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Good evening, everyone. I'm Alan Joins, Mayor of Winston, Salem. It's my pleasure to call to water as meeting

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of the one in the Salem City Council and ask the City Clerk to call the roll please. Councillor

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Member Joiner. Present. Councillor Member Clark. Councillor Member Andrew Bowen.

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Here. Councillor Member Stipio. Present. Mayor Perth, him Adams. Councillor Member Taylor.

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Councillor Member Hall. Present. And Councillor Member Burke. Here.

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Thank you. Would you please join the City Council and me in a moment of silence.

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Thank you so much. Would you join the City Council and me in the pleasure of allegiance?

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The flag of the United States of America and some of the Republic for which it stands on the nation under God,

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indifisible, the liberty and justice for all of them.

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Thank you very much, Director Rick, recognize our Sergeant Arnold tonight. Lieutenant Ashley. Thank you for being with us tonight.

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And our fire marshal tonight is Bradley Watson. Thank you for being here as well. There you are right here.

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I'm going to turn the meeting over to Mr. Pate for his update. Thank you, Your Honor. Just a several

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things tonight. First let me ask ACM King if he would recognize our new fleet services director.

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Yep, glad to. Thanks, Pat. Good evening, Mayor Mayor. Mayor Perth and members of the council.

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I would like to introduce Angus Thomas, Angus, if you would mind standing up. Angus has been selected as

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a new fleet services director. So you may remember we have had that position. It's been vacant.

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This isn't it guys, left us early last year. And so Angus has been serving as interim director. Since that time,

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it has done a great job with us. Angus has been with the city since 2012, starting with the fleet department.

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As a fleet attendant, it has held all the positions all the way up to his former fleet manager position before transitioning into interim director role.

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So we are very excited about the expertise and leadership. Angus brings to the fleet services director position. So glad to have him aboard.

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Welcome, Angus.

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And then I like to ask ACM Voida to introduce our new interim human resources director.

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Yes, so if King and I feel to stand up, we have Dr. King of Cofield Jones joined us a couple of weeks ago

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as our interim human resources director. We had some internal staff have been keeping the department

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running and they've done a great job. But we were lucky enough to have King and I joined us.

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She has over 30 years of HR government experience. So we have reposted that position externally.

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That's on the street now. But very thankful to have Dr. Jones helping us out.

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So thank you very much for all of us, Angus.

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And then let me I'm going to call on our transition director Jeff Fransler to give a quick update on the status

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of the Edus Creek Brewer Pedestrian Cross Center.

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Thank you, Mr. Manager. And good evening Mayor Mayer, Mayor Protem Adams, members of the City Council. Jeff Fransler, director of transportation.

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As you may recall, I stood before you in January talking about some of the inquiries we had related to

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Clark and High School, the new Sheets Development and Navigating across the street parkway.

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And if you recall, I shared a graphic. This goes, no, I need to just let advances slide. This doesn't seem to be working.

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There we go. If you recall, I showed a graphic like this.

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Highlighting some of the initiatives in the area, some of our funded projects, some of the projects we

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continue to pursue funding for and then shown in yellow there, if you'll just hit the advance, but

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this should show us a little icon there that indicates what we committed to before school, which was to

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improve the crossing at Peter's Creek and Brewer, allowing folks to be able to cross

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Peter Creek Parkway with a protection of a traffic signal. And so since that time, of course,

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there's all good transportation projects. They're very complicated. They involve probably more

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parties than maybe they should, but we have to go work with into DOT to to gain some approvals because

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Peter Creek Parkway, as you've heard me mentioned many times, is not the city main type of facility.

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Slide please. But I'm happy to say today. This is what you may see. This was captured this afternoon

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by the DOT drone. And what you see there is fully-actuated all the way around pedestrian traffic signals

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and the available accommodating markings to allow for a pedestrian to navigate the corridor and

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orient yourself if you'll advance that should indicate kind of just orient yourself what we're dealing

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with. They're parking on Parkland High School being in the southwest quadrant there in the Sheets

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development in the south east quadrant there. And she's south east southwest, you get what I'm saying.

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But the bottom line there is navigating Pissary Parkway with a protection of a traffic signal can now

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be done at all four corners of the intersection. And just to show some of the improvement there, as I mentioned,

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we had to work with into DOT for express design on this. Typically these designs take much longer,

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but I'm happy to say that into DOT really stood strong. Instead of for us, they understood the call

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from this committee, from the comments we've heard from our community. And we allowed us to really

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equip this work. So just some of those of the work there, if you advance a slide, you'll see this is the

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connection that sheets put in with the sidewalk. Their frontage has a radio requirement through our

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site-plent development process. And then if you advance again, you'll just see some of the treatments there across

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the intersection navigating there. You see the pedestrians signals in the background there with the markings

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there in the foreground. And you'll notice a few more pictures to highlight some of the work. On each corner,

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if you'll advance the slide, you'll notice this is the treatment you'll see there with the push buttons

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and the pedestrian heads. Again, this is the protection under the protection of a traffic signal

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allowed you to push the button across. So all that to say today, if you'll advance one more time,

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this is what you'll see and you can navigate all four corners with an actual way to traffic signal that is

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independent of the hickler movement allows you to navigate that intersection much safer than you used to.

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So it's still some work to be done. You mentioned that we're still pursuing funding funding for those

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missing links of sidewalks on both P Street Parkway and Brewer Road. And they will continue to

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advocate for those to our MPO and other funding sources as they come available. But the bottom line is I

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appreciate the man who gave me a moment just to update this committee on what we were working on and I'm happy to

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say that we had a before school start to notice commitment. And as I say here today, you can either hit the

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button across P Street Parkway. So we made it, we made our goal and I'm happy to report back and I stand ready for

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questions. Thank you Mr. Transland. Questions of which fans were? That's great news. Thank you.

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Thank you Joe. We'll continue on the water utility customer confidence report is now available

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if you're interested. More than 20 years the drinking water in Forsyth County, Winston-Cylam has met or

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surpassed all water quality standards established by the EPA. That excellent record continues today with

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the 2024 water quality report which was recently published by the Winston-Cylam Forsyth County utilities.

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And it is available online if you want to get the particulars of that. So thanks to our utility department

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for continuing to provide us with excellent water and water quality. A couple of events I want to

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mention, I'll speak about this again later in the meeting, but the budget and performance management department

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will be providing the public with a couple of opportunities to learn more about the proposed

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budget that you'll hear about tonight. The first one is tomorrow. It may 20 from 537 at the call

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Russell Community Center and there will be another one on May 27 from 537 at the Little Creek Community Center.

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The neighborhood services department has been holding some open houses and they have one more

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left from 6 to 8 on Tuesday, May 20 at the Spring Street Community Center.

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The farmers provided the open house series as an opportunity for the public to learn more about

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the department services which include lending opportunities for homeowners, code enforcement, affordable housing,

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and more, and a variety of other services. The office of sustainability will host its monthly food

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for fault educational series on pantry management and reducing food waste on Thursday, May 22 at

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the crisis control. Classes free, but they ask participants to sign up and you can go on our website to do so.

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The Community Appearance Awards program will also be held coming up on May 28. It will be at the Old

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Salem Visitor Center on Wednesday, May 28 at 11 AM, Dr. Tracy Ryder and Associate Professor of Architecture

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at North Carolina State University will present on the importance of sustainable design. Community Appearance

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awards program is free and open to the public, but you again are asked to RSVP, this time Daniel Rankin

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at the Planning and Development Services Department and again you can find that on the website.

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And then just if you're interested, our employee medical task schedule, the city employee blood drive,

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or Wednesday to 28 from 10 to 230 at employee medical. A couple of recognitions. In addition to the

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new staff members we recognized a little earlier, May is mental health and awareness month,

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and talks about and dealing with the impact mental health has on many people in our community.

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But with the Salem Fire Department offers residents who are experiencing a mental health crisis

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services through the behavioral evaluation and response team, like effectively the bear team,

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and you can learn more about that team and their services on our website. They've just recently

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celebrated their two-year anniversary with the city and they've done thousands of calls in that time.

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I think over 4,500,000 calls. Wista and Transay made a triumphant return to the 2025

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Rodeo, Rodeo. They says pronounced Rodeo, but they don't spell it that way. Bus competition.

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Standard performances from all four participants, the team earned top honors and made their mark in the

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largest North Carolina state, Rodeo and history, which featured 94 skilled competitors from across the state.

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Representing Wista and Transay were operators, Anthony Mazzel, Justin Hayes, Jose Navara,

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and Corta Glenn. Their hard work, professionalism and dedication to the craft of safe,

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efficient transit services, or on full display across both regional and state competitions.

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And finally, as the last reminder, City Offs' will be closed on May 26 for the Memorial Day holiday.

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Well, that will stand ready to answer any questions to Mr. Pete.

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Seeing none, thank you, Mr. Pete. I appreciate that.

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We're now going to our agenda. I should point out that the meeting is being televised live tonight on TV 13

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and the City's YouTube page will be replayed tomorrow. Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. and again Wednesday night at 9 p.m.

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copies of our agenda, as well as videos, previous meetings are always available online at the City's website and just click on the

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watch meetings online option.

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The agenda is comprised of two parts, the consent agenda and the general agenda,

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and it's always the practice of the council to take the consent agenda to first order of business.

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Items on this agenda have been unanimously recommended by committee of the City Council

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or are being submitted in accordance with the staff of the City procedure.

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There will be no discussion of the items on this agenda unless the council member

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still requests in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and consider it individually.

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It is not removed from the consent agenda, it will be an active one motion.

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Council members, are there any items you wish to remove from the consent agenda?

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Seeing this, your motion. I move for approval of the consent agenda.

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Thank you, motion by Mayor Pro Team, Adams, and seconded by Council member Hall.

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All those have heard the motion please indicate by seeing aye.

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Aye.

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Any opposed? No, and that is unanimous. Thank you very much.

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We're now going to the general agenda, which includes a resolution opposing Senate Bill 257.

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There are two public hearings for zoning petitions. There's a discussion and approval of the

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City Service Board appointment as well as the proposed city budget, not for adoption but for

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a presentation. When the public hearing is called, persons in the council chamber will be given an

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opportunity to speak. If there is opposition to the public hearing zoning case,

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the proponents and opponents will be given 15 minutes for presentation and three minutes for

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a bottle. If no one wishes to seek, then the public hearing will be closed and the City Council

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will consider the aye. May we have item G1, please?

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Item G1, resolution of the Winston-Salem City Council opposing Senate Bill 257-2025,

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appropriations act. Section 43.5, pal Bill funds. Thank you.

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Tash, you're going to tell us how bad this will hurt us.

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Good evening, Mayor. Mayor, present members of the City Council. Unfortunately, yes.

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So the Senate appropriations bill that passed out of the Senate and went to the House

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included within it, removing pal Bill funding for all cities in North Carolina with the population

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above 150,000 in the biennium. For us, that's roughly $8.7 million a year, times two years.

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So that can do to us. Pal Bill funding is used both for our street resurfacing program from a

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capital perspective in terms of our, excuse me, our contracted resurfacing and it also supports

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our internal programs from a vegetation management perspective streets maintenance as well as sidewalk

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maintenance. So we are looking at the potential for more than $17 million worth of reduced funding

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over the course of the biennium. And as the City Manager has said previously, those things that get

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defunded in rally in one cycle often find themselves being defunded for a much longer period of time

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than we originally anticipated. If this funding were to be cut, they would have to be substantial cuts,

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both to the operating and capital budgets that we will be looking at over the course of the next few

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weeks. Or we would need to raise additional resources locally or tap significantly into general fund

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balance and order to make those differences. So the opposition to that section of the Senate budget

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is very specific to pal Bill funding. And again, what effect? Six or seven of the City's and North

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Carolina in addition to us. Stand ready for any questions you have related. Thank you. Any questions

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of your questions? Yes. This is attached. Could you go ahead again and state what areas

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specifically on the car as to what this money affects for every city that's going to be defunded?

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The one where it tells us about you said depaving and a resurfacing.

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So if you look at the Powellville memo that has attached several bullet points, these come directly from the Powellville reports, so paving and resurfacing both in-house and contracted general streets maintenance that is done snow and ice removal curb and gutter installation and repair bridge maintenance is one that we have used the Lakeview Drive Bridge as an example of that traffic controls as well as sidewalk installation and maintenance and again it's roughly $8.7 million a year.

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We can accumulate it and spend it at different amounts, but it would affect you over the course of two years in the range of $17 million.

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One more question, Mayor.

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And this attach, if this goes through, where would we get the money from or how would we be able to finance these particular items that we've always had this funding for?

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In working with the city manager, again, you really have two choices you can cut services, but in order to maintain those realistically you would be looking potentially at an increase to the property tax rate north of two cents annually just to cover those.

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Wow, thank you.

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Significate.

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Thank you, Mr. Clark, you want to make a motion on this.

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And if there's a second, I would like to make sure.

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I move for approval of item G1.

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Second.

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Second, Mayor Pro Tim, go ahead, Mr. Clark.

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Yeah.

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The power money, when you buy gasoline, you pay tax.

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It's actually a little sticker I think on the pump that tells you how much.

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And it's called the power money named after Mr. Powell, whoever he was.

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But it goes to all the cities that have roads and that's most all of them.

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It's what a state participates in it.

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And I understand the need for additional revenue in the western part of the state.

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But I think the answer would be to take a little bit from everybody.

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Yeah.

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And kind of share of the pain versus picking on six cities and stripping us a 100% of our money.

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So I offer that comment.

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I'm not insensitive to the needs.

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But I certainly disagree particularly the state who gets, I think, most of it.

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You know, if everybody, again, shares the pain.

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Nobody gets hurt too bad.

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But for us to take an 18 million dollar hit with the astronomical.

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And with that, thank you, Ms. Clark.

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Thank you.

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We do have a motion a second.

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All those in front of the motion, please indicate the voting yes.

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Anyone want to post vote no.

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Thank you.

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That is unanimous.

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Take a council from Clark.

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Item G2, please.

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Item G2, public hearing and consideration of voting petition of grand view.

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From RS9 to GBL.

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Property is located on the north side of Yackenville Road between transit road and Stimpson

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Drive.

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Located in the northwest ward, planning board recommends the now of petition.

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And it was continued from April 21, 2025.

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Before we do the public hearing, I'm going to ask our director of planning development to

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Mr. Murphy to give us a report of the planning board, please.

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Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

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Good evening again.

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I'll pull the power point up.

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And we'll see if the clicker works now.

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This is a request of grand view to rezone 8.17 acres of property.

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Located on the north side of Yackenville Road between transit and Stimpson Drive.

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Located in the northwest ward.

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The request is to rezone the property to special use limited.

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Resoning is what the request is from RS9 to GBL general business limited use.

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And the two specific uses requested are stored services retail internal and stored services retail external.

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This is a subject property shown on the legacy growth management area plan map.

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It is located within GMA three.

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It is located just to the west of the Yackenville Road.

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This is a program view club activity center, which is a commercial area in that area and in the area plan that's recommended for commercial use.

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This is the subject property highlighted in yellow.

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Again, you see it is located on the north side of Yackenville, in between transit and Stimpson Drive.

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The commercial property directly to the west, the GBS, the LB, the HBS, LB, that is all part of the Yackenville.

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Ground view activity center that we'll see on the area plan map next.

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One more map.

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This is the subject property highlighted outline in yellow.

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It's primarily wooded.

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Again, on the west side of transit, you do see a nickel lake in a series of other lakes that go up to the north.

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So there is a dam that's located at the southern portion of.

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That lake.

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This is the west suburban area plan update, which was adopted by Council back in 2018.

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You do see the Yackenville Road.

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I said grant view club.

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Yackenville Road transit road activity center.

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They're indicated with the dark outline of on the north side of Yackenville Road is the commercial area.

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On the south side is a area for office and attached residential such as townhombs.

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You see the subject property is located just to the east of that with a recommendation of single family residential zero to eight units per acre.

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We'll go to a few photos of the site in the surrounding area.

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This is looking east along Yackenville Road.

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The subject property is to the left on this image.

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You see the zoning side.

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This is looking west along Yackenville Road.

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The subject property is to the right.

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That is Stimpson Drive there in the background and again on the south side.

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That would be the south side of Yackenville Road.

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This is looking west from the subject property.

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Looking kind of north in the northwest at the intersection of Michael Road and Dixie and a drive.

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The subject property would be in the background of the photographer behind the photographer.

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This is looking into the subject property from Michael Road to this is looking south.

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This is looking south across Yackenville Road from the subject property.

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That's a single family home.

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That is across the street on the south side of Yackenville Road.

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Again, since this is a limited user quest, there is no site plan.

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That is a purpose as part of this.

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In summation, the request is inconsistent with both for 245 and the west of Urban Area Plan update,

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which recommends concentrating commercial land uses within activity centers.

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The west of Urban Area Plan update specifically recommends single family residential zero date units per acre for the subject property.

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Moving this request could promote commercial strip development along Yackenville Road, heading further west.

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And improving the request would result in commercial encroachment into a single family neighborhood.

257
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Again, you've seen the images.

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This is an area recommended for single family and is just south of the lake that's associated with a single family development.

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The planning board heard this item at their March 13th, 2025 public hearing.

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There was significant opposition with multiple speakers at that meeting.

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The opposition was concerned that the project did not comply with the area plan that there was no site plan included.

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They were concerned about stormwater issues with the development.

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The potential reduction of property values and potential impacts associated with the existing dam.

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Following the public hearing, the planning board did vote five to two to recommend denial of this request to council.

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Access the planning board meeting.

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The petitioner has volunteered some additional conditions in discussing this with some of the neighbors.

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The attic conditions include preventing driveway access to the site from middle road.

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Requiring brick construction materials along the Yackenville and transit road frontages.

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And requiring additional metal fence to be installed along Yackenville Road and transit road.

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And that would be consistent with this exhibit.

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Again, all of these changes have been incorporated into the written consent conditions written consent to conditions in your packet and to the special use permit in your packet.

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Should you choose to recommend approval or not recommend approval to approve this.

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These conditions would become part of that approval.

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With that, I stand ready to answer any question.

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Question.

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Yes.

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Is this the site where the golf course is to be.

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No mayor pretend that is a little bit to further to the east.

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If we go back to the.

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If we go back to this image here.

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The transit.

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Well, it's doing me some good, but it's not doing you to go.

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The, the transit and Yackenville road intersection is on the east side of the subject property.

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If you went back down east.

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Ports Renaulta about a between a quarter and a half mile.

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That is where a grant you club road comes out into Yackenville.

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And the golf course was on the east side of grant you club road.

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You're in the vicinity.

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Yeah.

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And the lake in the water.

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I know that there have been issues down there for years about the water.

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The flooding.

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And how does all of that.

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Still water management in and of itself would be a requirement whenever they would come through for permitting.

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There is a condition of approval in your packet in the written consent conditions and the special use permit that would prohibit.

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I want to say on the first 250 or 300 feet of the property coming from the west to the east.

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So it's like underneath the dam.

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So it would it would prevent development there that would.

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Being a hazard area.

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So that portion is addressed to the condition.

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Actual storm water management would be handled through permitting if this were to be approved.

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So they would have to go through storm water as part of their permit.

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That would be a permitting permitting permitting permitting.

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So many process and they they couldn't discharge more than the right that they're currently distroving.

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Thank you Mr. Murphy.

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Any other questions?

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The additional conditions of the brick finier and the fence, were those cycle backs of the planning.

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They were not.

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They were things that were that the petitioner and the attorney for the petitioner worked with the neighbor's own.

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and offered additional conditions, so they actually ask us to revise the written

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consenting conditions, but that's not atypical. Sometimes that happens either at

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this meeting or between the time from the planning board and now based on things that

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they have heard. My opinion is that those, again, it's my opinion that those conditions

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were they to go back to the planning board would not alter the recommendation.

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I'm just surprised you didn't cycle it through again, because what we were asking

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to vote on is not what the planning board voted on them.

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Correct. That's 100% correct. I would refer to the attorney. There's not a requirement

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that they vote. I mean, where there are oftentimes conditions that are added

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between the planning board and the elected body based on testimony that they heard and

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or negotiations with the neighbors. Okay, this is a public hearing. We have a number of folks

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signed up to speak on it. You would have the proponents and opponents reach out 15 minutes

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for the proponents of Rini Adcock. All right, sounds good. If you give your name and address for the record,

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please. Mr. Mayor, Mayor Protem and members of Council. My name is Nick Blackwood,

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A24 Green Valley Road and Greensboro here on behalf of the petitioner. With me this evening,

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a Rini Adcock who's the HOA president for the neighboring Nickel Dam Homeowners Association.

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Also, I have Garrett Neal, who's our civil engineer and Matt Costello, who's the developer for this project.

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Do we have our presentation materials available? Okay.

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Mr. Murphy covered this in his presentation. So I'll briefly fly through this slide.

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I just wanted to highlight the zoning conditions that we proposed to address specific concerns

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heard from neighboring property owners at the planning board meeting. You can see those underlined

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initially when we submitted this application, we had a singular condition which prohibited

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e-use under the GB zoning district except for our proposed self-storage use. So everything else that

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you see on our list of zoning conditions was added in response to feedback that we heard from neighbors at

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neighborhood meetings. We held two neighborhood meetings, which I'll get into later in the presentation.

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And then again, the underlined conditions were zoning conditions added in response to concerns heard

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at the planning board meeting. And we'll have a slide coming up in a few minutes showing

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an illustrative sketch plan. And I'll reference back to some of these conditions. I think they'll be

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easier to see and understand on that sketch plan. So this slide, what we wanted to highlight

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with these highlighted areas, you'll see. So the subject property highlighted in red just west of

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transit road, the Activity Center, that was referenced during staff's presentation in blue.

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That's a mix of fairly various intensive commercial uses. You've got a grocery store,

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anchored retail center. There's another strips center to the west closer our property.

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Some professional office space to the south of Yadkenville Road. And then what you see highlighted in green,

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those are several hundred new homes that have been permitted and approved for construction.

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The lots of have already been plated. That community is under development as we speak.

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So just wanted to highlight some of the existing commercial activity and some of the groups.

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We're both in the area near this yet canvail transit intersection.

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As a reference, this is an illustrative sketch plan, and this is not a site plan specific request.

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So we are not bound by this site plan, however, what we wanted to show with this sketch plan is an overlay

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of how our written zoning conditions are going to impact our site plan when we get to that stage in the process.

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So just by virtue of this not being a site plan specific request, that does not do away with our obligation to prepare and submit a site plan for TRC review and approval.

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Our land use and the zoning determination is just not bound by that particular site plan.

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So what you may see some alterations to, configuration of the buildings and the footprints, but what you see in red start to the north.

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So that's a zoning condition where we are maintaining an 80 foot buffer between ours, our developed area and the nickel road.

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They were head to the north, up to the west and I will let ready add to this later in our presentation.

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As Mr. Murphy alluded to, we have, we have included a zoning condition to prohibit any development 300 feet within 300 feet of the western eastern part of Stinson Drive right away.

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So what we're trying to accomplish with that zoning condition is a preservation of the wooded area.

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In early discussions with the HOA, they had concerns about their dam.

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They, it's a privately owned, privately maintained dam. They're subject to state inspections annually.

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So they had concerns not necessarily with respect to our project, but any development of this property as it would impact their dam.

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And again, I'll let running speak to that later.

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But our project works without need for development of that western portion of property.

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So to provide some assurance to that homeowner's association, we wanted to include a zoning condition, confirming that we're not going to disturb any any of that area within 300 feet of the Stinson Drive right away.

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You also see the dashed red line along the ad can bill and transfer, showing the approximate fence location that was a zoning condition added after the planning board meeting.

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It was referenced previously.

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So this, the whole purpose of this sketch is just to give you a better understanding of how our written zoning conditions overlaid over the property will impact our site design during that site planning process.

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The council, if I could just interject just for a quick second, I appreciate the reference of this sketch plan.

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Remember, this is unlimited use request and there's no site plan attached to this.

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I understand the references for illustrative purposes, but just understand anything you're seeing on here that's all for does not know written conditions.

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We have no ability to hold the petitioner.

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00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,000
That's just want to make that distinction that this is an illustrative plan.

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Typically we limited use cases. We don't get into this kind of discussion to just want to make that clear for the record.

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Thank you.

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00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:07,000
That's correct and what we're trying to show here is what you're seeing in the red cross hatch area that more or less outlines our our self imposed development restrictions.

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By virtue of those red zoning conditions.

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What you see in the south eastern portion where the buildings are layout.

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That's the area subject to change when we go through site planning and that may involve some rotating of the buildings.

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Layout and things like that, but nothing significant as far as the actual use of the property.

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00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:31,000
And again, just for illustrative purposes, this is actually a very similar facility located here in Winston.

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Just to give you an idea of what the final product would look like as intended by Mr. Castellic.

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If the zoning is approved and he closes on the property.

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One of the primary concerns that we heard from neighbors.

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Again, I'll get into our neighborhood outreach component here in a second.

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It was existing traffic on transit and you had to build particularly during the morning and afternoon hours when Reagan high school is is coming in a session and when folks are going home.

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So what I wanted to show with this slide.

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And at the top figure that 373 trips per day that you see that's a figure taken from your staff report as currently zoned the properties entitled for development of up to 39 lots.

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And that traffic figure, the 373 trips per day, that is in connection with those 39 single family lots as the property could be developed today.

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So in hearing that traffic was one of the primary concerns of neighbors existing traffic wanted to include this slide just to reiterate that this is the proposed self storage use is a very low traffic generator.

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During the AM and PPM peak hours we're looking at about 13 trips in and out of this in and out of this facility and 74 daily trips.

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So in comparison to what you're seeing with the as permitted 373 daily trips this were to be developed for single family use.

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We feel that our proposed self storage use is a better fit for this area given the existing traffic concerns.

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00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:18,000
We did hold two neighborhood meetings we had a preliminary discussion with planning staff before we submitted an application.

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We understood that this was an active area and this may be a zoning case that that neighbors took some interest in.

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So before we submitted any zoning application we held a preliminary to zoom meeting with folks within a 1000 foot radius.

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So we enhanced mailing radius wanted to get a good idea good picture of what folks in the area would think about this.

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That's when we met Rini and we developed a good relationship with Rini and his homeowner's association.

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Again the impacts to the dam traffic and just general aesthetic impacts on neighboring properties with the three primary concerns that we heard during that initial meeting.

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Once we submitted the zoning application we held it in person meeting the same three concerns with the primary concerns that we heard at that meeting.

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But what those meetings allowed us to do was work with Rini and his homeowner's association and come to.

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Come to a point where we think this is a best case in area for our development and for those neighbors along in the nickel dam community.

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So with this slide and I ask Rini to come up and join me now.

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00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:38,000
So what you're seeing again in red that's the subject property what you see in yellow is that privately and privately maintained dam that Rini's homeowner's association takes care of.

403
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:53,000
But thank you Nick my name is Rini Adcock I live at 344 off town I'm the president of the homeowner's association for the property directly above this property in red.

404
00:36:53,000 --> 00:37:06,000
When we first heard about rezoning of course we were very concerned and we gathered as a community and we talked about how all the property around us is being sold and developed.

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We thought about all the things it could be going into this space and we as a community have decided this is the best case scenario for us.

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The purpose of our homeowner's association is to maintain and protect our lake and our dam we were found we came together in 2013 know 2002 and I've lived there for 25 years.

407
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We have acre lots above surrounding the lake we pay dues and our goal is to manage the lake in this property.

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We have yearly inspections about the state.

409
00:37:49,000 --> 00:38:01,000
What we appreciate so much about this project is that the developer is interested in working closely with us with our concerns.

410
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:10,000
They're willing to give a third of this property right below the dam to keep it trees nature.

411
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:35,000
That goes along with a lot of the city plans and goals to keep natural spaces natural and it also protects anything below the dam so that that's very interesting to us we would manage and oversee that property below the dam our goal is to keep a trees just like it is right now natural area.

412
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:44,000
Something else they have said that they will do is give a 80 foot buffer between us and this storage unit on the corner.

413
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:54,000
I've counted I went and counted out what 80 feet does it's a nice bit of buffer between our neighborhood and this new project.

414
00:38:54,000 --> 00:39:07,000
We were concerned about what it would look like we said we'd love natural colors not me on signs and stuff like that they've worked very closely and telling us how it will blend with the neighborhood.

415
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:15,000
We're very concerned about the traffic on trans to and I can be a road it's a very busy area with the school traffic.

416
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:20,000
This particular project is a low impact traffic project.

417
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:28,000
I think probably the lowest type of traffic you get is from a cemetery which is right on the other side of this property.

418
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:31,000
Storage units probably the next lowest.

419
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:38,000
We like keeping the traffic list lowest possible.

420
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:43,000
Trying to think some other things that we have found to be important.

421
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:57,000
So basically our community in our home association is a 100% unified and saying this for this community is the best case scenario.

422
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:01,000
Back in 2013 there was a petition to make it multifamily use.

423
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:08,000
We fought that we got over 300 petition saying this is not a good idea.

424
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:15,000
We feel liable for that lake and the more foot traffic you have going around the lake the more liability we have.

425
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:22,000
We want to keep that foot traffic down it's exactly a mile around the lake and we have people walk that every single day.

426
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:29,000
You put a bunch of homes down there you have all those kids who are coming up to the lake that becomes a liability for us.

427
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:35,000
So for all those reasons we think this is a best case scenario for that property.

428
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:49,000
And Councilmember Hall we appreciate your site visit you came out and looked at what we were talking about and discussed it and showed real interest so we're glad you're our word representative.

429
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,000
Thank you for check out.

430
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,000
Mr. Neal had signed up do you want him to speak now or.

431
00:40:54,000 --> 00:41:04,000
I think Garrett was speaking rebuttal and address specific questions of accounts anything else you want to add for sure just a couple of other points with the two minutes we have remaining.

432
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:09,000
I wanted to touch on the comprehensive plan in the area plan.

433
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:15,000
Understanding staff's recommendation and the call for this property to be low density single family use.

434
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:20,000
We do feel like there are some points in the area plan that that align with what we're proposing here.

435
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:25,000
Namely preserving is a substantial amount of environmental sensitive force at area.

436
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:29,000
As you heard from many it is a sensitive area environmentally.

437
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:37,000
It is a home under association has concerns not only with our potential development but any development of that property and I think that our ability.

438
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:43,000
By virtue of our self storage use to carve out that western third of our property.

439
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:54,000
It really makes a big difference as far as it's homeowners associations comfort level and our ability to preserve a significant portion of that property is under stir barrier.

440
00:41:54,000 --> 00:42:10,000
This is a low intensity commercial use that will serve as a transition of sorts between the existing activity center that grocery store anchored retail center and some of the existing single family neighborhoods to the west of the site.

441
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:16,000
I would like to ask you a question.

442
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:22,000
All right thank you all here from the opponents now you have 30 minutes.

443
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:25,000
15.

444
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,000
Sorry.

445
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:29,000
Thank you.

446
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:33,000
Thank you very much.

447
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,000
Ryan Dovel please.

448
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:38,000
Good evening.

449
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:41,000
Thank you.

450
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:46,000
I promise I won't take all 30 minutes that I was going to give.

451
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:47,000
I'm here today.

452
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:50,000
I'm from what's in say I'm 724 South Green Street.

453
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,000
I'm here today on behalf of Mr. Aubrey Stimson.

454
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:57,000
My name is Mr. Poff.

455
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:03,000
And actually it happens to be my client's great grandfather.

456
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:11,000
I've lived there for quite some time and seen the development of Poffdown and they've also seen what makes Poffdown special and appealing for folks.

457
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:16,000
We saw the development that was going on on the bottom of the slide that we looked at earlier.

458
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:18,000
People want to live in Poffdown.

459
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:24,640
on as the offer, and what popped on as the offer for a lot of folks is the historic charm,

460
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:30,000
the rural nature. One of the things that's cool about Winston Salem, for me as a younger

461
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:35,600
person, was that the compactness of the region, it's walkability, it's a livability, it's great.

462
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:41,040
We're a pretty compact city for our size. It's one of the things that makes it special and

463
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:46,240
then likable, but it's also a challenge, because we have to be responsible with what we choose to do

464
00:43:46,240 --> 00:43:51,120
with the relative, we smaller amount of land that we have to work with compared to others.

465
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:57,360
And so that's why on behalf of my client and I, we're here to urge the council to adopt

466
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:03,600
the boards of recommendation from March, and to conclude that ultimately this use while

467
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:09,360
I would commend the Grand View folks for their efforts. I think they've gone above and beyond what

468
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:14,560
most people would be expected to do in the situation. They've listened to many concerns,

469
00:44:14,720 --> 00:44:20,480
but ultimately there's only so much that they really can do given that this is a rezoning

470
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:25,600
application to take something that was supposed to be low-density housing and instead be

471
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:30,880
a storage facility. And so, having, you know, commending them for their efforts, I would say,

472
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:38,000
this is simply not the fit for a puffdown. Once you start urban sprawl, it can be difficult to

473
00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:43,280
wrangle that in. So this is a decision that you're making not just for right now and the people that

474
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:50,720
live in puffdown right now, but for the next 250 years, it's been 250 years since it was found at almost

475
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:58,560
so I would urge the council to consider that and urge the council to deny the petition. Thank you.

476
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:05,000
Anyone else for the opposition that would like to be heard?

477
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:16,000
All right. We'll go back to the proponents. You'd have three minutes for a rubuddle, if you would choose to use any of that.

478
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:21,000
Again, this is a Nick Blackwood aid of four green valley road in Greensboro.

479
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:29,000
I think as to the conformity with the area plan and the complaint, those plans are certainly beneficial and should

480
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:37,000
to guide your thinking, but they're not set in stone and are really kind of goalpost and a framework for considering these types of requests.

481
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:45,000
So I think in these sorts of circumstances, when you look at what's actually been developed on the ground adjacent to us in that commercial activity center,

482
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:54,000
the fact that this property fronts a major thoroughfare and there have been a number of zoning conditions added to address the reasonable concerns of neighbors in the area.

483
00:45:54,000 --> 00:46:09,000
I think this is a good fit and if the standard is that the next developer come through and present a project that addresses point by point that concerns that they heard from the neighbors and provides a neighboring homeowner's association with a comfort level

484
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:16,000
and with a fix to a problem that they first saw regardless of how the property was developed.

485
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,000
It might not be such a bad thing.

486
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:27,000
So, thanks. Thank you very much. And with the opposition, like to all friends saying, during rebuttal, thank you.

487
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:33,000
All right, I will close the public hearing and recognize council member Hall.

488
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:47,000
Thank you, Mayor joins. So this has been quite some time of learning of this particular item, including doing a site visit.

489
00:46:47,000 --> 00:47:02,000
The petitioners did reach out to me in my office numerous times and I can assure you that I have met with them the phone call zoom.

490
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:10,000
We've exchanged emails and of course welcome me for a site visit.

491
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:16,000
I tried to make sure that this is something that maybe they did not want to do.

492
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:26,000
Particularly when I heard this is going to be another storage unit, because I was like, that's always in these is another storage unit.

493
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:36,000
And so I did, I really did. And I have spent quite some time just trying to peel back the layers of this project.

494
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:47,000
One of the things that stuck out to me, there was several, but one of the things that stuck out to me in particular was kind of going above and beyond.

495
00:47:48,000 --> 00:48:02,000
In reaching out besides, I think that 500 foot radius and I think they did 1,000 feet of trying to do some outreach and making sure that they notified folks that were in close livability to the project site.

496
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:11,000
In addition to that, also in trying to find some common ground with the neighbors.

497
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:18,000
And having been a past HOA president, I do not envy you.

498
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:34,000
But I also know how important it is for homeowners to feel comfortable and to feel like they do have a voice when development is near.

499
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:53,000
I did not necessarily see where a negotiation like this could take place in the future, particularly with being able to get lots of there, what I would call demands or concerns met by the petitioner.

500
00:48:53,000 --> 00:49:08,000
I did ask the president of the homeowners association if these needs or demands were not met with they still be on board and the answer was no.

501
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:18,000
Special Sproul can happen, it just can, development happens is not always a bad thing to happen, we need development.

502
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:27,000
But we don't always have a folks that are willing to be able to meet residents where they are and what is important to them.

503
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:35,000
And that is what struck me about this in addition to all of the outreach that they did do.

504
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:42,000
And reaching back out to opposition to folks who were opposed to this at the planning board meeting.

505
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:48,000
And the attempts in which they reached out so they said they said emails and I was like I like to see the emails.

506
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:51,000
And they provided me with those emails.

507
00:49:51,000 --> 00:50:01,000
And so again, I tried and at every point that they were tested, they were able to come back with a response.

508
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:09,000
And I believe it was favorable. I asked to get names of members for the homeowners association that were on board with this I got that.

509
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:12,000
And so because of that.

510
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:14,000
And more.

511
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:18,000
I actually do move for approval.

512
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:22,000
One the statement of consistency for approval of this item.

513
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,000
And two.

514
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:27,000
W-3-6-4-3.

515
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:29,000
Second.

516
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:30,000
Second.

517
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:31,000
May I vote to him?

518
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:33,000
No, for a second.

519
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,000
Any further.

520
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:38,000
Mr. Murphy.

521
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:42,000
Let me know for a comment then I got a question.

522
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:48,000
I was very concerned with this was voted down by both the planning staff and the planning board.

523
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:52,000
Then we have learned that what we're presented is not in fact what they voted on.

524
00:50:52,000 --> 00:51:00,000
And I would respectfully suggest in the future if there are significant changes that they cycle back through.

525
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:01,000
Now.

526
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:03,000
And he said that.

527
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:04,000
The 80 foot buffer.

528
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:07,000
I think he was a red check area.

529
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:12,000
And then the area of West of the dam.

530
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:15,000
That is that is.

531
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:18,000
Are those conditions part of it?

532
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:19,000
Yes, or they are.

533
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:21,000
Okay.

534
00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:22,000
Thank you.

535
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:23,000
Okay. Thank you.

536
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:24,000
Customers.

537
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:26,000
Yes.

538
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:27,000
Thank you.

539
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:29,000
Mr. Mayor.

540
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:30,000
Mr. King.

541
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:32,000
Mr. Murphy.

542
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:36,000
Is it correct that if we make this change to GBL?

543
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:39,000
And that project does not go through then.

544
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:43,000
New zoning for that land is now GBL.

545
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:52,000
And there's no guarantee at this time that that particular project that was proposed will go through correct.

546
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:59,000
If the property is on GBL it will be subject to the conditions and uses that you approve tonight.

547
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:08,000
So should this be approved the only use that they would have would be store services retail internal and store services retail external.

548
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:17,000
And all of the conditions of approval that are in the special use permit and written consent conditions are binding on the property.

549
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:31,000
So while these, you know, while this project in and of itself could fall through anyone who would acquire the property after that would be subject to the same conditions and limitations on use.

550
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:33,000
Whatever we agree to tonight.

551
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:34,000
Correct.

552
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:35,000
Thank you.

553
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:39,000
We do have a motion and a sucker to approve this project.

554
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:42,000
All those in favor of the motion please indicate by voting yes.

555
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:43,000
Anyone opposed?

556
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:44,000
No.

557
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:52,000
And the motion passes seven in favor want to pose.

558
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:55,000
Councilor Bow and the voting against.

559
00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:56,000
Thank you very much.

560
00:52:56,000 --> 00:52:58,000
Councilor Hall item G3.

561
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:03,000
Item G3 public hearing and consideration.

562
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:06,000
In just an afternoon before.

563
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:09,000
I want to think one that I found.

564
00:53:09,000 --> 00:53:12,000
Starting petition of one of four progress LLC and one of four progress court.

565
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:17,000
To LLC from GBS to GBL properties located at the Northwest intersection of progress lane progress court.

566
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:22,000
Located in the North ward planning board recommends approval of petition.

567
00:53:22,000 --> 00:53:29,000
Thank you, this is a public hearing yes or anyone to counsel chamber who is opposed to this rezoning.

568
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:30,000
Seeing no one out of credit.

569
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:33,880
going out to clear the public hearing closed and I'll recognize Mayor Potim Adams for a motion

570
00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:34,880
of seats ready.

571
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:35,880
Yes.

572
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:41,420
I'm hopeful approval of one statement, a consistency for approval of this item, and two

573
00:53:41,420 --> 00:53:43,680
W of three, six, four, six.

574
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:45,680
Is there a second?

575
00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:46,680
Second.

576
00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:48,680
Second, by customer work.

577
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:49,680
Thank you very much.

578
00:53:49,680 --> 00:53:51,680
Any further discussion?

579
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:57,280
If not, all of us in favor of the police vote, yes, anyone opposed vote, no.

580
00:53:57,280 --> 00:53:58,280
That is unanimous.

581
00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:01,280
Thank you very much, Mayor Potim.

582
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:03,960
Item G4.

583
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:09,160
G4, resolution acknowledging the results of the civil service board elections, the selection

584
00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:13,600
by the police and fire chiefs, and appointing the fourth member to the civil service board.

585
00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:14,600
Thank you.

586
00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:17,840
Mr. Surveyor, would you allow to title a little bit on this report?

587
00:54:17,840 --> 00:54:22,960
Yes, so last month Council approved and amendment to the ordinance that created the civil

588
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:27,600
service board to allow for an electronic voting option.

589
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:33,000
As a reminder, for anyone watching the civil service board is comprised of five members

590
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:37,120
to that are elected by the police and fire departments, respectively.

591
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:43,120
One member is jointly selected by the police and fire chief, one member appointed by City Council,

592
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:47,680
and then those four will come together to select their fifth board member.

593
00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:54,600
That electronic election happened at the end of April, and the results have been certified,

594
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:57,520
those certified results are included in your Council packet.

595
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:03,920
The police department elected Brent Moyer, and the fire department elected Kelly Emerson.

596
00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:09,600
The police and fire chiefs have jointly selected Edward Hasmer as their joint representative on

597
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:15,440
the board, and then the mayor has recommended Reverend Dr. Herbert Herbert Miller as the

598
00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:16,720
Council's appointee.

599
00:55:16,720 --> 00:55:23,120
So if approved and Council is supportive of that appointee, then those four members were working

600
00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:27,000
to try to schedule a meeting with those four in June, so hopefully they can get together

601
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:32,680
in June to select that fifth member, and then have that board into full effect in July.

602
00:55:32,680 --> 00:55:37,760
Any questions, Mr. Mayor Portem?

603
00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:43,640
Are we on track, so far as our timeline is concerned to get this pretty much wrapped up, so

604
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:48,840
we can start to do the business of what it's supposed to do?

605
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:54,400
I can't speak to the original, I don't know what the original timeline is, I might look to the attorney

606
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:55,400
for that.

607
00:55:55,400 --> 00:56:00,800
But in terms of the internal timeline we've set forth over the last couple of months, yes, we're

608
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:04,880
moving along, that was one of the reasons we wanted to bring that amendment last month to

609
00:56:04,880 --> 00:56:11,160
allow for that electronic voting option to accelerate that process so we can have everybody

610
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:15,400
in board so that board can get their orientation and start meeting as necessary.

611
00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:16,400
Thank you.

612
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:22,040
So the action we're asking Council tonight is basically to approve Reverend Miller as our representative

613
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:24,360
on there, so I would certainly entertain a motion for that.

614
00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:27,960
I'm vote for approval of item G4.

615
00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:28,960
Second.

616
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:32,680
Second, by Councillor Taylor, would you like to be a 30?

617
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:35,760
Yes, I was just going to thank you, Mayor Jones.

618
00:56:35,760 --> 00:56:36,760
Good evening, Council members.

619
00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:38,800
Mayor Portem, I just wanted to address your question.

620
00:56:38,800 --> 00:56:41,240
Yes, we are on track.

621
00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:48,100
Initially, when we first started out on this target date was to be right where we are.

622
00:56:48,100 --> 00:56:51,600
I think we've done a pretty good job in terms of the fact that we've had to do some technical

623
00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:56,960
correction is initially to the bill and the ordinance in addition to our setback earlier

624
00:56:56,960 --> 00:57:01,600
this year of the cyber attack, we've continued to press forward so we could get this board in

625
00:57:01,600 --> 00:57:02,600
panels.

626
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:03,600
Thank you.

627
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:07,600
I would do have a motion on the floor, and second, all those in favour of please indicate the vote

628
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:09,600
in yes, anyone opposed vote?

629
00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:10,600
That's unanimous.

630
00:57:10,600 --> 00:57:12,600
Thank you, Council members.

631
00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:14,600
Item G5.

632
00:57:14,600 --> 00:57:21,560
Item G5, city manager's presentation on the city of Winston Salem proposed fiscal year 2025, 2020.

633
00:57:21,560 --> 00:57:22,560
Any six budget?

634
00:57:22,560 --> 00:57:23,560
Let's take it.

635
00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:28,560
Thank you, Mayor.

636
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:30,560
Members, Mayor Portem, members of the council.

637
00:57:30,560 --> 00:57:36,560
I know this is the day that you're always looking absolutely forward to getting the next

638
00:57:36,560 --> 00:57:37,560
year's budget.

639
00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:40,560
This is one of the most important things I believe council does.

640
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:46,560
Each year is setting the priorities for the upcoming fiscal year as a part of your budget

641
00:57:46,560 --> 00:57:47,560
process.

642
00:57:47,560 --> 00:57:54,560
I know that you've got a series of work sessions and public meetings set up to talk about

643
00:57:54,560 --> 00:57:55,560
these things.

644
00:57:55,560 --> 00:58:01,560
This is going to be just a short overview of what's in the budget as we do have a budget work

645
00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:07,560
session for the public tomorrow night, and for you to get the budget so you'll have that to review

646
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:12,560
before we start the finance budget work sessions on Wednesday.

647
00:58:13,560 --> 00:58:20,560
You have already spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the needs of the community, reviewing

648
00:58:20,560 --> 00:58:26,560
the needs that staff have brought before you, reviewing needs of various stakeholders in the community, and

649
00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:32,560
have worked to establish strategic priorities based on those needs.

650
00:58:32,560 --> 00:58:37,560
We've had a lot of conversations with different folks, and I think we've all come back to the same conclusion

651
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:42,560
of the priorities that you have selected, and that are shown in this budget as key issues

652
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:43,560
for this community.

653
00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:45,560
I'm going to go over those just briefly.

654
00:58:45,560 --> 00:58:52,560
The first one of the four of those strategic priority areas is good government.

655
00:58:52,560 --> 00:58:59,560
With respect to this point back to fiscal planning, making sure that we are keeping our physical

656
00:58:59,560 --> 00:59:04,560
house and order, I think everybody knows that that's a vital piece of what's going on.

657
00:59:04,560 --> 00:59:09,560
Our fund balance amounts from a low six years ago of about 10 percent.

658
00:59:09,560 --> 00:59:13,560
We're now up to about 20 percent, and our unreserved fund balance.

659
00:59:13,560 --> 00:59:20,560
That's our money that's set aside to make payroll before the taxes come in to be available in case

660
00:59:20,560 --> 00:59:25,560
of emergency or some unforeseen need, emergency need that comes into the city.

661
00:59:25,560 --> 00:59:29,560
So that's a great position to be in to see that growing.

662
00:59:29,560 --> 00:59:33,560
Good government also means we want to be an employer of choice, which means we want to be

663
00:59:33,560 --> 00:59:39,560
consistently and adequately consistent and adequately compensating our employees for the work they do.

664
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:44,560
You propose a new compensation or approve the new compensation study last year

665
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:49,560
that we've implemented the first phases, and we will continue to work on that over the next several years.

666
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:57,560
Actually, it'll probably be a continuous basis of working on that year over year to make sure that we're staying competitive in the marketplace.

667
00:59:57,560 --> 01:00:00,560
We want to make it a priority to recruit.

668
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:11,000
And retain the highest quality staff that we can talent for to serve the residents of this community.

669
01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:16,000
So you'll also see in this budget when it's presented, some changes in our debt management programs.

670
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:29,000
In terms of using more pages you go funding and less reliance on long-term financing, particularly for things that have a shorter lifespan, like a vehicle, or some of our maintenance activities that are ongoing.

671
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:34,000
The second part of the priority is economic prosperity.

672
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:40,000
You may significant amount of progress over the past year, particularly in the housing and economic development programs.

673
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:57,000
You adopted a housing affordable housing RFP process for multi-family and scatter lot single-family housing that is successfully working to get those folks in front of the federal government for live-tech projects and the single-family homes moving so that we can put people in those.

674
01:00:58,000 --> 01:01:05,000
You have constructed more than 200 affordable housing units over the past couple of years.

675
01:01:05,000 --> 01:01:12,000
Another issue of part of this economic prosperity in this budget you will see in emphasis on our homeless issue.

676
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:25,000
So there is a second position that we've regalicated to be a homeless outreach coordinator to serve our needs in that area, which tend to be thing to be growing more each and every day.

677
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:34,000
Since 2020 you've created 2,700 new jobs in this community and had over a billion dollars in commercial and industrial development.

678
01:01:34,000 --> 01:01:36,000
We want to continue those trends.

679
01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:42,000
Things like our speculative building reviving loan program will help us do that.

680
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:45,000
That is in place and will continue to be in place.

681
01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:49,000
We are also ready to do one of the top 100 best places to live.

682
01:01:49,000 --> 01:01:55,000
Again, because of our amenities and environment, transportation networks and other things that are going on.

683
01:01:55,000 --> 01:02:10,000
So those are all included and continued in this economic prosperity, including the need to try to make sure that the community as a whole, everyone in the community has access to economic prosperity and the ability to grow.

684
01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:15,000
The third area is community advocacy and engagement.

685
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:31,000
This is, as has already been mentioned in the eyes, becoming a much more prevalent issue that we're going to have to continue to focus on and looking to deal with our value relationships with our key partners, particularly our state and federal folks.

686
01:02:31,000 --> 01:02:34,000
You've had many discussions with those.

687
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:39,000
We've talked about one of the issues with the state government just recently on the Palbil tax.

688
01:02:39,000 --> 01:02:45,000
The Palbil was a senator that actually introduced that tax back in Leah in the 50s, I believe, or 60s.

689
01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:49,000
So that that is ongoing and as a need that we have.

690
01:02:49,000 --> 01:03:05,000
Over the past several years, you have secured significant amounts of federal funding for capital projects like the grounds running a park expansion of the bare program for mental and behavioral health services for buying electric vehicles for parts of our city.

691
01:03:05,000 --> 01:03:09,000
We want to fully including our bus system.

692
01:03:09,000 --> 01:03:13,000
We want to continue those partnerships.

693
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:20,000
Choice neighborhoods is one of the key areas that we will continue to be focusing on over the next several years and we've had several discussions about that.

694
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:28,000
Our transportation infrastructure and programs to support housing and homelessness are all key parts of this advocacy and engagement.

695
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:43,000
We're looking to foster specific pride and strengthening relationships with folks in our community, particularly our nonprofit partners who are also facing a lot of these same pressures from the state and federal government that we're facing, unfortunately.

696
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:46,000
The fourth area is livable communities.

697
01:03:46,000 --> 01:03:59,000
Global communities is our enhancing our residents sense of overall safety, maintaining neighborhood appearance and supporting the amenities and programs that make this city a community of choice.

698
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:08,000
Along these lines, we've had a couple of things that are that are prominent like the real-time prime center, which is seen on the screen, which continues to track.

699
01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:16,000
All over the country and from internationally to look at how we are providing that service and using those services.

700
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:22,000
We also have expanded the drone program in our police department, all of these efforts and including the bare team.

701
01:04:22,000 --> 01:04:31,000
All of these efforts are to make our community safer and to free up our public safety officers to do the things that they're trying to do.

702
01:04:32,000 --> 01:04:41,000
We also are looking at enhanced housing rehabilitation programs and looking at trying to help people make sure that their homes are in good shape.

703
01:04:41,000 --> 01:04:51,000
Our last several years since 2020 we've spent 68 million dollars in recreation and parks and public assembly facilities in this community.

704
01:04:51,000 --> 01:05:01,000
This year moving forward, we've got another 19 million in plans to work on projects for this upcoming year.

705
01:05:02,000 --> 01:05:09,000
So out of those four areas that we just talked about, just bring it down to one more level in terms of water, we're looking at in terms of our budget priorities.

706
01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:13,000
So that we've discussed and will continue to discuss.

707
01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:22,000
Coming on employer of choice, we know that it's important for us to maintain the salary and benefits that are necessary to track the best talent to our community.

708
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:27,000
maintaining our current service levels and particularly in transit services.

709
01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:31,000
We went and did the transit bid last year.

710
01:05:31,000 --> 01:05:40,000
We brought back that right to council is that here's what it's going to cost to restore the services that the community had the desire to do and then here's what it's going to cost.

711
01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:49,000
For us to get out of the whole that we were in because we were using ARPA funds and fund balance to actually subsidize the transit program.

712
01:05:49,000 --> 01:05:54,000
So that is a major area that you'll see us talk a lot more about over the next couple of weeks.

713
01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:56,000
Straight through in our financial position.

714
01:05:56,000 --> 01:05:58,000
Again, we've talked about that.

715
01:05:58,000 --> 01:06:04,000
We want to make sure that we're in a spot that we'll always have the funds available and that you'll know what we're.

716
01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:09,000
We're spending our funds on and that we can maintain our credit ratings.

717
01:06:09,000 --> 01:06:12,000
And then finishing our currently funded capital projects.

718
01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:22,000
It's been a priority of this council before I came and I think it will be a priority is to meet the obligations that you've laid out in front of the community to do those projects that we've.

719
01:06:22,000 --> 01:06:29,000
Issued bonds for or have asked to be approved in bond referendum and at some of our other net financing.

720
01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:38,000
We want to focus on getting those projects done and completed for the folks that are waiting for those before we move on to new projects.

721
01:06:38,000 --> 01:06:42,000
Just real quickly in terms of the employee of choice.

722
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:46,000
I want to remind council that we've done a lot of things in that area with your help.

723
01:06:46,000 --> 01:06:55,000
We have done an employee survey so we've gone out to listen to all of our employees to find out what things we're doing well, what things they would like to see us improved.

724
01:06:55,000 --> 01:07:00,000
We have and if you see the survey results there on the employee of choice.

725
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:07,000
We've exceeded national bench marks and those areas in 83% of the questions asked benchmark questions.

726
01:07:07,000 --> 01:07:16,000
Nine of ten employees want to finish their career with the city and eight out of ten would recommend the city as an employer through their family and friends.

727
01:07:16,000 --> 01:07:23,000
As we've talked about you spent a lot of time helping us with employee compensation and in benefits and we want to maintain keeping that.

728
01:07:23,000 --> 01:07:32,000
You just adopted a resolution to extend our health insurance program for next year at which is one of the best health insurance programs.

729
01:07:32,000 --> 01:07:36,000
I think of any provider, look, remember, provider in the country.

730
01:07:36,000 --> 01:07:38,000
And then employee vacancies.

731
01:07:38,000 --> 01:07:43,000
As you've seen in the retreat in other places, we're doing a tremendous job of actually hiring folks.

732
01:07:43,000 --> 01:07:49,000
Our vacancy rate is probably half of what it was just two years ago.

733
01:07:49,000 --> 01:07:55,000
We're making strides and almost every department and there's just a few places that we're still seeking folks out.

734
01:07:55,000 --> 01:08:04,000
So if you do want to be a police officer, a police department is doing a great job of recruiting, we're actually gaining police officers, but we do have vacancies there that we're still working to fill.

735
01:08:04,000 --> 01:08:10,000
We believe we might have the biggest request ever in this upcoming class that's going to, it's about to happen.

736
01:08:10,000 --> 01:08:23,000
And then the other areas, CDL drivers, we are continuing to look for folks that have CDL license that have the ability and the capability and the desire to work in the field to provide services to our community.

737
01:08:23,000 --> 01:08:31,000
Another big issue that we've probably spent a fair amount of time continuing to talk about is property reevaluation.

738
01:08:31,000 --> 01:08:35,000
Just as a reminder, this is a state mandate and activity.

739
01:08:35,000 --> 01:08:43,000
The state requires every county to reassess all the properties under a certain period of time.

740
01:08:43,000 --> 01:08:47,000
Some communities do it more often than we do.

741
01:08:47,000 --> 01:08:53,000
I was used to doing it on an annual basis before coming back to North Carolina, but we're doing it on a four-year basis here.

742
01:08:53,000 --> 01:09:02,000
So the good news is over the past four years, even though you have no control over what the assessments are at all as a city council.

743
01:09:02,000 --> 01:09:06,000
The value of homes in our community has grown substantial.

744
01:09:06,000 --> 01:09:13,000
So folks have higher wealth in their homes than they did four years ago by far.

745
01:09:13,000 --> 01:09:17,000
So if you're looking to sell your house, that's a great thing.

746
01:09:17,000 --> 01:09:22,000
The website of that one is if you're looking to buy a house, housing is much more expensive than it was four years ago.

747
01:09:22,000 --> 01:09:29,000
The CDL map does show the blue, it's kind of the cool areas which would show the lower amounts.

748
01:09:29,000 --> 01:09:33,000
Greens are showing a higher amounts, the yellows and the reds are the highest.

749
01:09:33,000 --> 01:09:38,000
So as you go towards red, that's your highest area of evaluation growth.

750
01:09:38,000 --> 01:09:46,000
So you can see in what is most of our residential areas in the community there is a lot of growth and values that has been shown there.

751
01:09:46,000 --> 01:09:51,000
Residential values are going faster than commercial and industrial values.

752
01:09:51,000 --> 01:10:01,000
Again, you have no controller with that, but that doesn't mean that there will be some shift in the tax burden from our commercial and industrial side to the residential side.

753
01:10:01,000 --> 01:10:13,000
So folks, like you and I that own homes, we will see just based on a revenue neutral rate and increase in our property bills in this upcoming year.

754
01:10:13,000 --> 01:10:20,000
Let me talk a little bit about the local economy.

755
01:10:20,000 --> 01:10:29,000
We was kind of leaning into that as we said our values are going up, you can see residential construction permit values from 23 to 24 as increased substantially.

756
01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:32,000
We're hopeful to see that trend continue in 25.

757
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:37,000
And our non-residential square footage again, a big jump from 23 to 24.

758
01:10:37,000 --> 01:10:45,000
That goes back closer to the normal trend that you would have hoped to have seen there in redevelopment and new development.

759
01:10:45,000 --> 01:10:51,000
So there's some major projects going on, the grounds being one of those, which is a huge redevelopment project in our community.

760
01:10:51,000 --> 01:10:56,000
That hopefully will meet many benefits for us in the long term.

761
01:10:56,000 --> 01:11:04,000
And people want to come to our community, the amenities that are here are attracting folks like NASCAR and the clash, which came during the past year.

762
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:10,000
And brought up tremendously successful event to Bowman, great stadium and to our community.

763
01:11:10,000 --> 01:11:13,000
We are a very much a desirable place to live.

764
01:11:13,000 --> 01:11:27,000
And as we talked about, little ability, ranks as one of the top places to live and the people that are coming to town verify that fact that people want to live here.

765
01:11:27,000 --> 01:11:31,000
Another issue that's in this budget that we'll need to talk about is the uncertainty.

766
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:38,000
There is quite a bit of concern over what's happening with the economy and how that will ultimately play out.

767
01:11:38,000 --> 01:11:44,000
As you can see on the map here, the GDP for the first quarter of 25 was actually lower.

768
01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:48,000
It was a negative amount for the first time in quite some time.

769
01:11:48,000 --> 01:11:52,000
Our sales tax growth has been fairly anemic.

770
01:11:52,000 --> 01:12:03,000
So our retail sector is feeling the burden of things like tariffs and bugs perception as to whether they should be spending money or not.

771
01:12:03,000 --> 01:12:13,000
So even if those are short term, places where we'll be with their economy, it does impact this budget and how we're going to make it through this budget.

772
01:12:13,000 --> 01:12:19,000
And what we're doing is that the government, major uncertainty we talk about several times is federal and state funding.

773
01:12:19,000 --> 01:12:25,000
We know about the the Palbil funding for roads as a major issue from the state.

774
01:12:25,000 --> 01:12:29,000
There are some other issues that the state is looking at that might impact us as well.

775
01:12:29,000 --> 01:12:39,000
On the federal side, we know that the preliminary budget that went out shows significant cuts in many of the areas that they support in the community, including homelessness.

776
01:12:39,000 --> 01:12:43,000
We're helping with the on-house housing and development activities.

777
01:12:43,000 --> 01:12:55,000
Our whole range of assistance programs that go on to help folks in this community have a good quality of life or all right now on the chopping blocks.

778
01:12:55,000 --> 01:12:59,000
And we're going to have to see what that impact is going to be.

779
01:12:59,000 --> 01:13:15,000
This budget and we've talked to when many of you about it, we are assuming they're going to receive significantly similar state and federal revenues as we have in the past, but we'll have to plan for if those don't come in.

780
01:13:15,000 --> 01:13:26,000
But we do need those revenues desperately to support the programs that you've got going in the community, so it's going to be very difficult to not have those in place.

781
01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:35,000
Scott will give you a whole lot more detail starting on Wednesday about all the numbers in the budget, but this is just a real quick overview of what's going on.

782
01:13:35,000 --> 01:13:41,000
Our total net budget proposed for next year is 727 million dollars.

783
01:13:41,000 --> 01:13:52,000
Some cave also on that, some accounting changes that we made that are driving that number up higher than they would otherwise such as paying off some of our least debt amounts.

784
01:13:52,000 --> 01:14:01,000
So that that but that payoff will actually result in typically over a million dollars a saving per year for the future.

785
01:14:01,000 --> 01:14:11,000
We're going to overall budget 38% or a little over 36% is dedicated to environmental health 22% roughly to public safety.

786
01:14:11,000 --> 01:14:16,000
That management is about 13% and transportation just under 10%.

787
01:14:16,000 --> 01:14:19,000
So that's 80% of your budget.

788
01:14:19,000 --> 01:14:26,000
We're going to have a lot of environmental health, which is basically utilities and sanitation, public safety, police fire emergency management.

789
01:14:26,000 --> 01:14:35,000
Your debt, your capital projects are ongoing and transportation transit that's transit and your roads projects.

790
01:14:35,000 --> 01:14:43,000
We just look at the general fund, which is what the property tax primarily supports public safety is 52% of the general fund.

791
01:14:43,000 --> 01:14:55,000
And I can talk about public safety and again, I know nobody likes to pay more than they're doing, but every dollar this paid over half of that goes to public safety, the support public safety in this community.

792
01:14:55,000 --> 01:15:00,000
Environmental health in the general fund is about 10% community and economic development, transportation.

793
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:20,000
And recreation and culture together account for about 22%, they're all about 7%, each. So again, that's 80% of your budget in the general fund. 50% for public safety, environmental health sanitation about 10, and then you've got parks, transportation and community development and your planning and other activities.

794
01:15:20,000 --> 01:15:31,000
You will see a lot of major changes on how we do debt and we'll go to end a more detail with that on that and the various programs and services that we provide in the budget work sessions.

795
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:43,000
The major revenues that support this budget are property tax that about 31% charges for services or about 28% and that's again, you need a lot of bills primarily.

796
01:15:43,000 --> 01:15:55,000
There's 17% reserve appropriations in this budget and that's again to pay off some of our leasing programs and to deal with some of the capital projects that we have ongoing.

797
01:15:55,000 --> 01:16:04,000
And then a% are federal and state revenues. Those four sources, again, that's 90% of your overall budget.

798
01:16:04,000 --> 01:16:12,000
And looking at the top area there, property tax and how that's going to be impacted.

799
01:16:12,000 --> 01:16:28,000
You will see in 2425, we're showing you what the current rate is, 72 and a half cents. This budget is balanced with a tax rate of 57.5 cents, which is a 15 cent reduction from the current rate.

800
01:16:28,000 --> 01:16:42,000
So while the tax rate is going down, this is not a revenue neutral budget. Unfortunately, if you want to provide the same level services that we've been providing, we're going to be additional tax revenues.

801
01:16:42,000 --> 01:16:53,000
The biggest one there is the transit fund, as we mentioned multiple times in terms of a revenue neutral, it's about 2.2 cents higher than the revenue neutral rate, just for the transit fund.

802
01:16:53,000 --> 01:16:59,000
So again, provide the services that are going on there. I know that we'll have lots of discussions on transit.

803
01:16:59,000 --> 01:17:10,000
There's lots of models out there that people are looking at in terms of micro transit activities doing basically a overarching type services.

804
01:17:11,000 --> 01:17:17,000
Some of our sister communities are doing some of those issues. We're looking at all of those options.

805
01:17:17,000 --> 01:17:28,000
The ones that increase the service by using smaller buses and more point to point tend to have increased increases the ridership, but also increases are cost.

806
01:17:28,000 --> 01:17:33,000
And the federal government doesn't support those at the same way that they support the FTA.

807
01:17:33,000 --> 01:17:44,000
But what our advocacy efforts might very well be is to work with the federal government on changing how the FTA works so that we can provide a more efficient service at a better price.

808
01:17:44,000 --> 01:17:51,000
The debt service fund is basically revenue neutral and so the general fund is also not revenue neutral.

809
01:17:51,000 --> 01:17:59,000
2.6 cents in additional funding in the general fund that is primarily about 30.

810
01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:04,000
Well, a little over half of that is allocated to services in personnel cost.

811
01:18:04,000 --> 01:18:12,000
And the other half is to maintain its projects that were previously debt funded that need to be funded on a page to go basis.

812
01:18:12,000 --> 01:18:20,000
And again, I'm sure we'll have lots of discussions about those charts and how what that means for individual residents.

813
01:18:20,000 --> 01:18:28,000
In terms of the other fees and revenues that we have out there, water sewer has been recommended by the utility commission to go about 5%.

814
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:33,000
Which is less than we've done in the last couple of years, but it is a little higher.

815
01:18:33,000 --> 01:18:40,000
Our solid ways to disposal, that's what you have to pay at the tipping fee at the landfill needs to go up dollar per ton.

816
01:18:40,000 --> 01:18:46,000
Our stormwater rates are proposing increased by 4% again trying to stay with inflation.

817
01:18:46,000 --> 01:18:55,000
And there are a variety of parks and recreation fees, many of which have not been looked at in 10 or more years that are just not consistent with the market.

818
01:18:55,000 --> 01:19:00,000
And so there's some revenue changes there that will go with you in detail.

819
01:19:00,000 --> 01:19:09,000
They don't tend to have a whole lot of impact budget as a whole, probably just for those individual users in some of those areas.

820
01:19:09,000 --> 01:19:16,000
So in looking at all of that part of the issue is, what are we not able to do in this budget?

821
01:19:16,000 --> 01:19:19,000
And there's quite a bit that we can't do that.

822
01:19:19,000 --> 01:19:26,000
Both you've asked about, that the community has asked about in terms of enhanced services or community facilities.

823
01:19:26,000 --> 01:19:36,000
That our staff and departments have requested in terms of new personnel ability to provide services that the community, again, is asking them for in terms of needs.

824
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:41,000
Many things will have to be addressed in future budgets.

825
01:19:41,000 --> 01:19:45,000
A couple of areas there in economic prosperity is that affordable housing area.

826
01:19:45,000 --> 01:19:52,000
We have set aside 5 million in this year and there's another 5 million in next year's budget or this upcoming years budget.

827
01:19:52,000 --> 01:19:59,000
So you can take you with a lot of tech and the single family home program that you've put in place.

828
01:19:59,000 --> 01:20:09,000
So we will be able to get through this year with those funds, but then you're going to have to look at what is the priority of funding that in the future and going forward.

829
01:20:09,000 --> 01:20:12,000
The ability area, a big one for us is street resurfacing.

830
01:20:12,000 --> 01:20:22,000
We have maintained the funds that we had set aside for street resurfacing last year, which included some slight increases in that.

831
01:20:22,000 --> 01:20:26,000
So when we don't lose the power bill funds, that would still be in place.

832
01:20:26,000 --> 01:20:38,000
But I can tell you that we're probably about $4 million short of where we need to be on an annual basis in terms of bringing our resurfacing schedule down to a level that would be comparable to other communities.

833
01:20:38,000 --> 01:20:49,000
Roughly probably a 30 to 35 year schedule of when things would be resurfaced as opposed to probably at least double that right now.

834
01:20:49,000 --> 01:20:52,000
And I have a case in engagement area.

835
01:20:52,000 --> 01:20:53,000
There's been a loss.

836
01:20:53,000 --> 01:20:57,000
We do not have additional federal funding, what's we call the ARPA funding.

837
01:20:57,000 --> 01:21:06,000
So there is a significant number of community agencies that are asking for funds from the city from continuing those programs and some of the existing programs.

838
01:21:06,000 --> 01:21:11,000
There is no new funding for community agencies in this budget.

839
01:21:11,000 --> 01:21:16,000
So the funding for agencies that we've traditionally supported are there.

840
01:21:16,000 --> 01:21:19,000
But there's a lot of needs out there beyond that.

841
01:21:19,000 --> 01:21:23,000
That doesn't even include new things that people are asking about on our daily basis.

842
01:21:23,000 --> 01:21:27,000
Capital campaigns and other activities in the community.

843
01:21:27,000 --> 01:21:30,000
Those are not included in the budget.

844
01:21:31,000 --> 01:21:43,000
And the advocacy and engagement will also need to continue looking at transit and transportation as I've mentioned and how we can advocate for the federal government to continue and the state government to continue providing funds.

845
01:21:43,000 --> 01:21:47,000
In the good government area there's facility renovations and replacements.

846
01:21:47,000 --> 01:21:52,000
We appreciate everybody taking the tour and looking at some of our facility conditions.

847
01:21:52,000 --> 01:21:59,000
We do have money that we're cobbling together to pay for a facility assessment.

848
01:21:59,000 --> 01:22:03,000
So that we can identify what are the highest priority needs.

849
01:22:03,000 --> 01:22:10,000
We already know that the yard needs to be taken down back to to the to the bare ground.

850
01:22:10,000 --> 01:22:14,000
So we're already looking at how we're going to move individuals out of that.

851
01:22:14,000 --> 01:22:17,000
Those facilities and a better facilities.

852
01:22:17,000 --> 01:22:19,000
But we're there are also many other facilities.

853
01:22:19,000 --> 01:22:23,000
Many of you talk to me about your parks and recreation facilities in some of the communities.

854
01:22:23,000 --> 01:22:26,000
The fire stations and many of our areas older fire stations.

855
01:22:27,000 --> 01:22:37,000
There are a lot of facilities that we have that are not in the condition that I think you want them to be in and that the community wants them to be in their proud as a community.

856
01:22:37,000 --> 01:22:49,000
We also have things like the like Bowman Gray where we've got the significant amount of new activity going on there that also requires significant investment in those facilities to make sure that they're.

857
01:22:49,000 --> 01:22:56,000
I won't call them sight of the art but at least they're at comparable levels so that we can continue to attract those kinds of events.

858
01:22:56,000 --> 01:22:59,000
There's deferred maintenance that we need to deal with in many areas.

859
01:22:59,000 --> 01:23:03,000
We need to maintain our compensation packages.

860
01:23:03,000 --> 01:23:12,000
All of this needs to be done in an environment of staying financially sustainable and modernizing our equipment and systems.

861
01:23:13,000 --> 01:23:22,000
You will see that what has been funded this end of system is our HRIS or human resources information system package is being updated this year.

862
01:23:22,000 --> 01:23:32,000
We've made a tremendous amount of IT changes this past year because of the cyber attack so there are things that are ongoing but there are many more that need to be dealt with.

863
01:23:32,000 --> 01:23:39,000
As we mentioned there will be a series of budget workshops, public information sessions and public hearings and here is a list of those.

864
01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:43,000
I'm not going to read them all to you but starting tomorrow.

865
01:23:43,000 --> 01:23:52,000
We will have the first budget public information system at the Carl Russell Center and a Wednesday you'll have your first committee to hold budget workshop.

866
01:23:52,000 --> 01:23:57,000
I know that's that's probably a lot even in I said I'm trying to do just a quick summary.

867
01:23:57,000 --> 01:23:59,000
There will be a lot more discussion in this.

868
01:23:59,000 --> 01:24:13,000
You'll have a full budget and a CRP package for you to take home and hopefully not put you to sleep but give you some good reading and we look forward to working with you all not getting this budget approved.

869
01:24:13,000 --> 01:24:14,000
Thank you.

870
01:24:14,000 --> 01:24:19,000
Thank you Mr. Payton. Any questions that we don't deal with tonight before we get into hearings?

871
01:24:19,000 --> 01:24:20,000
Just one.

872
01:24:20,000 --> 01:24:31,000
Mr. Payton when you were saying again that we work or may not be able to invest or assist with the nonprofits.

873
01:24:31,000 --> 01:24:37,000
Again we've heard the figures of the Powell bill and their others community development block grant whatever.

874
01:24:37,000 --> 01:24:41,000
Give me a rough estimate for the public.

875
01:24:42,000 --> 01:24:47,000
But just because we need to get people to start thinking about.

876
01:24:47,000 --> 01:24:50,000
We didn't create this situation.

877
01:24:50,000 --> 01:24:56,000
So therefore we're left to try and figure it out and hold the household.

878
01:24:56,000 --> 01:25:07,000
So what does that number look like so far as those programs that you listed again or stated homeless initiatives and whatever.

879
01:25:07,000 --> 01:25:14,000
As we mentioned in the council in the past we when we looked back this year we had about 90 million dollars worth of.

880
01:25:14,000 --> 01:25:15,000
The number again.

881
01:25:15,000 --> 01:25:24,000
90 million dollars worth of federal funds that we were looking at that we were in some phase of hoping that we would get.

882
01:25:24,000 --> 01:25:33,000
But had not received those funds yet from ongoing basis or probably a little less than that some of that includes some grants and some one time funds.

883
01:25:33,000 --> 01:25:43,000
And that doesn't count the Powell bill money that Scott just mentioned which is another 17 million in the Bayon M that we may not get.

884
01:25:43,000 --> 01:25:49,000
There are some other things that are going through in the state side but the emergency management funds if those.

885
01:25:49,000 --> 01:26:02,000
If disaster assistance funds don't come you know you hope and pray that that doesn't happen to you but we are now in the tornado alley for North Carolina and so there.

886
01:26:02,000 --> 01:26:10,000
There's a lot of incidents happen so we've got to have resources available to take care of that because right now we don't see a lot of.

887
01:26:10,000 --> 01:26:29,000
Help coming to us from those agencies or the state and the federal government to help us but so it's 90 million plus at least probably 20 million that we know of on the state level right now and that's not counting other things that that may be mandated on us coming out of the general assembly in this session.

888
01:26:29,000 --> 01:26:30,000
Thank you.

889
01:26:30,000 --> 01:26:31,000
Thank you.

890
01:26:31,000 --> 01:26:32,000
Thank you.

891
01:26:32,000 --> 01:26:33,000
Thank you.

892
01:26:33,000 --> 01:26:34,000
Thank you.

893
01:26:34,000 --> 01:26:35,000
Thank you.

894
01:26:35,000 --> 01:26:36,000
Thank you.

895
01:26:36,000 --> 01:26:37,000
Thank you.

896
01:26:37,000 --> 01:26:38,000
Thank you very much.

897
01:26:38,000 --> 01:26:41,000
I look forward to to reading through my first budget.

898
01:26:41,000 --> 01:26:48,000
I just wanted to show my appreciation for you mentioned the addition for another outreach.

899
01:26:48,000 --> 01:26:54,000
Coordinator for the homeless community with the possible passing of the state bill of.

900
01:26:54,000 --> 01:26:55,000
Thank you.

901
01:26:55,000 --> 01:26:56,000
Thank you.

902
01:26:56,000 --> 01:26:57,000
Thank you.

903
01:26:57,000 --> 01:26:58,000
Thank you.

904
01:26:58,000 --> 01:27:01,000
We'll look forward to further discussions.

905
01:27:01,000 --> 01:27:04,000
Next item, please.

906
01:27:04,000 --> 01:27:14,000
That was public comment period as it's a time that we set us that once from up.

907
01:27:14,000 --> 01:27:18,000
We invite citizens to speak to us one matter that are germane to city government.

908
01:27:18,000 --> 01:27:22,000
When the comment period is called, a speaker will give in three minutes for our comments.

909
01:27:23,000 --> 01:27:29,000
Give your name to address for the record and we do limit it to a total of 30 minutes and we will honor that time.

910
01:27:29,000 --> 01:27:34,000
Public comment should pertain to issues that are relevant to city government.

911
01:27:34,000 --> 01:27:42,000
City council members may not respond to public comments during the meeting, but may address them in a later date or ask to have to follow up.

912
01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:48,000
If necessary speakers are encouraged to be civil and courteous in their language and presentation.

913
01:27:48,000 --> 01:27:54,000
Those who want to be civil and courteous in their language or gestures or inappropriate behaviors are discouraged.

914
01:27:54,000 --> 01:28:00,000
Those engaging in such conduct may result in a for sure of their remaining speaking times.

915
01:28:00,000 --> 01:28:04,000
And individuals who continue to engage in such egregious behavior.

916
01:28:04,000 --> 01:28:08,000
After being told to cease to say, baby instructed to lead the meeting.

917
01:28:08,000 --> 01:28:15,000
speakers may use other avenues to address concerns such as personnel litigation and other confidential matters.

918
01:28:15,000 --> 01:28:17,000
And we regretfully appreciate that.

919
01:28:17,000 --> 01:28:20,000
I'll work hard to make sure you can understand me.

920
01:28:20,000 --> 01:28:23,000
Understand you had trouble listening other than I are hearing other than I mean.

921
01:28:23,000 --> 01:28:26,000
And so I'll do my best to speak a little clearer on that.

922
01:28:26,000 --> 01:28:31,000
We have a number of individual signed up and each one will get three minutes.

923
01:28:31,000 --> 01:28:34,000
The first signed up is Matthew Mayers.

924
01:28:38,000 --> 01:28:42,000
Thank you. I'll try not to use any nasty language.

925
01:28:42,000 --> 01:28:46,000
My name is Matthew Mayers. I live at 2844 Wesley and Lane.

926
01:28:46,000 --> 01:28:48,000
Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

927
01:28:48,000 --> 01:29:00,000
And I also want to express appreciation to the neighborhood services department, which did I think a masterful job at laying out the new system of allocating funds for affordable housing.

928
01:29:00,000 --> 01:29:07,000
It was beautiful. Also thanks to Mr. Pate for his presentation preliminary presentation of budgeting.

929
01:29:07,000 --> 01:29:14,000
That's more or less what I wanted to come to speak to you tonight about.

930
01:29:14,000 --> 01:29:18,000
It looks like we could be getting into some difficult times.

931
01:29:18,000 --> 01:29:30,000
And I don't know about you, but what I do when it looks like things are going to be rough is I look around and think, okay, what are the things I spend money on that I might spend money in a way that will save me money.

932
01:29:30,000 --> 01:29:33,000
That's how I often look at it.

933
01:29:33,000 --> 01:29:45,000
Luckily you do have in your possession a really good strategic plan from your sustainability director on how to go about your energy spending.

934
01:29:45,000 --> 01:29:51,000
I'm not sure exactly why it's not been put forward for a vote or an acceptance or anything like that.

935
01:29:51,000 --> 01:30:00,000
It was called a plan but it looks more like I don't know what a series of recommendations hopefully not to be lost on a shelf.

936
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:11,000
So, Mr. Pate just presented briefly a budget that looks like it's going to be just shy of seven hundred and eight million dollars.

937
01:30:11,000 --> 01:30:23,000
You might consider maybe spending one of those millions on some projects that could be extracted from that report to give everybody kind of a sense of what that means.

938
01:30:23,000 --> 01:30:30,000
Let's say you're going to put out a $5 bill and a $2 bill and another $2 bill and a quarter in a penny in a penny.

939
01:30:30,000 --> 01:30:42,000
I'm saying spend one of those pennies on the sustainability projects, especially the ones that the director identified as money saving.

940
01:30:42,000 --> 01:30:58,000
A suggestion, if I might, you have the rest of this year before probably the electrical taxes or tax incentives go away. They are available to non-taxed entities like cities.

941
01:30:58,000 --> 01:31:05,000
I might, and a lot of, you know, hold onto that money on buying vehicles that are cheaper to maintain and cheaper to run.

942
01:31:05,000 --> 01:31:09,000
Save us all a little bit of money over the longer term.

943
01:31:10,000 --> 01:31:18,000
And I'll just leave you with a little saying that sometimes people have and that is when is the best time to plant your shade tree.

944
01:31:18,000 --> 01:31:21,000
I think we know right, it's 20 years ago.

945
01:31:21,000 --> 01:31:25,000
And what, when is the next best time to plant your shade tree is today.

946
01:31:25,000 --> 01:31:27,000
Thank you very much.

947
01:31:27,000 --> 01:31:28,000
Thank you, Matthew.

948
01:31:28,000 --> 01:31:30,000
Bob Butler.

949
01:31:40,000 --> 01:31:42,000
Bob Butler, 80 high range road, London, Dairy New Hampshire.

950
01:31:42,000 --> 01:31:45,000
Good evening, city leadership, both appointed and elected.

951
01:31:45,000 --> 01:31:48,000
And the most humble and respectful way.

952
01:31:48,000 --> 01:31:50,000
Thank you for your hospitality and kindness.

953
01:31:50,000 --> 01:31:52,000
You have a beautiful city rich in history.

954
01:31:52,000 --> 01:31:55,000
And I'm deeply grateful for the welcome.

955
01:31:55,000 --> 01:32:00,000
I'm here as a guest of local 682 visiting from the lift for your die state of New Hampshire,

956
01:32:00,000 --> 01:32:03,000
where old men winner is still reminding us of who's in charge.

957
01:32:03,000 --> 01:32:06,000
Needless to say, I'm loving the North Carolina weather.

958
01:32:06,000 --> 01:32:10,000
Because I'm not a citizen resident or taxpayer of your community.

959
01:32:10,000 --> 01:32:18,000
I will not presume to do, to tell you what to do in your house at your podium or in your chambers.

960
01:32:18,000 --> 01:32:20,000
That is not my place.

961
01:32:20,000 --> 01:32:21,000
This is your home.

962
01:32:21,000 --> 01:32:29,000
And I have too much respect for the integrity of local government and the burden you carry as elected leaders and officials.

963
01:32:29,000 --> 01:32:34,000
What I offer tonight is simple perspective, qualified by experience.

964
01:32:34,000 --> 01:32:38,000
My only goal is to provide insight that might help you make a decision in the best interest,

965
01:32:38,000 --> 01:32:42,000
about the citizens of Winston-Salem and her firefighters.

966
01:32:42,000 --> 01:32:45,000
I come with facts that I will leave you with truth.

967
01:32:45,000 --> 01:32:51,000
Your firemen share the intramunicable experience of living the passion of its life to its top,

968
01:32:51,000 --> 01:32:55,000
while performing their sacred and selfless service to mankind.

969
01:32:55,000 --> 01:32:57,000
They sacrifice their youth.

970
01:32:57,000 --> 01:32:59,000
They sacrifice their innocence.

971
01:32:59,000 --> 01:33:01,000
They sacrifice their health.

972
01:33:01,000 --> 01:33:04,000
They sacrifice their time, both precious and finite.

973
01:33:04,000 --> 01:33:07,000
They sacrifice their energy and their effort.

974
01:33:07,000 --> 01:33:10,000
They sacrifice it all for others.

975
01:33:10,000 --> 01:33:13,000
And they sacrifice it all for each other.

976
01:33:13,000 --> 01:33:18,000
Your firemen experienced the highest highs in the lowest lows.

977
01:33:18,000 --> 01:33:22,000
Low is so low that it leaves a residue on the soul.

978
01:33:22,000 --> 01:33:29,000
They witness death, destruction and suffering at levels so intimate that words will forever fail to explain.

979
01:33:29,000 --> 01:33:32,000
But out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.

980
01:33:32,000 --> 01:33:33,000
You know this.

981
01:33:33,000 --> 01:33:38,000
Your firemen, like all firemen, are the light at the tip of the candle.

982
01:33:38,000 --> 01:33:40,000
They burn hot and they burn bright.

983
01:33:40,000 --> 01:33:44,000
They burn for you and they burn for them.

984
01:33:44,000 --> 01:33:47,000
The men of the men and women of the American fire service,

985
01:33:47,000 --> 01:33:52,000
who stand in the breach between life and death, save and loss.

986
01:33:52,000 --> 01:33:54,000
They don't need praise.

987
01:33:54,000 --> 01:33:57,000
They don't even need a thank you.

988
01:33:57,000 --> 01:33:59,000
That's not what this is about.

989
01:33:59,000 --> 01:34:00,000
Excuse me.

990
01:34:00,000 --> 01:34:03,000
What they need more than anything is support.

991
01:34:03,000 --> 01:34:05,000
Your support.

992
01:34:05,000 --> 01:34:06,000
Support from their leaders.

993
01:34:06,000 --> 01:34:08,000
Support from their decision makers.

994
01:34:08,000 --> 01:34:12,000
And most of all, support from the citizens they have sworn to protect.

995
01:34:12,000 --> 01:34:16,000
Up to including the last full measure of devotion.

996
01:34:16,000 --> 01:34:22,000
In a country whose in a country whose government is of the people by the people and for the people.

997
01:34:22,000 --> 01:34:24,000
May God bless you.

998
01:34:24,000 --> 01:34:26,000
And guide you when you're governant.

999
01:34:26,000 --> 01:34:28,000
Thank you very much for your hospitality.

1000
01:34:28,000 --> 01:34:29,000
Thank you Mr. Butler.

1001
01:34:29,000 --> 01:34:31,000
Charles?

1002
01:34:31,000 --> 01:34:32,000
Charles?

1003
01:34:32,000 --> 01:34:34,000
Go in, please.

1004
01:34:38,000 --> 01:34:39,000
Charles, go in.

1005
01:34:39,000 --> 01:34:41,000
When 18th in the contributes, Emma.

1006
01:34:41,000 --> 01:34:44,000
Council members, it evening.

1007
01:34:44,000 --> 01:34:46,000
I'm a proud captain of the Winston.

1008
01:34:46,000 --> 01:34:48,000
I'm a fighter.

1009
01:34:48,000 --> 01:34:50,000
I have served this city for 26 years.

1010
01:34:50,000 --> 01:34:52,000
During that time I recruited several firefighters.

1011
01:34:52,000 --> 01:34:56,000
firefighters including my own son, who had offers from two other departments to chose

1012
01:34:56,000 --> 01:34:59,000
Winston-Salem because of the benefits and the legacy of our family service.

1013
01:34:59,000 --> 01:35:04,000
For the past ten years, during my recruitment efforts, every single conversation

1014
01:35:04,000 --> 01:35:09,000
with prospective firefighters that I've had, I've did one thing I've emphasized is

1015
01:35:09,000 --> 01:35:13,000
our shiktower crew because it reflects how the city respects the reality of our

1016
01:35:13,000 --> 01:35:17,000
24-hour shifts, the physical and mental toll of this job and the family sacrifices

1017
01:35:18,000 --> 01:35:21,000
as it requires. That's it time has not just been the selling point it's been a

1018
01:35:21,000 --> 01:35:25,000
lifeline. Now there's a proposal on the table that would change all of that.

1019
01:35:25,000 --> 01:35:29,000
It proposal that would gut the sick time benefit making it nearly impossible to recruit

1020
01:35:29,000 --> 01:35:33,000
and even harder to retain quality firefighters. I've already watched recruiting

1021
01:35:33,000 --> 01:35:36,000
numbers dropped from the thousands to the hundreds. If this pass is, it could

1022
01:35:36,000 --> 01:35:39,000
drop even further and our department will suffer a manpower loss it hasn't

1023
01:35:39,000 --> 01:35:44,000
seen as 112 year history. Let me get personal for a moment. My wife has a

1024
01:35:44,000 --> 01:35:48,000
cancer survivor. Her immune system is weak and during COVID, despite every risk

1025
01:35:48,000 --> 01:35:52,000
I continue to serve this city. I mask up. I got vaccinated. I wore a gear on

1026
01:35:52,000 --> 01:35:57,000
every call. I got sick. While taking every precaution, I still

1027
01:35:57,000 --> 01:36:01,000
infected my wife. And because I had earned that sick time, I was able to

1028
01:36:01,000 --> 01:36:04,000
take the time I needed to recover and the encirf my wife and daughter

1029
01:36:04,000 --> 01:36:08,000
when they need to be the most. That sick time was not a luxury it was a necessity.

1030
01:36:08,000 --> 01:36:12,000
The risk we face on this job are not hypothetical. They are real and deeply

1031
01:36:12,000 --> 01:36:17,000
personal. Now imagine what will happen under this new policy to my son

1032
01:36:17,000 --> 01:36:20,000
and the many young firefighters who joined because of those same benefits.

1033
01:36:20,000 --> 01:36:23,000
What happens when they get injured on a call. When they have a sick child at home

1034
01:36:23,000 --> 01:36:27,000
and no time left to care for them. Under the new proposal, it would take nine

1035
01:36:27,000 --> 01:36:32,000
weeks to recruit just one day of sick time. Nine weeks. To compare us to a

1036
01:36:32,000 --> 01:36:37,000
standard 40 hour work we can play is unfair and unjust. We work 24 hour shifts.

1037
01:36:38,000 --> 01:36:42,000
That means that one shift we work the equivalent of three days with someone else.

1038
01:36:42,000 --> 01:36:46,000
We are not 40 hours employees. We are firefighters.

1039
01:36:46,000 --> 01:36:50,000
We respond. We protect. We sacrifice and we do it with our

1040
01:36:50,000 --> 01:36:55,000
hesitation. What's worse, this proposal seems to overlook North Carolina General

1041
01:36:55,000 --> 01:37:00,000
Statue 95-25. 143. In North Carolina State Statures of the Farms employers

1042
01:37:00,000 --> 01:37:04,000
must keep accurate records and hours worked and ensure fair wage and our standards.

1043
01:37:04,000 --> 01:37:08,000
This statute supports the fundamental idea that time work should be time earned.

1044
01:37:08,000 --> 01:37:12,000
If we are held to a different standard of work, 24 hour shifts, weekends, nights,

1045
01:37:12,000 --> 01:37:17,000
holidays, then while we are not earning time at a rate that reflects that reality.

1046
01:37:17,000 --> 01:37:21,000
Council, I ask you to please think about what's really a stake here.

1047
01:37:21,000 --> 01:37:26,000
Morale, recruitment, retention, family. Please don't cripple out the

1048
01:37:26,000 --> 01:37:29,000
department. Don't make it hard to serve the people that we love.

1049
01:37:29,000 --> 01:37:32,000
Thank you. We earn every hour we get. Thank you.

1050
01:37:32,000 --> 01:37:33,000
Thank you.

1051
01:37:34,000 --> 01:37:38,000
We will rivers.

1052
01:37:38,000 --> 01:37:49,000
Then evening, I'm William Rivers 2840 North Glen Avenue,

1053
01:37:49,000 --> 01:37:51,000
Wednesday.

1054
01:37:51,000 --> 01:37:57,000
We have to ask you to take the signs down, please.

1055
01:37:57,000 --> 01:37:59,000
Would you please remove the signs?

1056
01:37:59,000 --> 01:38:00,000
Good evening.

1057
01:38:00,000 --> 01:38:01,000
I'm not allowed.

1058
01:38:01,000 --> 01:38:02,000
Mayor.

1059
01:38:02,000 --> 01:38:04,000
I'm sorry.

1060
01:38:04,000 --> 01:38:06,000
I'm sorry.

1061
01:38:06,000 --> 01:38:07,000
Just a second.

1062
01:38:07,000 --> 01:38:08,000
I'm sorry.

1063
01:38:08,000 --> 01:38:10,000
We don't allow the signs in the council chamber.

1064
01:38:10,000 --> 01:38:13,000
Sergeant arms, would you please?

1065
01:38:21,000 --> 01:38:23,000
Thank you very much. Please go ahead.

1066
01:38:23,000 --> 01:38:24,000
Sorry about that. Thank you.

1067
01:38:24,000 --> 01:38:26,000
Not enough of those. Don't you over there.

1068
01:38:26,000 --> 01:38:28,000
Good evening.

1069
01:38:28,000 --> 01:38:30,000
Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim.

1070
01:38:30,000 --> 01:38:32,000
Members of the council.

1071
01:38:32,000 --> 01:38:34,000
I'm Captain William C. Rivers.

1072
01:38:34,000 --> 01:38:35,000
I'm sorry.

1073
01:38:35,000 --> 01:38:37,000
And I'm proudly served.

1074
01:38:37,000 --> 01:38:40,000
The city was selling for almost a decade.

1075
01:38:40,000 --> 01:38:43,000
Tonight, I'd like to discuss my concerns for the

1076
01:38:43,000 --> 01:38:45,000
Dressy Cuss of our way to benefit.

1077
01:38:45,000 --> 01:38:48,000
Specifically, I seek vacation time.

1078
01:38:48,000 --> 01:38:51,000
I'm coming to you not only as a newly promoted officer in our ranks,

1079
01:38:51,000 --> 01:38:54,000
but also as one of the employees who have to head.

1080
01:38:54,000 --> 01:38:57,000
We've had to utilize these benefits on several occasions

1081
01:38:57,000 --> 01:38:59,000
throughout my tenure.

1082
01:38:59,000 --> 01:39:00,000
There are many.

1083
01:39:00,000 --> 01:39:03,000
But the one that cuts close to me is.

1084
01:39:03,000 --> 01:39:05,000
The death of my baby brother.

1085
01:39:05,000 --> 01:39:06,000
Due to census gum violence.

1086
01:39:06,000 --> 01:39:08,000
On January 23, 2021.

1087
01:39:08,000 --> 01:39:10,000
I was actually on shift when he passed.

1088
01:39:10,000 --> 01:39:12,000
And I had to take eight shifts.

1089
01:39:12,000 --> 01:39:14,000
All of you utilize the combination of sick leave.

1090
01:39:14,000 --> 01:39:16,000
Vacation and FMLA.

1091
01:39:16,000 --> 01:39:18,000
But even that wasn't enough.

1092
01:39:18,000 --> 01:39:20,000
Because the city went on the record.

1093
01:39:20,000 --> 01:39:23,000
Another 43 more homicides that same year.

1094
01:39:23,000 --> 01:39:25,000
Making it a record at that time.

1095
01:39:25,000 --> 01:39:29,000
Many of which I knew the victims personally and their families.

1096
01:39:29,000 --> 01:39:32,000
And some of even which I responded to.

1097
01:39:32,000 --> 01:39:33,000
Covenant others.

1098
01:39:33,000 --> 01:39:35,000
While I was going through the same pain.

1099
01:39:35,000 --> 01:39:37,000
I've broken bones.

1100
01:39:37,000 --> 01:39:39,000
Contracted infectious diseases.

1101
01:39:39,000 --> 01:39:42,000
And even battered COVID-19 on two separate occasions.

1102
01:39:42,000 --> 01:39:43,000
Second of which.

1103
01:39:43,000 --> 01:39:45,000
Randomly extremely ill.

1104
01:39:45,000 --> 01:39:51,000
All about serving in a capacity as a firefighter in a city of whistle.

1105
01:39:52,000 --> 01:39:53,000
Resistured.

1106
01:39:53,000 --> 01:39:59,000
I like to think that my voice is just a representation of everybody else that works.

1107
01:39:59,000 --> 01:40:01,000
24 hours shift.

1108
01:40:01,000 --> 01:40:05,000
As a third of their life at the fire station.

1109
01:40:05,000 --> 01:40:06,000
We do our job.

1110
01:40:06,000 --> 01:40:08,000
And we are not exempt from life happening.

1111
01:40:08,000 --> 01:40:10,000
We're not exempt from injuries.

1112
01:40:10,000 --> 01:40:11,000
The illnesses of things happen in that home.

1113
01:40:11,000 --> 01:40:13,000
And I am the real life example of that.

1114
01:40:13,000 --> 01:40:15,000
And it's been good to me up until this point.

1115
01:40:15,000 --> 01:40:17,000
I really appreciate everything that you all have done.

1116
01:40:17,000 --> 01:40:21,000
I've done and fought for up until this point.

1117
01:40:21,000 --> 01:40:26,000
But the truth is, is that possibly under the new.

1118
01:40:26,000 --> 01:40:29,000
Before rates had they been adopted then.

1119
01:40:29,000 --> 01:40:34,000
I may not even be an employee here because the amount of time required.

1120
01:40:34,000 --> 01:40:38,000
What I'm trying to say is that time office is not a luxury to us.

1121
01:40:38,000 --> 01:40:42,000
It provides a means to decompress and gives us the ability to recover and heal.

1122
01:40:42,000 --> 01:40:45,000
Please recognize that no matter how traumatic the calls are on shift.

1123
01:40:45,000 --> 01:40:48,000
No matter how early in the morning they start.

1124
01:40:48,000 --> 01:40:54,000
We still hold an obligation to maintain our high level readiness for the entire 24 hour period.

1125
01:40:54,000 --> 01:40:58,000
And this creates a higher level of mental fatigue and burnout.

1126
01:40:58,000 --> 01:41:00,000
This affects mental health.

1127
01:41:00,000 --> 01:41:04,000
And I've been just serving community and the public effectively.

1128
01:41:04,000 --> 01:41:06,000
I understand that something has to be done.

1129
01:41:06,000 --> 01:41:09,000
But can we please come to table when.

1130
01:41:09,000 --> 01:41:11,000
Find a better resolution in this.

1131
01:41:12,000 --> 01:41:15,000
That's not something to message that our first responders and communities that we serve,

1132
01:41:15,000 --> 01:41:18,000
that our well-being is under value or that the service being taken.

1133
01:41:18,000 --> 01:41:21,000
There are services being taken for granted.

1134
01:41:21,000 --> 01:41:23,000
Please consider and vote no for this proposal.

1135
01:41:23,000 --> 01:41:24,000
And let's put our heads together.

1136
01:41:24,000 --> 01:41:28,000
Come up with a more powerful resolution because we're on the same team.

1137
01:41:28,000 --> 01:41:29,000
Thank you, Captain.

1138
01:41:30,000 --> 01:41:33,000
There's Regan's please.

1139
01:41:33,000 --> 01:41:35,000
There's Regan's.

1140
01:41:47,000 --> 01:41:50,000
Liz Regan's 135 wide-up drive King North Carolina.

1141
01:41:50,000 --> 01:41:51,000
Good evening mayor.

1142
01:41:51,000 --> 01:41:53,000
Mayor Pratem City Council members.

1143
01:41:53,000 --> 01:41:54,000
I'm fire fighter Regan's.

1144
01:41:54,000 --> 01:41:56,000
I've been with Winston Steylon for four years.

1145
01:41:56,000 --> 01:41:58,000
But my journey didn't start in 2021.

1146
01:41:58,000 --> 01:42:04,000
I applied in 2019 and I failed because I did not yet understand what it took to be a firefighter.

1147
01:42:04,000 --> 01:42:08,000
After that failure, I committed myself fully to serving this city.

1148
01:42:08,000 --> 01:42:09,000
This city.

1149
01:42:09,000 --> 01:42:16,000
I trained hard to carry that 24 foot ladder to lift that patient to drag a person from a burning home.

1150
01:42:16,000 --> 01:42:22,000
So I ask you when the time inevitably comes in my 30 year career that I blow out my knee.

1151
01:42:22,000 --> 01:42:27,000
Or I tear my shoulder because we can't afford to efficiently staff fire truck for people.

1152
01:42:27,000 --> 01:42:29,000
What time am I going to use?

1153
01:42:29,000 --> 01:42:35,000
Next time I get pneumonia and the flu and nor virus back to back from daily exposures and nursing homes and shelters.

1154
01:42:35,000 --> 01:42:37,000
What time am I supposed to use?

1155
01:42:37,000 --> 01:42:39,000
I don't have much time in this department.

1156
01:42:39,000 --> 01:42:46,000
And under this proposal, if I get badly hurt or sick, I'll burn through my time in months and I'll be left with nothing.

1157
01:42:46,000 --> 01:42:51,000
We already miss holidays, birthdays, important milestones with our families.

1158
01:42:51,000 --> 01:42:56,000
Unlike the 40 hour employee, we don't get to come home and share our daily experience with our loved ones.

1159
01:42:56,000 --> 01:42:59,000
Around dinner table, we work 56 hours.

1160
01:42:59,000 --> 01:43:02,000
And it's in one of the most demanding careers out there.

1161
01:43:02,000 --> 01:43:05,000
Burnouts and injuries they aren't in if they're win.

1162
01:43:05,000 --> 01:43:11,000
What this proposal tells me is that the city manager's office doesn't really value what we sacrifice to do this job.

1163
01:43:11,000 --> 01:43:15,000
That our well-being and dedication is more of an inconvenience.

1164
01:43:15,000 --> 01:43:19,000
I want to remind the council of this department's own standard.

1165
01:43:19,000 --> 01:43:22,000
One team committed to excellence.

1166
01:43:22,000 --> 01:43:26,000
Cutting our sick time in half isn't excellence.

1167
01:43:26,000 --> 01:43:31,000
Staffing life-saving apparatus with only three firefighters isn't excellence.

1168
01:43:31,000 --> 01:43:36,000
Taking trucks out of service, route within pay 30 minutes of overtime, it's not excellence.

1169
01:43:36,000 --> 01:43:39,000
Those are shortcuts and shortcuts in our job get you killed.

1170
01:43:39,000 --> 01:43:45,000
I ask you to hold yourself to the same standard we're held to, not just for us, for the citizens we serve in the families.

1171
01:43:45,000 --> 01:43:48,000
We risk our lives for every single day.

1172
01:43:48,000 --> 01:43:51,000
We've lost excellence and I hope we can become one team again and find it.

1173
01:43:51,000 --> 01:43:53,000
So please vote no on this proposal.

1174
01:43:53,000 --> 01:43:54,000
Thank you.

1175
01:43:54,000 --> 01:43:55,000
Thank you.

1176
01:43:59,000 --> 01:44:02,000
I stand parallel in there, will we please?

1177
01:44:02,000 --> 01:44:11,000
Ashton Barnello 1528, Mallory Circle.

1178
01:44:11,000 --> 01:44:12,000
Good evening, Mayor.

1179
01:44:12,000 --> 01:44:18,000
I'd like to start by asking everyone in this room a few questions.

1180
01:44:18,000 --> 01:44:26,000
Raise your hand if you have ever seen a body so mangled that you weren't even sure it was a human being.

1181
01:44:26,000 --> 01:44:31,000
Raise your hand if you've ever held a lifeless child in your arms after trying to have to

1182
01:44:31,000 --> 01:44:34,000
resuscitate it back to life.

1183
01:44:34,000 --> 01:44:41,000
Only to give that child back to the parents with the worst news imaginable.

1184
01:44:41,000 --> 01:44:46,000
Raise your hand if you've ever been in such a hazardous environment that you weren't sure if you're going to make a home

1185
01:44:46,000 --> 01:44:48,000
year family at the end of the day.

1186
01:44:48,000 --> 01:44:50,000
Thank you.

1187
01:44:50,000 --> 01:44:57,000
That is just a snippet of the very tough job that we face on a regular basis.

1188
01:44:57,000 --> 01:45:00,000
The true definition of equity refers to fairness.

1189
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:13,000
Injustice in the distribution of resources, opportunities, and treatment, not necessarily giving everyone the same thing, but giving each person what they need to have equal access or outcomes.

1190
01:45:13,000 --> 01:45:24,000
What the manager's office is proposing is the opposite of true equity. It's trying to bring the fire department to an equal playing field with other departments when we work more hours.

1191
01:45:24,000 --> 01:45:34,000
We spend more time away from our families. We get exposed to more hazards and cancers than anyone else thus shortening our lifespans.

1192
01:45:34,000 --> 01:45:38,000
Let me be clear. Perception is everything.

1193
01:45:38,000 --> 01:45:49,000
And the perception is that this is not about equity. This is about single-handedly and repeatedly attacking the fire department.

1194
01:45:49,000 --> 01:45:56,000
The first with budget cuts, the forces and the minimum staffing, and now a proposal to cut our benefits by more than half.

1195
01:45:56,000 --> 01:46:06,000
Let me ask you all this. If you had a son or daughter or spouse working for this department, do you think this proposal is fair?

1196
01:46:06,000 --> 01:46:10,000
Do you think this will help our recruitment or retention crisis?

1197
01:46:10,000 --> 01:46:17,000
Does it align with the mission set of making Winston-Salem Fire Department a destination fire department?

1198
01:46:17,000 --> 01:46:25,000
As a firefighter for this city and the spokesperson as a union president, I will tell you all, I am tired.

1199
01:46:25,000 --> 01:46:29,000
I am tired of firefighters calling me and telling me they are done mentally.

1200
01:46:29,000 --> 01:46:37,000
They want to leave this department or worse, they want to leave the fire service because they are beat down and feel undervalued.

1201
01:46:37,000 --> 01:46:42,000
I am tired of tenured firefighters telling me they don't want their sons or daughters to work here.

1202
01:46:42,000 --> 01:46:46,000
It breaks my heart and at the same time it engages me.

1203
01:46:46,000 --> 01:46:51,000
What I am not tired of is being an advocate and a voice for these brave men and women behind me.

1204
01:46:51,000 --> 01:46:56,000
I will never tire for fighting for their rights and for what they rightfully deserve.

1205
01:46:56,000 --> 01:47:02,000
I will never tire or deter from our overall mission set of making this fire department a destination fire department.

1206
01:47:02,000 --> 01:47:08,000
I hope you all make the right decision and choose to back your firefighters and risk their lives to save yours.

1207
01:47:08,000 --> 01:47:12,000
You never know when you or a loved one will need us. Thank you.

1208
01:47:12,000 --> 01:47:16,000
Thank you.

1209
01:47:16,000 --> 01:47:19,000
Angela Dicks.

1210
01:47:19,000 --> 01:47:23,000
Angela Dicks.

1211
01:47:23,000 --> 01:47:29,000
Thank you Mayor and Mayor Pertham and members of the council.

1212
01:47:30,000 --> 01:47:38,000
As the president of the minister's conference of the same vicinity, I stand here before you today on behalf of our coalition of faith leaders.

1213
01:47:38,000 --> 01:47:41,000
Compheld by ethical obligations.

1214
01:47:41,000 --> 01:47:49,000
More conviction and civic responsibility to ensure that these brave men and women are treated with fairness and respect.

1215
01:47:50,000 --> 01:48:01,000
We're here to respectfully urge you to reconsider the proposed city budget, particularly the provisions impacting the dedicated men and women of the one sitting fire department.

1216
01:48:01,000 --> 01:48:05,000
Reposed changes to seek and vacation time or cruel.

1217
01:48:05,000 --> 01:48:07,000
I'm not only an equitable.

1218
01:48:07,000 --> 01:48:13,000
They threaten to revoke time that has already been nightfully armed by our first responders.

1219
01:48:13,000 --> 01:48:15,000
And let us be clear as well.

1220
01:48:15,000 --> 01:48:17,000
But that's not right. It's wrong.

1221
01:48:17,000 --> 01:48:18,000
This is unjust.

1222
01:48:19,000 --> 01:48:26,000
Our social justice committee has diligently engaged with those impacted and further more investigate the reason behind these changes.

1223
01:48:26,000 --> 01:48:28,000
We've heard traveling justifications.

1224
01:48:28,000 --> 01:48:35,000
Some suggesting that leadership representation lacks diversity or that certain voices are not seasoned enough,

1225
01:48:35,000 --> 01:48:36,000
respectfully.

1226
01:48:36,000 --> 01:48:38,000
We disagree.

1227
01:48:38,000 --> 01:48:40,000
Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Perry.

1228
01:48:40,000 --> 01:48:46,000
We have met with seasoned committed firefighters who reflect the racial and culture diversity of our city.

1229
01:48:46,000 --> 01:48:50,000
We also have been introduced to younger new members of the department,

1230
01:48:50,000 --> 01:48:55,000
whose dedication and passion underscore the right feature of once this thing looks emergency services.

1231
01:48:55,000 --> 01:49:00,000
Their commitment is not hindered by their age or background.

1232
01:49:00,000 --> 01:49:03,000
It is strengthened by their courage and integrity.

1233
01:49:03,000 --> 01:49:11,000
The Minister's office has listened reflected and now speaks with unified convention a fair just formal formula for the best.

1234
01:49:12,000 --> 01:49:15,000
Most must be protected and restored.

1235
01:49:15,000 --> 01:49:22,000
Anything less diminishes the value of those who risk their lives for our safety and since they disheartened message to our entire community.

1236
01:49:22,000 --> 01:49:27,000
The professional firefighters association is advocating for equitable sick and vacation time,

1237
01:49:27,000 --> 01:49:29,000
which is not a luxury as we heard many times.

1238
01:49:29,000 --> 01:49:31,000
But an necessity.

1239
01:49:31,000 --> 01:49:38,000
Attequate sick time allows our firefighters to recover from illness and injury ensuring that they are fit for duty and able to protect our community effectively.

1240
01:49:39,000 --> 01:49:44,000
The demanding nature of their work exposes them to traumatic events and high stress situations.

1241
01:49:44,000 --> 01:49:48,000
Making sufficient recovery time, crucial for their mental health and overall well-being.

1242
01:49:48,000 --> 01:49:55,000
Fair vacation time provides this dedicated individuals with the opportunity to rest, recharge and spend time with their families,

1243
01:49:55,000 --> 01:49:58,000
reduce their stress and improve their overall well-being.

1244
01:49:58,000 --> 01:50:02,000
This is crucial for maintaining a strongly effective fire service.

1245
01:50:02,000 --> 01:50:07,000
The ability to disconnect from intense pressures of their jobs is essential for preventing burnout.

1246
01:50:07,000 --> 01:50:11,000
Managing PTSD and promoting a health healthy work life balance.

1247
01:50:11,000 --> 01:50:17,000
We said in full solidarity with the firefighters of the same in their efforts to secure these essential benefits.

1248
01:50:17,000 --> 01:50:19,000
Upon and we call upon you.

1249
01:50:19,000 --> 01:50:23,000
I would like to represent it to do what just as what is just an animal.

1250
01:50:23,000 --> 01:50:28,000
Please do not balance this budget at the expense of our invaluable first responders.

1251
01:50:28,000 --> 01:50:31,000
But let us compensate the employees for the work they do.

1252
01:50:31,000 --> 01:50:33,000
Thank you for your time.

1253
01:50:33,000 --> 01:50:38,000
And you made that you made your decisions to be guided by justice, wisdom and the spirit of service.

1254
01:50:38,000 --> 01:50:39,000
Thank you all.

1255
01:50:39,000 --> 01:50:40,000
Thank you, Beth.

1256
01:50:43,000 --> 01:50:44,000
Just before that one.

1257
01:50:44,000 --> 01:50:45,000
That one.

1258
01:50:45,000 --> 01:50:47,000
Excuse me if I'm just for now tonight.

1259
01:50:50,000 --> 01:50:51,000
Thank you, Mayor.

1260
01:50:51,000 --> 01:50:52,000
It's okay.

1261
01:50:52,000 --> 01:50:53,000
I'm used to it.

1262
01:50:54,000 --> 01:50:55,000
Mayor.

1263
01:50:55,000 --> 01:50:56,000
Mayor Pro Tem.

1264
01:50:56,000 --> 01:50:57,000
Council members.

1265
01:50:57,000 --> 01:50:58,000
My name is Christopher Delalas.

1266
01:50:58,000 --> 01:51:01,000
I'm a resident of the city once the sale in the south ward.

1267
01:51:02,000 --> 01:51:04,000
I'm also a captain for the city once sale.

1268
01:51:04,000 --> 01:51:07,000
I've served this city proudly for 12 years.

1269
01:51:07,000 --> 01:51:09,000
I think here tonight.

1270
01:51:09,000 --> 01:51:14,000
Just strongly oppose the city managers proposal to cut our leave benefits.

1271
01:51:14,000 --> 01:51:19,000
WSFD is already by the city manager's own presentation in April.

1272
01:51:19,000 --> 01:51:21,000
Underpaid compared to our counterparts.

1273
01:51:21,000 --> 01:51:24,000
Our benefits are strongest recruiting tool that we have.

1274
01:51:24,000 --> 01:51:25,000
You cut that.

1275
01:51:25,000 --> 01:51:28,000
What do we have left?

1276
01:51:28,000 --> 01:51:30,000
If you pass this proposal.

1277
01:51:30,000 --> 01:51:33,000
So these cuts will hurt recruitment.

1278
01:51:33,000 --> 01:51:34,000
They're going to hurt retention.

1279
01:51:34,000 --> 01:51:39,000
And they're going to put be the final nail on the coffin of the morale of this department.

1280
01:51:39,000 --> 01:51:40,000
In my 12 years.

1281
01:51:40,000 --> 01:51:42,000
The 2015 sick rate of cruel.

1282
01:51:42,000 --> 01:51:45,000
When it was voted on and passed by the city council and help us.

1283
01:51:45,000 --> 01:51:49,000
And bring us back in par with the rest of the city employees.

1284
01:51:49,000 --> 01:51:51,000
What they did was double our banks.

1285
01:51:51,000 --> 01:51:52,000
That didn't take an account.

1286
01:51:52,000 --> 01:51:55,000
Members that had rolled over vacation in sick bank.

1287
01:51:55,000 --> 01:51:56,000
It didn't take an account.

1288
01:51:56,000 --> 01:51:59,000
Members of this department who had to have utilized their leave.

1289
01:51:59,000 --> 01:52:02,000
One guy in my station lost his wife.

1290
01:52:02,000 --> 01:52:04,000
It was out for six months.

1291
01:52:04,000 --> 01:52:05,000
And then he had surgery.

1292
01:52:05,000 --> 01:52:07,000
It was out for another six months.

1293
01:52:07,000 --> 01:52:09,000
When he came back he had 40 hours.

1294
01:52:09,000 --> 01:52:12,000
And he had served the city faithfully for over a decade.

1295
01:52:12,000 --> 01:52:15,000
He got 80 hours.

1296
01:52:15,000 --> 01:52:17,000
On April 29th.

1297
01:52:17,000 --> 01:52:18,000
I went to the lead.

1298
01:52:18,000 --> 01:52:19,000
One of the listening sessions with Miss Vosja.

1299
01:52:19,000 --> 01:52:21,000
And I appreciate her for doing that.

1300
01:52:21,000 --> 01:52:23,000
I wanted to understand their side.

1301
01:52:23,000 --> 01:52:24,000
Maybe there was something I was missing.

1302
01:52:24,000 --> 01:52:26,000
Maybe there was a benefit to this.

1303
01:52:26,000 --> 01:52:29,000
So I went in there asking questions.

1304
01:52:29,000 --> 01:52:33,000
I asked the question of will this help the city or hurt the city?

1305
01:52:33,000 --> 01:52:36,000
I asked how many firefighters are we expected to lose over this?

1306
01:52:36,000 --> 01:52:41,000
How much will it cost to recruit and train the replacements of those that we lose?

1307
01:52:41,000 --> 01:52:44,000
Miss Vosja's unfortunately had to get the answer.

1308
01:52:44,000 --> 01:52:45,000
We don't know.

1309
01:52:45,000 --> 01:52:47,000
We don't have an HR director.

1310
01:52:47,000 --> 01:52:53,000
So why are we going to vote on passing a resolution that we don't know if it's going to hurt us?

1311
01:52:53,000 --> 01:53:01,000
This plan is also fails basic logic by equating a 40 hour employee with a 56 hour employee.

1312
01:53:01,000 --> 01:53:05,000
It costs us three times as much as a 40 hour employee to take a day.

1313
01:53:05,000 --> 01:53:07,000
I'll make a person for you.

1314
01:53:07,000 --> 01:53:10,000
In the past several years my daughter has almost died three times.

1315
01:53:10,000 --> 01:53:16,000
I've had to take nine shifts each time to care for a watchy lady in the NICU and the PICU.

1316
01:53:16,000 --> 01:53:20,000
Under the current plan, I got that time back in nine months.

1317
01:53:20,000 --> 01:53:22,000
The same as a 40 hour employee.

1318
01:53:22,000 --> 01:53:30,000
Under the city manager's proposal plan, it would take me five years to get each of those times back five years.

1319
01:53:30,000 --> 01:53:31,000
That's not equity.

1320
01:53:31,000 --> 01:53:33,000
That's not inequality.

1321
01:53:33,000 --> 01:53:35,000
That's short sightedness.

1322
01:53:35,000 --> 01:53:43,000
Furthermore, the initial presentation by the city manager's office back in April had that they were going to convert our sick bank.

1323
01:53:44,000 --> 01:53:55,000
On the meeting last Monday, they said that that was table incentive legal because there's possible legal repercussions because it violates Department of Labor both at a state and federal level.

1324
01:53:55,000 --> 01:53:59,000
So if they didn't even think about that, why are we voting on it?

1325
01:53:59,000 --> 01:54:01,000
Thank you, Captain.

1326
01:54:01,000 --> 01:54:06,000
Would you have a two second or two second date?

1327
01:54:06,000 --> 01:54:09,000
Okay.

1328
01:54:09,000 --> 01:54:11,000
Good evening.

1329
01:54:11,000 --> 01:54:13,500
I can't quite go to the last night for Tuesday.

1330
01:54:13,500 --> 01:54:15,000
Okay.

1331
01:54:15,000 --> 01:54:16,000
Okay. Thank you.

1332
01:54:16,000 --> 01:54:18,000
No problem. It's a hard one.

1333
01:54:18,000 --> 01:54:20,000
Brooke,

1334
01:54:20,000 --> 01:54:22,000
Okay.

1335
01:54:22,000 --> 01:54:24,000
Brooke,

1336
01:54:24,000 --> 01:54:28,000
Brooke,

1337
01:54:28,000 --> 01:54:34,680
forgot, my caller, because in the Lutheran tradition, a stole is a mark of a deacon in service.

1338
01:54:34,680 --> 01:54:40,520
Reminds all of us and me that my calling is not to stand above or apart from the people I serve,

1339
01:54:40,520 --> 01:54:45,440
but to stand with them, shoulder to shoulder. That's what brings me here tonight.

1340
01:54:45,440 --> 01:54:51,280
I come here not as a representative of the dwelling at 502 North Broad Street, but as a member of a community

1341
01:54:51,280 --> 01:54:55,920
bound together by shared struggle, sacred dignity, and deep love.

1342
01:54:55,920 --> 01:55:00,680
At the dwelling, we are a church made up of people who know what it's like to live without shelter.

1343
01:55:00,680 --> 01:55:06,160
Many of us have experienced homelessness, addiction, mental illness, reentry from incarceration.

1344
01:55:06,160 --> 01:55:10,720
We worship together, we eat together, we serve together, and we lead together.

1345
01:55:10,720 --> 01:55:15,640
At the dwelling, we don't just believe in housing, we believe in human dignity.

1346
01:55:15,640 --> 01:55:23,440
And that's why every winter, we offer the only overnight emergency winter shelter in this city and county.

1347
01:55:23,440 --> 01:55:27,560
When temperatures drop, when it's not safe to be outside, shelters are full.

1348
01:55:27,560 --> 01:55:32,360
We open our doors because our people's lives are on the line.

1349
01:55:32,360 --> 01:55:35,080
No one else is doing this.

1350
01:55:35,080 --> 01:55:38,240
We are the only emergency shelter.

1351
01:55:38,240 --> 01:55:45,920
In every year, we turn our couches, our sanctuary, and our hearts into safe spaces in homes for our community members.

1352
01:55:45,920 --> 01:55:49,880
We know the data we know HUD funding is not maybe not coming.

1353
01:55:49,880 --> 01:55:55,600
We see the rise in homelessness, we've experienced increased and demand in services.

1354
01:55:55,600 --> 01:56:01,040
But I also know that without emergency winter shelter, our people will die.

1355
01:56:01,040 --> 01:56:07,120
And I also know that without emergency winter shelter, that emergency doesn't go away.

1356
01:56:07,120 --> 01:56:18,360
That burden shifts to the wonderful and brave people behind me, to our firefighters, to our police, to our jails, to our other emergency services.

1357
01:56:18,360 --> 01:56:26,600
And when I also know that my people are valuable, there are veterans and parents and artists and some of them are city workers.

1358
01:56:26,600 --> 01:56:29,800
There are people healing from trauma, people rebuilding their lives.

1359
01:56:29,800 --> 01:56:35,080
And winter shelter is not just a roof over their heads, but it's a bridge to trust.

1360
01:56:35,080 --> 01:56:41,480
Our community doesn't trust easily, but we build that over shared days in the winter.

1361
01:56:41,480 --> 01:56:44,440
It matters most when it's coldest and darkest.

1362
01:56:44,520 --> 01:56:56,600
Last winter, the dwelling provided overnight shelter for 645 unique individuals, men, women and children who would have otherwise been sleeping in cars, tents, or on sidewalks.

1363
01:56:56,600 --> 01:56:59,800
People would have otherwise frozen.

1364
01:56:59,800 --> 01:57:03,480
I'm not here to request charity, we know the budget is tight.

1365
01:57:03,480 --> 01:57:07,400
I'm here because it's about partnership, we can't do this alone.

1366
01:57:07,400 --> 01:57:13,400
We have been partners with the city on emergency winter shelter before, and we want to continue doing that.

1367
01:57:13,400 --> 01:57:17,000
I want to thank Mayor Potent Adams and Council Member Andre Bowens,

1368
01:57:17,000 --> 01:57:19,720
God Andre Bowen for helping us in being support in that.

1369
01:57:19,720 --> 01:57:23,240
So as you consider your budget for the year, please consider my people.

1370
01:57:23,240 --> 01:57:23,720
Thank you.

1371
01:57:23,720 --> 01:57:25,720
Thank you.

1372
01:57:25,720 --> 01:57:26,680
Thank you, children.

1373
01:57:28,680 --> 01:57:29,880
Nick Chauders.

1374
01:57:32,680 --> 01:57:36,120
Hi, there's Nick Chauders from 16 to 61 in light street.

1375
01:57:37,000 --> 01:57:38,840
I'm here on behalf of the dwelling itself.

1376
01:57:38,840 --> 01:57:44,520
I'm a part of the dwelling community, and I want to say a little bit about why it matters to me,

1377
01:57:45,160 --> 01:57:47,960
but not just me to a lot of the people in our city.

1378
01:57:48,680 --> 01:57:51,960
First of my came to the dwelling, I didn't know what to expect.

1379
01:57:51,960 --> 01:57:56,040
I heard it was a church, but not like any church that I've ever grew up with.

1380
01:57:56,920 --> 01:57:59,560
What I found was something different, something real.

1381
01:58:00,200 --> 01:58:03,480
People laughing, eating together, praying, sharing stories,

1382
01:58:04,120 --> 01:58:06,040
some of the homes, some did not.

1383
01:58:07,240 --> 01:58:10,200
Some of my recovery, some were still in the middle of it.

1384
01:58:10,200 --> 01:58:14,920
Some came with joy, others came with grief, but all of us belong.

1385
01:58:16,040 --> 01:58:20,760
The dwelling is about fixing people, what's about seeing people, listening, showing up.

1386
01:58:21,560 --> 01:58:24,440
Is a place where no one has to pretend to have it all together.

1387
01:58:25,320 --> 01:58:30,760
It's a place where you're reminded that you're good enough just as you are.

1388
01:58:34,120 --> 01:58:37,240
It's not just no Sunday mornings, it's hot meals, showers,

1389
01:58:37,240 --> 01:58:41,160
help with the resources, shelter. Support when life gets heavy.

1390
01:58:41,960 --> 01:58:45,960
It's music, storytelling, but more importantly, it's truth telling.

1391
01:58:46,920 --> 01:58:50,360
I've seen people who are invisible, finally be seen.

1392
01:58:51,480 --> 01:58:55,400
I've seen people get clean, I've seen people reconnect with their families,

1393
01:58:55,400 --> 01:58:57,080
I've seen people found hope again.

1394
01:58:58,520 --> 01:59:01,960
So there's really matters because it's a place where people find life again.

1395
01:59:02,920 --> 01:59:08,120
If you're curious what that looks like, we have block parties, every Wednesday, starting in July,

1396
01:59:08,120 --> 01:59:13,160
it's 6 o'clock, I'm joining us, but homelessness is hard for this city.

1397
01:59:13,160 --> 01:59:15,480
We can't do it alone, and you can't either.

1398
01:59:16,040 --> 01:59:21,880
So I'm not asking for initially partnerships, but friendships come be with us.

1399
01:59:21,880 --> 01:59:26,760
So we're about to find it together. Thank you. Thank you very much.

1400
01:59:26,760 --> 01:59:34,600
We have time for one more speaker, Cynthia Herson, Cynthia Herson.

1401
01:59:42,840 --> 01:59:48,120
Greetings everybody, I don't know how to talk to him tonight because in some time. Thank you.

1402
01:59:48,120 --> 01:59:53,400
I stand before you today, believing we live in a nation founded on the power of the idea that

1403
01:59:53,400 --> 01:59:56,840
government exists to serve the people, not the other way around.

1404
01:59:56,840 --> 02:00:02,200
I thank this fire department, and we do support you all.

1405
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:10,000
And in fact, they have kept our bid and standing because they cut on five twice in my apartment, because of the defense of stolen, they was there right on time.

1406
02:00:10,000 --> 02:00:13,000
So I support them and there and deal with whatever they are doing.

1407
02:00:13,000 --> 02:00:17,000
With the taxpayer, I have an unwavering right of the people to be heard.

1408
02:00:17,000 --> 02:00:22,000
And y'all have a duty to want to hear and to let our voice be heard.

1409
02:00:22,000 --> 02:00:25,000
We specced out to make decisions in our best interests.

1410
02:00:25,000 --> 02:00:31,000
I elected a bishop, no, they must answer to the people and act with integrity.

1411
02:00:31,000 --> 02:00:33,000
Democracy does not work.

1412
02:00:33,000 --> 02:00:35,000
If we the people are kept in the dark.

1413
02:00:35,000 --> 02:00:38,000
It does not work, if part of it is hoarded.

1414
02:00:38,000 --> 02:00:41,000
By the fear, instead of sure, by the manning.

1415
02:00:41,000 --> 02:00:46,000
Democracy cannot function unless the voice of the people is heard clearly.

1416
02:00:46,000 --> 02:00:49,000
Loudly and un-obstructed.

1417
02:00:50,000 --> 02:00:54,000
Every citizen, no matter where they come from, must have a seat at the table.

1418
02:00:54,000 --> 02:00:58,000
And you are denying us a chance to sit at the table.

1419
02:00:58,000 --> 02:01:04,000
When the people, the voice is silence and barriers are put up to keep folks speaking.

1420
02:01:04,000 --> 02:01:05,000
They're true.

1421
02:01:05,000 --> 02:01:07,000
That is not democracy.

1422
02:01:07,000 --> 02:01:09,000
That is not America.

1423
02:01:09,000 --> 02:01:11,000
Land of the for you.

1424
02:01:11,000 --> 02:01:14,000
It must not be for psych County.

1425
02:01:14,000 --> 02:01:18,000
We are here to demand accountability.

1426
02:01:18,000 --> 02:01:24,000
We are here to demand accountability from the elected officials.

1427
02:01:24,000 --> 02:01:28,000
Let's have transparency in every decision that affects our lives.

1428
02:01:28,000 --> 02:01:33,000
It is the sacred right of the people to be heard without interference.

1429
02:01:33,000 --> 02:01:38,000
When leaders are ill-responsible, when citizen can't speak, that's when democracy works.

1430
02:01:38,000 --> 02:01:42,000
The way it should, that's when it puts like counting will be at its best.

1431
02:01:42,000 --> 02:01:51,000
When my last time remaining, could hear y'all tell me who signed off on ball and being our property manager.

1432
02:01:51,000 --> 02:01:56,000
It shall not research and get his reviews.

1433
02:01:56,000 --> 02:01:58,000
They shall not research.

1434
02:01:58,000 --> 02:02:02,000
The people who's here already has property.

1435
02:02:02,000 --> 02:02:07,000
And they shall not check with those people to see how he has treated those people and his properties.

1436
02:02:07,000 --> 02:02:10,000
We did not have a seat at that table.

1437
02:02:10,000 --> 02:02:14,000
We were not included to a league sports outping in our who.

1438
02:02:14,000 --> 02:02:18,000
And why we got to keep having so many different property manager.

1439
02:02:18,000 --> 02:02:19,000
What is wrong with you all?

1440
02:02:19,000 --> 02:02:20,000
That is your property.

1441
02:02:20,000 --> 02:02:25,000
And why you all can give it over to us if you all do not want to take responsibility for it.

1442
02:02:25,000 --> 02:02:28,000
But I'm going to tell y'all again, I refuse to be homeless.

1443
02:02:28,000 --> 02:02:29,000
I refuse to let y'all.

1444
02:02:29,000 --> 02:02:35,000
People, people sitting on your butt and letting us not have a voice at the table.

1445
02:02:35,000 --> 02:02:37,000
You all are governed by us.

1446
02:02:37,000 --> 02:02:39,000
Not you all come in us.

1447
02:02:39,000 --> 02:02:42,000
You all need to recognize our place and stand it.

1448
02:02:42,000 --> 02:02:44,000
And where y'all are elected to be.

1449
02:02:44,000 --> 02:02:45,000
Where are your talk?

1450
02:02:45,000 --> 02:02:47,000
Y'all better start messing with me.

1451
02:02:47,000 --> 02:02:48,000
Thank you, Mr. Chair.

1452
02:02:48,000 --> 02:02:49,000
Thank you.

1453
02:02:49,000 --> 02:02:51,000
That is our public comment here at time.

1454
02:02:51,000 --> 02:02:54,000
We do have a need for a closed session.

1455
02:02:54,000 --> 02:02:56,000
I'm recognized with two carc for a motion please.

1456
02:02:56,000 --> 02:02:57,000
Thank you, Mayor.

1457
02:02:57,000 --> 02:03:01,000
I'm moving to the one side of the city council going to close session.

1458
02:03:01,000 --> 02:03:06,000
I did not have a group president to knock on a general statute, 143 days, 318-11-8 4.

1459
02:03:06,000 --> 02:03:13,000
So just because of matters relating to the location or expansion of industries or other businesses within the city of Mississippi.

1460
02:03:13,000 --> 02:03:14,000
Sir, second.

1461
02:03:14,000 --> 02:03:16,000
Second, by Mayor Proof Tim.

1462
02:03:16,000 --> 02:03:19,000
All those of our evasion go in the close session please say aye.

1463
02:03:19,000 --> 02:03:20,000
Aye.

1464
02:03:20,000 --> 02:03:22,000
One vote is to go in the close session.

1465
02:03:31,000 --> 02:03:41,000
Where are you?

1466
02:04:01,000 --> 02:04:03,000
You

1467
02:04:31,000 --> 02:04:33,000
You

1468
02:05:01,000 --> 02:05:03,000
You

1469
02:05:31,000 --> 02:05:33,000
You

1470
02:06:01,000 --> 02:06:03,000
You

1471
02:06:31,000 --> 02:06:33,000
You

1472
02:07:01,000 --> 02:07:03,000
You

1473
02:07:31,000 --> 02:07:33,000
You

1474
02:08:01,000 --> 02:08:03,000
You

1475
02:08:31,000 --> 02:08:33,000
You

1476
02:09:01,000 --> 02:09:03,000
You

1477
02:09:31,000 --> 02:09:33,000
You

1478
02:09:33,000 --> 02:09:35,000
You

1479
02:10:01,000 --> 02:10:03,000
You

1480
02:10:03,000 --> 02:10:05,000
You

1481
02:10:31,000 --> 02:10:33,000
You

1482
02:10:33,000 --> 02:10:35,000
You

1483
02:11:01,000 --> 02:11:03,000
You

1484
02:11:03,000 --> 02:11:05,000
You

1485
02:11:31,000 --> 02:11:33,000
You

1486
02:11:33,000 --> 02:11:35,000
You

1487
02:11:35,000 --> 02:11:37,000
You

1488
02:12:01,000 --> 02:12:03,000
You

1489
02:12:03,000 --> 02:12:05,000
You

1490
02:12:05,000 --> 02:12:07,000
You

1491
02:12:31,000 --> 02:12:33,000
You

1492
02:13:01,000 --> 02:13:03,000
You

1493
02:13:31,000 --> 02:13:33,000
You

1494
02:14:01,000 --> 02:14:03,000
You

1495
02:14:31,000 --> 02:14:33,000
You

1496
02:19:30,000 --> 02:19:32,000
My dear. My dear. My dear. My dear.

1497
02:20:30,000 --> 02:20:40,000
My dear. My dear.

1498
02:28:30,000 --> 02:28:42,480
Ca' dde'n bwythu, co'n ffys, i'n ffys, i'n ffys.

1499
02:28:42,480 --> 02:28:44,800
Ryfyneld yn 0.

1500
02:28:44,800 --> 02:28:51,040
Adi wedw'r ysigol i mwyn fwybly yn 11.

1501
02:28:51,040 --> 02:28:58,280
Eydw'r ysigol i'r gwwayo fy ysigol i'r i'r.

1502
02:28:58,280 --> 02:29:00,320
Mwyth, eu mwyth ebreu.

1503
02:29:00,320 --> 02:29:05,840
Dydw'r i'r mae'n yn fel i'r cyfrfysio.

1504
02:29:05,840 --> 02:29:07,200
I did.

1505
02:29:07,200 --> 02:29:09,760
Dydw'r amydw'r ysigol i'r amydw'r amydwr,

1506
02:29:09,760 --> 02:29:15,020
Ddefedd hyn o, ddefeddusa, yma hymnei, ddefeddusa.

1507
02:29:15,020 --> 02:29:16,680
Mae protem, ddefeddusa, ddefeddusa.

1508
02:29:16,680 --> 02:29:17,640
Mae bymnei, ddefeddusa.

1509
02:29:17,640 --> 02:29:21,780
Mae wedi'n erw'n fel i'n cursus mae'n erw'n i'n Flis o a'r I.

1510
02:29:21,780 --> 02:29:22,500
Ddefeddusa.

1511
02:29:22,500 --> 02:29:25,840
Ddefo'n rwy'n eem, ddefeddusa.

1512
02:29:25,840 --> 02:29:30,560
Ddefo'n yma yma protem, ddefo'n mefrica'n yma yma.

1513
02:29:30,560 --> 02:29:34,240
Ddefeddusa, ddefo'n rwy'n llwydd o'r i'n llwydd pysnol.

1514
02:29:34,240 --> 02:29:36,080
Ddefo'n ddefeddusa.

1515
02:29:36,080 --> 02:29:39,220
Ddefo'n rwy'n llwydd pysnol.