City Council - Regular Meeting

We go over the capital budget. We're also going to talk about the the nonprofit allocations because they're not officially in the budget. Just for everyone's information, we we're not voting on anything at this moment. We're still taking information. We'll have a the committee will have a public hearing. Uh and at our last meeting after I pled everybody, we'll decide kind of what we want to the committee to approve and that will go forward to the full council for and that's is at the council level and I think you also have a public hearing uh Mr. Mayor

and then the council will vote on it at that time. So we're still gathering information uh learning and and seeing what's going on. And again, if you have questions, the staff will take them and they will put together answers for everyone. Uh, and we'll continue to accumulate information and data as we head towards the decision. Mr. Tash, you have the floor. Thank you, Chairman Clark, Mayor, and members of the city council. We do have both the capital plan and a community agencies discussion on our agenda. But before that, uh, we have a presentation from the CI citizens budget advisory council. We do have two of the members here uh with us and the chair Mr. Tony Piaenza will be um giving the presentation. They did spend quite a considerable amount of time looking at the resident survey data in a much more granular level uh than we are able to present at a public forum of this nature. So they have several presentations related to the information and data analysis that they have done there. And I will turn it over to Tony and allow him to go through the presentation.

Thank you sir. Yes, sir. Uh, my name is Tony Piaenza. I live at 625 Jersey Avenue here in Winston Salem. So, I'm a proud member or resident of the Northwest Ward and even prouder member of the Citizens Budget Advisory Council. Um, really appreciate uh, Mr. Mayor and uh, the rest of the council for giving us the time here to speak and to cover some of this material. Um, we've spent a lot of time, as Scott said, um, really trying to look into the data that's been available, made available to us, especially via, um, the resident survey from 2025, um, and also the city manager's proposed budget. And we have spent multiple sessions as a group um going through that data and trying to um make some recommendations that we think both reflect a the type of progress that we think the city itself should make but also the feedback that the residents gave the city so that we can um make recommendations that said city um in a direction to being able to make the their communities a better place to live, work, and play. Um I'll go through a couple of parts of our work plan. Um maybe I won't Thought I had it. There we go. Simplest things. There we go. Um, like I said, we used uh the resident survey data um and accompany analysis provided by Scott staff and his staff and others. Um, and also again the 2026 proposed budget. We spent able time reviewing that as well. Um, our recommendations take a couple of different forms. The first will be some broader um ideas, thoughts um and general recommendations. Then I'll get into some topic specific recommendations. Um try to read as much as I can. Keep myself on task. See task. I even brought my glasses today. So you know it's important. Um our first um area of recommendations was really focused on some of the trends we noticed

um in response to the survey about local businesses and business development. We also recognize some of the the realities of growth both population and economic in the city. Um, and as such, in response to the resident survey, we thought it would be not just helpful, but vital to also develop a way to survey local businesses um, in some of the communities, especially where uh, residents did give us some feedback that that increased development would really help to improve their communities. So, a a business follow-up survey we think would would really help us to better understand where some of our citizens needs are, but also the impact of um employment tax increases um and some of the other economic realities that a lot of our citizens are facing. Um so, anything that we can do to follow up on that front, we think would be invaluable both to this committee and to the city as a whole. Um connected to those however are a lot of topic specific recommendations that we think the general improvement of our local communities or it goes handinhand with some of the general improvement of our local communities. Um, our citizens have highlighted police services as an area of focus, an area of interest, and sometimes an area of concern um, in their communities. And our recommendations are that the budget incorporate um and prioritize um opportunities to yes increase police present our presence in our communities um and address some of the concerns about crime rates and specific types um of crime that they they experience in communities, but also identify and fund strategies to increase opportunities for programming targeted at city youth. um and increasing and improving facilities and community police relationships um so that we can take a more comprehensive approach to solving concerns that our citizens might have about crime. And

also we recommend additional data collection and analysis that we can really target specific types of crime or concerns that our citizens have. The city f or the survey focuses on broader strokes and we think it's really important to see what the the on the ground concerns of our citizens are in their communities. Also related to that is a common and pretty well-worn um literally and figuratively territory about public transportation, streets, sidewalks, and everyone's favorite topic, parking. Uh we do appreciate that there has been aggressive attempts to um continue to build sidewalks, improve sidewalks, um repair sidewalks, repave streets, and um put into place a new parking program citywide. Um we also know that that has thus far at least received some mixed reviews, but we also understand that these things take time and adjustment periods. So, we would encourage uh the council and other staff to follow up on feedback that we get about the parking program and perhaps then adjust or adapt accordingly once we kind of get into the swing of things. I myself just parked on the street and was able to um put in my location on the phone on my walk over. However, not everybody is as kind of adept and experienced in doing stuff like that or living on their phones in the same way that I unfortunately do. Um we also appreciate the development of additional uh WISA routes throughout the city and the development of the microtransit zones. We thought that was a vital service to um bring to different parts of the city that previously did not have those opportunities. We especially think that it's important to follow up with survey or um even anecdotal evidence from the users of those services in the next 12 to 18 months so that we can see if they're really having the impact that both the the dollars and the effort um that we've that the city has put into those opportunities.

also related to kind of community development efforts. We we saw a lot of feedback from our residents about um the types of services and housing opportunities that are available in their immediate surroundings. Um we do understand that property tax rates um have been set though are being raised and for legitimate reason but also we want to make sure that those are being set aside for affordable housing opportunities and production rehabilitation and additional services for unhoused or underhoused people throughout the city because it's a really hard sell to the people of the city to say hey we are increasing property tax rates but we are not increasing opportunity. Um and we really thought that was an important way to manifest that reality is through providing additional opportunities at afford for affordable housing. Um we also appreciate existing programs um like the transforming transforming urban residential neighborhoods program. We do recommend that we increase the availability um and eligibility of people in who would like to pursue opportunities through those programs. And we also would like to recommend that we increase the cooperation between public and private uh development opportunities for those communities. Um so that we can make sure that both we are increasing private investment in our local communities but also making sure that we are providing a foundation of public attention investment um and creation of uh public housing and of our affordable housing both to improve overall community aesthetics, right? we which we know is important but also um to make sure that our residents are able to stay in their communities and live in their communities and thrive in their communities. Um and the last recommendation on this front was also we spent a lot of time also talking about waste collection and fee increases um in our different public services. Um, as a part of our efforts to combat illegal dumping on both public and private land,

we thought it was really important to explore opportunities to increase access to either collection services or disposal services and locations. We understand that not everybody can get the materials that they need to the proper proper waste streams and that is without a doubt a contributor to um illegal dumping and we want to make sure that that is something that we consider going forward as a way to um take ownership over our own waste streams. Also related to a lot of our attempts to improve our local communities are improvements to our park and recreation services um and facilities. Um, we understand and appreciate the uh long-term and short-term maintenance schedule and the thought and research that goes into maintaining that renovation and construction schedule. However, also understand that on the ground um we are seeing constant movement and needs, desires um from the local communities and we want to make sure that that maintenance schedule and renovation schedule reflects that everchanging um set of priorities that our citizens have. Um we also understand the benefit of programming for our local communities especially youth programming in the facilities that we do have to make sure that we are maximizing uh what the facilities can actually offer to users and residents. So we encourage the development of additional uh collaborative programming development um and opportunities and also hours and access both transportation and open doors to our community's facilities so that again we can maximize what we do have in the city. Make sure that residents um in all communities and who work all different hours and all different family types can access the facilities that we do have. and near and dear to my heart as a sustainability professional is our sustainability environmental health recommendations. Um we spent a lot of time talking about this and we do

understand that this is it is a difficult um short-term year-to-year topic to cover um in budget conversations. But we do understand that we do have a lot of public infrastructure in the city and our fleet is both ever growing and ever needing maintenance. And we would like to recommend that as a part of that ongoing effort that we do at least explore alternative fuel opportunities for both our public facilities and for our fleet. Um and even more opportunities are important as a public-f facing legislative body and city management team. Um, we would like to see a more formal written policy um for the public to be able to see what our priorities are as a city about how we are going to provide more sustainable um longer term alternative fuels that also provide return on investment to our city tax dollars um and other budget expenditures. Ah, there we go. Um we did have some concerns that come out of every survey of this of this type where it's invaluable data on one hand but also we are at the you know we're beholden to response rates um and the legitimacy of a survey and proper statistics collection. Um we did recognize that especially ward level data did not have a significant enough response rate to really be able to glean some of the insights that we would like to. Um where we understand again our focus has been on local communities within our city. it's really hard to get the insights we need to without greater response rates. We encourage um the city to continue to pursue data and insights at the at the ward level so that we can really understand again what is happening on the ground with our with our citizens and our communities um so that we don't overlook kind of some essential feedback um that might not come to us in a more passive um general survey outreach type way um and also that would increase I think the interaction we have with our

citizens and also make more transparent um some of the programs and areas of focus that the city does have and at the same time might provide us opportunities I think to better communicate with our citizens about why some of their taxes are increasing. Right? We as a committee were able to spend a lot of time with the reassessment program and looking at the GIS data and some of the community level data, but not all our citizens have that same opportunity. They just see a new tax bill. um unless they really pursue a public forum or able to get to public meetings, it's often really hard to get access to that information that explains why we're paying more and not seeing necessarily an increase in services. Right? Inflation inflation is really real on the ground, but it's also really real in a budget context. We want to make sure that we are doing a good job um with community outreach on this specific topic because it is going to provide some sticker shock to some of our citizens. Um and also again as we are emphasizing opportunities for development right if that doesn't coincide with increased services sometimes those things can seem in conflict to our citizens. We want to make sure that we are communicating um what it is that we want to send out as messaging to the um broader resident body um as far as the services that they see day-to-day are concerned and the bills that they see day-to-day are concerned. So that comes the end of our presentation. Um, again, I really want to thank uh the council and the mayor for the time to to speak to y'all. And I really appreciate Scott um and others on the staff. Um, Sarah has been really and Janice have been a huge help to us as well. Um, hope this is maybe the last time I have to address this body. I'm hoping that someone like James Cena will take over for me in the near future. Not that I don't enjoy my time here, but um, I think it's really important opportunity for us to talk about some of the nitty-gritty budget details. um it takes a special type of nerd to do that um on our own time, but um I think it's been very uh time very well spent. So,

if there are any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. We also have some a very nice 26-page easy light reading um full report if you all want to get into some of the glamorous nitty-gritty of citizen budget conversation and recommendation. Um but otherwise, I will leave you with Scott for any questions you might have in the future. I would appreciate if you could send the mayor Yeah, gladly. And if there are any questions about how to access that or anything, I'm sure Scott can answer those for you. All righty.

Yes, ma'am. I think it would be great if you could give us the names of the committee members. Yes, ma'am. So we can recognize them. Um I believe they're in the report. If not, we'll make sure that they are included in the report so everyone has access to all that. We have a great great representation from across the communities across the city. So, um, a really cool group and if y'all ever want to come and talk to us, we'd love to learn more straight from the source. So, are they here today? Some of the members,

um, just me and Jame Cena, who's the vice chair, um, of the committee, and if I was running even later, she would have been the one lucky enough to be standing here. But, um, yeah, it is a working group as well. Um, we meet every Wednesday um, during the workday. So, it is not a small commitment from the the committee members. So, really appreciate the time. I think the 10 of us or so, nine of us, yeah, have put into this session and previous sessions. I think most of us have served for multiple so far.

Thank you for your service. I know it's not a meeting or two. It's a fairly extensive involvement and we appreciate it. And I think we changed it a couple years ago as opposed to just looking at the budget. You you kind of focus in on a certain area and I think that's been very very helpful because you do a deeper dive than we can. Yeah, Scott does a great job of cultivating for that, cultivating that for us and making sure that we are kind of at the tip of the spear of what is on the minds of uh of the citizens of Winston Salem. Okay, any questions, comments? Thank you very much, sir.

All right, really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. want to say thank you again to Tony and the entire group. They do uh have some great conversation and provide some really good insight to us. And so it's always good um those of us that are in the nitty-gritty and the detail. Sometimes we get stuck in kind of what we see and it's very good to have the outside agency and have residents tell us no this is what we see and so I really appreciate the insights that they provide to us uh each year. So second item on the agenda is the city's capital plan. So on Tuesday we talked about the operating uh budget and I there are a couple of of Easter eggs in there for things related to capital but we will spend uh the substantial component of today um talking about uh both what is in the FY27 budget which is the first year of the capital plan as well as the five-year planning window itself. Beyond that, you will hear me say again multiple times, as Pat said last week, we do have facility condition assessments coming. And so, we know that a lot of the prioritization that's going to take place for our future investments is beholden to the information that we will probably receive three or four months from now, uh, in the early fall. But we'll talk a little bit about the overall environment, uh the plan itself, both the budget year and the five-year window after that, and also the unfunded section uh and those types of things that we would be looking at for potential priorities uh for future bond referendum or needs in the long term. Uh so did want to start by saying um and I mentioned this on Tuesday, there is a lot that has gotten done in the community over the last 12 to 18 months. When we met in January at the strategic planning retreat, I um had a lot of information, individual projects. I'm not going to go through this list here, but these are just some examples of the types of projects that have been completed recently. And you can see the

amounts next to them. What I will say is when I query the finance system about the same time last year uh versus this year, excluding utilities projects, so excluding water and sewer and the uh landfill projects, there was more than $70 million worth of work that I could see that was completed uh in terms of having moved from either uh in design into construction or having been fully completed. So we had talked about the backlog and getting through it. There is a lot of work that is getting done. We have uh some slides here, just pictures. Uh Winston Lake Golf Course was part of the bus tour that the city council took that may have been a year or more ago at this point. Uh but a lot of work has been done at Winston Lake Golf Course. A significant number of transportation projects. So you have both the Twin City Trail uh as well as downtown street conversions uh metoark again multiple sidewalks, the Muddy Creek stream bank restoration uh stabilization project uh and a lot in terms of storm water with culvert repair um as well. So we've got some of those major projects including uh Hawthorne over by um the hospital as well. So all of that to be said is we have said we don't want to put quite as many projects into the capital plan for the last couple of years. We want to focus on getting through the backlog of open projects that we have and there is a lot that is actually getting done in the community. Um if you were to look in each section of the capital plan, you would see uh at the end of each service area section the number of projects that we have open uh the authorized budget and the amounts that are remaining there. Again, on the environmental health side, that includes all of the remaining appropriations or available funding for capital projects in water and sewer. It is by far the largest part of the capital plan each year. And so when we look backwards, there is a lot that's going on in water and sewer in terms of investments in the uh treatment facilities as well as the pipes and infrastructure that they have in the ground. Um we will go into the details of each one of these going

forward. But again, from a um nonutilities perspective, you can see that the largest uh component there is in our transportation area. We have completed a lot of projects, but we still have a lot of them that are out there uh on the books. Looking at it from just the perspective of um service areas and and um the note down in the corner, about 57, so close to 60% of the funds that we have in our capital budgets have either been spent or encumbered. What that means is that the project is in some form of completion, design, construction, and we are moving. So, we do have some uh available funding that we are going to be getting into design and moving forward. We're going to talk about some of those as part of the FY27 budget. We had quite a few projects that have come in over budget and so we have some strategies to get those moving that we couldn't otherwise. Uh but we are again trying to spend the money that you have already allocated before putting substantially more on the plate to complete. Um so the first series of bullet points and pictures were things that were completed. Uh we can look at this list. These are just a very small cross-section of the things that are currently in design and would be moving to construction. Things we were already working on. Uh you can see the values of a lot of these. We have greenways, we have sidewalks, we have bridges, um different road improvements. Uh this is again just part of the list and this list if you were to total it up is in the $50 million range by itself. So that to be said, there is still a lot going on in the community and you will see a lot of production from our public works type departments over the course of the next 12 to 36 months as well. For two years in a row, I've used a slide very similar to this that said the issues that we are having. One, higher costs, two, capacity to get through the backlog on the staff side, and then the third one was contractor shortages. And I think we've made some changes on the procurement side. some things may have changed just environmentally in terms of the economics and so we don't have the

same problems generally speaking on contractor shortages uh that we've had in the past. Uh we do and are seeing construction costs continuing to increase and some of the projects and I'll go through a couple of them have been out on the books for quite a few years and so we are seeing something that we budgeted for $2 million goes out for design and they tell us it's now a four or $5 million project. So again, we are are working through those. We have some strategies for them. And again, staff capacity. There's only so many projects we can get to. As you saw from the list, there are hundreds of millions of dollars uh in project appropriations available. So we are continuing to work with what we have to get through those in priority as quickly as we can. Uh a lot of writing here on the slide and some of this I just wanted to reiterate decisions you've already made and things that you've already seen and how we're moving forward. As part of the FY26 budget, you did allocate additional local funding for maintenance priorities that allows us to use some of our debt structure to actually replace buildings and renovate buildings rather than having to do HVACs and roof with debt. So, we move towards a best practice that obviously continues into the new plan. That is a a good government objective that we have set in place and continue to do going forward. We are continuing to limit new projects in this plan. Uh again, we may talk about some additional projects once we get the facility condition assessments in. Uh that third bullet point you will see and I'll point out specifically we are going to use some uh MO or TPO uh transportation uh planning organization funding to help subsidize some of the increased costs in in a couple of sidewalk and greenway and road projects. Uh we'll talk very specifically about those. Um the fourth bullet point to the extent that we have completed projects that have balances we are going to continue to recycle that money into the highest priorities. We are running into that area where we don't have quite as many projects that are coming in under budget and so we don't have that as a stop gap measure

where we can do that. We will continue to do that and tell you about it. Um but we are getting to the point where we're going to have to be looking for new resources for some of the projects that continue to come in over budget again as I'll show you here in a few. And then the bottom bullet point which I will continue to reiterate the facility condition assessments will be coming in and those will be a base for prioritizing uh how we move forward. So in terms of the actual plan itself uh again it's a six-year plan where the first year of that six year is actually in the budget. The other five are a uh planning window that we use as we move forward. Things do change from year to year based on priorities and and funding differences. Um, in terms of capital planning, um, city council, you have seen this before, but for the public, we're talking about horizontal and vertical construction. We're talking about land acquisition right away. We're talking about building things. So, the operating budget on Tuesday is the programs. And when we talk about capital plan, we're talking about infrastructure investments. Generally speaking, in terms of how we prioritize these, safety is always paramount both for the community and for our employees. Regulatory compliance. So anywhere we are out of compliance with either state or federal guidelines, we are prioritizing those types of initiatives and strategies, we want to maintain our assets uh to the highest ability possible and also make strategic investments that help the community both from a quality of life perspective and obviously from an economic development perspective. There is an unfunded section at the end of the plan as well as we will talk in the presentation. Uh it is quite large. It is a little smaller than it has been in the past. We took a look at some of the sidewalks that were there. Uh realistically, we used to have over a half a billion dollars worth of sidewalks in the unfunded section. There was no way to get to all of those. We have refined that down a little bit. There are still quite a large number, but for the first time in a while, the unfunded section is actually under a billion dollars. Um so what you'll see in the plan obviously uh for this year, we do have some streets and sidewalks and

greenways. So, transportation infrastructure. Uh, as you will see, water and sewer is always the largest component. Uh, and there are storm water projects in there as well. Um, again, a note at the bottom. The 5-year window has the planned appropriations. Those are very likely to change as we get our facility condition assessments in. We have plugged some things in, and in one place I'm going to show you, we have some money plugged just for whatever comes back from that facility condition assessment, whether it's in the public safety area or general government or recreation. We've just got some money for maintenance set aside to address whatever those really emergent needs are. When do you expect that study to be finished?

Um, they are in still in the process of doing their on-site inspections. So, they will finish all of the on-site work at the end of June and we're hoping to have kind of initial first draft of a report in August. But, I think that would be first coming to us for staff to go through and review. So, I'm anticipating we'll come back to you all probably early fall, Septemberish. Um, it's a firm called Alpha Facilities. They're out of San Antonio. Okay.

So, when we look at the overall capital plan and the pie charts here, the one on the left again is the budget year, fiscal year 2627, and then the pie chart on the right is the entire six-year plan. So the capital budget for this year just over hund00 million and over the six-year planning window just under $600 million. Uh utilities is the largest component of our capital plan. Every year that does not uh tend to change. Uh transportation is a little larger component than we would normally see. And again we've got some projects where we've got some TPO funding uh where we are going to subsidize the difference in projects that are already starting in design so that we can get into construction on those. Um, when we look at kind of overall by area, again, uh, would draw your attention, there are some ups and downs. We'll talk about these as we go through the slides, but if you were to look at environmental health, you see a spike in in fiscal year 28. Uh, there are some things going on at Hanesmail Road Landfill. They're opening a new cell. And then as you get further down the planning years in environmental health, there are some uh, larger capacity improvements uh, in the water and sewer system. Uh, on the public safety side, we'll talk specifically about two projects. uh more specific to the police department and FY27. And what you see in the rest of that is really kind of a maintenance type funding or capital maintenance funding uh for transportation. Again, I'll show you four projects specifically where we're identifying additional funding for projects that are underway. Uh that section also includes um WISA as well. There's a spike in FY 29. If you were to look in the plan, there's another uh section of greenway. And so that's why you see the increase in FY29 in transportation. And then we'll go through kind of the details for recreation and general government on additional slides as well. Uh proposed funding sources. So reserves or PGO is the largest component of this. Again, that's mostly driven by water and sewer as they have a significant amount of um cash funded projects that they do each year. You do see that we are anticipating some bond funding uh both

uh that would potentially be used for projects in 27 and in the future. A lot of that is also in water and sewer. Uh and a little bit of it is in the solid waste disposal fund as well. I'm not going to go through the entire list here. Again, these are the revenue sources. Um a few things to note. Obviously, you see with revenue and limited obligation bonds, those are things for our enterprise funds at this point. Again, we have the twothirds bond funding every other year. uh and we are going to use that specifically in 29 and 31 hopefully for facility replacements that come out of um our facility condition assessments. Um federal FTA funding or federal transit administration is for WISA and again if you have any questions in these um we will go through some of the individual projects and how they're funded uh as well. Uh

absolutely. Yes ma'am. Mississippi. Um, I was looking at that. My question is, how confident are we about these funding sources? Are these things we can say that yes, we can I know we can rely on the revenue bonds, the limited obligation bonds, the twothirds bonds. How solid is that vehicle privilege tax? And how solid is the federal transit admission? And I just need to know what's our confidence level in in those numbers being accurate.

So in the motor vehicle privilege tax number, that's a local tax. We are extremely confident in that. We have been charging one form of motor vehicle privilege tax or another for decades. Um when you get to the federal dollars, so the FTA money that you see there, that's specifically for WISA and what you're seeing there is bus replacement. Most of those are 8020 splits. Uh we have not heard anything about that type of money going away. If it does, obviously we would have to rethink how we are purchasing replacements for our bus system, but in the short term, I do not know of anything from the federal government that puts that in jeopardy. The other large one you see is the Department of Transportation. That is no funding. Uh they have already done a call for projects for what you see in the FY27 budget. Uh again, I am not aware of any of that funding being cut short, but legislators at higher levels of government at the state and federal levels can do what they want in the future. Um I think one of the questions that came up was um what happens if the federal government decides not to charge the um vehicle fuels tax? Y

that goes into the highway trust fund at the federal level and then the federal government would have some decisions to make about whether they would reduce that or would just increase the amount of debt uh increase the debt ceiling and continue to fund the types of infrastructure projects that they have been having. Again, there's not been any formal conversation amongst federal legislators or admin staff that I'm aware of. Uh so we're not assuming any changes in those things at this point. And our water and sewer fund is very sizable for resources. What is the amount of that fund right now? The am you're talking about the budget for the insurance,

what the actual amount in that fund right now, the cash balance in the fund. Mr. Driver, do you want to comment? I don't know. So, we are projecting that water and sewer fund would have at the end of this year $184.1 million in cash reserves. I do my homework. I guessed 170 just Thank you. That's Yes, ma'am.

Um, so again, we we're going to highlight the uh Department of Transportation funding and talk about that, but we just did. So projects by service area diving into what does the FY27 budget actually look like. So in the public safety area we have a police evidence vehicle holdover lot. I've actually got a picture on the next slide that we'll talk about. This is one the police department has been in front of you before and shown you the level of disrepair in that facility. We are appropriating additional funds both uh for um uh site selection and for design and construction. And then we also have in here a police facility security improvements phase two. You provided funding roughly two and a half years ago for phase one of those. Those are under construction. That was a multi-phase process. And so we are moving forward with funding phase two of that at our district facilities. Um I was told that this picture didn't nearly show how bad this lot was. If you remember, we had one of the other pictures where the apron for this is actually separated from the road. So when you drive down into it, sometimes the cars scrape just trying to get in and out. Uh again, this is something that is a priority for police. Uh, and it is sits on um an old landfill and the undulations are becoming basically makes making the site unusable.

Where is this located? It is on the south side of town over off of Old Milwaukee. The landfill. Oh, way down there. Yes. But I can't

I'd remember where the name Old Milwaukee comes from, but go ahead. Um, looking at the transportation section, again, not including the Wista bus replacement schedule that's on there. We have some pretty large additions to projects. So, Lowry Street is one that we brought to you as a resurfacing project several years ago, got into the design and found out that that was not a resurfacing project. That was a complete reconstruction all the way down to the base. Uh, has storm water components to it. And so a project that originally was budgeted in the $2 million range, we are adding nearly $11 million to uh that is the difference between just resurfacing and when you have to do a complete base rehab and a a street segment. Um will note street resurfacing. We are continuing in the about $7.2 million range. You would see that through the entire plan. Um the Pedmont Regional Greenway, Rushing Fork, and Jonestown Road sidewalks we'll talk about on an MO slide. Those are projects that we had previously budgeted like Lowry Street, all that are needing significant infusions of cash uh to move forward. And then we have a a few items that we fund each year in terms of traffic safety, traffic calming, and greenway. And those are done on a priority basis. So again, in terms of the TPO funding for those four projects, you have Lowry Street, uh, which started as a $2 million project roughly and has increased significantly because of the scope. The other three are older projects uh and we are really seeing cost increases not necessarily scope creep. So Pedmont Regional has uh essentially doubled in price and so have the others. Uh all three of those the amount that we are adding is 100% or more of what the original budget for those projects were. Again some of those are budgeted pre-COVID. So you do have some things that have been out there for a while. Uh we do have local match money already available. So, we are playing a little bit of a game with some of the things that were locally funded. We're

now funding a match to an 8020 match for transportation funding from the federal government. I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Um, thank you. Uh, with uh brush report, how many phases um is the greenway? I will get we will get you those details um for phases that have already been completed and phases in future planning. I I don't have those available right now. Okay. The mayor had a question.

Scott or Jeff Flower Street's huge project, obviously. 10 million. I'm just wondering with Purple Crow now moving their major operation out to Whitford Park, the pressure off from doing such a huge reconstruction. Is there a way to No, hang on, man. Mayor, finish. Did you hear me, Jeff? Coach, Michael, can you hear me now, Jeff? Yeah. Uh, I'm just wondering is the pressure off a little bit for the total reconstruction? Can we get by with something less on that?

Mr. Mayor, we have Thank you, Scott. We have looked at that street at Nausea and it is in disrepair all the way down the base all all through it. One thing I'll tell you, one of the drivers of that cost is we do intend to keep the street open during construction, which will allow for better ingress and egress for heavy duty traffic like their uh oversized vehicles they need for for their distribution. Um, but to answer your question very specifically, uh, all the utility conflicts, all the integration with the storm water needs, and then the full depth repair of the street, we need to go ahead and go down and rebuild that street. That's perfect. Crew kept some operations there. Is that right, too? There's another food company, another food, there's there's a couple. Yeah, there's a couple distribution facilities for food. Thanks, Jeff. Okay,

I'll give one because Yeah, Miss uh SPI had a comment. I was just uh out there, Mr. Mayor, yesterday with the new company which is Foster and they actually have more trucks and a greater need for uh the road to be better because it's nothing has changed. It's just a residential road, not a commercial road. And the trucks are just still big. They're not going away. They want to do a great job and expand. Good. So, that's that's a real positive for us. I'm ask one more question. Same same area is I'm assuming it's a different road for heavy commercial traffic than a residential.

Yes, council member. There is a pavement design that is announced that there's analysis for that and it would indicate the the classification of vehicle and then the ultimate pavement structure that would be yielded for commercial traffic. Yeah. And I I'm just I could see it happening where a road was built under one assumption and then years later you've got more heavy duty traffic because the u I believe the paper recycling guys in that building out there he's got big trucks. Foster is a food company. They have big trucks. Anyway, Yep. Cement something. Yeah. Oh, we got a cement plant out there. We changed the zoning the other day. Yeah. Okay. Continue, sir.

Moving forward, just wanted to note uh street resurfacing. Again, uh two notes here. We are maintaining the level of funding that we have previously had here. Um, but as the manager spoke about last Monday, if you wanted to get to kind of that 30-year resurfacing cycle, you are in need of four or five more million dollars annually to get to that um kind of more adequate cycle. A 30-year is an average resurfacing cycle. Again, some residential streets that don't get nearly as much would be longer. Some of the commercial streets might be resurfaced more often. Um, but generally speaking, additional resources would be required to get us down to that kind of average 30-year recycling uh resurfacing level. And the one thing I also want to say there is that's kind of based on normalized petroleum product prices. So, uh, if you we go to bid some of that, asphalt becomes more expensive as petroleum products become more expensive. So, hopefully some of the gas prices and petroleum based products will come down and we'll be back in a more normalized range. But if we were looking at that right now, it would be significantly more expensive.

Scott, thank you, Mr. uh Chair. Uh so you said we need to be at a 30-year resurfacing schedule, correct? And where are we now again? I would have to go back and get it to you exactly. It's 50 plus. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Understanding that asphalt is made from petroleum and it's it's got a problem right now. So, uh, again, um, Winston Salem Transit Authority bus replacement is in our capital plan. We have five fixed route bus replacements as part of FY27 budget. Uh, as well as five or seven, um, smaller transit vehicle replacements. Uh, DOT is going to be coming back to you talking about what size vehicle uh, that they might want to do there, and they may have some opportunities to use some slightly smaller, more efficient vehicles where we would be able to purchase a few more of those. Uh the number would not change though. Uh from the recreation and uh culture side of things, additional funding for the Virginia New Massie Greenway improvements project. This again is one that you have appropriated money for before. It is a two-phase project that is essentially going to be done kind of two phases together. There's a north and a south and I've got a picture here. park park bridge improvements, excuse me, are intended to be uh part of the ongoing improvements at Winston Lake Golf Course. So, there are some needs to replace some of those park bridges and we would be using that money there. Again, playground renovations and the like the other three become more of maintenance and replacement functions based on priority at individual parks. Uh here is a somewhat older picture of the greenway project. And again, if you'll notice that uh bullet point at the bottom, we have both a northern and a southern section. Uh we have as you can see uh from this a dire need to do some streaming bank restoration. So there are some storm water issues associated with this as well as just the greenway itself. Uh under general government uh facility renewal. So that million dollars is really I told you we were putting aside a pot for priority maintenance as it comes forward. That's really what that is. uh we can move that money in some cases we may have to come back to you to have the authority to do it but we can move that money between service areas and funds to hit our highest priority

maintenance projects uh for fiscal year 27 and then also a new project a an additional location or salt storage facility we got really close uh with two events to exhausting our salt storage and so this was uh one of the requests from TFO through the manager's office as well as a higher priority so funding is included for that I believe there is a site that we may already be looking at. Uh, and this should um allow us to build that facility and have the ability to to store additional salt. A lot in the environmental health area. Again, you'll see many of these are from our enterprise or business type activities, particularly in water and sewer. So, the water distribution projects, wastewater distribution projects, lift stations, uh, NC dot widenings, those are all water and sewer projects. We do have storm water infrastructure sprinkled in. Uh as we talk about those, again, I would bring your attention to I showed on the operating budget side this two days ago. As we are more proactively trying to get to our storm water issues, that fund is eventually going to run out of money. So, we are going to have to come up again with a scenario uh either to slow down some of those projects or find new ways to fund them either through debt structure or increasing uh PO options. Um, in terms of what we're really trying to do with a capital plan, again, uh, there is a much longer term need. This is a six-year plan. So, we know when these facility condition assessments come back, we're going to be looking at all of our facilities. And there is probably going to be a lot more need than there is available resources. So, there will be an opportunity to look at a much longer window of we're going to do things in the community. Here's what will be in the six-year plan in the capital plan. here may be what we see in the 11 to 20 year window or um you know um excuse me 7 to 11ear window and 11 to 20 year windows as well. Continue to look at emergent needs as they come out. Again, some of those may come from the

facility condition assessments uh and we will um continue uh at the bottom our strategy of of migrating away from using debt structure for smaller projects that really we shouldn't be using them for. That is a change that we made significantly in the 26 budget and we will continue going forward. So, when we talk about the unfunded list, I will apologize. This is the same series of pictures that you saw last year. Uh, we upgraded some ones at the beginning. I will have better pictures for you next year. There is a lot that is unfunded. When we look at that list, again, just below a billion dollars uh with the largest component of that being in transportation in sidewalks and streets. Do have quite a few things both on the economic uh development and housing side and community and economic development. Uh, and we'll go through um a list here to kind of break it apart. uh within the public safety area, almost a quarter of a billion dollars worth of fire stations and public safety facilities. The two largest components of that are the public safety center itself as well as a request from the police department to replace the special operations division building. Again, street resurfacing, that is a number that if you tried to get all the way to where we wanted to be with street resurfacing in one year, what that would look like. Again, that would have to be a multi-year strategy. Lots of facilities and recreation and parks. Uh again, affordable housing is something that the manager has talked to you about specifically as well as some of the options for the unhoused. Uh you do see uh amounts there for sidewalk, bike, and pedestrian projects. And again, I won't go down the entire list here, but I will call out you do see a couple of public assembly facilities on there that potentially will have needs in the future, as well as the WISA facilities. Again, there is not available funding in the WISTA fund uh for large-scale improvements to Clark Campbell or Hampton Hay. Uh we are recognizing for uh the first time uh a request from our sustainability department for a serious amount of infrastructure investment in solar. So that is there as well. Again, there is an energy audit component of the facility condition assessments and

so we think there will be opportunities to hinge those two together. Um and bridge replacements down at the bottom. Again, there are a few bridges that we are currently working on as you saw in one of the other slides, but there are a significant number of those. I've called out most of this already. Again, on the public safety side, you've got the SOD and PSC buildings that are really driving the the vast majority of the unfunded section. Uh you do have the fire maintenance facility uh down at uh Palmer Lane as well as a fire training facility that the fire department has been asking for for a while. Um and and again you can see there down at the general government side there is going to be a need to relocate relocate uh employees and work divisions from city yard to the Johnson Joyce Municipal Services Center. Uh we would have to get a design in place for what that is going to cost but renovating what's left of that building is going to be a very significant expenditure. Uh this you saw this in January. I've just included it. Again, gives you an idea of the amount of square footage essentially by type that we have for non-utilities building footprint. Again, a lot of that transportation uh infrastructure is in um WISA as well. You can see that City Yard and Lowry Street have a significant portion of our uh buildings, public assembly facilities as well. uh and on down from there. Just a reminder, in addition to those uh vertical assets and the square footage you have in buildings, there's over 1,000 miles of city-owned streets. That is centerline miles. That is not lane miles. I want to say lane miles is closer to 3,500. Uh 20% of our city streets were rated as poor or worse condition in the most recent pavement condition uh index that Mr. Huff showed you several months ago. Obviously, we have a large number of parks and you can see the types of amenities that we have in those parks that may be in need uh of replacement and renovation. And then also a significant number of city- owned bridges. There are three that we currently are working on. Uh and we know that a significant number of those, a little less than a third had sufficiency

ratings that were below 50 at the time the last bridge sufficiency ratings came in. Um, one note here, uh, several of you, uh, were in Washington DC and had an opportunity to talk with some of the delegation there about potential funded uh, um, grant projects or earmark projects. Just wanted to note the emergency operations center for our emergency management department, the traffic preeemption system that Chief Mayo told you about in January, as well as some other things in public safety. There are a CAD system replacement, some security upgrades at fire stations, uh a training facility for first responders, as well as the public uh or the 911 communications center. Those are all things for which we have asked for money. Legitimately, we will not get all of those, but it is possible that some of them that we'll get some grant funding for. I think some of those may have grant matches, but some of them don't. As they come in, we'll identify funding for grant matches as needed.

Mia, if you had a comment? Yes, Mr. Tesh. Um, I was trying to get my memory straight. Did we not appropriate money for 911 center for the police department a couple of years ago? And is this the same um item which says police communication center? I see the city manager wanting to push the button. I will allow him to respond. Uh there you're the first to push your button so you can speak.

Thank you. Uh there there was some money put set aside for um for enhancements to the 911 center, but it it turns out that that is not enough money to do what needs to be done. And there the requirements for those communication centers continue to be uh enhanced because of a lot of current conditions. So so we're having to rethink how we would do uh the 911 communication center. Thank you.

Continue, Mr. Cash. So just kind of the approach going forward. I've mentioned this several times as we go through. Um when the facility condition assessments come in, we're going to utilize those to understand what the funding priorities are uh to move forward. And again talked about a longer term vision. We will still have our our six-year capital plan. Uh but we will be doing some staff due diligence on what that plan needs to look like outside of the six-year window and marrying that up to a longer term debt model uh for things that need to be debt funded and also that need to be cash funded. Council member Clark, you actually asked about this on Tuesday. Says outstanding debt by service area. You already got my chart. That's pretty good.

It was ready for you uh when you were asking. Uh it does look a little different than it has in prior years. So the pie chart itself instead of being done by debt type, which you see in the bullet points, is actually done by area, which I think tells the story a little more. What you can see there is that roughly twothirds of that debt is related to utilities and water and sewer and solid waste. you have a little bit left in storm water which gets paid off here in the next couple of years. Uh some debt for the ballpark in that is in the debt service fund and then uh our general government debt which supports all of our general government activities is roughly a third of that as well. Um again water and sewer is nearly 60% of our our total debt load. If you look at the debt by type, uh revenue bonds are specific for our enterprise funds. General obligation bonds are specific for our normal general government activities. uh limited obligation bonds get used both in general government and solid waste and that's why we changed the pie chart to show kind of by area instead of by type. So

thank you Mississippi. I I just have clarification on this chart. Is the ballpark identified as a debt service area because we have not paid for the ballpark at this point.

The ballpark has long-term debt on it. there are lease payments coming in from the um the entity that owns the team and so those pay off the principal and interest payments over time for the debt that's coming through. So it's housed in our debt service fund and and Mr. Ralph can uh um uh get into details more if we need it but essentially we had issued some debt. There is money coming from the team to pay that debt. So we have debt on our books but we have a revenue source coming from the outside to pay off the principal and interest. Mr. R, wouldn't that be under the lob's in that loss debt? Council me, that's correct. Limited obligation bonds to finance construction.

Yeah. Of the stadium. The debt service. Well, it's out of the ballpark fund. There is, you know, transfer from the debt service fund to cover the uh the difference between the lease payment that the team makes and that. But the the lease term with the team has been ex extended such that once the debt's paid off, the team will continue to make a lease payment to the city for use of the stadium. And at the end of the lease term, the city will not have paid any tax dollars towards the financing of the of the stadium. Okay. Thank again, Ben.

At the end of the lease term, there will not be any taxpayer dollars used to to pay for the construction of the stadium. Thank you. I knew that would hit that point.

So, that is the the pres the summary presentation of um our capital plan. Again, focused much more on the fiscal year 27 capital improvement budget with um talking about the 5-year window as a capital planning component knowing that again those facility condition assessments are coming uh and that rep prioritization of some of those uh longer term projects are going to take place over the course of the next year. Let me stop there. I got a few comments I'm going to add before we get into the nonprofit allocation. Let me just go down my list real quick. And some of this staff you can answer now. Some of it you need to answer later, but these are just this is just thoughts that hit me. We're making major changes in the bus routes and have have made and are making major changes in the way we pay for parking at some appropriate time. And I don't think it's this week. I don't think this is a budget question. It would be nice to get progress reports on that. And I don't know if that comes to the general works committee or whoever it may be, but just periodically an update on how we do it on parking particularly. I'm looking at more from a revenue standpoint because we're getting the money in in a different way. And uh and the bus routes just kind of and I asked that yesterday with one of the slides. It's probably going to be end of the year if not next year before we can really start to see some data there. Number two, in no particular order here, I am, and I know uh Mr. Mayor back there is the uh ring leader on this. I'm suddenly getting lots of emails concerning LED lighting. This council approved probably two years ago the money to replace all the street lights with LED lighting, which is a major part of our lighting area, but that doesn't seem to be well known. Uh, I'll look to Miss Deborah Clark. I don't know if that's something we could put on it or if maybe we just need to have a

progress report to one of the committees at one point. But we we are doing stuff in that area. I I uh I didn't answer every email I I get. It's just too many of them to do. But but we are doing something there. Very meaningful and I think the folks need to be aware of that. Number Yeah. Especially since it's my project, I want to get credit for it. So anyway, u Miss Driver, we're glad you're here today because I usually have to yell, "Where is Miss Driver?" But she should be here at budget time because I've never seen a person borrow so much money as you do. It's half a billion dollars. Anyway, um I asked this question yesterday, but it's got I think a little bit more complicated, and that is the expected life of the landfill. And I'm talking about the sanitary landfill. I learned in reading this that the uh CD landfill is going to fill up according to the book in 2030. I also know you've got a major project to I'm going to say put sides on some of the sales so that you can stack the garbage higher. And I learned that the 2030 land or the CND when it closes that trash is going to the main landfill but which will shorten the life but when we put the sides in that's going to raise it. And I also know you're looking at maybe putting something different where the the power lines are and all that. I would just like an update on what's the expected life of the landfill with all these factors coming in. Um, we we can provide that. I will tell you, uh, Council Member Clark, that there's a a much longer discussion that needs to be held, okay, about the landfill life and we're targeting that for the next retreat period, okay, to be able to bring that back, but we can bring back some preliminary information before that. But we're doing a lot of due diligence, Courtney and Aaron and their staff, of looking at options that we

Yeah. to make sure that we've got a place to to put our trash. Um the mayor and I, the only probably only two people in here were here when we expanded the last landfill. And I swore when that happened, I would not be in this chair when we had to do it again. So, I just wanna I'm planning my retirement, but I want to be sure I want to be sure you got the landfill going longer than I am going to go. Anyway, next item. Um, when we were in Washington, we did visit with our congressman and senators about federal funding, particularly I think it was uh what was the the the walkway project? The trail. The trail. Which trail was it?

Long branch. That one's most my question. Again, you answer it at your convenience. How are we coming on getting federal funding? Uh Mississippi has already stolen some of my steam. The the president's talking about eliminating at least short-term the federal tax gas tax, but as we know that money comes back to us to work on roads. I just be curious from the standpoint really more of what we talked with the folks, how are we coming on getting the federal money that we think we're going to be getting? And and then just to give you a quick update right now, we're still waiting on only if it's good news. It is not good news. So I'll I'll hold that then. No, go ahead.

We we do not have um commitment from the feds yet to fund the remaining part of that project which has been dedicated to us and was funds were allocated but they have not been released to us. But we're still working that. We're still working that. Okay. Uh next, this is just for my edification. We had a major storm water repair project for the research park. I'd just be curious on how that's going, particularly as far as versus the budget because that was 10 or 12 million, something like that. That's basically finishing up. We're just finishing up some punch list work with the contractor on that, but it's essentially done.

Okay. Could you get me just some numbers on the how the numbers turned out? Uh, you've answered my question on the facilities uh question. Mr. King to you again. We held off adding projects because we wanted to work that list down and we got some good news today that that list is being worked down considerably. My question is where do you anticipate that list being at the end of the new year that's getting ready to start? Should we be in as should we make as much progress in the next 12 months as we did in the previous 12 months? Just kind of your feeling on it. Um, and I guess also tied to that, we did spend a fair amount of money on the paving uh analysis, the machine that read the roads and all that. I'm just curious if if that's working well for us and how we're coming on. You mentioned 20% or less than 50% or whatever the number you gave, how we're coming on at least getting the worst of the worst done. You going to comment on this one? I I'll I'll tell we will get you the actual numbers, but the the pavement condition index is a invaluable resource to us to make sure that we're hitting those roads that are in the worst conditions. And so we've committed to and are continuing to make sure that the dollars that we have go towards those particular roads. There there are some roads when you're paving for some other reason u that that get resurfaced, but the dollars that we have that are allocated just for resurfacing, we're doing that. we can get some information on what progress we're making.

Okay. Thank you very much. Any other questions, comments that we're getting ready to turn the page. Oh, excuse me, Miss Cipio.

I do have one. Um because of that uh road surface study, I thought that was a great thing that we did, but I was also thinking that another expense that we incur are our sidewalks. Have we ever done a study to look at the conditions of our sidewalks over the whole city and where we do we have a policy on where we must have sidewalks or shoulders versus not in a priority way? I'm I'm just concerned about that. I I I think we need to bring you back some again some additional details on what we're doing on the sidewalks, what the plans are and and what it would cost to actually do what you just asked

to do a a study. Yeah. To do a study and or to actually have a program in place that that puts sidewalks everywhere where the community might want them. Yeah. I'm not sure if we have a policy on sidewalks and where where they are and where we I don't know if we have a plan on where we are going to put them in. I'm just not sure. There is a sidewalk master plan. Jeeoff, you want to talk? Mr.

Thank you, Mr. Man. You're right. 17 DOT is has a repository of all sidewalk needs in our city and needs are classified based on on demand. Um that was part of that unfunded list and historically we have shown that over half a billion dollars. And so we have a screening process. Our civil engineer that sits in DOT screens all those requests. And routinely those projects are funneled through our TPO for funding dollars when they become available. But the uh to the manager's point, it's just so so vast. We've never done a specific study of sidewalk assessments, but we do investigate those based on a request needs where we analyze the streets where they are missing. And it generates based on the criteria a kind of hierarchy and that hierarchy of projects do compete for funding when it's available through the NO. It might be good to um it may be good to distribute that survey we had to particular to our new council members and to the old ones who forgot. Thank you.

Let me make one last comment about and by the way everybody understand what we just saw. The first year is in the budget. The rest of it is just planning information. We keep showing this unfunded needs and it's a billion dollars. That number does not help me. We spend about a hundred million a year. I'm rounding that number off on capital, something like that. You could impact that number some with some bond money, but but the bond referendums, we're talking 100 to 180 million, something like that. Don't come back with another billion dollar number. you have to you're going to have to make some very hard decisions that if we're looking at maybe a 10 or 15 year spending plan other than some some extra bond money, what you see is kind of what you going to have. And uh I guess what I'm saying it's got to be some real hard prioritization. Council member,

we will certainly second guess you after you do that, but uh it's got to be done. And and can't everybody have a sidewalk that wants a sidewalk? Because that was what, a half a billion right there, professor? Is that right? He's not looking at me now. Half a billion for sidewalks. It's pushing 600 million. 600. Well, okay. Um that number is it's so far out of the realm of possibility that we got to look at what we traditionally spend if we throw a little bit of bond money in there. But that's unless Washington or Raleigh comes in big at Christmas. That's where we are. And just understand the realities of is what I'm saying. Okay.

Would like to add a little bit of context to that. When you say we do roughly a hund00 million a year, remember that half of that is water and sewer and that unfunded section does not include anything in water and sewer. So we are doing less than 50 million a year in non-utilities related projects.

Throw in 150 for bonds and that's what you going to have. I mean unless somebody knows where we're going to get money from that's not there. I just think that's reality. And Mr. driver, you have some budget realities and and you know, how much can you borrow? Uh how much can water rates be and and that's a whole different ballgame. They have a whole their own funding stream. Those are revenue bonds for the most part, not GEO bonds. Uh and I will say the some of that debt I know from the state has what a 1% or 0% interest rate. Some of it's was a it was good debt to take on what it was coming at. Okay,

you're up.

That is it on the capital sides. U so I do want to say one thing, council member Cypio, one of the recommendations in the CBAC report was to review the opportunity for sidewalk condition assessments. So that is something that they specifically looked at with the resident survey data as well. Um all righty. Um moving forward to community agencies. So again, we've talked about community agencies uh multiple times. This will be the fourth time in five months. talked about it in January at the retreat and had updates both in February and April. The information that I'm going to show you today is very similar to what you saw in April. I want to note a couple of things. Uh the what I called the starting point for the discussion in April, which I'm going to call the base scenario for what you're looking at. These do not include staff recommendations of any kind. We collected information from the elected officials, essentially averaged that, and the ones that got more or more votes are the ones that you're going to see kind of as the base scenario. Again, we have both general fund and the occupancy tax side. On the general fund side, the budget for FY27 is just over $950,000. That base scenario was $841,000, which leaves about $115,000 to continue to allocate. Uh on the occupancy tax side, it is much smaller. There are many fewer uh requests on the occupancy tax side. Uh the general fund side is significantly larger um eight or ninefold larger. Um the city clerk is going to pass out. Again, these details are on your iPad if you want to look at the exhibit. We have printed copies in case someone wanted to write on it as well. Uh but essentially, this is what you saw in April and this is kind of that base scenario or starting point. Uh what you see in that column on the right is the average funding level from the council for those that received four or more votes.

Um at that council meeting we were requested to do two things. One I will provide here which is essentially in looking at that list compared to the prior year who was receiving more or less money. So, what this shows you are are the entities that were um receiving money last year versus what's in the base scenario and what the difference would be. So, those highlighted in what I'm going to call the kind of dark green, darker green at the top are entities that did not receive funding in fiscal year 26, but did get four or more votes uh for FY27. The ones that are in the lighter green in the middle are entities that were funded last year where the excuse I bless you. The average was either the same or slightly uh more uh in terms of the Shepherd Center, uh the Holy House and Mixer. And all of the ones in the beige color are entities that were funded in FY26 uh that would if you were to look at the base scenario be receiving less in funding. Again noting uh there's about $115,000 in the budget that would not have been included in this base scenario based on the way the averages came out. Um but essentially starting from that point I believe the chair had some comments.

You have a question. Mrs. Scott, I'm sorry Scott. They were uh passing out papers. I got distracted. So this is what is this chart? So the this white one is just the same base scenario that you saw in um April.

You have a printed copy of it. The printed copy also includes everything that is not part of the base scenario as well so that you can see all of the agencies that requested funding. The color-coded one simply tells you again at the top in that darker green, those are agencies in the base scenario that receive funding uh in that scenario that did not receive anything in FY26. So, these would be new agencies if you funded them at those amounts. The milder green in the middle are agencies you funded last year that have increases or that stayed the same. In the case of the Shepherd Center, the average funding was exactly what they were receiving. And for all of those in beige, you can see their FY26 funding amount and there would be a decrease uh if if you were to approve this package as it as it existed. So again, this is based on the average funding level from the voting that council did. And in each of these cases, uh the base scenario includes you got at least four votes from council members.

Okay. question. Yeah, mayor has a question. Good question. Roose um can you clarify? We've got the Oh, I'm sorry. She can hear me. The dwelling is in there obviously, but then there's the uh city with dwellings. Yeah. Is there a difference? We're both here. You're both here. Okay. Could you could you uh just maybe station? Yeah, please. If you don't mind, if you give your name Yeah. name and address for the record and whether or not you're with the city of dwelling or the dwelling. Ruth Cole Burke, executive director of city with dwellings, 502 North Broad Street. Um, and then what do you do? What do I do?

Two sentences. What does your organization are services and your grants and then I can

Sure. Sure. Um, we work all along the housing focused system of care. So, we're helping folks who are literally homeless, who are at risk of homelessness, imminently homeless, um chronically homeless, uh anywhere around all of those areas. Um and then we are working in prevention. So, we're trying to keep people from becoming homeless to begin with. That's the focus of our of our grant request here. And then we're also doing resource navigation, problem solving, holding space for people who don't have anywhere to go. We're doing case management, housing assistance, helping once people are housed, helping keep them housed. So, we're working all along that housing focus system of care.

Are you the dwelling or the city? We are city with we are the original, just FYI. I'll let Brooke explain about the dwelling. And for everyone's information, city with dwellings is the second item on the first page. Yes. So, um, uh, Brook Young, uh, 3050 North, uh, or South Stratford Road. Um, yes. Do you want to pause? No, keep going. They were yelling. I couldn't I Yeah.

Yes, I am at the dwelling. So, together with we are also at 502 North Broad Street. So, we much like Oak City Cares, which I think you the council got a presentation on. We run a hub model. So, City with Dwellings is doing the navigation, the long-term resourcing, and the dwelling is doing the immediate needs catching of the folks alongside City with Dwellings, our partners. So, this grant that you'll see here, I think, is potentially all for shelter and for evening meals. There is no consistent place in this city for any of our folks to get an evening meal. And I think we can all agree that we're better humans when we have regular access to food. And base needs like that are essential for then being able to do warm handoffs to our uh colleagues at Citywood Dwellings um to do the work that they need to do to get our folks off the street long term. So uh yes does that help?

So you provide shelters? We do emergency winter shelter and um feeding and some other general assistance in between uh for when for shelter for emergency winter shelter uh we have I forget what we've done in the past year but I think we did at least 700 to 800 unique individuals this past winter. Just and just to clarify so that's not year round sheltering. Nope. It is emergency winter shelter. It starts November 15th, November 1st, depending on when we can get things through um uh March 1st. Thank you. Yeah, you know, Mr. Warner, don't go too far. Y'all sit down, but don't go too far. You can sit down.

I I need I need some simplistic clarification. Come on, back up. Back up. See, tell me your name again. Brooke. Brooke. I am at the dwelling. And I'm Ruth. Ruth Burkhaw. Okay. Brooke. Yes. On a day-to-day basis, what does the dwelling do? Yeah. So, um, we're a church. We walk alongside our folks um, who are experiencing homelessness, a lot of my work looks like pastor and we feed people. So, pastoral care and support and also work in basic human needs and care. We also do showers regularly. So you if you've been down three days in a week.

Yep. Three days a week. We're working on expanding that and we feed people and working on expanding that. Yep. Same question. Yes. On a dayto-day I mean we're a fully functioning nonprofit. So you do a wraparound service medical service available. We do have a partnership with Atrium where we offer a wellness clinic and some foot and vision clinics on the weekends. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, maybe I'm going to confuse this just a little bit more. This is money coming out of our budget is what we're going to talk about. There's another pool of money that comes and mostly I think it's federal money

CB CDBG CBDG CDBG uh CB I mentioned that in that you will see that allocation too and that often a lot of that money goes to shelters and things of that sort

so but do not get that confused that's handled differently Um we're are more of a pass through agency. I'm looking at Angel. She's Yeah. So these folks as well as um Samaritan in Bethesda Center, all those other uh homeless shelters do see other money that we pass through from the federal government. All we're talking about today is our budget and the money that comes out of ours. So just FYI. Okay. Thank y'all. Thank you. You can have a seat but don't leave the room. Yes, sir. Scott, did you have a question?

Thank you. Uh, chair. I just I as someone who uh works closely along with both of those agencies, they both do separate work but in the same building. It and they also have a very confusing the same sounding names. So, it does get confusing from time to time, but they are different organizations and both do amazing work in the community. Thank you, sir. Miss Hall, not to belver this. Thank you chair. But I do have one question. Which one of you all accepts the ma accepts mail? Is there a mail is you? Okay. Thank you. Exactly. City with mail. So if someone is there and they need an address on file to receive who does that physical mail? Okay. City with All right. City.

Yes, sir. Mr. Tesh, we've kind of I've lost control here a little bit. You're back up. I am back up here for public support. I I would say you're talking about HUD funding. It is more than just CDBG or the community development block grant. We do have ESG funding and some other things that go to that. But yes, it's through housing and urban development and that you will see at a different time on different sheets of paper. That was part of the con plan which you have already looked at in committees and is an attachment C in the um city manager's message. So that funding has already been allocated. What you're talking about today is the local general fund money. Okay. Before you sit down, will you please cover the other pool of money? I'm I'm sorry. The occupancy tax one. Yeah,

absolutely. Significant. This is another separate pool of money. Yes, sir. Now, go.

So, occupancy tax is obviously much smaller. You can see from this graph or excuse me, this table uh that there were significantly fewer uh entities that were requesting funding that aligned with occupancy tax uh needs. Historically, we have funded four occupancy tax agencies. That is the Pedmont Trad Film Commission, Riverrun, uh the North Carolina Black Reparatory Company for the International Black Theater Festival and Old Salem. There were a few other things on the list this year in terms of the film partnership, Pedmont Opera, Triad City, uh Film Consortium, and the Winston Salem Symphony. I would add I think in some of these places um particularly the Winston Salem Symphony there are places that are funded by the arts council as well but potentially for different programs too. So they applied for something very specific. Um but here again the base scenario uh there's about $28,000 uh left uh to allocate if you approved it uh the way that it was there with the five entities.

Okay. Thank you. Now I'm going to go back to the first sheet. He calls it the base case. I'm going to call it the starting point. We all voted. He did some averaging. If more than he uh and I'm talking about the number where it stops at the subtotal of 841,000. Everyone above that got at least four folks wanting to give them money and Scott averaged it together and rounded it looks like to the nearest hundred and it adds up to $841,000. I'm proposing we use that as our base case and start discussions from there. Now the total amount of money we have in this pot for the current next year is Scott

9 Give me the number. $956,550. $956,550. That's roughly another $100,000 more. 1155

1155. I have gotten one email concerning an organization which I'll mention in a minute. But what I'm proposing is that we start with the 841. Now, we can leave it at that. We can add and subtract. Um, I'd certainly suggest we don't go over the 956 because that's what's budgeted. We do not need to spend it all today. We could hold some back in reserve if we wanted to. I will say I did get a request from someone to include the Center for Creative Economy, which if you look, I'm going to the ones below the line now. They're the third one down. They asked for or they got 25 last year and actually it was less than four so it was three two or one folks uh that number came out to 29. Are there any other Mr. Mayor?

Uh yes uh the very first one under the second section partnership prosperity which is basically our poverty reduction program. Okay. Go ahead. Microphone. Microphone. Microphone.

I tried to get a new system, folks. This is the pro uh partnership for Prosperity has been in place for I guess about four years. They've made decent progress. They've reduced the poverty rate, not just them, but others from 26% to 19%. This is a this is a crucial, in my opinion, um effort in our community to reduce the poverty rate is still too high at 19%. So, I would hope that we've been giving them a small amount of $40,000. I would hope that we could find a way to use part of that leftover 115,000 to help fund them.

Okay. Any other comment? I have one comment, but I'll hold till Miss uh Joiner. Thank you, Chair. Um stirring the part. I'm sorry, but I I have an issue with the top list.

Yes, ma'am. um to take any entity and um fully fund with more than a fourth of the full budget is a challenge. So to take an entity and fund it wholly and that ent that particular organization's full budget is more than $50,000 any entity and their full budget is more than $50,000 and we fund it 100%. Uhhuh. I have a challenge with that.

Okay. Because then we put ourselves in a predicament where you do a good work for one year and then what? If it's a small entity and their boots on the ground and they need $10,000 to go do whatever it is that they do or or and maybe eventually they can find funding somewhere else. But you take a large entity, anything that's 75, 100, $200,000 or more, and that is to fund their full budget. I have a problem with it. And you're not going to see the full budget on this, but when we read through each item, how do they do that again next year?

Yeah. And if we didn't fund them, they would lose 100% of their funding. Exactly. And so then we we we do a disservice to that piece of the community unless it's a oneand done. Unless it's just a one thing that's going to raise them up and that's just going to blow them out of the water and they they can soar on their own. But I didn't see a lot of projects in the fullness of this that way. So we set ourselves up as we look at another one of the pages where you know we're funding at a great amount. We're funding things for 20 plus years.

So if we're going to go into the business of 501c3, then that's we we need to get our savings loan ready. If we're going to go into the continue with the idea that we are going to be of service to our fullness of community, then we need to spread that around and let some new folks in, which some of this is significant significant is if you look above the line,

but allow for it to be spread to impact more than just one piece here and a little piece here. There's enough different projects and entities and organizations within this scope that we can impact different communities and different parts of the city a lot or we can take a big bucket and impact a few. I think we should impact a lot and help as many where and how we can. Not to say you don't fund this, but I think that you should adjust. Um, and I don't mind naming names, but you don't need to. I need to

I think we need to adjust and bring down that funding. The the dwelling and city with dwellings, the amount of money that they're asking for, I think it is it is it impacts our core desire, what we've talked about over and over and over, to help the least of those. And the numbers that they serve is great. Union Community Development Corporation, it's going to impact our youth. It's going to do a great job. But do we have to fully fund that? Cuz that is their full budget. Let them get to get some pieces from somewhere else and put it together. That's how we do that. We're going to impact youth. Absolutely. But let's put something together. You see where the arts council had requested 300. Yeah.

And we reduced them and we reduced them last year over what they requested. But just because you asked for the sky, we have to be realistic with what we have to deal with. So let's share the wealth on that. Um the the the mixer community um maker space, they do some really good works. They bring in um different school age children and they do some things, but maybe it's a few dollars less. Uh you know, uh as much as Second Harvest does, they ask for 20,000 and we reduce that.

Yeah. So, let's be fair across the board and put some take that hundred,000 and put some more money to it and be able to help some of these others. Um, authoring action center uh with creative economy and so forth. Okay. I I can't respond to generalities. Do you have any specific recommendations or would you like to give those to me later? NFC. Okay. Point of information. Hang on just a minute. Let me just make a one response there. I do think and we went we pulled everybody. Everybody got a vote here. I guess you got a vote.

Okay. Vote twice. Yeah. Uh and I know most of these organizations. I don't know them all. I know most of them. And most of them touch a pretty broad big group of folks. Uh, but this is who the nine of us said and Scott took them and averaged them together and did this that and the other and this is kind of where we all came down. I will tell you there's some I voted for, some I didn't. I mean that's just life. Uh, but if you want to give me something later that I can respond to. Yes, I can. Okay, Miss Hall, you had a comment. I I have a point of information. Yes, ma'am.

Um, to the speaker, this speaker, Mr. Tesh, Director Tesh, the um just for clarity, the bottom portion of the of the list that I have in front of me that is not necessarily on the screen. You're talking about below the line below 41. Yeah, below the line that I have. Does it end with the agency on the first page or is it throughout? Okay, keeps going. Thank you.

Everything in that top section of what you have is what is on the slide as kind of that starting point. Everything below that line continuing on to the second page is not part of the starting point or base scenario. Is it in second point? Is it in ranking order? Second part. Second part. Um are you a not necessarily? No. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I have go ahead and then I'll give my one.

Thank you so much, Chair Clark. Uh below the line, uh I would also like to have included Liberty East redevelopment and anchor. Okay, Liberty East is about looks like seven or eight down. I'm going to put just a little star there. And where is anchor?

On the next page at the top. Okay. Okay. I want to speak on one and this is in the top area and that is Coladium. That is a new facility downtown. It has been a in my opinion a home run for this community. Uh I know people that come from other cities to use it. It is. It is a guys. We've outdone Greensboro and Raleigh and some other folks on that one. And I think it is deserved particularly as it gets its feeding a little bit more money. I'm not suggesting the whole amount, but I would like to see them get a little bit more. So, I'm I don't have a number yet. I would do maybe 15 20,000. But anyway, that was the only other one. And you know, let me tell you, I'm accepting what you folks voted for. That's kind of the way I can. Now, if it I was king for the day, would I have a different list here? It' be a little differently. I'd have a little more this way or the other. But the reason I'm accepting the 841 as the base is that's kind of what we said collectively was important to us. And that's not to disenfranchise the other folks. I will say partners for pro Ben you got a calculator

the first one partners for prosperity the mayor mentioned that one 44 center for creative economy 29 Liberty East at 30 anchor at 55 what does that add up to 150350 that's too much boy you did that quick 155 250 50 and I got how much do I have to spend? 155. You're at 150,000 and you had 115 to spend. So roughly 35,000 over. This is what's known as splitting the baby.

Partners for Prosperity 35, Center for Creative Leadership 20. I'm just just do my numbers here a minute. Liberty East 25 and Anchor at 40. What does that add up to? I'm sorry. Please repeat those again. I can't remember what I said. Partners for Prosperity, I think I said 35. Uh, Center for Creative Commi 20. Liberty East at 25 and Anchor at 40. What does that add up to? 120,000. Point of information. Yes, ma'am.

Are we done with potential add-ons to the list? Yeah, that's what I asked. When? Just just did. Just now? Yeah. Around. Anybody anything else to say? Oh, to say? Yeah. We do you have somebody you want to add to the list? Yes, potentially to consider since that's what we're doing now. Yeah. Oh, okay. I just remembered the later question. um league girls, remember their um application was pretty solid um with scoring and then um the Center for Creative Economy. Um I got that one.

You So you did include that with your first Yeah, I put a little star. Anybody mention Okay. Okay. Hang on. Yeah. Just Barbara, I have one more to add. Yes, ma'am. Union Community Development Corporation. Last page. What was the name of Union Community? Okay, I'm going to put a little star there. All right. Just as a point of clarification, Union CDC submitted two applications. One of those applications is already on the first page. The second application is on the second page. So, there were two different applications from that organization. Where are they on the I know where they are on the last page. Where are they on the first page?

Oh, yeah. So, the the one on the first page is the Steam and Read program, which is the after school programming, and the one on the last page is the youth sports program. All right. Yes. Hang on just a minute. One time. Yes, ma'am. Was that Wait, was that it? Yes, that's okay. Yes, ma'am. You're next. Your concern that you raised about colliding Yeah. gave me a thought. Yes, ma'am. Because it does attract so many people from outside the area, should it be considered under the occupancy tax? Okay, let me let me think about that. Would it qualify for that? M I mean Mr.

Because I got a little money over there, too. Yeah, Mr. R would know. Mr. if that could if it could go under that

that could be an option. I mean you the if when you look at the oxy tax fund budget that's proposed I mean all those funds are uh appropriated you know so something would have to be u adjusted you know another part of that budget there are reserves in the oxy tax fund but you know this isn't an ongoing contribution to collidium so you know it could give you you know a short time of funding if you went that route But uh we would we would have to look at adjustments to other parts of the Oxley tax fund budget to do that. As far as the question would Oxy tax funds you I mean would that would that be an appropriate use of those funds? You know to me it's it's contributing to general tourism. You know it may not be putting a lot of heads and beds in generating Oxford tax revenue for the city but I mean it does certainly contribute towards local tourism.

Mr. Tesh above the line on that page I got 378. What's the total budget? Jamie, can you go back over to the um tell you 406? Yes. About 25. Okay. The mayor has made a suggestion. Go. You want to add something? Yeah. I I misread the map here. I was looking at the Salvation Army and I was under the impression that they were funded. Yes, they are. Okay, I I I digress then. There are about four from the subtotal and they're getting 36. 36. Thank you.

Okay. Okay.

Let me suggest this. If we could I said we're not going to vote, but this is going to be kind of a straw vote. If we could accept the 841 as a base case and then I've got a star beside everyone that's been mentioned, let me take those stars back and come back and I'm probably going to prorrate some stuff up and down for another list on another day. I think trying to do this on the fly, but I I'm asking it if everybody will buy into the 841, which is what we as a group decided on. M I think that's a great idea. The council has already said that at least at least four or five

I might have to censor you if you don't start cutting your thing off. I try to cut it off so everyone else can speak. So um I think it makes a really good sense otherwise we're going to be going around around corn and the numbers going off. So at least four of the council members and me have said we we favor this. So, let's go ahead and nail that down and then we can go back and forth on the rest. And I will Yes, ma'am. You go ahead and I get Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to add one to the uh Yes, ma'am. lower level and that is authoring action there. That's the second one on the second page.

Yes, they do a tremendous job. the and the the if you've ever spoken with some of the youth that they impact. Okay. It's it's turned people's lives from from life in prison to life of uh productivity. Thank you. I've got it. Mr. uh

Andre Bo. Thank you. Uh quick question for Mr. Tesh. Um I know that uh legal aid is listed on the bottom half. Is legal aid receiving any funding from the city and any other area? They are so they requested and they were put on this list but I knew that question was coming. They are already built into the human relations budget because of the eviction eviction diversion program that the city council made a permanent program and part of that uh department 2 years ago. So they are already receiving $100,000 or it's to us it is a cont. It's not a contribution to a community agency. It is a contract for a specific service that human relations as a department is administering.

Okay. Thank you. And then um uh I would like to uh make a recommendation and then a quick comment. Yes, go ahead. My recommendation um I know we do a lot with Pemont Environment Alliance, but they they do a lot of education in the community around where they they are on the the bottom half. They are on the first page, bottom. They're the first page, third from the bottom.

Uh they ask for 35,000. Um I know we we already um help them with a lot of other things, but they do a lot in the community. I I can't read what they have now because my computer is dead. Um, but I would also like to make a comment. Um, I would just like to, um, I know the only person who wanted this last time we had our our, uh, strategic plan meeting, but I would love to see this, uh, I think it's called the umbrella where we we give this money, this funding to, uh, local foundations so they can do the work. Uh, because they I feel like, as the city manager likes to say, uh, the city should not be in charge of housing. Um, I think we should give this to the people who know what they're doing better. Not that we don't know what we're doing, but okay, that's just my opinion. Thank you.

Hang on just a minute. I'm gonna ask if I can get a motion to and it gets the committee a whole which is everybody gets a vote. I will take the ones that I have started everybody's mentioned. I will sit down with Mr. Tesh. When's our next meeting? The next scheduled budget workshop is next Thursday. It's a week from today. It is. I will have a list. Don't ask me how I'm gonna come up with it, but he and I gonna come up with something and I will try to be as fair as I can and keep us within budget. Okay. So, I get a motion to approve the 841. Mr. Chairman, I move for approve. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Okay. Now, understand that the finance committee will officially adopt a budget. this will be part of it and that we will also adopt it as a full council at some meeting in the future. And Scott, you and I will get together and figure out how to do this equitably and we'll see how good we are. Ouija board. The Ouija board. Now, you're going to do this one, the occupancy tax.

Yes, we could do occupancy tax. Okay. As you can see on your list, I'm again I'm going to take the 378 as the base number. We've only got about 20 $6,000 I think. Scott, is that right? 28 28 $28,000. Um 28. Okay.

This is a different type of fund. This is money coming from occupancy tax heads on beds, right? And it is typically done to given to those organizations that help put more heads on beds. And that's why you have the uh it's the North Carolina Black Revator, which is the um black theater. Black Theater Festival. They do other things though. Peont Triad Film, Riverrun, and Old Salem, the ones that have gotten most of money. We did get enough votes to give them what symphony

25,000. Again, I would suggest we adopt as a base budget the 378. Uh the 28th that's left, uh I was going to suggest as as one of the suggestions that we do give that to Collidium as a one-time number. I I do think I will tell you now they sleep at my house, but I have four people from Charleston that drive here just because the little girls like to go to it and it's cheaper than Disney World. Um, and there's some truth in that. That's where they went. That was their first choice, Disney World. Second choice, go see granddaddy and climb on the stuff. Anyway, motion.

Any motion for that? Can I get a motion to adopt the 378 for approval? Second. Second. All in favor? I Does anyone have any other suggestions for the 28,000? Yes, sir. I'm just kind of, Mr. I've been thinking off the top of my head. Uh youth events. I know the city has been working through some of the challenges associated with large amounts of young people sort of gathering and giving them some options to do other things. So I might recommend that we take a small portion of that money and maybe look at beefing up what we fund in terms of fairgrounds and youth events. Okay, good idea. That's a great idea.

Okay, I'm going to write down fairgrounds. I appreciate that, Mr. Taylor. That's a good idea. Any other suggestions? Miss Joiner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, as the city of the arts, I think we should spread the arts around some. Um, and as we have some large buildings that need occupancy. Um, there's been a lot of talk about turning it into sound stages and film production. And so, I really want to want to encourage us to look at um, Tri City Film Consortium and and putting a few dollars um, towards them. Okay, just to let let this let that industry know that we do support and encourage.

Okay, let me suggest that Scott and I look at those three Coladium Fairgrounds, Twin City, and uh Tri City, excuse me. Uh and come back with a suggestion. Again, it's not much money there that No. Okay. Now, I'm going to tell you, particularly you new folks, your phone is going to ring off the hook. Okay. But that's what you get paid for. I'll just leave it at that. Next. Next. What's next? Mr. Tesh. What else we got today?

The next item is a general discussion. So, this came up uh in January as well again in April uh with respect to some of the sponsorships and the occupancy tax fund. So what has been pulled up on the screen for you and what is in your attachment in the agenda system is a basically full line item of what is in the occupancy tax fund. I will say uh for this purpose each one of those four agencies we currently fund is just shown funded the same as last year. That is obviously different than what you just talked about 30 seconds ago. So, I would avoid looking at the Old Salem, North Carolina Black Reparatory Festival and the other two uh the film agencies. Uh the crux of this argument was or excuse me of the discussion was to look at some of the other individual sponsorships that were noted in the occupancy tax fund. I will note that ACM Ralph has put this together and is much closer to this than I am. So, if you have specific questions about any of those, I would allow him uh to respond. But, uh there was a question about having access to seeing what was in the occupancy tax fund. So we have provided it there in case there were other discussions that wanted to take place.

And these are already in the budget. Yes. As it is on this page. Again, other than the four community agencies you just talked about, the rest of those, this is exactly what the budget would look like for the occupancy tax fund if adopted as is. Like for example, the downtown summer music series is that the trade street and that was in the paper the other day that they're getting ready to start up. Yes, sir. Okay. Just as an example, I do have a question. Yes, ma'am. Um could you explain the difference here with the transfer to Winston Salem fairgrounds fund? Same thing with convention center fund and public art fund uh direct um ACM RA.

So uh those are those are transfers to to three separate funds. the transfer to the convention center. Um, if you look at the the total budget for the convention center, the uh subsidy is split between the general fund and the Oxy tax fund. You recognize the fact that the convention center, I mean, it it exists to generate tourism and and put heads and beds. the fairgrounds fund the $75,000 there essentially uh provides funds for the fairgrounds to be able to co-promote or promote events there often you know concerts so uh those concerts often require guarantees to the artists and if there is a shortfall you know from a particular concert then the oxy tax fund can cover that difference and it's not really tapping into your general purpose you know dollars for that and then the public art fund. This is something that's been in place for years, but this is a a fund that the city county public art commission uh basically oversees the use of those funds and they commission projects, you know, throughout the city and and the county. Uh the the city funds are used to commit for commissioning art within the city limits, but that commission, you know, does uh oversee the use of those funds. And so it has been a regular infusion of money into that fund to make sure that that resources are available for future projects. And I think the thinking there being that as we continue to invest in public art and provide locations that may attract people to come here to to to view the art that uh that that would is thus an appropriate use of of those funds. But the recom second part the recommendation that uh council member Taylor just had with the previous um item wouldn't have any bearing on then. So you still would be able to potentially do both. Correct.

So there is the the youth events line there which I put in parenthesis fairground Fridays. Uh that that has evolved now. I was just now looking at some information that the recreation and parks staff provided to the uh recreation and parks commission uh a couple days ago. They're actually I it's now really more kind of a a youth summer series. Uh they're planning seven events this coming summer. Uh none of those would be really at would be at the fairgrounds. They're going to be really kind of throughout the community. There's going to be a bowling night. There's going to be a uh a food uh truck party at at the quarry at Tim Grant Park. So, it's going to be at various locations across the city. And so, these funds you would be used to help underwrite those events. Okay,

thank you. Uh, I wasn't going to change anything. I think this is more just FYI unless we want to. Generally speaking, it it was someone requested this information and so we are providing it in case. Okay. Thank you. Changes were needed. And that does answer there's a lot of things that take place. You wonder where the money comes from and there there are. Okay. Continue. That is all that we have. We're going to be finished in three minutes. So you keep going.

Point of clarification, council member Hall. Yes, those are in order by number of votes on the general fund side. You don't know which ones have three. I had to unhide some things in a spreadsheet, but generally speaking, yes, the ones at the bottom have zero and it goes it escalates from three down to zero.

Thank you. Okay, before we adjourn, if anyone has any questions or comments on the budget in general, and I heard some yesterday from some folks, please come see me, call me. Uh we can talk about them. Uh again, if I was king for the day, the numbers would look a little different, but I'm not. So, I'm looking to come up with something that five and a half people like. Four and a half.

Really? Four and a half. I hate to get him to ask him to vote. This just hurts my feelings. But anyway, uh so anyway, please please let me know. Uh I would also suggest you keep up and I know where did Cindy Turney go? Did she leave?

Okay. Well, I'll talk about her. She keeps us a breast of things that are going on in Raleigh and they are working on a constitutional amendment that's going to put some constraints on us. I'm not quite sure how yet, but uh she keeps us posted on that. So certainly pay attention to those as they come through. Uh as your representative on the North Carolina League of Municipalities, they also give us updates. U and I'll pass those along as we get them. It is moving so fluidly. Uh it's hard to to put something in ink because by the time you do it's changed. Anyway, with that, thank y'all very much. We are journed. I need your assistance. Oh, excuse.