Joint City County Planning Committee - workshop

Good afternoon. I'm going to go ahead and call us to order at 1 p.m. Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll?

Good afternoon. Mayor Williams. Mayor Williams has excused absence. Mayor Pro Tem Caballero.

Here.

Council Member Baker.

Here.

Council Member Burris. Here. Council Member Cook.

Here.

Council Member Kopach. Here. Council Member Reese. Here.

Thank you. Next up, I have announcements by council. Does any council member? And Madam Clerk, when I chair, it's two minutes. Good afternoon. Council Member Kopach, go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Great to have you here. Just want to give a couple boards and committee updates. As the EAB liaison, just want to highlight a really robust discussion around street lighting with implications for public safety, health, carbon emissions reductions, and resilience in the face of power outages. I'M EXCITED TO SEE MEMBERS OF THAT BOARD STEP FORWARD TO SPEARHEAD, INTERESTED IN AND APPRECIATE STAFF SUPPORT AND INTEREST IN IT, AND LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING MORE. THE EAB ALSO HAS A COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT US ON DATA CENTER REGULATIONS, SO LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING MORE FROM THERE. As the liaison to the Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, I want to highlight for my colleagues once again the recent letter from BPAC on the situation at American Tobacco Trail on Fayetteville near Pilot Street, which mirrors many comments we've heard from other residents before this body. And I appreciate the staff's attention to it and look forward to working together to find a path forward for that site. We'll also implement in the next steps of our overall homeless strategic framework, which is a really critical part of our work this year as a council. and speaking of paths I really do appreciate the outreach we've gotten regarding the bike plus walk plan and just for transparency for everyone on that the date when this will be brought forward has not yet been decided as we work through some legal issues with the county's the county attorney's office but that is in our radar and we will inform you when that will be coming formally before the council but thanks for all the great advocacy excited for the agenda today, especially the Durham cultural roadmap topic. I'm really excited to see that presentation and be able to get into discussion on that together. Really excited about what that's going to do for our community. So thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Council Member Burris.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Excited to be with all of you today. We see each other every day this week, so really excited about that. Just wanted to highlight, I actually did meet with some neighbors from the Fayetteville Street Corridor last week to discuss the issue around safety and what's happening at Pilot Street. And so, Mr. City Manager, they have requested that you come out and walk and tour with them, hopefully within the next week or so. Also, aside from the cultural roadmap, I have sat as an honorary member of the committee, the mayor. So I'm excited to hear those things and how we can stimulate a cultural economy. And then very briefly, I'm aware of an incident last night that happened at Zappa Temple. I was inside the building. And it's where some members of public were denied entry into the facility. This is the first time that's ever happened in my experience as a learning moment for us, but thinking about if we're hosting public events with our city staff members, thinking about how we move forward with whether it's the private host who decides they don't want certain members there, but just want to think about how messy they could possibly get if we start denying certain folks entrance to certain spaces, especially when our logo's on there. we have city staff present and then they were denied entry. So I just want to highlight that, that I was inside the space. I was not outside when those members are denied entry into the facility, but just one thing moving forward, how we can mitigate that from happening when we have residents who want to engage. So thank you.

Thank you. Any other announcements? Go ahead. Council member wrist.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Yeah, I just want to announce or highlight a big announcement today. So last spring, Durham hosted, in partnership with Garmin, the Garmin Marathon Series. I think there was a marathon race and maybe a 10K. It's a big event. Only a few cities a year host the Garmin Marathon Series. And Discover Durham has been really involved in that. So we just got an announcement today at 8.30 from the Durham Sports Commission. Thanks to them for announcing that the Garmin Marathon Series will again be in Durham next year on May the 1st. So I encourage all folks in the room and in this community, Steve, Mayor Schewel, hope you're going to run next year. It's May the 1st. I'll be joining. I encourage folks here locally to run. There's going to be a whole bunch of folks coming to Durham to run for this, so it's a great, great, another sort of feather in our cap here. Ramsey Ritchie, hope you'll be running as well. And it's a great event that attracts visitors to Durham, but also it's a great event for the local community. So looking forward to the Garmin Marathon Series again next year, May the 1st, and thanks to the Sports Commission. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay.

I just want to say I love hearing Steve Shore run in a sentence.

Thank you. Mayor Williams has asked me to – he did not ask for an excused absence for September 17th, and so he's asking for an excused absence for our next council meeting. It's the one that's a little off because it's on Thursday, September 17th instead of the following Monday. So if I could get a motion for Mayor Williams for an excused absence. I moved. Second. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Thank you so much. I think that is all. So I'm going to go ahead and move us on to priority items by our city manager. Good afternoon, Manager Ferguson.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Members of Council, the city manager's office does have a few priority items. First for agenda item number 19, that's the Durham Cultural Roadmap. This item does include a presentation. For agenda item number 26, that's the capital investment job creation incentive agreement with AbbVie Inc. There has been an attachment added based on feedback from council members and prior briefings. That attachment was uploaded this morning. And then finally, I just wanted to note that starting today with all presentations to council taking feedback from the retreat we had last January, We are incorporating just sort of an introductory slide for any future presentations to provide a brief executive summary to the City Council what it is we're presenting, if you have any action that's expected, if we're looking for feedback. So you'll see that starting today at the beginning of those presentations. Welcome your feedback on that. Happy to adjust that process going forward as needed. Finally, just responding previously, I was made aware today of the concerns about entry into an event at the Zafa Temple last night. I do want to reiterate this was not a city-hosted event. It was a privately hosted event where we were guests. If council has direction that they want to provide staff on how you'd like us to handle those situations going forward, we welcome that direction. At this time, we do not... generally inquire as to the requirements of a host who's asking us to be somewhere. And so we're happy to follow the direction of Council if you'd like us to help handle that in a different manner.

Thank you, Manager Ferguson. Madam Acting City Attorney Hernandez.

Good afternoon, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Members of the City Council, the City Attorney's Office does not have any priority items this afternoon.

Thank you.

Madam clerk. Good afternoon. Mayor Pro Tems, City Council members and staff. We have no priority items for the City Collective Office, but I do have the BCCT report. So for Mayor's Hispanic Latino Committee appointment, We have Cristobal Alvarez, Victor Ayani, Nancy Ramos, Brian Rodriguez Sanchez, Junior Sarmento, Orly Spex, and Charles Wright. For the Durham Housing Authority Board Commissioner's appointment, we don't have consensus for, we have one for Jamiah Carvin. 3-4 to Mario Howes, and 1-4 Christie Moore.

GBA.

OK. Okay, and then next we have the Durham Workers' Rights Commission appointment. We have diverse backgrounds. We have Christopher Diaz, and for low wage, we don't have consensus. We only have three votes for Jessie Vaughn.

I would say GBA is well done.

Okay. I guess a question on that. Were there other votes? Yes. What were the other votes?

Two for re-advertise?

I think so, yeah.

Okay. And for the Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, we have Mary Ellen Green. And that's the end of my report.

Thank you so much. Next, we have public comment. And I have three virtual speakers today and then one in-person speaker today. First, I have Ms. Jacqueline Wagstaff. Good afternoon, Ms. Wagstaff.

Good afternoon. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. You have three minutes.

Thank you. Well, I'm coming to you again to beat this same dead horse I've been beating now three work sessions. The situation that's happening right now in the sanctioned city encampment, that's a sanction because we did some investigation and the plot of land that this encampment is growing each day on belongs to the city. and there's a lot of things going on with it and now don't get me wrong everybody know i'm an advocate for our people that have the least of everything but the problem that i have with this is the same way that mr manager listened to the white lady that came down there twice complaining about oakwood park And then when y'all went on vacation, they conveniently found $2.2 million called Flexible Housing Fund and removed those people, put them in dignified housing with wraparound services with the quickness. This is a public health situation that's going on on Fayetteville Street and Pollard. You have a school that's less than 50 feet away from the camp, man. On any given day that I drive by the encampment and anybody else that drives by, we're watching drug activity, we're watching individuals that are uh i guess going through whatever drug that they've taken situation right there in the plain eye view of that school and those parents that walk to that school every day the bus shelters on each side now have become uh the extension of the encampment because they leave the encampment and sit in the bus shelter every day and we see all kinds of things not to mention we've had two murders on the same side as the school, on the trail, right beside the school. And there's another encampment that's on that side. So it's spreading out. Then one of the pieces that I've asked people to look into As everybody knows, most registered sex offenders usually have difficulty finding houses, and they usually are in encampments. There's no way that anybody's gonna tell me that there's probably some people living in that encampment that are on the sex register, but they're unregistered because they don't have an address. This puts that school in serious harm, not to mention, let's talk about the health issue. I haven't seen a port-a-john out there, so that means everything that they're doing becomes a problem for the property, the land, the environment, and even the runners on that trail. Because I talked to some and they said, when they come down the trail, they're watching people defecate and do whatever is necessary in the encampment. You have to do something about it. But when you do, I don't want you to go in there and just send the police and raid them out. I want you to provide that dignified housing that Mr. Ferguson has referred to when he cleared out

Thank you, Ms. Wagstaff. Next up, I have Michelle Sharp. Madam Clerk, is she in the queue? Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Yes, can you hear me? Good afternoon. Yes, we can hear you. There we are. Yep. Thank you.

Good afternoon.

You have three minutes.

Thank you very much for the opportunity. I'm speaking on item number 26 on the agenda, the city incentives for AbbVie. I'll start off by saying I'm incredibly excited for AbbVie to come to Durham. Ma'am? Oh, yes.

I'm so sorry. That is actually a public hearing, which is at our next meeting. Oh. I just have you for general public comment. Public hearing items, we take them up during our public hearing time. And our public hearing for that item is actually, excuse me, it is Thursday, September 17th. I was incorrect. We usually have our meetings on Monday. We will be having a public meeting, sorry, a public hearing on that item on Thursday, September 17th at 7 p.m.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. I will register for that as well.

Next up, I have Ideal Ortiz under general public comment.

Yes, I signed up to speak about the same item regarding AbbVie, but I am also happy to just offer comments that our El Toro Loco fiasco is still occurring. And so this past weekend, we still had decibels of 80 to 100 inside of our homes. And so the saga continues. I have real serious concerns about what it takes for our law enforcement to get folks to follow existing ordinances when there's clear documentation that an issue has occurred. I remember a time when people would have their parties busted up if you were doing something that you weren't supposed to be doing on property. And I don't know why the business owner hasn't been asked to cease operations when these things continue to be a nuisance or for someone to be detained until they could decide to follow the existing ordinances. They are running an amphitheater. They are running an event center. They are promoting events towards the future. I don't know what clear evidence that they offer themselves online we need before acting. I appreciate what's been able to be done so far, but they're essentially running an amphitheater and now also partially a carnival with rides and other kinds of things out there. So for young people, that's still something that's a matter to be discussed. As far as the abby piece, I'm very confused about why it was on this agendas. I'm number 26, so I would love some clarity on that as well.

Thank you, Miss Ortiz. Those are those are all the virtual in person speakers I have. I have one more public speaker today, and that is Miss Victoria Peterson. She's here in person.

Yes, thank you, city council members. Good afternoon, Ms. Peterson, you have three minutes. Okay, and thank you, ma'am. Okay, here's the issue. Science background, I have a criminal justice background. So you cannot allow drugs to be sold on city property. That camp that Ms. Waxdale just spoke about is located on city property. I went to the county office. Here it is in the yellow. That's where that camp is. That camp is city property. How I see it, since the city, the county knows about these drugs being sold in that camp across the street from a public school, the city is in violation of selling drugs. you're breaking the law, particularly when you know that persons are in that camp selling drugs. I can understand if people have various emergencies and they need a place to lay their head. But 24-7, all day? Now, I don't like to bring up race. I don't even like to even bring up women when women make boo-boos. But the other Saturday, they had an African-American woman out there half naked. She did not have all of her clothes on. I asked, and I was at the food line, and one of the city police officers came over also to help her. She had some kind of seizure. She's been buying drugs over there. The issue also is that it's right across the street from the school. Here I am, a woman of color, trying to help another woman of color to get some clothes, the hard team drives by. I had to pull them over. They finally come over. The only thing they did was give me a blanket so I can wrap something around this African American woman. Now look, and I don't like to bring up race, but I'm going to do it today. If that situation was in the white community, Bo, They would never have allowed it. That area that Jackie just mentioned, about the $2 million that the city council was able to find, that was in the white area. Those homes was what, four or five, $600,000 homes. You guys shut that camp down right away. Listen, I want you to shut this camp down. I want you to get the drugs off the city property because the city should not be in the business allowing individuals to sell drugs. Now you guys know the county commissioner, I mean the sheriff, he knows about it, and both of the police chief, they know about it.

Thank you, Ms. Peterson.

I'm asking you to do something about it. Thank you.

Those are all the folks I have registered for public comment this afternoon. Next up, under administrative consent items, under city clerk's office, I have item number one, mayor's Hispanic Latino committee appointments. Item number two, Durham Housing Authority Board of Commissioners appointments. Item number three, Durham Workers' Rights Commission appointments. Item number four, Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission appointments. Under departmental items, under emergency communications department, item number five, priority dispatch corporation extended service plan agreement. Under environmental and street service, did you want to pull item number five? Okay. Item number five was pulled by Councilmember Kopach. Under environmental and street services department, item number six, joint funding agreement with the US Geological Survey for operation and maintenance of the city of Durham rainfall and stream flow network. Item number seven, contract SD-2026-06, municipal separate storm sewer system inspections. Under fleet management department, item number eight, North Carolina sheriff's contract, patrol vehicle upfitting. I'm going to pull that along with number nine. Items number 8 and 9 have been pulled by Councilmember Cook. Item number 9, North Carolina term contract patrol vehicles under General Services Department. Item number 10, acquisition of one temporary construction easement and one area and fee simple at 4607 South Alston Avenue for the SW51 sidewalk project. Item number 11, construction contract for the Environmental and Street Services North Administration Building Roof and Envelope Repairs Project. Item number 12, Junction Road Paratransit Facility and Faye Street Transportation Renovation Projects, amendment number one for design services with Teeple Architects USPC.

I do not want- Don't want to pull you out. I just want to say thanks to Durham County Transit Plan for funding that. It's great stuff.

Exciting to see that item. Item number 13, preliminary guaranteed maximum price amendment to the construction manager at risk, CMAR contract with LeChase Construction Services LLC for the City Hall and HVAC project. Item number 14, preliminary guaranteed maximum price amendment to the construction manager at risk, CMAR contract with Balfour Beatty Construction slash Holt Brothers Construction, a joint venture for the East End Longmeadow Parks Project.

I'd like to pull that one.

Did you want to pull that? Yes. Okay, item number 14 has been pulled by Councilmember Kopach. Item number 15, construction manager at risk, CMARG pre-construction services contract with the Christman Company for the Junction Road.

Oh, did I just go?

Okay, thank you. Sorry, I thought I got thrown there. Paratransit facility and face street transportation renovations project. Item number 16, 700 Colfax Street, REID read, number 119184 and 119185, public sale. Number 17, eminent domain action to obtain one temporary construction easement and one area in fee simple at 2538 South Roxborough Street for the SW-45 bike and sidewalk project. Item number 18, contract for public art at Durham Aquatic Center. Item number 19, Durham Cultural Roadmap. That is a presentation we'll take up at the end. Item number 20, acquisition for four temporary construction easements and three areas and fee simple at 3301 Shannon Road for the SW-69 sidewalk project. Under Water Management Department, item number 21, Tar River Land Conservancy Dikes Tracks Watershed Protection Project, dash authorization to fund. Item number 23, construction award to the Carolina Civil Works Inc. for the Downing Creek Lift Station Improvements Project.

I think you missed 22.

Thank you. Item number 22, design build services contract with CDM Constructors Inc. for the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program Durham Water Treatment Plant Project.

That's a big one, so I just wanted to make sure we read it.

Item number 24, construction award to Carolina Civil Works Inc. for the Audubon and Glenview lift station improvements project. And then under presentation, under the city manager's office, we have item number 25, 2026, federal legislative update. And we will take that after our cultural roadmap. And then under public hearing, which we'll take up on Thursday, September 17th, Office of Economic and Workforce Development, item number 26, capital investment and job creation incentive agreement with AbbVie Inc. Manager Ferguson, I have items number five, eight, nine, and 14 pulled, and then presentations 19 and 25. Thank you. Councilmember Kopach, you pulled item number five.

Yes, thanks so much. I just wanted to inquire with staff as we pursue this extended service agreement plan, what the current conversations are with the county about alignment of our 911 dispatch efforts.

Good afternoon council members, Mr. Manager, Randy Beaman, Director of Emergency Communications. So currently the process that's going on in your speaking or referencing the consolidation work or the programming of that, it is still in the early stages or final stages of the first phase and they're getting ready to do a presentation. The differential here is that the City of Durham in the emergency communication centers, we use a dispatch software, and the provider of that software is Priority Dispatch. The sheriff's office uses a different CAD vendor, and they are not currently using a dispatch software, per se, and so therefore, I don't know where it will head once the results of the consolidation study is presented. So they are planning in the very near future, I think within the next 60 days possibly, to do presentations. That is still in the works. So this particular contract or software is an ongoing need for our operational level to continue the great service that we provide where we use this software in processing all of our 911 calls from fire, police, and medical. well as the heart program as well so it's all interconnected and interrelated in the call processing mode Thank You mr. Bateman thank you at all okay thank you items number eight and nine councilmember cook good afternoon Michael Boyd fleet management

i believe it was councilman yes all right thank you um and this and i'm not sure if you have folks here from dpd some of these questions might be more specific to them but i'm curious um is this a a replacement or is this an addition to fleet right these are all replacements they're all replacements uh one car you know 32 cars are going off the street 32 new ones are coming on uh that are

upfitted by a third party so it's much quicker to get them on the road once they get here since uh we last year i think we did 40 this year's 32 so it's around that number every year just to keep fresh reliable vehicles on the road as much as we can getting good fuel mileage and all that stuff so

And so how often are we replacing? I know you said that we did a bulk last year.

Right. It's got a lot of different things that goes into it. As we do more and more take-home vehicles, they're not hot-seated, 24-hour-a-day cars like they were seven, eight, ten years ago prior to the take-home first policy that took three years. So we're getting much more away from the 24-hour day cars. At that time, it was probably three to four years. Now, since somebody's not driving them all day long, they're running their eight or 12-hour shift, whatever it is, and they're going home with them. So they're much more, they have a longer lifespan. So it really depends. It depends on the district, too. Depends on where the person lives at. A lot of things, but maybe six to eight years.

Okay, do you all have like a mileage marker that you start looking at?

We do. It's somewhere around 100,000, 110,000 miles. I think in the system we do that, but it looks at the maintenance of them. You know, is this car more of a problematic car? It looks at all that, this robust system that we've got to kind of guide us to make sure we're doing, replacing when we need to.

And then are they, what kind of vehicles are included in this?

These are, the new ones are Explorer hybrids, so SUV hybrid. Many of the cars going off the road are normal gasoline only Dodge Charger in a lot of cases. There are some cases where they could be a Durango, which is gas, or a Tahoe, but that's the majority of these would be Dodge Chargers.

Okay. I mean, my next question, and you talked about it a little bit with the hybrid, which was are we looking at this in an environmental friendly light? Are we thinking about Obviously, these cars are going to be driven quite a lot. Are we thinking about the impact and the carbon footprint that we're having with the purchases?

Sure. Sure. When we changed over to hybrid Explorers, maybe this may be the third year from the Chargers, that was one place that we really looked is, you know, trying to meet all the sustainability goals. Part of that is with police, I don't know that we're ready to go past hybrid yet, but hybrid is a good step for us to be more sustainability-minded versus the natural, you know, just naturally-aspired gas engines.

And I'll just, I'll add to that. This has been a regular and highly-evaluated topic in the police department and between fleet and also in general services who monitors our sustainability plan. I think the entire Fleet needs of police departments across the country are definitely moving in the direction of more environmentally sustainable technologies. There are a lot of demands on police vehicles, especially on the power systems that is actually been one of the things that has made it harder to make that transition. The police department has made investments in sustainable vehicles beyond their patrol vehicles and that's also been a place for them to test some of those technologies so you know I'm happy to provide insurance to the council that that's a technology we will adopt with enthusiasm as soon as it's able to meet the the rigorous demands of those vehicles but as of right now those the the products don't exist yet I do expect that we'll be there before too long

Thank you. Can you talk about the state contract exemption and the way that y'all are utilizing that?

Sure. This is the expert, right? Joe has been here doing purchasing for 40 years or 45 or something. They don't need that information.

Joe Clark, fleet management director, also interim general services director. So under North Carolina state law, there's certain exceptions. One of them is deals with state contracts. So if something's under state contract under 143, 129, there's an exemption clause that allows you to buy directly off that contract. Those have been competitively bid by the state. So you've got an assurance that everything is above board. It was followed correctly through state statute. And usually it's much cheaper.

Okay. That was actually going to be my next question. And this is I don't really know much about this and is why I'm asking this question. But we've got the cost at almost about 51,000 per vehicle. We've got the upfitting then at an additional 16.7. So we've got 67,000. per vehicle, which seems expensive per vehicle to me as a like average consumer, especially given that we're sort of like sounds like we're buying in bulk and we're sort of utilizing some of these exemptions to get cheaper prices. I was just wondering if you could speak a little to that.

These are excellent prices. In the case of a police vehicle, a lot of dealerships are not even equipped to quote on those because they're so complicated. We've run into problems in the past when a local dealer chose to bid and didn't choose the right codes to get the right vehicle. So it's a complicated process. The state does this for the highway patrol vehicles, so we're using similar vehicles. We're buying in bulk.

cities and counties across the state also utilize the contract okay so this is just it's so specified because of the the needs um and then we also just signed a pretty massive contract to upfit and part of the um the axon contract included dash cams, and is that a separate expense from the upfitting that we're talking about here?

That will be something totally separate.

Okay, and so can you just talk a little bit about what this upfitting, what's included in the $17,000-ish?

These are lights, sirens, cables for the radio, cables for the antennas.

Gotcha.

Okay, thank you so much. Those are my questions.

Those are your questions for item number nine, too, correct? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Last pulled item I have is item number 14. Council Member Cooper.

Afternoon, Council. Chris Liska with General Services.

Yep. Thank you, Mr. Liska. So I just wanted to ask about the connection of this project with what's mentioned in the packet details waiting for deq to come back with their determination uh on the state of the contaminated soil before moving forward i know that your team has been partnering with a third-party consultant to try and move things along faster and so i just wondered how that fit in here and if you could comment on um kind of how yeah that that contaminated parks piece fits into this item

yeah sure so this item is for the phase one for the demolition of the existing structures on the site so it's everything kind of above ground um that has to happen uh regardless of what we end up deciding to do as far as the remedial action plan for east end park we have been working with geosyntac consulting is our environmental consulting agent on the park development project who has been helping us to interpret all the data that we've gotten so far from deq the department of environmental quality we've gotten four rounds of data from them they are deq is still working on finalizing their summary report of those findings and their process for a cap and cover remedial action plan strategy we're still waiting for them to conduct that work but concurrently geosyntec is also working for the city to provide the same level of service and then some for alternative options. DIFFERENT FROM WHAT DEQ IS DOING. IT'S NOT IMPACTING THE CURRENT AGENDA ITEM THAT YOU'RE ALL HERE TO APPROVE TODAY, BUT CERTAINLY THAT REMEDIAL ACTION PLAN IS IMPACTING WHAT THE PARK PROGRAM ENDS UP, THE DEVELOPMENT ENDS UP MOVING FORWARD WITH, ADVANCING WITH, BECAUSE THAT STRATEGY WILL DICTATE HOW SOME OF THOSE FEATURES COME INTO PLAY.

THAT WAS IT. THANK YOU. OK. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is our presentation. I do have a public speaker on that. They are virtual, Marilu Flowers. Good afternoon. Can you hear us?

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me now? Yes, we can.

Good afternoon. You have three minutes. Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem and the counselors. My name is Mary Lou Flowers, retired Durham Public Schools art teacher, and it is my privilege to serve on the Durham Cultural Advisory Board. While I have been on this board for less than a year, I have witnessed the work, vision, and dedication that has brought us to this moment when you will hear the Cultural Roadmap presentation this afternoon. I have seen a community determined to create more than just another plan. I have seen people working to build a roadmap, a roadmap that connects artists, organizations, businesses, neighborhoods, and government with a shared vision for Durham's future. In the past, Durham created the 2004 Cultural Master Plan. While it provided a valuable foundation, not every goal was achieved. This innovative plan is more connected, more accessible, more evolved, but more achievable. One of the things that has impressed me most is how this roadmap brings together the many separate sources of funding and opportunities that already exist across our unique city. This plan creates a coordinated network that makes it easier for citizens, artists, and organizations to find resources, plus easily navigate the process. This isn't simply an investment in the arts. It's an investment, yes, in our economy, but maybe more importantly, it's an investment in homegrown artists that take advantage of arts education, which is my history, but take advantage of arts learning for long-term careers right here in Durham. Today, I ask for your full commitment to this 2026 cultural roadmap. Let us ensure that the arts in Durham flourish, not despite the support of our elected leaders, but because of it. Thank you.

Thank you. Those are all the speakers I have. So if staff want to come on up.

Good afternoon. I'm Rebecca Holmes. I'm the manager of the Cultural and Public Art Program. We're first going to hear from Laura Ritchie, who is on the Durham Cultural Advisory Board.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem and members of City Council and staff. My name is Laura Ritchie. I'm a City Council appointed member of the Cultural Advisory Board, a former member of the Public Art Committee, a curator and an arts administrator, a small business owner and arts supporter, a North Carolina native, a Durham resident, and a new mom. I've spent the last 15 years working for and alongside artists and cultural organizations in Durham. What I love most about this city is the extraordinary creativity and tenacity of our community. It's why I've chosen to raise my daughter here. It's why my wife and I have invested in opening a new art space here. And it's why I've given years of volunteer service to the efforts that have brought us to this presentation. It's why this moment feels particularly meaningful. The Durham Cultural Roadmap has been many years in the making. Our last cultural plan was written in 2004 and our city and our cultural landscape have evolved enormously since then. Artists and cultural workers have long imagined and advocated for greater public investment in and a more coordinated approach to arts and culture. Many of us have been here before you and with you seeking better tools and actionable plans long before today. We're grateful to you for listening. City Council and our County Commissioners heard our call in 2022 and made a significant joint investment in developing a new cultural plan for Durham. We're also grateful for the private support that helped expand on your commitment from Duke Arts, Triangle Community Foundation, the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Fox Family Foundation, and the Man Bites Dog Theater Fund. What's before you today is truly a homegrown effort. It brings together years of community advocacy, public leadership, research, and an extraordinary amount of listening. This is the moment to finally carry all of that work forward. Durham already has a remarkable cultural ecosystem, artists, creative entrepreneurs, festivals, museums, music venues, cultural organizations, and enthusiastic audiences. These are not only integral to what makes Durham feel like Durham, they also create jobs, support small businesses, strengthen neighborhoods, attract visitors, and contribute to all residents' quality of life. This roadmap gives us an opportunity to bring those strengths together through the coordinated strategy that we've been missing. There was a time when I was as skeptical as the next guy about more surveys and another plan. But I've been along for this ride since the very beginning and I wholeheartedly believe in the merit of its results. This is the path that allows us to fully integrate arts and culture as an essential part of Durham's civic infrastructure. I believe in it because of who was invited and who showed up in the process. The Cultural Roadmap Planning Group and three joint city and county resident boards and programs provided leadership, the Durham Cultural Advisory Board, the Public Art Committee, and the dedicated staff in our cultural and public art program. The planning group co-chairs are former Mayor Steve Schewel and Zena Howard of Perkins and Will, with County Commissioner Michelle Burton and Councilmember Shanetta Burris serving as honorary chairs, and Mayor Pro Tempore Javier Caballero serving as the elected official liaison to the Cultural Advisory Board. Over three years, more than 50 community cultural leaders and approximately 4,000 Durham residents contributed to this. And that was after building a foundation on years of previous advocacy efforts. That community engagement is important. This is not simply a plan written about Durham. It's a plan built by listening to Durham. That brings me to the person I have the pleasure of introducing today. Margie J. Reese is a veteran arts administrator and cultural policy expert who has led city arts agencies in Dallas and Los Angeles and served as a Ford Foundation program officer for media arts and culture in West Africa. Her leadership on the board of Americans for the Arts helped advance the organization's first policy statement on cultural equity. Margie and her team at MJR Partners led this process with incredible expertise, working alongside deeply trusted, locally based artists, Monet Noel Marshall and R. Stein Wexler, who crafted thoughtful and creative ways to hear directly from Durham's artists in residence. I'm grateful to everyone who has brought us to this point, including this council, for its investment and leadership. I strongly support adoption of the Durham Cultural Roadmap, and I'm excited about what we can accomplish together as we move into implementation. I now welcome Margie to share the work her team has completed and the opportunities that it creates for Durham. Thank you.

Good afternoon, City Manager, Council Members, Mayor Pro Temp. I am Margie Reese and I think I should take the person that introduced me everywhere I go. She makes me sound like I'm at home. Our team has had the pleasure of working here with very capable city and county staff. and also with the arts community in Durham, just to begin to unpack what's possible, what's missing, what's here that should be celebrated, and perhaps some things that could be considered next steps. Over all of that work, the one sentence and the one thought that I leave with you is that our plan is encouraging Durham to consider the arts as part of civic infrastructure, not as an ad hoc separate department that comes to this group once or twice a year asking for funds, but also looking to contribute to the civic life of this city? How can the arts be considered a partner that contributes rather than a detractor? I'm sure that I'm supposed to use this presentation, thank you, to help us go through this conversation with some degree of order, although over the past two years, our team has been involved and then a year before that, a local, a consulting team that launched the process. So what we're asking of you today is to just consider the data that we've collected the amount of community input that has gone into these 10 recommendations. We can think together about a timeline for implementing these recommendations, a budget and investment strategy, and then some decision points for you to consider, and I hope to engage in dialogue with you. So you heard the previous speaker say that I've worked in the arts sector both as a city department and as a nonprofit organization over the past however many years, that adds up to, and then also within philanthropy. And every city, every municipality requires a different structure. The good news for Durham City and Durham County is that these two entities have already a history of collaborating. There are some cities, counties and regions that are forced to collaborate and spend a lot of time trying to decide who's on first. I have not found that here and so we want to emphasize that the focus here is to think about this roadmap as a clear guide. It is absolutely presented to you as a bureaucratic system, an organized system. It's a system that follows the work path of city and county government so that it positions the arts in a way that it is both responsive, as I said earlier, but also services every corner of Durham City and Durham County. Part of the goal is to respond to what we've been hearing is that this is not a plan for the elite or small group or small group of neighborhoods and communities. The residents of Durham came forth and said, in my neighborhood, we're interested in having the visibility of artists and the visibility of spaces and programming activities for our residents. Why does this matter now? So yes, the previous plan that the city adopted was 2004. A lot has changed in Durham and a lot has changed in the last two years since we picked up this process and began to work on this. Durham is continuing to grow. Cultural spaces continue to be limited as development happens. Some of those spaces that artists animate become attractive and they get bought and sold and so artists get displaced. funding systems within the two agencies are fragmented. In other words, there's a set of guidelines and criteria that the city has, same for the county, timelines, et cetera, including the philanthropic sector having its own set of criteria and timelines. And so when you bring artists to that table, they're trying to figure out what do I do first, where do I go, how do I get information, and then how do I get increased capacity to access the resources that do exist. And so our theory here is that with coordination comes stabilization. Artists, community leaders, nonprofit organizations gain increased knowledge of how to access services and provide cultural services to your public. You heard a little bit about how we were engaged, just about 4,000 people. We did a number of online conversations as well as in-person town hall meetings that were very well attended, very animated conversations. four or 500 residents participated in six events that a local artists engagement team facilitated. And then of course, we were trying to bring me along into the social media engagement strategies, which also are very successful. Just another view of how we documented the numbers of conversations with residents that included a separate group that were festival organizers, which we understand is a very important aspect of local arts, cultural, and entertainment spectrum here in Durham. So I just give you that so you understand. We didn't make this up. We come into a city, we stop, we listen, we learn, and we then interpret. And so, you know, I wanted to give you this visual that was created from one of our first town hall meetings. This is a data point, this is a data set that was creatively documented by an artist. You know, we have to do things a little bit differently, so we wake you up, we give you the color, and make sure you understand that the conversation was strong, it resonated with the idea that Durham already has a strong arts and cultural life, that there is high participation in the arts, But there was a sidebar note that I missed saying the other day, but the demographics of those that participated in some of these surveys was not fully representative of the Durham cultural, ethnic, historic demographics. We understand that there are systems that are in place to support the arts, but they're often at odds with each other. And the infrastructure for Durham, spaces, studios, places where artists make work, neighborhood spaces where kids can go and not just get exposed to the arts, but get mastery in the arts. So a piano lesson on a Saturday afternoon that is sequential provides that access, consistent access. Kids get some of that in school, but it is not often sequential. And we want to make sure that we honor the humanities in this conversation. The number of writers and poets and historians, tradition bearers that made Durham what it is now, that the histories of those individuals that participated in the structure of Durham, we don't want that to be lost. And so we should be asking you to think about arts, humanities, and culture. That's the planning background. And as Durham continues to grow, different immigrant communities are taking hold. The community is aging as well as young people. Technology is playing a big role in the creative life of Durham. So we're trying to cast our net really wide in terms of getting input. This slide I want to take you to and ask you to spend a minute on this with me because sometimes we forget that the arts are actually an economic contributor to the local tax base, the state, and nationally. So in the Durham arts industry, and this report was done by our colleagues at Americans for the Arts, which by the way, I mean, it's over 50 years old. It services all of the local arts agencies in the city and in counties. And they've been doing this study for over 30 years and just focusing on the economic benefit and the return on your investment in the arts. And so just at the top, let's look at this and have us think about the number of dollars that are generated by arts organizations in Durham City and County and the audiences. And these are arts and arts-related jobs. And the second set of lines here The arts provide over 2,000 jobs. Some of these are part-time, some are seasonal, some are full-time. And then the audiences that make up the galleries and bring people to theaters, et cetera, are also generating jobs. And you say, how does that work? How does an audience generate a job? Well, they drive, they park their car, they stop at the gas station, they get a coffee before or a coffee after. And so, you know, think about how artists' performances and galleries, exhibitions, et cetera, cause spending to occur. The personal income that's being generated in the city of Durham County area, they're contributing almost $94 million to residents. go on across and see what the audiences are providing so anyway you see the data here and i wanted to make sure that you see that so that when you're thinking about well what is the benefit why should we write a check for you know a bunch of zeros to support artists and arts programs is because those dollars are generating new dollars there is a statistic from your um Discover Durham that talks about how many of these individuals that are attending and participating in the arts come from outside Durham City and Durham County, bringing new dollars into your area. So I could ask you to stop here and write a poem about how the arts, or write a song about how the arts, but I want to make sure you think about this is not a one-sided equation. Again, more event-related spending, just a detail in that bottom box, food and drinks, retail, overnight lodging, which contributes also to your tourism bottom line, thinking about people coming and purchasing clothing and accessories, groceries, so you see all those things, including down to the nano expenditure of childcare. So all of these things are the sexy part of what you guys have to think about, you men and women think about when you think about how do we invest public dollars. In this instance, the public dollar investment is not only giving your community some enrichment, but it's also contributing to the tax base. Okay. This plan also focuses in on the gaps that we found, the fragmentation of the funding system, both public sector and private sector philanthropy and corporate dollars. We want to make sure that we're stressing for you the need to invest in those grants that are long-term. So not a one-time shot, but in grants and funding that allows an organization to build its capacity, paid staff, one or two lists here of the qualifiers that the industry considers building institutions. You have a lot of individual artists, small group cohorts, but very few cultural institutions. And one of the things that we consider to be an element of a cultural institution is paid professional staff. part-time or full-time and one of your larger organizations is still a long way from becoming a cultural institution having a permanent office a permanent address workspaces memberships to professional organizations so there's a list of criteria And so long-term support is a huge contributor to building institutions that can weather the storm. In fact, I'll say this. When we began this process, bless you, was just the beginning of federal funding for the arts being slashed. And when we got to Durham, we heard that loud and clear from some of your longer-term festival producers, et cetera, that they had events planned on the books, marketed to the public. They got word that their National Endowment for the Arts grant was gone. They had to pivot. They had to figure out how to pivot. And so I will say this in the most positive way, there was little opportunity for them to come to the city or county and get those dollars or some of those dollars reinstated so those programs could continue. So you lost tourism dollars during that time in addition to salaries and wages and educational programs for kids. So the key investment here, there are 10, I'll go through them pretty quickly in a minute, are built on these four pillars. And this is what we heard from Durham residents when we asked them, what do you want for your city? So you'll see a couple of those things here, we synthesized those. The community is asking to cultivate arts leaders. So I love the arts, I'm passionate about the arts, we can listen to that all day long, but who's providing the leadership to build up your cultural system? We heard that there was a call for what we used to be able to say, and I probably shouldn't say it, but what the heck. We used to be able to say we need more diversity. We need to make sure that whatever public dollars are allocated, that they're spread across equitably across Durham City and County. So they're calling for programs and funding opportunities that will support with some accountability for distributing dollars equitably. The bottom line on that is recruiting the kinds of advisors that you have on the Durham Arts Council boards, et cetera, so that they're representative of Durham city and county residents. We heard that collaboration is a huge opportunity, so that the arts organizations aren't always seen to be competing against itself. So if there's one pot of money, there's one deadline, there's one way to distribute that money, it limits collaboration. Arts groups do the best job sometimes of dividing itself, and so we want to see how we can encourage more collaboration between larger, smaller, neighborhood based, downtown based, et cetera. And then finally, inspiring. What is the role of arts learning and arts education in this system? So these four pillars, let's keep it going here, Rebecca, are leading us to look at other cities. I would say that one of the things that bothered me along this journey was hearing members of the public say, we want Durham to be like, fill in the blank, like Greenville, like Asheville, like Birmingham. But nobody wanted to say we want to be like Durham. And I want to encourage us to think about how do we be like Durham? And what is that mantra? What makes up what we hear is that grit, the community sensibility, the conversations that we heard during this meeting from people on the phone and in the room saying to you, we love our city. We just want it to be stronger and better and more responsive. And so we did some comparison looking at, offices of arts and culture, the mayor's office of arts and culture, where are those systems of support embedded into Durham's everyday work? And there are a number of them. So we're not going to recommend where it should be, how your Office of Arts and Culture needs to be. We want those conversations to continue between the city and county and between the residents. But just to say, in Durham, here's what you have. Three to five staff. They're not dedicated staff. They're in general services, they're in parks, they're in the library system, all contributing. But who wakes up every morning and their job is to be an advocate for artists and arts and community. That's what we're advocating for in this plan. And so whether that it gets embedded into a city office or county office or a joint collaborative office. Here we tried to pull out one example of a municipal arts office. Raleigh's office, but the thing that I want to, that first column, that last note in that column, is that office was created in 1977. That's significant, because in order for Durham to catch up, it's got to start. It's got to create a starting place, a place that can provide the accountability to residents and to you for continuing this work with a decent-sized staff. And we're not suggesting that that's where you begin, but that's where you want the journey to lead you, providing artist grants, public arts commissions, municipal arts programs in your planning processes and your comprehensive plans, community arts and access to the arts where people live and work. And then to think about the importance of a coordinated arts learning partnership that crosses the county and done with intentionality. So here we are with the city three full-time staff. They also have responsibilities for other areas of city government. And the county has one full-time staff dedicated to public art. Just stop, think for yourself about what's not getting attended to with this staff. But I do want to say that a great deal has been accomplished and continues to be accomplished by the current city staff and county staff. who have dedicated their extra time, dedicated their work time to making sure that artists know the resources that are currently available. So we're not suggesting that you eliminate those staff positions that are already on the table. More is more in this case. Just a chart to remind you of where the city staff are embedded and what their current positions are. And if any of those positions have any room to grow, we would want to encourage you to think about those. On the county side, this is the flow of how your public art coordinator staff people interface with county commissioners. We've broken down these recommendations so that they're implemented over a time. And 10 years is a long time. Again, in year one, we're suggesting that let's stop for a moment and look at what we already have on the table. Let's advance those things. Let's maintain current levels of funding in year one. And if you consider year one to be a fiscal year or a 12-month year, that's something that this body will decide. So that in year two, you've already begun to talk to the public about what's shifting, what's growing, what's being advanced, and also putting our hands on those priorities. And so if in year one, yeah, she said it, we can get to a $1.5 million commitment between the city and county, however that gets divided, so that in year two, we're suggesting that funding is maintained and continues to grow, et cetera. And I just want to say again, having worked in city government and county government, Every year we hear and we agree is a difficult funding year. At some point you're going to have to think about how do you crack the door in difficult times so that you can launch a full cultural plan. Year one again would be to maintain your current levels of staffing. grow the advocacy work that's done community wide. And that comes with just simple public information. Where do residents go 365 or six days of the year to learn and talk about the arts in your city? and county, and then to continue to develop the structure of a local arts agency, which is an office of arts and culture shared by city and or county, develop job descriptions. So, you know, it's pencil on paperwork, year one. Okay. Yes, she is suggesting that there is a commitment made in year one to look at an investment of $1.5 million in year two that adds to the funding levels that you already have. And it also takes into consideration where are those other pockets of arts dollars that exists in the city. And I'll tell you one example in a small Texas city. They worked with the police department to actually hire artists to work with the police force to consider how do you address youth crime in the hours between four and six every day. The police department knows where those kids are, they know what they're not doing or what they're doing. And I should have said the other day, one of the things that they exposed us to was a warehouse full of stolen bicycles. They said, now these kids can figure out how to get a bike out of somebody's garage or backyard. How do we keep those kids engaged? They ended up doing something really interesting with the bicycles. They hired a team of artists to work with young people to create sculpture. There's really powerful lessons when kids are creating that they learn without you saying you're going to sit here and you're going to learn about how to be respectful, et cetera, by creating a way to think about that. So then continuing through years three and beyond, this gets us into doing some grant programs. that again provide access to neighbors, neighborhoods, public art programs, larger contracts, and also support for your organizations that have been around for a long time, the symphonies, the festivals, et cetera, to boost up their capacity to move from organization status to institution status. So we're not telling you specifically the timeline or we want this to be the beginning, the launch to actually be the beginning of building out the roadmap, finding those intersections with existing grant dollars. finding yourself in communities, doing more outreach and conversations, and then coordinating your grant review process that are in the area. Some of these things, one or two of these things can actually be, I suspect, would be welcomed by corporate sector who want to contribute more. They just don't know there's no pathway. There isn't a city, public, private game plan. Several cities have started, I mean there are many, I shouldn't say several, Arts and Business Council, for example, that's spelled out in your plan. A voice, a representative of an elected official or another strong community-minded agency gathers the foundation community together, the corporate community together, and talks about what they want to invest in and help to turn their desires and goals for civic participation into action plans, into coordinated processes. A couple of suggestions that we've noted here and there are a dozen more. A mini grant program. Some neighborhoods don't have anyone that has ever written a grant before. So how do you provide that leadership by giving people the opportunity to request and to be accountable for, do I have the whole 45 minutes or am I supposed to be quiet? Okay. that gives people tools so that they can access the resources that are here. Creative neighborhood programs that provide support for gaps inside of communities that artists can address and involve neighborhood residents in solving those problems. So public art partnerships, city and county ongoing responses, et cetera. Continuing that in year three, expanding the opportunities for arts organizations and for artists, turning abandoned buildings into an incubator, a place where artists can work, receive their mail, make copies, do all those back office things that an individual small organization will be handicapped from doing. And so continuing to increase grant funding, but also continuing to provide that accountability to the citizens. Documenting, evaluating what those results have been is also part of this plan. Okay, let's go. The budget keeps growing. It just keeps growing. There are federal dollars, some of them are coming back. that will allow you to solicit outside funding designated for the arts that don't compete with arts organizations. So programs that only governments, local and state governments can apply for. Your state arts commission has taken a hit in the last couple of years, but it's coming back as well. And so how do you increase the management capacity? All of those things that you see could be some of the benchmarks that are set by year three, so you know what you're doing. What does the public get out of all of this? More learning, more access, more programs for youth that are systematized so that they partner with public school systems, private school systems, home school families, et cetera. You want to think about how this programming, this cultural plan helps to stabilize small businesses. The next one is one that I just can't help pointing out a little bit here too, is you are losing, Durham is losing some of your talented artists. They're leaving town, they can't afford to live here, they don't have a studio, they can't get a studio, et cetera. That one to me is worth a big old circle. You have people that move here because Durham was cost effective and that has gone away and so I was saying to the county group the other day that I went to a gallery in Charleston last weekend and a Durham artist had an exhibition in that gallery. And I finally was able to track that person down and he said, well, I wanted to show my work but I didn't have available space. So the last one is technical assistance and capacity building. You know, just like law enforcement and public safety officers get training to do what they do, People who support the arts organizations, they need training as well. And so how do you work with other organizations like Durham Arts Council that is a supporter of the arts and has been through this body for many years? How do you work with organizations that already exist? Not repeat and build the same thing over, but partner with those organizations to provide some of the services that we're thinking about here. Am I done? Yes. So, I want to say to you, one of my first impressions of Durham when I came to this process two years ago was, oh my God, where do you start? I'm asking you to consider these are places to begin along with your advisory board, the Durham Arts Board, volunteers in the city, affinity groups that are part of the corporate neighbors that are here. So people don't just have to give you money. That doesn't have to be the starting place. Conversations have to be an invitation to support what's going on in Durham. So I think I've come to the end of my story. I'll just point out a couple of these recommendations, go back to the first. The number one thing that I would suggest is to put in place a system of staff, volunteers, and whatever investment you decide to make, put that in place so the public can see it, it's visible, and it can begin to establish dedicated professional arts management capacity. Let's just look at number three. I shouldn't skip two. Number two is saying you also need to establish, this is year one, it costs you nothing but conversation to establish what is our 10-year investment framework needing to look like. If we can't do a million dollars in year one, can we do it over a 10 year period? And all of those conversations can happen. And then go on to the next slide. I'm gonna point out two more here. Creating the structured arts and business partnership platform. So corporations that move into this area are accustomed to supporting the arts, depending on where they have come from. So they've got knowledge that can be tapped. Expand artists' workspace. There's a huge need. Artists are asking for live workspaces, but also for flexible workspaces for visual artists and performing artists to hone and perfect their work. And then cultivate a cultural leadership and cultural sector capacity. How do you work with the universities to embed in their teaching and learning arts management courses, ad hoc courses, so that your existing arts management teams that exist here can take advantage of that learning? So you're not having to recreate that. What are the last two? Year two, look, this is the most exciting thing that you could ever do, is to create a workspace where a family of artists or individual visitors can come and every day there are people making things and welcoming the visitor to Durham. And so these recommendations you all have, you've probably seen. I hope you have questions for me. But I will just tell you, Durham is at that point. You can't deny any longer that you have creative people in this city, and they want to stay here, and they want to earn a living, and they want to contribute to Durham's health. Thank you.

thank you on our team okay let me let me get my legs yes thank you good afternoon mayor pro tem manager ferguson council i'm jackie field community programs division manager with general services first i want to recognize margie reese and her team at mjr partners for the extraordinary work they've led They listened deeply to more than 3,800 residents, artists, cultural organizations, and partners, and transformed that input into an actionable roadmap that positions arts and culture as civic infrastructure for Durham's future. As we move into implementation, our priorities focus on the actions that create immediate alignment and set the foundation for long-term success. In year one, we are launching the Cultural Leadership Table to coordinate partners, aligning grant cycles and scoring systems across city and county, implementing creative workforce development trainings, expanding neighborhood-based creative projects, and launching the city's Artist in Residence pilot. These are practical achievable steps that build on programs already underway, such as training for artists and organizations, creative spaces access and public art investments and give us a coordinated structure to steward the plan as a unified city county effort. The roadmap's greatest value in the first two years is its ability to bring coordination and equity to a sector that has grown faster than its infrastructure. The plan amplifies Durham's creative workforce development, expands equitable access to cultural resources across neighborhoods, reduces fragmentation across systems, leverages partnerships to avoid new expenditures, and delivers visible early wins that build trust in the process. These value-add areas demonstrate that Durham is ready, not just to plan for cultural growth, but to implement it responsibly, equitably, and with shared public stewardship. Today, as we move from planning to implementation, I'm pleased to transition the remainder of the presentation to Rebecca Holmes who will guide us through how this plan begins taking shape through the rest of the implementation guide.

good afternoon again hi i'm rebecca holmes with general services we have already started some of this work based on what we're hearing from residents and from margie's team so one of the first pillars we heard that professional advancement is needed and so through arpa funding we created a workforce training program for 32 artists businesses and non-profits which is currently underway And we also worked with the Durham Arts Council as they have been responding to the cultural roadmap as well for developing additional creative space grants where artists have more accessible access to their workspace, to their meeting spaces. And so that was for the funding distribution. We're also working with Durham Next, We've aligned how the city is funding festivals with our own grant process and Durham Next grant process. We've worked really for greater impact. So for Inspiring Evolution, we heard from DDI, blueprint really touches on how do people experience our parking spaces? When we first arrive at Durham, what does it look like? So we've piloted a project where we're hiring artists to work directly with other departments to help solve civic issues. So my auntie, she's going to be working over the next years to enliven four of the parking garages with wayfinding and other art practices. The final pillar of the roadmap really calls on us to develop new and existing partnerships. We're working together with Hayti Heritage Center, the Durham Arts Council, Durham Next, DDI, and many other partners, which are on the next slide, to help foster this sense of collaboration. We know that this is going to take a lot of time and effort to help build an alignment with our own missions and with their own nonprofit or organization missions as well. So all of this is really critical to making sure that our staff is, we're not asking for any new staff, but it's very critical for us to realign how we're working every day to start to meet some of the needs that Margie's team is calling for. We will rely on that partnership with our Durham Cultural Advisory Board, our Public Art Committee, the Cultural Roadmap Planning Group, and other partners to help build out what is the first six months, the first year look like. And I'm gonna turn it now over to our co-chair, former Mayor Steve Schull, to share final thoughts.

Thank you, Rebecca. I think I'm out of time already, though. It's great to be in this room. I love this room. I was in this room every two weeks for 10 years, and it's fun to hear all the questions that you all asked in the presentations today. It's been great. Mayor Pro Tem Caballero, council members, Manager Ferguson, and friends. In 2019, when I was still working in this room, we had artists come to us every single work session, lots of them. One of them was Laura Ritchie, who started off this presentation. They would come every work session and talk to us about the funding that artists and arts organizations needed and the kind of systemic support that was important to them. And we were very interested in that as a council and thinking about how to budget it, and then we had a COVID pandemic. So we did have then ARPA funds to support artists and arts organizations and we all know the importance of that. And that work that are the work of artists and arts organizations continues to be so incredibly important. I live with a working poet. And so the arts are on our minds all the time in our house every day. And I bet you the same is true of you all with your children with yourselves. The mayor, of course, is a is a musician and a music teacher. And so this process just to try to speak to that, and during it we heard from artists again, the increasing community demand for support, the fragmentation that they've experienced of the systems that would support them, limited spaces, a lack of sustained infrastructure, and we have really heard a strong call from the community for this plan. We need to give Durham artists, residents, and cultural workers with something we've never had before, a strategy for supporting the work of artists as civic infrastructure. We need leadership and partnership to support our amazing creative community. And without this infrastructure and support, we limit our impact and we limit Durham's future. A healthy cultural ecosystem creates impacts on the economy, jobs, retaining talent, improves the quality of life, celebrates Durham as a cultural destination, has strong educational impacts, and really is important for health and belonging of our residents. This actionable roadmap has clear roles, sequencing, and investment strategies to reflect Durham's values. The roadmap positions arts and culture as a strategic driver of Durham's future and a driver of our identity as a community. When I look at this plan, I see that it has really very modest financial requests associated with it. won't do everything we need to support arts and culture in durham and we certainly need the private sector to be pitching in in a big way as well but it's an essential start to this continuing and very important work and i urge you all to support it so thank you very much for having us here today and we're looking forward to any questions and comments you may have

Thank you, Mayor Schewel. I'm now gonna open it up for questions from colleagues or comments. Council Member Baker, go ahead and kick us off.

Sure, I don't have any questions. I wanna say thank you so much to, I know this has been a long process, a long time coming. A lot of work has been put in. I wanna say thank you to the champions, the people who have spearheaded all of this and brought it through and also all of the participants, folks who participated in the engagement process. There are a few things that stood out to me and a few things that I wanna lift up in my comments. I think one of the themes is A plan that makes art greater than the sum of its parts and investments into art greater than the sum of its parts and fosters more art than what we invest directly in from the top down. It stimulates more organic, bottom up kind of art throughout our entire community. I think that's vital. There was something that was said earlier that was music to my ears, which was bureaucratic system. Building art into everything and systematizing it, I think, is a vital way to go. How many cities are there that you can think of where you go? You know that you're going to go to the city, walk around for a couple hours, and art, music is inescapable, unavoidable. uh... i want them to be a place where people say i'm going to durham in and you know that there whether they're seeking out or not going to bump into every aspect, every kind of art. It is infused in every geographic part of our city, in our neighborhoods, in our commercial cores, in old parts of our city, in new parts of our city. How do we systematize it so that art and culture becomes unavoidable and inescapable? The other thing that stood out was that this is not a plan for the elite, and I think that's really important as well. How can we make sure that art is a right and not just a luxury, that it is not just something for the wealthy, but that everyone is able to access art, both as a creator and as someone who gets to enjoy it. I think that the economic justifications for art that were presented are always important. Any plan that I've ever seen about art always justifies art through economics and the financials. But as was pointed out during the presentation as well, I mean, I mean, this art feeds the soul and makes us all healthier, better people. I also think that it's a way of fighting back against the fascist turn in our country, and frankly, AI. I mean, we've talked about data centers up here, fighting back against AI slop and whatever is to come down the pipeline in regards to AI. I do want to say that I think a vast majority of new development and infrastructure in our city and quite frankly everywhere is completely and utterly soulless. How can we change that? How can we make sure that it is infused and built into everything that is built in the future? There are cities where you find leaf imprints in sidewalks, in new sidewalks, art on utility boxes. Just make sure that it is everywhere, that it's built into the system so that whenever anything new gets built, there is an aspect of art in there. And I think that that's something that we really have a lot of opportunity to ensure in our roles on the city council because development and infrastructure is such a vital part of our job. Where can we incorporate this into development proffers and contracting with local artists through new development and rezoning cases, but also require them in certain places? I've worked in cities that worked to foster arts districts building off of existing artist spaces and existing art and art walks so that when there was new development, I worked on a development review case once in Northern Virginia where the developer had to provide affordable art space. Can I just get one more minute? Affordable.

You can get a little bit.

30 more seconds. Thank you. All right. Funding is a struggle, so I think that we need to concentrate on revenue so that we can fund great things like this and all of the other priorities that we have. The last thing I'll say is the best plans are the ones that tee up implementation, that can hit the ground running, and so I was pleased to hear about the work that is already getting kicked off and I think this is an actionable plan. It's visionary and actionable, and I think those are two really important parts of a really good plan. So again, thank you to all who championed this work.

Thank you. Anyone else? Do you want to go around? Okay. So we'll just go around and I'll make final comments. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much. Ms. Ritchie, Ms. Reese, Ms. Fields, Ms. Holmes, Mayor Schewel, and all of DCAB and everyone who participated in this process. The plan definitely is visionary and ambitious in its breadth and depth. Everything from the robust 10-point plan all the way down to specific recommendations for salaries and job descriptions, which I also love that bureaucratic element to it that really makes it actionable. So I just want to congratulate everybody who has been a part of this process. Uh, and yes, miss Reese, you can and should still say diversity and equity and it's so critical in this and all the work that we do. This plan makes clear what we already know that arts and culture woven through everything we do and should be including all the big things before us right now from economic development to our affordable housing plan. our new land development code, youth engagement in violence reduction, sustainability, and much more. So I think you said it well with calling it civic infrastructure. So it should be part of everything. I especially want to call out that I love the support for local artists and the neighborhood grants, the DIY projects, the ways that we help make art more engaging, more democratic, see it flourish where it doesn't always require the involvement and sign off of local government because sometimes that bureaucratic element can slow things down and can limit creativity. And so I love how that can help us to allow art and artistic expression to flourish and to engage everyone as both creators and participants and people who can enjoy this expression in our community. The roadmap is just one step, so I just want to encourage that sustained advocacy. So everyone who cares deeply about this, please continue to show up. Please continue to write and advocate as we enter into the budget process. That's going to be crucial. Just as important as the practical connections to our plans and to job creation and economic impact is simply the fact at the end of the day that art inspires us and tells us something about who we are, who we were, who we are now, who we want to be in the future. And so that inspiration is critical. There's an author James Hillman who called public art the soul of a city. And I see it as part of what shapes our sense of place, identity, and community. And I believe Durham ultimately is a city of soul, and arts and culture are a crucial piece of that. So thanks for all the work going into this. Look forward to seeing the steps going forward. And this roadmap is going to be a huge help in that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Burse.

All right, good afternoon. So I'll be brief in my remarks. I didn't write a script because I'm genuinely excited about this project. I just think about last year when we were campaigning, and one of my favorite forms was the Arts and Councils Forum. Because I did not think about how much art had impacted my life and showed up in so many different ways. And so when you start to think about like, oh, that's actually art? Like, okay, like just some of the things. I'm very creative and expressive in my own right. So I'm always excited to hear about more investments in that because I think about the community impact and giving people a safe space to be creative and also I'm tired of hearing the same music over and over, so we have kids and learn how to play actual instruments. We might get some new music out here. But no, it's a lot of community benefit for this, so thank you all for your hard work. Thank you for navigating this, and I look forward to implementation and making sure that we are doing our best job possible. I know it's going to be some, you know, we don't have a money tree we can go shake. I wish we did, but I know we're going to be committed to ensuring that we execute as best we possibly can and look forward to all the benefits it's going to have in our community moving forward. So thank you all for your hard work and dedication.

Thank you, Council Member Burst. Council Member Burst.

Thank you, Mayor Pertem. Yeah, this is a big deal. And I've also been hearing about this since I ran for office three years ago, including from Mayor Shule in the very beginning. So it's good to see this proposal really come to fruition finally with the roadmap. So I love the vision, the high-level vision and the purpose. I understand this is really the people's plan, right? This is for all of Durhamites. Not just cultural institutions, not just some folks, but for the whole city. I really appreciate that. So I want to thank all the consultants, the staff, the volunteers, former mayors, everyone who's been involved. This is a big lift. I do think, and I really, you know, I had a lot of questions about the presentation until actually, Ms. Fields, when you got to the sort of slide about implementation, because I think that's where the devil's in the details here, right? We've got, and I think you said this, madam, in your presentation, a lot of different, we've got partners, we've got resources, but not always a lot of communication. and coordination. So I appreciate the implementation slides. It really makes a lot of sense. I had questions about, like, with the recommendations, like, who is actually responsible? But it sounds like, Ms. Field, you and your team at General Services and all your staff are the ones who are the point persons on this, right? But I also appreciate, given that we do have other institutions, like we've got Durham Next, right? Thanks for being here, Kara. We've got DDI. We've got other organizations that have plans that relate to culture in Durham. So I really like the idea of having this cultural leadership table, because as I understand it, the cultural advisory board is really an advisory board for the mayor and for the council, right? It's not really for the city. So I think having this larger leadership table that actually advises all of us or is accountable to all the residents is actually a really good idea. So I appreciate that. I also appreciate that, you know, the grant programs that a lot of the Arts Council, again, Durham Next, a lot of different grant programs. I appreciate the conversation and the idea about making sure we kind of bring those together and collaborate across all those different sources of funds so we're getting maximum leverage and sort of impact of those. So I really appreciate that. I just have a couple questions. One actually is about this implementation. On the one slide about the partner capacity snapshot, which is really helpful, I didn't see the Carolina Theater on there. I am the city's representative on the Carolina Theater board, so I'm kind of curious. I just want to recommend that they're added to this. I don't know why they're not there, but I would appreciate if they would be added to that list of partners as a critical player and a critical institution in Durham. I did have one question for Ms. Rousseau, actually. So of that $84 million in spending, I guess, annually for culture or by patrons, like, there was a reference to how much of that comes from outside Durham. Do you have the details on that?

I don't have it in my hip pocket, but it exists.

Ms. Rousseau, your mic might not be on.

Thank you for the question and the opportunity to clarify. The statistic that I'm aware of in terms of referencing visitors to Durham who cite cultural reasons for their visit is that 29% of visitors who come to Durham say that they engage in cultural activities. So that's the statistic off at the top of my head, but I know I don't have an exact number for the amount of spending that would be designated, but we could follow up more on that.

That's a rough sort of like kind of rough benchmarks. There's maybe like maybe a third or so. Exactly. Yeah. That's very helpful. Thank you. Yeah, exciting. I know that we've got obviously a lot of plans that we're developing. And during we talked about this at the night, our violence reduction plan, our homeless framework, affordable housing, economic development are all plans. This is a key part of that. And I think it's going to be a challenge on the council just to sort of as we face those demands and sort of you know, are doing budgets. Mr. Manager, I think left to like balance all this stuff. But I think the recommendations here are wise and sound that I appreciate lifting up culture and arts as a key part of our framework and our, um, our part of our, as you said, I think of our civic infrastructure in Durham. So it's exciting stuff. Look forward to working with all of you. And again, thanks for your work on this plan. This is exciting stuff.

Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Cook.

I just want to echo what a lot of folks up here said, the sheer gratitude for the just absolute number of hours and energy and passion that everyone has brought to this plan. I think it's really apparent in how it's presented and what we're seeing in front of us now. A big thank you to everyone, both folks that have led this, but also everyone who's engaged with this process over the past couple of years. And also, I know leading up to that as well, it didn't just start two years ago. There's been conversations happening from before that time. i think that everyone has kind of stated a lot of things that i'm excited about i'm not going to reiterate those one thing that i am personally really excited about is the incubator space i think that's so awesome i know ddi has done a little bit of that for small businesses in downtown and it's been a wild success so i'm excited to see that in this plan sharing some concerns i think with my colleagues about sort of who is responsible for what. And I think we're having a lot of conversations about that. We've recently gotten a homelessness strategy plan. We are at a violence reduction summit that was for adults. We've got potentially one coming out for youth. We've got an economic development plan forthcoming. We've got an affordable housing plan forthcoming. And these are all things that touch every resident of Durham. I also think they're all things that are important to have intersection with one another, and that would include this plan as well. I feel like all of these things are so interconnected, And yet it seems to me that a lot of things end up falling in the lap of some particular government or the other, that there's still continues to be silos, that we see sort of contributions classified in ways that I think make funding sort of difficult and problematic. So I just want to put on the radar that this is sort of one more plan that I think is an amazing one and also one that we're going to need to have just continued relationship building and open communication with our partners across Durham and that includes the other governments that includes the county commissioners it also includes our private partners and foundations in the area and businesses and so I want to make sure that we are we're having serious conversations about the limitations that we're facing up here we can't just keep sort of throwing money hoping that other folks will come to the table and then seeing these plans sort of fall flat because others are not joining in. So that's sort of the thing that is weighing the most heavily on my mind. I just don't want to continue to see stuff not succeeding because We can't get other folks to the table. So a big ask and I think a lot of work for us to do up here and also for community for y'all to do as well. But otherwise, I think this plan is beautiful. It's well presented. I feel that it is really, it is actionable and that makes me so excited. And I really appreciate all the work that's been done so far. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation. As somebody who's been involved from the beginning of this work and many years ago now, it seems like, and definitely remember the artists coming. I think, if I'm not mistaken, in our budget, our 2020-2021 budget pre-pandemic, we had an arts grant program, not a ton of money, but a little bit of money funded in that budget that we had to then put on hold because of the pandemic. So this is a long time coming. Thank you to all the residents. Thank you to the DCAB members. I know you all have worked diligently on this, and I look forward to our further conversations. I will just let colleagues know that as a liaison, expect budget requests coming from me because that is my job as their liaison, and so that will be coming in spring of 27, and I'm sure that we will have lots of prioritization and conversations to come. Again, I appreciate all of the earnest effort, and it's not going to be an easy lift. I do have one question for the consultant. Thank you. In earlier conversations, a lot of, there were a lot of conversations around a Latino cultural center. And so I'm trying to find it embedded in the report and I just can't flag it. And so it was just curious where that kind of was embedded.

Our recommendation, thank you for the question. Our recommendation is to consider, again, bringing some of our communities together to actually develop a feasibility plan for such. I didn't want to recommend it hardcore here because we wouldn't be able to answer questions about numbers, location, everything from programming, et cetera. So I'm recommending that a really strong focus on just zeroing in on that work, how that community is growing, et cetera, and develop a forward-thinking strategy and plan specifically for that. I led that process back in Dallas when we literally went to Mexico to choose an architect. So all of those pieces have to be budgeted for, planned for, and identified, and that's where I think we need to land with this plan.

Thank you. And then as we stand up a table of sorts, thank you so much. That was my only question. Thank you. As we stand up a table of sorts, I hope that we make sure to include folks from Cultural Affairs Board and also Durham Next. I do also want to just thank staff and Durham Next folks for really aligning that festival process. That's something that we've heard a lot of quite frankly, complaints about for many years. And so I know that this cycle seems like it was much smoother, very well aligned. When money's going out the door, all of those really hard pieces for festivals, I know that this was our first kind of pass at it. And I'm sure there's hiccups and learnings that need to happen. But I just wanted to say I'm deeply appreciative of that. And I'm sure so are the festival creators themselves. Sure. Go ahead, council member.

Yeah, just one other question for the consultant staff. So I'm going back to the comparison structures, the comparison to other cities. And so you referenced that Durham has not dedicated staff. I thought the staff in Rebecca Holmes leading, I thought their staff is dedicated to COVID.

I think maybe you misunderstood. There is dedicated staff. Okay. Yeah.

It says staff not dedicated.

They're not. The dedication is an amendment to their job. So they have other responsibilities in their jobs. But if we were to point out the dedicated staff, these are the

I want to make sure we clarify that. Yeah.

So we have three full-time staff on the cultural and public art program. One of that staff member actually works on grants for the whole department. Two of the other staff members that were noted of the five are funded through lab salary. So they're not technically dedicated full F-time, you know, FTEs. So I hope that provides.

No, I appreciate the clarification, but we have dedicated staff that's good enough. Yes. And if I can make one final comment, I really appreciate all the pictures from the from the from Wheels, the Derek Holter art that she developed there that is so beautiful there. That's really kind of just made that facility such a great place in Durham. So thanks for including that art.

Thank you. No, you're fine. I just I'm just too excited.

Sorry.

It's it's fine. We're just I wanted to get clarity from staff that this is fantastic. I know we have to pass a resolution on September 17th, and is this going to be GBA or is this going to be on consent? Okay, so colleagues, that is the direction we do need to provide staff today is if we would like it on GBA or if we would like it on consent. Consent, okay. This is actually a, well, let me ask, Ms. Ritchie, do you know if any DCAB members are planning on coming on the 17th? Okay, so I would actually say we should probably put it on GBA if we do have speakers planned because then we're going to have to pull it anyway. So, which is fine, I just would rather know. Okay, so we will put it on GBA because we are anticipating some public speakers on the item. And I feel like I had one last question but, actually this was for Councilmember Baker. At some point if staff could provide follow up information because the public art committee did spend a lot of time around proffers for development and so I would like that. information provided to council. I don't want that that work, because I know that that was a lot of work that DCAB did, and there was a dedicated committee, and I just don't want folks not to know, you know, what that process is. Thank you. That's all. Thank you all so much for being here with us today. Exciting day. Colleagues, do we want to take like a five-minute bio break? Yeah? Okay, let's take a five-minute break. Is that okay, Ms. Walls? And then we'll get our last presentation.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council. Carmisha Wallace, Assistant City Manager. And I am joined here today. I hate seeing myself on TV. I'm joined here today by my colleague, Erin Miles, from the City Attorney's Office, as well as some friends and partners with the Ferguson Group. So let me advance to the next slide, because I have been. Where's my slide, Vivian? Okay, you told me don't touch it. So while Vivian pulls that up, I do want to make sure that I acknowledge a new directive that our city manager made reference to this morning, and that is in reference to this slide. Why are we making this presentation? This is just an update. We want to update the city council and update the public on the work that we've been doing with our federal lobbyists, and quite frankly, the work that our federal lobbyists have been doing on our behalf. And so we've been in a, thank you so much, This council is not being asked to take any action on anything today. So there's no motion to ask. The motion here is just to receive this presentation. And so I won't prolong this, but just want to let you know that we have had some conversations with city staff about our federal priorities. Last year, we worked with the city council's legislative committee, along with other city staff, to identify those priorities. Our team from the Ferguson group will walk us through the status of those priorities. And so we'll circle back on where things stand right now. But I'll turn it over to Jennifer.

Thank you. Yep. Thank you.

Jennifer Emo. Yes. Thank you. And Charmaine Anderson. All right.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I don't want to mess it up either. Hey, there we go. Mayor Pro Tem and members of the City Council, Beau, great to see everybody today. My name is Jennifer Emo. I'm the managing partner of advocacy at the Ferguson Group. I'll give you a quick overview of the Ferguson Group in just a minute, but just wanted to give you a little bit of background, because some of us haven't met. I am a native North Carolinian. I grew up in Charlotte. I went to UNC Chapel Hill for undergrad and Wake Forest for law school. I have been at TFG for nearly 25 years, and it is truly my pleasure and honor to represent the city of Durham in Washington, DC. work with a number of other communities in North Carolina representing their interests in DC. So I'm a good North Carolina girl up there lobbying on behalf of municipalities in Washington. So a little bit about the Ferguson Group. We have been representing local governments in Washington DC for nearly 45 years. We are a federal lobbying and grants firm focusing on legislative, regulatory, and funding issues on behalf of local governments. Since fiscal year 2022, which is when the process of earmarking came back, there was a 10-year moratorium, but since that time, Our clients have secured over $355 million in earmarked funding, and we have a very significant grants practice. And since 2015, our clients have secured over $6.5 billion in competitive grants and loans and other type of funding. So that is a little background on the Ferguson Group. I just introduced myself. Now I'd like to introduce my friend and colleague, Charmaine. I'll let her introduce herself, actually.

Thanks, Jen. Charmaine Anderson. I also am one of the partners at the firm. I'll say I don't necessarily, I'm not born and raised in North Carolina, but I do, I've been working with Jennifer for quite some time in the state, and also I'm a native Washingtonian. and been with the firm now almost 34 years, believe it or not. So been working, again, specifically with local governments around the country and very happy to be able to work with you all as well in Washington.

Great. And just to round out the rest of our team, Zach Israel and Jeff Burke also work with Charmaine and I as well as Karmisha and Aaron. We meet on a biweekly basis and we're all sort of monitoring certain issues of import to the city of Durham. We all four didn't need to travel down but send our regards from the entire team. I will say that with this team you have significant expertise in legislative, regulatory, appropriations, authorizations, all of that work. That is what we all do on behalf of our local government clients. Some have a more specific focus than others. And so this is a very well-rounded team representing the interests of Durham in DC.

All right, I'm gonna pass it to Charmaine. Sure, so I'm gonna kind of lead off here about kind of what's happening in Washington and we'll kind of go into more specifics about the city of Durham. And I think kind of the most pivotal moment and most important significant development here in Washington is the passage of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. Certainly this particular act passed in this past summer does provide for, it's really focused on supply of home housing and more importantly helping folks to become homeowners. and some of the key provisions. And I will, let me just add to that too. The goal of the piece of legislation is to add more flexibilities and utilization of your current housing dollars. And then also again, like I said, to assist potential home buyers in that vein. So some of the key provisions that are relevant to the city of Durham really speaks to about how your CDBG dollars can be utilized for home, construction, up to 20 percent. Then there's the Home Investment Partnership Program. That particular program now has been kind of reinvigorated, where it allows more flexibility, some of which where you'll be able to use a higher amount of those dollars for homebuyer assistance, and then also increases the maximum home-assisted purchase price based upon the area medium purchase price secondly we've kind of sent some information out about this public database the statute starts again initially we have put out that you know there was a deadline for an october one deadline for a public database to be set up by the community we have you know since understood it to be where that is just the effective date in statute But lo and behold, you will have up until you apply for and have a full grant agreement for your fiscal 27 CDBD grant dollars to have that public database in place. And we can speak more specifically about that. Then also as far as just streamlining the federal environmental review process for the Build Now production incentives, and that basically entice how federal money incentives are directly tied to local home building production or performance, I should say. So basically, in the 30,000-foot view, the more homes you build, the more incentivized you get by way of your CDBG dollars. So that's kind of where that piece comes in. Ultimately, this does not kind of circumvent and or override any of Durham's land use authority and or the North Carolina State Building Codes. And then lastly, we have prepared a very detailed analysis about kind of how this law will impact the city and kind of what you can get out of it. And I want to say that we circulated that and certainly we can provide additional copies if need be.

So will you circulate that with the council? I don't think I've seen that.

I understand that it has not been circulated, but we will be sure to get that circulated.

Please do, yeah. And if you could also confirm, so the build now production incentives are not only for cities that in the future increase supply, but also is for cities that have already been increasing supply. Is that not correct?

I don't know the correct answer to that as far as if it's a look back, but we can get confirmation on that exactly.

And I don't know whether the sort of like how the feds will measure that, but it would be good to know. I'm sure that they're working through the details of sort of like rulemaking.

And just to kind of push a pin on that, yes, sir. One of the key things is this particular law, as you know, it is just the beginning. And so it's now sitting at HUD for them to determine just they're going to go through a rulemaking process by which we're going to make sure that the city is engaged in. And then also there will be the implementation phase. And then also, there's this element where there are some new programs that have been authorized, and Congress has to fund them. So there's a lot of elements to this law that it's still kind of coming down the pike, as one would say, or in the process. So again, the rulemaking process will be very pivotal for the city to participate in. And we'll be sure, as we will be monitoring that, and to make sure that you all weigh in for what's best for the city of Durham. And this kind of goes into just kind of what this new law means for Durham. And knowing that you all currently receive, as far as entitlement, close to $3 million in HUD-assisted funding, those dollars now will have a lot more flexibility to them, again, from a home building standpoint. And as I said, there's elements also within that for assistance for future home buyers. Additionally, you know, we're talking about just, again, the near-term value, as one would say, it's not necessarily, I would say the most immediate opportunity for the City of Durham is more operational whereby, again, you now have flexible housing. FUD funding that's coming or you'll be able to utilize your FUD funding in a more flexible way. Certainly, they're trying to release or, you know, loosen up regulatory and regulations from that matter as far as kind of what the guidelines are and how you utilize those dollars. And certainly, again, as I talked about those future production incentives by way of additional CDBD dollars. And then as far as kind of again what I just spoke to earlier about kind of what our next steps are for you all is to really kind of again, we're going to be looking at kind of guidance that comes out of HUD as far as rulemaking, making sure you participate in that. Again, we certainly recommend that you all start that public land inventory process now. And certainly, again, there's information on, again, ways to go about that. You can certainly use some of your CDBG dollars to also execute that. Again, there's more flexibility by way of your CDBG at home dollars, and we recommend, again, kind of adding that and incorporating that into the next annual action plan developing a dashboard really kind of seeing kind of where might you be able to do more housing production and then again looking at really what's already ready to you know get going and put shovel to the ground and get that construction started. And we will certainly be there to guide and assist in any way possible. Again, we always say don't sit there and wander kind of the what ifs or can I just please reach out because we kind of have those relationships with the agencies and kind of can get the answers for you. And if we have to get to that next level where we lean in on your congressional delegation to help facilitate those conversations, we will. And like I said, in the last bullet point, again, we'll be monitoring all of this to make sure that you are fully informed on kind of what's happening and what to do next. And this is just kind of an overview, again, of just kind of some key points of other things that we've been working on. It's certainly one thing about getting dollars that come directly to the city by way of a congressional earmark or a discretionary grant. But one of the things we also work diligently to do is to protect the funding that so much helps the city of Durham. Not only funding, but also just, you know, authorizations. And some of that, just this example, is about HUD funding. We are not only looking at just individual programs, but just the totality of HUD funding. But these are some of the individual programs that we certainly look to, you know, make sure that they stay intact. They make sure that they stay funded to a level that is efficiently able to do what you all need to do here locally. So we've looked at, you know, doing that not only in this past year's appropriations process, but we're in this current fiscal year process that we're currently in, in fiscal year 27. doing the exact same thing. So this runs the gamut between HUD funding, transportation funding, justice funding, you name it, because all, you know, certainly we want to look at the programs themselves because if the programs don't exist, then there's not opportunities for you to participate in those programs and get those dollars locally. Secondly is the OMB guidance for federal financial assistance. Certainly we have, you know, alerted the city about this issue, this proposed rulemaking that's coming out of OMB that would change the framework of grant funding or grant awards I should say where it's kind of going into not only, you know, If you're applying for a grant and are awarded a grant, that grant award has to align with the administration's policy priorities. And additionally, it would allow for more political appointees to be able to have more say in which direction funds go. And then lastly, it would also allow for the termination and or suspension of a grant award that's already been awarded. So, we've worked with the city to, you know, provide a comment letter during the open process for comments, public comments. And as you are aware, I know we've sent correspondence out in some of our legislative updates whereby the recent continuing resolution that funds the government until December 11th of this year includes a suspension of sorts of this rulemaking, so it is on hold. I will also say, just by way of the public comments, they received almost half a million, if not more, public comments. And based on what's been reported, 95 percent of those comments were in the negative. So, and certainly there are a lot of members, bipartisan memberships, where they too have voiced their concerns about this particular rule, rulemaking. So, we'll continue to keep you abreast on how this plays out. Ultimately, I think, you know, It probably won't pass the muster test and become finalized, but again, it's a wait-and-see game concerning that fact that it's been included in the continuing resolution that Congress has passed to fund the federal government. So, we'll wait, most likely, until after the midterms to learn more if there's further discussions about it prior to that December 11th timeline. The next bullet point there about the surface transportation reauthorization. The city has submitted priorities to the congresswoman about kind of where you sit by way of, you know, certain programs that are going to be authorized or potentially authorized, reauthorized I should say, through this transportation reauthorization which includes like bridge funding and roadway funding and the like. And also to make sure that there are advanced appropriations for federal grants. under the transportation umbrella. The IIJA, which was passed five years ago, included advanced appropriations, so thereby the funding was kind of already there. So when you applied for grants, there wasn't really this hiccup. Well now, since the IIJA expiration date is September 30, we needed something to at least kind of get us past that date, knowing that Congress wasn't going to deal with this transportation bill by then. The surface transportation reauthorization is included as well as extending it until December 11th as well. And we have also, you know, made those requests and made sure that, you know, your congressional delegation understands that you too are supportive of advance appropriations for surface transportation dollars. And then last but not least, we certainly continue to be engaged about the taxes and muni bonds. making sure the delegation is there to understand that you want those protected. I feel like every year we go through these cycles where we're kind of fighting that. But again, ultimately, again, your delegation knows certainly where you sit in that, as well as others. We're working certainly aligned with the U.S. Conference of Mayors and other, you know, local government-centric type organizations that are all advocating together in that space. So just wanted to, again, these are just some highlights. Certainly there's more. But just in the interest of time, these are some ones that we wanted to make sure we pulled out. And I apologize, I did miss the broadband development or deployment piece. Certainly, we've also brought concerns to the delegation because this particular piece of legislation looks to possibly preempt local control. So, we want to make sure that we too are in front of that as well.

There you go.

Awesome. Thank you.

All right. So Charmaine talked about some sort of more general work that we've done on the city's behalf.

We have a question real quickly. Oh, sure. Just on that last slide, Ms. Anderson, or either one. So on this issue of transportation funding, so I know that the continuing resolution, it was that plus the Service Transportation Authorization Extension Act, whatever they called it. And so as I understand that cut funding for public transit, like 20% and funding for rail, like by 80%. So I'm sure you share those concerns with our representative, just any, any, is there any sort of like,

So there was additional funds on top of what were authorized funds. And that's where that dollar amount that you're coming from. So if you look at like a clean authorization, those funding levels stayed the same. but they didn't have those additional appropriated dollars does that make sense so the fun is so there's the difference between the authorization level and then the appropriated level so we're talking about advanced appropriations you can have an authorization it's like a permission slip to ask for you know a certain amount of money but you have to appropriate that money um and usually that's done through the annual appropriations process but iija gave advanced appropriations and then over and above the authorized amount so that's the difference there so it didn't cut funding but it is less funding does that make sense i know it's a little bit not really okay okay um i mean i think that the the well sorry it went to base budget basically yeah right yeah

So in the base budget, it wasn't cut. Correct.

That's correct.

So what's actually like appropriated is still the same?

For now, yes. Yes, that's correct.

Authorized is a different story.

Authorized is the same. Appropriated is different.

So there's less funding for rail and public transit then?

I don't know the exact numbers. I mean, I know that that's been a discussion point with the advanced appropriations. I don't know what the total number is. But the big issue with Charmaine, as she said, is we have talked with and Congresswoman Foushee is on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that has jurisdiction over this bill. And so, yes, we have certainly communicated to her the need for advanced appropriations to make sure that programs like that one are not cut.

So does that mean for our MPO, do we have less money for public transit and rail, or is it the same?

So the authorized amount is the same.

But appropriated is not the same.

Correct.

So that's a problem, yeah.

And that's why we need additional appropriated dollars for those programs. Okay. So let's talk about really positive things. I get the good slides. OK, so as I mentioned, we work very closely with Congresswoman Foushee's office. Just for your information, between Congresswoman Foushee and Senator Tillis, both participate in the appropriations process. Senator Budd does not participate in the appropriations process, meaning he does not request earmarks. Senator Tillis does request earmarks. He has not requested them for the city of Durham, yet we've been very successful. So in fiscal year 2026, this bill has been passed into law. We worked with city staff to advance two projects, the Strategic Operations Center for the Durham Police Department, as well as the Southside Revitalization Phases 2 and I'm sorry, three and four. So we secured just over $3 million in FY26 appropriations. We are working with staff to make sure they have the support needed to help draw down those funds from both DOJ and HUD. And then we are currently in the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process. We worked with staff again to we submitted three project requests and Two of them have been advanced. One is a fleet modernization project. We requested just over $2.5 million. We do have $500,000 pending in the House Transportation HUD Appropriations Bill. My understanding is that will fund one bus. They wanted, I believe, four. But, you know, we'll... We're in the minority, and they're going to cut our request, so that's kind of expected. So we were glad to get the project funded at some level. Then Durham Police Department, the forensic services enhancements, basically technology and equipment, we requested $1.5 million and have just over – um 750 000 pending in the commerce justice science appropriations bill again that was ADVANCED BY CONGRESSWOMAN FUSHIE. WE DID SUBMIT ANOTHER HOUSING-RELATED PROJECT TO CONGRESSWOMAN FUSHIE, AND SHE DID NOT ADVANCE THAT PROJECT. I THINK BASED ON CONVERSATIONS WITH STAFF, FELT LIKE IT WAS A LITTLE BIT WE NEEDED TO DO SOME MORE PLANNING AROUND THIS TYPE OF PROJECT, AND SHE JUST WASN'T COMFORTABLE MOVING IT FORWARD QUITE YET. So we have over 1.2 million pending in fiscal year 2027 appropriations. And so the fiscal year 2027 appropriations, likely those will be finalized. Typically, they're right before the holidays. They've all rolled up into kind of one omnibus spending bill. But if you're in the House or Senate bill, it's more likely than not you're going to be included in the final version of the bill. There are appropriations opportunities and there are also appropriations, I mean, opportunities to work through the authorization space. There is, so the transportation authorization bill comes every five years. There is a water, wastewater authorization bill called the Water Resources Development Act that is, is run every two years. And this basically allows you to ask for funding for larger environmental infrastructure projects, which would include water and wastewater infrastructure. We submitted a $20 million EI request to Congresswoman Foushee, and that is included in the House WERDA bill. um which is um it's that's uh that's wonderful what it does though is if if passed into law that's going to give us the opportunity to ask for these funds in future appropriations processes so it's really just again our permission slip to ask for funding in the future for this particular project and this would be working with the um the Corps of Engineers. Currently, how these projects work is if you get a project funded, like an EI project, the Corps is responsible for project management and making sure the project gets done, not the local government. What has happened is there is a backlog of projects that the Corps needs to construct or work on. And there are local entities that want to go ahead and do the project and then get reimbursed by the Corps. We actually have language included in the House and Senate where to build that allows for a locality to do the work and then get reimbursed by the Corps, which is going to obviously allow for projects to advance more quickly and therefore, frankly, be less expensive. So I think significant project savings there. So we're excited about that. We worked with folks in the Transportation Department to secure support for a planning grant under the DOT Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program. And now you got the planning grant, created the action plan. Now you can apply for an implementation grant. So there is currently pending a $6.4 million implementation grant. We've secured letters of support from the delegation that have been sent directly to DOT to supplement this particular grant application. Okay. So looking ahead, what's next? So we are not finished with the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process. So we're going to continue our advocacy there and make sure that these projects get to the finish line. Same with WERDA. So we want to ensure that we have that $20 million EI authorization included in the final version of the bill. as charmaine mentioned we are monitoring the hud's rulemaking and we'll be working with your delegation to support funding for some of these new programs that were created in the bill um and so and then we'll continue our um engagement in the surface transportation reauthorization We want to make sure to advance and protect all of Durham's priorities. And Councilman, I'm going to get you clarification on the transit numbers just to make sure that I'm not just I wanna make sure that I'm saying it correctly and it's understood by you. So we'll certainly get that follow up to you. And then I'm gonna let Charmaine finish up.

Sure, sure, sure. Again, just wanted to go back into just talking about how we'll continue to monitor particularly just the rulemaking process coming out of HUD in the next few months. And certainly, as I said too, we don't necessarily always just focus on, you know, solely individual projects per se, but certainly where those project dollars come from. So again, just the big macro lens of the programs themselves. certainly there to help protect again against the elimination thereof of tax-exempt municipal bonds and then continue to help you all pursue those grant opportunities and again I always like to remind our communities that you know we're here to not also help you seek them and help you align your projects with them but just you just remember to tell your folks you know we're here also to help bring the delegation in so they understand what is being submitted and presented and the types of projects that are going on in the community so they can weigh in and provide their level of support. And certainly there's other aspects up to our grant program where we can also help in the post award space. And then lastly but not least, as we look ahead, just working to finalize the federal priorities for the next Congress. And the sooner we can get going on that, the better. So we can then start engaging the delegation, engaging the agencies on what is to come. So thereby, when policies or legislation is being introduced in the new Congress, programs and opportunities are presented, we can be sure that we can align those with your priorities.

I'll just stop. Finally, we've met with many staff over the last few weeks to sort of get an update on where you are on project priorities and other program priorities. So we, from those conversations, have developed a draft federal agenda that we're going to sort of work through the process. But I just want to say, you know, an extraordinary thanks to all of your staff. They've been really tremendous. And Karmesha and Aaron have been amazing, all of your department heads in working with them. It's a really impressive group of people. So we appreciate the opportunity to do this work with you all.

Thank you. Before I open it up for questions really quickly, when is, you know, as with our state lobbyists, we have opportunities as a first starting with legislative committee, drafting our priorities as a council, ensuring that all council members are aware of the timelines, that they have items that they want to bring forward. So I just want to hear what that process is from Ms. Wallace first, and then I'll open it up. Thanks, colleagues, for that.

So you actually laid out the process, and so what we need to do is identify the dates for convening the legislative committee. So as you mentioned, during the last work session, you heard from our state lobbyists. I've been in conversation with them about the next step in developing that state legislative agenda. We've started conversations with the federal lobbyists as well as with city staff. So it's just a matter of convening the legislative committee sooner so that we can go ahead and get that process started, which will then, of course, bring information

a proposed legislative federal and state legislative agendas to the full council for consideration which will be an agenda item that's publicly available um thank you for that uh we have to decide we had had a standing legislative committee meeting at noon with the state lobbyists but that has been put on pause because they're not really meeting right now so we'll have to go back and decide when we can meet as a legislative committee

Again, what's the timeline? So like, do you have like a period in time in which you anticipate having this meeting done is what I'm asking.

I mean, the election is in November. And so I think that depends. I think the at least what we've heard from the state lobbyists is your strategy depends on what happens in the election.

And so I think for what we can do, the federal lobbyist has already drafted a federal agenda based on the feedback that's been provided. So we can go ahead and disseminate that. But we can certainly work with the staff to go ahead and get a legislative committee meeting scheduled. And three members are here now. So if we want to resume or at least pick up one of those standing meetings that are on our calendar. to answer your question we have to have something approved we don't have to but ideally we would have something approved no later than December thank you so much for answering the timeline question thank you I'm going to do the opposite and start with Councilmember wrists and then just go back around and let everyone have an opportunity to provide comment or question

Um, I think actually, I think I've asked my questions along the way, so I'm good. Thank you. I really appreciate the detailed explanation, both of like implications for Durham, but also some of the actual dollars. It's really obviously impactful for the city. So appreciate that work and look forward to developing the agenda for next year. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Cook. Council Member Burris?

No, thank you. It's been very helpful. Nice to meet you. That's my first. I'm new on council, so I haven't been for like 10 years. So nice to meet you all. And as you've been in flex, which I'm learning the process, I appreciate that. I'm super excited about a lot of things around housing. So I look forward to it. And I also look forward to just being transparent. So whenever the drafts are shared about what the legislative priorities are, making sure all seven of us get that. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Council Member Kowak. Yeah, just very nice to get introduced to you and your work. I'm also new on council. Thanks for this overview and look forward to working with you. Thank you.

Council Member Baker.

They got money for war and not for the feeding the poor. It's Who can we declare war on? How can we get appropriations? If Congress changes, if we get a potentially Democratic senator, all big, big questions, what can we do now and between now and the election to best prepare ourselves for potentially advocating for appropriations?

Absolutely. I will say this, you know, we try to, we are very mindful of what requests we are giving to whom, right? And so we want to make sure that we are submitting project requests that are pretty, going to be pretty clearly a priority of the individual who receives it, right? the appropriations process and the programs that are available and open to earmarks really doesn't change with whomever is in the majority now the funding amounts may change right so when our requested amount got cut in half that likely isn't going to happen if if the Democrats are in the majority in the house right There also there may be like the labor HHS education bill is not available to earmarks in the House under a Republican administration or Republican majority, but it is under a Democrat majority. So if there's things under again, labor, HHS, education, then that opens up another opportunity. I think the biggest difference between who's in the majority is one of the most popular programs for earmarking is HUD's Economic Development Initiative. And that's basically any project that is eligible for CDBG dollars is eligible to receive an EDI. localities now can request funds for those projects in that particular account. Nonprofits cannot. In a Democratic majority, nonprofits can request funds under EDI. That frankly has been the biggest change that I've seen because then you've got nonprofits going to the localities saying, will you please advance our project, right? And so that really is kind of the biggest thing. So we may have the opening of an appropriations bill and then the allowance for nonprofits in that one. But other than that, it really doesn't change that much regardless of who's in the majority. Again, maybe the funding levels would be increased. So, and then, you know, of course, if you, Senator Budd, I don't believe is going to, I mean, he said he would make a decision before the next appropriations process, but he has historically spoken out against earmarks, and I'm not sure that he's gonna change his mind, but.

But, like, if we got, for example, I mean, if, big if, we got a Democratic senator, is that someone who we could approach for earmarks and potentially be more successful?

Sure, absolutely. I mean, Senator Tillis has been very successful in securing earmarks, and... But, you know, we also, I'm not sure that in the time that we've worked with the City of Durham, he's been successful in securing earmarks, but not for the City of Durham, right? He hasn't advanced the city's priorities or the city's projects, but, you know, I think that it's also about, you know, sort of developing the relationships with the office as well.

Okay, well, I just thank you so much for for this work and for the presentation. And let's just make sure on our end that we are best preparing ourselves in the case that a big if that things in Congress change after the election, so that we can potentially hit the ground running.

Absolutely. And may I add also with that in mind, particularly as you all work collectively together on that, I think one of the key things just doing this for as long as I've been doing this, once we have been able to establish kind of that agenda of sorts or kind of like what your federal priorities will be and knowing that you're going to have a new senator coming online, I think it is, you know, I would stress and urge you to sit and have a meeting with that person with that agenda in hand and just kind of, again, talk through. And just because, again, some members come online and like, you know, Senator Biden, like he won't do earmarking. But you have to kind of set the tone of what it means for the community and what it will do and how much you need that level of support through that process. Because I think there's a lot of money that's left on the tables for members who don't. And that process is open for all to take part in. So again, I just encourage you, as we go through this process of establishing what your priorities are, to make sure you have that moment where you can and not just the senator, I mean, even the congressman, just make sure you have those kind of one on ones here in the district kind of conversations about what those priorities are. Because again, it just sets the stage for when there is time to, you know, whether it's to vote on legislation to introduce legislation, to make sure if we're going through this next, you know, appropriation cycle for fiscal year 28, that your priorities are in mind.

I'm going to add just one thing, too, is the the Senate offices, regardless of party, want if money is going out like competitive grant money, they want it coming to North Carolina. Right. So both both Senate offices have been very amenable to sending congressional support letters to the agencies saying we support the city of Durham's application for $6.2 million for this safe streets and roads for all grant programs. So I do, you know, while we may not have been as successful on the Senate side with appropriations, they will certainly help through that competitive grant process.

Great, thank you so much.

Thank you. Anyone else have anything? OK. Thank you so much for the presentation. This was really helpful. And I look forward to working with you all on drafting an agenda. This will be a little different for us. We have, as a council, historically done a state agenda every year. But this will be new. We have not drafted a federal legislative agenda. So colleagues, look for emails and information. We'll be working with Ms. Wallace on how that goes. It'll start in legislative committee, but it'll probably mirror similar to what we do at the state, which is we ask all colleagues what are things that they would like to see move forward. We have a very candid conversation with our lobbyists about what are the opportunities and really what's not worth moving forward and putting energy towards, and then drafting that final legislative agenda that they will then carry forward for us. I know that I have a question. My sister's a chief of staff for a county, they call them county supervisors, and they actually go to DC. Their electeds go to DC at least twice a year. the local level and have conversations meet with their lobbyists meet up meet with their congress folks uh and so i'm uh i think that we need to start investigating that especially because things change and relationships matter and um i just want to name that uh in this space and i think it's a we're real close to dc we're not they're having to fly from tucson all the way to dc which is not an easy flight so it's something that i think we should talk about as a council what are the opportunities and and that especially if to the point of you might be leaving dollars on the table because we don't have the relationships we need that's really important especially as we see probably yet in that yet again another challenging budget here for us next fiscal year so again look forward to working with you all and thank you so much for the presentation Okay, I think we are ready to settle, Manager Ferguson.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Just a quick programming note before we settle the agenda, that this agenda that we're finalizing today is for next Thursday's council meeting. That's September 17th. That's a meeting that you all moved from the 21st. So I just wanted to remind you and the viewing audience that the 17th is when these items will come back to the council for final adoption and consideration. And with that note, this is what I have for settling the agenda. On consent, we have items one, 4 through 18, 20 through 24. On GBA, we have items 2, 3, and 19. And on GBA public hearings, we have item 26.

Thank you. Can I get a motion to settle?

So moved. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? OK, motion carries. And that is all the business we have in front of us today. We are adjourned at 3.47 PM.