[Music] n [Music] the e [Music] n [Music] la e [Music] n e [Music] n [Music] n [Music] good to go all right good morning and welcome to this February 3rd excuse me meeting of the Transportation Planning and Development Committee of the Charlotte City city council we'll start off as usual with introductions beginning in the far Corner Aon office of sustainability and resilience office of sustainability and resilience Tim por Robert robers with the office of sustainability and Sarah Hazel with the office of sustain ility and resilience malol G Committee Member Ed dggs committee chair Liz Babson City manager's office Yolanda Jones planning staff drone charlot business inclusion and online who do we have Victoria watlington Committee Member there goes Mr wi I truly enjoy with ey supporting the office of sustainability and res resilience today thank you great and we have an alumnus good morning so we have uh two items today the uh strategic energy Action Plan update and a United development ordinance text Amendment update and I think without further Ado I'll hand over to miss Hazel thank you very much chair um Sarah Hazel again office of sustainability and resilience so today what we're going to do is cover uh one of kind of two parts of our strategic energy Action Plan update before I do that I just want to acknowledge that um the work of updating our strategic energy action plan is beyond the office of sustainability and resilience U of which uh we have many people here today we have a technical advisory committee um we have an ambassador's group we have a group of City staff that span across departments that have been focusing on this work since we kicked it off um late this summer and so um as we go through this work it's really been a huge team effort and so uh today um Dr Robin buers who is the project manager of the Strategic energy action plan we'll walk through many pieces of this Julian Joy who is from E and is our consultant um we'll talk about some of the technical aspects and I'm going to spend some time on the goals and so um without further Ado um what we're going to talk about today is three things we're going to update you on our climate risk assessment our updated greenhouse gas emissions inventory and then our proposed revised goals so what we're really looking for is any questions that you have any feedback that you have that we can incorporate into the first draft and then just to sort of preview next meeting we're going to want to spend a little bit of time talking a little bit more about our engagement and what we heard and we're also um going to share more about some of what is new as well as what we're building on from our previous strategic energy action plan so basically what are those actions that get us to the goals that we're going to talk about today um and so uh that is the plan for today but with I think I'd be um remiss if I didn't just note that this is not a new plan um we're building on the success of the last five years and the work that city council um and staff have done to to Really set ourselves apart as a leader in this space um when we jumped into this work in 2020 the American Council for energy efficient economy scored us a 68th of some of the largest cities and then um just most recently in 2024 we we are in the top 25 so that's just one example of how this work has really um set us uh on a really great trajectory we have much much more work to do and that's why we're here today but I did want to uh highlight just a few things a couple other things here our our Fleet um was named six greenest Fleet um and we also received a local government impact award from the Research Triangle clean cluster specifically on your um revision this year to the sustainable facilities policy so um with with that said uh I am going to hand it over to Dr Robin buers thank you so we're going to get a little bit more technical about our climate risk assessment but I just want to to start off by talking about why we're doing this and the impact that this has why we're adding this in and so our planet is on track to hit at least uh 2 Dees cus of warming by about 2050 and that has led to a lot of climate uncertainty um that also has been the impetus for why we track greenhouse gas emissions and so we really wanted to make that direct Connection in this update why we're doing this work um anything we do that impacts the climate is also going impact our overall greenhouse gas emissions which has been the city's overall goals um since 2018 and there is a financial impact as well as there's a global shift toward preparing for climate risks um if we St keep up with it then we'll be in a good place to accept the emerging job sectors and and stay in the lead for that as opposed to falling behind in addition this revision and adding in the climate risk assessment is going to help us to really further connect um and align with our other plans such as our tree canopy action plan our strategic Mobility plan our Charlotte future 2040 plan um and others that come up as well and then the community piece it really allows us to respond to our community climate risks have far-reaching effects including Health additional costs quality of life um could affect our infrastructure our economic growth and our stability um and you'll hear about this a little bit more too but we also heard through our engagement especially through a survey we had that a lot of residents in Charlotte are concerned about climate risks and so with that I'm going to turn it over to Julie and joy to get a little bit more in depth about our climate risk assessment great thank you Robin and can everybody hear me okay yes okay perfect so as Robin noted one of the new things for this CF update is the climate risk assessment and to conduct the assessment we followed guidance from CDP that's the carbon disclosure project the uh gcom the global Conference of Mayors and C40 cities so we followed leading guidance in terms of our process which began with identifying and choosing the most relevant climate risks we did so through looking at what are some comparable peer cities talking about in terms of their climate risks as well as thinking about what are some of the most relevant risk based on climate data historic and projected for the city of Charlotte for those climate risks themselves we think about them in a couple different ways some of the risks can be either categorized as physical or transition risks and physical risks can be um either chronic or acute risks when we think about acute risks or shocks these are things like wild fires or severe thunderstorms things that are one-time events that may be expected to increase in frequency or increase in sity thinking about chronic risks these are long-term stressors these could be things like um extreme heat or average heat so if um over time we expect to see the average level of something increasing when we think about transition risks this is something that's a little bit um less uh less obvious compared to the physical risks but transition risk could include things like if the uh if the world generally actually achieves uh its goals of um a low carbon or more sustainable economy are there risk to Charlotte across that process so for example are there as Robin mentioned perhaps economic risks or risk to things like Transportation if the world shifts in a specific Direction and could that impact Charlotte in order to examine these risks we looked at different future scenarios so we took two what we call bookend scenarios one of them is a low carbon economy and one of them is a high carbon economy and these are scenarios that are projected out to 2100 and they are um derived really from climate science so in the low carbon low carbon scenario we have emissions are largely mitigated to around 1.5 to 2° C or U 3 to about 3 to 5 de cus warming by 2100 whereas in a high carbon scenario that um that warming is is a fair bit higher so up to about um 8 degrees fah by 2100 and these are intended to provide different lenses through which to examine the different types of risks broadly speaking in a high carbon scenario we would expect to see physical risks um have a much more serious effect but when we think about a low carbon scenario that provides a useful lens through which to analyze transition risks so all of the physical and transition risks including the acute and chronic risks were then analyzed through these two bookend scenarios of a low carbon and a high carbon future and then they were assessed for um specific impact on Charlotte and when we think about impact there's um there's not just uh it's not just will the climate risk get uh better or worse over time there's also elements of exposure so um thinking about what are some of the the past exposure the future exposure vulnerability um what measures have already been put in place what measures could be put in place and things like um uh are there uh different populations or different um different types of uh geographical areas that may be impacted differently from the different types of risk that we're discussing all of that funnels into um assessing these climate risks for the city of Charlotte and then finally we validated some of this uh some of this research by including it in the public survey that Dar had mentioned previously in the public survey we saw that the risk of highest concern to Residents was extreme heat and increasing um severity of uh severe thunderstorms so one of them is a chronic risk extreme heat and the other is an acute risk the severe thunderstorms both of these were rated as the highest uh concern to Residents as well as the climate risk that we're seeing the most increased frequency over time and then all of these were meant to um meant to be validated by the public survey to provide a lens into connect ing some of the actions in the CF into the lived experiences of the residents to make it uh a a plan that's representative of what people are uh what people are experiencing and what people are concerned about and that's a just quick overview of the climate risk assessment process what were the inputs into it what were some of the outputs and the research that we looked at and I think with that said I'll pass it back to Robin thank you Julian so again we also then now want to set up the greenhouse gas emissions inventory update um so we had our first emissions inventory in 2015 we had an update for 2019 and now we have an update with 2023 data and so again the why is we're still on that track to hit that 2° celus warming and so we really want to track our greenhouse gas emissions to see how we're affecting that um the impact when we measure as you guys know I I know Council talks about metrics all the time if we don't have metrics and we can't measure something then we don't know the impact we're actually having um so this allows us to make sure that we're focusing on the strategies and actions that are actually impacting us in a positive way um the financial impact with that cities with strong sustainability practices such as tracking greenhouse gas emissions actually benefit from increased competitiveness in terms of Emerging Markets as well as companies that prioritize sustainability will'll View Charlotte in a more positive um lens um again connections we have the same connections with strategic Mobility plan Charlotte future 2040 um because our largest greenhouse gas emitting sectors are still on road Transportation um and then how we power our residential and our commercial buildings and then lastly with our community tracking the greenhouse gas emissions allows to have um a broader Community context um and we can all identify and prioritize actions across the community not just for the municipal government um and that will lead to more collaborative and effective Solutions in the long run and with that I'm going to turn it back to Julian to go through our updated emissions inventory Rob as with the climate risk assessment we followed standard leading guidance from the uh the GPC the global protocol for Community scale greenhouse gas inventories and for the GPC we looked at um emissions from stationary energy transportation and waste stationary energy includes broadly uh natural gas for heating as well as electricity in buildings Transportation the vast majority is from onroad Transportation but it also can include uh Rail and uh Aviation emissions from city-owned vehicles and then waste includes both uh Municipal solid waste and Wastewater those categories are mapped here to Charlotte specific reporting categories across government commercial industry and residential buildings transportation and then waste one of the things that we were able to do for the 2023 inventory is collect um a lot of local Charlotte specific high quality data and so we were quite happy that all of calculations that we did Trace back to specific data that is relevant and applicable to and from the city of Charlotte and so looking at um the 2023 inventory we see the largest um single category is from transportation and that's similar to previous years and that's as expected and then the remainder are across buildings and those are stationary energy in different types of buildings from natural gas and electricity one thing to note is that some of uh some of the decrease that we're seeing is ATT uh attributable to the updated more local data and methodologies that we use for the 2023 inventory where possible we did try to um retroactively backcast that to the 2015 and 2019 inventories and so 2015 and 2019 will look a little bit different from when it was previously reported because we included things like commercial waste and additional wastewater treatment plants that have been excluded previously beyond that there are other reasons for the decrease for example we're seeing a um cleaner electric grid is from Duke Energy bringing more um more lower carbon emissions uh electricity generation resources to the grid as they retire some things like older coal plants additionally things like Energy Efficiency and initiatives like power down the crown will reduce the emissions from all of those building sectors across natural gas and electricity and since 2019 we're seeing we're starting to see more electric vehicles more hybrid vehicles and then among internal combustion engines more efficient vehicles there as well all of those are combining to um help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions um from 2015 through 2023 I think with that said I'll pass it back to Rob okay so now we're going to turn to goals but um let me ask you chair if you do you want me to keep going so we start going through goals or did you want me to pause on anything because we just got through a good chunk of technical information I wanted to make sure um we you know you wanted me to keep keep rolling um I don't see any hands up uh want to note the vice chair has joined us miss Molina good morning and uh no I think you should keep going all right let's do roll here all right so um now we're getting into the even more exciting stuff so um based on what you just saw now we're going to talk a little bit about our um proposed revised strategic energy action plan goals so just to level set if you recall back in 2018 city council adopted these two goals um so you had a CommunityWide gold really meant um for the entire Community not just the municipality to become a low carbon City by 20150 and then the municipal goal to strive to Source 100% of our energy use and buildings some fleet from zero carbon sources by 2030 and so that and those goals along with the plan um have really built the momentum that we've seen over the past couple years um but now what we want to do is ask a quick question about that it's we're striving to achieve the goal of two does that compare with 8.7 on the previous slide or or I'm not sure what that uh you know the the slide with the bar graphs and you have a decline from 13.6 to 8.7 so is two that same metric it is so that the goal was by 2050 to get to two times so you want to get down by 75% or more yes so that was so those are the adopted goals in the current C app that's right um so now now uh we're going to look at how we've updated those goals to bring it in alignment with the current science um and strengthened and added some pieces to um continue to to move forward in our community and again CommunityWide goals are certainly something that we have influence over um but they are not ours Alone um it will take a a whole all of society approach to to really achieve these goals and so that that we recognize and also um recognize how important it is that we we set those goals so now I'm going to have Julian just talk about some of some of the methodology and thinking behind the goals and then I'll walk through um the rest of the goals thank you Sarah and in order to come up with uh and develop these updated goals we again we followed leading guidance this is from again the CDP and the global Conference of Mayors within that we use What's called the wwf's one planet city challenge this is a methodology that um 900 cities in over 70 countries have used to calculate their CommunityWide science-based uh science-based Target and as uh as Sarah mentioned this is meant to apply to broadly speaking the city of Charlotte as a whole so something that um is a whole of um whole of society goal that covers the community and in order for it to be science-based there are three different considerations the first is alignment with global goal to limit warming to 1.5° C that is um in line if we were to revert back to the climate risk assessment with what we call the low carbon economy scenario in order to achieve that goal broadly speaking the global Community will need to rce emissions by about 50% by 2030 and Achieve Net Zero by 2050 so the first consideration is alignment with a global trajectory meant to keep global warming within a range that's considered broadly speaking less risky overall to society the second component is that the goal should be Equitable and in this context that means taking into account the historical cont contributions of the jurisdiction or the region that's setting the goal as an example some places across the globe so small island developing States for example have very little contribution to global warming so they would be expected to set a less ambitious Target whereas um a city like Charlotte somebody uh a city in a highly developed um higher socioeconomic developed country with a long history of contribution of carbon emissions to the global uh the the global scenario would expected to be taking a um larger fair share approach towards that goal and then finally the goal should be complete meaning it includes emissions from all key sources so it can't be just Transportation it can't be Just Energy in this case it should cover all of those sources that we discussed in the greenhouse gas inventory which is to say stationary Energy natural gas electricity transportation and waste finally one last consideration was we thought about alignment with a broad variety of um of other relevant entities so we looked at pure cities we looked at Duke Energy's goal given the outsized role that they play with in terms of um electricity for the city of Charlotte we looked at um broader Regional goals like North Carolina and the US and the broader Charlotte business community and the goal here was to say that the uh that Charlotte's proposed science-based Target would be broadly in line with a large a wide variety of stakeholders so that it's not an outlier either more or less ambitious but it's in line with um in line with a broader group of stakeholders so these were the key considerations that went into the process of developing the goal itself I'll pass it back to Sarah to discuss the goal let me jump in again uh so when I read this slide it looks like a definition of what is needed um and when I see something like reach Net Zero by 2050 globally so are we also looking at what is likely or possible uh based on the the our ability to observe the future Technologies based on Trends in the world based on the degree of Engagement by certain large economies uh is it practical to suggest that that uh this is an attainable Target so um I'll let Julian answer that question uh but my my first I'll go to this next slide real quick just to show you kind of the trajectory that that we're on as a city so this is really meant for us as a city here in North Carolina in the US to be positioned As Leaders um and to to do what is uh our fair share of effort to making a difference in This Global issue um whether globally uh we get there is obviously a much more complex question but what we can do as a city because we know cities contribute the L the largest emissions globally uh is continued to to set these ambitious goals so I don't know if you have anything to add juling in terms of will can we and will we globally get there um we are setting goals that are on a trajectory that there's some certainly some unknowns around technology and what will need to happen but um we've seen a lot of progress over the last several years and so we're we're setting it on both what needs to happen and what we think we as a city can do in order to um continue to lead in this space Julian would you add anything yeah thanks and just as a quick note as a 2050 as a long-term goal there are ele El where there's a clear path forward and there's elements where there's technology that does exist but it needs to be scaled or it needs to be made available to a wide variety of people so to give you a couple examples with electricity which is a major sector for Charlotte's emissions Duke Energy's goal is also Net Zero by 2050 so with this with the electricity sector there's a path forward it seems to be achievable and it's aligned with broader goals similarly with Transportation then you kind of go into a realm of we have technology whether it's electrification of light duty vehicles or whether it's alternative fuel vehicles like hydrogen or renewable natural gas um there are technologies that can get us to Net Zero the question is one among scaling and adoption similarly with um other stationary energy like natural gas the question is we do have electrification Technologies um part of this is a question of adoption and a question of scaling so in terms of getting to 2050 there's a variety of um of elements where we have degrees of confidence some of them are very clear some of them the technology is there but needs but needs a boost um and so one of the reasons we're thinking about 2050 as the target is that it can help structure um it can help really provide impetus for achieving the goals where there's a clear path forward and then it helps spur Innovation and um thinking about how to break down barriers for some of the other strategies where the technology might exist but there are challenges along the way so that's um just a quick a quick overview on um I think whether or not it's achievable or not so uh I'm not questioning what we're doing I appreciate what we're doing and I do think that we uh need to set an example demonstrate Our concern uh and also be recognized by as a city that is at The Cutting Edge uh in these initiatives it's just to me it's a little bit like the tree canopy conversation um I want to make sure that we don't look like we're out of touch by uh pointing to these aspirational goals that a lot of people might think are not attainable and I'll mention in particular when you're talking Global the uh doing everything you need to do to get to that goal costs money and there are economies and societies that aren't prepared to do that in fact instead what they have done is take advantage of the fact that we're making these Investments and they can offer lower cost Goods by not doing so so I'm just thinking in Practical terms about what's going on in the world um not to say that we shouldn't do what we're doing but just to say that um we need to be clearheaded when we talk about uh what's going on like aware for example a lot of what happens to Charlotte's climate is not going to be affected by us and what is the extent to which forces that we don't control whether it's within Charlotte or uh in the country uh are are going to Define what we can accomplish so uh U carry on I'm just pointing out when I see that um I can hear voices saying oh yeah you know Zero by 2050 Dream On and uh you know uh I I think we can afford to be clearheaded um recognize the challenges that are outside of our control and still do what we're doing and benefit from that thank you thank you can I just add one quick comment um when we're looking at our strategies and actions which we'll talk about next month a lot of those strategies and actions will help save residents money as we're improving um so we're looking at how we can balance that as we continue okay so um our revised goal is that Charlotte will reduce CommunityWide greenhouse gas emissions 72% by 2035 to 3.56 co2e per capita and reach Net Zero by 2050 so what you'll notice is there's two changes um you pointed out this is a net zero Go goal now versus two tons of co2e by 2050 which is what we need to do to curb um the the change of climate and then we're setting an interm Target and so this interm target um I think is really exciting because it allows us to really track our progress toward towards that 2050 goal and gives us um another uh Benchmark really to shoot for on that trajectory so that we can make sure that we're constantly reassessing um and and uh moving in the direction that we're seeking to move one other new piece of our CommunityWide goals is a community renewable energy goal so this goal really feeds into the goal that we just talked about um if you take a look at the graph here what you'll see is that there has been um a pretty significant uptick in terms of installed uh solar panel solar PV capacity um especially over the last several years and so um what we did with the support of eui um and our technical Partners as we looked at um what would be a kind of business as usual uptick that we could uh imagine would occur in the city of Charlotte with the local data that we have and um and then we thought okay given that we need to set a a Target that is both achievable but ambitious um understanding that we have some lovers um that we can use to help support more solar and more renewable energy in our community um right now we have our Energy Efficiency block grant that we intend to use towards low and moderate income solar program that will'll launch in the spring um we've done some research on peer cities and so all of that um takes us to a new aspirational goal so as you can see here um it's a goal for distributed renewable energy that will be installed by 2035 right in alignment with that midterm Target um we're still evaluating where that goal is going to land but right now we have between 600 megawatts which would be doubling the business case as usual to a th000 megawatts or a gwatt um thank you uh which would be um more ious and so over the course of the next couple weeks we're going to have a few more stakeholder conversations um to really better evaluate that goal and make sure that it is both uh focused on really propelling us forward but is within um within a a real shot of hitting and that's really kind of The Sweet Spot of what we want to do here um and so this is new uh this is also a best best practice um in order to achieve an A on our car carbon disclosure um there really is an expectation that City are working within their communities to set these types of goals and so we're excited to bring this forward as a new piece of the Strategic energy action plan this year so I don't mean to Heckle but um at the end of the day it could come down to our willingness to commit so we have Federal resources for example and is the city prepared to make investments by offering incentives for example in order to help us achieve that goal that's the tough question MH so to think that we can rely entirely on in order for us to achieve these goals maybe we also need to provide a little bit of a push yeah to get them to the point where they'll do it and u i I've appreciated so far that we haven't tried to mobilize huge amounts of money to try and get other people to do what we want but uh I do think as a matter of policy we should look critically at whether we're trying to accomplish all of this just by suasion or uh whether we are prepared to leverage a little bit the Investments that private people are willing to make in order to get them to a point where they'll change because creating the kind of building certifications that we would like to see and using the energy sources we would like uh we've seen in our solar energy program that there are some economics around it um and I think that our ability to achieve these goals will depend on our willingness to offer some real incentives as we do for example in our planning process yes for housing and um that's a that's a great point and so the I think one of the things that we're um enthusiastic about with this updated strategic energy action plan is also looking at some of the alignments alignments between things like housing and some of these pieces so um where do we have levers um where we're putting funds in and can we use those levers uh and look at it as like an integrated process much like um we saw in some of the You Know Places globally where you have affordable housing and it also has solar has you know shared Mobility spaces how can we sort of not only think about what we're going to put in but look at where we're already putting in and figure out how we can do that in a way that sort of uh leverages work that we're already doing um our our solar program that we're um going to be standing up this spring early summer it also has uh basically just brings down the rate of solar market rate by doing like you know economy of scale right so it's group purchasing it brings down the rate of solar so there's a lot of different tools and we're really um looking to to leverage a lot of those tools in this updated CF um so thank you for that that comment yeah thank you so now we'll move to Municipal goals so this is really what we as a municipality as positioned as a leader in our organization are seeking to do so now we'll start with our Municipal facilities goal so our revised aspirational goal is that the city will Source 100% of its electricity use and municipal buildings from zero carbon sources by 2030 and reach net zero emissions in municipal buildings by 2050 so you'll notice a couple things we are aligning Net Zero with that 2050 goal um We are continuing to strive towards 2030 um there's been a lot of progress in this particular space because of the investment and when it comes to um partnering with Duke Energy in the green Source Advantage program and so we want to stay on this trajectory which we are not there yet um to get to 2030 um we are no longer saying uh we looking at electricity use instead of zeroc carbon sources for also a couple reasons the science is um more clean to offset electricity with clean electricity um and it's also acknowledging that while we have a sustainable facilities policy which won a local impact award this year um that sets a path for no new natural gas in any new city buildings um and also um puts in place a strategy to evaluate existing buildings that we will have some need for things like backup Generation Um to for resiliency purposes and there may be some buildings where um being able to transition out of natural gas is truly um not beneficial or cost prohibitive in the very near term and so this is a recognition of how far we've come but also really taking a closer look um after working on this for five years about um you know what we can do and how we can continue to to really be ambitious um but also you know take into um acknowledgement where you know where we are today did you uh you have these boxes with your revised goal can you tell us what the old goal was and what the changes sure um so the initial goal was to power our Fleet and our buildings to strive to power our Fleet and our buildings by zero carbon sources by 2030 and so now it's to Source 100% of electricity use in municipal buildings from zero carbon sources by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050 so again the difference uh uh are we stepping up or are we backing off a little bit by doing it this way so we're being more specific around electricity instead of instead of all sources to just be more in alignment with science but we're sticking with the 2030 time Horizon um versus pushing it out to 2035 okay thank you [Applause] so the second piece so I'm breaking this up into two um just as a reminder so was to power our Fleet by zero carbon sources by 2030 is to reach net zero emissions in our light duty Fleet by 2035 and our entire fleet by 2050 so what are the considerations behind this um We are continuing to make strides towards electrification of our vehicles right now we have over 200 e um of all categories and sizes but what we know right now is that in the light duty space this is where we have the biggest opportunity um to move ourselves forward back in 2018 um again not fully understanding where technology would be we know that um with some of our heavier D Duty Fleet there are not electric technology that is available for the work that we need to do today however um what we will do is know that we will continue to reduce usage of of uh of those fuels that are not electric in the sustainable and resilient Fleet policy which mandates that we are evaluating when we're replacing our vehicles for the technology that has the lowest emissions and it also talks here about net zero emissions because it allows for thinking about some of the other types of fuels and fuel diversification that helps with resiliency like renewable propane um which then makes this a bit more achievable um but also moves Us in the direction that we need to go and so this is um this is a a revised sort of more practical goal which still propels us forward but keeping our 2030 goal as it was um is getting to the point where that's not actually something that is um within the realm of possibilities and so to keep that goal um doesn't really move us forward faster but to keep but to reset a new aspirational goal um will keep us moving in the right direction okay actually uh Mr Dr stepped away but he'll um he'll be right back actually we could keep going okay yep so um we're going to uh wrap it up now with next steps and I'll um turn it over to Dr buers to take us home so we've come to you guys twice before and and this is the same graphic that we've used the whole time um we started our project we have a ton of Engagement that we've been working on and it's been really solid um comments that we've gotten back that we've been allow uh been able to use and kind of guide where we're going um as Sarah said we have a technical advisory committee um full of experts that are external to the city that have been helping us with this as well as um we have an ambassadors group to help get the news out and spread it around and so um those are folks that maybe aren't experts but have been a part of this are really passionate about this project um that group has actually grown quite a bit this past um year but more specifically in the past 6 months um we've gotten great feedback from them and so we've been doing that engagement at the same time that we've been doing that technical kind of look at our assessments and so bringing those together um we've been doing that in the recent month um we're wrapping up the engagement now we're finalizing our drafts and we'll be ready to continue um coming back for this on a trajectory to get adoption by April just so you guys know where we are we are coming back next month like I said and Sarah said before we're going to be talking about um the actions and strategies specifically um and keep going so in March we're going to share our updated Focus areas we have four we're going to review the strategies and actions um and we're going to highlight connections that we have to different priorities that we've heard either from Council from our technical advisory committee from the public specifically climate justice has risen to the top and then in April we'll review the complete seap update with you guys um and larger Council and go through the adoption process all right um any questions any questions online still looking for Mr Drees I can't believe he stepped away long enough for me to be able to say more than three words y'all know he run a tight ship I love you Mr DRS um I'm just waiting for you to come back uh he's back hey you got it you got it yes why don't you take it from here on no no you you got it I'm I'm a great wing lady and I like my wing lady position okay yeah I will add real quick um in the packet that you guys have there's additional context um with all of the pure City information and that's it that's it so uh I think what we what we talked about was um I appreciate the compact presentation and uh a lot of this material is really pretty dry and uh it's technical so let us from a policy standpoint keep sight of a big picture and the big picture is that we have this commitment and that we are advancing on several fronts um that we are prepared to make certain Investments but we're going to be accountable in terms of how we invest and we have been I think what we've done so far um and and we've established those targets we're going to be accountable also in terms of our progress towards those targets and and answer to the the comparisons that we make between where we are and where where we go in the future so I think this is a big strength for Charlotte uh I appreciate the work that you're doing um I mentioned when we talked before uh the bus fleet is something that we have worked on in particular being a pretty major contributor and uh do you have a handle or should we talk to cats about how how we're doing with that so right now cats has uh I believe is on the trajectory in the next couple months to have something like 30 35 in their Fleet and similarly uh our airport is on a on a pretty strong trajectory to Electrify their entire bus fleet and so um that has been I think a strength for sure because again that's not light duty um and we we've seen some significant progress there and I think the the fate of our uh the sales tax referendum uh this year could have affect uh cats's ability to to move ahead uh it's interesting looking back over the time that I've been in office the conversation about these hybrid buses and then the electric buses and the technology has been evolving so for a while the electric buses didn't have battery capacity for some of our routs and we couldn't Rush ahead and order electric buses and then cats had to spend time testing them uh everybody thought buy the buses put them in service in fact there's an infrastructure there and there was research they needed to do on the dependability on heat generation and things like that so uh that's just one thing but um I think uh we are in a good place and we have good people and appreciate that thank you very much thank you we look forward to coming back with a less dry presentation next next time we it wasn't dry okay Mr Dr was like uh yeah yeah yeah Mr Winston um any contributions You' care to make question you have questions you can ask them later yeah all right so item two on our agenda is the Udo text Amendment update and uh I will just say in general we are in in an ongoing process to F tunee the Udo uh as we said we were going to and Mr Graham likes to refer to living document it is a living document and so this will talk about uh some of those text amendments and I believe also refer to uh things we're doing as a result of Senate Bill 382 is that right correct okay so why don't you guys go ahead who am I handing off to initially Miss Holmes yep uh good morning hope you guys are doing well so Dave will lead a presentation this morning just as you mentioned kind of giving the overview of where we are with s SP 382 and also our text Amendment schedule for the spring and some of the highlights of that uh I just want to say in parallel we're really ramping up for an exciting spring of um area planning work and I know you've seen a lot of that and so uh while they are busy in drafting mode and getting engagement and kind of putting the final touches on those drafts that'll be released least in March uh we want to go ahead and showcase some of the other work that's happening in parallel around the Udo and S SP 382 so we'll be happy to take questions um as soon as Dave gets through these slides great thank you uh yeah just a quick overview of what we'll talk about here in this presentation just a refresher on uh Senate Bill 382 some updates on our text Amendment approach and schedules next steps and then some of the things that'll be coming in future text amendments so again back in December on the 11th we had the sp sp 382 adopted uh and that referred to down zoning and really limited the city's uh and couny abilities to uh initiate zoning changes including text amendments that uh resulted in a down zoning and also added a new category which includes the non-conforming uh language that's there in item number three uh this again is just something we talked about a little bit uh earlier in January just quick overview of it again no local government can initiate a down zoning without consent of property owner that's includes decreasing density reducing permitted uses and also creating that non-conformity which is a new new component of that uh legislation uh uh just some minor delays to make sure we've got everything we need in order uh and is aligned with anything that came out of that 3 anything that came out of that 382 Bill uh neighborhood character and residential infill overlays those have been put on hold uh we're still trying to wave through the different challenges that may result in uh enacting some of those overlays so those are on hold for now while we continue to seek some guidance um adding some allowed uses in certain Udo districts delayed just for additional evaluation uh refining triplexes such as where we would allow them uh throughout the N1 and N2 districts uh that's on hold because again that could result in decreasing density or uh creating nonon formity so we have to decreasing density or uh creating non-conformity so we have to put that on hold for now until we learn a little bit more alignment resoning is delayed uh just for some additional evaluation we do have to rethink the approach a little bit on how we might uh tackle some of those property consent situations but I do feel like there is a path it's just something we need to continue to work through and find some solutions to and as we mentioned back in January General resoning petitions not impacted At All by this legislation because those are uh consented by the property owners involved so the updated text Amendment schedule uh you know again we've got some the text amendments that are pending 2024 1221 will come back to Council in uh February uh we should have everything in order for that to be uh adopted uh in February at the zoning meeting on the 17th uh continue to review those text amendments from January 11th on to make sure that uh we don't have any significant conflicts with s sp38 to and where we do potentially see some of that ensure that we've got our reviewers and everybody that's working on those projects uh to understand how to be compliant with uh current state law and that would impact the cleanup third cleanup we did as well as a compact residential development uh that we passed back uh again between that June 11th and December 11th uh retroactive date so uh is that it in terms of s SP 382 for that yeah that particular topic we'll get into some of the updated potential text amendments going forward from here before you move on from then there um I just wanted to say uh I think it's hard for members of the public and people who aren't deep into this subject to really kind of get a handle on what this does um when it says down zoning you can't go to a lower density as you noted in rezoning it's not usually a problem because the requirement that the owner consent is presumed to be met uh but but from this table you can tell that the implications uh actually extend much further and they have to do with making rules that down Zone that effectively down Zone by taking whatever policy you had before and changing it in such a way that less density is possible under your new policies and it's retroactive for 6 months so we need to look at things we already did and find out whether they have to be fixed the the question in my mind is whether uh I heard that a Bill had been filed that would actually modify this I don't know what the status of that is I don't know if you know what the status of that is don't know the the full status there were a couple bills filed last week several that had to do directly with counties primarily on the eastern part of the State uh some that had to do with some counties locally I think Alam Marl and Stanley County were a couple that were mentioned but then there was also just a a general House Bill filed hb24 and that just looked to reinstate cities and County's ability to initiate down zoning and it seems like that would apply Statewide don't know when they might be taken up for conversation or consideration but there were a flurry of those filed uh last week cuz we could end up with a bumpy ride here where we're conforming and then they resend it we have to conform back again yeah I think if if they rescinded and we had to conform back that's probably the easier route because that would just allow things to open back up yeah so that's also something we'll monitor CU we don't want to make changes and then have to you know undo do those or make additional changes so we'll see what the status of those as they progress forward if it looks like they're not going to be taken up or considered in any you know efficient amount of time then we'll continue to move forward thinking that this is going to be in place for a bit uh but we'll just have to work with our uh legislative folks and understand what the timing of it may be yeah and to clarify the cleanup too as Dave was saying does not have basically things came out per se that were considered down zoning so if if the bill were to to be different then we haven't actually changed the rules per se we've just not put everything in that was in Prior does that make sense so we could still bring It Forward we could put it back yes yeah right I get that so it's I you know I heard that the this language was added in a rather pasty fashion uh it was a surprise to everybody in response to I think a local issue from what I understand um so uh have we considered writing some sort of Amicus brief or uh I mean we have the resources that no one else in the state has frankly from the urban planning standpoint uh are we participating in engagement with the legislature um I mean we have been working through our attorney's office uh and kind of the perspective around that and then just talking within our Network I think we we uh have had some we've been interested to see what happens in and what is going to happen quickly in the legislative session so we've made ourselves very available to provide information and feedback and further input as as necessary and and really also trying to walk a line of um you know staying a little bit out of the real of politics to see obviously it impacts everyone across the state so uh Dave's attended almost every lunch and learn virtual kind of information session we really spent the month of December January trying to understand exactly what all it meant now that they're back in session and we're starting to see things happen we're happy to kind of pull that together in a memo uh you should have received something as well yeah so we have access to a lot of people up there especially lately with our uh Transportation initiative and a suggestion only is if we actually had you know a memo that spelled out you know why this has unintended consequences or maybe made a recommendation as to how to address the issue they were trying to address and not do so much damage in the process um there are a couple of different ways we could deliver that message to leadership and to others in the legislature um we don't want to in any way impair our progress on the transportation front but I don't think they would uh object to a thoughtful analysis and advice that we might be able to provide so I just put that out there as a possibility we can we can work to get that for you uh and if you have something can I see it before we deliver it okay thanks okay next all right so as we get into spring we do anticipate filing some upcoming text amendments uh just some of the items that you'll see in these we've you know recognized that you know again as we work through projects and hear from different folks putting projects together under the Udo that some challenges do come up that uh you know when you put documents like this together you don't think through every scenario but multiple front is uh is a a scenario where we've encountered some challenges and issues with folks doing projects where you've got a a site that has you know two or three or even four frontages at times uh on different roads and different Road classifications it really hinders an ability for a project to determine where their back of house operations are going to be where their loading uh areas may be dumpster areas uh even design guidelines that apply to sides of buildings versus front of buildings uh all of those come into some question or challenge when you're dealing with a site that's got two and three frontages uh for development so we do anticipate bringing some changes forward to clarify uh how to deal with those situations and get some input or have gotten some input from folks that have worked on those projects and understand those challenges in good detail uh so we do anticipate again having some filings in the spring that would address issues like this uh and make it a little bit more clear to understand when you're doing a project with multiple Street frontages how you treat those frontages and and where you can put some of your uh operations for that site next item that we'll have in the spring as well is uh increasing some of the additional research uh uses in our campus districts uh a lot of this has to do with uh life science centers uh that was something that was discussed back at I believe the Ed uh committee uh last January or you last month in January uh life science projects uh have a a range of different uses that go from light manufacturing to office to retail to live work components uh and you know one of the challenges of our Udo is we're we're equipped to accommodate all those in some different ways but not in a comprehensive holistic way so we're trying to come up with some scenarios and solutions that could better facilitate life science outcomes uh it is a a great tool for our uh Economic Development folks to have at they're ready uh to attract these types of uses so we hope to have some uh solutions to that to uh share with you'all in the spring as well uh we'll also continue to work uh with our faith-based housing initiatives uh to try to get some of those uh allowances for projects that involve perhaps building residential on a property that uh has some Faith uh faith-based initiatives on it to move forward we are working again with our partners in housing and Neighborhood Services and some key stakeholders that uh are really familiar with these types of projects to understand what we can put in place to again have some tools to allow those to happen happen uh hopefully in a buy right type scenario that wouldn't require the time and cost of resoning uh you know within some parameters of course so uh that's something we're going to work through and then office conversions to residential again that would allow uh existing offices to uh hopefully transform if they're able to through building codes and and building permits to uh transform some of those vacant spaces perhaps into residential space uh and then continue to refine our Adu or accessory dwelling unit ordinances to allow those to uh be a little bit more clear and hopefully facilitate uh more of those types of projects moving forward uh so we had our uh Udo advisory committee meeting uh just a few days after tpd last month uh we did talk about some of these initiatives and some of these potential changes considering uh the faith-based housing option a general consensus from folks on UAC was that this was a good idea uh we should continue to seek input and collaboration uh from folks that have done those projects in the past uh we did discuss opening this up to both places of worship and potentially educational facilities like CMS uh who own property and and are looking to develop some housing potentially as well uh they did talk about maybe after learning some lessons through those uh through those types of outcomes maybe expanded to larger nonprofits uh throughout the city so you know again I think we have a good starting point but as we learn more could we expand that potentially in the future and also just have some specific uh church-based developers available just to provide insights and get some of that expert uh on the ground information and again we've been working well with our housing and Neighborhood Services partners and and we do have some folks identified that we can talk to as we put some things together for that uh same with the office conversions uh UAC felt that was a great idea to kind of help through the current market cycles and and the bit of the down cycle for uh offices and the vacancy rates we're seeing uh location would be key so could be easier for urban Towers uh to do this type of conversion less so maybe for Suburban office Parks uh but also consider allowing residential as just a standalone use in our office districts uh that could also help facilitate some development in some stagnant office Parks uh where that have vacant land that maybe aren't going to see new construction of office so something that we'll consider as well and then the affordable housing incentives we did discuss the tree mination Bank option uh they felt that 15% of the site back does really move the needle uh and could provide some good outcomes for uh providing affordable housing uh tree mitigation bank would be a great start but can we bundle that with other initiatives and then the land set aside would be an attractive outcome uh we had that for height uh height bonuses but we may again want to consider this for horizontal bonuses uh because some of these projects may not be building taller high-rise buildings they may just need some additional land or horizontal type bonuses to uh get the types of outcomes that they're looking for so that's all the feedback we heard heard it was a generally positive uh meeting and and conversation with UAC we'll continue to engage them down at that last bullet we do have a meeting with them on February 27th but uh to start we will you know cond continue to uh look at our previous text amendments that were done in June uh make sure those are you know in line and how we need to deal with SP 38221 as we mentioned should be forward uh in a couple weeks for adoption uh we'll have some spring filing amendments uh that will move forward um and then again go through our community engagement and engagement with UAC and other stakeholders uh starting with that February 27th meeting so believe that is all that we have just graphic second quarter uh General Udo text Amendment filed in Spring residential refinement filed in the spring uh we will get on to a semiannual kind of Maintenance routine for the Udo so you may see less text amendments that have a little bit more in them but we do try to get to those now on a biannual basis so we're kind of limiting the amount of amendments you're seeing but we're trying to still get a lot of that maintenance done and then in the fourth quarter we'll have uh hopefully a decision on one of those semiannual maintenance text amendments that we will bring forward uh and go through that with with yall as we get into later 2025 so with that we'll open it up for any questions and discussions Miss Anderson thank you Mr chair and uh thank you Mr petton for the presentation just a small Point around around um the the tree mitigation give back and I understand that that argument and I've heard it we've heard it uh various times but I just want to make sure as we are being mindful about standing up um you know new housing stock in the city that we're not creating um discrepancies and inequity in those in that stock so you know pulling back um tree trees uh will create could potentially create further um heat islands in the city um and other sustainable problems or challenges um in areas that are already needing affordable housing so I just want to make sure we stay on top of that I understand the argument but I think there needs to be a balance as as we move forward thank you Mr chair uh thank you mayor poem um hearing no outcry from the committee uh I have one or two brief comments um for one I think the process of conforming is really up to staff and our our lawyers I mean if you can just you know let us know as it becomes clearer what you're doing uh on some of these other changes the descriptions so far are pretty General and some of them are in important areas uh so it would be good for reference if we could then see where what the actual edits look like uh and know do you know for example based on what you've discussed how many language edits are we talking about is it 10 or 50 or for for the one that's going to come forward in in a couple weeks for decision uh as far as what we've pulled out I'd have to go back and look to see we we'll we'll have to treat all of those as a change after zoning committee so we're going to run through them all at the podium at that point just to highlight the different articles that were impacted and had to be pulled out of that text Amendment and what we can also do is when we send out uh you know some information Friday before the meeting we can give you all a summary of those changes both what was kind of left in and what came out I think we talked about that last Friday when we uh prepped for for today's meeting so we can try to pull that summary together for yall and get that to you before the meeting so that way you can take a look at it and understand and then come you know with questions or other information you might need uh at that time of decision so right I I just want don't want my colleagues to go holy cow you know what's this because they won't have heard even what we just discussed so um I don't have anything else anything from committee if not I'll entertain an early motion to adjourn so move let's get out of here great thank you thank you everybody [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] la a [Music] the [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] is [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] n la [Music] p n [Music] n e [Music] la e [Music] oh [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n la [Music] la [Music] n e la [Music] n n [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon everyone my name is Malcolm Graham and I serve as chairman of the city of charlott's jobs and Economic Development Council committee want to take this opportunity to welcome each and every one of you to our Monday February 3rd 2025 meeting here at the government center um let's get started by first um uh introducing those in the room with us and then we will pivot to those who are visiting with us virtually and we can start to my far left uh circular room and then we'll um continue with the Das eril [Music] H city attorney's office Gord Economic Development M 4 Economic Development man Peterson planning Sherry Jones office of Workforce Development Kathy will office of Workforce Development H es economic GRE shck shco Daniel Frasier office of Workforce Development Aaron tber office Le sustainability and resilience Alison Craig City manager's office [Laughter] Marg Molina Committee Member James MIT Committee Member Vice chair charari Committee Member Yanda Jones planning staff Vania John the office of Charlotte business inclusion toand econom and those who may be visiting with us virtually good afternoon Dante Anderson at mayor protm district one okay okay and council member drgs uh should be joining us shortly I think he's in the building uh and we will um introduce him uh upon arrival uh we have two agenda items today a Workforce Development update and an introduction to the commercial property assess capital expenditure but before we get started I would be remiss if I don't welcome uh and I think she've already got at least one cheer already uh our our new assistant city manager the interim economic development director Dr Allison Craig to the meeting I want to welcome [Applause] her and I'm going to turn the floor over to her for any comments that she wants to make and then we'll get right into the um into the agenda great thank you I'm really happy to be here I'm happy to be a part of the committee and um and leading a portfolio with um Economic Development planning the Charlotte Development Center in Charlotte water um so thank you for having me here and um and I'm will'll turn it over to Danielle well thank you um Allison and um we look forward to your active participation with the committee um um um we had a conversation last night so U we're dedicated to doing the work we have to do when we ever when we get a chance to do it and so I think on behalf of the committee we look forward to working with you on on projects big and small uh and now we'll turn it over to uh Miss Fraser for the first agenda item which is Workforce development update thank you chair Graham Council committee and congratulations Allison uh I hope committee that you are still on a high from last week's Workforce Development discussion at the annual strategy meeting and so I just want to continue to thank you all for all of your Insight your engagement and your feedback on this plan as it's very important to us um can head to the next slide so I've invited our shm Co friends again uh to help tag team this presentation with me as you all know we've been working with shco to develop this plan and asked them to just do a quick review we were with you back in October of last year which feels like an eternity ago um but to share a little bit of that context process and all the work that they've been doing behind the scenes they've been working on primary research secondary research um doing a lot of interviews and conducting a lot of research and I know that I've been um probably burdensome to them at times but they've been working tily for us and so I'm I'm grateful for this partnership and so with that Greg I'm going to hand it over to you and then I will come back and dive into the plan well great good afternoon uh committee members and guests good to see everybody um thanks again for allowing us to be here uh as Danielle just mentioned yet objective today uh provide an update of just some of the work we and the feedback we took from the October meeting the work we've done since then some updates and then plans for the future as this uh specific plan uh moves forward uh in conjunction obviously with the launch of the new office of Workforce Development our team's original objective was to build a comprehensive clear um and specific plan for the future of the office the objectives of what the office will accomplish and then some really clear goals over the next 3 to five years about how we define success as a city and how this plan can define success for the new office of Workforce Development so as a friendly reminder those are the objectives we carry through with us during our research during our work and during our time together uh part of those objectives and part of that research were stakeholder conversations and so our work allowed us to connect with approximately 90 different different stakeholders and organizations both locally and across the country can see a quick graphic of the breakdown of who we spoke with both locally and outside of Charlotte as well to get a really good sense around best practices in Workforce Development from a municipality level and also from a Grassroots level at the same time uh part of those and again I just want to emphasize these are just a select few of the stakeholder conversations represent uh these organizations and really the objective of this slide is to show you that we did our best to speak with organizations at the Grassroots level speak with for-profit organizations uh organizations of Education both k12 and higher ed and then other kind of key Partners like Charlotte works and others in the Workforce Development ecosystem to do this to get a really good sense about what they were thinking what they were seeing and what they wanted to be true in the future of the plan and so I wanted to do our best to be as comprehensive as possible to glean Insight from these key stakeholders uh again most of this was present presented in October but just as friendly reminder some key interview insights from our research just a few that I'd call out you know first the importance of defining and clarifying what is Workforce Development and what it's not and related to that definition what would be the responsibility for this office and so we we know it's a big word we know it's a broad word we know it's defined a little bit differently in in Columbia and Charleston and Raleigh than in Charlotte and so uh in the plan you'll see some suggestions that we'll go over today around how we Define it uh data obviously the city has a rich history and focusing on data and also the ROI on investments and so you'll see a big focus on data throughout this plan and related goals and then last thing I'd call out is just the city as a convenor and a bridge almost unanimously from all the stakeholders we spoke with really looking and continue to look at the city to be a key leader uh in bringing resources into the community in advocating for key resources and being a go-to for uh key issues and key opportunities with in the Workforce Development space and now oh you all right thank so just wanted to just really um highlight um high level some of the things that we touched on back in October we presented again to this committee back on October 7th uh we took the insights as Greg mentioned that was shared from this um table and and looked inwardly with regards to what our approach would be moving forward uh We've engaged in additional um research both internally and externally with stakehold ERS and each month we've really pretty much conducted 12 additional strategic um planning sessions with the office of Workforce Development team just to ensure that we're on track with regards to what our key Focus areas might be for the plan in October we shared the vision and Mission um for Workforce Development and so I won't read the slide those have not changed those remain consistent with regards to the vision and the mission for how the office of Workforce Development plans to move forward with regards to its plan and then we offered up a working definition that we're using to guide this work um so I think this slide is where I'd like to spend a little bit of time um as we know the city of Charlotte you know plays a critical role in really shaping the future of work and education in our community we understand that economic growth um depends solely on strong communic strong connections between both employers Educators training providers and job Seekers and so the five key roles that we offer uh with regards to roles that the city might play in this work one as connector convenor investor influencer and leader ensuring that our Workforce is prepared businesses are supported but then more importantly that residents in our community have access um to Quality jobs when you think about connector that's that linking people resources and opportunities from a convenor standpoint bringing stakeholders together for Collective action and then as investors we already know the office of Workforce Development is funding a number of initiatives within our city to really uh with a strategic focus on funding to ensure that we're lifting up Workforce Development as an influencer shaping policy and advocating for change I think that was one of the things that was lifted up through the strategy session that the council had um last week and then lastly as a leader really setting the vision and driving process um for our community as it relates to Workforce Development efforts so now I'll toss it to Danielle thank you Greg and Fontella for providing that overview um a few of you have asked me over time do is is there a team to this office of Workforce Development and so I know that we went around the room and we introduced ourselves but I also wanted to take this time to say yes we do have a team we are a mighty team of seven if the office of Workforce Development for those of you that were able to be here today just kind of wave your hand again so that Council can see that they do exist um and and if I can take just a moment to to brag on them they are doing some phenom Al work and how we're supporting almost 9,000 employees across our organization with Career Development advancement as well as what we're doing to support our external talent and so I just have to highlight them because they are doing some amazing work and I and I also have to highlight uh this Council and and organization one of the things that excited me the most coming to this organization was understanding all of the work that we were doing to support our internal talent and I would like to think that it's because of you all's leadership and your support in this area that we are no longer 50 out of 50 right we are 38 out of 50 we're not where we want to be but certainly um on a trajectory and in one of the top three fastest growing cities for economic mobility and so uh thank you for for all of your support in this area and that makes me continue to be proud to be a part of this organization next SL please um a quick review to of our organizational talent development and advancement initiatives within the organization so the team is helping to support all of these different initiatives when you think about Workforce Development we have a comprehensive program as an employer supporting our internal talent and so we do a lot of community outreach and engagement to inform our community on the jobs and the opportunities that are here within our organization we have a six-month training uh internship program we have 18 registered apprenticeships Mr Driggs we've got apprenticeships when I say the word eight the number 18 that's not 18 people those are 18 Department of Labor registered positions within our organization over a 100 folks have gone through and team members have are in an apprenticeship program or they've completed their journeyman certificate and so we are looking to expand our efforts here we've got prepaid tuition I think manager mentioned this last week in our annual strategy session prepaid tuition means it's free right it's not reimbursed we as an employer pay um this tuition it's free for our employees after 6 months of being here with the city um they can choose from a list of approved uh um programs within Central pedmont and so we're really proud about that program we also have a career coaching program where anyone in our organization can access a couple of our career coaches on staff to help them navigate opportunities within the city of Charlotte and then lastly our education to Employment Program which I'll talk just a little bit more about later on because this is definitely an effort and initiative that we want to expand but when you look at these um these Workforce Development efforts and think about what we're doing internally as a model employer um these are things that we also want to expand and increase as we think about supporting our external talent in the community so we go to the next slide so as we thought about this plan the what and the how and I'll just kind of highlight what you are going to see today is a highlevel plan this is not an implementation plan this is not going to be tactics it's not going to be all of the details that come with it this is going to be our our Focus areas our goals our strategies and the reason being you're not going to have a full implementation plan is one we wanted to get your Insight and make sure that we were on point with just the high level plan and if you say yes you bless this it's good or you have some additional feedback we can take that back but then ultimately once that's that's done then we can go back and put pen to paper with the team to work on what implementation looks like but wanted you all to know that as we think about again the how the what and the how there were some things that we wanted to keep top of Mind as we think about what our plan is and what it's what it's a what we want it to do and one is to increase Talent pipelines um two is to support our untapped and unders skilled Talent so our untapped Talent are those individuals that may be on the sidelines I think you all may have heard me say that before it may be individuals that may not have access to the job opportunities could be Justice involved individuals individuals with disabilities could be our veteran community so we want to make sure that we are um not that we are making sure that we are um um tapping all of our talent and opportunities in the community we want to focus on uh Industries I'm sorry skills development and credential attainment we want to focus on Industries and jobs in demand again we want to make sure what we're supporting we have the jobs here now as well as in the future we want to continue to build and maintain Workforce Development ecosystem partners and collaborations and a lot of our work as you all know we're not in direct service I don't think we're trying to get into that space and so a lot of what we support is going to be through existing uh organizations and efforts within the community we want to strengthen collaboration between our Workforce Development uh and other cities priorities you all heard this I think a lot even last week at your annual strategy session as we think about our Workforce Development efforts um we are we we touch uh Economic Development We Touch Mobility We Touch housing We Touch uh CBI sustainability all of the other efforts Workforce Development is a cross-cutting factor and so as we think about again implementation these are things that are top of Mind of how we can stay connected uh we want to invest in programs and initiatives that are grounded in data outcomes and impact and I know Greg spoke a little bit about this we heard this loud and clear again through you all uh we want to also when we think about programs and initiatives that we will support that we can track what we fund and what we support and so you'll hear a little bit more about that as we talk through some some key metrics on these strategies and then lastly we we want to be recognized and want to continue to be recognized right as a thought leader in this space for Workforce Development uh Solutions and practices next slide please um so this is a slide that I know uh May may be very familiar to you all I know you've seen it a few times I I asked Ed mckenny if I could steal this slide from him um and again going back to to uh the the the princip the guiding principles is that uh we know that we're a part of an overarching goal and vision especially for this year and jobs Workforce Development is so tied to housing to get have good great housing and be able to afford it a good job is is in order and then of course we need ways uh to be able to move about our our city and so just to get and wanting you to to wanting to keep this top of mind so you know we're thinking about us in an interconnected way and so here we will jump into um our our our key Focus areas and before I walk through these areas um I I hope that you may recall some of the things that were discussed last week in the Workforce Development um uh session with some of our our peers from across the country we heard a lot of themes uh we heard that we're all challenged um with with some of the same workfor issues even though we're in different uh communities and cities and we heard of quite a few programs and initiatives that they are um that they have launched in their communities to address specific areas such as the skills Gap diversification of talent pipelines increasing access to opportunities to support economic and upward Mobility just to name uh a few and so I just wanted to share some of those as uh as we walk through these key Focus areas and and you may hear some things of course that resonate and that sound very familiar from from last week and so if you see uh we have our three Focus areas here uh again high level uh these are the things that we really want to focus on and our and our goals and our strategies will follow from these three areas um and we shared these with you back in October I think at a very high level and so hopefully they're they're familiar uh to you all and so one is our career pathway access and awareness skill development and credential attainment as well as job placement and care career advancement and again you see that all of this is Guided by our data and and outcomes so if you can go to the next slide and I can dive in a little bit more okay so our goal one or goal for this particular um key area is expand access and awareness of in demand career pathway opportunities in the Charlotte area and some of those strategies will be to promote messaging of career Pathways within key Industries to increase Talent pipelines for in demand jobs grow career pathway awareness through career exploration and work integrated learning experiences this includes expanding opportunities for whether it's job shadowing or whether it's internships it's more of that hands-on experience to allow whether it's our our our youth pipeline or it's our adult pipeline to help with exposure to uh what these jobs and industries are and 1.3 is to expand access to Workforce Development Services by increasing uh Community navigation and support so we've talked about this in a couple of our um sessions over the the last year of how do we make sure that there is expanded access to resources and to Workforce Development Services throughout our community and we talked about our opportunity hubs as well as corridors and other um other organizations within the the community you'll see we have some key metrics again um these are not exhaustive but wanting you all to know that we have thought through when we think about these strategies and think about potential implementation tactics these are things that we feel confident that we would be able to track and and to measure so you'll see some are around um this is challenging my my vision today you all so so forgive me but around website traffic analytics uh to increase work-based learning opportunities as we shared and then number of residents referred to Services supports as well as training and education education uh next slide please so our second goal um is uh around skill development and credential attainment is to enhance Workforce skills and education to support demand uh for current and future Talent needs and so some of those strategies are to support skill-based training and Industry recognized credential programs that lead to in demand career paths for unemployed individuals uh 2.2 to invest in a skill growth opportunities for underemployed talent through targeted education and specialized training programs and 2.3 is to connect more untapped and unders skilled talent to those education and training programs you'll see 2.1 and 2.2 are are somewhat similar but one is focusing on unemployed Talent while the other is focused on underemployed Talent which these potentially really do have two different strategies and two um different tactics or or implementation tactics that support these two strategies and so we wanted to be intentional with some of the things that we heard um in our in our information sessions uh that it's important that we're focused on both underemployed and unemployed individuals and so we wanted to call that out here uh in this plan you'll see some of our key metrics uh to increase certifications training completions and enrollment and skills development and training programs and you all know we've done uh some of this over the years with project peace with project renew uh and some of the other training programs that we have supported but we definitely want to uh be able to expand uh those opportunities next slide and last we have goal goal three uh under job placement and career advancement so this would be to connect more Talent to sustainable employment opportunities and so those strategies are to expand earn and learn uh experiences and opportunities such as on the job training and our registered apprenticeships uh to increase skills development and job placement and so again as an employer we do apprenticeships and we plan to expand those but we also uh want to um support other businesses within our community and potentially uh support from a financial standpoint maybe some aspects of some apprenticeship and on the the job training programs uh 3.2 expand education to Employment Program to high school and college graduates within the city of Charlotte and other employers I think you all know we launched this program last year in partnership with CMS and this was to support cms's they have a what's your e uh and they have three Pathways that they want their young people to be on when they graduate and that's enlisting in military enrolling in postsecondary or um getting employment and so because we are not military and we are not uh education we said well we can do this through employment and so it was our commitment to uh employ a number of CMS students last summer who graduated in 2024 and we're happy to say that we have retained 16 14 of the 16 individuals that we employed last year so and they are doing well in their roles um so we want to expand that right we want to expand that to to other employers we did not want to be the only game in town we just wanted to Kickstart uh this commitment of this organization and and really looking at our talent pipeline starting with our our secondary um graduates and so wanting to bring on more employers we also want to expand this to our higher ed partners and to ensure that we're pulling folks um that are graduating from our Central pedmont from our our Queens our UNCC charet or Johnson C Smiths Etc so last you see 3.3 work with education and Community Partners to connect job ready Talent uh to employment opportunities and so with this one first of all anyone that we're supporting through employment and TR and training and education programs we want to ensure that there's a Clear Connection uh that they are going to have employment at the end of their training I think that's one of the things that we have an opportunity to be intentional about especially when it comes to metrics and outcomes is that I think I mentioned this last week too successful programs are partnering with B businesses at the very beginning so they have the job in hand not in mine meaning cohorts of individuals are going through training programs and that there is at least guaranteed interview right at the end they still have to sell themselves but very engaged um business partners is what we we really want to um do through these efforts as well as when we think about Economic Development when we think about CBI when we think about our small businesses we want to make sure that we are a conduit to support our businesses to connect to our employment ecosystem and so we see this as an opportunity I think to grow and to expand um our connectivity and our relationship in that regard to ensure that our businesses have access and know how to access ACC the talent um you'll see some key metrics here we have increase in employment within targeted Industries jobs filled and retained through Workforce programs wage progress progression career advancement uh data and and business growth and one of the things again I'll continue to just reiterate here is that a lot of our our support will come through external partners and so you saw some logos on on slide six um that um organizations that are doing some great things and our community that we may continue to support or invest in such as your um your do graders your road to hires or or some others that were there and not even there so just again wanting you all to know that implementation has been on the Mind from the very beginning uh but wanted to walk you through this high level plan one to get some more um um um uh engagement and and feedback on um how this resonates and lands for you and would love as we begin to to talk through thinking of these strategies and you have a one pager in front of you that has everything together so you don't have to keep flipping back to uh the slides but as as we're we are thinking about implementation are there things in these strategies that come to mind for you that help bring these strategies uh I think to life so would love to hear any of that feedback but uh our next steps are to incorporate any feedback that you all may have today uh and sherco is still concluding some final research um and Gathering some more information three uh I think depending on today goes and and you all tell me if if we need to come back in March maybe dep um based on what uh thoughts and feedback are shared today we sure certainly can come back and provide a final draft and then four we hope that full Council will be able to uh support endorse or approve this in in the March time frame and so with that I will pause thank you thank you Miss Frasier on that um very well done presentation I want to thank the Sham team as well for the work that you've done uh and engaging with us uh I think we've got a lot of good work in front of us going back to last October for sure and so I will just open it up for questions from the committee and um mayor protim who is joining us um virtually if she has any question we'll entertain that as well and I recognize council member Dres thank you Mr chair so uh if we go back to slide 10 I can find it here so uh I appreciate this I think it's absolutely On Target but looking at this and other places in the presentation the role that employers play in all of this strikes me as being underrepresented uh we need to work with employers to identify what the needs are we need to encourage them to have Workforce Development programs maybe not just to meet their own needs but also in the public interest uh but certainly help them to shape their recruiting process so as to align with our priorities as well as their needs uh and I just think that's a really important uh relationship if you think about it 1% of the population of Charlotte works for the city so we're not going to make a large scale difference operating within the bounds of our own uh employee Community um I think it would be useful if we had some sort of programs dashboard or something so this is talking about kind of your thinking how you're approaching this that the other question is what's happening right so so if we had a dashboard thing it shows who some of our partners are or how we're deploying our resources uh what the Effectiveness is of some of those uh because you know going back to our earlier conversations on this subject when the first thing we did was create a uh like a portal um what I'm really interested to know about is on the ground you know what people are we touching and who are we engaging with and again having been on the board of Goodwill for a long time uh that was a client-based uh program and you could see people who had been in the city system or or had obstacles to employment and and what they were doing and so uh I would hope for us to be able to demonstrate the the same kind of uh detail around the engagement that we have with individuals uh one thing I will mention too is uh in the past we often talked about soft skills and so uh and it was brought to our attention uh in earlier research that often one of the biggest obstacles was soft skills so how do people dress how do they talk do they show up on time what is their kind of discipline around work and I think there are in my mind a lot of willing people in the community that uh would benefit and and and would gain substantially just from Gaining a familiarity that they may not have with what it looks like in a workplace uh with and alongside obviously the skills development but you can teach people what to do and not necessarily tell them everything about how to do it again the reason I like the apprenticeships is you're in the workplace during that um and finally we're starting our budget process soon so I want to make sure that we're adequately invested and therefore if you see opportunities uh or have needs I hope that uh you'll share them with all of us and make sure that when we have our budget conversation we are doing everything we can to promote what you're working on thank you thank you that for that U Mr Driggs and I think a lot of what you're sharing is actually in the implementation portion so when we we talk about soft skills and the technical skills that's one of our goal to of the skill attainment um so I think it'll be helpful when we start to drill down and actually get to those implementation tactics you'll see some of these things I appreciate the call out about employers though um one of the things in in our goal one when we talk about expanding access to Career Pathways part of that is to get with employ employers to get um one validate the data right because everyone has access to to data but then to validate with our actual employers and we've done some of that work over the last year but certainly that is in order and that's a that's a part of the the implementation plan as well thank you for that uh I believe it is it's just maybe it's a good idea to give it more prominence in the description thank you thank you Council M Mr chair thank you uh let me just follow up on one thing um my colleague said that uh I think it could be a good space for us to really be a champion it comes to Workforce uh development that is uh what our other partners uh you know in in the city of Charlotte and you know it to me we ought to recognize them and because you know Workforce Champions I I think someone is looking for an entity to really to own this space and I think with your staff and Leadership and the consulting firm I I think it makes us uh the prime target uh to be able to do that uh I think we heard something from The Retreat that I thought was very powerful that was from Austin Texas Cradle to career and when you think about that I think that was very interesting so it would be nice if you can share that information with our committee to understand the Cradle to uh career program and and then you know Daniel first of all let me thank you staff cuz Daniel is right I always were question her I said are you still by yourself and she said no I do have a staff so thank you all for being here and working so uh hard for important initiative this Council decided two years ago and I think your work has been a true reflection now we 38 out of 50 so we're no longer uh 50 out of 50 and I just think there's so much other potential for us to to move even even higher uh there's two things I I I would like for this committee have some of the conversation and and share uh with Danielle for direction is CMS has a Workforce velopment component and all their construction projects uh when you look at CMS gford County I I think that's something that to councilman J's point we ought to kind of take the lead on when you think about all the construction project we the city have where we talking about Spectrum we talking about Panther Stadium e Eastland yard all the residential homes I I would like to have some discussion can we create a Workforce Development initiative moving forward uh with the city of Charlotte and then secondly from a regional perspective what we see in the market now is a lot of demand for Data Center and there's not a lot of talent in that in that space to build all the data centers from a regional perspective so I think locally uh our construction industry could be a great way great way to develop Workforce Workforce skills and then regionally Data Center and AI are the industry that's really looking for a lot of talent thank you Mr chair thank you uh Mr Mitchell Miss Molina thank you Mr chairman um first off I'd like to say thank you to you guys for the work that you put in um I see some clear uh implementation of Direction in some of this material that you've given to us um and particularly around the definition it it's it's comprehensive right it it actually speaks to some of what we discussed and it and it's akin to the crate of the Grave ideology right and that you know um I'm I'm like the chairman would say cautiously optimistic right in in that you know the expectations of humans are that I start now I have results right away right um and and people have real needs right now right and that's internally and externally and so if I take a class for an example that may just be a step towards where I would like to go essentially right um and so in alignment with what uh council member Mitchell said you know and kind of that Cradle to job or Cradle to placement mentality is I I I I think we have to adop and we're careful right I'm you know comprehensively I had what I wanted to say but as I've listened to my colleagues it's evolved in that you know we the city of Charlotte I think I am very encouraged to hear that we are Le leading by example right with the 1% of employees that we have access to they have access to free education they have access to tools that will help them to evolve their career and Status right so that's saying we're leading by example we're implementing these things internally and we would like to now look Beyond ourselves to partner with Community you know leaders and organizations that can help us to you know expand this Citywide and so I think the success of this program in my personal opinion considering what we have access to is kind of like and this is unrelated the seat goals that we have we can talk about what we do within the city and how we've made those changes and how we're being intentional within the city of Charlotte and then we can ask our counterparts within the city that have you know uh a common stakeholder position to say will you join us in this mission right and so I think the success of what we Endeavor to do is is really inextricably tied to the Partnerships that we create as a result of what we would like to see happen in our city so who can we partner with what organizations and I mean whoever's watching I'm calling out to you all like how can we partner uh to make sure that these goals are in alignment with making sure that we have a strong and vibrant Workforce in our city and and I think that is is is a very very very important piece to this puzzle um I'd also add that um I I mean and I think of myself personally right I I think of when I first came to our city and I was very young and wet behind the ears and the level of experience that I had and the the evolved woman that I am now and all the iterations and education and things that I've added to myself um and if I wanted who I am now I wouldn't have been able to achieve it then right so the expectation that you know it's kind of one place to the next I'm I'm so thankful for all of the experiences that I've had along the way because it it makes me a very well-rounded leader as a result right um and that's not something that you can tell to a constituent who needs a job right now but for those real life community members that we have that need a job right now I love the idea of apprenticeships right because it's unrealistic to say to I'm a single mother with two children to say that I can go and you know train and get a job I mean I I need I need to make some money right now I got bills right now right like so I I I love that we are uh looking at this comprehensively I'm encouraged by some of what I see I know that as we delve into the details um I think that you know we'll we'll align we have so much talent and information at the table um but my personal opinion of this is that what we can do internally is one thing and I'm and I'm and I'm encouraged by the steps that we're taking and in order to achieve this for the humans that we we represent across this city it will require it will require businesses and Partnerships at the table that are going to help us be successful so um I'm looking forward to this this is something that's personal to me um I I think about data that I just consume with regards to the evolution of jobs and where we're going and I read on LinkedIn recently that 44% of jobs within the last 5 years were titles that did not exist 5 years ago right so we have this we in real time we have this evolution of what it means to have a job and the position and how it's being created in real time as a result of information and Technologies and the advancements that we're making in that Arena and we have a talent Workforce that needs work right now so you know we're stronger together I'm encouraged by this work I'm so proud to be in a city with colleagues that puts this first because if you can put a human to work you can put them in charge of their own Destinies and so this is this is Destiny setting material to put the honest back into the hands of someone else and so I'll digress there and thank you very much Mr chair for allowing me that time thank you very much mayor proam thank you Mr chair and uh Danielle thank you for the presentation um I I really think you have you know most of the ingredients in the Ragu here I mean I really do is if we can um activate on what you've just walked through um having some metrics and place and targets I think we're absolutely headed in the right direction um just a couple things I I wanted to mention one is you know and I believe uh Mr Driggs commented about um skills and and potential skill gaps um within within our partners here in the business Community you know most companies have a um repository of skills um that that they have within their own company and they can identify the gaps that they that they need um it would be great if you're not already doing that to have a conversation um with um some of our key employers about the gaps as well as a forward-looking view around future skills that are needed um and and I'm sure perhaps the CRV might have that information as well but I think that skills Gap and a forward looking view of what kind of skills will will um our employers need and in the next two to two to four or five years um play plugging that into this plan that would be great the other piece I wanted to add is you know Charlotte is is becoming a a center for techn technology as as we look at the Pearl coming um online our with our new medical school um there's going to be a variety of different companies that come right along um with the Pearl that will be on that campus that focus on healthtech right and so it it would be really interesting to understand what we need what skills we need um to have in place here with our population to ensure that we can attract Tech opportunities and more tech jobs um so I I if if you could lean into that a little bit again from a Forward Thinking view um sort of looking moving forward down the runway and then looking back right um that that would be I think quite helpful as well but this this this information is is really good you're hitting it across the across the board horizontally so not only professional skills but skills that we'll need in the trade and and um you know Mr Mitchell mentioned the vice chair mentioned the construction community and the skills needed there U which will fit right in with apprenticeships very well so I think we are on the right track here I would love to hear an update you know in a couple of months around how your metrics and targets are coming together but I I think you have a really good um starting point here thank you Mr chair thank you ma'am uh and lastly Mr B thank you um so I think we're you know we're on the verge of a major transition in this topic from your team kind of working for a long time now on building the the plan of attack and now this kind of marks okay we're going to start seeing deeper views of what that plan like the the where the rubber meets the road is and execution and that's where you know this this is a very daunting but important topic so I just give a couple pieces of what what I'd be hoping for and what I think will lead to success in the next phase one is around measurements and uh related to outcomes I I think a lot of people in the space get bogged down with okay how do I report after the fact let alone we should be ahead of the time the time so we can kind of hold accountable and measure to what the object we're supposed to achieve um something meaningful and if you know it's you know number of people that attended this meeting or that it's ultimately reverse engineering into the outcomes that we want to achieve and being able to measure them as Mr dgg said some kind of highest level dashboard governance oversight accountability model not to say you know with the goal of saying gotcha you didn't do it but with the goal of saying what which one of your hypotheses worked and didn't work as it relates to that so we can hold that accountability there so I think honing in on the ultimate outcome is going to be really important and using the data that we have to figure that out so I mentioned a couple of these last week but you know while J job growth is great in this state and one in four of those workers being STEM related in this state overall is is a massive thing this the the good news is 60% of those stem one in four roles don't have a college degree the bad news is K through 12 for the most part other than those being shipped In from from externally it's the only education touch point we have and we are seeing a huge degradation of that across the state and particularly in in the Charlotte area as well uh where we're not going to be able to even meet the current demand that's out there over the next 10 years so looking into Data elements like that and defining this is the number we're going to do which leads me to the second point which is scale this is it's all it's any work you do in this space is wonderful but I think you know we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard and having 50 or 100 people that went through and their lives might have been changed is great for those but not worthy of our mission and use some of the numbers right you know roughly speaking there's 450,000 high school students across the state right now um over a 100,000 are graduating and going to their next step many in the workforce from there charlet you can say probably roughly has 12,000 seniors graduating every year so the the that's the starting point of a measure to say okay you know 6,000 on an annual basis or 4,000 on an annual basis is what we want to not just have a touch point with but follow in an outcome where we track them on this metric dashboard that you're making where they ultimately uh go and then I think the the final piece of advice is I you know we have to Pilot things if I were you guys I would reach for that scale I'd keep that as nor you know Northstar but a lot of these things and a lot of conversations with the past are about being a convener and uh you know Gathering folks and and I I think that there's ultimately a scenario where that's one part and very important where we convene all those doing great work but I think we have to build something too I don't know what that is yet but I know if you guys can figure out what one thing that would make a massive impact in those measurements is and then build it even it doesn't have to live in government forever but start the building of that and measure it where we're able to measure not you telling us we gave this amount of money to these 50 organizations and then they did this but also what you forced them to do with the strings attached to that that made better outcomes in those measurements and and then I think with that plan this is what I talked about last week that should be the foundation of the upward Mobility conversation we shouldn't I don't think upward Mobility should be driven out of housing or Transportation or any of these other topics I think those are resources that then in these Pilots we see as their overlaid how how did they help the ultimate um endgame and I think that's tough to to to say to everyone but it it it will deliver meaningful thing we're not going to do Transit everywhere with the thought that upper mobilities impact our housing everywhere we're going to focus these pilot efforts around these Workforce foundations to see how they change the outcomes in in almost an AB testing model so that's what I'll be looking for as we take it to these next steps um but it's it's got to be bold yet achievable in looking at a plan that can deliver outcomes we can hold accountable thank you Mr barari so Miss Frasier and shamco team is Miss Craig I think you kind of heard um from the committee U some initial comments um I think my comments really re revolve around item number two and next steps really identifying the targeted Industries um narrowly till it industries that uh the mayor proam suggested like like the Pearl there's some Niche industries that we know that are on the horizon are we currently in it in that space right now it would be nice to kind of Target those as well um and one thing that Mr Drake said sort of kind of was our opportunities hubs in the quarters of opportunities where individuals have the opportunity to actually walk in someone's office on one of these quars and say hey I am looking for a job help me out right that they don't have to go to a computer or um inut information right there someone kind of holding their hands and guiding them through the process and through our opportunities hubs on these quarters I think that's a good match for that as well uh and so those are my comments uh I would suggest that if I don't hear any major pushback from the committee um that I think we're on um task for items three and four and your next step which is in March to bring back um the um final report for approval so we can move from planning to implementation relatively quickly this year we want to implement stuff this year kind of get to work and so um we suspect that we will get a final report in March um for presentation to the Phil city council for their consideration uh and I would just offer Miss Frasier if there's any additional comments that you guys have within the next week or so to reach out to her uh so that I guess within the next two weeks before the meeting they'll be kind of putting all this stuff together so I think there's some time for additional comments feedback as you go home and think about this some more but um I would suggest that we we St we stay focused on uh coming back in March with a final report so we can get it to council and so we can really start implementing um the work that we all identify as a a priority for the council okay thank you very much Mr chair don't you have oh yeah yeah one announcement Mr Mitchell wanted me to make and we we have um um a great retreat with um uh industry leaders throughout the country uh and that's because uh our very own Miss Frasier um she called they came that's right all right Miss Allison Miss Craig um item number two I'll let you introduce this and then we'll get get right into it thanks sir all right the second item that we have on the agenda is to talk about a new financing tool that um is available for commercial proper properties to um create energy and uh efficiencies so with that I'll turn it over to Aaron and Todd thank you so so this is just a informational uh so we're not asking anything of y'all today see a bunch of uneaten food so feel free to to have at it um so cpce um it's uh recently authorized uh by S SP 802 uh so so late last year and um in short it's an alternative uh financing mechanism for certain types of improvements on properties uh includes Energy Efficiency renewable energy water efficiency um as well as resilience projects on Commercial properties and um skip to the next one so um so really see Pace uh stands for commercial property assess capital expenditure and um it's a fully voluntary program so for these commercial properties um this is just simply a tool in the toolbox um if they are doing those type of improvements on their properties it's also available for new development to help as part of that you know funding braided funding um that they can use for any type of improvements that are um fall within these areas what makes it unique however is that the financed amount is placed on the property as a lean and what this does is this unlocks the ability for the financing to be lower cost because there's more of a guarantee of repayment of those finan of that financed amount um um and it also allows for longer term financing um so it's based on the useful life of the improvements that are being installed so if somebody's installing solar on their property they can Finance it for that full useful life of that solar generally about 25 years so this helps drive those the annual cost down um the other thing that's unique about uh cace and the leans is that it it travels with the property um so if the property is sold that lean stays with the property and that financing Arrangement stays with the property it does not go with the owner so the owner is not then required to pay off that full financed amount um the owner that is now enjoying the benefits of those improvements will continue to pay those uh annual payments um through that lean um on a on an annual basis so what you find a lot of the benefits that you that come with um cpce improvements are energy and utility savings um increased cash flows uh so this is um uh it's 100% financing so um so the commercial property owner doesn't have to come out of pocket for any of the improvements um and generally those additional annual costs are offset either by Energy Efficiency savings the the water efficiency savings or the energy that's produced from the renewable energy prod uh project um you also see enhanced uh building resilience um so as we come through uh this morning we had a talk about all of our climate risks um so as as we start dealing with those and and buildings are looking to harden against uh future impacts um this type of improvement would enable them to do that this type of financing um it can help increase property value so as you're bringing properties up to date um and making them um more technologically advanced more comfortable um you see increase in property values um with that increases in taxes as well if they're commercial properties um and then associated with all those Energy savings renewable energy Pro um projects you will see also reductions in carbon emissions um so that'll help us towards those app goals um again like we talked about this morning um so and and as I mentioned previously as well those those assessments those leans they run with the property um so that helps um reduce some of that split incentive um where if someone in is say building um off a spec and they're looking to sell the property well they if they use cace right they can 100% finance that build a more sustainable and resilient building and then that new building owner who's receiving those improvements um will be the ones paying for that um so they don't have to really look at the the lowest common denominator to make the largest profit um this is another way to uh to do that as well and also have more sustainable um buildings so here in North Carolina um as I mentioned uh SB I want to say is 802 H yes it was um SB 802 um authorized it and um the Statewide admin ministrator for the program is the economic development Partnership of North Carolina edpnc um so they're the ones that are charged with um running the program uh so they're to accept review and approve all project applications um basically they they do all the leg work um what they would do is uh they would go through review the project uh review the financing agreements make sure everything's in line with everything that's authorized through um the legislation uh and then approve that Pro uh project and give it to the local government to accept and place um as a lean on the property um they report to the Commerce Department um so Commerce department is the the state uh Department that's ultimately in charge of the program uh the local governments um the part of local government um is to accept the approved projects and execute the related documents to record it as a lean um what the local governments are not are not a party to any of the any of the agreements um it's cost neutral so if there's any expenses associated with accepting applications or recording leans those are reimbursed by edpnc as part of the program um there's also no liability and uh no no financial responsibility on the part of local governments um so these are the steps to authorize the program locally so what the what s SP 802 did was authorize a Statewide program to be run by a Statewide agency um however each local government um has to approve the program and opt into the program so so it's an optin um so so the first thing that needed to happen was edpnc needed to develop a cpce toolkit um they've finalized that draft and they've submitted it to this number two to the to the Commerce Department who is currently reviewing that cace toolkit um once um the Commerce Department reviews and approves uh that toolkit the program becomes live and local governments have the opportunity to then opt in and join the program there are some steps to join the program um so for a local government to join the program um you must first pass a resolution of intent to join so you got to pass a resolution that says we would like to join this program then uh set a public hearing date um then hold the public hearing on that date and then pass a resolution to join however couple items of note um if this is done by a county um then the entire county is in the program so every commercial property within the county is eligible to use this cace as a finding uh financing mechanism however um if the city moves forward um with opting in the city would then also have to go to the county and basically get the County's blessing so we would need a a resolution of concurrence um in order to do that so um so right now where it stands is is um we're still waiting on the Department of Commerce to approve the toolkit we've been uh meeting and speaking with um our counterparts Economic Development and sustainability at the county um and uh working together to move this forward um as a countywide initiative itive so um so we're looking we've been been working together really well and we're looking to forward to moving this forward at the county level to make this available to all properties within within the county including all the commercial properties within the city um so with that anybody has any questions uh Mr drgs wow um yeah yeah so I have a lot of questions I think what I'm going to do is just mention what they are and not try to to exhaust the topic uh but um this is a good description there's a lot of interesting stuff missing still uh it's private Capital so banks are making these loans correct and therefore I'm interested to know what the terms are not now I'm just saying you know in detail what kind of rate concessions do they get what covenants attack p uh how many properties are not already encumbered and and is it can it be a second mortgage another question okay um is it necessary that you demonstrate savings uh sufficient to repay to service the debt in order to qualify for the loan um how does this compare with private financing so any anybody can go to a bank and offer a lean on their property and borrow money for an improvement and therefore uh what specifically is the benefit of this program and um I assume that unless the local government enrols signs up people can't access it right the only way in which this is administered is by our processing the applications um so I I'll just mention those as things that I'm going to be interested to know more about and and not try to deal with the whole subject but I'm wondering if the state actually credit enhances these transactions in any way so in other words is the state backing this or I'm A lender right one guy comes to me and says I want to borrow for improvements the other application comes through this program uh what are the differences what value does the program at um I I you know offand I think we should probably sign up I don't see any harm in that uh especially if we are adequately compensated for any Personnel expenses in processing but I really want to know what the clients are getting into when they enter into this so I'll just leave it there Mr chair I I can quickly respond to a couple of them um okay first one thing I failed to mention is the lean takes first priority so that a cpce lean takes first priority over a mortgage uh over everything with the exception of um government leans um and and taxes so pausing right there I can't imagine anybody wants to inflict that on their lenders uh I really think uh I didn't realize that was legally possible but uh I I know that there are certain attachments and and so on um like uh if you if you you can embargo somebody's salary if they're behind but wow that's going to be a tough one so part of that is um part of the requirements in order to get a cpce you do have to get your existing um lenders approv so so you can't just go out and get a cpce lean and have and say hey this is more important than yours so you need your lenders approval to do as a former lender I can tell you sure I want money for that you have to pay me to do that okay and so um the other is that the financial terms are negotiated so so there's not set financial terms um so once the program's up and running um there's the state's going to have a website with all the um the lenders that are available to borrow through the program and any lender is going to be able to go through and you can negotiate those terms individually with with those lenders based on your project uh intercreditor agreements cross default Provisions uh there's a lot of stuff that goes into creating that super layer in your cap structure so uh I'll be do they have any anticipation of what the actual uptake is expected to be I think you see we've got 2 and a half Bill two billion yeah Nationwide so so these tend to be large projects so just looking in 2023 alone nationally the average project was about $8.5 million um so so these are rather large projects um and generally speaking it's um a handful as the programs mature um you tend to get more uptake um but generally speaking it's it's it's an opportunity for it's more of a limited opportunity um but it is an option um that would be good to make available for those projects where it makes sense okay thank you any additional questions Mr Mitch uh Mr chair just real quickly uh looking at the state on under uh not only the best practices uh but success story stories or stories of opportunity here where this has occurred nationally um I like Mr Driggs have a lot of questions around some of the details some of the nuances here um which I can ask offline but I think we need to we need to have visibility around where where this has worked well and where it hasn't worked so well thank you Mr chair thank you you you took my comments as well and I guess last question for me is where's the county on it PS in terms of the the the approval process if the county does it then the city's in right so uh where's where are you with the county have they taken this off talked about it um my understanding is it's to go uh looking ATO I looked at like three times to the um Economic Development Committee there um to have a a conversation and then from there to bring it to the the full conion yeah because they either way they got a say yes right so we we probably should just wait in the parking lot just see see what they do all right I would imagine want to get ahead of that yeah yeah so just just watch and wait okay any other questions uh 110 adjournment motion second second third fourth me J thank you go n [Music] e [Music] e e [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] the [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] n [Music] [Music] n [Music] n n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] la [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] la [Music] n [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] la [Music] the [Music] la [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] e [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] [Music] n e [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] everyone yeah okay yeah you got to Studio we're ready to go live please okay thank you maray well good afternoon everyone I'd like to start by welcoming everyone in the room and those joining us online to the February 3rd budget governance and intergovernmental Relations Committee meeting thank you for joining us today I'm council member dimple AA I serve as the chair of the committee and I'd like to pause here for introduction starting with committee members and then of Staff James Mell Committee Member Lana Mayo Committee Member Bri Harris strategy and budget J strategy and budget Cherry Smith strategy and budget Lena James Deputy City attorney Smith strategy budget SE Services Nan Peterson planning Sean heat City manager's office Monica Allen City manager's office City attorney NAA Matthew CBI Teresa Smith CFO Matt hassed City Finance Phil riger General Services Sheila Anderson General Services Steven Coker CBI Ashley price General Services well thank you for those joining us online is there anyone there more no no staff okay all right well whole village is here so let's get started we have two topics one is budget development calendar and second mwsb participation in capital projects uh so we are going to flash out our topics for our budget workshops and um so Mar I'll hand it over to you to walk us through that thank you thank you and as we discussed at your annual strategy session you're taking all your input D TR the budget process and this again is proposed for you to consider sorry I think we having trouble sharing it but propos for you to consider topics and of course some of them are really standard oh Jackie none of us have the power point Sorry Sorry thank you and of course we have this committee meeting and two other committee meetings during the budget development process and two workshops planned for you and the one one of them is Monday so for that we're kind of going over the standard um budget outlook economic Outlook where we stand in compensation planning and then from there we and it's at your leisure from there but it's your pleasure sorry but we have proposed some topics for you to include the March 24th Workshop to give a capital projects update even though it's not a bond year to go over the current capital projects and an update for that Solid Waste Services fees and financial partners for that one and then at the Enterprise funds we're proposing to discuss those at the committee level this year any questions on the timing or topics go ahead thank you Marie um I have a couple of questions so I see we have at our committee meeting lot of the Enterprise funds and I know we have done that in the past where the committee will take deeper dive into Enterprise funds yes ma'am where full Council will focus on Outlook compensation and capital projects uh I would like to see if I I do anticipate having some questions from Council and our committee on uh the impact of potential freeze the funding freeze I know that's been blocked um by our legal system but I do anticipate having a second version of it so just if we can have some sort of session I it could be part of capital projects or it could be part of our cdbg funds but at somewhere I think if we can include that as part of our discussion uh I think we do need to plan ahead for that uh if there is a potential impact CU we talking about millions of dollars especially our cdbg funding that that actually uh helps some of our most vulnerables um but other than that I don't have any other questions on this topics on this proposed uh development topics but I'll turn it over to my committee members starting with council member Mitchell thank you madam chair I just want us to have some conversation Maria around Financial Partners I think this committee is done a lot of heavy lifting or making that a better process but what I would like for us to concentrate on is the communication so make sure our our partners know when the application is out when it's due and the process cuz it gets it gets confusing to them so maybe at our March 3rd meeting if we can work out bring back the schedule for our financial partners to submit application so um everybody be on the same page yes sir and we should be able to give you a packet ahead of the workshop so maybe we can preview that with us but actually they've already been submitted um and we're already reviewing the applications right now oh so the financial partners applications have been already sub yes sir it October yeah they start in October okay so when was the deadline you remember exactly in December okay and so we have O Okay Financial Partners you hear that the deadline has closed right and so uh we'll be making decision on those that came between October and December 2024 time frame correct okay and that's consistent with prior years the time frame didn't shift much okay and and Sherry hate to get ahead of you but it was how many applicants 51 appliations which is the highest that we've had since fantastic also 51 Financial Partners appli my second question I can't M chair on on March on May 19th budget adjustment and stra votes and last year it was it was a very difficult process for us and I would like to kind of streamline to make sure we are very efficient right and so can we have a conversation committee so Madam chair that could take it to full Council just so council members are very clear how that process would work so it was a lot of confusion what what are we doing different from May 19th different from May 29th and I think you got three veterans here we remember how how it's supposed to go so I would like if we can have some conversation and some language and so council is better prepared so that be a more efficient Advance thank you yes so so to follow upon that Mr Mitchell um we are three veterans here right however I do anticipate just like every budget adjustment meeting a lot of new partners get introduced so I think it's up to the council to make a determination or a decision whether we want new Partners to uh potentially get a pool of funding um the reason Financial partner process was referred to our committee is to streamline so that we are not having to make last minute ad hoc decisions um right at the budget adjustment meeting like we have been doing for past 8 years since I've been on Council so I'm hoping that we uh do not surprise each other on May 19th I'm hoping that 51 Partners who have applied would potentially be all uh that we would see on May 19th um but I think that's a message we as the committee we need to deliver to our colleagues uh so that so that uh we can keep our budget adjustment session as Nimble as we potentially can and Sh did a pretty good job uh I remember when she sent the packages out to all Financial part Partners there are a lot of questions and concerns and her team has done an excellent job trying to address all the questions making sure they meet deadlines uh and staff has been working around the clock on that so I think it would be unfair to staff who has been who has this deadline and now all of a sudden you are introducing a new partner that didn't go through this process uh so I I I do plan to deliver that message uh today to our Council but if you can also chime in uh so that we are all on the same page um with full Council can I do one follow yes and then follow by council member May and and so one thing I would like to add that would be very helpful for us to make sure this Council focus on our priorities when you give us the 51 application go ahead and put what priority it is linked to to Madam chair that that way hopefully we'll stay true to our priorities and don't do a lot of one-offs so if you can if you can put Priority beside each application I think that would help us stay focused she she's done that in the past yeah thank you madam chair I would also like to add it will be helpful for us to know the timeline on payment to our financial partners because I do I've talked to a couple of financial partners that we identified last year that still hadn't received funding some of them were brand new and didn't know all of the process so I was under the impression that staff actually goes through and walks you through hey here's the contracts here's the timeline here's the payment schedule but that isn't necessarily the case so having the outline I think would be helpful for us to know right what that looks like because I definitely agree with my colleagues we historically have on May 19th how much money we have okay well I'm going need 500,000 of that I'm going to need a million of that also getting an idea of what is our budget for our financial partners so that when we align our priorities with what they're presenting because a number I can imagine are going to be those who were one time right funders through I ARA and that's what it was but some of them are doing great work that we might want to continue but I also want to make sure that we are as transparent as possible with our partners whether they're current or new to let them know what the process is so that they can budget accordingly because again what was brought to my attention was an example where both County and City approved funding County funding was released and a relative short period of time cities was city funding was not so I want to make sure that there a clear process and if there is additional help that is needed because it's not always simple to work with government for that we have the mechanism in place to ensure that they have the assistance that they need now I don't see that necessarily being an issue moving forward if we don't add new new partners but we want to make sure that we have consistency and do a check of partners that will approve that Council signed off on where are they on receiving their funding and if there has been a delay then we need to close that Gap because they're depending on us especially with the funding shortfalls that we're potentially going to see thanks to language coming from the federal government yes maam thank you thank you that's a good point council member Mayfield uh sure Sher if you can in your in the package that you usually put out for Financial Partners it would be full to have dispersements how many dispersements have been made have they all received what C what the council had approved I think it would be useful information as we make determination for the next year cuz I know some of them now we actually have put more teeth as you all remember to the process so now the city can hold funds if they're not meeting our criteria and if they're not meeting the Milestones that they said they would so there is some accountability which I really uh I'm very proud of the work that the committee had done so I think it's important to see uh here is what they were uh allocated here is what they have received so far if there is any if there are any funds that were left because they didn't use it or they didn't apply or um not apply but if they didn't submit the receipts or so on I think it would be import uh useful and also the timeline to member May's point you know what is their first uh withdrawal right I'm not using the right term but what is the first disbursement date I I think if we can get that information that would be helpful thank you okay anything else on budget yes ma yes sir M CH so uh Maria just came up I just got a text so uh I presented a budget to a town hall meeting on uh Thursday and I was app applauding applauding us for not having a lot of property tax increases yeah but one thing the citizen pushed back on though they say between storm water W and solid waves we have had increases over the years consistent so it'll be nice on March 3rd and March 24th just to show the increases we have voted on and storm water water and solid waste so they were applauding us say yeah you're right you have they said you nickel and Diamond us on solid wasss and and I could not recall how many increases we have had over the year every year oh every year because I actually bought yes because the contracts increase every year so yes that was in part of the slides I believe you showed your town hall but we can pull that back in and make it a speaking point for the workshop okay thank you thank you m yeah I think it's important to note that both water and stone water are Enterprise funds so you know all the expenses have to come from the Revenue that we collect um but you know I looked at the overall city services slide uh that still shows we are one of the lowest compared to other cities in the state so um I I get it I do get those complaints too uh but you know I I show that slide all the time I have it handy in one of as one of my favorites that look at look at look at this you know people say oh we're moving to another town I said we'll still be lowest in the state so I think that's something um we all got to educate our citizens on that you know overall you're still paying less taxes versus what you would be paying in Concord or other large cities but okay that's all on budget uh second topic I have is mwsb participation I know this is something that our committee has been working on for a while um and I know that Mr Cocker Monica and others have been working on this uh I know there is a pilot in the pipeline um I appreciate the work that you all have done on this so I'm going to turn it over to Miss Allan to walk us through our next topic oh I I have thank you okay all right well good afternoon chair Ashira and members of the committee so today the CBI and procurement team is here to present the draft of thep SB Master utilization plan um a little bit of background with regards to this topic um and the deliverable that you'll see today as a result of a policy referral that was made in May of last year uh the committee uh asked staff to identify essentially two things around two policy questions one is how is the city ensuring procurement and capital project delivery methods are fully aligned with advancing the city's overall strategy for mwsb participation and two what policy considerations may be feasible for incorporating within the city's procurement processes and methods to optimize participation for mwsb so Stephen Coker is going to be presenting today um and at the end of the presentation if there are any questions uh staff in CBI and procurement will be happy to answer those questions additionally we are seeking feedback of uh what we're presenting today so that if there is a need we can update the plan bring it back to this committee next month with the goal of hopefully approving sometime in um April so at this time of turn it over to Stephen Coker to kick us off thank you Monica uh first of all let me say good afternoon Madam chair committee members staff uh I'm going to walk through this presentation uh rather fast on the front end and then I'm going to slow it down right about the time we get to intro to nwsb CIP Master utilization plan so that's what our agenda looks like next slide in deference to what we discussed last week or I should say what you discussed in your Committee Member meeting uh or uh I should say the uh strategic strategy meeting uh I wanted to uh share this information right here and this is linking the city's Council strategy priorities to CIP mwsb Master utilization plan of course uh you set forth a strategic uh priority that uh stated Workforce and business Business Development and baking small business and minority and women uh Business Development we wanted to make sure that that is a priority but it'll be baked in a Workforce and Business Development uh in terms of aligning this the CIP Master utilization plan directly supports priorities by leveraging the work on capital investment projects to drive inclusive procurement practices and create economic opper opportunities uh for our diverse businesses next slide now as it relates to this uh Master utilization plan there's a strategic Focus where we streamlined the procurement expanded our Outreach and provided targeted support to enhance the mwsb participation uh of course uh there is a major commitment by the city uh to inclusion where we prioritize Equitable contract economic growth and creating opportunities for our diverse businesses to thrive uh major major collaborative effort uh that involved both us CBI and general Services we also talked to uh several other departments and our workshops of course there were uh Community groups that we engage with and members of the committee City Council Members we also uh engage with you to make make sure that we had what your thoughts were integrated into this plan uh we started out as you know with a pilot project where we targeted solicitations for our mwsb uh we transitioned our subcontractors or that was a focus Point into primes with our Target marketing and we promoted in all this work equity and compliance and procurement uh there will be ongoing goals with this the work uh that we've worked on so far what we've presented to you it doesn't just stop here uh after today or 6 months from now there will be ongoing goals relative to our monitoring the progress adjusting the strategies and empowering our mwsb to Foster growth and inclusivity in Charlotte's economy next slide this slide right here you've seen before probably the only thing that was uh not there the last time was naturally what we have is the January committee meeting uh we presented to you uh the first round of questions and answers uh I hope you were able to read through those and uh if you have any questions following those please ask uh but also between that time and now we finalized what this uh utilization plan uh would look like next slid okay here's where I slow it down and kind of bring all all of this together uh as it relates to this uh Master utilization plan the it's a guiding document that will identify the strategies and the pathway to achieve council's uh priority to utilize and grow our mwsp and our capital investment projects uh there are three components to this number one the objectives which Define clear goals the actions or the we'll implement the actual strategies and then the measures uh we'll we'll track our success you know as that old saying goes what gets measured you know gets done right and so we are going to measure this tweak it where necessary and make sure that we always stay on top of this next slide I spoke of uh Community uh collaboration there were five groups that we met with we got their input and a lot of of their ideals are in integrated into what we put together here we met with the mmca which is the africanamerican contractors Association hcac that's our our Hispanic contractors the Women's Business Center uh the Wonder group uh who is working on a number of Charlotte uh initiatives and our advisory committee CBI AC next slide so objectives along with with the actions the first uh of four objectives is early engagement extremely important you saw that and the idea behind that is to integrate CBI in the project planning phase project development we'll look to administer the pilot project framework focus on increasing project opportunities Target Outreach uh that area uh has come up a lot and Outreach has going going to be a major major focus of our work where we'll Implement tailored Outreach efforts uh through the contractor development program and then barriers let's uh talk about what we're doing to remove them we'll improve uh procurement process offering bid preparation when necessary uh provide bonding support which you are aware of and in encourage licensing and certifications and a lot of this will be done through the uh consultant we've hired Maryweather and Williams next slide so if we can get a little granular with these ribbons uh early engagement again integrates CBI early in the project planning uh process and the maximize our mwsb inclusion along with Goal alignment uh access and identify opportunities for scalable Scopes uh across uh diverse delivery methods for the City projects uh be proactive and regularly engage the contractor Community through our targeted training programs and resources to equip our mwsb with the necessary tools to navigate procurement process improve goal setting by developing realistic datadriven participation goals tailored for each project create transparency and Foster trust with the contractor community of and and collaborate and and share our diversity objectives and incorporate CBI in the budget planning process by updating annual procurement forecast uh the for to include our business inclusion efforts for each project next slide as far as project development here we are looking to expand opportunities mwsb by unbundling large contracts uh or projects into smaller components I think council member uh Mayfield I've heard you uh ask about that several times identify and establish projects on a smaller scale to enable the subcontractors to to grow into Prime contractors in on projects they can actually uh support and these initiatives will provide essential experience and facilitate the development of our subcontractors thereby enhancing their qualifications and competitiveness for future Prime Contracting opportunities also build contractor and supplier capacity by again partnering with our contractor development program to deliver training programs that improve their Readiness uh as it relates to bonding licensing uh bidding Etc uh also deploy the project delivery method that most benefits the projects and maximize the mwsb opportunity uh council member Mitchell I think that was one that you talked about when we talk about using construction manager at risk for example and then of course develop uh tools to Monitor and evaluate nwsb participation data to support development of future initiatives next slide again uh targeted Outreach our goal and actions behind that are to expand our Outreach uh efforts to identify certify additional mwbe vendors eligible for City contracts thereby increasing diversity and inclusivity of our vendor pool for City work develop and Implement an informal solicitation process that actively uh prioritize soliciting mwsb fostering competitive bidding among peers and promoting Equity facilitate opportunities for growth and experience by directing uh directly notifying City certified Prime contractors and potential subcontractors of projects within their specific trade Specialties Implement targeted Outreach programs to educate and prepare our mwsb partner with local organizations to expand Outreach and attract diverse cont contractors and suppliers host engagement events uh such as our networking socials uh pre-bid meetings and some of the bigger ones that we do uh all for the purpose of being centered around the goal of connecting mwsb to the project uh and we're applicable our our Prime Contracting community and increase training offerings for uh interpreting solicitation documents making it easier to understand to the contractors uh on complex requirements that may discourage participation which we seen at times next slide and as far as removing barriers our our goal here is to partner with the contractor development program again specializing in supporting the mwsb to facilitate access to essential resources such as business coaching which we are doing more and more uh networking opportunities financial assistance and Industry specific tools additionally coordinate with the program to conduct targeted Outreach to ensure mwsb are informed of and encouraged to participate in the opportunities increase contractor and supplier awareness uh and make sure the communication channels uh support mwsb with getting the vital and critical information when app offer bid preparation training bonding support and assistance with licensing uh consider Partnerships with financial institution and provide access to low uh cost access uh to Capital and and bonding and administer uh a quick pilot a quick pay program which we are doing uh on a pilot basis at this point thanks to uh Teresa Smith and uh Brett Kagel and then uh of course when applicable uh provide one-on-one technical assistance uh and support through our Business Partnership and relationships to help our mwsb meet project requirements so again back to measures uh you know you've heard all of that how are we going to keep our eye on the ball these are the things that we feel are important uh that we track and be able to collect the data so that we can not only understand uh if it's working or not working but also make improvements along the way of course uh percent of contract goals uh met we want to track the percentage of contracts that successfully meet or exceed their assigned goals the total amount of mwsb contractual spend where we'll to track the total amount of uh contracts awarded to mwsb across all City contracts uh number of MW USB's awarded Prime contracts uh we haven't done that before but that's a good measure for you to periodically understand how we're growing in that area and then of course uh new certified businesses where we track the total number of businesses successfully certified as M's W's and s's within a given fiscal year next slide uh nwsb utilization here we'll track the percentage of mwsb participation on CIP projects measuring the proportion of the total project spending directed to certified mwsb the number of Outreach uh events we haven't necessarily tracked that before well we're going to do that now or we'll uh provide you uh numbers related to the events that we've done uh the numbers who uh the attendance uh and all components of our Outreach and then the numbers of mwsb receiving technical assistance uh a major con component part of our work involves technical assistant capacity building and uh I think we've done a wonderful job through our work with Maryweather and Williams and and to even an extent EDS amp up program and then CBI University which is future State and moving right along to implementation so we'll make sure that we track all of that uh to support your understanding how this program is progressing next slide okay I didn't see that curtain before in the slide I like that uh questions uh I'm here to answer them uh I know I got a group of folks here who are uh full of knowledge ready and willing to answer any questions thank you Mr CER um I appreciate that you had sent us a homework package to study uh that was uh certainly very comprehensive thank you for putting that together uh I think it was sent by Miss Allen uh ahead of our Retreat so that was very helpful uh for getting up to speed uh also you have one slide where it talks about five Community organizations I would like to see aapi Community being included I know you have been in contact with it serve Asian-American chamber as well as cabba Carolina Asian-American Business Association okay uh if you could also have conversations with them because some of those businesses also have similar challenges and maybe different challenges challenges especially around um language barriers or uh in terms of helping them navigate through this process U more one-on-one I know you have done that in the past and I'll continue to send businesses your way to get mwsb certification process but I think it would be important to have more broader outre where it's diverse uh and um truly uh reflects the makeup of our community well consider that done um we'll never run out of work I uh we'll make sure that we reach out to all those organizations on a regular basis yes I appreciate where you highlighted a slide where it talks about removing barriers uh because lot of business owners especially small minority owned businesses I often see uh often here where they have barriers to submit uh City B on City contracts and opportunities so it's good that we are being proactive in removing those barriers uh and really measuring how well we are doing there are a lot of businesses that get certified from the city but then they never have a contract so it's good to see have side by side comparison here is how many got certified here is how many that uh mwsb utilization goal so that Council can really make policy decisions around that to ensure we increase our utilization rate uh I'm sure Mr Mitchell will have more uh in-depth questions around utilization and um performance metrics I'd love to hear from him followed by council member Mayfield thank you madam chair uh Stephen great presentation I'm going talk about just uh a couple of things some from the strategy session that was brought up part of our panel and one takeaway if you can just share with us down the road the um expand outre strategy just send that to us I'm not going ask some question I'd be interested in seeing the strategy so let let me give a Kudos and you mention it but I I got to reiterate this because this is a true removing the barrier when you're talking about pay uh pay schedule and so I got to thank Teresa Brent Kel for really coming up with a pilot program that allow um our small businesses to get paid um toward that 15th and 20 day as opposed to 45 and 60 day I mean we all still live in environment that cash is king and a lot of the small businesses rely on getting those payments so Teresa thank you and uh Brent if you're listening uh take a vow because uh Brent Brent first approached me that he wanted to use a small business to get more Contracting cats when he talked to the small business owners he said I don't have the cash flow to carry payroll and so that's when we had a great meeting and the mindes uh came up a great pilot and Teresa I ain't going to say no more she told me stop bringing that up so stop so from the strategy session though I I I think there was three things I heard loud and clear I think we should talk about uh one they said we should establish a goal setting committee I think Franklin made that kind of loud and clear when he looked at Best Practices uh the second one he say establish a waiver committee so everybody's clearly understand what is considered to be wave and in the third I thought Monica did a great do job on the dashboard but I remember there was a conversation say maybe each committee should look at the dashboard tracker and include information that is missing so I would like for some of that be referred to our committee uh these Council committees yes yes the mayor thought that because I think Ed brought something about transportation and so the mayor comment was how about we send it to each committee allow them to get input on what data should be on the tracker so I would like uh we can get that kind of referred to our committee particular CBI Monica sent a very detailed Monica I want to thank you I think some of those questions have been out there since quite some time uh but you compiled all 23 and gave it to us and I agree with Madam chair is great pre-reading uh there's one that I'm kind of passionate about and Madame chair and the commit I just sent it sent it to you all that is having council members sit on the interview selection committee meinberg County I spoke to the Christie in meinburg county and so she sent me the policy they have right now so it's in your in basket Y and so our rather us I saw the response that there was a recommendation not to include council members but if we have one governing body is already doing it and they're having some success I think we need to have a further discussion how does that look if the city council could do that when you look at the meinburg county I'm looking at the language real quick uh they allow them to sit make a selection on the architect and a general contractor and I think for us that is some of our passion about we can get it right early in the interview process I think it's less questions on on at the city council meeting so that's all I have great job Stephen Monica thank you for jumping in um CBI I got to thank uh Phil Phil and I usually bump heads six times a week we've been bumping heads zero in 2025 so stepen thank you for General Services uh for working close with the committee uh to make sure we get more participation thank thank you madam chair thank you Mr Mitchell so just to follow so the three committees you talked about the goal setting waiver committee and interview selection committee right so the goal setting and waiver committee would that be made up of council members uh I think he was saying staff should I think frankly he say staff should set a goal setting committee and a waiver committee so I think that was more staff Le the then the third one to your point Madam chair is mackenberg County right now they rotate what county commissions can sit on the in the committtee to select the the architect and the general contractor and I would like for us to have a full discussion how would that look if council could do that as well so like interview selection committee where council member will serve on selecting a vendor whether so it's limited to architect and general contractor and not other contracts correct oh God is is that what you're yeah okay yeah so I just took the county language wanted to share that with us cuz I think that some conversation was what other governing body is doing it and we have one right here in our building who's been doing it for quite some time cuz I did review our package and I know that there was a recommendation made by staff uh that didn't necessarily recommend having council members serve on our interview selection committee if um Monica if you can just elaborate on that and see uh because the County certainly has that so uh what was the thought process behind that so let me first uh respond to the the County's policy on um County Commissioner sitting on the panel those are that's for the architect selection it's not for just any general contractor got and I think that was because some of the things they wanted to do were around design of buildings and things like that and make them a little more kind of user friendly like if if you're if you're seeking Medicaid and you go into County for fac you don't want it to look like a government billing you know what I'm saying so that was one of the reasons why I was having the County Commissioners help influence part of the design element but not for all contracts I just want to clarify that and then I'm going to pun to Sean on the second question because I think he had a a conversation with Council I believe with regards to um council members sitting on committees so what happens if I punt the punt okay and that's fine that's fine because I had a yeah I had with the city attorney's office a couple months come back in March that that'd be fun we hav yeah there was a grou there was a group of us working on return We somebody to catch this ball yeah there was a group of us working all answers for you so yes it's a hot potato so the question has come to our office with regards to council members s selection committee right um and this dated uh my involvement but the general thinking is that there is well first of all there's no legal impediment to it right there are legal concerns however true because if there were a challenge to our selection process the council member being on the committee may be an impediment to defending that challenge because they are now participating as an active part of a selection process of which is going to ultimately come to the full Council to to be uh integrated into that process the other thing to keep in mind is uh at our Retreat last week um I was really I started out the retreat talking about rol and separation and I think with a council member being on a selection committee that that kind of muddies the roles of the council as a policy maker very versus an an actual participant in decision making because that gener comes up through your process that you've established and so that is also of of concern the other issue is and you're right the county has this policy my office tells me that policy has been in place since 1970 right that predated all of the defining case law around um around these types of programs so I don't know if that would be a a factor to consider I I would just caution the council to be cautious about this and the other thing I challenge the council is what is the ultimate goal yeah is it is is there is if you can Define what the goal is then perhaps we can find out um you know a different remedy that still achieves your goal I mean I know we could staff the committee legally with City attorneys to make sure that your process is is implemented consistent with how you've dictated to management how you want that process implemented and make sure that all the tees are cross in the eyes of doed that's that's helpful Mr Mitchell you have a followup yeah just a followup uh City turn I think for me and and I'm going to use your use your word that we perceive with caution so I think first thing for me uh how many time have County had an issue legally having County Commission serve I do think let let's look at you right it's been out since 1970 has it been a problem for the County Commissioners having people set and and select uh for me it is is number one engaging council members early in the process just like CBI and making sure even in the interview that the goals are stated very clear clearly and and articulated very well on what this body would like to see in participation and so I I do think that has been missing in the past so as we try to strengthen it in the future and I'm saying future by July 1 have a new program that we we are giv as as much um strength and and action behind to improve it so to me though I would like to see from your standpoint what legal challenges have been made from the county I think that'd be good information and we can we can bring that back to you we can also evaluate whether and what other communities around the state have done or not done in this area I don't think you're going to find a bevy of of other communities that have allowed for or include the participation of a council member on a selection committee the other thing to keep in mind is that's just one council member that council member doesn't speak for the body and so what is that going to be achieve that's why I challenge you to say what is the goal if the goal is really looking at trying to ensure that your policies that's implemented by this department are carried out then that's what our office does we ensure and monitor the policies and directions of of of the body and we can make sure that you know that the goals are are the goal that's set is is is adhered to and communicated we can ensure that uh if there good faith efforts trying to be used that the good faith effort process is something that we can make sure it follows the letter and spirit of your regulations with regards to that but I hear you we can get that information for you I would like to see the data so we can have more conversation yeah I think that that was helpful uh Mr Fox uh as you were you know what's the intent here right what's the overall goal uh that we have for the council uh currently does uh anyone from attorney's office serve on on this committee selection committee no I would think not the attorney's office I don't know in the past whether or not we have been active participants with the committee and monitor it but we certainly you know can be available to do that I I think I I would like to see um you know I see really legal as sort of uh legal team as our advisor um advisor to the council i' would be interested in seeing in do other entities or other agencies across the state do they have some sort of legal uh representation in some of those committees well I think you uh likely find Madam chair is that that the legal department monitors it but does not participate and serve because they have to remain available to defend it if necessary okay council member Mayfield thank you madam chair Mr Coker thank you and the entire team Monica since you have stepped into your role I think you're really hearing the concerns that have been brought up I definitely want to support council member Mitchell's questions I am not necessarily interested in what other cities are are doing I'm interested in Charlotte meinberg I'm interested in the fact that this is a process that they've had since the 70s that clearly states that they have two meinburg County Commissioners alphabetically on a rotating basis for all the nine members and then they repeat the cycle even though this is specifically for architecture I would like to know do we have the wheel because as you mentioned attorney Fox at last week's Retreat one of the main tones of discussion was courageous leadership so I am not a fan of we don't do this because we haven't done it I am a fan of knowing legally can we do it and if we can then let's move forward with making sure we have accessibility because this is is the conversation is more than a decade in make it we have been growing and attempting to strengthen our CBI and our mwsb program we have run into multiple challenges along the way this council is one of the first lines of contact when our small businesses are identified I have brought this up on more than one occasion where we've had small businesses that have been identified through the city but never actually contractually receed the opportunity to do the work therefore received the opportunity to grow their business therefore did not receive the opportunity to actually earn any funds in the pursuit of that business so if there is a way whether that way is having the rotation which is already in place for Council members and just keeping it simple with the alphabetical process that they have in theirs they clearly state in no event will the final interview of Architects take place unless at least one member of the mecklinburg County Board of Commissioners is sitting on a selection committee again this has been in place since the 70s I believe that there is an opportunity for us to look at how accessible we are and a willingness for also with the idea of possibly having representation from the attorney's office to me that will only be as good as the immediate communication with councel whether it's directly in communication with this committee I would like it to be more than just a memo that goes out so that we can ensure that we're identifying any possible additional opportunities or obstacles that may be up second question Mr well first question CU that was just a statement when we go back to slide 13 under measures we have on here starting out the percent of contract goals that are met which is great where are we tracking the ones that did not meaning if if we're saying this tracks a percentage of contracts that successfully met or exceed it they assigned mwsb goals where are we tracking those that come before us that clearly are not Meeting those goals but we are giving grace through our current good faith efforts we just had a few recently where mwsb identifi IED a goal anywhere I'll give a range 5 to 8% what they came back with is one but what we say is well they met good faith efforts we're also having conversations of clarifying and strengthening the language around what is truly a good faith effort because I have a challenge and it will be helpful for me to be able when I'm speaking to those in the business Community have a better understanding where if this minimum goal which I still think is too low as a general but we'll work on building that is what was identified and you come back with an extremely no low number there's a disconnect so having more transparency in this tracking of measures if we're not going to acknowledge where opportunities will potentially miss I think we're doing three steps forward and still taking at the minimum a half step back with not acknowledging because those are where we can zero in to try to figure out how to strengthen that we have great success but that success is still only as good as us acknowledging that we still have opportunities and to be perfectly honest to acknowledge that we missed the mark because that goes a long way because we still have a lot of relationship rebuilding that needs to happen because of Decades of challenges with working within Charlotte government and what does that look like so for me it's very difficult to say well we're doing all these great things but we're not going to acknowledge where we ran into walls and versus building a new wall building the door pushing through we turned away sure do you have any thoughts I would say to you council member Mayfield that number one uh those comments are duly noted uh we have I'll I'll put them up against anyone a very talented uh data uh analyst guy who can go into the data and find stuff uh sometimes it's good A lot of times it's good A lot of times I'm like H but that is one even though it would be uh we want to know and that helps us you know uh operate by constant and never- ending Improvement so uh Point well taken and the other thing I'll add and you probably heard about it uh Monica uh is leading the charge wood strategy uh and you know I I did a strategic plan when I first got here and of course a lot of things have changed we're going to do another one on the 28th and that including other things will be on the table for improvements uh but we are looking to improve this program and and we don't change the the end goal and that to be a nation's leading program and I appreciate that and I appreciate your hearing that sometimes that uh needs to be acknowledged because then that gives us a much more transparent view of what we're working with because again like you said we've had some successes but we've also has some that weren't successful and we just need to address it and let it be known because then from there as you're leading the conversation of strategy we are having a clearer picture of what potentially it could or could not be Council Council mayf can I just jump in really quickly so think your your points are well taken um of course the measures as we've written them are stated in the affirmative but as part of the on analysis of the data we'd be looking at the other part that you mentioned around what what goals are not being met right so that's going to be part of that ongoing analysis work of charge the team with thinking through looking at stuff on a quarterly basis so that as we execute strategy we can get a sense of how are we moving the needle and if the data shows were not then you go back and you revise and update your strategy so it becomes an agile process to continuous Improvement versus a onetime look at the data annually and a performance performance report and then that's really it so um that's my bread and butter that's my background and so I'm going to be working really closely with Steven's team as well as um the data strategy team and int they are also in my portfolio we're going to make sure we put something of ongoing monitoring in their shop as well as throughout some of the other County sorry out of the other City departments um here in in Charlotte so I just wanted to give you that reassurance there and I'm really excited to see that but being able to have that in our presentation therefore in essence for Community to have access to it goes a long way so I appreciate the fact that you all are already having the discussion but just like when we have a slide that breaks down scooting everything up enough to have that additional bullet in there I think would help us to all have a clearer picture y of what's going on but Mr Fox I had a clarifying question for you where you mentioned how the can get muddied so at a later date with going back to the beginning of the conversation in support of what it could look like if there was Council representation what committee what part of the discussion just trying to understand why we feel on the city side that it could get muddy when this is something that the county has been doing since the 70s yeah I can't speak to how the county has dealt with this I just know that's that is what they're doing I don't know and this is a question for this group as well if there were membership of a council member on a committee is that member going to be a voting member or an ex official member um that can weigh in as well um I was going to point that also excuse me also the fact hi I'm Sheila Anderson I I'm yes I'm Sheila Anderson the procurement division manager and um I would just like to note that we spoke to the fact that um city that Commissioners were serving on the selection for Architects the AE process of selection is a QBs process which means it's a qualification based selection it does not take into consideration pricing or anything and that's why I believe that particular um selection of AE was chosen for uh Commissioners to sit on Strictly qualification based um any the pricing is negotiated after selection so I don't think what I heard from council member Mitchell was for us to get into the pricing piece it was around the qualifications piece which is why he reached out to get the language that they're using I think for me the conversation and the question that I have is around do we have the ability here's the Baseline do we have the ability for Council Members looking at a model that is already here in mecklinburg County I don't care what they doing in bunk them and other places right here our neighbor three floors down do we city of Charlotte have the ability to be in some of these rooms around the Quality Base to be a part of the discussions to help continue to move the city forward that is the ultimate because again when it was mentioned that it could be muddy of which we don't have to have an answer right now it's just when you're bringing information back trying to understand why it would be considered it feels like what's being said to me as as a council member no you don't need to be a part of this whereas There's an opportunity to ensure that we're able to continue representing the constituents to the best of our ability and identifying what that end goal is is no different to me than sitting on any board I sit on a NASCAR board while I'm in that room what I'm learning what I'm sharing is also if we had a process where we would come back and report on the different committees and boards that we sit on then it's not very different from that but I just want to make sure that we're not using language that pretty much sets up a barrier from the very beginning to say yeah County's been doing this for 70 years in this particular area but we don't think City should even have a discussion about it thank you I see she's taking notes I think your point is well taken council member Mayfield and so our City attorney so I appreciate the P I appreciate the passion on this topic and all of your input so with that I if there are no other questions or concerns do I have a motion to ad juner so move okay second all right uh good job we are you get 30 minutes back you also need to figure out are they talk about [Music] [Music] la e [Music] n [Music] n n [Music] n n [Music] la [Music] you [Music] n n [Music] a [Music] the e [Music] n n [Music] la the a [Music] la [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] n [Music] la o [Music] n [Music] he [Music] n n [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] n n [Music] e [Music] a [Music] the [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] for e [Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] la [Music] la n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] true [Music] [Music] la n [Music] it was just ccle back on that email it was to look at their project and we said wait and so I just want to make sure they wouldn't have qualified for the rolling Noah you got your microphone off and they're ready okay um I told Amanda sech your email and see turn off if I can find it than okay all right good afternoon welcome to the housing safety and Community committee meeting I am your host Victoria watlington um flanked by my uh Vice chair Mr W Mayfield we've got a um a media agenda today talking about some topics of Interest we've got a good bit of uh folks that have joined us um in support and in expertise so I will um go ahead and kick it off with introductions we'll start over here to my left hello I'm Anna schinus City attorney's office Jerry green code enforcement Rebecca Hefner housing and Neighborhood Services Sean Heath City manager's office T brown council member T brown Committee Member Lana Mayfield Committee Member Vice chair Rene Johnson District 4 council member and Committee Member Dante Anderson mayor pend district one Janine Simmons housing Neighborhood Services Harold Thompson housing and Neighborhood Services Gil wiam housing and neighborhood Services fantastic thank you so much and thank you to everyone who's joining us as well we look forward to hearing from you as the agenda goes along I'll turn it over to ACM Heath thanks council member watlington so we're going to pick up where we left off last month and Rebecca and team are are bringing forward the very items that they promised they would bring back to the February committee meeting so without further Ado I'll turn it over to the team excellent thank you let's Jump Right In next slide please so today's discussion again um we'll just touch on the policy referral summary as a reminder about where we started and where we're going um oh is are we in are we on the right um PowerPoint you have refer looks like that might be the January meeting so while we while we correct the PowerPoint I'll run you through we're going to talk about um early insights from our conversations with stakeholders we're going to look at other NC cities talking about Benchmark and best practices uh we'll talk a little bit about the code enforcement case studies um we did send those out as a pread um looking at lamp lighter and Tanglewood and then next steps so as a as a reminder we are working through uh the referral that came out from the mayor in late October the essential policy question here is what policy considerations may be needed to strengthen the city's ability to ensure safe housing for residents of lodging establishments and multif family dwellings um so this is a continuation of the um uh discussion in January um and I'm going to pause just for a moment so that we can get it pulled up so our audience can see what you see as we get into the meat of the presentation I'll just talk a little bit then about timeline so we started here in November um with the mayor's referral uh uh we met in January and you all had a robust conversation about the um minimum housing code itself including the variety of enforcement tools and resources that are available uh and um looked at some insights from the data and since that time uh staff has begun some of our stakeholder engagement conversations uh and also done some leg work around what other North Carolina cities um do in their housing code enforcement so those are the things we're going to share with you today um for for y'all reference for what's in front of you I am currently moving to slide five and we will hopefully get that pulled up momentarily so we've we've had some great conversations already with um some of our stakeholder groups and a lot of those folks are in the room with us today uh we we talked with the greater Charlotte Apartment Association some of their staff and also some of their members uh and we talked with representatives from one Mech action NC legal aid North Carolina and the redress movement uh and and had um some pretty uh pretty robust conversations all right here we are we're caught up um and so what we want to start with today is some of these early insights now we haven't completed all of the stakeholder engagement and I'll talk with you a little bit at the end about what's coming up for some additional uh engagement there but some of the early insights and there are a lot of things on this slide so I'm going to skip to the punchline just to begin and that punchline is there are definitely opportunities for code enforcement to take swifter and stronger enforcement action and that may include at in certain cases enacting INR repair and we want to make sure that we're proceeding with intention um setting clear parameters for how when and what that those tools are used um and we want to do it within a strong ecosystem of Partnerships that provide the appropriate supports and resources to the residents that will be impacted um by those actions and so um we we want to we want to think through what is that system of Partners and supports and make sure everything's in place so a couple of things that I want to highlight for you and you'll hear hear more of this in our next meeting it um The Challenge that we're facing are really with a limited number of properties and owners in the overall system um so the that that's good news on the one hand on the other even you even a small number of communities impacts a large number of residents um so we want to make sure that we're taking appropriate actions um we recognize that there's a mechanism needed to act more quickly to remedy imminently dangerous violations those are the the um Dirty Dozen as Jerry ref last time um which are actually 13 violations but you know dirty Bakers doesn't I suppose um around violations that your ordinance states must be corrected within 48 hours and so we don't always as a local government have a lot of uh mechanisms in place to move that swiftly um but in in some brainstorming with the attorney's office and talking with with others um we think we think we have some opportunities there that we'll be bringing back as recommendations um the um we have some opportunities a lot of them are on the process side so things like how we categorize our violations um that that um actually had a great conversation with our Advocate Partners about what what any given violation has an impact what type of impact it has on residents so we see some opportunity there in general the feedback we've received so far is that the minimum standards of Fitness are generally sufficient um so you all talked about this a little bit at the last meeting we um we asked if that was a door you wanted to open and explore and you said yes um so far the things that we've gotten back are requests to evaluate the requirement for operable air conditioning equipment and then also some components of the ordinance that are related to to um testing for mold so we'll be bringing those back um when we talk through recommendations next time but really what we see are a couple of things mostly is the opportunities to strengthen the Partnerships and services that are in place so that we can address situations more holistically and more proactively um and then the the last thing I would say is um that through the expanded Investments that you all have made in affordable housing and a variety of anti-displacement strategies that creates a lot of Capac capacity and opportunity for stronger code enforcement where you know but for those Investments we might be more cautious about the staff resource that's required but because of the Investments you've made uh we we believe there's capacity to um make some adjustments without new resources needed next slide so I'm going to hand it off to Jerry he and I are kind of going to go back and forth today um but he's going to take this section on um what we learned from our partner cities in North Carolina thank you good afternoon everyone uh part of the charge from the referral was to reach out to other North Carolina cities to get some benchmarks and best practices that they may be utilizing um if you look at the chart under civil penalties Charlotte actually has the lowest first day civil penalty out of the other North Carolina cities that we spoke with um if you move over to en repair yes we have that but we have used it limited um during has an inoperable excuse me an inim repair program but they use it for inoperable heat only Winston Salem has a repair program but they're very selective and have done very few repairs from what they've told us going across to standards of Fitness Charlotte Raleigh Durham and Winston Salem all have their own minimum housing code and they're all comparable to each other Greensboro is the only outlier they utilize the interational property maintenance code as their minimum housing code some of the other tools and best practices that we could glean from those cities Raleigh and excuse me Raleigh and Durham both have iMed stative fees that are issued prior to an order going out they have 15-day hearings Charlotte has 30-day hearings uh greensbor has a reduction of civil penalties pursuant to repair costs next slide Charlotte has significant supports and resources in place for the residents then in our conversations with other North Carolina cities they're facing some of the same challenges that we are here um with non-compliance and owners that are not willing to make repairs in those conversations with folks on the ground and also with our legal team there's potential for legislative action to strengthen housing code enforcement not just here in Charlotte but throughout the state there's also a variety of Leverage points to accelerate the process maybe acting earlier can create better conditions for compliance and affordable house matchmaking is a common practice but is difficult to make work next slide now we spoke with you all last month we promised that we would do case studies on both Lamplighter and and Tanglewood those case studies have been completed and those were sent out prior to this meeting today we're going to give a brief synopsis of those case studies as we continue through the power point so lampl in back in 2021 code enforcement received a referral from cmpd to inspect the the then vacant hotel at lamp lier in in regards to drug activity prostitution unsanitary conditions code went out along with cmpd and they completed that inspection which resulted in 52 cases being opened which included all the rooms the storage and utility closet from 21 to 23 the then owner worked to make repairs and eventually brought the property into compliance in July of 2023 for minimum standards and passing beber County permits excuse me in October of 24 the owner completely walked away from the property and abandoned it so at that point we had to activate our displacement protocol to assist residents on the ground to find housing since then the building has been secured closed and currently we have 21 open cases and six are currently uring civil penalties so there's uh the indepth version of that summary um was sent out in the pread um and and um but what we wanted to focus on for the discussion today is really what are some of the key learnings opportunities and constraints um that that we recognize as we go back and do this deep dive or kind of an a after action um so a couple of things things when it comes to the lamp lighter in um One Challenge is really that the average Moto or hotel room is not designed or built to withstand the rigors of daily life um when when hotel rooms are used on an Extended Stay basis um the rooms often sustain more wear and tear um and require more regular maintenance um and and uh in the in this situation um the property uh in 2021 actually failed their inspection with meinberg County Environmental Health to have their permit as a lodging establishment um and so one of the things that we've noted is that that is a risk factor um for um uh deteriorating conditions and a risk factor for U displacement events um so we've we've Incorporated that into our our Risk Index um going for forward and then one of the one of the primary challenges is that you think about the internal structure of a commercial building a lodging establishment versus a um an apartment community or even a single family home it's very complex it doesn't necessarily fit with an inrm repair strategy um especially in situations like the lamp lighter where systems Integrity has been compromised and so one one one example of that at the lamp lighter is the uh the um uh boiler system so we we were able to get the water service restored at the lamp lighter but it wasn't hot water because the boiler the boiler had um uh stopped working and it was not repairable it was a a systems replacement need um and so when when the systems integr has been compromised um it's it's harder to go in on a room byro um basis and um conduct INR repair and of course there were some extremely what I hope are unique and difficult circumstances at The Lamplighter with uh the nonprofit organization that had moved people into the building um but then the services that had been promised never came to fruition um and than when the owner abandoned the building additionally creating that lack of accountability um for an absent property owner and what what may have been fraudulent activity um it really constrains the effectiveness of code enforcement in part because code enforcement and even you law enforcement activities they're processes that take time and when you look at the situation at the lamp lighter particularly once the owner abandoned the building the conditions deteriorated so rapidly um that the building quickly became unsafe and the best um uh action even in retrospect I would say was to move relocate residents and close the building so in a situation this complex um code enforcement tools I mean even even if we had in place holistic Partnerships and better tenant referral and and um and and the ability to quickly enact repairs our code enforcement tools they wouldn't be sufficient to address the complexity of this type of situation so as as I look back and and we had a lot of conversation about this on this particular um situation this is not this is not a situation where I think additional code enforcement action would have been warranted um I I think that that um the proceeding with the displacement was was the right action at the right time um one of the challenges though in a situation like this is that even though our Mass displacement services are really critical they were also insufficient partly because there is limited capacity in our community um for shelter and support of Housing and so the effectiveness of our displacement protocol which is is really a relocation support um is constrained by whether or not we have places that we can help relocate um people too so those are some of the things we learned on the lamp lighter you want to talk about Tanglewood next so in early 2023 Cod staff started to receive an increase U of complaints from residents regarding the conditions that Tanglewood Apartments staff met with the owner several times throughout 2023 to discuss the urgency to to complete the repairs but also what plan did they have in place to make the place up to code um very few repairs were made in 2023 as a result civil penalties start to acrew um out of those meetings with a property owner they advised that they were having financial hardship based on unpaid rent low occupancy levels and three events that took place on the property they had a vehicle run one of the buildings they had a fire in another building and then they had a water main leak so at that point they advised that due to financial reasons they were looking to sell the property the property was eventually sold in August of 2024 and at that point code met immediately with the new property owner to talk about a timeline for repairs they advised that they had a budget set aside in the timeline to bring the property to compliance and that they were going to possibly release to tenants who were um current on the rent fast forward to October 24 we had an additional meeting with the new property owner along with community relations committee and at that point the owner advised that he wanted to vacate the entire complex and that they were going to issue 40 non renewals to tenants that day so at that point obviously displacement protocol team was activated again on the ground to help folks with housing current to date we have 29 cases open currently in or receiving civil VES next slide please so one of one of the things that I would say this applies to Tanglewood and lamp lighter is that a situation is never a displacement event until it's a displacement event it it it happens quickly we recognize that there's risk for it very early on in the process we notify our partners that there's risk for it we get partners on the ground working with residents even before displacement event occurs um and and we're in consistent communication with property owners about their plans both their plans for repair and Code Compliance and their plans for residents and uh in in um situations like tangle would we we had a a lot of conversations with the owner about their intentions and intentions and actions are two very different things so the um so again the displacement event seemed like it like the the switch flipped and there's a displacement event but we know far in advance that there's risk and we take some actions there um one of the things that we that we really noticed about Tanglewood is that there's a mixture there of some some large unforeseen events right they had a fire they had the um a vehicle crash into one of the buildings right so those units were not occupied um but there's also a mixture there of a significant amount of deferred maintenance over time so this this accumulates um and what happens is then you get this rolling timeline of code violation and enforcement procedures so we talked a little bit last uh committee meeting about the the time frames that are required between the violations and the letters and the hearings and the orders and all of that and so if you look in the in the case study and I'll reference specifically in Tanglewood on page five um you can see a case summary where you're really looking at in any given year right so 2020 13 cases and 11 compliances and then 15 cases and seven compliances you know in 2023 it flipped we had nine cases and 17 compliances so they're making a little bit of progress then but then flips back in 2024 so there is there that does become this rolling timeline and some of that is based on U you know when when the cases are started and some of it is based on when cases remain open for a really long time one of the things that we know noticed also at Tanglewood was at various points throughout the process um there was a lack of either engaged or effective on-site Property Management so one of very early on one of the first things that happened was a change in Property Management uh and then um and and what we see and and kind of hear as feedback from our residents and our Advocate Partners is that really heightens conflict it heightens conf lict on the ground between the tenants and the property uh management um which can which can sometimes limit the effectiveness of compliance processes and to us what what what was notable is that that probably is signaling an opportunity for the city to act with stronger enforcement another piece um that that is was particularly challenging at Tanglewood um is the contractual relationship between tenants and property own owners now that's outside of City control but by the time the property sold all of the residents or the majority of the residents there were on month-to-month leases which significantly increases risk for displacement because the property owner gave a 30-day notice of non-renewal which was a lawful action at that time so one thing that we really think is key here is that earlier engagement and education with the tenants could really be helpful um it would we believe it would have probably been helpful in this situation back in the 2223 time frame um and certainly in other situations going forward so the two things that we would really say opportunities and constraints related to Tanglewood one the situation it was absolutely ripe for a more holistic uh proactive partnership approach now I will say that going back through I do feel like our code enforcement team did a great job with the actions that they took and went above and beyond often um and our our inspectors often do when they're meeting with residents um it and we we just had at that time not really contemplated what would it look like to take the INR repair action so we really think this situation was right for a broader approach and that there were probably opportunities through out to enact in rem repair um that still would have been on a selective basis I believe um and but we could have we could have taken a more systematic approach um prioritizing occupied units with more significant violations um and and that that's a complex activity we talked through last time what it takes what it looks like um and we were not we not we were not prepared at that time um to take those steps so part of part of the referral is how do we make sure we're prepared how do we make sure we do have these systems and Partnerships in place um so that when we Face these situations in the future we can take swifter action um one one of the things again however that I will note um is there there are also still legal uncertainties around inam and it's one of the things I mean we talked to um Jerry and his team talked to our code uh code colleagues in other North Carolina cities but Anna and her team also talked to um the attorneys and and the um folks looking at this from the legal lens so they're there other cities are also being cautious in this space um and while there are uncertainties we still think there's opportunity for Action so we'll bring that forward as um recommendations going forward when we meet next time um but the last two points I would say is we we we can't control the contractual relationship between owners and tenants the city's actions could still lead to displacement but if they did it would be at a much smaller and much more manageable scale so when we have a mass displacement event for example we think about in this situation there were 50 households and having to um figure out how to support 50 households all at the same time is different from um mitigating displacement on the front end which hopefully would would be um uh much more manageable and ultimately um less expensive um I I believe although last Point again we talked about this last time not all Associated costs can be recouped only the um specific INR repair actions can be leaned um in addition to to some of the nuisance abatement um that was contracted at the various properties all right next slide okay so and we'll we'll open up and and let you all ask all the down and dirty questions about those deep Dives um but I want to just talk a little bit about what's coming up next so there there is currently public input opportunities um that are uh um ongoing code enforcement has scheduled a community meeting for Thursday February the 13th um you all should have received an invite and and that invitation has gone out to our partners um we've also asked our partners especially those in the room to help us um disseminate that invitation um so we're looking we're looking for um you know in inputs and and from from a variety of perspectives all in one um Place uh and if if folks are unable to participate in that community meeting um there is public input site the link is here on the screen where uh people can go and provide their feedback and thoughts uh and what we plan to do is keep this public input site open and active so that as we start to develop recommendations and bring them forward to you all we can also post them here and um and allow our residents and your constituents to share their feedback on the specific recommendations that you all are discussing um next slide please so our our next steps again will continue Community engagement we have a couple of additional stakeholder focus group meetings scheduled including one that we're working on doing with residents who have specifically been impacted um Robert Dawkins at action NC is helping us to coordinate that and get some folks in the room who who we can um hear from about their experience you know what what what is their experience both of the um challenges but also of the code enforcement process again we'll have the community Round Table meeting February 13th and continuing these opportunities through the public input page and after that our next step because we're going like this with your referral is to bring preliminary recommendations back to Committee in March um and then you'll have an opportunity for um Committee Action either then or at a future meeting and um if there are items that need to move forward for Council consideration so that is what we have planned um and and that's the um extent of today's presentation but we um we want to want to pass it back to you chair for um questions and discussion thank you what I'd like to do is start on the end here council member Brown and then we'll just walk our way through for comments come back you please okay uh council member thank you Madame chairwoman um so uh Rebecca uh and Sean thank you so much for providing this uh homework over the weekend no worries I did get an opportunity to read in depth and that really um it it gives us um sort of a comprehensive picture of what transpired and how in Ram repair is not a solution for everything right um I understood the complexity here especially around hotel and motel um and how it's being um how if there is a systemic failure it's very difficult to go one by one and uh address some of this I'm trying as I was reading through this report uh this study I wasn't clear uh or I wasn't following where so when this Motel was purchased in 2020 uh in it looked like they when it was purchased it already had a lot of open court enforcement issues so uh on sanitary conditions and uh it was referred to us by cmpd so there were 50 plus open cases and then the new owner made all the repairs uh to bring it up to to bring it to compliance uh I know you talked about there was a red flag there can you elaborate on that and how they were able to obtain occupancy permit so I'll I'll talk a little bit about my perspective and then I'll let Jerry speak to it from the actual code enforcement perspective so one one of the one of the things when we think about red flag right for us um in in that time frame up up until that time frame this establishment had been regulated by meinberg County under environmental health so it wasn't even under our jurisdiction but once that permit was denied so they applied for permit from the county and they were denied the permit was it the occupancy permit that you're referring to no it's the hotel permit yeah oh okay yeah so so they're they're yeah they're they permit to operate as a hotel uh um which in includes things like serving food and me I don't think they were doing that at that time but um so for us that that in in retrospect that that's a good flag for us so when when a establishment comes in essentially into our jurisdiction uh it's it's a good idea to get out there and take a look and get Baseline conditions right so in this situation what happened is it came to us as referral from cmpd um we could have potentially and again this is during the pandemic and it's five years ago um so I don't want to give the impression that I that I think our team did anything um you know out of out of order um but it's you when you look at things in retrospect right that's where you get the lessons learned so to me it's an opportunity to say when when establishments basically come into our jurisdiction we can go out take a look get Baseline conditions um but then I'll let Jerry talk a little bit more about if I may follow Madam M chair Okay so uh so it was under County's jurisdiction because of the environmental violations yeah uh but they had to come to the city to get a hotel motel permit uh no the the um meinberg County through environmental health regulates and permits hotels and um so they they they come under our jurisdiction when they are no longer permitted by mclurg county oh God okay so at that time when the permit was uh they were they were given a green flag there was no inspection done by us not by us no so when they fall off the meberg County radar in the past they haven't been referring those to us we got the referral through cmpd but through this referral and starting those conversations with meur County going forward we're going to work with them so they can alert us when those fall off the radar and we can check them out yeah because that's what I was trying to make stance of that it's something happened between 2021 and you know obviously they got a permit to operate so it seemed to me as I was reading this timeline that they made all the necessary repairs to bring the property into compliance but then in 2024 uh the nonprofit was there and somewhere there was a disconnect between the ownership and the nonprofit and and then condition of the property started deteriorating yeah and we we don't really know the situation with that nonprofit so I do want to be cautious about that I mean we're also operating off of a couple of news reports just like anyone else um but what we do know is that when when the owner abandoned the property at that point the situation really quickly deteriorated s so I think as part of our overall um process and policy recommendations right I I would like to see um us working with the county right and I think it's already you you already identified that um so that um both the city and the count is working in collaboration um to identify some of these red flags ahead of time and even those items that are that are more process Improvement we're going to bring those back to you as part of the package of recommendations because again we know this isn't just about what actions we take within code enforcement but it's really the the um the whole system so um than you for for um kind of um as Mar proam would say double clicking on that one and we'll make sure that it's included in the recommendations yeah and the last question um Madam chairwoman um so there was also as I was reading through this uh I saw that where it seem where in in the report it says there were smoke detectors in rooms that were removed by uh residents so is that I guess how do you address that uh and who ultimately is the property owner still responsible even if it was removed like H H I guess how do you bring that into compliance so the removal of smoking carbon monoxide detectors is a 48 hour violation so we give the property owners 48 hours to correct those our internal policy now is if they fail to do so the city gives those out to the residents to install But to answer your question yes it is still the owner's responsibility so even if it's removed in this case like it was they were removed in the study you know you're there are some pictures and you know you detail it's a very detailed detailed report I really it this really gives a clear perspect picture of what happened what transpired uh so it's still the owner's responsibility and it will still fall under that open case yes yes the violation will still be open however like I said we'll Supply that smok and carbon because we don't want people to go without those right so that would be part of inrm repair or that would be different currently it's not part of in repair it's just part of our policy that we got up now okay so that is something that will go against as a lean on that property right the cost that we incur right now no we just apply those but in the future if that's done as part of inam inam then that would go yeah I'd like to see that okay that's all I have I have more questions but I don't want to take up committee's time so I I you know I have at least 18 questions I'll I will sit down with you and that's um that's only a few compared to usual so I I look forward to having that more conversation thank you I echo my colleague was saying thank you for a very detailed report as well as what was presented prior to and Mr Green I look forward to our upcoming conversation Miss heer I have a couple of questions written down but I also want to share with my colleagues on committee a conversation that I had with Miss Hefner was a question around at the front end when we're noticing these these violations one let's look at for those who are able and ready trying to get those individuals transitioned into new housing because the other challenges that we run into that we don't always talk about is you may have been living someplace for 6 months or more and you've not paid rent but also during that same time you haven't necessarily saved that monthly rent that you would have been paying so then when it comes time for relocation and we're trying to identify Partners you still have to have funds to move you still need to have funds to pay this new rent and everything that goes along with that so we're thinking about some of the limitations that code has as we continue to have conversations around how to make code more supported through language looking at those opportunities from when the conversations first start seeing if we can through our partners so one of the questions that I have from n is who actually tracks our service provider referral so we it was mentioned where we've had service providers those providers refer individuals to some of these complexes and supposed to provide additional Services who is actually tracking that on the front end to make sure it's happening so it happens in two ways the answer to who is house the city's Housing Services but it happens in two ways one is through asset management and the other is through our contract monitoring so if it is a if it is a contract that the city has with um with a vendor you know one of our partners then those those activities are monitored routinely um by the person who manages that contract now can we do a better job of going further in depth yes so I think I think you know when we had that initial conversation you really got straight to the heart of some of the places where we can um uh do a better job ensuring that accountability um but we do have mechanisms in place for it um and it happens mostly through contract monitoring and through asset management and um you one of the one of the things that we have in place is a partnership um to support relocation of uh residents who are impacted by code enforcement activities and through this process we really have identified that that the partnership isn't working it's on on on both sides and so you know we've we've started taking a look at what does that contract need to look like and what changes need to be made um and so this this really has been a lot of learning learning for us on the process side um but to your to your specific question if we if we have those contracts in place then we as the city are responsible for monitoring what we don't do is track when referrals are made to other partners that we're not actually supporting um supporting that work um one one of the um uh ideas that we've been talking about and and so this is a little preview of recommendations but we really think there's an opportunity on the very front end for the first inspection when our housing inspectors go and meet with residents to do a little bit more of a structured um you quick couple of questions that we can then do resource and referral just like we do with our community health workers for rehab or any of our other city um services and so um if we then had that contractual service in place we could do the followup and and be able to report back on what the outcomes of those referrals and services are so the other part of the conversation that you and I have had is one of the challenges we have with these private entities is even if we were able to get in and let's say we were able through our partner database which will be another question but the partner database if we were able to get have people relocated there still is there a way for us City when a building has been identified for us to notify Community because you still they're still leasing others are still stepping in the situation because the unit that they may be shown doesn't reflect everything that's going on and if you're new here you're transitioning you not you don't necessarily know that all of this is happening do we have any ability or any role in that conversation we don't have a mechanism for that right now but we do have ability and I think it will be partly for you all to discuss if there's a role for the city to play there um this is this lamp lighter of course was very extreme but one of the challenges we had with lamp lighter is that it was still posted on all of the rental sites uh I mean Anna Anna even spent an afternoon calling calling you know the the corporate um owners of of those kind of sites trying to see if there was a mechanism by which we could get those postings taken down and we couldn't find a way um so that that's very extreme but for something like a tangle wood where if we're moving if we're helping people to find new housing and then that's creating vacancies um you I think your question is is there a way for us to make it more um um known to people that these these conditions are happening on the ground so I think we have a opportunity with the relationship that you have with Mr Dawkins and others for helping to utilize their resources to get the information out because unfortunately or fortunately it is a very small I.E connected community that are utilizing this cuz one of the other challenges is we had a major displacement issue a number of years ago but for some in the community the way it feels is that we moved you from horrible to horrible and within a year or two you're back in this situation verses us having a running tally of all those that we fund all those developers of Noah and everything else keeping a running list that is updated I don't care okay I do care minimum quarterly of vacancies that they have so that we are able to actually put people into better situations versus we help relocate you from this horrible situation there is not only financial but a a mental toll that is taken government we don't necessarily have the ability to step in that part of the conversation that's where our partners that's where the county comes in but there is a mental toad of living in certain circumstances and then being put into other circumstances that are similar to where we just moved you from versus actually putting you into a position of two things one you also get connect into our Workforce Development which we're putting a lot of funding and support into and we get you into better quality housing so that starts working on different Health disparity issues that go along with it what I would love 2025 and Beyond is that we not have a case because unfortunately we have a number of older buildings we're going to see similar again how we respond to it I think could be very different with one on the front end getting people relocated to better because we send whether we recognize it or not we're sending a subliminal messaging of this is what you deserve that is not our Ro that is not our intentionality in no shape form or fashion I do not believe that that's anyone's intentionality but we also say our reality is what we see and what we feel so while we're having these discussions and looking at potential opportunities I think that would be a great space for us to look at for these Partners 20 years more what is your vacancy you need to keep us updated so that we can be better prepared on the front end to help with this but thank you for also letting me know about we we can't do it not to lease but we can utilize our partners to help us with that thank you madam chair and what I would just add here is this is where the work that you all have done to increase affordable housing funding and your funding policy come into play so when we talk about you have you have created capacity and opportunity for this in part because of things in your funding policy that talk about um set aside units and prioritization for vulnerable populations and so um we have the opportunity moving forward from that policy meaning anything that you approve going forward uh where we'll be working with our um developers to ensure that we do have a mechanism to help people um that have been impacted who either are vulnerable populations or have been impacted by displacement in charlet and those are the two two things that are in your policy a mechanism that to then move them into housing that's coming online so you have that opportunity I'm just going to say we're not going to move fast enough to your liking um uh not not for lack of trying um but there's some there's some complexity to how we get that set up um so you may be hearing me say for a while we're working on it um uh but we understand the urgency and we really will work on that with urgency thank you thank you m chair councilman Johnson thank you madam chair I have a lot to say and a lot of questions so we'll probably need to meet offline also but it's but yeah well no but she's but this group I want to thank you both chair M Madam chair and vice chair because we're really digging down deep into the issue we're not just checking the box to say we talked about it this has been two meetings and you all the speed on which you're getting things done is so impressive it's an honor to be on this committee I I remember before I was on Council watching the displacement of what's Arbor not Lake Arbor right so this is an an issue that's needed to be addressed for a long time I I sent the uh link to Dr pen I hope she's watching I hope you're watching Dr pen or um but I I just have some questions you said that the owner walked away or he abandoned the property what does that mean Rebecca the owner turned off the power and the water and was after that almost entirely inaccessible um not not to be found anywhere in Charlotte and um we were at that point um primarily communicating with uh another entity that had a um a sale agreement what is it called that so who was planning to purchase the property um but the the owner of record actually we had um was property they had they took Property Management off the site they um you they turned off the water and the power you stopped collecting trash and and was also then no longer accessible um to us yeah they cut off all communication with City staff okay so what's the consequence of that the complexity and the mass displacement event that occurred at lamp lighter I mean there's there's mean the legal consequence for the owner are they still able to sell the property is this something that we can well I we we were not privy to the terms of the potential purchase so I I don't know I don't know what the status of the potential sale was between the owner and the potential purchaser okay I'm just uh so if if the city incurred cost displacement cost utility cost cost are we planning to send an invoice to that owner I mean there has to be just Consequence the the the items the items that or the activities that that we did um at lamp lighter the only only ones that are um can be placed as leans against the property is the um contracts for nuisance abatement so um when we when we sent contractors out to clean up the trash that had accumulated for example those can be leaned against the property and either will be or have been and we actually continue to do that we've done it a couple of times um but the activities related to um supporting the residents um you know turning the power and water back on long enough to to to work through the displacement event all of those are completed at cost to the city okay okay I understand so I would say that we need to send a strong message to this owner and other owners that that's not tolerated here in the city people are getting There's A Tale of Two Cities we know that people are hurting and with actions like this people will continue to hurt we have to send a message that that's just not acceptable this is taxpayer dollars um funding this landlord to just go off and do this again so I would say I know this committee right I would that we want to see consequences be that in Rim I don't know if we need to expand the the in Rim violations that can be eligible I guess for in Rim but we have to do something if it's a lawsuit or it's something people were harmed this is negligence so I'm sure there's a a I'm sure that that's something we can look at I hope um we have hotels or motels at 85 in Sugar Creek that I don't know how many violations there are when you talk about at risk I don't know if there's a certain number of violations we're looking at but I hope that that's high on our risk list that we're taking a look at and when you talk about notice is there a way that we could publicize um Co enforcement violations if there's a list of like frequent flyers or something like that if so that people are aware of that I don't know if that's an option I'll I'll just note and this is probably a little bit different from what your asking but all of our code violations are accessible as open data so you can both go onto the city's open data portal and you download download everything but you can also go onto the code enforcement website um and uh type in an address and find out what not what what violations and how many at a given location now that it's a little bit different because even even at the staff level it can be hard to aggregate right you there's four Parcels for this community and this number of violations um but the the general underlying data is publicly accessible okay I've always thought if we could have a list of landlords that I don't I don't know there's certain number of violations or that the because there are7 people relocating here per day you know that's the latest statistic so if there's a place that that um potential renters can look to be able to be protected I don't know how we can do that legally but if there's something there and even if it's the code violations that would that would be good I think I think it's unfortunate Tanglewood as an apartment complex the the the motels are bad enough but when there are apartment complexes that close that were affordable when we take those offline so is there something that we could could have done for the owner to assist them we have uh and I I don't know if it's negligence or if it was a lack of being able to afford the maintenance you mentioned that it's difficult for hotels and motels to to maintain the property you know when someone's living there versus you know just a an occupant that's staying there so I don't know if there was some fun if there's small developers that are at the risk of of losing the property or displacement when it is if it's a matter of money you know council member ashme asked a question about smoke detectors when the tenants are taking those down you know and it's a owner's responsibility you know that's just a recurring cost when people are taking them out just to maybe want to smoke right that's a thing right oh so you know so but you know so um yeah so how can we help the owners um to avoid that um another and I and we can talk about this offline mobile home parks we have a mobile home park people that's another Trend that we're seeing developers so I'd like to know the legality uh of what the tenant rights or the owner's rights because many of these and I'm learning from the one in District Four many of those people own the trailer so I'd like to talk offline I've sent this to Anthony Fox what are their rights you know should so that's an area that's a vulnerable area right now also um yeah I'd like to see a list of the inim specific violations I think we should expound upon that if we're able to um also the public hearing or the public meeting I want to make sure that's posted on social media so folks can see where that is and we talked about the mobile home park the the law has that changed has the law changed to protect homeowners excuse me Hotel owners during the during the co there was no bright line bright line I think that was the word no bright line of when they went from occupants to Residents right like if you has that changed okay can I get some the law was changed um to essentially say that anybody I'm sorry Isaac stel with the city attorney's office um there wasn't a bright line rule but there was a a statute that was passed at the general assembly that said anybody in in a hotel less than 90 days is not considered a tenant so 90 days seems to be the bright line rule at this point Isaac and I worked very closely during the during the during the pandemic when you were at legal a it's good to see you again com me too thank you all right that we can talk offline this thank you for your work this seems like 8 years worth of work you know in just a few months so thank you this is important I I would just say Jerry and his team especially pulling together those case studies for y'all since since the last meeting um incred incredible work he he always does incredible work thank you thank you for your help okay that's all I have thank you council member Brown thank you madam chair I was y'all got it teammates colleagues team players committee members amazing thank you um chair and vice chair and of course council member Johnson and ashir so just a great team but so I don't need to repeat what they said because we have uh great minds alike and they do align but for the Racket and for the sake of people that are watching I do want to um our constituents that are looking at us I wanted to go back to um the residents themselves um you know when they were put in this situation uh I just well the fir well before I go back to the residents they're most important to me you know but before I but before I talk about the residents I want to go back to the owners that just walked away I I took a lot of notes here but they've already been discussed but I do want it's not okay to do this to people in the community and people that are watching us and getting their information through the media they don't care if we did it the county did it or someone around the block that it we just the fingers get pointed back at us and so the you we responded in a great way and stepped up immediately um you know getting the lights back on the water working outside of normal business hours I do want to state that and I appreciate all of the work that was done but what happens to these folks do they get to continue to do business in our city I'm just I just want to know that that's an answer or something that we have to really cuz good measures press down run it over and these are not good measures and so I just want to know if we're going to reward that bad unprofessional business ethics Behavior or whatever it looks like to um the community I I really really want to know if they could be banned from doing business in our city because they don't deserve to do business in the city what they said to us was that they do not care about us and they do not care about the families that was inside of lamp lighter or Tanglewood if it was the same situation same for them but I want to go back to they definitely don't want them doing business if I ever if if anything came across my eyesight with their name on it it would be a big fat no we we can bring you back some information about what what the legal parameters are there be very interested to see what the legal parameters are if there are any or if we're just letting people abuse their power to people that are powerless that's my main concern and then I would love to see the residents out front a resident Council let's not do anything without the people that are directly affected and I'm just making eye contact with you Rebecca cuz you're amazing just looking at you you know you've done great work but I would love to see the residents brought in and be at the top of the decision making and I would like to see some of the residents that go to work every day speaking um versus some of the residents that may have challenges that they can't get over um and and they feel powerless in that situation so residents that go to work every day their children are getting off the school bus they're com in there they're calling at their home I spoke on this before IR regardless as what to the condition look like they called it their home I would also like to see if we could align like employment and work force development with um a situation that occur like this and what type of stabilization location Center um we could plan for uh if anything like this were to happen again because if we don't know if these these residents uh the owners could go and do it again maybe they have some more property that that that's in our city and it could very well be on the verge of happening again so I love the work that we're doing um hindsight this 2020 it's gone we can't do anything about it but moving forward and for the next Council that's going to be here and people in the future what can we do to be proactively making sure that we have solid plans and an agenda so that we're ready cuz it's just Nation the community didn't see that the rumors started about tangle wood the rumors started about lamp lighter and next thing you know city council County city leaders we get the blame for it and we're out on the front lines and it's like what did you do about tangle wood and what you do about lamp lighter that was that was terrible what happened so the media put their story together even though we're working behind the scenes to put parameters up to put obstacles up to make sure that it doesn't happen but again we talk about power and we talk about people that go to work every day and so we put people that are that have all this affluence and they influential and they have all this power over people that go to work that are trying to come up out of whatever situation they're in we got to make sure that we put parameters up so that that don't happen and just EO and the you know the team members the committee members so it'd be very interesting to find out what the people that did this and left this damage behind and and and the footprints they're ugly Footprints and one of you erase those Footprints and make sure that they they can't come back and put those Footprints down again to the chair thank you Council Johnson Johnson I'm sorry counc Brown thank you um Madam chair and thank you for the these reports really really great information um I just have a couple of points and first I do want to say Miss Hefner you know I know I called you very bright and early the morning around the um the Tanglewood apartment's issue and your team was fantastic in um activating our emergency protocols and getting uh people out in that Community immediately right and so our response um to having these um eviction notices placed I think was was excellent so I do want to give you some uh commitment there was great the response however in the case of Tanglewood you know that property was then sold right it was sold for a little bit less than the the property tax value uh and yet it had over $125,000 worth of fines Cil fines due to the lack of Maintenance and that's that and I've already expressed this to you directly Miss Hefner but that's a major concern concern that I have when we we know that um in this case it was an apartment but we know that we have apartments that are out there we know that we have um motels that are out there that are used for affordable housing we know that and it's all across the city um but for the owner to be able to sell this property um for over $8 million and yet have allowed it to decline in that condition condition that it was in I mean you can see the photos and go out there and see it was terrible no no human should should have to live in that type of condition but my concern is that you know our our civil penalties effectively become toothless um because it's meant to be a way to enforce code enforcement and yet you know this owner is able to go and sell this property and and move on right um um I think we have to figure out how we can navigate around that and put some guard rails up in the future the um the other piece that I I have some concerns about and you made a great statement which I think is insightful which is like these motels are not meant to be used as permanent housing right it's a different type of wear and tear different type of Maintenance Etc yet I'll just use district one for example you know in our Corridor of opportunity within our playbook for the for Sugar Creek there are a number of motels that yes are being used as affordable housing but are being used for nefarious activities and now I think it's around 11 the number is 11 along that Corridor two things what can what if anything can we do to be proactive about those good motels that are are really used for affordable housing right you go on that Corridor see people getting off the bus in their uniforms going into some of these motels but on the opposite side for those motel that are known for nefarious activities how can we drive home um from a through a c code enforcement perspective um to double down on the M the maintenance of these buildings cuz they're just as deteriorated um and I'm wondering what we can do to have deeper more strict enforcement which would help us potentially deal with some of the activities going on in in some of these dwellings any um any perspective on that well one they obviously have to fall off that County registration um the meberg County Environmental Health registration for it to come under our jurisdiction so by making that connection now with the county we can be alerted when they fall off so we can be proactive and start going out checking those those hotels before anything blows up okay yeah okay great and then the other piece that we're you we're not to recommendations yet and part of it is there's some parts here that we're really struggling with and one of them is in in the situations like you're referencing when we could enact INR repair and it would be a cycle it would be you know every week something new comes up and um and so in those situations where code enforcement isn't really alone the answer and that's where we're talking about what other Partnerships do we need to have in place and so we hope to be able to bring you back some recommendations next time um that address some of those situations and I will also just say right now we're not going to have an answer for everything but we're we're planning to bring me back some recommendations that will significantly improve the system yeah I I would just say in closing that I my sense of being in community speaking to Residents um there are there are other lamp lighters in and Tangle Woods out there and it's just a matter of time right um before a light switch is split and we have to deal with it again right so to the extent that we can get out in front ront of it um we're going to be helping ourselves thank you madam chair thank you um we are going to go one more round two minute items and then uh we'll hear the last next steps just a recap of the next steps what we can expect so I'll turn it over to con brown thank you madam chair and I like the way you're conducting yourself and your business young lady uh but I don't even need two minutes I just want to speak in reference to um speaking to a resident that that called and watching was wanting me to make sure that I said something about the income restrictions that they may have and some of them being uh just as impacted and having blemishes on their background that would prevent them from getting permanent housing um something for us to think about and how we could curve that and then um Mar protim I I can't say it enough like there are some more lamp lighters and um tangle Woods out here so we got to make sure because if not then it's like okay you guys didn't prepare you knew this was going to happen again and we're having meetings about it and we on record meeting about it so we definitely want to take a look and see how we can get out front be proactive and stop it so thank you for all your hard work uh councilwoman Brown um raised a very important uh point because some of these hotels and motels are housing some of our most vulnerable population especially the ones that might have eviction records where they have barriers to permanent finding permanent housing so in our approach we have to be very thoughtful about uh how do we because our end goal is to not lose that property our end goal is to make sure we preserve that but that is habitable that is safe right and and and how do you find that right balance where uh if the pro housing providers are getting notices after notices for INR repair are we are we ultimately Expediting the sell of that property ultimately hedge funds byy it uh makes the repairs we see that all the time and the next thing you see is the rents are much higher right are we so I I think we need to be thoughtful about uh a a solution here uh in terms of the recommendations what is our end goal our end goal is to ensure that we increase our affordable housing stock we build more but then we preserve what we got and we don't lose more uh so I think if we can keep that bigger picture in perspective as we are looking at recommendations to ensure we are also providing safe and affordable housing that's all I have thank you [Laughter] thank you Vice chair thank you madam chair team you all are amazing you get it that is the biggest part of it I am going to disagree with my colleague the end goal for me is not not losing a slum property that is not my end goal the end goal is not for me to pay a bad landlord $4.5 million for a property for us to then and turn around and put more money in to reinvest the end goal for me is to get our community out of these SLO conditions into better housing and connected to our Workforce Development so we've had conversations and we have and thank you council member Brown because I actually asked this question two three weeks ago regarding those we know inherently if you are in a certain Financial cycle of lower wages you are going to have a hit to your credit score but you're also the one that's going to be the most vulnerable because you're paying $150 each time for these application fees but then you don't actually move into quality housing we can help with some of that we don't have to do everything I don't think it's the city's role to do everything but I also do not want to say that the end goal is not to lose the property I want that crop property gone but I want that owner of that crap property because Market the market all allowed you to go out and get a loan to get this and then you not maintaining it it should not be the government's responsibility Anna we put a lot on your plate and I'm going reiterate find a legal way for us to hold these dog on companies and these investors financially responsible for the money that we're having to pay out to have our community relocated because there has to be some City out there in these United States all 51 currently that we have that has figured out how to recoup their tax dollars in a way to put these Bad actors on notice and also let it be known that you cannot come into the city of Charlotte and think that you can do anything and it is okay I don't know if that was a minute thank you and we'll close our comments with M thank you yeah I'd like to list of landlords uh within the past two years or whatever that statute of limitations is um that that the city or taxpayers have had to bail out essentially because there should be a consequence also I know we're not going to talk about the high level things that could fix this like inclusionary zoning or raising minimum wage in the state but I agree with um we have to take a look at um helping those vulnerable populations such as those Justice involved and eviction records I heard somebody say eviction is to black women with criminal records are to black men so it's up to us really to to really take a look I know we talked about or we researched eviction expungement years ago if we could pull that information out um and I I would also say we should think about those um developers that are getting tax credit dollars or money from the city that we should have some kind type of standard to help those who are most vulnerable we did it with the source of income discrimination so these are areas that we can take a look at also I would ask in the recommendations that we take a look at additional funding to crisis assistant Ministries if you look at both of these displacements crisis assistant Ministries was the displacement project or project coordinator and it's I don't believe that they receive additional funding for this specific task so I think that the fact that we can lean on crisis every time that we need to consider that and when we're funding them that's all I have to say thank you I just clarify that the work that crisis assistance does with us is under a contract they're compensated as the project manager um that's not to say that they're compensated for every activity under the umbrella but it is done as a contracted service with the city thank you thank you ladies as usual it's been a pleasure um motion to close second well before we do that I just want to make sure that we give our our staff a chance to add anything or what should we expect or if we're good to go for right now we'll just see each other next time yeah so I think we've got they're like we got enough we've got we've got a lot of questions to answer and a lot of recommendations to incorporate so just to reiterate our next steps will be meeting with um some residents who have been impacted um we'll have the community stakeholder meeting on the 13th we'll um at that point bring P pull together some initial recommendations which we'll bring back to you for review and discussion at your next meeting thank you it's been moved and properly seconded all those in favor of closing thank you great n [Music] the