? Because I don't know if that was clear.

Right. So sidewalks are one of our program services and activities that we provide. If we provide a sidewalk, we should be making sure that those sidewalks are not obstructed. And the current ordinance gave a exception for parking and driveways. So we had to to we had a disconnect between the 2 between 14 dash 1 30 and 14 dash to 16. 14 dash to 16 deals with illegal parking 14 dash 1 30 is more about operation. But it also says parking. So vehicles could not drive on the sidewalks or park on the sidewalks under 14-130 unless they were in a driveway, which made it difficult for CMPD to enforce.

Council Member Eshmere.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor Harrington. Thank you for that clarification in terms of why this amendment, I mean, this ordinance needs to be amended because I have received some complaints from residents where... Mm-hmm. either they are pushing a wheelchair or are on a wheelchair or trying to push a stroller, but they don't have an access to safe sidewalks, even though sidewalks are built, but they are obstructed by a vehicle. So this helps us address those concerns, especially those with special needs and families like mine who are trying to not, trying to make sure that we are using the infrastructure that is there without having to get outside where there might be traffic, moving traffic. So I'll be supporting this.

Hey, are there any other questions or comments from council members who have not been heard? All right, there has been a motion and a second and discussion on the motion to adopt an ordinance approving an amendment to Chapter 14, Article 4, Section 14-130. The city code is recommended by the Budget Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee. All in favor, please raise your hand. All opposed? Okay, the ayes have it, it passes. Okay, we move to our business agenda. And our first business item is for the youth diversion program interlocal agreement. For item nine, is there a motion reflected in our agenda, a motion to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager or his designee to negotiate and execute a revenue inter-local agreement with Mecklenburg County, through which the city will receive funding to support youth diversion programming. So moved.

Second.

Is there a discussion?

Yes, I do.

Council Member Esmir.

Yeah, this is a no-brainer, the youth diversion program. I mean, we talked about the opportunities for our youth. What I wanted to highlight with the youth diversion program that This program has served more than 5,000 young people, and more than 90% have stayed out of trouble in the following year. I mean, this is great. And this tells me that prevention can work, so I will be supporting this, and I appreciate the work that's gone into this.

Is there any other discussion?

Thank you, Council Member Esmir.

All right, we have a motion and a second. We've had discussion. All in favor of the item, the motion, please raise your hand. Any opposed? All righty.

Council Member Johnson did- I'm in favor.

You're in favor, okay. Great.

That takes us through our business agenda. Our next item is appointments. And tonight, City Council will make appointments to the Community Relations Committee. Council members voted by ballot and have submitted their ballots to the clerk. Any nominee receiving six or more votes is automatically appointed. If no nominee received at least six votes, a runoff will be necessary and council will be asked to vote tonight to determine who will be appointed to the board. All appointments will be recorded in the official minutes of this meeting. Madame Clerk, could you please announce the results of the ballot?

Yes, so the appointments for the Community Relations Committee, Zachary Claywell received six votes and Alexis Healing received eight votes. Alexis, good.

So is there any further action required by this council?

Yay, Alexis. We had a board, right? We had a board.

Happy to have us vote. Is there a motion by acclamation or otherwise?

She made a motion.

Second. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your hand.

Excuse me. I have something. Oh, yeah. Yep. I just wanted to bring up congratulations to Dr. Hilling for her pending appointment. I do want us to look at what it takes for city staff to be on boards and commissions. Certainly their residents who wanted to participate. I would not want to discourage any staff member from simply attending these meetings at any time. So Mr. Banjo, I would love to kind of just talk about what we can do to make sure that we're encouraging and enabling that, certainly understanding that we want to create equal access with everyone in the community. I love to see staff wanting to be a part of these boards, but I think there's a way that we maybe can beef it up and enhance how that works. So thank you.

Sorry for inadvertently cutting you off. Oh, you're fine. You're totally fine. Any other? Council Member Johnson.

I agree, and I sent an email in writing. Is that appropriate? I think we should have a policy on city staff on boards and commissions also. I think that there's opportunity for influence and impact so that's just my thought and and it's nothing against alexis i think she does a phenomenal job but the fact that she is such an executive level employee i think there could be some concern from the public so i'd like to see a policy on that as well thank you any further comments all right all in favor of the the motion please raise your hand any opposed opposed or councilmember johnson opposed or are you opposed opposed okay

All right, that takes us through the appointments, and that takes us to mayor and council topics. In order to ensure that all council has the opportunity to speak, we will go around the dais once. We'll go around the dais once, one by one, ask that each council member try to keep their comments and or questions to three minutes. And also note that we have a closed session scheduled for tonight, so it may be all the more important that we try to keep our comments to three minutes. Staff will respond to questions or topics with a written report to council prior to the next business meeting. If that report is sufficient to address the question or issue, that would ensure that our meeting time and agenda items are focused on upcoming decisions rather than just report outs. This will help ensure effective meetings and discussions. Should a council member feel that an action is needed or further discussion is required with the entire council, the council member would then make a request to add the item to a future strategy session agenda. I'll ask if there is any objection. If there are no objections, staff, would schedule the item for the future meeting. This approach will create a framework to help keep meetings running smoothly. As a reminder, Rule 4D of the Mayor and Council's Rules and Procedures provides for adding items to council meetings and not committee meetings. Unless there are other questions, please let's get started. And I'm going to go in some order, and I think I'm going to go from the inside out this time. I'll start on this side and come to Mayor Pro Temp. Okay.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. I just have two quick, and one is a thank you to CDOT and to the city manager. We just had a very successful ribbon cutting with our kiosk, digital kiosk pilot program. We started off in District 2 with Councilman Graham, and I'd like to thank staff for working so hard, make sure we put them in the right of way. We're going to roll out a total of 30. And there have been six corridors opportunity as well as MSD. So kudos to you, city manager, and to CDOT. Secondly, my next town hall meeting will be Saturday, September 26th. The title of it will be Forward Together, as we're talking about how we're going to empower our SBE community. Businesses in City of Charlotte, let them know we're still behind them, and we're going to make sure they can still be successful in our community. It starts at 11. 11 or 12, of course, is my favorite luncheon networking, and we should wrap up around 2.30 here at the Government Center on Saturday, September 26th. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Owens.

Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate the opportunity. I have two comments. One, a comment of gratitude, and second, a somber recognition. First, the gratitude. I want to lift up the city staff and community partners and first responders, all of whom have worked tirelessly and quickly to support cleanup efforts after the storms from this past weekend. We had multiple trees down in District 6, and I'm sure that was the story across our districts. We had no fewer than 23,000 outages of power recorded in Mecklenburg County. We had 88 requests for trees impacting roads over the weekend. James Boo, Ricky Gaither, Michael Cruz, and Director Rodney Jamison are all to be commended. This is work that will be ongoing over the next several weeks to clean up the trees. I'm particularly appreciative. There were many, many diversions of routes coming from uptown. And I heard from a lot of my constituents who were concerned, but very grateful to have immediate storm cleanup efforts. I'll pivot then to a somber recognition. I'd like to lift up the fact that Dr. Gina Navarrete was unfortunately a victim of a fall in Chile last week and lost her life. Gina Navarrete ran for District 6 back in 2019, and I lift her up in large part because I think any of us who serve the community deserve recognition, but particularly folks who serve so tirelessly and really advocate for so much of what makes Charlotte, Charlotte. Dr. Navarette was an advocate for racial justice, for women's rights, advocated consistently for the underdog. During COVID was a real force of nature and a presence out in the community, letting people understand our mask mandate and helping hand out masks. She, more than just running for the city, she showed up for people and was part of a small group of folks who did the first women's march here in Charlotte. I reached out to several of her friends. I had the opportunity to just see her speak on occasions and then also I had the great foresight to have voted for her myself, but I mention her because I think that those of us who do serve in these capacities, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and particularly in my district where there was a change of leadership, she was one of those first people who made it feel possible that particularly a Latina could run in Charlotte, and I believe she may have made a path for Council Member Masuera Arias, who we enjoy so much up here. Her friend wrote to me that Gina was an inspiration in an activist community. She loved and cared for her friends and pushed for a better world. All are struggling to process the sudden heartbreaking loss and to accept a world without her in it. We hold her son, Alex, especially close in our hearts. Gina's husband died a year ago, and now with Gina's passing, Alex is alone. And I just would suggest that this community continue to love and support him. And I do just wish to just have a quick moment of silence in recognition of the contributions of Dr. Gina Navarette.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Owens. Council Member Graham.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to take this opportunity to give a shout-out and make an announcement. The shout-out is to Steve Bagwell and the men and women of the Charlotte Regional Business Authority for doing an outstanding job last week in hosting the 41st Annual Stella Award. The community really came out and showed out. Over 14,000 tickets were sold. It was a sellout for the event. I want to thank the host committee who did a tremendous job. Each had very difficult tasks to do as it relates to performance and talent and working with churches, getting folks there. Certainly want to thank all the local sponsors, Mecklenburg County and others who kind of invested in the show. A lot of people are asking, how can I see it? Well, it will air August 30th at 8 p.m. on WBTV. They'll be doing a one-hour preview show of the red carpet. I think, Mr. Mayor, you may have walked that carpet. Pretty quick. Pretty quick, yeah. Yeah, mine was quick too. So they'll do a pre-show at 8 o'clock, and then the 9 o'clock will be the performance, as well as it's airing nationally on BET the same night, Sunday the 30th at 10 PM. So if you didn't get a chance to go to it, you can watch it. from the comfort of your living room on August 30th on WBTV as well as BET Networks. And pivoting to that, I also will be hosting a town hall meeting to kind of talk about the economic impact of travel, tourism, sports, and entertainment Tuesday, September 22nd. It's called Destination Charlotte, and we'll talk all things, like I said earlier, travel, tourism, sports, and entertainment, A lot of great interest from our partners in the community, CRVA for sure, Panthers, Hornets, the Atrium, the politics of medical tourism, right, with the Pearl, all these doctors coming for visits and training all add to Charlotte's economy as it relates to travel and tourism. So if you're available Tuesday, September 22nd, 6 to 8 p.m. at Bojangles Complex. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Graham. Council Member Driggs.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to point out that South Charlotte Partners will be hosting the South Charlotte Transportation Summit again this year. This is quite a significant event. It's attended by 150 to 200 elected officials, government and business leaders. and members of the public. It goes far beyond just South Charlotte. It's an interesting event to take stock of what's going on and what the views are of the business community on transportation. That will take place starting at 7.30 on the 29th of September at the Piper Glen Country Club in my district. Thank you. A.M. Thank you. A.M.

Thank you, Council Member Driggs. Council Member Mayfield. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

Manager, I have a question. I believe a number of us have received emails regarding Center City Partners' new food vendor, street vendor language. What I want to know is basically who gave them that authority without conversation coming through council. I want to understand if that was part of the MSD, and if so, does that mean that all of our communities that have a MSD, whether that's University or South Park, if they also have the same authority to identify cutoff time because community members are reaching out to us. I didn't necessarily have a response to it because I read about it in the news as well. So I would like to know what if any language we have signed off on that gives that authority. And if not, what does that, what should that process have looked like? Also want to just check in on referrals. I had asked for a referral to our housing and neighborhood services committee to add in the conversation of our co-living spaces based on a number of emails we've received from residents. That's not something new in the community. It's actually been happening for 20 plus years, but it is starting to have a different challenge as more corporate spaces are corporate entities are moving into that space as well as I think it will be helpful to in housing and neighborhood services along with transportation to continue the sidewalk discussion. Meaning if we're shortening the driveways and we know that we have co-living spaces where we can have multiple vehicles at this one property. What is our policy language in our UDO saying to keep up with the growth that we're supporting and we're encouraging and how that growth is impacting new neighborhoods as well as current neighborhoods. And last, this is for all of our Charlotte Crown.

So congratulations to our upshot league.

Our very own Charlotte Crown won out of the league of four teams. It was your Charlotte Crown that had its first member to actually be tapped for the WNBA going to Indiana.

Indiana.

Michelle, but your Charlotte Crown will be playing in the championship. on Saturday in Jacksonville. So what does that mean for those of us at home? Bojangles, thank you, Steve. Thank you, Sean. They are going to be hosting a Watch Not Party here at The Connector. So we want, they're going to be sending out promotions starting tomorrow. but want to make sure that everyone knows, come out, support your women's basketball team. They have a wonderful record. Already, again, we made it to the championship. The game is Saturday night at 7, and there will be a watch night party that will be open to the community for you to come out and support your hometown team. Thank you, ma'am.

And glad you were able to get that. We were able to get that connection worked with Bojangles. Thank you, Council Member Mayfield. Council Member Masuera-Arias.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to take two, three minutes for quick District 5 updates and a broader thought. So we recently celebrated five completed and soon to be completed fully funded strategic investment area projects in the Far East. Okay. Delivering long overdue infrastructure, pedestrian connectivity, and safety improvements. So thanks to this council and the previous council and my predecessor for really funding these needed investments in the far east of Charlotte. We also celebrated Project 658's new community dental clinic in East Charlotte, expanding access to care for immigrant, refugee, uninsured, and underserved families. And I'm incredibly proud that District 5 went the entire month of July without a single traffic fatality, which I think that's huge progress. And we're going to keep working towards safer streets with the collaboration of my colleagues here. And there's plenty more coming starting September, thanks to some inspiration from my colleague District 6 and District 7. I will be launching Cafecito with JD every Friday, so informal opportunities to grab some coffee, sit down with myself, and talk about what's happening in your neighborhood, some more to come on that. And to my constituents, for Thursday, September 24th, At 6 p.m., I'll be hosting a joint town hall with State Representative Jordan Lopez at the Grove Presbyterian Church on W.T. Harris Boulevard. We'll talk about what's happening at both the city and state level, how we both interact when it comes to zoning, housing, public safety. And I also want to leave us with one thought as we continue conversations around youth curfews, restrictions on street vendors, and now restrictions on food trucks. I think we need to thread lightly whenever we expand government control into our communities. Food trucks, street vendors, young people gathering in the lively nightlife are not inherently problems to solve. I think they're a part of the culture and energy that make a big city feel alive, especially as we continue to grow as a city. And of course, we have a responsibility to keep people safe, but we can make Charlotte safer without shutting Charlotte down. So I don't believe more restrictions should always be our first answer. And finally, To complement with my colleague in District 6, Council Member Owens mentioned, I do want to recognize the passing of Dr. Gina Navarrete, a Latina leader who ran for city council in District 6 and was among those who helped pave the way for Latino representation in this city. I may have had the privilege of ultimately making history as Charlotte's first Latino council member, but history is never made by one person. there are people like Dr. Navarrete who open doors before we ever get the opportunity to walk through them. So tonight, I honor her and her son for being one of those people in the family. May she rest in peace. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Masuari-Arias, and also just thank you both for the recognition and remembrance of Dr. Navarrete. Council Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank Council Member Graham for your leadership with the stellar awards that you're being modest, but I know there was a heavy lift in the city. So thank you. It was a fabulous event. So thank you. Thank you. Um, I'd like to know Mr. Manager or mayor with the market changes and the interest rates going up in development, slowing down, does the city have a plan for projects that are halfway completed? There, there are some in my area that are blighted properties, code enforcement. There's a, there's safety. hazards where, um, where people can gather, there's some pools that are half filled and, you know, w we're getting some complaints. So there's several half finished developments. So I'd like to know if there's a plan or if there's a minimum time where, where, before the city gets engaged or what is that plan? If we start to see more of, of this, um, because we want to avoid blighted buildings in our, um, also referral tracker. We talked before about a referral tracker. I think I received the link, but is that open to the public? And if not, can it be open to the public? And I'd like to see dates added to that referral tracker. There is a referral that I think that was sent. regarding infield development that we talked about in 2023. And it's a gray area if that was actually addressed. I think planning staff would say it was not. So I'd like to see that on the tracker along with the date that it was referred. And I will be holding a meeting in the University City area. I want to thank the city attorney's office for being willing to come to talk about University City data centers specifically. I know they're outside of the moratorium, especially the large one, but I invited the current and future state representatives because we know there are some things our state partners can do. So I want to recognize that state representative-elect Valeria Levy was here today, and Jordan Lopez was here also. So thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you, Councilmember Johnson. Councilmember Mayo.

Thank you for the opportunity to chat. I just want to invite everyone to attend my town hall September 17th, the Ripple Effect Light Rail Housing and Investment. As we've seen with the blue line, it has had a tremendous positive and negative impact on legacy residents. If you've been there five, ten years, you can see the change that South End has had and how that continues to impact going further down with the Blue Line. So we'll be hearing from different community groups talking about how are they working with development, even along the Blue Line. We know right by Yancey Avenue or Yancey Road, there's a rezoning for 15 acres that will be happening soon. This is part of a larger issue about continued investment as a result of light rail expansion. Uh, we'll also be talking about the silver line, uh, which is another part of my district. So there, there are a lot of pros and cons and really just trying to help empower the community to get ahead. So how do they have a seat at the table? We'll be hearing a case study. from a project that Transforming Nations Forward is doing where they are hoping, fingers crossed, to have an impact on the request for proposal regarding the project. So that's a five-year-in-the-making strategy, which I think is how we're going to have to handle things as a community. If you want to see it at the table, we always talk about build your own table and be part of that conversation, and that is something that they have done and excited to share about that. So it will be September 17th at CBI Community Center right off Old Pineville and Yancey Road, right? So right off the blue line, people can get off at Scaly Bark and walk. It's about a seven-minute walk from there, but a great opportunity to really start thinking strategically about how do transportation investments impact future residents and legacy residents, and how do we work together to make some of these pain points not so painful. So hopefully people will join us and looking forward to chat more about that. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mayo. Dr. Watling?

Thank you. A couple of things for me. So firstly, I just want to say thank you to staff and to all of the AEC professionals that participated in my town hall a couple of weeks ago. regarding health care and data centers and the impact that that infrastructure has on our labor, has on our materials and the broader community needs. So we appreciate you bringing your time, your talent to the room because that's what it's going to take as we deliver these policy solutions. These public forums are always my favorite meetings because I love to hear from the residents because I truly believe that it takes all of us, and I believe in personal agency to change your environment. One thing that struck me today as I think about 77 is it's clear that we agree on the problem. People want congestion relief. People want mobility. People want their neighborhoods preserved and connected to amenities. Those are things that we can agree on. I think where I hear the voices diverge is on what the solution actually is. And so I am hopeful that we are able to, from all sides, take a good faith effort at trying to back up and say, who are we trying to be? We spent a great deal of time implementing our 2040 plan years ago. And I believe it's our North Star, whether it's I-77 or transportation investments, whether it's data centers, whether it's housing, or whether it's public safety. That has to be our grounding document. And we should be producing policy and a suite of policy that works together that's better than the sum of its parts to deliver that vision. And so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to take a step back and really understand where we're trying to go so that we can develop a solution that works for everyone. We've got to lean on our partners at the state. We know that to do the work correctly and to have the data and the ability to assess alternatives, not just design alternatives, but true alternatives to the approach that we're going to need more time. And so I would implore all of you who came out tonight to reach out to NCDOT, to reach out to Governor Stein, to reach out to your legislative representatives, because what we know that we need is in order to make a quality product, we need to be able to invest the time to do it. And so I look forward to continuing down the path on that one to actually deliver something that we all want to see. And I hope that everyone recognizes that this is just one example of policy work that's going to require a shift from incremental improvements to truly revolutionize in how we view our community and how we view our policy that delivers our future. That's it for me.

Thank you, Dr. Wadlington. And finally, Council Member Ajmera.

Thank you, Mayor Harrington. I have four things. First, I also want to honor Dr. Gina Navarro. Thank you, Council Member Owens, for honoring her. My heart goes out to Alex and her extended family and friends. I've had an opportunity to work with her and I certainly appreciated her passion that she brought to the table and I loved how she would go through trash cans and pick out all the cans out at almost every event that I have been to where she was there. My heart goes out to her friends and family. Second, I just want to thank staff, like Council Member Watlington said, about Town Hall. I had my town hall last week. Council Member Watlington as well as Council Member Masura-Arias were there. Thank you for coming. We had more than 150 residents who joined us for my annual State of Our Environment Town Hall with the focus on data centers, water, energy, and Charlotte's future. And we heard from the industry, neighborhood advocates, from city staff, environment advocates, and I heard five things very clear. First, protect our water, protect our water grade, protect our neighborhoods, and make sure growth pays its own way. And give residents a voice before decisions are made, not after. So as we go through this process, I certainly look forward to ensuring that now we turn this feedback into action in coming months. Next, I want to talk about uptown street vendors. I know some of my colleagues brought that up. I support what CMPD is trying to do, which is to keep our uptown safe, but I'm having a hard time understanding how limiting the hours of small businesses will result in reduction in violent crime. So I would like the manager and CMPD to come back to us with data behind these decisions and alternatives that allows us to protect public safety without unnecessarily hurting small businesses. Because if the problem is crime, then let's target crime. I'm not convinced that a small business or a few small businesses should be a collateral damage, and that's what's happening right now. Last but not the least, I want to raise the issue of predatory towing. Andrea, thank you so much for your memo. I know we have had an opportunity to chat about this. I would like to refer our towing ordinance to our safety committee and ask staff and the city attorney to bring this option to strengthen protection against predatory towing. What I have seen from our residents and even our communications sent us an email last week where residents are being charged an inconvenience fee for calling 911. And that should never be the case. People have a right to call 911 and they should not be charged an inconvenience fee for calling law enforcement. That's unacceptable and I know Based on Andrea's memo, there are other towns and municipalities that have taken stronger protections in place to protect our residents. Currently, we have a $100 flat penalty that doesn't account for repeat offenders. So I would like us to look into that to increase escalated for repeat offenders, especially for bad actors. So my scope that I would like us to examine, escalating penalties for repeat offenders, protection for nighttime towing, because I know we have different protections for daytime and not protections in place for nighttime, and that's where a lot of predatory towing happens. Prohibit our stronger disclosure requirements, and I know there are certain bad actors that the Attorney General's Office is taking an action against them. if we can create a pathway for us to refer some of these bad actors to the Attorney General's office. So that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Eshmira. And on the referral request, let's, if necessary, talk a little bit more on that just to make sure that we know exactly what's being requested and can try to frame something.

Yeah, I think the attorney knows because it was in her memo. She sent that out last week, and then she also sent out an updated memo to my answers. with the list of all the cities and alternatives, and she provided us with that options.

Great. Let's see if we can try to frame something.

I'll forward that to you, Mayor.

I think that takes us through the Mayor and Council's comments, and I believe we have expectation of a closed session, and I'd ask the City Attorney if you could read the motion to go into closed session so someone can follow and make it.

Thank you, Mayor. May we have a motion to go into closed session pursuant to NCGS 143-318.11a3 to consult with the city attorney in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney in the matter of Melissa Bolin v. City of Charlotte, claim number W004095294. So moved.

Is there a motion? Second.

Second.

Any questions? Otherwise, all in favor, raise your hand. All against? All right. We will adjourn to the conference room. And thank you to everyone for being here and staying with us throughout the evening. Appreciate it.