Remarks by Kimberly Owens
46 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 2
Council Member Owens did not raise her hand. Okay.
Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Chief. I agree with you, Chief, that teens should be home and accounted for by 10 o'clock. Where I differ is that I believe that this should be a parental decision and not a government decision. I had the privilege of being able to raise my three sons in a two-parent household, and when we both worked late as lawyers, I also had the privilege of having a mother-in-law or the ability to pay someone to look after my children. And not everybody has that. So I start with that premise. However, we already have a curfew. And what I'm being asked to do is to…
I committed to a couple of people that I would just put this into the room. The Effects of a moratoria are felt very broadly by folks in the trade community. And I just want to be very respectful of the fact that this is not sort of a monolith type of an issue where people are just like completely 100% against them. I think the hyperscale centers are something that we have a different point of view on. But I think that we need to be very targeted and strategic in what we're doing so that we're not hurting our trade community who do really look to build some of these. So I just, I promised I…
Good evening. Kimberly Owens, representing District 6.
If I may. Thank you, Mayor. If I could ask the city attorney, the way I had understood in our conversations earlier today, this was something that was brought by a resident. Is that correct, how this particular motion came forward? Correct. Can you describe that to council, how we got where we are and what this particular motion is?
Mayor, if I may, I will not be supporting a motion to defer because I find it inefficient to do so in circumstances such as have been described. As I understand this motion, it is ripe for determination on this evening, even though we have had the public hearing in the same context of the meeting. I think that this is a ripe situation.
Thank you, Chief Patterson, and I appreciate the presentation. I had a conversation over the weekend with a constituent who may or may not be one of my three children about the curfew. And his question to me was one I could not answer. And he said to me, why don't you all do what they do when we go on spring break? And they've got rules that are focused on the size of a congregation. They're focused on a gathering. They are focused on enforcing curfew against a mass and depending on what number perhaps we settle on so that we're not potentially putting at risk kids who are out on a date and…
The question would be that it would be a curfew that was tailored more against Congregation, I've heard you use the phrase congregation and gathering. It feels like to narrowly tailor this so that we're not just not enforcing it against kids. The face of this would enforce it against people on a date and a movie goes long, okay? You're saying to me that you would not expect your officers, nor do you have adequate officers to enforce that as a curfew police. Can we more narrowly tailor the curfew? such that it wouldn't apply to two couples who are out on a date versus a group of 10 individuals…
I wasn't specifically speaking of that area, although that's another way of narrowly tailoring it if you wanted to have it on certain areas of the city where are more frequently occupied. I was speaking more to say you've got 10 youth together. Your officers are going to ask them what's up and- enforce the curfew versus a couple of kids on a date and go see a movie that lasts past nine. I mean, I just, I personally couldn't answer the question that was raised of me as to, are we exploring all ways that we could more narrowly tailor this and have it address what we're really trying to get at,…
So I'm saying that I've asked our staff to look into and I would ask you to also have folks look into what destinations that frequently are able to disperse large gatherings of unaccompanied minors are doing that is not putting at risk folks who are otherwise just doing the things that kids do in couples or in small groups of kids. There is a big difference in my mind between someone going to see a movie or coming back from, you know, whatever they're coming back from at night and they happen to be alone. I would like to not have them have an interaction with the police for no reason. And I…
My apologies for not articulating it well.
Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate the opportunity. I have two comments. One, a comment of gratitude, and second, a somber recognition. First, the gratitude. I want to lift up the city staff and community partners and first responders, all of whom have worked tirelessly and quickly to support cleanup efforts after the storms from this past weekend. We had multiple trees down in District 6, and I'm sure that was the story across our districts. We had no fewer than 23,000 outages of power recorded in Mecklenburg County. We had 88 requests for trees impacting roads over the weekend. James Boo, Ricky…
Thank you mayor and thank you chief Patterson you and I have spoken and I won't belabor the issue for me to vote in favor of this I'll be candid I really would need to have a lot more comfort with respect to what happens to parents we've heard from a few parents over the course of the last few weeks with respect to job consequences and other consequences that are brought to roost with them and I'm just asking perhaps attorney battle if you could help me parse the language here that has the parent responsible, quote, if knowingly permitting a child to be out, and how that jives with the…
So just a brief follow up. And again, we can we can talk offline and perhaps, you know, when we bring this back up, you can give me some additional comfort. What support attorney battle do we have for families who are having an issue with a teen who they are unable to enforce restrictions on in a meaningful way, either because of their job schedule or because the child is just quite honestly unruly? If someone comes to court, what is it that they're asking for? What support are we able to give as a community to prevent them from having an issue?
Thank you. Just briefly, if you'll follow up again on whether that does prompt the opening of a neglect case. I've been told that it does, and that gives me pause. Thank you.
Good evening, everyone. Kimberly Owens, representing District 6.
Thank you, Mayor. I will start by saying that when we start our year, we are assigned certain dates, and obviously today is my date. In anticipation of that, I reached out to a variety of faith communities who find home within District 6. And the following was given to me by Nasif Majid, Jr. With the name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate, we begin by acknowledging the one who created us in our diversity, different backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives, yet united in our shared responsibility to care for one another and to serve the public good. We pray for wisdom for those…
Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate you. I just want to speak for my colleagues who were not at the safety committee meeting. I did elevate some concerns that I had that I was I was graced with Chair Anderson's good discretion in letting me ask a couple of questions even though I'm not on that committee. And the response of my residents with respect to the questions that I put into the room is why I have some confidence bringing these here before you. One of the comments that I made during the initial presentation to the safety committee was around my concern that there seems to be a lot of energy…
Thank you, Chief. If I can continue, I've received some information from, again, some of my constituents who have been very concerned about the use of flock cameras, particularly an expansion of the network of cameras that would exist in Charlotte. And they've cited for me, and I have not done my own research on this, so my apologies if this seems off. It seems to be well supported in some of the journalism that I've been handed. But the experience in Atlanta, where they've got 28,000 integrated cameras, a number of the headlines that I've been provided suggest that that has not improved the…
So if this grant were awarded, would there be an expansion in your mind of our ALPR technology?
With respect, Chief, and I really don't want to substitute my judgment for yours, I'll simply say that I'm elevating the concerns of our citizens who feel as though there are a lot of potential downfalls to an increased reliance, particularly around any sort of predictive analytics, particularly around the retention of otherwise law-abiding citizens' comings and goings and the ability of folks who do not need to have access to that data to continue to access it. So I would not be in favor of anything that would increase that spend on technology. Some of the other aspects, particularly around…