Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

The Board of Commissioners met in closed session at the beginning of our regular session. We are now back in open session. No action was taken in the closed session. Following our closed session, I would like to say we, the county commissioners, wish to express our unanimous and unequivocal support for every member of our community. As a board and as a county, we stand behind the celebration of pride and the display of materials that honor it. In the coming weeks, the board will develop guidance and clarity for staff to protect these celebrations in Durham County so that situations like the one we saw this past week cannot happen again. I would like to welcome you all. to our regular open regular session I'm going to start with the public charge I'll ask Commissioner Valentine to read the land acknowledgement and Commissioner Burton would you lead us in the pledge afterwards the Board of Commissioners ask its members and residents to conduct themselves in a respectful courteous manner both with the board and fellow residents at any time Should any member of the board or any resident fail to observe this public charge, the chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control. Should decorum fail to be restored, the chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed. Commissioner Valentine.

Thank you, Chair. Land acknowledgment. As we convene for the Durham County Commissioner's meeting, it's crucial to recognize the painful truth of history. We stand on the stolen ancestral lands of the Catawba, the Eno, the Okanichi, the Shikori, and the Tuscarora's peoples, whose deep connection to this land predates our arrival. We acknowledge with humility the unjust displacement and violence that occurred, leading to the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their homelands. Their resilience in the face of such adversity is a testament to their strength and spirit. May we humbly honor the ancestors and elders of these nations, both past and present, by committing ourselves to fostering understanding, healing, and justice for all who inhabit this land. Let us walk forward together with open hearts, acknowledging the past, and embracing a future guided by compassion, respect, and unity.

Commissioner Burton. Burton.

All right.

Next item on our agenda is the agenda adjustments, review and adjustments. Do we have any adjustments to the agenda? Hearing none, I accept the motion to approve the agenda as presented.

So moved.

Second. It's been moved and properly seconded that we approve the agenda as presented. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please use the same sign. Passes unanimously. Next up on our agenda are announcements. Clerk Wallace.

Good evening, everyone. I will read the announcements published in tonight's agenda. The Durham County Veterans Services invites the community to its annual Women's Veterans Recognition Day celebration at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 12th. The event honoring the service and contributions of women who have served in the United States Armed Forces will be held in the second floor conference rooms of the Durham County Human Services Building at 414 East Main Street. The program will feature guest speaker, retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Five, Tracy Goodwin. Attendees will also have opportunities to network with fellow veterans and connect with local vendors offering information about community resources. For more information about the event, please contact 919-560-8387 or email veteranservices at dconc.gov. Summer is around the corner, and so is Durham County Library's annual summer reading program. This year's theme, Unearth a Story, invites readers of all ages to explore dinosaurs and archaeology through a variety of free programs and special events hosted at all seven Durham County Libraries. From June 15th through August 8th, residents can stop by any library location and pick up a paper reading log. Completed logs may be returned through August the 15th for a chance to be entered into Raffles for a grand prize. There is additional information available on our website. Watch the June episode of In Touch with Durham County. In this episode, host Deborah Craig-Ray, Durham County's Chief Communication Officer, welcomes first-time guest Crystal Harris, Director of Community Intervention and Support Services, and introduces Seth, I cannot pronounce his last name, Kaminsky, Durham County's new chief EMS paramedic. You can view the full episode on our YouTube channel, and there is a link there as well. Durham County government will close most offices on Friday, June 19th, 2026, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday. Our offices will reopen with normal hours on Monday, June 22nd. For more information on how the holiday will impact specific services, there is a link. That concludes the announcements in tonight's agenda.

Okay. Thank you, Clerk Wallace. Next item on our agenda, item number four. Yes, I'm sorry. Do any of the commissioners have announcements they'd like to present? Go ahead.

I just wanted to share a few more announcements. One is that we participated in a Juneteenth flag raising last week, at the Durham County Courthouse, but there will be more opportunities for the community on Friday night at the CCB Plaza. There will be, on June 19th, there will be another flag raising. And I actually don't have it in front of me. I think the time is at 6 p.m. And then the following day, on Saturday, there will be a big celebration starting at 3 o'clock. I believe it's from 3 to 9 p.m. in again in the heart of downtown and the ccp plaza so i just wanted to share that also i attended the groundbreaking for the alma street commons which is a new prod project for the durham community land trust what is really exciting about this project is it's not only going to be permanent affordable housing but it's also going to be It's also going to be environmentally sustainable. They're using net zero construction, also using recycling water. They are going to be built modularly, energy efficient. And so it's just exciting to think about how affordable housing project can also be something and they're using non-toxic materials to build the unit so to think about how important just having a healthy home and having low energy bills are for families as well so just want to share that thank you Commissioner Burton

yes thank you chair lee and i just want to give a big shout out to hillside high school miss annabelle webb commissioner jacobs and i attended their action civic project expo it was really exciting students had a display of projects where a social project or something in the community and trying to figure out how, you know, what the problem is and how to solve it. And it was just really exciting to see all these displays. One group of students had a project about fast fashion. Another one had, another group of students had about incarceration, bullying, immigration, how people can get help. So it was really cool to see. So I just want to give Hillside High School and Ms. Webb a big shout out. I'm really glad we both attended.

Ms. Smith, I'm going to have to ask that you not interrupt, please. Thank you. I'm going to have to ask that you don't interrupt. Ms. Smith, I'm asking you. I'm asking you. I want my children. And if you want to put this up and celebrate, what children are you reunifying back at their home?

You place the children where they don't want to be. Okay. We're at recess.

we're oh wait monica's not here we may not be on are we on yeah all right we are back in open session we are back from recess um when we left off we were we had board members giving announcements did you did you have any you were finished all right are there any other announcements that our board members wanted to share the announcement section no okay and then the next item on our agenda is the approval of the minutes move for approval second all right it's been moved and properly seconded we approve the minutes as stated and this is for may 26 2026 any further discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously okay we have a few actually I think we have two the next item on our agenda are ceremonial items and we have to a proclamation and we have a resolution to be recognized and is to be acknowledged we have a few of them as well the first resolution is I'm gonna be reading and it is the resolution honoring the life, service and sacrifice of Richard Rickey Christopher Dorsey. The Durham Board of Commissioners resolution honoring the life, service and sacrifice of Richard Rickey Christopher Dorsey. Whereas Richard Rickey Christopher Dorsey dedicated himself to serving the Bahama community through the Bahama Volunteer Fire Department, beginning at the age of 18, and whereas Ricky Dorsey, embodied the highest ideas of public service through his courage, devotion, selflessness, and unwavering commitment to protecting others. And whereas on September 5th, 1996, Hurricane Fran made landfall in North Carolina, bringing devastating weather, devastating weather conditions across Durham County and the Bahama community prompting emergency responders to answer calls for assistance throughout the storm and whereas during the height of Hurricane Fran Ricky Dorsey responded to emergency calls alongside fellow firefighters and emergency personnel in service to the residents of Durham County And whereas, while en route to an emergency call during the storm, a red oak tree fell onto the cab of the fire truck in which Ricky was riding, tragically taking his life just ten days before his 20th. Yeah, 20th birthday. And whereas Ricky Dorsey made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty while protecting the people and the community he loved, and is remembered by his family, fellow firefighters, friends, and the countless community members impacted by his life and service. Now therefore be it resolved that the Durham Board of County Commissioners hereby honors the life, service, bravery, and sacrifice of Richard Rickey Christopher Dorsey and recognizes his endearing legacy as a dedicated firefighter who gave his life in service to the people of Durham County. Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the Dorsey family and preserved as a lasting tribute to Ricky Dorsey's courage, dedication, and sacrifice. This, the eighth day of June, 2026. Signed, Dr. Mike Lee, Chair. nita alam vice chair michelle burton commissioner wendy jacobs commissioner and stephen valentine commissioner do we have a representative would you like to come forward here I'm going to take it to him.

good evening my name is Brian Eaton I'm one of the assistant chiefs of the Bahama Fire Department and just wanted to humbly accept this proclamation on behalf of the Dorsey family and on the Bahamian Fire Department. We are quite happy to have this proclamation done on the almost 30-year anniversary of his death. He was doing some great work. Some of the values of the fire service, his dedication, his integrity, his courage, and his selflessness when he gave his life tragically during one of the worst storms in Durham County history. So we want to thank you, and we appreciate the proclamation.

All right. Thank you. Thank you all.

okay go ahead any comments from the commissioners i just want to recognize the bahama fire department for being here also the friends and family the dorsey family we want to thank you for the service of your son. Amazing that he started volunteering at age 18. Really incredible and I just think it's wonderful. I'm really excited to see that this proclamation will be part of the process of that NCDOT and our Durham delegation involved with in terms of naming the Little River Reservoir the highway over that in honor of Richard Ricky Christopher Dorsey so we're honored to be a part of that process as well and thank you all for being here

any other comments for our yes to the dorsey family i just want to say uh thank you so much for your son's commitment to public service at such an early age and so there's a saying that some uh gave a little uh in your instance in the instance of your family you gave it all and we want to thank you for your service thank you thank you

Okay. All right, so our next item on the agenda is the proclamation for National Pride Month, and Vice Chair Lum will be reading that and presenting it.

The Durham Board of County Commissioners Proclamation National Pride Month 2026. Whereas the Stonewall riots, a period of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement in June 1969 is referred to as the genesis of the LGBTQ plus rights movement in this country and National Pride Month in the result. is the result and whereas the anti-gay assault and murder of ronald sunny antonovich in durham north carolina led to several subsequent social demonstrations including our day out north carolina's first lgbtq plus march on june 27 1981 And whereas this year's theme, Always Forward, Never Straight, Preserving History, Coming Home, as selected by the Pride Durham NC Organizing Committee, alongside the observation of National Pride Month, presents opportunities for community members to protest peacefully, to push efforts for justice forward, and to raise political awareness of social issues, and to celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of LGBTQ plus individuals. And whereas over the years we have seen strides made to value and affirm members of the LGBTQ plus community, as well as the work to improve their quality of life by first acknowledging the challenges that are faced in all areas of life. And whereas despite extraordinary progress, LGBTQ plus people still face various forms of discrimination, mistreatment, and violence simply for being who they are, and the County of Durham stands with the community in the struggle to ensure equal treatment for all, while also defending and advocating for LGBTQ plus rights as human rights. And whereas Durham County government continues to advocate for local and statewide protections for all LGBTQ plus individuals to make our state a place where all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, are treated with dignity and respect. And whereas... Like many progressive communities, the support of LGBTQ plus rights is illustrated by the fact the Durham County non-discrimination ordinance was approved by the Board of Commissioners to establish protections to promote the equal treatment of all individuals, to provide freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, creed, color, sex, pregnancy, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin or ancestry, language, military status, religious belief or non-belief, age, disability and employment, and access to all places of public accommodation. Now therefore, be it resolved, I, Dr. Mike Lee, Chair and on behalf of the Durham Board of County Commissioners do hereby proclaim the month of June 2026 as National Pride Month. In Durham County, we call upon the people of Durham County to recognize the contributions and achievements of LGBTQ plus community members and to help to improve the attitudes of society and encourage inclusiveness in and across Durham County. This, the eighth day of June 2026, sign Dr. Mike Lee, Chair, Durham Board of County Commissioners.

Jesse, did you want to come up and speak? Call it. Yes, over here.

good evening my name is jesse huddleston my pronouns are he she they we i promise you i have the range and you can't get me wrong so long as you're being kind i serve as the director of development and community engagement with the lgbtq center of durham i'm joined in person with ray dooley they them they serve as the co-executive director along with vanity reed dieterville who is joining us online She really wanted to be here, but was unfortunately in a car accident and doesn't have a car to get around. She's doing well, thankfully, but car. So we'll take this time to share about how we're celebrating Pride, how we're acknowledging Pride, how we're practicing Pride here in Durham. The theme this year, as it's been named, Always Forward, never straight, preserving history, coming home. We have many programs we're celebrating this month in June and in the fall during Pride Week. It's important to name why we're celebrating, why we're gathering, why we're continuing this practice of being together. History offers us so many tools. It's important to call to memory something that happened with the county 40 years ago. The county library collection offers us this. You can find it online. The title of this is called Incident of the Gay Pride Month Display, Durham County Library, June 1986, 40 years ago. The end of this asset that again you can find online says it ended with a deep sigh of relief that june has only 30 days i offer this to you because this isn't just a seasonal thing it's really 24 7 365. And whether it's 40 years ago or last year or now, how we show up, how we continue our work to move justice forward matters. I know we are in ongoing conversation with county leaders. And it's important that we continue that work. I have full faith that we will. And this isn't about a social popular moment to get attention. This is not about pointing fingers and playing the blame game. This isn't about avoiding responsibility. It's actually about taking responsibility. And in this moment, the county leaders here, I'm asking you to continue showing up and to lean in. Because 40 years ago, folks were ready to just say, a sigh of relief, it's done. It's not. It wasn't done then, it wasn't done last year, it's not done now. The work continues. So our programs, our celebrations, yes, And we know pride was also a protest. It was a riot. And as we're seeing, folks have a lot of feelings. I don't envy y'all the responsibility you have. And it is yours to steward with the care it deserves. Please partner with us. Please take the work that we're doing seriously. We're excited to partner with you. And we're upset. So trust, we come in peace, but we need business. And it's not enough. We need more, we need more, we need more. I'm gonna yield my time to Ray Julie again, our co-executive director, to share just a few more moments briefly, and then we will move. Thank you so much for giving us time to share today.

Hi, everybody. It's an honor to be here with you all this evening. 40 years ago, one year ago, and today, this is not just the struggle of our lifetime. It is the struggle of many lifetimes before us. It is the struggle of our elders. It is the struggle of our ancestors. So we are here in their spirit, and I will also acknowledge, you know, Jesse is an incredibly hard act to follow. Um... When we look back on this moment 40 years ago, our deepest wish, even if we can't look back and say Durham County managed to stand between the queer and trans community and fascism, or Durham County was the one thing that saved us, what we can deeply hope is that we were able to stand in deep relationship with folks in this room and do the righteous and extraordinary work of not turning away even when it might have been easier to. So we invite you all to remain in contact with us, to not just write this off as the issue of the day, to be clear about your position and to take responsibility for the culture and the governance of Durham County. As Jesse said, we come in peace and we mean business. We invite you to stay in relationship, with us and we hope that we can all in relationship together find some way forward all right thank you um commissioner jacobs

Well, first of all, thank you all so much. Thank you for your leadership. And I want to, you guys can come back over if you want. Yes. And I also really, I want to acknowledge Jesse, your new role. also not just being chair of pride but also now the development director at the lgbtq center also your role with on the board of the paulie murray house uh the paulie murray center so thank you for all the ways that you show up i appreciate this history and sharing this with us um i was at the first march We have a long history to be very proud of in Durham. And we need to keep building on that history. And staying true to our values and who we are as a community. And I look forward to doing that. in partnership and community with everyone. And I wanted to also highlight a lot of the important events happening this month. If you could talk a little bit about also June 24th and the Resource Fair.

We started the month celebrating with Beaver Queen Pageant on June 6th. Anyone who's lived here long enough knows the elder queers that have banded together to protect our creation, really. And so we've made that official. It's a very liberated space. This Saturday, June 13th, we'll celebrate out on the block what we are naming as our Kid and Youth and Families Pride event. June 20th, in partnership with Bennett Place, celebrating Juneteenth and Pride, we'll have Out and Free African Dance at Bennett Place. And then on June 27th, we'll have the Our Day Out Remembrance March and Resource Fair. at our location, starting at CCB Plaza and then ending at our location downtown, 114 Hunt Street, Durham, North Carolina, 27701. All this is online, pridedurhamnc.org, and we'll have plans again for the fall as well. The parade is still happening. Don't be afraid. Don't be worried. And we want to continue to think more expansively than just these programs. They are important. And the culture that we're building together will, I think, substantiate how we come together for these kinds of programs.

Thank you. And I know also at the library on June 22nd is a panel discussion being sponsored by the Durham People's Alliance around the history of Amendment 1 as well. And we do look forward to Durham County supporting the resource fair as well as the Pride March in September. Thank you.

Thank you for that. This is a year of great importance for our communities, 40 and 45th anniversaries of deeply spiritual moments for us. And we just want to acknowledge and affirm the library's vital role in liberation for our people in Durham. at the library, and again, we are grateful to remain in conversation.

Okay, any other comments? Commissioner Valentine.

So thank you for your presentation here today. You said you come in peace and you're about to business. And so I believe everyone in our community has a right to thrive and self-actualize. And I just want to acknowledge that here today. We're living in a world that seems to be upside down. A world where people who have fundamentally said they agree on things, but yet they find themselves pitted against one another merely because the environment that we find ourselves in. And so your very presence here tonight is a step toward the healing that this community needs. And so I thank you for putting the words to what actually needs to occur in our environment, which is healing.

So thank you. We'll go to Vice Chair Lum and then to Commissioner Burton.

Thank you, Ray and Jesse, for joining us here and bringing this proclamation and also bringing the history of the incident from 1986, but also just the history of pride in Durham and how it impacts the broader North Carolina community. I want to thank you all also for creating the space and holding it for just accountability for us as elected leaders. to do better and to lead with our community by our side. And I know we've spoken on, y'all have talked to each of us individually and we've had lots of conversations about how as Durham County government, do we work to build stronger community with all of our marginalized folks? Because we are, under a fascist administration, and we have two years to survive, uh, with each other together for the rest of this term. And I am dedicated. I know that our entire board is dedicated and ready to do the work to repair the harms. Cause not just from 45, 50, 60 years ago, but the harms caused. even presently, and we hope to work with you all in lockstep to provide more clarity to our communities, to provide more clarity to all of Durham County of where our joint values are and our joint morality is and humanity is in taking care of all of our neighbors.

Commissioner Burton.

Yes, thank you, Chair Lee, and thank you both for being here today. I just want to acknowledge something you said, Jesse. about being in this position. Because often people will say to me, how do you like being a county commissioner now? And I said, you know, the hardest part of this job is that the five of us, we make the final decision. Nobody else can make it right. And sometimes, you know, we get it right. Sometimes we don't get it right. Right. Because so much information is hit at us. Right. But I am like with my colleague, Commissioner Jacobs, we were talking about supporting pride this year. All right. So I want to say thank you to you both for holding us accountable and because We value all our people here in Durham County and let us know when we get it right and clearly let us know when we're not getting it right. So thank you so much.

All right. Thank you all. Thank you very much. All right. So the next item on our agenda. um we're staying with ceremony items but these are to be acknowledged so they're not we'll talk about them but we don't read them out um also i would i will acknowledge hold on a second here so we have we have public comments signed up for one of them 26 however the board's rules of procedures only allow public comment on consent agenda and regular agenda items so public comment is not allowed on resolutions or proclamations so i just want to make that note so i just wanted to make that a note that we don't do We don't do that, it's just in the policies and . Not on the item that is in ceremonial items, so we'll acknowledge. So what we'll do here is the first one we'll be acknowledging is 260197, which is Resolution for Women Veterans Day 2026. Resolution for Women Veterans Day 2026. The board has requested to adopt the attached resolution proclaimed in June 12th, 2026 as Women Veterans Day in Durham County in honor of women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. June.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you, commissioners, for this resolution and for your immense support. My name is Halen Wendoly Juarez Ruiz. I am a Navy veteran and a Durham County veteran service officer. I just want to remind everyone of the importance of remembering women in North Carolina and how they supported military and political efforts since the Revolutionary War. Our contributions span nearly 250 years, showcasing critical frontline sacrifices, tactical expanage, and advanced combat roles. We will be having our second annual Recognition of Women Veterans Day on this Friday at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Health and Human Services Building. You can enroll at Eventbrite. But above everything, we want to thank everyone for the support, the community, and trans-evolving roles of women from nurses of 1901 to the 1974 combat support and leadership positions in recent conflicts. Honoring the courage and the sacrifices of all service women, past and present, because without them and all of our military personnel, not just our women, safeguard our freedom today. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Comments from commissioners?

I just wanted to thank Helen for your leadership on this issue. I have seen what you're doing to lift up, um, our female veterans. And I noticed at our, um, our veteran, uh, Memorial day celebration, there was a contingent of women there, and they said that you had organized, uh, women veterans, um, getting together. And so I really want to applaud you for your leadership in this area. So thank you so much for what you're doing.

Valentine. I want to thank my team. Without my team, there's no I in team.

Thank you to the team also for making it possible for what you're doing.

Ms. Ruiz, thank you for your reading of the resolution here this evening. I think it's important to recognize that after World War II, there were so many women who actually sacrificed through their service. Some who did make it back home, some who did. Same thing in primarily much of the battles throughout the history of our nation. But I point to World War II only to indicate that the women who came back were denied status as veterans in our country. And so today you stand in the gap for many of those early trailblazers who served our country and didn't receive the recognition. And so every opportunity that we get to shine a light on women and their service to our country, I'm happy to participate in that. So thank you, and thank you to your team.

Thank you.

Okay. Any other comments from commissioners? Thank you very much. Okay. I flipped the wrong way, sorry. All right, the next item on our agenda, the next proclamation is the Gun Violence Awareness Month 2026. I'm not going to read this whole description, but the Board has requested to proclaim June 2026 Gun Violence Awareness Month in Durham County.

Good evening, everyone. Chair Lee, Commissioners, Manager Hager, thank you for recognizing June as Gun Violence Awareness Month and for issuing this proclamation. Today, we honor the lives lost to gun violence, support survivors and their families, and reaffirm our commitment to building safer communities. This proclamation helps raise awareness and reminds us that preventing violence requires all of us working together, local leaders, community organizations, families, and residents. We appreciate the Board of County Commissioners for bringing attention to this important issue and for standing with those impacted by gun violence. Together, we can continue working towards a future where every person can live, learn, work, and thrive in safety.

Thank you. Okay. Comments from Commissioners on the Proclamation for Gun Violence Awareness Month 2026. Commissioner Valentine. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Harris, for the proclamation. And I just want to say that right now in our community, it's timely that we talk about gun violence and the plague that it is inflicting on our community right now. And so to everyone who's listening, we all play a part in ensuring that our communities are safe. And so it starts with our households, spreads to our neighborhoods, and to our communities, and to the city. Each and every one of us has to do their part in ensuring that our community is safe. And I hope that you will join the people who are doing the hard work on the ground. and also join all of the policymakers who are making some tough decisions in this area in making our community safe. And so thank you.

Vice Chair Lum.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harris, for coming and for all the work that you've done across Durham County over the years. I just wanted to also add and give you the opportunity to share, since we have many people here, to share some of the programs that Durham County has to really address gun violence, especially in the early years for, like, Project Build and other programs.

So Durham County does house the Project Build program which is our gang violence intervention and prevention program. We recently added the prevention to include 10 to 13 year olds as well as our aftercare which will include any youth that has participated in Project Build. We'll follow them for the next nine to 12 months to ensure that they are able to maintain and be self-sufficient. We also have our Justice Services Department who works with those individuals who are justice involved and that is directed by Director Humphrey. So we do have several investments within Durham County that is working towards a safer community around violence reduction.

Okay, thank you very much. Okay, the next item on our agenda is the proclamation for National Reunification Month. Now, just a moment ago I said generally speaking we don't do public comment on proclamations. However, I don't think that that was expressly written anywhere, so I'm going to allow one minute each person who signed up, okay, just for fairness. And then, do we understand? Well, Leah Burns, we have Amanda Wallace, Antoinette Halls, and Chiraca? Oh, I got it right. Okay, one minute each, okay? At the end of your one minute, the microphone will turn off, okay? I ask that you please respect this. I'm making an executive decision here to do that, to do this, okay? Okay. So before we do the proclamation, we'll do the one minute each here and we'll move on. OK, so we have. You can go in whatever order you wanted to go here, but I have Walia Burns here.

Okay, so, hi, yes, my name is Waleeda Burns. I am Jehoiada's mother. And my question to you guys is why do we need reunification funds if the kids was not taken in the first place? It seems like y'all playing this cycle and it's not really doing anything good. Y'all putting money in places that seems to be already, I want to say like useful, but I'm not completely understanding. Why do y'all have reunification funds for children who has housing, who has a fit parent, becoming fit parenting for themselves? Why do y'all guys have that? My son is now two and I'm missing valuable time with him. I should have my son back by now. He's two years old. I had to go through the system for two years now. I'm tired of it. I want you guys out of my life.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Burns. What can be done, though? That's my question.

Thank you, Ms. Burns. Ms. Wallace. Oh, Ms. Hughes. Ms. Halls, you're going to go?

Hello, my name is Antoinette Halls, and I'm an impacted parent. My rights were terminated in 2016. And to this day, I am still fighting to get access to my son who was adopted. So I know about reunification. But it was nothing that Durham County did. It was nothing that social services did. It was nothing that anyone did but God who held me and kept me till I could get back to my children where I could find them. And I found them on my own. And reunification is a wonderful thing, but it is even more wonderful even though you had to fight through the whole process. And they say, well, you're not fit, you're not this, and whose right is it for you to tell me? I don't understand how you can justify taking somebody's child and let their parents walk away into the abyss, into public society. If they're not fit for parenting, they're not fit for society. Does that make sense?

Thank you, Ms. Hawes.

Thank you.

Okay, Ms. Wallace.

So my name is Amanda Wallace, and I'm the founder of Operation Stop CPS, which is a grassroots campaign, and our mission is to abolish the family policing system. And we're here tonight for two things. One, because the Department of Social Services is trying to pass this bullshit resolution when they are, again, the second slowest county in North Carolina to reunify children on average children are stolen from their families and kept in foster care for over 677 days so it's laughable if it wasn't impacting families that y'all would be sitting here trying to pass this tonight And the second thing is the budget is going to be passed. And we're demanding that at least 1% of the budget go to family reunification and preservation. Because why isn't it already? Why is it that you're taking children from their families? for housing and not just giving them housing. This is a moral problem in this county. Make sure that the budget reflects your values.

That's what needs to happen. Thank you, Ms. Wallace.

Good evening. My name is Sharaka Pettiford. To proclaim June as National Reunification Month, In Durham, while myself and a plethora of other families and mothers are fighting like hell to reunify our families, it's a slap in the face, it's disrespectful as fuck.

So I'm gonna have to ask that you not use that language. Thank you, thank you.

I don't come to these meetings because I don't like to be lied to, and I don't like how y'all lie in my face, so that's why I stay far away from these, but I want y'all to know, until my children are returned, you will see me, you will hear me, and you won't get the peace that you think you have. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Pettiford. Okay. Please move along. Please move along. Thank you. Okay, so the proclamation for National Reunification Month. The board is requested to proclaim June 2026 National Reunification Month in Durham County. Director Clapp.

Thank you, everyone. I just want to say thank you very much for acknowledging that this month. This is a huge part of the work that my staff do every day to reunify children. It is also Fatherhood Awareness Month. And I just want to say, having just lost mine recently, we do know how important fathers are to this process. So I want to wish everyone a happy Father's Day. And I just want to say thank you for your support, for our efforts to continue to reunify children with their families, and for my staff that work hard every day and do the hard work. So thank you.

Ms. Wallace? But you can't interrupt like that. Ms. Wallace, Ms. Wallace, Ms. Wallace, nobody interrupted you. No one interrupted you. I'm asking that you don't interrupt anyone else. It's very simple. If you continue, if you continue speaking, if you continue speaking, I'm going to ask you to leave. If you continue to speak, I'm going to ask you to leave. I'm trying to be nice. Okay, if you continue to speak, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. You say one thing else. I'm gonna have to, okay. Let's go. I'm trying to be nice here, trying to give you the opportunity, but I'm telling you, you can't keep speaking. No, I've already asked her to leave.

Let's go.

No, so I'm actually asking you to leave. Thank you, yes. I'm asking you to leave, thank you. Please, please remove Ms. Wallace. Yes, I'm telling you to leave the chambers. You're being asked to leave because you're interrupting our meeting and you cannot return. Thank you. Keep going. Let's go. Let's go. Sheriff deputies, please. Let's go.

Okay.

All right. We will continue on. Security, can we please... All right. Okay. Okay, so that was the last proclamation that we had. I apologize for the interruptions here. Okay, next item on our agenda is consent agenda. We have a few items here that are moved from our work session to our regular session. I'll accept a motion to approve. Are there any comments about the consent agenda? Okay. I'll accept a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved.

Second. It's been moved and properly seconded that we approve the consent agenda. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, please use the same sign. Passes unanimously. Now we've moved on to our other business, which the only thing we have on our agenda for other business is the adoption of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget ordinance. Okay, we do have Since this is our other business, our regular agenda items, we do have public comment. We have four. And I apologize, there's a couple last names or first names I can't read. I don't understand. So I'll just read them out here. So the first is going to be Jack Turnwald. And we're going to be over here and we'll do three minutes because it's just four. Then we have, so first name and then Phoenix. Oh, yeah, last, okay, Laura Phoenix. That would be second. Then Heidi Jodlin. Okay, okay. And then Christy. So those are the four we have signed up we'll do three minutes each this is the budget ordinance and public comment for it Good evening commissioners I'm Jack Turnwald my pronouns are they them I want to address the budget tonight in relationship to pride

I've heard several of you who sit here tonight say things about budgets being moral documents, reflections of values. I used to think policy was a love language. It still can be. For three years, I was living in a town 40 minutes away where four council members and the mayor were refusing to adopt the county's non-discrimination ordinance. I ran for office as an out trans human. My partner at the time had me wear an air tag. because they were afraid based on the emails that i was getting that someone was going to kill me but now that town has a new mayor and a new council that just issued the town's first pride proclamation and joined the non-discrimination ordinance i moved back to durham at a difficult time because i'm rooted in community here and i expected to feel held Seeing electeds here preemptively cower to discriminatory executive orders instead feels shameful. Listening to crocodile tears and statements of solidarity from the folks who voted to remove Pride funding last year, I don't even know what to say about. Ultimately, programming in Durham that centers black folks and queer folks shouldn't even be characterized as DEI. It should just be programs for constituents because a good number of your constituents are black or queer or both stop preemptively throwing folks under the bus what we actually need is as an apology as repair is pride funding to be restored library programs and committees to be restored the lgbtq committee was eliminated apologize for the harm that occurred. As adults, we're actually really terrible examples of making apologies. You guys made a really nice statement of solidarity. I didn't hear anywhere in there the words, I'm sorry.

Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I got an order here. Laura Phoenix? Oh, over here.

Yes, hi, I'm Laura Phoenix. My pronouns are they and she. I don't have a prepared statement, but I'd like to echo the words of my friend Jack and urge you to do more than words and to restore budgeting for pride. to do more than statements, but let your actions make the repair that we're asking for.

Okay, thank you. Heidi?

Good evening, I'm Heidi Jo Hetland, and I'm a physical therapist with Durham Public Schools, and I'm a resident of Durham. As a PT, I'm part of the classified staff that was affected by the major pay debacle from a couple years ago. We have not had raises in two years as therapists. The salary compression and the low salaries for classified staff are not helping us recruit people or maintain staff members, highly qualified staff members. Over the past year, the PT department of nine people have lost six. You right now are looking at half the PT department that covers the entire county. with myself and Ms. Clem here. So we cannot attract people. I know several people who want to come work for Durham. They live in Durham. They cannot afford to work for Durham. It is too much of a salary cut and we really need to invest in these supports that support the schools and support the students. the students especially the kids in special ed the custodians the bus drivers we need these people to feel valued we need them to be able to live on the salary they are making people i know work two and three jobs and still don't make the same amount of money that's six figures which is what many people in durham county way up high make and they work three jobs some i've heard live in their cars and they're not making enough to even live off of working all those jobs so there are many i know tangible items on the budget but i i'm asking you to invest and encourage dps to invest in the classified staff the lower paid staff and maybe the higher paid people don't get a raise this year we've gone without one for two years and just to allocate if this keeps continuing like our department cannot function if we lose any more people and we're looking at lawsuits from children not getting federally mandated services so please please consider this please urge DPS to do what they need to do and can do to retain staff and continue to support our children Um, children are leaving to go to charter and private schools, but who's not leaving the kids in wheelchairs with high need autism kids with AEC devices. They are not, they don't have to be served in private schools and even charter schools. Some take the kids and some don't. One of my students wanted to go to the charter school where her sister went. She, they don't have access to their second floor, no elevator. So she doesn't get to go where the rest of her family went. So those students stay here and the needs and demands on the therapist, the instructional assistants and special education are not going to decrease. very much in the grand scheme of things. So please consider the people that keep the school going. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Christy Clem, lead physical therapist. I've been with DPS for 10 years now, I think. Couldn't come to the budget hearing, so I wanted to come tonight. I don't know if final decisions are made or not, but I really hope classified pay as a whole is taken into account. I cannot think of a single classified employee that does not positively impact students in the school. Not a single one. Everybody thinks of teachers, but it's all the classified folks that do so many things behind the scenes. And when those people leave to go 10 minutes down the road to take the same job that pays them more, then there's huge gaps in the schools. And those gaps are felt by the students. those gaps are felt by the students heidi joe just said it but um the over the pt department we've operated at 62 staffed for most of the year the best we got was 80 staffed so what does that mean that means i work a lot of hours on the weekends writing papers writing reports for medicaid federally mandated IEP services, that there's about 70% of the people we need trying to serve the students in our district, the most vulnerable students. It's not a personal thing about me, but my father passed away less than two weeks ago. What was I doing on that day? I was writing IEPs. I was with him. I was at my parents' home, but because I can't ask a half staff department to do extra, On his final day, I'm doing paperwork. What did I do the next morning? I joined a virtual IEP meeting. Because if I don't, a student doesn't get served, something goes out of compliance, and that gets pushed a week or two down the road where I have to ask somebody in my department to do more. It's not about me. That is one example I can think of. But there are so many. So many examples like that. I mean, right now we just took two resignations within the last three weeks, so we're now 55% staffed. We couldn't find contract agencies to fill our positions. Is it sustainable for us to continue to do what we've done to try to provide federally mandated services? Not at all. You have good therapists leaving. You have good IAs leaving. You have good custodians leaving. You have great bus drivers leaving. All of those folks are folks I collaborate with on a regular basis to provide a better learning experience for our students. Of course I collaborate with the teachers. Commissioner Burton and I worked together for several years at Spring Valley. Of course I talk to the teachers, but I talk to all the classified folks even more.

Thank you. Okay. So our budget ordinance. Do we have a presentation or do we have discussion?

There is not a presentation on the ordinance and I would ask Mr. Lane to come forth and share some remarks as we go through this next step.

Thank you, Manager Hager, and thank you for the opportunity to speak, commissioners, and to the citizens listening. The only thing I really want to say is I want to speak to the unsung departments in Durham County that had to take a cut to their budgets to make this work. i think sometimes they get forgotten and i just want you all to understand that a number of departments every other department in the county almost every other department had at least a two percent budget cut to help pay for the budget in total it's been another hard year for commissioners and particularly for manager hager to figure out how to do this budget i will say we are not out of the woods yet We probably have another couple of years to go before we see sort of positive revenue growth given the situation that we're in. So we need to be prepared to continue making hard decisions and we all need to be involved and support the community in general. Thank you.

Okay. Comments from commissioners. after, oh, Vice Chair Long? Yeah, we can start with discussion.

I don't know if you were raising your hand to speak before.

I have some comments to share, but I didn't know if we were going to do it before or after.

And I would make a few remarks. To echo Keith's comments, this budget has been one of the toughest of my career. I've been doing budget and finance since probably early 90s. And the way the shifts federally and state have occurred, it has put more pressure on local governments in ways I never imagined. Changes in policy that partners who used to support us at levels that they're just not doing anymore. And it's just putting more pressure. I will say I'm proud to be in a community that rises to the occasion and be supportive. And although we couldn't meet all those requests, we had over $40 million worth of requests above our available revenue. That's a lot. That's a big gap. Next year we have at least 12 million we know going into the budget season for 27-28 due to some federal shifts that we're going to have to try to figure out how do we close that gap. There's not enough dollars to support public education, not enough for our community colleges. they're just gaps everywhere and most important as we look at county operations i do want to say that i'm so grateful as keith mentioned as we had to try to close the gap with this budget almost three weeks before We needed to adopt or put a recommended one together. The departments rose to the occasion and committed to finding dollars to make sure that we address those most important needs. And so I am forever grateful for our departments that keep Durham first and are often working a lot more to meet those needs because they have fewer resources. And it is a shared challenge. And so I do hope our state and federal partners will rise to the occasion at a different level as we try to serve our residents so that we can keep our community and our state strong. And so again, I want to thank everyone who have been a part of this process. And I know we weren't able to meet all the needs, but we've, in my opinion, done a good job of balancing the limited resources that we have. To the Budget and Management Services Department, who I push really hard, who they know I always say I'm a frustrated budget analyst. I worked just as hard as they do, probably as long. But I will say that we started this process in September because we knew it was going to be tough. And although we talked about the 2% that was reduced, we have cut a lot more because we pushed hard to find operational efficiencies in an effort to make it available so realign those resources so that they will be available to others. And so again, I thank you Budget and Management Services team. The department has the staff who will get an adjustment, 2%. It's not what is desired, but we're grateful that we can move forward with that amount. and i would also like to just say to our executive leadership team and then others thank you and most important for our board who asked thoughtful hard tough questions and were patient as we were responsive so again i want to thank the board okay so go ahead

i just want to start off by first thinking uh and echoing manager hager's comments i know this has been i mean i've been on the board this is my sixth budget now it has been the hardest one that we have had to go through i'm sure for commissioner jacobs she has a more of a history of i don't know if we've had a budget like this one um in quite some time And I know as Director Keats said that we have years to come before we're out of the hole, especially with state legislation coming through that is really putting a target on local governments on what we are taking away more of our powers of what we're able to do. And I appreciate so, so much all the department directors and heads who have taken cuts and who have found the savings within their departments, even if it meant, you know, key programs that we really need having to be reshifted. I think for me, you know, I... I've told some folks, like my mom, growing up she was a substitute teacher. She used to be a full-time educator, but when me and my sisters were, you know, growing up she gave it up to take care of us, and then when we went to school she went back into the classroom as a substitute. and she would often be called, it was in Wake County public school system, to be an EC substitute because she would always get those calls regularly because nobody would ever say yes to substituting in the EC classrooms because it was a really, really difficult role. And having seen her grow up, or having grown up watching her in those classrooms and just seeing a snippet of what our EC educators and workers go through every day I know how hard this budget is, and I've talked to each of y'all individually, and my worry is that with the restrictions coming from the state of what that could mean next year, if this is one of our last potential opportunities to at least get us to that even equal minimum wage for our DPS employees and Durham County staff. And I know it'll be, I was hoping, and Keith, sorry to put you on the spot, wondering, can you remind us how much, like one cent, half cent, quarter cent, like tax increase is a monthly per resident for like the average homeowner, average price?

It depends on the valuation of a home. One cent on a $400,000 home is $40. One cent on a $200,000 home is $20. So do the math that way. Half a cent would be half that amount. Half a cent on a $400,000 house would be $20 a year additional on their property tax. Is that the question you're asking? That's how the math works.

I know we're going to have the vote, but I just wanted to put that out there as a final plea and ask that in case we don't have this power next year, if we can close the gap this year.

Yes, thank you, Chair Lee. I would be willing to do that, looking at what is given from DPS, and one of the things I think about is this, and I understand that this is important, that people need these raises. If it's just a quarter cent, that's it. I think that many of our residents have expressed to us that they don't want any more tax increases. They have. You may have not, but many of our residents have.

um but i'm willing to do just a quarter cent okay so um i think it's important that we hear from our county manager and also our budget staff there is no um question that what that your needs and the heartbreaking stories that we've just heard are not important Um, and it should be funded. The problem is that we have other, other heartbreaking needs happening. And I would really like to hear from the manager because what we're facing with the federal government already in this year's budget, we had to absorb $3 million of cuts to social services. We have our DSS director back here. Um, we are, I just. ran into our Medicaid director at a family moving forward event on Thursday night, and she came up to me and said, I am so scared because the number of people, we've already seen a 10% decrease in the number of residents in just six months getting SNAP benefits. This is basic food security. And there's a real concern about, Right now we don't have enough staff to deal with having six months repeated eligibility requirements now for both SNAP and Medicaid, which is going to increase the number of staff that we have in order to do the work, and we're actually losing our staff. So we can understand the stress of work. We are losing our DSS staff due to the stress of what's going on with these Cruel, cruel mandates from the federal government that are deliberately trying to push people off of getting food and medical care. But the way it's translating for us in Durham County government is that our staff is leaving, just like you're talking about with Durham Public Schools. We have new requirements in child welfare that now requires an investigation within 24 hours. We're losing our child welfare staff. And what I just learned a few days ago is now we're having to pay temps $150 a day to come in and do this work. So what I'm trying to say is that we have to balance a lot of needs. And we also have to make sure that Durham County is on stable financial ground. Because if we're not and we lose our AAA bond rating, it's going to be bad for Durham Public Schools. It's going to be bad for everyone because that's how we borrow money at an affordable rate. So it's very complex, but what I'm asking is that it's not just once we, as we raise taxes, that means we're going to have to fund everything going forward that we approve this year. It becomes our budget for next year. And we take on those costs. And it's just more that we have to take on at the same time when we're going to have to fill in. We don't know what's going to happen with DSS. So I am not going to, I want to make a sound decision that is not just to respond to Durham Public Schools staff, but to all of the complex needs we have durham county departments and into the entire community and i know for me personally as a durham county commissioner there are five of us who are responsible for over a billion dollar budget and ultimately for the financial stability and security of durham county government going forward so that's my context and i would like to hear from our staff

We've been, as I shared in my remarks earlier, we do five-year modeling in some areas and 10 years on a capital side. This year, we're about to have one of the toughest we've ever experienced. Last year, we started in September. September with doing base budget realignments, base budget reviews, because we didn't want to pass that burden on to some of our other partners who couldn't afford potentially to absorb the levels of expense. As I shared earlier, we're monitoring the federal changes to SNAP eligibility in other areas. And so food security, food, housing security, all of those areas are places that we are trying to plan for. We also have, in the past couple of years, some of the highest tax rates that we've ever seen. seen because of the reassessment process. And it's a good thing that our values have increased. It also means that many of our taxpayers have experienced significantly higher property tax rate increases. So we are balancing our residents ability to pay also with pressures that we're having to absorb because our federal and state partners have shifted how they support the organization. From my perspective, I am concerned about an increase in the property tax rate because of the pressure that our residents are experiencing and also from the feedback that we've received. Ultimately, it is a board decision. We're about to have some strong headwinds before us and many of you have seen it. I do feel in Durham we will get through it regardless. I do know that all entities that are funded by Durham will have to join us in that deep dive. this year as they re-evaluate how do we weather this storm because we're at a tipping point now that we're not going to be able to absorb it the way we did in the current fiscal year. So ultimately this is a board decision. From where I sit, I'm concerned because we have higher debt service payments coming on board that support primarily Durham Public Schools. We have also, in looking at the human services space, with shifts potentially with Medicaid funding as well as SNAP, some of our most vulnerable residents will be on the fringes. At this moment, it's hard for me to say one way or the other. It is a board decision. I am concerned at the level at which our residents have been having to address needs through the increased property tax rates.

Valentine.

Chair, thank you. so when we initially received the county manager managers our proposed budget it was sort of sticker shock to even see the two-cent proposed hike I was hoping that we could relieve the burden on the taxpayer this year but considering where we are I think that was probably a responsible thing to do In addition to the potential federal changes that are going to be catastrophic in ways that the community really is not digesting at this particular moment, beginning in the fall, it's going to be something that we're going to have to monitor literally on a daily basis. so as I ponder the decisions that we have to make I'm thinking about over the course of this budget season hearing repeatedly what our situation is fiscally low sales tax decreasing occupancy tax dollars which will be increased down to zero in the future less than expected uh revenue from our property tax and even in light of that we've been able to provide an adequate level of funding to our schools i believe and we've had some discussions about even doing a little better the question is how much and i think we need to be responsible with respect to how we do that The other good news part of the story is that our friends at Durham Public Schools are willing to meet us halfway with respect to the needs of classified staff. And their efforts thus far seem to be in good faith. I had mentioned that I didn't believe that the issue with the classified staff pay could be solved over one budget cycle but if we worked together we could responsibly over the course of time potentially close that gap certainly our partners at the the state level have a great deal to do with ensuring that that closes adequately i think we've done a good job in extending our commitment to universal pre-k here in the county we continue to expand those services we expanded it by one one point two million dollars and I think everyone on this dais has made a commitment to pre-k collectively and I'm hoping that we don't go backwards in that regard and so as we continue to debate you know the way forward on our final decision regarding uh the budget i want us to think about the most vulnerable in our our community which was already raised and what that means what these changes mean for them and where any additional monies might go as we ponder a slight increase to the proposed budget but i'm hoping that as we ponder that consider the fiscal nature of our decision and what that means for our entire community and so i just want us to think hard about that before we make a final vote thank you all right

So I had a speech written, but I think I'm gonna speak a little differently about this. I won't say anything that I hadn't said before and I had in our conversations and to everyone here and so forth. One of the things I live on, I tell people, that it's not your job to tell yourself no. It's not your job to tell yourself no. It's your job to advocate for what you need, and you ask whatever authority it is to get that. I tell my kids that don't be afraid to ask for anything, because if you don't ask, there's always a no. But even if you ask and you don't get exactly what it is, it's still not a no. This has been a challenge. And it's been a challenge because I guess it's the sentiment that county commissioners or so forth county staff don't care about classified staff it is the is that sentiment is that that thought and um i think that's the that was the biggest hurdle for me to try to get past um because i i know the conversations i know the conversations i have with manager hager i know the conversations i have with the individual commissioners and um as a i always i ran even when i was on the school but i ran as a pragmatic leader and to me that means someone who takes all information before making a decision and considering it considering the entirety of the situation and making a decision about it When I was on the call this weekend with some of the classified workers, I mentioned the possibility of DPS contributing $2.65 million. county commission county contributing 2.65 million to get to a certain point that would not take care of all of it but it would get to a point at that point we estimated to be about five point eight percent but based on the calculations coming from the DPS that actually makes it nine point four percent there by the way they're based on their calculations and what we've seen well what I've seen and so um in our board priorities conversation we had a few months ago what i said was i would like to make sure our classified staff get up to the dps's classified staff gets up to our minimum wage and then automatically it moves up each year just kind of built in some some way to get there some way to be able to do that But I never thought we'd be able to get to the entirety of the ask in one budget cycle. I couldn't see, especially hearing what we've seen, what we've heard over the years. And so me, being a pragmatic person, I'm like progress is better than no progress. Partially there is better. And this 2.5, so we started out with two cents, and later on at the very end of our our budgeting work sessions we had to add delete and we and the county staff county manager added 0.5 cents right to add a couple things that was difficult for some people in our community, emails, calls, stops at the grocery store, whatever it is. And that's just, that's really, really difficult for people. And I know that we talk about, well, it's only this amount per week, or it's only this amount per month, but that about per month makes a really big difference. to people's tax bill when they have to pay it. I was telling my wife, I saw this article, and I've been searching for it because I don't like to cite things without the actual, and I'm not gonna cite the exact numbers, but it was a certain percentage, a certain number of people who would have to leave Durham for every quarter cent added to property tax. It was a certain number. I can't remember what it was. I'm searching and I will find it at some point. But this was last year when I saw that. And that stuck with me. And so each time I see a number go up, I think about the number of people who can no longer afford to live here when we talk about property tax. I also said this on the call Saturday, it's hard to argue both sides of that. So it's hard to argue taxing our county, reducing affordability to fully fund a larger ask for raises for affordability, right? It's opposite ends of the argument. But we're arguing for both, and both can't happen at the same time. The more you raise taxes, the less affordable it is, but the more we can give raises. But we're for both. We're for reducing taxes for affordability, but also raising pay. Both of those can't happen at the same time. It can't without some severe cuts somewhere to offset revenue. So to get to the 2.5 was a leap. It was a welcome leap. I think everybody was, when we were here, everybody was okay to get there. We could get partially there. And so, as i said on saturday i i would not be in favor of adding more because i think i'm basing it off of some calculations i saw previously but we're we're partially there and i think we can get there over the next budget cycle so that we can then equal any kind of move but i don't see us being able to get there by adding adding the quarter cent tax here. So I would not be in favor of that. I would be in favor of us committing to getting there, developing a plan to get there by getting partially there, and then from that point forward trying to keep it level as things move up as a matter of policy. So where I would stand, I would support the budget as presented at a 2.5 cent increase.

And I just wanted to say, I didn't realize the model was 9.43 overall. So when you were saying from DPS's model, 9.43, what they presented? Okay. So that changes it a little bit.

The first few steps was 9.43 percent increase.

All right. Thanks.

yeah yes yes ma'am well i first of all want to say i really appreciate this conversation that we're having as a community and i feel and also as a board it's really important these are very tough conversations and they're going to be very difficult going forward in the coming year i want to make sure that people understand that the additional half a cent of sales tax that we're going to i'm sales property tax that the proposed budget is now going beyond the manager's budget of two cents but 2.5 cents and the understanding is that that 2.65 million of that will now we're asking we cannot we cannot make this happen but we're trying our best they've committed Right, saying that it will be for classified staff raises. And what I think is amazing is that what we see in the budget presentation tomorrow for Durham Public Schools is a commitment from Durham Public Schools leadership to match that amount, an additional $2.65 million on their part, and what i really appreciate is that it looks like from the powerpoint that the durham public schools leadership has done the same hard work that our staff has done they have realigned and reprioritized funding to prioritize it for the classified wages and that is really important and It also means a lot to us because, as you've heard, our departments had to do some really hard work to come up with additional funding. And it's a partnership. We really are all in this together. Also in that funding is an additional million dollars for technology improvements. Well, you all can discuss that with the Durham public school board of education and the superintendent on how that gets used, but it's goes into the capital funding. Okay. Um, and then, uh, 468 more over 468,000 to go to department of social services, because we really are worried about things like food security and people going hungry in our community. and whatever else we need to do to support DSS staff, as well as $50,000 to support special flexible funding for family reunification. And then also over $156,000 for public health also to help support some of the cuts that they have had. So I just want to make sure that everyone knew that this is going beyond Again, what was originally in the budget. And from what I looked at, you were referencing, it looks like the minimum would be $18.22 an hour. But there's a big range with, you know, bus drivers getting over $20. I think it was $20.22 an hour. So there is a big, big range. And I think there's also the commitment that all of us collectively, everyone that we are working to a plan over the next year to get up to the 1922 next year. And again, it's gonna mean cutting other things. That's the only way we're gonna get there based on the reality that we have with the things that we're facing.

Any other comments?

Yeah, I just want to say I'm glad we had this open discussion about this because I just want to say this was hard. This was very, very hard because being in this role, like I said earlier, the decision relies with the five of us. And knowing people that i used to work with i know you work hard okay and trying to figure out how do we make this happen right um so this is not about not knowing how hard classified staff works because i worked in the building with classified staff for 30 years however you know the nine point you know four three what chair lee said and even though i wanted to go up to the quarter knowing that we got to get there somehow and make this a priority um and i think we can get there so i don't want anyone in this room to think that we don't care i don't want anyone in this room to think that we don't care Because I know I care. And I know my colleagues, when I had discussions with them and reminding them that what people do in these buildings every day. Every single day. Reminding the public. reminding the staff so i don't want anyone in here to think that we don't care because we do however we got to figure out how do we get there and i want to get there badly too so i just want to put that out there so thank you so much for listening to me

I just want to make a clarification because I'm not sure it was entirely clear. I don't have the PowerPoint in front of me, but not all are 9.4. It is like the first few levels, it gets the minimum to 1822. And then as you go up the steps, it kind of moves down, but the lowest is 5% increase. So I wanted to do that. So from what I understand, it's like the 1665, well, 9%. Well, the minimum that it said was 1822. in the PowerPoint itself. That's what I saw. I just wanted to make that clarification because I didn't want you to think that all of it was 9.43. So the first few steps were the minimum was a nine point in the first few steps there. All right. Any other comments?

I'm sorry I just did want to share some of the things that I had written something and I want to make sure that we're also talking about other parts of the budget you know I first of all wanted to acknowledge everyone who's been a part of the process we've had people email text call be here and also submit to the survey And also, I wanted to thank all of you, my colleagues. I'm very proud to serve alongside all of you, and I learn from you every day. But I really, I especially want to thank our county manager, Claudia Hager, and all of the Durham County staff leadership team, and every single department head, our 32 county departments, all of our employees, because This was the hardest budget I've ever had to do in 14 years. And the reason why it was so hard is because we came into it with very few choices. And also, we came into this budget with the hard work, as Keith Lane mentioned, our budget director. The hard work had actually been done many, many months leading up to when it was presented to us. And because our staff cut 2% from their budgets, there was an additional $6.2 million that we could actually put towards our own staff getting a 2% COLA. That's all our staff is getting is a 2% cost of living increase. And And I feel badly, you know, I would like to give our staff a raise too. So it's really hard because they deserve it too, especially our lowest paid staff. And, you know, I want to acknowledge again what you said, Chair Lee, that It sounds like it's not that much when we talk about how much is a quarter cent, but we've heard from a lot of residents who are on fixed incomes and who are really struggling right now with fuel prices and food prices. And so I want to be able to hear everyone's voices in our community and honor that and not dismiss that. And I also want to talk about all the things to celebrate in this budget because we are still focused on, for instance, we're prioritizing EMS in this budget. There's been a big problem with response time. And nobody wants to call 911 and not have someone show up. And so we are... putting more than $3 million in new ambulances. We needed to replace five ambulances and buy a new one. And we're hiring a whole new team, 10 paramedics. Um, so thank you to our staff and our County manager. And also, as you mentioned, commissioner Valentine, we are not backing down from our future, our children with over $10 million for our Durham pre-K program. We have to keep investing in our children. Um, also in this budget, um, is we talked about dps we're investing over 14.5 million additional new dollars in durham public schools for a total of more than i think it is 239 million dollars durham public schools is the single biggest recipient of any of our budget and we're proud i am proud to have Every year, this board has prioritized for the past 10 years funding Durham Public Schools. And that is, we are doing that again in this budget. And also in here is other, we are keeping focused on other Durham County priorities and our community's priorities. There's grant funding, $320,000 for food security, $312,000 for early childhood, $250,000 for the violence prevention plan, $500,000 for the strategic plan to end homelessness, $500,000, this is totally new, and this is something that Commissioner Burton really pushed for youth programming, just for youth-focused programs. All of these will be grants that go out into the community to support nonprofits, except for the violence prevention plan. will be going directly into nonprofits doing this work in the community. Also, our manager is saying she can find the $250,000 or $280,000 for a family court. We had a lot of folks come and say, our DA, public defender, district court judge, DSS director, our Roshana She was here, our Justice Services Director, asking for this program to help support family permanency and reunification of families. And so we're going to do this. So what I'm trying to say is that we are still moving forward with many, many important things in this budget. And I want to also highlight 60 million dollars of our funding going to Durham Public Schools is going to charter schools and Nearly $53 million in state public money has come into Durham County in the form of vouchers to fund private and religious schools in Durham over the past several years. And people need to understand that reality and the kind of challenges that our public schools are facing related to funding and support. and that we have to grapple with. Um, so, um, and I, again, I, I want to say that I'm just skimming through my notes here that, uh, we have a lot of uncertainties in the, in the year ahead, but we are still strong. Our tax base did, and you've heard a lot about the money that we lost from appeals. But the good news is that we increased our property tax base, and our property values are $26 billion stronger than they were the last time. There are many communities in our country where you do not see that, and we are still strong. We have our AAA bond rating, and so we're going to get through the next year as our County manager said but Durham County government alone cannot fill the gap and we're gonna have to work together with our Durham Board of Education leadership and partnership and in partnership with all of you the whole community because What we've been doing, over $100 million in new funding for Durham Public Schools over the past 10 years is not sustainable. And going forward, it's not possible fiscally and financially. So we are going to have to figure this out together. And we're going to figure out how we take care of each other.

we're going to do it nobody else is going to be coming in to help us not the state or the federal government but we're going to do it together so thank you all right go ahead commissioner burton one more comment commissioner jacobs took everything i wanted to say but that's okay i wanted to say there's going to be four constitutional amendments on the ballot in november One of those constitutional amendments is going to put restrictions on counties and how we can raise revenue through the property tax. So I say that we have to really educate our community around these constitutional amendments because that will hamper our work even more. So I just wanted to put that out there. So thank you so much.

All right, any other statements we want to make before we take the vote? Okay, then the floor is open for motion.

I move that we accept the budget for fiscal year 26-27. I move that we adopt the budget ordinance for fiscal year 26-27. Second.

All right. It's been properly moved and seconded that we adopt the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget ordinance. Any further discussion? We will have time for comments afterwards. Any further discussion? All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Passes unanimously. Comments, did you want to speak?

I want to just repeat by starting by repeating again what all of us here have said, that this has been a really difficult budget year. I don't think any of us got everything we wanted or even maybe half of what we wanted. I want to again thank County Manager Hager so much for her stewardship in this really difficult budget year and also with all of our budget priorities. I know you asked us each for four priorities and we all sent you 10 each. And thank Keith Lane and his entire team. Can they stand up please? This budget team is some of the hardest working folks. That work with our departments, not just during budget cycle year, but throughout the year to make sure that they're being fiscally responsible with the dollars that they've been allocated. I think we're going to see tough years ahead, but I'm also really proud of the things that we have been able to fund as Commissioner Jacobs mentioned and highlighted. because we have the federal administration that's making cuts on the welfare of our families and our most vulnerable communities who may not even be able to find food, some of the most basic necessities. And for us to make cuts and find resources to be able to fund those programming, and I hope, you know, and I know my colleagues have all had statements here of getting to working towards future budget years that we get our DPS classified staff and Durham County staff to the same and to actually then be striving towards a living wage for everyone here in Durham County. And I hope that we can accomplish that, not this year, but next year, and doing that alongside DPS. And I think we have a strong responsibility also with DPS. And I know we've been having these really difficult conversations with them. And we've seen that they're stemming up and coming up with the 2.65 million that Manager Hager is matching, but also of moving forward to have more transparency with our board and with the public on budget management and transparency so that we're not having as difficult conversations for years to come. And I know that Chair Lee and Chair Armstead are working on an updated MOU between Durham Public Schools and us, and I'm hoping that that also addresses those goals and needs for us because Mr. Jacobs mentioned is one of the largest pieces of our budget over 200 million dollars and With the state Being I think next Thursday, it'll be over a thousand days or it'll be we'll hit a thousand days without a budget Yeah without a budget being passed and so Our most vulnerable community members, including our workers, are struggling every single day. And we see you, and we're going to try really, really hard. And I know this is not the end of the conversation for us, even though it's the budget cycle and the budget has passed. I know Manager Hager and I have had conversations about continued conversations and off-budget programming and resources to DPS, to other departments and services. I'm hoping that we all find better days ahead with our property taxes and also sales tax. People go and shop local to help us collect some more sales tax revenue for Durham County. And also, as Commissioner Burton mentioned, put pressure on our legislators because if these constitutional amendments pass, we are going to really struggle at the city and county level and I think also with those constitutional amendments I one thing I'm really taking away from this budget cycle and I want to put forward out there in ether that for next budget cycle and years to come I would really seriously like us to begin the conversation I know we have our joint city county meeting tomorrow a city-county merger study because I don't see how we're gonna be able to sustain a the endless amounts of services that we have for Durham County and city, while also carrying some of the redundancies that we see within city and county government. So I hope moving forward we can begin the conversations of a city-county merger to find savings and resources within Durham County to better serve all of our residents. Thank you.

okay and i will also think i won't say much but i'll just think county manager hager and the budget staff you guys have been at this for a very long time you answered all the questions late night text and phone calls and very very specific questions and general ones as well thank you so much you all are great staff to work with You guys worked as hard as you could to get where we are, and I thank you for that. So thank you to the staff, department heads, deputy county manager, assistant county managers, all of those. So thank you all very much. We already voted, everybody spoke. All right, we did not save anything off of the consent agenda, and so I'll accept a motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

It has been moved and properly seconded. We adjourn. All in favor say aye. Aye. All in favor please use the same sign. We are adjourned. Thank you all very much.