council we will begin tonight's meeting with a moment of silence and i hope that we would keep mayor pro tem yvonne johnson and her family in our thoughts um on the passing of her husband walter yes thank you mrs hoffman would you lead us in the pledge with liberty and justice for all thank you the city council has opened council meetings to the public with limited capacity therefore a limited number of residents will be allowed inside the council chamber and will be rotated for specific items of interest following the conclusion of the items or topic of discussion residents are asked to leave the chamber to allow room for others to enter all attendees are requested to wear masks public speakers are encouraged to register via the jot form on the city's website and will be allowed to sign up with the courier in the chamber until 6 pm council will use an electronic voting method each member of council must vote unless there is a direct conflict we do allow and welcome speakers to address counsel at the public forum meeting council respects the right of the public to speak about matters of concern that can be addressed by council each speaker will be allotted three minutes zoom participants are requested to mute their microphones until they are called upon to speak the city of greensboro is committed to promoting an environment that is free of discrimination bias bullying therefore harassment words jokes actions or comments based on an individual's sex sexual sexual orientation race ethnic backgrounds age religion physical condition or other legally protected characteristic will not be tolerated to be considered written comments must be submitted online through the city's website www.greensborohyphennc.gov we have a consent agenda for items g1 through g2 which are a grouping of agenda items that are voted on with one single vote to expedite what are believed to be routine and non-controversial items any council member may withdraw an item from the consent agenda due to a conflict of interest or for the purpose of voting no items removed from the consent agenda for discussion will be placed on the august 17th city council business agenda this meeting does include closed captioning depending on the length of tonight's meeting we may take a short recess around 7 30. now is the time for our ceremonial items item 1 is a resolution honoring reverend david v fercarro of faith action international house mr boosawader thank you madam mayor whereas reverend david v for caro has dedicated the better part of the last 25 plus years to focus on helping others including those of immigrant and homeless communities whereas reverend david for carl sought to enhance both his skills and passions between 1995 and 2009 by obtaining a bachelor of fine arts and bachelor of music degrees from the university of miami florida a master of divinity from union theological seminary in new york city new york and a master of arts and human rights at columbia university school of international and public affairs new york city whereas during his educational journeys reverend forcaro extended his outreach by volunteering to serve the united church of christ global ministries as the church world service program associate in nairobi kenya and the human rights officer with the protestant church of east timor dilly east timor whereas he also served as the united nations representative for the united church of christ at the united nations and the united nations church center in new york city whereas his servanthood has assisted those on u.s soil as reverend david forcaro assisted with development of local detention visitation programs across the united states when he worked as the coordinator of detention watch network's national visitation program now known as freedom for immigrants as the president of the international house resident council in new york city as volunteer with no more deaths and as alternative spring break leader of university of miami student delegations to work on poverty issues in san francisco denver and in our own backyard rural appalachia whereas reverend recaro's career began on the stage as a professional actor with the actors equity association in new york city and spent years in ministry serving as the youth minister at the union congregational church in montclair new jersey and the first congregational church as the solo minister in woodrow woodbridge new jersey whereas between the years of 2006 and 2011 he continued efforts to work with the international community as the coordinator of sojourners program with detained immigrants in new york city the young adult ecumenical formation coordinator for the national council of churches usa and the u.s conference for the world council of churches new york city the interfaith youth core interfaith and immigration specialist in chicago illinois whereas david fercaro honed in all of this experience knowledge and love for the immigrant community over the next decade as he served as the executive director for faith action international house in greensboro north carolina whereas faith action is a non-profit organization now celebrating its 25th anniversary that serves and advocates for thousands of new immigrants and refugees from over 100 diverse nations yearly that educates and connects thousands throughout north carolina and the united states to cross lines of culture nationality and faith using the motto of turning strangers into neighbors whereas during his tenure at faith action reverend for caro was instrumental in the growth and success of the nonprofit strengthening life-changing daily services at the downtown greensboro location by providing assistance with food housing health care legal services emergency financial assistance detention visitation back-to-school backpack programs holiday toy drives and the faith action identification cards to over 25 000 immigrant neighbors from over 100 nations whereas with dave reverend for caro and faith action this opened the pathway for other communities across the united states to replicate the faith action id program in cities including hood river oregon ames ohio charlottesville virginia cincinnati and dayton ohio aiken south carolina knoxville tennessee gainesville and west palm beach broward and miami-dade counties in florida and right here within our state charlotte winston-salem durham raleigh and of course greensboro whereas under his leadership faith action has provided over 500 acclaimed trainings and presentations on immigration and diversity to health and social services schools various cities of greensboro departments and faith communities across north carolina whereas reverend fercaro led annual downtown unity walks and festivals multicultural thanksgivings and stranger to neighbor events he has advocated and assisted also with the co-authoring of the north carolina driver's license for legislation and hosted press conferences calling for federal immigration reform whereas with his excellence of character and leadership reverend forcaro has been instrumental in the honors and awards received by faith action including the guilford non-profit consortium nonprofit of the year the launch of the faith action id program the greensboro police department chiefs award the launch of the stranger to neighbor dialogue series and greensboro tedx's inaugural speaker the community foundation of greater greensboro game changer award and diamante non-latin persons most supportive of the latino community award the latino coalition of guilford county community of coalition honoree the guilford greene foundation distinguished service award the el centro hispanos gilbertson-clark visionary award the beginning of visitation program to stuart detention center georgia and the first presbyterian god talk speaker the duke divinity school tradition innovation award winner the inaugural future fun 10 audience award winner the rosa foundation humanitarian award the ghr open ideo bridge builder prize award and the lilly endowment incorporated thriving congregations grant award whereas countless lives have been impacted by reverend for caro over the course of a decade with the faith action international house he will always be remembered here for years to come for his extraordinary selflessness and his contributions to our community now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of greensboro that the city council wishes to express a sense of respect and gratitude for the lifetime of investment in the community state and globally of reverend david v caro for your many years of dedicated public service and that a copy of this resolution shall be delivered to reverend david v for caro as a symbol of the gratitude of the people of greensboro you will take a roll call vote um i will move the item happily and i will second it i am a yes mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes this is waiter yes mr outland yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes eight to zero first i i just want to say um i've been watching you all from a distance this is a hard job it takes a lot of character way to hang in there and stay on the dance floor together through some tough times um i do want to note that any award i i receive or i'm recognized for is is very much an appreciation of and in solidarity with all of the countless colleagues board members clients community partners who have quietly and humbly really been there and stepped up to serve love and protect our newest neighbors in some remarkably bold and beautiful ways an organization can only do so much it also takes a larger city law enforcement health center schools businesses to all really rally around their newest neighbors and to build greater understanding trust and cooperation that happened here especially through our strange neighbor and id card programs and has made a difference nationwide and even globally last thing i want to say is with global warming we're going to see more and more competition for scarce resources we're going to see a lot more migration both within our country and from without it and people are most likely going to go to the places um like greensboro who have a strong foundation of doing what's right doing what's good doesn't mean we can't do it better so thank you all stay on the dance floor together i'm deeply loyal to this community it's been a hell of a roller coaster ride but i'm deeply grateful that our our paths crossed and i'll be wishing you uh deep um luck and and peace into the future please call on me if you ever need me and thank you this means a lot not only to me but it's this kind of stuff is going to mean a lot to my son someday so thank you for that thank you david [Applause] i would be remiss if i didn't also recognize some of the board members i have served with who were in the audience if you would stand please maria hamlin maria gonzalez catherine weaver and beth sanders great group of people i served with six years and as you can see david is a humble giving man so um thank you so much yeah i david want to say thank you it has been wonderful working with you over the years and i like how you said dance floor because one of the um fondest memories i have of you was when raising money for um for faith action and i believe you did a little singing and dancing and um he is also an amazingly talented man when it comes to performing but what you do on the ground is really really special and those id cards um you know one won an award just so everyone knows it was a worldwide competition on something that really made a difference to people here within our community i want to thank you and thank your board for allowing you to move in different spaces and to do things that were different and to set the standard i'm proud that greensboro is a welcoming community and it's because of places like faith action that we've been able to do that so my my sincere thank you i personally am going to miss you but the city is going to miss you thank you you have left an amazing legacy here in the city of greensboro and i want to thank the board for their hard work and maria i remember you did a little dancing on that dance floor too um we will now move on to i just want to say thank you today i just want to say thank you for everything you did for a trying community thank you so we will now move on to the public comment portion of our agenda um our first two speakers are by zoom um gerald austin is mr austin on the call it's not madame air our second speaker is craig hifill he does not appear to be there i'm sorry he does not appear to be on either okay um we have three in-person speakers um james rosa followed by blunt bedez and followed by buddy rankin mr rosa good evening man members of city council don't mess with me tonight okay i said don't mess with me tonight uh my name is james rose i am the executive director and co-founder of the rosa foundation um rosa foundation is happy to announce youth in business this is a partnership with parks and recs at brown recreation center on vandalia the program will be co-ed program for use ages 10 to 15. there will be cdc guidance guidelines this is this will be a eight-week program um starting on august 21st to october 9th and on october 16th there will be an award ceremony for the youth registration is limited so please call brown rec center or or you can email us at rosa foundation for more information for more information the focus of this program is to teach our youths how to start and maintain their own business we have assistance from members of the chamber of commerce heavenly walker wayne young luanne flattner and others we are looking for lunch and business attire donations again you can reach us at rosa foundation or go to our website rosadas foundation.com thank you thank you i don't believe mr bedes is here um buddy rankin the good samaritan versus greensboro police department i was riding my bike through the neighborhood urban park on london thought it was dog food rentals it was a wallet i put it in my safety vest i got home with coffee in the newspaper the wallet three inches stick inside credit cards side of north carolina to drive a licensed federal judge sensitive materials to get in the courthouse without going through the checkpoint this guy needs this wallet so i called city hall identified myself as a good samaritan found a wallet a federal judge with sensitive material inside the dispatch said i transferred you over to the courthouse but the call dropped because of the pandemic no answer so i say i call the police department identify myself as a good samaritan i found a federal judge while on my bike ride the dispatcher said we'll have an officer over there in one hour i say the police drive by here every 30 minutes the police present is high one hour later bam bam bam police officer crime scene investigating the unit moby i said yes what are you doing out there in that time of morning do you always ride your bike after that time in the morning how did you get the water i will not answer any for those questions without the president of my eternal ruthless prayer but these are interrogation questions you send in a dangerous message the negroes cannot be a good samaritan if if that's the case put me in a museum and put a statue up my white neighbor said he had a situation of the same gpa told him thank you you're a good citizen the party would be glad to get that possession back i find your situation hilarious the officer continues this is an incident found and entered into the database if you want to know more about the case i have two papers i pass down each and sign the bottom of the first page says thank you appreciation of a good citizen and i go back to the urban park and tell my white neighbors i come back as a neighbor or the second paper says incident report where you enter into the database suspect report case open and go back to the neighbors and tell my white neighbors i come back as a somewhere i read a man going down to jerusalem to jericho where he was attacked by robbers stripped him of his clothes beaten and went away and left him for half dead but a good samaritan came where the man was and when he saw him he took pity on him he went to him and banished his wounds and pouring oil and why then he put the man on his donkey and then brought him to an end hey take care of him the next day he took out two dinars and gave him to the young people look after him he said and when i return i will reimburse you for the expense that you may have jesus said go and do likewise but not in greensboro north carolina thank you mr rankin i certainly appreciate you being a good samaritan and turning in what you found um so can i ask the question of this person did i mean did you you didn't get arrested or anything is this being investigated may i ask mr assistant city manager are you aware this is the first i'm hearing but we can definitely get his information and find out our next speaker is louis medina how you doing it's been a while you don't mind if i can mess down when i speak okay i'm gonna list some facts here are some facts both mayor nancy bond and chief james admitted that they that what happened to george floyd was wrong george floyd was suffocated to death by the police three years ago marcus smith was hugged out and suffocated to death by the police the state medical examiner ruled his death as a homicide out of the eight officers who killed marcus smith have received merit raises the city attorney that's you i believe chuck watts has claimed that reverend nelson johnson and reverend wesley morris are being pimped and has also said that marcus's life was worth less than six figures chuck watts is an appointed official he can be fired or you can quit he still retains his position none of you have said anything about his harmful comments in fact for the past three years you have been completely silent no no investigation has been launched no settlement has been paid which i imagine you know all that these are all facts right these are just facts facts can often be interpreted multiple ways but sometimes from the facts emerges the truth the truth is that the mayor and the chief gave lip service to george floyd to keep eyes from peering into her own backyard you all in this entire city government is simply simply uninterested in justice you oppose it you don't simply fail to serve our interests you have positions yourselves against them these aren't the actions of confused bystanders right young politicians these are the behaviors of conspiring enemies i believe that when someone tells you that they are your enemy then you better believe them and i believe you thank you thank you um our next speaker is billy belcher hey i'm billy belcher with the working class and households organizing alliance it has been nearly three years since our police hog tied and killed marcus smith his killers still walk unpunished and his family still hasn't been compensated you've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to do the wrong thing you let the city attorney insult people but he wants everyone else like me barred from speaking you have run as far from accountability and justice as you can you may eventually settle with the smith family but that will not be justice not why people while people still have no accountability with their police when people make it clear that a violent and racist gang is brutalizing us you're supposed to stop it not feed it you're elected by people like me and then you're supposed to appoint and supervise people like the police chief you're supposed to control the police department for us you do not you merely feed the machine you're like workers who are changing an assembly line when you're supposed to be in control of the process this council replied to the largest anti-police protests in anyone's memory with increased funding and staffing yes violent crime is up in this age of the pandemic that should be surprising to no one but if you want to stop crime police ain't your bet they respond to things that have already happened it has been proven time and again for literally decades that lowering crime is not something that law enforcement does last summer our law enforcement used tear gas though against peaceful peaceful protesters and then they lied about it nobody was punished we saw zero accountability but you're going to give them more stuff when your police review board recommended a written consent policy to protect against abuse you refused when the greensboro police officers association wrote to the state medical examiner asking for a different verdict in the marcus smith homicide was someone reprimanded for that deed is there accountability over the machine that you're feeding look at the video of marcus smith being tied up and killed like an animal and tell me what we're getting more of tell me who's going to hold it accountable look at the video of zored jones being brutalized and tell me what we're getting more of and who is going to hold it accountable we know it ain't you you're too cowardly to even look at the video zored jones marcus smith deserve better than you and so do we all thank you thank you our next few speakers are by zoom the first one is hester petty uh good evening my name is hester petty i live at 3402 canterbury street here in greensboro um you know i kind of wondered why your lawyer spent so much time trying to suppress the 50 police body-worn videos that the judge ordered the city to produce and now i know why there was something terribly wrong going on in the gpd with poorly trained officers applying the maximum restraint in excessive numbers without regard to the health and safety of their detainees the brief filed today by the smith's legal team contains details about what they've seen on those 50 videos details such as this a black woman hog-tied by one of the defendants with her legs at less than 90 degrees from her body left prone on the ground for more than five minutes with her breasts exposed yelling and screaming in pain outrage and humiliation and this an elderly woman suffering from dementia is rip hobbled while she repeatedly complains that it is hurting her arms she's crying on the ground face down with her dress up throughout the rip hobbling these are just two of the many examples in the 50 videos of victims being hogtied by greensboro police officers apparently this information was kept secret from city council because in a deposition when a city council member was asked whether trey davis gave them any details about the hog ties in the body worn cameras that the city was supposed to turn over to the smith legal team they replied i don't know that he was telling me he had analyzed them other than to say there was documentation of how many times it had been used and that these were there were no injuries reported that was the entirety of the information i received really no mention of people screaming or crying out in pain or telling the police they couldn't beli couldn't breathe no mention of people hog tied and left face down on the ground or face down on the back seat of a police car no mention that of the 50 videos released to the smith legal team 76 percent of the hogtied victims were black and since the legal team knows of at least 700 275 incidents of hog time this abuse likely went on for years not just the few years covered by the court order and you don't want an independent investigation into the greensboro police department well i do and by the way the next time you get together to talk about it don't do it behind closed doors conduct city business out in the open thank you thank you our next speaker is lewis pitts thank you my name is louis pitts i too want to express my outrage at your lack of leadership and our racist brutal violent police department that is now clearly exposed from this minimum release that was forced of the 50 body worn cameras contin to continue with what miss paddy brought out i want to urge you to read that motion and the affidavit that was filed last night one of the endearing in one of the videotapes of these 50. one of the officers says during the training that the officer says just about every time he had to use a rip hobble he had to go back and get a new one because it's covered in blood and yet your city attorney chuck watts is quoted in the paper saying there are no serious injuries there's people that are crying and pleading in pain that they can't breathe there's a black female victim with a knee on her neck for more than two minutes just like george floyd there are many more examples these were just the previous eight and a half months prior to the killing of marcus smith which was ruled a homicide as ms petty said 70 over three quarters of the uses of this violent technique were on people of color 48 so nearly half on women and what have you done scurry into secret session not having the courage to state your positions on the record as to what you believe about any of this and what you're willing to find out this horror this demonic racist violence in such a pattern that in the previous four years it was nearly 300 instances of it has to be stopped we urge you to convene an independent investigation and to stop hiding the documents the secret session where you went into to talk about and decide no independent investigation our lawyer amanda martin for the greensboro justice coalition has yet to receive a response requesting the public records that exist relating to that we will assure you that we will keep pounding to make sure that our city and our nation learn about every one of these gory horrible racist acts of violence by our police department now managed by an african-american chief of police and with a deputy assistant manager who's african-american and city attorneys they aren't doing anything to assist the problem it's up to you your time is up our next speaker is carrion broadway hello my name is carrie ann broadway i signed up to speak tonight about the marcus dion smith case as the city of greensboro nears its third anniversary of the tragic and unnecessary killing of marcus smith i implore each of you to consider whether or not black lives actually matter here in greensboro multiple medical examiners rolled marcus death a homicide in other words the primary cape cause of marxist death was this treatment by police employed by this city why did you wait until after the killing of marcus smith to ban the hog tying it for the greensboro police department we've known since the 1990s that hog tying is life-threatening why was the maximum restraint necessary over used over 270 times 275 times in the four years before marcus's death when so many other police departments had banned the procedure and why were 68 of those maximally restrained black and 17 experiencing some type of mental health crisis why do you spend over why did you spend over 1 million dollars trying to dismiss the smith's family federal lawsuit and suppress the body police camera videos prior to uses of maximum restraint the maximum restraint has long been recognized by the united states department of justice and many local police departments as a contributor to end custody deaths it is appalling that has been so often in greensboro that most most of the victims were black and it's appalling that when we try to get accountability you brought us with lawyers we demanded the city council hold greensboro police department accountable for supporting the settlement this will not bring marcus back and is a far cry from true justice but is a step towards police accountability mediation with the smith family has has resumed you have a decision to make what side of history do you choose will you choose the side that lies and covers up and various social change or you settle with the smith family for an amount that shows black lives matter in the city of greensboro thank you thank you our next speaker is also by zoom pam nago crossing crossing hey good evening i appreciate the opportunity to speak i want to speak um also about the marcus smith case um and piggyback on what some other folks have said there's an issue of patterns here patterns of racism patterns of abuse patterns of misconduct patterns of the city evading denying protecting uh the police um and none of that is new another pattern that i want to speak about though is the pattern of people who are experiencing a mental health crisis ending up experiencing violence at the hands of the police uh not just in greensboro but all over the country um i wanted to call the name of daryl howerton who was killed in 1994 by gpd neighbors were worried about this kid he was 18 years old he was naked in the street behaving erratically his neighbors knew that he was in trouble they called the police and in less than two minutes he was shot dead by the rookie cop that showed up on the scene daryl supposedly had a small steak knife in his hands so this officer felt threatened for his life gill barber killed by a guilford county sheriff's deputy was um called to the scene by neighbors gill had crashed his own car in the middle of the night in high point was visibly injured naked bleeding from his head but the officer that showed up on the scene he was by himself it was late at night he felt threatened for his life so he shot and killed gill marcus approached the police himself asking for help this was not uh a rookie officer there were multiple officers there experienced officers that you know they were not um what am i trying to say uh it wasn't the middle of the night they weren't alone um so you know completely different situation it wasn't a uh a quick um potentially regrettable decision you know oh this guy's threatening me i'm gonna you know pull my firearm no this was we're all gonna work together and put this guy on the ground 30 seconds and restrain him in a way that is known to be life-threatening there's medical personnel there watching which deeply deeply concerns me because i'm a nurse and i know what it means to put someone in restraints because they're a threat to you or a threat to themselves it requires a doctor order it has to be done in a very particular way because it's known to be a medical threat time has expired yeah thank you our next speaker is in person molly blaffer hello my name is molly blaifer and i'm from greensboro revolutionary socialists i signed up to speak tonight about marcus smith dion's case as the city of greensboro nears the third anniversary of this tragic and unnecessary killing of marcus smith i implore each of you to consider whether or not black lives even matter here in greensboro multiple medical examiners ruled marcus death as a homicide in other words the primary cause of marx's death was treatment by the police of this city why did you wait until after the killing of marcus smith to ban the use of hog tagging hog tying for the greensboro police department we've known this since the 1990s that hog tying is life-threatening why was the maximum restraint necessary over 275 times in the four years before marx's death when so many other police departments have banned the procedure and why we're 68 of those black people and 17 of them people experiencing mental health crisis why did you spend over one million dollars trying to dismiss the sma the smith family's federal lawsuit and suppress the police body cameras videos prior to use of maximum restraint the maximum restraint has been long recognized by the u.s department of justice and many police departments and contributors as a contributor to in-custody death it's appalling that this is used so often in greensboro and that most of the victims are black and it's appalling that we're trying to get accountability and you block us with lawyers we demand that city council hold gpd accountable by supporting this settlement it will not bring marcus back and it is a far far far cry from justice but it's a step towards police accountability mediation in the smith family lawsuit has resumed you have a decision to make what side of history do you choose will you choose the side that lies and covers up and bury social change or will you settle with the smith family for an amount that shows black lives matter in the city of greensboro thank you thank you our next speaker is by zoom rob gaines hello my name is robert gaines and i am from the greensboro revolutionary socialists i signed up to speak tonight to talk about the marcus theon smith case as the city of greensboro nears the third anniversary of the tragic and unnecessary killing of marcus smith i implore each of you to consider whether or not black lives actually matter here in greensboro multiple medical examiners ruled marcus's death a homicide in other words the primary cause of marcus's death was his treatment by the police employed by this city why did you wait until after the killing of marcus smith to ban the use of hog tying for the greensboro police department we've known since the 90s that hogtie is life-threatening why was the maximum straight necessary over 275 times in the four years before marcus's death when so many other police departments had banned the procedure and why were 68 percent of those maximally restrained black and 17 percent experiencing some type of mental health crisis why did you spend over 1 million dollars trying to dismiss the smith family's federal lawsuit and suppress the police body camera videos of prior uses of the maximum restraint the maximum restraint has long been recognized by the u.s department of justice and many local police departments as a contributor to in-custody deaths it is appalling that it has been used so often in greensboro and that most of the victims were black and it's appalling that when we try to get accountability you block us with lawyers we demand that the city council hold the greensboro police department accountable by supporting this settlement this will not bring marcus back and it is a far cry from true justice but it is a step towards police accountability mediation in the smith family lawsuit has finally resumed you have a decision to make what side of history do you choose will you choose the side that lies and covers up and buries social change or will you settle with the smith family for an amount that shows that black lives matter in the city of greensboro and that's it thank you our next speaker um is in person and it is joel stronce hello my name is joel strantz and i'm from the greensboro revolutionary socialists i signed up to speak tonight to talk about the marcus dion smith case as the city of greensboro nears the third anniversary of the tragic and unnecessary killing of marcus smith i also implore each of you to consider whether or not black lives actually matter in this here in greensboro multiple medical examiners ruled marcus's death on homicide in other words the primary cause of marcus's death was his treatment by the police employed by this city why did you wait until after the killing of marcus smith to ban the use of hog tying for the greensboro police department we've known since the 1990s that hog tying is life-threatening why was the maximum restraint necessary over 275 times in the four years before marcus's death when so many other police departments had banned the procedure and why were 68 percent of those maximum maximally restrained black and 17 experiencing some type of mental health crisis why did you spend over 1 million dollars trying to dismiss the smith family's federal lawsuit and suppress the police body camera videos of prior uses of maximum restraint the maximum restraint has long been recognized by the u.s department of justice and many local police departments as a contributor to in-custody deaths it is appalling that it has been used so often in greensboro and that most of it of the victims were black and it's appalling that when we try to get accountability you block us with lawyers we demand that the city council hold the gpd accountable by supporting this settlement this will not bring marcus back and it is a far cry from true justice but it is a step towards police accountability mediation in the smith family lawsuit has finally resumed you have a decision to make what side of history do you choose will you choose the side that lies and covers up and buries social change or you settle with the smith family for an amount that shows that black lives matter in the city of greensboro thank you thank you our next speaker is anderson bean and that is by zoom can you hear me yep is mr um being on the call yes can you hear me okay yes okay hello my name is anderson bean and i'm from the greensboro revolutionary socialist i signed up to speak tonight to talk about marcus dion smith as the city of greensboro nears the third anniversary of the tragic and unnecessary killing of marcus smith i implore each of you to consider whether or not black lives matter here in greensboro multiple medical examiners ruled marcus's death a homicide in other words the primary cause of marcus uh marcus's death as uh was the treatment by the police employed by the city by this city why did you wait until after the killing of marcus smith to ban the use of hog tying for the greensboro police department we've known since the 1990s that hog tying is life-threatening why was the maximum restraint necessary over 275 times in the four years before marcus's death when so many other police departments had banned the procedure and why were 68 of those maximally strained black and 17 percent experience some type of mental health crisis why did you spend over a million dollars trying to dismiss the smith family's federal lawsuit and suppress the police body camera videos of prior uses of maximum restraint maximum maximum restraint has long been recognized by the us department of justice and many local police departments as a contributor to in-custody deaths it's appalling that it has been used so often in greensboro and that most of the victims were black and it's appalling that when we try to get accountability you block us with lawyers we demand that the city council hold gdp accountable by supporting a fair settlement this will not bring marcus back and it's a far cry from justice but it is a step towards police accountability mediation in the philip in the smith family lawsuit has finally resumed you have a decision to make what side of history do you choose will you choose the side that lies and covers up and buries social change or will you settle with the smith family for an amount that shows that black lives matter in the city of greensboro thank you thank you our next speaker is patricia de beer and she is in person good evening madam mayor and members of the council almost three years ago marcus smith was hogtied by the police and the coroner's office declared marcus's death was a homicide i am a person who lost my beloved grown son fortunately it wasn't a violent death but even so i know what profound injury it is to everyone in the family and i grieve for the smith family after this deep loss the smiths experienced and are experiencing the city added to the injury by releasing incorrect information about marcus this insult was followed by the city's refusal to give the family access to the video then private lawyers were hired by the city and more insult was added to the profound injury inflicted on this family the city is now likely to have spent upwards of one million dollars of taxpayer money and there is no resolution for this family or the city as members of city council you have the power to direct the lawyers to resolve this matter it is time to show remorse for what has been done to this family it is time to bring this tragic story to a close and give the family the respect and compensation it deserves it is time for greensboro to step up and be the city that takes responsibility for its mistakes and opens up ground for true healing to happen thank you thank you our next speaker is catherine holcomb and she is in person i'm katherine holcomb i reside at 1911 rose crest drive 27408 i've lived in greensboro all but two of my years and i thought my hometown was wonderful until i grew up and learned from the city human relations commission and the commission on the status of women of what the whole city was like my privilege had kept me from knowing all the areas of greensboro where people lived with different colors and religions than mine everyone was not free and safe everyone was not able to pay a lawyer to get their tickets erased as my family was now i see how differently we live wealthy and poor safe and unsafe respected and disrespected in this very town i know now that how one of us lives affects us all it affects the health of our entire community how fearful we feel how generous we feel when treatment is disrespectful of of most people now i'm imagining a reformed greensboro we are a famous model in the north carolina or in the united states i imagine a greensboro where everyone gets respect and safety no matter what area of town they live in i imagine a greensboro where government jobs are quick to admit wrongs to apologize immediately and change rules to prevent more disservice i imagine a greensboro where no one fears people of other races or people who live in affordable housing nearby a greensboro where no neighborhood tolerates litter and cares for the parks and streams where we welcome all religions and cultures in our midst ready to learn from them we're loving our neighbor means wanting others to have what i have respect education health and care and where truth and transparency rule all when we see police on camera harming a homeless man treating him in a disrespectful way compared to the way i am treated by police and our chief of police and city officials quick to name are quick to not apologize for it and say we don't see anything wrong imagine a new greensboro it's easy if you try no qualified immunity no homeless homicide imagine all the people sharing life and peace here imagine no mothers losing sons no child without a home no cover-ups to protect jobs no suits to deny what's due you may say i'm a dreamer but i'm not the only one can you imagine a reformed greensboro with me thank you our next speaker is demetrius noble by zoom hello my name is demetrius noble and i'm from greensboro revolutionary socialist i signed up to speak tonight to talk about the marcus dion smith case as the city of greensboro nears the third anniversary of the tragic and unnecessary killing of marcus smith i employ each of you to consider whether or not black lives actually matter here in greensboro multiple medical examiners ruled marcus's death a homicide in other words the primary cause of marcus's death was his treatment by the police employed by this city why did you wait until after the killing of marcus smith to ban the use of hall tying for the greensboro police department we've known since the 90s that hog tying is life-threatening why was the maximum restraint necessary over 275 times in the four years before marcus's death when so many other police departments have banned the procedure and while we're 68 of those maximally restrained black and 17 experiencing some type of mental health crisis why did you spend over 1 million dollars trying to dismiss the smith's family's federal lawsuit and suppress the police body camera videos of prior uses of the maximum restraint the maximum restraint has long been recognized by the u.s department of justice and many local police departments as a contributor to in-custody deaths it is appalling that this has been used so often in greensboro that most of the victims were black and it's appalling that when we try to get accountability you block us with lawyers we demand that the city council hold gpd accountable by supporting the settlement this will not bring marcus back and it is a far cry for true justice but it is a step towards police accountability mediation in the smith family lawsuit has finally resumed you have a decision to make what side of history do you choose will you choose the side that lies and covers up and bury social change will you settle with the smith family for an amount that shows that black lives matter in the city of greensboro thank you thank you our next speaker um is in person can i bind them power to the people we had a moment of silence earlier um and i think it's only right to have a moment of silence for marcus john smith thank you i'm here today to talk about what needs to be talked about speak truth to power we had something written up that i wanted to share with you all but as i realized that once you guys hear it you kind of tune out so i'm going to be here speaking from the heart for the next two minutes when i think about how long i've been in greensboro and the patterns that i've seen since i've been here at student a and t and then graduating and being a resident i realized that we're not solving the problem or putting band-aids on it or perpetuating the problem some people are silent towards it some people are saying it's wrong but there's not any real action being done about the problem now i want to think about why that is why aren't we solving the issues that are killing people that are hurting people i'm not here today representing any organization or any group i'm here representing the future to future generations because enough is enough we need people to start speaking out because silence furthers oppression we cannot continue to allow people to perpetuate oppression we have to think about what are our personal advantages that we have what space are we in are we learning are we bettering because if we're not they're perpetuating the oppression there's no left or right right this is right or wrong if you don't choose it chooses for you if you say it doesn't associate you you have no problem with it then you're perpetuating it i really want folks to realize how serious this is because we will get justice for marcus dion smith but we need so much more we need institutional justice we need to transform this system and it can happen here in greensboro i believe in and that's why i'm here that's why i showed up tonight i'm here with revolutionary love thank you thank you and i believe our final speaker um evelyn smith and she is here in the chambers good evening my name is evelyn smith i live at 1316 spry street in greensboro i'm speaking today to add my voice to the many voices that you've heard tonight and over the last almost three years across our city who want to add the case of marcus smith to the work that must be done by you because this case needs to be settled now i am glad that the city is in mediation and i strongly believe that the city's offer should reflect the value of marcus smith's life and all black lives i care about this case because this unfinished business of the city sends a terrible message to our community that the police are not held accountable when they use unreasonable force even when it's deadly and i it also sends the message that efforts to seek remedies will be vigorously fought using huge sums of taxpayer dollars to delay and diminish a just settlement this has gone on far too long it's time for city council to exert your leadership to settle this case and show that you care about real justice for all members of our community as ella baker famously said until the killing of black men black mother sons is as important as the killing of a white mother's son then we who believe in freedom cannot rest i urge you to settle the case now and offer a sincere apology it's the least that we can do thank you and i believe that is the final speaker unless i've missed someone um do you wish to speak or are you're supposed to sign up by six but come on and speak if you would give us your name you'll have to wait till you get to the podium hi i'm sabina nogo i think i signed up for zoom but then showed up in person instead um but i am here um from the greensboro revolutionary socialists and this may sound familiar but repetition is important um as the city of greensboro nears the third anniversary of the tragic and unnecessary killing of marcus smith i implore each of you to consider consider whether or not black lives actually matter here in greensboro multiple medical examiners ruled marcus's death a homicide in other words the primary cause of marcus's death was his treatment by the police employed by the city why did you wait until after the killing of marcus smith to ban the use of hog tying for the greensboro police department we've known since the 1990s that hog tying is life-threatening why was the maximum restraint necessary over 275 times in the four years before marcus's death when so many other police departments had banned the procedure and why were 68 of those maximally restrained black and 17 experiencing some type of mental health crisis why did you spend over 1 million dollars trying to dismiss the smith family's federal lawsuit and suppress the police body camera videos of prior use of the maximum restraint the maximum restraint has long been recognized by the u.s department of justice and many local police departments as a contributor to in-depth custodies or in-custody deaths it is appalling that it has been used so often in greensboro and that most of the victims were black and it is appalling that when we try to get accountability you block us with lawyers we demand that the city council hold the greensboro police department accountable by by supporting this settlement this will not bring marcus back and it is a far cry from true justice but it is a step towards police accountability mediation in the smith family lawsuit has finally resumed you have a decision to make what side of history do you choose will you choose the side that lies and covers up and buries social change or will you settle with the smith family for an amount that shows that black lives matter and the city of greensboro thank you thank you and i do i do believe that is our final speaker so um at this point we will move on to our consent agenda we have two items do i have a motion second as a matter of fact let's okay all right so that is a roll call vote correct that was moved by um dr wells seconded by mrs therm i am a yes mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes mrs abuse waiter yes mr outling yes um this mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes eight to zero we do not have any public hearing items today we have two uh general business items item 1.1 is a resolution to amend the code of ethics for the mayor and city council adopted may 18 2021 at the greensboro city council meeting second moved by mrs hightower and seconded by mrs abuzawader we also have to do a roll call vote while we're um hybrid i am a yes mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes this is abusive yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes and that passes eight to zero item number 5.2 is a resolution to approve the memorandum of agreement between the state of north carolina and local governments on proceeds relating to the settlement of opioid litigation move the item that has been moved and seconded again we have to do both um mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes i'm a yes mrs abuser waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower yes thank you and that passes eight to zero um we will now move on to um any board appointments or um databank um mrs hoffman miss kennedy none tonight dr wells um i would like to appoint um on behalf of mayor pro temi von johnson andrew egbert to the zoning commission he is um in district five and we spoke with mrs thurman about that um that would fill one of the two um appointments that we have second i have a second by mrs thurm um mrs hoffman yes ms kennedy yes dr wells yes i'm e yes yes this is waiter yes mr outling yes mrs thurm yes and mrs hightower i i do have an issue but that's fine we had um we still have one opening yeah and that belongs to district one and we need a black female so that's why and the openings were in one three and five and this fills five right or i should say you could choose from one three or five because two and four already had two places yeah it's just a concern that we keep the composition so that passes eight to zero um any boards and commissions mrs boos waiter no mr outland none this evening thank you mrs thurm not tonight and mrs hightower no okay council comments mrs hightower yes um first of all i'd like to ask the city attorney um is it possible that um i see those videos as well that have been referenced all night um we'd have to go through the process of petitioning the court and having it done but yes i would second mrs hightower's request thank you you know in the case of the discovery required by the magistrate uh he essentially overruled uh the state requirements and so we complied with that but we can't not comply with the state rules um when we do it well so you kind of fade it down on me a little bit i'm just saying we have to go through the process the statute requires um we didn't do that for purposes of litigation because the court ordered it but for our purposes then we can do it through that so i can go through the standard process yes and that would be a total i think of 227 videos because it was 50 incidents but there were multiple videos at some of those so i think i think the city disclosed 227 videos but i think it's just too important not to and um i feel it's necessary and do you have to do a separate action on every video or can you do a blanket i mean you can't do a blanket but you you may be able to do it in a single proceeding i have to make sure that though okay i believe that you can do it on the single proceeding just multiple incidents yeah so it's actually 50 cases just 50 incidents right 50 answers but you may have a single incident that has several different uh right body one cameras and then um right so that's why it ends up being quite lengthy to watch that's fine and that would be allowing us to watch them yes that is what i would like to do um any council comments on that oh oh yeah so there was um i don't know if we actually need to take a a vote on that or i mean i get the sense of counsel it could be done it's just if you want to vote it's fine okay if you would see if those are available for us to view right and i do think that the legislator in legislature in speaking to some of our legislators understand um how difficult this whole process is on everyone um and the fact that we might have to go out for you know a single request on on every video and i do believe that um our delegation wants to move this forward to make it easier it was um there was a vote in the legislature a couple weeks ago which took the body-worn camera videos out of the legislation there's possibility that it could be put back in again um you know i know that our police department gpoa and the police chiefs association all believe that body-worn camera videos should be easier to view um i i think this is more of an urban rural divide than than anything else so we'll continue to work with our guilford delegation who has really tried to move this forward was that on our last um legislative agenda to them it is it's been on our legislative agenda for i don't remember this year but yeah i know i have been in times past yeah but i knew you had talked to him i'm sorry i can't understand what you're saying well no it's the mask it's a mask okay thank you um no i said um i didn't know if it was on the last letter it is been on the last few years but i know you have been speaking with representative fairclough yes and and representative faircloth fully understands what the issue is and actually you know he he he tried to put a different bill through than the one that got um the one that got passed and i know that this is cast a lot time as the fair cloth bill but in fact there were other representatives who changed his bill this was not the way he originally wrote it um it were there were other representatives who changed his original bill um so we'll continue to work with him and the rest of our legislators to make it easier for us to view body-worn camera yeah yeah i agree we have to do it and if nothing else but for transparency yes absolutely um i think mr outland did you want to make a comment on that on this one okay yeah go ahead so uh consistent with the ethics policy we just passed which calls for there to be action where five council members support it i went to state that i support councilman hightower's request my understanding is that the city's position is that all of these incidences depicted in these additional videos not involving mr smith are irrelevant and can't as a legal matter support the plaintiff's case that being said it's very clear from their filing last night that it's going to be an important consideration perhaps in evaluating the case including the degree to which settlement is advisable and so in that connection i do think it would be helpful for us to actually see the same information that's the subject of their filings that will presumably be the subject of arguments they make in connection with mediation and settlement so i just wanted to state my support of councilman hightower's request i have a question too about it while we're still on it and just for clarification in this situation where we are actually a party to this case do we still have to go through that process or do we not have the ability to view what is being shown and discussed in a case that we are a party to i don't understand why we would have to and i'm looking at justin or any really any attorney um but that's kind of my primary question i understand i understand going back for typically going through that process but we can look at anything that relates to this case we are parties directly involved in it can we not not the video um i wouldn't support us violating state law and that's what it would be um under the court order we had to produce it to the other side and we did uh our position on not pursue deucenid was not about suppressing the information it was about respect for state law and we are a create creature of state law sure and therefore i don't think we have the authority to do that so the judge did not order us to provide it to you it was ordered to be provided to the other side so under the judge's order we didn't comply with state law but is it typical when and i'm asking this it's an unusual situation yeah is it typical when you're involved in a legal matter that you don't have access to the materials you're supplying to the other side i believe that we can get access to it i just think it's going to take the process uh we have done this numerous times since i've been the city attorney uh we can go through the process uh we asked the court to allow us to go through the process if you all want to see it we'll go through the process no and like i said i understand that typically i was just curious as to and you know i mean i hear your argument and i i do think it's a fair argument but i think at the end of the day it's a question of oh now there's another reason we're going to violate state law well no i understand i totally understand it to you all would be not following the state law procedure no i understand that what i'm asking is don't we have the ability to look at anything that's received by our attorney as it relates to a lawsuit that we're part of i think what i heard him say is not video that's not exactly that's it's not there's not a service make any sense to me yeah i think well there's not a state law that restricts your access to any other documents or material that we have produced so your general statement would be true when it comes to body-worn camera there's a specific statute and we would like to all see it changed um and you know i'm i'm part of that effort but if but if it's been overridden in this case it hasn't been overwritten but the authority of the power of the court is what we complied with rather than get sanctioned for failing to comply with you and i don't want to i guess i just and i'll stop let's not talk over each other i guess what's troubling me is that for any legal action that we're a part of any notion that we can't see anything that has to do with that legal action just makes no sense to me and now i would agree with you on that point for for context i'll i'll add this the same exact issue came up when the law itself was passed there was discussion and the question about whether or not as council members essentially we act we are the city in a sense at least a majority and thus would we even have to petition the court to ask for it as opposed to simply it's city property we can review it um consistent with the advice mr watts is giving the then city attorney said his best interpretation of the law was that even though we are the city in a certain sense we still have to request permission of the court for us to view it but from that discussion it was always my understanding that that was his interpretation of the law it wasn't a clear prohibition in the law well it's it is practice across the state yeah yeah and that's because of the city they treated the same and i would add that's why it was such a a pitch discussion with the city attorney at the time because oftentimes what the first municipality does sets the precedent for other municipalities which happen in this particular case but under logic michelle i agree with you 100 no i i agree with you on the logic as well sorry if there's something that keeps us from being able to move forward with just saying we want to view this let's view it it needs to be rock solid that that we're having to follow some provision of state law it is rock solid yeah okay yeah and i would much rather err on the side of caution than to get down the road and realize that we've caused the hiccup and then we problematic so i mean i really was torn on the whole situation with the federal court uh was a choice of basically complying with a federal order you don't comply with it you know i could find myself in a difficult position uh the city could get sanctioned uh but we are we are constituted by state law we cannot violate state law right and i don't want to do anything mr city attorney that puts us in a position somebody else creates another bill that stops us totally again so um i think we know if you would move forward with that jaren did you have anything else um yes i did um uh where was i um body worn camera we would get on body one camera for now yeah i think we got that one good um and um i did hear another statement but maybe i need to ask the city attorney first um to michelle's point about being able to um see whatever's in the of in the case any kind of correspondence that came out of that case that went to raleigh by some other organization was that part of the case don't think that's part of the case i don't know what you're really talking about today well it was just something about the police association mel some kind of letter i've never heard that we're not litigation with them so i'm not she was she was referring to something early on in the marcus smith case that um that amielle wrote oh that was oh oh way way back yeah okay and at some point can we get an update on the whole case so um in this case we have a protective order that has various levels of confidentiality the body-worn camera was shared with the other side under the highest level of uh restriction which has a lot of roles to it none of which you know really are open to us at this point okay but there are other documents that have been produced that um i would have to look at the rules but we we seek to comply with the rules um some of the comments suggested or appeared to suggest that maybe other people have actually seen those videos in which case that would be a violation well i don't want to violate that i'm suggesting someone who has seen the videos maybe by authorization has discussed those with other people that would also be a violation anything else mrs hightower yeah i want to mention uh congratulations to we had a um adult day center that opened in district 1 this past saturday journey one of the owners is fonte doorly many of you may know her she works a lot with um you know organizations um here in the city and um it's something i think is very unique i don't know if there's another one here in the city somewhere and it may be uh but it's it's at 2203 south american street and i think one day we may all be there and may need an adult day center to go to i wish her much hey you never know you got to be prepared i wish her my success uh district one brand new business um it's right there on southam eugene and um i'm i'm looking forward to all they're going to offer and then saturday also uh went by brown recreation and hung out with our junior aggies football team they had a nice event at brown recreation center and food and popcorn and just general fun just to relax and the parents and everything because football season's gearing up i guess i guess they'll be going out and doing their youthful thing and it was hot but it was very nice um so a lot of things and we have some uh and i want to thank the um city media department uh carla and jake for creating a page to um broadcast all of our upcoming back-to-school events um you know with dates and times so we'll know we're going to be a busy time back to school and our kids are going to be prepared because there's so many events happening and um you can just go to our city page and look at look them up and attend every one of them and i thought that was something good so i appreciate them doing that so then i guess we'll see you all tomorrow night thank you thank you um dr wills well i'd like to i'd like to um thank uh carla and her team for the the article in old and our state magazine because they're putting us on the map showing things that are happening in east greensboro i'm looking forward to national night out tomorrow night and i'd like to invite all the citizens who up in northeast greensboro to the concerned citizens of northeast greensboro's monthly meeting on thursday night at seven it's going to be on zoom and you can find the link on my page goldie wells for city council and um the this week when we we um i was just was last week when we listened to the report from our chief of police and they've been talking about it on all the media ever since they've been just highlighting and saying about the crime and just since we've been sitting here there's two men were shot over there in high point because they got upset because lying was too long getting some beer or something so i mean it's just all kinds of things that are happening but um i think the chief gave us a list of things that that he thought really we need to attack because the police department cannot do it all and i expressed my thoughts about that and i wish that we would uh seriously take that list and start working it to see what we can do to do something about the list so i don't know who i'm supposed to ask except ask all of you who are sitting here to be concerned about the list and then see what we can do about making some changes and i know that these things have gone on for years and years but i was really moved when i looked at that crescent the other day we've been seeing that crescent for so long but i thought about it i'm supposed to represent the people in that area what am i doing to make it better and so i need your support and that's doing something to make things better in that area one two and a little bit of five but one and two are heavily impacted by the crime so i'm asking for your support and and look at that list i guess the city manager i guess that's what we're saying thank you um mr outling yeah thank you um as i'm sure everyone on council would express my condolences to the johnson family on the passing of walter johnson you know oftentimes it's very easy to identify people as trailblazers when they've done amazing things with their lives and careers um but walter in fact was a trailblazer generally and for me specifically um walter was the first graduate who was black of duke university school of law uh the law school at which i attended school and so it's really in a literal sense someone who's opened up doors for me in my professional career and so definitely want to express condolences to the johnson family thank you thank you uh mrs hoffman um just a reminder that we will be uh celebrating and acknowledging the 10th anniversary of the aquatic center this week and i believe mayor you were the only one of us here who was on that council then and it was a five to four yeah if i was the tiebreaker and uh you know i i just thank you and i thank you for your four associates who had the vision uh and the strength and the determination to make that happen and what what what a benefit and what a difference it has made to the city of greensboro so um just a reminder that you know sometimes the things that we have to make decisions about are not easy and that was a really important one so i thank you thank you thank you mrs thurm i just want to say that i'm looking forward to seeing folks at national night out tomorrow night um i think i count them they're 18 neighborhoods in my district and there is no way i can get by all 18 of them in two hours so i just want to let folks know that i'm going to do my best to get as to as many as possible but i look forward to seeing everybody tomorrow night i also want to remind council that a couple weeks ago you all got cards from participat participatory budgeting group to be passed out to encourage people to get involved in the process and remind you all to take those with you please tomorrow night as you go from neighborhood to neighborhood and help get those passed out to the community so that's it thank you mrs abuse waiter thank you madam mayor i know that most of council maybe all and staff were at mr johnson's funeral yesterday and it was a beautiful service it was truly a beautiful heart warming emotional service that you certainly even when you left you realized what a wonderful man was and so many people in this community admired him so of course continuing condolences and prayers for the family it's it's going to be tough for them but they'll get through they'll get through they're strong um and my only other comment was yes national night out tomorrow evening uh yeah i looked i could have 110 places to go just about but uh it is hard to get to everyone because so many people say please come to mind please come to mind and you try to get a list going and when you go one place it's hard to leave so you know please bear with us as we try to get as far across the city as as all of us can so and that is one of the things um you know the chief mentioned when he did the work session on the it's building relationships with the community so i hope more and more of the community will participate and come out tomorrow evening so thank you thank you miss kennedy um just really quickly a plug for our community to get vaccinated as we're watching our coven numbers increase in troubling ways and we know that the safest thing we can do for ourselves and our neighbors is to move through a vaccination process so really just want to plug that i think our our transmission average right now the 14-day average is 5.5 yesterday's average was 7.8 so that's not good yeah um and we don't want to find ourselves back in the position we've been in before so many kids ready to go back to school after having a a really difficult year last year and i think it's the most important thing you can do for the health of our community today so if you haven't been vaccinated there are lots of opportunities for that to be possible for you and try to get us all as safe as we can be so we can get back to normal life thank you i too would like to express my condolence to yvonne and her family it really was a very special service i know i left wanting to be a better grandparent because um you could just see the absolute love and adoration with his children and his grandchildren and the legacy that he left to to greensboro and to duke is great but the legacy he left on his family is even greater and that will that will trickle for generations to come um i want to we have the wyndham championship coming up shortly is one of the biggest events we'll have in a while the pga so far is allowing um spectators no they're looking for um volunteers so if you want to get out there and see a little bit of golf um i suggest you go on the wyndham championship website they um they do need volunteers and lots of different areas i'll be volunteering this year it's usually a whole lot of fun so i hope to see you out there whether you're volunteering or you're watching but um let's do it safely i want to um also talk about the vaccines that michelle mentioned as a county 48 percent of our county has had both shots are fully vaccinated a few more percentages have had the one shot so i hope that means they're waiting in the wings to get their second shot but that would still only bring us up to 52 percent and that is a far cry from what the herd immunity number was that we've heard for almost a year we do want to make sure that our children go back to school and go back safely we certainly saw the education gap and the the the broad band gap and the the food and security and everything else amplified this last year so i hope that you know people will you know start wearing a mask again um you know i hate it i had them all put away um had to take them out again i i just wish that we would look at this kind of as a neighbor to neighbor thing like when when reverend fercarro was here when you talk about taking care of your neighbors that you know we don't make it a political stance but that we want to do what we can to lower that transmission rate because the people who are in the hospital and we're getting sick now are getting younger and younger you know for a long time people thought well it's you got to be old or you got to have underlying conditions but these variants are really strong so i just hope that we would all think about ourselves our loved ones and our neighbors as we move about the next couple of weeks and national night out i know that i'll be riding with the chief tomorrow we're going to try to get to as many neighborhoods as we can but 110 that's a lot and we are a big city we got a lot of ground to cover so um you know we hope that we'll get to as many neighborhoods as we can but i'm glad that people are getting together because one of the things that the chief said is to make sure that you've got strong neighborhoods strong communication and this is really the way to do it is people get out and they get to know their neighborhoods and they look out for each other and you know whether they have a neighborhood newsletter or they do a community watch program you know we're not going to police our way out of this this has to be a multiple prong and certainly getting ready getting to know your neighbors and having an actual neighborhood really makes a difference so i look forward to seeing as many people as we can tomorrow um mr city manager nothing tonight mr city attorney i have nothing either thank you man i have one other quick thing um are we going to have a public hearing for the arp money we we are you know we had one and nobody showed up so we'll definitely have to have another one and that is what we are talking to um the city manager about and you know we've all gotten requests i know some some major really heavy duty requests from local um non-profits and businesses so we want to be responsive to that but um so um i believe that we will have another work session regarding arp especially now that we are a little bit more comfortable what the what the guidelines are so if we could get that on the agenda and then follow it up with um with a public hearing and we do have on the website um you know information about arp and we are trying to coordinate with the county which um again is a really nice change it's kind of that one guilford so we'll we'll do that do i have a motion to return moved by ms kennedy seconded by ms therm all in favor say aye or you can just leave either one you