City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm Alan Joins, mayor of Winston. It's my pleasure to call to order this uh special meeting of the city council acting as a committee of the whole and ask the city clerk to call the role, please. Council [snorts] member Joiner present. Council member Clark here. Council member Andrew Bowen here. Council member Cypio present. Mayor Prom Adams here. Council member Taylor present. Council member Hall present. And council member Burke here.

Thank you very much. Um we do have um we'll be uh in the past we'll we'll do the consent agenda and then we'll turn the various committees over to the appropriate chairman to move forward. Council members, are there any items on the consent agenda you'd like to have removed? Seeing no one, I'll declare ask for a motion. Approval of the consent agenda. Thank you. Second. Second by council member Hall. All those in favor of the motion to approve the consent agenda, please say I. I. When oppose, no. And that is unanimous. Thank you. We'll now go to the finance committee and I'll turn the meeting over to the chairman. Uh, Mr. Clark.

Where is Mr. R? I see you out there. The first item is city clerk, please read the first item. Information on the financial statement audit, single audit, and the annual comprehensive financial report. Okay, Mr. Ral, I'll let you or Miss Leam, whoever wants to talk may talk. [laughter]

Good afternoon, Chair Clark, Mayor Joins, Mayor Proim Adams, and members of city council. Um, before I turn it over to our auditors, Cherry Beckert, um, Dan is here. Um I have been asked to brief you um on the penny rounding situation. Um given the fact that the secretary of this treasury has ceased production on the penny, we are beginning to have some shortages uh with our penny change fund and the banks also have a limited supply of pennies. Therefore, um I believe you were briefed on Friday that we are implementing a rounding policy much similar to what USPS and some of the other larger companies are doing. Um this is called symmetric rounding where you round up or down. Uh it's in the increments of two pennies. This is um based on some legislation that has been recommended. So it's possible although not known if the US will eventually adopt this method for rounding but this method is used in Canada and some of the other European countries. So we [snorts] are proposing to begin using this payment rounding method tomorrow to address our shortage. Um in the long run we plan to review our rate structure and work towards setting our rates so that where the payment rounding will not be required. Do we need to pass does the council need to pass a policy here?

No, we actually talked with the school of government and there's no action needed. We just wanted to make you all aware. And we will be posting signs at all our payment locations and working with marketing on a press release. So if it's one or two cent, you round down. Three, four, you round up. 01 02 you round down. Three and four you round up. And so on. So yes. So six and seven you round down. And eight and nine you round up. It's a little complex. So that's why we will be looking to change our rates long term. Um All right. Okay. Thank you. On to the big show now.

Yes. With that, um Dan Gogerty uh with Cherry Becker is here to talk about the annual audit. Uh before he comes up, I would like to just take a minute to thank our staff in finance and accounting who worked long hours to meet the deadline this year and uh to to ensure the audit was complete. I have our deputy director DP Singla and our assistant director Nora Cowan here and I just want to thank them for all their work as well as our full team in accounting and reporting.

Thank you for having me here today to discuss the results of our audit. If you'll please give your name and address for the record and then you begin. I'm

Dan Gogerty. I'm partner in Cherry Beckard. So going right into it, myself as a partner on this engagement, um we also had a senior manager that's been working on this job for the last four years and then we had some new faces with Emily Bennett and Alan Bond. I've come on to the team in the last two years for the results of our audit. Uh we audit the financial statements of the city in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. We also audit the financial statements and except it's with uh government auditing standards. That's all in which to form an opinion and provide an opinion the reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement. I'm happy to say we issued an unmodified opinion which is also known as a clean opinion and it's the highest level opinion that we can give under our auditing standards. We also perform audits and in compliance with your federal and state awards on a rotational basis. we are to select the larger programs that you have based on the federal guidelines. Uh we if we test those programs to make sure you're in compliance and you also have controls in place to continue to keep you in compliance as it relates to those grants. Uh usually each year the federal government will issue a compliance supplement which is what we use as our program to test these grants. Uh that is usually issued in May. That was not issued until the day before Thanksgiving this year. uh due to the delay I cannot provide you the issued financial uh issued single audit report [laughter] uh as of today but we are looking to try to finalize that in the next week or so and the local government commission had given an extension for the single audit piece of it uh to be issued at a later date.

Could you give us an example of of what one of these single audits would be? Yeah. So, these would be your federal grants such as maybe your Federal Transit Administration grants, uh, transit cluster that you use for your operations of the transit system. Uh, also be your drinking water grants, uh, clean water grants, uh, and then also your POW bill funds. So, that's your, uh, state uh, funding for well, gas tax funding for, uh, streets. Okay. Thank you. And you just rotate different ones each year. Yep. We have to test uh anything that's over 500,000 for state and anything over 750,000 uh for federal on a three-year basis unless we find have any findings then we have to test them more often.

Thank you sir. Please continue.

This slide is a long way of just telling you that uh while we look at controls over your financial statements and over compliance, we do not give an opinion on the effectiveness of those internal controls. If we come across any controls where we think there's either something lacking in a control or a control just does not exist, uh we need to identify those and develop the severity of those findings. Uh those can be as much as a material weakness which is something material either has gone undetected or could go undetected without the control working properly. Our significant deficiency being one less than a material weakness, but still important to let you know about. And I'm happy to say we did not identify any control deficiencies that we believed to be a material weakness this year and any of the deficiencies we reported to you in the previous year have been uh corrected by management. These are the list of programs that we have audited in terms of the federal and state uh thing. It has been through my review. It's just going through a second review right now and then once that is complete uh we'll be able to issue this these reports. Uh but as of now we do not have any findings to report. Um we do the drinking water uh revolving loan fund this year. Just due to the size of the program, we needed a certain coverage to to we have to test at least uh 40% of your programs. Federal transit cluster was another one we looked at on a rotational basis. Uh and then you had two state programs that were newer this year. Midtown economic development project and the motorsports grant fund capital projects uh with state monies that we tested this year. And then we also test it as you can as you start to spend down your opioid settlement funds that you receive [snorts] as part of our audit. If we come across any adjustments that we need to correct as part of the engagement of the audit, we need to make you aware of that. I'm happy to say we have no uh corrected adjustments. So there's nothing that we found as part of our audit that management had to correct because of the material nature of it uh being needed to

be corrected. this page and the next page you're going to see a number of items related to uncorrected adjustments. An uncorrected adjustment is something where we might find as part of our audit something that needs to be or should be corrected by management because it needs to be corrected but uh it's not material in nature that requires it to be corrected. Uh I will say two things about these uh entries as I go through them. Uh just to understand that these are technical accounting issues in in all these cases that I'm noting here. None of this relates to anything related to your cash dispersement, cash receipt processing. Um, this all relates to uh general accounting uh gazsby information. And then also um these are also found kind of later in the audit process and in order to make sure we could uh deliver you a financial statement before the holidays and get that issued which I will say as well just commend the finance team. you know, we issued the last financial statement due to other issues in the prior year back in May, I believe it was, and pretty much seven months later to be able to issue your next financial statement is is quite an accomplishment. So, the first one here, uh, this was a finding related to last year that just kind of rolled over into the current year and just had to do with capitalizable costs. There are certain construction costs that the city had been capitalizing for a number of years based on old policy uh that they would write off when the project was complete. Uh those costs should be written off when they're determined not to be capitalizable. And so that's just a a uncorrected adjustment not restating the financial statements because the error was not considered to be significant and found by management and reported to us as part of our engagement. Uh the second one has to do with some litigation that changes in how uh the litigation was determined to be either estimable or probable. Uh at first it was considered to be probable. Later on in the engagement it determined that it

was not as probable. So it shouldn't be recorded. It was already recorded. So we just did not uh reverse that acrruel. This first one on this page has to do again with the non-c capitalizable expenses and deals with the transit fund. This time [clears throat]

uh solid waste. there was just an error in a formula that created a small difference in the landfill liability. Landfill liabilities is about a $22 million liability. So for comparisons to 248,000 it's it's a fairly small adjustment. Um and then the capital projects fund just had a duplicative um receivable recorded to it. Next few slides are just general uh information that we need to uh confirm with you on a yearly basis. These things we've heard you've heard from me before in the previous years but things under our standards we are required annually to uh assert to you. Uh note one is the where your civic accounting policies lie. You did adopt a new standard this year. This was the compensated absences standard under the governmental accounting standards board. uh this basically uh prescribed a new way to estimate your uh compensate absences. Nothing changed as it relates to vacation acrruels and what you've done with that in the past, but there was an acrruel for sick leave uh that needed to be accounted for and that is what's more likely than not to be used in the given time of an employee uh staying at the city. Uh you do not pay out any cash on your sick leave. You just pay out you just pay them as your regular payroll on a year-to-year basis as they use the sick leave. But Gazsby still wanted you to acrewue a liability. So there is no cash flow uh effect of this, but it is a recorded of a liability based on the Gazsby standard. And that was about a $5 million adjustment from the previous year. No related party issues, nothing with any arms length transactions being of any issue as part of our audit. Nothing with a related party that we were not that we found as part of our audit that we were not already made aware of by management. There are no significant or unusual items. So significant or unusual being outside the normal course of business of the city uh that we found as part of our audit. Estimates are a critical part of any financial statement that is developed

especially for governments. Uh there's number of liabilities calculated off of them such as your pension liabilities, your other post-employment benefit liabilities, compensated absences, leases, uh your depreciable assets, accounts receivable allowance. All these estimates we looked at the inputs that management used. They were consistent with the previous years and we didn't find anything issues with any magic bias as it relates to those estimates. [snorts] Financial statements were clear, neutral and consistent. Uh we do uh have so nonattest services. So a test being audit services. So any non audit services that we perform for you all. Uh we do have a separate group within our firm that does help with the drafting of the financial statements uh and does help with some of the tax credit work that we we're doing for you. Um energy tax credit and then also uh implementation of Gazsby 101. In all cases, management takes over responsibility of all these services. They oversee the services. They make any management decisions. We are not making any decisions on management's behalf. And so that's how we can remain independent while we do these services. and we are not aware of any independence issues as it relates to us and the city counter no significant diff difficulties as part of this engagement. No disagreements with management. No consultations with uh between our audit team um outside of our audit team. Uh we received the management representation letter which is day the date of the financial statement is December 22nd. Uh no management consultation so no shopping for an opinion with outside auditors. No other findings or issues. No fraud or legal acts noted and uh no going concern noted that need to be evaluated. These three bold uh blurbs here talk about just what we uh do in our responsibility of the annual comprehensive financial report as a whole. Uh we audit the financial statements and the notes to the financial statements. uh everything else

outside of that we either give an in relation to opinion that in relation to the financial statements nothing is considered to be uh materially misstated or materially uh presented um or we provide no opinion whatsoever. Um so that's the manager discussion analysis your your statistical table and your required supplement information where we provide no opinion and then everything else in the back uh in terms of your budget and schedules and your combining and individual fund statements. We provide that in relation to opinion. There will be two new standards next year that the city will implement. It'll be gazby 103 and 104. 103 will just change a little bit how the MD the management discussion analysis reads and looks. uh giving a little bit more information about the changes year-toear. Um and then your uh enterprise funds will also look a little bit different in terms of what is defined as an operating versus non-operating or subsidy uh being presented on your income statement. And then 104 will have a little to effect on you but mostly just uh how the disclosure for capital asset roll forward looks um from what it looks like now. local government commission. We complete a data input form for the local government commission and based on the data that's entered based on your audited financial statements, they will come back and tell us if there's any financial performance indicators of concern. Uh there were no financial performance indicators of concern. So there is no letter that needs to be sent to the LGC this year. Nothing that needs to be explained. Uh you had budgeted uh tax levy within 3% of uncollected. you have a effective pre- audit uh process to avoid pervasive budget violations and no late debt service payments or debt covenant compliance issues were noted. So with that I'll open it up if anyone has any questions. Let me just make a comment. uh and we spoke I guess earlier in the week [snorts] the integrity of public

accounting has been challenged in this county due to the um issues at the school board. Uh I made this comment to you then I will make it now in public. If there's ever anything that you have concerns about, this is who you report to and you need to let us to be aware of it. Uh secondly, to my fellow council members and to the mayor, you have just had a presentation and he has told you that they found gave us an unqualified opinion. There were no major adjustments, this that and the other. But this is the type meeting that often times we just take uh yawning. But this is has been a very important presentation and that our independent auditors have just informed us that based on their audit everything looks good. And I would ask for Miss Laam when will you actually publish uh financial statements for the year? And by the way, this is the year that ended in June of last year by the way. Yes, this is uh June 2025. So, we do have a financial report and a financial statement um opinion. We are waiting for um the LGC's approval and then we will post it. Okay.

Um we would also prefer to wait until we have the grants compliance section and opinion which our auditors hope will be later this week. Um so I would say within a week to two at the most we would like to have it posted on our website. Okay. It's currently available for for you all to review. Okay. So, we will actually see year end numbers. Uh, and we all need to look at those just to be sure we we're in good shape there. But anyway, you do have that in your packet as well. Okay. Your financial statement audit with the financial statement opinion. Okay. Thank you. Anyway, Miss Miss Adams, you had a

Yes. [clears throat] Thank you, Council Member Clark. Uh, Council Member Clark and I and staff met with Mr. Dardy and them Gity and them uh last week. Um, again, as Council Member Clark has stated, it behooves all of us now to understand how important these audits are. [snorts] And I know sometimes I would go off rail and talk about timing and notifications and NOAS. It's important because the our constituents in our city look to us to be doing our due diligence to be asking questions and even if you don't have questions or understand how to ask the questions that's where you get with finance the staff uh Mr. Ralph uh Mr. Tesh and others and they'll help you understand what this means. I think as Mr. Clark said, not just here in Winston Salem, but if you put in Google accounting issues with city government for North Carolina, you'll get a list of cities. And I want to thank Miss Laam and the staff uh for doing such a great job all these years. You know, it doesn't mean that we're perfect. And even with the uh technology issue we had last year, year before last, was it 24 25? It seems like we this 26 has got me all messed up. Anyway, but uh thank you guys for putting in all of the time. Thank uh it wasn't easy. Thank you for you and your organization working with us to to close and everything and we appreciate it very very much. again to my colleagues and uh as city employees and citizens, please go read the financials.

When your city or business or company that you work for post their financials, their statements, their audit findings, it is important that you read it. Again, if you don't understand it, you need to ask somebody. Again, thank you so much for everything that you and your company do for us. Thank you. [snorts] [snorts]

I think. Okay, that's all for that item, I believe. Pardon me. Uh, well, now city clerk, please read number two. Resolution approving a new Microsoft enterprise agreement with SHI International Corporation. You have the floor, Tom.

Good afternoon, Chairman Clark, Mayor Joins, Mayor Proton Banners, members of the council. You hear me? Okay. Uh, I'm Tom Caresca, CIO and director of the IT department. And the item I want to talk about today and and request your approval is the renewal of a three-year enterprise agreement with Microsoft Corporation. Um, we have typically, we've been doing this since 2008. This is, I think, the seventh time I've been up here. And we do a three-year agreements. Uh, there's cost savings obviously through the multi-year. And it helps manage our licenses and it also helps ensure continuous services over those three years. Um, I know you have a lot, but it we have a lot I want to share with you. I think it's important you understand this is a big contract, a lot of pennies. Um um we uh we use these services for a variety of purposes. We have our data center, all our servers and storage and databases are licensed through these contract. All our desktops are all 25 or sound city employees. All our business applications use it. We use our services in the cloud. We use it for our outlook and our email hold and discovery. So it's used for a lot of various business needs. I'll try to give a good sense of that. Um the current contract expires on February 28th and if we if we approve this we would start the new license on March 1st. Uh I do want to mention we will be purchasing this agreement or executing the contract with SHI International. They are a um third party MWB firm here in the state. Actually they have an office right down the street and they have been awarded the state contract for Microsoft products. Uh the estimated cost for the 3-year agreement is 3.9 million. I know you have these numbers. First year, which would start March 1st, is uh not to exceed 1.18 million. Second year is estimated at 1.2 and the third year 1

point a little below 1.5. And the second three years are estimated because if we add a lot of employees just to attract employees, they will fluctuate. But the total cost is just a shade below 4 million for the um four three years. The first year would be financed through funds in our current 2526 IT budget. Second year, we have put requested funds in our submission to the manager and the budget office for next year's budget. Uh if I could just take a few minutes telling you what's in this contract, not all four pages, lot it's big contract, one of our biggest, but I think it's important to show you at least the breath of it. We currently today have this things I'm going to talk about. we have today. We're just going to continue, but I want to share them real quick. So, we have 250 licenses for all our data center servers and both data centers. That includes free use of uh development test servers. We have 10 what's called SQL licenses which runs all our databases to our data centers. We get credits for using storage and servers up in the Microsoft cloud, Azure cloud. We're starting to move more and more systems to the cloud. Um, we have 1310 employees. Uh, Microsoft calls them F5 employees or they're field workers. They typically not they're not in an office. They log in through a punch clock. They're using the skinny down version of Outlook that you all use. Uh, of those 1300, I do want to mention with the new agreement, we'd be buying more space for 400 of those folks. Um, which is a good problem because quite frankly, 400 are using Outlook and email so much they're running out of space. That's a good problem. Our employees are using the tools. We have 1630 say office employees. That's all the other departments including PD and fire. And those licenses include the Outlook you run in your desktop, the Microsoft Teams, Word, you know, Excel, PowerPoint, tools like that. And we

currently have 30 project manager licenses across departments, 77 Vizio, 17 development tools. And all city employees today have access to Microsoft's AI solution. It's called Co-Pilot Chat. So that's their base AI tool that all city employees can use today. So what's new? What are we adding for the the price increase? Uh we will be buying 250 it's called uh M365 co-pilot add-ons. These are those base AI tools beefed up to allow some of our folks to do more AI uh programming. All our office workers have full access to PowerBI which is uh let's say spreadsheet on steroids you know data analytics and dashboards etc. All our field employees will have access to those dashboards. uh eiscocovery solution. We work closely with the attorney's office on the foyer request. We we get them weekly, sometimes daily. Uh we will be getting a new beefed up tool that's driven by AI to help with those searches. And I mean that's some like uh show me all emails that Tom Kusker received in the last year that has the word data center in it. We might give Camille and her staff 1,200 emails to go through and redact. So these tools will help with that tremendously. Uh, another item we're getting new is we we have a product called Intune today. If you have an issue at your desk in this building at your network, you can call off a service desk and they'll help you. They'll say, "I want to log in." And they'll look at your PC. Well, with this new tools, we'll be able to do that remotely for your laptops, your iPads, and iPhones. So if you're sitting at the beach or in Phoenix at a conference, our staff will be able to through the internet now, take take hold of your device wherever you may be in the world and see exactly what you're seeing and troubleshoot and that helps a lot with remote support. Along with that, we'll be able to install applications

remotely. So, if uh uh our manager is in at a conference in Phoenix and he's running our financial system FMS and it's scragged up on his laptop, we'll be able to literally reinstall that on his device as he's in Phoenix and we're sitting in our office. So, a lot of power with the remote devices and a lot of our staff are out in the field nowadays. Um, I will mention that there is a there are some tools that we have today that we will get rid of, disable and throw away cost because with this new Microsoft suite, we'll be able to get rid of some existing tools. [sighs] I'd like to give you a dollar amount that we'll save by getting rid of those tools. I I really can't give you a a definite number until we start using the tools, but I feel very safe in saying it'll probably be at least $50,000, could be maybe $100,000 at least that we'll throw away of the existing tool. Not throw away, save with existing tools. Um, last thing I'll mention is again the quotes probably four pages. I've used the term cyber a lot on security. Um, there are several tools we'll be getting used for staff to use for cyber analytics. Um, I did not list them in your consult action form because there are so many and and quite frankly we don't want to tell bad people what tools we're using. So I said a lot and I apologize. I know it's a big contract and I will answer any questions to the best of my ability.

Miss Adam, [clears throat] thank you Mr. Cares. You and your staff as well. uh these types of changes and updates uh with what we know now about AI and cloud. How uh [clears throat] how do you feel about the training of our employees? Has have all of them been trained on this? Have they been educated? Are they comfortable? Uh is there further training if they're not? You know,

um great question. Thank you. And I didn't ask you to ask, but I'm glad you did. So, Microsoft offers co-pilot chat to our employees and the answer is no and lot not many are trained. Uh, we are working right now this actually last several weeks with Microsoft and they got a what's called a co-pilot launch program and it's basically a training awareness marketing wherever it is to get your employee population aware of the tools, how to use the tools and we will be working with them and our staff as needed. If we have to visit departments and do demos, we will. But yes, that's a chance to take advantage of these tools that we're getting and and that's on our active work plan right now. So, thank you.

When these employees are trained or go through this seminar, uh it's basically checked off, certified and entered into their employee record.

Yeah, there will be some certification kind of test for sure. U because we want to we want to vet employees too and as likewise we want to make sure our data is safe. So yes, and I will mention the Microsoft AI program. One thing that's great about is uh if you run an AI script and you say whatever, show me all emails from Mayor Joins and the Microsoft does not share that data with other competitors. A lot of these AI companies, they share data with each other for for you know learning experience and building their library just like you know Instagram and Facebook and everything. They share all your information. Microsoft contains all our use of AI in the Microsoft data center. They don't share it. That's one reason we like it. It's it's tight and locked down.

Okay. Missio, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um Mr. Kas, I have a question. We heard not too long ago a lot of um technology requests from the police department. Does this these licenses allow them to do some of the things that they are proposing?

Yes, these license this agreement and we work very closely with PD uh grant manager and their IT director as well as their command staff. This agreement covers all PD and all fire all city employees even uh seasonal employees when you know lifeguards whatever yes public safety they've been they work very closely but we we don't [clears throat] go at this without getting their involvement we meet every Monday morning and we just met this morning they're well aware of this and we'll work closely with us as we bring in these tools thank you yep you had a question comment I have a comment thank you council member Clark Mr. Kresca, how are you? I'm doing well, Council Member.

Good. Um, I would just like to say, um, one to you and also to my colleagues that, um, I've been using C-Pilot AI recently [clears throat] and I love it. So, this is actually something that I'm really excited about. Um, happy to know that city employees are already using this. So, this is something that continues on and um, also is amplified um, with some of the other things that are coming out with co-pilot pilot AI. But I'm really excited about this and and glad that you all are continuing the um contract with uh Microsoft. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Tom, great job on pulling all this together here. Um I'm very pleased to hear the enhancements to our cyber protection there. You feel pretty good about where we're at now with with these additions.

I do. I do. you know, um, if I had to walk out on the street and talk to one of my neighbors as not only your CEO, but as a taxpayer, I feel very comfortable telling them what we're doing. And I, again, I know this isn't cheap. You know, I I joke this isn't pennies, it's dollars, but I feel good. Um, I feel good today where we are versus what happened on December 26 of, 2024. But these tools will just take us a whole level higher. And I do feel good about it. And I'm as your CIO, you think I'd be always pushing technology. I I've got to find that middle point in my role because of security and innovation security. So I I always look for the sweet spot and I think we're in a sweet spot right now. Good. Thank you, Tom.

You're welcome. We need to approve this. Do we need to do as a committee or a committee the whole? I never can figure this out. Since you're in the committee the whole, everybody can vote, but and we'll still go to regular council meetings. Everybody can vote. Can I get a motion to approve? I move to approve adoption of the resolution to approve the contract with SHI International Corp for Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. Second. We have a motion to second. Are we voting verbally or by computer? Okay, it should be on your screen. [clears throat and cough]

That is approved. And that's all. Thank you all for your consideration and support. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We'll now go to the public works committee and I recognize council member Burke. [snorts] Thank you, mayor. Good afternoon, everyone. We have one item. Uh, city clerk, would you read item number one, please? Resolution authorizing agreement with North Carolina Department of Transportation for Greenwayfinding Signage Project. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Fansler. Thank you for presenting this item.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tim, Adams, members of the committee and council. Appreciate your time this afternoon. And I'll I'll say as we kind of kick this this item off is I appreciate your continued support for helping letting staff kind of embark on some of our improvements, some of our adopted master plans because the item before you is really consideration of agreement with NC DOT for the implementation of a greenway wayfinding program. This was a key recommendation from our 2019 bicycle master plan. And so staff went out and I'll highlight the great work from Ben Wilbur who's with us today, our bicycle and pedestrian coordinator because he really kind of spearheaded some work with a consultant to identify where we need to improve the way finding for our greenway system. So very simply put, this item before you is consideration of a greenway uh an agreement with NC DOT for some funding that our department applied for through the CMAC program that would fund greenway wayfinding signs along our greenway system. So the financial summary is really a total project of about 640,000 that is an 8020 split about 512,000 would be the federal grant portion of that and 128,000 uh being from our local required match that we have worked with the budget office to appropriate. I'm happy that you see on the screen there kind of what as we work with the consultant what this system will look like. you see a lot of different types of signs and one of the key components of this analysis was identifying where each type of sign should go based on the significance of its location. So I'll save you the the kind of the science behind that. Just know this is a very comprehensive treatment that will have everything from mile markers to very intense monument signs that will really enhance the experience along the greenway system. So, in all, we're asking for consideration of uh this 2019 bicycle plan, master uh master bicycle plan recommendation, an agreement with NC DOT that allows us to the funding uh needed to do a purchase and installation contract to install these signs along our greenway system. So, with that, I'll pause and happy to take any questions.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Fancler? Council member Cypio, thank you very much. [clears throat] you know, being able to find your way around is is critical for uh everything. But what I was noticing was that the exhibit, the signage um looks almost similar to our parks and wreck signs. Uh I assume that was due by design because most of this will go through some of our parks. So, are they uh close enough that they don't they don't look tacky?

So, that that's a great question and we actually had to adopt a color palette for this, right? And so, we had some community engagement there to adopt a color scheme for this. This was where we landed, but the font and the size of the text will certainly be indicative of a more comprehensive signing package. So, you'll be able to see these and they'll stand out in my opinion a little bit uh better and largely because think about a moto user that may be on a bicycle traveling at 15 or 20 mph. They'll want to be able to navigate and see that as well. So, uh, for that user experience, you're going to see these a lot more, I think, appealing to to your to the to the users. Thank you, Council Member Andre Scott Bowen.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Uh, this is great. Thank you. Um, so I have two questions. Um, what is the after the vote and what is the timeline of getting these out to where they go? And the second part is as we add in new greenway space, is there a mechanism in place to to install new signage?

Council, I appreciate that question. Two, I think very clear answers. The good thing, and y'all hear me say all the time, is going into the design phase, which means hurry up and wait, right? Um, the good thing about this this project, it is a purchase and install contract. So, a lot of the leg work, I got to give Ben a lot of credit. He's already done that, right? And so, we we know where they're going, we know what they're going to say, we know what they look like. So, we're going to advertise that as a purchase and install. a big sign manufacturer is going to fabricate these signs and we're going to work with them to install those. And so I think within inside of 12 months, let's call it this calendar year, we expect to have this on the street to the extent that the material is available. So I'll caveat that with the with the understanding that assuming the material is available. So this this calendar year is our our plan. The second piece is as we continue building our greenway system, I think it's intent one of the key things with this study and that yielded these recommendations for where they'd go is some really some some criteria for how we build on that. And so what we have as we grow our greenway system is a set of criteria where as we expand, we could reference that criteria to see where new science could go. And I think that's a key takeaway from the analysis that allows us to expand at the staff level without having to go back out for additional study.

Any additional questions? Well, thank you, Mr. Fancler. I do believe this will enhance the experience at our greenways. Can I get a motion to approve this resolution? Move for approval. Second. [snorts] We have a motion and a second. We're ready to vote.

It passes. That concludes the public works agenda. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Burke. We'll now go to the general government committee and Mayor Pro Tim Adams. Thank you, Mayor. Uh would the clerk please read the first item? Overview of forward 2045 area plan process.

We have Miss Amyrum. Uh I know most of us and our citizens have heard about this plan. It's about like when we do we're doing the 2030 and we won the the award for the best song the jingle. So, uh, the 2045, I can tell you and staff, you guys have done a pretty good job of getting it out because when I'm meeting with people, you got you're going to get questions about 2045. So, you're doing good. Thank you. Please proceed.

Thank you, Chair Adams, members of council, Amyrum, assistant planning director. I'm here today to basically give an overview of the area plan process. Um, we have some new faces on the board who may not be familiar with this planning process that's going to take several years to complete. So, we just wanted to give an overview to inform you about the different stages and how these work in our grand scheme of planning and and different plans. To start off, a quick history lesson on how we've been doing area plans in the planning department. We've been doing area plans since the 1980s. Um and in the 80s and 90s they were very specific um either areas, neighborhoods, corridors. Um they did not cover the entire city or county. Um and we sort of moved away from that in the 2000s after the adoption of the legacy comprehensive plan in 2001. And the goal with that was to create a proposed land use map um really for the city and also to create parcel specific recommendations. Um, and this went over the city and parts of the county. Um, and then looking into early 2010s, we did what was called, uh, the rural area plans, and this was for growth management area five, which are rural areas out in the county. So, it doesn't impact you, but it will come into play here um, in a bit. Um, these did not provide parcel specific recommendations. They were very broadbrush uh, recommendations for rural areas. There was two of them. the northeast rural policy area which is up around uh Blues Lake, north of Kernerville, east of Rural Hall up in that area and the western rural area is sort of west of Lewisville and Clemens along the Yakun River. So those were were done in 2010 and 2012. And then in 2012, the legacy 2030 update comprehensive plan was adopted. And so with that adoption, we redid the

comprehensive [clears throat] plan, the area plans um that we had in place. We updated those to be consistent with the legacy 2030 update and they look very similar to what was done in the early 2000s. Same information, just really an updated recommendations. And those are what you've been using and will continue to use until the new area plans are in place. And then we moved in to do some corridor interchange plans. We had the Peter 3 Parkway corridor plan, the Whitaker Park strategic plan, um the rail drive interchange plan. Those were all done in the late 2010s up until the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Um when we wrapped those up, those were very much design based plans. They did not make any sort of land use recommendation at all. And then after those were done, we really went into 42045 and that took a number of years to um complete and have adopted. And it's been adopted by both y'all and the county. So it now acts as our comprehensive plan. So it is the broadbased um planning document for both the city and county. And so for 2045 creates those high level really broad recommendations regarding future land use and development. they're very high level and then we sort of start to funnel down um and how we implement that area plans are one way we implement those broad recommendations and also UDO text amendments on a side note we're working on a number of those right now so you'll probably start to see some of those coming in the future but area plans are one way that we sort of implement the broad goals of for 2045 um they do create parcel specific land use recommendations that help guide resoning requests and development proposals. And so you'll see that if you look at a a reasonzoning request in our staff reports, it'll tell you the area plan that it's in and what it recommends and and those sorts of things. One thing, and I really want to

stress this, is that area plans do not change the zoning of a parcel. They are a recommendation only. So property owners, no matter what the area plan says, they can still use their property per the zoning of it. Um, it really only those recommendations only come into play when that property owner wants to use it for something else or they sell it to a developer who wants to do something other than what it's legally allowed to be used for. So, a quick overview on the new uh set of plans. So, these will be a new series of area plans. They will not be an update to the update. They will be brand new. They will have a slightly different format and a slightly different process than what we've done in the past. One key factor here is that they will cover every parcel under Winston Salem and Foresight County zoning jurisdictions. If you remember those rule policy areas, they do not have a parcel specific uh land use recommendation for those. And when I show you the map, you'll be able to see a little bit better, but it's coming into play for us as development sort of expands out along Lewisville and Clemens along Lewisville Clemens Road there. That's an issue, but also with the interchange in the new beltway. Um, and I'll show you this on the map because it's a lot easier to see, but there's areas just north of the beltway that currently do not have a parcel specific recommendation, which will be an area an issue once we start getting more and more development pressure out there. Um, they will be shorter, very similar to Ford 2045 and that there'll be less text, more graphics, people are much more graphic f focused, visually focused, and some fewer maps. Um, we just found that either some maps were redundant and unnecessary or we could combine maps again really cons consolidating the plan and making it much more user friendly and digestible for folks. A key difference from what the past has been, it will focus solely on land use recommendations. Um in past

area plans we've had we've sort of taken the recommendations um from just fans uh uh house there with the um comprehensive transportation plan and metropolitan transportation plan and the bicycle plan and pedestrian plan and greenway plan and the park plan and all these things and we sort of reiterate those in those in the area plan process. We won't be doing that this time. These are really much documents about land use. So, we really want to look focus on what's in the plan is the land use because that's how they're used. Um, we will be looking at those other plans when making our recommendations. Um, but we just won't be sort of regurgitating that information, those recommendations because it be it becomes overwhelming and it gives a false sense to the public that this process is a process by which they can start making transportation recommendations and this really isn't. Um, so we would just want to make those sort of clear for everyone. So talking about the public outreach process, we're still looking at having three, four, maybe five if necessary meetings with the public. The format will be different because again it will be focused solely on land use. The first meeting um will be presentation plus some input followed by different meetings related to um land use specifically. We will be doing stations with maps and have people, you know, get down and and start you putting dots on maps, writing on maps, really looking focused on that geography there and also have questions similar what we did with Ford 2045 and that they were dot questions or this or that type of questions or open-ended post-it note questions so that we can really get people's input that way. It's a good way for us to one get quantifiable data on how people responded, but also to get responses in the participants own words instead of planning staff having to sort of summarize or um sort of talk about well our our

impression was this. Now we actually have real quantifiable data and and uh residents own words which is helpful. There will be an online survey. It'll be through Metroquest, which is the exact same platform that we use with forward 2045. Um, and the questions will mirror exactly what as close as possible what was asked during the public meetings. Um, so that way if if folks can't make a meeting, they can provide very similar information and we can look at those together um because they'll match. And we'll also still try to have meetings within the planning area or as close to planning area as possible. So, as I mentioned, this is sort of the outreach and adoption process. So, the first meeting we're looking at, you know, just straight introduction of the process, some map exercises, and some open-ended or pointed questions, general. Um, meeting two, we'll start looking at those initial proposed recommendations broadly regarding land use. Meeting three, we'll start getting into those very specific areas, namely our activity centers. It says slookas up there, which I'm sure everyone knows what slookas are. Um, but there are special land use consideration areas. Um, and then interchanges. Um, just any area that's really we need some really detailed conversations on. And then the fourth meeting would be the draft plan recommendations that people can overview. Again, if we're in an area that that is not changing much, has not seen much change, we may be able to combine meetings two and three maybe, or if we find we need some more discussion about a particular activity center or or interchange, we can add a fifth meeting there as necessary depending on what's going on in the discussion that we have. Um the adoption process follows very much the same similar process we've had in the past u namely with 42045 where it will go to the city county planning board for public hearing then council committee then city council public hearing and then if there's

county uh property involved it'll go to the board of commissioners afterwards. We've taken a lot of initial steps um since the adoption of forward 2045 and actually before the adoption of forward 2045 to start doing our research and background. Um we've looked at pure communities and how they handle area plans and um just to let y'all know, nobody does area plans. We do like we do area plans. So um so we're sort of out on our own with that. Um, we've also looked at plan websites to see if there's anything new or revolutionary there and how we display information. We've looked at how they handle growth corridors and industrial use. We've also looked at general dimensional requirements, just real broad brush for commercial and office and industrial uses so that when we make a recommendation, it's actually a feasible recommendation for say commercial. um that the parcel itself as it's currently sized as we look at it would actually work for a commercial site and if not if we have to add extra another parcel or extra land around that does that recommendation still hold and to make that as best as we can um trying to make sure our recommendations are actually feasible recommendations and we're not having to pull in other parcels which can create problems. Um we've done some research on office to residential conversions. We held housing meetings, housing land use meetings in the fall. A lot of the information that we heard from there will be used to inform our recommendations in the area plans themselves. Um, as well as UDOT text amendments that may come um in the future. Um, and then we just sort of talked to our staff and and did some our own research. What worked in the past plans? What didn't work? What do we need? What would make us useful? You know, we talked to our land use admin staff who use these on a daily basis. what would be helpful for y'all? Those types of questions to make sure these are the most usable documents that we

have. And then we um created new area plan boundaries. Um so the new area plan boundaries, they are new. So they are not that some of them will be the same, some of them will be different, but they are new. And one thing I really want to stress is that they do not follow word boundaries. Word boundaries change with the census and they have different criteria for creating war boundaries. We looked at existing major minor third affairs, natural features, interchanges, mutable boundaries, development characteristics, all those when creating those boundaries, which aren't really factors when you think about ward boundaries. Ward boundaries are are really much more about the population. And also the area plans may um contain multiple wards or they may contain county property and they may contain city and county property. So it it um we tried our best to try to make the most sense of the area of the plans that really looked at the different um factors going in. So we didn't like we didn't want to, you know, cut a an interchange into multiple plans. That didn't [clears throat] make sense. We didn't want to split an activity center, those sorts of things. So this is probably very hard to read. Um, but these are the area plan boundaries. And another thing to to note about these, the names really don't mean a whole lot. They are really just geographic nomenclature to help guide a resident roughly to where their area plan would be. Um, and so we found that using things like east, northeast, suburban, rural, central, those things really help sort of guide the public and a developer or a property owner to the proper plan um versus saying area plan 123. And they're too large to be used as a neighborhood or a corridor. Um, so we just found that the geographic um naming

helps the best. And I don't know, I don't know if you can see this or not um without the mouse, but you can see on there um the interchange there along the top um going through Rural Hall. Ooh, yeah, there we go. Um that's the new beltway. Um and you will notice why we picked some of the top ones that we are doing first is really because of the beltway. um the beltway changes dynamics of that area dramatically and it will cause development pressure. And if you look up in the the um so the [clears throat] orange and the pink um that area and then going over to the um the pink area in the corner that those areas did not really have land use recommendations on a parcel specific basis. So it creates an issue when we start getting that development pressure from those interchanges from the beltway. We want to make sure that we have a land use parcel specific land use recommendation. So again, the first plan we will be doing is the northeast suburban area plan and that's um goes up to the county line and it will be both city and county property. Um it contains a good chunk of that beltway um and those interchanges. Um the meeting the first meeting will be January 28th. Um it'll be foresight um transportation technology center which I didn't know existed honestly but is on Patterson. Um so we will be doing that. That's a new venue for us to to utilize a new partner there. Um we've been doing existing conditions analysis um starting back in November and again it's really critical for our staff because we've had to basically create an existing land use map from scratch because um we didn't have that because it was a real policy area that northern half of this area.

Tentatively looking out um we will do rural hall and then east suburban that will get us the full um beltway and then going over and doing west southwest foresight county. That's the other rule policy area between uh Lewisville and Clemens and the Aken River where we've had a number of cases come in along Louiswisville Clemens Road that does not have a land use recommendation and has created issues for us going forward. So we want to sort of address those key main areas first out the gate. As to what we go on beyond that, we still need to have discussions as to what follows. But that's the next two years of area plans. It'll take uh probably six or so years to get through these. Hopefully once we get a first couple through, we can start going a little quicker with them, but right now we're looking at doing two a year. And that's all I have. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Again, thank you so much. Um I really think again back in the day, we didn't some of us did we didn't have a beltway.

Yeah. And we knew what 15 16 years ago that everybody had a beltway but Winston Salem area. And we knew that if we didn't get one, we would never be able to develop or grow our city or the county or businesses, anything. And even though uh people are surprised when they ride 52 north and 65 and 50, you know, going back 74 uh east that housing development as soon as we sealed that deal, Mr. Fansler, Mr. King, Mr. Murphy on the beltway and mayor Allan Jones Clark we hadn't even bought the houses yet from the people that had the houses that had us hostage for like 20 years.

So once that was done if you come on the north side of 52 King housing started going up like overnight and people were like why are they building those houses over there? because the beltway is coming. Uh, Council Member Burke in your ward, Walker Town, your Pace Center, your apartments, get right off Walker Town Road. People want to be able to get on, get off, go to Greensboro, wherever they're going. [snorts] And I think this plan will ultimately define who we are and what we become in the next 15 to 20 years. this plan because we didn't have the beltway.

Now we have the beltway and have the updates to 52 which becomes 74 or is it 74. So we're on our way. Any questions or comments? Council member Cypio. Council member Noberg. Okay. Council member Cypio. Council member Joiner. Thank you, Mayor Chair. Um Miss Crum, thank you for this great plan. You know, always having a plan we're going to follow is always good. Uh so it's great. Um had two concerns. Um this is a plan that you said was going to focus on land use,

but we will overlay the other plans that we have like transportation, the bike and pedestrians. When people come to see that, they'll see where those things are. Yeah. We'll go forward.

Yeah. There will still be in the in current area plans there's a I think we call community facilities or community amenities map where we can see where different things are. Um we just won't include all the text that sort of thing but yes the map of showing where everything is but the text just won't be there where we had pages and pages about transportation recommendations and that kind of thing which really was just a regurgitation of what's in the um CDP and MTP which are brand new. Um so we will we do have um our both the city's planning department website has information about the area [clears throat] plans and as well as the for 2045 website has information there's more information on area plans and we do include links directly to those plans like here's where you find that information and that's one of the things we're looking at at the meetings themselves to say you know if you got a question about sidewalks here's the correct person you need to speak with and or or what have you. So, we have that information available to the to individuals. And my second concern is um or recommendation is that I think it would behoove us to be intentional about including the voices of our young people and our young adults because this plan is about 20 years from now and hopefully they're going to be our dominant residents. and to get their input now, what they see they that they might want would be great. So, I hope we're going to do something intentional to get our high schoolers voices involved and our college students that are are here. That's just significant groups that I just hope we'll be intentional about including their visions for the city and that.

Yes. Thank you, [clears throat] C. Joiner. Council joiner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, two questions or concerns. Um, you talked about the plan, the vision, the use going forward versus what the owner or of the property might be doing with it. Now if those two things are adverse to each other, does that property owner have any way of continuing or doing what some balance of what they want with their own property?

They can long under zoning. So it doesn't change the zoning. And for anybody who's watching who doesn't know what zoning is, it's the it's the legal um sort of framework by which land can be used. So it dictates can it be used for a commercial entity or an office or residential and then things like height and setbacks and parking calculations and and things like that. So let's just I'm just going to an example would be let's say you have a property that's currently zoned for office and you're a property owner and you want [clears throat] to keep it as office and you've been using it as office. No matter what's in the plan, you continue to use it as office. Um, but if the plan says we should take this office recommendation and make it for multif family residential, I'm just spitballing here. Um, unless the property owner decides to one develop redevelop their site for multif family or something other or sell it to someone who wants to redevelopment for something other than office that the area plan recommendation has no bearing whatsoever. It's only when it comes in for either if it's a vacant parcel for development other than what they're allowed underneath their zoning or for redevelopment. So the onus is always on that property owner to say I want to do something different than what I'm legally allowed to do or I want to sell it to someone who wants to do something different than legally allowed to do. That's when that area plan recommendation comes into play. Otherwise it otherwise the property owner can continue to use their property or they can redevelopment if they're like well my office is too small I want a different office I want a big they can they can [clears throat] continue to use it as an office any or redevelopment as a different office or use it for something that's allowed underneath that zoning district. So um there are multiple uses allowed within different zoning districts. So

thank you. The other question is within the outreach process, you said three to four maybe five meetings if needed. Over what period of time would each area get that time? So the meetings were roughly a month apart. Okay. Um so and again this this was our first one. We're doing things a little bit differently. So, we're kind of like, okay, it may tweak a bit because we get in there and like what we thought would work doesn't really work or no, we need more time. But really, right now, they're scheduled a month apart and that's what we would continue to to aim for based off availability and timing. It would be about roughly a month between meetings.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, chair. Any more questions or comments? Is this this is just an overview for information. Thank you, Miss Cro. Thank you. City clerk, please read the next item. Update on homelessness initiatives. Miss Floyd and Dr. Wright Laneir will chime in as needed.

Good afternoon, Sherica Floyd, Neighborhood Services. This is the um second part of our presentation that was started in October of last year. Um so we talked a little bit about um homeless services here locally and what um the funding in the beginning. Now we're going over what we have done um in the last year. Um so we brought back Project Homeless Connect. Project Homeless Connect is a one-day event that brings services to those who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness in one location. Um this year we did it at um you across from Salvation Army so union Baptist and we were able to provide services um a lot of the agencies came out city staff were there as well DJ food services all in one location. Um this is the second event we have had um since 200 I want to say nine is when it had ended and we brought this back to bring services in one location. Um we increased our city and county partnership. So, um, the county gave out $181,000 in local agency funds for shelter operations, including the winter shelter project. Um, county commissioner, Commissioner Woodbury joined the commission on any homelessness board, and county appointed four individuals on the commission on ending homelessness board. Um, we also increased our partnership with directors of public health, community, economic development, and social services. Um they provided staff to help manage the homeless caucus on behalf of the city and the COC. Um they also provided ongoing assistance with events and needs for the community such as providing supplies and volunteers for the point in time count. I'm at Project Homeless Connect. They gave out flu shots suppliers and also provided volunteers um for the winter shelter. They are doing flu shots in the morning for individuals who are standing in the winter shelter that are interested. as well as we are leasing the NX2 building on Highland Avenue um

for winter shelter operations and then um day center or one-stop conversation. So those conversations have started around how we can partner better together to bring services um in one location. Thank you. I have a question you know for you Miss Dr. Right. Lir the city manager. The 181,194. That's just from the county. Was it the county and the city together? That's just county funding.

Just county. And somewhere if you guys could let us know in the next communication how much uh we contribute before the next meeting. Uh, county commissioner represented on the commission on end ending homelessness is comm county commissioner Woodbury and county appointments of four. Do we have appointments on the city council? Do we have appointments on this commission? Mayor, city um our city council member Joiner has been um a daily part of and is appointed to our commission on ending homelessness and then um we do have city staff myself that um also assists with that group. Okay, thank you.

You're welcome. Um and then there has been an increase in attendance at all of the team of care meetings and in any initiatives that we have brought forth by county staff to partner to work better together. Um our winter shelter. So our renter shelter opened the Monday before thanks the Wednesday before Thanksgiving this year last year. Um the winter shelter we have annex 2 which is the overflow shelter with 35 beds for men. We have St. Timothy. We have dwelling um Calvary Moravian which is for families and then we have new story overflow which is for men as well. Um as of January 4th 75 women and 167 men were served. And um we did do something different this year. These are the cotss that the city supplied to utilize in these winter shelters. Um beforehand there were mats that were provided. So this year we did provide cotss um to be utilized in a winter shelter.

Is is this number lower or higher from last year? I can check. Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Um so other things we have done, we have revamped our coordinated entry system. The coordinated entry system is the front door. um how you get into homeless services or how you access those services. So that front door system was revamped. The original um contract holder was United Way when they decided to pull out last year the city along with Citywood Dwellings and Family Services filled in that gap. So um what we did was we started to provide inservice locations at the Dream Center and at Citywood Dwellings. Um there is city staff located at the dream center and then there is city with dwellings that does their even their um walk-in hours. We um look to provide more ways to connect to services. So whether that's in person, phone, email or through a website. We also did more marketing of the COC with events such as project homeless connect. Um we have our monthly events connections over coffee. And then we started to increase our sponsors and local partnerships. So meeting with people and businesses in the community to build those relationships. um a revision of our prioritization policy. So we used to have a um intake where it would collect numbers. So it was a number based. So if you scored 25 points, you were placed at the top of a list to be connected to housing. Now we are increasing connections to resources and case management. So trying to house a lot of people instead of um without with the limited funding that we have through partnerships. Um we have also utilized where we your length of time homelessness homeless is where it places you as a prioritization. So that decreases wait time and increase the number of people served who are long-term homeless. And then we created a light touch assistance program. So if you become homeless and you only need security deposit or if you only need um just that assistance looking for a unit, we now have a city case manager who assists with that light touch assistance program. So, those are the individuals who don't need that long-term case

management that keeps them from having to wait in the system for long periods of time to be connected to a program. Um, 24/7 call center contract. So, we did do a contract with NC211 to provide call center and resource connection. So, they do already provide 247 call center, but this gives them access to our HMIS system and allow them to record record real-time data information from the call center. Um, this also connects them to our 911 dispatch team where they're able to connect with 911 dispatch and bear team to assist individuals after the 5:00 when um staff have already gone home. We have increased our training, increased membership and participation. So um we have re-educated individuals within the CLC um on different things such as FMR versus rent reasonleness. Um this allowed the difference is that with FMR there's a set amount with rent reasons we are able to increase the amount that we pay to landlords allowing us to access more units. Um progressive engagement so we have created time limits and requirements for individuals while they are in housing. We have advocated for housing first policies and provided trauma-informed care. We have great done a great job at increasing our membership. So we brought in different local religious organizations um Goodwill, Novant Health, Bin Properties as well as um forite county department of social services into that membership and we have increased participation at our full team of care council meetings and increased participation by creating action groups for each sector of our work. This allows us to focus on each sector throughout the year than taking instead of taking a piece of it at a time. um our current needs. Even though um we have done all of this, we still have needs within the system. There still was the wage study that was done in 2022 that shows 60% of the frontline staff earn below the living wage. So finding ways to increase the funding to increase the pay for staff. Um we still need to

increase and develop interim housing. So, shelter shelter opportunities for families and single women is still very limited as well as um non- congregate shelter options for those with high barriers such as mental health. Um supportive services, so finding ways to provide additional mental health and substance abuse services and increase those wraparound services for people when they are in housing. Um our affordable housing opportunities. So, we do have shelter beds. However, since it is limited, just finding affordable housing options where we can place people into housing once they are in shelter or once we meet them and they are ready to go into housing off the streets. So, um been able to utilize our housing choice vouchers and rapid rehousing rental assistance funds. Um especially for individuals who are making at or below 80%. And then housing retention. So, finding a way to keep people from coming into a system. it's easier to keep people housed rather than for them to fall out of housing and have to um place them back into housing. So, if something happens, been able to have prevention money that um allows us to keep people housed. And then what do we still need? Um what we're looking at has been master leasing. So, um, master leasing allows a nonprofit or a local government to lease a building of units at one period of time, and it allows us to master tenant and place tenants in those units while paying the landlord or having the landlord pay directly in rental assistance. It allows us to house quickly um without waiting for affordable housing options and taking case management staff to look for these affordable housing options for the funding that we have. Um we have also looked at rehabbing existent city own properties or purchasing and rehabbing properties for for sale. So um taking abandoned units or um things like that and rehabbing them for rental properties. And then this is just a picture of Burton Street. Um this is in the

northwest ward where we are currently doing renovations for housing. North I am sorry. This is in the north board where we are currently doing renovations for permanent supportive housing. Um this would be 10 units and then we have a multifamily investment properties. So this allows a landlord to keep ownership of their property while we renovate the property. Um, and then it allows us to kind of again master lease that property since we did do those renovations for a number of years and be able to assign case managers to individuals that are going to those apartments and it allows us to rapidly house people again. Um, conversion conversion of commercial spaces. So, taking large um warehouses or other underused areas and creating spaces um sometimes be more like bachelor pads or things of that nature. can sometimes be cheaper than building from ground up. And then cottage homes. So this is um Eden Village in Wilmington. So this is a project that we have been watching closely where they took an abandoned mobile home park and placed these 400 square foot um RVs.

I want one to create. And so this is another costefficient way. This is what we've been talking about for 15 16 years. And with an aging population along with homelessness, along with people's incomes being not so uh affordable that this is the way to go and it doesn't take like we already knew two three years to build the project. It can be done in a matter of months. Mhm.

Uh I would hope that our housing uh department again starts to look at this either whether we start with the homeless uh issue or we start with senior housing which we know we can apply for tax credits to get it. If we can just find somewhere to do this, I'm I'm telling you there are there's populations of people that are ready for smaller houses, more efficient as it says. you know, you don't have to give the utility companies $1,000 a month for a gas bill when it's cold like it is now. But, uh, I look forward as as Dr. Lenir right knows, right? Lenir knows, I have been talking to her and, uh, where's Miss There she is back there. Mlima and you, this is what this is the next for us, I think, would would get us money readily. We're going to DC in March to lobby at congressional cities and it would be great again and I know the city manager and we got the retreat and we're going to put together a more succinct uh legislative package of our ask and expectations. But I do believe we could get funding for a project like this even if it's a prototype launch. Sorry, Miss Floyd. you can go ahead because you know how excited I get about the little houses

and then additional services for the unsheltered. So providing those basic need services such as shower, food and laundry. Um kind of meeting them where they are so that we can move on to those housing conversations while also providing those basic needs services. And then another project that we've um looked at is a Tampa project. So this project is in Tampa, Florida. There is two different versions of this that is working very well well there in East Tampa. Um it's a former warehouse in East Tampa that houses 300 to 350 individuals at a time on a 10 acre lot. Um there is a gradual process of where individuals start in a tent and then they are able to move to pallets and then into housing. So this allows them um to get case management, supportive services and housing all in one location. Um, similar to transitional housing, um, it is designed with dining space, showers, storage, and case management services. Um, it also has, um, 24/7 staffing, security, and service delivery. So, um, this is one of the projects that we are looking to bring forth as well.

I like that. Any questions or comments? I see council member Joiner, Andre Bowen, and then council member Cypia, and council member Hall. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Miss Floyd. Um, a lot of information, a lot of good information, and a lot of uh eyeopening information, I believe. Um, one thing you didn't touch on, um, public restrooms. Yes. Have we done any research on how we can get some public restrooms on the streets in the streets?

So we did hold a community meeting with individuals who are experiencing homelessness myself and um our um angel right lineer. So in that meeting there was a conversation around the need for public bathrooms and transportation. So that is something that has been brought forth the need for public restrooms because when they are out there there is nowhere to utilize restrooms which does cause issues with them um using places they should not be using the bathroom. So there has been conversations um from that meeting that we had about what can be done. I would uh suggest we do a little more research with what Asheville has done with public restrooms and having them um readily available in the downtown area. The other thing is um the uh tiny houses cuz I I am so much like Mayor Pro Tim. I am all about tiny houses for homeless, for just moderate income, the low income to just better use of space because we have too many too many material things and not enough um finances to keep a roof over our heads sometimes unfortunately. Um how much space do you need to put up uh tiny homes? So the ones that we have looked at um are 400 square ft. Um we have also looked at um they some that fold down to 18 in. So there are different ones that we have options for. Um I could definitely provide you more information on some ones that we had come out as well to um just do a demo of what can be possible.

Okay. And my last thing, last year we had uh uh information um about some collapsables that could be in in place for um one day less than 6 months and then be moved somewhere else um which would hold anywhere from 1 to two individuals per house. How have we moved forward with that? And is that still something we're um looking at doing before this time next year?

I am hoping that it definitely will be before this time next year. Um we are looking at expanding it into something similar to Tampa Hope project. So not only having those um fold down units, but creating somewhat of a program instead. So having something that's gradually um done as well as having the case management, the um community services site or the community services building on site, a one-stop center, all of that happening at the same time. Thank you. Thank you for being willing to put boots on the ground and sitting in the hot seat right now. No problem. Council member Andre Boy.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. Um a couple one question and a comment. Um you had the uh some numbers of 75 women and 167 men. Um how many of those um are are children? So we have not had any children or families um attend our winter shelter this year. Okay. So we do have a dedicated location for the family shelter. Um I did reach out to Salvation Army and they have not had [clears throat] um anyone that they could send over as well. So we have not had any families. Um the last family we had was in November and that was one family.

Interesting. Thank you very much. Um so as as Mayor Pertimmer said earlier that we have our uh strategic plan meeting uh later this week and um I've read of this uh your report yesterday and I'm I have some notes that we'll kind of I hope that we can address as we move forward this week and and look at more uh pinpoint things and and be strategic about these things cuz a lot of these things are things that I I I fully support. I love the idea of of a lot of these things. So, trying to find a way to make these happen. So, I'm looking forward to having uh further discussions around this week. Thank you, Council Member Civia.

Thank you very much. Um great report. Um this [cough and clears throat] is a continuing opportunity for our community to deal with those who become unhoused and those who are chronic and those that are temporary. Um I it is important though that we also understand uh the total cost of providing that service. So I certainly agree with uh Mayor Pro Tim with getting what our contribution is as a city but there's also that piece where you have sponsors and I'm assuming they're doing inind um and that we need to monitor that so we can see the total cost that's being placed for those that we are serving. So um that would be one suggestion is to try to figure out the actual cost of providing for those who are in this situation. Um there is another um program that I hope you'll investigate too that probably has been going on a little longer than Tampa and that's the um Sacramento community, Sacramento, California. They have a very severe homeless problem and they have taken a couple of different tactics to provide for that. One is a a large pallet um area. Um, and then, uh, I'm going to send you, um, I think, uh, brochures on a couple of other options to the pallet homes that council member Joanna and I, uh, looked at at our national leagues in um, Utah. There are there are a lot of different options for us to consider and

[clears throat] but I think that this is a continuing issue. um temporary housing and transitional housing are both issues that we've got to get a grasp on. So, thank you so much and um please stay healthy uh and continue your passion in this area. It's it's not an easy job that you're doing. Um and keep motivating all of those who are in the continuum of a care that you do so well. Thank you.

Thank you. Um the with the budget in the October meeting there was a budget breakdown um that showed the comparison of how much federal funding how much funding directly from local funding that and then how much funding for state that we received locally. So that is in the um presentation from October and then it's compared to about six other cities. [clears throat] So if you could kind of send that back out to this crew. So, you know, we don't do well when we got to keep filtering through information. We just need to see it. But again, thank you, Council Hall.

Thank you, Chair Adams. Uh, I had a question going back to the slide about um the revamp. We talked about light touch and I hate that I didn't get a um opportunity. Yeah. Okay. Light touch assistance program and you had mentioned that we have staff now. So, so one of the changes is that now we have staff, city staff that's able to kind of give rent assistance or something like that. Is that a part of um rapid rehousing or is that something totally different? And if you don't mind maybe telling me how one would go about that. Is it a referral from another community agency that comes into us or is that I mean I'm sure it's not somebody calling City Link and then being transferred up to the office.

It could be really. So rapid rehousing is a program that's from 0 to 24 months. So that program um before we revamped the COC, everyone was receiving 24 months of assistance. So, um, since that is not a best practice, what we did was we revamped the rapid rehousing program to provide pro progressive engagement services. So, what that means is you're meeting with this person every month and you're seeing what has been done and what can be contributed towards our housing costs and you're having those hard conversations of, okay, where have we looked for employment? Have we tried here? Um, well, I'm paying this amount this month. You're going to have to pay this. And we're giving those case management um those case management. We're giving them case management. so they can become self- sustainable. So, we're not promising 24 months anymore. We're going to start with 3 months of assistance and we're going to prepare you to become whole. So, that has changed. So, we are um ramping down the assistance and not ramping up. This allows us to assist more people and this allows for people who may have employment to they'll get a leg up, but they're not going to stay on the system for 24 months. So that light touch assistance program what it does is um instead of having to wait for a case manager if you for instance have a section 8 voucher or you have employment where you can sustain your own home but you need maybe moving cost so one month one month of assistance security deposit in first month you're able to get a referral from one of the partner agencies who are showing proof that you are homeless so they're writing a letter on your behalf saying this person is homeless I need this paid they found a unit um we don't want them waiting for a long period of time for a case manager or someone to do the paperwork. So that person, they don't have a case load. So the idea is that they are quickly able to process that paperwork and still check in as a team. They can check in with that individual via phone and um be able to process that paperwork quickly to move people in a lot faster. Um so

that pro that light touch assistance program, it is under rapid rehousing. So we carved out that 0 to 5, 0 to 3 months and we created someone that was specifically focused on people that fall in that bucket. So that way we're quickly able to house him. Thank you. And I have one additional question and well actually maybe it is a comment actually. So, um, I went to Utah for the NLC conference with Council Member Cypio and there was, um, there was an example that I really liked. I can get with you offline. Um, ACM Laneir, I can get with you about what these public restrooms are and what they look like. It's okay. um of what they look like, but I think that they were um very nice, but more importantly more suitable, particularly as we go into um next century, what we think about and what it looks like to be able to kind of have those um and not just for just whoever needs to use restroom because we all need to do that from time to time. Um so I I'll get with you all offline to be able to share that with you.

Thank you. Okay. Um the revamping of continuing of care I think was a major next step for us and getting all of the stakeholders that do the work. I'm not talking about the office mech people. That's what I call us policy people. the people that actually do the work like you and others, city of dwelling, staff, Bethesda, Samaritan that do the work that we were able to bring all of you together to understand, as you said, a lot of things that the public thought we should be doing, we can't do. It's not sustainable. And if you want to do this, then let's take a survey and and raise some more taxes. That's how this goes. Uh, Council Member Clark said we got one knob to turn. What's that? No, Council Member Clark.

Property tax.

Property taxes. Uh, I want to commend you also for uh I did talk with uh the staff at City of Dwellings. I think that the point of contact count, we need to maybe do it a little different and they seemed open to it. You know, instead of going out when it's dark, who who who we going to find in the dark? I mean, we got I know we've done it, but I said people that are unhoused, they are out in numbers in the daytime and maybe we do a 50/50 split if we do the daytime and hit all the spots, the transit center, the parks, the, you know, the places and most of us know where they are that we probably can get a better count. But it is definitely going to be important going forward with this administration [snorts] that our numbers when it come to these type numbers that we are able to advocate whether it's with our governor, our legislature, Raleigh or even the county commissioners. So, uh I know that I told them that I'm signing up. I want to do the count this year. I'm hoping that we can increase the numbers. Uh, as someone said, young people, Council Member Cypio, young people and others, so they can see upfront and close how this issue affects all of us. And it's [clears throat] not just the people who are experiencing it. But again, want to thank you, your staff, the department, Miss

One more thing.

The point in time count for this year, we are not doing the point in time count this year. So the point in time count is only required by annually. Um, we have had a large decrease in volunteers. As volunteers are getting older, we have had a large decrease in volunteers. Um, HUD does make the rules on the timing, when and how often. So, um, it does require us to do it after sundown. So, that is a HUD requirement that we um wouldn't be able to change. Um, so that was kind of one of the [clears throat] things. What we did decide to focus on a lot this year is more about education and community engagement. So instead of doing the point in time count, the COC has talked about ramping up community engagement, education around what is needed, education around what the cinema care is and um looking at how to better increase our volunteers, not only for point in time count, but for project homeless connect and also for our local COC partners throughout the year. Just [clears throat] like the census though we do the census every 10 years but we do census every year all year in different pieces. Uh I would like to discuss whether we put together our own initiative to do our own count even though it can be used for data but it can be used to explain the why to our policy makers. Uh I think we get more volunteers if cuz people don't feel safe being at night. I don't care what we do to try to make them give them all a flashlight headlight. it won't work. But I believe if we just dealt with it from a just a different perspective,

okay? You know, not saying that we got it's it's well, I'm not going to say it's it's legal. We can do that on our own without hood to be able to back up against the numbers. If we're saying when we do the count, if we got 400 plus people that are unhoused, when we know we did it a year ago in the daytime and we had over a thousand, then something is wrong. And maybe that's how we lobby Hood when we go to DC to change their policy. But again, thank you all for doing what you do. Thank you especially, like I told you, don't leave us. We've been lost without you. But thank you for everything that you do in this community to educate the community about this situation. No problem. Thank you,

Mayor Port. Yes, Mr. City Manager. Uh ju just real briefly and we they they'll get this information to you but Miss Floyd did put all this together last time and and just to give you some perspective on the numbers so so you have those as part of this and our continuum of care she was sewing over $3 million going went into that our North Carolina emergency solutions grant was a little over 200,000 emergency solutions grant which is from HUD is a little under 200,000 and our CDBG block grant going towards homelessness was a little over 300,000 So about 3.7 million of dollars going towards the homeless uh issue in the city.

Thank you, Council Member Hall.

Thank you. Um Chair Adams, I would say uh really quickly if we choose to do that, if we go that route, whether it's this year or even for a point in time next year. Um I think this past I think in 2025, Council Member Andrew Bowen wasn't there. I think it was a I think we had a council there was a there was a uh conflict with the point in time. So like I don't know how the scheduling something we were doing and so certain ones even on council if we wanted to participate we couldn't and so council [snorts] member Adams as you're getting with um Mayor Pro Tim Adams as you're getting with staff if we could at least think about that if there's a time that we can coordinate where other council members can actually go and it's not a conflict with our schedule.

Thank you. If there are no more questions, may there I That ends the general government committee. Leaving the best for last, the public safety committee with council recipio. [snorts] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Well, welcome to public safety uh in January. Um now, public safety, the fire and police emergency management is all the time. Um but we only have one item on our agenda today. Uh, so we will um have that. Madame clerk, Winston Salem Police Department, District 4, one-year progress update.

Okay. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, uh, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, city council, city staff. Afternoon.

Uh, my name is Jason Gates. I'm a captain over in our patrol division with the police department. I'm here to give you an update on district 4. I'd like to start with uh just giving a little bit of a background uh just a brief background. So, we started talking about creating this new district uh [clears throat] for district 4 back in 2023. Uh we had uh we rolled it out through a press conference um in April of 2024 and then we officially launched it and implemented it in September of 2024. So, what I what I want to do today is just talk about um some of the goals that we had set uh early on, which is just overall improved public safety uh for [clears throat] all of well downtown and then some of the surrounding neighbors uh through just deterrence of crime in general. Um building better community relationships and improved response times. So, I got a few charts here to illustrate where we're going with it. Um, this first one is a three-year comparison with the the one on my far right here would be the the most recent one since the implementation of district 4. Uh, we're trending in the right direction. I feel like um if you'll notice uh with the code one, that would be the light blue one on the left there on my left. You'll be Yeah, [snorts] my left. Um, it went up slightly by about 40 seconds if my math is correct. I'm not real sure why that happened, but the other two came down by over a minute. Either way, uh we are we feel like we're doing a fantastic job with this call response as a whole. These are amazing numbers. Uh considering the call volume that we have. Uh next is uh want to highlight improved case closure for part one and part two crimes. Uh again, we've broken it down

over the last three years. um with the one on the far right [clears throat] being the one that list right there is from uh the implementation date of district 4 up until August 31st of 2025. I've highlighted uh some of these numbers here in red. Um the top one is cleared by arrest. So I was very excited to see that number because that what that illustrates is 11.8% 8% increase in cases that were cleared by arrest. That's pretty significant we feel. Um the next one is uh closed cleared and then these are these are case closure dispositions. Um that was about a 27% increase. And then um closed non-reportable. Now what that means is that's like a a report that was written a case that was investigated. It turned out not to be a crime. So that that stayed about the same. That's to be expected. Exceptionally cleared, that one went up by about 7%. And then the inactive, that was another highlight that I wanted to point out as well. So we had a 8 12% decrease in the number of cases that were closed since the implementation of district 4 where the case was closed inactive. Um that's I feel like very significant. And also it's 8 12% increase. Uh some of that can be attributed under the cleared by arrest numbers that you see at the very top and a lot of it I feel or we feel is attributed to the real-time crime center. We have a lot of participation in in that program in the downtown area. So a lot of these cases just quite honestly are getting solved very quickly uh with with partnership with that real time crime center. the um at the bottom there, you'll see the total cause or the uh total crimes reported under part one

and part two and they stayed fairly consistent. And could the under the community engagement piece um that's just a list of some of the meetings that myself and some of the other district 4 staff attend on a regular basis. Some of them are monthly, some are bianually, some are annually. And this list is not all-incclusive. We we will have a meeting at the drop of a hat. So if somebody has a complaint, wants to meet in person, wants to do a Zoom, will absolutely do that and try and address their problems appropriately. Um, another piece for community engagement was the addition of retired Sergeant Kevin Bowers. uh he was uh made our uh downtown community liaison which is a part-time position uh after he retired in April of 2024. That was a huge loss. If any of you know Sergeant Bowers, he's uh a wealth of knowledge. He spent about half of his 28-year career serving downtown and he was willing to come back and serve in this capacity. And that's just some of the things that he does uh to help uh District 4 and the police department as a whole. Um he's been a huge proponent and a participant in the bike safe uh program of Northwest North Carolina and he still uh is big into that. He helps Miss Luly Beckles with Atrium Health to provide those classes for young children, pass out safety equipment, helmets, uh gives them all kinds of u guidance and instruction on bike safety uh building for the future. So in October of 20 2024, we sent two of our officers to the law enforcement bicycle

association. We just call it Liba instructor course. Um that was a really big deal because what that allowed us to do allows us to do now is train our own officers to um be bicycle officers. You know, it helps with our liability and it gives them some great training, great tactics on how to patrol on bicycles. Previously, we've been relying on other agencies which was spotty at best. So in order since we do have uh an auxiliary bike patrol now, we wanted to implement this program uh to to have better trained officers and it's been very successful. Um we hosted the LEA instructor course for that organization. It's based out of Texas. They asked us to be a host city this past November and and we were more than happy to do that. It gave us some great exposure. Um we had uh students all police officers from uh all over the United States and Canada. So that was a real big deal for us. And then of course there at the end I mentioned the auxiliary bike patrol already. Uh we still uh encourage our officers come out and ride while they while they uh do the augmentation work downtown and the surrounding areas. So that's been pretty well received.

[snorts]

Okay. Um, this is our current staffing levels. When we first started, we had 20 officers. So, we've increased that by four. That's one per squad. U as staffing increases. So, the number of officers assigned to downtown. We're we're slowly digging out of a hole. I know Chief Penn and some other staff have mentioned that before, but things are looking up and things are improving. So, I have no doubt that District 4 will be part of that increase. Another piece here, I was I didn't get a chance to get it into the PowerPoint, but we have uh Miss McKenzie Kates Allen. She works with our community engagement team now, and we have uh she schedules a lot of the coffee with a cop um events throughout the city. But the very next one will be directed for downtown. We're going to host it at the downtown bike patrol office at 414 North Cherry Street on February 19th. So that fits into the community engagement piece. We encourage everybody to come if they can find the time to do it between 8 and 11 that morning. Um and the final slide here u in September of this year and that was right at the year mark. we started seeing the need to adjust and we knew this from the beginning. There's from now on there's always going to be tweaking things that need to be improved upon throughout the police department particularly in District 4. And we're really always ready to accept those challenges and make changes as necessary. Um, but we recognize that West End would probably be a better fit uh for district 4 just based on its location and proximity to downtown. So, I've highlighted here in purple that particular area which is the entirety of West End was brought into district 4 and

then what's highlighted in green was taken back into district 3 and West End came from district 3. So, just a minor tweak there. the call load stayed the same, more or less the same. And uh so far it's been I feel like very successful. Um just one final thing just in the spirit of making changes and making um improvements constantly. One thing we'll do, we do changes in leadership every now and then. So, Sergeant or Captain George Jenkins will be the new District 4 captain coming up here in the next few weeks and I'll be taking his place in District 1. And I'm excited for that cuz I've been working with downtown for about 3 years now. And I think it's great to have uh new leadership, new ideas coming in. So, I'm excited for George and the department.

All right. So, any questions? We're excited to have you back in District One. Oh, thank you for that. Thank [laughter] you. Are there any questions? You know, I always have a couple. Thank you, Councilman Cypio. I just had one question on the graph, the chart where you listed the improved case closure. Yes, ma'am. I apologize. I don't know what ex what exceptionally cleared means.

Right. Yeah. I brought the the description here cuz I thought that may be a question. So exceptionally cleared means uh that's that's a case that's worked to the end. The officer knows who it knew knows who committed the crime and there could be charges taken out but circumstances prevent that. For example, the death of the offender, of course, that would prevent it. Prosecution was declined by the prosecutor's office. Um the person was in custody in another jurisdiction, it would prevent an arrest. Uh the victim refused to cooperate. That's the bulk of the ones that we see. You know, somebody's a victim and they if they're not willing to come to court, it's uh very difficult, if not impossible to prosecute. And then uh if it's a juvenile and there's no custody involved, that would be another instance when that would be exceptionally cleared.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

This is u Thank you for this update. Um, I'd like to ask Chief Penn, um, not you don't have to come forward. It's something that I'd like for us to have because, uh, when we created district 4, there was a lot of uh, discussion about how is it going to affect the other districts. So, it would be great if we could see those um that data that we've seen on district 4 for the other districts. Um because uh we we knew this was going to be a unique kind of district. But to make sure that the public knows that we also served every other area just as well, uh I think that would be advantageous. Um, I like the fact that uh you talked about the golf the golf carts patrolling downtown and I hope they have been uh very useful. It's very interesting to see them. Um,

they've been very well received by our staff and uh I think uh the public mixed mixed reactions on that, but I think overall they like seeing them. Yes, ma'am. I have a another question for you. Um, Captain Gates, um, the bike officer training and it showed that we had 28 officers certified. Does that mean they all are assigned to downtown or are they throughout the system? They can

they're throughout. Uh, so we have many members that are assigned to District 4 that are certified. I would say half of them are. And then we have uh officers that come in from other areas in the city through patrol, detectives, um wherever. And uh they have an opportunity to be get their training as well. Great. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And that's that doesn't mean that's the only ones that work it. Those are just the ones that have received the actual onee long training and we try and get everybody pushed through. We're going to try to get everybody pushed through in the first 6 months to a year.

Great. Thank you. I think it's people need to know that we our officers are trained and um they actually are trained very well as our police off um our firemen uh because uh we train people in house to be a trainer to others and therefore we save a lot of money. Uh so we are really an educational oriented public safety department city. So thank you for that. And one other request the map that we show with the boundaries changing. It's hard to see the streets that uh make up the boundaries. So, if we could get that electronic so we could read the streets. Uh, cuz I couldn't determine uh where that southern end began.

Yes, ma'am. That'll be great. Are there any concerns or comments for public safety? If not, Mr. Mayor, that's Thank you, Madam Chairman. Uh, council members did a lot of good work today. We covered four committees in two hours. That was pretty good. I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday as we begin the two-day strategic planning session. Some of the things we talked about today, Wednesday, Wednesday, I'm sorry. Uh we can come tomorrow if you want to. [laughter]

No, we start Wednesday and Thursday. Uh a lot of ideas were talked about today. Council member I mean Mayor Pro Tim talked about funding for some of our housing initiatives. One of the things I want I'm looking forward to talking about is a potential bond issue coming up that we can meet some of our capital needs in our city. Uh so without objection entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Mayor Pro Tim, second by council member Burke. All in favor of journ please say I. I. Anyone opposed? No. We are adjourned. Thank you. Well, you've done it.