Remarks by Wendy Jacobs
115 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 5
- Play at 9:27
“Thank you, Commissioner Burton. I want to echo that it was a great conversation at the Zafa Temple about how we can collaborate, and I believe that we can work together to ensure that people who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis in our community are able to get directly connected to the mental health resources they need and to get the care they need and deserve during that moment of crisis. So I appreciate that acknowledgement and also to the family firefighter broker who's a true hero and has paid the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of all of us. And I also want to send sympathies to…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 14:11
“Go ahead. And Chair Lee, I also wanted to pull, because I had some questions, 26-0525, and I also had a suggestion of something to be added to 26-0530. Just amended for that, the resolution.”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 20:18
“Yes, this is not directly related, but I did want to make sure that you knew about our long-term homeowner tax relief program. You're aware of that?”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 20:34
“Oh, I'm sorry. We have a special program for residents like you to help with their tax payments. I just want to make sure you know about the program and there's been an evaluation to see whether you qualify. Do you know about this program?”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 30:04
“know open and respecting state statutes so thank you commissioner jacobs i think commissioner burton i don't need to repeat what she said i was going to basically say some of the same things i appreciate you raising the issue mr freeman But I do recall that we did direct the manager to come back to us just explaining what the process would be. Because I think it's like something like 10,000 pages a minute. So the reality, or maybe it was more. So it's just the reality of what the work that staff has to do. um it's going to take time and whatever the process needs to be done to make sure that…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 31:16
“Yeah, I just wanted to raise this kind of a bigger picture. I've already talked to the county manager, but just the reality that this is how much it costs for us for one month to provide health care in the detention center and the youth home. is very concerning and that I especially would like for us to be able to dig in further as we move forward with looking at other options for care, especially around the youth home contract. I know after being there, I read through the scope that's in the draft contract, and it lists a lot of different staff people who are supposed to be providing…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 37:59
“Yes, thank you. I just had one suggestion. I had emailed the county manager and the county attorney earlier about this, which is I know in the resolution, it says that the task force has up to two years. I was going to suggest that we include some wording about reporting to the Board of County Commissioners within that two-year period. So in consultation with the attorney, I was going to suggest every, at least every six months, a report to the board of County commissioners, just an update. So that was going to be one of my suggestions of what, how to amend the language. Um, the other, and…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 40:10
“And did you consult with Andy Miracle at all? I'm thinking about some of the companies in RTP.”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 40:32
“Well, we don't have to make an amendment now, but if there is the opportunity... for somebody a business representative to actually serve on the task force please do come back to us to have them appointed because i do think there's a difference between actually serving on the task force and being like a decision maker versus a subcommittee it does make a difference so i I'd love to get that level of commitment from a representative from the business community if the opportunity is there, because ultimately we are not going to solve this problem alone with the public sector. This is going to…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 43:30
“Thank you. You're welcome. So I guess I would just like to amend the resolution to add that where it says that there will be a two-year term, the maximum length of the task force is two years, just to add language that reflects there will be a... minimum a six month every six months reporting on progress to the Board of County Commissioners so that's my friendly amendment do you have any comments about it all right so you can you can make that motion okay I'd like to make a motion that we amend the language to also add that the early childhood task force will report at a minimum of every six…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 12, 2026
- Play at 6:45
“Thank you. I do have a number of questions about this item. Let me just say first, I absolutely support us. purchasing another transition house i remember when this came up before and the cost to renovate our existing house was going to be very expensive because we have such high standards around buildings being energy efficient so one one question is um first of all will this house have to meet our very high standards and you know i if so i think that we might consider amending our policy uh for when it doesn't really make sense in terms of what is the goal that we're trying to achieve…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 10:23
“find out more during the inspection period so a portion of that money is just in case we need to you know upgrade a track or something like that okay because the appropriation is 1.3 million is that is that right it's 1 million i'm sorry it's right but the budget is i'm sorry the budget for the item is 1.3 i'm sorry is that what it looks like i i do see the where the item says 1.3 give us a day or two we'll update that and make sure we're looking at what is existing has been spent also maybe some of this in there but we will clarify and make sure to update the item and send an email great and…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 11:26
“Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. And then I just want to also understand a few other things. We're taking a million dollars of opioid funding for this, so I would like to understand how that, impacts the opioid settlement funds and also typically we are allowed to use opioid settlement money for housing for people who are recovering from opioid use disorder, but I know that all of our returning residents are not living with opioid use disorder. So I just want to clarify on that issue.”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 13:00
“and so um but that's some of that okay so this is a different is it okay great um and then also could you um tell us what are the plans for the existing house and are we going to be selling that um and what where will that the purchase of that well could they go back into this or just in terms of not having to use all of this money, just...”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 13:52
“Oh, that's great. And could you tell us what the capacity then will be between the two houses?”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 15:02
“That sounds great. Thank you so much. It's really important that we're going to be increasing our capacity. Thank you.”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 21:14
“when they do finish this project, which I know does involve upgrading the restaurant. Is there any anticipation of, I'm just curious what the anticipated revenue stream will be from this, the impact, the economic impact, do you know? Or could we get that information?”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 22:05
“Yeah, I know there's some great data that's provided about the number of visitors and the number of Durham residents that are taking advantage of the community days. It's fantastic. I'd be curious to know also if they have any data, maybe Discover Durham is tracking around out-of-town visitors to the museum because as we look at ways that we can increase our occupancy tax revenue and sales tax revenue and boost tourism, the museum is a really important part of that. So I would be interested in that. And I'll just say the museum has been voted several years in a row as the number one wedding…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 24:55
“and leveraging state funding for this. And I also wanted to mention that I went to a celebration of the Sandy Creek Park recently. John Goebbels, who is a Durham resident who's been championing and putting in countless hours for many, many years with many other residents to take care of that park, which is part of This is about protecting Sandy Creek, and the Sandy Creek Park is a city park, also along the corridor, that because of Keep Durham Beautiful, Friends of Sandy Creek, the New Hope Creek Corridor Advisory Committee, the city's parks foundation, all these different groups, have been…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:00:30
“Well, thank you so much. This is a really great report, great data. I appreciate how quickly you all pivoted and implemented this program. I just want to say this because it was ARPA funding and it had to be done very quickly and it seems like you all really Um, we're able to develop relationships and partnerships very quickly, which Durham does not always do very well. So, uh, I appreciate that. Um, I guess I'm concerned that we're actually getting this report when the program is over. Um, and I just want to clarify that for commissioner Burton, because, um, it wasn't clear. Um, in the data…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:04:11
“I couldn't hear. Sorry. $1,314,587. Right. So obviously that would be difficult to replicate. But I'd love to hear, like, as a next step, what would that really look like? I mean, you've kind of alluded to it, but.”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:05:52
“And is this the Hope Fellow? I know the Duke Office of Community Affairs was the, Homegrown, I'm sorry, Homegrown. they are offering a fellow to support economic mobility for any nonprofit.”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:06:15
“I think the deadline to apply is like October 13th. So this, again, may be October 13th for us to get some more help from Duke on this as well. Yes. Okay.”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:07:14
“Okay. Um, and then also related to the medical care, I mean, you look at that, those numbers, I mean, that's significant. And especially if somebody who got cataract surgery, I mean, that's a significant number. so important and um you know my first time going out on the pit count was to your point commissioner burton so upsetting because i'll never forget there was a gentleman who was in his 60s unhoused who had severe i don't remember this rust because i think i might have been with you He was very open about having bipolar disorder, being schizophrenic, having substance use disorder, and…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 1:10:52
“So I guess I would encourage, I'm on the Lincoln Board, you're on the Duke Regional Board, for us to really try to have, and you know, thinking of Rod sitting here with public health, for us to really try to dig into this and see what are the opportunities um to partner on this i think one of my big tech takeaways from our inner city trip to grand rapids is partnership and collaboration and also being creative at problem solving that's what we saw in grand rapids people figure out solutions and we have a lot of resources in durham and i think we should be able to figure this out so thank you…”
Board of County Commissioners · Oct 5, 2026