City Council - Regular Meeting

The thing everyone out and joins mayor of Winston-Salem is my pleasure called order this June 15th meeting of with asylum City Council and as the city clerk to call the roll, please.

And some of the junior president and some of the Clark here and some of the injury Boeing here and some of the cpo president may pretend Adams here and some of the Taylor president and some of the call. Present. Council Member Burke. Here.

Thank you very much. Council Member Hull, thank you for joining us via Zoom tonight. Would you please join the City Council and me in a moment of silence? Thank you. Would you please join the City Council and me in a pledge of allegiance? to the lives of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Our Sergeant of Arms tonight is Lieutenant Aaron Jacobs. Lieutenant, thank you for being with us. And our Fire Marshal is Pete Geich. Pete, thank you for being with us as well. We thank everyone for being with us tonight. We're televising this meeting live tonight on TV 13 as well as our city's YouTube page. And it will be replayed tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and again Wednesday at 9 p.m. Copies of our agenda as well as videos of previous meetings will be on the city's website. You just click on watch meetings online option. May we have Mr. Pate's update, please.

Thank you, Your Honor. A couple of different things tonight. I'm going to start off by calling on Jeff Fanzler to come and give us a little bit of good news about some information on the Northern Beltway.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, and good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of City Council. It's my honor to just recognize the great work of the TPO staff who's led by Hunter Staszak, many of you which know Hunter well. He does tremendous work, and I think he has some good news to share about our Beltway.

Hunter. Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Mayor and City Council of Winston-Salem. Thank you for the opportunity to provide this funding update on the Northern Beltway and other major transportation projects for the Winston-Salem area TPO. In short, the reason we're here is that on May 28th, NCDOT, or the North Carolina Department of Transportation, announced the results of the statewide mobility programming from the prioritization process. In North Carolina, the prioritization process is the process for developing the 10-year Transportation Improvement Program. And right now, we are in the middle of developing the 2028 to 2037 State Transportation Improvement Program. It's a process that we take on every two years to determine which projects will receive limited state and federal funding and get implemented over the next 10 years. Prioritization proceeds in three different stages, beginning with statewide mobility projects. You can think of these as your large highway projects like interstate projects, and this is where about 40% of state and federal funds get allocated. And that's the stage that was just announced. Five projects totaling an estimated $1.5 billion in value were picked up within the Winston-Salem area TPO, among a total of about $4.5 billion statewide. These projects include a widening of US 152, an upgrade to interstate standards from exit 109 at Salem Parkway to exit 112 to Akron Drive, continuing north from exit 112 at Akron Drive up to the Northern Beltway, and three additional sections of the Northern Beltway, specifically on the west side. Those are the segments from Robin Hood Road south to US 421, and south from U.S. 421 down to I-40. This is the first time that these western projects of the Beltway have scored highly enough to get funded at the statewide mobility level stage of the STIP since at least prioritization 4.0, which was 10 years ago. In basic terms, coming out of this cycle, the only segment of the Beltway that will be unfunded is that segment A from I-40 down to 158, which you can see on your panel. Looking at the map on the board, this means that the eastern section will reach full completion within the coming months. Substantial completion is expected this summer on the eastern section. And as you move westward, the sections that are already funded in the 2026 to 35 stip range from US 52 down to about Robin Hood Road. The projects that were picked up for funding and statewide mobility in this 10-year window continue down from Robin Hood Road to I-40. What we don't know about the 2028 to 2037 STIP is when, within that 10-year programming window, these projects will be funded. What we'll be watching for in the coming months is the funding availability in the first five years of the STIP. that these segments are programmed in the first five years of the STIP in order so that they don't have to re-compete for funding in subsequent years. It's worth noting that these projects are eligible for funding at the next stage of prioritization, that's the regional impact stage, and this could increase the chances of one or more of those segments between Robin Hood Road and I-40 getting picked up at that next stage. Our Transportation Advisory Committee of which Mayor joins, Mayor Pro Tem Adams and Council Member Clark, our primary representatives, will consider a recommendation on July 16th to fully allocate local input points towards these projects to give them a better shot at getting funded in those first five years of the STIP and thus committed for delivery. For those who are interested in learning more about the TPO's involvement in funding, please visit cityofws.org slash TPO or our publicinput.com slash WSATPO regional public comment portal. Thank you again for the opportunity to provide this update. And should there be any questions, I understand you have a busy agenda tonight, so I'll be happy to take those questions offline. Thank you.

Thank you, Hunter. Council Member, may I approach him? Yeah.

Hunter and the Transportation Department and team, thank you so much for everything that you've been doing. I don't know whether you were around, Hunter, 17, 20, 30 years ago when Winston-Salem did not have any— Good outlooks for a beltway or a loop to our area. Again, being the largest city to Charlotte Northwest, we lobbied, Council Member Clark, myself, the mayor. Every chance we could go to Raleigh, as Mr. Faslin, you know, the prioritization was a little bit whack. And we were at the very bottom, but we were the largest city that had no beltway, no loop. And like we would express to the state that how would we be able to attract industry or improve the economy of our citizens or people moving here if they could not get around the city of Winston-Salem? And we all know what Salem Parkway looked like before it was upgraded. But I am so glad that we finally got this. And I honestly believe, again, our advocacy to our neighbors, other cities in the district, whether it's Louisville, Kernersville, Ruhr Hall, Bethania, King, all of them, They will all benefit from this. So if none of you have gotten on what's already completed of our highways and Beltway, I implore you to do that. Just, you know, don't do over 100 or anything. But right now, you can do some pretty high speed. People do. But the mayor and I, when we cut the ribbon for it, They allowed us to go as fast as we wanted to go in our vehicles, but I was very, very pleased again to see that our area is finally getting some attention, and we will continue to lobby our members on the board and our state legislatures and North Carolina DOT to help us complete this project for the future of our city. Again, thank you.

Thanks, Senator. I believe Jeff told me that these... Sections that were just approved was about 700 million dollars worth of value there some thereabouts And then the other part that's already in place Probably takes us over a billion to for the whole length of it You might recall when we were getting ready to start this project It was going to be 600 million for the entire length and we were sued by a group called the Friends of Forsyth And the Friends of Forsyth cost this community over 600 million dollars. We're finally back on track. Thank you Hunter. Thank you, Mr. Manager

Thank you, and to the Mayor Pro Tem's point, Hunter was not here 20 years ago when this was being done, but we expect him to be here when this section is completed, so he's going to see the end of the project and go along. As you know, we are heading into the summer, and it changes some of the weather conditions that we have here, so last week and over the past weekend, our heat indices did get to over 100 degrees. As such, we implemented our extreme heat protocols to help our residents and our employees stay safe. Some of the things that happened were our rec centers were open as cooling centers during these events. They are only open during regular business hours in the lobby area for cooling, so you don't interrupt other ongoing activities in the facility, but those were available to our residents. And you can find which facilities are open on our Parks and Recreation website. We also had eight pools and ten splash pads open throughout the city, and the pool operations were modified, like on Friday when two pools were closed, to allow for adequate staffing at the six other sites and to have more frequent lifeguard rotations and breaks. Same thing we do with our outside field crews in the city. The Transit Authority, as Council approved last year, implemented their temporary free fare fixed route bus service during the day of those extreme temperatures to help residents actually get access to our cooling centers and escape the heat. So we expect that you'll continue to see more of these extreme heat protocols coming to pass, and the city is committed to community safety and well-being of all of our residents as a part of during these extreme weather events. And when these protocols are enacted, our communications staff gets that information out to the public via the media, the website, and all of our social media platforms to make sure everybody is informed. I'm also pleased to let Council know that the one-third compensation study that you have been approved is well underway now. Our employees are filling out surveys right now, and so we'll have that information coming back this fall to you to continue on with that process that you approved for us. Recognition areas and events, the Neighborhood Services Department will conclude its Code Conversation Tour with two final meetings. One's coming up this Tuesday, June 23rd at 6 p.m. at the Haynes Hosiery Community Center. Tuesday, June 23rd, 6 p.m., Haynes Hosiery. And Tuesday, June 30th at 6 p.m. at the Carl Russell Community Center. So the next two Tuesdays, residents are invited to come out and learn about common property concerns, reporting procedures, and available city resources to deal with the items from the Neighborhood Services Department. Just a general reminder to the community that our yard waste cart sticker renewal will come due on July 1st. So if you have a 96-gallon cart that you bought from the city for this, they are collected every week. You can buy or you can order a cart if you don't have one already. But if you have a cart, you can renew your yearly sticker now for $65 in our finance collections area. Again, you can visit our Solid Waste Yard Waste website for more information on that. The Winston-Salem Fire Department Color Guard had the honor of presenting the colors at Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals on June 11th in Raleigh, and they are claiming that they are the good luck charm that caused the Carolina River to close. move forward and win the Stanley Cup last night. So we don't know, but I suspect if they're in the Stanley Cup again, they will be invited back to Raleigh again as a part of that. This Friday, June 19th, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday, the city offices will be closed. We hope that our residents and all our employees are able to celebrate the holiday at one of our many community events that are going on all over that weekend. And I will say in this past weekend, we had a huge number of folks in our downtown area to participate in the Pride weekend events that were happening. And if you didn't get a chance to come downtown, I think they estimated 70,000 folks in the downtown area over that period. Just a tremendous crowd. One of the things that I was asked to speak a little bit on tonight is we're, later on in the agenda, you're gonna have some talk about things for teens and the Youth Protection Act or ordinance that's in place. But one of the things we've been talking about is opportunities that the city has been providing for teens in the community. So I just want to give you just a little bit of a continued rundown of that or update on that and for you and the community in particular. because all these have been shared with you as council in the past. So we know that council is committed to providing opportunities for all folks in our communities to have recreational opportunities and opportunities to do things. In the city, there has been opportunities for employment prospects for some of our teens. We've hired quite a few in our Parks and Recreation program. There's the inaugural summer youth program that's going on now, looking at hiring additional youth. We have year-round sports events, after-school activities, teen apprentice programs, and volunteer opportunities all within the Parks, Recreation and Parks Department for our teens, preteens, teens, and older teens. Our police and our fire departments are offering year-round explorer programs that provide experiential learning and can lead to career opportunities for folks, and both of those are free programs. Our Human Relations Department has a Youth Advisory Council that provides civic engagement opportunities on a year-round basis. Our Economic Development Department has a Positive Path, which is a five-month career exploration and development training program. And on your consent agenda tonight, there's a new partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs that will provide a home base of operations for teen program at the mini Lee Davis Harris Community Center. In addition to you also authorized us to move forward with looking at development of a new skate park in the downtown area at the last set of committee meetings. In addition, you provided funding to a whole variety of nonprofits in the community to do work in this area and support programs and services for youth of all ages. Over a million dollars went to the Salvation Army for renovation of a teen center that's up and operational today. You also provided ongoing or one-time funding of more than a million dollars for youth programs such as the REACH Center, which is at the former Winston-Salem Lake YMCA, and the Youth STEM Education Program for after-school and summer programming with a variety of community partners. And there's also funding that's going to some specific at-risk young adults who are particularly some that are navigating reentry after incarceration and some other events that are out there. So I just wanted to make sure the community was well informed of all of the various ways that council, and that's just an example of some of the things that council has approved to move forward with youth programming in our community. Speaking of things that are on the agenda, I also asked Scott Tesh to come up for just a moment to give you just a quick update on a change that was made since committee to an item that's a budget amendment for this current year budget. So I'm going to turn it over to Scott.

Yes.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council. City Manager has been telling you about a lot of very fun and interesting things going on in the city. I unfortunately have two very technical things that we have asked to add to the budget amendment for year end. One of them is related to Gatsby accounting standards. So these are very technical adjustments for the way that we record leases and internet or informational technology agreements. There are no additional funds that are being used to purchase anything new. This is simply an accounting standard that and we are doing technical budget adjustments for them. The second piece is there is a transfer from the debt service fund to the capital projects fund. As the manager has talked about several times over the last two years, we are getting smarter about our use of debt. And in this case, we are going to be cash financing some smaller things, which will save us nearly a half a million dollars over the course of what would have otherwise been money that we borrowed. So again, two kind of technical accounting adjustments. Everything has already been funded before. There's nothing new in this. It's just very technical in nature.

Any questions for Mr. Tesh? Thank you, sir.

And I know that was a lot, but we're standing ready to take additional questions if you have any.

Any questions for Mr. Pate? I think everybody's happy. Thank you very much. We do have two honorariums, and I ask the city clerk to read the first one, please.

Item H1, resolution celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Whereas the year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, a historic milestone that honors the courage, vision, and sacrifice of those who established our nation. Whereas the America 250 initiative invites communities across the country to reflect on our shared history, celebrate our achievements, and inspire future generations to uphold the principles of liberty, justice, and democracy. Whereas, Winston-Salem, North Carolina proudly joins in commemorating this significant occasion, recognizing the contributions of our citizens to the growth and prosperity of our city, state, and nation. Whereas, the anniversary provides an opportunity to honor the ideals that unite us to engage in civic dialogue and reaffirm our commitment to building a stronger, more inclusive future for all. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Winston-Salem hereby recognize the year 2026 as the 250th anniversary of the United States of America in Winston-Salem and encourage all residents to participate in activities and events that celebrate our nation's history and heritage. So moved.

Second. Motion by Mayor Protean, seconded by Council Member Taylor. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. No opposed. That is unanimous. I will just say that our kind of official celebration here in the city will be on July 4th at the Dash Stadium. Have a lot of fun there. And there we will be honoring 12 citizens who are 100 years old or older there that night. I don't think they'll be throwing out the first ball, but they will be there. Item H2, please.

Item H2, proclamation declaring June 15th, 2026 as a bed and a book day. Whereas a bed and a book is a community-based nonprofit founded by Annalisa Wall, dedicated to ensuring that no child sleeps on the floor by providing beds, books, and essential resources to the children and families in need. Whereas since its founding, A Bed and a Book has delivered over 1,000 beds to children in need, directly impacting the lives of families across eight counties and restoring dignity, stability, and hope within the community. Whereas the organization has mobilized hundreds of volunteers who generously give their time and resources alongside strong partnerships with local first responders, including fire departments, law enforcement agencies, and several Wake Forest University sports teams, departments, and civic clubs to identify urgent needs and respond with compassion and efficiency. Whereas a bed and a book recognizes the critical link between safe sleep and a child's physical health, emotional well-being, and academic readiness, ensuring that each bed delivered is not just furniture, but a foundation for a child's growth and future success. Whereas Annalisa Wall, founder of A Bed and a Book, has demonstrated exceptional leadership, vision, and compassion in serving vulnerable children while continuing to develop forward-looking initiatives aimed at expanding impact and reaching even more families in need. Whereas the work of A Bed and a Book reflects the very best of the Winston-Salem community, bringing together individuals, organizations, and public servants in a shared mission to care for its children. Now, therefore, I, Jay Allen Joins, Mayor of the City of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim Monday, June 15, 2026, as A Bed and a Book Day in Winston-Salem, on the celebration of its 1,000th... bed delivery and recognize and honor the work of Ms. Annalisa Wall for her dedication and perseverance in creating this program and making it so successful.

Ms. Wall, thank you for what you have done and continue to do for our community. You got your whole family with you tonight. We're glad to have them with us as well. We know that tonight there'll be at least 1,000 young people who'll get a good night's sleep. And if it was during the school year, we know that that next day they'll do much better in school. So making big dividends for us. So thank you for what you're doing. That's your proclamation, if you'd like to add some words.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and members of City Council, thank you for this incredible honor and thank you for recognizing and embedding a book. What started as a simple desire to make sure every child had a safe place to sleep and a book to call their own has turned into a community effort that's gone far beyond I would ever imagine. This recognition belongs to our volunteers, to our donors, to firefighters, Chief Mayo, his entire staff. They have been just beyond supportive, law enforcement, community partners like Mungo Homes. They have helped us serve and love on every child in this community we've been able to reach. Every bed delivered tells the children that they matter and this community cares about them. So thank you again for this recognition. Thank you to everyone who's been part of this to help us love on the children and serve this community. And thank you for the recognition again.

Thank you. All right, we'll now get down to business. Our agenda is comprised of two parts, the consent agenda and the general agenda. And the consent agenda is made up of items that have been previously approved by a committee of the city council or are being submitted in an established city procedure. There'll be no discussion of the items on this agenda unless the council member so requests at which time an item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered individually. Items not removed will be enacted with one motion. customers are there any items you wish to pull from the agenda I believe customer Hall you had one or two see three see three I got you that's where Hall yes mayor I would like to pull item c1 item c12 item c15 and item c16 Okay. Make sure I got those. 1, 3, 12, 15, and 16.

Correct.

Is there a motion on the balance?

Move for approval of the consent agenda. Second.

Second. This will be a voice vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That's approved. Item C1, please.

Item C1, ordinance... I'm ending Chapter 46 of the City Code relating to noise, Phase 2 of noise regulations. First reading. General Government Committee recommends approval.

Council Member Hall?

Yes, thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the reading of C1. I'm having trouble hearing this. ACM route. Can you hear me?

A little closer.

ACM RAL might be best suited to answer this question that does come from the presentation on the noise ordinance, in particular, the last slide of the presentation. The last slide that has wording relates to other issues. I would like for ACM RAL to be able to address some of those other issues. that are still being considered between the manager's office and the police department, particularly around crowd noise that will still be looked at in the coming weeks.

Mr. Rao, would you please comment?

Good evening. Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tempore-Adams, members of council. So I would like to recognize Ken Millett in our Economic Development Office. The slide here at the end noted that we feel like that we've got existing ordinances that we can enforced to address some of the concerns about crowd noise. And the Economic Development Office is responsible for our Sidewalk Cafe permitting process. And Mr. Millett has been working with the police department on how we can better enforce or utilize, really, I should say, the sidewalk cafe permitting process to encourage establishments to be better neighbors. So if you don't mind, I'd like to just recognize him to provide an update on his efforts. Mr. Miller.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council. The Office of Economic Development does issue the sidewalk cafe permit. What we've heard from a lot of residents downtown this year is noise that's emanating from those sidewalk cafes. The ordinance governing it deals with live music and amplified sound, but just regular crowd noise is not addressed in it. What we can address currently are the hours of operation. that Sunday through Wednesday, sidewalk cafes can operate till 1 a.m. On Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and state holidays, it can operate till 2 a.m. So when those permits are issued, we do share All the relevant ordinance information to the permit holders of sidewalk cafes. I've talked with both the city attorney's office and the police department as well as another department that I'll reference in a moment about formalizing a process. of reminding folks what the rules, regulations, and ordinance calls for. So we will work with the police department to distribute the status of that establishment's cafe, the permit status of it, Remind them again of the ordinances. And as we look to enforce it, ensure that there is time given to come into compliance. But it is certainly not what we want. But ultimately, what could result from someone continuing to not be in compliance would be removal of the Sidewalk Cafe furniture. So this is a process that is beginning shortly. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Millett? Councilman Clark.

Is there a city ordinance related to how late you can serve alcohol?

I do not know. That is way past my bedtime, whatever time that is. But these sidewalk cafes cannot be used after 1 a.m. That doesn't just mean it can't be served after 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. Even if it was previously purchased inside, it can't be taken outdoors. But I do not know the latest time that alcohol can be sold. handled by state statute and ALE and local governments can't usurp that, but it's 2 o'clock.

2 o'clock is the latest established conservative alcoholic drink. Okay. And that's state statute. Thank you.

Any other questions? Mr. Millett, Council Member Joyner.

Thank you, Mayor. Is there not just an ordinance on the books about disturbing the peace that doesn't deal with Like if at my home, if my next door neighbor was having a loud party, there wasn't amplified music. It was just a whole lot of loud people. Is there no ordinance on the books for that?

I cannot speak to that, Council Member Joyner. I would certainly defer to the police department on that. I will say that as part of this phase one, phase two, and potential phase three of addressing noise in the city, staff from multiple departments have looked at options that can be used for the enforcement of loud noise. I forgot the phrase that you just used. So I'm going to assume that what tools are available to address that are being used, but I do not know the specific answer to you. So I'll ask the question of this.

Is it possible to, if that does exist, Is it possible to add this, that type of verbiage into the sidewalk permit?

We can certainly look at that. I think what we are going to end up with is revised, that staff will be recommending some language that amends the Sidewalk Cafe ordinance that could duplicate if it exists, reinforce if it exists, or just creates an enforcement mechanism for those issues.

City attorney Thank You mayor Jones just councilman joining to address your question. We do have an ordinance on the books that Relates to disturbing of the peace. However, the ordinance that is Specific to noise is a stronger ordinance and it would probably best suited to be addressed there Any other questions, all right customer home you'll make a motion

Yes, I just have one comment. I don't have a question that ended out. It's not for Mr. Millett, Director Millett, but I appreciate that. And that's just to make sure, and I think ACM Rao may have spoke to this, to make sure that we're getting this information as a city out to, you know, folks who have businesses that do amplify sound. as well as event promoters and folks that often may have amplified sound in the city to give our best effort to make sure that we advertise that. And with that, I move to approve item C1. Second.

Motion by Council Member Hall, second by Council Member Scipio. Discussion? No, this will be a voice vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, no. That's unanimous, and Council Member Hall votes in favor of that as well. Okay, item G, excuse me, C3.

Item C3, resolution supporting a partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Greater Triad Incorporated. General Government Committee recommends approval.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. In light of everyone I've heard some of the things that the city has invested in for youth activities, I wanted either Mr. Rao or Mr. Royston to at least come up and give a synopsis of what this relationship or collaboration is. with the Boys and Girls Club or the Triad. A lot of you and most of us remember either your relatives, nieces, somebody belonged to the Boys and Girls Club. And they marched in the band and there were the T-Nets at the Y and all of this stuff. But I wanted to know, In the launch of this, is this the initial prototype launch to grow the program? And I think the public needs to know that we are talking about growing this throughout our recreation system.

Mr. Brown. Good evening, Mayor Pro Tempore-Adams. So the city staff started discussions with the Boys and Girls Club at the Greater Triad back in the fall. and uh and invited them to tour a couple of our recreation facilities and they were particularly interested in starting a program at the mainly davis harris community center and so the item that was presented to committee last week was a resolution to approve a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of the Greater Trad for them to be able to utilize the Mini Lee Davis Harris Community Center for after school and summer programming, both for elementary age students and teens. But they're also interested in expanding, and I think that part of their vision for Winston-Salem is to continue to expand their programming throughout the community. So they're still very interested in having discussions with us about the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, some of the investments that we've made recently into that center with the music studio and enhanced computer lab, I think, particularly. is interesting to them. They're also working with Aspire on possibly developing a center in the Piedmont Circle community. So they are definitely looking to establish themselves here in Winston-Salem. The model that they have in High Point, they have what they call a hub and spoke type of model where they have a main facility, which in this case, is the former Rankin, I believe, United Methodist Church. There's now their Congdon Center. And then they have satellite locations throughout the city. And so I think that they're certainly looking to develop something like that here in Winston-Salem. They haven't really identified what that hub location would be, but they definitely see a lot of promise in establishing themselves at the Manly Davis Harris Community Center.

Thank you, Mr. Ryle. I really believe one of the issues that we have as a city is because the world has changed when it comes to communicating information. Everybody was used to either picking up the Chronicle or the Journal and Sentinel and other weekly papers. And that's all gone away, basically. It's basically digital. But we have yet to be able to get our folks to understand or to see what the city has invested in and what we invest in, and whether that's the Boys and Girls Club, whether that's the REACH Center at the Houston Lake Y, whether that's the Crosby Scholars, whether that's Action for Equity, whether that's the Freedom School, whether that's daycare. You know, maybe we need to take a billboard out or some billboards, and maybe we need to go and get two-page papers pages of the journal or whatever is out there, because people continue to believe that their tax dollars are not being spent to invest in our community's next future. And I don't know how we gonna fix that. Maybe this is where we have, as I tell you, those conversations, because it amazes me again. You got some people with boots on the ground that's doing the real work. and nobody really knows about them and i know i wish we had money to give everybody but we don't so going forward as we get through this budget cycle uh mr pate i think we need to look at how do we educate our citizens so that they can reel off uh the programs that we have at the recreation centers this new collaboration with the boys and girls club and other agencies and organizations and churches and nonprofits because they're out there by the hundreds, if not thousands. But, you know, maybe they don't do a thousand youth. Maybe they do 20. Maybe they be 30. But the point is they're reaching them and they're trying to help them to formulate the opportunities that are out there for their well-being and quality of life. So again, I'm challenging our staff, city manager, and this council, we have got to figure out a way with information. If there is an organization that is catering to 25 kids, we need to have that somewhere that people can look at, see what the programmatic thrust is, so people can see what people are doing. Because a lot of the people that's doing the work are regular everyday people. that care about our city and they care about our youth and the next. That's all I had. I move for approval of this consent agenda, item three.

Second. Second by Council Member Clark. Any discussion? All those favoring the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, no. That's unanimous. Thank you. Item C-12.

Item C12, resolution authorizing the advancement of betterments for the third, fourth, fifth street bridge replacement project. Public Works Committee recommends approval.

Council Member Hall.

yes thank you um mayor uh joins this in particular um it goes back to i think a vote that we may have taken in december um and this was about the um betterments that were going to be a part of the third fourth and fifth street bridges one thing that i mentioned was um to make sure that we honored the life and the legacy of former state legislator Earline Parman. We mentioned that she originally had a role that was placed in her honor post-death that was off of 16th Street. And then for more visibility, it was moved on 5th Street. I think this does propose where that would be eliminated. And we talked about, and I saw Director Fansler come up to the front, but we did talk about ways that we could try to think about being able to keep that legacy. If there is a way that we could do that, I wanted to make sure that I put that back on record with these betterments.

Ms. Fansler, do you want to comment on that?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and good evening again, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council. Council Member Hall, what I'll say is, you know, would this item of approval would authorize our department to pursue with Creative Corridors and NCDOT a suite of betterments, which could include some way to to honor that legacy of Ms. Parman. So I think there are options out there. I will say that closing that street is paramount to the success of this project because of the grade has to change on that street. So physically the geometry just doesn't work for it to remain. But I think it's an opportunity for us to get creative. on how we recommend honoring that moving forward with some other option, which we could present once we know what those betterment packages could look like. So I would ask for the opportunity to explore that with NCDOT. And then from there, we will be, we would certainly want to come back and explain what we would recommend for consideration at this board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Fanzer. Thank you, Mayor Jones. And with that, I will move to approve item C-12.

Motion and second.

Vivian.

Oh, did you have a comment? Okay, Council Member Joyner. Second. Oh, I thought you said, okay. All right, do we have a motion and a second? All those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no. And that's unanimous. Thank you. Item C-15.

Item C-15, resolution awarding a contract for security and company police services, allied universal security services in the amount of $3,236,475.50. Finance Committee recommends approval. Governor Hall.

Thank you. Mayor joins Darren. Thank you for coming up. I wanted to say that I appreciated the information that was in the packet for review. I think that you did a really good job of being able to provide us with information of how you do scoring process. as we're looking at procurement opportunities and how we are giving consideration to vendors. I wanted to make sure that I placed on the record my concern with how we are using our evaluation criteria to be able to denote who are considered local vendors I think we do a really good job in being able to specify who is a historically underutilized business, a hub vendor, or whether or not they fall within the MWBE category. But it did not seem as if we gave... any sort of preference or even any sort of evaluation criteria for who was local. And I wanted to make sure that I called that out tonight as something that we can continue to explore in the coming months of how we are evaluating, how we are giving out opportunities and awarding opportunities to various vendors that apply Um, the same thing, um, is found when we're, when we'll be talking about another item, but I wanted to make sure that I did put that on record, uh, and see if you had, um, anything about that. But that was my major concern that I wanted to point out tonight, Darren.

Sure. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Bro Tem, uh, and members of council, um, Council Member Hall, um, uh, The location of the business criteria was suspended back in 2023. So if your question pertains to why that was not a criteria, we have not been using that for about three years now as far as business being located in the city limits. MWBE could be a component in here, but we are not allowing our vendor to subcontract. The company who provides security services needs to manage this, and they'll be hiring all of the staff to man this contract. Does that answer your question, Sum?

Yeah, that answers my question. I appreciate the information that you did give, but I did want to place that on record, and I appreciate that, Darren.

Okay.

Are you ready for a motion, Council Member Hall?

Yes, and with that, Mayor joins. I will move to approve item C-15. Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second. Council Member Joyner, any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, no. That's unanimous, thank you. And then finally, item C-16.

Item C-16, resolution awarding a lease agreement for Kimberly Park Hydroponics Greenhouse Facility to Anders Family Farms. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Customer Hall.

Thank you, Mayor Jones. I will say that with item C-16, I was happy to be able to see that we did have interest in new operators for the hydroponics facility. Just wanted to make sure that I point out for the record that the proposed vendor for this with the Anders family... that they did mention being able to give out some of their post-harvest roots and some of their vegetation scraps to be donated to some of the local farmers to use for supporting things like chicken and pasture-based operations. I want to make sure that they do remember that there are at least five community gardens in that area, and then even some residents in that particular community that do have... chickens that are within the city's um uh ordinance requirements and meet setback requirements and to make sure that they're also doing their outreach to the multiple communities that are in that area that could utilize um those vegetative um vegetation scraps that they have in the post harvest roots um and with that i will um move to approve and putting that on record item c16

Thank you, motion by Councillor Hall. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councillor McClark. Any discussion? Not all is in favor of the motion. Please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? No. That is unanimous. Thank you very much. We'll now go through the general agenda, which includes a number of items. There's an item, a temporary juvenile protection ordinance, zoning petitions. There are items related to the downtown amphitheater land lease. There are items related to contracts, as well as funding allocations for nonprofit organizations, as well as the consideration of the July 2026 City Council meeting. When public hearings are called, persons in the council chamber will be given an opportunity to speak. If there's opposition to a particular item, the proponents and opponents will each be given 15 minutes for presentation and three minutes for rebuttal. If no one wishes to speak, I'll close the public hearing and the city council will consider the item. On item G1, which is not a public hearing, I've had a number of council members who expressed an interest in allowing the public to have a brief period of comment on this one, which we will do. But before we get started, I'd like to ask Chief Penn, if he would, to give us a presentation on what this ordinance is really looking like there. Chief Penn. Thank you.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council, for item G1, my staff liaison, Lieutenant Morissette, will present as he's done the research, but I will be standing by for any questions on the matter.

Thank you, Chief. Lieutenant?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayor Pro Temp, members of City Council. I'm Lieutenant Joel Morrissette and I appreciate this opportunity to present this proposed youth protection safety ordinance for your consideration. Before discussing the details of this proposed ordinance, I'd like to briefly highlight several significant incidents involving juveniles that occurred in 2025 and 2026. These incidents included acts of violence, large unsupervised gatherings, disorderly conduct, and situations in which juveniles were either victims of crime or participants in criminal activity that occurred during the late night hours. While these incidents do not represent a vast majority of the behavior of our youth, they They do illustrate a concerning trend that has impacted public safety, strained law enforcement resources, and placed young people at an increased risk of victimization and harm. The purpose of sharing these examples is not to single out any individual or group, but rather to provide context for why the Winston-Salem Police Department believes that a youth protection ordinance should be considered as one component of a broader strategy to protect our youth, support parents and guardians, and enhance safety throughout our city. March 14 of 2025, at 3.55 a.m., two unsupervised juveniles were arrested following multiple vehicle break-ins. For the month of May of 2025, over a span of several weeks, unsupervised juveniles were involved in repeated incidents during the proposed restricted hours, including fights, throwing rocks at individuals, at property, at motorists, as well as scooter-related street takeovers involving careless and reckless driving. July 4th of 2025 at 1018 p.m., a group of unsupervised juveniles were involved in a fight that escalated when one juvenile shot another. The suspect who was arrested was 16 years old. March 14th of 2025, I'm sorry, I'm missing. Next slide, please. Thank you. February 7th of 2026 at 1.48 a.m., two unsupervised juveniles were involved in a vehicle crash in which one impaired juvenile driver caused the death of a juvenile passenger. April 2nd of 2026 at 10.43 p.m., three unsupervised juveniles attempted to rob a pedestrian who was walking down the street. That victim was shot during that encounter. And for the past several months, we've responded to two unsupervised teen takeover events involving hundreds of youth resulting in multiple arrests. These gatherings typically begin in the public, at public parks, and then they eventually make their way downtown. Next slide. Next slide please. We reviewed some stats. We reviewed some stats of police contacts involving juveniles as either victims or offenders, excluding incidents related to domestic violence, statutory rape, incest, family offenses, and runaways. We learned that in 2026, juveniles were identified as the offender in 61% of the incidents that occurred between the hours of 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., and 60% of the incidents that occurred between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. However, during the overnight hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., the percentage increased significantly to 73%. While the juvenile contacts occurred throughout the day, the data shows that juveniles are substantially more likely to be identified as offenders during the late night hours. Next slide, please. No, back up one more, please. One more. Okay. Forward. Yeah, we've gone back too far. Back up one more. One more. One more. That's it. The purpose of this ordinance is to protect juveniles from victimization and exposure to criminal activity, reinforce and support parental guidance and responsibility, promote public safety and security for both juveniles and adults, and to improve safety citywide. Next slide, please. Back up one more, that one. The proposed restricted hours applies to juveniles under the age of 18. Those hours are 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and it applies seven days a week. The ordinance would be applied citywide, and it would be effective from the date that is approved by council until 6 a.m., October 12th of 2026. To be in violation of this ordinance, the juvenile would have to be unsupervised and in a public place during the restricted hours. Any parent or guardian who knowingly allows that juvenile to be out during those hours would be in violation. And a business owner who knowingly allows juveniles to remain on their premises could be in violation. And any adult who aids a juvenile would be in violation. Juveniles may be adjudicated delinquent. Adults who are charged underneath this ordinance may face misdemeanor or a fine. The fine could be up to $500 and a mandatory court appearance. Our desired outcome is compliance. There are exceptions. Juveniles who are accompanied by a parent or guardian by an adult age 21 or older who is authorized to accompany that juvenile during that designated time and purpose. Juveniles on an errand before 1030, in a motor vehicle with parental consent while engaged in interstate travel that originates or terminates within our city. Juveniles that are traveling in a motor vehicle with a parent, guardian, or other authorized adult 21 or older. a juvenile who's engaged in lawful employment, who's headed to and from the place of employment, juveniles that are reacting to or responding to an emergency. Next slide, please. Juveniles that are attending or traveling to or from an official function sponsored by a school, government agency, religious entity, civic organization, or other entity that accepts responsibility for that juvenile. exercise in the First Amendment, including free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and the right for assembly, married or emancipated, a member of the armed forces, a person who's classified by age as a juvenile, but can show ID that he or she is a college student, and authorize a juvenile who has a permit from the chief of police that authorizes them being out. Next slide, please. In addition to enforcement efforts, the Winstead Police Department intends on establishing a dedicated team of sworn personnel and potentially non-sworn staff to support the implementation of the Youth Protection Ordinance. The primary mission of that team will not be enforcement alone, but also intervention, engagement, and prevention. Next slide, please. And here are some other cities and municipalities in our state that already have curfews in place. Charlotte, Fayetteville, Knightdale, Rocky Mount, Eddington, Four Oaks, Landis, and Pineville. Next slide, please. We modeled our proposed ordinance to Charlotte, next to Charlotte's, because of their success. From 2024 to 2025, Charlotte saw a 15% reduction in juvenile crime. And already so far this year, they're reporting a 33% reduction in juvenile crime. Now, while Charlotte's model serves as a strong blueprint, this proposal is tailored specifically for Winston-Salem's needs and priorities. Next slide, please. I want to emphasize that the Winstead Police Department did not arrive at this recommendation lightly. Over the past several years, we've implemented and explored numerous strategies aimed at addressing juvenile crime, victimization, and late night youth gatherings. We've conducted multiple news conferences requesting support from parents, community members, and organizations. We've met with multi-denominational clergy leaders to discuss strategies to reduce youth violence and delinquency. We've met with organizations like Hate Out of Winston-Salem to address youth violence and delinquency. We've participated in live TV and radio interviews with local media to address the community's questions and concerns. We partner with our foundation and the Arts Council to expand programming, including sports, academics, and arts. We hosted a Youth Citizen Police Academy for high school students in our community. And we're active participants in the Gang Steering Committee, Youth Crime Summit, and the STARS Initiative. We've also partnered with Forsyth County Sheriff's Office to supplement police needs as needed. In closing, this ordinance is not about criminalizing our youth. It's about protecting them. This proposed youth protection safety ordinance is one component of a broader strategy aimed at reducing juvenile victimization, preventing delinquent behavior, connecting families with needed resources, and improving public safety in our city. Thank you. That concludes my presentation. I'll be happy to take any questions you might have.

Thank you, Lieutenant. Any questions of the Lieutenant? Councilman Andrew Bullen.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor. I have a few questions Why what is special about October 12th?

That's the day after the fair ends and also council be meeting later that night so we would like to potentially maybe present before council maybe whatever preliminary numbers or findings that we might have Okay, thank you. Yes, sir.

Two more questions. So if I have a 17-year-old, if he is traveling by car after 10 o'clock, does he need a note from me? Or if you pull him over and you realize he's underage, do you just take his word for it?

Officers are going to use the same investigative skills that they implement when they encounter juveniles. It's probably going to be, depending on the circumstances, that officer does have discretion. If your 17-year-old is on his way home and he gets stopped, chances are he's just going to get a warning and told to go home.

Okay. And my final question, right to assembly, is that, am I to assume that is like a pre-approved right assembly or if a group of teens want to, let's say, protest this curfew, they could be out front of City Hall without a permit or do they need a permit to have the right to assemble? No, they would not need a permit. So again, let's say that a group of teenagers are together and you come upon them and they say, what are you doing? And they say, we're assembling, we're fulfilling our right to assemble.

That officer is going to investigate the circumstances, going to investigate the information provided by those juveniles and address the matter accordingly. Thank you.

Mr. Joyner Thank You mayor He talked about having a program similar to Jade or J posts. Yes, ma'am that Charlotte has would those be new officers or new employees to the department or are we Have some folks that have that type of training that we would bring them together as that team. I

Yes, ma'am. We already have personnel with some of that training. Surely the executive staff, they're going to get together and make the decision and staff those units. But right now, I think we're looking at repurposing a unit that already exists, adding on, adding staffing, and letting them go to work. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Any other questions? Chief, you want to add?

Excuse me. Yes, we're going to pull from existing folks we have on staff. And remember, we're dealing with the youth all the time. We're dealing with them when we're engaged with them for more serious crimes. This would not be a serious crime. So, yes, we would ask questions of them. We would do the research. We would call you. We would have the conversation. We are dealing with this anyway. Why we're here today is because we are having our youth run in the streets at all times of the night, and there is nothing in place right now. If we can stop youth early on, Maybe we prevent some of those very crimes that was on the earlier slide. We'd much rather talk to them about an ordinance than deal with them after they've been a victim or an offender of some act. That's what we're trying to do. And we've asked for help. We pled with help. Every single one of these cameras back here that you see, we've stood before asking for help from families, parents, community. And at the end of the night, 1 o'clock in the morning, it's just us and them. And we're looking for some help so that we can get them home without them being offended or becoming an offender for the more serious crimes.

Council Member Burke had a question, I think.

Thank you, Mayor. I have several questions. So the first question is, On your slide, you said that prior outreach meetings took place with educators, parents, members of clergy, community members, and members from different organizations. What strategies or solutions were suggested during those meetings to address these issues.

Some of the strategies are, let's listen to the youth. Let's hear what they have to say. We did that. We learned about jobs. They wanted jobs. We worked with the mayor on that so that we can get them jobs. We worked with other places to determine if anyone was willing to Find a venue for youth to be youthful in and hang out with one another. So, we've tried that as well. So, we've asked for folks to take the lead in this. So, it's not the police department taking the lead on this. And this is where we still are today.

Next question. When we heard the presentation last week and we saw the Charlotte model that included the Jade or Jade post counselors or coaches to work with at-risk youth and their parents. Do you all know who the at-risk youth are in our city?

So I don't think it said at-risk. What we would be dealing with the youth who are violating that ordinance, going back, not just taking them home, but having a conversation and making sure the family has the resources to understand what's going on. Again, as was stated in the asterisk, The goal is compliance. I said in a press conference, we don't want to deal with our youth in enforcement action. We do not want that. So if we can get compliance, if we can get parents to help, or if the parents aren't able, someone else to step in, that's what we're looking for.

Thank you. Two more questions. If youth or parents Individuals who look youthful but are not are found to be out after curfew. What do they need to show? For example, you said we may have a college student and they just need to show that they are a college student. What if they left the dorm or left campus without their ID? How will we handle that?

Councilman Burke, we deal with that sort of thing all the time. We have resources at campus who could help us with that. We would conduct an investigation. We just wouldn't grab someone without doing due diligence. Every opportunity will be afforded to them to show us that they are that student.

Okay. There are people who may be older but look younger, and I just want to make sure I'm asking the questions on their behalf as well. And for our youth who are actually underage, do they need to show any kind of ID? Do they need to go through the city day to day with any kind of identification that would show or prove their age?

Most youth don't have that. And we're still able to work through it like we do on a day-to-day basis and figure out who they are, who's their parent, where they belong. And then we do a great job of getting them back to their parent or guardian. We do this every single day.

And my last question is about violators of the proposed ordinance. If someone is in violation, youth or parent, tell me again how that will be handled. I guess I want to make sure that this will not be a criminal offense. It will be a non-criminal offense.

Well, it'd be a violation of the ordinance, and we would work to get that youth to their parent and have the conversation about the violation of that ordinance, if that is the only violation. What we may find out in this is that there might be another charge that may be the charge that get them in trouble. This violation of this ordinance will not follow a youth until adulthood. But some of those other crimes that we had on the slide will. So we have an opportunity. They'll be going home. If it's no other charge available, they'll be going home to their parents. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief and Lieutenant. All right. Thank you, folks. As I mentioned earlier, we're going to allow 16 minutes for comments. There are eight people signed up, so it'll be two minutes each. If you would keep your time good and tight there. So first one is Phoenix Samson Young. And if you would state your name for the record, please.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and the City Council members. My name is Phoenix Samson-Young. I am a senior at R.J. Reynolds High School, a student leader, and an involved member in my community. I'm here tonight because the proposed youth curfew is deeply concerning. Throughout these discussions, I have heard a lot about restrictions, but very little about solutions. If the goal is to address youth safety and community concerns, then young people should be included in the conversation. I have not been aware of any of the alleged meetings with the youth. We are not the subject of these policies. We are members of this city, and we will have the opportunity to vote very soon. I'm aware that the city has a budget which comes with making difficult decisions. However, I would like to see meaningful investments in youth programs, activities, mentorship opportunities, and safe community spaces included in those priorities. I have several questions for our city council. First question is, how can you vote for a curfew without first developing solutions and involving young people in the planning process? Secondly, youth recreational activities are allegedly being held, but where should we find this information? What is a better way to promote these youth activities that are claimed to be occurring? Why is a curfew being presented as the primary response for Winston-Salem's youth? We are residents of this city, and many of us will soon be voters. We pay attention to how decisions affecting us are made, and we will remember whether our voices were included in these situations. Is this curfew proposal connected to the city's focus on downtown development? I asked because projects such as the approved amphitheater continue to receive attention and funding discussions while many neighborhoods throughout Winston-Salem have experienced disinvestment for decades. What investments are being made in the communities where young people live, learn, and spend their time? If the concern is youth behavior, then what resources are being provided to address the root causes, rather than simply restricting movement? I encourage this council to work with young people and youth councils, not legislate around them. We deserve a seat at the table when decisions directly impact our livelihoods. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Well said. Lucia Bisbane.

Good evening. My name is Lucia Brisbane, known throughout the community as the Community Sis. As a youth advocate, educator, and organizer, I work directly with youth people and families across Winston-Salem. I see their challenges, their potential, and the gaps in support that too often leave them behind. Because of that experience, I find myself asking an important question. Are we addressing the problem or simply responding to the symptoms? A youth curfew may sound like action and may provide a temporary sense of control, but if we are being honest, it does not address why many of our young children are struggling in the first place. Black and brown children do not need more restrictions, they need support. They need access to safe spaces, mental health resources, quality programs, employment opportunities, strong schools, and adults, trusted adults, willing to invest in their future. They need communities that see them as assets, not liabilities, and a curfew may impact a small part of the issue, but it does not solve poverty, disinvestment, housing instability, educational inequities, and the lack of opportunities many young people face every day. History has shown us that enforcement alone does not build stronger communities. If it did, cities that have heavy policed black and brown youth for decades would have already solved these challenges. Instead of focusing solely on restrictions, I encourage us to invest in the proven solutions, mentorship programs, after school activities, workforce development, family support services, and violence prevention programs. Communities that invest in young people see better outcomes because they address root causes, not just visible symptoms. And this is where all of us have a responsibility. We must advocate, volunteer, mentor, and support the organizations already doing this work. We cannot expect policies alone to raise our children. I know what community support can do because I experienced it myself. Not always from blood relatives, but from people who showed up, held me accountable, and reminded me that I mattered. Today, many of our children are still waiting for that support. So before we celebrate curfews as progress, let us ask ourselves a harder question. What could we do if Winston-Salem invested in our children with the same urgency that we... Olivia Doyle.

I'm Olivia Doyle with Hate Out of Winston. And first, I'd like to ask whose decision it was to put our decriminalization proposal on the same agenda as a teen curfew last week, seemingly the last minute when we know that the enforcement of both cannabis arrests and teen crackdowns are racialized. So if somebody wants to own that decision, that would be great. about this curfew, I was actually out there on Wednesday night. And by 11 p.m., by the time I got there, the majority of the kids that I interact were mulling around in front of Insomnia Cookies. And amongst the mulling and the cookie eating, I had one interaction with the cop who pulled up on the kids with lights and sirens. And he got out of his car and I yelled at him, you don't have to run after these kids. They're scared because y'all flash your lights and sirens. But they weren't doing anything before y'all came through and spooked them. And the cop yelled back at me, they're scared because I'm getting them for drinking in public. I don't need your help. And I feel like that kind of summarizes what's happening. A curfew is being proposed to inspire compliance through fear of punishment, and the resources going to enforce it are not being used to implement community interventions that are not aligned with the tough on crime approach. Your agenda today in that presentation said that the WSPD met with hate out of Winston, which is true. We met on April 7th because we requested a meeting with school staff, ourself, and some WSPD staff to discuss a quote, re-envisioned youth strategy. That is what we put in our request. Your agenda does not include the outcomes of that meeting. Commitments from all participants to arrange a quote, community design session where local teams and service providers can co-create non-police public safety infrastructure, end quote. If you control F through the minutes for that meeting, which I would be happy to send you, to which the participants offered no corrections when I sent it out to everybody at the end, the word curfew is never mentioned as part of that community design session approach. During that meeting, Dr. Peoples-Joyner summarized conversations that happened with teens, I believe, during the Youth Violence Crime Summit, and most of them said they wanted opportunities to play video games with friends, to make money, to be safe in the evenings without being bothered, to access mental health care. Since that meeting, our teen task force has started surveying their friends to ask what they need the city to invest in, and they have had very similar answers. Chief Penn reiterated that we cannot arrest our way out of this, yet the city wants a teen curfew for the WSPD to enforce, so which is it? Which is it? Pick one.

Thank you, Ms. Dorn. Valerie Glass.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Valerie Glass. I'm the Executive Director of Triad Restorative Justice. We run programs for youth that are often referred to us from juvenile court counselors and school resource officers, as well as schools and families. And the kids that were referred to us, when we see them, they are more than the reason that they were referred to us. We see a lot of potential. We see a lot of kids with leadership capabilities, a lot of talent, and a lot of promise that they can bring to a wonderful Winston-Salem in the future. One of the things that we have learned from working with these youth is that they really respond to positive relationships and that they are looking for positive things to do. We also know research has shown that further justice involvement will only increase recidivism. Many studies have shown that the deeper into the court system you get, the higher the recidivism rate is. And at the same time, we have kids that are telling us that they want to do positive things. They want to do the right thing, as the people have mentioned before, all the different ideas that these youth have brought in. And our city has programs. We've mentioned some of the programs that the city is providing. And we have a lot of great community programs outside of the city that are providing programs for our youth. But we just don't have enough right now to meet the needs of the youth that they're telling us. And as the adults in our community, we are responsible for providing for the needs to our youth to help them get what they need to thrive and grow. And a curfew is just showing them that they are the problem and we are criminalizing them for existing in public when we are the adults are the ones who are failing them by providing for their needs. A curfew will take resources to enforce. And instead, we need to be thinking about how we can provide, use those resources to invest in the youth and not criminalize them. Thank you.

Thank you. Paul Ford.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Paul Robeson Ford speaking on behalf of the Summer After Dark initiative that is backbone by Action for Equity. I feel like this is a two steps forward, one step back moment. As Mayor Pro Tem mentioned earlier in the reports from the city manager indicated, there are a lot of steps forward that this city has taken. I commended you at the meeting. We'll commend you in front of this entire city council for asking former Judge Denise Hartsfield to take forward the work of from the Youth Crime Violence Prevention Summit and all of the insight that was received there. But what we know about this, in terms of this ordinance, is that there are over a dozen different exceptions that are written into that ordinance, and there are too many loopholes There is too much ambiguity about how those exceptions will play out. And what we know from history and what we know from the present is that when it comes to policing, if there is ambiguity and there are questions and it's left to discretion, there ends up being disproportionate minority contact. And too many children that look like some of the young people that came up here today end up being the ones that are targeted. That's a problem. You heard as well that we can better use these resources in other ways. And I wonder if any estimate has been done as to how many public dollars will be invested in enforcing this ordinance. Because we have been advocating for years now to invest the money to keep our recreation centers open late at night so they can serve our young people with activities. That will take resources. We cannot just rely upon volunteers to do all of that. But we need to invest those dollars in solutions, in the cure, and not just in treating the symptoms. So I urge this council to, at the very least, pause. Consider everything that has been said tonight. You have provisions to call special meetings. I know you want to deal with this before July, but make sure that this thing gets done right so we do not do more harm than good. Thank you.

Al Jabbar.

Mayor Jones, City Council, my name is Al Jabar. I'm a community activist, and I spent over 50 years dealing with the youth of this community. One of the major concerns I had dealing with our youth were not the youth. It was the parents. Today we are here discussing, and I stand in support of Chief Penn, And this audience, why would you have your 12 and 13-year-old child even dropping them off to create have luck in our city? It is disgusting. I have three daughters. I have one daughter. I told the guy, don't come back to my house. My daughter decided to meet him at the fairground for the event they have when you graduate. My partner called me. I went and got her. I didn't call the police department. It's not their job to take care of my kids. We got them babysitting. And parents are allowing this to happen. We need to hold our parents accountable. for keeping their kids at home at this time of the evening. It is ridiculous that we are here and people are standing here playing tick for tack with the real issue. Make the parents accountable. Make them accountable. I was accountable as a parent. You were accountable as parents. They should be accountable. Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council, and city attorney. My name is Kwame Kia Shavers, and I do a great deal of work in the community under the pink vote and also under myself. I am not funded by any local governmental entity, so it gives me free reign to say something when something is not right. Now, while I do agree with the curfew, I work with the youth, not y'all. I do agree with the curfew and not for the children, but for the adults because children only do what parents allow them to do. But what I'm asking you and you touched on it earlier that you guys are not reaching community well at all. And I'm glad you were brave enough to say that Mayor Pro Tem because many members don't know of the programs that the city may offer. But I will caution you to do this. Start asking the youth what they want to do and stop sitting around and making plans for them because that's possibly the reason why you have low retention or low participation at these programs because it's what you have sat around and decided what they would like to do. The first thing I do and the reason my programs are successful is because I talk to them and I ask them what it is that I want them to do. But I will say this, The presentation given by the West Salem Police Department was pretty crappy. First of all, the crimes that were committed that they reported, those are real gangster crimes. And if you think a curfew gonna stop a real gangster, you better wake up and like today. Real talk. That's not going to stop that. Now, you may be able to get some of the riffraff that happens, little petty stuff that happens when they go downtown and do stuff they know they haven't been doing, just small mischief. But those real robbery-type crimes, you're not about to stop that because they're still doing it. And you went on the news and said that you was going to take their mama to jail if they keep doing it, and they've still been doing it. So the proof is already there. Do your own research versus looking at what somebody else is doing. Tailor this curfew to Winston-Salem and not Charlotte. Love Charlotte, but Charlotte ain't us and we ain't them. Thank you.

Waldo, you didn't put your last name down.

I'm... I'm here because I disagree with the curfew. Could you state your name for the record, please? Oh, Waldo M. What's your last name? M.A. It's whatever. But I disagree with the curfew because I don't believe that it's constitutional, such as if I was going downtown walking down the sidewalk, how does an officer determine that I'm not... 30 years old. So am I going to be questioned on my age? Am I going to be held hostage because I don't want to show my ID? This is the United States, so we should be able to walk down a sidewalk and not papers please every time we meet an officer. And I don't believe the curfew is going to solve anything because just as the person just speaking before me said, These people had charges of selling drugs, having guns, pointing guns, trying to kill kids. And it's like these are people that aren't children. And they weren't children. The one selling drugs was not a child. So he's not going to be impacted by the curfew. He's going to continue selling drugs. And when you give them a bond of $2,500, when he sold more drugs that night and made more money from selling those drugs... Mm-hmm. What is that going to do to keep them in there when it's a $2,500 bond? They could call their best friend and say, send me $10. Oh, that's going to help me out and get me out of jail, and I'll be back on the street selling more drugs. So the curfew is not going to solve anything. It should be stopped, and no one should vote for it. What's going to solve something is providing the kids something to do.

Thank you. That's the time we've set aside for the comments here. I did have a conversation today with two individuals who could not be here but asked that I give their statement. Mr. Harrison, who is president of the NAACP, enthusiastically supports the youth violence protection or personal protection ordinance, as well as Reverend Brown Dix with the Minister's Association of Winston-Salem and Vicinity also supports it as well. So, this did come out of the Public Safety Committee, and I would recognize Council Member Scipio if you are ready for a motion.

Mr. Mayor, do I, can I give comments after the motion?

Yes, after the motion.

Okay. Councilmembers, I move for approval of item G1.

Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilmember Clark. All right, go ahead, Councilmember.

Yes. Councilmembers and to the community, this is about what children, children are doing between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the streets of Winston-Salem And that's what this curfew is about. What are the children doing? A 12 year old on the streets among other young people selling drugs, having guns, whatever. You can't protect other people's behavior, but you certainly can try to protect your own child's behavior by allowing them not to be in harm's way. This is not to say they can't do things prior to that time. 4 a.m. in the morning on the streets is not conducive to good childhood health. Children need to sleep. When are they doing that? Why have they been exposed to, a little too early for my thinking, to drug use? They're sexual predators. You think everything's going to be fine. That's our wish all the time. But you never know who else is out there in the streets. We're not trying to stop the young people from growing up, but there's gonna be a whole lot coming your way. And to just push it so fast, you may be very disappointed. As far as I'm concerned, parents must be responsible for their children and where they are at 2 a.m. in the morning. We are not to dictate how you raise your child, but the harm that can come to them on our streets, we have to be sensitive to it. So that's why I'm voting in favor of this. And hopefully parents, if you're gonna be out with your child at four, that's your business, but they're with you. But them by themselves is just a little too risky for my opinion.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Andre Bowen and then Council Member Joyner.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First of all, I have to thank you for allowing the public comment during this time. Thank you for having that conversation with me last week and putting this forward. Do I think minors should be out past a certain time? No. I am a parent. I have a 17-year-old. I have a 15-year-old. And I personally, as a parent, require them to be home by a certain time. But I don't think it's the government's job to be the parent for everyone. Do I think that the police should have every resource at their availability to arrest people who are committing crimes in the act? Yes. Do I think that they should be in the community to give them every resource to prevent crimes around this without me or my child being outside after a certain time? That shouldn't be a crime. So that's my issue. So I definitely think we should provide all the resources to the police to combat crime. So for the example of the video we saw last week of the thing downtown, arrest those people. Bless them. I have no issue with that. Being out after that, it should not be a crime. If they weren't committing a crime in the act, that's not a crime. But being after hours and that being a crime, I have an issue with that. My final thought is, I have two more thoughts. Yes, we should try to provide more resources to community centers. We've just passed the budget. It's a struggle for us, let's be real. Finally, Waldo. I don't usually call out people in the audience, but I'm gonna second everything Waldo said when it comes to civil rights. We are targeting one direct age group one direct citizenry. And if we did this for any other time, we've done this in the past, and we fought against it. And just because it's a law to enact a curfew for a certain sect, just because that's a law, there have been laws in the past that we have said, oh, it's a law. We can pass this direct law focusing on a certain direct group of people. And those were struck down. So I do not support this. I will vote against it. And I think it's a... It's against our civil liberties. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. It is a difficult discussion to have and decision to make. There are unintended consequences on either side of this. If you do nothing and continue to sit and wait for someone else or blame someone else for not doing enough, then something worse will happen. If we do something and we step on a toe, we bruise an ego, we have some harsher issues that happen, but we save a life, it's unintended consequences. I believe that the curfew is a flawed response to a community problem. Yes, kids being rude and rowdy and disruptive is a problem we all need to deal with. unintended consequences. The consequence of this right now, the curfew, it's not downtown, it's not the center city, but that is what is polarized right now. So let's be clear that we're talking about the full city, that your neighborhood, my neighborhood, their neighborhood is all impacted by this. Every large group of children, children, did I say that? Children. Every large group of children are not downtown creating havoc. Every large group of children are not creating havoc. Some of them are chaperoned, are guided and guarded by parents and other responsible adults Every child does not have a parent. And that's a sad but honest circumstance. But we as a community, not as nine people sitting up here, but the tens and twenties of hundreds of people that email, that call us out, that say we are not doing the right thing by our citizens. Are you? Because we're all in this together. I have not gotten one email, one phone call, one request in person to say, hey, I've got a program, I just need a place to do it. I've got people in place. Can you open up a rec center and let me use it? Haven't gotten that call. So unintended consequences are on all of us, not just this council. But where it really lies is on the babies. And an eight-year-old running down the street at 10 o'clock at 8.30 at night, that's not on their block, not in their neighborhood. That's not good. That's not safe. It's not healthy. It's not reasonable. Unintended consequences. It lies on all of us. So this curfew, I do support. But I believe it is the start of real conversation. It is the start of real action. It's not the end. This is temporary, but we have to start somewhere. We have to do something. You can blame this one and you can say that one. You can say we need more of this and more of that, but until you come to the table with your boot and your hand, don't come. That is the unintended consequence. We are a community and we cannot pick and choose which battle. We live in this every day. And those gentlemen and those women that are in uniform, they should not be your child's parent. They don't have to be the big brother or big sister that is the only one that they encounter. We all touch these people every day, and little people count.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member. We do have a motion on the floor, so I would call for a vote. All those in favor of the motion to approve this ordinance? Council Member Hall?

Mayor, yes, I had a comment. Go ahead.

I'm sorry, right before you go to vote.

Go ahead.

Okay, thank you. I will say for tonight, I am in support of a curfew. I think that there were several concerns that were raised. I think overall, folks would support having a curfew that was in place as a first step. I would like to offer To Mayor, I mean, Lord have mercy, I was about to call Mayor Scipio, but to Council Member Scipio, whether or not she would support a substitute motion for tonight to extend until our July 6th meeting for a vote.

We're not going to have a July 6th meeting, Council Member.

We don't meet in July. No. Currently, we have a July 6th meeting on the calendar. There is a G18 motion to amend that, but we're not on G18 yet. We do have a July 6th meeting on the books, and we voted when we voted in the calendar that we're currently in to keep that on the books in the event that we did have something that warranted a meeting. So that is in place. I'm sure of that. I would welcome any city staff member.

You can offer a substitute motion, Council Member Hall, if you'd like to. Do you offer a substitute motion, Council Member Hall?

I am.

I understand your motion is to delay this item to July 6th. Is that correct?

Correct. Correct.

Is there a second to the substitute motion? Second. Second. All right. We'll vote on the substitute motion. All those in favor of delaying this action to July 6th, please say aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Oh, no. No. No.

This is to delay the item to July 6th. So I'm hearing Council Member Burke, Council Member Andre Bowe, and Council Member Hall. That's three in favor. All those opposed to that, please say aye.

Aye.

Four, the motion fails. We're back to the original motion that Council Member Scipio made. All those in favor of the original motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Raise your hand if you would. One, two, three, four, five. Okay. And I assume there are three opposed. Oh, you're in favor. Opposed. Oh, you're opposed. Those opposed are three opposed. The motion passes five to three. Thank you very much. All right. Well, now I'll go to item G2. Oh, I'm sorry. We do need a second reading on this ordinance. So I'd recognize Council Member Scipio for a motion.

I move that the City Council schedule a special meeting for June 22nd at 4 p.m. for the purpose of considering items, I've got C1 and G1, of tonight's agenda for second reading.

Is there a second? Second. I might ask the City Attorney to explain why we need a second reading.

Thank you so much, Mayor Jones. Good evening, council members. With respect to the ordinance, the proposed ordinance for youth protection, and I believe the item relating to the noise ordinance, because both of these items contain fines and penalties, the state statute does require a second reading on those two matters, and so the council will have to have a second meeting, and I am in

in anticipation of not having a July meeting that meeting would need to be decided on tonight motion is to call a special meeting on June 22nd at 4 o'clock p.m. to have a second reading on these two items all those in favor of that motion please say aye aye all right that's unanimous thank you thank you all right now we'll go to item a g2

Item G2, public hearing and consideration of a zoning petition of 104 First Baptist Church W3684 from IM18 to IP. Property is located in the East Ward, approximately 0.64 acres. Planning Board recommends approval of petition.

Is there anyone in the Council Chamber who has opposed this rezoning? I know the proponents are here. Are there any questions? I see no opposition, so I'll declare the public hearing closed. And I recognize Captain Recipio if she's ready for a motion.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move for approval of 1, the statement of consistency for the approval of this item, and 2, W-3684. Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Mayor Pro Tem Adams. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed? Aye. No. And that is unanimous. Thank you very much. Item G3.

Item G3, public hearing and consideration of a zoning petition of Housing Authority of Winston-Salem, W3685 from ISQ and RM18 to RM18. Property is located in the Northeast Ward, approximately 2.92 acres. Planning Board recommends approval of petition.

This is a public hearing. Is there anyone in council chamber who is opposed to this proposed rezoning? Seeing no one, I'll then declare the public hearing closed and recognize Council Member Burke.

Thank you. I move for the approval of one, the statement of consistency for the approval of this item and 2W-3685. Second.

Second by Mayor Pro Tem Adams. Any discussion? If not all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed? That is unanimous. Thank you. Item G4.

Item G4, public hearing and consideration of items related to the long-term lease of City Park land in support of downtown MP Theater. Finance Committee recommends approval.

Okay, we'll have a public hearing on this. There's someone who has signed up in opposition to this. So each side will be given 15 minutes for presentation. First, for the proponents, I'd call on Mr. Bucky Dame for some general comments on what the proposal is here.

Hi, Bucky Dame at 3780 Kirklees Road, Winston-Salem. Thank you, Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tem Adams, and City Council. What's before you is really, I would call it an extension of the lease that we agreed to in September of this past year, of 2025, which was a five-year lease with two one-year rollovers. Part of the process as we went through this with the amphitheater, we began to realize that the cost of the amphitheater was really going over double the cost of what we needed to do. Plus, if you remember, originally we were going more temporary buildings. Now we're doing more permanent buildings. So we needed some stability for the investment, which is north of $25 million on the amphitheater. We needed that stability and some long-term investment. to help us make sure that we, you know, as we went through this process, we were covered. So with, I guess it's fair to say, without the artist village, as we're calling it, there is no amphitheater because we need that area for backstage because of the land, the way it situates. So that's what we're asking is the extension of this lease. With that, we're also proposing to increase payments to $1,000 a month for the first five years. And then after the year five, then they would go up according to the CPI through the life of the agreement. If you remember, the original agreement was only a dollar a month for five years. I'll take any questions you might have.

Questions for Mr. Dame?

Mr. Dame, if I'm correct, the tax value of that property is $220,000, $30,000, or something like that?

I heard that mentioned in the Finance Committee, yes.

So over the life of the 30-year, even at the minimum... The city would be paid more for lease payments than the value of the property.

That's correct.

Any questions? Oh, sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have one question. So we heard this in August or September of last year, I think. From then to now, what was the major change of the extended lease? You kind of mentioned it a little bit just now. Could you go into that a little bit more? Sure.

The investment is the big driver here. You're asking people, we're not asking, but we're investing money. We just wanted more stability. You know, at the end, for the amount of money that we're putting into this project, we didn't want it to fall apart after five years. We wanted it to have a longer life. Also, part of the project, as we got into it, We were really, if you remember, we talked about a lot of temporary buildings going in. They would be placed in place. Now everything is stick built. It's a permanent building that will be in place.

Any other questions for Mr. Dame? Anyone else for our proponents? Thank you. Okay, thank you. Mr. Thiel?

Jason Thiel, 515 North Cherry Street. I serve as the president of the Downtown Partnership. I'll be brief. I can say that I've talked to thousands of people about the amphitheater, and there is tremendous support for this. I'll spare you having all of those people come, but I can assure you we can send a lot of emails and a lot of phone calls. So I just want to make sure that someone does speak on behalf of this and all the people that do support this. So you're going to have someone speak against it, and I just wanted to make sure that somebody stood up and responded. Spoke for it.

Thank you, Mr. Thiel. Anyone else for the proponents? All right. Thank you. For the opposition, Mr. Rose.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council. First question. City Attorney French, the Parks and Recreation Committee met on May 12th, and they forwarded a recommendation to the City-County Planning Board to approve the extension of this lease. At that meeting present were Bill Carpenter, Chair, Deborah Daniels, Jacinta Shaw, Jordan huge members absent were Natalie Lunsford Mashika Jefferson and hunter day so This is confirmed by Kathy Bailey. They did not reach quorum at that meeting Quorum is six out of seven members for that commission so The whole process by which this lease extension has gotten underway with is flawed. And I ask, is that acceptable to you as city attorney for us to move forward with the City Council vote tonight, given the fact that the City Parks Commission did not have quorum when they started this process?

I believe this is a period where you give us your statement. I don't know that I'm prepared to answer that tonight because I don't know what constitutes quorum for the board, but I will certainly look into that.

Thank you. I will forward you Kathy Bailey's email stating the quorum requirement for their committee and the minutes from that meeting. Okay, so since we're not just going to stop this conversation, charade here, let's continue on with the reasons why I am opposed to the long-term lease of city park land in support of the downtown amphitheater. The city council and the mayor have long been champions of downtown development. One council member even labored as a business owner for many, many years downtown, and with all the challenges that came with, all the successes that came with as well. And I do want to express that I am Not opposed to downtown development. I'm I think an amphitheater could be a lovely thing But the entire way that this process has been handled from this recent Parks Commission meeting all the way back to September of last year Has been flawed And to that end, I would like to bring up that today, the Coalition for Accountability and Transparency here in Winston-Salem has filed a formal ethics complaint against Councilmember Regina Ford Hall. Now, in September of 2025, Regina voted in favor of of leasing this city-owned land, our land, to the Flo Company Incorporated. Don Flo sits on the board of directors of Boston Thurman United, which employs Councilmember Hall. It is clearly and unequivocally a conflict of interest when you vote for something that benefits the Board of Directors members of the job that pays you. That is a paid job, Councilmember Hall. Now, I also want to clarify to you, Councilmember Hall, I don't know where the camera is, I'd like to be looking straight at you, but I would like to clarify to you that I come before you tonight as a resident of Winston-Salem. I don't come to you tonight speaking on behalf of my employer. I know you've had some confusion about that before. You can't touch my bag, okay? So I want you to understand that I'm above board here. You are the one that has violated the City of Winston-Salem's ethics policy by advancing this project from the very beginning. And you'll have a choice again tonight on June 15th of 2026, whether you will ignore the conflict of interest voting to benefit one of your board members at your employment. Now, listen to this. When the city county planning commission voted to advance this item to city council, there was a recusal. Ms. Lindsey Schwab of the City County Planning Board, you know her, Chris, she recused herself because she works for Advocate Health. And on the board of Advocate Health sits Don Flo. He sits on all the boards. And Mayor Joyens is upset that last year I talked about how the Flo family enslaved hundreds of people in Mecklenburg County and how I talked about his family. I'm not speaking to the subject, Mr. Rose. Well, this is part of the subject. This is his amphitheater. Do you understand? So the Flo family that is benefiting from this has benefited from centuries of shackling human beings and forcing them into labor.

Throw you out of order, Mr. Rhodes. That is uncalled for.

Stick to the subject. This is Flo Company's amphitheater, is it not?

No.

Question or objection?

It's not Flow Company's amphitheater?

Please continue with your objection to this lease. It's the subject matter tonight.

Okay. My objection to this is that this city has operated in corrupt fashion for decades. Mayor joins, you've been working for this city since the 1970s, over 50 years. You came up under John Gold, who is the city manager.

Speak to the issue, Mr. Rose. I'm speaking to it. No, you're not. To the issue of the lease.

Yes, you have put your finger on the scale in favor of this lease. Don Flo is your business associate. Council Member Hall has put her finger on the scale, betraying the residents of the Northwest Ward and Crystal Towers who did not want this amphitheater. After the approval of the initial lease in September, when those residents were told that concerts would be over by 11, what did you all do? You went and changed the noise ordinance, didn't you? So you've lied about, since the passing of the lease in September, you've lied about how late these concerts would be going, how disturbing it would be to the neighbors of this amphitheater. You've lied about how much construction is going to be happening on this property. Now it's going to be permanent. You're gonna knock down all the trees on this property, some of the oldest trees in downtown. We don't have a lot of green space in downtown Winston-Salem. And this project is gonna destroy what little of it we do. And I'm sick and tired of business interests that are lining your pockets. Getting to have their way.

That is objectionable comments against the city council. Stick to the subject, Mr. Rose, or I'm going to declare you out of order, period.

This is an amphitheater that you're voting on that is affiliated with Don Flo.

You're voting on a lease.

Mm-hmm. The lease for public land to build an artist village for this amphitheater, which is going to be owned by Don Flo and his company. I don't understand how you said no to that before. Unless I'm mistaken about who owns this amphitheater that you're leasing the city property to. So I'm opposed to this extension of the lease. And of course, you know I was opposed to it from the beginning. And I'm opposed to the way that the city is conducting business here. Conflicts of interests are not just abstract ideas. Ask Lindsay Schwab why she recused herself from the city-county planning vote. Councilmember Hall, you should have recused yourself then, and you should recuse yourself now. Now, I know how this council works. You're going to vote for it tonight. Don Flo is going to get his way. And... That's how it is in 2026. It won't be that way forever. We're coming for you. So have a good night and vote your conscience.

Anyone else for the opposition? All right, I declare the public hearing closed.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor Jones. I just did want to address after having a moment to review some documentation in regards to Mr. Rose's question. It looks like from documentation that we do have with respect to the meeting by the Rec and Parks Commission that was conducted on May 12th of 2026, they are an 11 member advisory board appointed by yourself, Mayor Jones. And it appears that they did review this request on May the 12th and all members present expressed their support for the proposal. I think we have to remember too that you have to have persons that are present and voting. The quorum is established by the persons that are in the room. Our city website also says, I'm not sure, the other piece that we have to look into is how many people are on the board at this time, on the commission at this time. Currently, our city website said that there are nine members with two vacancies of the 11 that are possible to be there. And so if there were vacancies, So in my mind, what Mr. Rose has presented is a majority of those present and voting, but I will look into that further. I just want to give you that analysis. In addition, I wanted to bring to your attention that sales of any city-owned park land shall be reviewed by the City-County Planning Board. who then holds a public meeting as a part of the deliberations of the sale and by the Rec and Parks Commission prior to a decision being made by the council. So, you know, just to kind of give you an overview of the steps that need to be taken in this regard. But, of course, we will get back to his specific question regarding whether or not there was a quorum present, which it sounds like there probably was. But we will get a definitive answer for you on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Attorney. I'd recognize the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Mr. Clark, for a motion, if you're ready.

I will, if it's a second. I do have a few comments.

After you make the motion.

Yeah, I move for approval of item G4. Second.

Second. Go ahead, Mr. Clark.

In no particular order, Mr. Rose, I'm going to try to respond to a few comments. If you're concerned about trees, Mr. King, how many trees do you think we cut down at Winston Lake Golf Course in the last two years?

About 50 acres worth.

Over 1,000?

Your guess is as good as mine, but a lot.

Yeah, I'd say over 1,000. The fact that we're putting buildings on park land, most parks I know have buildings on them. Parks in my ward have all sorts of bathrooms. Some of them have tennis courts. Some of them have golf courses. Lots of changes have been made, whatever. Third comment I would make, We are not a static city, and we have changed things continuously to respond to what we think the current environment is. And the example I would use is the entertainment district, which we did not have. That was not an existing entity 20-some years ago, and it is now.

Correct. You can probably look at Mr. King. He's the one that actually drafted that. 2012.

Yeah, so we created a entertainment zone because we were certainly getting that. The next comment, I believe, while we have planning boards and all sorts of commissions, they are advisory boards, and it is this council that actually makes the legal decisions. And the last comment I will make, and this is to the best of my memory, and my memory's not perfect, but I don't believe Don Flo has ever given a donation to any of my campaigns. If he has, it was so long ago, I can't remember. Now, sometimes I have a hard time remembering what I had for breakfast. But anyway, I don't ever remember from Don. Although I did go to high school with him, and I do know him. Lastly, I do support this, what has happened. As Mr. Dane pointed out, what was going to be a temporary facility needs to be permanent, and some of those are state building codes, which is what I understand. But I think it's worth the effort to continue to revitalize our downtown. And we've fine-tuned NORS ordinances. We used to have a NORS ordinance that says if it was too loud. Well, what's too loud? Well, now we know it's 85 decimals or whatever. So I think we have tried to respond when things change, and we continue to do that. Not to belabor the point, but we've made all sorts of changes in our housing area to try to make it easier for folks to build houses. And so I think we're always continuing to look at what are the proper rules and regulations we need for the time we are in history.

Thank you, Mr. Clark. We do have a motion and a second on the floor to approve this lease amendment. All those who favor the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? I see one opposed. You're opposed to it, Council Member Hall?

I am for it.

You're for it.

I approve it. I am for it.

Okay, so the motion passes seven to one. Council Member Burke voting negatively. All right, thank you very much. Item G5. Let me just say before we go ahead and read it, and I want to make a comment.

Item G5, motion to excuse Council Member Sipio from voting on item G6.

So we've got a number of items here we're going to hear where we're excusing council members from voting. And state law requires us to do that if that member is a member of a board that's getting a grant from the city of Winston-Salem. In this particular case, Council Member Recipio is a member of the downtown Winston-Salem board. So I'll need a motion to excuse Council Member Recipio from voting. Council Member Recipio can vote on the being excused, but once the vote is taken, you can't vote on the item. I've got you you got all those motions Yeah, I Start with g7 This is yours.

I saw with g5 you gotta go for I move that councilman Scipio be excused from voting on item g6 second second

Second by Council Member Clark. All those in favor of excusing Council Member Scipio, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no. And that's unanimous. Council Member Scipio, you're excused. Voting on item G6. If you would now read item G6.

Item G6, resolution awarding a contract to provide services within the Downtown Winston-Salem Business Improvement District, Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership in the amount of $714,460. General Government Committee recommends approval.

Mr. Miller, you want to give us just a brief snippet of what this is involving?

Yes, sir, and then I'll be glad to answer any questions if anyone has. But this item is unchanged from General Government Committee last week. It would award a contract to the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership for $714,460 that covers three scopes of service. or, excuse me, three steps of service within the Downtown Business Improvement District. It would include a cleaner environment, enhanced physical appearance, stronger marketing, and promotion. I'm glad to answer any questions.

Mr. Miller, we've looked at this in great detail. Thank you. And I'd recognize Council Member Adams for a motion.

Yes, I move for approval of item G6.

Second. Second by Council Member Clark. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no. That is approved unanimously, with Council Member Scipio being excused. Thank you. Item G7. Thank you, had to get back to it.

Item G7, Resolution Approving Funding for Nonprofit Agencies for Fiscal Year 2026-2027. Council Member Clark.

I move approval of Item G7.

Second by Mayor Pro Tem Adams. Did you want to add anything, Mr. Tesh, or if there's just any questions? I'll just go say... Go ahead.

And this is a repeat from the committee, but at the budget meeting two weeks ago, we approved a budget with just a number in there for the nonprofits. This is actually the motion to fund the various... Generally speaking...

Last year, you would have seen ordinances where you had recusals. Instead, we have resolutions with recusals for that very reason. There are one or two of these where council members are also being excused from things that were part of community development block grant funding or other things of that nature. But these are individual excusals by council members for funding for nonprofit organizations for which you have an association as defined by the session law from 2021.

All right. Everyone in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no. And that is unanimous. Thank you. Item G8.

Item G8. Motion to excuse Council Member Andrew Bowen from voting on Item G9.

I just, I want to clarify the last vote. Should I have accused myself from that last vote because of my full-time employer?

I think they got this.

Council Member Audrey Bowen, the answer to that is. The resolution is out.

Okay, move down to make sure.

Yeah.

I have the motion for TA. Please go ahead, Council Member Clark.

I move that Council Member Andre Bowen be excused from voting on item G9. Second.

Motion second by Mayor Pro Tem. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? We have excused Council Member Andre Bowen from item G9. Now would you read item G9?

Item G9, resolution allocated local community agency funding from the general fund for fiscal year 2026-2027. Who has that motion?

Okay, go ahead, Council Member.

I move approval of item G9. Second.

Second. Any discussion of item G9? All those in favor of approving item G9, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed? And Council Member Hall votes yes. That is approved unanimously with Council Member Andre Bowen being excused. Thank you. Now we go to item G10.

Item G10, motion to excuse Council Member Hall from voting on item G11.

Council Member Clark. Mayor, I move that Council Member Hall be excused from voting on item G11. Second.

Second by Council Member Scipio. All those in favor of excusing Council Member Hall, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no. That's unanimous. May we now go to item G11?

Item G11, resolution allocating local community agency funding from the general fund and the occupancy tax fund for fiscal year 2026-2027. I move for approval of item G11.

Second. Second by Mayor Pro Tem Adams. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? No. That is approved unanimously with councilmember Hall being excused from voting on this item item G 12 item G 12 motion to excuse council member CPO from voting on item G 13 The council members if you'll be excused from voting on item G 13 second second mayor pro tem any discussion I All those in favor of the motion to excuse Council Member Scipio, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, no. And that's unanimous with Council Member Hall also voting yes. So we now go, you're excused, Council Member Scipio. We'll now go to item 13.

G13, resolution allocating local community agency funding from the General and Housing Development Funds for fiscal year 2026-2027. I move approval of item G13. Second.

Second by Mayor Pro Tem Adams. Any discussion? Not all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, no. And that's approved unanimously with Councilman Recipio being excused. Item G14.

Item G14, motion to excuse Councilmember Clark from voting on item G15.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

I move that Councilmember Clark be excused from voting on item G15.

Second. Motion second by Council Member Joyner. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That's unanimous. Council Member Clark, you're excused from voting because you are a member of the North Carolina League of Municipalities. Item G-15.

Item G-15, resolution allocating funding for the North Carolina League of Municipalities for fiscal year 2026-2027. Second.

Mayor Pro Temu for approval of item G-15.

Second.

Second by Council Member Scipio. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no. Council Member Hall votes yes on that. So the motion is approved with Council Member Clark being excused. Now item G17.

16.

I'm sorry, item 16. Is there a motion?

Item G16, motion to excuse Mayor Pro Tem Adams from voting on item G17.

I'll move it. Mayor Pro Tem Adams be excused from voting on item G17. Second.

Second by Council Member Joyner. All those in favor of the motion to excuse Mayor Pro Tem Adams, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed? No. And that is unanimous. Now we'll go to item G17.

Item G17, resolution allocating funding to the National League of Cities for fiscal year 2026-2027. I move for approval of item G17.

Is there a second?

Second.

Motion second by Council Member Scipio. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no. And Council Member Hall votes yes. So that motion is approved unanimously with Mayor Pro Tem Adams being excused for the vote on that. And then Item G-18.

Item G-18, consideration of City Council's 2026 July meeting schedule.

Mayor Pro Tem.

I move for approval of Item G-18. Second.

Second by Council Member Clark. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, no. And that is unanimous. We have adjusted our meeting schedule. And now we'll go to the public comment period, which is a time once per month that the City Council invites citizens to voice their opinions on matters that are germane to city government. When the comment period is... Announced, we'll give each speaker three minutes with a total allotted time of 30 minutes. Again, we join the speakers to offer comments that are germane as well as to be no personal attacks on council members and decorum will be established. First person signed up is Laura Garner. Sorry. Thank you.

I'm Laura Garner, and my address is 1768 Jaro Drive. I want to say hello to Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and the City Council.

Good evening to each of you.

I am here on behalf of many on Gyro Drive to express serious concerns regarding recent development activities in our neighborhood. In 2009 and 2010, this area was protected as an inner city farming and horse farm community. During the 2010 and 2016 South Subdivision Acres Plan and subsequent dates, I was assigned to a position regarding the oversight by Molly Light. Recently, it appears two properties were purchased and rezoned without public notice or community knowledge. Specifically, a property on Rayleigh Drive was converted to an RS-9 property subdivision on March 12th, resulting in five houses on a single lot. Additionally, another property on Gyro Drive has constructed two houses within a floodplain. Our infrastructure and safety are currently at risk. The existing city water and sewer systems were not designed for increased density. We frequently experience water outages, loss of pressure, and burst pipes. Increased travel and speeding through the neighborhood pose a significant danger to children, pets, and local wildlife. With a duplex housing having been added in the last 15 years with 80 families in the middle of Jare Drive, and then the current residents that already struggle with limited existing infrastructure. The community is not in favor of future subdivisions with housing. small lots that strain our resources and environment. We request a review of these recent developments and a commitment to protect the original intent of this neighborhood. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Gardner. Matthew Mayers. Thank you.

Matthew Mayers, 2844 Wesleyan Lane. Last week, I unfortunately came across a situation that required a call for a bear team response, and I called. And I'm really thankful that I live in a city where there is such a thing. I grew up in L.A. in the 70s, and LAPD, you probably know their reputation from the 70s. So I'm very thankful for that. Later that day... A little after dusk, my wife and I were crossing our street to go spend some time with our neighbors, and we saw a couple of fireflies. Two, maybe three. You remember fireflies? They used to be out in force, a lot of them. You know, on a summer night, you'd open your window and you couldn't count them all. There'd be hundreds, right? So it made me think, who's going to be the bear team for our fireflies? Why are they disappearing? One of the big reasons they're disappearing is climate change. You've probably noticed over the last several years we have much longer hot dry spells followed by immense downpours. Your own stormwater people have told you about how we now have 100-year events several times a decade. When the ground is dry like that, insects like fireflies and cicadas, their larval stage can't make it through. They need moist soil. You probably haven't heard as much cicada noise lately either. Now, it's not your job to save the fireflies or the cicadas, but when all these other creatures start dying off, it's something we should start paying attention to. The reality is all of humanity is supposed to be the bear team for the fireflies. You all happen to be in a situation where you have some additional power over what the rest of us have. And in six budget cycles now, since you passed a pretty strong sustainability resolution. But in all those six budget cycles, there hasn't been actually a concentrated, systematic addressing of that resolution and how you would deal with the goals laid out there. So I'm just here to ask, let's not do another whole year and a whole other budget cycle without putting together a plan. You have such an amazing staff in this city. Look at all the people lined up alongside of me and some of them back there. Smart people, very dedicated. I've met a lot of them. They all care. They really do. I'm pretty sure all of you care about this issue too. Just need a plan. What are you going to do with your buildings? What are you going to do with your buildings? What are you going to do with your vehicles? What are you going to do with the water treatment facility and the landfills? And the biggest one, how do you deal with land use? Some of these things are already under consideration, but you need to figure out which ones are going to cost you more money than you're going to get back, which ones are going to get you more money back than they're going to cost you so you can sequence them properly. And let's have a plan. Let's have it out in front of the public so that we can see how to fix the problem, how to be a part of fixing the problem. It's on all of us, all humans. That's all I'm asking for is a plan. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Shana Mellon, I think it is. My name is Shana Milius. Oh, thank you.

It's McClary Milius is my name. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Wartemp. Good evening, Councilmember Taylor, and good evening, Councilmember Clark. So, I'm here actually to talk about two issues. Okay, first things first, my name is Shayna McClary-Millius, and I'm here tonight to talk as a resident. I actually live in Mr. Taylor's district. I just want to touch on something. I'm a descendant of a family member that was directly impacted by policies and decisions made here by the city some time ago, right? So in 2021, You guys proposed, actually you made a formal apology in regards to the role of discrimination and practices in urban renewal and policies that name black communities, specifically Resolution 210139. And an apology is very important, right? But an apology without action is incomplete, okay? So my great-grandmother, her name was Ophelia Scales Hunt, and my mother is the direct grandchild. I'm a great-grandchild of hers. She was a landowner in the historic Silver Hill community, which is now called Buena Vista. And her story has been documented in a book called, a chapter actually in a book, Clues of Displacement, The Gentrification of Silver Hill, which was written by your favorite doctor, Dr. Dan Rose. And he teaches at Winston-Salem State University. Like many black families of this era, our families were placed with barriers created and maintained by the local government. And I actually have a direct quote from actually his name. This was in 1927. The city attorney, Fred Parrish, right? And it might be a little offensive to some people, but... Paris basically stated, and I quote, I feel that colored people who build their homes on a well-defined cartway, which led from Winston-Salem Church to a graveyard have been bottled up, but I do not think it's a fight for the city. We all have streets and highways that can look after without seeking others. So the board in which my great grandmother basically petitioned because what happened was they built a road to block their street, so they had to walk through the woods, which ultimately pushed them out. And I actually don't have much time, but the point is that you guys issued an apology, and you stated that you were going to create a commission. What's going on with the commission? That's my question here. And I was educated in the school system here, but I did move to New York. Just want to know.

Thank you. We'll certainly, staff will get back to you.

No problem.

Thank you.

Terry Bottoms.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, City Council. My name is Terry Bottoms. I live on Patterson Avenue, 3000 North Patterson Avenue. I come here to ask for some help. I love my home there. I bought it 12 years ago. It's beautiful. It's 100 years old. I want to tell you a little bit about it. I step out in my front yard and I step out onto the street and I see crape myrtles up and down the street that were planted 40 years ago. They're beautiful. They just don't get suckered or trimmed. I'm willing to do that for you in a day or two and, you know, take a day or two and do that free, absolutely free, just give me the go-ahead. You step out into the street and you'll see the curb. The curb is not cement. The curb is actually granite. It's cut granite slabs that was put there in the 1900s. It's beautiful. It's just covered with dirt and debris. I shoveled mine off so you can see it. But I'd like to have help to clean the street up so we can have the beautiful crape myrtles that we have there now. They're 40 years old, but they still look really good. And the curbs. Clean the curbs. Have someone come and just clean the curbs and make North Patterson beautiful again. That's all I want. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bottoms. Laura Spangler. Reverend Spangler, excuse me.

Good evening. I come in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ and I'd like to pray. Almighty God, you are the creator of this great city. And we need to give you honor, glory and praise and obedience for it. We have said that we are one nation under God and yet we are not following your word. Lord, I come offering confession of sin and repentance for this city. And I say that because of the great sin of our support for the pride march that we had this past weekend. Lord, your word tells us that A relationship for children is a mother and a father, one man and one woman, and that you've created us male and female. And so to support homosexuality and transgenderism goes against your word. Lord, I am so sorry that we are doing this. We heard that 70,000 people supported this. We know the city council supports it. We know that businesses support it. We even know that churches support it. Lord, this is an abomination in your sight. And I am so sorry for this, that we are involved with this in our city and in our nation. Lord, I ask for your mercy. We don't deserve it. We deserve what Sodom and Gomorrah got. We deserve your judgment, Lord. But I live in this city, and so I ask for your mercy upon us, for the forgiveness of sin, and for our realization of the ways in which we have gone astray. Lord, I pray like Solomon that you would give us a desire for your law and your will and your word because we are violating it. What we are doing to support sexual immorality is an abomination. Lord, Lord, Lord, help us. Jesus, you are the way, the truth, and the life. It's because of your sacrifice and death on the cross and our repentance and forgiveness that you give us because we repent of our sins that we are saved. And this is the only way. Lord, if we continue to support this abomination in our city, I know that you will bring judgment upon us. You are warning us, Lord. You are giving us time. I don't know how you can be so patient with us. And I am so sorry that we are involved in this. And I pray, Lord, that wisdom would prevail and we would turn from our sin. And begin to live in a different way. To turn and to be in a way that is righteous. And that follows your word. Because Lord. you know that we are not doing right. And so I just ask you, in your mercy, God, please help us to follow your word so that we may be followers of Jesus Christ, who this land was dedicated by Christians and Moravians long ago, and we need to be obedient. Amen.

That kind of language is not acceptable in here. Okay. Are you Brian Hoffman? Okay, please.

I'm sorry about that. I'm coming to talk about veterans, so I sincerely apologize. I'm Brian Hoffman. I live on Country Club Road. I will be quick. Apparently, there's power out at our house and around our area. And again, I sincerely apologize. I was speaking like a sailor, and I need to avoid that. My name is Brian Hoffman. And so Mayor joins, Mayor Pro Tem Adams, members of the council, and fellow citizens. I'm Brian Hoffman. I'm a retired Army colonel, resident here on Country Club Road. I'm a Wake Forest MBA student currently right now as well. I served for 20 years in the Army, did 12 combat deployments, and my last year and a half was supporting the Ukraine war. My wife, Jordan Capps, she's a daughter of Gene and Patricia Capps. She's from Winston-Salem, and we recently moved here to make this our permanent residence. in our first permanent home. But I'm here tonight to introduce you something called Twin City Veterans Bridge. It's a nonprofit that we're creating. Every year, 200,000 veterans transition out of the military, and we bring transitioning. And the goal of Twin City Veterans Bridge is to bring transitioning military officers and senior NCOs to Winston-Salem to stay here, to work here, and put down roots. It's actively going out and recruiting these transitioning service members to invite them here to Winston-Salem. They bring leadership, discipline, and skills to any workforce needs. The goal is to recruit, to host, and encourage the veterans and their spouses to consider living in Winston-Salem. The Twin City Veterans Bridge is registered with the state of North Carolina, and I'm working with Will Joyner at Kilpatrick Law Firm to submit the 501 for it. There are two tracks. We're looking at recruiting veterans for careers here in Winston-Salem to find their careers in Forsyth County, as well as encouraging veteran entrepreneurs to move here and bring business here. Every veteran we serve then has to give back to veterans helping veterans heal. That's the transition home by the airport, where we have 24 beds and formerly homeless veterans. But you're going to see us before you hear us. What you'll see is we have a 1979 International Scout. This is the other part of the project. And a 1967 Airstream that we're going to tow around the city, and we're going to serve coffee and ice cream, and it's called Twin City Veterans Bridge. All the coffee will be roasted by a veteran. All the ice cream comes from Kendra Bell at Dream Creams. We're going to go around the city, and we're going to sell it out of there, and we're going to employ the veterans and veterans helping veterans heal. We're going to employ those veterans to work in the Airstream. So my only ask is simply to introduce ourselves to you and to ask the city to be a partner as we grow this. I plan to demonstrate to the city that why veteran talent should be sought for, fought for, and supported as they build lives here in Winston-Salem. And I welcome the chance to discuss it further with anybody on the council or any of the citizens here. And so as we launch next month and we build it carefully, we'll build it by the book. I've got Will Joyner helping me. And we look forward to it. And I'll just tell you, if you're a teacher, K through 12, if you're a first responder or you're a veteran of military, you come every day and get a free cup of coffee. And so thank you for your time and making the city worth moving here.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Colonel. Appreciate it. That's all the individuals who signed up. We do have a few minutes left. Does anyone else like to be heard during public comment? Yes, sir. If you would give me your name and address.

Name is Jamal Womble. Address is 100 Block, Forest Oaks. Sorry, Forest Oaks. Didn't plan on speaking tonight, but since there was an opportunity, I felt like I should just give my comments on what was talked about tonight. And I also thank you for allowing me to speak. Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp, the rest of the City Council. In short, I am in favor of the curfew. We had people talking about programs and what can be done for the kids. However, lack of programs does not give people an excuse to commit crimes in our community. We do probably need programs, probably need funding. However, committing crimes and hurting other people for a lack of funding and lack of programs is not an excuse to commit crimes in our community. So I thank the people that did support the curfew. I do agree that there are some measures that could be done. However, a crime against another person is no excuse for a lack of any kind of program. I also stand in support of the prayer that was made I do believe in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and any kind of attack on that prayer I think is not conducive to the Constitution of our heart and also to the Constitution of our nation. So thank you all. God bless you for allowing us to speak. I think you're doing a good job, and I want to thank you for allowing us to speak, and God bless you all. Thank you.

Anyone else like to be heard here in public comment? See no one I'll declare the public comment period closed Motion to adjourn so move motion by customer Clark seconded by All those in favor of joining we are adjourned customer Hall vote yes