[Music] yeah all right good evening everyone um I'm ba la and I'm going to call this meeting of um the city charlot city council consent and action review to order um we'll begin with introductions we will start with our City Attorney Patrick Baker City attorney Victoria watlington District three Dante Anderson District One Ed drgs district 7 Malcolm Graham District 2 Marcus Jones city manager F mayor Braxton Winston mayor protemp good evening Lana Mayfield council member at large tempar at large and Happy Diwali to everyone who's celebrating yes Stephanie Kelly city clerk all right thank you very much for this um this meeting is an opportunity for us to address issues that are going to be coming forward in the next several weeks or months or the next month and but with this we also begin with the idea of what are there any questions on the consent agenda items um and so I Miss Harris is here are there there's a report at your um seing place at your place for I think several questions that were asked and answered so we'll go to um anyone that would like to have any item removed from the agenda or um for a separate Vote or would like to make a comment on it Miss Mayfield Miss Mayfield thank you Madame mayor I first want to step back and say welcome back to miss Stephanie Kelly we have Miss ju so welcome back to us Marie thank you for getting an update I still have a longer question for item number 14 which is on our business agenda the Carolina Theater so what I'm trying to figure out is we the city has an additional funding request out there what is the additional funding request from the county when we look at the total amount of funds that we have already contributed to the Carolina Theater and looking at the breakdown of the dollars mecklinburg county has already committed 4.2 million the city of Charlotte has already has 4.5 million contributed to this and this request this evening is for an additional 2 million so I would like to know exactly how much is the county also being asked so that we don't have an imbalance with the city putting in almost 7 million into this project and with that being very close to the corporations foundations and the individual donations they have made thank you Miss Mayfield that's an a business item on our agenda um and we will have I think surely have some remarks about it um you know it's really from my experience theity City and the county often have been asked for things to do and and I just met with the West Boulevard um Coalition and you know we put in 1.5 million and the county put in 3 million so it's not always equal so I think if we can have some examples of where we had equality of equal um equal contributions as well as those things that we have not and the reason why we can talk about that at the business meeting this after this evening so with that is there any other con consent items for question or comment if we don't do I have a motion to approve consent items 19 through 41 so moved have a motion and a second hearing no further discussion all in favor of the motion please raise your hands welcome anyone opposed all right that motion passes so the next thing we're going to do is turn it over to um the manager for review of the agenda items that we have that we're going to be looking and previewing this afternoon thank you mayor members of council we have two items uh under the action review for tonight one is the tree can canopy update as well as the uh the bus operations contract update I do believe there's a Clos session item also mayor so what what I'd like to do is just um make sure that you have enough time to have good discussions we've set aside approximately 10 minut 10 minutes for the presentations related to each one of these in about an hour for the council discussions I will tell you that during the manager's report if um you need to pull the bus operations contract over to that I think that would be fine um but I just wanted to make sure that you have ample time to have discussions about these um good topics all right okay that's it mayor unless there are any other questions I'd like to turn it over to Allison hopefully we can knock that out in an hour Mr manager that's the goal that's the goal all right good evening mayor manager and um members of council um we are here tonight to provide you with an update on the tree canopy analysis work that has been done in partnership with tree Charlotte uh trees of course are very important to Charlotte and to our residents providing multitude of benefits to our community so what the analysis found is that Charlotte continues to have a robust tree canopy um and so what the analysis found was that um our tree canopy coverage is at 47.3% which is down a half of a percent from 2018 which is a much slower decline than previously thought which is is great news um we can attribute this to canopy growth into planting and preservation however the study does say that our tree can coverage is still declining um and that on our current path we would not be able to reach our 50x50 goal uh We've certainly strengthened our tree canopy pres regulations through the Udo which of course would not have been picked up by this analysis because they just went into effect 6 months ago but they do lay a great foundation for future work um in the future to meet this goal that's what the city aspires to do so I wanted to mention that we won't have all the answers tonight this is a brand new uh analysis we're still coming through the data um but early review is starting to reveal some some great opportunities for us to improve on our policies on our programs planting and regulations in partnership with tree Charlotte and the county to better support our tree canopy assets um so tonight um at the end uh Tim will also talk about next steps uh we certainly will have more information for you in the future as we start to work towards our tree canopy action plan 2.0 and update our future uh Tre tree canopy goals so um I'm going to turn it over to Tim but I also wanted to recognize that Jane Meers from tree Charlotte is here as well and can answer any other questions that you may have about tree Charlotte work so thank you Tim thank you Allison good evening council members Madame mayor um very pleased to be here this evening to provide an update on our tree canopy also wanted to mention um as Alison stated Jane is here and this was a joint project between tree Charlotte in the city of Charlotte tree Charlotte served as program management lead and funding lead and uh it's been a great um path working on this with Jane and her team so very excited about that the analysis looked countywide of course with a focus on uh the city of Charlotte canopy Trends uh and this will serve as a foundation for multiple tree canopy efforts including TCAP 2 which is our working title for the update to the 50x50 tree canopy goal and urban for for master plan Planet Geo was the consultant and they analyzed the canopy cover in 2022 looking for the changes that occurred from 2018 to 2022 uh targeting things such as ecosystem benefits what available planting area exists across the city canopy as it relates to Urban heat and and harmful Urban temperatures and overall distribution across many geographies and demographics um a core part of this project also includes uh as soon to be implemented new online mapping tool called tree plotter canopy General Services Landscape Management division currently uses this online mapping tool for an engagement program called Tree by tree it also um displays the street tree inventory and this new tool will display the results for the community of our tree canopy distribution and also serve as a planning tool for staff the community and tree Shar um as we move forward for future efforts with canopy uh the methodology is important to note was anything technology in our lives it's evolving quickly the data accuracy the actual way the data is analyzed U it's exciting that AI is now everywhere in our society urban forestry is no exception um so this assessment utilized modern machine learning techniques and looked at high quality uh high resolution aerial imagery that differs significantly from the 2018 analysis which was more human computer modelbased assessment um we're positioned really well for the future of Apples to Apples assessment to make sure we can have a a benchmark and measure success against that moving forward and of course Jane I welcome any comments you may have to so um as Allison mentioned we're at 47.3 a lot going on on this slide but our canopy cover declined .5% over that fouryear time span from 47.8 to 47.3 further confirming that we have a very robust canopy and we'll see some numbers later on how we compare quickly uh with other um Pier cities the decline is slower than we previously thought uh we're not yet on a path to 50x50 but this data suggests that is still attainable uh and our canopy efforts not just the city but tree Sharp and all their partners and residents those canopy efforts are having an impact and they're much more easy easier to assess and detect given the new uh AI assessment methodology uh no surprise residential areas have the highest land area canopy cover and canopy loss um throughout the city including the most potential planting opportunities in area um public property public rights away that includes City owned properties all saw increases City owned properties are currently at 46% coverage um canopy is not distributed equally across Charlotte we'll see in a moment there's a there's a map that shows uh by neighborhood profile area uh and gains um were not equally distributed each area had gains and losses but they're all starting from different places which is important to note for Equity reasons um the highlighted second bullet here is an important theme we wanted to mention is that best case scenario if we stay in the current path is 40% by 2050 this aligns with analysis from the 2017 Urban Forest master plan that said 41% is the maximum canopy if you stay on your current path so every site at full development with a fully mature tree canopy that's the number 40% uh that's projected from this analysis um another thing I I think it's really important to highlight relative to efforts are having impact is that the overall gains almost offset the overall loss which is important because we haven't really had that talking point to really champion before so that's important we're still losing canopy but um the gains were significant incrementally and it's much easier and I think it's felt in a way um canopy loss is felt in a way very different it's it's very immediate and acute because the tree is there or for is there then it's gone gains are much harder to see they're much harder to feel but it's happening and we have really good data um to show that 29% of Charlotte's impervious and this was very eye openening only 9% of our canopy covers impervious area which was very interesting um focusing more on the city the etj and rights of way if you add the city limits and the etj for Charlotte um we're approximately at 49 .9% collectively the etj has a much higher canopy coverage than the city uh city- owned property diving a little bit deeper there had an increase in canopy there's still opportunity to plant more uh this is a general assessment of potential planting area it does take out things like golf courses and Bank of America Stadium you can't plant trees on football fields and things like that so that kind of stuff has been taken out of this potential planting area uh PPA that's an acronym you're going to hear throughout the presentation uh public Street rway saw increase as well which is exciting there's also more opportunity to plant there doing fairly well Atlanta is going to release a canopy analysis very soon so interest interested to see what they find uh we're at 47.3 Al also interesting all of these cities have adopted Citywide canopy cover goals which is interesting because the the the biggest um nonprofit urban forestry consultant American Forest no longer recommends a city-wide canopy cover goal as your only or primary metric and objective it's still used as a tool but should not be the only tool should be very specific to each City and there should be scalable benefit driven data driven objectives to really deliver canopy and trees and benefits where they're needed by the people robust canopy very very high level of benefits being provided across multiple areas 52 million and change provided annually for this analysis cleaning air sequestering carbon Energy savings Wildlife is an area we're being more and more uh focused on um Place types um we saw canopy loss in nine out of 10 Place types the table the bar chart on the right there numbers were rounded to whole numbers that's why you see some of them are even some of the losses were fractions of decimal points so um this also speaks to almost all the gains offset all the losses but not quite but there were losses occurring in every place type except parks and preserves which saw an increase neighborhood one place type the residential themed um most loss most canopy to lose most area um 70% of total loss occurred in this place type approximately 700 Acres also has the greatest opportunity for planting over 25,000 Acres 66% of the city's total possible planting area or PPA exists in this place type neighborhood profile areas a geography we're all familiar with um you can see canopy is not distributed equally uh I do want to point out there is high canopy in most residential areas not all uh there's we have identified for a number number of years concerns with managing canopy even in lower canopy areas large tree assistance um canopy care helping folks maintain large trees on their private property is needed throughout the city um most uh this middle bullet here most of the neighborhood profile areas had a canopy between 40 and 70% just let everyone kind of review that digest it for a moment when we look at canopy loss this was very interesting um unlike the last analysis it occurred Citywide uh the darker orange yellow colors are higher levels of loss uh I'm slightly color blind so this color spectrum gives me a little bit of a problem but I've been told no it it it shows more of a distribution of loss across the city our last analysis had heavily concentrated loss in a few geographies this shows loss of course there some concentrated areas but it shows more of um Citywide loss across multiple neighborhood profile areas and these are based on census block and census demographics just to make sure everyone understands these geographies so canopy gains a little bit harder to see on this map but um it every area had canopy gains this map shows what the overall net reality was loss or gain so incrementally gains are occurring everywhere uh there are some areas Who start with much lower canopy so there's less to lose this map doesn't show all those realities we we are going to dig deeper into this data that we received just a few weeks ago and Report out in the future so some major takeaway themes is that the methodology the technology the data accuracy has evolved significantly in just four years we're very excited to have a new reality with AI that could really give us a higher level of accuracy and set us on a Apples to Apples comparison path uh we really want to highlight that our canopy is still robust it's resilient but it's facing um some challenges and there are threats out there it is still declining but results indicate 50% canopy cover 50 by 50 that one metric still may be achievable there are some models in the report it's not in this presentation but there are some data models projecting um current losses projected losses plus tree planting efforts that equal a number they look at business as usual increase planting at one level increase planting at a higher level and IT projects how many trees are needed to achieve 50 by 50 or more canopy Equity is something that's really important um there is a lot of data out there on temperatures this analysis provided even more quality data on neighborhood temperatures there's a lot of work to be done focusing on policy on canopy Equity uh additional analysis is needed and we look to complete that in future policy work uh in TCAP 2 which again is an update of uh 50x50 canopy goal and the urban Forest master plan some work that has occurred already um connected to this analysis or just you know canopy coverage is in the Udo the last analysis we saw decline in residential areas um residential infill lot our infield development on single Lots is now regulated something we previously didn't do June 1st with the Udo we started um requiring Street trees to be planted on these infill lots that trigger compliance we're also pres preserving Heritage trees in all areas now including residential areas tree save requirements increase from 10% to 15% of all new single family subdivisions so the concern about canopy loss in residential areas uh was acted on on by Council in the city in the Udo U really really early look something to consider uh the impervious item of where only 9% of our canopy covers impervious coverage um that's eye opening and so that's something we may suggest focusing on in the future to better reduce temperatures trees are a great tool to do that um there could be some regulatory or strategic programs that Target that in needed areas um Next Step as Allison mentioned uh further review and just understanding of the data that we have the data will be made available uh we're seeking for tomorrow to be published online where we can have links provided uh to the public um tree uh TCAP 2 or tree canopy action plan two is what we're calling the update to the 50 x50 canopy goal in urban Forest master plan and we plan to take that on next year 2024 and that is a quick uh update on where we are with our tree canopy well Tim thank you thank you for this um I tell you there are three things that I noted that give me great hope for what we are trying to accomplish is one first of all the technology and access to the public so that you know you have you've worked with AI but you also are going to put it in a place where the community can understand and read and and especially those in the sustainability world to help us address this and then the other thing that I thought is that you gave an ability to identify by category you can actually pull out some things that are more important or could be done EAS more easily than not and I think that information is very very helpful and then I guess my final thing is you gave me hope because you said 2050 was feasible that it is possible and that kind of hope is really important so thank you for the team I want to thank tree Charlotte um I remember being one of the people on the board years ago and being able to see this today as opposed to what it was before has been really significant now this is in the tap committee so I'm going to recognize the chair and I think everyone wants to speak so Mr DRS you can choose to go with Miss Anderson or Mr Graham and we're coming around all right thank you mayor um so I first want to know this is really valuable data uh it's important that we have the facts because the conversation is often emotional uh you've got the developer community and then you have uh interest groups advocating for trees and so we need to have an objective frame of reference appreciate that um I thought uh listening to your report this wasn't as bad as I expected uh so I had a bigger concern than is reflected in a lot of what you told us that's good news news I'm happy about that I'm also a little concerned that we not get complacent uh and think okay this isn't as tough as we thought and so we you know we could take our foot off the gas or something um it the other difficulty I have is aligning everything you told us with the kind of public conversation that takes place in the context for example of our zoning meetings and so on so I have three big rezonings pending right now involving 200 Acres that are very lightly if it all developed and the prospect is that they will be essentially clear-cut subject to tree save so an idea has taken hold in the minds of the public that we are just running rough shot over our trees um I think we need to uh we need to figure out how to get from what you're telling us to a policy conversation that's more recognizable I'll guess in the minds of a lot of the people who are watching us work um and I'm not sure what that looks like you have indicated there I'm still in my own mind trying to figure out how will we progress from what you're doing to rules and to to Provisions in the ordinance and I would say this by the way also a little bit about traffic uh uh people are upset about traffic and they're not seeing relief in the work that we're doing in our Udo so that would be a concern I have uh I do have one question and that is how are we adjusting for changes in the composition like you have a percentage number there are mature trees there are new plantings so are we somehow uh taking into account the quality of the canopy as well as just those percentage numbers we are that's a great question and in the the bullet here of additional analysis that is something we want to Target we target targeted that in the initial tree canopy action plan work that was part of the comprehensive plan initiative where we really got into looking at the types of trees the types of canopy and the benefits they provide but also the quality so we had some steps forward in the Udo regarding prioritizing quality and the placement of tree preservation but we can do more so that's something we're considering um this analysis was a GIS top- down assessment which is very valuable but with trees there's also great value from a bottom up where you actually go into the field and assess trees um from from a human perspective so that is something we're considering doing in TCAP 2 additionally we want to look at an assessment that projects the canopy coverage uh that we achieve out of our regulations like what what level of canopy is likely going to occur for um commercial multif family residental itial based on our current regulations um we have reacted and provided new Concepts to implement in the Udo related to canopy issues but we can be more intentional and learn more about each type of development type and what that canopy provides to guide us for our ruem I appreciate that I just look forward to us having the opportunity to figure out what action right is indicated by the analyses but I appreciate your work thank you all right um Miss Anderson thank you uh Madame mayor so um first I just want to acknowledge tree Charlotte and all the work that they do uh to preserve and extend our canopy as we know uh our tree canopy is a huge attraction Point um because it differentiates Charlotte from other cities that haven't really been mindful about the canopy and so I want to thank uh Tre Charlotte for all their efforts uh to protect that I too was a little bit surprised that that you know we haven't um lost more canopy given the the rate of growth and development that has occurred so when you think about those two things in tandem it's very surprising that we've only lost 0.5 uh percent of our canopy but having said that as Mr dri just mentioned you know one particular project May potentially wipe away 200 Acres of canopy and that's effectively 20% of the canopy that we've lost over the last several years so we do have to be very very mindful about um you know how we Embrace um these major large uh development projects um the one thing that I I'm noticed as you were going through the information is that clearly the residential areas have the largest lack of canopy if you will and you know that creates that Urban heat impact for res residential areas that will increase their utilities uh utility bills and so I have some real concern about that and as you go into your additional analysis it would be great if you could maybe address that specifically how we can tackle um that effort the other thing that I was a little bit concerned about is this whole concept of impervious landscape and having only 10 9% of our canopy covering that right that creates a whole host of um ecological and climate challenges right that we have to deal with and I think that's another a big issue that I wasn't expecting to see out of this data and information um on on the on the slide 13 where you talk about our canopy gain and 12 where the loss it it effectively feels like you know there's going to be a a a significant area right in the middle of the city right that's going to have significantly less canopy and um and in term in some terms that makes sense but in other ways I think we can be very strategic about how we can fight that AB absolutely and I'd like to see some steps as you come back to address that potential issue and um and then lastly I I just want to want to ask you you know when are you going to come back with next steps like what are next steps in terms as it relates to action points and when we can be able to stand those things up um right now we're tedly thinking in 2024 calendar year 2024 um as we want to take some time to review this data um a number of months um again it's a joint project with Tre Charlotte so it's it's their data too we want to be in locks up with them as much as possible but we want this data to be quickly supported of of policy work in 2024 that's going to look at our canopy goal as you said to be more strategic if we if the community decides to keep 50 by 50 um that's going to be a tough decision but I think as you hit the nail on the head we have to be more intentional and strategic on on multiple scales um canopy cover in some of the urban core areas may not be achievable at 50% but we can deliver trees where the people are increasing planting in canopy coverage over sidewalks uh multi use trails and things like that so 2024 we're looking to start and complete um TCAP 2 which is that policy work okay great um I'd like for us to keep the 50 by 50 because you know that's a big hariry audacious goal and if we work towards that um even if we don't hit it we'll be in a better place U so I would like for us to not Mo move or pivot from our original goal so it would um increase um our efforts in this regard so thank you for all the work that you've done and thank you Madame mayor Miss watlington thank you madam mayor I've just got a couple of quick followup questions more um general for my understanding as I'm looking at the tree canopy I'm understanding here that on slide six it says that there's um 40% maximum canopy cover projected in 2050 if it's business as usual and we talk about you're going to say something no I'm sorry I'm I just want you to unpack that because I'm I'm balancing that versus this graph here on uh slide 10 and I'm seeing the gains offset most of the detected canopy loss so can you help me understand how those pieces work in conert I I can't to a point the model is a little little bit more complex than I could just um relay right now but we can provide a more detailed answer and I welcome Jane to add anything here as well um so the model that's projected that takes account a number of different loss types and gains type and planting efforts that we identified with the consultant we provided average planting numbers collectively between the city and tree Charlotte that doesn't capture um the community or meinberg County or other partners um but that's assumed in the model so it takes known variables and assumed variables and uh provides an annual loss um projection for development related laws I believe there's some part of an aging canopy factor in the model as well and it says if you're planting efforts your current regulatory approach if all these assumptions stay the same um through 2023 over the next 27 years to 2050 they project that um 40% coverage is the maximum overall it's going to decline um slowly on an annual rate and that's that's the maximum we can hope for unless we change um path and change tactics right and certainly I'm sure you all find that alarming as do I um so then is I see this gains offset most of the detected canopy loss how am I to understand that within the context of what you've just shared um I would add that the ability to detect gains has increased so significantly and um multiple people have mentioned loss is so much easier to see and feel because typically it's not a branch it's a tree or mass clear cutting so um we saw gains in every place type in every Council District in every geography that we've looked at um there were incremental gains and so the assessment methodology and Technology can detect if a tree branches on average grew 6 in or 12 in so we can we can pick that up now and when you add add that in uh to the model that takes in account loss of you know 20 plus acres of canopy from development or trees that die in people's yards overall the incremental gains in tree canopy which is almost all gains are incremental um they offset all the different types of loss across the city it's occurring just from a net approach I apologize I know I missed a moment of what you said and I I don't want to belabor the point but I just want to make sure that I'm understanding based on what you said our regulatory landscape the forecast of what we can expect is that we will see a decrease in the maximum canopy in the in the canopy cover we can expect 40% maximum but we're also saying that the canopy gains have offset the detected canopy loss so that would lead me to almost it it's the detected gains I think to the point of there's some surprise over the loss wasn't more significant we've detected more gains than we expected and the consultant actually said in the report multiple times I believe that the efforts of the city and tree Charlotte and everyone in the community of planting and preserving trees almost offset all the losses that we're sawing so planting more trees all of our existing canopy just growing slowly every year as trees kind of spread out and their canopy coalesces collectively that that almost offset all the loss um I think the consultant was a little surprised as well okay so am I to take that to mean if people were not planting new trees we would expect 40% maximum uh canopy cover but because people are planting trees because trees are growing we're actually seeing um just a small net gain in tre canopy no not a net gain we're seeing in we're seeing canopy gains that have slowed the decline okay but overall it's going to be a decline we're still going down so all the efforts that um you efforts are working to I would say slow the canopy G uh slow the canopy loss gotcha um so if Tre Charlotte yes Jane please jump in Stand yeah green means on green means good thank you for having me and thank you all for recognizing uh tree Charlotte and the mission um and all your years of support uh I am delighted about our partnership and the opportunities we see in front of us and the ways we're working together to um preserve what we see as our greatest natural harmark of this city um and appreciate how concerned all of you are because that's how we're going to get some things done I think about it in terms of how mature our canopy currently is and they have a natural lifespan and so the way it resonates for me because it does take some time to wrap your head around this like we keep saying it's easy to see the 200 Acres that are clear-cut um but when the way I think about it is if you haven't seen your niece or nephew in 6 months or a year and the growth that's kind of the way it resonates with me um and um but we have such an aging M such a mature canopy that that loss will be more significant down the road and that's really what their that their projections were trying to tell us if we keep doing what we're doing we're no longer going to have the incremental gain offsetting the loss that it will be significant and dramatic or drastic um as time progresses so we have to step up our efforts to try to one preserve where we are now um but also even more so dramatically step it up to be able to reach the 50x50 and I um share that excitement and the Hope um that you expressed Mar because um when I first started two and a half years ago I thought there's no way we could do 5550 and I've heard that said in different meetings and things and that was the first thing that popped for me I'm like oh my gosh we can do it we can do it the city can all come together but it's going to take all charlatans and um y'all's continued support and Leadership with that and um our part or continued partnership for that uh and the other thing I did want to add to with the um Urban heat that um that you had mentioned we'll also use this data as um we are able to um dive in deeper to understand how tree Charlotte can focus our efforts within the communities um as of need that have the lower canopied areas so we're really excited about this data too and particular the canopy layer that goes with the tree plotter software because that will anybody can go in and look and see the Eco benefits and the the differing um components of a specific neighborhood or specific address even uh and so that's going to be really useful information for all of us to be a part of this um Mission so I just wanted to add that awesome thank you for that CLA that clarification okay that definitely helps so the message then is loud and clear that we've got to do something um on purpose to not only offset business as usual but also to reach our uh 50 by 2050 go yes absolutely so much and thank you Jane for saying that much better thank you madam mayor uh really good presentation uh Mr reporter appreciate the work that you have done uh certainly this issue is near and dear to my heart I've advocated in the past for tree Charlotte and keeping the 50 by 5050 goal and I'll continue to do the same I think it um this is really good news that we can still meet our 50x50 goal so that's a great news I wasn't expecting to hear that so uh you just made my day um I appreciate the work that uh tree Charlotte has done and continues to does continues to do I attended the Fall Festival recently and certainly appreciate the work that you are doing I'll you can continue to meet you can continue to count on me as your as the advocate for tree Charlotte because of the great work that you all do um I am looking forward I know this is little bit um early but I'm looking forward to seeing the policy recommendations as to how we get there I know youve mentioned by 2024 we will have some policy recommendations um I think if we can get those recommendations sooner so that we um um we are working towards 50 by 5050 goal um so I I really liked what Miss Meyers said that we need to focus on preservation as well as planting and um um preservation I think it requires a lot of policy work to ensure that we are continuing to preserve what we have uh I appreciate the work that um our planning director had done especially in our Udo and that was one of the big reasons why I had supported the udio because it helps us protect our important an asset which is our natural resources so uh glad to see that you highlighted that in our current Udo how it protects there are certain Protections in place that did not exist before uh and I would like to see some new Concepts I know you have highlighted those and hopefully we'll get to work on that with our tap committee chair Mr adrix and I look forward to reviewing those thank you again our final um I'm Sorry Miss Mayfield and then I thought we just go order well we can whatever works for you Mr Mitchell I know it says Mitchell in front of your name tag Miss Johnson so Miss Johnson okay thank you uh Madame mayor can you go to slide 12 please I want to understand the graph so can you just just go down the the the graph please I see 99 to 25% at the top but at the bottom I see 25% to 100 so I want to understand what these numbers mean so at the top with the darker orange red colors those indicate classes of loss so the darker the color um the darkest color possible could have lost between 25 and 99% of its total canopy cover for that neighborhood profile area and as you move down this spectrum uh the loss numbers again in a in each class decreases until you get into the The Greener numbers which indicate gains so uh the the bottom four green colors or canopy classes indicate canopy gains and um so we have the minus numbers next to to loss colors and there's no minus next to the greens um as you can see there's very few dark greens if any on the map there are some slightly dark colors most of the concentrated canopy growth occurred north of the city limits um in Northern meber County and some of the towns up there okay so the next slide that says canopy gain it's the same thing it's their losses Ang gain yeah it's the same map it's just two slides one for loss one for gain yeah okay yeah same exact map okay yes ma'am so I would like to see when you talk about the loss and looks like District 4 is probably the Mallet Creek area that I'm always advocating for but I'd like to see the range to um to be broken down a little more 25 to 99% that's a really large range yes um I would like to see especi if if 50% is our goal or 46% is the number that we're working with i' I'd like to see 46 to 999 so I you know which area should we be con you know concerned about this also for me leads into our infrastructure discussion and as we are approving petitions I remember you know I think it was last month's zoning meeting we had to defer a 180 acre petition but we still approved over I think 300 acres that that night in District 4 so I'd like to see these these numbers an analyzed from a Equitable perspective if we're looking if preservation or if we're looking at preservation as a goal or a necessity then we need to start considering these and looking at the specific areas where we are at a at a loss you know greater than 46% I think we all know that but for me what I need is the is the data um and and Mr Jones I'd like to see I know that there we'll get some more information in 2024 but I'd like to see us be more intentional in looking at this n these numbers as we talk about infrastructure in December and I'd like to see like what districts or what areas should we consider this canopy loss as we're considering the the rezonings so if we know that that area with the golden you know at the top there's a there's a a high canopy loss as as we are reviewing zoning petitions which you know if and I think we are I think we're looking in that area at a petition with 183 Acres our next zoning meeting so is this something that we should consider so I'd like to see a much deeper dive and some more information as we are considering you know this is not something I mean are there some areas where we really really need to be concerned with the with the tree loss so I think that I'd like to see that number from 99 to 25% I'd like to see a breakdown sooner than 2024 we I imagine we have that now we we do we have 40 pages of data and endless GIS and Excel sheets so we we can definitely provide that and we can change the The Legend here and break it out to more into into you know strategic more applicable reasonable classes of loss or gains ume those with the the the golden color you know if we know what those numbers are those really might be numbers that we need to consider as we are looking at petitions we need to we need to look at that now because like Mr Dr said there are petitions on our desk right now or in the pipeline that have huge amounts of of acreage so you know we need this information in order to make an informed decision um so I guess what I'm what I'm asking for I guess a a a further breakdown of the legend sooner than later I'd like this information considered in our infrastructure meeting and you know we have an an equity framework so we should be looking at this from an equitable lens what areas you know all those areas with with this excessive tree loss you know in the central area I mean how are our residents being affected from an equitable perspective perspective so I thank you for the work I know I've been asking for it for a while so thank you for the work but I think we need to be able to utilize this from a practical perspective as we are making decisions for growth in our city so Mr Jones if we can have a further breakdown or some more detail when we have our infrastructure discussion because this was one of those areas that I talked about that we need to be looking at um the cumulative impact so thank you for the information thank you thank you council member thank you Madame mayor thank you for the presentation I have a couple of questions for you we can stay on this side and this one really isn't a question it ties into how you may be able to break out the legend when we get to the stakeholder public engagement it may be helpful to just depose this map with our Crescent and wedge map that might be a lot clearer for us and for the community when we're looking at it because of course with the community they want to know exactly how does this impact their neighborhood that map will help to identify that a lot clearer if you can go back to slide number nine I'm just trying to have a little bit more clarity on we have this slide nine that goes over the total annual benefits so we look at the wildlife habitat as a benefit but we also say that when it's time for us to make decisions that we can't use Wildlife as one of our deciding factors when we are contributing to our Wildlife whether they are in the air or on land and where they're being dispersed to so if we're going to be able to utilize that as a factor then it will be helpful if more information is provided to us as we are having and this is really for you manager Jones when we're looking at potential developments that's going to have clear cutting if we're going to show on this Slide the impact of wildlife then we need to be able to utilize the impact of wildlife in our decisions if not showing this is not balancing the conversations that we're having when we're talking about a development I also want to get an idea of going back to slide six so I'm just having you back up so when we look at the project results Citywide I think I understood that what was shared to Dr Wallington was the 40% maximum capacity cover if businesses as usual this ties in with the trees that are being planted so when tree Charlotte has their annual their multiannual tree event of which I'm a major fan and so thank you for that that this is keeping it as is somewhere in there there has to be a conversation regarding when we've allowed clear cutting in new developments and the fact that we have horrible soil in large parts of our City so I can give the example where it's coming up on two years and trees that I planted two years ago are at the same height that they were when I planted them are we looking at that so we can say that we we that we have dispersed X number of trees but if we're not tracking those trees especially when it comes to new subdivisions cuz the new subdivisions you know as they build the development all of of the dirt all of the things that's found in the ground goes to the end of the development until that's developed and that's ends up more often than not what ends up in the ground so we don't have quality so soil in a lot of areas so the trees are not growing at the levels that we would anticipate so I want to make sure that we're having an Apples to Apples conversation and now just looking at the number of trees that have been signed out we're actually tracking okay in this 2year period perod in this 3year period and this 5year period are these trees actually growing to hit that goal cuz if we do the same thing we already know we're going to be at the 40% y'all have identified that we have our opportunity with updated language and we say 2024 well we're in fiscal year 24 so we're in fiscal year 24 now so it would be helpful to know are we talking about first quarter second quarter third quarter when are we looking at possibly getting more detailed because as was mentioned by my colleague council member Johnson we are and council member DRS we are constantly approving projects on Mondays these projects are impacting this goal I can of like the fact that we can breathe in the city cuz we have trees that help to oxy oxygenate say it oxygenate see I knew you could do that so I think about what was it two weeks ago woke up there was fog which was crazy to me but there was like I was driving along Brookshire Brookshire Boulevard well right before getting to Brookshire Boulevard and there was like a neighborhood cuz the neighborhood went down in the valley where it is like the fog just sat there so the sight to get out of that neighborhood you literally could not see from this table to the end of the table where council member Mitchell is that is also part part of when we talk about that environmental impact it is not just the heat it is also those other impacts that we take into consideration that's why I think it will be helpful if we do that Crescent wedge map to get a really good idea of where we're seeing the greater impact and again if we can start looking at not just the trees that have been picked up by Community which is an amazing program are those trees in good soil are they growing and is there a com ation on the front end that we could be having with developers regarding how they are grading land and or creating the policy language so that our planning department knows here are the expectations when you're grading in order to make sure that we get quality trees and not just have a tree for the sake of having a tree and I than Madam mayor that hits all of the little notes that oh last one they you don't have to necessarily go back to slide 15 but slide 15 was the current Udo increased preservation and planting in residential areas we have on there increased tree save preservation from 10 to 15% in single family subdivisions what are we talking about for multif family because there should also be an expectation as when we look at the number of multif family developments and are we identifying still keep being that single family as quad duplex Triplex and multif family is still a 50 unit up what are their expectations and goals and more importantly requirements for tree save in those areas I know you are you said you have stacks upon stacks of data that information could be helpful thank you thank you council member right mayor proam thank you uh I just just have a a a a quick comment suggestion perhaps on how we might look look um forward if if you go to uh slide seven um I agree with it's been said many times over that uh uh this is a good report and gives you more hope uh that we can reach our goal um I would also suggest that we keep um the goal of 50 by 50 um and I would also suggest that something I learned today um is considering uh the etj and my suggestion would be to count the etj uh towards canopy goals um and I don't say that just to kind of conveniently cook the books uh to find a way to closer way to 5050 but I think it makes logical sense um our our our rules govern the etj particularly um our development ordinances uh that are are kind of guiding uh these tree uh canopy goals um uh but also it it might be a way that we can consider um uh these land use decisions that come forward in the etj there might be if we can optimize the etj for canopy preservation and expansion goals maybe we do treat our rezonings in the etj a little differently right uh than we would do within the city limits um it it seems like uh you know this might be a shift in in the way we use our policy um but also seems like it could it could provide a kind kind of Common Ground path forward right so the folks that we often wrestle with um uh the folks that live in the etj and the folks that that that live near it they don't want things to change because that's what they've gone out there to to live next to but we also wrestle with the idea that we want uh more housing right um in in Charlotte it's a Divine goal however we as an organization have said that we want and especially in the comp 2040 plan in udio we want development kind of um tracks that are going to produce less sprawl and more density so if we treat uh uh uh development in the etj the same way that means what we're kind of saying hey we want sprawl because that's the type of development that happens in the etj so it would seem that the people that live there that live next to to next to the etj and our goals for how we want to see our city develop and these canopy goals would seem like kind of one of those sweet spot common common ground areas where we can uh achieve many different goals by looking at a specific area of our policy that can create different outcomes if we applied it um differently so again I would suggest for those those things that's what jumped out at me please take a look at uh how you approach um the rezonings um and expanding um uh uh land use changes especially around large track um changes in the etj thank you Mr looks like to respond to that can I wait a minute I I'm going to have the staff from please respond and then we'll get to Mr Graham sorry I just wanted to um add on to that that was an excellent point because one thing we did learn from this assessment to correct me if I'm wrong though that etj is where the biggest risk um to tree losses so um I appreciate that point and wanted to call that out from the report um on concert with what you said thank you all right Mr Graham thank you madam mayor I won't be long A lot's already been said again thanks to T Charlotte uh I do agree that we should try to contain and and meet the goal think it's aggressive I think we can do it um and also you know what's get measures gets done so it's really the policy recommendations is the the most important thing thank you all right mayor could I just say one last thing quickly a couple of us have commented on the fact that we really want to see what this policy looks like I've just been talking to miss Craig we're going to talk about what the tools and possible policy options are alongside this work rather than wait until this is over before that conversation starts so I I would hope that we could sort of proceed on both fronts and then drop the data into the final policy conversation thank you Miss watlington thank you madam mayor just real quick I just I love what you said uh mayor protim in regards to different outcomes in different places um because that's exactly what I think has been the conversation especially as we talk about our um our regulations and whatnot let's think about where do we have competitive I say competitive Advantage what's great about certain parts of our city and how do we preserve that and how do those parts work together to deliver the overall whole it doesn't mean that it's homogeneous but it means that it does come together and so I think that's a this is a great example of how do we execute and craft smart policy that reflects what we need overall even though that means there's diversity of the outcome this has been a great discussion um for those of you that came in a little bit later I'm sure that Tim will be glad to go over all 55 slides with you and memorize every percentage in the but I think that the key part about it is that you have enough data to look at how you want to move things along and so that will be a part of I'm sure the infrastructure as well as our budget discussion so with that this is in committee it is in tap committee we have 30 minutes we're going to ask Brent to come in and help us um with the review that we have planned for for today's agenda or for on the bus operations contract so we'll go from there thanks good job thank you good evening mayor good evening members of council I will move through this pretty quickly I'm and happy to answer any questions I will also start out by um letting you know that this is an action review um For an upcoming request for Council action on November 27th for your next agenda uh business meeting so a little bit about the bus Operations Division um the bus Operations Division we sometimes refer to it as trans Transit management of Charlotte as far as the employees go or you may hear the contractor ratp Dev I want to give you sort of a little bit of background on teok and the bus Operations Division and make sure that we don't confuse the two because while they're similar they are not the same thing even though sometimes we refer to them sort of interchangeably so the bus Operations Division is the largest division within cats uh tmoc Transit management of Charlotte emploees about 734 Union operators maintenance technicians and administrative staff the overall operating budget for bus Operations Division is approximately $80 million annually and the number of vehicles we have is approximately 252 buses of which 18 are battery electric with new battery electrics on the way again I wanted to give you this background as you consider the contract in two weeks just understand the 734 employees of tmoc are not employees of the contractor ratp Dev or their successor um there are three employees of the contractor and they constitute General management and this structure is um not unique to Charlotte it is found in the Southern United States is because of the um the state laws preventing us from being able to collectively bargain but also um because of the federal requirements to allow the employees to be unionized and so tmoc provides a smooth transition for those day-to-day operators when we changed the contractor so none of those employees will be at risk there is no transition for them they are tmoc employees and they will remain tmoc employees Charlotte bus operations history in 1976 City of Charlotte bought the bus system from City Coach lines and at that time there was an established labor union in order to receive federal assistance for public transit the city back then and now has to acknowledge the existing Union and allow them to exist and collectively bargain and again because of state law the city cannot do that so we have a third party um starting in 2003 and continuing today the city contracted with McDonald Transit who became ratp Dev and currently holds the contract so roughly 20 years um between McDonald Transit and ratp Dev and again Light Rail operators STS or Paratransit operators and our services those employees are city of Charlotte employees um because those Services were created after 1976 so this year we started a procurement process we issued an RFP on April 18th 20203 and two responses were received um ratp Dev chose not to propose for this contract to other providers did and I will say in the world of large manag uh bus operations contracts we are talking about a pretty small Universe of qualified firms really um six to 10 firms total so while two may seem like a small number it was a prettyy good turnout for a contract of this size and the and the Specialized Service that's provided National Express transit was the selected firm uh they were determined to be the best to meet the city's needs in terms of qualific ifications experience cost and responsiveness to the requirements of the RFP um National Express has proposed an experience management team that will be relocated to Charlotte to oversee tmoc a national Express will also provide corporate resources for labor negotiations as needed service optimization policies and procedures and system performance audits as requested or needed and the estimated topend annual expenditure for the first year of the contract is estimated to be 1.65 million annually who is National Express they're headquartered outside of Chicago I'm not sure how to pronounce the name of that town Lyall Illinois so outside of Chicago I'm sticking with it um they have over 60 clients Nationwide two actually in North Carolina uh Greensboro and Durham Transit uh one in South Carolina Charlotte they also have uh the District of Columbia uh wada MBTA Boston and Pace in Chicago uh their 2022 revenues were approximately $500 million so what's our approach um it's a more integrated approach with the contractor we want the general manager um of national Express of tmoc to be integrated ated as part of the cats leadership team they serve a vital function they oversee one of the largest not one of the largest division in cats and they need to be a vital crucial part of our leadership team so that's that's the first key um the general manager is a direct report to the Chief Operating Officer and will directly interface with myself and the rest of the executives um we are also looking at we have also uh identified ways that we can enhance the performance metrics um both in the form of penalties for failure to perform and incentives when they overperform or exceed expectations uh the old contract had seven of these metrics and they were limited to liquidated damages or pen penalties for failure to perform so we're increasing the performance metrics and we're adding in penalties plus incentives for over performance um and we're establishing a performance monitoring program with national Express and a secret shopper program on the Cat Side just to monitor day-to-day operations with the contractor so what are our our next steps we're finalizing the transition plan from ratp Dev over to National Express um we're working with national Express to clearly Define the roles and responsibilities of cast ma cat management and their management and we're working towards that successful transition in February 2024 at the latest as we continue to work through this with national Express if we can transition over to National Express before February of 2024 we will do that but at this point we're not we're working through all of the transition again this contract comes before you for consideration in two weeks on November 27th and with that I'm open to questions we're going to go this way we'll start with Miss Anderson Mr dggs Mr Graham thank you Madame mayor um Mr Kel uh I first of all I just want to acknowledge Mr Kagel in in the interim role of CEO as cat of cats and all of the work that he's been doing I've had the opportunity to work very close with him and um I see the progress and I see um that we are improving significantly so I want to just outwardly thank you and acknowledge um your your performance you know I think the details that you ran through on slide six is um excellent um to have the the general manager be a part of our leadership team creates that level of transparency but also engagement and adding the additional incentives for o for overperform ing or outperforming the metrics creates you know a a carrot for for um this entity to actually not only perform but perform well there's an OP there's a carrot there for them a sweetener if you will and um I think that's wonderful and then this um whole concept of a secret shopper program allows us to have constant monitoring that that reflects the actual experience of our ridership and I think that's important too these what you've laid out here I think will allow us to have a new beginning with a new partner and uh increase the overall experience of cats so I'm excited to see what what comes forward out of this approach thank you Madame mayor right Mr Driggs thank you mayor uh just further to miss Anderson's remarks this marks a significant step in the overall process of moving us out of the depths of the issues at cats which I think we all remember um and Mr Kagel has done an amazing job I I head up this working group it's done an amazing job on all fronts of dealing with issues that came to light but one of them was the bus service and absenteeism by drivers and so on and one of our problems was that the terms of our old contract gave us limited ability to kind of crack down on that so we're fixing that uh and I think this is just going to be part of a Renaissance for cats and a recovery and uh Mr Kagel I just want to tell you uh we're very grateful thank you Mr Graham thank you madam mayor and and I too want to uh send my um U my well wishes to to the folks over our cats and the jobs that you guys are doing but quick question though so what's the relationship I understand the relationship to cats what's going to be the relationship to the council one of the things that we got criticized for was just not being in tune to what's going on with the contractor so help me understand how that changes yeah so so so I've heard that um from yourself and other members of the council from the public um so as we turn the corner with the newp to see and hear from them just like we will daily you all won't see see and hear from them daily but on a routine basis whether it be a committee or other places for the council they are part of the team whereas I think over time ratp Dev that became less true over the 21e relationship that we have with them so so so what's that's great what's their relationship in reference to public safety safety of the their workers and safety of the passengers any discussion or anything different in the contract that addresses that yes so so our Safety and Security Group those are cats employees and they provide safety security across the system whether it be rail bus Paratransit and so we are making efforts to increase our presence with security and think about a different approach to Safety and Security not only for the employees but also for the customers for the Riders as well and lastly you know they they do business now with two of our sister cities in the state what's their reputation in terms of being able to deliver those communities an excellent they have an excellent reputation I will also say say I'd love to say that I I um dreamed up this idea of them needing to be right here with the management team um but one of the things I do really well is identify good ideas that others have had and early on when I started with cats uh I had a conversation with some of the others in these North Carolina cities and they all said Brent you got to get them part of your management team um and it was very good advice and I'm I'm taking that advice well I'm I'm I'm excited for the new start um with the new contractor and obviously the devil's in the details uh and the oversight is going to be extremely important so I look forward to regular opit um at the public safety commit I mean the transportation committee uh at the appropriate time throughout the year I think it's really important that from the very start there's a level of um communication right um progress updates to the committee from time to time yes sir all right thank you every oh Miss Johnson sorry I didn't see you thank you Mr Kagel I have a question so the employees will be will have a new employer essentially right they will have a new general manager their employer um Remains the Same Transit management of Charlotte okay so think about it like they have a new a new CEO right because of how this structure works that's why it's so confusing and so hard for all of us to explain there are three people who will change um and they work for ratp Dev and when RPD is no longer the contractor they're no longer here they may be employed by ratp Dev but they're not at this location National Express brings in theirs and they manage everyone else who is employees of Transit management of Charlotte so they're but the employees contract will change like the Union contract or no all of it remains the same their employment status remains unchanged the current status of the collective bargaining agreements remains un unchanged and this structure allows for that consistency so that there aren't 700 and some odd employees wondering what's going to happen when a new company comes in because their employer Remains the Same did we engage with the union for their feedback so we went through a city process the union was not part of the um proposal or the review of the proposals when they came in but we did go through a city process to do to do the RFP okay so will there be like a Q&A or a presentation to the employees to to introduce the the new contractor and just to answer those types of questions yes absolutely as we get closer um Beyond November 27th and we start to figure out the exact transition of the new management team all of that will start to happen with the union and with the general employees as well because not every employee at tmoc is part of the Union most are but not all I think it's important to get the employees engaged very early on so that we can we can build the relationship and and not have the same issues that we've had before I think I think getting them involved early and being a part of the whole process will really go a long way yes ma'am thank you m ashir I want to just say um we're going to go into close session after miss ashir and I want to make one introduction as well okay M thank you Madame mayor so I agree with what some have been already said uh Mr Graham made a good point about um Dil is in the details as always is um this is a significant step in the right direction to restore public trust in our cats uh this will help us tackle reliability issues uh but the safety issues from what I heard that is not that will not be part of this National Express transit so that will uh can you help me understand that because I didn't quite understand the organization structure for the safety uh officers yeah so all Safety and Security functions of cats um in the current contract or current situation and going forward are employees of the city of Charlotte so we have a Safety and Security division now they have contracted for security Personnel for security contractors so they are contractors but our Safety and Security unit unit or division remains part of cats uh or city of Charlotte employees um they are currently and they will remain now that I should not that is not to mean that nationally Express won't be helping us the city as we address Safety and Security concerns they certainly will be sorry um it's good to see the performance metrics and really performance incentives because uh considering the challenges that we have with cats uh this is a good way to measure and also reward uh based on the performance so I appreciate your work on that and your leadership thank you Mr Kel all right before we go into close session I do want to recognize council member elect Tiana Brown who has joined us for this session and and as a result she didn't quit so we're in good shape so I want to say thank you um very much for coming and anytime we're going to the building's open and we'll continue to integrate into this um illustrious group of Public Service and thank you for joining us tonight and there is that and we are um we're going to go into close session um I'm going to ask the City attorney to read this and then if everyone else would kind of it it is we have one item that we need to address we'll need a motion to go into Clos session to consult with the city attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege between the attorney and the city council pursuant to ncgs 143 3181 A3 so move second a motion anyone [Music] every [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] everyone thank you for joining us today as the city of Charlotte um the city council for the city of Charlotte um has its first business meeting of this month I believe and I want to call this meeting to order and we're going to begin with introductions and we'll start with our Deputy clerk Billy tons Deputy city clerk happy Monday and Happy Diwali to all who celebrate May the light and love be with you and I'm D your Charlotte City Council woman at large good evening I'm Marjorie Molina represent East Charlotte District 5 good evening everyone James Mitchell at large good evening I'm Renee Johnson and I'm honored to represent District 4 good evening Lana Maia are serving as city council at large member Marcus Jones city manager good evening V mayor braxon Winston mayor protm now gam District Two and district 7 to car district 6 good evening and happy Dali and welcome to district one Dante Anderson District One good evening I'm Victoria watlington your Charlotte city council member representing District three all right Patrick Baker City attorney We Begin our um meetings with an invocation or an expression of any inspiration that we have and tonight we are going to ask council member Mitchell to um Enlighten us and then following um the council um remarks or comments we will then um have our Pledge of Allegiance both of these if you choose to participate in the pledge or in our um words of expression from council member Mitchell feel free to do so and we will immediately follow up with our pledge after um council member Mitchell is done thank you let us all stand please oh wise and gracious father we thank you for another day in your city Heavenly Father we ask that your spirit would be with each council member represented here today let your spirit be with all the citizens of Charlotte that all the things we do and say will uplift your city in this I ask all believers to join me and say amen amen all right we'll begin with our Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the which stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you um in our city we have many opportunities to recognize major accomplishments and actions that are taking place and so today we have two resolutions and a few recommendations for recognition so um I am going to open to tonight's um meeting with a joint Proclamation between the city and the county um whereas the month of November welcomes in both a time of Thanksgiving and a season for sharing our resources and our freedoms to worship work and live as independently as possible whereas some members of our community cannot find adequate employment or a place to live for a variety of reasons both simple and complex their efforts to bring homeless children and adults Out of the Shadows of our abundance to address the diverse needs among them as well as to correct systemic conditions that have led to their poverty and homelessness our current economic challenges call for greater awareness and guidance to address needs among all our neighbors so whereas the homeless Services Network of Charlotte Mecklenberg its member organizations and its public Partners in the city of Charlotte and meinberg County desire to dispel Miss and overcome stereotypes of homelessness and to provide opportunities for all our citizens to learn about the plight the hopes and the achievements of homeless neighbors of our community and to welcome them we commit to work together to overcome systemic causes of homelessness now therefore I via Alexander LA and George Dunlap chair of the meinberg County Board of commissions do hereby Proclaim November 2023 as homelessness homelessness awareness month so with that I'd like to ask all of our um workers and people that really actively try to address the principles that were described in this proclamation to stand to be [Applause] recognized now I do have one special recognition as we highlight homelessness awareness this month I'd like to recognize Dand Mets [Applause] [Music] [Applause] D now I'm I know there's going to be a lot of red up there but I'm I want you to know there's a few red that didn't wear their red down here so miss Anderson and Miss watlington Miss Cunningham all of you celebrate together so um I want to say this um because danda and I have known and worked together for a long time and she as a is a Charlotte native and she's been director of the social services for the Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte and and she's going to retire in the coming upcoming [Applause] months Rhonda has worked diligently to serve her community as a leader in the fight to end homelessness I mean I cannot say how many years we've worked together around this and I am so grateful for her leadership her diligence her efforts the way that she actually makes people feel greater than um D for 30 years you've been instrumental in making this place a better place we can talk about all the plans and all the opportunities that we've had but the one thing that you've been is a steady participant in the Strategic plans that we have to address both homelessness and the lack of affordable housing in mecklinburg County so I want to say we're grateful for you we love you you deserve this opportunity to retire and I know that you will not sto working so I'm just going to say that do take some time you deserve it thank you very much for your service let's stand and give her a round of [Applause] applause okay okay you know she's going to start crying in a so let's let her not break out in SOB so G I'm going to um give this proclamation to someone that excuse me I'd love to oh please and mayy let me just add another uh special shout out to danda from Yos and Jenkins church family thank you love you thank you all right now I also want to um ask mayor protim to also give us another another important Proclamation that we have this evening to follow that up whereas the area known today as Charlotte is located geographically on ancestral land that has long been called home by indigenous people and Charlotte acknowledges this land as Kataba and home to many American Indians from tribes Across the Nation North Carolina is home to more than 204,000 American Indians and has eight historic tribes legally recognized uh by the state of North Carolina kohari Eastern band of Cherokee halwa saponi uh Lumby maharin okichi band of sa saponi sapani and uh wakam Sian and whereas our city is home to the metrine Native American Association one of four Urban Indian organizations uh which holds membership in the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs and whereas the city of Charlotte must preserve the rich history of American Indians to continue building a brighter future for all of its people which includes maintaining a relationship with Metrolina Native American Association and tribal Nations and whereas this month we honor the vibrant and diverse cultures of American Indians across our city Charlotte encourages residents to learn more about the rich history of American Indians and commit to preserving American Indian Heritage and traditions for generations to come therefore shivi Alexander lyes mayor of Charlotte to hereby Proclaim November 2023 as Native American heritage [Applause] month I believe we have someone that's going to receive the pl we're going to have someone receive that Pro Proclamation and I think they're the most beautiful people in our audience right now oh my gosh oh this is adorable so [Applause] cute thank you so very much now that's not the end of it we still have another um recognition to make tonight we have a few special folks in our audience and they're special because of the work that they've been doing as they graduated from our Charlotte business inclusion contractor estimating and Bs bidding Academy would you please stand if you were a part of that class of the [Applause] academy this Academy offers a comprehensive five week program designed to enhance skills and knowledge of contractors in bidding and managing public contracts the academy is especially designed for both new and seasoned contractors it is a valuable opportunity to gain insights tools and connections especially connections for successful engagement in the public sector projects particularly those that the city of Charlotte presents for bidding the lessons that you've learned lay the foundation to support our MW SBE with obtaining shity bonding and I know in your recent cohort you had 29 minority businesses Business Leaders graduate I'm I'm trying to count to see if there 29 of you up there but we all on this Council want to say thank you for taking that five weeks to understand that you have the ability to change the world in so many ways so with that I'd like to say great work to each of you and everyone so thank you very much for your attendance tonight and thank you for what you're going to bring to our community to help us make sure that Minority participation is not just something we say but something that we do I want to make sure that everybody knows that each council member has a directory with your names in it and who you are phone numbers emails LinkedIn who else what else we can get to to you but to let you know that we remember this and it will be something that will make a difference so thank you very much for coming tonight and I want to recognize council member Mitchell who often promotes this program and makes it possible for us to really be engaged because I'm I'm sure that he came along and told you a few things about what to do and how to do it they all like oh all the time you called me out uh on a serious note Mar thank you for those kind words thank you all for being here and my only thing I want to add will Michelle and Stephen please stand up and let's give our CBI staff a round of [Applause] applause thank you mayor thank you Mr Mitchell all right so now we'll go to the humdrum of um government business and work that you will not be bidding on closing a public street but leave me that so the first item on our agenda is a public hearing and a decision on a resolution close a portion of old out road do we have any speakers motion close a public hearing we have a motion to close a public hearing and AD adopt uh the resolution and adopt the resolution is is there any discussion hearing no discussion all in favor of the um closing the resol the hearing Clos and the resolution raise your hand all right that's unanimous anyone opposed I didn't see another an empty hand so the next item is our city manager's report so uh thank you mayor members of Council in front of you you have my 30-day memo and as I discussed last time a few items that we were going to get before you before the end of the um year so what we'll have at the end of this month is a um the 2024 Council calendar which will be presented by the clerk at the uh the next business meeting as well as the 2023 uh year in audit which needs to be provided before the governing body before it can be approved and then in the first business meeting in December we'll have the infr structure update as well as an Eastland update to items that I mentioned last time we were together I do want to Mayor I know there are a couple items tonight are pretty important on the business agenda so I'm not going to ask anybody to come up and do a presentation but we are here if you need different additional information about the anti-displacement programming as well as the opportunity hubs a couple things I would like to do before I turn it back over to you mayor in your packet this past Thursday you received some information about the percentage of our owner occupied and Renta occupied homes I think that's a a good foundation that we'll have in terms of being able to do apples to apples comparisons with some of the 20 uh cities across the country that we compare ourselves with and it's something that uh council member Mayfield had asked for and I think it's eye opening as you start to to look at that I I do want to just end with this mayor the couple items tonight and it's just been an ongoing process with the council in terms of some of the arpa funds that have been received with federal funds and I'll channel uh council member dgs in the sense of the concern of having onetime dollars for ongoing projects I will tell you that has not been the case for almost $300 million of federal funds that we've received over the course of the last couple years but the the two tonight which I think are very um I'll Chanel my 16 year awesome is item 12 uh anti-displacement of programming which is about $6 million um one of the things that we've talked about are items such as acquisition rehab resale program I believe the last time I was at the DI council member Mayfield actually gave me a list of of potential property so watch out here we come uh as well as uh item 13 the opportunity hubs which about $4.5 million associated with those in our quarters opportunity so that's about $10 million just for those two items but also in the course of the last couple of weeks with these stimulus funds that we've used of the federal funds that we've used one time for and not ongoing you've done certain things like $6.5 million for the nonprofit housing support grants and those are those large Grant amounts for five local uh housing related nonprofits and in your packet a couple of weeks ago we did distribute about 2.5 million to the community resilience Grant so while we didn't have a big presentation about it that was 93 Grassroots organizations that receive funding so almost $20 million of these cares funds these arpa funds and I'm teing us up for a discussion in January at the annual strategy meeting where we can see how we can scale up some of these programs that we have made investments in over the course of the last three years so a lot of good things on the agenda tonight almost $1 million as it relates to uh anti-displacement as well as the opportunity hubs priorities of the council and uh hopefully those are items that will be approved tonight all right so we'll jump right in to the first item on this is item number 10 and it is chapter 14 ordinance revisions and the action requested is to approve the proposed amendments to the chapter 14 of the city code and this comes after presentation by the um Quality of Life teams I think at least a few times so and we do have one speaker um Mr Lee could you join us and you'd have three minutes please it's been a minute since I've been before you I going to put my bike helmet up here for you so you can see it um one of the things that saw in the gym I saw this morning from the news is that you guys will have going to talk about um a fine for people that Park in the in the bicycle Lanes right um I'm hoping that one day that somebody else comes up here and doesn't show you this helmet with blood on it we got to do something about these people parking anyway we got to do something about these um the bike Lanes having so much trash in it because I'm riding in the street I'm not riding in the bike lanes that you guys are creating I'm riding in the street and I think it shouldn't be a $100 fine it should be a $500 fine to make sure these folks understand how important it is for my safety for them not to be in my way that's just me you guys haven't seen me in a while because I've been in the streets I've been in your streets and the homelessness thing that you guys did I came from that you guys know that you guys you know my story now my story is keep me safe on the road Road keep these people out my way that's all I'm asking and if they're going be in my way find them not no $100 that's a week's worth of less than a week's worth of Starbucks so we we got to do something about keeping me safe on the street this is my only means of Transportation Charlotte is trying to be a multimode city with bicycles all of this stuff this is a car city and it's fighting to stay a car city I ride my bike everywhere I go in Charlotte and most of the time I'm riding in the in the street I want to feel safe riding bikes in my city I was on the bicycle advisory Council so I know about some of the ins and outs of the funding and all this stuff so my my plea to you is just to keep me safe if they going to par there hit them hit them hard not just 100 bucks that's nothing hit them where it hurts where they won't do it because people are taking advantage of it for their own comfort so they don't have to walk a few extra steps this is my life that they're putting on the on in the balance I hope that you guys not only find them but find them substantially so they won't do it again and not only that give me the ability to be able to take a picture of them while they're in my way and send it to somebody so they can get F so they can they can get found out put me as a police you know police in my own bike Lanes do that for me because I see at least a half a dozen every day in them in my way so give me as a as a cyclist that ability to show you who's in my way and and make make the Charlotte Road safe for me because this is my only means of transportation and if you guys want more people like me on the street y'all got to make it safer you got to clean the bike Lanes you got to keep the cars out of my way cuz I'm riding in the street you know I I respect all of y'all and I appreciate it thank you thank you very much Mr leay Mayor I have a question I have someone else that had been asked to be recognized first and actually have two people so we'll start with Mr barari followed by Mr Graham thank you Madame mayor I um I'm supportive of this tonight and I just would mention two things for this one and where we're headed um I agree uh with the the the parking um ordinance fees and the things we're going to add to it I would just have us remember that um there's a two-sided coin here one is keeping our cyclist safe and making sure that people are not parking where it is illegal to park today but two and I think there's a lot of people in this community that feel like this um that we balance also the need in the car Centric world that we live in today um for people to park because right now um if you go over to Pearl Park uh on any Saturday or Sunday with the loads of parents that are there you'll see one of the most beautiful bicycle paths ever that literally blocks folks from parking and there's Park cars parked everywhere and you don't see a single bike there so that's not to say that biking isn't important and that we don't need to lean into that but we have to spend some time thinking about where these cars park in our community um every weekend every day uh because we don't put nearly the emphasis on that that we do the other side the other thing I'll mention is um we have something going on in committee right now with the rest of these ordinances and while today is important it's one step towards the defecation the urination all the other ordinances that are officers have come and pleaded with us that they need to do their jobs it will not solve the problem but it will be one part of the solution in where we head uh towards some serious needs that are going on addressed in our community right now so I want the community to understand we are not doing that tonight but that doesn't mean that we aren't the work is underway and I hope that we will emphasize the timeline of getting that back to us and get getting that done Mr manager thank you all right Mr Graham thank you um Madam manager I I do want to uh thank the the quality of life team for all the work that they' have put into uh the agenda item tonight I I will approve it reluctantly I think uh and let me share with you my my reluctance um uh one um the fines themselves right I I do believe the fines simply just does not meet the bar right to prevent people from and I'm narrowly tailing my comments down to the commercial vehicles um specifically um um the fines for the other parking I think is probably reasonable uh the commercial vehicles they're find um I think it's it's not uh the problem of commercial parking throughout the city uh it's getting worse day by day uh especially on our intersections um and I'm not sure whether whether or not a $100 fine is the deterrent um for that to stop that behavior in addition um I would love offline to talk with staff about the enforcement right how we're going to enforce uh the ordinance change um I'm glad now that we have something on the record uh that reflects the nature of the problem in the community um but how do we enforce it how do we measure that we're getting done I know there's been additional sta being hired I think Mr manager to work weekends and those type of things is there any thought about getting um an outside help to work with staff especially on the weekends and it's just not that they're parking the commercial vehicles they're leaving the trailers and taking the cab and they're gone so they're literally using uh our streets uh and communities as um Extended storage uh especially on the weekends and so uh he the argument that in terms of drivers time and their ability to having it stop but especially on Harris Boulevard and others the trailers are there by themselves the cab is gone uh and there's no enforcement um and so I would love offline to ensure that as we passed this today uh that we um that really really focus on the enforcement uh I'm not going to Bel the point tonight about the fees or the penalty hopefully we could revisit that at another time when we get a lot more information but I mean if I was a truck I would pay the $100 and continue to do the same behavior business expense huh a business expense it's a business expense it's just the cost of doing business so I'm very serious about uh uh this issues narrowly tailored again commercial vehicles um because that's where the problem is um from my perspective and the calls that I get and the emails that I get so um and so I think that addresses my my point U the increase in fines uh you know I think it's you know it's okay I guess uh and then more importantly it's the the enforcement right how do we make sure that we change behavior and have dialogues with the trucking Community about alternative places where they can park their trucks um we should assist in that clearly not our problem right but we shouldn't assist with that simply because of the logistics that they're providing for our communities with all the Amazon trucks I get it um but again and the issue of quality of life uh and making sure that um um communities across the city not just in this is not a district issue it's a a Citywide issue because it's happening all over the city uh and it's getting worse not better thank you right May Miss Mayfield thank you madam mayor so do we have staff here that's presenting this because I have a specific question and as they're coming up as far as the comments thank you James for sharing them actually we should be able to use our CLT Plus app to be able to take pictures and be able to track but the fine issue is a different one I wanted to give staff a chance to get here so thinking about what was just shared by council member Graham we have in here change trucks to Vehicles change drive or two Drive stop stand or park in some of the ordinance revisions how I don't see in here how we're identifying the trucks meaning the larger vehicles from a car vehicle because the trucks overwhelmingly are along the Highway and Major roads like if you come off of 45 5 on to I think that's Harris we have some areas where we have signs absolutely no parking wondering for a update sometime in the immediate future why do we not expand that the signage of absolutely no parking as one of the first steps because you don't see the trucks where you have those big red signs but as was mentioned we're seeing the C we're seeing the actual body of the truck left but the C is gone and or instances where people have pull over in the vehicle those things I'm trying to figure out why we didn't differentiate that at least the fine piece of what that would be for blocking versus a car vehicle that's parked all along Fourth Street where we have a bike lane but the bike lane is being used as parking for a multif family cuz our language wants us to reduce parking but yet we have people with multiple Vehicles help me understand sure good evening Council Debbie Smith with uh Department of Transportation and so you know certainly there there's a lot packed into that what I want to make sure and and just clarify is that the definition of the trucks is following along the lines of our unified development ordinance or being real clear about what that language to define a large commercial vehicle or a commercial vehicle so we're getting real clear on that what I would also like to say is that there are rules and regulations as it relates to the interstate and you are not allowed to park on the interstate unless it is an emergency situation and so we've worked really closely with our partners at ncdot to add additional signage and some of those places that we know are very egregious in that long-term parking if you will and leaving the trailer so we're continuing to work with our partners there um the work that we're doing with this ordinance change really affects on the city streets and so for us in combination with the code enforcement rapid response team that's under director Rebecca Hefner's group that's really where we're enforcing the activity on city streets we're continuing to work with our partners at the ncdot to ensure that the highways the interstates are also being monitored and enforced as well so so Rebecca if you don't mind a quick question when you all were looking at the fine amount and I know that I knowe that you have in here that these increased fines align with other serious infractions was there conversation about a higher amount considering the impact that one of our own Council colleagues was hit by a driver not paying attention did we have a conver did you all have a conversation about that fine actually being a fine that would be substantial thank you yes and good evening Rebecca Hefner housing and Neighborhood Services we had a lot of conversations about the fine uh and both with our internal quality of life team as well as reaching out and researching how how these issues are handled in other cities and our peer cities across the country and in Partnership with representatives from the trucking industry and we landed on a fine that was uh U comparable to other infractions uh within the ordinance uh and and an increase from where we are today which is $25 do we have the opportunity to have a much more robust conversation regarding that fine increase if we move and this really is a question I guess for Council and Leadership if we wanted to have a if I did a motion for the fine to be 300 do we have the ability or is this a conversation where we either need to defer to give a chance to come back with a much with an amount that's actually going to be substantial enough to have an impact or or can we get a commitment that this will come back in a relative short turnaround time to give us a update on here's what the fines could be that's a great question Miss Mayfield and I I want to make sure Mr Baker um in terms of statutory rules what where what are our limits what is our I think Miss Mayfield is asking how high can you go yeah I understand the question um and I as Miss FL that just texted you that very question question what is the maximum number yes I'm pretty sure I'm looking back through my notes cuz it's been a while since I've looked at this but I the state we have authority from the state um and I think we we can set it at whatever we want but I think we need to be careful that um we're not overreaching because the state could come back and take back some of that if if they felt like we were being overzealous in our l so we do have authority um but I think we're in line right now with what other cities have done going beyond that I'm not sure how the state would look at that if they would $500 take back some of that Authority was $500 in 30 days so Miss Mayfield you heard the answer you've got flexibility and it's just a cautionary well what I heard is a conversation of political will versus political ability so we have the ability to do it we have not counsel to my and maybe maybe the tap committee had the opportunity to discuss some amounts but as this is presented before us today to have a discussion on we know that that $100 is not going to be an amount that is going to have a relative impact when we have residents that use the bike Lanes we all see people that are out whether it is for their primary form of transportation and we say that this is a goal regarding sustainability and other things even if we were to say 300 that is a number that would probably have more of a impact for you not to do this versus the cost of doing business at 100 so the manager has been working with this team for a while so he has some comments that he'd like to make and I think let's share this information and then and and so um Council we can there are several things that can happen tonight of one you could approve this and then we could come back revisit lift it we could defer it you could get more information I I I believe I'm right with this Debbie I wasn't this be the highest in the state yes Mr Jones weos what's the highest in the state and if you want to go beyond that I just want you to know that they were aggressive we were aggressive at the at the outset all Mr Mayfield thank you madam I I think one of the questions is you know it's not just just the political will it is something new and I was writing down you know the change that we want to make and maybe we ought to try something and ask you for the metrics how many didn't pay how many people tore up the ticket or whatever and you know we could get some metrics if we try this but I know that we've a this has been stated as $100 for several every presentation that you have done it's been $100 so how do we make sure that we are doing something that's consistent but also have the ability to adjust it I wonder if we should try some record I know that I'm going to stop and say Miss following Miss Mayfield was Miss azira followed by the mayor protim Miss asir um okay where do I start um I know we are highest in this state uh this might be a legal question for Mr attorney would would that mean if we were to change it at the dis we would have to go through public hearing again because we are changing what because we had public hearing on this last month no woman ased May if it's okay we'll we'll take that uh that question so it is not mandatory for a public hearing we um went through a public everybody was asking what's the difference between the two and so let's don't want the newspaper or the TV guys or even Mary who's going on vacation pretty soon say this is a public hearing it is a public it was a public comment yeah I think we had a discussion about that public hearing versus public comment and I know Mr Mitchell had asked the what's the difference so here so uh you answered um question about the enforcement that Miss Mayfield had about so WT Harris is State Road it's a state maintained Road and that's where this problem es truck parking is persistent I have not seen any Improvement um so what would the enforcement look like for the state maintain role sure would you like to yes okay so certainly Miss as so with um with truck enforcement on a state maintained Road that's not an interstate not an interstate highway we could have the ability to use either cmpd or our code enforcement agents to be able to write citations on that yes so that so we could enforce that yes ma'am that's great so when we talk about entrance of the freeway right right off of 85 in WT Harrison I think that's what Mr Graham was referring to and that's in Miss Johnson's District right at the entrance that would be in CDOT that is correct so when it is interstate ramp leading to the in so how I guess would what would the enforcement like in the timely fashion and so just uh the ability to be able to respond quickly and write that ticket and find the owner of that of that vehicle that's what we would be working on and I'd probably defer to director Hefner on that sure so we do have a small team the rapid response team that has been set up around the quality of life issues in general and we are we actually have Authority Under code enforcement for all of our inspectors to issue citations so we're taking a phased approach by by early next year we will have all all of our code inspectors issuing parking citations that's in addition to the response that cmpd also um makes both on a proactive basis and response to complaints so right now residents can uh report illegal parking they can report that um through by calling 911 or reporting it through the CT Plus app uh and the depending on the location the time it comes in uh it will be responded to either by uh cmpd or by uh code enforcement so I know that rapid response was something is part of our budget that we approved earlier this year so that's great that really gives us um rapid resolution on this um but do ncdot does ncdot have rapid response team because the challenge is not just on the S not just on the WT haries but also at the entrance and especially at night where we have street lights issue it is very difficult to see this semi truck sitting right at the entrance of WT Harris as you are taking 85 so would this would this amendment Revision in any way address that or I'm what I'm hearing is that state um there is very little that we can do that's what I'm hearing right so what I would say is that this continues to show our support uh to the increased fines and helping them to prioritize as well uh the NC do works very closely with the highway patrol in order to infor enforce those areas and so for them I think it really is about a proactive approach to putting up the signs and to addressing the situation before those tractor trailers are parked um but we will continue to work with them on these very important areas that you are sharing with us thank you you know there are signs all over and it that's not been a deterrent um it's frustrating and this is long overdue um this is really a safety issue for uh our residents whether you are able to whether you're driving whether you walk or whether you are cyclist to Mr Lee's point and um I will be supporting this revisions and hopefully we can gather the Matrix to see if this is effective if not we can revisit and I'm open to increasing fine based on the metrix but I would like to see the metrix before before making any um changes at the last minute uh on while we talking about the enforcement I know that was the question that Mr Graham had raised um I know the scooters are not supposed to be uh on our sidewalks but I do see that folks actually do ride on our sidewalks their scooters um what's current enforcement like for them absolutely so Switching gears and putting on my scooter hat um scooters are are allowed to be riding on the sidewalk in areas outside of our Central congested business district so much like you would see a bicycle being allowed to ride on the sidewalk outside of those areas within our Central business district the congested area we've actually worked really well with the scooter companies to lower their speeds so they have a maximum speed of 15 M an hour in normal conditions in the case of areas where we are concerned with them riding on the sidewalk they have to reduce automatically to an 8 mph which is as much slower speed on the sidewalks but we're very aware of that and work with the scooter companies to improve safety measures on the sidewalks as well so Miss Smith the challenge with scooters are really in the Uptown area because that's where you see heavy concentration of scooters um and I I I struggle with the enforcement part because it's not currently being enforced um I when you go to Uptown whether it's festival or any games um you see I saw uh when I was attending the Arts Festival where there was a uh there was a gentleman riding uh there was a gentleman in their wheelchair wasn't able to access because there was scooters that were obstructing the right way uh we are talking about sidewalk and there hasn't been really any enforcement and yeah we can make all the revisions and updates but if there is no enforcement this are just going to sit um and collect dust and we I would really like to get an update on what we can do about the enforcement um Miss hashir we'd be happy to put together a very comprehensive report um on enforcement around the scooter activity okay that that's great to hear I do I do support this um and I I'm looking for metrix and I know sustain Charlotte had sent us a letter in support of this uh this is really about protecting the most vulnerable members of our community we're talking about cyclists we're talking about pedestrians children walking to school um our elderly who are walking and we got to make sure we are creating a safe environment for every one whether they drive their car or not whether they are riding a bike or walking and this is a step in the right direction so I appreciate your work M Smith on this but I would like to get an update like Mr Graham said on the enforcement piece of it because I think that's where we need to improve and we need to make more progress on thank you um mayor protim followed by Miss watlington thank you um so I I find I found myself um reluctant in the position to reluctantly uh support uh these change these changes to the ordinance um and and I say reluctant um because you've heard me speak probably many times uh from from the dis that you know just punitive uh uh punitive punishments are not good ways of um trying to get community CommunityWide changes of behavior it it it simply uh doesn't work uh generally speaking um and I think we are um running up against one of the reasons why trying to punitively enforce misdemeanors in particular um are ineffective uh because I think regardless of how much you change the fine amount um it's not going to have a effective widespread changeing the behavior that we're trying to change it might hurt um a few people people who live on the edges on the margins by getting these fines but I would I would put good money on uh that if you went and uh uh pulled people out on the street right now at this very minute they would think that parking in in a legal spot was probably more than $100 right now more than a $100 fine right now I I would probably imagine that people would would would guess it probably be about2 $250 uh so I don't think that $25 fine is the reason uh that that uh the uh that behavior exists and changing it to $100 is not going to change it uh let alone um more uh I think M with Mr Baker my experience what Mr Baker said um is correct that um while we might be able to change our fines on the misdemeanor to be more than $100 um $100 is really the kind of upper level that has been set on on on from a state perspective Ive this is something that we dealt with when we were dealing with the um Sound Ordinance the noise ordinance right um it was that it was $100 per um incident and the the the idea was if we went beyond $100 that you will'll find ourselves in the situation where if we find somebody greater than $100 they're going to challenge that fine and before that that fine can kind of go you you'll have you can fight it fight it day in and day out so the reason why I decided reluctantly is because I heard from the bikes and pedestrian folks that hey your values uh community's values are found in their policies and they saw themselves and their safety uh considered in this policy change where they haven't seen it um um uh before but when we talk about truck parking this is not this is not even just a state road issue this is a national issue right this is something that trucking companies are dealing with that uh uh people who use Trucking companies are dealing with cities states are all dealing with so if we really want to deal with that we should kind of be leaders on the national level look at our our our our our um excuse me legislative agendas talk to different cities talk to the US Department of Transportation um talk to businesses and see how we can adjust these standards um that are making trucks park the way that they Park when it comes to bike lanes and and Transit right aways um you know in rapid response removal is the when somebody shows up and their car isn't there that's that can change Behavior so you know I again I suggested this years ago we should really focus on the Gold Line right and and how can we do something along the Gold Line along the bike Lanes um to use technology and use whatever resources um to identify those um uh uh vehicles that are are blocking right away and how do we remove them and create a program that can work and is repeatable in different parts of town so those are the type of efforts that are going to take a long time that might change the behavior that we're trying to change but this this um this suggestion and any type of uh substitute motion I don't think we'll get there and I don't I hope we don't don't do that and just let's go forward with this learn from it and figure out how how do we do it better and give uh our folks in the biking and pedestrian Community um uh the ability to see themselves in some of the policies that we're making tonight I think about the number of boots over at the Starbucks on East Boulevard if you put a boot on something oh yeah that will stop you in your tracks and it's going to be about $100 but it's at least something that is a deterrent that's physical and it's like kind of like not an argument about it I think which is a lot of the other things that we also have to think about you know people get really in tough situations so maybe that's another idea so but I'm sorry let's go to miss watlington and then Miss Johnson thank you um so just two things follow up to miss Mayfield's item was there any additional information in regards to that Miss Mayfield yes so thank you Dr Wallington no I wanted to ask the question to find out the manager actually responded with the fact that we we are at the max so I do support us moving forward but I did ask the manager if we can get a quarterly report so that we can not wait a year to see what the impact is going to be as far as the fines but I will say I do like the idea of the boot because that's immediate but I do support us moving forward but I do think we should get a quarterly report on this and not have to wait too long to see the impact awesome thank you for that that clears some things up for me I agree with you I also agree with many other comments that were made um I'd love to see us continue these ideas around what are the other options that might be more of a deterrent but also specifically to that um the fee structure and I know that um Driggs and Graham both um spoke to or alluded to this idea of it might hurt a commercial company more at a higher rate than what we would want to Target for like a single occupancy vehicle so as a separate kind of item I'm interested in exploring that as well so just wanted to lift my voice up at that and then the last thing I wanted to do Debbie was I saw that you um responded to my question regarding our our strategy around the curb knowing that we've got a lot of Rod share and that kind of delivery um economy so just wanted to give you an opportunity real quick to speak about how that is being thought of in light of what we're doing here thank you Dr watlington um so yeah Dr watlington and I were exchanging some some conversation along with Miss Johnson earlier today just how you know your right share companies or your Uber Eats or your other delivery companies you know sort of interact in the right of way and and we're always thinking about that our strategic parking plan is thinking about that we're looking at how our loading zones are utilized and we're always looking for opportunity to make sure that we've got the right space for those activities to occur and so that absolutely was part of our conversation and appreciated you lifting that up sure thank you all right Miss Johnson thank you Madame mayor I want to follow follow up to Dr watlington question about those um gig workers um I think $100 uh for an infraction is it's pretty steep if they're running it for for folks who are you know Uber drivers or door Dash or Uber Eats or whatever is it possible to have a permit for them or something while they're loading or or picking up you know um food we know uptown and there is limited parking in in lots of places in the city so how do we from an equitable an upward Mobility perspective how do we help those small business owners um when there's not when there's limited parking and we and we know that and we recognize that what can we do to assist them sure great question councilwoman Johnson so the idea is though um I want to be really clear on there are areas where we absolutely no matter what don't want the vehicles parking in those spaces that would be the bike lanes that would be blocking the street car and that was early on one of our greatest infractions is the Uber Eats and the others you know not not picking on a particular company at all um but that type of activity happening and that was very disruptive to the activity no amount of time is appropriate for that driver to park and run in to to conduct their business so really it's that opportunity to start with the education and the enforcement sharing with them where they should be parking um and then it was escalation to a citation of $25 and now we think the next is um that $100 Citation for that very serious infraction but with those infractions we are also educating them on within that particular block where are the available parking spaces and if we have places that are just over congested for those Quick Stop in stop out then we're looking to increase those spaces so it's a it's an Ever evolving situation yeah I'd like to take a look at areas um I just think of like Trade Street and try you know try Street where there's lots of restaurants and everything if there's an opportunity to maybe have more loading zones or or something like that so we are considering those you know those folks who do drive and and have to deal with the parking that's right for a living um and then you you know I'm going to bring up the state owned road because there are roads because there are so many in District Four we talked about WT Harris and that affects District 5 four and two so um you mentioned the the cmpd has the ability to enforce you said State maintained roads that aren't that aren't highways is that as long as yes ma'am as long as they are not the interstate highways the cmpd or code enforcement teams can run their enforcement efforts on state maintain roadways absolutely but the the roads that are highways interstates yes ma'am so ramps and interstates those are under the jurisdiction of the highway patrol and the NC doot okay so when when I think highway so 2949 2949 is an example of a of a roadway that the city could enforce with their um enforcement or their cmpd that's okay and I know that there are signs on some of the ramps um and and some of the streets and I've noticed additional signs thank you thank you and to Jane Talon for for that and there have been some improvement I've noticed that but there are not these signs everywhere but is it still illegal to park on these um certain areas whether there are signs or not is that correct yes that is correct that it is illegal to park in the those situations unless it is an emergency and so the signs really are just supplemental to what the state law says today but the signs can be very effective in their spacing to then physically not allow a tractor trailer to physically be able to park in that space so that's what we've been really working with the ncdot on uh how that additional messaging actually physically prohs prohibits the tractor trailers from from parking so the issue if it's illegal and we see this constantly I mean constantly and it is a safety issue on on WT Harris sure so the issue then is enforcement [Music] so what can we do to Assist U because it's a it's a state issue we should be getting more help I guess from ncdot sure or yeah continuing those conversations and and having us ask them what we can do too yeah okay so then residents can reach out to their state senators right and and ask for assistance on that I know District 4 is just just formed a new Coalition I'm so excited and this is an issue that they're that they're addressing so I think that the issue is awareness that that these are State maintain roads and the the there's accountability at you know at at each level sure um okay so and then as far as the the rapid response or the the quality of life team when will that be effective when will the that team is already out on the streets issuing parking citations and they're already in action so there are currently two vacancies still on that team for inspectors um but we have a supervisor and two inspectors stood up we've added a couple of more people to the team to really round out uh the staff and they're already out issuing parking citations to tractor trailers and to vehicles and bike lanes and how do residents reach this team in the evenings and on the weekends so the the reporting can be done uh either through uh the CLT Plus app by contacting 311 or by calling uh 911 the team does not respond uh immedi mediately to the request always and the rapid response team is actually meant to meant to say that we we are responding rapidly to emerging issues like parking uh and so uh we will use our current uh code enforcement response time frames to go out and and issue citations for parking but they're also that staff is also out proactively working in our hot spots uh each and every day so do we want residents calling and we can talk about this later but do we want residents calling 911 to report truck parking I mean that that ties up the line you know for emergencies I mean we can talk we certainly talk about that but it's it's the option that cmpd has requested for areas where police would respond and now that the rapid response team is set up the the um residents can also uh request investigation through reporting to 311 or the CLT Plus app and 311 is only open during business hours is that correct 700 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday so if you are reporting off hours um 911 or um the emerald web or CLT plus okay and then lastly Mr Lee brought up a great suggestion thank you Mr Lee um as far as residents being able to report like taking a picture in the for a car in the bike lane or anything is there a way that they could could do that is up uploading through the there's current functionality within the CLT Plus app to take a picture and attach it to the reports that you're that a resident is making through that app so would we have to talk about that in the tab committee um if cmpd would be able to act on that a picture if that would be for able we really don't know that do we I'm I'm going to defer to our legal advice on that question but we we don't currently enforce in Code Enforcement anything by those means okay okay thank you thank you can I get one more Miss Anderson has not spoken yet miss Anderson thank you madam mayor and uh thank you for this work I I clearly support uh the the work that's here I'd like for the quality of life team and um your teams to think about expanding um this ordinance to include noise or noise um issues especially with the um the issues that we're having with cars taking over uh particular networks and roadways in our cities uh there is a an increase of U modified exhaust on a lot of cars and that creates noise and it's a quality of life issue I've certainly heard about that from my my district um residents and I know that we have cities like New York City for example that has cameras that are noise automated cameras that can capture a photo if if a resident is intentionally making loud noise and disturbing um the peace and the quality of life so so I'd love as you go back and look at additional areas of expansion for this particular ordinance that you investigate how we can enforce noise violations thank you madam mayor thank you I um after hearing everyone speak I know that there's lots of conversation I I think that one of the questions that we have to ask is we've been talking about this it's been in the newspaper it's been on television and I wonder if we should um consider what we have before us take the time I think Miss Mayfield's point to see what our results are establish some metrics and come back within a certain amount of time I don't know whether that's 40 you know six months or or less or more but I think um that if you've heard a lot about what we want to do and I know you guys have worked really hard on it but quality of life makes a difference and quality of life across our footprint is not always the same it could be noise it can be trucks there are different pockets of our community that deal with us but I also think the Enforcement issue and perhaps some other tools you know that we could use we talked about the fines primarily but maybe we have to be more aggressive in terms of where it hurts which is where you don't find your car or your car is towed and anybody that has had a car towed in Charlotte knows it is hard it's a very very difficult experience you sound like so I I I would I don't I think that this we've had public comment we've had a lot of suggestions so I know that we've got this on our plate today and I think that there's going to always be a need for this kind of work to be updated but I think we've got to start somewhere um if that's where the council is so um everyone has had a chance we have a motion to approve and a second Miss Mayfield and Mr Mr Graham I'm sorry you I just y'all are sitting together right yes I hear Mr Winston had and so um now that we have a motion on the floor um for adoption of the proposed amendments and I would add and I think the manager heard this different tools s different ways um a reasonable amount of time to see what's working and what's not working so with that could you could you define a reasonable amount of time cuz I I I thought I heard quarterly and and I say quarterly I say in a quarters in a quarter six again I I just don't want to and I don't want to be redundant I'm going to support it for sure I I just don't want to lose the momentum right and and and again I'm narrowly tailor talking about the commercial Vehicles because that's the problem M uh and the problem's getting worse not better and this is no reflection on the work that you ladies are doing Jane has been outstanding every time I call and they've been very um forthright in terms of trying to address the issues but the volume of emails and phone calls that we receive people Stopping Us in grocery stores at churches complaining about this it's a CommunityWide issue and I don't want to kind of lose focus on trying to solve the problem we started talking about this last January right and so there's a sense of urgency at least on my part that we kind of deliver on the promise I believe this is a very good first step though thank you and I think that the time frame is a quarter okay all right so that's the motion all in favor please raise your hands quarter come all right I believe that's unanimous so thank you I I want you to know how much we appre appreciate this and it's going to always be an ongoing exercise so thank you for what you're doing all right the next item on our agenda is the Charlotte arts and culture plan to the action requested is to accept the Charlotte arts and culture plan to support the Community Vision for arts and culture in the Charlotte mecklinburg in Charlotte mecklinburg and provide a strategic plan that residents businesses organizations artists creatives and public officials can use to shape the community's art culture ecosystem and contribute to a vibrant and prosperous future um do we have a motion so moved have a motion we have a second Miss ashir did you make the second all right any discussion I have question Miss John sorry I um sign I just want to know from Pria is there any more that we there you coming yeah S car join us at the podium Miss Johnson thank you for this plan right I want to know from um from your perspective is is there any more that that you think that we as a council can focus on to help the Arts Community or um if you just had to give us you know your your maybe top idea or top two idea what can we as a council do to support the plan or support the community is there anything more that we can do for you more than what's in the plan or yeah more from a council perspective or and maybe we can talk offline but I just want wanted to know if there's anything that you um that we can do as a council to to encou continue to encourage you for the improvements and everything I would say that I think the biggest thing that council could do is to keep arts and culture as a priority for our city and that what that could look like is to keep arts and culture in mind as one of the ways that if integrated into all the other things that we're doing as a city can truly uh help us to continue to have a more vibrant and sustainable Community all right thank you and I'd like to talk offline also okay thank you thank you for the plan I look forward to supporting it thank you Mr Driggs so uh I've been involved in this pretty heavily um since the beginning and I wanted to say uh Mr cirar and I have had a number of conversations uh I'm not going to support it tonight I believe that there's a lot in there that is good and represents the culmination of a great deal of work a couple of things in my mind that are still missing I was disappointed which I think I communicated to you not to see a more explicit recognition of the major venues that the city owns and our commitment to sustain their funding and I think that's important partly because the people who work at those places deserve some recognition from us and and I just feel that uh for us to talk in these general terms about the Arts and not put some acknowledgement among our priorities of the fact that those are important institutions and the people who work there uh are are important to us the other thing is that there were a number of questions I had about kind of the implementation or the details that in my mind haven't been fully worked out and to that extent this is almost more of a vision statement like a 20 240 plan than a Udo in my mind and so I'm a little concerned about how some of those issues and and prei have been clear about this uh uh will resolve themselves what exactly does the governance look like and what are the processes so I'm not discouraging anybody else from supporting it I'm not saying it's bad but I'm really not at a point yet where I can't support it thank you all right mayor protim thank you um I I talked about this couple weeks ago um I think Mr Driggs is right um I am going to vote to support this but this is very much like the um uh comprehensive plan that this is really the start right and I agree with Mr sakar is that um we need to maintain this as a priority um and once we uh receive this plan um this does give uh staff the kind of guide book on how we can operate internally uh to to fulfill this priority right because remember we did not ever have anybody within our organization the entire city of Charlotte whose job was to understand Public Funding of the Arts and therefore what we can do with it so we are really building something from scratch within this organization um and Adoption of this plan um uh kind of sets us out um on the long-term path to continue to act on that so um you know this has been a long process we hope that it will be a longer process in as in in perpetuity of of of of uh prioritizing this but you go slow in government so you can go a long way uh with government so I think we've done this the right way um and I think this is a good U plan uh that again sets us up for the long term and I I look forward to voting yes for this Mr Graham uh thank you madam mayor uh first let me thank Pria for for all your work you you've done a lot of work in uh in a different difficult environment I think uh in terms of working with wide variety of stakeholders and kind of pulling everybody together for a common Vision so I really appreciate the work um ARs and culture sports and entertainment are the part of the culture of our community and and so I I do agree with Mr Dres that what I called the Blue Bloods uh the the U the major institutions Discovery Place the the men are are part of who we are as a community but there's also room for new emerging artists to do different things as well and so it's not either or in my my perspective is how do we kind of have a vision to accomplish both uh and have a new vision for the arts and culture uh in uptown Charlotte and throughout the city so I look forward to continuing to do the work there's a lot more work to be done but I think this is a very very first step and I acknowledge that that we have more work to do um but I think this it's really exciting I think if we can make sure that as I said earlier that we we find a way to include culture arts and cultur like the whz was in town this past weekend right we need more of that right for our community as well as identifying spaces for emerging audience to represent and present and be a part of the changing a landscape in the city of Charlotte I look forward to being a part of that thank you all right Mr barari thank you mayor um so I I mean I want to start by recognizing that a lot of people have worked hard in the community on this and I and and that is appreciated what they do in the arts and culture Community is appreciated um I I have some pretty strong feelings about all this and I I want to start by making sure that those who have worked hard your your efforts are very much appreciated um you know know th this isn't something that just popped up over the last couple months or even couple years we have been battling this trying to figure it out for a long time we were what felt like Ground Zero when the quarter Cent sales tax failed when this community said we don't buy the vision start over and what what bothers me is I mean that was 2019 we're at the end of 2023 and this is where we are right now this 100 plus page document and for those of us who have worked hours and hours behind the scenes trying to make this happen I mean it's a bit disappointing where we are right now so I I the way because what happens too much in government is someone drops a 100 plus page plan in front of you and then we all look at the plan and we show how thick the plan is and we say the plan is the plan okay we're making progress I I mean I can summarize this plan it's got eight priorities or points to it and and you may think I mean I encourage anyone in the community go read it themselves but I I'll summarize the plan right now Priority One go get public money priority two then use that to get more private money that's dried up and then priorities three through eight are here additional things that uh seem to pull well and people think are popular that you can do with that money um where where we set out where we needed to be by now was looking at here are the assets we have that are underperforming here are the buildings and the operations that are there that need to become sustainable here are the funding mechanisms that will get us there here's the policy that this city will use in order to put more money into the things that make the outcomes that have happened we started at the absolute opposite end of where we needed to be and now we've got this kind of frame of a car it's not a car that we can get in and drive it needs an engine built it needs all kind and we might find out this isn't the shape the car needs to be in the end so you know I I think one lesson we have to learn is this didn't start this year it didn't start even in 2019 when the sales tax failed if you you can go all the way back to kind of in 2008 Nish when mayor MCCC actually vetoed and this was one of the vetos that were overridden by council at that time um the the the the money for the mint the Gant Center several of these buildings not because people didn't think they were valid and important but because no one went into the weeds and figured out the sustainable sustainable operations model in the funding that was going to get us to that point and we find ourself over a decade later still ignoring that conversation and that that is terrifying to me because it's just kicking the can down the road so I I I only bring this up in the hopes that we can sit down and figure this stuff out I'm going to vote against it as well when I look at the wording of of all this I you know it's us accepting this report so I mean it was emailed to us we've accepted it I I want I would encourage my colleagues to vote against accepting this formally because there's nothing for us to be able to utilize here for what we need to do next um it's not to say that the next step of us taking it and moving to where we need to go isn't exactly what we need to do otherwise I'm I'm completely on board with that but I don't want to give the community a false impression that we've that we've moved down the road to where we need to be just because there's a lot of papers here the same community that saw through everything in 2019 when they overwhelmingly voted down um the sales tax for Arts because we didn't have our act together can see where we are today and and this is not going to solve for that so we need to learn from those lessons of the past we need to double down our efforts because the arts and culture Community is critically vital and if we don't get this right we're not going to we're going to be doing them a disservice and we need to make sure that the organizations that perpetuated this stuff for decades um we we have a clean cut and and and a path forward so I'm going to vote against it I encourage all of you to send a message to this community that you get it as well that this is not us making progress but it's not a message to those who work super hard on this like I I really want to emphasize this is our responsibility to be here at these decision points um and make tough decisions but it does not is not an indication that your work is not appreciated and all the effort you put into this community it should be something you look at and say thank you if you are if you don't feel you're doing your job and where you should be doing the city dollars you should be raising the flag right now on something that's important so um I hope that we can we can do that all the manager would like to address the council so uh thank you mayor members of council thank you Pria and for everybody who's put in a lot of hard work behind this I just try down some notes and maybe level setting is the best way to say this so absolutely there's more work to do I think that's most important second you're receiving a plan tonight words matter I remember there was a plan that uh this Council adopted which wasn't a staff driven plan that years later uh when folks said hey it's time to support those or pay for this Council said well well so this is a lot of hard work and you're receiving it I I I really like what council member mcari said and I'm going to repeat it just in a little bit little different way so uh there have been a couple of go alone strategies that didn't necessarily work and I think this is the first time that we're getting to a list work together strategy so the cortison sales tax I believe County driven that this Council was a little mythed that you were pulled in kind of late when we did the infusion fund um this board uh this Council uh the opposite feeling came about from the county it's like well why didn't we have some seats why weren't we a part of this uh what's been happening uh during this process is collaboration and communication between staff of the city and the county so that there can be something different this time in terms of um let's think about it as restricted funds that would be associated with those things that are important to this Council and restrict funds that are items that are important to the County Board of um Commissioners I don't want to get too in front of them right now but and then there would be pulled funds that would be something that may be important to all of us as it relates to hitting some of the goals and objectives what we've done as a um staff for you is always stuck by the recommendations from the ad hoc committee stuck by the recommendations of of the the for of viw that carried that um forward so that when we get to the place in January during the annual strategy meeting where this will be a topic which we will talk about governance and we will talk about funding that our recommendations to year are going to be consistent with what you've been telling us to do all along so those are kinds of the thought process yeah that that's kind of the thought process where we from a staff level have been is that we're going to be consistent with um what have been the objectives of the council the other thing I think is very important to just highlight what has happened with this infusion fund of the last three years which is extremely important so if we get back to 2022 let's call it the low point of funding for those organizations that we're associated with whether they Thrive whether it is the um Alana organizations um some of those that are more divers than others 4.3 million and now with the infusion fund for the last few years it's uh closer to 85 million for those Thrive organizations from their low point to where they've been during the infusion fund almost double but those Alana organizations almost triple so a lot of good things have been happening while we have been protecting our assets from an economic development perspective those buildings and not just the buildings but the people that perform in it as well as lifting up these other organizations that for years have not gotten the same level of support so the thought process has worked with the infusion fund it's how does it remain sustainable past 2024 yeah should be in there it's not in there that's the problem two separate top Anderson is recognized thank you Madame mayor and PR has left but um I wanted to thank her for uh the work that she's done because I know I've had several conversations with her and um I know this has been a heavy lift you know when we when we think and talk about strategic plans and implementing strategic plans we have to have metrics kpis ways in which we have a keen understanding that whether or not the plan is working or is it not working and I know that uh and section five in this plan there is an implementation guide that has outcomes tied to every action but some of these um some of these outcomes are fuzzy soft if you will and it's difficult to actually track them from a metric perspective and the other aspect of this plan as well is there are a lot of actions that are you know have a long Runway so a lot of these actions have multi multi years that it will be in flight and it will be easy for us as a body to lose sight on whether we're making traction um is it working is it not working should we pivot and so I'd like um for us to make some attempt to tighten up these outcomes of course some of them have to be soft in nature but I want to be able to track our um ability of how we are making traction on these outcomes and so I'd like to have some level of metrics or kpis that as a board we are um we are provided on a regular Cadence so we can um add perspective on uh yep we're going the right way or if we need to uh conclude that we need to Pivot on some things because it will be very easy for this to be in flight and we just lose sight of it and the effectiveness will be difficult to ascertain so thank you madam mayor thank you I I think the idea of creating those metrics are important I also think it's important that we know what we currently do and I think that's from Mr dr's comment about the number of buildings that we program support financially and maintain so we've got a part of a plan but we really need to have a foundation of what we already have and then look at the metrics of where we can go so I um it's I understand it says accept and I just don't know whether that is um a strong vibrant word or just kind of like you know Mambi pambi that's a that's not a real word I know that but it's kind of like well once we accept this then does that cover the kind of focus and and rigor that we need for the remaining parts of it mayor proten yeah I I so so so I I think accepting I'm sorry I did not see I'm sorry I did not see but go ahead and then we'll come to miss asir I think accepting is is the right verb again so that staff can can can continue to move forward um I I think what Miss Anderson um stated is is is is is accurate in terms of what we should desire but what this does set us up for right the idea is um that uh Council as long as it keeps arts and culture as a priority will be able to go in Janu December January when you have your retreat uh to start giving those um those desired outcomes to staff uh so that they can go and work on this why I keep saying that this is really kind of the start right so that you can say hey I want to prioritize we we as Council want to prioritize um I don't know for the investing in workspaces this year so that staff can say okay we we have a way we're going to going to come up with a way to define success of failure and that you can look at those things or we're going to focus on bringing in jobs in the creative SPAC this year um there is this plan and accepting this gives staff the continued kind of okay to keep going forward to set up that um uh type of workflow because again I just remind us we have people on staff that know how to build roads or make land use maps or or or deal with law enforcement we don't have any Department in in our organization right now that effectively creates those kpis and everything like that so accepting this allows that process to go forward Miss azira and then miss Molina thank you mad mayor so so I recall having a presentation to council a couple of weeks ago on this Arts and Cultural plan and I know Mr DRS had raised uh the concern around supporting the institutions that's um that's a part of the fabric of our city um that is our City's responsibility and um when we had that presentation what we had talked about that as a Next Step this priority that we have here or this plan does not uh prevent us from having that discussion in January uh we can do both we can support our institutions as well as acknowledge historically marginalized communities that hasn't been funded in the past so I I think we are all on the same page here in terms of doing both uh I don't recall ever us having a conversation about stop funding what we currently do uh I think that that's that's Our obligation that's we're going to continue to do this just adds a layer where we have not his we have not funded historically marginalized groups and artists that we are going to do so I look forward to having that conversation in January um but I agree with Mr Drakes we do need to continue to deliver on Our obligation which is uh blue monal arts and uh Mint Museum and other institutions because ultimately that is our responsibility uh but we got to do more because we do have lot of artists um or organizations that have not historically received funding from us and we need to also cultivate that culture where they feel that Charlotte is a welcoming City for all whether you have whether you're part of this institution or you are someone new who has embraced our city and who is part of Arts and Cultural community so I think we can do both um and as part of our annual funding process this arts and um uh cultural discussion always comes up and um you know I I guess this I I see this cultural plan as more of a framework um not necessarily policy document um similar to what we had done with 2040 plan and I know that even with 2040 planning was controversial we never it was 6 to5 and I you know anytime you have this big Ideas it it's um because it's not specific enough uh it's a very challenging it's very challenging effort and I appreciate pri's leadership um it's not easy I know on even um not just among the council members but even Among The Advisory board that you have there are very we have there are diverse opinions and you got to balance it all and I I think this is um uh this is a step in the right direction but our work does not end here and I hope uh I'm sure Mr DRS and others will be a strong voice for our institutions along with me because I think they are part of our Fabric and we need to support them um and um um so I will continue to support their work but I just don't want us to send a message to any institutions in our city that we are not funding them I think we are going to continue to do that while exploring this other uh while supporting this historically marginalized groups Miss Molina thank you uh Madame mayor I so I'm reluctant to speak of the organizations that have been traditionally underfunded um in tandem with our institutions because you know the the nature of the two are totally different right and so um what I learned as a brand new council member um is when we made a vote before and I think PRI I addressed this with you on the on the call um on my private social media post I was bombarded with people that didn't understand the difference in the decisions that we were making um and because they have livelihoods that are attached to one portion of this decision they take the entire decision as it being a no to them and what they intend you know to feed their families and now we have the weight of trying to to lift both of the institutions that are attached directly to the city which priia I remember the call where you know you had a board member ask you specifically about the language and I followed up with that language to say we needed to be specific as well and so I'm even I'm a little shaky now because the the purpose of this lift is that we lift them both at the same time um and so I I'm I'm a little concerned because absolutely positively you know do we have a responsibility to you know support the artists that are a part of our community that are a very important part of our community um and you know support their efforts and provide the funding where we're able to uh from a body and a city perspective but also we have this you know um concurrent responsibility of the organizations that are attached to the city of Charlotte so if you'll allow me mayor I just I there was a uh a message that I got today from a former council member that well precedes me um council member Nancy Carter um who has a recognition of this beyond my own um and basically she was sending a message of concern um she was like I just saw the article in The Observer um about the state of our Arts Community I am very anxious perhaps you may remember that I served on the Arts and Science Council board for the city of Charlotte for 12 years including the time building the new structures up toown before that I served as president of the symphony Guild on the symphony board and the board of friends of the Opera in 2011 which well precedes most of us except for a person except for a person or two or three right um she mentioned she said you know I served on WD av's board um the Arts have been a significant and beloved focus in my life and I'm very very concerned about their welfare I imagine the loans which the city assumed for the new buildings because of the lower governmental rates for those loans in lie of the tradition of supporting the Arts through employees donations and through donations to support their activities are close to being paid off um would there be a way of transitioning to support through allocating funding so she was specifically concerned about us being specific about supporting our institutions because of the way that we you know um we've done it traditionally and then the way that we um you know transitioned over time away from it being donation based and so I like I said I listening to the elders because there's nothing more important than building on what's been built before us and and learning from those lessons and continuing that bridge specific in the language in the details um and God please help me and we're taking care of our artists that have been traditionally you know ignored and underfunded so thank you Mr Mitchell well uh Madame mayor this is a tough one and and I will be the first one to admit um I was going to stay in my lane and and rely on you experts uh Council barari d and gram and may protim who put some time in and to bring this forward to us and I never want to underestimate the time prayer you had spent uh um putting together this plan so but a couple of questions I think councilman mrig I mention that kind of struck me and our our own facilities I mean we have spent a lot of time engaging our own facilities that we own so is there prayer is there a reason why in the in the convers in the document we don't have any language around the africanamerican culture center The Mint Museum Beckler um just just out of curiosity but I think we even got a split ad hoc committee 2 two guess we need to call Julie ISO and say right so PR just I the facilities we on was there any discussion with them uh did they see this document did they have any input I'm just curious yes so they they have had input some of them served on the task forces that wrote this plan I just wanted to um just a share a refresher from our previous presentation that uh our arts and culture community of all types and sizes of organizations and artists uh participated in uh giving shape to this plan some of them as steering committee members serving since last June and others as task force members uh who wrote the plan itself including members of the charlot symphony Blumenthal Performing Arts Etc Center okay in in in the uh process from last year yes in terms of the arts and culture Community engagement conversations and interviews as well um in terms of your question regarding language yes um so I I believe I'm thinking of the same conversation council member Molina that you referenced a few moments ago uh in which we talked about some language around the city owned facilities and the organizations that operate them and that was in our small group uh conversations back in August if we're thinking of the same conversation so I just wanted to clarify that uh following receiving that feedback in August we did add language to the plan plan and specifically we added language that says support stable and effective operations and utilization of city-owned arts and culture facilities so that was added to address uh the the request for language in that from that conversation I'm year to council Marina Amica she has a followup question I hear go well we can't name them because I think that was the concern the concern was actually expressly naming them because in my mind this is a policy document so when we adopt a policy we need to be as specific as possible because that's how we enforce the policy itself when we can get granular and have some level of specificity so and I and if I remember correctly I think that was the request to actually name them so they're city-owned assets my recollection was is different that it was not including naming specific organizations but it was around the facilities and something uh and also talking about the organizations that operate them um and the way that we have talked about this document for the the last several months has not been as a policy document but has been as a framework and a community plan that is both it's for the city but also for our many partners both public and private throughout the community to use and so that's why um as the manager had described previously we have thought of this as a community plan that we are asking Council to accept so that then we can develop policies and and practices and also update our policies and practices that the city is engaging in that flow from this community plan and I think that I want to go back I don't I do not believe this is a policy document and so it would not be where we would have and and and pri's right I remember we went back and we there was a lot of conversation I think what we're talking about is the guidance as the next step what I've heard a few people say is that you know if the council chooses to um accept the document that they have the ability to begin discussions around how do we do all of those things that you said both and but I also understand where the policy really is going to require I think more of a council discussion than that you're accepting all of this information and a lot of it has been um placed in a way that it is a guide but it is not anywhere you know policy would say we will do this we will spend this amount of money we will appoint these kind of people none of that is in this document but it does say that one we need to recognize that our plan in Charlotte did not include underserve artists perhaps as diverse as we wanted in terms of our art capacity and what it's really is is saying it's a strategic plan that addresses the idea of how do we make sure both organizations and creative people in our community are accessing the Arts so I I think the conversation has been great um and I think what Mr Driggs and Mr barari and Miss Anderson talked about um first that we want to make sure that we have some metrics when we come back with us that we actually identify the existing cost and supports that we have to have in it that there are specifics in the plan that can lead to a document that is a policy document so I'd like to I know that Mr Mitchell still has floor so I mayor can can I offer a proposal because I I I think there's one way that we could thread this needle I just have some concerns simp like when we say we're accepting something and then three months down the road somebody says well you approved exactly that I I think if there was a a substitute motion of all the same words that are there but inste of accepting it we're confirming receipt we've received it staff can move forward imately and make the tweaks and bring back the the policy recommendations so that no one ever comes and says well you never named the names of those organizations and buildings so therefore that debate is done I I I think what we're doing is we're taking a handoff from one group we're saying thank you for your hard work and then we're letting staff and others move forward to the next stage of the work and Madam mayor may I add that could we possibly attach some temporal setting to when we will see the kpis and answer all those questions that you just summarized for us it would be nice if we were to tie a date or a time frame where we the council can have that feedback so if I maybe reframed my um substitute motion I would say all the same wording but instead of except we are confirming receipt and then with a comma afterwards looking for a a more robust timeline you know within the next 30 days of what that timeline looks like and what staff will bring us back not the commitment in 30 days but giving you guys 30 days to bring us back the next steps of the timeline all right the manager wants to respond to what we've all been talking about so I may I did ask yes Mr Jes did ask the difficulty I have is that the things we are talking about doing were expected to be in here and so you know we've been at this for a couple of years right the original working group came out and said here's the idea here's the plan we're going to have this commission the goal was that the council would hand over to the Arts Community the responsibility for a lot of allocation I actually wrote a memo that was superseded but I said the main guard rails that the council wants to establish are there will be Public Funding we will sustain the Legacy organizations and we will have money for all of these other things that are in in in the plan the thing is that you know when you talk about this and this that part got left out and a sentence was added largely as a result of my strident objection that we did not have anything about the inventory of our principal assets or the importance of some of those so uh it's fine if we want to let this move forward and if we want to undertake to do more work and so on but a lot of people out there thought that this was going to be where we got all those answers and the idea was that we would be at a point right now where the council said okay we're done our requirements have been stated clearly and we are very happy right now to turn over to the Arts Community decisions about where this funding goes and that was if you look back at the original Memo from the working group that was the goal and we are now at least a year and a half behind where we thought we were going to be so as long as the characterization of this thing is correct and and people who expected more or thought it was something else understand do what you want but but I was just expecting I thought we would be able to kind of uh lay this topic more or less to rest I thought the council would be able to say our work is done we now know where we're going with the Arts and uh we're satisfied that the requirements that we have met and we're not there yet and so some of the questions that we don't have answers for are important and so again all right Mr Jones would okay so thank you thank you mayor members of council so I'm going to lock into prayer to make sure that I'm saying these things correctly so this is a community's plan and not just the council's plan and if it becomes the council's plan then you own everything and that's not what you want to do what you want is to understand what's out there in the ecosystem and what the need is then at some point in January you're going to say this is all I'm going to do I'm not going to own K through 12a education I'm not going to own so you're you're going to you're going to pick something we're going to put policies around that and that's what we'll own the county will pick something that's what they the private sector but you this is a community's plan that you wouldn't want to own all of it so I like the concept receiving I thought it was going to be receiving it's my fault I like the concept of receiving the plan because that's what you're doing tonight and I hope the County Board of Commissioners does it and the school Bo board and everybody received this plan and we all figure out how we're going to work in I if you don't mind mad may I just to respond to the manager I'm 100% align with what you just said I just have several scars sure of when we were ex approving or accepting then all of a sudden someone six months later when we bring up the topic says no no that discussion is over you accept it so as long as we're crystal clear that that isn't even close to being addressed by us and we're a year and a half behind scheduled to actually have the conversation I'm on board with with that that slight tweak of the in receipt or receiving okay have you spoken already on this topic I don't think Miss watlington has spoken on the topic so let's go to miss watlington and then we'll come back mayor protim and then we're going to vote on we're going to determine a motion that we can vote on that was actually going to be my question is U I've asked the attorney and he said it's not a legal thing it's a us thing it doesn't sound like I said I've asked the question of the attorney and he said and don't let me speak for you but I'm about to that it's not a legal requirement or anything it's an us thing I think we're clear about what the intent is is there a need to formally vote so rather than spending a lot of time figuring out a motion to raise our hands around is it it is is it not enough to have received the comments I I do think there needs to be some guidance because as you say you're going to be going to the school board you're going to be going to the County Commission there probably needs to be some opportunity to say this is what the council as a whole did so I would though propose that um I believe Mr barari said receive the Charlotte arts and culture plan to support the Community Vision as the manager said for arts and culture in Charlotte mecklinburg um I think that then we would have included in that um a report that we have a commitment to our institutional organizations our UND unidentified underserving that might not be the word but we also have to create metrics and I think that we need to um put that in place so receive um acknowledge our support for people who participate in this as well as our institutions put some met and when we come back with any recommendations that it includes metrics Madam mayor I I'll just I'll put that substitute motion out there firmly and I think I agree with everything you said on think we need to worry about word smithing that now because to the manager's Point that's exactly what our body of work is going forward so mine would be the exact wording in the current agenda action except instead of accept the it would just be in receipt of or received the charlot pars so on and so forth changing the T right so we're moving we're going with um I think that Miss watlington and then mayor Pro and then we're going to um vote on a motion of receive the Arts and Charlotte arts and culture plan okay last time I accepted something single family okay so we have a motion on the floor to receive the Charlotte arts and culture plan to support the Community Vision for arts and culture in Charlotte mecklinburg is that the end of the sentence I thought there was is that correct that's a clarification all that's implied right do have to be in the motion clarification any Amendment any motion there has to be second did we get a second on that cuz the language is accept the Charlotte arts and culture plan that's the initial motion that was put out so so we need a substitute language that you just said I heard what Mr barari mentioned as a substitute but I didn't hear a second on that that's true all right we have a motion a substitute motion by Mr barari to and we have do we have a second second we now have a second on that substitute motion so now we need to vote on it all right now what is the actual difference now we're going to vote we' like you I don't know I tell you if you don't see the difference it's just the way but I want to know what I'm voting on accept versus receive and mad mayor accept receive received that's what we're I I don't have a second I'll withdraw it to be honest I was going to say I think we've had enough conversation now where we can point to this record and show that okay all in substitute motion raise your hand all in favor of the substitute motion no he didn't no he didn't a second he didn't withdraw I didn't we need to take a break and go back and get some coffee or something yeah this is so I know what you're saying but we have a substitute motion on the floor I didn't know that to receive the Charlotte Arts and Cultural plan to support the Community Vision for arts and culture in Charlotte meberg it has a second all in favor of the motion please raise your hands it's a yeah no it doesn't matter if it's the same thing it is the motion that we are saying that I've read a couple of times so have one all right all in favor of the motion please raise your hand so I didn't get this side one I don't understand two three four okay very go guess we didn't receive it fails okay okay original motion let's go back I know that now we're back at the really you guys it's enough we have a motion to accept the Charlotte Arts and Cultural plan to support the Community Vision for arts and culture in Charlotte meckelberg and provide a strategic plan that residents businesses organizations artists creatives and public officials can use to shape the communities Arts and Cultural ecosystem and contribute to a vibrant and prosperous future for Charlotte meinberg all in favor the motion please raise your hand 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 motion passes I oppose all right thank you anyone oppose we have two opposed thank you very much all right let's see we still have a few other items guys um let's go to item agenda item number 12 anti-displacement programing approve the use of 5,9 5, 95415 from the coronav virus state and local fiscal Recovery Fund to implement anti-displacement programming as recommended by the n subc commmission so move we have a motion and a second any discussion I have a question Miss oh sorry I have Miss watlington followed by Miss Johnson yeah I'll keep it brief um I'm just glad this is here we we we had a lot of discussion about this over the years um and it's building upon work that's been done by previous councils this is critical to delivering a policy that is going to provide for what we say we want in this city um for folks all over the city of different backgrounds um I think what's going to be key though is to understand that this is just the beginning and I look forward to January um as we talk about how we expand um continue and broaden our efforts in regards to this um I'll leave it there for today thank you to staff for your great work on this I will say that and to um the chairs uh uh Miss Graham and uh Dr harlo of the nest Commission and all of the members of The Nest commission thank you for continuing to show up and I look forward to staying engaged with this work as well as uh bringing in some additional uh connection to our neighborhoods and our grassroot organizations so thank you for this all right Miss Johnson I I concur with uh Dr watlington I want to thank the staff and thank the members of The Nest commission I think this is a great first step one of the things I do want to lift up is is we're really starting to see um petitions for Redevelopment of the hotels and the motels and we know that that's where our vulnerable populations live so I want to make sure that we do have something um some type of displacement plan as we recognize that those uh individuals are vulnerable there's a petition we'll be hearing um for public hearing next week for one of the hotels or motels actually two of them in the 85 Corridor so I want residents to pay attention so it's not a last minute alarm that these things are changing so I hope that um we we really are intentional about developing um displacement plans for our most vulnerable residents thank you Miss Mayfield thank you madam mayor I am happy with the work that Nest commission has done I will state which I had stated many years ago I hope we put some guard rails in place yes I am happy that we have home ownership opportunities here but I need us to not forget to and the original conversations around to in south end and then I repeatedly asked for some stop Gap measures regarding housing affordability well now you drive through South End you drive along the rail you will see multiple high-end veh Les but the the individuals that we told the community we were creating this public transportation system for have quickly been dispersed and displaced from having access to the resource that we told them this is for you so as we're moving forward with these recommendations and we're talking about allocating almost $6 million we have to have the very clear stop Gap measures in place to ensure the community that we say is our Target is the community that's going to benefit and the conversation manager you and I have had regarding going back to our current programs and seeing what additional resources are needed because we put investments in in 2016 17 18 in areas and a number of those individuals do no longer live there those homes have flipped those homes unfortunately there's been a targeting especially of Elders in our communities I have I spoke to an elder this morning that in reference to an elder this morning over in Revolution Park that had someone purchased a building that she's been in since the 30s her home they purchased L next door and then told them I'm going to tear down because this is my land no her land has been her land since the 30s so we need to make sure that in this space of almost 6 million we're addressing the needs of our current not only our elders our residents our homeowners to make sure they're protected yes thank you all right are there any other comments so we have a motion on a second all in favor please raise your hand all right anyone oppose two in opposition thank you the next item is item 13 approve additional funding to implement recommendations associated with the employment study for City corridors of opportunity comprised of $500,000 in Project savings and 1 million and interest earn on funds from the American Rescue act plan act and authorize the manager to negotiate as appro and execute contracts we have a motion and a second is there any discussion all right we'll start with Miss watlington followed by Miss Anderson thank you madam mayor we got a lot of people want to talk okay so I just want to say I'm very very happy to see this um as we know many of these corridors sit in places um that are near and dear to my heart and I'm so happy to see us continuing to invest in this program um but I will defer to um the CD chair um to pour out all of the Love on this program but happy to support so um M Anderson thank you Madame mayor um I absolutely support this effort and having two of the corridors of opportunity in district one understand that this is very a very much needed tool in the communities um and as it relates to some of these corridors this is one of the number one ask in the playbook for some of them so I I'm happy to see it here and I'm excited about the work I just have a question you know we had some small group meetings with Miss Holmes and I want to ensure that all of these centers along uh all these hubs are open and accessible to everyone in the community um when we had the discussion in small group there was some mention of some of them being specifically focused on a a particular um hi Miss Holmes a particular um aspect of the community and I as I as I mentioned to you I think that would dissuade the entire uh community and residents along these corridors to feel like this is a resourcing tool for them so can you just speak to that since you're here miss yes so we did reach out to those that uh we did get questions about that were uh may be seemingly focused and confirmed with them to ensure that they were open to uh all in that geography and that they were targeting kind of The Wider population in that geography so as not to limit uh so that they are providing services for The Wider range and making sure that they meet the needs of the businesses located in that Corridor in addition to that uh we are also working with a cohort model so that the hubs uh form basically a team where if one cannot meet the services needed then let's say someone provides one-on-one coaching at one opportunity Hub and another one doesn't they can refer to each other to provide that but I did want to confirm to you that uh they are targeted to meet not just a kind of narrow population but a wider range of businesses right entrepreneurs Workforce Development in that Corridor thank you for that response so just uh so that I'm clear uh for example the particular one that's along the north Graham North trien Corridor which is in district one that particular Hub will be open to all residents in that Corridor yes it will so they will provide specialty services for minority and Hispanic contractors and people looking to grow their contracting business but they will have referral services and resources for all people in that great thank you so much all right Mr barari do you have yeah I was just going to say uh staff this has been a rigorous process to get you guys to this point um I I am I am hopeful to see what kind of outcomes come out of this as we really analyze it as a more of a pilot process to be quite honest with the funding that's there but I have a lot of faith in how you guys have approached getting us to this decision point and I think it's worth us rolling the dice and seeing if it makes the level of impact that warrants the the funding so I'll support it Mr drgs so I'm very enthusiastic about this I've been arguing for some time that Workforce Development is a uh more productive investment than housing subsidies frankly uh I think getting people to the point where they can pay their own rent is a better outcome and so uh really excited about this uh I hope that what this will accomplish is that people who have an aspiration whether it's a business or a job have a place to go where they can there's the lighting dramatic I think they say I get out where they can go to uh uh to overcome obstacles to their success so we had discussed at some point in committee uh about Workforce Development and the first report that we got back if you recall was a portal which was a a good resource an important resource but a number of us I think Mr Graham and I in particular expressed concern that that's sort of passive and we need to be active we need to be on the ground and out there so uh uh I hope that this will benefit individuals and business people aspiring business people um and that it proves to be something in which we can invest more as we learn from the early experience thank you all right Mr Graham thank you madam mayor I I too am am extremely excited uh about um this agenda item I told the manager this was a a very good agenda there's so many good things on it tonight that improves the quality of life life of of our citizens and certainly the quarters of opportunity the continue in investment that we're doing um and this is a city priority right this thing started off in one district and now you know everyone's doing it because I think we ped this thing and I think we're a little bit beyond a pilot with the quarters of opportunity obviously this scenario is one but I think we we we we found something here um and I'm glad that staff was able to to hear me and and Mr drgs and and act on it um uh and this is really about meeting people where they are which is in their neighborhoods in their communities Within These quarters it's focusing on Workforce and small businesses supports the hire Charlotte program and more importantly it it really invests also on these corridors but also invest on people on the corridors who's actually doing the work which is these nonprofit organizations in every aspect of of the city that Latin America chamman of Commerce the Hispanic chairman contractors Association Freedom communities which is doing tremendous work over there L charlott and B for Road she built this city which is the organization I was just really introduced to about several months ago uh and I'm just pleased that they're on this list doing this type of work identifying female contractors and giving them an opportunity to help build a better Charlotte so I'm really excited about that as well as the Neo foundation so this is really get foundational work get blocking and tackling helping people where they are fulfilling a commitment to the quarters uh and I just look forward to again the results right um making sure that um again as I said earlier today what gets measured gets done so we there's some good me measurements quarterly yearly that we can kind of see where we are uh in terms of making an impact so I'm really excited about it thank you Miss Mayfield thank you madam May thank you for the work that you have been doing and leading It Forward I would just ask the same stock G measures to be put in place to ensure the areas where we're making Investments that the residents who live there not the potential residents who may come those who live there are able to take advantage of these opportunities I am very happy that she built this city is on this list they have made a Major Impact in a short period of time I personally would have liked for them to have ask for more for the needs because we have a lot of home repair needs especially for elders that are popping up but I am excited so just wanted to congratulate you on the work and again Ask for Clear stop Gap measures to make sure we're achieving the goal that we are telling the community is our purpose thank you Miss Johnson Miss Holmes thank you for the work we've had the I've had the honor of speaking with you quite a few times over the past couple weeks and and the work that you're doing is is very intentional and um it really will does address the inequities in the city I think this project is a winwin situation um for our residents but also for the small business owners so this really really does address upward Mobility um and continue to do the work that you're doing in your department thank you thank you Mr Jones um so I'm excited about this thank you Mr Mitchell Elina Elina thank you madam mayor um I there's been a lot of great dialogue around the room uh Monica thank you to you and your team Mr manager um this is a win I you know I think every single group on this list is amazing there are one or two that I don't know about yet but I would love to know more about um there are two in particular that I have to lift up because the um the leaders have actually waited for us to talk about it and I see them in the room so um I want to first uh the Latin American Chamber of Commerce um grel the Bailey is here um from the Latin American Chamber of Commerce and so um I've actually seen the location two times um I've gone and I've viewed it and um it's actually literally off of the albamar Road Corridor so of course this is East Charlotte um and right now it is a makeshift home to the Open Air Market uh I live right down the street so I see it every single weekend and it is vibrant and bustling with latino business owners um and it is the most organic organization of of you know entrepreneurship that I've ever seen in my life um and so I I want to shout them out because they're actually on a mission to raise around $15 million and the county beat us to it by the way we're coming in this second to the county so shout out to the county for you know partnering um in this goal for uh East Charlotte and bringing you know a model for entrepreneurship to the albamar Road Corridor um and Josh Jacobson um who's done a lot of work on that project and and everyone who's involved thank you guys M um all of you thank you for waiting around I'm really excited to see us as a stakeholder um and and to see what this project produces um I see l she's here um and actually she is uh the executive director of the Hispanic contractors Association of the Carolinas so if you've seen my profile picture on anything social it's actually from the Gayla uh that I went to and I mean the lighting for for that little picture was great I love it I had the best time I met so many amazing entrepreneurs who in their own right um many first generation many with a dream many who do the hard jobs that keep our country moving you know the things that in some cases people have forgotten about as an opportunity but are lucrative opportunities you know people with painting and construction and you know every single facet of construction that you can think of who you know with a dream and a goal um have started institutions and and in many cases are very successful so um I'm I'm extremely proud of the work that you're doing there I'm you know happy that we're you know a stakeholder I I appreciate all of you guys waiting um and I look forward to supporting this as long as well as the other you know Wonderful organizations that um we're going to hopefully as a body support tonight M asmea thank you mad mayor um I agree with what's everything's been said um I just want to also so highlight uh council member chairman Graham's leadership on this as the chair of the economic development committee I know this is something that was started with B Sport and theal and uh now we we are we have other corridors but uh this is an topic that we have gotten continuous update on at the committee level so I appreciate everyone's work thank you okay thank you we have an a motion on the floor for the um corridors of opportunity and that the work that would be done with the contractors as well as adopting the budget ordinance appropriating the money from to the general capital projects fund so we have a motion on the floor I think yes second Mr Graham and a second and so all in favor please raise your hand anyone oppose all right the next item on our agenda is the Carolina Theater move to approval AB we have a motion to approve the authorize the manager to negotiate on the Carolina Theater purchase and sale agreement for two million from the fund balance and the cultural facilities we have a motion for approve a and and then we have a second is there any discussion yes sir all right Miss air we'll start this way yeah I have a question on this it says the fund source is C cultural facilities is that tourism bucket yes okay it's all I thank you in favor all right um any other questions I I also want to recognize oh you're asking Miss I'm sorry Laura would you I'm sorry what what was no I was just recognizing Laura as leadership oh you were just saying thank you okay got it all right so all right anyone else around coming around this way Miss Johnson thank you Madame mayor um one of the things I'd like to ask about is when we talk about arts and science or art Arts being accessible to um those who might not otherwise have access to it can we start to work with the organizations that we fund uh through the Arts and Science Council or through operational funds to offer more than scholarships for a few but access for lowincome students or children we need to where I'm from and and in Columbus there's a a theater that's that's in the inner city that's open to Inner City children and I'd like to to see that as as we are using public dollars to fund the Arts and Science and also the theaters that we have some requirements um that these organizations um provide like I said more than scholarships for a few but actually programming for children who might not otherwise have access to the theater I I yeah maybe I should let it go but I won't so uh that is as we're talking about the arts and culture plan those are the things that you will do in January as you start to talk about these facilities to make sure there's access to people and artists and neighborhoods in those facilities yes well specifically we're talking about funding this organization right now specifically so I mean I was even thinking for you know for this or organization to have that type of requirement and they have some Provisions that would have access for the community to utilize the the facility Well when I talked to them they said that there are scholarships but I'm saying more than scholarships and actually programming for General programming for individuals income income what I want we going to move on thank you call a question okay um um Miss Mayfield she had additional okay coms that's yeah yeah that's what I was asking okay no additional com Miss Miss Mayfield you know what no go right ahead all right any other comments Mr Graham uh thank you I look forward to supporting it I toward the facility the renovations are are coming along greatly have you hadn't seen it yet it's amazing it also Begins the theorization of the north trial Street Corridor going the other way with the expansion of the new library Etc and so there'll be a lot of activities happening on North Trion Street for the next year two or three but certainly um supporting the conclusion of this construction will s a good sign that growth and development is approaching North fron Street and this is a really Flagship project so I look forward to a performance real soon all right I think I see nodding his thank you um so we have a motion on the floor for authorizing the manager to negotiate the agreement and authorizing him to execute the amendment for the $2 million and adopt the budget ordinance for $2 million all in favor please raise your hand anyone opposed all right that carries you then thank you very much okay the next item is item 15 um Rocky to approve a 5-year reimbursable agreement with um 19300 Sheer Road realy for construction of a portion of the Rocky River sanitary trunk sewer project and adopt a budget ordinance for 2.7 million from the 19300 shear road realy to the Charlotte water capital projects fund do I have a motion so move second do we and we have a motion and a second um any discussion hearing none all in favor please raise your hands anyone opposed okay the next item is item to adopt a resolution supporting a Safety project on East WT Harris Boulevard at Delta Crossing Lane to improve traffic safety and support of the Strategic Mobility plan um is there a motion to adopt and approve we have a motion to adopt and approve and second is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please raise your hands anyone oppose no it's real good um item 17 adopt a resolution authorizing the manager to execute a municipal agreement with the ncdot in the amount of 86,500 and adopt a budget ordinance appropriating that money for in the general capital projects fund for intersection improvements at Sunset and mil Haven do I have a motion move thank and second any discussion hearing none all in favor please raise your hand the next item is Adopt a resolution authorizing the manager to execute a municipal agreement with ncdot for $45,000 and appropriate that 45,000 from the ncdot for General capital projects fund for intersection improvements at mberry church and Queen City Drive move second all right thank you very much um I believe that that we had our closed session early all in favor of adjournment yes we no uhuh we want to stay we got to vote on the one you just uh V on the last it I'm sorry we didn't vote on that last item of mberry I am so sorry mberry Church Road and Queen City Drive I thought we did do the 45 we do raise your hand please if you approve A and B under all in favor please raise your hand okay all right anybody opposed all right so may I do have a question for the manager for the next upcoming manager's report it will be helpful if we can get a snapshot of South End along the lightwe where we did make Investments previously in order to see what does that area look like today along the light rail we have already had a conversation regarding Light Rail Fair versus bus Fair who has access to light rail versus who is stopped in the process of getting onto the bus paying a fee but it would just be nice to get an update of what our area is looking like as the rail is continuing to be expanded up South Boulevard going out towards westing house just to see to impact word what has been the impact of tood for Community alone Li thank you will that go to committee or um follow I want update manager right do we have we have a motion to adjourn all in favor [Music] yeah [Music]