[Music] I believe we have a quorum of six then we need to go ahead um and Studio we ready to go live all right I want to call the December 11th um council meeting to order um let's go ahead and begin with our introductions and we'll start with Miss watlington Victoria watlington at large Ed dggs district 7 Malcolm Graham District 2 Marcus Jones city manager B LA mayor Dante Anderson mayor protim district one good evening Lana Mayfield council member at large good evening margerie Molina District 5 good evening Tana Brown District 3 billly Tom Deputy city clerk all right thank you everyone um today I believe that we are going to um we're all recognizing that we have a number of important items first we have a public forum and you should understand we have exceeded the number of people that we would have so that people will have a two minutes to speak and also um we are going to I hope be very respectful and I will ask the audience to be respectful um as remarks are being made this is a continuation of our last meeting that we had for the public forum as well so Divergent views but respected views are what we would have as we do this in addition we're all aware I hope that we will be watching the video that take took place um on Arrowwood this evening afterwards so as we go through this agenda and prepare for that I hope that everyone is ready to um follow enough so that we can also again look and look at that in the view that we are required to do and hear from the chief as an end of that so today right now we're in our um consent items list so I'm going to ask Miss Harris if there were any questions regarding our consent agenda if you would review those please thank you Madame mayor and Council good evening and Miss Mayfield I had a chance to speak with you earlier but I don't know if you had any additional ones or if anybody else had any additional consent item questions all right so without any further questions um I'm going to ask if there is a consent agenda item for a separate vote you have I do have items may let me just start off with a regular motion may I have a motion to approve consent items 15 through 4 43 um and with the exception of items 36 37 39 and 40 which have been deferred by staff and expected to come back in January's meeting so moved we have a motion and a second and so any discussion hearing no discussion all I'm sorry M we have discussion um we have Mr Graham just just a brief comment um again I know we're going to talk about infrastructure earlier today but there's so many infrastructure projects that we improve in the consent I just wanted to bring that to the Public's attention there's a lot of stuff that we're doing this week as we do every month related to infrastructure that's kind of buried in the consent items and so it's just another you know know to the public that we we addressing the issue all right thank you Miss Mayfield mayor will you repeat the consent items that are being pulled again 36 37 39 and 40 thank you all right all right any further discussion on our consider agenda hearing none all in favor of approval of the consent agenda please raise your hands I believe that is unanimous and so we will now go to our action review over our action review agenda over review oversight so with the city manager thank you mayor members of council we have uh two items on the action review tonight and as we go back to one of my 30-day memos we talked about rounding out the year being able to have a infrastructure update and that will be kicked off with uh Liz Babson as well as an Eastland update which will be uh kicked off with uh Tracy Dodson so there's been a lot of things that we've been discussing about infrastructure I'll let you know that uh tonight's not the end we'll continue to have discussions during the annual strategy uh meeting as well as uh in the spring and I will remind you that as we started to talk about all the projects that we're addressing throughout the city we had it mcken and the team come up and really do something that had not been done before in the city of Charlotte and let's look at a series of projects from sidewalks to roads uh to uh Greenway bike paths uh and some rail infrastructure and bundle those begin bundling those projects and so that'll be something that we discuss in the spring but again and I didn't want anyone to think this is uh the end of our infrastructure discussion it's just an update that we committed to you uh by the end of the fourth quarter of this year so may if there aren't any questions I'd like to turn it over to Liz Miss bson thank you and good evening again I'm Liz Babson I'm an assistant city manager with the city of Charlotte and I'm joined by others I'm joined by staff from CMS the Charlotte fire department and Charlotte water to highlight three infrastructure Focus areas this evening while as the manager indicated we're only talking about three Focus areas tonight I'd like to make a note that this work occurs in many other areas across the organization in partnership with Partners like the county and CMS and it's part of the efforts that we do to prepare for growth and development in the city so again as Mr Jones indicated you'll remember we had a special infrastructure meeting last December and we discussed infrastru structure capacity across the city as growth and development occurs at this as this image conveys infrastructure is made up of many different components and it's an important part of how we plan for our future and build this city when we talk about infrastructure it's also important to understand that our strategy for growth and building infrastructure capacity is multi-layered and it occurs in many different ways as you'll hear tonight with the three areas of focus that we've brought brought for you to hear about and Council you continue to take important steps in that space and adopting policies that support aligning our growth and building that infrastructure capacity to name a couple of examples just two years ago you adopted the 20 240 comprehensive plan and in that plan we established a long-term vision for how we will grow that aligns with our land use policies and infrastructure planning so that we can continue to improve improve the work that we do in allowing us to create jobs and housing and create Mobility opportunities for how people travel between those in addition it didn't just stop with the 20 240 comprehensive plan but we continue to develop more detailed plans that help us in that space as well like the Strategic Mobility plan the Strategic energy action plan you'll hear even next year about the tree canopy action plan just to name a few and then last year Council you adopted the uniform devel unified development ordinance which sets the regulatory requirements for how we develop and in that document we did important work to continue to improve the measures that we have in place to build out this infrastructure capacity as we experience growth and development in the city and just to name a couple of examples we lowered thresholds for storm water mitigations and we updated multimodal transportation requirements for development projects and we're not done we're just in the first 6 months of implementation of that unified development ordinance so we anticipate being able to see even more success in that area and the impact of growth as Mr Jones mentioned is also influencing a new way that we look at our Capital spending for Mobility projects you've had a couple of presentations over this last year by Ed mckenny and we've highlighted a new approach to bundling those projects so we we can leverage our investment and improve mobility in areas that have the greatest need and so following that infrastructure meeting and several discussions afterward you received a memo in May that outlined a multiphased approach with an emphasis on making improvements quickly and focusing on the infrastructure areas where we heard concerns from you so the first phase focused on improvements to the information provided through rezonings you see growth and development and are approving rezonings every month and so we knew that it was important to continue to provide you more information to help you as you make those decisions we implemented the development near me website this and launched that this summer which provides an interactive map with realtime information about Land Development activity we've gotten great feedback from several several of you have have used that website and that tool and we've gotten a lot of good feedback from residents as well who are excited to be able to see that information real time and we're continuing to make improvements in the information that we provide you monthly in the staff analysis on rezonings to make sure that we're giving you that more comprehensive information that you're looking for the second phase focuses on five infrastructure focused areas and again tonight you'll hear about three of those which are CMS fire and Charlotte water and then we'll plan to bring back the next two remaining areas which are storm water and transportation after the first of the year the third phase is forthcoming in 2024 and will serve as a piece that really starts to tie all of this information together in a tool where you can see real time data about the improvements that are being made and how the vision for the growth in our city is being leveraged by the work that's already developed through the 2040 comprehensive plan implementation dashboard that dashboard already exists it measures our progress toward implementing the 2040 comprehensive plan goals that you adopted and we propose to continue the work of evaluating infrastructure capacity and add that information to this tool to allow us to gain an even deeper understanding of that relationship and so before I turn it over to the other presenters and they go into a whole lot more detail um I wanted to share share this Focus area summary because it's a good way to understand the point that I have described in some of the opening remarks this table is an indication of just how complex this work is and it demonstrates how each Focus area is uniquely different it also shows many of the metrics and standards that are established by the regulatory agencies that have authority over those infrastructure areas and our work is to take those standards and apply them to Local IAL conditions this for example um with the fire department they clearly have defined metrics by external agencies that affect their accreditation rating and so it's important that they create measurements to respond to those conditions our city strategies to ensuring that compliance aren't limited to just the physical infrastructure like new infill fire stations but operational adjustments that we can also make in order to meet that compliance so for example the Charlotte Fire Department added a ladder company to station 39 in the current budget the addition of that new company at an existing station helps achieve those external metrics without needing to construct a new fire station so again just an example to show you the complexity of this infrastructure focused areas and and some of the ways in which we can take standards that are set by others and make and adapt them to Local Conditions so with that I'm going to turn it over to Dennis Laria from CMS to come up and talk about CMS school planning and how we use how that relationship between school utilization and capacity plans for their future needs thank you and thank you for this opportunity to uh speak again I'm Dennis ler the executive director of facilities planning and real estate for Charlotte meinberg Schools and uh just to give a little overview of where CMS is today we are the uh 17th largest school district in the United States out of 13,000 so here 17th largest but I think the context is pretty important we're an incredibly diverse school system um representing folks from 175 different countries and 204 languages being spoken inside of our schools each and every day when we do planning at schools it's very different from the sort of planning that happens for uh other sorts of infrastructure but it's all grounded in the same sort of thing we have assumptions we have to assume certain things like we have to assume that the state is still going to fund us at the levels at which they've been funding us we have methodologies that we use in order to make sure that we're calculating our things appropriately and we have standards that we take into consideration around what we build and how we build them and so the all all of these uh factors have an external component and an internal component because just like with the city council board of education does have the ability to make decisions that change how schools operate so some things get done to us and other things get done to us by ourselves um one of the other ways to look at the differences between Municipal planning and school planning is to look through the inputs and uh the way that we're informing our decisions so you know from a from a school standpoint when we're talking about actually building for school capacity we actually have to look at how many students we have on the ground today how many students we're anticipating a methodology called cohort survival so we actually evaluate year-over-year grade by grade what our students do as they progress through the system um there's some interesting anomalies if you look at uh the eighth grade to nth grade transition typically our high school classes are about 125% or 130% even of our eighth grade classes because we tend to get back a lot of kids from private schools charter schools and other places at the high school level because our high schools offer things that they can't get somewhere else um we also have to take into consideration boundaries because we're a neighborhood School driven district and so there's a pupil assignment plan and the way that we assign students actually has you know direct correlation to how those schools operate we're looking at our schools and and our geographies um very discreetly we know that certain housing typologies behave differently in one part of the City versus another part of the city so all those factors get taken into consideration and ultimately you know we look to how those uh projections tie to our actual and projected needs both from an operating standpoint and from a capital standpoint when we're talking in terms of uh rezonings for example we're looking and and also the way we plan for school capacity we're actually looking first and foremost at utilization and so that's not a measure of how many students are in a school or how many students could be in a school but it's actually looking at how many teachers we have classroom teachers versus how many spaces for them to teach we have and there are different things that constitute a classroom teacher at different levels for example an English lingu language learner teacher at the elementary level is performing his or her work in a pushin or pull out sort of environment they're not designated as a classroom teacher but at the middle school and the high school level they actually do receive a classroom so those allotments get taken into consideration at the elementary school it's very simple teachers with the kid all periods of the day unless they're at a special they're at Art they're at music or they're at lunch so those classrooms are fully occupied whereas at our middle and high schools we actually float so we have a teacher has a four block day they teach three periods of that of that day so that period that they're not teaching we have them leave the classroom and another teacher and class floats in to give us additional capacity so when you see the utilization 100 % at an elementary school means it's full there's a teacher in every classroom every period 130% at the middle in the high schools and so those are some of the metrics that come back to council for consideration in the rezonings and that's something that can be a little bit confusing just because the fact that we're saying 130% is okay at the middle or High School level the school is actually functioning as designed looking ahead we do a lot of work together with City staff whether that's C do uh I have standing meetings with city planners um we are working on getting all of the current and future schools into the development near me app which we think is a great um opportunity to uh to push more information about schools out to the community we are in ongoing conversations about the way that we respond to rezonings especially in light of the changes tied to the Udo and um also as everyone I hope is well aware we did have a $2.5 billion do Bond pass here and so thank you very much for your support I know that members of council were instrumental on that we appreciate the support of this body and the community at large in ensuring that we have the resources that we need because unlike um city council or County Commission Boards of Education in the state of North Carolina don't have funding Authority so there's no ability for us to Levy uh fees or taxes for our operation and uh the state hasn't done a bond since 1996 and just just to clear this up we get $12 million a year from the North Carolina Education Lottery and it's about $50 million to build one school so we have to go through a bond and we have to get that public support in order to be able to do what we need to do and so there are 30 projects impacting 35 schools throughout the county not just in the city but throughout the county and this information is available on the CMS website we also have a website called CMS Bond construction.com where the projects that are actually underway can be viewed there's live cameras on the sites where there's active construction but all the information about the 2017 Bond projects as well as the 2023 Bond projects that are just kicking off will be able to be found there as well I I want to ask what Liz did Judy do you want to have questions now or do we come back after all of the presentations how did you plan it we we can do whatever the mayor and the council want to do that's true but that might not be the best thing to do logistically we've got it set up with these guys with a microphone so it would be easier for us if if you hold questions to the end so jot down your questions and we'll go through all of the speakers and come back and we'll start with schools and go down that way all right thank you good evening everybody my name is Pete Scaris and I am one of the chief Johnson's Deputy Chiefs uh on the slide that you see is just an overview of what our department currently is um numbers that are to us that are really important to it is obviously 270 firefighters that we have on duty every day and that is that is our minimum Staffing 132 just over 132,000 almost 133,000 total incidents for last fiscal year in 2023 and then the six minute total response times in the bottom right that is what we judge everything on there are a number of factors that play into that which is our dispatchers and and telecommunicators have 60 seconds to answer the phone obtain an address and dispatch a Company the company when they're in the station has 60 seconds to get alerted get to the V apparatus if it gets dressed if it's a fire type call or on the truck on an EMS call and be out of the station in that 60 seconds and then we try to base it on NFPA standards which you heard about earlier to make sure that we have a 4minute response time to get to any place anywhere in the city that we can and that makes that total response time of 6 minutes and then as you see on the bottom the Center for Public Safety Excellence we are accredited through them uh we are getting ready in 2025 I believe it is to go through our fourth re accreditation and then the insurance service organization class one that's what sets the insurance rates for commercial and residential property in the city and we are less than 1% of US Departments have both of those statuses and we are one of them so our infrastructure Str capacity safeguards total response time as we said earlier is really an important M metrics for us because everything is how fast we can get there you know 90% of the things that we go to everybody would consider a true emergency medical incident fire incident where seconds and and minutes of travel time matter so we try to really stay within that four minutes of travel time for every company in the city we have those established quality col benchmarks where we evaluate ourselves on the 90th percentile which is a nationwide average um currently we are just a little bit below that um but also at the same time you'll see on one of the other slides there's some Investments that's being made to by Council that has been approved to help us get closer to that 90% M Matrix our planning and strategy development section analyzes the growth that we get through cooperation obviously with planning and econ development to make sure that as areas are starting to build up and growth is iron district is is a great example or the River District is another one where we we can provide that input and begin doing analysis on what our response times into those for every housing unit whether it's an apartment a condo or a single family house it equates to about 38 calls per housing unit and that's what we've been able to come up with over an average over the last 10 years and then the last piece is Center Public Safety excellence and ISO we get rated every 5 years on the center of Public Safety Excellence side they bring experts from outside of the department that come in and look at all the plans that we have put together the things that we have done what we had planned to do the last time they were in town the progress we've made to get those and what our goals and objectives are as we move forward trying to continue to provide that high level of service so determining needs one one of the big tools that we use is heat mats so the on the left you'll see be before Firehouse 43 and after Firehouse 4 43 one of the things we realized through our planning and um development is look at where those hotpots are so you see on the beforehand we we had a really large area that we were not meeting to its response times again about 5 years ago Council approved us to build Fire Station 43 on Clanton Road between uh South Tron Street and 77 and you'll see in the bottom picture where the response times in that area have greatly improved the map on the right is what we are currently looking at so you look at Firehouse 45 which is Hidden Valley that is under construction again it is one of five facilities the council approved that we are that have some level of progress into building it 45 is being built as we speak it is on North Trion Street right near or Road um and it's to address that one area Firehouse 44 out in River District Firehouse 46 on the North End Miranda road is in the planning stage um that is again to address that hot spot up on the top where we're not meeting response times Firehouse 11 right outside of the north side of Uptown off 28th Street in Graham Street is a complete tear down and rebuild that's a station that was built in the early 60s um and honestly it became over capacity for what we now have um that is one of our heavy rescue stations so they have some additional equipment and it became cost prohibitive to do a major Rehabilitation to that station with the Challenger that we V so again one of the five projects that Council approved funding for and then Firehouse number 30 which is out towards um beam road and shopton road right across the street from the fire police training academy and that will be the oil electric fire station including the apparatus it'll be an electric fire Tru so that is also what you see in on the map in purple are those stations where we believe through again research and looking at historical data where there is the potential for for new stations that need to be built um there are some other areas where if you look between stations 12 and 20 which is the nation's Ford South Boulevard quarter that's starting to pop up a little bit where you know that's a really good place for an infill station where we add like we did for station 39 adding an additional company to an existing facility and again looking ahead what we do the growth metrics obviously take a large piece into that is where where is the growth what is that anticipated call volume look like and how do we maintain that high level of service we continue to update our fire facilities master plan which looks at infill fire stations Rehabilitation to meet ADA compliance for a lot of them that were built we do have 12 stations that are over 50 years old um so looking at at how do we make sure that they can accommodate everything that we currently need and then true up the resoning and addication comments so we make sure our strategic planning division makes sure that as we know areas are coming that we make sure we put any comments in on things that would affect the fire service for that specific area thank you very much thank you good evening mayor and members of city council I'm David Zur deputy director with Charlotte water and tonight I'm going to share with you a little bit about our community supporting infrastructure so some quick information about our utility we provide service of course the city of Charlotte meinberg County the towns even some areas in adjoining um counties um and to do that we have basically two large systems the water system for drinking water and then the Wastewater system for the sewer um and we maintain over 9,000 miles of pipe between both of those and that provides service to 318,000 different accounts with a total population served of about 1.1 million uh residents every single day we treat and send out and you all drink about 116 million gallon gallons of our water and then on the flip side we take back and treat and clean and discharge to the environment about 85 million gallons of Wastewater um we try to maintain strong financial viability while doing that we maintain AAA Bond ratings with the bond rating agencies uh but meanwhile we balance that with affordability and each gallon of water that our citizens use costs less than 4 cents uh to do all of that we have a lot of infrastructure out there between the 9,000 Mi of pipes the treatment plants elevated tanks booster pump stations and far more than that um and it ranges in size from the very big the uh Wastewater and water treatment facilities down to the local pipes that are in any individual neighborhood and from all of that infrastructure there are different inputs there's different drivers for it different ways we plan for it and different regulatory requirements um a couple of examples on the largest scale for treatment facilities we look to the very long-term population forecasting Master planning we'll tie it back to the 20 240 comprehensive plan uh we partner with and are an active participant in the Kataba watery Water uh Management Group looks after the Kataba River as the Region's water source uh as you slide down that scale I'll I'll go go ahead and Skip down to the the bottom of it but when you get to those smaller diameter pipes that are in the neighborhoods those are often informed and driven by localized development and that's where you all see that in front of you in the form of of rezonings um on the sewers side this uh we have a program called the capacity Assurance program and it is specific only to the the sewers side side um and it analyzes our sewer system um for the impacts from new development it's something that we started in 2009 so we have a number of years under our belt and it looks at every new development that occurs within our service area it analyzes the flow that is generated from that development from that point of connection and then traces it Downstream through each and every pipe all the way to the treatment facility uh we want to make sure that we have adequate capacity bad things happen if you don't you could have sanitary sewer overflows we don't want that um and as we analyze that then we work with the individual applicant the developer uh to make sure that there is adequate capacity a vast majority of the time the answer is yes we have that if we don't then we begin to work more one-on-one with the developer to figure out where there is a a bottleneck or a limitation in the system and how we can solve that and it's often through collaborative type of of improvement movements um on the other side on the drinking water side this happens a little bit differently we under take holistic water system Master planning efforts every five or six years we just started a a refresh of that program here recently uh and this looks at the system as a whole and it evaluates a number of different system performance criteria it's looking at things like water pressure for every uh every part of our system it's looking at fire flow so there's adequate firefighting protection of course water quality and a host of other things uh the way that is analyzed is we we we run it through a complex hydraulic model uh it takes a long time we analyze it in a number of different ways but out of that it tells us if we have any weaknesses in our system and sometimes we do um and and and that could be in the shorter term five years or it could be way out in the future and any of those needs then turn into an individual Capital project those get rolled into our overall 5-year CIP um so next I'm going to share with you an example of how th those steps those efforts um actually come to life and this is a an example of uh areas that are in the Northern and eastern part of the County uh related to sewer service and those parts of the counties want two facilities and we have a a contracted purchased amount of of capacity there and a couple of years ago um we learned that that treatment facility was nearing its its permitted limits uh it couldn't take any more flow and so we had to pause accepting new development in that area for a period of time but immediately we went into the partnering um with them on an expansion of that facility that is underway actually expected to be complete um in 2024 and then we also I endeavored to build a large sewer pump station and it intercepts flow near the county line and it pumps it back across the the northern part of the county to our mcdell Creek wastewater treatment plant and what that does is it gives us obviously additional capacity in that area but it also gives us flexibility in the future in how we operate our system that project also will be done in in 2024 and then while all of this was happening we were working with uh with proposed developments and local developers on any individual specific development a number of those had to say we want to provide that service but you're going to need to wait until these projects are are nearing completion uh some of them we were able to find alternative ways to to get them Sewer Service uh and happy to say that we were able to resume uh accepting and permitting that sewer capacity back in June of of this year um so Charlotte water looking ahead what do we do to continue this this great work uh and ensuring that we have the right infrastructure in place at the right time um it starts with planning and a and a couple of notable accomplishments we undertook and completed a a focused look at the water system in the central business district uh it's a grid of pipe some of them are old um and out of that came a host of uh improvements um we conducted a uh countywide Wastewater master plan for the sewer system and as I mentioned earlier we just started the uh refresh of the water system master plan that that will take uh probably about another year to complete that um out of these planning efforts it generates capital projects uh we have a whole host of them they're in in the budget that you all graciously approve for us every year but a couple of the noteworthy ones that I just wanted to mention we have the Stow Regional water resource recovery facility it's our going to be our sixth wastewater treatment plant that's being built uh in the western part of the system I'm kind of close to but not too close to the Whitewater Center that will provide for uh sewer capacity for decades to come on the Eastern side in the university area that treatment plant the Mard Creek wastewater treatment plant um we're conducting an expansion of that to accommodate the growth on the water side a couple of important projects uh we are building some very large um pipelines over to the eastern part of the county we call that the 960 pressure Zone um and those will provide for that future capacity as well as redundancy out in that system um and then at our Franklin Water Treatment Plant that's out on on Brookshire Boulevard if you've ever driven by it it's our largest of the three water treatment plants um and we just commenced uh with a a large scale project that will come in and rehabilitate and provide some upgrades at that plant I think that brings me to the end Liz thank you and again as we conclude um just want to say a quick thank you to the team team I couldn't have done this without them um and these guys worked really hard to get a condensed version of their focus area to talk to you this evening um as an example Dennis was with us a few months ago at the transportation planning and development committee and I think we spent 30 minutes on his presentation alone so lots more information um behind all of these slides but we we thought it was important to bring forth a few Focus areas and just give you a sense for what we're learning as we as we dig in deeper on the infrastructure conversation and and talk about capacity um so again thanks to the team and and lots of other folks behind the scenes that helped us get here tonight so next steps for you Council um is that we're going to bring back those two remaining infrastructure Focus areas um with storm water and transportation being those next two and then Council you're approaching that time of year where you start talking about your key priorities and so what we believe that gives us as an opportunity to hear your conversations at the start of next year and begin to align the work that we will continue to do to dig deeper into some of these infrastructure Focus areas and align that with the things that continue to surface as priorities through your Council discussions and then last but certainly not least we really want to leverage that 20 240 comprehensive plan implementation dashboard and as we start to find information and data that we can map using that tool and Report out to you we want to include that information as a reminder that that dashboard um reports out on how you're doing with your goals that were established in that comprehensive plan and we think it's a good um alignment to put information that starts to talk about infrastructure impacts in in relationship to Meeting those goals so with that um we will open up for any any questions we go ahead and start in the same order and we'll start with the school system I think I saw I'm sorry it might be more expedient to let everyone just go once rather than go three times around you read my mind I think if we can start and go around the room one time and if you could be really cognizant um you know the county does three minutes I think three minutes to ask questions and if you guys would also be as syc as possible I know that there's a lot of information out there but let's try to keep our answers direct to the point um in our questions the same way so I will go ahead and start with Miss watlington for schools pass Miss I know Mr Bari I I'll go I'll do all the topics and set a good example okay um this is great this is great I appreciate it and appreciate all three of you guys and and uh Liz up there um presenting to us this was exactly on the path of where we needed to head or I don't think we're quite there yet but it is a huge leap from um from where we were to where we are now what I would suggest is this so we saw kind of the starting point and we did this exercise before which was here are 30 or 40 things building blocks that could be considered the word infrastructure we saw a page with six or seven of them on today which are kind of top tier we started to see some measurements and things like that I think what we need to do is get really tight on a first kind of trunch of these to say okay what are the measurements we are going to look for at the highest executive level that hits what what we need to see one of them has to be transportation and it has to be something like congestion on the roads and it has to be something like sidewalks in areas where they're needed right just as a basic example you see good examples with fire when it says 6 minutes that's real measurable easy um you see some other things where on water there's a lot that's being done but do we have the right measure as we're looking at what we need today but then where we're headed so the punchline of all that is I think we need to get to a really specific set of measurements and then the next thing is do we have City adopted policies that says what is acceptable or not we have a policy here that I assume says 6 minutes or less is response time for fire what is our policy congestion in this town four minutes what said four minutes four minutes drive time 6 minutes total so so that is where I think we ultimately need to go and if we go here's the list of measurements here's the list of policies that we have or don't have and then we need to set then we get into an overlay of how much does it cost and that becomes less of us all sitting around saying I want this and I want that and more looks at here's the total thing can we come up with a policy to prioritize the spend thank you thank you Mr dggs thank you uh Mr Laria you gave a somewhat longer presentation in committee uh and it was really critical because two two things in particular for one the school capacity calculation as you described it related to the teachers and the whether the building had the room for the teachers uh our conception I think and that of the public is that it has more to do with the students like they hear you're at 144% they have an idea that the capacity of the school is 2,000 students and you're actually at 3,000 students or whatever so since we're constrained for time um it would be great and maybe I'll get with you about this if if we could have a memo or a reference of some kind that makes it clearer to us uh how that works so that as the district people in particular and petitions get confronted we know um and uh the other part of it was you also explained how you do your forecasting for the growth in the student population and there were some very interesting points in there about acknowledging existing projects but not counting them in your projection until they're they come online for example so again we get challenged a lot about whether or not you guys are properly reflecting that and it spills over onto us as to whether we are uh I would suggest and I have suggested we figure out ways to have a more intera active process you mentioned the resoning evaluation so uh that's it if you if you are able to uh maybe give us something we could look at that explains what you just told us in Greater detail be helpful be happy too thank you yeah thanks and uh extremely useful by the way appreciate it uh on fire the only thing I'll mention is you talked about these response times it seems to me they're very dependent on where we go with our roads right I mean you have to be making assumptions about what kind of road infrastructure we have so uh uh that interdependence I guess concerns me I'm kind of working on Mobility but if we don't get our referendum done and start building those roads then I don't know that the assumptions you're making about response times as you do your planning can be achieved uh is that a concern for you yes sir I think with anything as as you said on the infrastructure side so what this all about it does play into that is the quality of road the width of the road and as obviously as we grow the amount of travel time it takes to get up that road right okay so I'm just saying that's on us as well to be mindful as we do our road planning uh that it affects fire on on water uh Mr Zur appreciate your remarks the uh what what assumptions are you making about the outlook for water rates when you do all your projections do do you have an assumed path at which the rates go up or how does that work yes we do we have a long-term financial model that bakes in the these Capital forecasts that are generated from the planning efforts so are you going to tell us anything about what the assumptions are I'm going to stick with brevity on on that one and say it could be available yeah uh okay we we've managed to do pretty well in terms of managing the growth of rates but uh uh there's obviously a tension there in terms of the needs and uh how much we have to charge correct all right Mr Graham thank you madam mayor um I'm good I think it's a very good presentation I'm interested to learn more specifically around Transportation right that's the rubber thank you all right mayor proam thank you Madame mayor thank you Mr barari for exercising leadership I'm going to try and do the same here and keep it uh brief for the schools Dennis you know when you came into uh when you came into the committee that was a great presentation and you drill down in some areas as Mr Driggs mentioned I think the most important thing that you said today uh that bubbled up from that presentation was the 100% utilization number from elementary schools versus the 125 and 135 from middle and high school and the differentiation of that I think we've kind of gotten caught up with that because we didn't have that clear understanding so thank you for um adding the clarity there for for fire you know it's just fantastic the work that you guys do and and maintaining that class one ISO rating and that's that's so critically important for from a financial perspective across the board for the city um I am a bit concerned about the 50 stations that are north of 50 years old and and how we can strategically address that and I know within district one there are a number of roads where it's very difficult for emergency vehicles to get through and travel down when there's parking on both both sides of the street and I think holistically we have to look at that from a SE do perspective to see what we can do and then lastly for water I I'll just say you if you haven't gone out and spent some time with water and the director I spent a half day with them and we went to a variety of the facilities including stow and and Franklin and it's amazing it it truly is amazing what they do to protect um the water supply and uh the demand and growth um and it's also the reason that our area has become a a center for micro breweries throughout the state and the region is because of the quality of the water so thank you for that work Charlotte water and that's it Madame mayor thank you all right Miss Mayfield thank you Madame mayor thank you Liz and team for this report out I have a couple of questions specifically for fire when we look at the hours of training is that the combination of both paid and unpaid training hours yes ma'am and as far as our EMS are we we can't get into it now cuz that's a longer conversation but the impact our total response time of 6 minutes are we seeing any impact through due to the recent changes with medic and our response times yes ma'am and I'll try to make it short so yes we we just went had a a very large project with medic where we did some response reconfiguration with them the first time they've looked at their call types in about 22 years um we have seen a an expected drop in our call volume um but we have seen a little bit of an of an expected increase in the amount of time our companies are spending on scene um we're trying to make sure we get a really good data set on that and what it looks like we're almost 6 months in into it so um the data right now is what that's what it looks like our call volume is down a little bit but our time on scene is has gone up just a little bit more so it will be helpful in the future so that we can give you all what you all need and support if we can get that breakdown cuz that total response time is amazing and has been for years but if that's being challenged because of how long uh one of the ladds has to St on scene versus another ladder being called from a further distance to show up when needed it will be helpful for us to have that information yes ma'am thank you m uh thank you Madame mayor some of my questions were already addressed um great job with the presentation all of you uh in Focus areas I did not find a focus area for police oh would that be part of our next presentation again um you know this came from a demo that that I released to council back in May of last year and it was based on um the December meeting that we had for the special infrastructure discussion and then just continued conversations with Council particularly through the rezoning meetings and trying to prioritize the areas where we were getting the most Council questions and needed to do sort of a deeper dive to understand impact from growth to those areas so we have not listed the next um areas for priority to do a deeper dive but that's certainly one that we could consider yes I I would definitely like to see police as part of our Focus areas here um I remember having this conversation back in December of last year that council member Johnson um was leading where over the past several months we have discussed police response time being an issue and I know there was a presentation done on that um but that continues to be an issue from the emails that I have been receiving and I think we do need to address that as part of our overall key performance indicator how do we measure that performance um so I would like to see police being included as part of our key Focus areas because safety is is our number one priority if people don't feel safe we can't focus on other things I I think we need to include that also streets and sidewalks um we have seen fatalities uh especially pedestrian fatalities so sidewalks I would like to see that being added as one of our key Focus areas and we I'm not talking about a mile or two I mean we need to make significant Improvement when it comes to sidewalks and really prevent fatalities from happening there is um disproportionate number of fatalities where pedestrians is pedestrian is involved and we got to do everything we can to make sure that we are providing safe environments for those who are walking I mean we talking about children going to school um I live in a neighborhood where we don't have uh sidewalks where children can walk to schools I see uh unpaved Road and uh kids are walking it's really unsafe so I think we got to add that um so I would like to see those two things being added so when I talk about sidewalks I'm talking about overall Street Network it's just providing safer streets so that includes sidewalks bike Lanes just overall safer environment so yes ma'am and transportation was one of the five that we identified as Focus areas so we plan to come back with more information after the first of the year okay so I do see under transportation you got ncdot and Federal highway so that includes all of the above that I mentioned okay and all right that's Mr Jones wanted to thank you council member ashme so I want to just make sure that um I guess it's uh level setting what one of the reasons that so you are 100% correct police came up and I really appreciate the conversation that we had around um police and response times and 911 call takers and things that nature and so I appreciate what's happened with cmpd and the budget day of Ryan Bergman and how we've been able to begin to address some of those issues what I would say the reason that we put fire in and Liz I think I'm okay with this you tell me I'm not is because basically fire is more dependent on the placement of stations and police is more dependent on the Staffing so I'd like for us to be able to go through these five areas first before we start adding because I'd like to try to perfect that a little bit and my commitment to you is we'll continue to give you updates of where we are with these you know 911 calls and things that nature has released to police response times yeah um I I think I'll I'll just push back on that a little bit Mr Jones because I think when we talk about police and police stations are very important I think where they are located it's also very important similar to fire stations um because that uh that does create a safe environment so I would I would like to see that as part of this and certainly it can be eliminated later but I I would like to see that added because I think a facility the place where it's located it's is crucial for fire stations as well I mean police station that's all I thank you okay all right Miss Molina thank you very much Madame mayor um I um I won't Bel a point I think by the time you get to me we've had a lot of good feedback from my colleagues um um I think um each one of you are doing an you know an amazing job I did um I've actually spent some time with our water department I spent an entire day with them um they took me across our city and our County um and I learned so much about the infrastructure of our water systems um and the interconnectedness of it all so um I I have absolutely no feedback in that regard um I think the mayor protim was even you know speaking to the capacity of you know your bond rating Etc I mean I just Kudos um our fire of course when I went um and I spent some time with our fire department um just a little bit not really what you would say feedback but I did get some feedback from some of the members um at one of our East Charlotte stations a lot of the times you guys and this is unrelated to infrastructure so maybe this is a one-off that we can talk about afterwards but I want to raise this up and let you know that I see you um a lot of the times our fire are the first to respond to an emergency and sometimes from the feedback that I've been given you don't have the proper infrastructure sometimes depending upon the call to respond so I want you to know that I'm aware of that um I'm prepared to have conversations and I'm sure you know our amazing manager is in a position where he's already hearing some of that feedback as well so as we continue to have those conversations it is of particular interest to me to make sure that our fire stations are as equipped as possible to respond to the emergencies of our constituents here in Charlotte um so I want to give you that and also tell you guys a great job um and I look forward to continuing to receive updates from you um as far as our school system I think the happiest thing for me um was on page uh 10 where we talked about the integration of the CMS data um where you can actually see that now um and that we have some information that's going to kind of correspond with some of what we actually do here um from an infrastructure perspective so I'm really excited about that to see how it develops and um I'm looking forward to the continued updates thank you for your work thank you m thank you Madame mayor and thank you Liz and your team for the update um I'm happy to be having the conversation this conversation is so important when we talk about balanced growth um I do have a question for Dennis uh you know I would right because I'm always talking about school impact during our rezonings especially in District 4 uh well no Citywide but I'm as a district for representative I talk about it so a challenge for me has been when we look at school capacity I understand what you're saying on how it's calculated but when we look at school capacity we are not we're not the number is not growing with our approved petitions so we can have uh a school petition from 2022 that might say maler Creek Elementary is at 121% and I could probably pull up a a petition in 20123 with the same numbers we are not calculating um school capacity at accumulative level so we can and and that's been my Challenge and can you speak to that yes thank you for the question I'll try and be brief so what we're looking at is actually a snapshot of each year as it happens and when I talked about things that the board of education does to itself one of those things is something called student weighted Staffing where we actually a lot additional human beings to a school that has greater needs and so those things then can drive down a classroom size it can actually look like a classroom teacher with a smaller student teacher ratio because of those additional resources which then increases the utilization so what we're actually looking at is the condition on the ground at that time from the school relative to the time a petition comes into play and I think as councilman Driggs mentioned the challeng is until a development is actually built and we start recognizing students from there while we're planning for that and we see it on this side what we're actually reporting is the conditions on the ground for a given school year at that school at that time exactly so even if we have five petitions for the same school it's going to have the same number so that's that's my Challenge from a resident perspective we know that there's all of this growth and it's not being measured so that's and and we can talk offline I don't know if there's a way that you can that that these numbers can be a little more cumulative but that's that's been my challenge um especially for you know fast area area fast growing areas like Mard Creek and those in District 4 I know that we're using the same numbers and we're not calculating or considering it's a challenge for us too because when a petition is resed as you all know that doesn't mean a development's actually going to occur it just means somebody's got those entitlements and so that's part of that feedback loop that I think we need to work on okay thank you um and then I want to ask City Water a question you mentioned the capacity Assurance program can you can we take a look at that slide yes thank you so during that slide I heard you say there was an area that didn't have the capacity so we paused the permits in that area is that what I heard yes that was the area northern eastern part of County that flows over to cabis County yes so that was the reason that I that when I talked about the infrastructure and push for the infrastructure I wanted us to look at areas are there particular areas where there may not be capacity or an acceptable level of capacity and if we should look at slowing down the growth in those areas so um I was happy to hear that that's at least considered from the way that the water is is reviewing the the growth are you all looking at at the growth on a in a on a cumul cumulative level yes or or okay so you're not just looking at each petition and how it's affecting me okay good no there is a very large detailed database behind all of that that that counts that flow in every single pipe in our system so you're counting approved petitions that petitions that have been approved and not built yet how that's going to impact once they come into the capacity Assurance program yes okay i' like I'd love to take a look at that so that's great thank you welcome um I want to piggyback off what council member ashme said this is great Mr Jones but as a growing city one of the largest cities in the country we have to be looking at all of these things at the same time I had this discussion with another council member earlier we're a big city and we really have to you know to behave like one so um I think we need to take a look at safety for sure and in all of the areas um I was driving on 77 from the north side and I didn't have service on my phone from from Statesville to you know until I was close to the office so there's all these kind of areas that we have to consider as we're um as we're growing that's all I have for now thank you thanks Brown welome first and Sor not feel so free question taking notes all right I do not feel good at all I and I I see thank you very much for attending okay so that that worked really well thank you Mr barari for helping us meet that kind of three minute Rule and we did it very well so Mr Jones what's next for us yes mayor so the last item that we have for the action review the last item we have for the action revieww is an update on East I believe the last time we had a discussion we said we would come back to you within uh before the end of the year and here's here is an opportunity to tell you where we are I'm actually gonna have Todd dong step in and do this presentation but I've given him the goal of doing this in less than 10 minutes so I'm just going to really quickly set the stage that tonight is just simply an update we are making significant ific Pro progress and the teams coming together continue to make progress some of the big things that we continue to work on is the indoor facility layout the governance structure Tod will talk about a little bit the site layout as well as the pricing the pricing has changed um and so we anticipate that we'll be back in front of you in first quarter to really drill into where we think the numbers are and where we think the uh public investment needs to be so with that Todd you got n and a half minutes thank you Tracy uh real quickly I like to start off every update presentation just with kind of lifting us up to where we are on the site thinking more holistically about the site and the entire 80 acres not just one part or 120 acres here or 20 acres over there just to reminder that what we're doing out here is really building a community and creating an atmosphere that's been desired by the community for a number of years and we're starting to get there as an example of that progress we have a building on the site which is really exciting to see an actual building coming out of the ground it's a 70 unit senior affordable housing development project they're putting the roofing on now and look to doing interior finishes next year with a completion date towards the uh late fall of 2024 also making progress here on the park and with the multif family or mixed use development project here just last month Council approved a transaction to the county which would provide the county with 4 and a half acres to build a 12 and uh$ 12.3 million Park which they're already underd designed right now and look to finish uh hopefully by the end of 2026 we're also in the near Finish Line of closing on a piece of property with Carlon Southeast which is a 280 unit market rate multif family unit uh development project that will have 16 15 to 16,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space which the city has actually will actually take on a Master Lease and will then sublet to targeted tenants who are minority women own businesses particularly those locally on the East and East Charlotte so we're really excited about that opportunity as well so there's a lot of progress being made throughout the property so the following slides are going to provide a brief update uh from October when we presented the product of the two teams working together uh for about 40 days I want to remind everybody when we presented in October they had literally 30 to 40 days of actually working together getting to know each other understanding the different Dynamics with each other's programs understanding where the compliments where it may be some overlaps or efficiencies so it's really exciting to see the progress that's been made since October and set September actually when we've we kind of given that charge overall the indoor and outdoor programs have remained the same looking at 120,000 ft facility uh indoor facility with uh multi-purpose courts which could be converted to 10 basketball courts 16 volleyball courts 30 pickle ball courts a mix of food and beverage a fitness center uh an ice rank leasable space think for healthc care providers or tenants uh stem education and a Community Learning Center on the outdoor perspective still looking at six multiport artificial turf fields that would serve events ranging from soccer flag football lacrosse field hockey Etc and then a food and beverage entertainment uh pad for that could comprise about 6,000 to 12,000 Square ft of restaurant space Also with 800 parking spaces the community impact which is really important to this project and what we're looking at here making sure that the this the project is inclusive of the community and making sure the community can actually utilize and use the space uh still looking at the Community Learning Center trying to uh that's evolving into what it is what it needs to be a stem education center neighborhoods access to the facilities multiple food and beverage options within the facility and outside of the facility and opportunities for select cultural and Arts events and festivals so in October action was taken after the teams had again about 45 days to get to know each other and to consider each other's program and determine whether there was an approach for a successful outcome while encouraged encouraged Partnerships aren't necessarily ideal this is one that we've seen the two teams come together quickly identify complimentary and overlapping programming elements at the time uh Council also approved the funding that was previously considered and proposed for each of the proposals when I say that I mean each of the proposals when they're independent from each other they Pro uh requested 20 million in Hospitality funds and about 10 million infrastructure funds and that's where that 30 million and allocated funding uh came through and was approved by Council in October as part of our conversation in October there were questions about the organizational structure meaning who are the leadership of these organizations who will be the leader of the llc's that might be created uh so this is what we've received from the development team so far uh the parent company which be an LLC formed it'll comprise uh Charlotte Soccer Academy Southern entertainment Edge Sports Global and ivory KY and Bolton LLC The Advisory committees would include members from the community investors operators I know the The Advisory committees and the public input and public uh participation on this was really important to some council members want to make sure that we're still keeping this top of Mind as we're continuing to involve the concept and conversations with the development team so since October the team particularly the indoor team has focused Prim primarily on interior programming and the building layout they're actively engaging potential tenants for the indoor space think again Healthcare Physical Therapy tenants Partnerships with Charlotte Soccer Academy as well as the indoor sports facility um they need to determine what is the appropriate layout and site programming or facility programming which ultimately gets into a a refined cost estimate for that space for example if a healthc care provider was originally thought to maybe include 15,000 ft of space but now they maybe they want 40 or 50,000 ft of space that impacts what the overall size of that building is and ultimately impacts what the potential cost estimates are for that space so right now we're looking and they're working really hard of engaging with those tenants what that looks like what are their spacing needs and we'll be coming back to council later next year with an update of what those conversations have been and what we look like from a site uh layout within the building and potential uh cost estimat or refis estimates for the indoor and outdoor facilities the outdoor facilities they're still looking at refining the cost estimates and the scope of the fields and the related uh improvements such as sidewalks parking um and other improvements like that infrastructure we've had to get into a little bit more into the details and the weeds um in the last month or two we continue to have to work a little bit more um into kind of getting a more detailed look of what's going on there which requires really strong coordination with AC crosson Southeast team as you're aware crosson Southeast is currently underway in construction activity on the site they've already started moving dirt on that site they're doing grading they're doing some limited improvements on that side of the site so we really need to work hard with them to really identify where their scope stops and this team scope begins that way we're we're accounting for all the required infrastructure improvements but we're also reducing the the or mitigating the potential for actually duplicate of scope items that we don't want to pay twice for or we may have to restart and tear up and build again so we're really making sure that we're really getting a line there infrastructure reimbursement items we would consider here retaining walls grading water and sew line installation uh streetcape and uh streets some examples where cost would actually be going higher than we might have originally anticipated you see where the building is for the indoor sports facility we do anticipate additional retaining walls to support the construction of that building that location so that would also increase the cost from what we previously understood additional would be demo and Grading that might support the dynamic related to the fields as well as some of the parking areas so we talk about next steps there's a lot of work still yet to do our last update included some great work from the team especially given they had about 30 to 40 days pull the information together for us we're now into the next round of due diligence and analys to further refine the scope of work for both the infrastructure as well as the the sports facilities and we plan to come back into q1 of 2024 with another update and potential requests for additional public investment uh funding for the site now we don't know exactly what the range is but it could be somewhere in the range total of3 to5 to $45 million that's not let me repe that that's not additional that is total so it' be an additional 5 to15 million above what was already allocated by Council in October that's just again that's a really rough range we're working through now and that's why we want to continue doing the work with the team and the Consultants to make sure we're getting the scope of work correct accurate and we're doing it right questions before I want to go back when you talked about the potential request for additional public investment can you clarify that what that really means I mean I I I get what it's saying but help me understand better what it means so when in October we allocated we had Council approve $30 million of Public Funding to go towards the project 20 million of that was in Hospitality funds and 10 million of that was geared towards infrastructure funding we're finding through some preliminary work is that the the cost estimates for the infrastructure work is higher than what was originally planned for each of the proposals because of the work of kind of we're basically maximizing the site we're putting a lot of pressure on the site that's already constrained by size grade and other challenges physical challenges that are with the site so what we think is going to happen we're pretty confident at least on the infrastructure side the costs are going to exceed $10 million and so we're working with the consultant team now to understand what that cost is to to come back to council with a better update and more details of what that looks like I I saw I heard you say that um we have additional opportunities for square footage and that you know there are opportunities that are coming along wouldn't that wouldn't that be a cost of doing business because you are going to be working with people that are joining in with the group you you use the example of you know if you have a building that's going to be 40 square foot and now it's 4,000 and they would have that cost because they weren't a part of the deal so is that what you're saying the potential cost for additional public investment is because of the strain on it or I I'm I'm not really quite sure but I I know they're going to be lots of questions so we can go ahead and start going around but I I I really think that this potential request for additional public investment we worked really hard on this to get to a place that we thought would be supported by the community and um I'm I'm just a little bit surprised by the potential request for additional public investment but we'll go ahead I'm going to start with um Miss Brown I know that you haven't you've probably read a little bit in the paper about it but let's go ahead if you have any questions but we'll start with Miss Johnson any questions and we'll try to keep it to our questions thank you Madame mayor I'm not surprised I think that that we've seen with the cost of construction and and you know the infrastructure is older on this site that I I don't know why we would be surprised when we U approved the the housing tax credit the builders came back to us and ask for an additional I think $12 million or so so I think right now that's that's the envir en that we're in and I'm not surprised that that that they're asking for more money to get this job done I don't think that we should um should let this stand in the way these uh residents on the east side have been waiting for this for for over a decade and we're almost there we're about to cross the finish line and I don't think that we can can again be surprised when we've given additional funding to developers who come to us um because of the cost of business and environment so I think we should um keep that same energy and get let's get this project done thank you I I I agree with you the same energy I'm just trying to figure out whether it's the same energy that's causing it um Miss Molina thank you very much uh Madame mayor um I I first of all I want to preface a statement and say I'm going to be the last person um as a 20-year charlan and Eider to say that you know we shouldn't be like going directly for what will um I guess be a great decision and making the right fiscal decision uh from a policy maker perspective um but I I have so many questions that I I'm going to try to keep it as brief as possible I'm I'm actually going to start with the the organizational structure um because that's something that I'm particularly interested in um because we kind of have have this vague understanding of what this means based on um the the chart that's in front of us and particularly with the advisory committee I'm interested in how those people will be selected are they appointed are they selected will they go through an application process how do we make sure that if there is going to be something that is advisory um that we are inclusive I think that's very important when we talk about what our deliverables are um because the scope of representation that that actually um would would Encompass East Charlotte in particular would be specific to three districts 1 six and five and actually some of four uh there's a particular piece of four that is uh the Far Eastern portion where the people would be particularly interested in what happens with this um with this infrastructure project so I would like some clarity around how because again this is all encompassing this is making sure that when we talk about what the deliverables are and who's at the table and who has a voice how can we be absolutely inclusive with that voice U we had a whole lot of passion when this was you know in front of us as a body um and we heard from two very Divergent groups in what they would like to have happen um and I think it would be a mistake to be including just one whether it be the ones that were for one one or for the other I think in the spirit of cooperation we should you know be inclusive with advisoring as well from a Cooperative perspective um I also share a concern with the mayor um primarily from a policy perspective we have a primary fiduciary responsibility uh we make decisions around money that the taxpayers you know um Trust to to make great decisions with and so we have to I I I would like to double click on that and understand what that additional funding means um from a committee perspective I remember in committee we went round and round on some of the issues that we saw and now those items are resurfacing I'm afraid um and so I don't I don't really know how we how we govern to that portion of the fact that you know from a committee perspective there was some granular items that had very specific questions that could not be answered um and like I said I know this is a one-off but I need to raise that with you we have to sit down and I have to understand this and and I would even recommend that our chair and vice chair if they're still the same um and I'm assuming they are that that we delve in and and really deep dive into this to make sure that we understand what we're talking about fiscally because it it would also be a tragedy to say that we're we're trying to make this work at the expense of they're not being you know um brevity enough brevity to what we're looking at in other words I'm saying in in the most surface level terms as possible if it fails to what Avail does do do you get what I'm saying like we're not just throwing money in this to keep it from failing if if if failing is inevitable then we need to talk about that too right so if this is something that is you you know seemingly not working out first of all I really appreciate everything that you and the team in Economic Development are doing I appreciate the cooperation from both sides it is I will continue to say an unprecedented um experience to have two people two groups that were competing to be you know um the um the the team to win so to speak and and then to have them to work together that's an that's an amazing feat but we we got to double click on this and I I won't belor a point but I I just I I definitely am requesting a lot more information around you know and I'm bringing up those in particular but I probably got about four or five more so you're going to need to sit down with me absolutely and and give me more information I need it okay thank you madam mayor I share some of the concerns that council member Molina raised especially the formation of the advisory committee I think we need to better understand that and what role would Council be playing in that in selecting the advisory committee uh that's number one number two um I'm just taken back by it says continuing analysis to determine scope for infrastructure improvements I thought this was part of the due diligence work that was already done as 2 months ago and it's only been 2 months or even less than 2 months and we have a ask I mean this is a little bit different than uh affordable housing where Market had changed over the course of 6 months or almost a year this this has just been two months so I'm I'm just um I'm surprised uh let me say this very nicely I'm not sure if we were given the accurate information um when we when we went through the whole due diligence two months ago uh so to come back and say we need $10 million more or maybe 10 million just two months later I I didn't expect this um but let me be very clear I think eand is something that is near and dear to my heart I think we always fine dollarss for key projects and Eastland is definitely something that is one of the Catalyst um that east side has asked for and they waited for decades to come so we need to do everything in our power to make this happen um but I think we need to take our time and really make sure that we are doing all of our due diligence before we put a number out there so that there is not a third time time that you're going to come back to council and say hey we need more funding um cuz that's that sound good okay thank you thank you Madame mayor sharing the concerns of some of my colleagues I was very clear when we had this last conversation that my expectation will be this 30 million will be it so if we're going to even entertain an additional conversation for me it will be helpful to know exactly how much additional funding that has been contributed by all of the investors for this project to ensure that we're not creating a new line item for some of the partners not others so that we have consistency in this development also looking at that really as a breakdown what is the breakdown of the business interest the Investments up to this point if we're looking at an additional potential 5 or 10 million which I can pretty much already tell you it's not going to sit well for me then I think as a council we need to have a different conversation with the expectation of that housing so using tax dollars and what we're talking about is a market rate housing project that's going to have some possible affordability for small businesses on that ground level when we know the need today even though this is a conversation that we've been having for over a decade and a lot of development has happened the need today is very diverse in our housing stock and we're talking about the employees that potentially will be working at any of these facility whether you're the greeter at the door the hostess or the ball male or female for the sports part can they even afford to live in these units because if we're not doing that we're missing the opportunity to put some very specific expectations that if you want to have access to additional funds mandate very clear here is what is expected for this development for who has access to live here so that we do not create what we have in south end when we approve to and some other things along the light rail where the individuals who will most likely use our public transportations system have been displaced from our transportation system so if there's even a consideration I hope this council is very solid in moving that conversation forward of what our clear expectations are regarding housing and I'm not talking about 10 units that's not going to work so when we're looking at the potential cuz we can track the numbers on everything numbers don't lie but they can be manipulated all day but we could track the numbers on how many potential employees we're looking at and St looking at that average let's look at those lowest paid workers those entry-level workers and is this something that's going to be accessible to them but the idea of allocating additional funds when I thought we were all very clear that 30 million was going to be it again as council member asir mentioned in less than a month to come back and say well we think we might need another five or 10 million but we don't really know how much we do not have a Magic Money Tree in the back these are tax that we're utilizing and as council member Molina mentioned our ultimate responsibility is to be respectful of tax dollars and this conversation seems a little on that line of getting very close to being disrespectful unless we can clearly State who what when where and why thank you mayor thank you madam mayor I I also agree with my um previous colleagues as it relates to the governance structure and in particular the makeup of the advisory committee we need to have some clarity on that um but I also strongly believe that we need a deeper dive into the financial stack of this particular project um as the the housing um activities that we Investments that we did were brought up and that was a very different environment and it was under a much longer uh tail and so we knew that the market would potentially change this has been a short window of two months and the macro Financial environment has not changed very much at all as it relates to construction costs what has changed is the cost of paper right the cost of capital and so if this additional ask is to cover the increase of cost of capital for a project that I don't believe we should cover we need to understand the um the Financial Health state of the partners that are involved in this uh project as well as understand the inner workings of the financial stack and um have a level of comfortability so we need some kind of confidence uh confidence perspective or confidence number as it relates to that Financial stack so I'll I'll keep it there Madame mayor thank you Mr Jones so uh mayor members of council I just want I appreciate the feedback and I think um Everybody associated with this project appreciates the feedback uh we committed to give you an update uh we're continuing to work with all the parties um and we won't bring forward something to you until we've continued to to to scrub numbers know have conversations things like that I think it would have been worse if we came to you today and didn't express to you that there could be some cost issues so so that's it we we will continue to have these conversations but we committed to have this conversation um at the last you know business meeting of the year and that's what what we're doing okay Mr Graham thank you Madame mayor I I want to try to be very consistent with my position over the last 11 months right one there's a lot of progress being made at Eastland and I think the senior housing the park the market rate housing the the retail space uh Etc um buildings coming out of the ground we're delivering on the expectation that we said we were going to to do so I think that's I'm glad you started that way because that's it's just not these 20 acres it's the whole site and the whole site is being really developed um the teams are not two teams anymore they're one they're making a lot of progress working together to try to identify a singular vision for the remaining 28o acres and so I'm glad that both teams are collaborating are working together Etc pricing is a concern for me as well but I've been consistently saying that if we go this route we own it we we own it we we cannot allow this to fail there needs to be project engineering value engineering I've talked to both um one the a developer about the necessity for Value engineering the project to bring the price down down to a level that we can afford I think it's really important that we understand all the cards on the tables and I'm talking about the financial cards who's bringing what to the table that we get a clear understanding of that for for sure um and and that if we're going to make an investment that we have a facility that once it opens has the ability to compete with others in the region so we just can't build building and say we've done it we got to make sure that the building that's the easy part and that's pretty hard right the hard part is the dead operation management and maintenance of the facility once it's built and so we need to assure ourselves that we have a building that can compete and that we don't uh I'm contradicting myself value engineering this thing to the point that it doesn't compete once it opens right and so um I um this is an update the manager is correct um right now it's not in in committee hopefully the mayor will reassign it back to the committee for the the Deep dive that's necessary if that's what the council wants I don't I'm just throwing it out I'm just based on what I'm hearing right um but you know my hope and desire is that we can get to the fish line sooner and later with this project like January early February that we know what we're doing where we're going how much it's going to cost facility for the region somehow I didn't see anywhere about crva as an aside uh making sure that we have an entity to help us Market this facility once it's built for the type of competitions uh and programming we're going to need to make sure that we sustain the viability of building once it's built right so I I think this was a great update we all know where we stand I'm going to be very consistent with my remarks and that we own it thank you Mr so uh I share the consternation that has been expressed by some of my colleagues I'm not sure what this is exactly uh on the one hand it seems to describe a a a pretty well-developed plan and then tell us oh by the way uh it's up to how much more what was the range you said the the overage could be as much as 10 or possibly more than 10 well right now we're still working through it but the range I threw out was5 to15 million so I say again it said5 to15 million is the range between five and 15 million okay let's be clear that's 50% okay uh and and I just would have appreciated maybe a little bit of quiet Outreach as to whether we are okay because I think we were all pretty clear about about the 30 and I think it was a very bold move that we protected $30 million in the face of that possible other tennis thing and so on and so uh I I I don't know uh whether a lot of work has gone in to getting the planning and the uh the development of the whole thing this far I don't know how much of the 15 potentially million was intended to come from hospitality and how much from general fund I don't know whether the other funding sources are stepping up or whether we're being asked to absorb the entire increase I just think this was really a poor way to to present this to us uh uh I feel like I'm in an awkward situation here sitting in front of these cameras uh and being told that it we may be uh we we may have to go up by about 50% so if you are looking for a nod from this group tonight uh to proceed along these lines I can tell you pretty Sur you don't have one thank you Mr barari yeah I'm I'm I'm frustrated as well uh let me do my best to just give everyone an overview of a reminder and an overview of what I know having tracked this the reminder I think is pretty simple and I hope no one has forgotten it we had two very strong good teams competing with each other and they both had plans to do different things that were going to pencil at 30 million each which we set aside we were gridlocked and we came up with the ability to work together to come up with something that says can you guys do something unprecedented and work together everyone behind the scenes at that moment who accepted that challenge also knew it would cost more they absolutely knew it but they knew the first order of business which is what they've been doing since then is working together so the first update which everyone hopefully should have heard and was the punchline of today is it's not two teams anymore it's one they're working very well together from every update I've gotten and that has resulted in a singular plan now the second parts that this that I think are not as clear but they are it's going to cost more it's it was two separate things that are now pulled together so when you look at what it's going to cost more it is directionally understood from what I have learned so far number one the infrastructure is going to cost substantially more not because of capital but because the numbers that were being thrown around for a long time in this were pre 20109 numbers for infrastructure substantially changed on their own just because of that Merit let alone the scope that's there the second biggest driver is the building itself and option A had onethird of the footprint of that entire building option b had 3/3 in various stages that now are all in one stage so it's all happening at once so that is a substantial increase in the infrastructure needs to make it work in pencil but the positive Silver Lining is it substantially increased the Roi and the economic impact of the deal so I you know I like I If we we got here to Mr Gram's Point by coming up with something that we own because we asked this to happen the fact that we're not as up to date as we should be on exactly what it costs I know some of the numbers need to be stress tested and that's what what needs to happen by staff going forward but anyone who thinks like like it is anything other than the the puzzle piece we as a group have sat on the table before us with a group and two teams that have become one that is working absolutely in almost unimaginable terms together to bring forth something that is not only bigger than where we had before with them but creates a bigger economic impact to a very significant tune I mean that's where we are so I I think this definitely could have been more clearly stated to us and like staff always does they don't want to get ahead of too much they want to give a little piece of information and get people used to it so there it is I just told you everything that I've been updated on all along this path and and I think that staff has to get there before they get to a point where they're comfortable telling you a number but if anyone is scared about the number was the number we have to stop there then we need to go back and reevaluate everything that we did from the beginning because two teams can't come together one with two Scopes that are different to make this happen so I hope that's a refresher and an understanding that there have been significant work including by staff in these last you know several weeks and months to get to this point and I feel like it's been overshadowed a bit by some misunderstanding great job colleague so uh staff thank thank you for where we are at today and when you have two different you had two teams now together as one so let's talk about the infrastructure if we may I think councilman Mari said I think the most important thing the numbers were early based on 2019 so here we are at 2023 and we really need to do an in-depth study on the infrastructure and the status of all those old pipes that Dirt has been ID there for quite some time so my question is Todd uh how long do you think we can do that feasibility study to get to that real number we talking about the lowend 5 million so give me your timeline that we can do the infrastructure study my my best guess at this point in time is Lane design is working on that right now with with the development team with the holidays getting in the way that kind of sets them some things back we're looking to come back to a council with an update first quarter of next year so hopefully by mid to late January we've had a chance to kind of see what Land Design is done and then we can tweak what they've done and figure out where where we need to go from there and again come back to council afterwards after we've had a chance to kind of go through analyze and assess the information that's been demonstrated so far at the same time making sure that the scope aligns well with where Crossland is and where they're going to stop because that's one of the unique situations we have here is we already have a developer doing the work on the site and we want to make sure that we're accounting for everything that needs to be done while also not duplicating something that's going to be done and to L set counts because there's two buckets um of Revenue right we got the hospitality we got general fund I think it'll be helpful when you come back just to show where those funds are coming from how how much is coming from Hospitality how much is coming from the general fund just so we all can level set so thank you Madame mayor all right Miss watlington thank you I'm not surprised necessarily that with a larger scope that there may be larger cost with the project what I'm more so interested in is as many have said before is what each team uh Team Member if you will is bringing to the table because I don't think that an increase in 5 to 15 million necessarily means an increase of 5 to 15 million of public investment um so I'd be very interested to see what these updated financials look like if the ROI is greater awesome I'd like to see specifically what we can expect on the on the public side for any increase in Public Funding uh so I look forward to that work when it it is available thanks all right thank you everyone um this is I want to say a couple of things before we move downstairs the the chamber is full absolutely full um that I want everyone to remember that if we have to recess the meeting we should recess the meeting and everyone of the Dos walks out to follow our Public Safety folks okay this is something that we've had to do seldom had to do but I and I hope that we don't have to do it tonight but if I do think a reminder is very much warranted and also um um let a reminder of our policy is that we do not do resolutions and proclamations that address political issues and so that's where our policy states now statement is now um so thank you everyone for the attention this was a really good meeting and um we sour to [Music] downstairs [Music] [Music] car [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] everyone thank you for um joining us today for the Charlotte City Council um business meeting on this December I think it's December the 4th right so um welcome to those that are watching as well on our our video Channel or any other device that you have whether we're being streamed as um for this meeting so with that I'd like to call the um Charlotte City Council business meeting to order and we'll begin with introductions of those who are with us at the day we'll start with our City attorney good evening Patrick Baker City attorney good evening Victoria wlson at large good evening Lana Mayfield council member at large tarp card District Six at Driggs district 7 good evening Dante Anderson mayor protim District 1 good evening VI mayor Marcus Jones city manager good evening everyone James Mitchell at large good evening Renee Johnson and I'm honored to represent District 4 good evening I am margorie Molina I represent District 5 happy holidays D at large Stephanie Kelly city clerk all right all right I we begin our meeting with an expression of in an inspiration for all of us as we continue to address this community comm's issues and needs and wants and so what we do is we ask that we have one of our council members speak to us to start our meeting and tonight council member Johnson will give our words of um wisdom to us and then immediately that will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance if you choose to um participate in this effort just know that it's understandable if you do not because these are this is for us to actually solize what we're doing and to be able to do this for you with respect and dignity so with that I'll recognize council member Johnson thank you Madame mayor I'm really honored to um be doing this today um in December this this month of um this holy month and um right and there are 14 religious holidays in December so I want to acknowledge and recognize everyone uh for the diversity and wish you happy holidays um grant us oh Lord a vision of your world as your love would have it a world where the weak are protected and none are hungry or poor a world where the riches of creation are shared and everyone can enjoy them a world where different races and cultures live in harmony and mutual respect a world where peace is built with Justice and Justice is Guided by love give us the inspiration and the courage to build it through Jesus Jesus Christ Our Lord amen amen Rene please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance if you choose toose I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all see that got a nice little picture this is the time that we hold a public hearing hearing that we can that we have so that people in our community can address and petition the city council there are some rules and guidelines for this and so I'd like to First give you that that kind of um why we do this um we have a speakers list and you have to sign up in advance and we have of have 15 speakers each speaker has 2 minutes to which to address the council and then that will be a timer that will will be set and when those two minutes are up then we have a bell and then we move to the next person that wishes to speak in addition to that we ask that we all look and think about this as we are talking about very important issues for these individuals as they come down and that we allow them to have the ability to speak clearly and openly to us and respect that time that they give to us as a part of our meeting we also know that we may may not be able to address everything that has come before us as a request and some after this meeting is over the city manager or someone in his office will send out a letter or something if that's necessary to do a followup for anyone that is speaking today so with that those are our rules and guidelines did I leave anything off Mr Baker no Madam Mary you did not all right thank you so we're going to begin with we have two podiums I always always say these steps are very steep but many of you know that they know that the steps are already steep because I see some people in the audience that have already come to participate so we're going to start off with two speakers the first two are Matt Olan and Thomas Young so please come down I see Matt Mr Young please come down you my girl all right Mr enen would you like to go ahead you have two minutes sure uh good evening mayor Lyall city manager Jones and honorable members of city council my name is Matt Olen I'm the co-founder uh of Charlotte is creative which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that our City's artists and creative entrepreneurs Thrive as small businesses tonight I'm actually here to praise City staff for truly putting themselves to the service of the community and in our case to the creative Community specifically I'd like to acknowledge Urban Design Center manager Aaron Chantry assistant economic development director Holly Eskridge Community engagement division manager Nicole story and arts and culture officer priia SAR these four remarkable women appeared on our October 16th power panel event which brought together local state Regional and National Grant makers from the city of Charlotte North Carolina Arts Council the foundation for the Carolinas the Knight Foundation ASC women's impact fund the South arts and the national Endowment for the Arts to our to our knowledge this is the first time anyone in Charlotte has pulled together this breadth of Grant making entities all together in one room so that the Charlotte artists and creatives can have direct access to them learn about available funding and uh uh what makes a great strong application our power panel series is just one of currently 18 running programs all designed to help Charlotte's underc connected under supported and underresourced artists and creatives Thrive as entrepreneurs and to have four members of City staff present at that meeting to give of their time after hours is a mark of the true commitment that our city has to our creative and entrepreneurial communities uh they have helped put us one step closer to our ultimate goal which is for Charlotte to become known as the most welcoming and supportive community in America for creators innovators and entrepreneurs and we at Charlotte creative wanted to make sure you were aware of how above and beyond your team went and to share how grateful we are thank you very much thank you very much [Applause] our next speaker is Mr Young Mr Young and I'm I we do not allow signs behind people that are speaking we want them to represent their voices and so if you would pull back your signs and not put them in this direction that would be very much appreciated thank you so much all right Mr Young thank you I am Thomas Young and tonight I come to let y'all know um it's come it's uh in for era tonight uh I'm retiring for solid way service 20 years of service I think that's an Applause I want you to know that I gave the best every day I wore the uniform with pride and dignity and I I want to represent our department with a lot of proud no one proud of than the department much passion I have and love I have for the community so everyone around Charlotte around AR in Charlotte would you know I serve your every with dignity and pride every day every day I pulling that green and blue and and great uniform all right I'll represent the city with great proud all right so I wish everyone a happy Merry Christmas and a new year thank you for your time no we thank you Mr thank [Applause] you thank you that I don't know if Mr Jones asked you to come down here or not but I want you to know how much we appreciate it thank you so very much all right okay thank you all right our next two speakers are Preston Hagman and Anne gr gross all right if you just state your name I'm I'm sure that I called it out but I want to make sure it's on the record from for for being on the dictation thing good evening my name is Preston Hagman I'm representing the ACR the uh Airport Community round table or noise abatement I want to make you guys aware of what we've been doing over these years uh we represent a number of professionals corporate Pilots commercial pilots Community leaders and the North and South flows of the airport and uh as you know the original part 150 that started was in the late 90s and now we have a new 150 that's going to be coming out uh late 2024 uh as uh things have changed in the '90s when the original ACR original 150 came out Charlotte was a lot smaller now Charlotte is the 10th busiest airport in the country we've got a fourth parallel Runway that's going to be coming online in uh 2028 and we have large communities that's growing north and south of the airport so what our job to do is as a concerned citizens is to make sure that we use our expertise as pilots and Community leaders to make sure that the 150 is adhered to outside of the normal so right now we have the uh 65 uh DNL or the day night sound level noise sensors and that gives a noise footprint around the airport what we're trying to do is make sure that we have Divergent paths North and South flow uh departures to mitigate all the sound that's going on in our communities both both in the North and South departure routes so what we're trying to do is is not just adhere to what the 150 but what we can do what's best for the communities for the churches uh senior homes schools and try to mitigate the risks and and what's best for our communities so what we've done is we've created some websites as well so I have some flyers uh and we have 175 page part 150 with all the data that's going to be coming out next uh next summer so hopefully with that we can work as a community and do what's best for the airport for the businesses and the residences around thank you thank you very much for your time thank you if you would give the pamplet if Miss right across the SE and the officer to the officer then he'll give it to our city clerk okay thank you thank you all right Miss gross okay I got you good evening mayor city councilman and Mr Jones city manager my name is Anne gross I am a volunteer ER president and founder of friends of ferof felines which is an all volunteer nonprofit group here in Charlotte our goal is to reduce the outdoor cat population of stray cats and feral cats who are afraid of people our program that we follow is a trap neuter and return program they are all vaccinated for rabies and dis temper and this impacts our city it reduces the number of these outdoor Community cats that are found in the airport in behind our um churches in people's backyards behind restaurants UNCC Charlotte we have worked there and just this year we have uh spayed and nuted and vaccinated 1,4 um 4 six cats the impact of that is the prevention of kittens and we have with our program prevented 5,046 kittens from being born outside in our community we have a viable program we are celebrating our 25th year here in Charlotte we started in 1998 with three volunteers we now have 35 39 volunteers two of us two of our newer members are actually Physicians and we have many Professionals in our group we any citizen in our city can call us and we advise them we teach them about trap neuter vaccin and return of these animals and we Implement lowcost clinics we we thank you very much Miss gr we see we hear the good deeds that you're [Applause] doing our next two our next two speakers are Jennifer diaa and Nicole shaffin all right if you would say your name for the record we'll go ahead and begin with you sure good evening members of Charlotte City Council my name is Jennifer daa and I've been a resident of mecklinburg County for 24 years I serve as a volunteer at the Charlotte mecklinburg Animal Care and Control shelter on Byam drive thank you for your time and attention this evening before I start I'd like to share a quote from Gandhi the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated I stand before you tonight to address a pressing issue that requires immediate attention the dire state of our City's animal shelter as a concerned citizen volunteer and an animal Advocate I urge you to consider providing the necessary financial support and resources to address the outdated and overcrowded conditions at the shelter it is crucial to acknowledge that our animal shelter plays a vital role in our community it serves as a safe haven for countless abandoned neglected and abused animals as well as providing resources like lowcost vaccinations Bay neuter services to underserved community members the shelter is outdated it lacks basic amenities and unable to accommodate the growing number of animals in need the shelter has not added any capacity in 30 years even though the city of Charlotte has doubled in population the overcrowding issue is particularly alarming the shelter is bursting at the seams with animals crammed into small inadequate spaces and a stressful Maze of hallways to get the animals in and out of the shelter for exercise and a mental break this not only compromises their well-being but also poses a significant risk to staff and volunteer safety also overcrowding leads to diseases and heightened aggression among the animals financial support would enable the shelter to hire more qualified staff members the current staff is overwhelmed and stretched thin due to the increasing number of animals last week we had to let go of one remaining paid dog dog walker and lack the staff needed to clean the kennels in a timely manner thank you very much um and now we'll hear from Nicole shopan okay good evening my name is Nicole schopflin and I'm here to represent friends of feral felines uh with the continued help and support of friends and feral felines over the last 25 years I have been working with Charlotte residents out in the field using the Trap neuter vaccine return method to stabilize Community cat populations I have never seen so many cats in Charlotte as I do right now they are everywhere over the last year three of my neighbors and myself spent our own money trapping spaying and neutering and vaccinating over 60 cats near my home in East Charlotte nearly 50 of those cats were female and capable of giving birth to three liters of Kit of kittens a year our hard work and determination prevented the birth of hundreds of unwanted kittens that would have been dumped into our communities and an overcrowded care animal care and control facility but this was only a tiny section of Charlotte stretching across only a few city blocks cats are reproducing exponentially everywhere in Charlotte I am constantly being bombarded with texts Facebook posts phone calls from people who need help with Community C with the community cat population it's exhausting at a time when getting TNR appointments should be easy it's difficult there is such a high demand for Community cat spure appointments that stand for Animals had to start an appointment Lottery these are some there are sometimes over 1,000 applicants for these lotteries but only a few a few lucky winners other lowcost spay neuter clinics have a four to six waiting period for one TNR that's a spay neuter appointment for free roaming cats friend of FOH felines desperately needs funding for a lowcost high volume spay neuter clinic a clinic that can handle 25 to 40 cats at a time and we need them now Charlotte's cat crisis isn't going away without action it's just going to get worse every day throughout the city of Charlotte dedicated caretakers thank you very much um for your [Applause] [Music] comments our next speaker is khed bla and Dina [Applause] [Music] fed good evening would you whichever would like to speak first would you just say your name for the record good evening my name is khed and I would like to point out two minutes will leave me with 8 seconds per family member lost I'll do my best my name is k and I'm a proud resident of Charlotte as an American I grew up in a safe and supportive home I graduated in aerospace engineering and I see you wearing NASA so maybe we'll talk later from Ohio State go bakai I currently work in the technology industry and I'm grateful for living in such a beautiful city I actually moved my mom from Gaza Strip it provides me with safety and access to the cultural and recreational opportunities that I crave I must say as a Palestinian from Gazza when I remember my my hometown shewan I cannot believe or imagine it as the graveyard for children as the UN describes it today I only remember the fun Summers of my youth spent visiting my family Home Building handmade kites with my cousin Salah KH flying them at the beach where my cousin du would make sand castles I smile when I remember my uncle Hassan when I would eat KFA and drink chai with him or my uncle wasam who was a doctor and a national team coach for volleyball I remember the nickname that I gave my uncle aan Fork beard cuz he would kiss me and I would feel the the thorns on my face from his beard the the realization that these moments are now gone because every single person I mentioned to you has not made it out of this war America continues to be the only state to veto a cease fire every day I'm reminded that I do not matter by the leaders in this country just this morning I got news of the murder of three additional family members one of them a father to a one week old baby my surviving grandmother and uncles and aunts right now live a life stripped of safety shelter water electricity food basic human rights all while grieving and battling mental anguish I know the bell's going to ring thank you very much we are not data points we that we'll have to go to the next speaker so I'm happy to give some of my time no we it doesn't work like that we have a process that we have so it's not a Time fire now fire now we are not data points guys guys guys guys we are not data points and I'm talking on deana's behalf the bias media Outlets consume us for Content she she has to do the speaking now for you have two minutes as well his family were all civilians each with life goals loved ones and unlived stories the last time he spoke with with his cousin Salah he had sent him a photo of his dinner spread and told him not to worry about him or anyone else and to visit next summer his twin brother khid was excited to leave and be with his fiance in Europe born together Salah and khed lived mirrored lives not only sharing birth moments classrooms hobbies and friends but also a tragic murder he cannot bear looking at gruesome images from the scene Khaled was wearing the shirt that he just gifted him in September he shares a name with khid and it strikes us all it could have been him in fact many of us in this room are defendants of the nekus survivors just like khed and I each of us a legitimate Target for the immoral and terrorist Israeli occupation forces this Bloodshed did not start on October 7th in 1948 his grandfather Musa fled Israeli massacres in his hometown of Al towards the now Gaza concentration camp he was 12 years old and had witnessed the murder of his parents siblings and uncles As Americans we get to stand up before you today privileged to be alive and compelled to tell their stories to stand up for the over 20,000 humans killed in today I'm a voice for the voiceless family and for khalid's voiceless family members who were killed for merely being born Palestinian we are here to show you Palestinian humanity and stories matter we urge the council to take a moral stand against the genocide of and to demand the dis uh and to listen to the demands of its constituents I plead with you to call for an end of the killing of the blood to call for a ceasefire now and to stop North Carolina military aid to Israel thank you thank you very much rest in power to my family rest in power to Hassan healthcare manager Bal press house media aan Public Health media Dr wasam National Volleyball Team Dua resident nurse Salah online entrepreneur Khaled online entrepreneur have to leave the room I would okay all right it's time we're going to recess this meeting right now you w even give us your attention you [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sh [Music] allowing me a moment I I I want to say thank you for allowing me a moment um to understand that we are in a public space and we all want to be heard so with that we're going to continue on our speakers list and our first Speaker our next speaker is Sue warl and Noah Goldman oh boy I so this is what they're not allowed to have the signs coming over but they are seated where they can have a sign Miss warl if you would voluntarily do that I would C I think that we would all appreciate it apparently not yes you have two minutes is the mic on yet yes good all right there we reset the time thank you good evening my name is Sue warl and I am the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte I am proud to have called Charlotte my home for over 20 years at the November 27th Charlotte city council meeting multiple speakers spoke in angry and hostile tones regarding the events transpiring between Israel and Hamas they called upon the Charlotte City Council to adopt a resolution all while chanting threats for the annihilation of the state of Israel and all her people I'm here tonight because last month and a tonight in this very chamber our community was subjected to virent anti-Semitism disinformation and hatred shouted and chanted at and about Jews zionists and Israelis platforming hate speech such as we witnessed at the November 27th city council meeting simply cannot be left unchallenged as it is a sad reflection of the divisions festering in our city when anti-Semitism and the dehumanization of Jews is left unchecked it tears at the fabric of our society right here at home I've had the privilege of advocating for the Charlotte Jewish Community for more than 18 years during which time the Charlotte Community Charlotte has always been a community in which Jews are respected and valued where we have felt the safety and confidence to live our lives free freely and proudly as Jews sadly in recent months since the attacks on Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas that sense of belonging in security has begun to wne the rapidly escalating levels of anti-Semitism Jew hatred and demonization of Israel and those who support the existence of a Jewish State have resulted in Jews no longer feeling safe in our own Community here in Charlotte we are currently celebrating the 8-day Festival of Hanukkah a holiday that celebrates resilience and light in the midst of Darkness and yet in the weeks leading up to the holiday the biggest topic of conversation among the Jewish mom's Facebook group was is it safe for us to put our manur in the windows this year as City Council Members you have committed yourself to the welfare and well-being of the citizens of this city you rightly Pride yourselves on creating and sustaining the welcome diverse and inclusive community that Charlotte has become known forl Mr Gman over 20,000 Palestinians have died genocide is not peace all right again they do they person we want to be able to listen to everyone and we have listened very carefully to you please respect that if there is not if there is not if there is not are no Tu sides in genocide there's no neutrality in apar and occupation sorry all right Mr gemman hold on can go hold on oh oh I'm sorry let's go ahead I need to ask I need to ask you to leave the chamber now I beg your pardon she's not going anywhere oh okay I understand I understand so with that this meeting is recessed we will empty the chamber after Mr Goldman speaks Mr Goldman will be allowed to speak all rightow we are in pain we are hurt and listen have speakers who are going to say very important things please cooperate please cooperate we have worked very hard they're giving us a platform to speak please act properly so we can move on hey not for but for us [Applause] please okay Mr Goldman Mr Goldman hold on get yes please she need to go need to go they do have to go you I'm sorry you really do have to leave the chamber under what ground go because of your dis recess have your own people turn against you for the people not for them something please caness just everybody all right Mr Gan I am really apologizing that you're not going to have a chance to speak but in this in this case we are going to recess our meeting and empty the chamber thank you we will give you time no I I'm sorry I'm I'm sorry if they we are not going to have we are going to this is it no we [Music] try [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I know I [Music] Ain you are we're going to go ahead and do the agenda items that we have on our agenda yeah I got and then we'll stay for a closed session okay [Applause] okay so we're done with the public forum M we're done with the public hearing okay I mean the public forum yes okay all right and I'm just waiting long enough to get a video and of the sign language fol res did you stress that what that we can't res I'm I'm going to send a letter because I think that it's better if we tried okay ready Mr Jes you're good let's Channel she does let the NBC Network come on you guys you okay trying to find a spot find a spot okay all right so thank you everyone it's um you never know what you're going to have to do one day at a time as they say so we're going to begin with our um public hearings um May we're now going to open the public hearing on closing a portion of the public right away adjacent to hide drrive we do not have any speakers signed up to speak do I have a motion motion to close close and adopt a resolution motion close and adopt any discussion hearing none all in favor please raise your hand anyone oppose okay thank you the next item is item eight which is public hearing and a resolution to close unopen RightWay off Reston road we do not have any speakers do we have a motion to close the public hearing and to adopt the resolution to close the unopen right away second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please raise your hand if anyone's in opposition let there's no one in opposition the next item is um item our next item is the city manager's report no report no report the next item is business to accept state and federal funding um for the Sugar Creek corridors of opportunity this is a three-step process adopt a resolution authorizing the manager to NE negotiate and execute the municipal agreement with ncdot for 2,425 th000 for the cor Sugar Creek corridors project adopt a resolution authorizing the manager to negotiate and execute the municipal agreement with the Federal Highway administ ation to accept rebuilding America infrastructure with sustainability and Equity Grant funds in the amount of $12 million and then adopt the budget ordinance appropriating the total do we have a motion to adopt AB andc second second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion hearing no discussion all in favor please raise your hand is there anyone in opposition I see no opposition next one is item 11 is there a motion to accept a sponsorship in the amount of $160,000 from lows for corridors of opportunity program and adopt an ordinance appropriating to the general Capital funds so moov same amount we have a motion already and a second is there any discussion hearing no discussion all in favor please raise your hand anyone oppose thank you the next item is 12 is do I have a motion to adopt a budget ordinance appropriating 169 million 169,900 974 from NC N9 Carol North Carolina 911 board to the emergency telephone system fund we have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all in favor please raise your hand anyone opposed thank you the next item is um 13 to adopt a resolution authorizing the donation of two Surplus Charlotte Area Transit System BS to roof above and we have a motion second we have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all in favor please raise your hand anyone oppose thank you our next item is for the calendar schedule and is there a motion to approve and you saw the amended one that was changed to um and I think the clerk passed it out passed passed it out God yeah passed out a new one that showed on the first Monday's Council committee meetings will be held and discussions will continue and I want to um thank Dr D and talk for continuing to figure out how we can make the best use of that time after we have our committee meeting so with that do we have a motion to approve the council calendar have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all in favor please raise your hand anyone oppose thank you all so now I think that puts us into our um Clos session is there any other item before coming in I didn't you didn't you get a chance to say thank you to to Joanie I'm so sorry oh I'm sorry I'm trying to okay okay uh mayor thank you briefly just uh in celebration of the third African-American female there we go in space 17 years ago she spent 12 days at the space station so I'm try to recognize her efforts to NASA and unfortunately she's married to me but I just want to celebrate Joan higen bam thank you thank you all right tell her I'm her whisperer now okay all right so now Mr Baker will you please read a motion to go into a closed session yes I have a motion to three subp parts um need a motion to go into closed session to consult with the city attorney to preserve the attorney client privilege pursuant to 143 318 1183 to discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of Industries or other businesses in Charlotte including agreement on a tenative list of Economic Development incentives that may be offered by the city of Charlotte pursuant to scgs 143 31811 A4 and finally uh to view a law enforcement law enforcement reporting pursuant to ncgs 143 31818 we have a motion and a second any any discussion hearing none all in favor of the motion please raise your hand anyone oppose thank you all right so we will start [Music]