[Music] budget work session. I'll hand it over. Good afternoon. This is our third budget work session for the FY26 budget. Today we have Saudia Satar, a budget and management services director to bring some follow-up data to some questions that have been previously asked by council. Yes. So, good afternoon um city council members and um mayor Sadia Satar here with budget and management services. Um after last uh you know Monday's budget work session, we had two follow-ups from city council that we have included as part of the backup and board dogs. Um and that had to do with uh a uh information related to workers uh comp you know claims um across departments citywide and that information has been provided to all of you. And then the second was results of the separation allowance survey that was conducted by our human resources department with Raleigh fire. Um those results should also have been uploaded in boards uh for your uh information. And then last but not least, we also had someformational um anformational items related to fourth ward that we also added in board docs. I do not have a presentation for these items. So, but um you know our HR director Charnell Jones is here and other DEB department directors are here if you have any further comments or questions. Can you kind of go over the uh fourth award information? Um, so yes, I I would be happy to call uh assistant city manager Evan Raleigh to provide further information. And then after that, for the record, I asked you to talk about the survey and those results. Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council. Uh, so I'm happy to kind of review briefly the uh summary of the fourth ward. um commitments that the council has or the staff has made uh over the last year. So, you'll see this noted again in the memo that's attached to the agenda item. But briefly, um, uh, last, I guess September and August, end of August, early September, um, staff provided lots of support to, uh, Miss Rainey and others, organizers of the fourth ward, uh, historical recognition event that was held. Um, that effort spanned many different departments. It involved input and contributions from our parks, recreation and cultural resources department, from staff to uh facility the waiver of facilities fees um equipment tables, chairs and and uh things of that nature. We have participation I believe there were some panel sessions that were scheduled throughout the week. So our I know our planning development uh department uh participated. There was a celebration event that occurred um that was held. I think the culminating event that was hosted at the performing arts center. Uh that event was a recipient of a $10,000 community grant um that the um convention center staff provided to the organizers of that event um as part of their community uh community support fund. Um, and just recently, uh, I know that there's has been some additional requests that, uh, parks, recreation, and cultural resources are are, uh, working to support. I believe the total value of that is, uh, estimated somewhere in the thousand neighborhood. The total support that the city's contribution, um, to that event that I spoke about last August and September, uh, I think we we put the dollar value at roughly 30,000 between monetary and incon support. Uh I should also note that the city is also looking at other opportunities to recognize the history of the fourth ward. Um of course the Chavistic Strowway is currently under development. Um will be soon. Uh we've hired a in in the process of hiring a firm to lead the the planning design of that effort. Um we have every intention to use that opportunity to celebrate the history of the fourth ward. Uh in addition to that um we are also looking at opportunities within the context of the uh convention center and Red Hat relocation projects for opportunities to celebrate that history. Uh so it's something that we're keen on. But those are I believe several of the things that again are referenced and highlighted in the in the memo that was shared with you. But happy to answer any other questions you may have. Yeah, I just want to uh thank uh our staff for really providing that support last year and I know the events meant a lot to the community and were really fabulous and well attended. Um and I'm looking forward to seeing how we can incorporate the history of the fourth ward in the convent convention center expansion and the Chavis sticks strollway. I think those are both incredible opportunities. Um I do plan to follow up um with the Ms. Rainey and the fourth ward um group to just better understand any additional needs that they're looking for. But I think if we were going to put anything specific in the budget, it would have to be for the following year. But I'm hopeful we'll still be able to find some things as we go along in this next year um you know that we already have funds for that can be dedicated to telling that history. I know this is in uh Council Member Harrison's district, but I do also want to echo uh continue conversation with Miss Rainey and others uh that live um in the area. Uh maybe because I do a lot of restorative justice work. Uh it tends to have three parts. uh to apologize, to acknowledge, and atone. Uh I'd like to go a little bit deeper to understand as we go forward. Uh as we have a conversation to co-create whatever the next step is. Uh right now, I'm very pleased to hear that there are efforts through the strollway, the red hat, uh other opportunities. Just want to make sure Miss Rainey is not here that we have some future conversations just to understand that process. uh that atonement can take many shapes. I've done a lot of projects. Uh just want to understand we not recognize or celebrate the history but acknowledge some of the damage that have been done so that we certainly don't we want to address past harm but we also not don't want to create any new harm. So, I look forward to ongoing conversations uh with the council, particularly council member Harrison, her district, and Miss Rainey and others to find the appropriate path forward. But I'm encouraged the willingness to work with the community to acknowledge a very important part and community uh in this city's history. Okay. Thank you. So, I think we So, now we can go back to councelor. Uh yeah, definitely. Thank you for the information and I just saw Miss Rainey earlier today and I'm sure you know again it's all about communication how we communicate what's going on and also just sharing to the public the work that we are doing as far as this fire and the survey if we can share some insights on that and where we are there and the results. Absolutely. So we do have HR director Charnell Jones in the audience and I'd like for her to come and tackle this. Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor and council. Um, as you recall, at the last budget work session, we requested that HR conduct a survey to uniform fire in regards to increased salary versus the separation allowance. So, on um Thursday, on last Thursday, um June 5th, a survey went out asking Uniform Fire um a couple of questions um and you see them in your packet, but one of the questions was, "Are you willing to receive a general wage increase of 2.2% instead of the 11% in order to fund a separation allowance benefit?" And based on the individuals that responded to that survey um at this time, 67% said no that they were not willing to receive a reduced salary. Um the next question and 33% said yes. Um the next question that we asked um are you willing for firefighter pay to be less than the market today in future years to fund the separation allowance? 72% said no and 28% said yes. Um we also asked them to rank in regards to what they felt was uh most important as it relates to a total rewards package that was compensation separation allowance and benefits and most um made compensation a priority. And the survey came down this morning at 10:00 a.m. Thank you. I don't know if it'd be right for you, but could someone also just describe the workplace um uh injury claim data and some of the results there? Sorry if I have that in front of me. [Music] Just one moment. I'm gonna do a lifeline to Ryan if he could hand me the memo because I don't have the workers comp data in front of me. Sorry. Um, as you see in the chart, it lists out the number of claims that we've had by the departments that you requested. Um, I know that you asked, we provided this information previously. And then you asked for a update for a calendar year for 2025. You can see that has been updated and it says 2025 year to date. um the number of claims by department. Um we also listed out the number of employees in each of those departments based on um budgeted positions that we have. And then um overall that percentage shows um the percent of claims based on the FTEES that percentage if you look at the number of positions that are budgeted for that department. And just um to say out loud what I'm seeing, it looks like the highest percentage of claims would be with police and then solid waste services, then fire, then perhaps parks. I if I've got that right and and there's others, too, but those are at least the top four. Correct. If you're looking at the percentages based on the number of positions in that particular department. Yes. And just to confirm my understanding, these are the ones that are the numbers that we're seeing like the actual counts. Those are the ones that are approved that were like approved as actual workplace injuries. Those are every claim that we have received in regards to they may have been received funding or it may have been also um a reported claim, first aid also may have been part of that, but yes. Okay. So, so if like Yes. All that are approved. Correct. So, if they were like ultimately denied, they're still included in this case. Okay. Yeah. Councelor Jones. Uh, thank you so much. Going back to the fire uh separation allowance survey, how many responses did you receive? I think that's listed in the memo. um received responses from 509 participants. So there this is just saying that each one had one opportunity to so it was checked so that this isn't multiple and I don't know if I see communications because we did put the survey through public input but as far as I'm aware when I confirmed with them they could only respond once. They could only respond once. Okay. Thank you. Other questions for Welcome. Thank you. Um, other questions for staff. No, thank you. Um, you answer my questions and also we have the information but also wanted the public to also hear the information because not everybody goes and looks in board docks. Um, so definitely thank you for that information and um, I have my thoughts as far as the budget. Um, you know, I think the we did a staff really looked deep and hard on how we can help show that we care without raising taxes and that's across the board across the entire city. Um, the thing about a budget is everybody doesn't get everything they ask for. Um, and it's hard, you know, it's very difficult and and a lot of challenges that that I think the city faces and that, you know, our management office facing trying to put all this together. But the key is how do we continue to move forward as a unit and as a team. And I pray as we come out of this budget that we are able to continue to come together and remember we are the city of Raleigh, the city of Raleigh. those who are currently here, those who are retired from the city, and how we come together and what we do is we serve the people. And I want to thank all employees for what you do cuz it's true service. If you could go out and get paid by the open market, I know you could be paid a lot more, but you do this because you care. You do this because you have a passion for your job. And for that, I say thank you. And at the appropriate time, I will move for approval of the budget. Right. Thank you, Councelor Branched. Other commentary? Uh, Mayor Barton? Uh, I'll just say in general, uh, moving through the community over the last few days, um, there are a lot of folks, a lot of citizens and residents who are very complimentary of the city manager and the budget staff for being able to find a way to do, you know, 9 to 11% increases without raising taxes. I think folks think that you are a unicorn. you and your shop uh you have a magic wand or you figured out some secret sauce, a secret formula, but I know a lot of folks um that I've encountered over the last few days um are very very complimentary of the the work you and your team were able to do to be able to to come up with a budget where um you know staff uh is uh appears to be valued more so than our partners in the county and the state where they're talking about 1% or 2% uh increases. And so I just want to kind of pass on some of the um the positive um and complimentary um remarks that I've heard for you and your your budget team on the fantastic job that you've been able to do. Okay. Yep. Um Councelor Jones and then Harrison. I just have before we go on uh to approving a budget, I'd love to speak about transportation. I have heard from some uh folks just wanting to discuss more about the transportation being 15% um over year-over-year. And so I'd just like uh if we can have that discussion really quickly if somebody from transit is here. Um yeah, I think uh yes. So we do have staff from transportation here as well as assistant city manager Michael Moore for any questions you may have. Appreciate. Good afternoon. Love to hear your questions. I have staff here from our fiscal group in transit and also from our operations group. So, um I will probably have to defer to them significantly, but anxious to hear your questions. Sure. No. Um the question that I received just from a community member is just what what is the reason for the 15% increase year-over-year? How are the fact that we just returned to fairs? How is that going? Can we have just an update a little bit on that publicly? Yeah. So, maybe I can maybe I can provide a little context for for that question. Um so we did just return to fairs um but uh staff um you'll probably recall we also were asked to look at sort of a a low income assistance program. We've had a large uptake in that. A number of uh number of folks have are participating. We already had a number of folks uh who already rode at a free or reduced fairs. U children under 17 have the Raleigh go pass. Seniors over 55 and older have half fair. So we've already have a number of folks that are on free or reduced fairs. Um so we've al seen a large uptake in that. We've also seen that extended to our paratransit program. You'll also remember that a large part of our funding comes from service enhancements that come out of the wake transit plan. So uh this year you'll see in that budget um about $5.5 million of service enhancements uh increased service on Capitol Boulevard, new service on uh Falls of News and Atlantic. uh some other smaller uh increments there as well. But uh we've there's that pieces um that you've seen included. You'll also see that we have uh under our agreements with rapdev our operator regularly just increases um inflationary increases for both hourly rates for hours of operation and hourly rates for I mean for their just base services. So that applies to both our um fairs for fixed route but also for our paratransit service. Um and as we increase, you know, as we increase fairs, we also I mean increase uh hours, we also increase that hourly operational rate. Um so you'll you're seeing the culmination of that kind of come together. But we're basically providing a service that uh is in improving year after year. So cost of going up year after year as well just on normal inflation, the same things we see every day in our own lives. So So that's a little bit of context. I don't know if you have anything more specific that I could help you with. No, no, no, nothing more specific. I just wanted to be able to explain that that's everything that you just said whether that's spanning from our um programs that we are offering for free service our just regular inflationary costs that are going up um that encompasses that entire 15% that's why we are year-over-year um higher than we were I think the other thing that uh we had talked about this earlier uh that we are expanding service on both Capitol Atlantic and falls of the noose and I just think that's a really strong statement that we're investing there given yeah um the congestion that we're seeing in that section of the city and the lack of other available tools. Right. No, I appreciate that. So, those things to hit on to be able to explain that to the to the public is uh well received. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Um yes. Yeah. Just um two things to note. I was looking for some follow-up information, not today. Um, but I just got I think a couple requests from residents and uh the first was just to better understand uh our benefits for city employees and the various programs and how they compare to other um similar benchmark uh communities. And I don't know if you have that data somewhere easily to put in a manager's report or if that would be a big request. Um but that was something that was was made and I thought would be helpful for future conversations among council. I mean, I'll defer to the city manager here. So, we've kind of answered that question once before in a manager's update, but we can refresh that. Um, and basically, we contract with a broker who manages all of our um benefits across the board. They do benchmarking throughout the year. They bring back recommendations to us. we have an internal benefits committee that um evaluates those benefits and that's how we set what the benefits will look like not on an annual basis necessarily but on a frequent basis to make sure that we are really competitive in the market and I will say this we are very competitive in the market and definitely within this region with the scope and scale of the varied level of benefits that we have everything from 457 to health insurance to dental to wellness um enhance um prescription drugs all the things our our benefit package is pretty pretty second to none yeah I'd appreciate having that again and I know my own experience as a state employee city benefits are much better so I'm always hoping the state will hear me you know help us out um I also wanted to mention uh Nash Square there were some concern about um potential changes coming and tree loss and that's just something I would like to have some follow-up information to understand plans in the future. Absolutely. We can provide that Friday um compilation. We received several questions from council member Patton as well and there were some other other larger ones that necessarily didn't have a budget impact but were raised at the table that we'll bring forward this Friday. Thank you. Yep. Councelor Silver, there are three points I want to talk about. The first let me echo uh council member Branch's comments about all of employees and the compensation. This is really a unique opportunity to really address uh some inequities that existed in our pay in the past to make us more competitive but also appreciate those that choose to serve the city of Raleigh. The second one is about the leafout plan. Uh let me just state and I have a statement on this one that trees are essential component to any city's infrastructure and especially here in the city of Raleigh as we are known as the city of oaks. We've heard from a number of people in support of maintaining our city of oaks status and they have an ambition vision ambitious vision to plant 24,000 trees prior to the city's 240th anniversary. That's 2032. Uh I would connect their vision to our plan. I'm requesting the city manager work with parks recreation cultural resources department to connect their vision with our efforts of the leafout plan that is currently in development. The city is committed to doing its part in planting 24,000 trees by 2032. Ultimately, my hope is that there's a forthcoming fundraising effort or grant opportunity to support the tree planting program across our city. The second one is one that I find um extremely challenging. In fact, the most challenging decision I've had to make as a council member, uh during a campaign, I was approached by many groups seeking support for specific issues. Separation allowance was one of them. Over the last 6 months, I've listened and asked many questions. I want to thank the firefighters, especially the Raleigh Professional Firefighters Association, who spent hours educating me on the secondary pension program. But in the end, I could not find a path forward that I could support. Uh my vote today is not a no vote uh for the fire or its personnel. We entered the budget process with a goal not to raise taxes and this recent survey had shown that at least those that responded would prefer compensation at this time. I would encourage the city manager to continue exploring opportunities to acknowledge the risk associated with firefighting and I trust you will bring us something in the near future that could be considered for implementation. Thank you. Uh, councelor Patton. Sure. Yeah, I think um, separation allowance has been the most challenging of the topics we've had to uh, debate amongst ourselves in the past few months. Um, I still I continue to support the benefit, but I think after our robust and wholesome conversation last week, it's clear the the votes are not there and the path forward's not there. And um, but I do think there are a lot of good things in this budget. And you all know I love to list a thing a detail that I think might have gotten overlooked by the public and and some of them include um expanded weekend hours for paratransit a move to a steady state budgeting progress on our energy and EV and hybrid goals um work to continue our language access strategy. No increase to employee health insurance premiums improvements to the route one, the route two, and the route 15. Bus ridership is projected to be over six million trips next year. $3 million in watershed protection, $3 million allocated to out ending homelessness, investments in in accessible pedestrian signals, updates to the street design manual, site improvements at Buffalo Road aquatic park or athletic park the Harris Creek Interceptor project and investments in the Little River planning which will provide us a future water supply source. And so at you know along with some of the banner issues like the big investments in employee um employee salaries. So, at the appropriate time, I'll move to support the budget for all the things that are are good within it and with my appreciation for all the work that you all have done to to produce this document and all the public service that's reflected in it. Anybody Mayor Pertim, do you have anything you want to say about the budget or you're good? Okay. Well, I mean, I can just make my comments uh for I mean, I appreciate all the work of the budget staff, the city. Um, and it was a I mean it's a it's a budget that's pretty easy to support in that there's no tax increase and that we are trying to take care of the people that take care of Raleigh. Um, and having worked right uh with the conservancy and and closely particularly with park staff, I saw the challenges of recruiting to positions where people could be making a lot more money elsewhere and the challenges of that. So, um I certainly see across the board that and the study that we did that showed 14% um below market in general for the city. I think the pay increases um I feel like we're you know are solid recommendations by Seagull that I can support. I would say the one thing I get a lot is well you know what what's the next big thing and what else is Raleigh doing? This is a budget that's putting a lot of money into people. We are not starting a lot of new big projects because we already have some big projects. We've got Lenovo Center. We have the convention center. We just right cut the ribbon on uh Gibson Play Plaza, which was a big lift for both the city and the philanthropic community. Um and everybody wants more money into transportation. Um I think that is something where the city is stretching to try and do that, but we will also need federal and state resources to really provide the level of transit, you know, transportation transit that we need. Um and the other issue of course is affordable housing. You know you get people why are you not putting more money and you know I think we are putting tens of millions of dollars um into affordable housing and we will think about another affordable housing bond. So I think this budget does prioritize affordable housing knowing that the market really plays a huge role in this and we need to work uh with the market to try and enhance that. So, um I think it's a very solid budget and um I am, you know, I will be uh supporting it at the appropriate time. Okay. I move for approval of our fiscal year 26 budget. Second. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. All opposed. All right. Unanimous passage. Thank you. Yeah. We need a confetti cannon. [Applause] All right. Uh do we have anything else to come before us at this work session? We've got some documents for you to sign. Um okay, we actually um sorry, Council Member Sadia Satar again. Um we actually had a presentation ready for the adoption of the budget but since you have done the honors already we just need the mayor to sign a couple of things and we are good to go. All right. Okay. So we are with uh unanimously adjourned. Thank you. [Music]