just waiting for michelle she is good evening and welcome to the june 15 2021 hybrid meeting of the greensboro city council it is so nice to be back in the building with um with our staff here and the partitions down and we look forward to opening up the meetings even more next month we will begin tonight's meeting with a moment of silence thank you mrs hoffman would you like to lead us in the pledge and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so i am going to take the prerogative of the chick and recognize we work on that feedback so as many of you know this evening will be the last night that our city manager david parish is here in the council chambers and we want to recognize the really fine job that he has done over these last couple of years three years as city managers and even more than that as a city employee so i have a resolution recognizing david parish for years of dedicated service in the city of greensboro whereas greensboro native david parrish began a career as a public servant in august 2000 as an employment specialty at the arc of greensboro and later served as the director of recreation at wellspring retirement community next look at me whereas david parish stepped into public administration in november of 2007 when he was appointed town manager in yanceville north carolina and expanded his horizon when he accepted a role of deputy city manager in danville virginia in august 2010. whereas david parish began his distinguished career with the city of greensboro in january 2013 as an assistant city whereas as a key member of the city executive team assistant city manager parish managed multiple departments comprised of approximately 1 000 employees served as ex-officio city manager as needed served as a staff liaison to the infrastructure city council committee staff a liaison to the east greensboro study committee and a staff liaison to various community agencies whereas after serving as the interim assistant city manager parish was unanimously promoted by the greensboro city council to the position of city manager in june 2018 whereas dealing at with the aftermath of devastating tornadoes that tore through east greensboro city manager parish meticulously coordinated restoration of power cleanup efforts and immediate housing needs whereas city manager parish move the city forward with innovative processes that enhanced resident services coined and supported an organizational theme of a people-centered data-informed and purpose-driven workforce and he encouraged diversity and inclusion with the beginning of employee resource groups whereas david parish has always had really good tastes in socks we just needed to stop for a minute with the crying whereas he guided the city through an unprecedented challenge of managing a global health crisis pandemic coveted 19 hybrid work solutions citywide protests prayer vigils and community walks and where is city manager he hired current assistant city manager kimberly soule trey davis and larry davis no ken but brothers and sisters in spirit greensboro police chief brian james greensboro fire chief jim robinson and greensboro city clerk angela lord whereas city manager perishes leadership and organizational support exemplifies each of the four core values of honesty integrity respect and stewardship and he has provided a lasting legacy to the city of greensboro now therefore be it resolved by the city of greensboro that one the city council wishes to commend city manager david parish for the manner in which he has performed his duties with the city of greensboro with special thanks for his professionalism dedication to service kindness to the members of the city of greensboro's community as he embarks on new endeavors and that a copy of this resolution shall be printed presented to city manager david parish as a symbol of gratitude for his many contributions to this organization second so it has been actually moved by i think just about everybody on city council with regret um so we will recognize it is moved by miss abuse waiter and seconded by mrs thurm all in favor anybody opposed of course not me [Music] so um david if you could meet me at the um at the podium you deserved it as you know this is a traditional gift that we give to people as they are leaving the organization and i can tell you truly is with regret that you are leaving but we know that you are on to bigger things and on behalf of the city council and all of your employees we want to give you this which i'm sure you know what it is and that it will be in a place of honor in your home and if you can i'd like you to um introduce your surprise guests that was the idea can you i was hoping to get through the concentration really quick so um this will choke me up i'm sure my lovely wife heather of 20 years um we were high school sweethearts i i wore her down and she finally married me she's still 29 so we met really early and then to her left and the far right carter and luke my twin boys and we have avery avery who really likes city council members she knows all of your names um beside my wife are my nephew and niece micah and addie parrish in the back row far right is my father bud my mother debbie between them is my soon-to-be 96 year old 97 excuse me i got the 20 years right uh 97 year old grandmother wow lived in uh glenwood since the 50s so long time greensboro native as far left as my brother josh and his uh wonderful my my sister-in-law shannon um so had no idea that they were coming and that y'all were doing this and i really truly am humbled and honored and appreciate the opportunity to have served the city of greece bro thank you and we would like to get a picture of you and your family sure okay if you could come up this way sorry steph this is taking longer understand where you are so we can make sure yes yes uh heather i'm sure you know that he that david won't be home for dinner tonight so um i i just want to have a couple of quick comments um i have truly enjoyed working with david for for many many years and the city has always been in a good place with him city of greensboro is better because of you and when we think about what's happened in the last three years of course this has nothing to do with you directly but the um the day after you assumed uh the role as city manager we had a tornado and in the last three years we have really been challenged by a lot of big issues the tornado the death of officer jared franks water resources employee sharia stringer and you have been able to really comfort people in the time that they needed it fire at the cones summit apartment buildings which you know resulted in the loss of five young children the death of marcus smith massive flooding throughout our cities due to all this above average rain of course the pandemic which has really consumed all of us for the last 14 months and the protests that we've had in civil rights issues and through all of those challenges you have been a steady influence and for that i want to say thank you we have great things to celebrate in the last three years but we've had so many challenges it kind of overshadows them at times that we forget about the great things that have gone on but i just want to say as a friend i want to thank you for being there um for those telephone calls for those difficult decisions and i really wish you and your family well i know that your decision came from the right place in putting your priorities in order and i'm really glad that you're not cheating on us with another municipality or we would take back all of this good will so i want to say thank you for your service and i know that you will continue to serve the citizens of greensboro in a different capacity but we're glad that you will be here within our city amen not a man for me first of all i just want to thank you for being the great person you are there was never a time that i called and asked you to do anything that you didn't get back with me that you didn't let me know what was going on and i appreciate that um i'm gonna miss you just enjoy your family and enjoy your life and don't forget we love you the second thing this is off the track you want me to come back to this let's come back to that okay uh mrs hoffman um yeah i think you you made them the right the right decision for the right reasons david you know sometimes um putting putting your personal life above your professional one is the the most important decision that you can make i think so um you know it's you've been a really outstanding city manager to work with over these past three and a half years and um you know i wish you well and in your new pursuit and um you know again i'm glad that you're going to continue to live in this community and that you know we'll see you we'll see you around miss kennedy i mean for me i remember the first conversation you and i ever had and it still is what i believe is true about you that when i think of you and your leadership of the city it's because you've always been someone that leads from a perspective of servant leadership and to me that's the best kind of leadership there is putting your staff first the employees of this city first the concerns of our residents first through some of the most trying years we could have possibly imagined or not even imagined um there's nobody that i respect more than you in the way that you've done this work um i'm proud to have been able to work alongside you for my first term on this council um and you know i still am trying to figure out why you would ever want to leave this crew but in all honesty i look forward to everything that you're walking into and what it means for you and your family at the end of the day that's what matters most and all our love and support as you move on to your next chapter dr wells well david you've done an outstanding job work with all of us i i had a a special saying that i always said to you is you're here for such a time as this but we know there's seasons and so you've given us the best of this season and i trust that when you move on you'll be blessed that you'll be blessed in everything that you do thank you so much for all you've done for us and the city of greensburg mr booze waiter thank you madam mayor yes david um we're all saying thank you and i just want to point out one of the things that i admired most about you was not only the way you cared about each and every employee every staff member every assistant city manager every council member but in all of our many occasions that we had to speak about council business or other business you know it i never heard you complain you were always so positive and we'll find a way to work through this whether it was all the trials and tribulations the tornadoes you know the hurricane flooding no matter what it was you you always still kept that positive attitude and i i know you thought about it 24 7. you didn't stop i i could see that in your mind your mind was rolling and i know it was rolling day and night so thank you so much for giving so much of yourself to us we truly appreciate it we're going to miss you but we want you to kind of hang around every once in a while get a hold of us see how we're doing and we'll call you and see how you're doing so thank you so much mr etling thank you manager parish you know over the course of your tenure like with regard to many of us in our personal lives had some really tough challenges thrown your way you obviously like all of us don't control those things but you control how you respond to them and it's been really remarkable to work with you and see that response you know as councilwoman abbas waiter and others said you know your professionalism and quite frankly your skill has been tremendous and there have been many situations whether it relates to development downtown or competing and fighting for more and better paying jobs where you found a way out of no way and that's to be commended and that's really special even beyond that to have that standard of excellence really raising the bar would really have colleagues around you who quite frankly like you so much notwithstanding the fact that you have to make a lot of tough decisions it really says a lot not only about your skill but about your character and the person that you are and so as others said you know you will be sorely missed i'm certainly included in that and look forward to hopefully working with you for many more years in a different capacity so thank you mr i don't know if i can do this um thank you for all that you've given me for all that you've given the city um it's been a more remarkable ride um you have been such an inspiration to all of us and to um your staff and and everybody here at the city and just thank you wish you the best and mrs hightower always at a loss for words always um so david if you remember a few years ago we met out there at the christmas tree lighting and um in the car you were in the car and carter was in the back seat and he said did you know god's in charge he asked me and he probably didn't remember because he was in a car seat but what that really says is that you are molding them in your beliefs and that is how you believe and so you have operated that way that god's in charge and that's important because as you're dealing with people you have to take it from that perspective so we dealt with the tornadoes you know but we dealt with the racial issues and i will say you stepped up and said hey there are things i don't know but the things i want to know and how people feel and so you show the person that you are and the man that you are um and so when i call you sometimes i know your ears can't take what i'm saying but you take it very well and i appreciate that and that's going to be missed because sometimes you're just a listener people don't realize it's not always what you say sometimes what you don't say that matters too so i just want to thank you for your leadership and how we've worked together well and how i believe my community is better because you have helped us to create some things that are going to make us great so thank you for your services thank you um and david you can just let us know which board and commission you want to be added to we need your expertise and your leadership so thank you very much i won't say much because i know we have a long agenda i just want to say thank you you all gave me the the opportunity all nine of you did and i truly appreciate it and i hope that i have done all that i ever asked of our staff and i know that our staff gave it to me and gave it to this organization is the best that i had it wasn't perfect there's room for improvement there always is but i gave you all i had and for such a time as this my time was great and i truly enjoyed it and as i've said to you individually i am a man of faith i believe it's my time to step aside and don't always have an explanation for that you know but i think that when you have that calling to come you come and when you have the calling to leave you leave and i think it's time for somebody else but i think you are in excellent hands you have 3 000 wonderful people that pick up the trash that treat the water that ride in the fire trucks that go out and inspect and do all the various things that i do not do and never did staff that you see on a daily basis riding in the trucks and the cars and walking on the streets picking up litter they're the ones that truly deserve the thanks and i want to look around in this room at least for the ones that are in here and say thank you to you for supporting me and for being there for me when i asked you to do something you always stepped up and just again thank you to council in this community for the trust that you've given me and for the opportunity to serve thank you thank you and um mrs johnson i think you wanted to give somebody else a shout out well this is a time of celebration and i just wanted to to mention or and to give kudos to north carolina aunties track teams um the young lady cambrie sturgis won the 100 and 200 and ran the fastest of anybody ever in the ncaa and i want to [Applause] want to give a shout out to randolph ross who won the 400 meter and to the fantastic relay team uh stoke stewart ross and sirleaf that won and understand two of these young men are gonna tr try out for the olympics so kudos to the track teams at north carolina nt state university and congratulations to dr goldie wells who got an honorary doctorate in inter denominational uh from internal internet in interdenominational theology seminary so she just recently got that so congratulations to her as well congratulations dr wells so yvonne i was going to recognize a t at the end but i'm glad you did at the beginning and i hope next month we can do a resolution with the track team i'll be great and have them here and have them here with us but um the absolutely shows how sometimes the least become the greatest and they treated a t like they didn't exist but she finished and showed them at what aggie pride looks like so congratulations to auntie thank you oh dr williams too with your long title congratulations on your long time thank so um a couple of housekeeping items in the interest of public safety city council has been conducting virtual meetings since march 2020 is really hard to believe that it has been that long i know that when we first scheduled our first meeting we thought it would be a couple of weeks or a couple of months and then lo and behold it's been well over a year city council will have a partial opening of the council chamber at the first meeting in july july 13th all meetings will be continued to be held with a virtual option due to capacity restrictions only a limited number of residents will be allowed inside the council chamber and will be rotated out for specific items of interest the public will be required to wear masks residents are encouraged to continue to participate virtually public forum and agenda items speakers must continue to register via the form on the city's website deadline for submissions is 5 pm the day prior to the meeting to comply with requirements by the state in regards to zoom meetings and to provide an optimum experience for the public council will verbalize motions and all votes will be conducted by roll call vote each member of council must vote unless there is a direct conflict we do allow and welcome speakers to address counsel at both the public forum and business meetings each speaker will be allotted three minutes comments that seem to be intended to incite unlawful behavior will be deemed out of order zoning matters do allow for a 15-minute presentation both for and against the rezoning there is also a five-minute rebuttal period for each side if applicable staff will make a presentation speakers will be called on in the order in which they registered and at that time the line their lines will be unmuted all speakers should identify themselves with their name for the record all participants must remain muted when others have been identified to speak the meeting host will mute anyone that speaks out of turn once an item has been completed the meeting host will remove the speakers for said item guests are encouraged to watch the remainder of the meeting via the greensboro television network or through the city's website council will make a motion and a second to close public hearings the floor will be open for council deliberation and discussions motions should be made verbally and voted on by roll call the mayor will announce the vote results written comments may be submitted on public hearing items up to 24 hours after the public hearing and will be provided to city council for consideration the platforms for submission of comments must be submitted online through the city's website www dot greensboro hyphen nc.gov we have a consent agenda for items 1-28 which are a grouping of agenda items that are voted on with one single vote to expedite what are believed to be routine and non-controversial items any council member may withdraw an item from the consent agenda due to a conflict of interest or for the purpose of voting no items removed from the consent agenda for discussions will be placed on the july city council business agenda this meeting does include closed captioning depending on the length of tonight's meeting we will take a short recess around 7 30. i do have um an applicant that wishes to withdraw item number 19 which is a resolution calling a public hearing for july 20th 2021 on the annexation of territory into the corporate limits for property located at 5144 zz 5119 5121 5164 and 5200 mcconnell road 1360 village road in 1801 and 1812 zz andrews farm road 386 acres terry golden elizabeth baldwin mickey stewart elizabeth stewart llc william k george rebecca cagg and guilford county can i have a motion to remove this so that is to withdraw these items mrs hightower uh yes okay um mrs thurm yes mr catlin yes this is a waiter yes yes mrs johnson dr wells ms kennedy and mrs hoffman okay somebody man we don't know why they just want they just withdrew it sorry i couldn't hear you they would just withdrew it yes they did do we don't know where okay and then um we have another voluntary with withdrawal by the applicant no further action will be required on item number 29 public hearing for ordinance for rezoning located at 102 and 104 east vandalia road matt rabb of winfield properties for the j harold freeman estate moved by mrs hightower seconded by dr wells mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes yes i'm es this is mr outland yes this is sir yes and mrs hightower yes okay um we have item number 39 which is a resolution to publish a notice of election for the november to 2021 elections this was postponed from the may 18th meeting we are currently waiting for the governor to sign the bill that was passed by the house and the senate last week we can go ahead and postpone this but there is another item that if the governor signs it as is written the fourth amendment allowed cities to [Music] to conduct split elections which would allow for the mayor and at large positions to be run in our regular november meeting and then the um districts would be run in march which would be the uh primary for state elections we could take that issue up now because we will have to make a decision one way or another if we want council to run all at the same time or to split elections the board of elections said that it would cost about 280 000 to run the the split elections all at once and we just do it one time so um we could take up item number 30 now on item number 39 now um which would at least settle whether or not we wanted to run a split election or one at the same time maybe i moved it we run one election for everybody second second at the appropriate time i'd like to speak on the topic go ahead i think irrespective of what our individual views on the topic are and they may be buried i think there's a benefit in terms of scheduling it for a future date and allowing the public to at least share with them their views share with us their views on the topic looking at how a similar issue has received public comment in raleigh i think it's really wise as a general principle and specifically especially thinking especially when you talk about unilaterally extending the terms for any current office holder and i think that's that's my my view irrespective of where you fall on the issue so my understanding is you know based on conversations with staff even if we decided to act one way or another with regard to this particular provision to allow there to be split elections there's plenty of time to have notice allow the public to share their thoughts and make a decision by this board um i i don't know if we can go back to people requesting to speak um oh yeah so um mrs thurm um as you all know that i've always been a proponent and felt like i was elected for four years and been a proponent of having this election in november especially based on the fact that we don't know whether or not we need to redistrict um that has been taken away or appears to be taken away from the state and is no longer a question for my race um however i do see value in letting the public have some input in this when i spoke to mr watts earlier he felt like there was time to have public input um if council so choose chose to do so um so i would be in favor of not making a decision on this now and allowing some public comments on this to come in before a final decision was made mr booswader thank you madam mayor my understanding was that this is uh something that's been brought forth after it was discussed that the elections would be moved to march because of the red the census not being finalized certified and that we might have to redistrict because uh one of our districts has had an influx of population there uh knowing that i think we have already heard from quite a few in the public who did request us to delay i know we've heard from quite a few groups organizations and many of them spoke at the council meeting in the last meeting therefore i believe the fact that if we pulled out mayor and at large then we are basically charging our taxpayers in the city two hundred eighty thousand dollars so we can have mayor and at large races in november you also have the issue that unfortunately municipality elections are not always very well attended so you're going to have a probably a much smaller group of people who will be voting i've never in the history of this city ever heard of the elections being separated where you wouldn't have the whole ballot of the municipality who are up to be elected on the same ballot i think we run a risk here of not only wasting taxpayer money by having two separate elections but you also have the issue that say someone loses in that november election they could turn around and file for a district seat because the filing would be in december for the election so i think we need to be very very careful here and not split the election i think we all either need to be elected or unelected on the same ballot so you know since it looks like it is being decided to move the elections i think many of us would like to go ahead and have it in november but i certainly do not want to split the elections i think that's unfair to our taxpayers charging them 280 000 to split the election and i think it's unfair to them as a whole because they will not see their whole ballot so those are my opinions madam mayor thank you miss kennedy um i would agree with a lot of what uh councilwoman buzzwader just said you know the the cost to run two elections the the fact also when you talk about disenfranchising voters for many of our voters it's difficult enough to get out on election day for one election to put it on them to need to come out twice for two separate elections to divide council elections for the first time ever the confusion that goes along with that but i'll be honest i mean kind of like councilwoman uh therm was saying you know she signed up to serve a term and i agree with that we all signed up to serve our terms this is not something that is is us just deciding we want to stay in office longer but simultaneously for me when you announce to run for an office you're making a commitment to run for that office i can tell you that if you split the at-large races in the district races any at-large person running at large or for mayor which for this council represents five people currently who have announced running in an at-large race three at-large members and two people running for mayor whoever wins and loses those races could determine that then they want to run for a district seat and we all know that incumbents have a disproportional advantage in most elections over people that are running from the community at large so you could put it in a position that someone that wanted to challenge for a district race is now not only faced with the incumbent in that district but another incumbent from the city council and i just don't think that's what our voters signed up for so for me this is an issue of anticipating that we're putting on voters that need to turn out twice for what should be one election and then frankly the ability depending on the november election results skewing a district race with a bunch of at-large members or mayoral candidates who may not have won the seat they wanted to win suddenly diving into district seats it's just that's just not i think what our city deserves they deserve better than that it's one race it's one election mrs hightower well um pretty much everybody said everything and i think the argument's been made but i will say that having two sets of elections is going to disenfranchise voters okay so that to me is is when we talk about one person one vote i mean is important for us as we discuss how elections are ran and held um and so i i'm not um for splitting them up it's gonna create confusion with our citizens um who said oh my goodness i didn't know there was an election i didn't know i was supposed to go but who did i vote for when i i thought i already did that so um i think we need to be as transparent as possible um to make sure that we do this no do i want to be here longer than i'm voted for no but this is a situation i did not create for myself it has been created and we have to sometimes deal with the hand we are dealt um and i but i think we heard from the public and from other organizations the last time who said they would like to see us wait and delay until the census numbers came in so that it is accurate and so that people reside in the area where they vote for the person that they best decide they want to represent them and i think that's fair um this other way confusion mayor here mayor there and i mean even if a district person you know i mean it just doesn't it seems to create some kind of inequitable system so for me i'm ready for just one let's and we've got to consider those bonds too where do we put those bonds on which election because that's an important part of this as well good point so at this point there isn't the provision in the bill to um to have people only run for one seat since they're if we were to have two elections that election would be decided in november and then um filing for the next election is in december so um you know people could run twice theoretically that could happen the issue that was brought up in the city of raleigh raleigh is doing something completely different they asked to extend their terms by one year so they could go from an odd year election to an even year election so their ask was a much bigger ask and that was one of the amendments that was added to the bill so i don't know that that's actually reflects the conversation that we're having here in greensboro as others have said before we are not just extending our terms this was really driven by the delay in the census information which was driven by the pandemic and i think we are trying to react to this in the quickest way possible and i will say the people that i've spoken to have really talked about voter disenfranchisement and confusion you know why am i going to vote when i just voted what seats were up and so i think we have to be cognizant of the electorate and because of the historical low voter turnout when it comes to city council elections you know this will be an opportunity actually to um to be on a ballot in a bigger election to see what that turnout is mr watts i see you keep signaling you want to say something well my only concern is uh just to have you have the information um the bill itself has not been signed by the governor yet right so i'm a little uncomfortable with a decision happening before there's an option to make that decision be there as it may you know you guys do whatever you want um you may have to come back and vote it again um the other point is that um just in terms of how long you have uh the statute actually as a as the amended statute has been sent to the governor for his signature tomorrow uh allows a decision to be made as long as you could provide notice to the board of elections five days before the opening of the um filing period so roughly the uh 21st to 22nd of uh july so you it's obviously your choice i just want you to hear the information madam mayor can the the issue with i understand what you're saying like that that's legally what we're able to do but to make that notice five days before the filing period opens is extremely unfair to anybody who may be about to announce for i'm not saying you're suggesting that i'm saying if we decided to do that that would be extremely unfair for someone who is attempting to run for office for example for the first time um you know you're it's it's a little bit of us having it's a little bit of us putting our thumb on the scales and that feels really unethical to me yeah i i would agree um mr outling did you want to say yeah um you know my comments previously were on the limited question of do we act tonight without there being any opportunity for public input you know obviously consistent with that i desire for there to be an opportunity for public input on this topic especially given the fact as the city attorney pointed out we don't even have a law yet there's no there there so in terms of the actual option it doesn't exist yet therefore obviously no one in the public has commented on the actual law in our exercise of any ability to extend uh elections in that connection i will say however you know to remarks about kind of fairness and putting your thumbs on the scale for me this topic is fundamentally elected officials should not be using the mechanisms of government to affect their terms as well as their uh forthcoming elections we were all elected to four-year terms i view that consistent with what other council members have said in the past as being like a social contract and so while certainly issues have been raised as a result of census delays districts in theory could be out of balance um that has never applied with regard to city-wide races for which regardless of population shifts in no way theoretically or in reality can affect a city-wide race as a result what you would be having by the city council choosing not to have the races that clearly can and traditionally occur in the fall what you're choosing is to have a delay you're choosing to for those particular seats to have longer terms than was agreed to and really asked of us by the voters and so i really do feel like it is in fact choosing the terms and really looking at considerations other than the merits for an election i mean i think you know out all those other things those are really metrics that go to electability for people in seats whether or not people additional people will run under different scenarios that goes to electability in terms of the seats um it doesn't go to what were you elected to do and quite frankly whether or not we even give people an opportunity to express their opinions or views on it with regard to disenfranchisement i want to be clear that at least my views this in no way constitutes disenfranchisement everyone can vote in every single race there's absolutely no impediment to people voting as expressly provided in the law because i think it's a recognition that this would be fundamentally moving elections um i think it's important at a minimum again that that we provide an opportunity for people to be hurt and i think obviously several of us may disagree on the topic but i really just can't get around not taking the time that's available to us to at least give people an opportunity to speak um and i i'm bad about belaboring the point you know the public has not commented on something that has not happened yet [Music] mrs thurm then miss kennedy then mrs hoffman and we do have a really long agenda um i just want to clarify what i said earlier i am not in favor necessarily of separating the election i am however in favor of letting people comment and give us their feedback we've heard from two large organizations that knew that this was an issue and some other people however there are thousands of people out there that didn't even realize this was an issue and they may or may not agree with the two organizations that we've heard from and that's why i feel like it is worthwhile to hear and give the public an opportunity to be quite honest if i had to vote tonight i would vote to have one election however i do think it's worth allowing the public to speak and have their voice heard ms kennedy and i just wanted to respond to one statement that was made to say that there are impediments to voting is laughable at best and completely false across the board and i'll give the example from my day-to-day work there are 200 registered voters that receive their mail at the interactive resource center two separate voting days creates a significant impediment for voting for those folks if you think that that transportation just falls from the sky it does it time off work for people that are working low wage jobs doesn't just magically happen that's my primary concern is the disenfranchisement of voters who will be confused and who will have difficulty getting to the polls for more than one election thank you mrs huffin i just see um that making a decision tonight is not necessary i mean i we we have a bill that's that's been passed but the governor hasn't signed it yet so we we have time i i think we just need to wait and uh uh see whether or not that bill is signed and then we'll react to it uh appropriately at that time i just see no reason to jump the gun and make a decision tonight so we do have a motion and a second on the floor i can't remember who made the motion i made the motion because i i don't want to charge people on our citizens all of a bunch of money and people have struggled through this pandemic and things are getting better but we don't need to put any additional burden that we don't have to put on and you're referring to the 280 000 for the second election and i really think one election the way we've always done it is the way we should do it so we do have a motion and a second one um no what we it wasn't a motion to postpone it was would you like to i made the motion we have one election way before the postponement came up so that would be pending the governor's signature yeah um absolutely so um mrs hoffman uh yes miss kennedy one election that's the question that was the yes sorry if our screen still says postponed i'm just trying to make sure we're wrong yes one election dr wells yes yes i'm a yes mrs abusa waiter yes mr outline no not without the public even have an opportunity to comment mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes madam mayor let me ask you isn't there still time to hear from the public even so we'll move forward so is this we still have time i mean so we could still do this and still have that opportunity can we not well we can certainly have a public hearing on the item that the city council passed i mean you can certainly do that because this doesn't on the next agenda yeah so this time that conflicts with hearing from the public i mean the public did not decide that we have one election that's been going on forever now they may have way back in the dark ages but this has been going on for a long time so i don't see that as as an issue the public needs to necessarily uh they can comment on it they can say they want it postponed because of whatever reason they can say they want it to be on time but we should hear from the public sure we should not have two elections right so this doesn't seal the coffin this just allows us to do this okay thank you for answering my question matt mayor can i ask the city attorney what i'm unclear myself in terms of what this vote means in terms of what if anything happens next does it count does the city council have to like after the bill may be passed does it have to ratify it i mean i just would love guidance in terms of what's what's next for us on this topic yeah i didn't anticipate that this was going to move this quickly um and so i haven't done the research uh i'd like to research the question at least presents a question i'm not sure that it's a problem if it if it turns out to be a legal problem i would recommend that we would have a separate vote sometime in the future um which could so but what the last step is for the governor to sign it yes it is it passed the house it went to the senate it went back to the house for reconciliation and now it's up to the governor to sign it and i really don't i mean i don't i think it's essentially a foregone conclusion but that doesn't make it law and so i need to just clarify the body has expressed itself about a preference and i think that's clear so we're going to have one election providing the governor signs for voting yes what i heard the city attorney just say is i don't have any reason currently to believe we have an issue with what we just passed if it presents an issue i will come back to you and let you know that's exactly exactly what you said thank you thank you okay um does council want to remove any items from the consent agenda yes um let me let me get my pencil um mrs hightower so yes items eight and eleven i'm sorry eight and eleven and eleven okay can i have a motion on the consent agenda minus eight and eleven moved by mrs hoffman second seconded by ms kennedy miss hoffman ms kennedy dr wells yes mayor pro tem yes yes this is abusive yes mr outling yes ms thurm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number eight is a resolution for the acceptance and approval of the donation and construction of safety town at barber park i know that um what we really wanted to do was have a brief presentation on this because it is a um quite frankly it's something that i don't think should have been on the consent agenda um so the people can see um what it is and so let us vote on 11 first which is a resolution approving bid in the amount of six hundred twenty four thousand eight hundred and fifty nine dollars and ninety cents and authorizing execution of contract twenty twenty zero forty five with atlantic contracting company for concrete sidewalk and curb rant repairs what was your objection miss how town i mean what may i ask which one for 11 411 yes because i don't know why goals are combined and i don't know what the purpose of that means generally the goals are in buckets so you've got mb e goals and you've got w b e and this says it's combined and i don't know what that meant so um we postpone it and get some clarity on it i'm trying to again i'm going to speak to clear understanding i was trying to get a clear understanding of that um and how was that done plus it's a wbe and um i wanted to know too well again the question goes back to the bucket so there's no buckets for the mbe and so the one on here is a w so is this a time sensitive item can we put it on our next agenda we we can put it on the next agenda okay if we could go ahead and do that um i i had asked for nausea to do a brief presentation on safety town because it is a unique partnership between the police foundation and cory corporation and i think they should be recognized so nasha could you do a quick yes ma'am uh good evening mayor members of council on behalf of greensboro parks and recreation department my name is nasha mcrae i'm the director of the department and presenting a request this evening for acceptance of the donation and installation of a second safety town site at barbara park um the city's for the for historical context and i'll start there the city's first and only safety town is currently located at lewis community recreation center and it has operated there for over 35 years it's a community services summer program for children ages five to six and promote safety lessons around topics such as traffic safety pedestrian safety bicycles strangers fire water safety guns etc and so forth in 2015 a safety town site was included as a part of barbara park's updated master plan um which we did a extensive community engagement process as a part of that planning process we got some feedback and support from the community the plan itself was also adopted by the parks and recreation commission and city council at that time however due to funding constraints that portion of the second phase of barbara park was removed from the project and so fast for it now we have some generous donations from multiple partners and donors foundations in our community including the foreign corporation for a turnkey construction donation for a second site that has been offered to the city and it will allow the city with the support of the different community partners and volunteers to equitably offer this transformative program at barbara park allowing us to make safety town programs accessible to children in our community and it also allows us to invest and impart life learning and safety skills in our youth at an early age in a facility in an environment that they already enjoy and that they're familiar with and that they love and so this second location demonstrates uh through parks and recreation our vision of enhance expanding connect and it represents continued partnerships and collaborations uh to support the city's commitment to leveraging and prioritizing investment in our residents and in our communities where they live and so this request was presented to parks and recreation commission at its june meeting and was unanimously recommended to city council for approval by the commission and so if approved this evening by council we are uh poised to go back and engage with the community to ensure that the programming and the operation at the second site suits the needs of the participants since it is in a second location um in east greensboro so i'm happy to answer any questions that you may have and appreciate your support for the department and for this project move to approve second solo aren't you signed up to speak damn it were you signed up to speak i don't have any speakers so item we didn't vote on um delaying item number eight so can we just take a quick vote on item number eight and then we'll vote on we would and 11 is what's up on the screen so this is to can we vote quickly to delay okay do i have a motion by mrs therms second of my mrs hightower mrs hoffman ms kennedy dr wells yes mayor protest yes yes yes later mr outling miss thurm yes and miss hightower yes right so that passes nine to zero now we are on to um item number eight which is safety town all right so um we we've had conversation um miss mcrae and i um and this site is going to be unique and so while i know there are those who have some concerns around uh safety town and the partnership with the police department i think this is more um a parks and rec driven project because it will also identify needs in the community it will probably be held at different times it may even provide lunch even provide transportation and of course it starts with our younger people so it is an equitable opportunity to have something that has been on one side of town and not on the other side of town and so we're trying to have more equity in the way that we treat our communities so safety town is a good thing we don't want our children getting hit by vehicles uh learning of the importance of walking on a sidewalk um and that may sound really simple but today even i had a conversation with the gentleman why do you walk in the street when there's a sidewalk and so there are certain things that safety town will do i think that will contribute to the overall general health of the community but certainly we will engage with the community we want if we want to hear their concerns if they have any and then we want them to support all our efforts so thanks nasha for leading this effort and um i think it'll be well worthwhile thank you we have a motion for miss abuse later second second from ms kennedy all right um mrs hoffman miss kennedy dr wells yes mrs johnson absolutely amy yes mrs abuse waiter yes mr outling mrs cern yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero so we are now moving on to the public hearing portion of our agenda um item number 29 has been um withdrawn item number 30 is a public hearing for an ordinance annexing territory into the corporate limits for property located at a portion of 800 roberson comer road 7.58 acres lakeshore residence llc and item number 31 a public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning of 816 robertson comer road mark isaacson for lakeshore residence llc we have three speakers in favor and for in opposition if we could have a mr galanti a brief presentation rodney is it possible to allow us to share our screen from presentation please right now well that is being set up i do want to say that we are also now on youtube live we've got a youtube live link um the gtn live stream well that is being fixed i wanted to say that we are now on a youtube live channel as well as gtn channel 13 north state channel 31 gtn is also available on at t u-verse and uh channel 99 and also roku so we've got numerous platforms um for people to view um these items mr galante did i use up enough time right yes okay perfect thank you and good afternoon mayor and city council the item before you tonight actually is three-fold and it contains an annexation a rezoning and an original zoning request since a portion of this property is already in the city limits the total site contains 11.9 acres and is currently zoned city r3 county ag and the proposed zoning is to city conditional district rm5 the area to the north of the site is owned both r3 and county ag the area to the east of the site is owned city plan unit development the area to the south of the site is zoned our city r3 and county ag and the area to the west of the site is zoned r3 the existing development on the site the current site is currently undeveloped the site to the north contains single-family dwellings and undeveloped property the area to the east contains lake jeanette area to the south contains a boat and rv storage yard and undeveloped property and the property to the east excuse me the west is contained single-family dwellings this property is located within the residential designation on our future land use map and it is in the urban general designation in our future built form map the applicant has proposed one zoning condition you can see it on the screen before you and it is related to building materials the staff has recommended approval of this rezoning request and original zoning request since it is is designated as urban general on the future built format and residential on the future land use map it's also recommended approval because the proposed rezoning supports both the comprehensive plans creating great places goal to expand greensboro's citywide network of unique neighborhoods offering residents of all walks of life a variety of quality housing choices and the building community connections goal to maintain stable attractive and healthy places to live and raise families in addition to that the proposed cdrm cdrm-5 zoning district would allow low-density residential uses that are compatible with various residential land uses nearby the zoning commission heard this case at their may meeting and recommended approval on a vote of 8-0 any questions for mr gallanty or can we move on to our speakers yep okay so we do have um three speakers in favor uh mark isaacson i'm sorry shahzad akbar ed collins um mr isaacson would you like to kick us off yes yes ma'am thank you madam mayor can you all hear me well yes okay just want to make sure thank you uh good evening madam mayor members of council mark isaacson 804 green valley road in greensboro pleased to be with you this evening to present this project in the lake janet area of our city i am here on behalf of lakeshore residents llc a local developer that is committed to construction of high quality residential communities in and around greensboro our materials i think will show you that the main point here is that this proposed townhome community is very compatible with the existing uses in the area and also is well supported by the city's comprehensive plan so why don't we just get right into it the first slide that we have is the illustrative site plan and a few points i'd like to make for council's consideration you'll see here that roberson comer which is now a kind of an older two-lane ribbon pavement road that ends into this property and would be uh extent could be created as a cul-de-sac that would allow access to this property this would be a high-quality townhome community and it the building material condition that mr galante read into the record for you would require that we have no less than 50 of high quality building materials and we'll have enough illustrative elevation rendering next but a few points here this is adjoining the lake and so you'll see a large detention pond that's required under the ordinance the development ordinance to capture a water runoff you'll also see a tree save area in the southeastern corner of the property and those are all required by the ordinance but in addition they're practically good ideas to protect the natural environmental parts of this of this area of the city especially the lake these would be attached single-family homes and the density while we've asked for rm5 the density really comes out to about four units per acre this is almost 12 acres of land and mr collins our engineers on the line with us and can answer any engineering questions about the project but there are proposed 47 townhomes single family attached times and that comes out to just under four units per acre and i think that's important because it's very compatible with the density levels in this area in fact there is some rm8 in the immediate area along roberson coma road so there's a mix of uses and as you all may know lake jeannette is just comprised of a mix of various residential densities and types and that's what makes uh this area pretty special for our city in terms of selection of different types of housing in the lakes in that area so that's the illustrative site plan and now to move things along i'll ask steve or whoever's running the show here to move to slide number two that's an illustrative elevation rendering of what these townhomes will look like as i mentioned they'll have high quality building materials and although it's not in the conditions the you know this will be very compatible with other existing residential communities that will have an attached two-car garage and uh i think that this will be a good fit the engineer has designed this very well to be compatible with the nearby properties so that's an illustrative elevation rendering lastly we sent out a letter we did a lot of neighborhood outreach we've had a number of projects in the lake jeanette area and are familiar with the fact that there's a an association for lake jeannette and there are a number of people who would naturally be interested in and what kind of project is being proposed here so we sent out a letter in april we had a zoom neighborhood meeting approximately 10 folks showed up and on the in the meeting i think the main concerns that were voiced there were there are some i think four or five watts to the north of this property between this property and the apartments that face onto north elm street those lots are in in guilford county they are not in the city and the folks who mentioned this on the call said that those locks are landlocked that they have no access direct access to a public right-of-way and they ask that i think their main concern was you may hear about this this evening the main concern was how can we get this resolved how can either this developer resolve it or the city of greensboro resolve it and so to that point uh i checked with uh folks at g dot and i checked with folks at the city attorney's office and we've uh responded to that concern by saying based on recommendations from those those two professionals that it would not be feasible for us that is our client to grant access to these county lots through private streets in a town home community for a number of reasons and uh mr collins i'd be glad to go through those if uh the council would would like but at this point um i believe it you know suffice to say that it we would not be willing to grant access through private streets for public purposes and i would offer to counsel that there's another way for these folks to resolve their issues if they so choose it would take a little maneuvering but i believe they could figure out a way to get access for their lots in the county to robertson comer or or public right-of-way so uh in conclusion um i would submit to council that the applicants propose development as a natural fit in this particular location use as a townhome development is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan as well as nearby multi-family uses to the north and the west the city has identified this property as a fitting location for this type of development and growth by designating the portion outside the city limits as growth tier one the applicant's commitment to quality construction through its proposed building materials condition and widening of roberson coma road will provide benefits to neighboring property owners that would not be present absent this resounding and annexation request and i might add that per the request of gdot our client has agreed to pay for the upgrade and widening of roberson coma road from where it currently ends as a up to speed or up to grade city street all the way to this cul-de-sac so contrast that with if this property were developed as approximately 12 acres were developed on say a spot basis as single-family residences that upgrade would not be paid for privately it would be paid for eventually by the city so i believe it's a win-win for all involved and that there's a slight increase in density that's requested based on the configuration of the property and the layout and the ability to provide housing in an area that uh it's in high demand mr collins is here to answer any questions about the engineering and i'll be happy to answer any questions council may have and we thank you for your consideration thank you mr isaacson we will i believe at this point then if there are no questions to move on to those in opposition i believe we have four people signed up joseph sherman casey sherman deborah ross and caress motley i don't know if you have an order you'd like to speak we could start with joseph sherman good evening can you hear me a little bit could you sorry about that we have a bad laptop here i live on presbury drive my main concern about the could you enact your camera oh i'm sorry hold on a second here got me thank you all right thank you very much everybody um with all due respect everybody i appreciate the efforts that somebody's trying to put forward in this project that you're trying to uh put down around the corner from my house i've lived here on pressbury drive for about a year and a half a major investment in my life purchasing a house property value is going crazy it's an investment for my future and my family's future uh every three to four weeks i'm just going to start off with the big bang here and basically what we run into every three to four weeks is random gun fire coming from the apartments that are out towards elm the apartments the town houses that face uh lake jeanette um i not saying that there will be nothing but bad element there i know people have to make an investment in a property uh my thought process would be better off if if there's going to be any type of housing project going in that land and whoever owns it has every right to do what they would like to do to it but if it's going to damage the value of my home i think freestanding individual homes unattached that somebody can make an investment in would be better off for our community in our neighborhood we have had a rash of break-ins in cars in this neighborhood my personal opinion is stemming from those apartments and townhouses that i before mentioned i think it's a bad idea to start building buildings of people you're going to house an element and the values are going to go down i think it's a bad idea it's not going to do anything to help my investment you're going to drive up traffic you're going to drive up up the taxes uh mr isaacson mentioned himself that this part of the tab that the city is going to pick up and guess what i'm paying the city's tab so is everybody else every taxpayer in this city pays the taxes i don't want my taxes going up for a a project a real estate project that's going to drive my values down single houses unattached i'm all for it building these attached town houses and condos that support a bad element anybody can tell me right out of the gate that all management's not going to let that happen we're going to not allow that we'll have requirements well when the new management company comes in after the first management company leaves then their standards drop i just think it's a bad idea i just wanted to point out on a week three to four week any given night of the week there is some mook that goes out and fires rounds out of his gun into the air they got a land somewhere and we shouldn't have that elements anywhere period we have a crime issue and you're just going to bring in war crime so mr mr sherman you know this is uh we certainly understand your concerns do you have any other land use concerns well i am on a dead end street and the way the land plot of the land is laid out it looks like where i have bought my house where i like my house at is on a dead-end street looks like from this plan and plans do change that it looks like that the end of my street's going to open up to this neighborhood which doesn't belong here does not belong here period you um is i guess could it possibly be um so i see we have casey are you joseph or casey i'm joseph my wife is right here with me does casey want to speak no she's uh she's definitely uh camera shy she doesn't i understand um how about deborah ross and there is 10 minutes and 54 seconds remaining yes i do want to speak could you put your camera on please okay yes and then after um ms ross will be caress motley um my concern is um like mark atkinson um stated that his client did not want to participate in letting us get to our property it's kind of um awkward but um i don't think i want to build idea on my on my land i want to build me a home and i discussed this before at the last meeting i want to build on the land that my great great grandparents had left me also his client is part of that family and why he wants to oppose and not let me get into my own property is unbeknownst to me we have it's enough property it's enough houses enough apartments out there already he doesn't need any more this is country i mean this is a nice nice area so i don't think we need to uh no more houses need to be built out there no more condos need to be built there's plenty of condos around here in town this is a profit this is a business for profit it's not about concern of people otherwise he will let me in my property give me a right away to get into my property and he will also uh not build out there on our on this land with a lot of more condos he don't need them the ones he left the last um development that he builds out there um it absolutely looks like uh it's about to go down it looks pretty trashy so no it's not he doesn't live here he lives in california so he's not around this place we don't need any more houses if he's going to do that if you want to be a good a good citizen a good person he needs to give access to our land and don't thank you um our next speaker is caress motley yes thank you council members um i'm unable to cut my camera on i'm not actually on my phone uh okay and so my camera on my phone is actually broken so i do apologize for that but i am one of those landowners that mr oxen spoke about that is landlocked currently um where they're saying we cannot access the property through that private street um my concern is the fact that we are and it's not just me it's multiple owners of the land um in the middle that become even more landlocked we were landlocked previously but this just make it happen even more now i don't oppose the actual development i oppose the execution of it because it does make things even more difficult for those who are currently landlocked so i'm not going to take a lot of time i really just want to bring it to the council members attention that there are other concerns with outside of the development for those who own land out there and just want to make sure that the council members are aware that approving this does make it difficult for others to access their own property um if we wanted to annex into the city those sort of things there's really no um benefit for us to do that if the land is locked and nobody's giving us access so this development is quite extensive and that sort of prevents others from doing things that they would like to do with their land as well but i don't oppose what they're trying to do just the execution so i just wanted to bring that to your attention please be aware that there are other people that can be harmed by the building of this thank you thank you um we now go to our five minute rebuttal mr isaacson i uh let's see i'm trying to start the video okay um hope i'm hope i'm coming through um a few points in rebuttal i would as to this access issue and the uh these lots are have been landlocked in guilford county they were they were i guess created that way we're not sure um how this came about but i would just suggest to counsel that you may want to refer to your own attorney your own legal counsel to get some guidance on this i certainly did we didn't come by this accidentally or haphazardly we've done this very thoughtfully we've worked with city staff planning and and g dot and otherwise to get to this point um what whether this is developed as a attached town homes or single family detached which would be a handful of homes less than what we're requesting but not as efficiently laid out would make no difference to these folks who own lots in the county located to the north i would submit that there is another way for them to approach their right-of-way access issue i do want to clear up something as ross said that our client lives in california he lives here he's a local builder and developer he has no background from california whatsoever i think she may be mixing him up with mr napper who owns several watts um in this area and was on a previous call with the zoning commission and at our neighborhood meeting in any event we it's not really our choice about granting access you know mr motley's lot adjoins the access the only access point that that goes to the northern edge he would then if this played out the way that he and others are suggesting he would have to give an excess easement across his lot to four or five other property owners in order for them to get access through this property so you can see that there would be a domino of problems and issues that your legal staff and your transportation staff have identified to us us and and therefore uh we have respectfully declined to grant and access easement through a private townhome community i think there should be some pretty clear reasons that the council may understand for that decision that really shouldn't affect i believe the council's decision about what what i would submit is a very reasonable and practical request for annexation and zoning uh on this on this property i think it's an excellent fit uh and uh is supported by our comprehensive plan in a number of ways that are all outlined in the staff report and we believe we've submitted a project that the city will be proud of for many years and will add to the housing inventory that's much needed in the city thank you thank you are there any questions for mr isaacson no and then we will go on to the opponents um in rebuttal do any of the opponents wish to speak yes i do have a rebuttal mr motley go ahead um mr oxen is exactly right if they were to give me access then i would definitely have to give someone access but that's the whole point of having a cohesive community that we all work together to make sure that everything functions for the benefit as a whole the idea that one person has the ability to give others access and denies multiple people that ability makes that community more difficult to live in that's my only rebuttal thank you thank you sir any questions for any of the opponents i i have a mention go ahead mr sherman yes i apologize for interrupting them this is my first time doing this so i do apologize uh mr isaacson as far as uh our concerns mr motley and miss ross great points that they made miss ross obviously has done a lot more research than i have as far as everything it's just my concern about the safety and the value it's an investment as far as any decision here today based on what i heard from mr isaacson he just advised one of the opposers to uh obtain an attorney so therefore there cannot be a decision made today on the project it's a squash if you advise somebody to get an attorney it all stops let miss ross seek the attorney that he recommended that she get and then we'll revisit it at another meeting you cannot make a decision today in good faith when she's just been advised from the other side to obtain representation it's as simple as that and it gives somebody an opportunity to bring a better defense then that means there's no decision being made here today and that's really all i got to say about it thank you any questions for the opposition i agree okay so we are going to close the public hearing we have a motion from ms kennedy seconded by dr wells mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i y'all say yes but i thought miss ross was trying to say something when we did this i think she said i agree oh okay yes no can you hear me yes okay i do not agree with them to going on with the development but i cannot get my computer to act right as well i'm sorry can you hear me though i think we should not i think we should wait for a vote so i can seek legal counsel can you hear me yes okay i suck in casey mayor i'll be glad to respond to that we no that's okay i'm sorry we okay you suggested this some time ago yes um so the public hearing is closed mrs abuse waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes second so um this moved by dr wells sec i'm sorry moved by mrs hoffman seconded by ms kennedy that was for um item number 30. mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells mrs johnson i'm e yes this is abusive waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower come on now and that passes eight to one now i need a motion for item number 31 which would require the um statement of consistency moved by mrs hoffman seconded by ms kennedy mrs so if you would read the statement please greensboro city council believes that it's action to recommend approval of the original zoning and reasoning request for the properties described as 800 and 816 roberson coma road from county ag agricultural and city r3 residential single family to city cdrm five conditional district residential multifamily five to be consistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan considers the action taken to be reasonable in the public interest for the following reasons the request is consistent with the comprehensive plans future built build form map and future land use map the proposed cd rm5 zoning district would allow low intensity residential uses that are compatible with the various residential uses located nearby request is reasonable due to the size physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will benefit the property owner and surrounding community and approval is in the public interest thank you um and that was seconded by ms kennedy mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes ms thurm yes mrs hightower no and that passes eight to one um we will now move on to item number 32 which is a public hearing for ordinance for rezoning located at 1419 manuel street carruthers and ross pa for donald linder of linder ventures llc um go ahead yes this rezoning request contains 0.42 acres and is located on manual street the surrounding property is zoned r3 and this site is owned r3 the proposal is to rezone the property to conditional district r5 the adjacent property in this case is contain single-family houses as does the existing site the site is designated as residential on the future land use map and it is designated as urban general on the future built format the applicant has submitted a condition related to residential uses so this is a conditional zoning district the staff has recommended approval the uh because the greensboro 2040 comprehensive plan designates the site as urban general and the future built format and residential on the future land use map the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan because the proposed development is compatible with the scale and the design of the adjacent road and the scale and intensity of the existing adjacent uses the proposed conditional district r5 as condition permits similar uses to the existing r3 zoning but allows greater flexibility on individual lot configuration and a small increase in residential density this item was heard by the zoning commission at their may meeting and the zoning commission recommended denial on a vote of eight to zero the item was appealed by the applicant and that therefore is why it is before you this afternoon thank you any questions for mr valanti okay we do have a couple of speakers in favor of this um sunny vestal um and thomas dodson i believe i have one quick question oh i'm sorry go ahead that's okay that's it i think i've read where the zoning commission turned this down yes the zoning commission at their main meeting recommended denial on a vote of eight to zero and the applicant has appealed mr restaurant thank you i don't believe mr vessel's on but um thomas dots and i'm on i i work with both sunny vestal and is this um mr dotson yes okay you have um can you turn your camera on yes thank you um you have 15 minutes okay i just i appealed it um i work with both the owner and the builder um in our last meeting um it got turned down saying um basically we hadn't talked to the neighbors but this is our second go-around on this um the signs were up and really we're just appealing it today because in the last meeting we didn't get to to why it got turned down it it meets all the restrictions of r3 except for there's a curve in the road that doesn't provide the road frontage and that's the only reason the house will not fit but under the r5 there's more than enough room so that's really all i got today i just wanted to know what other reasoning then we didn't talk to the neighbors even though we showed where we talked to just about everybody i'm sorry so you know i know that you had appeared before the for the zoning uh commission and that they had a pretty robust discussion um is there anybody else to speak in favor of this application with you this evening um no not at this time okay um we can take those um in opposition if you've got nothing um else to say i believe we have um sandra reed mark reid joanne doggett and joella smith you have a total of 15 minutes um we did meet with the zoning committee and you had that uh result of that uh nothing has changed since may um we're still in the same place we still there's there's still a piece of property that um will will not that we think will not hold those the amount of houses that he wants to build uh the gentleman mentioned that they had talked to neighbors during that zoning committee they had talked to three people they still have not talked to everyone in the neighborhood that was may 3rd they had opportunity to come back out and no one has come out so our position remains the same as it did in may i think that's all i'd like to say thank you thank you anyone else in opposition who would like to speak miss doggett yes i would like to speak yeah it's still like uh sandra just said it's still the same i am still against building all those houses that they want to build i think it's two more houses or whatever i have not seen four acres of property down in that area so it's going to be impossible in my thinking that you can build that many houses in that little spot and uh to me it would be a hardship on getting in and out of that spot where they want to sit the house or houses or whatever so i i would just like to know where they gonna sit it and i will always speak against building any more houses on their property thank you is there anyone else who would like to speak in opposition yes this is joe ellis uh doggett smith and um as my cousins and my mom said he has not talked to all the neighbors and the neighbors that he did talk to are not homeowners we are lifers in this community um i used to park my bus in that corner and it would still stick out even if i was in the field this is you know i think it would change the demographics of our neighborhood uh the first house he built uh the gel approved is close to our is very close to our line uh it's a very small house and i understand why he built it so small but the curve does not give him the footage and what he wants to do will change the demographics of this community thank you what is your cookie if you want to see something what's going on next do we have another speaker in opposition hello hello yes is this um this really natalie this is natalie reed okay if you would put your camera on i can't get it to come on all right if you're just telling me that that the hostess oh here here i am you got it okay um my thing is is that nothing has changed from the very first zoning meeting when when uh he was told to have a meeting with us it is just not this is this is uh to me a total waste of time for us to have to be here today it's what the only thing that has changed in this circumstance is now is the house there we've been hearing one rumor after the other rumor as to what he says he's gonna do and and it's almost intimidating at an intimidation point you know trying to imitate intimidate us and make us feel like he has all the power to do what he wants to do this neighborhood is a quiet one we have uh some problems sometimes with the driving with the speeding uh the way people speed through i just cannot imagine two to three houses or how many houses he said he wants to build will uh be appropriate for the amount of room that we have cecil street is not a large uh and it it is in and out you keep talking about manual but cecil is the way in and the way out and we don't we can't use a lot of more traffic we have traffic on our small street but we were able to handle it but is it takes uh sometimes when there's construction on pisgah church road they will have people to come up here to turn around and then that's a whole other issue and so we have uh trouble with the traffic we have trouble with um more people up here because it's not enough room especially where he's building we've had houses built on collindale drive because and it wasn't a uh issue because carlingdale is a wide street they had the the houses have frontage a way to get in and out is it was no deal but this just does not make sense and no we have not had a meeting and he if he's talked to anybody it hadn't been talking on to me i have not had my bill to ring and i live right here in this neighborhood and i do count and so if you're gonna say something say it tell the truth because that's not the truth and i just don't think that we should have had to have i know the policy is that some one can appeal but that the uh the zoning commit committee listed and they voted zero no one voted for this and they listened to the presentation and they still voted no so i think this is just a total waste of time thank you for listening thank you is there anybody else in opposition okay then we will go into our five-minute rebuttal period i'm sorry did somebody else want to say something yeah this is normal to be doggy 3101 piece of street um cesar street joins manga street manual street is only about 250 feet uh along and uh that's a one acre land uh of which they want to put three houses on and now he's got two on it now and you could you can't they park on that street you can't hardly get around now because it's a small street and uh it it it's too crowded he don't have no backyard and all that uh of the driveway he's gonna have to come out to manual street which is a short street and also this is a dead end street once you come in you're gonna have to turn around and go back so it's a lot of cars that come in here by mistake and miss normally or somewhere like willowby street down there they may miss that and come in here and then they have to turn around in your driveway now i got a mailbox out there now what somebody turned around in the driveway and hit it and uh and messed it up you know because manual street is a short street i don't know how you gonna have them in this front on three houses on magnus street and mine street is only about 225 feet so we don't need that up here for people walking across one another yard you know it's not going to be number just a mess for that he this is the third time he's come up here trying to build three houses on one acre land and it's a long string acre land it's not a wide part of lake land it's just a long straight acre man he cannot and mangle street do not accommodate no no houses because if you put another house there it's gonna come across the two yards that he already got there so what we need to do is not give him any chance to come in and build another house in there because it it just gonna make numbers there's some trouble out of you know people walking across one of those yards you know and uh i noticed those day when when the garbage event came on that the mailboxes because get it back up the mailboxes uh you had the garbage can down and hit one of the mailboxes just laid up on the mailbox all day but you got too many mailboxes out there on one little short street and you don't have enough front for that you don't have enough front for three hours you just got enough of the two that they got on them and i don't know where you'll make enough fun for the other house unless you don't come across the yards of other people so that's it i'm not for him to build another house over there because we don't they don't have room enough for it who wants to talk to somebody else thank you so much thank you sir is there anybody else to speak in opposition you don't know okay we will now have the five minute rebuttal period um mr dodson yes is there anything you would like to add yes so as far as cutting into other people's yards and building multiple houses i'm only building one more houses we own the house to the right and we own the house to the left um this community just down the road just added a sidewalk all up and down the street on pisgah church for more walking and more more development and more growth the lot in the middle between those two houses is bigger than most lots in the neighborhood and as far as the size of the house built it's bigger than most houses on the block so i don't know why they're saying i built such a small house but either way i just i want to build the same size house and i'm just trying to grow greensboro we own over 50 rentals in in greensboro and we need more housing so that's all i got to say thank you mr dodson there is a five-minute rebuttal for those in opposition would any of the speakers like to speak again there was zero no votes for this plan in the zoning commission in in the end i don't know why we're having to continue to discuss it the the bottom line is the houses that are here are 60 a plus year old houses and we we don't have to um we don't have to apologize for being having the homes that we have and we don't have to apologize for who we are but most definitely we will not be disrespected it yeah their sidewalks being put all over greensboro also its own piskachor's road they've been put all over greensboro so what we have parking on we had uh sidewalks on one side they just put them on the opposite side so at the end of the day we are who we are we're not apologizing and we don't have to have someone to come in beautify who we are we're already beautiful because that's all we heard about this little house that oh it's going to make it so beautiful but you know that is insulting and we keep our land up and we do what we're supposed to do with our homes and i'm i'm just tired of it because it's we shouldn't have to do this over and over and over again thank you thank you is there anybody else to speak in opposition move to close the public hearing so we have a motion by mrs firms the second by ms abusa waiter to close the public hearing mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells mrs johnson i'm a yes mrs abuzawader mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes it's movement second okay so um say it again move to the number that's fine that is moved by mrs hightower seconded by ms kennedy um mrs hightower can you read the statement of inconsistency i will certainly try the greensboro city council believes that its action to recommend denial of the zoning request for the property described as 1419 manual street from r3 residential single family 3 to cdr 5 conditional district residential single family 5 to be consistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan and considers this action taken to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons the request is inconsistent with the comprehensive plan future built form map and future land use map the proposed cdr5 zoning okay district as condition permits uses which do not fit the content of the surrounding area and the request is not reasonable due to the size physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will be a detriment to the neighbors and surrounding community and denial is in the public's best interest oh for yes is to deny this is that correct mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wales yes mayor protem yes i'm a yes this is abusa waiter yes mr outling yes mrs sturm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes or fails on a vote of nine to zero the rezoning fails thank you um i would like to before we go to our break do the two airport overlay items we do have speakers to speak on these do we need a presentation or is council familiar okay so there are so we'll take 33 and 34 together i'm going to read them into the record and then there is 35 and 36. if we choose option b i believe we don't have to vote on number 33 we're going to pick one of the two so item number 33 is a public hearing for the adoption of a land development ordinance text amendment and map amendment overlay amending sections 30.4.1.4 mailed notice 30-4-8.7 district boundaries 30-7-8.2 district standards and 30-13-30-13-9.2 owners association and article 2 non-conformities of the land development ordinance related to the airport overlay district option a number 34 is a public hearing for the adoption of a land development ordinance text amendment and map amendment overlay amending sections 30-4 mailed notice 30-4-8.7 district boundaries 30-7-8.2 district standards and 30-13-9.2 9.2 owners association and article 2 non-conformities of the land development ordinance related to the airport overlay district option b i want to or i want to also read in the next two since they're i can't i gotta take them wait until and see which option is selected and then it might make it quicker because then you can just read one of the items well that's what i was going to say um both sections are going to be the same movie adopt item 34. second second okay so do we have to deny 33 first okay so we have a motion for item we do have speakers on this item if the speakers do not agree with option b and they'd like to weigh in so on the line we have kevin baker alex rosser bill cook and tom terrell and it is our decision to choose option b we do not have anything to say if the council is choosing option b thank you mr tara so um i believe the motion was made by mrs johnson absolutely and seconded by mrs abuse waiter so um mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i'm a yes mrs abusa waiter mr outling yes mrs firm yes and mrs hightower yes so that passes nine to zero now we can go directly i believe to item number 36. um item number 36 is a public hearing for the adoption of an amendment to the land development ordinance amending article 3 administration article 4 review and approval procedures article 7 district standards and article 12 natural resources of the land development ordinance to change um to change the name of the zoning commission to either okay so [Music] no this is the way that it was printed in my hold on one second so is it 36 public hearing for the adoption of an amendment to the land development ordinance submitting article 3 administration article 4 review and approval of resources article 7 district standards article 12 natural resources yeah and it says changing so anyway this is for option b also so moved by ms kennedy second seconded by miss abuse the waiter it'll it'll get changed um mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i'm a yes this is abusive yes mr outling yes mrs therm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero um so let me ask a question it seemed that their so the item changing the name of the uh it was no no no so what happened is i i believe that the um item yeah the land development ordinance to change the name of the zoning commission to either the planning and zoning commission or zoning and planning commission right option a was zoning it was planning and zoning commission and option b was zoning and planning commission okay option a is planning and zoning commission is only bad okay planing and zoning yeah so you would change the motion to option a planning and zoning i'm sorry to change the name to either planning and zoning i'm not sure if this is written it's related to option b but we're changing the name to planning and zoning in relation to option b you're right so we want planing and zoning yeah planning and zoning in relation to option b mr city attorney can you help me out here i think it's correct um but i'm really relying on the plan we had speakers from the airport to speak on it so i'm assuming that it is not airport related so item number 36 is to change the name to the planning and zoning commission correct right so could we have a motion move to remove the item moved by miss abuse later seconded by ms kennedy so we will revoke this mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells mrs johnson imes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes ms thurm this is planning and zoning yeah planning and so yes item 35. item 35 is the planing and so item 35 is what should be approved easy we are voting to change it to planning and zoning 35 and mrs hightower highlights okay so it's eight to one that's backwards um that's what that's what so that was 35. not right zone is selected zoning and blend [Music] yeah i just like it because it flows nice but it does but we did yes so that is eight to one to change it to planing and zoning cleaning and zoning yes um okay so why don't we take a 10 minute break um we don't have a speaker on the next item so 10 minutes uh yes yes oh thank you is [Music] is is um thousands okay um um thank you yes oh um um okay okay uh yes yes yes yes yes okay yeah okay okay yes yes yes sorry yeah uh yes oh yes uh 15 kids um i'm not sure [Music] okay okay this oh six it's less than one percent isn't it yes thank you we took a little bit longer than the 10 minutes item number 37 is a public hearing for the adoption of a land development ordinance text amendment amending section 30-4-11.3 decision-making criteria and section 30-8 11.1 accessory uses and structures to allow a type 1 modification for separate utility connections to accessory structures great thank you currently our land development ordinance requires accessory structures to take their utility service by branching from the principal building in order to get a separate utility connection for your accessory structure you need to obtain a variance from the board of adjustment and this has an impact on both the applicant's time and their money through the course of several years the board of adjustment has granted many variances to this section of the code and it was actually approved by unanimous they were approved by unanimous votes so the plan the board of adjustment has asked the planning staff to look into this situation and propose a change we have surveyed other municipalities the planning community local engineers we even talked with our inspections department the building industry neighborhood congress and several land use attorneys the proposal that we have on your agenda for tonight will allow the city to continue to ensure that uses that are start in an accessory structure obtain their proper permits and aren't those improvements are installed in a safe manner safe manner the change and the text amendment before you tonight would create a type one modification which is under the approval authority of the planning director if the applicant can demonstrate that there are certain factors present that require the utility connection to be separate these conditions we have researched the board of adjustment cases and the reasons that the board of adjustment has granted variances and these are several that have come to light and they relate to the distance between the accessory structure and the principal building the distance is too large it makes it makes it easier and more efficient to have a separate connection in some of the cases the utility serving the principal building was not of a size that could provide service to the accessory structure so they needed a separate utility connection we had several cases where there were many large items that had to be removed between the accessory structure and the principal structure and the board of adjustment has granted those variances um on your dice before you this this after or this evening the we've added one additional standard to the um ordinance and it relates to projects that are being pursued to um as a principal and are using a guiding principle of our comprehensive plan so the text amendment that's in your agenda package does not have this fourth finding so we have revised the ordinance and placed it in front of the dice so if this ordinance is to be approved this afternoon or this evening we ask that you make that one change and include the reference to the gso 2040 comprehensive plan if for some reason mr gallanty can you say that again what it is that needs to be included in this motion right um did they get yep it's um if you have the re should have the revised ordinance in front of you and it's it is which is what i read out so right which is condition number four item four do we highlight it i think i highlighted it also okay so we'll need to read that into the okay and if for some reason a type 1 modification is granted the applicant still has the right to appeal that decision to the zoning commission this item was heard by the zoning commission at their may 17th meeting and they recommended approval on a vote of eight to zero and we're here tonight at the city council to hold a public hearing and consider adoption of this ordinance and we have no speakers on this item so the person who makes the motion should read in item number four number four correct questions um mr boos waiter yes uh just a couple of questions because i understand that this is going to save our taxpayers who come forward for this instead of going to the board of adjustment it will save them actually 400 so i'm pleased to hear that i also just wondered i know that before an electric meter is put in that they would have to have a permit from the city correct because yes duke energy won't make the meter active correct right until they get electrical permit yes correct so my question is i and i realize uh it has been voted on in zoning eight to zero um my question is i read that the electrical inspectors said that this is normally through the state uh records is usually something that is okay according to the state laws is that correct what the uh chief electrical inspector said when we were doing the investigation into making this change is that under the state building code they can only check items that are related to the election the electrical part of the building right but in order to put in that electric meter they the person wanting to do that to their structure would have had to get a permit from the city i i think where i'm going here is you know um i was reading in the last three years there's never been one denied and i highly doubt that our planning director would deny one either i'm just curious as to why it even has to go through that but since they're getting a permit anyway that would be along the way checked and rechecked and all of those things so if i may the electrical inspector can only evaluate the electrical load and the appropriateness they cannot turn it down because of land use this is what so if it is so for example one of the reasons why this was in the ordinance in the first place is there had been a lot of conversions of garages or accessory structures that were either had illegal um home occupations or so for example in more one that we've dealt with recently is an illegal body shop that someone was using in there and so they had the power um miss hightower is familiar with that one that we we have dealt with i've also dealt with um because of uh not all accessory structures have to have a building permit depends on the size there is no cross-check in terms of public safety in terms of the structure or residential structure so this gives us a small point in time for public safety to look to make sure that everything lines up in terms of the appropriate use for that property with that site and so the as steve is correct the the things that were barriers which is what the board of adjustment looks at the physical barriers that were so common that it's either the length the far the the accessory structure is so far away from the principle structure it makes it untenable or the electrical load that is servicing the main house that cannot support the other piece and then find there may be things in between you know like landscaping or other things that make it very extraordinarily expensive to pull it off the main structure so looking through that lens of if it if it's a legal use and if it is going to be a safe use here are these most common things that the board of adjustment has granted and then we looked at that part of the ordinance the fourth piece was added to cover those circumstances that we might not be thinking of now things may change so we tied it to the comprehensive plan and the goals of the comprehensive plan that may come up over time and gives us it's also it's also throughout our land development ordinance and gives us additional flexibility so we're going from a minimum two-month process from application and evaluation and i forget how much our board of adjustment fees are but they they are a couple of hundred dollars four hundred hundred four hundred dollars to when you're getting your form there is no charge for a type one modification it's a it's a double check to make sure that we those other public safety matters are being evaluated and before we say yes if that's helpful yes it is thank you so um do we have a motion move item number four into the record as well move item 37 with the addition of item four the proposed connection is being proposed as part of an effort to further the intent goals objectives policies or guiding principles of the gso 2040 comprehensive plan second okay so that's been moved and seconded mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mayor pro tem i am a yes mrs abusa waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes thank you and that passes nine to zero i do want to thank staff for looking at items that are going through the boards of adjustments which seem to be um approved on a regular basis and making it more user friendly and less expensive to the applicants and this will certainly help with the accessory dwellings which is part of the comprehensive plan so thank you for that um moving on to item number 38 a resolution authorizing a downtown business improvement district bid contract in the amount of three million seventy five thousand dollars between the city of greensboro and downtown greensboro inc this would be a three-year contract so it's 1 million 25 000 per year i know that there are some questions on council regarding this and i think mr matheny is on the call to answer any questions or is there a staff presentation on this there's no staff presentation um would you like to hear from mr matheny if zach are you on the line yes madam mayor sarah gilo healey is awesome zach go ahead i'm happy to answer any questions i don't want to just start talking y'all have a long agenda there seems to be some questions about what this contract actually does right um and perhaps you can outline what the bid does for the city of greensboro okay what dgi does for the city of greensboro and how that million dollars a year is spent well our budget um was submitted to the city uh the key thing for downtown greensboro incorporated is we're the economic and social developers of the center city and in doing so we've worked on numerous economic development projects uh we created numerous programs that i've mentioned to this board about over the last 12 months including the retail revitalization grant the feeding the front lines that we worked with not only clone health but mount zion church and feeding and working with our restaurants and feeding folks that were administering uh coveted tests and vaccines and so we've worked strategically to work with our business owners our property owners and the greater citizenry for the city of greensboro upcoming um and i think the question that i that was about subcontracting we don't subcontract a whole lot what you've got is an organization that is minimally staffed in very high productive productivity and so when when the question on the mwbe comes up one of the things that i found interesting in doing that process was to try to think about subcontracting the next three years well for downtown greensboro incorporated our primary uh subcontractor is sharp pursuits which is an uh minority owned business many of y'all may have seen shayla sharp at the recent chamber intra city meeting that we had last week they are our primary uh subcontractor really the only subcontractor that we really utilize in a major way and they help us put on the fun fourth festival which will be july 3rd this year as well as uh partner with the festival of lights so if you look at our subcontractors that we invest over five or ten thousand dollars it would be 100 would be minority uh partnered i have a quick question just because we've asked this about a lot of other organizations and contracting what percentage of this goes to administrative costs administrative overhead well the city caps us um on administrative costs right so what's that percentage uh if larry davis is in the audience well i'm asking you as the leader of that organization i can tell you what percentage of my costs come from city contracts it's 15 i believe joy ross is our financial person that works closely with the city we've been audited every year for the last few years the last 20 years and never had a blemish on our audit zach how many how much how many private dollars do you arrange in a given year so on on this um we our last year's budget was a total of um about 1.8 million so we raised the city bid funds were about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars um estimated so we raise at least almost dollar for dollar what the bid funds and i think it's important to note that these funds that you're voting on to bid funds or business improvement district funds that are above and beyond anything the city this is a self-imposed tax for the property owners that they did 20 years ago or 22 years ago they pay above and beyond what would be their property taxes for the city of greensboro so how did how did you arrive at this dollar amount for three years and why is it three years well i would love for it to be ten years um but this the state five years ago the state had a process in which business improvement districts as well as neighborhood districts which would include college hill for example who has a neighborhood improvement district and sue schwartz in the audience can speak to that because they manage that in a house it's a smaller neighborhood um venue so basically the number is derived from the majority of the percent tax that property owners pay so by the fact that we've been able to increase the the property tax for the city and the county we have a property tax of about a billion dollars in the city of greensboro just our 99 blocks and so every property owner pays eight cents on top of the normal property tax and so if you think about it per million if you have a building that's worth a million dollars they the property owners pay 800 per year in addition to what they pay the city in the county zach one of the things that several council people are concerned about is the low percentage of minority um folk um is there any way of increasing that well and it's a great uh question uh council person johnson again one of the key things is when we subcontract we do look to diversify the way that the mwbe is you're guessing on what you may or may not do in the next few years what we did was look at we really couldn't add what we had done in the past as much as we're guessing on the future and we feel very confident that we'll continue our relationship with sharp pursuits and as far as potential future subcontracting we agreed per conversation with ms staton that if we were to do things in the future that by all means we would look at a diversity of minority owned business women on business etc we were able to do that the last year with the flower boxes that you have seen on the site on the streets in downtown we partnered with c2 contractors to help paint the jersey walls and help us with the flower boxes and so we were able to utilize um that subcontractor we just didn't know how that would be going forward so contract so is this mwpe price that's on this that there's obviously no price but i understand now there is a price is that a three year price so basically one had a three thousand dollar charge is that one thousand dollars per year for the three years this contract is in effect no ma'am um that's an arbitrary guess based on if we continue going forward again it doesn't take into consideration what we've done in the past and so i don't i'm not talking about the past i'm somebody's current contract because there's only one bid and i thought if it was only one bid we had to rebuild so for uh construction construction so um the mwbe figures i'm looking at i'm just questioning whether or not they're for the entirety of the whole contract that's the totality of the contract so again i'll tell you i understand where you're going all i can we don't subcontract we are an organization that produces we produce output which has generated uh significant gains over the last five years in downtown and so we subcontract with short pursuits in particular we have contracted with c2 contractors we will continue going forward with short pursuits but i can promise you from an organization standpoint that we will absolutely should we contract otherwise that we will absolutely um be very open to minority businesses we just don't subcontract we produce so so i'm sorry go ahead tammy and goldie so so what you you're saying um is that the only subcontracting you do is when you produce um your your fourth of july and your christmas parades correct and those two events you use minority that um sharp pursuits yes ma'am those are the only two and then the other one is a construction contract and and you're saying that you will in the future if you have any other contracts you will try to get minorities is that what you're saying absolutely so can uh um the sharp figure that we have zach of ninety thousand dollars is that annual is that for this is it three years at thirty thousand dollars is it ninety thousand a year for three years for two hundred and seventy thousand dollars we pay them that's thirty thousand per year we pay them about thirty thousand dollars to help us put on the fun fourth festival okay festival um is approximately 100 and uh it can fluctuate 120 to 150 000 um which again by majority per the mayor's comment we go raise that we don't really use bid funds to put on that festival um and so we pay short pursuits to thirty thousand dollars a year approximately to help us manage that fun fourth festival and you know last year obviously with covid those festivals didn't take place so it's possible there could have been even greater spending had we been doing things like the fun fourth the christmas festival the folk festival the blues festival all the all last year's things were canceled so there was less opportunity to go out and subcontract services very true and so you know i'll say when we're looking at our strategic plan our 10-year strategic action plan um there will be something potentially in the future but the way the mwbe works is we don't know when that will be we don't know when a contract or if we partner with somebody maybe in the future so what we've agreed with ms staton is when we do something on a subcontraction basis we will give beyond our good faith effort to work with minority businesses mwbe businesses so we will work with the mwbe office to make sure we're in the guidelines that the city council was put forward exactly like a year ago march when there was the festival for the men's acc tournament and the fans first and the things down in the parks um you know sometimes those things come up um that are not on the normal schedule is that yes ma'am so do you zach this is tammy do you have a hard number or a close to a hard number say for the past three years what your average of those contract expenses how much went to women and minority owned businesses i mean it's it's pretty much right in front of you the only other contract that we put forth was a mural that we paid a female artist for and that was estimated there were two murals over the last two years and we paid a female artist ten thousand dollars each to help facilitate that but other than that we don't subcontract i mean literally all subcontraction has done either female or minority-owned that we've done the last five years from a subcontraction basis we are checking that box and we're working with diversified business owners so mary kay then tammy yes oh i'm sorry then sharon so i'm thinking what may be um being looked at is the fact that here's a three million dollar contract zach i'm yeah i'm gonna ask you this and this is one million approximately per year there is no way that you can figure out out of those funds whether or not you were going to contract for an event correct except for a fun fourth in festival except for the fourth and and the christmas parade or what so really specifically per year you would only have that one event and that is the amount of money that would be looked at as to how it relates to minority contracting and you have stated that uh what sharp pursuits has been helpful on that that you have subcontracted with them correct yes ma'am so we can't look at the big picture of their is three million dollars here over three years and say that there's only a small percentage given to mwbe because he only really has that one event per year which is contracted out with subcontractors two years cred correct me from wrong to events yes to events uh each year for those three years so there is nothing beyond those events that you can subcontract out for anyway at this point but yet what i'm hearing is that when you are going to have something you are going to do as you have shown in the past with sharpest pursuits and c2 that you are going to when you subcontract out you are going to do your best to hire minority women contractors correct yes ma'am that's so that's kind of it in a nutshell that's what i'm gathering for all this because i think looking at the three million and you don't have many minority contractors it's really not that way the the way it is is it goes by the events or whatever you subcontract out that was my point thank you yes ma'am sharon so and i think i'm i'm hung up on this maybe um because i'm still not sure what this 1 million is going to get us if there's a bid being paid anyway um but generally when since we're talking of mwbs um there's some kind of i guess contracting that comes along with that so this right here is just proposal of contract but since you know you are going to do two events um then where is that commitment to have where's that contract piece of this subcontracting piece of you doing those two events and i guess that's why i'm looking for something that will be solidified well i can tell you this i mean i'm happy to give you the contract that sharp pursuits gave to us that we're paying them this year so give you an example of i mean if you if you look at let's just take this year's fun fourth for example our budget right now i'll know more tomorrow so it's not hard because shayla's coming in tomorrow shayla sharp um her and her husband desmond run short pursuits our budget is estimated about eighty thousand dollars eighty five thousand dollars of which of the money that you're talking about we don't use any bid funds for that we go out and we raise the funds to put that on of that eighty thousand dollars fifty percent of the hard cost are going directly to a minority-owned business the rest of the funds will go to pay sound stage the musical artist which they're not getting paid over you know it varies but it's a few hundred dollars per act so if we're subcontracting the minority owned business is getting the lion's share of the expense for that specific festival when it comes to festival of lights we haven't negotiated that contract yet so we'll negotiate that contract with sharp pursuits probably in october of this year uh and then we we so it's per mary case point the only subcontracting we're doing is with short pursuits so a hundred percent of the subcontracting really if you look at it is going to a minority-owned business which i think is pretty solid um any other comments or questions so just to clarify for me like the issue for me is if mwbe goals are not required then they shouldn't be on the contract if we are going to list mwbe goals on a contract then we need to know that it went through the mwbe process and it met those goals it can't be half of this and half of that we shouldn't have as council members contracts that are put in front of us that say here is our mwb and this exact has nothing to do with dgi that say here's the mwb participation there are no percentages given no information given as it regards as it relates to that so for me it's it's one or the other is this going through mwb or is it not if it's not it shouldn't be in his contract at all and then we're not having this conversation if it is then it needs to go through goal settings so i'm looking at you kim like which is it so it was not required to go through goal setting and this information was provided voluntarily to show that dgi was committed to using mwbes in in the future we cannot include it if it does not go through the goal-setting process i mean we've consistently had conversations about things that come before us that don't meet those goals right so when we get a document related to a contract that lists mwb subs and there no there's no information on percentages there's no information on goals there's no information on any of that that's problematic and i honestly think that that's a failure at the at the city level that has nothing to do with what they're submitting but that can't keep happening well i do think i i do think that this is kind of similar like when we contract with the irc for emergency housing right most of your expenses are personnel related through your salary staff they're your expenses and i think it's the same with with dgi that of the million dollars you've got staff you've got rent you've got supplies um and that they are going out and they are raising a large sum of money for their programs just like you raise money regularly to support other things so i i agree with you it shouldn't be an either or but that maybe this was not the right thing to have that contract on because it's similar to what you do with emergency situations well it's that's my point is that what you then what we then get provided is it looks like an incomplete application so i'm texting kim saying are there mwbe goals on this we come back with a percentage that would be an unacceptable mwbe gold percentage so then my question is are there mwb goals or are there not and i expect that our and i'm not trying to i know there's a lot on everybody's plate but i expect city staff when it gets to that point to say this contract does not have to go through mwbe and there should be nothing about mwbe on it or it does and here's all the information can i clarify a little bit all of our contracts most all of our contracts go through an m2b process mwe office was involved with the specifications with the review there was part of the response was did you have mwb participation in the rfp but because it was a professional services it was just viewed differently than construction which is typically what we mostly see so it did go through mwbe as we require most if not all of our contracts to go through the chart that was provided was volunteered by dgi to show the effort to at least provide subcontract that was provided from dgi with the information not there for the number because they didn't have a number i think as zach has described it was just there as an illustrative manner to say what it was but it did go through mwbe as we would require but the thing about it is you just said i know it's confusing but i just want to make sure i clarify that but if professional services had goals applied to them which i've been asking for for three years every since griffin and strong put it in their recommendations this would not have to be a conversation tonight and it's not been done professional services can have goals so contracts that are can go through that and if it is determined that it's not applicable then at least you know that but and if somebody's volunteering something but it's it's not a requirement that it has a goal that's one thing okay but i've asked for this for three years and it's just like i'm not gonna do it i'm determined not to do what you've asked for that's how it's been perceived and received because professional services contracts can have goals on there and it has not been done we could not we would not be going through this tonight so mary kay and then um i don't want to rush anyone but i know we've still got a long agenda we've still got a long agenda we have to spend 600 million dollars i'm going to be quick i just want to clarify when the bids went out there was only one bid receipt and that was dgi there are not hundreds of companies wanting to run downtown businesses so with the one that we got it has gone through the process as best as it can through city staff mwbe everything and the person who is are the dgi has committed to doing everything they can when they contract something out to make sure they do minority contracting and i believe that they have evidence that and i really would there's no one else to run our downtown because as you can see when the bids went out there were no other bids so this is not i i i don't know i'm kind of losing track on this because um this is with dgi and they have shown in their track record record that every time they contract out they are using minority so i don't know this is kind of the way it looks so um do we have a motion on this item [Music] so do we have do we have a second i'll second it okay so it is moved by miss abuse awaiter seconded by mrs thurm this mrs hoffman miss kennedy yes dr wells mrs johnson i'm a yes mrs abuse waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower and that she is a no and that passes eight to one thank you we will now move on to item number 40 which is a resolution making certain findings and determinations and authorizing the filing of an application with the local government connect commission in connection with the proposed issuance of housing bonds parks and recreation bonds firefighting facilities bonds law enforcement facilities bonds and transportation bonds by the city and again let me just state for the record that this is going to the lgc at the max and the specific subtotals but that doesn't mean that's what we have to go out for in the future this is just setting our max movie item okay so it is moved by mrs johnson it is moved by mrs johnson seconded by ms kennedy it's approved also as the form okay thank you it has been approved to form uh mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i am a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hoffman i'm sorry mrs hightower i got the h sorry you're both on the ends i'm sorry mrs hightower councilwoman hightower thank you yes yes and that passes nine to zero thank you and i apologize um okay so item number four item number 41 is a resolution approving bid in the amount of one million ninety seven thousand five hundred and fifty two dollars and fifty four cents and authorizing execution of contract 2018-051b with yates construction company for the davey street streetscape storm and water improvement project move the item second so that has been moved by mrs abuzawader seconded by mrs thurm mrs hoffman is miss kennedy yes dr wales yes mrs johnson yeah amy yes mrs abuzawader mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower thank you yes and that passes nine to zero um item number 42 is a resolution authorizing a contract for fiscal year 2020 21. u.s treasury emergency rental assistance program era 2 funds in the amount of 6 million 922 907 for emergency rent utility assistance programs greensboro urban ministry greensboro housing coalition greensboro consultants group and the salvation army of greensboro it has been moved by this side of council it has been seconded by this side of the council so um it's been it's been moved by ms kennedy seconded by mrs hightower um mrs hoffman mrs kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes this is therm yes this is hightower yes that passes nine to zero and i believe that as of last week or the week before we've had over five thousand applications for rent and utility assistance six thousand we've we've received over six thousand i know that our partners have have completed i think over a thousand i'm not sure of the exact number but they are working hard to process these applications and we're asking people to be patient because there are a lot of applications and it's a lot of work so this is this is really good news thank you um item number 43 is a resolution approving a change order in the amount of 1 million 100 000 for contract 2021-001 for the 2021 resurfacing of streets with blyth construction of the item moved by mrs abuzawader seconded by mrs hightower mrs huffman miss kennedy yes dr wells yes yes johnson i am a yes this is abusive waiter mr outling yes ms thurm yes and mrs hightower and that passes nine to zero item number 44 is a resolution approving bid in the amount of 4 million three dollars six hundred and twenty eight and authorizing execution of contract 2019-006 a with jimmy r lynch and sons for the reedy fork water line extension and sewer outfall project and item number 45 ordinance in the amount of four million six hundred and forty three thousand six hundred and twenty nine dollars establishing the water resources capital project revenue bond fund budget to establish funding for the reedy fork water line extension and sewer outfall project move the item out of there 44 was moved by ms therm and seconded by dr wells so we're voting on 44 now we are voting on 44 first um this is huffman miss kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i'm a yes and mrs hightower yeah and that passes nine to zero now um item number 45 can i have a motion move the item moved by miss kennedy seconded by mrs thurm mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero item number 46 is a resolution authorizing change order number four in the amount of one million dollars for contract [Music] 2009-053 el 5101 dj for the murrow boulevard roadway improvements in downtown greenway phase two project with yates construction okay um so i have a question please second last second so um it's moved by mr boosa waiter seconded by mrs johnson mrs hightower did you have a question yes i did and i noticed this is excluded from the mwbe plan however it does not say it's excluded from dbes so why was there no goals for it was a 10 goal for dbe and they met it with 10.28 so was that met yes with they exceeded the goal of the tbe where is that because that's not in the mwbe memo if you go to the actual um agenda item and the second paragraph in the background so um i've lost so it was moved by mrs abusa waiter seconded by mrs johnson um mrs hoffman ms kennedy dr wells mrs johnson amy yes this is waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero um let's see item number 47 is a resolution authorizing execution of a contract in the amount of one million six hundred and twenty thousand with j and j underground utilities llc for underground utility location services remove the item moved by mrs abuzawader seconded by dr wells mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i'm a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outland yes mrs thurm yes mrs hightower no and that passes eight to one item number 48 is a resolution authorizing a commitment of three million five hundred and fifty thousand to taft mills group llc for a multi-family affordable housing development project we do have two representatives um available for questions if needed i believe um i wanted to move you want to move it okay moved by dr wells second seconded by ms kennedy um mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yeah i'm a yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outland yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower uh i'm a no because it didn't it didn't have any mwbe uh initially on this so so my understanding is that they will go back through the mwbe program once the contracts are awarded and they are they receive the tax credits then they will qualify through the mwbe program right but their team is not and i i think you know that that's a problem for me too that affordable housing is being done but it's not being done by diverse people so i think we have to start looking at some of that concern at least and from my vantage point i i do want to say this looks like it will be a quality development if it happens it's got um the apartments look great it comes with a lot of amenities that you don't normally see with affordable housing and most of it is 60 ami or less and that is something that we really need i understand mrs hightower your concerns and i hope that they are going to remedy them once it gets to contract but i truly hope it gets to contract because it's a very pretty development and does come along with a lot of nice amenities and so that did pass eight to one item number 49 is a resolution to authorize guilford county board of education safety resource officer contract 2021. moved by mrs johnson seconded by mrs abu's a waiter oh i have a question marriage i mean y'all know y'all rushing through but so we had this conversation last year around this sro um is this the same scenario we had i think miss kennedy was telling me a little different because i guess the amounts reduced but this is the same conversation we had last year around what we're paying for for police it's it's slightly different in the sense that this year we're obviously dealt with covet so what this is about is providing for an amended contract and we are getting closer to an equitable share of the cost but with the year that we had most the students weren't in physically in person in class it was all remote trey and his staff pd worked closely with the school system to work out this amended contract but trey is leading the effort too also on bringing back what we talked about last year as we look forward to hopefully a more normal year where they're in person and moving that closer towards we talked about last year more equitable share of our actual costs but this is really about just revising the cost to pay for where they were actually in school [Music] mr city manager and mr davis too perhaps this is for work that's already been done correct so that i think that's very important on this they've already done the work and now need to make sure they get paid yes that's correct thank you and just to like tidy it up so the issue is they weren't serving as sros in schools they were back serving in gpd capacities and that's why that number is different this year covid okay so that um has been moved by mrs johnson seconded by ms abuzawader mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells mrs johnson i'm a yes this is abusive yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero okay now we are moving into our budget items item number 51 is a resolution adopting the fiscal year 2022 dash oops sorry item number 50 is an ordinance establishing the fiscal year 2021 2022 annual operating budget move the item second hi mrs abuzawader seconded by dr wells um mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes this is johnson i'm a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outline yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero item number 51 is a resolution adopting the fiscal year 2022-2031 capital improvements program cip move the item moved by mrs thurm second seconded by ms kennedy mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes this is johnson i'm a yes mrs abuza waiter mr outline yes this is thurm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 52 is an ordinance amending the general capital projects fund movie item moved by miss kennedy seconded by dr wells mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i'm a yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes mrs therm yes mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero we will take 53 to 56 i'll read them together item number 53 is an ordinance establishing the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget for the community development block grant cdbg grant project item 54 ordinance establishing the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget for the emergency solutions grant esg grant project item number 55 ordinance establishing the fiscal year 2021 2022 budget for the home grant project item number 56 ordinance establishing the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget for the housing opportunities for persons with aids hopwa grant moved item 53 moved by mrs johnson seconded by ms kennedy um mrs hoffman mrs kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abuse waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes mrs hightower yes item number 54 keep going someone move the item ms kennedy seconded by mrs johnson mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes this is johnson i am a yes mrs abuzawater mr outling yes mrs thurm yes mrs hightower yes item number 55 that passes nine to zero second moved by mrs hightower seconded by ms kennedy yes mrs hoffman miss kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson amy yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes mrs therm yes and mrs hightower yes item that passes nine to zero item number fifty six movie item second moved by ms kennedy seconded by mrs thurm mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes yes mrs johnson i'm a yes mrs abuzawater mr outling yes mrs thurm yes mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 57 is an ordinance establishing the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget for the greensboro high point guilford county workforce development consortium price second second moved by mrs johnson seconded i think by mrs hightower it was um mrs hoffman miss kennedy yes dr wales yes this is johnson i'm a yes mrs abusivator yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 58 is an ordinance amending the solid waste capital reserve fund move that second moved by mrs hightower seconded by mrs thurm mrs hoffman yes miss kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson aimee yes mrs abuzawader mr outling yes mrs thurm yes mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 59 is an ordinance amending the streets and sidewalk capital projects fund no they are second moved by mrs hightower seconded by ms kennedy mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 60 is an ordinance amending the state highway allocation capital project fund with the item moved by mrs busawader seconded by dr wells mrs hoffman miss kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i'm es this is abusive waiter yes mrs thurm i'm sorry mr outling yes this is therm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 61 is an ordinance amending the technical services capital project fund maybe item move by kennedy seconded by dr wells mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wales yes mrs johnson yes i'm es mrs abuza abuzawader yes mr outling yes mrs therm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 62 is an ordinance amending the parking facilities capital project fund move the item moved by mrs second seconded by ms abuzawader mrs hoffman is he yes ms kennedy dr wells yes mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 63 is an ordinance amending the water resources capital improvements second moved by mrs johnson seconded by miss kennedy mrs hoffman is a yes doctor um sorry about doctor dr doctor yes ms kennedy yes dr west mrs johnson yes i am a yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes this is therm yes this is hightower yes and that passes nine to zero item number 64 is an ordinance amending the stormwater management capital improvements fund move adam second moved by mrs hightower seconded by miss kennedy yes mrs hoffman is a yes ms kennedy yep dr wells yes yes yes johnson imes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item number 65 is an ordinance amending the water and sewer extension reserve fund move the item second moved by mrs thurm seconded by mrs johnson mrs hoffman is a yes um miss kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson shazias i'm yes um mrs hightower yes [Laughter] are you going to announce your auctioneer services at the end of this meeting so item number 66 is an ordinance amending the water and sewer water resources capital reserve fund move the item second moved by mrs thurm seconded by miss kennedy mrs hoffman miss kenneth dr wells yes mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero so ma'am are you gonna tell us i know we're not telling the amount and then you're gonna tell us how much budget we passed because i don't remember spanish saying the dollar figure about the budget for the amount of the budget we passed we're passing well that is that is back on 4.95 so that so 619 744 308 for the total total budget that's enterprise funds general fund everything okay well it's nice to hear it out loud i think you're as quick as we're going item number 67 is an ordinance establishing the american rescue plan fund second okay that has been um moved by ms abu's waiter seconded by mrs hightower gotta also call on the inside um mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes yes johnson i am a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outland mrs therm yes mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero item 68 is an ordinance amending the coliseum complex second moved by um mrs johnson seconded by ms kennedy mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i'm a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes this is therm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero item number 69 is an ordinance amending chapter 29 of the greensboro code of ordinances amending water and sewer fees move the item moved by ms kennedy second seconded by mrs thurm mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson no i'm tired of saying yes okay right yes yes okay she changed she said yes i'm a yes mrs abuser waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yeah that passes nine to zero um let's see uh now um boards and commissions if you would state who you are replacing um mrs hightower i don't have any tonight dr wells mr outling like to reappoint von ramsey to the now former planning board he's a current member okay this term just needs to be renewed second so he's of the planing and zoning now it's the planning and zoning board planning and zoning option b thank you that's what they could be called option b um all in favor say aye aye aye aye opposed that passes nine to zero that's all thank you this is i'm doing it by district mrs hoffman mrs thurm none mrs johnson i have a vacancy on minimum housing i'd like to um place um uh christina singleton in that position okay do you know who that she's replacing it's vacant okay all in favor say aye aye aye that passes nine to zero um mrs abusive waiter yes uh i would like to place jamila pender to replace adam carroll on the gta commission second okay um all in favor say aye aye that passes unanimously thank you um and miss kennedy oh i forget abject i'm okay no i don't miss kennedy no ma'am okay um item number 71 is a resolution requesting the guilford county planning board to reject the special use permit case 21-04-gcpl-03572 this would be um that is the resolution that went out earlier today really um talking about our um concerns about siting a cell solar farm on 800 acres of property which really is incompatible with our greensboro 2040 which could be better used for housing or development certainly we all want to look at different types of utility services but we also have to look at where our growth tiers are where our water and sewer extension policies are and what can better best serve east greensboro in the city of greensboro in years to come there will be a special use um there will be a meeting of the guilford county planning board to look at a special use permit on monday night i plan on being there i think mrs hightower plans on being there and i think um miss schwartz or somebody else from the planning department sue will be there for the planning department to at least put on the record what our concerns are not over a solar farm in general but just in that specific location that really has a higher and better use for the growth and development of east greensboro right i think this is an issue of lack of coordination towards highest and best use right like that's our argument we certainly would support a solar farm in a location that we hadn't made significant investments in for economic growth well i think we've got and i've gotten a text here that says that this is already done so to add one other acre um so i think we need to investigate a little bit more because to make sure um because it is a concern that 880 acres of developer land and tax base is now going to be just a solo phone um and but according to the text that i received this was done in 2019. well you know i think we need to go on record of what our concerns are and how we feel and i think it really shows that we are going to need to coordinate our efforts with guilford county when we dissolve the water and sewer agreement we lost a little bit of that coordination between guilford county and the city of greensboro and i would really like staff to reach out to our counterparts in the county and really talk about where we where we as a city see our growth and how we can partner together to make some of these decisions and make sure that they are aware of what we're planning to do so you know i think that we need to go on record on how we feel about this 880 acres but then need to be proactive to make sure that something like this doesn't happen in the future and that we're on the same page with our guilford county planning department yeah and i think it's it's particularly important when you consider the part of the city that we're talking about when we we look at ways that we've been trying to increase the potential in eastern part of greensboro and so it's one of those things where it's almost like an opportunity was taken away from us to grow east greensboro and that's really damaging right like for for the work that we've been doing over the last several years yeah is really quite challenging mr outling yeah to that very point you know as we're all aware there is a group that's responsible for helping to coordinate economic development in guilford county uh the guilford county economic development alliance a couple of years ago now they worked with the timmins group to identify industrial sites recognizing that we had a relative shortage of them industrial sites often are the home to relatively large employers out of the comparatively few number of sites identified in connection with that exhaustive study this was one of the sites uh so i just wanted to kind of add that piece of information thank you so um i would like to bring this to the guilford county planning board on um monday night and i would like to do it with the um with the unanimous vote of council so do i have a motion second um moved by um ms kennedy seconded by mrs hightower um mrs hoffman ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i'm es mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes mrs therm yes and mrs hightower yes and so that passes nine to zero thank you very much and it will be six o'clock at and i believe it's at the ag center it is cooperative extension office yes so anybody on council who wants to attend we certainly welcome monday at six o'clock at the yes do you have the address on that suit just go out marcus we'll provide it to council we'll send it up yeah it's at the ex center okay so yeah so thank you very much i appreciate that um council comments mrs hightower um just want to remind everyone that um we will be celebrating uh commemorating juneteenth friday is the official holiday that we want everyone to understand what it means and why it is essential that we do it and we remember it every single year um it is our fourth of july for the african-american community um because we did not experience freedom on july 4th we did not experience until june 19 1865 to commemorate the day we will be having events in the bowel park where we will be visible for all to participate we will have a black food truck festival from five to eight and then we will have open mic and spoken word in the bible park followed by the poetry cafe with special musical guest vanessa ferguson and that is saturday so please join us as we commemorate and my spirit will be there but i will be recovering i understand thank you so much um dr wells i'd like to invite um those who are in district 2 and those who would like to tune in to the district 2 town hall will be on thursday evening it's a virtual town hall from 6 30 to 8. and if you're interested in tuning in you'd have to email city council town hall at greensboro nc.gov goldie was that city council town hall or just that's district 2 town hall so that's city council oh no it's not it's just council town hall if you're going to do the email it's just council town hall at greensboro nc.gov so that you can get the link uh and i want to remind those in and that usually get your trash picked up on thursday it's going to be picked up on wednesday i think because of the juneteenth uh celebration so check to make sure gso collects to make sure your uh when you're trapped on your chest trash is going to be collected thank you thank you mr outling no comments further this evening thank you mrs hoffman just a reminder that in addition to the juneteenth uh juneteenth uh activities on saturday we have summer solstice also um earlier in the day uh in the arboretum so lots of opportunities to do both on saturday thank you mrs thurm mrs johnson any comments and i did mine for ent and goldie so i'm done miss kennedy not tonight mrs abusewater yes thank you madam i just uh want to reinforce all of the wonderful things going on in the city um we've had quite a few things as as you know one of the um i would say one of the the most powerful things i went to saturday was the uh grand opening ribbon cutting of the behavioral health centers and uh there that through the county of course but it was really good to see that there they are open uh i believe each building has 16 beds there is one building for adolescents and there is one building for uh adults and they were very um thankful to the city for helping them work out to how this could happen so i just wanted to relay that i think there were like tons of activities going on saturday i saw a few of you at some of those activities but you know great positive things going on in greensboro and uh last comment david gonna miss you thank you everyone go ahead i just wanted um to let people know who knew janice reeves past she was she served on the human relations commission for several years and helped with the martin luther king breakfast um she passed last week and she was a teacher um at alamance tech and at some high schools and um just my condolences to her family thank you ms kennedy did i call on you mrs hightower mr miss johnson reminded me also um of someone we lost miss pat fortune and i don't know how many of you knew her um but she also did the first juneteenth in this in the city back in the 90s um as well so we'll our celebration will be um in honor of her um there's a lot of newspaper articles around her but she passed this week and we just wanted to remember her thank you so we had our first series of the battle of i-40 between the greensboro grasshoppers and the winston-salem dash and i think that first series split three to three so um we're gonna wait and play all 24 games to see who the who the champion is um the next series is at the dash and alan joins um mayor joynes has asked me to join him and throw out the first pitch so i will try not to embarrass the city but i'm going to move up really really close so and i'm thinking that it might be good to challenge winston-salem um for a food drive versus the city of greensboro for a food drive maybe we can do second harvest food bank since there is one in each location um and it could be a nice friendly rivalry so you'll hear more about those details in the in the time to come um mr city attorney um i know that you and i had a conversation and that um there are some comments that you would like to make tonight regarding um you know issues that have been in our legal department thank you very much let me give you mine uh to the council and others in attendance uh north carolina state statute federal law court rules define how parties engaged in litigation are allowed to communicate about a case and define what information is protected confidential or accessible to the public and the media over the last few months during your public comment period several speakers have made statements with regard to the marcus smith litigation some of the comments had a common theme asking for transparency in government i would just like to take a moment to address some of those comments of course transparency is a good thing in government we're in the city attorney's office and in the greensboro city government have consistently maintained that the transparency that is called for by state law there are times however when state law restricts the city's ability ability to disclose documents and information like criminal investigation information and personnel records as two examples additionally with the city's participation in a litigation matter even one that involves significant public interest the city is required to participate in that litigation under the rules of the court before which the case is being litigated in this case a federal court this is the path chosen by any plaintiff when filing a lawsuit in this particular case there were a set of rules regarding matters disclosed in the discovery phase of litigation that were negotiated between the parties to the litigation and proposed to the court the court approved those agreed upon rules in an order to the parties known as a protective order so i want to be transparent in saying that these rules about disclosure of materials not otherwise available to the public were first agreed upon by the parties and their council and then issued as an order to the court of the court these mutually agreed upon rules buying both sides equally and are generally available for public review in the interest of time i won't go through the entire protective order uh that was filed in the court docket i will however call your attention to paragraph 10 of the protective order which comes after all the defined terms are laid out in the document it states in relevant part as follows all information documents disclose or documents disclosed in discovery in this litigation and not otherwise available to the parties shall be used for by the receiving party solely for the purpose of preparation for trial pre-trial proceedings and trial of this action and not in connection with any other litigation or judicial or regulatory proceeding or for any business commercial competitive political personal or other let me repeat or other purpose until such time as the documents are filed publicly in the court with the court to that end on behalf of the city we have made a motion about the disclosure of discovery materials and related conduct in relation to the court's protective order the grounds for that motion are set out in a public filing that matter as will as a result be addressed to the court speakers from the four have all have uh suggested that the city's appeal of the federal magistrates ruling requiring the city to disclose body-worn camera footage of 50 incidents where a hobble type device was used on people other than mr smith as an example of the city attempting to is an example of the attempt a city attempting to suppress information the reasons for the city's decision to utilize the appeal procedures are fully explained in the legal papers that have been publicly filed where we seek the court's guidance on several legal issues implicated by the magistrate's rulings these are issues that no court in north carolina has previously considered and the court's rulings on the appeal will provide important guidance to cities and courts going forward we have made that case to the court and we appreciate the court's attention to these important issues finally the speakers on this topic before council have asked the city to settle the case of course settlement is one way to resolve a litigation matter when the parties are able to reach an agreement that resolves the matter the city has engaged in settlement discussions in good faith but has not as of yet been able to reach agreement also the mediated process that has been engaged to have these discussions requires that the parties agree to keep these discussions confidential unfortunately bits and pieces of those discussions have become public i would caution anyone from thinking that these bits and pieces of information allow anyone not involved in these discussions to have any real understanding of the party's positions on what might be acceptable to resolve the case or what transpired during the mediation process thank you and i will note that yesterday there was a motion to intervene just one sec okay uh we i just want to conclude okay we appreciate the thoughts the various thoughts that have been shared with respect to this litigation the city will continue to forward with defending the case pursuant to the rules and procedures of the federal court unless all parties can come to an agreed upon solution thank you thank you and i was just saying yesterday there was a motion to intervene um filed by the guardian ad litem for one of the children to see that they have standing in the case at this point so mr city manager nothing further can we have a motion to adjourn all in favor say aye aye opposed we are adjourned [Music] just be careful 415 um