Remarks by Carl Rist
73 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
- Play at 1:08:19
“And Mr. Mayor, so we're being asked today just to approve application for the dollars, right? Correct. So if I'm not mistaken, if we receive the $15 million, we'll also have to have a motion to receive the dollars. So if it turns out there's additional red tape or timing, we can at that point then address that, right?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:26:55
“Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Just one quick question. I appreciate that this is pretty detailed work, and I understand it probably would take someone, as you said, it could take a decade. So having someone to do this deep work makes sense. I know this is both a compensation and a classification study, which is sort of related, but different things. I just had one question since I just got back from my first meeting at the League of Municipalities. And so they did reference there is like a salary survey and a fringe benefit survey the League does. And I'm just curious how, like, how valuable that would…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:29:39
“One other thing, and this may be less for Braden and maybe more for the clerk's office. So I did note on this one that part of the changes here were like locations and times of meetings. And it seems like, I don't know what kind of advice we're giving boards and commissions on their bylaws, but it seems like that level of detail of bylaws that would need to be changed every time you change your meeting time and place is not an efficient way for either the boards or the city council to do business. So I don't know if there's advice you're giving, because I think having more general language…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:31:06
“But again, I mean, time like the day of the week. And so it seems like a level of granular detail that probably.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:31:51
“Sorry about that, sorry, thanks. Director Young, so this is, these are three utility extension agreements, different properties, but these are all in that Goose Creek outfall area, right? Correct. And so I guess my question is, as I understand this, I could be wrong on this, but I understand on this first one, item 13, they would extend water and sewer once the improvements are completed, right? But for 14 and 15, they can connect now. So I just want to understand, like, what's the level of analysis going on to determine who can connect now, who connect later, just so I understand that.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:33:34
“I appreciate that. Yeah, I just wanted to understand better, but I appreciate your sort of being sort of creative and helping folks to move along, even if they can't connect. So I just wanted to confirm the process, but that makes sense to me. I appreciate the thought that goes into that.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:36:38
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:37:02
“Right, so yeah, the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, it's a center at the planning school. Correct, within UNC, correct. Right, exactly, yeah. So they'll do the work. That is correct. Even though the contract is with the university, but like, KERS is going to do the work. Because they're well-respected, they do good work, so.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:40:44
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:41:03
“three electric five diesel so on the issue of buying diesel buses when i saw the pop-up i was like and i know we we approved a couple years ago i think maybe in april i think cip right is this the same issue or is this a separate one i mean we council approved a purchase contract for 10 diesel vehicles in april of this year So just on the diesel issue, so like obviously the diesel market, like price of diesel's gone through the roof, right? So like diesel's now becoming much more expensive, maybe a more volatile market going forward. So as we think about buying buses that are gonna last for…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:46:40
“So I appreciate that and I understand that some of the, as you described, some of the compressed natural gas, like that market is changing dramatically as we speak, right? And I know that currently our wastewater treatment, is Don still here? Because Don and I have actually talked about this, may not support right now renewable natural gas, but there's also, there's a market for that, right? And I've got an industry publication from Energy Vision talking about how, like, the economics of R&G have actually, like, increased dramatically. So I just want to make sure that we're thinking about…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:47:35
“That'd be helpful. Yeah, and I don't know if we can, you just said that we've, you know, we don't want to operate buses too long, but can we possibly delay a couple years while we sort of figure out this complicated market of diesel? I mean, it's, you know, again, we don't want to be in a situation where we can't operate the buses because diesel, we just can't get it.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:48:29
“All the more reason why C&G potentially could be one option for us as well. I know that Don wants to come up and speak to this one. I will also say that even if we don't have like enough supply at our wastewater treatment to fuel our buses. It also, I know right now, as I understand, we're still kind of flaring off that natural gas from the wastewater treatment plant, so it'd be better to use that somehow than just kind of flare it off, right?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:49:53
“I appreciate that. And as I understand, there also are new tax credits, right, for renewable natural gas production. And I know that we're obviously not a taxpaying entity, but are there direct pay credits for cities that are doing renewable natural gas production?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:50:52
“Well, I appreciate that. Anytime we see like more diesel buses, it's just not, you know, both again, cost, but also environmentally, this is not a great way to burn fuel. So, you know, anything we can do to reduce our consumption of diesel in the city, especially because we've got our own, we've got our climate action plan that commits our fleet. So it's, and I know we had to push back our achievement of our climate action plan because of this. So anything we can do to reduce our diesel consumption would be much appreciated. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:56:31
“Just one other question on that. And again, I appreciate the presentation. I appreciate the conversation, recognizing that we are so committed on this council to fare-free buses and having the state's best transit system. So all that is all true, right? As we think about how do we pay for and power the buses. So I wonder if your staff have done any kind of sensitivity analysis to show at what price of diesel Does it become more cost-effective to buy electric buses, even though they're more expensive, than to buy diesel as the operating costs go up and up? I mean, there's got to be some price…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:32:30
“Chief Martins, can you say again the calculation for clearance rates? It's the percent that have a charge filed?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:50:05
“Thanks, Ms. Mayor. Thanks, Chief Martis. Thanks for being here. It was a pleasure to be at your swearing-in ceremony. It's such an honor. I'm glad to have you in front of us today, so it's good to see you. A couple questions. On this juvenile report that Council Member Cook mentioned, I did have some more questions there. Actually, may I start with just saying, what percentage of homicides and aggravated assaults involve juveniles? Do you have that number? I think if I cross reference to the table in the report, it's only a couple, looks like homicide one, so it's.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:50:59
“but more juveniles involved in aggravated assault. That's what, when I follow Captain Packard's watch reports, it seems like there are increasing number, which is always a great concern for council, you as well, I'm sure your staff. I had a question about, again, on the table in juvenile offenses, I noticed that a large number of those were reported as all other offenses. I know that, as you mentioned, weapons offenses, larcenies are large for juveniles, but there's also this category of all other offenses. What is in there?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:51:30
“I think it's the largest number of the juvenile offenses in the table or all other offenses.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:52:41
“In the report, that's what I'm looking at. In the report, okay. And again, if you could clarify what's under all other offenses there in that table, that'd be helpful.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:52:50
“Another question. So on that table that showed the violent and property crime rates, and there was that target, that hashed orange line, how do we get that target number? How do we arrive at that?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:53:12
“It's not the confidence, it's the. No? No, it's the one.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:53:45
“If you can confirm that, that would be great. I will. I want to make sure it's kind of like that sort of up-to-date current for Durham. Right. That would be great. And then the last thing is that we look a lot and we talk a lot about the staffing levels. And it's great to see in the most recent basic law enforcement training the big jump in candidates. I know that we, and you may know, a couple years ago we made a big effort to make sure our salaries were at market.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 2:54:07
“And so would it be great, and we follow the staffing levels on every quarterly report. Right. Would it be helpful to have just over the last two, three years what the staffing levels have been like historically to sort of see any trends there?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026