good evening and welcome to the february 1st hybrid meeting of the greensboro city council i will take a roll call vote to confirm council attendance obviously i am here mayor pro tem johnson frozen mrs abusa waiter present mrs hightower mrs hoffman president mr holston president mr outling president mrs thurm president and dr wells president thank you we are all present we will start tonight's meeting with a moment of silence and i would like us to keep the thoughts of commissioner carolyn coleman and community advocate tim vincent who recently passed away thank you mrs abuse waiter would you lead us in the pledge i pledge allegiance to the blood of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you welcome to the katy dorsett city council chambers tonight's meeting is a partial opening of the council chamber with a continued option to participate virtually due to capacity restrictions a limited number of residents are allowed inside the council chamber for specific items of interest following the conclusion of those items or topic of discussion residents will be asked to leave the room to allow room for other residents to enter in the interest of public safety residents are required to wear a face covering public forum and agenda items speakers have two options to register to speak before council residents may register via the jot form on the city's website by 5 p.m the day prior to a council meeting or residents may sign up to speak by six o'clock the day of a meeting by using the q minder kiosk just outside the chamber door please see our community relations manager gary canopino at the courier desk for assistance to comply with requirements by the state in regards to zoom meetings and hybrid meetings and to provide an optimum experience for the public council will verbalize motions and all votes will be conducted by roll call and using the electronic software each member of council must vote unless there is a direct conflict we do allow and welcome speakers to address counsel at the podium at the public forum meetings council respects the right for the public to speak about matters of concern that can be addressed by council each speaker will be allotted three minutes comments that seem intended to incite unlawful behavior will be deemed out of order zoom participants are requested to mute their microphones until they are called upon to speak sorry the city of greensboro is committed to promoting an environment that is free of discrimination bias and bullying thus harassment words jokes actions or comments based on an individual's sex sexual orientation race ethnic background age religion physical condition or other legally protected characteristic will not be tolerated in order to be considered written comments must be submitted online through the city's website www.greensborohyphennc.gov we have a consent agenda for items g1 through g3 which are a grouping of agenda items that are voted on with one single vote to expedite what are believed to be routine and non-controversial items any council member may withdraw an item from the consent agenda due to a conflict of interest or for the purpose of voting no items removed from the consent agenda for discussion will be placed on the march 5th city council business agenda this meeting does include closed captioning depending on the length of tonight's meeting we may take a short recess at 7 30. i would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new city manager today is his first day he has attended meetings virtually before but it is very nice to have you in person thank you i'm happy to be here in person thank you um this is the time for ceremonial and presentation items item number e1 is a resolution honoring the memory of the late kenneth ken allen free senior it will be read by mrs hightower and mr holston this is hightower that would not be appropriate resolution honoring the memory of the late kenneth ken allen free singer whereas on december 29 2021 this community lost one of his outstanding community leaders with the passing of the late kenneth ken allen free senior whereas native born to greensboro on june 8 1936 ken's family lived in pennsylvania for a short period but returned to the greensboro area when he was 12 years of age whereas ken graduated from james b dudley high school then continued his education by attending north carolina a n t state university a t whereas he went on to serve in the united states army with tours in germany france and lebanon worked for central motor lines as a truck driver and spent three years in the new york mets organization playing with the raleigh capitals of the carolina league and the saline mets whereas ken continued as a trailblazer in the greensboro community serving as the greensboro i knew it was going to happen sorry [Music] sorry whereas ken continued as a trailblazer in the greensboro community serving as the greensboro windsor recreation center director a regional parks recreation consultant with the state of north carolina department of natural and economic resources and a recreation professional and collegiate athletics administrator serving as the first full-time commissioner of the mid-eastern atlantic conference miac whereas not only did ken advocate for athletes at historically black colleges and universities hbcus but was a key player in the national collegiate athletic association ncaa division one status of meac institutions whereas impressively ken was the first african-american appointed to the ncaa division 1 men's basketball selection committee which led to later terms as the commissioner of the eastern intercollegiate athletic association whereas pursuing other passions ken was instrumental in the creation of the freedom bowl all-star classic and the heritage bowl which led to what is now known as the celebration bowl whereas over the years ken's achievements awards and honors were many including being named the university's commissioners association uca american football coaches association liaison had basketball courts named in his honor at the greensboro parks and recreations barber park outdoor courts and the george c simkins indoor sports pavilion received the north carolina recreation and park society fellow award was an inductee in the a t sports hall of fame the guilford county sports hall of fame the south atlantic league hall of fame the dudley high school hall of fame and the north carolina sports hall of fame the central intercollegiate athletic association ciaa football and baseball officials hall of fame and as recent as 2021 was selected as the north carolina recreation and parks association ncrpa hall of fame inductee for his years of services and contributions inside and outside the field of parks and recreation whereas ken was the deserving recipient of the north carolina governor's most prestigious longleaf pine award whereas among all these other activities and accomplishments ken was a long time dedicated participant in the city of the united methodist church board of trustees and the men's choir a lifetime member of kappa alpha psi fraternity and morningstar masonic lodge 691 volunteered with the metropolitan junior baseball league and served the major junior baseball league mjbl as the chairman of the board and now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of greensboro that won that the city council wishes to express its sense of loss and offer his condolences sincere appreciation and gratitude for the many years of dedicated public service by kenneth ken allen free senior the legacy he leaves will be remembered by the people of greensboro and two that a copy of this resolution shall be delivered to the family of the late allen anthony kenneth allen ken free senior as a symbol of the gratitude of the citizens of the city of greensboro and the state of north carolina for his many contributions to the community and beyond adopted this the first day of february 2022 move the resolution moved by mrs johnson and seconded by mrs hightower council please vote and we do have some family members here who are here to accept the resolution i believe we have um ken free junior and family and michelle wells and i i just want to say thank you for providing those pictures they really were so special and it really gave a flavor of his life um i know that ken and my dad knew each other well from their basketball days and it was always an extreme pleasure to speak with him welcome thank you for having us and thank you uh so much mayor vaughn and thank you miss hightower and brother hugh uh for this honor and our family cannot tell you how much it is appreciated we appreciate everyone on the city council and we just thank you all for thinking of us and keeping us in your thoughts and if i can if i could have my family stand up and friends who came to be a part of this celebration so again thank you on behalf of my thank you thank you very much thank you so i just want to say um that i don't know what mr fred didn't you know and uh just so proud of his accomplishments and everything that he meant to this community so thank you for sharing him with us and he was trailblazer and you know we were excited to see him at the basketball courts we're glad we could honor him there and uh you know because he created the basketball court in the african-american community he saw kids playing in the dirt and he thought no that's not what they should be doing and so he went out of his way to make sure that years ago we had the same equal opportunities um that they had across town and that was something historic and we're very proud of that so i appreciate knowing him and what he is going has done for this community and we will remember him always so thank you thank you thank you absolutely and just one more thing um when my wife and i moved to greensboro in the in the mid to late 80s i got involved with the uh the the kappa alpha psi alumni chapter here in greensboro and i and i met ken and we had lots of conversations but it wasn't until 1989 that i had the the pleasure of also meeting ken junior as chair of the baltillion military scholarship program which i led ken was a bright-eyed student high school student destined for big things but i'll tell you that it was the interaction that that ken had with his father and that bond and that friendship uh that eventually led ken jr to actually also join the fraternity it was a wonderful thing and i said it before ken ken senior your father uh was was a friend and he was a mentor and uh he gave so much to greensboro in our community and thank you to you and your family for making sure that you shared him with us so thank you so very god much you all thank you i am going to take the prerogative to go off script a little um oh i'm sorry that's okay go ahead no were you here to speak on mr free please i'm sorry that's okay good evening mayor and council and thank you for the opportunity to be here as was mentioned in part of the resolution we were privileged to recognize ken and induct him into our hall of fame in october it was a wonderful day ken wasn't able to be with us that day but we had an online virtual session with him before thanks to his wonderful family who was able to arrange that there were a lot of people there who just got to share how much ken had meant to them and the impact so far outside of the reaches of greensboro where he called home he has touched people not only in north carolina but across our nation with his support for young park and recreation professionals and helping them to grow to be the best that they can so it's honored to be here tonight to officially announce that we are very proud to have ken kenneth free is the um get some feedback there as the newest inductee into the ncrpa hall of fame so thank you thank you there were there were a number of people from greensboro that particular day in october and we were actually able to use um ken being inducted into the hall of fame to get mrs hightower there and um to her surprise she was actually there being honored on something on a different one for i think it was the public official award so it was very nice for mrs hightower and mr free to share to share those um awards that particular day we were sorry that that ken couldn't be there may i have some information to share about councilwoman hightower as well may i do that at this time so as you mentioned yes she was um kind of tricked into coming to our conference in winston-salem and hopefully she has forgiven those of us who were involved in that but we did honor her with our distinguished legislator award and that award recognizes an elected official who is outstanding who has demonstrated an outstanding contribution in the general field of parks and recreation be it on the national regionals regional state or local level she has been an outstanding advocate champion and contributor for parks and recreation since she began her political career in 2013. during the 2017 election she used her platform to advance parks and recreation services programs and facilities to vastly improve the quality of life for the community she is also a strong proponent of equity inclusion and diversity as well as social and environmental justice specifically with her advocacy for increasing minority and women-owned businesses contracts and partnerships with the city and the parks recreation department she has supported the bond referendum which was approved by voters in 2016. she advocated for the restoration of the parks and recreation trust fund and the london water conservation fund funding she's promoted and advocated for the adoption and funding of recommendations within the department's award-winning plan to play system-wide master plan and has voiced her support for over 800 000 dollars invested in parks and recreation related projects selected by residents in par as part of a participatory budgeting process through the pandemic she has continuously lifted up the value of parks and recreation and the community centers and parks and spaces that they've provided much beyond the traditional uses that we had known them prior to the start of the pandemic but she encouraged them to be used as spaces to serve the community as meal distribution and feeding sites places to shelter in place learning hubs coveted testing sites and health and vaccination clinics greensboro is certainly fortunate to have an elected official who sees parks and recreation and its value and supports what's happening in the profession there and behalf of the north china recreation and park association we are honored to present her with the distinguished legislator award councilwoman [Applause] michelle before you leave our parks and recreation department was recognized for a number of awards and i don't know if you recall what they were if you wouldn't mind just listing them off because it was a really proud moment to be from the city of greensboro at that luncheon so this is the first time i do believe in my time that i have been at a council meeting where we have had five awards and or individuals or programs to recognize in one department so greensboro gets another award for being the first in my knowledge to have that but yes so greensboro also uh had an outstanding young professional uh in kristen herndon who is the facilities and aquatics coordinator here with parks and recreation she joined your department during the pandemic which for some may have been a challenge but not for her she hit the ground running quickly creating innovative programming leading a section for the agency's accreditation securing sponsorships and playing an instrumental role in a new equitable sport in the city she implemented a department-wide employee morale program and we all know that was needed with what everyone was facing during those times she obtained a dei grant through our organization and she nurtured a long-standing partnership and acquired a donation of mountain bikes and a trailer to start a mobile mountain biking program here in the city she is chair of our women in recreation and his and was selected to serve on our diversity and equity and inclusion committee on the national level she's chair of the national young professionals network student outreach committee and serves as an accreditation visitor she tirelessly demonstrates her passion in this field and has become a consummate professional and student as indicated by her advanced degrees her certifications and her leadership and greensboro is certainly in good hands with young professionals like kristen involved there are two other awards one being the innovative program award which was given to the city of greensboro i've got my notes here because you guys have so many for the adult recess program which was a very unique and innovative program designed for those who are 21 to 50 years of age and i'm going to read to you the information that was in their grant their outboard application because it really just kind of hits home this program builds on the idea of returning to the innocence of childhood no responsibilities no grocery runs no ira clients or political turmoil just a game of dodgeball or a box of chalk the event was full of games from childhood like tetherball and foursquare and then they added in some popular yard games like hula hoops and bubbles and splash pad and cornhole and giant jenga and to me that is just ideal and takes us back to those times of play is what parks and recreation is all about greensboro was also recognized for their arts and humanities award which was ultimately the program i think you know as gso online which took collaboration between multiple departments here in the city to pull together all the city services to make it easy for everyone to go to one place to find everything needed about that and it has become the go-to space to find information about in-person socially distance and virtual activities programs and events so congratulations to the city of greensboro i hope you are as proud of your park and recreation department as i am of them certainly set an example yes thank you so much absolutely thank you for the opportunity to be here [Applause] and so if i make mayo before she goes and uh everyone leaves that i just want to thank you all again for that award um i don't know where nasha is but uh i'm gonna get you you know i'm gonna get you you know i'm gonna get you they got me that day um including the mayor um i thought i was going over to honor mr canfrey which i was very proud to do to represent him but they um surprised me with this award but i do believe that parks and rec certainly is one of the quality of life features that we must celebrate um it makes a difference in many many ways and we must make sure we fund it and that all communities have access to parks and rec activities uh certainly you know when we went into the covet and the pandemic and we had to stay home but we could go walk through the park and we could see there in the park nice peaceful trails and and it was just certainly something that maybe we had not realized that we had such an amenity in our community but we've been able to take advantage and so i am a supporter of parks and rec uh and supporter of the bonds that's the way to get more parts so voters if you hear me just know when the bonds come out i'm expecting us to vote 100 for parks and recreation but thank you for honoring me with this award um it was i'm very appreciative of it um and i look forward to a long long-lasting relationship as the city of greensboro parks and rec department does more um and more with uh for our community they're very innovative we captured it they really are and so i'm very proud to be a part of that so thank you again thank you madam mayor i'd like to i'd like to also give a shout out the department head is here lasha mccrae for her leadership with all of these programs that have been going forth so i want to give her a shout out also thank you so i'm going to take a moment to go slightly off script on behalf of the greensboro city council i would like to read a resolution to recognize the interim city manager chris christian chris wilson obviously we couldn't put this on the agenda or it wouldn't be a surprise whereas on june 15 2021 chris wilson assistant city manager for community services accepted the position of interim city manager for the city of greensboro north carolina whereas chris is a 28-year city of greensboro employee with an extensive record of achievement serving in roles such as parks and recreation tennis instructor in 1992 parks and recreation manager as well as the director between 1997 to 2014 and most recently as assistant city manager whereas chris served the organization with care and resolve during the seven-month tenure as interim city manager advancing the organization's perfect purpose-driven people-centered and data-informed philosophy whereas chris is brief but eventful tenure as interim city manager included organizational successes such as the implementation of a police take-home car program a general step play plan play pay plan and dedication and reopening of fire station number seven and major support for permanent supportive housing whereas faced with the continued organizational turbulence of covid chris made tough but necessary decisions concerning employee testing coveted protocols and service delivery all while balancing the competing and compelling needs of employee safety and community service whereas chris played an integral role guiding the city's participation in the community-wide effort that ultimately led to toyota's decision to locate a battery manufacturing plant at the guilford randolph mega site whereas the city council of the city of greensboro wishes to express its deep respect and gratitude to chris both for his service to the community in these past seven months and to his 28-year career with the city of greensboro now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of greensboro that the city council wishes to commend interim city manager christian wilson for the manner in which he performs his duties with special thanks for his willingness to serve his professionalism and ongoing dedication to the residents of the city of greensboro that a copy of this resolution shall be presented to interim city manager christian wilson as a symbol of gratitude for his many contributions to the organization remove the resolution let's all say that come on one two three so obviously that was unanimous um but it was tammy hit the button first seconded by dr wells council please vote mr assistant city manager last seven months and we are very glad that you're not going anywhere and we'll continue your tenure here with the city of greensboro thank you thank you i'll just no thank you um you know i really couldn't do anything without that great team and all the great city staff members we have i'm so fortunate to even play a small part in what we do every day for this community i couldn't be more proud to be part of it i'm so thankful that greensboro adopted me many many years ago and i'm i'm just very thankful to the people that i work with because they're they're tireless they they do things that really no one even knows about every day all day and i'm just so very thankful and i'm very thankful that you all uh allowed me the opportunity to help out it's very special to me that it's on the same night as uh ken's recognition he was a very dear friend so thank you thank you thank you chris so i'm going to go a little off script again we need to have a brief closed session but i think that people will be interested in the results of this closed session it should only be a few minutes long mayor pro tem yes madam mayamu that we go into closed session to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the city's attorney and the city council in connection with a certain litigation matter the parties to the litigation matter to be discussed include in addition to the city of greensboro in guilford county mary smith george smith justin payne robert duncan michael montalvo alfred lewis christopher bradshaw lee andrews douglas stratter jordan bailey ashley abbott and dylan allen so that has been seconded and moved should we take a roll call vote on this um imes mrs hoffman mr holston yes dr wells yes mayor protem yes mr boosa waiter yes mr outland yes mrs sturm yes mrs hightower yes thank you we hope that that won't take more than 15 minutes or so okay oh uh ah okay yes my okay nice yes uh okay oh um [Music] yes ah yes foreign uh okay yes okay [Music] [Music] uh yes thank you uh [Music] you're gonna okay thank you i'm a person [Music] oh lord i'm so glad hallelujah yes we've done a whole lot of work i didn't get to cussing nothing you're such an oh god can i have a motion to return to open session second move by mr hulston seconded by mr booswader all in favor say aye aye anyone opposed if that passes um at this and i apologize for taking longer than we thought we would um and mr city attorney you have a statement to read yes ma'am uh i have a joint statement by the city of greensboro and marion george smith regarding the agreement to settle the lawsuit the city of greensboro and the family of marcus dion smith has reached an agreement to resolve the lawsuit brought by the estate of marcus dion smith importantly to these parties the total settlement of 2 million and seventy 570 dollars the majority of which will be paid by the city of greensboro and the remainder by guilford county will financially benefit both the parents of marcus dion smith and his children and will formally acknowledge with a commemorative plaque that marcus dion smith's life mattered these parties will soon request judicial approval of the settlement and dismissal of the lawsuit without any findings of wrongdoing or liability after the settlement is concluded these parties intend to move forward in the spirit of respect and reconciliation madam mayor uh it's my expectation that this process of drafting a long-form settlement and getting the necessary approvals will take some time until that time and until that process is complete we will have nothing more to say about this case as it remains confidential and as i have advised council that this matter is continuing under the mediation setting and so further comment regarding the facts and circumstances of the case or the settlement would be inappropriate thank you mr attorney would you explain to the people the public who's listening why it's going to take some time we have a term sheet that we rebuilt excuse me will be reduced to a long-form settlement agreement and that will then have to go before both the court that this case was brought in as well as the state court and you know well i'm sure you have some some sense of how courts work and this um their time is their time we'll see when it works out thank you um there was one written comment received from genesis dancer for the february 1st 2022 council meeting regarding the interactive resource center winter shelter this comment will be posted to the city of west uh website tomorrow we have 14 speakers signed up to speak um some are virtual some are in person the first one is talika jones followed by dell stone followed by beth mckee huger miss jones i believe is by zoom madam mayor she has not joined the meeting she has not joined okay um dell stone followed by beth mckee huger has um hester petty signed on okay no ma'am she has not and then followed by lewis pitts good evening so i would like to speak to the issues just raised that is incredibly important but i have another topic to speak on tonight um my name is bill stone i'm a greensboro resident organizer with the working class analysis organizing alliance and tonight city council after the session after this segment of the session is going to vote to approve 125 000 grant to a consulting company called housing consultants group so the state admission of this group is a good one to help families obtain and keep their homes and it's understandable that city council wants to fund projects to help people with housing especially as we see this pandemic is showing no signs of letting up and more and more people are facing eviction and houselessness but like so many of city council's decisions this one is misguided it is another move to fund money to third-party entities rather than directly help people in need organizations like this consulting group spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for their own bureaucratic expenses more than two hundred thousand dollars in this group's particular case i spent thousands on advertising accounting office expenses travel insurance meals entertainment thousands that could go directly to people in need they provide cushy positions like trustees presidents and directors so lawyers and bankers can sweeten their public image while they own multiple properties and in some cases act as landlords themselves this group's own president owns three properties that he rents out in guilford county alone there's also the fact that this consulting group is funded by major banks wells fargo suntrust lincoln financial for citizens bank bank of america among others you would think that such would be enough funds to sustain an organization like this but apparently these banks aren't giving that much at least not a comparison to what our city government is about to fork over 125 000 is more than a quarter of what this consulting group spends in a year this grant is massive the point is that there are better ways to spend this money the city already operates one of them which a mayor reminded of us remind us of last session which is that down payment assistance program which gives money to home buyers straight up even more beneficial would be to put this money towards housing for people who don't have anywhere to live this money could be used to help convert the massive vacant news and record building into affordable housing it could be used to shelter some of the hundreds of thousands hundreds of people in the city who go without a roof over their heads on any given night this money is not being used effectively grants like these perpetuate the myth that charities can solve our problems but they sidestep the crisis that's worsening every day there were simply not homes for people to buy in the first place city councillors pat poor people on the head with one hand and shake the hands of elite developers with the other they incentivize gender fine development projects that are scooping up homes under average people's noses and buying out whole neighborhoods without regard for living conditions or the unaffordability of rent we should recognize greensboro is just named as one of the most overpriced housing markets in the country the situation is a crisis and what we're seeing here tonight is one more instance of performative politics that prizes image of our action revealing how structurally incapable this government is of serving the people it gains to represent solutions are simply not going to come through these channels and i implore the people of the city to recognize that and realize we have to create another way thank you our next our next speaker is beth mckee huger and i believe she's on zoom um yes i am um good evening mayor and city council i'm i'm pleased to to see you on zoom tonight um how would our local economy and our daily lives be impacted if all the school bus drivers home health workers biscuit makers child care workers dishwashers retail cashiers and construction laborers had to move out because of rising rents in greensboro we depend upon people who cannot afford to live in a hot housing market with its escalating prices so they have to move into overcrowded apartments and houses that put their safety at risk um uh this is february one and we celebrate the shut-in of the sit-ins but today hey um these days we have the shut out the disproportionately people of color as we celebrate the enormous success of economic incentives for creating high-paying new jobs at the mega site and airport the city recognized that workers moving in will need homes nearby and annexed over 300 acres for new houses can we invest similar effort in keeping the low wage essential workers safe by assuring housing that fits their paychecks to address the shrinking supply of habitable affordable units we need public investment in new construction throughout the city we need the preservation loan fund plus code enforcement to achieve compliance with minimum safety standards to keep from losing the existing uh units donors and businesses are stepping up for these housing needs so we have two of the three legs of a stool but without public funds the stool falls down i'm excited about our new city manager welcome and the proposed housing bond initiative to commit local dollars for the implementation of housing gso the 10-year strategic housing plan you approved unanimously in 2020 but needs funding to actually implement it as you consider the financial priorities in the 20 30-70 23 budget i urge you to include sufficient city resources for neighborhood development to address the housing crisis thank you thank you louis fitz pitts followed by louis medina followed by marcia fouch yes here we go am i available yes uh city council members this is certainly not what i was expecting to be speaking about tonight i want to reserve the right to think more carefully and see the terms of the settlement but i would like to knowing what that i know commend you all for finally agreeing to a settlement but most importantly i want to thank mary smith george smith their entire family and the legal team including graham holt and flint taylor and his team at the people's law office for waging this important civil rights battle for their being able to bring out and make as part of what we know in the public knowledge the details about the hog time of marcus smith it was a homicide and that have given us some other uh important information that needs to be pursued but it is a night in my mind to celebrate the statement of celebrating and making an affirmative statement that marcus smith life matters is so very very important so i thank all of the family there their legal team and i commend you if better late than never but i commend council for agreeing to this settlement i would in the sake of transparency like to know if there was a vote and if so how that vote occurred who voted for what position but primarily it's a night for me to be celebrating thank you very much thank you louis medina followed by marcia fouch followed by christine hefner hello my name is louis medina i'm with the working class and houses organizing alliance i too didn't expect this but i i did assume that it eventually happened so first i want to congratulate the smith family for their victory and i want to congratulate everybody else who had been involved pushing for three years it's a little bittersweet though because it took three years to get justice for a man who was overtly and publicly murdered in our city it took three years for you all to settle after you lied and you pushed it under rug three years after your chief of police lied and then you switched to chief police um and that that says something because really it wasn't it was our victory it was our power that did it and you had to concede and that's what i want to demonstrate to the people today is that they had to concede but it shouldn't take us three years to get victory and the reason it took us three years to get victory is because we negotiated with them when we shouldn't have right another example everybody remembers that nationally there was an uprising right apart that uprising was here over george floyd's murder um a bunch of people all over the nation peaceful protesters marched for some justice for one man who was representative of many people had been murdered by the police and what were they met with they were met with police brutality right where's the concessions for all that blood and all that sweat and all those lies that our entire nation faced all that trauma that's just been swept back under the rug here in this city we are tear gas and the city lied about it i and my comrades were on the street that night and this establishment this group of people that play government all year long lied about it and the press had to release it what i'm saying is that isn't fast enough that wasn't fast enough for the smith family that isn't fast enough for any of us we shouldn't have to wait three years when one of us is openly murdered by the government that's supposed to be protecting us that's all i want to say our next speaker is marcia fouch followed by christine hefner followed by billy belcher uh it says i'm unable to start the video let's see here start video i'm trying to can you hear me okay yes okay um yes i i wasn't expecting this it's a pleasant surprise um i'm i don't know if you know this but sunday was marcus smith's birthday and he he should have been 42 years old then on that day um yeah i know you're you're tired of um hearing about this smith case and uh i'm tired of talking to you about it but um it just goes to our audacity that we can feel tired when when another black family has lost a loved one to police violence so while i'm happy to hear of the settlement in the mediation um i'm still concerned that the police officers that stood over marcus smith while he died are still on the street and are supposed to protect and serve all of us including homeless black people uh i i don't have too much to say i'm like louis i kind of feel like i wanna um yeah see how this plays out i'm glad to hear that 2.75 million settlement and uh congratulate the smith family and their legal team i know you can't comment on the case um but i do want you to know that at the birthday celebration on sunday i did sort of make a pledge that i was going to keep showing up here to see this thing through so again i guess it is a time to celebrate um so thank you thank you christine hepler followed by billy belcher followed by kiera sadler my name is christine hoffner the good news is the smith case is settled but i'm going to focus on the problem the body cam evidence in that case revealed i've lived in greensboro just over two years and i'm always interested to learn more about it so last week on a national podcast to inspire cities toward greater economic environment and social justice it got my attention when they said city leaders would love if greensboro became known as the civil rights city the civil rights city yeah that has a nice ring to it but more importantly a lot of greensboro residents would love to have the city live up to that name but it would take a lot of work for greensboro to earn that title to earn it now especially in the face of the recent body cam evidence of greensboro police departments aggressive and racist policing meanwhile talk about civil rights this has been mentioned two days ago would have been marcus smith's 42nd birthday his death at the hands of greensboro police is seen as a federal civil rights violation specifically the use of excessive force due to failure to train and supervise the police that failure ultimately rests with city council so hopefully y'all are fully aware of the body cam evidence uncovered in the smith family's lawsuit against the city to be specific that footage points to serious issues in police training conduct reporting and accountability and hopefully you're aware that those are issues aside from the smith lawsuit that is that they have repercussions for city residents overall it's hard to know just what you're aware of because you haven't made the public aware of your views about this evidence which i repeat affects city residents in general so we still need to know the answer to a question you've been asked a number of times in the past few months have you seen the police body cam evidence uncovered in the smith case would it help to ask a different question are you all aware that aside from anything to do with the smith lawsuit the police body worn camera video provides irrefutable statistical evidence of racist pleasing are you aware that's a problem for greensboro and are you all aware that the aggressive policing the video shows is a problem for greensboro keeping quiet about this evidence doesn't look good and the evidence doesn't make the city look at all like the civil rights city and it sure doesn't make the video evidence go away with the election coming up voters are going to want to know what steps you'll be taking to address the racist aggressive policing shown on the body camera so it's time to let us know what you're all aware of and what you're going to do about it thank you thank you billy belcher followed by kiera sattler followed by jen nixon good evening i'm billy belcher 5939 west finley avenue i'm here tonight with the working class and houseless organizing alliance um [Music] chuck you said marcus went with six figures i don't think you knew what you were talking about did you got down all right last fall the city engaged the services of a company called block by block to work downtown as junior police officers or as dgi director matheny said they're to save greensboro police time so they can focus on what they need to focus on and not something minor so we have minor league cops as private security in our city um they seem to get public money but they work for block by block so the city doesn't have to worry about giving these workers paid leave or retirement benefits or the higher wage that government workers might expect block by block saves money at the expense of our city workers block by block i'm not sure if you all are aware is a part of sms holdings which is um what the company's website describes as a god-centered faith-based business and sms is known for what uh euphemistically call union avoidance campaigns and they have a history of breaking labor law and as it turns out our city could not have picked a more aggressively anti-union security force if it had tried i'm sure that director matheny is quite proud of that but i don't think any democrats in our city council need to be along with the union avoidance campaign there's another euphemism blocked by block users in its work for business improvement districts and this is the homeless exclusion district in which according to a 2018 study at uc berkeley unsheltered people are subjected to surveillance and harassment and arrest based merely on their status rather than their behavior i'll remind everyone it's only been a few years since dgi tried to convince you all that panhandling should be outlawed and now a fox 8 story recently said that block by block in greensboro is focused on panhandling quote and quote camping presence count among other things so i think it is reasonable to ask is greensboro becoming a homeless exclusion district is it already a homeless exclusion district giving that black men who are homeless can be killed downtown and nothing seems to ever be done about it why have we hired a conservative christian union busting security force with a history of harassing the unsheltered i suppose that is my question to you thank you our next speaker is kiera sattler then jen nixon then kayden harvig hello everyone my name is kira sattler i live at 2003 rolling road and today i'm here to talk about the hyatt street residents so related a lot to this discussion around housing but really specific to what's happening in our neighborhood so i want ideally them to stay as our neighbors i want my children to be able to go to school with their children i value their presence in our community and i'm really against having a high-rise luxury apartment built on top of a welcoming family-oriented community that's already been here for decades and so while this is my first choice for the hyatt street residents i want them to have a viable dignified and autonomous choice in where they might have to go next and so i'm really concerned about some of the conflicting information that has taken place in the news recently and so first i'd like to ask um whether or not the city is genuinely taking a neutral role in supporting the residents as much as possible so many of you have mentioned how you care about residents but it seems like the news might have some conflicting information about that it seems like michelle kennedy asked the residents to sign a letter promising that they would leave in june and this was even before there was a finalized plan in place for their relocation and so i was hoping to share more information about the context contents of the letter that they were asked to sign did the city of greensboro write this letter did the developers lawyers write this letter who wrote this letter um does this letter ask the hyatt residents to waive their rights to legal eviction and is the city offering any resources to help families if they do have to relocate and so what is the city trying to get them really to sign if there's no viable relocation option that has been offered to them i'm really asking for more transparency and whether or not the city is being a neutral party and whether or not they are supporting our residents like they said they would i would also like to ask about what the city is doing to help the hyatt street families so as i mentioned before you said you want to help these families but it seems like they are not taking a neutral stance and have been more so engaged in trying to find a way for residents to move out of their current place rather than um seeing how they can enable them to maintain in their decades-long homes and i was wondering if the city is doing anything on the resident's own behalf as opposed to on the developers behalf because it really seems like they are not taking a neutral stance thank you we do have two more speakers on the hyatt street issue and i did ask michelle kennedy to come to tonight's meeting to give a brief update let's have our speakers and then michelle the next speaker is jen nixon followed by kaden harvig hey can you hear me yes great um i'm jen nixon i live at 402 south elon street in the lindley park neighborhood and i also bring greetings from three friends in my mom group who wanted to be here tonight but got incorrect information about the deadline for signing up for the zoom meeting so i hope that they will speak with you guys in the future um i'm dialing in tonight just honestly to check with you as someone who's been following what's happening with the highest excuse me i do have to say the clarity of your um audio isn't very good i'm not sure how to fix that i can move a little closer and hope that's better okay go ahead okay so i'm dialing in to check with you tonight about what's happening with the hyatt street effort i haven't been to a city council meeting before but i do have kids at lindley and kaiser and so this feels very very personal to me i know that these families want to stay in lindley park and they want to stay together and it seemed like they were getting support from both the community and the city to try and make that happen but recently these news articles have been very confusing about the hyatt street residents being asked to sign a letter saying they would leave by june and that i can't even imagine being in that situation being asked to leave with no assurance of a new site i work in health care and i know that when people don't have the financial insurance to know they can afford care they just don't get care so i can't imagine what it feels like for these families to not know where they're gonna be with their with their possessions with their kids with their pets with everything they own um i'm just scared for them honestly and how big this uncertainty must be i all the through the summer and the fall i had the impression that the city was working with the residents and i hope that's still true but i really came here to ask tonight like it is that true is that the case is there a plan for their relocation are they being asked to leave before they know where they can be do they have the option to stay together are they being evicted are they being asked to waive their eviction rights i can't piece any of this together from the information that's being made public but i know that you guys know the answers and i hope you'll share them here tonight or follow in the meeting i really appreciate the chance to speak to you directly i hope that you can and will support the residents trust is such a huge part of governing and creating community transparency warmth and competency all work together to build trust and we've seen some of that tonight i know they exist in the city council and know they exist in this community and i hope that they will exist for the high street residents as well thank you thank you hello my name is kaden harvick head of at 2631 beechwood street in greensboro in the lynley park neighborhood all my hope remains with my neighbors on hyatt street and the rest of my neighborhood that they will be able to stay in their homes we are here tonight to ask about what the city is doing to uphold your commitment to supporting them in their relocation um really and those who went before me did a great job so they covered a lot of a lot of the points but i'm here to support that and to support the community um i've reached out to some of you uh madam mayor i appreciate you calling me back and i apologize i missed it well i i can get your message and i've called a number of neighbors back in the last two days well you did call me back and i appreciate it i just wanted to call you out for that um you know we are we are here to try to see and understand how the the city is upholding their commitment to supporting these residents there's been a lot of talk about relocating them together finding appropriate land for them to be able to be moved together and supporting that move it's my understanding and i'm sure michelle kennedy will talk about it but uh there's it's my understanding that there was a meeting in december where they were explicitly told that they would be supported in this move and then asked in january to sign a letter that states that they will leave in june despite there not being any plans in place they have not gotten anything in writing showing that support or what that support might look like and we are just asking for transparency from all of you and to be clear about what it is that you are going to going to do and you know as much as there's been a lot of talk about supporting them we're just hoping to be able to see that and that that will be shown in the future thank you thank you um ms kennedy if you want to give an update thank you madam mayor members of council apologize for my raspy voice um so we have had three meetings with residents of hyatt street our most recent one was two weeks ago um we have as it as it relates to the ability to be able to stay in the location that they are as we've explained on multiple occasions that is a private sale the city has no ability to intervene in that sale and we've been given no indication that staying on that property is a viable option been very clear about expressing that to the residents of hyatt street and they have acknowledged that they understand that that's the case up to this point one of the first requests that they made of our department was to have a list of city-owned properties whose initial zoning allowed for mobile homes to be placed on them we provided that list there was one parcel that they identified as having any interest in unfortunately it is in old asheboro and as you all understand overlay maps now create an exclusion for zoning in that location there was a second property that they had some interest in that is privately owned and is owned by a development company who intends to develop it and is uninterested in selling it so those have been the two properties that residents have identified this has been an ongoing conversation for us with residents it hasn't been a one-and-done there sometimes daily conversations taking place with folks from hyatt street currently there are five tenants at hyatt street that have identified other housing locations we are currently working on putting together a relocation package for those folks there are nine folks working with siembra who want to stay together and are looking at all options available to them we have explained in pretty great detail that in order for that many units to stay together within the city of greensboro our our regulations require a minimum of five acres and as all of you know five acres in the city of greensboro that is zoned appropriate for mobile homes is hard to come by as it relates to the letter that's been mentioned several times that is not something that we brought to residents of hyatt street that was something that they requested of us madam mayor you were at that meeting where we let them know you let them know that the developer had worked to come to a terms with letting the children stay through the end of the school year and that indicated that they would be able to stay through about mid-june and at that meeting residents asked to have that in writing and which makes perfect sense so we have gone back to mark isaacson representing the developer and asked for a written document that we can then present to residents for them to review and have reviewed by anybody that they would like because they were uncomfortable making a verbal agreement that didn't in writing indicate their security and housing through mid-june we continue to there was a question about are we remaining neutral in this process and the answer to that probably is no we've gone well above and beyond what we would ever as a city typically offer in an event such as this for the residents of hyatt street um as it sounds cold to say but the truth is properties change hands all the time and tenants are often caught in the crossfire of that and the city almost never intervenes in those instances so we've gone well above and beyond what would ever be required of us to try to help these residents find relocation we continue to do that our next meeting with them is scheduled for this week for us this is an ongoing conversation of support in community with residents of hyatt street um there has been no indication from us that they are uncomfortable with with anything that we've discussed to this point largely those meetings and the mayor can attest to this are us listening to their concerns and answering questions that they have as we navigate the process and that's what we intend to continue to do and happy to answer any other questions that you all may have i just would also add that as it relates to media reports we have no control over that the media reports what the media is going to report and as we all know that's always not always necessarily factual i i do want to point out that um that you and neighborhood development have really put a lot of work into this the last couple of weeks and i know that you had inspections go out and look at all of the homes to make sure that they were roadworthy that they would be able to be moved we did we had we had a mobile home mover come out and assess all units on site to make sure that they were able to be moved and they are we also as a essentially as a courtesy had the code enforcement department go out and inspect all units not to find violations but to indicate to any of those residents any issues that may have present in their homes and we provided those to them so we are have a good handle on the stability of each of those units and the ability for each of those units to be moved and the condition that they're in and that really is a first step in the process you can't relocate something that isn't stable enough to be relocated um i do have a question you said for would it be for nine of the homes they need five acres for for nine or for a larger community in order to have a mobile home park within the city of greensboro it's a minimum of five acres that's required to do that and with that many units together essentially would be the creation of a mobile home park so it would accommodate other people beside five acres you know the other thing pointing out looking at um you know clean acreage is that there would have to be utilities run and internal roads and um you know the timing on that is um is very important i don't know that we could get utilities run and streets put in and have no idea what that costs there's a pretty tremendous amount of infrastructure um you have to have paved parking pads paved roads throughout if you were going to put nine units in one parcel so there is a considerable amount of infrastructure and we've been very clear about that we've been very direct in saying that probably the the most realistic option is to identify nine different locations uh for relocation in terms of just what is available within the city that could accommodate the need and i do want to appreciate the fact that you've reached out to some of our local foundations to help with funding as well so i do think that city staff has done a really good good job trying to work with the neighbors and we do know how important it is to keep them together and that would certainly be our first choice to make sure that we can keep people together as a community um so i want to thank you for your efforts and the efforts of the rest of the department and you know i hope that this will come to a good resolution for all of the neighbors and it's important for them to understand the what it was that the property owner said about that july the june 15th deadline and is that is they would have to have um plans in place in order for them to extend extend that deadline um mrs firm then mrs hightower and then mr holston michelle you commented that i think you said five families have received a relocation package i think that's what you called it or something 35 that have identified locations that they want to relocate to and we're working through the financial piece of that relocation package now and can you give us some sense of what a relocation package what does that mean i mean it's it's moving a mobile home is not an easy process um you have to disconnect all utilities electrical plumbing hvac decking and then it has to be re-established in a new location it's costly somewhere between eight and twelve thousand dollars per unit for a full breakdown and setup is about what you're looking at so that was why the assessment of the units became so important if you're talking about a mobile home that you know isn't stable or has a value of five or six thousand dollars it's difficult to invest twelve thousand dollars in moving something there's not much of a return on that investment so are we talking about financially helping them with that relocation there are some avenues available within the city emergency rental assistance programs some other programs that we have within the department we've also been having ongoing conversations with the community foundation of greater greensboro who is working to identify additional funding to support this ideally they could use etap dollars that they have in place that would work for that process and there have been some private individuals that have indicated their interest in supporting in relocation so this is really a partnership between us and cfg to sort that out thank you mrs hightower and mr holston thank you miss kennedy for all your efforts in helping them um i know it's a challenge have you uh looked at any of the current existing mobile home parts to see if there's any space available there and the five that are relocating are relocating to existing mobile home parks i think all but one of them are in guilford county um there is one fairly large mobile home park that is kind of on the city county line but there has already been one resident who is fully relocated to that park so yes that is where the the five folks who've already identified their relocation plans and tend to go to existing parks okay and are any of them interested in homeownership beyond just mobile home we have begun the conversations around vetting the financial picture of each individual family to determine if they're able to qualify for any city down payment assistance programs or other programs that we have available should they choose to go a route like that i would say that at this point everything is on the table as far as options whether that's down payment assistance rental assistance for moving a mobile home or all points in between we're really trying to be as creative as we can to identify new locations so it's really a good idea that we have the down payment assistance program because there are people that do need to take advantage of that down payment assistance well the down payment assistance program is run by housing consultants group which is a small local nonprofit that is a certified housing counseling organization so the the notion that it's a large conglomerate right is uh is misinformed so without down payment assistance many many low-income and middle-income home buyers in greensboro would never be able to come home become homeowners right because most people have not even saved six hundred dollars um just in case of an emergency much less ten thousand that's correct so i think that's great i think we're gonna work to help them as much as we can so thank you for all your efforts yes ma'am um mrs thurm oh you did it mr holstein thank you madam mayor uh these are citizens of greece and and my heart really goes out uh to them in this situation but at the same time the the kind of the harsh reality of it is this private sale that we really can't [Music] participate in and i will say and my comments are really more general than anything else but but michelle i do commend you and your department for the work you've done to inform and notify and give them the information that they need but i do implore you to continue to use the city's resources and also to to bring in those from those other community-based organizations whether it's down payments whatever it might be uh because regardless of the situation we really need to find a way to assist them as much as we possibly can so again general statement uh thanks for what you've done but if there's any more you can do just to give notice just to get information so that they fully understand the situation is greatly appreciated absolutely thank you mrs hoffman michelle can you just um review the numbers again with us my recollection is that initially there were what 22 or 23 i believe there were two units occupied there roughly that amount yes and so we are we are down at this point to um there are there are 13 families still on the family still on site but five of them have relocation one there were fourteen one has completely relocated okay so there are four remaining that have already identified their relocation plans and then there are nine so that we're so we have nine families who have um some some time here until mid-june or so to to really get through this process and determine what their what their options are okay thank you very much i appreciate all the work that you and your department have done thank you thank you [Music] our last speaker is catherine holcomb hi my name is catherine holcomb and good evening mayor vaughan and city council and the new city manager i got a headline that you are doing something great today in the newspaper i live at 1911 rose crest drive mr outling represents me and i rarely agree with his decisions however i got a recent email um from him as a mayoral candidate and he had this amazing slogan he said too often in greensboro your zip code is your destiny oh my gosh that is so insightful and so true i'm from 08. do you have any idea about any ideas about who i am i was once a renter in o5 that's a different kind of life i was a teacher in zip code 27406. are there pictures in your mind about the different zip codes in greensboro imagine a slogan greensboro where your zip code is your destiny originally driven by racism railroad tracks and redlining divided us into black and white sections of greensboro it's only in the last several years that uncg and ncant have cooperated and worked together it was one on one side of town the other on the other and some folks actually fear going into other zip codes than where they're comfortable so today not only do ptas and housing and parks and schools and policing and transportation and grocery stores look different in different zip codes and i'm asking what are we going to do about it how could we change our slogan to greensboro the city of compassion where your zip code does not define who you are i have no good ideas of my own i'm too old but i read other people's ideas and one is next city they research and publish the best ideas from cities who are handling issues that ev all the cities are and each year they compile the best ones in a book the latest is new york city is just now this year putting on a ballot for these citizens of new york city they're going to write a preamble to their charter about being a multicultural democracy they're going to establish an office of racial equity which would craft a plan for the city and help every single city department craft a plan for racial equity in that department transportation police everything and they would create a new cost of living measure there are so many good ideas out there couldn't we set up a community conversation brainstorm ideas like the music manager said he was going to do thank you um i believe nick city was here a few months ago and they mayor vaughn is muted moved by mrs hightower seconded by mr hulston um i am a yes mrs hoffman mr holston yes dr wells yes mayor pro tem yeah mrs abuzawader yes mr outland yes mrs thurm yes mrs hightower yes and that passes nine to zero um we now move on to our business agenda we have one item it is i point one resolution approving bid in the amount of four million five hundred and sixty four thousand nine hundred and sixteen dollars and eight cents and authorizing execution of contract twenty twenty 2022-001 with blyth construction for the resurfacing of streets move the resolution that is um moved by miss abusawader seconded by mr holston um council please vote and we'll take in verbal also um mrs hoffman mr holston yes dr wells mayor pro 10 yes i am yes this is waiter yes mr outland yes mr sturm yes and mrs hightower yes that passes nine to zero um so um that is the end of our agenda let's do boards and commissions mayor protem no uh mr boos waiter none this evening thank you mr holston not tonight um mrs hightower yes we need to make one correction um i believe on the boards and commissions at last meeting we appointed what was the lady's name i forgot already i'm goldie miss foreign okay andrew it's brewed to the war memorial commission that's a little premature the current um commission member maxine bateman term does not expire until august 15th and so she she will continue until then so ms spruill's appointment will not start uh until 8 31 of 2022. okay so just need to clear that up dr wells that yes and she's been notified okay yeah correction has been made okay okay beyond that that's all i have okay um dr wells no not tonight mr outling yes thank you i'd like to appoint mr peter isikoff to the redevelopment commission and the position that was formerly occupied by patrick johnson is there a second and that was seconded by mrs thurm all in favor say aye aye opposed that passes that's all thank you um mrs hoffman [Music] uh yes i'd like to appoint uh catherine rowe to the uh historic preservation commission she's replacing linda lane second and they're seconded by miss abuse waiter all in favor say aye aye aye opposed um anything else mrs hoffman mrs thurm i have one appointment i'd like to appoint shalina cole to the african-american disparity commission that is taking the place of cynthia coleman who turned in her resignation this week is there a second seconded by mrs johnson we don't normally appoint those that's that doesn't yeah we don't appoint those that comes through the actual chair of the commission that you don't want to appoint those because can you provide some clarity yes madam mayor that um commission has not been designated as a council um oversold right that's right because it's an ad hoc committee yes ma'am right i think so if she's interested she would need to contact uh dr love jones um human rights and then they will filter that down to um the chair of the ad hoc committee crystal black that's fine we'll handle it that way thank you um mrs therm anything else no council comments mayor pro tem council comments i do i wanted to just um tell you say that um on this high street issue as challenging as it is and and as unfortunate in some ways as as it is there are so many citizens around that i'm proud of and i'm proud of the city of greensboro for hearing the concerns of council and of those people and doing all they can i guess michelle left who's going to thank her they can in a situation that our hands are really tight um sometimes i think it's it's challenging challenges like this that bring out the best in people and i think to a great degree this has happened i hope that we can i think we are chipping away at helping them but um i just wanted to say that sometimes in in challenging and difficult situations there's so much we can learn and there's so much we can do as a community for each other i i i don't have um anything else we'll meet before valentine's day won't we if not have a good valentine's day yeah chris and what art what is ernick the 15th any of y'all down there can take me out to lunch it'd be all right i'd be happy to have you as my date hot date yes uh mr boosawader thank you madam mayor um exciting we've got our new city manager here and we've still got chris wilson here so all is good um very excited i i just want us to keep the momentum going on all of our economic development we just had the the big uh greens booming everybody's got on their button uh to show that we are certainly moving forward moving ahead and um i just want to see that momentum keep going and i do think with the economic development successes we've had that that it is going to keep going um and then of course we've had some major losses in our community several have been mentioned this this evening of course uh commissioner coleman um a lot of people lately it seems like so we need to keep everyone in our thoughts and prayers and mary kayans claudette sister laritha graves um was funeralized on monday oh my goodness so yeah it's really being a lot of people so anyway that's about all i had nightmare thank you um mr holston yes um in addition to sharing the words with uh regarding the family of carolyn coleman and then also the kinfrey senior two uh large members of our community that we're going to truly miss i want to say uh thank you to councilwoman hightower for the invitation to the southeast greensboro coalition town hall uh it was very informative as it always has been and i also want to say that uh it was a pleasure to have attended the the greensboro afghan families um event on uh january 25th and a lot of good words that have come out of that but also a lot of good deeds that have also happened but still more that that need to occur uh the comments from norman uh giving his personal story was was really impactful and i also want to say uh welcome to our new city manager uh taiyo obama had very happy to have you here and uh finally uh happy black history month today is february 1. greensboro 4. thank you daddy mayor thank you mrs hightower uh thank you um hugh i was going to do that as well um uh remind everyone this is black history month today starts today um and i would challenge each and every one listening to go and learn something other than martin luther king rosa parks and harriet tubman and you'll find out that we have a rich history um and um that's certainly a way for learning about diversity and inclusion so go out and do that welcome mr city manager ty uh i won't mess up the rest of it um but um i look forward to working with you and all the creative things moving forward for this city um you know so glad you're here glad to have you um certainly am glad that we've had some great economic development lately on the day that we had the boom announcement at the airport i lost my best friend and that in the name of commissioner carolyn coleman and talk about rich history talk about black history um from the time she was 14 she has always advocated um for her people she set in down in savannah georgia when the sit-ins were here in the 60s she sat in down there as a teenager and she's in the museum down there in savannah georgia and so all her life she has worked for civil rights to our people to be equal because she will be missed greatly she was my nighttime talking partner but better still she took me under her wing because she knew i had potential she just needed to get it in the right lane and um you know sometimes people have wisdom and knowledge they don't impart it to others but she had no problem doing that so we will have her service on thursday at 1 and then we will take her home to savannah on friday because back where her parents are and her siblings are but she will be miss she did a lot in this community even though she was disabled um she continued to persevere she did more with one leg than most people do it too and that's something to be very commended and i will miss her dearly um greatly and um but i will try to make her proud so thank you thank you dr wells well i i would like to welcome our new city manager tonight and i feel we've lost a great friend and um miss coleman she's done a lot for our city so thinking about her and her her family and also keeping in mind our sister city winston-salem going through we hope it won't be a great catastrophe over there but i want to invite you on thursday night at 6 30 we will have our concerned citizens of northeast greensboro's meeting and you can get the um the zoom link from over my um facebook pages and then on that's thursday night then the next thursday night we're going to do something really special councilwoman hi towel and i are going to have a joint town meeting and uh we're going to have as i guess our new city manager and of course we will be addressing uh concerns for district one and district two so we'd like for you to um come in on that zoom and you will receive from the city the link for that or how you can get the link for it um i think that's all i have to say on tonight and the change in the things that are happening in greensboro someone asked me how i felt about the grocery store that was coming to west over to the other side of town and want to know how did i feel because i've been trying to get a grocery store in in over in northeast greensboro since 1998 and i felt i told them i was not upset about it i realized that what i'm working on is how do we change the conditions so that we can meet the criteria i understand the business side of it and the grocery store chains have their criteria so what i'm looking for and i see the economic development that's coming to the city and that i think will cause our uh economy to go up and then we'll be able to meet and that checkoff list that they have so i'm pleased that the city is growing and i'm not upset about what we well i can't say i'm not upset about what is happening in the east but i'm concerned about us making it better but i'm not going to be upset because greensboro on a whole is growing and i'm i'm glad of that and when it comes to the hyatt street people we have dealt i have talked to them and i'm sure that the most all of the council members we feel for them but we understand there's certain things that we just cannot do but we feel for the situation that they're in and hoping that things will work out for them thank you mayor thank you mr outling yeah thank you first and foremost deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of commissioner coleman she was certainly a tremendous advocate and fighter for fairness and equality she'll be remembered by that as well as her kindness and those are two qualities being a fierce advocate but also being kind they're certainly uncommon among everyone especially those in the elected life second of course welcome to mr city manager jayoba mr manager has announced a number of reforms and improvements to the city manager's office including uh mr wilson now being the deputy city manager so a hearty congratulations to him in addition to that april all britain will serve as uh a chief of staff of sorts although i know that's not her official title and uh miss albritton is a fellow uncg spartan so it's always great to have another spartan in the building congratulations mrs hoffman i too welcome our new city manager and look forward to just continuing the trajectory that i think we are on in the city it's uh yeah these things don't happen overnight uh the things that we are seeing now as a result of really a decade of investment in all areas in this city so it's an exciting time and look forward to continuing thank you mr stern i would also like to welcome our new city manager and i'm looking forward to working with you and and all the great things that we will do together and thank you chris for all that you've done over the last seven months and all you'll continue to do um i'd also like to remind folks that the kickoff for participatory budgeting round four is tomorrow night at 7 00 pm uh that will be a zoom function and for anyone watching that would like to participate you can go to pbgreensboro.com to register and you will receive a zoom link and we've already got folks that have ideas for projects and it's exciting to start kicking those off i'm also very pleased to say that we're starting to see some great a progress on pb projects from round three you may recall that we put all of pb on hold temporarily during covet and i'm very pleased to see those projects getting picked up now and they're things under construction it's an exciting time but i would like to encourage people i know we have well over 100 people registered for that kickoff tomorrow and would like to see it go even higher so please join us at that kickoff again you can go to pbgreensboro.com to register and get a link for the meeting tomorrow night so thank you thank you um very much i i know we don't have any of our media here this evening but it is my understanding that today is dick baron's last day reporting on the greensboro city council um yet we haven't seen we haven't seen him in a while because he has been zooming but i know that we're all going to miss him and you know i think it's unfortunate that the news and record appears to be under resourced and that is not a fault of our local people and our local reporters i think they're doing more with less but it is concerning i think when you know we have a local paper that has very few articles on a daily basis of original reporting you know when people look at greensboro for economic development you know one thing they look at is local coverage and i think it is unfortunate that that coverage has diminished from the news and record on all of the good things that are coming out of the city and the county and um you know they're not able to report on it as much due to the lack of reporters and again i want to thank all of them for the hard work that they do because they are doing devil time um and i do want to say wish um dick baron you know best in his retirement we have enjoyed working with him and i'm sure his last story is going to be absolutely terrific so um i you know we've we've all said what a great week we've had um you know the boom announcement seems to have really resonated um almost across the country and it is um it is really fitting that a denver startup company decided to come to the city of greensboro for their supersonic jet and their supersonic manufacturing facility that they recognize the richness of our community and our great workforce and everything that greensboro has to offer so i know that we are really going to welcome them and welcome the people at toyota and all of the other people who are making who've made great announcements over the last couple years we're going to continue to roll out those um those announcements as paul mingert said the other day at the boom buckle up because it's not over and um i agree it is a good time to be in greensboro um i too want to give condolences to carolyn coleman and her family mrs hightower i know how close you were to her that she was family to you and it's um you know it's it's shocking um to lose somebody who has had such a legacy and it be you know not something that was expected and um she really did walk the walk and talk the talk and i know that we'll we'll miss her um mr city manager do you have any comments uh you so we end each meeting with the city manager and the city attorney i have to remember that board um but yes thank you thank you so much for your warm welcome i will say that i noticed a number of things that i just have to highlight one very positive about staff i think that's a great thing let's keep it going because we've got a great staff here i've only been here one day but i can tell you that um everywhere i've been in this building people have been welcoming and they've also spoken okay yeah people people have been welcoming and they've kind of given me some of their thoughts as well about how we can make things better that's a good thing uh but i like the fact that as elected officials you actually value our staff and you set so tonight that's wonderful and thank you very much for that as city manager um i really appreciate what chris has done for me ever since this announcement the last one month we've become really good i think we talk almost every day our child and really talk about going forward and i'm gonna continue to lean in um in terms of how we engage not just our staff and yourselves but also our community um i think it was william shakespeare who said what is the people what is the city but the people what is the city by the people and [Music] i believe that as a city manager and as this executive team our role is to connect the dots whether it's about jobs creation which you've talked about tonight or housing which also we've talked about tonight or even public transportation which didn't come up tonight but it's an essential part of how for affordable housing and so those are three things that i'm sure we're going to be hearing a lot more about over the next several weeks and that's why i'm really excited about the listening sessions that we're going to get into i'm sure someone is going to talk about one or two or three of these things and others as well but we also talked about parks and recreation and i truly believe that if you want to build a city that's vibrant equitable sustainable livable and thriving all of these things have to be talked about in a very very robust way and finally i will say i'm encouraged that you talk about equity uh publicly and you're putting it out there and it's a great thing but i believe that as your executive team our role is to make sure that we walk the talk when we talk about equity so that every greensboro and regardless of where they live in this city believe that they have good access to good quality of life regardless of where they live where they do business where they go to school where they have their kids for daycare it really doesn't matter as michelle was talking about relocation i started thinking that when we relocate people we also have to think about whether you're relocating them far away from jobs or far away from public transit access a lot of those things are so important in making a cohesive vibrant city and so i'm happy to lead the charge and i'm happy to say that we have got a great thing going with this staff here and so hopefully over the next several weeks and months you will continue to hear a lot more from us as to how we're advancing um you know initiatives that build on the successes that we've had so far the city so thank you very much for your warm welcome i'm really happy to be here i feel that this is where i really truly belong and i'm happy to be home thank you thank you welcome um mr city attorney thank you with that is there a motion to adjourn moved by dr wells second by mrs thurm all in favor say aye aye opposed we are adjourned