Remarks by Safiyah Jackson
75 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
- Play at 46:02
“Thank you for this sobering reality again. This question is a historical question. Given the millions of dollars we're projecting, it seems a little unfair to ask this question, but I am curious, historically, what's the most that we have been able to partner with the business community to create a public-private partnership to maybe help fill some of these So historically what has happened and what's the what do you all think is the prospect of us leaning into that to close some of these?”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 47:21
“Thank you for reinforcing that this is a direct result of decisions made at the General Assembly, and that's where the real solution lies.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 53:27
“My question is trying to reconcile two numbers that's in the presentation. The first number is in the very beginning, the major General Assembly policy impacts. that shows, I'm just gonna round, 25 million potential impact. Obviously, there's no number on the property tax limits. We don't know if that'll be don't raise anything, or we don't know what that will be. But can you help me understand the roughly 25 million on this slide, and then later on the FY20, budget development slide. Yeah, exactly. With the same numbers, exactly, 35 to 100. Can you share about the difference and how we got…”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 55:54
“Okay, so I'm hearing the two policy impacts, putting money back in the general fund and... For ongoing costs, yes. And ongoing natural projections is how we've come to 35 to 100, okay. Yes.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:08:46
“Three questions here. Can you go back, it's similar to Commissioner Evans, to the high, medium, low expenditure slide. Can you, and I know I've seen this before, we've seen this before, but can you share again the assumptions that are built into the low, medium, and high expenditures? Yes.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:10:43
“Yeah, and I recognize we are starting this conversation and as Commissioner Thomas and we've discussed, we will get into the nuances here. These are just some of the initial thoughts. When we come back to this slide in future conversations, it would be good to see some of the granular differences between low, medium, and high. At this level, it's pretty much trending, obviously trending in the same direction, but very little distinction. I would be curious to know, see the numbers in between, like the more difference between.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:11:20
“And also what the numbers are for the yellow, green, and blue. Because they all look roughly about... We're in the billions, right? Yes. 2.4, 2.5, basically half a billion.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:11:54
“And then the other question, on discretionary county services, if we're looking at that kind of, what we just looked at, the gap that we need to close, when we come back to this conversation, I would like to know what percent, or maybe we have this, what percent of our budget falls within this category of services, these discretionary services?”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:12:29
“Yeah, because the school, right. Well, actually, on the other one, mandated slide, so on this discretionary slide, school operations technically should be on this slide. Okay.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:12:52
“Sure, right, and just as I'm answering that question, all of the school, Wake County Public School operating expenses and teacher salaries should technically be on this and be part of that percentage of discretionary. Just another thing for next time. Yep, yep, yep.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:13:20
“Yeah, we definitely have a lot to, and then my last question is about user fees and revenue generation. It feels like... the gaps are so large, similar to when we were talking about the private sector contributing. I know there's a lot that we would need to consider and calculate there, but that is just the one area that would cause expenses for our residents, for all of us, to go up.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:13:50
“Yeah, and how much could that even fill the gap? I'm just kind of processing that one out loud. No questions there, but I'll be particularly interested to see how that part of the conversation evolves and what role that could even play given the gaps are so large.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:14:10
“Yeah, right, exactly. Well, we wouldn't want it to be that much.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:14:26
“Well, thank you. We're ready for the conversation. I don't have anything else. Thank you.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:27:11
“And Commissioner Waters, with your wanting a consistent time, right? I think we could give, and all of us said that we were flexible, so maybe we keep you consistent in that time and then rotate everyone else around that.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:29:48
“I just want to reshare something that was stated before. I want to acknowledge that this is asking staff to be in three hours of meetings straight, which, I mean, we do often, but I'm assuming there was no other way to give a break in between instead of these back-to-back meetings.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:30:58
“Well, good. I just appreciate as much as we're thinking about how we're shifting just the impact on staff too, so. Thank you for reminding. I forgot about the deputies swapping too, but.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:36:36
“I just had a passing thought. I know that as we are exploring appropriate use of AI and the clerk's team to help with our minutes, I'm just thinking about how we might be able to use that tool and technology to help facilitate some of this. So just a passing thought.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:48:56
“I mean, I fully understand and hear Commissioner Thomas makes a strong argument for committees. I do understand the impact of needing to come to this building another time for option A. I personally find that valuable. I think where I am now is, given my experience, I don't see much difference between the conversations happening at committee meetings and the conversations happening at work sessions. To me, they, I mean, and maybe you gave a good example, Commissioner Evans, about housing. So I think honestly where I am is we should probably do more to distinguish what conversations come to…”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 1:50:23
“But wait, Commissioner Evans had a question for me. Oh, y'all, you. Yes, like being in a room and seeing and talking. No, no, no, y'all are my people. Well, I just want to say Commissioner Adamson has text and she wants option A.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 2:08:59
“I... We don't have to make this decision today. That's a question statement. I don't believe we have to make the statement today, but we do need to move forward in order to set the plan for next year, so I get that. I am actually wrestling with a number of questions and feel like I need more information. The idea that the question between the purpose of a committee and the topics of a committee versus a work session, I would like to just have a moment for us to reflect on how much of that is theory versus practice. If we were to look back at the year of this year where we actually doing…”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 2:15:10
“Yeah, my recall is that it's because we were trying to fit in great government, and that seemed to be shaking up the schedule of time and availability and the number of people. Okay. That's my recall.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 2:18:40
“It was a question. But if we have to make a decision, I'm prepared. always to make a decision.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 2:19:21
“Sounds like we need to give guidance today.”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 2:21:37
“Yeah, I just wanna say if we're gonna be moving forward with making decisions and providing guidance today, the things that I request I believe are still valid. I think we should be reflective and look back on this past year and see if we used committees as they are intended to in theory. I would request that we just take a look at that so that as we move forward, we can all be clear about the scope of committees. And I think that that would also give us an opportunity to really revisit, well, They're all great committees, but my favorite one, housing. It would give us an opportunity to think…”
Board of Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026