21st 2021 meeting of the greensboro city council can i have a motion to go into open session so move back moved by mr holston seconded by mrs thurm um mrs hoffman are you on the call yes i am mayor are you um your vote please uh yes um mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i'm e yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes thank you we are back in open session um we confirmed attendance um we will begin tonight's meeting with a moment of silence thank you mrs johnson would you lead us in the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all tonight's meeting is open to the public with a partial opening of the council chamber due to capacity restrictions and a limited number of residents are allowed in the council chamber for specific items of interest staff and residents and council are requested to continue to wear face coverings mine is off because i'm speaking into the microphone at the moment residents may sign up to speak by six o'clock by using the q minder kiosk just outside the chamber door upon arrival to comply with requirements by the state in regards to zoom meetings and to provide an optimum experience for the public council will verbalize all motions and all votes will be conducted by roll call and the e-scribe council will also implement the electronic voting method each member of council must vote unless there is a direct conflict we do allow and welcome speakers to address council council respects the right for the public to speak about matters of concern that can be addressed by council each speaker will be allotted three minutes comments that seem to be intended to incite unlawful behavior will be deemed out of order zoom participants are requested to mute their microphones until they are called upon to speak the city of greensboro is committed to promoting an environment that is free of discrimination bias and bullying thus harassment words jokes actions or comments based on an individual's sex sexual orientation race ethnic background age religion physical conduct condition or other legally protected characteristic will not be tolerated in order to be considered written comments must be submitted online through the city's website www.greensborohyphennc.gov we do have a consent agenda for items g1 through g31 which are a grouping of agenda items that are voted on with one single vote to expedite what are believed to be routine and non-controversial items any council member may withdraw an item from the consent agenda due to a conflict of interest or the for the purpose of voting no items removed from the consent agenda for discussion will be placed on the january city council business agenda this meeting does include closed captioning depending on the length of tonight's meeting we may take a short recess around eight o'clock we do have a special presentation and i would like to ask representative amos quick and senator gladys robinson thank you so much for being with us in the council chambers this evening good evening i am amos quick north carolina house district 58 representative and let me begin by saying happy holidays to council members and merry christmas and to those who are watching happy holidays and merry christmas to you as well i'm glad to stand here with senator gladys robinson as tonight we want to honor one of greensboro's finest citizens uh who he is no longer with us amongst the living but we know that because of his faith that he is among a great cloud of witnesses who is cheering us on we have a letter that i want to read and then i'll yield the microphone to senator robinson the letter reads to the honorable yvonne johnson and family senator gladys robinson and i honor the memory of attorney walter daniel johnson ii and commemorate his service to the state of north carolina we present this letter on behalf of a grateful state in recognition of his devoted and selfless service for the betterment of the greater greensboro community and our state attorney johnson blazed the trail wherever he went from the united states armed services to the hallowed halls of duke university law school to the deliberative chambers of the greensboro board of education and so many other places as various persons commented during the celebration of his life at providence baptist church his mark on the lives of countless others will resonate throughout generations and he is not soon to be forgotten yet perhaps his greatest contribution was to serve as the patriarch of a family of community servants who continue his legacy of serving god by service to others senator robinson and i feel privileged to have personally known attorney johnson and to be able to honor his memory please accept our continual condolences our prayers and our thanks signed amos quick district north carolina house of representative district 58 and senator gladys a robinson north carolina senate district 28 i'll give this to you miss johnson and let me step back from being so formal uh you know uh mama j how this touches my heart and how uh the memory of uh papa j uh is very personal to me he uh was not a father figure he was a father for me and i certainly thank uh you and your family for sharing him with me and so many in the community thank you well good evening to uh the mayor mayor pro tem members of the greensboro city council and to the entire greensboro community it is my pleasure certainly to be here i missed another opportunity because i was out of town but i would say and apologize uh to my sister yvonne that we're planning to do a similar thing in raleigh but we never could get out of there uh or plan a time to do it uh so uh we're we're pleased to be here and this is probably the best setting to be here so that your children and grandchildren could be here as well but i want to say about walter uh as uh as a church member and as a friend uh most people don't know yvonne you know the walter was our first attorney uh for my family uh but he was a first among many things and uh for those of you who don't know yvonne and my deceased husband were classmates dudley uh so the the the dudley and all the ant all the stuff goes deep in our families and all but in terms of the servant you know it is so very important that those of us who are serving now leave a legacy and walter johnson left a legacy he did it while he was serving uh in the various roles at school board he did it as a us attorney he did it in the community he did it at church and he certainly did it for his family to follow in his grandchildren he's left a legacy that says that you may not be the first but you must be one who serves and who serves your community because he served and he served humbly i'll tell people a funny story and uh lisa will remember that walter would come to church he always came sunday school and he came to sunday school children wouldn't come but the little grandchildren were trailing behind he brought those grandchildren to sunday school on sunday mornings so that they would go to sunday school and that says something about a legacy a grandpa says this is what you must do and this is what you must be like this is the integrity uh and uh that brought fondest memories to all of us but i know that all of you will miss him we miss him uh we miss uh when i decided to run for office a couple of people i call henry fry and walter johnson and in terms of advice and that advice was just so important to me in terms of how did i move forward and with what support so i continue to share with you and condolences but from the state amos and i and the others there certainly share his memory and the legacy that he's left for greensboro for the state of north carolina and certainly for his family so may god bless you representative um amos quick and senator robinson i am grateful to both of you for your comments for doing this the family is grateful to you um amos grew up in my house very often spent the night so i'm proud of both of you but amos you know i'm proud of you because i look at you as a son but thank you very much for for this we miss him but we know that he is okay thank you and mrs johnson it's so nice to see your family um here with us yes please do yeah would my family please stand i have um my son's vernon and t walter t i have my daughter lisa i have my my uh i call her my daughter tina she's my daughter-in-law but she's like a daughter and i have my grand my youngest granddaughter maya grace and we have jt is that you under that man and i have my son-in-law jt and so i'm i'm happy to have all of them with us and we we certainly appreciate what you've done thank you and i i do want to thank senator robinson and representative quick for being with us this evening i'm sorry that we ran a little late but we appreciate all of the hard work that you have done this session and the way that you have been responsive to our needs and for that i want to say thank you so now we will move on to the consent agenda um are there any items that somebody needs to remove if not we can move the consent agenda yes madam mayor um i had a question on two of the items but i can't get my stuff to pull up again so the notes that i made i can't get to come up um but g15 and i'm trying to find it i'm sorry did you say g for g15 there was a question i had on g7 but i'll i'll work it out later you say what g15 15 or 16. 15. i thought i heard 15. yes 15. is there a question regarding yeah actually stay right here my assistants do you want me to read yeah well well read it because i do have a 2015 is a resolution to approve the window washing contract 2021-10952 in the amount of 198 900 with scotty's building services llc so my question um and apparently it wasn't a mwbe company but the companies out of apex so i had a question on the workforce um what type of workforce will they provide because they're coming from apex to wash windows so would they be hiring local people to assist with that do they have a crew and i guess they'll bring them with them so with this contract i think that this will be self-performed so there's no subcontracting opportunities with that um i can confirm that and get back to you but i think this will be self-performed it says self-performing i've read because i didn't manage to read everything before it all disappeared i'm here but um the workforce piece of it because when you talk about self-performing you talk about watching oneness are you bringing people from apac to here or parents local do they used to impact local community efforts okay so will they be using their current workforce are they looking to hire local people to help on that project i'll find that out yeah and i think that's a critical piece because it's a three-year contract i know it's only 60 some thousand a year for three years um but it could have some type of local impact uh in that regard okay we can certainly find out and let you know all right thank you not really [Music] [Music] yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i am e yes mrs abuzawader mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower uh yes this ball okay so now we move on to item number 15 which i read do we have a motion on item number 15 move the item um moved by mrs therm seconded by dr wells mrs hoffman yes mr halston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i am yes mrs abusa waiter mr outling yes mrs sturm yes and mrs hightower no and that passes eight to one we now move on to the public hearing portion of our agenda we do have two speakers signed up to speak in favor of their item item number h1 h2 and h3 will be read together item number h1 is a public hearing for an ordinance annexing territory into the corporate limits for property located at 5807 west gate city boulevard for a portion of westgate city boulevard right-of-way 3.19 acres gohar global llc item number h2 is a public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for 5807 westgate city boulevard al gohar for gohar global llc and item h3 a public hearing for an ordinance for original zoning for portions of west gate city boulevard road right-of-way city of greensboro um can we have a quick overview of this sure thing thank you mayor this item before you is an annexation and two original zoning requests located on westgate city boulevard the property to the north is on conditional district commercial medium the property to the east is zoned conditional district residential three the property to the south his own conditional district office and the property to the west is own industrial under jamestown's jurisdiction as you can see from the aerial photo the site is currently undeveloped the area to the north is a as a self storage facility the area to the east is a single family subdivision the area to the south is a medical office and the area to the west is an auto repair and commercial uses this site is shown as commercial or excuse me is designated as commercial on our future land use map and as urban general on the built format this zoning for the site at 5807 west gate city boulevard is a conditional district and you'll see on your screen there are some conditions for this request the conditions are related to the uses the height of the buildings the location of the opaque fence and the freestanding signage that will be allowed on this particular site staff recommended approval of this request because it is consistent with the comprehensive plan's economic competitiveness big idea and the comprehensive plans prioritizing sustainable sustainability goal to build economic resilience and that was because the proposed commercial medium district reque this request will promote a variety of commercial retail and office uses that are compatible with the general character and of the surrounding area it was also this case was also recommended by the planning and zoning commission meeting planning and zoning commission at their november meeting a vote of eight to zero there was one speaker for this item and no one in opposition that concludes the presentation i'll now entertain any questions from the council thank you questions move the item um we do have a speaker on the i assume he's available for um questions madam mayor the speaker has not joined soon okay well um we have a motion by mrs thurm a second by dr wells this is for the um this is for the let's see would you talk h1 um mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson imes mrs abuzawader mr outling yes um mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero um i need a motion and the findings of fact for item h2 move the item moved by mrs therm seconded by miss abuse waiter mrs therm would you read the statement of consistency the greensboro city council believes that its action to approve the zoning request for the property described as 5807 west gate city boulevard from county lb and county rs40 to cd-c-m conditional district commercial medium to be consistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons the request is consistent with the comprehensive plans future built format and future land use map the proposed cdcm zoning district as condition limits negative impacts on adjacent properties and permits uses which fit the context of surrounding area and three the request is reasonable due to the size physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will benefit the property owner and surrounding community and approval is in the public interest thank you so that has been moved and seconded mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mayor pro tem yes i am a yes mrs abuza waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero item h3 also requires a statement of consistency move the item moved by mrs thurm seconded by ms abuzawader mrs thurm the greensboro city council believes that its action to approve the zoning request for the property described as west gate city boulevard right of way from county lb limited business and jamestown ind industrial to city cm commercial medium to be consistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan's future belt form map and future land use map the proposed cm zoning district permits uses which also fit the context of surrounding area the request is reasonable due to the size physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will benefit the property owner and surrounding community and approval is in the public interest thank you um mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i'm a yes mrs abuse waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero item number h4 is a public hearing for the adoption of a land development ordinance text amendment amending section 30-3-8.2 membership mr galante great thank you um just real short and to the point on this particular text amendment it does modify the land development ordinance language to clarify that the representatives that are appointed by city council to the historic preservation commission that are to represent that particular historic district are to either live in that district or own property in that district this text amendment will have no impact on any of the members of the historic preservation commission that have been pointed by city council at this point second moved by ms abuzawader seconded by mr mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i am a yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes this is therm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero um item number h5 is a public hearing for the adoption of a land development ordinance text amendment amending section 30-12-8.1 drainage open space for subdivisions great thank you this amendment to the land development ordinance would allow vehicular access to an area that is designated as open space it is in subdivisions actually being dedicated as drainage way in open space to allow the vehicle access there are three caveats to that allowance and that will take the express review of our department of transportation our department of parks and recreation and the department of water resources to review those requests the department of transportation will make sure that the request to have vehicular access in this drainage rand open space is will enhance public safety and that no other practical method is is achieves the same level of access our department parks and recreation will review the request to make sure that the function of the drainage main open space will not be that will not be harmed and our department of water resources will ensure that the review of the vehicle access in a drainage land open space will not impact the drainage or increase downstream flooding parks and rec i'm sorry the parks and rec commission did review this request and they had some concerns we took those concerns to the planning and zoning commission meeting on november 15th the planning zoning commission understood those concerns and thought with the three level of review that the it would create options for development without sacrificing public benefits this item is a public hearing before city council tonight and city council has three options they can either approve the ordinance change as i presented it they may make edits or they may deny this request thank you thank you moved by mrs thurm no no did you have a question i have a question mrs thurm has a question can you speak a little in a little more detail about the parks and rec concern because i'm i share their concern that existing houses existing property that people bought with the understanding that they were lying beside a protected greenway that that would stand and all of a sudden we're changing the properties can you just clarify that for me because i do have some challenges with that aspect yes that will be one level of review for allowing vehicular access in the industry maybe hold on for a second there's a noise that is pretty distracting i apologize mrs thurm let's see if we can figure out what this is okay i'm sorry please continue as part of the review of the request the our department of parks and recreation will ensure that the purpose of that dedication of that open space will be held if it were to be used for vehicular access so that concern will be addressed as part of that review okay but does parks and rec have a veto over that i mean how is i i need to understand practically for a resident how exactly will this work yes all three of those caveats must be met in order to provide vehicular access and so if i may interject um count to member third yes parts and wrecks will have to approve of the the change or modification before we allow the vehicular access so in conjunction with the department of transportation and water resources it would have to be a consensus among all the departments before vehicular access is allowed i hate to beat a dead horse here but can can somebody help me uh help explain what's driving this change and why we're doing this because i i still don't feel comfortable that a residence understanding of what they bought is going to be carry forward and i i just have some real concerns from the resident standpoint sure so we have as you can imagine much of the economic development that is occurring now is occurring within property and sites that it's hard to navigate the needs of the development and so we've had requests for properties to to for for access to properties to be allowed if the denial of the original entry point if that's denied by the north carolina department of transportation okay and so because there there was a public safety concern that necessitated the need to deny the proposed entry access we were then asked if we could look for a subsequent manner for that access to be granted and so one of the manners is through some open space but we wanted to maintain the integrity and the purpose of that open space and so this was one way that we could do this so we've had multiple requests from developers asking for us to to be a little more creative about um addressing economic development needs and so what we determined is if there are if the denied the denial is made because of a public safety concern then we would consider an alternate access point okay so we're not really talking about opening opening up lots of existing neighborhoods this is this is looking forward for new development correct yes thank you that clarifies the point and helps me considerably thank you um mrs hightower microphone sorry thank you um they come and bring these proposals um and they incorporate open space in their proposals are you saying that they then want to take it back when after the fact after they've submitted something and gotten it approved and then all of a sudden it just doesn't work for them for whatever reason and then they want to take it back to have cars go through no it it's really not the developers decision we will only consider requests if our department of ch our north carolina department of transportation has granted deny uh denied an access point because it it could create public safety hazards and then if there is a way that the city could approve a secondary access and if that secondary access is through open um space or drainage way that is when we would consider this right so it is not something that they bring to us originally and and we approve it it's only because there has has been a denial because of a public safety concern well would continual um access through a drainage way create some kind of future impediment it could if we don't allow the consensus of the three departments we talked about if we just openly said sure you can have it but what the reason we want those three departments at the table is to make sure that we don't create any stormwater concerns or we want to make sure that we maintain you know the integrity of the intent of that being open space and drainage way so there there's a lot of conversation that happens to make sure we can do this without creating future problems and finally one question is private neighbor other cars was just city access to do this for us to do work was for for the neighborhood to be able to drive through it is for people that need access to that property or that development for them to be able to access that yes so not necessarily a through street that you know a lot of public cars would come through but certainly for those people that want to access that development yes thank you doesn't sound like a good idea okay thank you dr wells second second um dr wells and moves it and mrs johnson is the second mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i am a yes this is abusive waiter yes mr outling yes mrs therm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero thank you item number h6 is a public hearing for a resolution closing a portion of brevard street and a portion of gay terrace the masonic and east eastern star home of north carolina inc in spring garden copenh llc we do have one speaker um signed up but mr galante if you could give us an overview great thank you mayor um yes this uh request is for a street closing a portion of brevard street and a portion of gay terrace um currently the portion of brevard street does not have a street in it it is undeveloped um the just a reminder that in order for the city of greensboro to close public right-of-ways there we must make two findings first one is that it is not contrary to the public interest and that no one owning property in the vicinity of the street will deny be denied a reasonable means of ingress or egress our technical review committee did recommend approval and the planning and zoning commission recommended approval at their november meeting on a vote of eight to eight to zero there are several conditions associated with this request and they are related to the construction of a city standard turnaround at the end of gay terrace where the street closing will will terminate they the fire department is requesting the relocation of a fire hydrant that is located along the portion of street to be closed and the applicant will need to record a plat to combine all this property together so it can be developed with the property to the north question [Music] who pays to have the fire hydrant moved is that the applicant the applicant well thank you any other questions remove the item moved by mrs caboose i'm sorry what was the question has that been moved already no man but we do have the speaker if you want to allow he's in favor oh i can't hear you second yeah that's quite all right keep us on our toes um moved by miss abuse awaiter and seconded by mrs johnson mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abuza waiter mr outlink yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero now we move on to the general business portion of our agenda item i.1 resolution to approve amended boundaries to the impact zone map of the economic development incentive program guidelines is there's somebody here i could get some information on this yeah mrs and our economic development manager marshall yandle he's on by zoom so much yeah can y'all i shared the screen can you see the screen there okay that's the um that's in your agenda package that's the recommended impact zones and um i met with you all about this um these impact zones just kind of give you a real quick overview of them again for this meeting these were originally these impact zones were adopted in july 2015 to the economic development incentive policy to help encourage growth in certain areas of the city you know projects looking to locate in these impact zones are eligible to receive enhanced incentives the eligibility criteria also as it relates to average wage is also reduced if the company is considering a location in one of these uh impact zones uh in march of this year um there was an addition additional incentives that were introduced and council approved companies that would locate anywhere in the city are eligible to receive an additional 250 per job if they hire someone that's a permanent resident in these impact zones when we originally adopted these zones they were intended to be reviewed every few years and so these adjustments we looked at the analysis of ecommerce distress using census data on the 85 tracks in the city of greensboro so again this does not necessarily limit um counsel uh and what they could offer in terms of or authorized in terms of economic development incentive it just helps guide um decision making and as well as guide the chamber of commerce when negotiating for incentives so happy to answer any questions you may have about it any questions okay i know i'm good i just wanted to i couldn't remember um and i just wanted for me so you just expanded the borders basically marshall because some of i couldn't hear a lot of what you were saying um a little better yeah but that's okay i know you know better you know yeah that's the item yeah so i just wanted to ensure that we were spanning the border but um we have the borders would be adjusted in some areas so they they moved over in some areas of town and retracted in other areas yeah so that's true okay thank you thank you that was moved by mr holston seconded by dr wells mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes i'm a yes this is abusive waiter mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes that pass is nine to zero um item number i point two and three will be read to get together ordinance in the amount of five million two hundred ninety nine thousand four hundred and ten dollars to amend funding for the camp burton water and sewer utilities project an item i point three resolution approving bid in the amount of five million two hundred sixty seven dollars three hundred and nine and twenty cents and authorizing execution of contract twenty 2020-007 a with jimmy r lynch and sons for the camp burton water main project second moved by dr wells seconded by mrs thurm um mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mayor pro tem yes i am a yes mrs abuza waiter mr outling yeah this is therm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero we now have um i point three mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abusa waiter mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero we now move on to item i point four which is a resolution approving a contract in the amount of two million six hundred thousand with hazen and sawyer pc for the southeast feeder main design contract moved by mrs hightower seconded by mrs abuzawader mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes um yes yes i am yes yes waiter yes mr um outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes thank you i got a little distracted i hit no by mistake i was trying to figure out how to turn it to a yes so could you have my vote reflect a yes please thank you um item number i.5 is an ordinance enacting chapter 4 section 4.9 of the greensboro code of ordinances extension of licensed premises um quick overview so acm trey davis is going to give us an overview on that thank you mayor and members of council and i'll touch on just a little bit of it and attorney watts we'll talk about some of the legalities actually this is an opportunity that the city will adopt something that the state has sent down so that we can handle the process of extension of premises something that we were starting to assist businesses who were extending their premises back in the summer and during covert time and so attorney watch some of the legal things i won't try to jump into those the legal things are pretty simple it's um authorized by the legislature to do and within you know the policy uh options of the city so thank you and this is really something that we've been doing all along and it will give business owners some security that if they want to go out and invest more in their outside space that it'll be a long-term investment so i think this is a really good idea do we have a motion with the item moved by mr holston seconded by mr boosawader imes mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson yes amy yes mrs abusa waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero item number i point six is an ordinance in acting chapter 26 article is that 11 11 of the greensboro code of ordinances to be titled social district um brief overview madam mayor once you have an overview i have something similar okay um keep in mind it's been moved by mrs johnson um can you give us an overview city attorney watson give us an overview of that one um chuck i don't think your mic's on yeah i'm sorry i punched it twice um yeah this is also something that's been authorized by us at the legislature recently and something that uh staff was interested in doing so it's can be done mrs hightower are you at a question yes so um i i heard what you said um chuck but i read i i read through it today and one of the things that concerned me um is it talks about uh roving so basically i can be at one restaurant and eat and drink and leave that restaurant take my drink with me to another restaurant and have more drinks and i i i think that's a recipe for a disaster because this restaurant be you know what happened at restaurant a and where is the control mechanism in that we're getting ready to vote on the safety ordinance where we're talking about restaurants you know they've had problems to me we're setting them up again to kind of be in a problem um situation where this could occur and it doesn't seem like it's not a lot of regulation you know um i understand people want to have social distance they want to you know we all want to be social um but i think when we say we have concerns and we we're going to have a safety audience where we talk about violent acts that have happened at night clubs and places that sell alcohol and now we're saying oh but let's have a uh social area where we can just walk around and take our alcohol from place to place and it's not very to me it doesn't seem contained and so i i share some concerns about that i don't know how the regular what what who's going to regulate this um where does ale fall into the miss and i know the stages but the state does a lot of stuff sometimes i don't understand anyway so um mary if i can help um so just to give some clarity councilwoman hightower very good question is something that we've actually been working with um the businesses that are inside the footprint of the identified map for the social district area uh two things to address one of your questions there are certain time parameters uh for this for the social districting hours which are from 12 p.m to 9 00 p.m also within that there are certain per there are certain uh pieces of the rules that govern this particular ordinance that the establishments have to abide by so uh for example what you describe uh if you if a person is purchased and out purchases an alcoholic drink from one establishment they can't walk into the other establishment with that drink and so there are a few small innuendos within this ordinance there has to be a 16 ounce no larger than a 16 ounce cup which is labeled with identification of greensboro uh i may mess this up and don't don't get the verbiage exact but basically that identifies uh greensboro um social district uh and also uh a message to drink safely but again i can't take that drink into another establishment that particular cup has to be thrown away and you'd have to make another purchase at another restaurant but back to your concerns regarding safety there will be signage ample signage in the area and that is part of the ordinance as well and our law enforcement and our public safety all of our public safety are aware of where those parameters are and so i hear what you're saying but when i've read uh the resolution it talks about roving so you can roll around with that cup right only within the footprint of the social districting map which we've identified we were very careful to make sure that that footprint was as safe as possible as you can see in that footprint it is only in the downtown area and that's the other thing it's only in the downtown areas i know people gonna get upset but we're looking at targeting areas that are outside the downtown area when we talk about the safety ordinance even though there's been some violence downtown as well so i it's just a concern for me because i think people are gonna think as i read it oh well i can just get my drink here i'm gonna go talk to my buddy over there he's having a hot dog at the other restaurant and i'm just going to go over there well i mean to me this seems more like i'm going to trust the person to say um throw my his cup away but if he's paid fifteen dollars for a drink he ain't gonna throw it away he's gonna drink it um so i i just think this is setting up a recipe for disaster i'm not gonna support it because i still have some concerns about it um you know i i i think we put a lot of emphasis on alcohol in certain areas uh we okay we allow certain things but then it's problematic in other areas um in the community and i just think we need a little bit tighter regulation i'd feel a little bit more comfortable if it was from that's from that aspect so this will be our first social district you know we could have them in other parts of town but this is the one where you know we have a lot of people we also have the downtown ambassadors we have the um bike squad and the cups will have to be standardized cups which will be provided by downtown greensboro to the businesses within the social district so in order to leave one place you have to have a specific cup that um shows that you are in the social district and that that is a that that's a drink so let me ask this too and i may have mentioned this to you i don't know if you answered me today but um if i want to leave restaurant a and go over to center city park which is downtown is that okay did you say to center city center city park is not in the footprint for uh the social district command now but you know it's it's a it's a hangout spot i mean people like to go there and gather with one another i mean it's a great place to go but i'm just saying there will be signs uh in every part of the footprint uh center city park is not in that footprint so there will be signs notifying persons that alcohol is not permitted in those areas or outside of the social district identified area so are we using this as just maybe a test case or is this something that's going to be implemented and going to be implemented until so i obviously within this as the mayor just said this is our first uh this is our first social districting area and i don't want to say it's just a downtown thing but we've identified a footprint downtown this is something that we looked at models from other areas and other areas have adopted the same ordinance and so again this is something that that we're adopting now as as anything else you know any other ordinance that we adopt uh then we always evaluate it to see uh its impact how well it's working and the effectiveness uh also any safety concerns that might arise and according to the new legislation you could actually have the social district from from 12 to midnight and we opted to keep it at nine o'clock kind of as a test case just so there weren't people roaming around or waiting in club lines um and if we felt we wanted to roll that back even further we could or we could roll it up but for for right now our focus is at nine o'clock instead of going to midnight yeah and i appreciate that consideration but i i just think we're just opening ourselves up right here with something like um giving people an opportunity just to kind of walk around with alcohol in their hand at one point in time you couldn't do that with open containers and things of that nature and seems like we're just becoming more and more loose with it um and i think that's a concern we allow a lot of things with alcohol but we criminalize marijuana to the point that people get thrown in jail for years so um you know and i get it i understand alcohol is legal but um i just think in this particular instance it just does not sound like something that i think and maybe you should go to six o'clock i don't know but people can get drunk at nine o'clock so i i i don't know what will stop them from doing that but i i just see some concerns maybe nobody else sees so thank you thank you so we do have a motion oh dr wells did you want to say something it says a map i never did see the map of what area we were talking about it says to a map and we can provide a hard copy of the map to you if we need to but it's it's um tell me what streets okay basically it's it's around our um so green street is a part of it um and it goes down your market if you think about a square green to market down to davey turn left it does incorporate the bower park but it does not incorporate um center city park and then it goes back to elm street down toward the tanger center um and back again towards and there was a map that was circulated the power park but it doesn't have the city doesn't have center city park correct but it does have the bower park i'm thinking about this now i'm thinking about and we and we made these decisions um in collaboration with um dg downtown greensboro downtown parks incorporated with our gpd officers with downtown greensboro with our staff our transportation staff so this was a collaborative decision it was not just made in a silo yeah i'd really like to hear more on this personally i i think just hearing about this tonight just being dropped in the agenda we had no work session on it we had nothing and now you say that the bowers included but not center city they both two parts under the same management establishment um karen lebauer park you've got a restaurant that opens onto lebaur from the cultural center and you have two kiosks serving food and alcohol and you've got a restaurant then on the other side on elm street so you know i think that's the reason for lambaur yeah there are there are two of the kiosks that serve dinner food and um alcohol but center center city park is sandwiched in between those two so pete christopher's is here and lebaues here so again what's stopping people from roaming in the center city park and i think i know why center city park wasn't included i'm currently not going to say out loud but i think i know why i just still think that this is not um the path i think we ought to be looking at going down i think we got a lot of serious things we need to consider in this city and we talk about violence we talk about violent crime talk about where it happens we talk about why it happens and we associate it with alcohol and and other you know in uh drugs and and so forth and and i think we just need to be a little bit more responsible in this i mean maybe the social district is fine other cities it probably works fine i don't know but i know this city is really being asked to control our violence and we're getting ready for the next uh item to implement a safety plan for just some of that those things it looks a little discriminatory in those bases as well for me and so again i can't understood mr hulston did you have a question or comment uh probably a series of questions for uh uh in general this is slated to begin when yeah we we hope we could begin in march around march one uh there's a few logistical things as far as uh making sure that we've got proper signage uh if approved uh as well as ordering of the materials the cups are really important um to the whole process so that you know if people are drinking and walking in the areas uh it is identifiable with a cup specific to the businesses uh again it's specific to the area that we've identified for the social district as well as a stamp that would be or some type of labeling by each individual business so that you don't have a deep duplication of a person drinking alcohol taking it buying it in another location okay and the time frame that this ordinance would be available by day is is it from 12 noon until 9 00 pm yes yes sir and there's going to be gpd presence so there won't be gpd assigned necessarily per the particular hours for this location but gpd those are the times that you have your gpd downtown squad uh that will be worth it and then going to councilwoman hightower's question about being able to purchase a beverage in one bar and walking to another bar uh that is or is not allowed it is not allowed so again uh and in in the process of educating the businesses who might participate are part of the ordinance in and this is what we've adopted from the state uh the state rules that govern uh this particular ordinance or the philosophy of it is that you cannot take another beverage that you purchase from one restaurant into another and if i purchase a beverage at a bar and walk into another establishment that's not a bar clothier or something else that is something that we discuss and we work through uh if you are clothing establishment uh then you i from my understanding uh you can allow that however uh we can work with them so that they can maybe post something if that's for example if it's your business and you decide you don't want persons in inside of your establishment with the alcoholic drinks then you can definitely post that and identify okay and another question it really just just hit me as i think about what's happening what are we doing for uh restrooms and porter service uh that's something that i have not worked through um but we can definitely continue to work with uh dgi as well as the the downtown businesses who are taking part so the okay all right okay outland has a question mark where drinks are purchased mr outling thank you you know to the points raised by councilwoman wells and hightower acm davis can you address the substance of those points and kind of give context for why the map looks the way that it does for those who may not have had an opportunity to look at it it's not very contiguous and i imagine there may be circumstances where people might not know all the contours or fully be able to understand the signs such that they could be doing something that is not allowed that they think is in fact allowed you know including walking through center city park with a beverage on way to labor park so can you address the points that miss hightower and councilman wells raised sure i'll try to make sure i pull it together in in one response and myself assistant city manager soel and a few other staff uh worked with as she noted uh downtown greensboro incorporated uh gdpi who's not a city uh organization uh but works very closely with us as well as we had a few meetings with other downtown businesses that we felt like might participate and so in our attempt to identify a footprint in the area uh that we felt like could be both safe and consistent with with locations that we'd be participating then that's how we arrived at the map as well as areas that we felt like again with our public safety components um that were the safest um to rob it does that address the questions i'm not sure if it does yeah if you could give some more specifics in terms of the criteria and why areas were included and others were not excluded or not included notwithstanding the fact that they're continuous and you know to put a finer point on it i'll tell you at least what i've heard and it may be something to which councilman hightower was referencing the exclusion of center city park which oftentimes has persons who are experiencing homelessness in that park not being able to drink there but labauer park which has a different um demographic that oftentimes uses that part drinks being allowed there and so i'll tell you certainly you know i have had a couple of people raise that to me over the weekend so i think it'd be helpful to kind of expand on why certain areas were included specifically and others weren't now i understand it was a deliberative process with you know stakeholders but if you could provide more color on that it may be maybe helpful i think that's specific to labauer park again um that is an entity that's separate from the city uh we consulted with them as as we uh wanted to make sure we consulted with as many uh businesses and entities in in that area uh as i think councilwoman hoffman noted earlier there are two locations uh two kiosks right there at that location that are uh in uh proximity to the bowel park uh that make it accessible i think one of the locations that councilwoman hightower identified earlier is actually across a street but again back to your point the locations that were identified on the map again were locations that we felt like and that would be consistent with those that will be participating in the particular downtown social districting opportunity mrs sam how are we how do we plan on excuse me how do we plan on addressing individuals that um councilwoman hightower alluded to maybe purchase their drink at b christopher's and cut through center city park with their drink in hand to get to tanger let's just use that as an example how will we deal with taking that drink outside of is there who's going to say something how does that work so and i so in our education process as we walk through it um you know one uh our businesses uh who agree to be a part of and participate those that do purchase the cups and participate in uh the social districting uh we have their levels of responsibility uh as well as not only our public safety uh who may be in the area as well as our ambassadors can remind people of the parameters that are have been identified uh quite naturally if you are outside of the social district area then you know that the current state laws apply as it relates to alcohol consumption in those areas and i'll add we realize this will be more of an educational effort at the beginning and so this is not to to you know make it a punitive you know behavior if someone is found outside of the social district with the drink it would be more of informing and educating them and we're partnering with dgi and their ambassadors not just on this but um in other efforts to make sure that we all understand what the expectations are and that we are equipping them with how we want them to approach people and educate them if that happens just one other thing about the bower park is you've got cafe europa which kind of opens on to the bower park so you've got cafe europa and the and the kiosks um mrs hightower than dr wells i think my question when i first when i first read this about the uh the district i said well the state is allowing this but now i'm wondering is this a request of you think for our citizens or for the restaurant owners now because i was talking to the um talk to one of the interrupt did not call interrupt ambassadors the other day and uh she was telling me how she had broken up a little almost fight and the question was asked well what was going on she said well they'd had a little more too much to drink this was in the day and so from we say from 12 to nine the folk can walk with their drinks and i don't know because i i've never drunk so i don't know but i think most of people i see get a little a little bit different and they're thinking and uh we've been we've had so many incidences of um [Music] we say crime or things that were not good in these restaurants and most of the times if they look back at it they said the people were inaugurated and and they got out of you know out of sorts i i don't know whether because i thought about it at first i thought well maybe that's that's all right for us to do that since the state is allowing it but i don't know about people walking up and down the street with drinks and feeling free they can drink all they want to to nine o'clock by nine o'clock they may be really out of it and i don't know if we have enough ambassadors and enough policemen to keep up with everybody that's not thinking right so i'm having second second and third thoughts about that because we're trying to make our city safer and um i don't think because the ones that would be doing that were the ones who really liked what they were drinking and they might continue to drink and then get so they don't think right so i'm thinking about this this is hightower so and of course i'm i'm still a no on everything and um but since mr altman went on and said out loud what i was trying to be politically correct about not saying but there is the homeless population that does frequent center city park um and they do it day and night they're there at 12 they're there at nine um and i know many have complained about them and they've complained about them being in altered states you know um whether it's involving alcohol and so now the ambassadors which i knew was gonna happen the ambassadors are gonna be out there uh intervening with the homeless population i knew that was going to happen that's just the first piece of it and now it's going to be the second piece when the incorporate the social district and so people who walk up and down the street and you know have a drink and they say oh shoot let me it's time to go to my um play it's getting to be eight but they haven't finished a drink and then they throw the cup in the trash well somebody could just easily pick that up and take a sip out of it i mean that's i'm just telling you i'm seeing a recipe here for disasters i think we really haven't thought this through very well and then mr davis you said there's some things you hadn't thought about addressing either i mean do we take that drink into um a nice little vintage place that's got clothing in it and then if somebody come in and oops spill something on the people's clothing they're trying to sail i mean i mean you know they say okay all clothing places prohibit no drinks walking in but you take away the whole aspect of roving when you say roving that means people are aimlessly um going places and so i don't know if the person getting a drink is going to be given a map and say okay now you got this drink here if you decide you can only go here here here and here well you know they don't mind we all have our own minds we do what we want to do sometimes um we want people to follow the rule for the most part everybody does follow the rule um i i just think that there is um where i see some potential for a disaster and um i i i would like for us to really revisit this maybe take some other time and look at it um but that's fine if you all are prepared to vote tonight mayor if i can just see yes and then mrs hoffman okay i'm sorry i'll i'll i'll wait for this outfit just i want to give two examples mrs hoffman yeah i mean i just wanted to make the point i mean sort of if you think about the the north carolina folk festival and then three years of the national in essence that was kind of a social district or is um so if you if you sort of keep that in mind then i then i then i think it puts another it puts this in another light in comparison with something else that we've done successfully downtown mayor actually that was i was gonna uh maybe that will help paint a picture just as what councilman hoffman just indicated uh so for example when we have like fun fourth or our festivals downtown uh those are all atmospheres that we ultimately have the special event permit that allow this type of alcohol consumption and for people to walk around we've had we've not had any issues with those i also want to note that abc commission as well as ale have reviewed this particular language that we have in our ordinance and they have no issues with it um mrs johnson mrs johnson made the motion is that second second by mrs abusive waiter um mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells mrs johnson yes i am a yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes mrs therm yes and mrs hightower no so that passes six to two um we will now move on to seven to two seven to two i'm sorry um item number i point seven is a resolution supporting adoption of city safety plan city safety review board mr davis yes thank you mayor and members of council this is something that we worked on for uh a number of months now uh this goes way back to our history of uh trying to address and come up with a way to bring some safety uh to our nighttime establishments that have experienced violence um as some of you know we started out looking at a potential ordinance after a few meetings and some pretty lively discussions with our community to include business owners and the like we arrived at something that we've identified as more of a safety plan and not necessarily an ordinance this safety plan will utilize um basically in a nutshell existing resources but ultimately at its core uh i hope that you all will see that this is an opportunity that city staff can communicate directly with locations that are experienced consistent incidents of violence i know there's been some healthy discussion around this particular item relevant to businesses feeling like this could penalize them but i really would like you all to see that this is an opportunity that we can engage with businesses uh that have specific issues of violence and so that we can help them in those scenarios we do have one speaker i believe it is michael boyer and you have three minutes thank you madam mayor so i am a resident of greensboro but i'm also an attorney to a number of uh stakeholders in this community that pretend to be pretty negatively impacted by the implementation of this proposed plan and i love that council person hightower has kind of built up the context for where we are right now madam hightower i disagree with your conclusion about the social district but i do agree with the notion that this is pretty facially discriminatory um and intent so we are talking about a permit with the social drinking district that will be owned and held by the city which would exempt from this proposed plan um all of those businesses that would be contiguous to the social district uh if any of the violence that is you know claimed to be a problem here were to occur within those boundaries as wood exempted the the coliseum and certain other property affiliated with the city or city stakeholders so there are about five issues that i want to quickly roll through as my time dwindles down number one as the attorney has already stated to you the public round public roundly rejected this stakeholders roundly rejected this in july of this year uh and then number two and perhaps more concerning is that the um premise for why this is here is supported by zero findings of fact there is a you know basically a conclusion that operates as i guess a veiled fact but there's no nexus drawn between the holding of an on-premise retail abc permit and rising crime rates number three we don't have any standards recited in the draft available to the public that show what success would be and i would ask you to look to my item number two to inform why that might be we don't really even know what basket we're shooting at number four the proposed scope is unconscionable we go from acts of violence to city code issues fire building occupancy standards you name it health department and we create a safe a safe operation designation that requires 18 consecutive months of zero incidents and i would say finally you know legally i'm uniquely qualified and that's why i'm here on behalf of the stakeholders that have asked me to be here to speak on matters of beverage alcohol and i do think that what you're proposing is preempted right now by chapter 18 b section 100 and i also think that this makes the city ripe for a 1983 claim because based on what we're seeing it appears that the city actually knows where in the city issues are arising but chooses to include everyone in this designation thank you thank you mr city attorney sure with all due respect i would disagree with the legal arguments were made at the end and i do say that after having been the chair of the board of the abc commission abc organization in durham county for years and having a fair amount of experience in the alcohol legal enforcement piece the suggestion that this is a 1983 action would require that there's somehow discrimination going on um you know constitutional violation of rights none of that i can discern here there's certainly a basis for a rational basis distinction to be made and that's i think what you're doing here if you choose to do it and i would like to say that some of the original meetings that we had were really looking at an ordinance that would um start new regulations and really what staff has done is they spent a lot of time looking at existing ordinances and come up with a a safety plan on how we can react to certain issues so there is no um you know there's no increased cost it is something that we already have on the books but there is um you know if there is an issue there is a safety board where people can come and and speak to the city about what we what we expect in best practices we had a meeting as late as yesterday afternoon i think people understand that this is not an ordinance that it is not going to cost them more money it doesn't require them to do anything but it tells them what to expect if something does happen mrs thurman um yes i hate to let this uh striving for perfection get in the way of something that's good and overall i do feel like this is a good policy um i would like us to pursue um whether or not this should really exempt city functions city property um i have the utmost faith right now and those that are you know matt brown and the coliseum and the tenger center and all that but at the same time [Music] those individuals that are in charge now are not going to be in charge forever because at some point they'll retire and while city functions and now um with current management in place we have police there already we have ems there already i'm looking longer term and thinking you know do we have that codified anywhere i don't think can i answer that because i i've heard that question before and there was some concern uh from ball i had a comment as a mayor said i had a conversation as late as yesterday about concerns about uh city state and government facilities being exempt but i will say all of those facilities and and i can speak to uh city facilities let's uh for example the coliseum if there are incidents of violence or continued incidents of violence at those locations then we will evaluate them at this measure and even higher so i think there's some confusion as it relates to thinking that these locations will be exempt and not receive the level of attention and let me go back to the whole premise of this safety plan the safety plan is to keep businesses open so we can have a hundred people come up to give compelling statements about how we are hurting businesses this is an opportunity for city staff to connect with businesses that might be experiencing violence i can speak to my own experience in law enforcement being a commander in areas and responding to locations and one death of a young person at a night establishment is enough and so ultimately as a city government we have a responsibility to have some type of mechanism in place that we can communicate and help people come to a safe environment and a safe place for our city i i agree with your statements completely and if we hold the city facilities to that standard now then i think there's no harm in this policy of saying that and including those facilities the other piece of this is i would love to see us offer this as a proactive response so that a restaurant prior to ever or bar prior to ever having an event can ask for this panel to be complete convened and ask their advice on the front side so as you said one person's one you know violent act is one too many then i would like to see this broadened so that we can do it proactively on the front side before there is any act of violence and offer that as a support mechanism to our restaurants and bar owners um mrs hightower then mr outling and then miss mabuse waiter okay um thank you um ms durham kind of touched on what um i was getting ready to ask because what the gentleman kind of brought up was concerning to me um when he said um city would be having permits and so we wouldn't be looking at that are we including all establishments everywhere across the city yes we talked about coliseum and all that but i'm talking about you just did a social dis uh district so now are they incorporated in this this this plan this safety plan is a city safety plan so this is for for any location within the city of greensboro so that none of them will be excluded in this if they have a problem because i think one of the issues that that i see that i don't want to happen is that it it boils down to let's just be real black clubs are having more problems and so some of that you see more violence that for whatever reason some of them say you know and and i don't really know if it's alcohol or not i mean i hear both sides of the argument um but as you say we're not trying to shut businesses down um and so that's a concern for me that we have certain establishments in certain other areas of town that we would maybe target and then other areas that don't really get don't feel it and so if it's all inclusive um then i think that's the first thing we need to make it aware i mean i was called for supporting it because i want all places to be safe one of the things you did do that i did ask is that you added a person who has an interest in the restaurant or alcohol sales or nightclub to your um review team because i think that's critically important that while you have four city inspectors on this then i think we also need to have that perspective as well and so i think the mayor you told me today you spoke to tiffany with the uh bar social um mark not the attorney board but the other board north carolina bar association right in greensboro right to help us with this find somebody here so we have that perspective on it as well because i don't want it to be a one-sided perspective um you know when you're left out of the uh process a lot of times the process hurts councilwoman you know what you pose is a very good question and sometimes we try to avoid it but i'll give you an example uh and in in some ways you're right but i think the issue is the gap in communication there was a young african-american male who had a night location in our city uh he had experienced several incidents of violence uh through by way of of a uh a community leader connection we went to lunch we had a conversation uh i gave him some advice of some things to do couldn't put him in contact with a few people to include um the ball owners association or other folks that he could have uh some advice from he made some adjustments to uh what you know the type of uh schedule he had at his location uh he also made a few other adjustments and he's had no issues uh now i'm not saying that's the plan um but you know again i'm acknowledging what you're saying councilwoman hightower and i think what this plan does it allows us to close that gap to sometimes people who don't have the avenues of communication with whether it is gpd whether it's the fire marshal's office whether it's our abc enforcement or other entities that they might have adverse encounters with or communication when they have negative situations take place but i think the real meat of this policy and this plan is to close that gap in communication allow business owners to have those communications with city officials and officials that govern these issues and they can help them and one other thing let me ask you this because this came up too in a couple of the meetings some of the bar owners were saying that a lot of times the spillover is sometimes from gas station convenience stations stores where people are kind of hanging out are we looking to look at those as well and evaluate some of those because i've heard repeatedly a couple locations um that are not nightclubs they aren't and um but they're across from a nightclub and it's the people that are hanging out there the issues happen and there have been incidences there but then the nightclub gets a bad rap because it's right in close proximity i agree those are some things that we continue to work on i continue to work with legal to have those conversations and address those locations yeah because i think we got to be all inclusive if we're talking about you know reducing violence you know we got to look at start finding the root causes of this thank you thank you um mr outling then miss abuse waiter and then i have some comments thank you um i think for council members who may have read the policy we may be able to follow this discussion but i'm not sure if someone is just in tonight we're not aware of what the policy says it's easy to understand what's going on mr davis or another person on staff could you give a summary of the way the policy works and what it actually does yes so ultimately uh if there is an incident and we've identified and defined uh what an act of violence is if there's an incident of violence then that establishment will be engaged and that engagement would entail a notification that we would be initiating the board the board discussion uh would be again with the business owner also we've added a peer as the mayor and council person how tower we're discussing we're talking with persons that are in that area we don't want to just have these conversations with the business owners and not have someone in that discussion that that's in that world and so with that the discussion would identify some of the issues or concerns uh that some of the the members of the board or uh those that have been identified to be on the board would have uh the the business owner bar owner uh club owner uh whatever it may be would have an opportunity to to describe their position and as as they see the incident that's taking place uh from that there could be recommendations that don't always have to be recommendations being made uh after those recommendations are made there'll be continued follow-up uh with the the staff and and the board that was formalized thank you i think you know going to the point that the speaker raised the policy doesn't really go beyond or do anything in addition to what is already done from an enforcement perspective with regard to bars and restaurants establishments that serve alcohol and so mr davis my understanding is that in terms of when this group will convene and make recommendations it'll be after an act of violence sometimes right so it could one act it could be several acts there's not criteria to establish when the board is going to convene and make recommendations is that right it will be after an act of violence yes so would it be after every act of violence at any bar or restaurant the group would convene and kind of start putting this in motion yes if you know i think in subsection uh two uh e uh of the the policy uh it indicates uh the identification of the acts of violence and yes after those acts of violence then the location would be engaged okay because when i review the provisions of the policy it essentially says there's nothing that requires this board to get together or to take any action but you're saying the way the policy works is if there's an act of violence at any of these establishments or the adjoining premises this group is going to convene determined to wit whether or not to make recommendations then make recommendations i think it's um trey i think it's under the policy in uh section three so paragraph one upon occurrence of a violent incident an applicable location the city safety review board shall convene within seven days yes it is correct is there criteria going to the the gentleman's comments is there any kind of criteria or benchmarks for determining what the city will do when it meets again i go back to you know as we started this process uh there uh some of the beginning drafts of uh what was what started as an ordinance did have additional penalties and fines uh we learned pretty quickly that that might not be the best approach as it relates to trying to build the type of relationship we're trying to build to keep businesses open so as you can see by design we do not have additional penalties in the particular plan so as to be equitable and to be fair to all businesses that's that's kind of part of where i think there's an opportunity for improvement is that it's not there's no guidance there's no clarity there's nothing additive to explain what differently would flow from this process as compared to if the city enforced the actual rules that already exist you know so for example the city has and it can go to the abc commission and request that the abc commission and aoli open an investigation and move to suspend the license of an establishment that has served alcohol and has been a site for repeated violence to me this could be very helpful if there was an actual criteria that established when the city would make those requests of abc ala um you know and so for me you know i think you know businesses are the backbone of our community and we need to support them without making their jobs harder when we're not kind of adding value to the process and you know going to councilwoman therm's point and something that i said last week and said to others to me this is continuing to focus on the wrong thing you know it's another reactive process after an offense or a crime of violence has already happened rather than taking those city resources that were obviously willing to dedicate to this in being proactive including as a resource to bars and restaurants to strengthen their security plans and prevent crime from actually occurring you know third in terms of the enforcements and the things that can be done and i know mr davis you haven't reviewed them but it includes um seeking a nuisance and other violations those already exist under state law and so to me it's a matter of why do we waste time mimicking something that's already in place when we could just enforce those laws as we should be doing um you know i'm for actually stopping the crime before it starts and so i think we should be less reactive and have a real vision in being proactive and absolutely propose solutions in addition to that that go to the root causes of pride and i think you know if councilwoman therm is suggesting that this is something that we should do proactively i'm in complete agreement i think if you're singling out one industry bars and restaurants that when we looked at the data when this process started were definitely not the drivers of violent crime in our community i think it's one thing if you're giving them an additional resource i think it's a very different thing if you're applying additional regulation additional scrutiny to them and you're exempting out other businesses which from a statistical perspective have more incidences of crime like convenience stores you're exempting out government buildings which includes the city and other buildings which to councilman therm's point you know if we're going to have plans for them we can get rid of the explicit exemption in the policy um and to me this is again most principally most centrally it may be intended to make our community more safe but almost by design it is something that is reactive after violent crimes have occurred and so i strongly think we should take the dedicated resources that we're willing to make to commit be proactive and be a resource to bars and restaurants help them develop security plans if they desire it and also open that up to other businesses including convenience stores um which on a statistical basis are equal if not greater likelihood of being the site of a violent crime in our community thank you madam mayor um i just wanted to say that hearing about this review board for me has nothing to do with singling out businesses due to the increase in crime um [Music] i i want to say i'm the only sitting council member who has ever had an establishment that had an abc permit and i think most everyone knows that i was totally against the ordinances that were talked about in uh previous months um i i didn't feel that they were appropriate and and most everyone knew my stance on that and we didn't want to i didn't want to move forward with that and i know that staff was asked by council to come back with something and staff came back with this and in all honesty i believe we should give this a try i want to make it very clear i am not saying that bars and restaurants have anything to do with the increase in crime i want to make that perfectly perfectly clear um i do believe that quite a few times there are aggravated assaults that occur in establishments that serve alcohol um i do know there are it becomes a little sensational in the media when there are incidents at venues who that serve alcohol and establishments um but coming from my perspective i would think that if there had been a violent episode at say my restaurant when you apply for an abc permit and perhaps mr outland didn't realize this um you know you have to go through a lot of hoops and you have to with the city give a plan of action and you have to uh you know go through a lot of different uh boxes to check before you are even considered for that abc permit so when that happens and then say you have an incident on your property or you have an incident at your establishment i think that should it get to the point that this goes before the abc commission i think that the abc commission might take into consideration that you met with the safety review board of the city that will also include someone from the service industry is my understanding correct mr davis so we'll not only have different departments from the city to assist you but also there will be one of your peers who will be you know able to give their take on it as well uh sorry we gotta echo so my feeling is that this is something that could actually help in the favor of someone who possibly may be brought up before the abc commission and perhaps mr watts may know a little bit more about that but to show that this person who unfortunately did have something happen on their property has done everything in their power and to make sure it doesn't happen again this could keep that business in business and i don't want to be responsible for businesses being closed down i think it certainly is going to um help those establishments now you talk about what is the city going to talk about well i'm sure there are going to be recommendations but as it states in the uh information we received it is a recommendation if they don't follow through and something else happens that's really not going to look very good if they follow through you know it looks much better so um i suppose in a nutshell here i really would like to give this a chance um i'm going to be watching it closely and i know others will as well but i certainly believe that you know city staff mr davis the chief everybody has been in on this we want our city to be the safest it can be are bars and restaurants the cause of our violent crime no no i'll say it again but i do believe that we want our businesses to stay in business and those that do have permits i think this is a good way to assist them with city resources as much as possible and that is what i i understood from researching this so i certainly believe that it will be something that can help our our citizens and our owners business owners thank you thank you and i just want to say that this is something that has been a long process we looked at possible ordinances realized we had ordinances in place it was a matter of putting best practices together and i believe with what miss abusa waiter says that if there is a place that gets into trouble but they have said that they've been working with the city they can avoid um a nuisance abatement case you know nuisance abatement is something that's very serious because it pulls the abc permit from that building permanently so i think that when we have people who are willing to work with us that it is it is a plus um i do want to talk about city-owned buildings and some of the some of the differences you know they have a significant number of police and and third-party security on hand um for large events at the coliseum like the acc tournament or large concerts they have ems on site they have in all of the buildings they have got metal detectors some of the most high quality metal detectors and wands they allow only clutch size purses i think six by four inches and they look in the purses they look for weapons they look for drugs they look for alcohol so i think that our city buildings are really going above and beyond and quite frankly i don't know that there is a bar or restaurant that can meet the security that goes on in our city buildings so i think that is one reason why we look at city buildings a little differently like tanger or the coliseum because of the high degree of security that they have on site already one thing that i do think that we need further to look at which has been brought up a number of times is the promoter permits um and like mrs thurm said let's not perfect let's not let perfect get in the way of good i think that this is good and that we need to come back and look at a few other items that were brought up today because we said from the very beginning that this was going to be a safety plan and i want to go on record of saying i never said that bars and restaurants were responsible for the growing homicide rate that was somebody else's spin what we want to do is make people safe wherever they are i want to know that when i'm out i'm on a safe in a safe environment i want to know that my children are in a safe environment and whatever we can do to foster that in any type of business i think it's our responsibility um i think we do have to come back and look at promoters because we do have promoters that have unsafe events and they're kind of a one-and-done we need to get on the front end of that so i believe that we have continued discussion on the items that were brought up today this is not the end of it but this is a good start move the item second so moved by mr boosawader seconded by mr holston mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i am yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling no mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes but i would like to ask that we do look at those convenience stores too as well thank you because you come we come back yes yes that passes eight to one um so our next item um would be boards and commissions but before we do that i would like to read a resolution in a resolution appointing i know that when i say it in my mind i get it right sometimes i say it it doesn't quite come out right um whereas on june 30th 2021 former city manager david parish resigned from the city of greensboro whereas taywu jaibaya has extensive leadership experience in both public and private sectors whereas the city council finds that thai has a professional and personal qualities to make him the best suited candidate to serve the residents of greensboro as the next city council now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of greensboro that effective february 1st 2022 taiwa taiwu jaibaya who goes by thai which is much easier is hereby appointed city manager of the city of greensboro further the mayor is authorized to enter into an employment agreement between the city of greensboro and ty jovah setting his annual annualized salary at 280 000 with an executive allowance of one thousand dollars per month can i have a motion accepted as a city manager second so moved by mrs hightower seconded by mr holston mrs hoffman yes mr holston yes dr wells yes mrs johnson i am a yes mrs abuzawader yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero and um i want to say that i am really looking forward to ty coming into town and i believe that he might actually be on the zoom call right now but i look forward to bringing his experience in planning and transportation those are two such important subjects to the city of greensboro right now and i know that he will bring his knowledge of these challenges but not only that bring solutions to a growing city so ty if you were on the phone if you would like to see it yes i do um good evening and uh thank you mayor vaughan and council members i appreciate the confidence that you have placed in me unanimously tonight as greensboro's next city manager and i'm so sorry i'm not able to be there this evening as you know i am on vacation this week with my family uh which was scheduled several months ago however my wife ronke and i look forward to being with you hopefully in january in person prior to my starting officially on february 1st i'd like to say that this is an exciting moment for me to be part of something significant greensboro as you know all know is a city with a rich civil rights and historic legacy and an active participatory community and i'd like to quickly say that as the third largest city in our state greensboro has set the model for participatory budget in greensboro which ensures that our residents help determine how public funds are spent and that's a process that i've admired from the distance and one that i'm now very glad to be part of with a growing and diverse population and one college per 19 square miles which is something that really makes me proud prominent healthcare presence many active open spaces an innovative 2040 comprehensive plan and recent major economic development announcements that you've made city greensboro is poised for great things not only in north carolina but in this united states and globally i look forward to working with you maya and council and making sure that i lead our staff to accomplishing great things we will partner with our residents and our business community to champion a more equitable greenspur equity as you know is very important to me personally but also it's something that's very important to our residents and businesses a city where everyone regardless of race regardless of backgrounds ethnicity where they come from ability socioeconomic status truly feel that they belong we're going to develop and work with you to create priorities that align with your vision that you've set for our city to create a more vibrant and healthy future so finally i'd like to say that as we continue to manage the unique challenges that kobe 19 brings we will continue to prioritize the health and well-being of our employees follow cdc guidelines and guilford county public health recommendations we'll continue to support our small businesses we've said a lot about them tonight we'll protect our residents and making sure that our hearts and entertainment activities continue to remain vibrant so once again mayan council this is our time as a city and i'm very very excited to be part of this moment thank you once again i wish you merry christmas and a happy new year and i definitely look forward to joining you in person in january at some one of the council meetings prior to starting in february so once again thank you i want to say welcome we look forward to seeing you and your family in person we know that you are going to come to love the city of greensboro it is a great place to be i do want to say um a special thank you to chris wilson who has been interim city manager he also is on vacation right now so it must be city manager vacation time but he has done a fabulous job along with the rest of our assistant city managers trey davis larry davis kim sowell city attorney thank you all for the work that you've done these last few months really pitching in we we've had some great economic announcements chris will continue to be the chief negotiator on those since he has put so much time in um and we look forward to closing some big deals in the next couple of months and um ty we know that you will be here and um we look forward to that but i do want to acknowledge our city staff for the great job that they have done for giving us some continuous leadership and it it has not gone unnoticed and tai will be getting a great team to work with and um i am really looking forward to you coming and meeting the city staff and i'm sure that you'll be impressed thank you me too i am definitely looking forward i have been in touch with chris and we're going to definitely have a wonderful time thank you thank you enjoy so now we will move on to um boards and commissions mrs hoffman yes i would like to appoint mr thomas sinclair to the redevelopment commission he will be he is replacing amy murphy and i think he will be a really good experienced strong addition to that commission second all in favor say aye aye opposed okay that passes do you have any others no that was all thank you thank you mr holston board's commissions yes i do have one for the board of adjustment to replace the unexpired term of mary schemes i have mr corey randolph okay um and we had a second on that mrs johnson all in favor say aye aye opposed that passes nine to zero any others mr holston and that completes for tonight dr wells mrs johnson no i have none mrs abuse awaiter mr outling this evening thank you thank you um mrs thurm none this evening mrs hightower no i have not but i also continue to solicit district one residents please uh sign up because i do have some appointments i need to make and i'd love to have some new individuals to be able to appoint so if you're out there listening and you live in district one um i need you to sign up and serve thank you can i echo that for the whole city that we need to get some for for all the districts um as an at-large member it's really important to me and also based on my background and community engagement that uh that folks have a say in what's going on in the city not just to live here and work here and play here but also to engage with and help make the decisions for the city agreed so now we'll go to council comments uh mrs hightower since i still have my mask off right thank you um first and foremost um i want to say welcome mr news the new mr city manager ty i'm excited um i can't wait till it comes um very impressive um i see the future of the city's bright very innovative very thought-provoking um individual and i think he'll bring a lot to the city of greensboro and i look forward to working with him these few little months that we still have um and of course all the time um i think what he's offering his expertise and transit he's a planner he knows design i mean so he has um and he knows this stuff very well he's worked in those areas so i'm excited welcome um ty can't wait um until you start and see where the city in district 1 is going to be moving forward and also thanks to chris wilson because chris um really committed um more than we really realize chris really is a very committed individual he loves the city um and if he finds any way to say yes he always will no matter what you ask them he said we'll find a way to do what you'd be like chris can we do yeah don't worry don't we we will we will and um he does and um so i appreciate all that he's done um for us as well here um in the city and all of staff as well thank you all and hope you all have a wonderful safe holiday um i also would still ask people to please get vaccinated uh omicron is here or this morning it's become the dominant uh virus and so um over you know the delta one and so please please i know people you hate this thing right here uh it's this messes up your makeup and your lipstick for the women i get it um but it will protect life and that's critically important so please and i implore my community especially get vaccinated get your kids vaccinated um the life you save may be your child's so i i would ask my community to do that and finally yesterday we opened our newest fire station number seven on east window and we officially named it the ray k flowers fire station we named it after the first african-american fire chief here in the city of greensboro and there's a lot of legacy there and there's a lot of history there that i i don't know if people really got because he was in the first segregated class 1961 fresh out of a t he was a graduate and so that class was all segregated and look from where he came from that segregated class to being a fire chief over an integrated uh group of men and women um and we don't even know the struggles that he went through because he's so humble and he's so quiet and he just gets it done and i was really honored uh by the fact um that he was our first african-american fire chief and set the trail um to be a trailblazer um you know so please stop by that fire station it's built really very well um but i would say sometimes we need to give people their flowers while they are alive and he is here to see us do this and i think that honor has really gone a long ways that we are able to give the flowers to mr flowers and while he is here among us to celebrate with us so thank you all for uh supporting that and for us doing that thank you have a great holiday mrs johnson council promise yes i i just want to add to the dedication of fire station 7 my thanks i think there looked like about 200 people that came out i wanted to thank those who um were in the class of 61 with mr um flowers that came out i want to thank the shriners that came out and i also want to thank his church bethel amy church many of them were there and um cities the city staff did a fantastic job helping the fire department do this i thought it was a great ceremony so i just want to say happy holiday to everyone be safe and if you have something to give to somebody who needs it do it god bless you thank you dr wells it truly was exciting and rewarding to be a part of the dedication of the ray k flowers fire station number seven so you've probably seen us on tv over and over because i've seen it a couple of times when we we didn't cut a ribbon but we what would they call it uncovered so we were all holding the holes instead of a regular ribbon cutting but thank you all for um being being a part of that this is is the uh christmas season and people are taking vacations and getting with family so enjoy your family remember the reason for the season and uh be sure and get your vaccination that's very important that's all i have for tonight thank you um mr outling nothing this evening beyond uh welcoming mr j.o we really excited for him to join the city team and i know we all look forward to working with him thank you mrs stern yes thank you um i agree with councilwoman hightower that that the ability to give somebody honors while they're staying still living is is a special treat and uh i thought yes yesterday's dedication was amazing and meeting former chief flowers was a great experience um there to the assistant city manager of seoul um as we've discussed there's been a plethora of misinformation out there and going around about the art funds and what the city has done or not done i'd like to request that the thorough information that you gave us in an email the other day be released to the public so that people have the facts of the money that we did give have given away and what's slated how many people and what areas and also to let the public know that there is a dashboard on our website now where you can see exactly who has received the funds from from the covet relief funds and if you could please publish that information that you shared with us because i think the public needs to have the accurate information on what's happened with those funds i would appreciate that um in addition on a more personal note i would like to thank everybody that reached out to me and my fellow members of the jewish community in the past couple of days after the horrific messages that were delivered to people's homes um it's it's hard to believe that we still have to deal with these things now but we do and we face it way more than we should um greensboro is a welcoming community it's a very special community and we have to make sure that we don't let a few people color what our community looks like and i really appreciate those of you that have reached out to me and reached out to others in the jewish community in the past couple days that solidarity solidarity and those expressions are very very meaningful and we very much appreciate them so thank you thank you before we move on i do want to say i kind of put some handouts that are in everybody's folder and these were just rough numbers that i was trying to pull off to see what we have done with our um coveted relief funding for um rental assistance and from what i can see we've processed well we are our community partners we were working with three four community partners greensboro housing coalition greensboro urban ministry housing consultants group in the salvation army between those four organizations they have processed over 4 400 applications and there has been over 22 million um allocated towards those applications doesn't mean they've all been paid yet we're waiting for some additional um additional funding there are 761 applications that have not been assigned to one of our partners yet so the city of greensboro along with help with financing from the county and our and our partners have really made a significant dent in this rent and utility assistance and mrs hightower requested that there be a the dashboard that um mrs thurm mentioned and it is up on the site right now it probably needs a little tweaking but it shows it's even broken down by district that shows how much money is spent in each district so um i think this is really important information um there has been questions about whether or not certain neighborhoods who have been have been visited and that information is on the website as well we we also i kind of put a second page that shows our notification efforts and it was in the city water bill social media twitter facebook next door on the cities and neighborhood development pages most of our pages got it out um four seasons mall it's in the kiosks throughout the mall it's been on city buses sitting parking garages city library guilford county social services and i do want to point out that guilford county has eviction diversion personnel in the courthouse as these cases are coming up and that is really something very important that guilford county is doing and then of course landlord and community media meetings and many media outlets so i think it's important that we get this um information out because i think there is some misinformation out that we haven't been aggressive um spending these funds and actually we exceed the national average when i say we it's our partners um it's kind of that royal we and i want to you know give a big thank you to our partners for doing the best they can under difficult circumstances because as these applications were being processed the rules were still coming out and still changing and they were trying to respond to what the federal government was telling us and to all the people who were knocking on the door with these very urgent needs so i think we should celebrate the work that's been done especially by the people in the community who have really invested their time and talents to make sure that people wouldn't be um evicted not only during the holiday season but all year so man if i can and so i i'd put this in your files again it's kind of just a rough draft um but i did want to kind of put it all in one spot no and i just want to add echo what you just said i do want to thank our partners and i'm a little troubled because sometimes the city gets beat up like we don't do anything and we don't care but i think we really go um you know the 10th mile to make sure that people who really need to be served are and you know we're we're told well we're not transparent about it well you also want to respect people too everybody don't want everybody to know they're going through something and i think we have to respect that as well um and our partners do that they do that very well they go the 10th mile they really really do um and so um yeah the dashboard presented information i think that everybody um will get and see that and the only thing i think was missing and we didn't have time to really get that was gender and probably race um but and i know we'll be able to pull that together but right now we're trying to make sure that people's rents are being paid and they're not being evicted and that is happening and we have made sure it happens so i appreciate uh the partners that we have um by i've talked to them today and they get a little upset because they don't they feel like people don't realize the work that they do and they do it genuinely from their heart and they feel like people are just throwing stones at them and i tell them all the time you know it comes with the territory you know um when you are doing something good somebody's always going to find something um to point at but it doesn't should never stop you so i i just want them to know how much it is appreciated and what the work they do and we have to recognize that our neighborhood development department has been working very hard on this as well um and again regulations keep changing so not only giving out money trying to make sure that things are in compliance as rules change and the numbers that i gave you do not include applications that the county has processed the county had money that included the city of greensboro and they have um independently processed other applications so um i i asked the county for those numbers we'll probably get them in a couple of days but there has been huge outreach i want to say from the city and the county to make sure that these funds are being spent in the best way possible um while i have the microphone i do want to say that i was very disturbed by the leaflet that was found at many people's homes on sunday morning when they went out to get there um when they went out to get their newspapers and um you know mrs thurman i'm sorry that things like that still happen we saw it with the asian backlash that happened not too long ago our human rights department is looking at a statement in support of our jewish neighbors and friends and so um hopefully that will be out in the next few days um there was no that i know of there was no other city in north carolina i'm on a mayor's list serve and um while that particular leaflet didn't seem to be in any other city asheville said that they've noticed that they have had an increase in anti-semitic literature and things being up on um phone poles so it's something that we really need um to keep an eye on and you know um some of the people that i've reached out to um you know if people could look at their security systems or their next door to see if they can um you know if they have pictures of people um leaving stuff in driveways that would be um that would be helpful i am going to move on to mary kay and hugh but i do want to recognize the high fashion that we have here tonight um tammy is is here in her um her holiday sweater snow along with um mary kay um goldie your um holly holiday but hugh you've got to take your jacket off so um mr hulston um really brought it for his first holiday season um at the at the diocese and i just wanted him to be recognized for uh for his wonderful fashion choices so with that mary kay kind of hard to follow that but we've had fun um i just want to say echo what everyone said about fire station seven i the only thing i can add that you all haven't said is you know it was really good to see that they had incorporated parts of the old building and some memorabilia from the old building into the new building and having been a restaurant owner and worked in the kitchen a lot i was so impressed with their kitchen i just can't tell you i really wanted to take that home they had they had some amazing uh now it's uh you can click your phone and turn your oven on and you know all of this stuff so anyway it was it was good to see the technology that is able to be used in the new buildings and also the fact that it is a collaboration between the county and the city so that's really good because ems is in there um just want to say that you know the last months we've been without a city manager welcome ty welcome aboard but you know shout out to to our staff because they have done a yeoman's work in uh just everything of course chris wilson kim sowell larry davis trey davis uh angie and her staff debony you all have done an amazing job uh chuck our attorney um you know i say that to kind of echo what mrs hightower was saying um people don't realize how hard the staff work and this includes those in the departments as well we know but um you know sometimes employees deserve a little some kudos as well so um the other week we had disability training at lindley several of us were there disability awareness training and we got to see donna gray of course who used to work with the city and is now retired she was assisting but that was very eye-opening as well because we all were put in positions where as though we had a specific disability whether it was being blind or being deaf and uh or not being able to walk and to show the barriers as you move along even in the lindley recreation center it was it was not even easy although it is ada compliant it still was hard to navigate so um certainly opened my eyes someone i know several of us as well last thing i'll say is um mrs thurman mrs hoffman you know th those leaflets that went out i think everyone in greensboro is just absolutely disgusted by what was on there and uh i i certainly hope the people are caught i can't imagine it would be anyone from greensboro i hope i'm not surprised on that but there's there's no room for hate in greensboro we we just don't need it last thing is merry christmas to all everyone be safe if you're traveling and um i guess we'll have our first meeting in the new year and let's certainly hope the new year brings us all uh good health and happiness thank you thank you and mr holston if you want to close council comments out thank you madam mayor i certainly will and some of this will be somewhat duplicative but i also want to welcome tai as our new uh city manager very excited about him coming in i know that councilwoman hightower talked about vaccines and vaccinations and my fellow council members know that that is important to me so definitely yes get your vaccinations get your boosters and that includes your children ages five and and up i also want to share um oh also for retired chief ray flowers that that was an outstanding outstanding dedication to an outstanding man who gave so much to our communities it was wonderful to be there and let me also share that i was very happy for the invitation to participate with the montagnards vega association uh they had a workshop and i was able to share and present uh for for their population it was really really uh a good event but i will say that um as a member as a liaison member of the war memorial commission they had their holiday luncheon for the coliseum and tanger employees i had a chance to interact and engage with many of their employees but a true highlight was a retirement celebration for mr gentry long and mr long is a 28-year employee and and i don't think he'll mind if i say that he is currently 91 years young and i don't think i would uh tussle with him in an arm wrestling contest it was an outstanding retirement celebration for mr long he's an outstanding man given so much to the city of greensboro as have many others but uh his retirement celebration was really special this this past bit so mr mr gentry long or as they call him mr gentry or mr g congratulations and uh good luck in your retirement and having said that merry christmas happy uh holidays uh be safe and travel safely thank you madam mayor thank you and i must apologize i skipped mrs hoffman um nancy do you have any comments yeah no problem um you know hate is really such a destructive force and um it's important that just we always we just have to face it we have to speak out against it regardless of how it's directed or to whom it's directed so i appreciate the the comments that we've had over the last couple of days you know this is a season of supposedly joy and peace and and i hope that we can um experience that with our with our family and friends uh i too really look forward to the new year to our new city manager who um who i think really brings some experience and expertise that will that's really important and that will really be very helpful to us but i also appreciate as most of you have expressed uh the work uh the leadership of chris wilson and our other assistant city managers during this interim period of time we've had a lot going on that they've been involved in and they've done a great job so just wishing a good holiday to all of our citizens thank you um ms sowell any comments from the city manager's office just want to echo sentiments express thanking our staff we have a super staff thanks for all the hard work thanks to our council for your great leadership in helping us navigate another challenging year wish you happy holidays and hope you get to enjoy time spent with family and friends thank you mr city mr city attorney yeah echo those comments and and also say that i've had an opportunity to uh chat with ty and my team and i look forward to working with him to uh you know pursue and protect the policy agenda that you all set forth so uh happy holidays and see you next time i did um i think i i i failed to mention that the renaissance safer city committee had a dinner last thursday evening and it was really nice for the senior citizens in the neighborhood we all enjoyed it um and i'm proud of that group because they've continued they've given uh food um just about every week all during this pandemic and they've kept going and i think they said they have the only safer city group that is still standing so i want to applaud them for their dedication and what they're doing for our community thank you um do we have a second and we are adjourned without um objection thank you happy holidays