[Music] [Music] okay [Music] see [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening and welcome to Charlotte City Council business meeting October 28th we will call this meeting to order and we'll start with introductions I'll start to my right with the clerk Ariel Smith lead city clerk marjor Molina council member of District 5 Dante Anderson mayor protim district one Marcus Jones city manager Malcolm Graham District 2 Ed DRS district 7 dard six theana Mayfield council member at large Victoria watlington at large Lena James Deputy City attorney excellent so we will jump right into our consent agenda and now as we get started with the consent agenda please note that items 21 35 48 and 49 have been deferred by staff to the November 25th business meeting and it's my understanding from the clerk's office that we have a speaker signed up to uh address the property transactions for 53 and 54 Zero vision pedestrian safety Beacon hybrid beacon on Park Road at Sunset parcel 2 and three 21 35 48 and 49 and we will um pull out 53 and 54 for a separate vote as we have a speaker this evening but before we hear from the speakers are there any other consent items that the council would like to have a separate Vote or comment on Miss Mayfield yes I'm just looking at the ones that were pulled cuz those were some of my questions okay I want to get pull for a separate vote number 40 and 41 okay anything else okay hearing hearing none is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items 22 through 52 with the exceptions of 21 35 48 49 40 41 53 and 54 so moved second okay we have a motion and is and a second all in favor raise hands any opposed all right that's unanimous and so we will start then with item number 40 get there item number 40 is there a motion to approve a contract in the amount of 2,6 15,41 15.9 to the lowest responsive bidder ble construction for the Josh Bingham bingingham Parkway sell lot and bypass project is there a motion to approve all right I have a motion in a second are there any comments Miss Miss Mayfield thank you Marie how many current projects are ble working on at the airport I'm also trying to figure out we have a very low CBI goal on this project and CBI recently have expanded to 100 counties so I'm trying to figure out where are trying to understand why the goal is so low and the last question is uh around the biders information when we put out the RFP we would normally also have just like that second or third sheet that list everyone that bid it and what their amount was versus just having it noted in here that black construction was selected as the lowest responsive yes thank you madam and for this one again it's item number 40 on your consent this one is there's only one current contract with this BL vender the blle development and ble Brothers Asphalt Company also have a contract for own call services for snow removal with the airport and these are listed as separate companies however and also you mentioned and and I apologize I need to follow up on why you could see the bid tab as attachment is in there but we'll follow up on that to make sure it's visible but efficient Development LLC was the only other bidder and their bid was 2,746 200 29 97 C and their commitment they did also meet the goal but their commitment was lower at three and n and 9% just meeting the goals but to your point there was only two biders on this one and this one um the one awarded of course beit beat in price but also beat with CBI goals thank you so just for clarification on the followup so this particular contract I want to is for blle construction yes ma'am blle has several businesses under their umbrella so am I to understand that because of the multiple businesses they have Under the Umbrella of BL construction each of those are identified as an individual so it would be like a new contract cuz you stated this is the only one of this kind but we know we have BL construction and multiple other Partnerships within the airport and Beyond but because of the way that their structure is set up is considered as individual companies within the larger organization yes ma'am I can't speak to the relationship within the larger but it's definitely considered a separate business yes thank you thank you thank you Miss Mayfield any additional approv okay I have a motion to approve and we had a second correct great all in favor to approve agenda item number 40 as stated in our agenda please raise hands any opposed that is unanimous no oh I'm sorry Miss Mayfield I apologize Miss Mayfield one oppose Miss Mayfield is opposed we'll move on to agenda item number 41 um the the action is to approve a contract extend exension for one year for the contract with Johnson Controls Inc building operating and security systems for building operation systems is there a motion to approve agenda item number 41 so moved second there's a motion to approve and a second any comments Miss Mayfield thank you Marie on 41 the estimated value of this contract extension is 7 million correct and seven the new estimated value on this contract including the extension is over 40 million is this saying that we're committing committing over a million for this oneyear extension yes ma'am and it's important to note that this airport continues to grow and more and more and also our security needs continue to grow quite frequently and the technology available but it's important to note that for this particular contract it covers almost all the facil ities of the airport not all of them but almost all of them and also if you look at the value it's $3.50 per square foot for this for a one-year extension but we're saying yes ma'am the the new estimated value for this contract including this extension just for this one contract has been over40 million yes ma'am thank you thank you Miss Mayfield any additional comment comments we have a motion and a second to approve agenda item number 41 as it appears in our agenda all in favor raise hands any oppose Miss Mayfield is opposed thank you that concludes the majority of the consent agenda items we will now um ask Mr Russell Vil while while Mr Russell while you are here to speak to agenda items number 53 and 54 yes ma'am if you could come to the Podium for me please and when you arrive at the podium you will have 3 minutes in total to address U items 53 and 54 thank you good afternoon and thank you for your time um my name is Russell W I'm a foror former senior Warden at Holy Comforter Charlotte which is the property being affected by a new crosswalk on Park Road in between Kennelworth and flal avenues um there's a crosswalk that will come across at Sunset and is taking portions of Holy Comforter main campus and a home that we own adjacent to it uh the engineering and planning for that project has been ongoing for we understand over a year and a half uh we were not contacted until January 10th of this year um once we were contacted we were given contracts and estimates for the purchase it's not a great deal of land the purchase contract is estimated to be $3,000 which happen to be about exactly what the appraisals came back in we will contest that value but our biggest frustration was holy Comfort has been on that location since 1957 we are voice Scout Troop One we run roof room at the end Loaves and Fishes started out of there and nobody contacted us we have a real concern about the crosswalk because where it crosses mid block on Park Road you still will have to walk back to those other two streets where there are existing crosswalks less than 800 ft away and leaving them the only viable way to get to Freedom Park which is what engineering told us the initial request was that one neighbor from across Park Road requested easier access to Freedom Park they still have to walk back to those streets or they're going to go through our driveway and open through a cut through that some of the neighbors know about with our neighbor Avendale Presbyterian Church that we leave open so that they can access our parking lot and we can access theirs in funerals and big events kids in the neighborhood dog walkers know about it we have a bilingual preschool that operates five days a week that the playground is right there at that driveway so our concern was we didn't want more foot traffic coming up through our property by the preschool and within three weeks we got an email from the rightaway agent that said we hope you understand that this is exactly where the project is going to be built and we'll give you an appraisal to assure and guarantee that you'll get a fair market value now we did have some more conversations and got a site visit but we've never had any real discussion and so now you'll have condemnation in front of you but we just feel like as a neighborhood church that's been in dillworth since 1957 it would have been nice if planning had come out a little bit earlier thank you Mr W thank you so now that we have heard from our speaker um is there a motion to approve agenda item number 53 the property transaction is zero vision pedestrian safety hybrid Beacon at Park Road and sunset parcel number two Miss Mayfield thank you council member Anderson I want to move to defer item 53 and 54 based on the information that was shared with us and making sure that we have transparency and communication with our neighbors second okay so there is a motion to defer agenda item number 53 and 54 with a second from Miss watlington Mr Mari yeah I I'd be open to that as because again this the first time I think we're hearing some of this so is there is that going is there is there some easy answer to this or is this is this going to hurt if we delay by a couple weeks so can get to the bottom of it well I would like Phil riger he's um in the room to to talk a little bit about now that we have a motion in a second we can I juster make a decision without full information please council members Phil rer General Services director um we've been engaged with this property owner since November of 2023 um we've had several engagements including the uh meeting that uh the gentleman referred to um this these are the last two Parcels to make this uh Safety project happen um the location is specific to the the park and the pedestrian traffic and where we're seeing those Crossings um we've we've done I mean there's the the SE do and general Services Engineers have worked diligently to determine the location uh this is on the critical path of the project so a deferral would delay uh the start of constru instruction um but that would be at the will of the council if they wanted to do that so Mr rer while you're there the Mr Mr V will just said that um wild just mentioned that he wasn't contacted until January 10th of this year my understanding that there was some initial contact made back in November 16 of 2023 that's correct uh first letter would have went out to engage the proper property owners in November around this project and at any point between November 16 2023 and today have there been acknowledgements and touch points with the property owners uh yes ma'am several okay um what what I my this is in my district so this is why I'm sort of providing some additional color but what my understanding is that an offer was made to the church based on appr the apprais value and the property owner requested an on-site meeting and traffic study and the on-site meeting was held on May 29th of this year with the project team and the church representation is that's correct okay and then in uh June 25th 2024 the vestri which is the church Representatives have submitted a letter voicing some concerns about the location and a response was provided on July 20 uh July 15th of this year including the explanation as to why the alternative locations were not feasible is that does that sound accurate Mr rer yes ma'am I see Mr wild shaking his head as well so then in August the condemnation deadline was extended and it was communicated to the church in hopes of a re a resolution so we had a couple of touch points um beginning back in November of 2023 um a few touch points this year and then the condemnation deadline was extended so that that we could come to a resolution with the church and um and then the the acquisition manager the real estate acquisition manager attempted to call to make several calls during October prior to the council meeting as late as October 25th of this year so those were multiple touch points over the balance of 2024 beginning back in November 23 that is correct is that did I leave anything out no okay Mr wild a letter was wait wait hang on hang on um can I'll invite you back up to the podium no you can that's the only way you can speak is if you come to the podium um so I I have a question for you so Mr W my question for you is as I as I just ran through the touch points and the action items I saw you were shaking your head does that is that in alignment with your understanding or do you have a different understanding it's close the letter was never delivered to the church in November um the ritway agent said they couldn't find a place to drop off mail so our first substantial contact was Janu January 10th of this year by email okay so that that's the only change okay and so your your request about these two particular Properties or or or what actually you're not in alignment with the actual appraisal value well we we question the necessity of the crosswalk to begin with and the fact that it comes in mid block to our back driveway and even though it comes in mid block they have to walk down to the street Salem Andor uh lilac to get the equal distance that they could walk on the other side of the street to get to the existing crosswalks so we're we're questioning the necessity of it okay so your your qu your question is really about whether or not this really needs to occur at all that's our primary question not it's not about the uh property value well the values we're going to contest also we we've had some different valuations that it it affects the home that we have next door where the driveway is and what potential future use okay so but we have we have the ability to contest that in the courts and we'll we'll do that but our primary reason to speak with council tonight was on February 26 we got an email from the RightWay agent that said this is where this project will be built and we'll get some appraisals to guarantee you fair market value so we we were never in an open discussion with the city on on the project okay so you know I am absolutely um absolutely support a deferment if if if we think that we could get to a point of resolution it sounds as if there isn't a point there is not a point of resolution for you because you are questioning the value of this safety um hybrid Beacon to begin with that is the that is really the point of contention that's correct okay so would a defer a deferment for a month would that help you get to the alignment of of the need for the beacon or do you believe that you you and and your representatives from the church are steadfast in this position yeah I would said that Holy Comforter would prefer that that crosswalk not be built okay okay thank you thank you sir yep thank you Mr rer just one additional question for you um you mentioned a deferment it sounds like a deferment will not help the community get to a better solution however um if a deferment was taken this evening you mentioned that there would be some delays in a project can you add some Dimension to the delay in a project absolutely couple couple points [Music] um that a deferment just we're ready to move this project once we finish our real estate acquisition process then we would U move to uh bid documents in bidding the project so um any any deferral would delay the bid process which then delays the construction process um at this point um a change in location will require complete redesign and know so that would add uh could be 6 to9 months of design work that would happen and so our our transportation professionals feel really comfortable with this design one other point about the request for this crosswalk um it it came from our Ada community and so we have somebody with a disability that is is uh requesting to have some help um it's very common that uh we would put in a midblock crosswalk with a pedestrian hybrid Beacon when we have uh really long uh distances between signalized intersections to help our community so this is one of those cases I thank you as a matter of process I heard you mention earlier that this decision is on the critical path um can you help me understand if it has already come before Council before it was on the critical path it it has not we uh because of the church objection we delayed or deferred and delayed the condemnation in August in order to try to continue to negotiate we weren't able to come to a settlement okay so just moving forward as a matter of practice if we can get these decisions before Council before it's something on the critical path because it it doesn't make it easy for us to have a decision when we're being told that any delay then impacts the project so just from a planning standpoint let's make sure that these Council decisions are not on the critical path thank you Mr watlington Miss Mayfield and then Mr dggs thank you so Mr rer just for clarification there was a deferral I believe that the impression that we had and that you all have as sta was that during that time there was supposed to be some communication with the land owners you're saying you're stating that that did not happen no we attempted to have communications what we weren't able to do is come to a settlement on this piece of property so if we backtrack to the beginning of this conversation and this is just a question for clarification does staff generally start a process of a design that impacts a land owner without them being a part of the conversation we generally have public engagement on the very beginning of the projects whether or not all Property Owners engage um is is up to them it's their discretion to come to the meetings to uh and whatnot by the time it becomes a real estate acquisition issue those meetings have been uh completed design has started Design's actually almost complete by then so we know exactly what we need to buy um so that we don't buy too much property or too little so that so public engagement would have happened well in advance of uh maybe even I don't have the dates for that in front of me but it could have been even a year before we ever would have even engaged from a real estate would been prior to 2023 yes yes ma'am thank you Mr Dres so uh this is a a Safety project right I mean it's about safety uh whether it was November or January it's been quite a long time did did did you have requests for meetings that you ignored or denied uh I'm not um aware of any requests for meetings that were either approved or denied no no sir I mean I I feel like this is unfortunately kind of a public necessity from what I've learned uh and uh I'm inclined to support the efforts of the staff to create a safer infrastructure for us so uh I would like to make a substitute motion to approve it okay second okay thank you we have a substitute motion to approve a I'm not a 53 and 54 um with a motion by Mr Driggs and a second by Mr Graham any additional comments Miss Molina thank you U Madame mayor protim just for clarification Mr riger i' um so it's kind of it's kind of a a catch 22 right it's you know understanding that you all have very likely put in a lot of effort into this right and now um for what would appear to be the first time we have a Community member coming before us I'm I'm wondering [Music] um I'm kind of wondering how we meet in the middle right like how we um and and and honestly I'm I'm I'm struggling with with the idea of another month giving us more time when we've had this long and basically there's a definitive you know staff needs to move forward and there's been work done um and now we have a Community member who is here to say that you know there's not um a resolution that would you know make them happy except for this not happening so um I'd like to know what your professional opinion is so in this particular case where location is a challenge and and and we received that feedback and we consulted with our transportation professionals to look at Alternatives Alternatives were looked at um the the the the the resolution was or the the the decision was we need to stay with this location given other intersections given given the need as it relates to what The Pedestrian behaviors were um and so this is sort of a a challenge understand that condemnation isn't uh a finality it's really the beginning and what that means is is that staff uh continues to negotiate with the property owners throughout the entire condemnation process hoping that we would come to a resolution without the need for court um and so in this case um if if there's if there's no movement uh as it relates to location then we would be talking about price and um and ultimately the courts would determine the price if we couldn't settle between the two parties um but we would if there is questions about price we've done an appraisal of course the city uh paid for that and so we always invite Property Owners if they question those appraisals to feel free to bring us additional information that might form the value of of a potential property and so I don't believe we've received that yet um but we're certainly open to continue those conversations uh about price so a yes tonight from this Council to move forward would initially kind of give you that authorization to continue on this path that you're mentioning gives us the op uh the opportunity to continue down the path of construction it won't slow the project down but it does not stop our uh negotiating with property owner okay all right thank you thank you any additional comments before we have a vote um before we have a vote I just would in closing I would say that I hear Mr veil's uh Wilds positioning on this but this was a safety request from a member of the community um this is a I live very this this is effectively my neighborhood so I live very close to to this area it's very difficult to cross these roads in particular if you are differently able and have to move a bit slower and so given that this was a request from a member of our community with um Ada challenges um I would like for us to be able to move forward without delay to the project but also have the opportunity to continue negotiation with Mr W in the church um on for this particular location the location is the location for a specific reason as it relates to safety the other piece I would say is this parcel they're two Parcels but really one of one of a major portion of a small parcel of this is really for underground construction um on that parcel so that the above ground will still be available for the public Etc is really to get down in there and put infrastructure in the ground for the hybrid Beacon to to move so now that we've had discussion I don't see any hands for additional discussion there's a motion to approve 53 and 54 as stated in our our agenda uh motion and a second all in favor to approve 53 and 54 raise hands one two three four five six seven any opposed that is unanimous thank you and Mr W thank you for coming out and thank you all for your time thank you okay that concludes uh completely the uh consent agenda and now I will pass it over to the city manager for the overview of our action review thank you mayor protim so we have two items uh on the action view tonight American Rescue Plan update as we I think uh we're together last time at a business meeting uh the concept here is to talk about the progress where we are with the arpa funds with the whole goal of making sure that um December 31st 2024 at midnight we don't turn any dollars back into the federal government so Sean uh Heath is going to give you an update on where we are over there and then we have a faith in housing update and I think that's a combination from uh council member Mayfield and uh Warren from housing and Neighborhood Services uh I do believe um mayor ptim that there are two close session items and um tonight we have the public form so typically the desires to get out of here that is correct 6:30 so I don't so just putting that out there whether or not you want to handle the close session items in 267 or later but we do have two close session items tonight yes that is correct our business meeting starts at 6 6:30 and we do have a Clos session um topic two topics so if we can move through these two uh presentations and updates and that'll give us an opportunity to handle the closed session and with that I will hand it over to Mr Heath thank you mayor proam Sean Heath City manager's office well my faite houses I would have been bought once so what why don't we just go with the presentation and see how yes turns out okay yay Sean okay the good news is this presentation is fairly light on slides this will look familiar to you possibly from my February 2024 update on arpa quickly going from top to bottom you'll recall in 2021 2022 the city of Charlotte received $1 41.6 million of funding under the arpa state and local fiscal Recovery Fund program moving down to the boxes below you can see the allocation of that funding that was agreed upon by Council early on with $31 million devoted to City operations and employees to the right in the dark gray rectangles a collection of community facing priority areas that in aggregate equate to $110 million which is a Approximately 80% of the overall 141.5 that's been programmed and put to work in the community not all of that has been spent yet which we'll talk a little bit in subsequent slides and then as manager Jones referred to before arpa does have an obligation deadline of December 31st 2024 we'll talk a little bit about this concept of Revenue replacement this evening because with the revenue replacement methodology it does give us the opportunity and Our intention is to use that in a few instances where it would be helpful to have a longer Runway than December 31st of this calendar year in 2025 we'll do an arpa impact summary report of some sort but here we just wanted to cherry pick a few areas of focus things that that have been done with the arpa funds and Council Direction you can see a number of employee centered Investments at the top here including million for employee retention recent incentives and premium pay there was a particular emphasis there obviously on hourly employees and Public Safety pay plan Personnel this was really back in in what feels like a long time ago but the 2021 2022 time frame $8 million of Information Technology Investments which were really critical in enabling some Network infrastructure upgrades to allow us to have a strong telework environment and then $6 million here reference for some significant Co related spikes in health care costs as I mentioned on the previous slide most of the programming for arpa has been focused on the community itself and you can see a range of things here that are aligned well with your strategic priorities and strategic initiatives I'll just cherry pick the first two here $20 million focused on the creation or preservation of affordable housing units this included a very large scale Noah Project on Central Avenue as well as a handful of cost challenged HTF projects that came to us during the pandemic $17 million support ing over 100 nonprofit organizations that $17 million was put to the community in a number of different ways in some instances we had formal programs that were established where we had a notice of funding opportunity nonprofit organizations submitted Grant requests we went through an analysis and a and a scoring process and those were competitively awarded we had one or two examples where nonprofit opportunities were vetted at the committee level and then we probably had two or three examp examples where there were targeted Investments opportunities like the YMCA and three sisters Market where Council had a particular interest in supporting something happening in the community so those were handled in more of an informal way with without a defined process around it and you can see a few other references here to things that uh have also been done with the arpa funding so the real purpose for tonight is just to give a quick status update on $41.66 million and while the unobligated column on the far right is the most important column because that's where to Mr manager's comment we want to ensure we avoid a scenario where on December 31st when the clock expires there's any funding that would have to be returned to the federal government let me quickly move from left to right just to make sure that I'm explaining what's on the slide here so we'll use the city operations uh row as an example here and $31 million is the same amount from previous slide that was the total amount for City operations at any point in time arpa funding has to fall into one of three categories either it's spent obligated or unobligated spent means exactly what it sounds like the dollars are out the door the money's out out of the bank and program dollars have been put to work obligated the money is still in the bank but there's a contractual obligation in place and then unobligated would simply would would not equate to programmed one important Point here if you look at the unobligated column here with one exception that I'll talk about on the next slide all of this all of the community facing Investments have gone through Council discussion and request for Council action so it's not as if the $ 28.3 million is looking for a home to be programmed all of it's been programmed all of it's with one exception has been authorized by Council for very explicit purposes it just so happens those are projects where we've not yet reach the contract yet and on the next slide I'll tell you what our game plan is to ensure that the $ 28.3 million is is obligated in fact by the end of the calendar year you can see big picture at the bottom if you add up for all of the categories spent and obligated the 91.9 million spent and $21.4 million obligated that's 80% of the overall funds that are already in a position where there's no question uh how it'll be handled by the end of the year moving along just two two more slides so the idea of having the game plan for the $ 28.3 million that's currently in an unobligated status is shown here there there are really three areas of of focus one would be there are 10 projects where through conversation with with various departments that are responsible for administering the projects I'm comfortable that with absolute certainty we have a credible path to get the projects obligated before the end of the calendar year it's a range of projects one's as small as $30,000 one is as large as15 million but we're confident that there's a path forward to get those funds obligated before the end of the calendar year and in all instances what we're doing with that funding is exactly what council has approved the next category here in the middle Revenue replacement treat treatment these are six specific project areas where it's helpful for us to have a bit of a longer Runway and each one of these has has its own story Revenue replacement is a method that's allowed by the arper rules um I'll be happy in the Q&A to talk a little bit about the mechanics but for me there there are two or three key things that you achieve with Revenue replacement first you you avoid a scenario where you're having to return money to the federal government second in all instances we are still doing exactly what council has authorized for from a project perspective so just using anti-displacement as an example in fiscal year 24 there was a request for Council action for approximately $6 million in anti-displacement programs recommended by The Nest commission with a revenue replacement approach um we would spend that $6 million in exactly the way that Council has has authorized us to do so so we avoid the December 31st deadline we spend the money exactly as Council has has authorized and there's nothing that harms the general fund in doing that uh doing that approach so uh I'll quickly just mention kind of each one of these on here since it's the largest category by far so the anti-displacement programs as I mentioned approved by Council in fy4 various programs like acquire rehab and resell and House Charlotte plus fall under that anti-displacement umbrella those programs have been launched and you know they're moving down the pathway but we just need a little more Runway Beyond December 31st for the obligation number two multif family affordable housing development this was one of the cost challenged HTF projects this is a district one affordable project with over with over 100 units we believe the financing for that project will close by the end of the calendar year but we need to drisk those funds and avoid any scenario where there's a surprise in late December so that's why we'd like to do Revenue replacement there the Workforce Development funding year mark this is the one and only example that I had referenced before where there isn't specific programming that's been authorized by Council yet I mentioned that placeholder in February of this year during my presentation and manager Jones also made reference to it during the May 20th budget adjustment session so for that particular one this would give Danielle an opportunity as she's activating on her Workforce Development strategies to have $3 million in capacity which would come to council for conversation and ultimately authorization on digital inclusion this this is one piece of the overall $10 million that was set aside for digital inclusion and this is an opportunity for the int team to work with some Community Partners who will deploy that money in support of digital literacy and internet access for specific population groups uh re-entry is one that in a few moments uh council member Mayfield I know you're aware that there's 2.5 million in total it comes from two different sources so the 1.5 million here is just one piece of that and then there are a couple of relatively small projects that are being administered by uh assistant city manager dodson's team that shows up there finally in category three as I mentioned before there are well over 50 projects and programs depending on you slice andise it that were authorized by Council there's really a very short list of things where the funding that was authorized by Council can be redeployed to other uses uh higher Charlotte related projects had a few which in total add up to 3.85 million keep in mind when you look at at all of the arpa 141.5 depending on how you slice it and dice it roughly $5 million 15 million is was set aside for Workforce Development so I wouldn't want to leave you under the impression that in some way we're we're backing away from Workforce Development there's certainly ample resources that have been devoted to that area and then the one housing related pilot program for a million5 dollars so going through that that would essentially be the strategy to ensure that the 28.3 million is obligated by the end of the year with that in mind you can see the 5.35 million that would be available for redeployment which leads us to the final slide here as of today with the 5.35 available for redeployment as well as the current estimate for arpa interest of 4.55 million that would leave obviously roughly $10 million of available capacity so just for illustrative purposes we put a few examples here on the slide we're not expecting any decisions to be made tonight uh by any means but wanted you to be be aware of what that number looks like the manager has made multiple references to our interest over the last 6 months and then now you've got a better line of sight into some of the funding that could be redeployed um real quickly here in terms of potential uses of the funds support City operations you know we have a history going back to the cares act even before arpa it's been quite useful in certain instances to have some funding uh 20% 30% is of of our funding available for various internal purposes here we've just given two examples reimbursing medical expenses in the employee benefits plan we've done a bit of that already with arpa uh strategy and budget and the human resources department are doing some calculations on what's the eligibility to do a little bit more of that if Council so desired to set aside for City operations and then another example we have is is getting ahead of some supply chain things for heavy duty Vehicles we just be examples these aren't must haves uh but they're just opportunities to to put it to work on some internally focused areas and then last uh certainly nonprofit support is something that's come up at different times in different ways there would be various ways to do this uh two have been identified here one would be to set aside some funding for your financial partners program in FY 26 if you look at how the F how the financial partners program funding has evolved over the last couple years because of arpa and arpa interest for general fund related Financial partners for example in 2023 the amount of funding was roughly 1.9 million whereas for fy2 it is it is roughly 3.8 million and that's primarily because of arpa arpa interest and pgo so one approach here would be to take some of the $10 million and park it in order to support FY 26 Financial Partners so there's not a cliff effect to worry about um in that program and the second would be not bringing these tonight as specific staff recommendations because we haven't gone through any sort of a process but but we're aware through different things that have been discussed in Council meetings and committee meetings and other things that are bubbling in the communities that there are some compelling needs out there I've mentioned a few it's not intended to be an exhaustive list but Big Brothers Big Sisters car Ring Charlotte waterer foundation and do greater Charlotte uh if I make Mr manager is there any additional commentary you'd like to add around this may absolutely okay well well thank you uh just a few things one job well done uh Sean and that goes to our CFO and the budget office um because making sure that we handle these funds um the right way is extremely important I think I recall the back with car's funding when it came in we had like $71 million just pop into our account with no instructions about what to do um but but I say all that to say job well done team and Council you've been extremely thoughtful with your decision making I believe all in it was $300 million between Caris and arpa and two-thirds of those dollars went back into the community uh so what Sean said um um and I won't do any Doom and Gloom I promise you that we're having budget kickoff tomorrow uh there's a lot of good things that are happening I don't want you guys to feel rushed to make any decisions tonight um what we try to do is at least Identify some of the different organizations that may not have um that may have waited because this day would come whether it's arpa interest or whether it is um dollars being redeployed but my my point is that um there's no real clock the clock is more related to not having um these dollars spent are obligated by December 31st and um by you allowing us to move forward to this action buys us the time that we need with Revenue replacement and then there's no clock whatsoever on these funds okay thank you city manager I have a question for Mr Driggs and then Mr Graham does the deployment of these funds the 18 million does that free up anything that was in our operating budget before it will with this Revenue replacement but it's not as if all of us of a sudden you're going to have additional dollars to do something new you'll have additional dollars to essentially do what you already plan to do with this 18.2 million sir so we intended to use this money that way all along correct correct okay the only Nuance the only benefit of the revenue replacement is it allows us to spend the money on the projects that Council has approved at a date later than December 31st of this year right so what is the actual money in the account the arpa account being used for so in other words we're saying that will let that money be used for this or are we going to then create a situation where we can fund these projects from operating without having to deal with the deadline I'm just trying to understand the Dynamics I can yeah let's just use the first line as an example the 6 million associated with anti-displacement so if we move forward with Revenue replacement that 6 million would absorb costs that would otherwise be born by the general fund so we could just say first responder salaries for example and and so $6 million of costs otherwise born by the general fund would be covered by arpa and then we would have a a transfer of budget authority of that same $6 million into a separate account which would then be held for us to spend on this particular programming right okay so uh we will actually use the cash for something else Revenue replacement and then create capacity in our operating fund for these things and then not have to deal with the deadline okay just want to be clear um on the 10 million I mean we've got 10 million dollar and we're looking around for ways to spend it do we do we have an option to just put the 10 million in payo and not incur as much debt sure that 10 million is free and clear to do whatever the council would like to do what the only thing I would say and you know this let's not use one time money for ongoing expenses so the 10 million again you can have discussions P wouldn't be exactly right that's why I'm saying put it in pigo use it for capital projects don't borrow as much money to pay for the capital projects and maybe we won't be so far out of line with our debt capacity with our uh with our Capital plan we could do that you could I would ask that we talk talk to our CFO about how much that really moves the needle but absolutely you could do that right I just I don't like the appearance that we had $10 million and now we're kind of looking around for ways to spend it thank you thank you Mr Graham uh thank you Madame mayor protim um and thank you for the presentation um way suspended right um obviously there's ways topend it and and there's been at least one or two nonprofits that that's been um um talked about for the last several months uh in reference to uh supporting um that fits within the council's um priorities um one being uh caring um that is on one of our quarters of opportunities who have been um um just built a um renovating a facility on that Corridor on Graham Street that um I think really deserve the type of consideration uh from this Council um to support uh their president CEOs with us tonight uh they've been around this conversation for four months maybe even a year now um for sure uh and I would love for staff to kind of dig and talk with them specifically about their needs uh and how we can be supportive uh if the council believes that we should move in that direction uh and then L again Big Brothers Big Sisters um this has been around for a while for sure uh dating back to uh January of this year uh related to uh solving issues related to Juvenile Justice uh and providing an environment for uh helping us reduce crime uh in uptown and specifically throughout the city of Charlotte um through a very um traditional and um um um um accomplish organization that has done the kind of the work uh on the ground so I I would hope that staff would really give them uh uh the type of um due diligence and consideration uh and bring the council back something that we can react to um uh and then certainly um um the the the the budget proc process for nonprofit is is a different track and and I hope that we can really kind of drill down and be narrowly tailored to uh focus on on those two uh like I said they are consistent with our priorities uh and um that they've been really um knocking on the doors uh consistently for for the last year and a half thank you thank you Miss Mayfield thank you Sean thank you for this great presentation I I appreciate the fact that we do have funds I do not think that we're looking for a way to spend it but I do want us to consider that out of these onetime funds that we look at bigger projects so when we look at support of caring that ask is going to be a considerable ask when we look at do greater they're also building add additional space that is going to be a larger ask for me with these funds because we're still we get to collect the interest we get to keep the interest that we don't have to allocate so we have the opportunity to still do some of what council member DG said but I think these dollars we have the opportunity to hit some of those big ass my presentation is coming up next but since my colleague open the door yes I'm going already tell y'all I'mma ask for another million for my faith and housing I give youall a good reason why but out that n million that's left over I think we have the opportunity for some of those ass that are under a million to 400,000 300 200 where we can really have an impact for those one time y'all know how I feel about people coming back multiple times as I'm coming back multiple times so for a fool I'm going to go ahead and own that hypocrisy I think we have that opportunity I don't feel that it is Seeking a way to spend it but with the interest we still have other opportunities but knowing that we have 10 million out of our ARA ultimately I want to thank not only Council but manager I will I don't do it often but I will publicly recognize the fact that you and the team did a wonderful job of Distributing this large sum of money that came into our community in ways that has had the beginning and will have future positive impacts and set us up to do some things that we have been wanting to do that we didn't necessarily know how to fund previously so I do want to publicly acknowledge you Sean and the entire team especially our numbers people on putting us in a very strong financial position thank you thank you Miss Mayfield um seeing no further comment uh Mr manager should we move on to the the next presentation and talk about what next steps are for the arer funds yeah absolutely it seems like not it seems what we'll do next is we will come before you with an rsca that would make sure that we're able to have this Revenue replacement so we don't have an issue come December 31st okay okay excellent thank you and thank you Mr Heath for the presentation now we will move on to the faith and Housing Initiative of update Mr won is joining us so for time sake you want me to jump in while you was walking up why they pulling that up so Madam Miss Mayfield Vice chair Madam fotel my apologies so as they're pulling that up I'm going for the sake of time across the country faith-based organizations are uniquely positioned to leverage their resources land buildings capital and people to enhance the availability of affordable housing and boast the community well-being as we all know mayor V in January did launch an initiative she asked for me to lead it we were we came together we be myself Rebeca Hefner miles vaugh and Warren Wooten we identified this and named it faith in housing for the double Tandra of that to address the need for affordable Housing and Community Services in Charlotte this initiative Builds on the hard work of the several Visionary Faith leaders and organizations who have already completed housing of diverse price points in communities across Charlotte including St Paul Baptist little Amy Zion Covenant Presbyterian Mayfield Memorial Baptist and the Park church since the launch of the initiative the city has facilitated 10 small group I believe now is 12 we we are now at 12 small group discussion bringing together over 80 Faith leaders and focus on Gathering input and guidance from the faith community to ensure the city provides the necessary support for their housing initiatives through the fiscal year 2025 budget thankfully you all supported the 2.5 million and support of this initiative 1.5 million from the arpa and the reallocation and 1 million arpa interest I'm asking for another million an additional million has been requested through the federal Community Project funding process that is through congresswoman Alma Adams office These funds will be used to provide technical assistance and project development support directly to our faith-based organizations in Charlotte and with that I turn it over to the amazing Mr Wooten thank you Miss Mayfield um you took care of lots of my slides so I'll make this a short presentation um uh Warren Wooten housing and Neighborhood Services uh thank you Council for for uh having us up here and I really appreciate Miss Mayfield's enthusiastic leadership um around this initiative uh We've really been charged to focus on kind of two broad areas one equipping faith-based organizations to do this work and then empowering them um through some of the funding that you are providing to move projects further um faster uh one of the things that we have been instructed to do and um have done so is not get in front of faith-based communities but stand as beside them and get behind them to move forward the great work that they are already doing um and they've been doing it in this community for quite some time uh with your support over 700 new affordable housing units have been created by faith communities and through this initiative uh we're working to scale this up and develop new Innovative models for uh Faith communities to partner with local government philanthropic organizations and The Business Community um to continue to move this work forward um and create um larger impacts throughout our community uh we started working on this in January with uh many of those small informal meetings that Miss Mayfield uh LED in our faith community but it really kicked off in May of 2024 we had a really fantastic Summit and a really overwhelming response from the faith community um 300 plus uh attendees um over 95 Faith communities were um present we had a plinary session we had breakout sessions um we had extremely engaging small group discussions and then we ended by having a follow-up survey that we received over 140 responses and and some of the things that the faith community uh were telling us in that survey was just the need for continued collaboration uh they are need to have technical assistance in areas of financing and Zoning a common database uh or a directory to help them engage with each other um and um a a way to get more information about upcoming events so those are the items that you'll see that we have been working forward um since that that meeting so so what's happened so far um we've had some Education and Training opportunities uh we did a session called discovering Charlotte's Housing Trust Fund uh and then uh we finished up last month uh Land Development 101 which was really focused on land and land use and then uh we are currently uh working on Land Development 102 which was which is uh how to work with a developer so that session was last week and we'll do a virtual version of that tomorrow and for anyone that missed any of that um all you have to do is Google faith and hous Charlotte the city's faith and housing web page goes to the top of that list and all of this information is being recorded and collected um for use going forward and I just need to stop for a second and and recognize just the amazing work that we're already building on um doing this we featured some videos that are on that website of some special projects that the faith community has been involved in um we've been really engag with members of our faith community um and and just it it's important just to stop and recognize the amazing work that some of these uh community members are already doing um Reverend clayhorn uh leading one of the projects at his church and also wrote this amazing OP ED um Reverend Peter weary Reverend uh Dwayne Walker at Little Rock Amy Zion they're the ones that sponsored the vericon fourth uh project happens to be named after the First bishop of that church Church um so again building on the work that members um of our faith community are already moving forward I already mentioned once I'll mention it again um all of the information about these resources we're putting in a very easy to access location um again just Google faith and housing or go to the si uh the city's website and follow the faith and housing link it has all of the information about um our upcoming events how to register to get receive more information how to register to be part of the directory so that other members in the community can can look you up and and contact you about opportunities a summary of the faith and housing event is there um and how to join the faith-based organization mailing list to receive uh information about upcoming opportunities speaking of upcoming opportunities um we we have uh been very busy this last year um and we have more to come so again I want to point out that we have a virtual session of Land Development 102 that's tomorrow anyone can register and attend that and then we have additional um opportunities um coming up um one of the things that we've been hearing back from the faith community is how do I even know if I am ready to to move forward what should I be thinking about we're developing a readiness checklist so that churches can ask themselves questions about where they're at and and start working through those questions to help them discern where they are to can can move forward um a flash advising event is going to be uh planned for early next year this is going to be a a volunteer a volunteer effort from a lot of our uh practitioners our developers will be there uh Architects Engineers any church that has a question about their project or their property can just show up and get some free advice to have someone look over their plans and then um in in early 2025 there will be two opportunities for churches to uh apply to receive additional assistance one is a cohort-based uh design where they can apply to be part of a cohort where they would work with um six to eight other faith-based organizations to work together with experts in this field to move their projects forward those are going to be 6 to 12 month engagements where at the end of it we expect to have several new projects come out uh ready for development and then um some Faith communities are saying that they don't think that they'll necessarily be ready for for that much of an engagement um that early well that's okay there will be another funding opportunity for them uh there will be a portal where they can apply for a grant with the city using some of this uh this money that that you have set aside and they'll be a able to ask for specific types of technical assistance um a third party adviser to look at their project and provide them expert find that RFP on our website and submit their credentials to be considered to help these faith-based communities with their work and that is the end of my uh very brief comments Miss Mayfield thank you Miss Mayfield thank you very much so the city will continue to share the information if you did not capture it it's at charlot nc. v/f faithin housing we do have a faith and housing email list as well as on social media we are really encouraging everyone who's interested to sign up once you go online and sign up then you receive not only the information of the upcoming meetings but you have access to the previous meetings so that you can review it and share it with your congregations or with your groups again y'all heard some of the reasons why I'm asking for another million I'm just going to throw that back out there again so when we think about the ongoing engagement opportunities the feedback surveys those are helping us to share future support remember also we just wot we I believe it just closed last week the survey we had around the Housing Trust Fund and the recommendations we're also looking at that and we're really being intentional ensuring that the faith communities receive the guidance needed to advance the housing and Community Service Solutions we are not trying to tell them how to do this we have experts that have done it what we ultimately are doing is we're creating a toolkit to make it a lot easier for you to connect and we've already have at least and Warren don't let me tell a lie we have at least 10 Church groups that have already connected since we had the summit and that are already working together and bouncing ideas and looking at opportunities and sharing some of the process with each other we also had a email just this week that I shared regarding here's our language for a CDC are we on the right track so that's where those experts come into play and of course if you have experts we're not going to necessarily pay you market rate we negotiating but we still need to pay you for your time and for your expertise so that is what the funding is going for but just so that you all know I am still out in the community working with our partners to look at other options to help bring funds and then that will be a conversation with our budget committee as well as our director of who would house those private funds that we can match up very similar to years ago when we first passed the increased the bond to 50 million the community came together private sector they matched at 50 there are conversations happening in the community for the same 100 million and them coming to the table and match and what could a piece of that do to help us move this conversation forward and it is 617 thank you Miss Mayfield U Miss Johnson thank you mayor protim and thank you for the presentation and thank you colleague for the amazing work that you're leading I have a question there's a church in District 4 that approached me about this a while ago before the initiative I've I've um connected you but he's hesitant to apply because of a previous resoning where there was neighborhood opposition and that petition was ultimately withdrawn so is there anyone from City staff working on this project that can guide the potential developers or potential churches on the history of the site and what might be recommended or approved or I know they can't say what's approved but that type of history and giving them guidance you know that that sit down meeting that you have with the other developers are they receiving that type of technical guidance thank you for the question so let me answer two different ways um they are more than welcome to reach out to me never hurts to have a conversation um I believe that I'm aware of the church that is in question and would be happy to speak with them again uh but that is a great um opportunity for that for that uh Standalone technical assistance grant where they could hire a third-party professional who works on putting these projects together to look at where they're at look at the zoning and help to brainstorm with that congregation what the future of that site might be so so I'm happy to talk to them now but I think that I would really encourage them to apply to this next opportunity coming up so they can get some really direct um assistance from professionals that that this is what they do for a living um with with no obligation to develop the site so that's that's one of the things I think is really important is that the the assistance that we're providing does not um does not require that that church move forward there's no there's no requirement that they move forward this is just to help them get the information that they need about what's possible on their properties uh and and discern for themselves how they um uh want to move forward let me also correct myself I fall into saying churches very often there are many Faith communities that have reached out to us and who are participating in that so I just wanted to lift that up there's members of the bahai community the Hindu Community um the Muslim Community all who are interested in participating in that and we welcome any faith community to come and participate with us in these projects thank you thank you Miss Molina um thank you Madame mayor protim and just really quick while we're there because I I do recall something similar I know you guys do in District 5 um last year where we had a um a Community member and there was some tension yes um and so there was a lot of fear from the community I remember you know a lot of you guys went with me to the community meeting where we were listening to the community members um and have you have you had that as a result like have you uh Miss Mayfield have you seen that reaction from community members that has been honestly the most amazing part so far is that I think because of the approach and how we did this would being very in tensional with the Outreach to the diversity as was mentioned we had 95 different denominations that were represented that's never happened in the city but because we were very intentional on the front end to say hey hey we want you to tell us what this looks like for you if anything every time we're out together or even individually I have just residents coming up saying hey my church has land my church has a building how do we get engaged in this how do we get involved in this I've had religious leaders come up hey I'm a pastor of this church we have this I heard about it we or we just attended a meeting how can we get in a so it has been the opposite yet at the same time we have created the conversations and relationships to help the church here's how you create a survey not only for your congregants but a survey for the community to get Buy in what the will the community support and this is how we build those relationships so that they don't feel like well we're just doing this to you versus we are doing this together for us yeah I'm happy to hear that because because um again as we move forward I mean I know that you know this is a new project and you know congratulations to you guys I think this is amazing work I think all of us I mean I definitely can speak for myself and saying I'm really happy to see you know us take this initiative and and and take this type of opportunity to the next level I think it is untapped um and again my first expok you know exposure was when we entertained it on the council last year and and met you know objection right and so I'm I'm so encouraged to hear that we have so many examples of how it's going well so I just wanted to lift that up and see if you guys had had any similar obstacles but I'm glad you got Solutions it just it's encouraging thank you both thank you Miss Molina and thank you Miss Mayfield for your leadership and Mr Wooten this is a wonderful initiative I I too have sent people your way who have come to me in in my district around um faith-based organizations for housing and just wanted to highlight as you had mentioned Little Rock Zion as well as Mayfield Memorial Missionary Baptist who are two of the leaders in this space in district one so look forward to everything coming up in the fall in the Ballance of this year in the beginning of 25 thank thank you Mr [Applause] Wen and with that uh Mr manager unless you have anything else to add do you have anything else to add I I don't okay wonderful then I am going to turn it over to miss James our our Deputy City attorney and could you please read the motion that would take us into Clos session get good evening um I think go go ahead M okay uh if we could get a motion to go into close session pursuing to North Carolina General statute 143 3181 A3 to preserve the attorney client privilege in the matter of ailman versus the city of Charlotte case number 319 CV 491 in the Western District of North Carolina and pursuant to North Carolina General statute 114 31811 A4 to discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of Industries or other businesses in Charlotte including agreement on a tentative list of Economic Development incentives that may be offered by the public body in negotiations have a motion to go in a close session and as well as a first and second all in favor raise hands any opposed okay that's unanimous we will transition into closed session [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] for w [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm sure's trying to get someone I'd like to welcome you to uh the Charlotte City Council business meeting for October Monday October 28th we will begin with introductions and I will start with the city clerk good evening I am marjerie Molina I represent District 5 good evening I'm Renee Johnson and I'm honored to represent District 4 Marcus Jones city manager Dante Anderson mayor protim district one malcol gram District Two Ed Dres District Seven our card is six Lana Mayfield council member at large Victoria watlington council member at large good evening Lena James Deputy City attorney excellent We Begin our meetings with an invocation an expression and um expression uh followed by the pledge of the allegiance our invocation by a particular council member is intended to um duly ensure that our proceedings are done well and we celebrate the religious diversity of the entire Community including those who do not have a religious faith and this evening council member watlington will give us the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance thank you for those who would like to please bow your heads gracious God as we come before you today to discuss important matters we ask for your guidance and your wisdom you are the source of all knowledge and understanding therefore we seek your direction in our decision-making process Lord help us to listen attentively to one another with Open Hearts and Minds in your name amen amen amen pledge allegiance to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we also have some proclamations to celebrate this evening and uh I am very excited that we will um celebrate the YMCA of Greater Charlotte this evening and I understand that yes I understand that we have some why leaders here as well as the CEO and other key members of leadership and after I read the proclamation I'd ask that you come down and I can present you with the proclamation whereas the YMCA of Greater Charlotte has served as a Cornerstone of our community for 150 years providing invaluable services that promote healthy living Youth Development social responsibility while strengthening families and fostering Community connections and whereas since its founding in November 11th 1874 the YMCA of Greater Charlotte has transformed countless lives across our region through its diverse and integrated programs and health and wellness Aquatics Sports youth camps Child Care educational enrichment nurturing family stability servant leadership upward mobility and a sense of belonging for all and whereas the YMCA of Greater Charlotte has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to in in inclusiveness serving individuals of all ages back backgrounds languages abilities ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to grow in spirit and mind and embody and whereas through collaboration tireless efforts strong Partnerships the YMCA of Greater Charlotte has made a profound impact on the well-being of our community addressing critical Social and Health disparities while also advancing access to literacy skills development Economic Opportunity volunteerism Civic engagement Community advancement and philanthropic giving and whereas the YMCA of Greater Charlotte cont continues to innovate and adapt to the evolving needs of our community steadfast in its mission to build a healthier more connected and resilient Society for future Generations we celebrate and honor the YMCA of Greater Charlotte for its enduring Legacy and exceptional contributions to our city now therefore she VI Alexander LS the mayor of Charlotte does hereby Proclaim November 11th 2024 as YMCA of Greater Charlotte day and in Charlotte and encourages all residents to recognize and celebrate the remarkable impact of the YMCA of Greater Charlotte has had and and made in our community and to participate in the commemoration of the activities planned for this special day as witnessed by the city of Charlotte [Applause] [Music] I'd love to I'd love to invite um Sue glass to CEO Miss as we all know asit uh the senior director of advocacy and government relations the board members and Crawford pounds the board chair as well as the why readers youth to come down and receive the proclamation [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] okay what everybody St YCA [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] YCA thank you that was really good thank you for all that you guys do for the community I think that was my first Proclamation with the musical accompany you're welcome yes and and show choir and everything so thank you guys so much um before we uh proceed there is another um moment in our city that we'd like to celebrate and we all have these t-shirts the council members do on our chairs but Charlotte FC will host its first ever playoff game this Friday here in the Queen City it's the first they lost the first game to Orlando but now it's going to be a different vibe now that it's in the Queen City so we really celebrate this momentous occasion for Charlotte FC having their first playoff game this Friday please go out and support them and the and the wonderful work that they've been doing so wanted to highlight that as wellc okay that YMCA blanket is still there when I leave with no it's not we as's getting up to get it there you go we're going to take a picture with I'm just saying is going home with okay and so we will move now into our public form for this evening and on behalf of the entire um Council I will ask all the speakers and audience members to be civil and to be courteous um with their use of language the speakers are encouraged to address the council and should refrain from responding to audience members likewise audience members should be very courteous to the speakers as well and not yell out or interrupt the speakers we want to ensure that everyone has a chance to be heard we recognize that everyone is taking time out of their day to be here and take part of this process and so first up I'm going to have one the first speaker will come here and then the next one come over to the other Podium so then we can keep it going in a a pretty constant uh mode but miss um Alicia Harvey are you present Miss Alicia Harvey okay okay what about uh le shahida le shahida okay Alvar Santana so very Santana if you could come down to this Podium and if uh if Robin mackenroth is present is Robin Miss mackenroth if you can come down to the other Podium that would be great I like your Blazer to yeah you can go to the top one there or either one it's fine and you will start and when you start you'll have three minutes two is it two minutes you have we have over 10 speakers so when you when you're ready to start Miss Santana you will have two minutes okay good evening everyone I stand before you today because apparently I've been committing crimes crimes that every other small business here is actually guilty of crime number one not being well connected in the Queen City while procurement process is theoretically public one where foyer requests can be made we can start seeing the direct connections of those awarding the contracts and those that are actually receiving the contracts now for me I don't drink alcohol nor do I play golf but maybe that's my oversight and what I'm missing the unofficial business meetings where real decisions are actually being made crime number two having the audacity to ask questions when small businesses approach offices meant to Support Compliance and local resources that are available were often met with blank stairs or convoluted responses asking about basic procurement processes shouldn't feel like discussing molecular biology yet here we are watching support staff struggle with fundamental questions that can make or break a small business crime number three being the perfect check the boox diversity partner for large primes large Prime contractors know our capabilities often because we've worked with them for them or in some capacity yet we're repeatedly listed as partners to meet requirements with no genuine intention of meaningful collaboration good faith efforts have become a hollow phrase that makes systematic exclusion and now clear about something else these massive balloon scopes of work they're suffocating small businesses how can you expect a startup with one or two employees to build a spaceship they can get the materials they can design but in order to bid the fact that they have to be involved in the whole process is very unrealistic and is destructive thank you Miss Santana Mr Rayfield Taylor are you president pres Mr Rayfield Taylor you can come down to this Podium as Miss mackenroth begins and you'll have two minutes great good evening my name is Robin mackenroth I've been a Charlotte resident for just over two years prior to moving to North Carolina I worked for 34 years in California for a large nonprofit integrated Healthcare delivery system my last two roles were as vice president of financial planning for a $15 billion region and as Chief Operating Officer for a 226b hospital I'm also a foster pet parent and when I have some spare time I volunteer at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary the Humane Society of Charlotte Providence Meadows assisted living and the Matthews Library I'm here tonight to ask your support for two important initiatives that will improve the lives of the animals and the people who love them in the greater Charlotte Area first Charlotte meinberg Animal Care and Control needs a new updated facility the facility was built many years ago it's too small and it was designed when animals stayed for shorter periods of time and were often euthanized today animals stay much longer at the shelter and hopefully are adopted into forever loving homes having satellite shelters would expand the capacity of the existing facility be designed with life-saving improvements in mind and also make adoption more accessible to more communities in the greater Charlotte Area second Charlotte meinberg Animal Care and Control is under the police department's budget and often animal life-saving issues take a second seat to other Public Safety matters and that's as a result the shelter can't afford to attract and retain the qualified staff they need to effectively run the operation they also can't count on continuous funding for high priority life-saving initiatives they need to be moved out into their own City Department or at the very least into a department where increased funding can be achieved 20 seconds by uh supporting satellite facilities and moving seac out into its own Department You' be making life-saving improvements for the animals and people in this community and we know there's more work to do but with your support we can improve thank you very much thank you Jay Walker are you present Jay Walker Ashlin Osborne are you present Valerie Washington if you could come here and um after Mr Taylor's uh presentation then you will be up next thank you Mr Taylor you have two minutes okay um I'd like to take this time to address the mass disenfranchisement of Justice impacted citizens uh I'm I'm re I'm a recent returning citizen uh just finishing up a four-year active tenure with uh incarceration and some of the problems that I'm experiencing that we've been experiencing all along is that when we go to seek these employment opportunities they they don't exist we get denied because of criminal backgrounds now this is done legally and it's and it's legally disenfranchising a lot of people but publicly a lot of people are saying that there are programs and trainings and stuff like that which are they're there but you can only learn how to write a resume so many times or whatever the case may be or before the the actual job itself depends on the employer agreeing to offer employment and that doesn't happen my suggestion is that you know so far we've been taking a passive approach to this and we've been getting pretty much nowhere um either we need to create incent incentivize uh employers who choose to participate in Second Chance employment or we need to make it man create mandates that saying hey if you're going to do business here in Charlotte and uh you know uh profit from the benefits of you know doing business then you got to commit to hiring a certain percentage of impacted citizens from these lower economic communities that way we can combat the crime issue we can com back combat the homeless issues even the gun violence is also all affected to the upper Mobility that's not evident now R shed just uh did did a update on his report um putting us at number 38 from 50 one of the main reasons why um we ranked so low was because when once you have a once you have a criminal record in Charlotte it's basically uh impossible to obtain adequate employment no matter what they project and the people that teach these trainings and stuff like that they're getting money on the back end because for for the grant services but as far as actual employers providing opportunities for employment that doesn't exist so we need to take a different approach thank you that's right that's right thank you thank you is uh fisha okoka present if you could come down to this Podium here miss Washington you will have two minutes thank good evening everyone um I'm here because of the housing I've been filling out application they just been taking the application fee but when I get there they don't have any affordable housing and then that just leaves me out when I get there like a th000 and some odd dollars I get $1,200 a month come on place and the apartment complex I live in they go up every year $100 they I've been there six years they have not been in there to fix anything I need help get in a place to live because I'm about to be out they they charging me 9 975 a month on a month-to-month basis I went down to get to sign the new lease they weren't in the office the the second time she said she don't speak English the third time I went down she said they were on lunch so I would need to come back I just had surgery I can't go up and down that Hill I don't have a car so I need some help and what I need to do to take care of this because I can't I can afford that and all the houses that supposed to be um based on your income there are none of those you know so what am I supposed to do I mean you know I worked my whole life but yet and still you know I'm not seeing any results from trying to get somewhere decent to live I mean I've started seeing roaches in my apartment and it's just unbelievable I got to buy four cans of raid every month out of my disability check so I just need some help can anybody help me you know I mean this is like coming down here asking for help and not getting any cuz there none out there there are no apartments for people you know that can't afford these luxury apartments at $2,000 a month for a one bedroom are you kidding me really so I'm I mean I'm here because I need a change I need the city to help me do what I need to do so I can live in peace and not be cluttered up with the next door neighbors with their visitors coming to my house cuz I didn't have them in the beginning so thank you than you miss Washington and Miss Washington Washington if you could connect with Mr sha Heath and you can walk up to the back and he'll meet you or right there either one but he he will follow up with you on next steps I thank you and appreciate you for coming out um is Miss Sunday Patterson are you present Sunday Patterson Priscilla hoy Priscilla if you could come to this Podium and after Miss coka is is is completed you'll be up next thank you you have two minutes good evening I want to say thank you to the steam body my name is pastor fisha and I'm a resident of a local church here called Christ Emy Church in Charlotte and we represent a non-denominational Global Ministry with a vision to take God's presence to the Nations and peoples of the World We Believe wholeheartedly in the transformative power of God's love and his word to transform lives give Hope and Faith and bring healing to men physically emotionally but most importantly spiritually we've come here today to appreciate this esteemed body for its work in advancing the economic prosperity and progress of the city of Charlotte we have seen and observed your Stellar commitment to fostering growth creating safe neighborhoods and ensuring that Charlotte remains a place where families students and businesses light can Thrive I remember my first entry into this city um we came into the downtown area in July of 2009 and it was the first city I ever came to and said wow I actually want to come um downtown which I have also learned is now called Uptown praise the Lord that's right so I want to say we know that leading a city is not an easy task and we sincerely appreciate your willingness to meet all of the challenges head on and dedicated dedication to finding solutions that benefit the community your commit has led to significant economic progress across our region contributing to North Carolina being listed as the number two best state to start business in 2024 that was from July's uh CNBC uh in regards to the state of North Carolina but with Charlotte being the second largest city in the state that also too would be a manifestation of your efforts to the economic progress of the city 20 seconds praise the Lord we'd like to let you know this honored body that we are continually praying for you as leaders for your continued Health progress and prosperity we pray for your wisdom your guidance direction for each of you as you lead the city we encourage in the scriptures in 1 Timothy chapter 21:4 to pray for all leaders especially political representatives and we have a gift here than thank you ma'am I'm sorry we like to present to you all Sor how do we do it um you can come over to to the city clerk area and the officer will help you with the gifts that you're you're giving to us great thank you so much if you have if you have any of your comments and writing that you'd like to share you can share with the clerk as well thank you so much for coming out thank you for the [Applause] attention Miss London if you could come down to this Podium here um and we'll give you just a second Miss H let these let these people get past you thank you ask me a question all right Miss ho you have two minutes hi my name is Priscilla hoyo I've been working at Charlotte Douglas International Airport as a leite cabin cleaner for a year I work for a company called ABM we clean American Airline planes and we ensure that flights are clean and safe for passengers my job is essential so I must speak up about the harsh conditions and low pay we are facing we cabin cleaners have to clean and secure hundreds of airplanes seats in a short amount of time rushing to complete our work in Hot Planes with no AC the low the closest drinking water is often a long walk across the tarmat we are told by AVM management that we cannot accept water off to us by flight attendance the rapid pace of work dehydrates us some of us have passed out during work from stress I myself have drunken water open by passengers left on the planes and it was in inhumane and disgusting for me we endure all of this for low pay I myself are currently Bing eviction and I am my mother this is my family imagine looking into the face of your own children and tell them that they or she leave might have to leave their home even though Mommy works full time and it's not enough to keep a place over their head a month ago along with fellow workers at Prospect airport services we delivered petitions to our management demanding better I'm sorry demanding better access to water and more respect hundred of us have signed petitions including myself thank you council members Brown Johnson Mayfield and ashmir for your support but I'm sad to say that almost nothing has changed yeah 10 seconds Charlotte says that it is building an airport for a fit for a queen so why do we the workers who are helping to make this Vision reality and struggle simply to survive thank you Miss H that's right right thank you Miss H uh Mr Robinson if you could come down and right after Miss London uh has her two minutes she'll be up next thank you Miss London good to see you good to see you all good evening um I'm Anna London president and CEO of Charlotte works and many of you know me and you know that I care deeply about Workforce Development and the cross- sector supports that make our Workforce successful I never read talking points but I'm reading talking points tonight because of the twom minute um so I'd like to share why supporting caring is a critical investment in the strength and sustainability of our community as we know a thriving Community relies on a healthy Workforce and car Rings efforts address this need at its roote caring has been a Beacon of Hope for individuals facing barriers to Health Care especially those who are uninsured or underinsured by providing Essential Medical Care and support they not only help individuals achieve Better Health outcomes but also enable them to participate more fully in the workforce imagine a worker struggling with a chronic condition without access to Affordable Health Care productivity declines days of work are missed and the spiral continues car ring intervenes to prevent that by offering the medical care needed to keep individuals healthy and engaged in the workforce programs like the Physicians ReachOut initiative connect people with Comprehensive Health Care Services allowing them to focus on job training skill development and career advancement without the looming worry of medical debt or untreated illnesses the result is a healthier more capable Workforce that drives our local economy forward in conclusion caring is not just meeting Immediate healthc Care needs of our community it's laying the found foundation for a healthier more productive Workforce ensuring that every individual has the opportunity to contribute to our economy and our future supporting caring means investing in the well-being of our neighbors and is a Strategic investment in building a stronger more resilient Workforce I want to leave you with just a couple of points the cycle of disadvantage many jobs require pre-employment physicals and this creates a cycle where lack of Health Care access hinders employment opportunities and unemployment in turn limits access to Affordable Health Care thank you for your time thank you Miss London and if you have your comments and writing you can certainly hand them to the clerk and she can share with us stay right on there with me Mr Robinson you have two minutes my name is Kenny Robinson I am the founder and president matter of fact my name is Dr Kenny Robinson now and I am the founder and president of Freedom fight missionaries and I am here on behalf of King who is our primary uh health care facility for those that we serve Justice involved individuals and their families specifically those who are in pregnancy while dealing with incarceration they are one of the only healthc care agencies in Charlotte North Carolina that allow their doctors Physicians and nurses to go inside the detention center and provide quality care to our residents there they provide services to our organization and those that we serve in the past year we have sent three uh formerly homeless mothers who were in their late term pregnancy two car ring they are now providing two years worth of services to that family and their children the rest of the community have stepped up in support of caring including the county the private sector the Charlotte Hornets uh shanavia Montgomery who's executive director there has raised millions of dollars uh to support their new building and we are just asking for the city to step in and contribute uh their part to this initiative again King has been very supportive of those that we serve including myself when I go in there to pay my bills and my invoices the doctor there says Kenny can you take a seat let me check your blood pressure let me take check your blood sugar let me make sure that you all right as you out here serving the community so I am normally here to speak on behalf of our organization but it is also so important as a community leader to support other organizations in their initiatives so I'm here to just do that in support of caring and those that they serve lowincome and no income families throughout the city of Charlotte and mecklinburg County thank you thank you Mr Robinson thank you and and thank you all for coming out that concludes our public forum we appreciate you all coming out and voicing your perspective um we will now transition to the public hearing form um of tonight's agenda and we will begin with action agenda item number eight the public hearing and decision on courty yards at B Creek properties area voluntary annexation we're going to open the public hearing on Courtyards at B Creek properties area voluntary and annexation and Madam clerk are there any speakers no ma'am okay close second all right there's no speakers we have a motion to close do I have a motion is there a motion to close public hearing and adopt the annexation of the ordinance so move have a motion and a second to close and adopt all in favor raise hands any opposed okay that's unanimous we'll move on to agenda item number nine public hearing and decision on Russell Grove area voluntary annexation we're going to open the public hearing on Russell Grove area voluntary annexation Madame clerk are there speakers we have two we have two speakers for agenda item number nine um Mr Cullen Brown would you like to speak this evening okay and Mr Rory would not like to speak and so because they do not wish to speak is there a motion to to close and adopt start thank you I have a motion and a second all in favor raise hands any opposed that's unanimous we'll move on to agenda item number 10 the public hearing and decision on Transit technology project Grant application we're going to open up the public hearing and Madame clerk are there any speakers no ma'am hearing none is there a motion to close public hearing and adopt the resolution authorizing the city manager or his designate to apply for seven grants in the amount of 4,234 574 with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for Transit technology projects and authorized city manager or his designate to accept up to seven grants in the amount of 4 Mill ion 22,34 574 in North Carolina Department transportation for Transit technology projects to approve a b and c second a motion to approve a and C as well as closed public care we will move on to agenda item we will move on to agenda item number 11 which is the city manager's report and I'll hand it over to the city manager uh thank you mayor protim I put out in front of you U the 30-day memo um which will include at the uh next business meeting the Federal and State Legislative agendas update there'll be more discussion as it relates to um the budget and intergovernmental Relations Committee as well as your 2025 uh calendar the uh clerk will provide you with that calendar I would like to get some feedback from the council members before we present that what worked this past year what may not have worked and um during my next several city manager updates what I do want to do is you've asked me a number of questions around uh Public Safety so I want to make sure that as we start to prepare ourselves for the annual strategy meeting hopefully late January that some of the um items that we have been utilizing as it relates to um this holistic approach to Public Safety that we start to bring staff in to Prim it if you will uh the for instance the quality of life team we talked about illegal um uh tractor trailer parking and some of the things that are happening there as well as the um safe Charlotte report I know it's been a few years since uh we took this multi- um committee approach to make it more than just policing and U sometimes we fail to fall back into the U conversation we had before the pandemic which was violence is a Public Health crisis and we have a we have a um a framework that both the city and the county has adopted so as we start to prep prepare ourselves for the annual strategy meeting I would like to have staff come in during my time during these meetings to give the council updates is there have been a number of questions around safety in the city that's my report absolutely thank you Mr manager yes Miss Mayfield thank you Mr manager it will also be helpful when you get the report based off the conversation that was shared with us tonight from Miss Santana regarding the procurement reform it may be in our best interest if we look at a third party to come in and assist with our CBI because this is not the first time that we've heard I have mentioned it from the Das where we will Council will approve a number of companies through our partnership yet there's no actual followup to assured that those companies are being utilized by the primes so this might be an opportunity for us when we are identifying that this is a priority and a goal from the council yet it is not necessarily being implemented and also when we look at the numbers even with what we approved earlier today we're now open to 100 counties there's a message that's out there that we need to figure out what it is regarding why businesses are not why we're not receiving multiple bids for any project that we send out so there is something that is happening and it we might be at the point where we need a third party to come in and assist us we're actually talking to these vendors in order to figure out how we can do better thank you thank you Miss Johnson thank you mayor protim I would also like to ask about the trip to ger Germany being on the calendar I noticed the national league of cities is listed um if we're not meeting on the the week that we're that we're gone that that information should be publicized as well so um as far as on here so I wanted to know if if if that could be added or if we could at least acknowledge that um that that it's on the calendar okay thank you any additional comments for the city manager okay thank you city manager we will move on to the business portion of our agenda and for item agenda item number 12 is there a motion to authorize the city manager or his designate to accept a grant in the amount of $250,000 from the US Conference of Mayors and Comcast for the Ci's un Tech CLT initiative and adopt the budget or ordinance appropriating $250,000 from the US Conference of of Mayors and Comcast to the neighborhood development Grant fund second there's a motion and a second all in favor raise hands any oppos that's unanimous for agenda item number 13 the renewable natural gas sale is there a motion to adopt a resolution approving the sale of unconditional biogas gas unconditioned biog gas recovered from the wastewater treatment process at pedmont natural gas and authorize the city manager or designate to negotiate and execute all documents necessary to complete the sale Mo to approve A and B there's a motion is there a second second have a motion in second all in favor raise hands any oppose that's unanimous we'll move on to agenda item number 14 the Hornets property transaction is there a motion to adopt a resolution authorizing the ground lease of 1.97 Acres of real property identified as partial identification number 080 053 84 to Charlotte PE LLC the conveyance of an option to ground lease said 1.90 uh 1 907 Acres of real property to the lender of Charlotte PEC and the conveyance of an option to purchase 1312 Acres of real property identified as parcel identification number 08531 to Charlotte PE LLC and authorize the manager or his design to negotiate and execute any and all documents necessary for for the conveyances authorized by the resolution in the Conformity therewith and adopt a budget ordinance to appropriate $15 million in fund balance in the tourism operating fund for transfer to an appropriation in the tourism capital projects fund motion to adopt a andc second I have a motion and a second any conversation Miss Mayfield thank you so I have a couple of comments regarding this morning's property transaction I would not be supporting this tonight I have a challenge with the fact that we're leasing we're doing a 99 year lease that's $10 a year yet at the same time we're paying for access to the parking for our employees to have access from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at $150,000 annually for the maintenance I still for these 125 parking spaces so one of many challenges the $15 million when we started a conversation about 30 what the impact and the ownership for the city and for the residents is looking at 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. when we have workers that work part-time at the facility as well as immediately around the facility all of the businesses we're paying for that parking we're giving them access to land for next to nothing just to be able to say that we have this 99e lease I have a number of concerns regarding the structure of this entire deal and how it really sets up the city of Charlotte to be successful longterm versus this private business and the subsidies we've contributed but I'm more concerned with the fact that the city council approved a budget earlier this year that increase the parking times for paid parking from 6:00 p.m. until 10: p.m. you have to move your vehicle so even if you new part and if you're going to work or even if you're going out when we want people to come into Uptown you get that 2hour limit and that's it and then you actually have to get in your vehicle and physically move it to another location cuz you can't even extend it based on the new park mobile system that we're using or the updates that they made now we're looking at yet more parking one of the reasons I have this challenge is because many years ago when we had discussions regarding any development in uptown there was a commitment of free parking or accessible parking in uptown area and over the last five six years we have all but rolled all of that back where people cannot accessibly access our uptown area whether you are going uptown for an event or if you're having to go up town to work if you're paying 20 plus dollars for parking but you're earning only $15 an hour at some point people are going to realize that it's cheaper for them to stay home or find a job that doesn't consist of them having to be Uptown and we're going to see the impact of that so even though I know there it will be great support I am not going to be supporting this thank you Miss Mayfield any additional comment hearing none oh Miss Johnson um council member Mayfield is right about the the parking parking Uptown is very expensive and it's not accessible to everyone I I would like some details about this this seems like if we could get more information about this this um transaction I think that that would I think it would be great if you could give us some information about the transaction Mr doson is coming to the podium and perhaps I don't know if that's something that can be negotiated or can we defer this and and bring this back so so let me explain really quickly when we were here in March um we talked about the lease of the property for the practice facility currently and that was part of the lease extension with the Hornets to 2045 but as we pivoted and started to look at what we call the gravel lot we now today have our city employees that park there and so as a part of this discussion it became very important that we protect that parking and those employees that park there today can still continue to park there tomorrow and into the future that we were protecting that as a place for our employees to park so our payment for the maintenance and the operating of the deck is to protect those spaces for our employees parking and that was why the daytime hours were important the other thing I will mention to council member Mayfield's point which is we spend a lot of time with General Services talking about when do our emplo employees come into spaces leave spaces what happens if we go past 5:30 we don't want employees to be dinged because they leave late and we currently have a great relationship with the Hornets in our own parking deck here across Davidson street and we'll continue to do that for anybody who might stay late on a night like tonight and be parking over in that facility in the future thank you Miss Mayfield So for clarification thank you for that miss dson when there is an event Uptown there are individuals for our parking off of Davidson cuz you can only access that the public parking from the Davidson from the what is that College Street on the back side of Davidson not on the Davidson side that we would use CW cwell thank you you can only access it from cwell there are people that are standing out there charging people to come in so you have people that are going to events that are paying to get into the space it is a limited number of spaces on that first level that you have access to so I also want us to take into consideration that we have employees that unfortunately work two plus jobs some of those employees also work in the immediate uptown area so they rely on that parking so the idea that they would can move from the gravel to the parking Deb that we have that covers between cwell and Davidson isn't necess always the case because we have vendors that we partner with that are standing out there charging people to come in and park in there because that is open parking for whoever our partner is that's standing there charging and they have access so for the people who are employees they have a badge depending on what time they might have to be to work at the arena or any of the businesses that's immediately down there they might be able to get in but they also might not cuz it is a very limited number of spaces it's not like they have the access nor what we necessarily want them to because it is employee parking coming from this side so you want to have a barrier for protection yet I just want us to be transparent in the fact that that parking is also public parking where individuals are charging people to park in that parking deck city manager um so thank you m Pro Tim so uh council member um may feel and I'll try to put this in the in the right context it's a lot broader than just the PEC because you've been having this conversation with me from Red bags over meters to uh how expensive it is to park I wish Debbie were here Debbie Smith she's not um but she we have began a conversation with a number of the uh folks who have um authority over some of these spaces to see if we can do something better for employees in general who are in the let's say the tourism and hospitality industry so what I'll do is add to the list of coming back to counsil with some of the things we're doing around the parking because I know it's not directed simply at this it's been a fiveyear conversation and so I appreciate what you're putting on the table today so manager I would say for tonight the fact that we have language in here with a window of 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. is where I have a challenge we are need to extend that time for it to actually be accessible cuz again a lot of our employees also work at this venue I think we have some flexibility in this we we do and and just to be clear we don't have I don't think we work closely with General services but I don't think we tracked exactly which employees are parking in the gravel lot today should they work in the arena as well or something that we haven't traed that far but what we did work through in working with the Hornets is that partner ship again most of those employees are working in this building or in Old City Hall or in police headquarters that are parking in the gravel lot now and do the time can we have some flexibility with those employees that are parking Beyond those times and there is a willingness on their part to do that or if we can be flexible on what they're charging for parking cuz charging 50 $75 cuz again it's not just the city of Charlotte employees I'm thinking about I'm thinking about our employees that are uptown are we even Tracking not just the Spectrum employees we have employees through showpros we have employees through other partners that are up there I'm concerned that if our city continues to become unaffordable we are going to see a mass Exodus of our employees and our Workforce because it is not financially feasible for them to go to work at a job that's paying them $15 an hour understood thank you Miss Mayfield Miss Molina uh thank you Madame mayor protim so uh Mr manager this may be a a question for you or miss doson it with approving this tonight is there a way to um consider what Miss Mayfield is saying like would we need a motion of some type to maybe consider what she's saying as a as a malleable item because if we pass it does that mean um that we can't revisit it or do we have I mean I guess I'm trying to understand you know considering what she's asking um is that something that we could consider in some way cuz I don't I don't know if it warrants us coming back to the item you know I I just I don't know I'm open to what you know the council decides but I don't know if it warrants us actually having to let's say extend this as a decision I think what she's interested in is you know could we continue the conversation around parking if that's is that something that we can do or well I hope what uh Council Mayfield is doing is bringing to our attention a bigger issue and how can we go about addressing a bigger issue as opposed to holding up this item and we have already began a discussion about the bigger issue and we just need to um have that discussion with Council to see if it's addressing some of the the issues around um definitely folks that are in at a minimum the hospitality industry and um the cost of parking so uh Miss Mayfield are you amable to that considering what's being said today I mean I I understand I think we all understand the the greater picture of what you're saying but you know and I think you know understanding you know the the community members that we represent that work in these areas um your desire to create space for them but are you meable to that is like that is that something that Mr Man may ask you a question yes and for clarification it might be a question for the city on the assistant Deputy City attorney as well if I were to ask for an amendment to the motion for us to remove this line for the parking that right now we're saying Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. to give time for negotiations they don't get to come back at a reduced at a shorter time than 5:00 p.m. but to give us the opportunity to continue to move forward with the conversation but if we remove that out for right now cuz the other parts ain't going to fight but I'm concerned about the impact of this parking but if that's a hard line I which there's enough people around the DI to move forward with it you only need six I could be my no regardless yet for me that is a line that I'm going to draw in the sand for this because I didn't draw it earlier when it could have helped a lot more people and the reason why I ask I mean I it's very clear that we're going to pass it right but I I just want to be amable to what you're saying and you know understanding that it's being explained that that's something that we're going to continue in conversation you know even though it will be passed in my opinion um we don't need to adopt language for that or anything right so so here's what I would tell you and I'm going to channel the manager for a second um you know what this vote is on tonight is the lease transactions for for the land and the transactions for the land as I mentioned before we spent a lot of time talking about the parking hours we worked with General Services understanding that again the 125 spaces as it relates to our employees but I think that the point that council member Mayfield is bringing up is a great one and I would ask the broader question that I think the manager was asking is how can we be impactful as we think about this across Uptown um and well I would say specific to the site in the 125 spaces for our employees the Hornets have uh given a willingness to work with us right we acknowledge that hey we have Council Council kns and I don't want to have a a city employee that has to move their car from one spot to another because they're here working working late um and there is a willingness to work with us on those on those spaces I think that's something that we have to work through in time um but I also do think councilman Mayfield to your point about affordability is a broader subject that we should start to tackle and think about as it relates to parking and other costs in working in a in an urban environment so right now we're stuck with the language that's in front of us that has in here the city shall retain right to use 125 parking spaces in the parking structure Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. that is the language that we had agreed to but again there was a willingness on the Hornet side to work with us on that language but again we just don't know what we're dealing with of how many employees of the 125 until those spaces are built and we're ready to move into those spaces so we all acknowledge that these are the typical business hours that the employees that park there today are using on that and that was what we were what we were focused on protecting I'm happy to continue to work with them to accommodate our employees because that's what this was all about was accommodating the spaces that we have for employees to today but also into the future and if that means that some of our employees are working multiple jobs and need to park longer we're happy to work through that with them thank you thank you Miss Dodson we have a question for Mr Graham and then I think we'll be ready to vote no no not a question just just a comment and I think that one I hope that the council will move forward tonight um as submitted um uh to move this project forward and then secondly I think the city manager said maybe once or twice that he's willing to come back with a a different conversation that talks about parking throughout Uptown um and relating to those who work in the hospitality and and tourism industry that come to service not only Spectrum Center but Bank of America Stadium the Blumenthal ey shirts and those type of things making sure that there an affordable option if any for them to to take advantage of so I think we've already kind of met in the middle and it allows the uh this project to move move forward uninterrupted uh and um we look forward to getting the manager's um U report on on a broader issue um that impacts uh h&t all right M Johnson you have a final comment okay thank you and I understand there is a broader issue but this issue is important as well right and when we talk about it's a broad issue we can we can tackle that one agenda item at a time so is there a hurry to get this approved tonight or is there can you get those questions answered and get the detailed and bring that back this back so what I would say is this is one of the last steps for the Hornets to be able to move on the lease of the 60% of the gravel lot so that they can start on The Practice Facility if you remember the vote on the actual piece of the deal happened on March 25th um they've since gone through rezoning we've gone through creation of these documents um they're ready to move they've released drawings um they're ready to go in for permitting so these are things that need to happen in order for them to move forward but again I I want to reiterate because the Hornets have been great on this one particular topic of of the parking and employee parking and we have shared a partnership across the street in the existing deck for quite a while um so I'm willing to continue to work with them but I don't necessarily see that as a reason to hold up this vote tonight well as far as parking we could give our employees a parking pass um and that would take care of after hours I mean that seems like a solution but I I think there's a an opportunity for an amendment I would support it if you if you want to make that council member Mayfield but thank you Miss Johnson I I think that we've had a a robust conversation around this particular topic and we've had recognition from the city manager um and some agreement from uh Miss Mayfield who raised the issue is that there's a a cost issue a broader cost issue for working charlatans um and and B we want to make sure that parking is accessible um in the Uptown area so we're not doing something that U hurts our economic ecosystem overall but we have the opportunity to work on that even as we potentially pass this tonight that doesn't preclude us from addressing the issues that were raised by Miss mayfel and others okay so we have a motion and a second to um to adopt authorize and adopt um agenda item number 14 all in favor please raise your hands one two three four did you say yes was that a did she say no oh okay uh account all all oppose raise your hands okay uh Miss Miss uh Johnson and Miss May were opposed and it passed thank you we'll move on to agenda item number uh 15 the Ramsey Creek Park shuttle bus service interlocal agreement is there a motion to adopt a resolution ratifying the interlocal agreement with meinberg County to provide shuttle service to the Public's swimming beach at Ramsey Creek and authorize the city manager to renew the agreement for up to four four four one-year terms and to amend the agreement consistent with the purpose for which the agreement was approved move to approve A and B second there's a motion to approve and a second all in favor raise hands any oppose that's unanimous we'll move on to agenda item 16 WT Harris Boulevard and Sugar Creek Road intersection pro project Municipal agreement is there motion to adopt a resolution authorizing city manager to execute the municipal agreement from North North Carolina Department of Transportation to accept surface Transportation block grant program Direct attributable funds in the amount of $1,338 th000 for the WT Harris Boulevard and Sugar Creek Road intersection prog project and adopt a budget ordinance appropriating $ 1338 million from New York uh North Carolina department of transportation for the construction to the general capital projects fund yes you asked if there was a motion the answer is yes all right I have a motion thank you Mr Driggs is there a second second I have a motion in second all in favor raise hands have a I have a question oh I'm sorry you have a question Miss Johnson thank you I wanted to know if we could get just a little information about this this borders District Two and District 4 so if you could give us a little information about this we have a staff member coming down to address the question 16 and 17 we've already Ved good evening Council Debbie Smith Department of Transportation good to see you tonight and so yes this is at the intersection of WT Harris and Sugar Creek Road and this would install right turn Lanes right at that intersection so it is right on the border okay the two council districts so it's not both sides of Sugar Creek is just the one side of it is um it would be providing those exclusive right turn Lanes along Northbound and Southbound on Sugar Creek Road so okay so Northbound and southbound is two and four right right Mr Graham I think it is yeah okay all right I just want okay all right thank you that's all I just wanted some information thank you thank you we have a motion and a second all in favor please raise hands any opposed that's unanimous we'll move on to agenda item number 17 West Rocky River Road shared use path project Municipal agreement is there a motion to adopt a resolution authorizing city manager to execute a municipal agreement with North Carolina Department of Transportation to accept surface transport Transportation block grant direct attributable funds in the amount of 1. n76 million for the West Rocky River Road shared use path project and adopt a budget ordinance appropriating the same amount from North Carolina department of Transportation in the general Capital uh projects fund Mo to adopt their resolution and to adopt their ordinance have a motion and a second thank you all any comments Miss Johnson yes can I get an um some more information about this Improvement in District 4 please she like yeah come tell me about it good evening Miss Johnson Debbie Smith Charlotte Department of Transportation happy to be up here so what can I answer for you just give a little detail about the project you sure be happy to so this project is located on Rocky River Road and it goes for about 8 miles and it is going to install a shared use path which means it's a wider sidewalk which allows use for pedestrians and bicyclists and that's going to also include driveway modifications curb ramps enhancements to the street lighting and we're going to upgrade the curb and getter and some of the storm Drainage Systems along that so that's driveway modifications to the to the residents correct correct along that way okay yes ma'am all right thank you that's all I have ma' thank you we have a motion in a second all in favor raise hands any opposed that is unanimous we'll move on to agenda item number 18 the supplemental Municipal agreement for the Hornets Nest park access improvements project is there a motion to adopt a resolution authorizing city manager to negotiate and execute a municipal agreement with North Carolina Department of Transportation to accept surface Transportation block grant funds in the amount of 1.30 million for the Hornets Nest park access Improvement project and adopt a budget ordinance appropriating the same amount from the North Carolina department of transportation to the general capital projects fund move to approve A and B second there's a motion to approve A and B any discussion I will say before we vote that I think that um that the Hornets Nest park has always been a wonderful part of the city and uh it is uh due for some improvement so I believe all of the parks users I use the parks sometimes to play tennis over there so um I use the park and I know that it the community would definitely appreciate the Improvement here so any unless I see any additional comment Mr Graham so you're in the court tomorrow morning oh I said I said I said the t- word you said the magic I'm not as advanced as you Mr Gram I'm not I'm not as advanced as you um okay we have a a motion in a second for agenda item eight 18 all in favor raise hands any oppose that is unanimous we'll move on to agenda item 19 the municip the Metropolitan planning program Grant Municipal agreement is there a motion to adopt a resolution for the city manager to negotiate and execute a municipal agreement from NC do to support Transit planning activities for the Charlotte region Regional Transportation Planning organization and adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager or his design to execute interlocal agreements with iale County area transportation system and Union County transportation system to support Transit planning activity for the charlot regional transportation planning organization and adopt a resolution or authorizing the city manager or design need to execute the interlocal agreement with centralina Regional Council and Union County to support Transportation Planning projects is there a motion and a second to approve a b and c second there's a motion and a second any comment hearing none all in favor raise hands any opposed that is unanimous we will now move to the appointment section of our agenda this evening and tonight Charlotte City Council will make appointments to the alternative liance reiew board the council members voted by ballot and submitted their ballots to the city clerk earlier during the action review any nominations any nominees receiving six or more votes will automatically be appointed if no nominee receives six at Le at least six votes a runoff will be necessary and Council will be asked to vote uh tonight to determine the highest vote getter that person will be appointed to to the board all appointments will be recorded in the official minutes of this meeting and the clerk will now proceed with the announcement of the results Madam clerk for the attor for sorry for the alternative compliance review board Justin string fellow has been appointed okay excellent so he is automatically appoint appointed no need to vote and with that we come to the conclusion of our agenda to close the agenda there is a motion to to close and adjourn the meeting and a second all in favor please go home have a wonderful evening don't [Music] [Music]