Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Joining us for our Durham County Board of Commissioners work session this Tuesday, September 8th. I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend and took some time to share your appreciation with the union for allowing us to have weekends and a Labor Day weekend. i will ask commissioner burton would you like to read the actually i have to read the public charge but will you read the land acknowledgement afterwards okay the board of commissioners asks its members and residents to conduct themselves in a respectful courteous manner both with the board and fellow residents At any time, should any mem

Thank you, Vice Chair Alon. Land acknowledgment, as we convene for the Durham County Commissioner's meeting, it's crucial to recognize the painful truth of history. We stand on the stolen ancestral lands of the Catawba, Eno, Okanichi, Tuscarora peoples whose deep connection to the land predates our arrival we acknowledge with humility the unjust displacement and violence that occurred leading to the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their homelands their resilience in the face of such adversity is a testament to their strength and spirit may we humbly honor the ancestors and elders of t

Thank you, Commissioner Burton. We will now move to our resident comments, starting with our virtual comment from Crystal Norford. And while our clerk gets Crystal up on the screen, I'll call the first four names to come line up over on this left side of the podium. And before you start speaking, make sure you press the speaker button. When the mic turns green, it is on. So Kevin McIver, Kara Russo, Tim Walter, and Chris Vitiello will be the first four after Crystal. Crystal, can you hear us? I can. Can you hear me? Can you speak up a little bit louder? It's better. Yes. Oh, yes. And you have

Thank you, Crystal. We'll now start over here with Kevin McIver.

Our next speakers are Leslie St. Dre, Abigail Johnson, Tiffany Swope. Yeah, those are our next three.

So we have three speakers left. We have Erica Weiberg, we have Larry Thomas, and then Yvonne Coleman.

okay so that brings us to the end of our uh citizen comments thank you all so very much for that uh one second thank you for that um i deeply appreciate hearing public comments i mean as you know regardless of what the topic is or what the direction is i take notes and i um it's very important so thank you all so very much commissioner burton

Thank you, Chair Lee, for that. And like you two, I listen to public comments, and I do take in consideration what people say when they come to the podium to speak. I wanted to say this because I feel like it's kind of necessary for me to say, and I wanted to go back to our August 3rd work session when we were discussing the moratorium. um that we subsequently voted on on august 24th so i went back and i listened to that meeting i looked at it listened to it about three times and when i was listening to it i didn't really get a clear that we were directing staff um if we were it was ambiguous

I was just going to share what we discussed at agenda prep regarding this.

No, I was just going to share that we actually, Chair Lee and I, as well as we've had a conversation also with Attorney Williamson to that point of to provide more clarity at the end of board discussions. When we have lots of commentary going back and forth, the chair will finish the discussion with a summary at the end of saying, Okay, this is what's been discussed. This is the board's direction to staff, so that way we can have more clarity moving forward of what we're asking of staff to bring forward to us at the next meeting.

Yep. Okay. Any other comments from the commissioners? All right, thank you. Next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. Manager Hager.

Yes, ma'am. I just want to make sure. I don't think I can look back, but we got a detailed budget for FY26.

Thank you, Chair Lee. I had a quick question. I know, thank you, DCM Jones, and thank you, Perry, I saw you earlier, for getting those answers to some of my questions regarding this, regarding the 911 call center backup but also of potential facility merging and those resources. I was wondering, I saw the list of entities that the working group has been coming together of Durham Police Department, Durham County Sheriffs, EMS. I was wondering if also, if the HEART team has been part of those conversations and working stuff. Okay, because I didn't see them listed. the other thing i'm doing do we

Thank you. And so the first $3 million is related to the general operating, annual operating $3 million?

okay the next item we have a commissioner jacobs yeah i just have to say you know for the record that unfortunately i feel that we are kind of stuck in this process i agree with you perry these things take a long time and it's taken a long time to get here the problem for me though is that Um, I don't feel in this situation that we are following best practices. We're kind of stuck with what we're doing and it is a, it is an additional cost to have a separate backup center, the 3.7 million just for the space. And then there'll be the ongoing operating costs. And at a time when we have many thin

Thank you, Commissioner Jacobs. And sorry, Perry, before you go, Chair Lee had to step out. He'll be back in a little bit. But also adding, in the meantime, until we meet again when we have this next discussion in December, November, because I know the email shared that the conversation had to be extended because of legal concerns and issues that may have arisen during these conversations. Could those issue areas that came up be shared with the commissioners? to give us an update so we have a greater understanding of what rope bumps are already being identified. Thank you, Attorney Williams. D

That would be helpful, yeah. Especially if they're more so on the technical side or legislative side, because I know we've had conversations legislatively, the counties in North Carolina only have to have one 911 call center. In Durham County, we have two with the city and the county. So if it's not a legislative issue, that would be helpful. Thank you. We will now move on, pass it back to- All right.

fund account for future allocation and then closing the projects in the county accounting system yes i had a question about that because i get a when i'm out talking with members in the community about the lottery funds things of that nature is when schools get the lottery funds it comes to the county first and is it only specifically used for capital funding

I appreciate you explaining that. Thank you so much.

I just would love to hear a little bit more about this. This sounds amazing. And how many young people are participating as well.

And again, thinking about, you know, our discussion today about, um, our violence reduction and focusing on youth. Do you know what the ages are of the opportunities for these are 18 to 24 year olds.

Well, I think it's something to think about because we know that that's really, I mean, it would be a great thing.

Okay, just thinking about our own youth being involved in that. Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

is this specifically for like sewer systems that are outside of city limits and only county and do they function and like run into the same systems or do they have two completely different systems that is a great question and we'll have ms stephanie brincey the deputy director explain that in greater detail and it's a yes and and she will explain

Absolutely, and I ask also, I mean, thank you all for all the work that you do in making sure that when you're doing the stormwater treatment, you're also keeping our drinking water safe, our roadways safe, all of that. And I ask more so related to our previous discussions of just, I think I have very publicly said that I support, finding as many ways that we can consolidate and reduce not have redundancies between the city and county so just wanting to know like what are ways that maybe these systems could be integrated stronger together that like servicing the same community almost we can co

I just want to respond to what, furthering the conversation about our Triangle wastewater plant. I, I really want to commend our staff because this is what serves RTP and we would not have, uh, all of the capacity, um, in RTP without it. And what's also, I want to commend the staff is that it's an enterprise fund. So all of these investments, all the items on our agenda today related to it are paid for. through the user fees so it's not a burden to our residents and um there are a lot of innovative practices that you all thank you practice around using recycling water reusing water also saving

I was wondering about this one and the previous one. I don't have any issues with them. Just wondering, because I know we've had this conversation, the sheriff's office and his vehicles and the work that they're doing around trying to get more hybrid and electric vehicles. Wondering if we know for these vehicles if there's the same availability for looking into more fuel efficient

Yes, I just have a comment. I really get really excited when we see these conservation easements before us because I want the public to know that we are very committed to protecting farmland here in Durham County, particularly in northern Durham County. I know that discussion came up during the data center vote. However, we are very, very committed to making sure land is preserved in our county. So I'm always glad when we see these conservation easements come before us and want to encourage other people in Durham County who have land that they want to preserve to do that because that's somethi

just want to echo commissioner burton's comments this is really amazing over 200 acres of farmland and again ties into our discussion about the um our updated farmland plan that we're going to talk about later today but i really first want to thank the families these are three historic durham county farm families that are making this commitment long term. I mean, this is permanent. This is in perpetuity, this type of commitment. And so I'm, first of all, really grateful to the families, the Eagles and the Sparrows and the Penny families. And secondly, also to our staff. for making all of this

getting there so okay that did not really answer your question but it's we'll pull ryan in to get a more specific answer yes so um i'm actually chair of that okay well maybe you should tell me um would it work we are uh so kind of a leading question but um we are updating the falls lake rules right now and what's really exciting is that We have agreement, at least on some of the rules, and related to agriculture and also land conservation. The state is agreeing that land conservation will count towards Believe it or not, it hasn't counted towards necessarily towards some of the requirements. S

We're getting closer. Thank you. Very close. Thank you.

I just have a quick question I was wondering the North Carolina public school building repair fund is does the schools get money from that fund every year is it sporadic or how does that usually work

Thank you, Ms. Shager. Before we move on from this item, I was wondering, I've been seeing, especially we're in the start of the new year and we're still in the heat, I've been hearing from a lot of parents and teachers that there's been a lot of HVAC issues at schools where several schools have been having to close in the middle of the day because the temperatures are just getting so hot. Can we get an update from DPS regarding what schools have ongoing HVAC maintenance issues and what their estimate would be for bringing all of those systems not up just to i know it says adequately meets the

i just had a quick comment i wanted to thank the city council for this contribution to food security i think this is a great example of how the city and the county work together we are the we are the ones that have the infrastructure around food security so it makes sense for us to fulfill Um, you know, this, uh, you know, put the spending into action and similar, we've done this with housing where we have contributed, uh, significant ARPA funding to the city for housing. And I think again, this something that relates to the, our conversations in our, uh, the rest of the work session today abo

Thank you, Commissioner Jacobs. I had a comment related to this one around food and nutritional support. I'm wondering if staff could bring back at a future meeting an update to us about, we have the double bucks program that we provided funding for through ARPA funding. It was 480,000 over three years that that funding is coming up to an end. and now with all the SNAP and WIC benefit cuts that we're seeing at the federal level, that money is needed even more. So what our plan is moving forward to hopefully sustain the Double Bucks program or engage in, you know, public-private partnerships wi

Yes, I think also related to the issue of the double bucks program is even more of a systemic issue because anyone who is participating in the double bucks program has qualified for SNAP. And so what I think we really, what I hope maybe in October we can actually have more of a overview of what's happening happening within durham county with our system related to federal snap and medicaid benefits what we see already is because of the new work requirements and having to re reapply every six months the impact on our staff in dss but also we're already seeing a decline of at least 20% already in

So it's very time-sensitive Absolutely, and I know former mayor Steve shul is here for another item But maybe in the future the public benefits access working group could maybe if they come to our work session in October to kind of present on the work that has been happening in the community between all the government entities, private entities, healthcare, everyone of how we address, you know, it was already a gap, but now with all these cuts, we need that infrastructure and that working group even more. Thank you, okay. That brings us now to our first discussion item of the, of course I'm go

commissioners have comments go ahead uh commissioner jacobs um well i just want to say this is a great plan thank you everyone who was involved in it um and i think there's some there's a lot of good news in the plan i mean we we have seen a loss of let's see looking at the reduction in farmland we've lost 71 percent of our farmland in Durham, I guess, since, is that since 2009? Is that correct?

No, that's, I'm sorry, since 1974. Okay, so 1974. to 2022 we've lost 40 000 acres of farmland 71 and the number of farms have declined 46 so that's the bad news right but we know that is a trend nationally and also we are a small county so we don't have a lot of land to begin with and that's very i mean it is It's shocking to see that kind of data. But I think the good news is that when we look at 2009 since the last plan until now, it was really great to see that we have increased actually the number of small farms and that we have not seen a big loss since then in the number of large farms.

Oh, and the last recommendation was that the farmland board members have direct impact into the development process and you know that is a huge oversight because we have you know dost provides um input bpac you know the eab and the fact that the farmland board does not provide input is a huge problem and i want to note that the feedback in the report talking one of the big concerns not only about the land prices and development pressures, but the fact that even what's happening on the fringe of the urban growth boundary is causing problems for farmers. And I don't think that the city governmen

So we haven't turned anyone away at this point, not turned anyone away at this point.

Well, that might be something for us to think about, is that that's been a flat amount since the beginning. And I did note, you know, as land prices go up, we may need to look at how we adjust that a little bit. Was that kind of a...

And it was also related to the unified development ordinance as well.

kind of make sure they understand what is needed in the new LDC and I feel like their voices have been heard early on before they put a stall on that I guess one of my questions would for the county manager is just we've been stalled out implementing the LDC and whether we need to look at just focusing on an or amending our current ordinance that um to address the issues that were identified related to farmland protection because it is again not something we can it's it's time it's time sensitive and we're up against a lot of challenges and um you know this is one of our priorities for durham

And also related to that is how we can make sure that the Farmland Board is providing direct advice and input into the development process.

both um and the the thing is the the comment needs to be included in the staff reports if it's if it's going to be officially part of the planning process then the comments have to be included in the reports that the city council receives or if it's coming to the county commission either way

really lifts up a lot of things for us to keep building and I want to thank Durham residents who go out and go to the farmers market. We have so many farmers markets now and our local restaurants who buy from our farmers and I also want to just thank our Durham County departments because there's a lot of discussion today about people not collaborating and things being in silos and um fragmented but i really feel like our durham county departments whether it's public health um you know our soil and water cooperative extension our open space and real estate and you all are really working togethe

Yes, I'm going to be brief. Thank you all for this presentation and the report. And I'm the liaison to the farmland protection. I feel like there's something, I don't know, missing. Particularly, nothing that you have done. It's about getting this message out about food insecurity in our community. and how, particularly with these SNAP requirements that are now going into place, and what a big, big negative effect it's gonna have on us as a county, and how do we get this word out about food insecurity? I feel like the silos, because i don't think people understand how kids get fed at school th

Do we have and maybe we've gotten it but I haven't seen in a while a map of Durham County with like food desert heat maps to show us like Where our families are facing the most food insecurity and ways like looking at it that way of how can we help close those gaps working in partnership with our farmers and um because i know there's a lot of communities especially around our public housing neighborhoods that don't have access to a grocery store downtown still doesn't have a grocery store we have so much housing uh here and seeing how do we get more food into neighborhoods healthy food yeah um

All right. Next item on our agenda is the Workforce Development and Partner. Wait, let me make sure because I'm coming in. Oh, no. Wait.

That's right. Okay. Workforce Development Partnerships to Promote Career Pathways. And while they're loading up, I stepped out for a moment. to go to the library for the Declaration of Independence exhibit, everyone, you all have to go there. It was probably one of the cooler things I've seen. I didn't think it was gonna be that exciting, but when I walked in, just feeling it, being in the presence of the one that they have of the original printing, it's like a print, There were 200 made and there's only 40 left. And this is one of the 40 that was actually printed with the signatures and every

Wow, thank you so much for this presentation. It was outstanding and just learning about all the ways that we're trying to support people in their economic mobility. So very informative, thank you. I wanna make it brief because I know we're limited on time. um andy i agree with you we should do something around local government pathways a lot of people really don't understand local government and what we do and there was something at ncacc where i think halifax county had the young county commissioners it was something they did they got an award for it and i was thinking we can bring that back

Yeah, and the reason I ask is because I know that with academics, you know, if you're having challenges with the curriculum, with the reading and things like that, that can be a barrier as well as those economic housing, childcare, and then where we can support and make sure that young people are successful. So thank you so much. You're welcome.

Yes, thank you all so much for this presentation and also just all your work that you're doing. I had a couple of questions and comments wondering, all this information is super, super helpful. I'm wondering how we can make it more accessible and readily available for residents and especially around our county economic development and the incentives we provide um oftentimes like we get a lot of questions from residents they're like oh you guys are just giving handouts to companies and how we can help assuage those concerns and also explaining like what those incentives actually mean of what du

I completely agree. The other thing I had, I'm really glad, Narakta, that you brought up around the maintenance-type roles in HVAC, because that's something I know Manager Hager and I had brought together, President Buxton, and also... Adam Klein from Duke University because I've been talking to Adam about how Duke University has aging HVAC systems and theirs are like you their technicians are Experienced on their specific systems. That's not like traditional and how we can establish and then also Durham County. We have a lot of vacancies related to HVAC maintenance services also our EMS fleet

And whatever partnerships you all are able to build also, I think I've shared with JB some connections with the local unions because they also have apprenticeships where they are able to provide funding support for a student going through. So I know IBEW and what is it? The International Iron Workers, I forget all the acronyms, but they also have apprenticeships and are building here in the triangle for more of these trades. That's a partnership that we've been looking to. had two more questions other wondering back to the housing piece also now that the city has an economic development office

And I mean more so from the home developer, the people actually building the homes. If there's a way to tie that into the economic development incentives of, if they're building homes, like how to incentivize those developers that you set aside like five or 10 of these new homes or apartments or whatever percentage specifically to students or workers of like trade skill workers, that type of thing.

And then the last piece I had related to child care. And I actually have to slip out right after I say this because I'm going to RTP Foundation and Chamber has a child care roundtable that I'll be participating in that talking about, and I know all of y'all are very focused on this, but that is becoming a greater and greater barrier. And in the triangle, we're seeing a lot of centers that have received funding from during the infrastructure funding time that is now lapsed and these centers are closing down. So we already had a shortage of child care seats. And now with centers shutting down, t

one follow-up question on that do you have any that i don't know if you collected but maybe in the interview process of how many students who apply that may actually end up not going through with the program because child care was the barrier that's a good question let me get back with our staff we do we collect a lot a lot a lot a lot of data along the way i'm just unsure whether or not they do i do know that we we

uh i just want to say thank you all you are the a team right here i feel like i'm looking at the a team right now um this is one of the most important things that we have been doing in durham county focusing on economic mobility uh it's it's one of the most important things um i think it was i was like looking trying to look back at data 2010 Our poverty rate in Durham was 18.4% and 2024 it was 11.3%. And, you know, to me, this is, this is part of the work that we are trying to do to address poverty and our community. And the fact that Durham County has the highest wages in the state of North

Thank you. Nicole, thank you for Novo Nordisk being a real role model for everybody in every way. I wonder with you, your experience with companies, what are your thoughts on what more do you think can happen in terms of the partnership and the engagement and just thinking about when we do these our own contracts, our economic incentive contracts with companies, things that we can layer into them and, and like Abby, like over 700 jobs coming. Uh, we have such an opportunity, like what, um, what, what, what more do you think we can be doing?

That's something we should follow up on. Another question I have is one partner who's not in the room is the city. And the city of Durham has the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. We actually, AbbVie will be one of the first projects economic development projects we're partnering with the city on um so and they have more actually resources than we do in this in this area what are your thoughts on how we can really pull

That sounds great because that's another pipeline, that's another on-ramp into this pipeline that we're creating here. Unless I just want to mention one other thing is I do want to highlight again that the jobs that we have in Durham County, in RTP, and in Trayburn are not to be taken for granted. And they're here because of very, very deliberate, uh, policies and decision-making and investments that have happened over many, many years. You know, we know RTP goes back, you know, late 1950s. Um, and you know, we, everything is changing all the time. We're impacted by global and national and sta

All right, thank you. And I'll just end up by saying I really like the story you were telling about the... the person who works for you, but the mother has gone through the program. I mean, what if we can... There are so many parents who are unemployed, but their kids are in school. What if we can say, come with me, right? Come see what I do or introduce them somehow to Durham Tech, the parents, focusing on the parents there, even kids in high school. that are doing this, come see what I'm learning, right? That may, even parents who may be in careers that they're looking for a change, right? C

So bring your parent to school. Yeah. You hear bring your child to work, right? Bring your parent, right? I love the idea of trying to get those, because anyone, right? Because we have it all right here. in Durham. We have the training. We have the businesses. We have the open positions. We have the roles that are being hired for right here. And the infrastructure is right. Everyone here. I think that would go over really well. Can I add just one thing? Yes, absolutely.

Bring your parent. That's right. That's, I think that, and I mean, I'm really serious about it. I was taking screenshots and sending this to my son, who's a Durham Tech person about, I was like, look at these salaries. Like, you can, you need to come off of my payroll and get your own there i did i mean i actually did send them on whatsapp to my my son so um i just think we can make a make a difference in adult unemployment as well people think school is for kids but it's really for for us as well oh there's one last thing i forgot to say that i think is really important i told you earlier tha

That'd be great. Wouldn't that be great? That's great data. Okay, well, thank you all very much. We went over a little bit here, but that's okay, because this was super great. This is great information. I appreciate it. Now, there's a couple of... Our next item is the Violence Reduction Working Group recommendations. But I just wanted to make note, there's a couple things we're actually gonna remove from our agenda and move it to other. And this is coming from Manager Hager, so it's not me saying. Right, I just wanted you all to know. So it's the... Did you want to talk about it?

And so after the violence reduction recommendations, that means we'll, closed session will be the next item. Now, I just want to poll real quickly. You guys want to go straight through? You guys want a quick bio break? Anybody need to take a break? Break. Anybody want to take a break?

It might be we could just do a working lunch. We could grab our lunch since people are sitting here. and take a few minute break and then bring our lunch and come back.

12.30? Yeah. Okay, and then you guys will be ready, okay? 12.30. It is 1230. Let's start to wrap it on up here. Bring it on back. It's 1230. All right. So technically, Commissioner Valentine is in the room, so we'll go ahead and get started because we do have a quorum in the room. All right. So let's get started. Welcome. Let's make sure we're online. She usually doesn't stop it. Okay, we'll just double check here. Make sure we're online. Online. Okay, we're good. Welcome. Welcome. Looking forward to this. All right.

quite the work that you all have done. It's exciting. I think it's very complete and very exciting here. Before I get to the commissioners, their comments, I just had a question about, so someone talked about it in public comment, but I had flagged this earlier as well, about the age. It was 30, right? So my question is, why are the ages of the victim and the suspect combined for an average. Because I would imagine if we separated it out, the suspect probably would be a lower average age, and then the victim would probably be a little higher. I think I've seen some studies where activities go

directly answer your question it was not uh aggregated like that okay it's just kind of written yes that's that's the way okay all right i understand that all right commissioners who wants to okay uh valentine thank you chair uh let me first just say uh thank you for your work thus far uh two comments made during the comment period stand out to me And one pointed to the money spent on a previous study and the lack of accountability since that previous study. And another person got up and commented that we should keep our youth at the forefront. And I think we should be laser focused about thos

respect to your comments about political leadership i think i talked to you at the summit i had an opportunity to stop by the summit on one particular day and we talked resources and from my particular foxhole uh it's i think it's important that you came here today and talked about there would potentially need to be some new resources and so i'll be waiting just to see exactly what what those new resources look like so that we can engage in a serious discussion about how you can be successful at the work that you're engaged in because I think that's going to be work hand in glove together in s

Well, first of all, I just want to say I appreciate all the collaboration that has gotten us to this place. Great to see all of you sitting here. the city and the county working together, and we need to move forward. I hear the urgency from the community. I hear the frustration, and I share it. Since I've been sitting in this seat, I spent years on the Gang Reduction Task Force, the Violent Crime Roundtable, I've been here to see MBK, my brother's keeper, come and go, Bull City United come and go. I've sat in with conversations with the sheriff trying to start Project Safe Neighborhoods, Chief

And at this point, every partner has said that they will be there at the table involved. Do we have that?

And when there is the vision of sitting down with, you know, again, piloting with certain people, will, again, having the face of all of our system there just for them to see, I'm You know, I'm from the Office of the Sheriff, the police department, the court system, you know, the DA. Like, will that be there?

Awesome. So, of course, we're going to, I mean, you know, we're also talking about case management, right, because that's what, the weekly meetings, putting in the work, following up with people and the resources. So what happens with, hopefully not very often, but the person who doesn't comply? Because the consequences are also going to need to be important, because if somebody doesn't comply, and then what happens? Because that also will send a message. What is going to happen then when somebody doesn't cooperate?

And does that, I mean, all the stakeholders agree that that will be the result? Okay. And I hope that we're all going to hold each other accountable for that, too. The, yeah, and again, all the, going back to this, that I'm looking, I was just looking at the strategies. focusing on the census track. You know, we did that with the Mayor Bell's poverty reduction initiative, and that's where we came with the driver's license restoration program really came out of that effort. The street outreach, where do you envision, could you talk a little bit more about what does that look like to have a diff

integrated i mean i mean that's a really incredible idea really awesome and we've seen like with cit training in law enforcement and and other areas of course we have a trauma-informed um asus coordinator in durham county who i know could help with this but i that i love this idea of the cbi and maybe you could talk roshana Because I know Justice Services has a lot of experience with this. And even DSS, that's a very important part of the strategy with DSS, with parents. But if you could talk a little bit more about the power of the data around CBI.

And, of course, our community paramedics, the HOPE team. I mean, there's just kind of endless. And lastly, I just want to say about the issue about the age. I do think that prevention is also really, really important. And I know the data shows 18 to 34-year-olds, except when I look at the data that you've written, shared also showed that they had 12 prior arrests and four for felonies. So in other words, it didn't just start when they were 18 years old. So if we look at when did they, the, when did these individuals start being arrested? And I'm from what I remember from the gang prevention st

And I appreciate that. And actually, Jason's not here anymore. I was thinking a lot about overdoses. and how you know the primary goal is to save lives and how like i was actually thinking about narcan and harm reduction in this conversation and how yes i totally i hear what you're saying that you can't same thing with opioid overdose first thing you got to do is keep somebody alive so i i hear you uh commissioner burton

Thank you, and I'll keep it brief. I just wanna thank you all for your report, and I really am glad that we're focusing on cognitive behavior therapy. I think it's really needed. Being a former, well, I'm still an educator, but seeing what happened a lot in schools with kids, because it just happens in an instant, and trying to get them, you know, calm down or refocus, and it carries into adulthood. So I'm really glad that that's going to be a focus with this. I'm really interested in how will the outreach look with happening, with cognitive behavioral therapy, because a lot of people need hel

All right, so essentially, given direction, right? We'll do this by consensus. Are we good with this? Do we want to discuss it further when we do the resolution on Monday? So you want to sit with it for a little bit? So right now we're okay with it, but we want to discuss it on the agenda for Monday when we do the resolution as well. Is that okay?

It seemed like there was going to be additional information that was still needed to be done. Ryan, you were talking about how some of these things still need to be fleshed out, the census track, you know, blah, blah, blah. So I'm not sure.

Well, I'll just say I support the recommendations and yeah.

Yeah, I think we all have that. We do support the recommendations. We're gonna let the commissioner sit with a little bit, ask questions maybe for next week if there's further questions, but we're gonna let the staff know the questions in advance so that we can get that and then approve that resolution and then be on to whatever the steps are afterwards. Is that satisfactory? Do we all understand what we're doing? Okay, all right, good. Thank you all very much, appreciate it. And just so we know, so we do have two pieces left. We have the cultural roadmap and then the homelessness resolution.

Thank you Chair Lee thank you to the Durham Cultural Roadmap team it's been an honor to serve as the honorary chairperson I really enjoyed it the arts do matter to me I grew up in a really big city where arts and culture are a big deal. I grew up in Chicago, Illinois, went to the Art Institute, went to the Museum of Science and Industry, all that kind of stuff. So it's really big. And I know that Durham, we are a city with lots of artists. And so I'm really glad that was able to serve and learn so I the question I had and it was kind of answered like the first year it would be just the staff t

And with regards to, I was wondering, and I know what we're trying to do here is bigger and really make something set in stone. I was just wondering, like with the Durham Arts Council, like how is that set up? Is that a specific nonprofit? And I know the city funds that as well.

And then the final question I have is basically what has happened in Durham, Durham County, is it basically just been nonprofits just trying to pull together arts and culture and things like that? They just come and get grants or they find their own grants and it's just kind of been, I guess, you know, just pulled together.

Yeah, thank you, Chair. And thank you to the Durham Cultural Roadmap Committee. for getting us to this point. And let me begin with my remarks with Ms. Margie, because it actually did begin with you. I remember meeting you along with my esteemed colleague, Michelle Burton, at the Hayti Heritage Center at the very beginning. And I want to say thank you for playing a pivotal part in the growth in our community. Mr. Mayor, I too have a child who keeps me grounded in the arts. And so she was cultivated here in Durham Public Schools and went on to spend time at North Carolina School of Science and

Thank you for providing those three examples. And in keeping with examples, you talked about Durham having very few cultural institutions. I'm a member of the board of Durham Arts Council, which I kind of consider a new institution. So maybe you can give me some additional insight into what you're referring to there.

Well, thank you again, and thank you to the entire committee, and I'll end my remarks by quoting Ms. Margie. The arts is not only a business, it's a creative enterprise. Thank you, and I yield.

Thank you all so much, and it's great to see you, Mayor Shule. Thank you for stepping up and you didn't have to be part of leading this effort so thank you so much for doing this for our community um there is a lot in this plan i did read it and um i it's there's a lot i mean even just the 10 recommendations there are many many different steps in each of them so i think that um for you know and and i absolutely support that we what you know basic the basic recommendations of this plan um i believe that the arts are the heart and soul of any community in our community and i also believe that th

all right um i just have very very very brief comments here i appreciate the i appreciate this i appreciate the road map and so forth just for the community so we as commissioners we sit here and we make a lot of decisions about a lot of different things lots of different things how we allocate money and so forth but there is a um I used to watch a show called A Different World back a while ago. And there was a young lady named Kimberly who she was studying to be a doctor. And she dated this guy who was an artist, right? And they always conflicted. She didn't really appreciate what he did and

Yes, thank you, Chair. So I won't belabor, but I do have several questions. You had mentioned that or highlighted the Union Baptist as one of the Churches in our community are that are engaged in this effort. Are there others?

I may take you up on that. Yes, sir. Also wanted to highlight for the folks who are watching today that the county also concurrent with this initiative has a day shelter pilot program. And so we're serious about working with you as a partner in getting to this goal by 2031. I know as a former leader in United States Army, we always say, that optimism is a force multiplier, and it sounds like you carry that as part of your ethos. You talked about 700 being the number that comes out of HMIS, is that correct?

All right, so consistent with that number, Three years from now, what does success look like in reaching or at least pivoting towards the ultimate goal of having rare homelessness? What does that number look like, do you think?

I think you had mentioned that, but I wasn't clear. All right. So, Chair, that's all I have. All right, Commissioner Jacobs. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for this presentation. I'm truly amazed because the framework has already changed. It's like every time I serve as our liaison to APSEC, so I've heard a lot of presentations, and every time I hear a presentation from you, it's something has changed something's different so i mean just kudos to you and the whole team everyone who's doing this because you are actually you are you are doing what you said that you were going to do which is to keep the iterative and you know you heard casey talk about how made in durham first graduation with the bulls it was like 50 something perc

initial conversations and stand-up meetings and we're already generating dozens of new units so really what does it look like also in terms of the units that both the city and the county have invested in some of the gap financed affordable housing units especially the ones that are you know like the Sankofa landing for veterans or some of the voucher supported units, right? Or even the ones that have been now coming online that were through rezonings, like how are you all interfacing with those as well? Or are there plans in the future for those to be part of the pipeline?

Yeah. Okay. Could you talk a little bit... I know the county, we funded half a million dollars Is that going into the Flexible Housing Fund? Okay. And then the other piece of the framework was for us to focus on inflow. Deputy Manager, do you know if we have actually designated a person for that yet?

Okay. And from your perspective, just for us to understand, what do you envision at this point from what you've learned? What does that look like? What would success look like maybe on our end? And also, I imagine once we have that person, would they be sitting in on the sprint teams?

so we can reduce those inflow numbers so once we have that position i think that's going to be really important for everyone to sit down and figure out like what does this look like because i imagine within durham county there's a lot of touch points right it could be dss it could be public health it could be cooperative extension somebody coming in with for the welcome baby program It could be, you know, EMS. I mean, there just could be a lot of points of contact where there could be a red flag about somebody being at risk, especially if there's somebody who's showing up multiple times. I'm t

uh of course thank you all so much for this here i um i did have just two quick questions i don't really have commentary everybody said what i needed to say and so forth um one you mentioned about the possibility that you all do you know bus tickets to go to uh family members and so forth is there a verification of that you know i just want to make sure that we're not Just putting people on buses and sending them.

And I just want to clarify, I'm not saying that. I wasn't saying it on the people needing the bus ticket that they were trying to get away. I'm just making sure that we're not trying to send people, you know what I mean? Not that someone's trying to do something nefarious. I was just curious about that. And then I think you may have answered this before, What is the, when we, the rapid rehousing or when we find, when we have a place for people to stay, the temporary, what is the temporary nature of that? How long is that? Now I heard a 13 month plan But I think that was late. I think that was

Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate that clarification. Just curious about that. Any other thoughts? Okay. Well, thank you all very much for this. Was there any action that you all needed? Any instruction to staff?

Okay. Yeah, I think everyone was in agreeance of that. Anyway, deeply appreciate your presentation today. This was actually really good information. We actually have really good information throughout the day today. Very good. But this was a good one to end on. So thank you all so very much. I appreciate it. right so we do have we did have a on the agenda we had a closed session but the closed session will not be happening today okay we will not be having that today um the work session we don't need them we don't vote for adjournment so i will just call us adjourned thank you thank you sir