[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] that's a really good question okay good evening everyone we are going to bring this meeting to order um today is Monday February 5th the mayor is traveling and and so I'm going to preside over the meeting this evening we'll start with introductions and we'll start to my left Patrick Baker City attorney Victoria Wallington at large Lana Mayfield council member at large Mard District Six Ed DRS District Seven Malcolm Grand District 2 Marcus Jones city manager Dante Anderson Dante Anderson mayor protim District One d as at large good evening margerie Molina District 5 Ariel Smith lead city clerk excellent so as you all know today was was our full day of committee meetings and as we agreed as a full Council we are going to begin to use this first Monday of the month meeting a little bit differently than we had over last term So today we're going to have a truncated overview from our committee chairs around the most Salient important topics that came up and then we're going to spend some time talking about um some of the one of the key topics that is top of mind for us that we'll be voting on in the future uh potentially next week which is our quality of life ordinances so first I want to kick it off and I'll start at the top of the morning with Mr Driggs with the transportation and planning committee uh thank you madam Vice chair uh mayor pan so the members of the transportation planning and development committee are myself as chair Miss Molina as Vice chair and council members Graham Johnson and watlington we had three topics of conversation one was an update on cats where we were heard that the ongoing remediation process of cats continues no there big breakthrough news there uh the FTA review is near completion so we expect to get that report from the feds in the near term uh and the transition to the new bus Management Service is in is occurring right now is going on over the next couple of weeks uh there was a question raised in committee about the status of the uh the repairs to the trucks uh and this is part of what we were told already about the process of remediation of issues at cats uh basically those are are uh being sent out and I think Mr Kagel if you're here uh perhaps you could give us just a quick highlight on that one yes sir uh Brent Kel interim CEO for cats um good evening everyone so there were questions about the status of the what we call the truck maintenance contract trucks are the wheel assemblies on a train there are three sets of trucks per Light Rail vehicle so we entered into a contract in July first we sought approval from City Council in April of 2023 to amend an existing contract with Seamans entered into that contract with seamons in July uh to conduct truck overhaul maintenance on all of the fleet uh as we were working through this with Seamans we also added a technology system a new technology system which will be the first implemented uh such system in the United States for light rail Vehicles this technology system is implemented across the world just not in the United States yet so so we view uh the contract as a win for Charlotte um as well as for all of our passengers total value on the contract is $ 58.6 million uh that contract again covers the entire fleet plus the technology system and it meets our uh heavy maintenance or truck maintenance needs uh well into uh 2028 by working with Seamans we also expedited the contract we were able to cut approximately 2 and a half years off of the estimated delivery of all of this work by working with Seamans to expedite the work the primary way that they are Expediting the work is they have opened a second shop in Florida uh prior to this all of the trucks went to California for service and now they will go split between California and Florida for service Florida representing a much uh shorter travel time so where are we today all of those contracts are in place it did take Seamans a little bit to stand up the shop do make ready purchase the necessary equipment to do the maintenance and set it up in Florida that is completed as of today the cash spend on the contract is $22 million and over by April of 2024 we expect to have received 10 truck sets back so that's 30 total trucks a truck set is the three trucks required per Light Rail vehicle um as well Seamans is starting to install the technology system on vehicles once they install one set or one the technology system on one vehicle we will start the beta testing with seens with the E expectation that the full Fleet will be outfitted with the new technology system over the next 12 months again I will note this puts us in a much better position to ensure that we do not end up in in uh behind on maintenance again um and it's all well within budget and has been um and has been uh accounted for in our uh reserves and as it's being paid for thank you Mr Kagel uh within budget meaning that because of the underinvestment and maintenance in the past there were funds available at cats to pay for this activity so we're not actually incurring uh new commitments as a result of that and the technology just to explain was a monitoring system for bearings which would uh basically give us realtime indications of the health of the bearings uh meaning not only that the risk of any failure uh of those wheel assemblies is reduced but we're able to schedule maintenance on a more Dynamic basis like in your car when it tells you okay it's time to it's it's not a rigid schedule and uh that that could give rise to more efficiencies was that a reasonable description that is exactly right the new system is a predictive maintenance system and allows us to better plan that yes okay thank you Mr Kel so uh another topic we talked about in committee today was uh the referral the Council made to our planning people uh about the N1 uh low density development and basically the duplexes and triplexes what the mix should be and so on and essentially what Miss Craig told us was that they were studying in particular 5 acre and larger sites because those are ones that are subdivisions where you start to get into streets and things so that's uh their particular Focus her recommendation was that we um that she consult with the Udo advisor group with that mix of people who have been and and develop a proposal to bring back to us based on our conversation with them so I think that's where that's going but what did happen in committee was a pretty Lively discussion around what about locations smaller than 5 Acres because a lot of the feedback we've been getting relates to development that's happening by right in those so we asked that she interpret that referral that she got to include less than five acres since we didn't specify in the referral what it was going to be um uh we also got a moil a Mobility update from Ed mcken talking about our um uh the way the projects that we've identified 2,000 projects we've been identified Mobility are now being shaped into 16 different districts and into a prioritization scheme in order to develop further uh I suggested him in the meeting that it would be helpful to me and maybe to all of us if we could get a more comprehensive framework work of the connect beyond our strategic Mobility plan this newest plan uh and so that we all understand what the interdependence is I guess right we need uh uh we're going to need some Revenue Source uh hopefully next year and uh so how does that inform the work that Ed's doing so I think uh you understood that we expect to hear back from you about that Ed thank you uh and that's it for transportation does any Committee Member want to add something thank you Mr Driggs and I wanted to say thank you to Mr Kagel for pulling together this information because we asked him to do that today so yeah very quick turn around miss ashir you had a question um Mr DRS for the planning committee I mean from the planning staff uh what you're looking at it's five and above so I didn't catch what was the plan for development for 58 Acres or below five acres and below so essentially what the committee said to miss Craig was uh uh everything you said about five and above is fine but we want you to think about five and below because that's a real issue for us right so the subdivision context that she was looking at is one thing but these smaller sites and the ju to position of certain types of development is another so she just said that she would work on that we'll hear back from her so were there any recommendation from Miss C on development of 5 acres and up uh and Below now based on the committee meeting today and our request she's going to uh look at the the issues she said they're kind of different right so she's going to work on the five acres and above as a sort of subdivision topic but then think about also the feedback she got from us on the smaller sites which is where a lot of the push back we're getting is coming from gar okay so we'll we'll get more info on that we will should follow up okay so there is no recommendations as of right now no I think the next thing will be for her to talk to the Udo advisory committee and shape up her thinking on some of these things because what she did point out is it starts to Branch out as you work on this you realize that you're not she did mention to us that she would be following up separately on for example the trees question oh okay so uh second item you had brought up was a Mobility plan and 16 zones I I didn't quite follow that well this was the uh we got teased with this a little bit during the retreat but basically there are now 16 development areas that have been identified on the city map and uh with sort of special needs in each location around the whole city and the idea is now to take all of these projects that we have the 2000 ones assign them to those geographies look at the local needs and think uh on a data d driven basis taking into account safety traffic flow and issues like that what our process would be for prioritizing within each of those is that okay all right cool so do we have a list of those 16 that would be part of the Strategic Mobility plan booklet do we have those 16 areas yes that that's the thing that and if you strategic Mobility plan and uh well maybe the manager can come in on that yeah uh council member Ash we uh as we were trying to uh do as few presentations as possible at the annual strategy meeting uh one of the things we kicked ourselves with is maybe we should have gone a little bit more in depth with these 16 um Strategic investment areas and so what um Ed was able to do today was to tease a little bit today is and so what so what we were going to do is just put it in your packet on Thursday but we wanted to give you some context first today and so um we'll we'll give you more information around those areas but um what a tried to do today was just to show you that they existed over 2,000 projects down to these 16 areas and if you start to think about what we're doing in the corridors add another six to those and think about all that goes into building these areas some of its infrastructure some of its Business Development so we would take that in and that's what Mr DS was trying to say these geographies are are not all the same I thought I did say that you did uh so two other things if I may quickly um Miss Craig pointed out to us that one of their considerations in this was these targeted growth areas and so it wasn't clear to me at least in the meeting that those areas had been identified by Council or agreed by Council or that the criteria for for defining them so I just suggested to her that if that was going to be a a metric that they use maybe we should know what it is cuz it's not in our plan right now um and the other thing we talked about was the etj and how our process affects the etj areas because we've been hearing from those uh what I explained in the committee was that the etj falls under our jurisdiction pursuant to an interlocal agreement right so that if people in the etj feel that they're not represented they can talk to their County Commissioner and just say look you guys made the deal with the city so you know uh please talk to them about the concerns that we have and uh they're in a special situation so I think that was it okay it I I I will have I mean I will have more questions I just need to look at the 16 areas uh so once we have those um I'm sure Council will have a say in how certain projects are prioritized so that will be part of the next step I yes I did warn Mr mckenny he's going to get a call from each council member each district person and to fasten his seat belt that's right yeah yeah absolutely thank you so more to come on Thursday in packets with that with that information okay any other questions Mr Bard yeah Mr manager uh from our takeaway at the retreat um are we on track for a February um vote by Council again not that Council votes but for us to be more locked into to specific items in our appetite like the silver line so thank you Mr viari I I would say that uh two things I don't know it's February but we're definitely on track and let me tell you why so there were a few referrals that came out um on Thursday from the mayor one of which went to the tap committee that they began a bit of a discussion today around the projects then there's a work group that's going to talk a bit about and I don't know the best way to say it is um how do you take this those projects look at what's in the Strategic Mobility plan what's in the 2030 plan from cats and have something that is related to the City of Charlotte so all I'm asking is that I think you're we're saying the same thing but you're saying you want it now but I what all all that sounds great I would encourage you guys to go back and relist to our discussion as a group and what we voted on which was in February we would bring forth whatever critical strategic level questions that we've never voted on as a body and we will go down that path and the one I then clarified after was is the Silver Line something we are willing to to table or not because either one is a fine answer it's just it means two different things and we've never addressed it as a group sure and and I'll take another crack at it which I thought we were aligned is that um the prioritization of the projects related to rail is up to the MTC yeah but what we discussed again we don't need to rehash it all I would request you and your leaders go back and relisten to exactly what we said and agree upon as a group and I think if you do that you'll see we said something very specific that did not overrule the MTC it did not say this is what we're going to do it said for Charlotte one of multiple bodies that's part of the MTC this is what we are willing or not willing to do we'll take a listen thank you here okay all right thank you Mr Driggs we'll move on to Mr Graham in the uh Economic Development Committee thank you uh Madame mayor protim the committee met as all committees did today Vice chairman Mitchell barari drgs and mileno uh we had three agenda items um as all committees did we um went over our Performance Management framework uh that we um discussed at The Retreat uh this was a carryover and the staff is align on those um recommendations that came out uh that was just for information only the bulk of our meeting uh today which really centered around the impact of Uptown vacancies uh this topic was uh introduced to the committee at our January meeting uh this was a part two version of that uh just for a summary of the um this was a policy referral to the um to the committee to conduct a comprehensive review of other cities to review initiatives underway uh to develop a framework for strategy policies on how the the city might participate and to propose for consideration of Phil city council any recommen recommended strategies and or policies uh and so that was the charge that the committee was given um today's meeting was as I said a um uh part two of a discussion that that started last uh month um Uptown vacancy um and vacancy in general is not a a topic just um for Charlotte is something that we are facing Nationwide uh I refer everyone to a 60-minute piece that was done on the topic I guess about u in January as well and I'll make sure that um trace and I get it out to all the committee members I think you'll really get a a great understanding of the issue that that we're confronting um for an example just vacancy in Charlotte um the airport there's 25% vacancy up there uh Valentine there's about 28% vacancy you University City about 35% vacancy um as for uptown Charlotte there's a 940 total floors in uptown Charlotte 940 165 have full floors available uh 22 suas floors are available five assets have 50% off available full floors and 31% of all full floors available are within non-owner OCC occupi buildings so obviously there is an issue um that we're confronting in uptown Charlotte uh today we heard from City Partners they had a design competition uh and they kind of gave us their perspective of the work that they're doing in reference to Uptown vacancies they Illustrated and gave an example of a number of projects based on their design competition of things we can do for Uptown conversions um uh Apartments um um um schools um a wide variety of other options that could be available retail uh opportunities um etc etc um one in particular that we discussed was the um let me get Brooklyn and church property which was a design winner uh as well as close proximity to uh uh Panther stadium and it's The Old Duke original building um that is um actually being converted right now and or not being converted but are are going through the process of conversion um with the proposal that they're looking at trying to see if they can make come to reality um that particular um conversion um talks about Workforce Development um uh programmatic funding and partnership um environmental lead uh community space housing um and so we took a look at that uh with some questions that we asked the committee to ponder uh one is was there an appetite for public investment and public in church um if so what type of benefit would you like to see uh and this tax increment Grant or take a potential Tool uh we heard a had a robust discussion um I think um we all had um were in align that we ought to take another baby step forward uh in terms of um um um working towards um being a possible um public participation right um a baby step not a full step uh but a baby step that we're willing to kick to Tire ask additional questions ask staff to go back and give us a lot more information and reference to what other cities are doing um and reference to to public investment in these type of um projects that was a great discussion uh it's an ongoing discussion um the problem like I said is not uniquely charlot um there are no best case examples Nationwide that we can go to for answers because we're all struggling with the same thing so um more than likely people will be coming to Charlotte saying what are you what are we doing uh as a a pilot program so uh that conversation will be continued um and upon getting additional information from staff but again a lot a lot of homework needs to be done a lot of question needs to be act uh reference to how we move forward and lastly um we had a very brief introduction to the small business uh strategy um again small business is one of those things in economic development that doesn't get a whole lot of fan fear because it's not big and fancy and sexy like Workforce Development but it's the bread and butter of what we do right it's the blocking tackling of of Economic Development outward mobility and so uh they will be going through a year-long u strategy um evaluation Outreach uh looking at small businesses those that's been defined for 50 employees or less uh and we'll be bringing some more information back to uh the committee but really really um I think staff um did a good job in terms of kicking this thing off for small business there are a lot of interest and the committee level around small business and Workforce Development for certain uh and we want to make sure that at the appropriate time we invite Danielle to come and make a presentation before the committee because there's a lot of questions around her activities and we think it's time for her to say hey that does it it was a a really good discussion in your committee meeting and uh I think as it relates to the vacancies up town you know we left it on a positive note saying this is a challenge but of course it can be an opportunity for us to reimagine a part of our Uptown and really lead in in an effort that is something that's Nationwide that many many of the large cities are facing so miss air you had a question yes uh thank you chairman uh Graham mentioned vacancy rates and um there are higher vac vacancy rates in University and Valentine so are we looking at all the Office Buildings or just up down Office Buildings that's a very good question is something that I also pointed out at the committee meeting is that we have vacancy Citywide that's right obviously today's topic was about Uptown because I think because of the demonstration project that charlott c City partners had produced this competition and so the focus of the conversation today was certainly on Uptown but obviously when you look at the side that we got today and you saw the heat mat for Uptown there are a lot of issues are uh in uptown but there's a lot of issues throughout the whole city as well so that was that was acknowledged okay now I appreciate you recognizing that um so I I think we need to be thoughtful and mindful as we come up with solutions to address office vacancy issues because I see a slippery slope here uh are we going to provide the same sort of support to areas like University or East Charlotte or West Charlotte or Valentine uh I I don't think we need to cherry pick one over the other I think all parts of our community deserves the same level of support as Uptown um other cities I read an editorial on Washington Post over the weekend and um certainly this is not an issue unique to Charlotte all cities Across the Nation are trying to struggle with I mean I struggling with this San Francisco being one and New York and others um and I read in that editorial where zoning plays a big part in that uh where cities are looking at zoning and how do they make the zoning proc process uh where really zoning is designed more for new development but also for existing how do we make our how can we make the process more um streamlined uh where it doesn't take 6 months or a year uh because time is of the essence to address some of the conversion uh while we recognize that not all buildings will qualify for conversion because certainly there is plumbing and all that but there are certain buildings that will be a great um will be great for conversions I think if we can look into that as part of the committee discussion because I think that is something where it can make small investment can make big impact and that we can apply throughout the city uh tax increment Grant I I I I don't know if I can support that um I I struggle with that knowing what I know now I haven't looked at the presentation but just from the report I I just I'm not on board with tax increment grants so I I just want to go on record saying that uh but I would be looking at other processes uh City processes specifically and how we can streamline that and what else I wanted to add um okay I I'll come back to that I'll look at the presentation um but I might have full of questions on thank you well I just want to make one comment I I think your your spot on on on your observation in reference to the scale and the scope of the issue throughout the city and I think I acknowledge that I'm almost certain this week I'll get a phone call from University City Partners as well as the um the partnership in South South part uh in reference to some of the issues that they're having over there as well and I left the committee meeting uh indicating uh to the group a couple of um warnings right um one that we can't help everybody government is not the singular source to answering these questions we can be part of the solution but certainly Citywide we can't be the solution um that's not attainable for a wide variety of reasons uh and then secondly it's also um you know when you look at the heat map that we saw in reference to Uptown you know and I wasn't at the first committee meeting I was out of town but I went back and reviewed the tape and the thing that astonished me was in in other cities where they're talking about buildings have to go right and so I think that we're going to have to have a a really really ad doubt conversation uh in the community about this and this is a a scenario that's going to be with us for a while these vacancy rates won increase overnight council member bukari uh and I were thinking along the same thoughts about a more aggressive effort in reference to uh corporate recruitment um for some of these vacancies Uptown which is you know everyone has it's not a secret everyone knows that's part of the strategy right throughout the country and so we'll be competing with other other cities throwing in sen was trying to get folks to come here but you know he made a number of uh good points reference to how do we kind of make it sexy now for these folks who want to come and I fit the buildings um so there's a number of things that we kind of threw out that we have to address and we acknowledge that thank you Mr Graham uh Mr drgs um this is a very interesting uh for one very creative work by Miss Dodson and and uh the the people participating in the competition responsive to the concern we have about the empty space but it kind of opens up you know other topics like we're creating housing great what kind of housing who gets to live there uh and it's going to take a whole different value calculation compared to what we're used to right if we're talking about putting public money into this um what is it worth to us not to have an empty building or uh what kind of uh again what kind of residence do we create so um uh it's going to take creativity on our part I I wanted to say also uh and by the way I think Mr B you mentioned we shouldn't uh we should try to take this opportunity to do something that's sort of scalable like create a model for this type of transaction would that be an accurate representation uh and I agree with that you know uh we we don't want a peace meal this thing we have a very large problem it would be nice to get this deal done for for what it's worth but it it may or may not be responsive to the larger problem may not be something that we can replicate uh I did want to say about the tig uh I have reservations as well uh to me a TIG ideally is a case where some infrastructure that the city would pay for is being paid for by a developer and we're paying them back by giving them the tax break right so in my mind the question always is is this something that is legitimately a city obligation right and it's basically financing mechanism so U uh I agree that we should look critically at what is being funded by the take but I think Miss Dodson referred to the fact that we would be looking at you know the types of things that might be eligible for a TIG you can't do just anything with a TIG uh so uh I wouldn't uh personally take it off the table entirely but I'm wondering if what we can do with a TIG and what is needed in order for this project to be realized aligned perfectly and whether it then Works its way back to a CI P or other ask uh but that's it I I just think we need to wait and see uh very interesting creative and uh definitely worth following as you said to The Next Step okay thank you Mr Graham um were you done do we have some Miss Mayfield thank you Mr manager question on the lines of a discussion of we being government where to step into this particular arena with noting that we cannot pick certain locations and not others before we even entertain a real conversation it will be helpful to know what due diligence and clawbacks do we have in place for each of those buildings what have you done to secure space Have You reduced your rent have you thought about diversifying who's coming into that space because we're having simultaneous conversations we're having conversations with small businesses not being being able to afford to get access to space we're having conversations in our Arts Community with them not being able to afford access to office or meeting space so there are some things that can be done that may not necessarily agree with whatever Financial bottom line they're looking at that needs to be exhausted prior to coming to government and asking government to step in because at the end of the day we have conversations about the cost of doing business if the cost of doing business are certain things then it's certain steps that must be taken before you even before there should be any conversation or cuz you have authority up to 500,000 to do certain things before anything comes to your Des asking for any money it needs to be very clear that they've exhausted the avenu that are already out there because that very well could achieve multiple goals for those small businesses for our Arts community and for them to have Revenue coming in before any tax dollars come to the table okay no additional questions we're going to move on to miss azira for the budget governance and intergovernmental committee thank you mayor P so first let me recognize committee members uh Vice chair Mr bukari committee members council member Mayfield council member Brown and council member Mitchell uh we had three items on our agenda we had Federal and State Legislative agenda second item we had was the budget development schedule and last we had just uh went over performance objectives that I don't think I need to rehash those because those were discussed at the retreat but I will go in depth on those first two items uh so thank you Miss Burch for passing out federal and state legislative agenda if you can all just take a look at that uh quickly um and see if you have any questions concerns but in nutshell um there shouldn't be any surprises pretty much what we have been discussing around um Mobility Aviation upward Mobility digital inclusion immigration and Public Safety all environment housing all of those issues um have been included in our federal and state legislative agenda as you can see um you will see under Mobility um that we have a specific focus on building out of the Strategic Mobility plan uh I know that that was one of our key priorities out of our Retreat so I just wanted to emphasize that so in addition to those that's already been in front of you there are other items that we did discuss so first item we discussed was Powell Bill uh but we decided to not include that because Mobility plan discussion would cover that so uh we decided not to pursue that we were not successful in previous years in restoring pow bill um and uh our Mr Dana Fenton he's not in the room okay well he's he suggested that it would be an uphill battle so we decided to we decided to not include that on our legislative agenda um second we discussed State funding in depth about uh project breakpoint so as as many of you remember we were able to secure $20 million in budget allocation from general assembly last year uh for our Chinese facility and uh committee discussed how we could potentially use those funds to further our tourism goals and uh recruit additional tourism assets or to use those funds for maintaining our existing tourism assets we were told by Mr Fenton that that funding um has already been reallocated behind the doors um so that was certainly a surprise to some of us uh at the committee level we did not know that budget reallocation had already happened before even the public discussions have started um and last um we discussed cmpd's uh support I know police chief have advocated for additional funding for the DA's office for our Courts for juvenile support uh we are waiting on our housing and safety committee's recommendations uh but we do have a a deadline here for our State Legislative agenda which is April before they go into a session so we'll try to work around that timeline with our housing and Safety Committee chairwoman Dr watlington to add those items excuse me um so that's that's all on State Legislative agenda on federal really there were no changes other than uh we appreciate um all that's being done we certainly also highlighted the fact um where we need to acknowledge Senator Tom ts's efforts to further our immigration reform so stay on the lookout for a thank you note that will be going to this uh Senator chs's office uh I know Dana is working on that with mayor's office and um I also last I also asked about R&D credit I know that some think business Alliance has been advocating for uh we'll get more information on that and we'll decide whether to add that or not um but as you can see from our next steps here we do have um timeline here so this will be in front of us end of Fe February to adopt state and federal legislative agenda so any questions and or concerns on this okay silence means we are good okay um and just the budget development schedule if you can take a look at that so next Monday we have 3 hours budget Workshop our first budget Workshop traditionally we had spent 5 hours we are going to try to do this in 3 hours so let's see if we can uh if we are successful um with the address four items on our budget schedule for next Monday but we will get um at our next budget Workshop which is on Monday we will get um we'll talk about the general fund Staffing and Staffing and compensation existing capital projects and capital capacity and uh committee decided that we the committee will talk uh about uh Enterprise funds such as AV ation water and storm water unless um full Council would like to dig deeper that will not be part of our budget workshops um however uh out of Enterprise funds we will have cats as part of our budget workshops because I'm sure uh some of us especially Transportation committee members might want to dig deeper uh into cat's budget but oh oh also I want to highlight great work that our budget staff is doing we had our budget 101 uh last week which I had an opportunity to attend and we had over 75 people we had room packed and I've never seen room packed for a budget discussion so certainly great way to start our kick off our budget process um so for those of you that are watching online uh please go online we have budget simulator provide us your feedback and have you how you will balance $3 billion budget what what projects that you'd like us to prioritize uh but certainly it's a great Tool uh certainly takes a lot of time once you're into it you can spend like 6 eight hours and still not balance the budget um but it's a great way to provide feedback so there are I think three more virtual engagement sessions and there is one in person that's at Eastway R Center so uh please attend those if you can uh I had a great time just uh hearing from community on on what should be our priorities but that's all on the budget thank you all so much thank you Miss ashir we're going to move on to um the housing and Safety Committee with Miss watlington thank you uh we had two items today much like every other committee we discussed our performance metrics um but in particular we want a deep dive on the ordinances today so in a couple of minutes I'm going to ask ACM Heath to come up and share that with us the second topic that we covered today was in regards to our framework around youth violence and um staff laid out for us outcomes or not outcomes but next steps based on the conversations that we had at the strategy session last week um so over the course of the next couple of months we are going to be deep diving that uh partnering externally as well and we expect that staff will come back with recommendations to our programs and policies to um try to ramp up our efforts around uh youth violence um that's the main things from today more to come in regards to that one thing we did highlight is that that needs to be uh in partnership with the timeline that will support our legislative agenda so as things come out that are not already captured here that we can go ahead and get those in the pipeline um so yes we will look out for more from that um and then today what we'd like to share with you is the current status of the code of ordinances recommendations that came out of committee last month there have been a couple of changes since the committee met so we'll cover that with you as well but we are looking to um answer any questions that you have today so that we can hopefully move toward taking Council action in the coming weeks yeah yeah so Sean Sean as you as you come up um we are we are unless anyone has any questions for Miss watlington and her committee we are closing out the committee discussion um and then just as a reminder uh a few weeks back the mayor asked myself and Mr Bari to work together to come up with some ideas around how we can better utilize this first Monday of the month meeting um so it's an opportunity to have a more expansive conversation on a variety of of priority issues and topics that we the council um have have bubbled up through our prep for the retreat and in other conversations and so tonight we are going to jumpstart this new effort of utilizing Monday evenings with the review of uh this code of ordinances and and what the chief has put forth and some modifications hopefully everyone has received the updated Memo from the chief in their packet last Thursday which highlights the updates there and uh before I sh turn it over to Sean Mr Bard did you want to make any comments about just the use of this time yeah I think the way I level set it is in the theoretical new model right at a mature state which we're not at yet but hopefully we can get towards there will be committee meetings offline work with Council offline work with staff and the the the general work of marching towards long-term goals that are defined should take the form of the highlevel you know six block dashboards and the metrics and the things that have a waterfall of management underneath them but then there how do we use our time and while we are certainly not there yet this is a great example of how okay our time is best used coming in to where there is a blank spot as it relates to the policy that's there for one reason or another as you can tell here and I think the the mission is a lot of work through committees and some points through ad hoc committees through whatever staff a lot of work goes into to before this moment so it's presented in a way that a lot of the questions have been answered but this isn't about presenting the answer this is about presenting here's all the perspective all the views everything the chief and his organization wants everything all of you want and how can you have cash it out where you listen to the others with an open mind and try to find a win-win scenario where you march towards an 110 vote versus a 65 vote so if I was to uh um just kind of articulate the overall mission statement of using this time now is a lot of work went into it this is not about saying oh I've got my thing already in mind it's keeping an open ear both an open mouth to what you want but an open ear to what everyone else wants to see if a path to an 110 that's really how I describe the objective well stated city manager did you have any did you have any comments no I just didn't know if you guys saw the look on Sean's face when his backup came in he had this big smile they weren't going to leave you out there man there have been a lot of discussions over the the years about not just having this as a report out of what happened during the day but really being able to move remove the needle so we appreciate that a couple of things that I would just um say that's on the horizon coming from The Retreat one of the items that you talked about maybe in the space is this concept of um Regional discussions Partnerships with the county the school board things of that nature and Mobility also came up on the white board uh or the parking lot as an opportunity to have a discussion in the space thank absolutely okay Sean we're GNA hand it over to you okay thank you mayor proam so the presentation is brief by by Design just five slides I will be the spokesperson so to speak I am very pleased to have the team here so Jessica battle from the city attorney's office and deputy chief Robinson with cmpd this has been a group effort over the last few months to advance this work and what we'll do is a quick background on the referral itself then we'll highlight the six specific ordinances that were reflected in Chief Jennings Memo from Thursday of last week I'll close out with some highlights related to the non- enforcement strategies that we're advancing in parallel to this enforcement recommendation background for the referral so you may recall that mayor ly released a referral for a review of the city code of ordinances to the housing safety and Community Committee in August of 23 I will read here brief as quickly as I can the Pol the key policy questions reflected in the referral what effect strategies can the city employ in collaboration with Partners to holistically address perceived safety concerns in Center City and surrounding areas what are Community concerns and feedback related to our unhoused population are the revisions to the city code of ordinances to restore criminal enforcement penalties that should be considered to better help our neighbors neighborhoods and businesses across the city to thrive so this referral was discussed in committee Twice first in October of last year and then most recently in January if I could quickly highlight some of the key components from the January committee discussion first was an acknowledgement that if you go back in time it was not the city of Charlotte that decriminalized the ordinances this was really driven by a state action session law 2021 138 commonly referred to as s sp300 which was a 29-page Criminal Justice Reform Bill that had many features one of which was it decriminalized most ordinances most ordinance offenses at the local level when that went into effect City staff embarked on a multi-month process under the direction of council to evaluate ordinances that may have been suited suitable for reinforcement of the or reestablishment of the criminal penalty option culminating in council's decisions in the March and April of 2022 time frame to reestablish criminal penalties for about a dozen ordinances at that time so that was a point in time uh assessment that was done and Council approval on those particular ordinances so fast forward into 2023 and some of the concerns bubbling in the community that were the Genesis for the referral itself being introduced uh in late August one of the requirements of the referral was to have a public listening session which we did in late September there were about a 100 members of the community that participated there were a few council members in attendance and there were really three key themes from that public listening Session One a general perception that quality of life and Public Safety has deteriorated in the center city two support for restoration of criminal penalties on these quality of life related ordinances and three a recognition that enforcement alone would not be sufficient to solve the underlying issues I would like to underscore that while this was a public session that was that was marketed in advance through various channels it just so happened the attendance that evening skewed very heavily towards that the Uptown housed population number of folks in the community that deserve to have their voice heard as they did that evening uh but but I just want to acknowledge uh to the community Advocates some of which I know are concerned about this particular conversation who we had in the room that night and who we didn't finally on December 5th Chief Jennings released a memo to city council which identified eight specific ordinances that were recommended for the restoration of the criminal penalty and then the housing safety Community Committee passed a motion at the January committee meeting which you can see here to move this conversation forward to full Council discussion this evening here are the six ordinances that were reflected in the memo from Chief Jennings last week and these are the titles of the ordinances I know some or many of these may seem to speak for themselves but this is a thing where Details Matter and and I'm not going to read every word of every ordinances but most of these ordinances are fairly short and I think it's important uh as council is considering this to have a really firm Gras ASP around what are the specific behaviors and activities that are prohibited under these ordinances so I'm going to go through each one of these very quickly 15-3 beer and wine consumption possession of open container disposal prohibits consumption or open container on public streets sidewalks or Rapid Transit centers also unlawful to consume on private business premises without permission 15-8 trespassing on Motor Vehicles unlawful to enter another person's vehicle by force or threatened use of force or to remain in a vehicle after having been requested to leave by the owner 15- 82 masturbation in public unlawful to willfully masturbate in any public place in the presence of another person 15- 83 urination and defecation on certain public property prohibited unlawful to Urinator defecate on any public place sidewalk street right of way or any private property without the permission of the owner 15-36 Behavior Uh more specific Ally in city parks and there are a handful of specific prohibited actions reflected in this particular ordinance and they are consumption possession of alcohol drugs burning flammable material or Building A Fire entering an area posted as close to the public lie or sleep in a prone position on seats tables or benches and disturb or interfere with the activities of another person with an intent to disrupt as an aside I would mention that meinberg county has their own ordinance ordinance which governs meinberg County owned parks within the city of Charlotte and they have many of these these same features built into their ordinance which by the way had criminal penalties restored in late 2021 and finally 14- 282 soliciting from Street or median strip this is the only one of the six ordinances where the substantive language of the ordin itself is recommended to have fairly significant modifications in order to ensure that the language is constitutionally sound and this is an item that in a moment I'll ask Jessica battle to comment on in the revised version of the ordinance that's being recommended the essence of it is that it would be unlawful to stand sit lie down or loer or loiter in a roadway or median strip for any purpose other than to cross the road and this would exclude sidewalks of course so um if I could Jessica is there any anything related to the case law review that you would comment on that informed this recommendation for the ordinance on the list of six and then some ordinances that were considered but are not on the recommended list anymore because of some concerns around the first amendment yes absolutely good evening Jessica battle from the city attorney's office I'm first addressing 14-28 to soliciting formally um or currently I should say soliciting from the street or median this matter has a lot of First Amendment issues and I can tell you that the research on amending this ordinance dates back to 2017 there was a case out of the federal fourth Circuit of the United States in which North Carolina is a part of the cases called clatterbuck versus city of Charlottesville in Virginia and in that case um there were issues with their panhandling ordinance and the four circuit was clear that persons have a First Amendment right to solicit funds um in the same way that people have a First Amendment right to protest um religious standpoints points on abortion those sorts of things and likewise people have a First Amendment right to respond and give contributions to those who might be soliciting and with that we tried several times to update this particular ordinance since 2017 many of the federal circuits across the United States have struck down panhandling and soliciting ordinances in various municipalities in the country due to those first Amendment concerns and so the solution here was to eliminate all forms of mentioning um panhandling soliciting arms begging because you have to criminalize the behavior and not the speech the speech being the asking for funds and so we tried to do that please excuse me um we tried to make sure we did that and took away all of those references and made the ordinance proposal that there's no standing sitting light or loitering in the median strips we believe that were this ordinance to be challenged on a First Amendment basis the city could adequately defend that because there is a legitimate safety Public Safety concern in having people in medians causing traffic accidents being hit themselves we are all aware of f traffic fatalities that occur in Charlotte especially in our major thorough Affairs and So to avoid First Amendment issues while we truly understand the needs and concerns of our community members uh that ch has also chosen to recommend what he thinks would be in the best interest of the city in terms of liability and in terms of our officers taking action over unconstitutional ordinances we want to make sure that we are following the case law as currently written um as we move now to the other two ordinances that were previously recommended by the chief's initial memo and then unrecombined on parking lots and 155 uh public solicitation and begging regulated 1523 Laing for the purpose of drug activity um similarly it might be a surprise to some that there are First Amendment issues in those matters as well um people have a right to walk freely in public vehicular areas or parking lots as we would call them as it relates to unauthorized people in parking lots um we believe that it would be hard to Define in an ordinance what is lawful business of being in a parking lot the person who paid to park that could be a lawful person but if they have people who are riding with them if I'm tailgating and I didn't pay for the parking spot but a hundred of us show up to tailgate it could be hard for a citizen to determine what is lawful versus unlawful behavior and that brings up the Constitutional issue of vagueness that a person would not know whether their behavior was criminal or not and that's why this time the chief has removed that from his Rec amended ordinances and last I will reference 15-23 lering for the purpose of engaging in drug activity um there was a case in 2010 out of Winston Salem North Carolina State versus Melo in that particular case the North Carolina court of appeals struck down the City of Winston Salem's lording for drug activity ordinance for the same reason saying that they that there it's unconstitutional to criminalize what would otherwise be lawful Behavior standing in a certain area being associated with people who may or who may have a criminal past as a relates to control substances and with that being said we did not believe that there was a way to lawfully amend this ordinance so that it would comply with the Constitution and therefore that's also been removed from from consideration it's important to note that a lot of the behavior that is not recommended for rec criminalization can be addressed by state statutes and as far as pan handling if someone touches a person they could be charged with assault if they cause a scene we have disorderly conduct or communicating threats and depending on the the way the manner in which the person seeks funds it could rise to the level of a common law robbery if there were to be threats of violence in order to get money um as we talk about Ling for drug activity people who commit certain hand-to-hand transactions are in high drug areas officers can use those in the totality of circumstance cumstances in order to form Reasonable Suspicion to investigate those people and then arrest them if probable cause is determined and I'd be glad to answer any other additional questions that any members of council may have at this time in relation to our ordinance proposals on behalf of cmpd and I have two more slides here so it's up okay like continue okay I'll move quickly thank you Jessica in terms of The Guiding principles that inform the recommendation three very quickly here first and this is kind of a foundational principle consistent with the memo from the chief last week that these were really selected based on a consideration of which ordinances warrant an additional enforcement tool in order to enhance cmpd's ability to maintain Public Safety number two this is a really key point and something that deputy chief Robinson commented on extensively at the recent committee meetings is even if Council were to reach the decision to establish criminal penalties for these ordinances officers still maintain discretion based on the circumstances of what's happening in the moment and there's typically an opportunity to seek voluntary compliance maybe a verbal warning is appropriate maybe a civil citation and of the enforcement option of Last Resort is an arrest so there would be nothing about restoring these penal penalties that would require cmpd in all instances to jump straight to the enforcement of a criminal penalty uh it's something where they have discretion in the moment so on the last one here once again just an acknowledgement from the public listening session and from the advocacy community and from City staff frankly as well is that holistic non- enforcement strategies are necessary in order to address the underlying root cause challenges associated with homelessness we get that on the next slide I'm going to dive into kind of kind of zoom in pretty tight here on a few specific things that we're considering in tandem with this enforcement recommendation but before I do that if you would allow me I would like to take a moment to zoom out for a second just to underscore a number of things the city of Charlotte has done in the last three to five years to demonstrate a very strong commitment to housing and homelessness challenges in our community first with the Housing Trust Fund since the increase of the Housing Trust Fund from a $15 million to a $50 million bond in 2018 we've committed roughly $150 million in support of the creation or preservation of over 6,000 affordable units of those over 6,000 units 25% of those are devoted to 30% Ami households and Below since 2021 the city of Charlotte has committed close to $50 million of American Rescue plan stimulus funding in support of a range of Housing and homelessness related programming including housing support grants to organizations like freedom fighting missionaries West Boulevard Land Trust uh heel Charlotte we co-invested in a strategy with for Brook Hill apartments with mecklinburg county in order to avoid the displacement of the residents at Brook Hill and preserve affordability through the year 2049 we've invested in the expansion of the Charlotte Rescue Mission so those are examples of how we've put the 50 million of arpa that Council chose to devote to housing and homelessness to work since 2020 we've deployed over $60 million of federal stimulus funds for emergency rental assistance to support those households in the greatest need that required emergency emergency support to maintain their house that we supported over 23,000 families through that particular program as you know we leverage our annual federal allocations from HUD cdbg ESG hwa funding and since the year 2020 we've committed roughly $30 million in support of a range of tenant-based rental assistance support of services case management etc etc and of course city council has made a number of very intentional policy choices over the last few years in support of this segment of the population including the requirement that new multif family construction or Noah Noah Investments by the city of Charlotte will have a requirement that 20% of those units be devoted to 30% Ami and below the fairly recent decision by city council to establish a source of income protection policy for City supported housing so as I mention all of those things I'm in no way trying to diminish the the magnitude of the challenges that we're facing as a community as it relates to housing and homelessness just simply trying to underscore that I I believe this city uh this Council and previous councils have continued to lean very heavily into these issues in terms of the zooming in on a few specific items non- enforcement related in tandem with these recommendations I'll go through these fairly quickly current activity uh we believe and and I believe in the advocacy Community uh has been calling for this as well that additional Street Outreach is necessary in the city of Charlotte so with Street Outreach think of bringing the social services to the unhoused population building a rapport with those individuals providing uh case workk system navigation referrals to these individuals um on a dedicated basis so we're working with hearts for the invisible which is a local nonprofit organization we're building on an investment that meinberg county is made in hearts for the invisible to have a dedicated Street Outreach team devoted primarily to the center city so so we're we don't have the contract across the goal line quite yet but we're getting close and we're excited to see that street Outreach up and running that will be done in compliment with the cares team it's not redundant with what we have in place they will complement one another number two every year we have some federal funds that we use for tenant-based rental assistance this is a very important uh funding opportunity as it relates to addressing individuals that were formerly homeless or chronically homeless so we're in the process of getting our current year contracts in place with a handful of agencies for the tenant-based rental assistance I.E the rental subsidies and what we're going to do this year is we're going to have an intentional carve out for 10 clients that are referred specifically from the center city in order to have a little bit more connective tissue between some of the things we're doing on Street Outreach and some of the things that we're doing with rental subsidies and Supportive Services recognizing that broadly speaking of course we're trying to address housing and homelessness challenges across the city and the full County uh but there are uh clearly a great there's clearly a great need in the center City itself uh increasing public restroom access in the center city there's a need for that uh there are a number of things that we're doing in collaboration with meinberg County and I I'll I'll start from the smallest and and move my way up so first there's a nonprofit in the city of Charlotte called hope Vibes and among other things they have a a mobile truck it's it's about the size of a of a large U-Haul truck and in that truck they have two full bathrooms including uh two toilets two showers two sinks and they have three washers and three fre dryers so this is a really big truck and they rotate this service around it's on Wheels and that particular asset is a need of a major refurb and and uh repair project so the city and county in Partnership are going to get the Hope tank back on the road um I would set expectations a little bit there are clearly limitations in how many places they can visit during any given week uh but they've agreed that they will certainly focus on the center city as one of their target areas so that's the first thing second in collaboration with the county we're going to have a couple portn set up around North College and 11th Street pretty close to the County's homelessness homeless Resource Center County's agreed excuse me to have the port John placed on their property so we're taking care of the Contracting we will fund that for up to six months I'm also working with our general Services team to identify another area in the city that's suitable for for Porta John's and third I've mentioned the Portland Lou before it's a company based out of Portland Oregon they have a design single stall restroom that was designed specifically to address challenges associated with the unhoused population uh in terms of arson and vandalism uh Etc so we're at a point from a city staff perspective that we're ready to move forward with that particular opportunity uh but we're working with the county and giving them some time to do some due diligence because uh I'm getting a little ahead of myself here but what I'd love to do is have the city buy two Portland lose and the county is doing an evaluation I'd love to see if the county could possibly I can't commit anything for them today um allow us to have those Portland Le placed on County property and that they would operate and maintain those over the life of the assets so we're leaning into that as as fast as we can and just received a current quote from the company last week in terms of planned activity I would just remind you once again we've been talking about a home for all for a couple years this is the community framework focused on housing and homelessness working very closely with meinberg County on this United Way was selected as the quarterback agency F year fiscal year 2025 is a big year where this effort starts to ramp up the county is evaluating the $4 million funding ask to support the activation of a home for all work the city is evaluating a roughly $12 million funding ask and as has always been the vision the United Way is embarking on a private sector fundraising strategy for this work as well so this is very much intended to be a collaborative effort in terms of the types of things that fall under the home for all umbrella some of what we're looking at that $12 million investment would be prevention measures that you're familiar with we've talked before about the idea of legal aid to um have eviction prevention in the community we've talked talked about property provider Recruitment and Retention which is just a long word to say how can we encourage and incent property providers to allow individuals with vouchers in the community to have access to housing and moving down to the bottom item here on the list this is really a concept at this point but it's it's been based on a lot of conversations across the the local ecosystem in this space not just the city and the county but the idea here would be to have a roughly 75 bed non- congregate shelter that would really create a a low barrier opportunity for for the unhoused population it it wouldn't be devoted to individuals just from the center city but once again ultimately I believe what we're trying to build out build towards is you think of a Continuum in your mind where you have Street Outreach and engagement you have Supportive Services uh tenant-based rental assistance providing some short-term subsidized housing options permanent Supportive Housing this would be an emergency shelter and one of the things that we believe would be necessary would be quite helpful is if this had some hardwired support services built into the facility itself focused on individuals with severe mental illness and substance use issues so we're really trying to build out an integrated model here as I'm talking about it it can sound like a bunch of one-offs but but that's the ultimate Vision so I wanted to give you a sense for some of the things that we're doing today um or actively exploring that that we believe are are kind of developing that degree of humanity into the strategy in terms of next steps Council discussion Q&A this evening with uh the possibility of having the vote on February 12th where there would of course be an opportunity for public comment so that's that's the end of the prepared presentation and we're happy to answer any questions thank you Sean and miss battle uh just evidence of all of the work that has been done in preparation for us to have this discussion tonight and I also appreciate you Sean highlighting how much we've done as a city to focus on um helping and addressing the challenges of the unhoused population and the underhouse population so we have several council members who would like to speak to this topic U what I'd like to do is just we'll just go around the table and we'll start with Miss Brown and if you have any questions for Sean or if you want to make any comments that's your opportunity to do so so Miss Brown hold it when you talk turn green so thank you madam protim May protim Dante Anderson so yes John thank you for all of the information that you provided um the president presentation was very nice I like the idea of some of the things that's going to be done in um downtown Charlotte I still hold true to how I feel about Rec criminalization that's not going to change for me um I stand firm on that with a lot of uh grad organizations and Community individuals that feel strong about this um topic that we're discussing very very sensitive to to me as well you fight for what you fight for you believe in what you believe in and that's the person that I am I realize that I am with a group of individuals and we sometimes have to um dig real deep and try to figure out what we're going to do to make things work uh the discretion piece is what I have a problem with and I know when I spoke out on this before I got an email from the fo and I responded to them um I didn't appreciate that email at all coming to attack me on how I feel it's my right to address my concerns as a council member that was put in the seat by the constituents and the constituents only and so I was very upset over that and I wanted to address that and it's the perfect time to do so I also feel like that City Center is a focus point for the city of Charlotte that we are um kind of catering to them and that's not fair because the city of Charlotte has a wide variety of other areas that need to be addressed in the same manner in the same Focus I'm not saying that I wouldn't be willing to work with the committee but we're going to have to Circle back on some things for me I know it's moving into discussion I know that um it's a heated Topic in the community a lot of people will be coming in and have signed up to speak on this topic I just want to share something real fast and I don't want to be really long- winded but I want to you know be crystal clear on how I feel and what my point is on this when we say as a discretion I'm not saying that all officers are going to be willing to just arrest people but I know sometimes when you give push back to some of officers for instance just like we had that incident at bojena on the corner of Airwood in South trian Street the officers used that discretion that day as well and we saw what happened so I want to be Crystal Clear when I say that I'm not going to just sign up and go along just to get along on the ordinance recommended for rec criminalization for one and I wanted to be clearly stated and put on record that I was in disagreeing with the committee uh you know myself and Council woman uh Johnson so I want to be clear and make sure that Brown is on the racket for not agreeing with the committee and so nowhere in downtown Charlotte I went around myself didn't broadcast it you can you can't use the restroom anywhere downtown unless you are a client or you're in a restaurant but if you're just strolling down the street and you want to use the restroom that's not going to happen so it sounds good and I know how long it's taking for me to rebuild my life and fighting for the individuals that come from where I come from it's t it takes a very very long time for PLS like this it they don't just change overnight you can put your slides together put your documents together State what sounds good on record but when you actually put it out there does it really work and I'm just going to use myself for an example coming home and having to check the box trying to get a job you know how long it took for us to have the band the box so someone can get a job but still to this day you still got to check the box to get somewhere to stay so we really need to look into what we can do um there are grad SCH organizations that you have and that you've mentioned but you also said something that bothered me as well that when you had the meeting that it was catered to Uptown Charlotte but that's not the only people that go in uptown and downtown the entire city use Uptown and downtown Charlotte so just because you're not a resident in that area doesn't mean that you can't affluent the area to use it for the facilities and the things that you need to do so that's going to be my position on it and I'm going to stand firm with that it's a no for me thank you Miss Brown Sean do you want to clarify the attendance of the public forum meeting yeah I well I think really I just wanted to acknowledge when I was providing the key themes which were the key themes I didn't want the community to interpret my remarks to suggest that it was a fully representative sample of the community views on this issue um it was a public session it was open to anyone it was marketed as open to anyone um so I I'll leave it at that thank you Miss Molina uh thank you mayor protim um so wow uh council member Brown you hard to come behind girl um I and and I don't disagree with her points I think the one strength in having a body is that we're going to have you know all of these full perspectives come so I don't want to belabor any points that you know council member Brown brought up but I will just add my portion of my initial thoughts around uh the ordinances and some of the concerns that have been raised to me as a result of interacting with the community members I got a call in particular um on Friday from a very engaged Uptown resident and for the record I was actually at that meeting um that um that uh Mr Heath is referencing and a lot of the participation was from you know so I guess I'll preface it with a lot of the participation were from Uptown residents that are actually living in uptown and how they are in particular being affected by uh some of the issues that we're looking to create the ordinance to try to control um that in addition to what we had happen um during the New Year celebration has caused some particular concerns where it comes to you know not only our Uptown residents but our our community as a whole with reference to Public Safety and and things like that so I think it it actually you know inevitably draw drew some additional attention to our Uptown and the emphasis around uh creating you know control with you know not only people who live there um but people who visit there as well so I just you know not to belabor that point but to come back to the call that I received I spoke to a resident um who I I simply adore um her name is Judy Seldon Cohen and she is very active very involved across our community um and although she didn't give me anything in particular that she agreed or disagreed with she had a concern around the unhoused population and how you know if this actually is something that we adopt where are we in coordination with the um I guess the resources that would involve the county and let's say for an example if this was adopted by the council hypothetically and we needed to connect someone to resources where are we in that portion of of I guess the exchange that would need to take place do you do you have any I mean and not there's no pressure to answer that today but is that something that if this were to happen on the you know the 12th for an example uh for the unhoused population are those resources in place or is that something that we'd have to kind of deal with as we go do you do we know that yes I mean I think this would if the ordinances were restored for criminal penalties then if to the extent there are homeless individuals that are trying to access the system nothing would change in that right you know that as a county as a city we have the coordinated entry process which is the way that anybody in the community that's looking to access resources and programming uh that they may be in need of due to their housing situation or lack thereof that's how it that's how it would start that would be unchanged okay because I I think the only thing I would add um and I know that we have like an intergovernmental connection but I think now that we are um considering this for adoption I think inevitably we're going to have to you know have kind of a continued touch point with our County counterparts so that you know we have some level of agreement with the resources that they have access to as opposed to what we have access to and and see how we can widen that for you know the humanity in this right I think everyone in this room agrees with and and there's no points missing on you know the need for Humanity as we continue to work towards you know uh policies that will protect our residents um and so you know understanding that this is a continued work in progress I don't want to belabor any additional points but um that was only my initial thoughts around it so I'll just you know listen for the rest of the council and anything that's all I have mayor protim thank yes city maner thank you mayor protim so to uh council member Molina's appoint just now um the county manager myself Anthony trotman as well as Sean Heath and um United Way have been committed to have conversations just like what you've asked to how how can we make sure that we can be um I guess more seamless in our operations and some of uh what Sean has presented tonight is a result of those initial conversations with the county in the United Way excellent I just want to also say Sean attorney's office thank you for your work on this I know this is difficult we are balancing something so very delicate for our community right so I appreciate your work uh good to see your deputy chief rson great to see you thank you Miss Molina Miss ashir thank you uh Mr Heath great job um so much progress since we last receiv an received an update on this great to see this is not an either or it's not enforcement or support it's not mutually exclusive we are doing all of it we are working on a addressing homelessness we are addressing affordable housing crisis we are addressing access to public restrooms we are investing more money into Support Services um so this is a truly comprehensive plan to address Supportive Services wraparound Services as well as uh enforcement and I have shared this at the committee meeting this is not just about Public Safety but this is about public health issue because we got to make sure that we are keeping all our residents our visitors uh our uh unhoused and housed population in safe and sanitary condition no one should be uh no one should have to live in unsanitary condition um regardless of where they go in our city um I would like to understand just I I need clarification on a couple of items uh number one this is is going to be in coming in front of the full Council in February when does it go in effect so the last time Council went through this process the ordinances that had the criminal penalty restored it was effective as of the date of adoption I would defer to Jessica if there's any discretion for Council to to consider another approach I I was second that that it was the date of the vote that they went into effect so I would like to suggest that we have an effective date of March 1st it would be a more Humane uh it would be more Humane response because this will give our nonprofits our partners an opportunity to get the message out about access to public restrooms where they are located um and getting that information is absolutely critical to ensure that we are being um we are we are having a Humane response to our unhoused population uh also Mr Heath you highlighted this that uh law enforcement alone cannot address this on their own this is really a community problem that requires Community solution uh with that I would like us to look into our mental health support I know cmpd has a team that goes out there but they are not available on weekends from what I understand uh we would I would like to see if there is a possibility to expand our mental health support uh I don't think officers should be serving as mental health counselors they already have a lot in their plate so if we can figure out a way to expand our mental health support as part of this comprehensive strategy um that adds to our Humane response council member may I just ask one followup are you referring specifically to the car's team yes okay thank you yes do you know the hours I from what I understood they were not available on weekends is that correct last that I heard it was Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. and in terms of the geographic Scope when it was first rolled out in late 2022 it focused on the Central Division that was expanded to include Metro in the middle of calendar year 23 so I would like us to see if he can expend the hours if he can expend the hours on weekends that would be helpful I know Robert Dawkins and others at the Grassroots level have advocated for this and I think that's a fair request uh it will add to our more Humane response to our unhoused population or anyone who is struggling with mental health illness and um I um I certainly appreciate how Mr Jones looks at everything with um sort of assessment right uh we we have how do we assess whether our ordinances that we are recommending today is doing what we intended it to do so if we can have some sort of assessment after it goes in effect let's say 12 months 18 months down the road does it really doing what it's what was int what it was intended to do so uh I I think having that in place would be helpful Mr Jones um but I certainly appreciate the work the committee has done uh council member chairwoman Dr watlington Vice chair uh council member Mayfield I think you have come a long way from where we were um I just appreciate that we have a partnership with the county um and and counties really along with the city is investing into addressing the root cause of the issue and that is absolutely critical in addressing um this problem holistically thank you thank you Miss asir um Sean I feel like we have made a lot of good traction on what's before us this evening and the thought processes and uh research behind it and as I've said before this is a multifaceted issue um it's not just an UNH house issue it's not just a behavioral issue it's a multifaceted issue and um of many things that we're thinking about approaching this it is an issue that is impacting our residents Uptown uh they live and breathe this area every single day morning noon and night and and I was able to be at the listening session as well along with Miss uh council member Molina and council member Graham and council member Graham and I share Uptown we split Uptown from our representation and so um I I feel really good about the holistic approach specifically the non- enforcement strategies that are multi-prong that we are standing up um to address the root cause of the challenge but I would also say that there is a a broader impact of inaction as well and we have to balance the two so uh the work that the car's team is doing and um the new hearts for the invisible how we're engaging them I think will help tremendously from quart quarterbacking um our our residents to the right resources so I think that those things are all very good a question I had Sean you mentioned the opportunity to bring on um porter potties in in one if not two areas um approximate to Uptown what would be the timeline for those Porta poot units to come online so we'll have the two Porta John's located at North College and 11th online next week and then as I mentioned I'm working with General services to try to identify one more location um we I've had some conversations with cmpd and some local nonprofit organizations to get feedback on how many porta John might be necessary where should we consider putting them um next week doesn't have to be the start and the end of this but we wanted to make sure we had something that was guaranteed to be online potentially during the same week when Council was taking a vote on this that's excellent and you know as I as I had thought uh you had done you know our Our Community Partners have been at the table with us from from the beginning so I don't think u a vote in any way shape or form would surprise them because we've been working with them staff has been working with them the committee members and uh leaders have been working with them so I I believe if and when these do come back online I think we have worked very closely with the the Community Partners to make sure that they're ready um I also think a lot of the things that you mentioned U about the porta potties for example and the hearts for the invisible and other aspects I I'm I'm wondering the effort we need to do to ensure from an Outreach perspective that that information is shared right so we have our Community Partners at the table but to the extent that we can share that from a Grassroots Outreach perspective about these changes is and what potentially might come um I think that would be very helpful so I've heard from many many residents from Uptown but across the city I think the the residents have a very Humane approach to this uh but they also recognize that in particular uptown Charlotte is a is is a pulse is a generator and it really is the face of the city for many visitors who come from the region and outside and so we need to ensure the safy public safety of the residents and everyone who frequents Uptown thank you Mr Graham thank you madam mayor prot could you pull up the last slide where we talk about the um uh no the other one all the other good stuff that we're doing yeah because we don't want to focus on the on the stick right right and I think it's really important that we talk about the holistic nature of what we're doing remember guys three years ago we had people sleeping on the streets in uptown Charlotte still literally and they're still doing that 10 city and there're right and and the point I'm trying to make is that uptown Charlotte um and I represent a portion of it with was Miss Anderson uh is where people go to work they live there and they play there and we've been talking about quality of life issues in uptown Charlotte that goes beyond just the unhoused population for well over a year and a half three years going back to Tent City and I just want to make sure that the community knows and the council knows that we're every time we're not starting from scratch right we're kind of we we we we address the issue of 10 City we address the issue by forming a a CommunityWide task force City County nonprofit organizations the manager was a part of that I was a part of that the mayor was a part of huge corporate leadership and uptown Charlotte create this strategy a home for all which focus on housing as well as homelessness and and made those recommendations and gave it to the United Way to carry out out so there's a series of things that we have done over the last 3 years to specifically address homelessness and housing specifically in uptown Charlotte because it is our corporate living room it's where the region comes to play where people actually live there and I represent Uptown just as strong as I represent Bas for Rong Road or Mountain all lake or coolwood right they deserve the same type of representation uh in terms of issues relating to their quality of life this issue really came to fruition I think last April right uh and I went to a fourth W meeting last May and started beating up the manager immediately right and so we've come this train has been slowly moving while the residents of Uptown has experienced not only issues related to issues related to unhoused population but crime in general that has nothing to do with that house population right there are series of issues and things that we have to begin to take a look at like the conversions um crime in uptown sha which is down 7% but the perception is that is a it's unsafe place to be the millions and dollars of Investments that we'll be making uptown Charlotte in Spectrum arena being one of them right we just did that a year ago almost 250 $50 million um Transit that we're invested in uptown charlott um talking about public consensus for conversion in uptown Charlotte so at some point we have to respond to the emails that we're receiving from our residents right uh and do it in a way that it's not just a stick but it's both the carrot and the stick and we're doing a lot of good things to address the issue isues uh on the ground from a grassroot perspective last year council member Brown we were able to give $500,000 to block love Charlotte to do intrusive grassroot type of work to help with the homeless population in uptown Charlotte some of the recommendations that you see out here in terms of Street Outreach and the public restrooms we've been talking about for months so I'm glad that the management team has is catching up with with some of the recommendations that a lot of us has been saying that we need uh to have a holistic response to this issue and so I think it's really good Sean that you really kind of walk us through in terms of historically what we have done what we are currently doing the issues that are in front of us um but more importantly that we have to be proactive to responding to citizens who live in uptown Charlotte 3 weeks weeks ago we had a a community meeting um in uptown one morning Property Owners property managers residents and the stories they're telling not withstanding the out house population about their personal um experience in uptown Charlotte was chilling and so I think that the the the ordinance is is a small step forward the officers will use a whole lot of the discression right uh and and carrying it out uh I'm not sure there's a need for us to delay implementation right um I think everyone kind of knows it's been certainly a lot of heads up for the last three months where we're headed uh I talked to Liz uh over the weekend I read her editorial today um um I I think she would appreciate what we're saying cuz these are exactly the conversation that we've had uh so I think a lot of the things that many in the uh in the industry are looking for Street Outreach more Supportive Services Public Access to facilities uh and my strong support for a home for all which we didn't really have an opportunity to discuss at the retreat but again it would be um uh political malpractice for us to invest all that time over the last two years to produce this report and not take it across the funish line by making sure that it's funded properly and now that we're we're having I think a meaningful conversation with meinburg County about how we can actually work together to get this thing done and so I will support the ordinance because I support my residents in uptown Charlotte and I I want to support the Investments that we've already made in uptown Charlotte and and I I want to change the perception that uptown Charlotte is not safe at at the same time I also want to provide all the type of support necessary to make sure people help themselves right and so I'm willing to invest war with block love Charlotte in this fiscal year I'm willing to invest in their home for all I would love to build Sean s more SRO housing right where folks can live and get the services they need right there which I talked about how do we redefine our Housing Trust Fund right how do we use those dollarss differently and so I think this is a a win-win right um none of what we're doing is is um um easy right um I don't want to say there's winners or losers uh and what we're doing is just responding to what we're seeing on the ground and I think the response that we are giving the community by putting the ordinance back in play uh is appropriate and certainly I think all the things just outline in terms of the the strategies um that we can we can utilize in conjunction with the county as well as other grassroot organizations those folks are doing the work I think it's the the right direction that we need to go in now I am not a lawyer so I won't pretend to play one but I am certainly disappointed about the parking lots and the drug activities or is being pulled away from it I'm I'm not sure my lawyers at the end of the table Mr Baker I mean what you know no disrespect Jessica U but do we have any options I think we need to because a lot of the conversations I get are from parking lot owners who email me saying listen my parking lot is a wreck because of luding and defecation and people there that shouldn't be there the car breaking in uptown Charlotte a lot coming from the parking lots themselves so uh I heard the the attorney's explanation about why we shouldn't police chief pull it away but certainly um those two ordinance seems to be I think should be included with the rest help me understand why we shouldn't I think the the long and short of it and this is a constitutional law class that that could last for three months on on some of these issues as it relates to panhandling and and loitering and and speech issues in fact uh the uh Supreme Court's going to be taking up a case uh shortly coming out of Oregon in on a number of homeless issues that relate to loitering and where they can be and where they can't be um the main issue is that that if there's criminal activity going on there's going to be some sort of crime happening it's not just the standing around that's going to be the issue they're going to be standing around to do something so there are some opportunities there to uh to address the actual crime that may be committed as opposed to trying to anticipate what their intent is keeping in mind that that crimes there's this thing called men's Rea which is you know what is your intent to do something and if you're not intending to do something if I'm just you know standing around walking around because I just want to get out of the sun I just want to walk around the the parking deck the question is am I walking around the parking deck to do a drug deal or to break into a car or am I doing something else and that's where the issue is of of asking the officers then to guess what the intent of the uh the particular individual is and if there's criminal activity going on um there there are other crimes and other enforcement mechanisms that can be used there so it's just a tricky situation I don't know how much that uh particular ordinance was being used anyway I think there there are some uh anecdotal evidence that that I think they're really focused on the other crimes that are happening as opposed to standing around so I mean again I'm a lay and so so why not why can't we just pitch the envelope and say okay we're going to include it what would that do I mean it's it's it's it's been on before um it's been on before the issue the the issue ultimately is um I would assume that the police department would um you know use their discretion and not just trying to guess at somebody's uh uh men's Rea but that would actually be focused on what their actions are but the other six were discretionary as well right like the young lady who was smoking the marijuana officer used to just didn't use any discretion she just went straight to the point right so it's discretion right and yeah I I I hear you and that's just our recommendation because of the trying to keep the officers out of those those situations where we can but the reality is that life requires them to make those types of decisions all the time um we just try to um avoid them when we can so the committee did vote for those two and then the the chief send a letter saying I take those two back have the committee already voted on those two what up yes that was the way that it transpired so the committee has voted on it yes and then the chief provided the memo last week with the revised recommendations yes so the committee hadn't vote to take back those two I'm just asking correct I'm just I'm just I'm just causing a mess okay I'm just so Council votes should stand right I'm I'm just making a mess I'm just asking right yeah I'm just okay so iiz so just as um the committee valued chief Chief Jennings initial memo and I'm not speaking about the committee right now I I think at a bare minimum having your police chief and your City attorney giving you caution about two of them is just something to consider I I have enormous amount of respect for the chief no doubt about it and Jessica and our the attorney um but you know process matters too right I'm just saying it's okay I'm I'm just I'm just saying that's going to delayed by another month I will say this too in regards to that at the end of the day what comes out of the committee is a recommendation and it can be modified in whatever way that ultimately the council is going to support I'm I'm being malcol tonight you're being what I'm just being silly tonight I'm just trying to prove again you know listen I think at some point for this Council and for me as we move forward uh we we should not be afraid of the unknown on a wide variety of issues because I think that's where we are as a community right we got to take make decisions and not worry what's going to happen if we do something in Raleigh or what's going I mean we just got to not be so cautious and I'm telling you uh a lot of the lot of the emails a lot of the constituents I've talked to um a lot of the activities I'm hearing are sitting around these parking lots just just a point understood and thank you Mr Graham Mr drgs thank you uh Miss Brown I heard you uh I I want to explain why I'm arriving at a different conclusion I don't think anybody could accuse this Council of having a lack of concern for people in difficult circumstances uh and we heard about all of the efforts that are being made to provide early intervention to avoid the situation where it ever gets to where some of these off Every Which Way um I don't believe we are criminalizing poverty or homelessness I believe we are criminalizing behaviors uh and there are many people who are in poverty or homeless who don't engage in these behaviors there are some people who aren't that that do so we're talking about the behaviors and uh we have a huge spectrum of uh ways in which to try to avoid to let it getting to to this point where those behaviors are occurring uh in non- enforcement ways ways that are that show concern for the circumstances of the people involved but at some point as a last resort at the end you you tried this and you tried this and you did this and you did this and the officer said please don't do that and at some point you have got to have the ability to to take to actively intervene and and I believe there's an obligation on us to send to the rest of the community here who don't want to see those behaviors taking place that we that we appreciate them too that that we will not send a message out to everybody that we think it's okay for them and their children to see these behaviors so I'm very hopeful in every instance that we get there before this happens uh but uh there there has to be a point at which we can just prevent it from happening and so that's why I reach my conclusion I I do think that we have also an obligation to our officers not withstanding the instance of bad behavior that you mentioned but the officers are being challenged by members of the public to do something when when these things happen and as it stands now they're powerless to do that I would like to have them use restraint but be backed up with the authority to take action if they requests and and polite uh intervention is disregarded so I will be supporting the recommendation thank you Mr barari thank you um So within the spirit of this discussion being how do we get to 11 right because if well that's the purpose right we'll give it a try I think the writing on the wall seems to me like we could maybe squeak out if not have a couple extra votes for the list that's there maybe even the list that was tabled without the the rest of the process but as I'm listening around the room you know there are three parts to this where if we had a magic wand and we could everyone could and every one of these were solved perfectly one being not allowing it on our streets having the teeth necessary two being how do we not do it that's not in the spirit of criminalizing things and then three how do we have the best wraparound services in the world that the folks who needed either homelessness or P handling are getting it I mean it's everyone is aligned to either all or one more so of all three of those things so I'm wondering if there's a way that we continue forward in the path that's here keep marching forward but I think there's there's more strength with 11 votes on something like that and more we can do Beyond what's just here as a follow on step so I I was I just took a stab at writing kind of you know what what would a outcome statement or a mission statement if you will look like that that encapsulated all that in the form of like a homeless and panhandling New Deal what we're going to do differently than everybody else and I just this is real rough but completely complying with the Constitution obviously and I think there are ways that we can absolutely do that within what was been said here we mandate that no loitering outdoor sleeping or panhandling be allowed in Charlotte full stop so long as one we're not criminalizing the vast majority of interactions we have with the public in this space and two we are proactively providing the vast majority of wraparound services that are needed and in a in a best-in-class manner worldwide so I I think like it's a it's simple to say that but when you get into the weeds of all right what does staff figure out and how do we move forward I think the ordinances we solve for the First Amendment things and respectfully you know it's not a First Amendment problem if I walk in the middle of a four-lane intersection from a safety perspective to handle this I find it hard to believe we can't justify and find reasons why safety wise you know the the the median isn't any different but even beyond that I think when we combine it with we're not saying you can't ask for help which is the Crux of the First Amendment piece here we're saying there are better more optimal places that we are going to lead the world in whether it's a roof above or men shelter or different bathroom uh uh uh facilities that we put around but the point here being we have to take that as seriously as we take vetting the ordinances and putting them out there and then we figure out the protocols in place where one this is just about primarily first hopefully empowering with more teeth but discretion like we talked about but the manager and I have briefly discussed this perhaps the second escalation from there is and this is the wrong word I don't have the right word for it a homeless court if you will not a criminal Iz criminal system court but a place that's more responsible with kind of awareness of the resources and routing people to the proper places where they need the help because I find there's going to be a lot of people that probably don't know about the resources and then once you get through all that you're at the the bottom percentage of people who just don't want the help and that's a different problem than I think we're facing today and then finally yes the judicial system but if we could figure out how to minimize that I think we'd be in a really good spot and then like I said Focus really hard on what is a best-in-class kind of nation leading wraparound Services approach where we're funding those who are doing the great work and we have that backlog filled and we're finding the gaps where there aren't programs there to me that's an 110 approach perhaps people are not interested and and you know we've we've gone through we have gone through approaches in the in the past where we've had narrow margins and they're always dicey so if there's a way Marcus Mr manager that we could have a takeaway or even if we do March forward and I think we should pass both of these we don't stop there because when the items come up as they as they definitely will down the road where we have an issue that we're navigating a 65 council is going to be a lot harder to navigate a response to something we've created which will happen than in 110 because we knew that we we found Common Ground there maybe that's a too much of a pipe dream but I think it's possible thank you Mr barari and and and thank you for trying to get us to a place where you know we can all agree that this is good for the city Miss Mayfield thank you so I actually have a number of questions for you so one it was mentioned by council member Graham the allocation to United Way a number of years ago when was the last update that we received regarding our funding from the United Way do you know or man do you know yes United Way spoke to the housing safety and Community Committee last year to provide an update it will be helpful if that information can be sent back out because what I'm trying to remember is have all the funds been expended and if not where are we Financial wise and exactly what have they done to address this I'm also trying to get an understanding if we go back I think is two slides you identified that we're talking about helping to do the repairs on the Hope Vibes band which has been down for a while I'm trying to understand how we got to that and it might not even be on the slide I think it was in what you was sharing with this sorry yeah so yes so I'm trying to understand how we got to the place of it being a consideration that our funds help to repair your vehicle versus us just working with project outpour so this was really a desire to collaborate with the county uh to take an asset that was out that's currently out of operation and get it back on the road um that doesn't preclude us from also considering opportunities to work with project outpour so it would be nice to know what these dollar amounts are opposed to just this large overview again 2third of our taxes go to the county a third of your taxes come from the city the city has historically stepped Ste in and funded a lot of programs financially the county is in a very different situation today than it was 20 years ago than it was 15 years ago not to mention the county did Institute their tax increase we have not for a number of years there has to be somewhere in this conversation of collaboration and partnership not always meaning the city is going to cut a check there's other ways for us to collaborate and to be at the table it will be very helpful to know what this financial ask is cuzz again for us it may be more beneficial for us to look at the relationship with project outpour which has also already been in the community for a number of years doing really good work in partnership with the libraries which is also a County resource so we're still partnering but without knowing what the cost of this van repair is that's a hard challenge for me to just say well we're going to a partner without knowing what's that dollar amount and what does that look like for us in this contribution the council member Mayfield if I may I mean with hearts for the invisible we're contemplating a contract that would be up to $500,000 in support of Street Outreach with the rental subsidies that's a million dollars of tenant-based rental assistance on an annual basis and the idea is that we would devote a portion of that towards the clients referred from the unhoused population in uptown Charlotte with Supportive Service that would be 250,000 devoted to activate the Supportive Services in tandem with the rental subsidies with the public restrooms the portons of course are fairly modest expense but we can do three or four PTO John for 25 to $30,000 for a six-month basis so in each one of these instances you know we have specific numbers uh the county is showing up in a big way in collaboration across the board on really uh number one number three and then everything under a home for all the county is is right right there front and center um advancing this work in a meaningful way so I just don't want to leave anybody under the impression that that charlot is being asked to to carry the water on all of this stuff I appreciate that those numbers being shared with everyone will be helpful the question that I was going to have for hearts for the invisible is one they're located off of University City Boulevard their regular hours are 9 to5 having that breakdown of what those additional what the expectation is knowing that here's the reality for a lot of people and there are numerous reports and studies that have been done of the window of Crisis and that window of Crisis isn't necessarily 9 to 5 through business hours it's more in the evening overnight weekends having a better understanding of what their hours and the ex expectations are going to be and what that Financial cost is going to be what budget line item is coming out of we already have a lot of funding in rental subsidies to me the conversation would be okay we're going to allocate some of the rental subsidies that we already currently invest in over here versus we're talking about a new line item to cover rental subsidies and Supportive Services we fund a lot of Supportive Services as well as rental subsidies so what would that look like to say okay well 10 of these that we that we've already funded because Unfortunately they haven't been able to be utilized are going to be reallocated for this particular need versus trying to create a new funding line item for it that is a very different conversation for me again I also want to understand we have a MSD in uptown so so are we talking about the funds to cover this additional resources and support that is targeted specifically for Uptown are we saying that we have identified through budget which we already know here's the MSD from University from South Park from everywhere from the MSD of Center City of Uptown from their MSD this is how much we are allocating to address the needs that they have in their area because your businesses are already paying an additional tax in order to help with certain things now yes we could say it's for hospitality and tourism we can also say it's for safety and for the growth and the betterment of the area yes sir so um thank you uh council member Mayfield boy did you open up a lot just now so so let me um go back in time my timelines AR totally align with the council member Grandam but but it's pretty close so uh we've been talking about this for I want to take a giant step back just if I can just have a minute there's been a lot going on around safety and uh this Council for a while and it seems that uh uh Dr watlington is in the center of each time we have one of these conversations whether it's safe Charlotte or whether it's some things we're doing in the center city or whether it's um you know the the last referral to um the committee so a lot of good things all across the Spectrum um as it's related to safety so so I'll park that you are exactly right okay um you have agreements with your MSDS and with those MSDS there's a series of things those dollars can be invested in and that's a conversation I think this Council can have I think uh Miss Wallington started it during the last budget uh discussion but we did so much was going on I this past October I think was around October we talked about arpa and interest that we had from the arpa dollars and I'm over we're over $6 million of just that interest and we said anything that happened around safety when we were ready we could use some of that instead of opening up the budget so so I will tell you that Sean's been very very good with looking at other sources um redeploying sources from whether cdbg federal funds things of that nature as opposed to jumping into that but that has been an opportunity if the council had to do something quick whether it's around you know the UNH house whether it's around you know Public Safety that would be there the last thing I'll say is is this absolutely I'm swimming in a lane that typically isn't the city's Lane I um but I don't see how not to swim there right now because whether you use terms like carrot and stick it it just seems like a holistic approach is the right way to do it and we want to bring as many people along with us trying to have a holistic approach but I hear you loud and clearly about what's happening with different budgets and and allocations of funds thank you for that Mr manager op per f are limited those are one-offs we have partner allocations that we made last year for uper funds where in this upcoming budget we're going to have to have discussions of how do we either incorporate them into the budget or for what Opera funds we have remaining what are the commitments to it it will be very helpful because this is an ongoing issue this isn't a oneoff the concerns that are in uptown are also in University they're also in South Park they're in Valentine they're at philis place they're all over so whatever we decide as council member barari loves to share needs to be something that could be replicated and easily when we have these MSDS it seems to me that our conversation would be around how do we better direct the funds to address the needs that you have versus US creating a new line item that may or may not be there in the future if I'm asking about these Partners I'm asking for a very clear reason because if you're set up in the university area but you're going to come in and do work in uptown what does that work look like is that uh 6040 split is that a 80/20 split again 2/3 versus 1/3 we have a lot of needs the county has a lot of needs right now the county has access to a few more resources than what we have so we need to be very which we don't like to talk about yeah we're the big we're the big brother in the room but sometimes big brother needs a little help too so I want to make sure that we're not making commitments that future councils are going to be held responsible for and having a clear understanding of how we choose A over B again we have a vehicle that has been down and I respect the fact that we want to help but what is that help look like if we're talking about immediate assistance and we have another company over here that's already been doing it let's contract with them Let's Get It Started what is it going to look like to do these repairs hell I just asked you for money two nights ago for a business so I'm not not getting the idea of it but I still want equity and the conversation and unfortunately the questions that I haven't heard of to this point speak to some of these very specific pieces so and we may very well may have been shared the dollars it would be helpful that to get those dollars sent back out because we're getting ready to come up on our budget conversations and I don't want there to be a misinterpretation well Council approved us moving forward with this so we've at this amount to go towards this so you telling me something else of importance that's an immediate give back to the community might not happen because we made this decision let's just look at where these dollars and cents potentially are coming from for the long term cuz this is in a oneoff short answer and to understand who are these Partners we don't need new ones but if we have a part one of these Partners is a partner that started through United Way have you exhausted all of your funding cuz we've already paid you so it's not new we've given you money to do a job we funded a program that you said here is where I want to see this work happen in community we don't need to put ourselves in a position where we are then funding from multiple sources the same work that should be getting done especially if the work has not been getting done at the level that we anticipated or expected thank you thank you Miss watlington I think that every person here has said some version of what I have been thinking about what I would like to do in the spirit of what is supposed to be this process I just want to make sure that we come back to the notion that what we're discussing here are the consideration of these ordinances as part of a holistic strategy right certainly there's much more that we can discuss in terms of the holistic strategy itself but that's not what's on the floor right now so I just want to make sure that as we think about what the next PATH forward is for Council do we want this Rec criminalization of these particular ordinances whether it's six or there's appetite for eight to be a part of that holistic strategy um and I'm not sure that I'm not sure what the outcome of this conversation is supposed to be um I get the sense just from conversations that I've having with council members that there is sufficient and solid support to move forward um so in the spirit of that I hope that we do do exactly that um and as it relates to the rest of the um overall strategy certainly there's more work to be done um and out of consideration for everyone's time I will I will leave it there thank you Miss watlington um this has been a really good discussion and I want to thank everyone for their comments and everything they brought to the table as as was just mentioned we are discussing the ordinances specifically as one piece of an overall holistic multi-prong strategy to address this issue and this challenge so um I believe that everyone has had an opportunity to speak to the issue Sean thank you miss battle thank you for your comments and unless we have Miss Brown has one quick comment before we close out thank you uh mayor protim I don't know if it's going to be quick I'm going to be heard um out of respect for my voice so I heard a lot going around the room and it was about the ordinances the things that I've heard um I heard you know um council member Graham said um he's very dear and you you know you work in district one you and Dante mayor protim that's great I work in District three I got a ton of emails I can send to you where people are concerned about things going down in District 3 do we care about District 3 the same way we care about Uptown downtown Charlotte do we care about putting the ordinance out there I know that Sean uh Mr Heath said something about their uh Citywide things that are going on and that they've implemented those if we gave 15 $500,000 to block love let's give another 500,000 and I do have some numbers um that I just want to share but while I'm doing that and we're going through it um um The Humane response would be to have restrooms downtown so that people that don't have the ability to come and ask to have a restroom put downtown put down there two restrooms Porter John's we'll see how far we get with that the real issue that I have is that we move right we moov fast on this really fast and then we had to come back because some things were unconstitutional it will behoove us all of the intelligent individuals that are sitting around this table to be able to go and do the research before we put it out there to know that something is unconstitutional if I speak truth to power I knew that some of these things were going to bite us but what do I know the thing about me being on this Council and things happened in last April okay I got sworn in on December the 5th what happened in last April y'all worked on it right it's a SL slow moving train as you said I want everybody to go back to the time when they first came to city council you didn't have all the knowledge that you think you have today and so the thing that bothers me is I was elected to this Council just like everybody else I have a voice and I'm going to use it for whatever I think I feel and I need to express my concerns for not what nobody else think you know when we're at a meeting and there's the whispering and the laughing when I'm talking that is the most disrespectful thing I've seen and I can't remember when as someone that is a a member of this body is very infuriating and so the experts would say simply that those that are closest to the problems are going to have the solutions but the problem is we leave them out often we leave them out too often I'm going to close with this and I'm going to recuse myself on presenting the numbers because what I'm getting ready to say is more important than any number I could produce there were rumors that there was whispering that you guys were going to have a convicted felon come to the council the way some of the behaviors that I see I would have to say that I believe that that whisperman was going on in the room behind my back before I came thank you thank you Miss Brown and um I I want to say that you know we made some really good traction with our Retreat and some of our processes that we stood up in terms of how we um operated the meetings during the retreat and all of you received a memo from the mayor about um potentially adopting some of those processes and and behaviors on a go forward basis so all council members feel like they have a voice and can duly represent the residents that they were voted in to represent so I I just want to make sure just as a body that I state that before we close out the meeting all right if we don't have any other comments can I get a a motion to adjourn all right everyone go home have a good [Music] evening