Remarks by Reneé Perkins Johnson
130 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 6
Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, I'm Renee Johnson, and I'm honored to represent District 4.
I'd like to poll number 23, please. Okay.
That was going to be my question. Was there a deadline for purchasing? So I would support a deferment as well.
Mayor, did you remember my hand was up a while ago?
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for your information. That was very helpful. This is a tough place for us because we do have the responsibility to our police force. And we also have the responsibility to be responsive to the concerns, the national or international concerns regarding our police force. So I think that the Major said that 30 days was reasonable. And I think that I would support that deferral for 30 days, especially when we're still awaiting answers Regarding the text message, there's some reports that say that there were contests for pulling over black…
And is suspicion of, and if this is off topic, you can stop me, but is suspicion of marijuana smell still reason for... Council Member Johnson, you have to go.
Well, I just think we still have a lot of questions still outstanding.
That's fair. That is fair. Yeah, I think there's still a lot of outstanding questions. We still have questions regarding the Juliana Umba-Nitza suicide, Curtis Massey. People are still asking for a body-worn camera. And I just think that right now we need to be, along with the text messages, we should be responsive to our citizens and just kind of listen to that and be willing to defer this purchase until we have some answers. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there anyone from CATS here that can answer a question, or maybe you can answer a question? Okay. So this is for CATS rail maintenance cost. I wanted to know if we could just get an update on the cost, the derailment cost. There was a while ago that we had a cost for derailment, and we've not gotten an update in a while regarding that.
Will that be completed prior to the MPTA transition or will that still be CAT's responsibility to complete repairs?
Thank you, Mayor. And in the future, can we maybe get a shorter staff presentation so that we do have time to ask questions?
Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I have the same concerns. I feel like if these small independent drivers wanted to work with Lyft and Uber, they would. So I don't know what the, and I understand if we want to protect against price gouging, but maybe we, and I don't know what the reason was, we can talk about this, but maybe we could have addressed the bad apples rather than change the whole policy. So I know that we do have some local drivers that have reached out to us and asked if the large companies would have the same restrictions that they have. I'd like to see perhaps the city developing an app.…
Good evening. I'm Renee Johnson, and I'm honored to represent District 4.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
So if that were to be done, would that come back before council or what department would have the jurisdiction to make that decision?
Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for that information.
And then I would just kind of support Councilmember Mayfield. She's been saying this for at least, I don't know, four or five, six months about having the public hearing and the decision on the same night. And, you know, council members will say, well, you know, the current policy allows us to do this. Is there a referral pending or? Are we taking a look at that mayor so that we can address them?
Hi, Mayor. I had my hand raised a long time ago.
I want to thank you for your presentation. Thank you. And I want to thank the members of the bicycle committee and also to our CDOT department for this and the safety committee. So thank you. Council member, my colleague over here, you mentioned a fatality in 2025 in North Carolina. They were actually 14 to 16 bicycle fatalities. And As your chair of the North Carolina Brain Injury Advisory Council, I am so pleased that we're implementing the helmet law here in Charlotte. In 2025, there were actually 1,200 to 1,500 bicyclists who suffered a brain injury. So this is just very important. I do…
I would guess that we have more scooter incidents than Davidson or Cornelius, just because of the number of scooters on our streets. Are we tracking that information? Is anyone tracking that information?
Cause I've almost gotten hit by someone on the scooter on the sidewalk. So I think there's room for that. Madam chair, if, if, if you would, consider that. I just think that that's at least if we could pull those numbers, I think it's important. Or I don't know if the bicycle committee is already taking a look at that or if that's outside of your scope. But I do think that's important, especially if we're looking at speed and, and helmet requirements for individuals under 18. And again I appreciate the attention to this. Our C dot does a great job and brain injury awareness. Sierra in your…
Thank you. Council member Graham. I appreciate your experience. Is there a deadline for us to change our language?
Right, so the law was effective July 1st, is that correct?
And this was passed by our General Assembly, the current makeup, right? So if that makeup changed and this law changed, then are we limited by our local language? Is this something that we have to do, or could we wait until after the election to see what happens?
But is there a deadline to do this? I mean, is there a deadline?