Remarks by Leonardo Williams
124 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 5
- Play at 32:03
“All right. At this time, Councilmember, did you have any comments that you welcome? Thank you, Mayor.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 32:22
“Thank you. Thanks for taking on the hymn. I miss it already. What is this?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 32:34
“All right. At this time, I'll read the consent agenda. Item number one, Mayor's Hispanic Latino Committee appointments. Item number two, Durham Housing Authority Board of Commissioners appointments. Number three, am I on the wrong Durham City Council work session?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 32:58
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 34:21
“Number nine is pulled. Number 10, consulting contract for compensation and classification study.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 34:32
“Number 10. Number 11, approval of amendments to the Citizens Advisory Committee bylaws.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 34:38
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 35:42
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 36:24
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 36:45
“Madam Mayor Pro Tem, can you read the items that have been pulled?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 37:28
“Correct. Okay. Thank you. Let's not talk about it. All right. Colleagues, instead of in order, I am going to start with item number 12. All right. Item number 12 is the Application for Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program Grant.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 37:48
“Yeah, and then I'll open for discussion. So I'll entertain a motion to authorize. Actually, I'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules to address item 12. So moved. Second? Moved and properly seconded. All in favor? Aye. All right, now I will entertain a motion to authorize the Department of Parks and Recreation to apply for an outdoor recreation legacy partnership program grant through the National Park Service Land and Water Conservation Fund in the amount of $15 million. So moved.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 38:19
“Moved and probably seconded. All right, any discussion? All right.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 45:59
“Mr. Mayor, were you going to address this as well? You stood up with intention.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:08:36
“Yep. Okay. Thank you. So I... Right. Are there any other comments on it? Okay, and I think everything's pretty much been said as I was listening to my colleagues. The public is not going to break down the technicalities of this. They're just going to trust us to be able to deliver in the simplest form what they've asked for. And hiccups like this makes it really difficult to communicate. And we are living in a time where people will take very unsettled information and manipulate it. don't feel like you have to like you know baby it up for us give us the details give us the technicalities so…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:10:07
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:16:05
“All right, and excuse me. I joined the council during those conversations, and I know understanding the nature of the federal and state level politics is very different than what goes on inside of our rooms. There will be some that say, hey, we're a progressive city. Why are you hiring Republican folks or whatever? I think at the advisement of our delegation, they advised us to bring on a lobbying firm And what we did actually, fortunately, we brought on the top ones, the top rated lobbying firms at the state level and the federal level. They're scoring very high at the very top. And our…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:24:24
“All right, thank you so much. Next item.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:28:52
“Oh, reading your handwriting here, I see.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:31:28
“All right. Thank you. Next item is item number 13, Council Member Roost. I can see it.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:37:25
“Okay, all good? All right, next item, Council Member Kopach. 19.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:51:19
“Councilmember, you may be the only other person I've met that's interested in this just as much as I am. I should talk about, well, you guys just had a very intelligent conversation about the power of our poop. So I talk about that a lot when I go to schools and how we produce renewable energy. What are we using it for now, the biogas?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:52:05
“Thank you. We're not using all of that, right? We're sort of... We burn off some.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:52:25
“Okay, I'll come back to it. Okay, and Director, I see where you're going with the balance. I don't know how long this is going to last, but I think diesel is like seven something dollars a gallon right now. I don't know how more volatile that's going to get, but I do understand that the buses cost half of what the electric ones cost. So I do want to continue to electrify our fleet, but at the same time, I get the rationale for having a balance there. Are we operating beyond our means? I mean, obviously, we've made it very clear we want Ferris to be free. And I understand that even if we…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 1:57:32
“Thank you. I know the upcoming year is going to be really tough budget-wise, and I know just a few years ago we were really aggressive in electrifying our fleet, and now we're making some shifts. So as soon as you can provide us some advisement so that we aren't caught at the last minute when it's time to do budget stuff. because we're going to have to make decisions. We saw the deficit in that fund this year, the transit fund, continuing fare-free and also diesel versus electric. We're buying more electric. It costs more, and diesel costs less, but costs more to maintain, mileage, all of…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026