Regular Session

the service of your son. Amazing that he started volunteering at age 18. Really incredible and I just think it's wonderful. I'm really excited to see that this proclamation will be part of the process of um that NCDOT and our Durham delegation is involved with in terms of naming um the uh Little River Reservoir uh the highway over that in honor of um Richard Ricky Christopher Dorsey. So, we're honored to be a part of that process as well. And thank you all for being here.

Any other comments for committee?

Yes, to the Dorsey family. I just want to say uh thank you so much for your son's commitment to public service at such an early age. And so, uh there's a saying that some uh gave a little uh and you in your instance in the in the instance of your family, you gave it all. And we want to thank you for his service. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. All right. So, our next item on the agenda is the proclamation for National Pride Month and Vice Chair Lum will be reading that and presenting it.

The Durham Board of County Commissioners Proclamation National Pride Month 2026. Whereas the Stonewall Riots, a period of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement in June 1969, is referred to as the genesis of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in this country and National Pride Month is the result is the result. And whereas the anti-gay assault and murder of Ronald Sunny Antonovich in Durham, North Carolina led to several subsequent social demonstrations including Our Day Out, North Carolina's first LGBTQ+ March on

June 27th, 1981. And whereas, this year's theme, Always Forward, Never Straight, Preserving History, Coming Home, as selected by the Pride Durham NC Organizing Committee, alongside the observation of National Pride Month, presents opportunities for community members to protest peacefully, to push efforts for justice forward, and to raise political awareness of social issues, and to celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals. And whereas, over the years, we have been we have seen strides made to value and affirm members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the work to improve their quality of life by first acknowledging the challenges that are faced in all areas of life. And whereas, despite extraordinary progress, LGBTQ+ people still face various forms of discrimination, mistreatment, and violence, simply for being who they are. And the County of Durham stands with the community in the struggle to ensure equal treatment for all, while also defending and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights as human rights. And whereas, Durham County Government continues to advocate for local and statewide protections for all LGBTQ+ individuals to make our state a place where all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, are treated with dignity and respect. And whereas, like many progressive communities, the support of LGBTQ+ rights is illustrated by the fact the Durham County Non-Discrimination Ordinance was approved by the Board of Commissioners to establish protections to promote the equal treatment of all individuals, to provide freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, creed, color, sex, pregnancy, marital or familiar status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin or ancestry,

language, military status, religious belief or non-belief, age, disability in employment and access to all places of public accommodation. Now, therefore, be it resolved, I, Dr. Mike Lee, chair and on behalf of the Durham Board of County Commissioners, do hereby proclaim the month of June 2026 as National Pride Month. In Durham County, we call upon the people of Durham County to recognize the contributions and achievements of LGBTQ+ community members and to help to improve the attitudes of society and encourage inclusiveness in and across Durham County. This, the 8th day of June 2026, signed, Dr. Mike Lee, chair, Durham Board of County Commissioners.

Um Jesse, did you want to come up and speak? Got it. Yes, over here. Over here.

Good evening. My name is Jesse Huddleston. My pronouns are he, she, they, we. I promise you, I have the range and you can't get me wrong so long as you're being kind. I serve as the director of development and community engagement with the LGBTQ Center of Durham. I'm joined in person with Rey Dooley, they/them. They serve as the co-executive director along with Vanity Reid Dieterville, who is joining us online. She really wanted to be here, but was unfortunately in a car accident and doesn't have a car to get around. She's doing well, thankfully, um but car stuff. Um

we'll take this time to share about how we're celebrating pride, how we're acknowledging pride, how we're practicing pride um here in Durham. The theme this year, as has been named, always forward, never straight, preserving history, coming home. We have many programs for celebrating this month in June and in the fall, Durham Pride Week. Um it's important to name why we're celebrating, why we're gathering, why we're continuing this practice of being together. History offers us so many tools. It's important to call to memory something that happened with the county 40 years ago. The county library collection offers us this. You can find it online. The title of this is called incident of the gay pride month display, Durham County Library, June 1986. The end of this asset again you can find online says it ended with a deep sigh of relief that June has only 30 days. I offer this to you because this isn't just a seasonal thing. It's really 24/7 365. And whether it's 40 years ago or last year or now. How we show up, how we continue our work to move justice forward matters. I know we're in ongoing conversation with county leaders and it's important that we continue that work. I have full faith that we will and this isn't about

a social popular moment to get attention. This is not about pointing fingers and playing blame game. This isn't about um avoiding responsibility. It's actually about taking responsibility. And in this moment the county leaders here, I'm asking you to continue showing up and to lean in because 40 years ago folks were ready to just say a sigh of relief. It's done. It's not. It wasn't done then. It wasn't done last year. It's not done now. The work continues. So our programs, our celebrations, yes. And we know pride was also a protest. It was a riot. And as we're seeing, folks have a lot of feelings. I don't envy y'all the responsibility you have and it is yours to steward with the care it deserves. Please partner with us. Please take the work that we're doing seriously. We're excited to partner with you and we're upset. So track, we come in peace but we mean business. And it's not enough. We need more. We need more. I'm going to yield my time to Ray Julia again, our co-executive director, to share just a few moments moments briefly and then we will move. Thank you so much for giving us time to share today.

Hi everybody. It's an honor to be here with you all this evening. 40 years ago, 1 year ago, and today. This is not just the struggle of our lifetime, it is the struggle of many

lifetimes before us. It is the struggle of our elders, it is the struggle of our ancestors. So, we are here and their spirit

[music]

I'll also acknowledge, you know, Jesse is an incredibly hard act to follow. Um That said, when we look back on this moment 40 years ago, our deepest wish, even if we can't look back and say Durham County managed to stand between the queer and trans community and fascism, or Durham County was the one thing that saved us, what we can deeply hope is that we were able to stand in deep relationship with folks in this room and do the righteous and extraordinary work of not turning away even when it might have been easier to. So, um we invite you all to remain in contact with us, to not just write this off as the issue of the day, to be clear about your position and to take responsibility for the culture and the governance of Durham County. As Jesse said, we come in peace and we mean business. Um we invite you to stay in relationship with us and we hope that we can all, in relationship together, find some way forward.

All right, thank you.

[applause]

Um Commissioner Jacobs.

Um first of all, thank you all so much. Thank you for your leadership. Um and I want to You could You guys can come back up here if you want. Um Yes. And uh I also really I want to acknowledge Jesse, your new role also not just being chair of pride, but also now the developments director at the LGBTQ Center. Also your role with on

the board of the Pauli Murray House uh the Pauli Murray Center. So, thank you for all the ways that you show up. I appreciate this history and sharing this with us. Um I was at the first march in 1981. We have a long history to be very proud of in Durham. And we need to keep building on that history. And staying true to our values and who we are as a community. And I look forward to doing that in partnership and community with everyone. Um and I wanted to also highlight a lot of the important events happening this month. Um if if you could talk a little bit about also um June 24th and the resource fair.

We started the month uh celebrating with Beaver Queen Pageant on June 6th. Anyone who's lived here long enough knows the elder queers that have banded together to protect our creation, really. Um and so we've made that official. Um it's a very liberated space. Um this Saturday, June 13th, we'll celebrate out on the block, what we are naming as our kid and youth and families pride event. Um June 20th, uh in partnership with Bennett Place celebrating Juneteenth and pride, we'll have out and free African dance um at Bennett Place. And then on June 27th, we'll have the Our Day Out

Remembrance March and resource fair at our location, starting at CCB Plaza, and then um ending at our location downtown, 114 Hunt Street, Durham, North Carolina, 27701. All this is online, pridedurhamnc.org. Um we'll have plans again for the fall as well. The parade is still happening. Don't be afraid. Don't be worried. And we want to continue to think more expansively than just the these programs. They are important. And the culture that we're building together will I think substantiate how we come together for these kinds of programs.

Thank you. And I know also at the library on um June 22nd is a panel discussion being sponsored by the Durham People's Alliance around the history of Amendment as well. Um And um and we do look forward to Durham County's being up supporting the resource fair as well as the pride March in September. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Um this is a year of great importance for our communities. Um 40th and 45th anniversaries of deeply spiritual moments for us, and we just want to acknowledge and affirm the library's vital role in liberation for our people in Durham. Thank you to our friends at the library, and again we are grateful to remain in conversation.

Okay, any other comments? Commissioner Valentine.

Uh so thank you for uh for your presentation here uh today. You said you come in peace and and you're about your business. And so I believe everyone in our community uh has right to thrive and

self-actualize. And I just want to acknowledge that here today. Uh we're living in a world that seems to be upside down. A world where people who have uh fundamentally said they agree on things, but yet they find themselves pitted against one another merely because the environment that we find ourselves in. And so your very presence here tonight is a step toward the healing that this community needs. And so I thank you I thank you um for putting the words to what actually needs to to occur in our in our environment, which is healing. So thank you.

Okay, um we'll go to Vice Chair Lum, and then to Commissioner Burton.

Um thank you Ray and Jesse for joining us here and bringing this proclamation and also bringing the history of uh the incident from 1986, but also just the history of Pride in Durham and how it impacts the broader North Carolina community. I want to thank y'all also for creating the space and holding it for just accountability for us as elected leaders to do better and to lead with our community by our side and I know we've spoken and y'all have talked to each of us individually and we've had lots of conversations about how as Durham County government do we work to build stronger community with all of our marginalized folks? Because we are under a fascist administration and we have 2 years to survive uh with each other together for the rest of this term. And I am dedicated and I know that our entire board is dedicated and ready to do the work to repair the harms caused not just from 45, 50, 60 years ago, but

the harms caused even presently. And we hope to work with y'all in lockstep uh to provide more clarity to our communities, to provide more clarity to all of Durham County of where our joint values are and our joint morality is and humanity is in taking care of all of our neighbors.

Commissioner Burton.

Yes, thank you Chair Lee and thank you both for being here today. I just want to acknowledge something you said Jessica about being in this position. Because often people will say to me, "How do you like being a county commissioner now?" And I said, "You know, the hardest part of this job is that the five of us, we have to we make the final decision. Nobody else can make it, right?" And sometimes, you know, we get it right. Sometimes we don't get it right, right? Because so much information is hit at us, right? But I am like with my colleague, Commissioner Jacobs, um we were talking about supporting pride this year, all right? So, I want to say thank you to you both for holding us accountable. And um because we value all our people here in Durham County. And um let us know when we get it right, and clearly let us know when we're not getting it right. So, thank you so much.

All right. Thank you all. Thank you very much. Okay. All right. So, the next item on our agenda um we're we're staying with ceremonial items, but these are to be acknowledged. So, they're not we'll we'll talk about them, but we don't read them out. Um also, I would I will acknowledge Hold on a second here. So, we have we have public comment signed up

for one of them, 26 0306. However, the board's rules of procedures only allow public comment on consent agenda and regular agenda items. So, public comment is not allowed on resolutions or proclamations. So, I just want to make that note. So, I just wanted to make that a note that we don't do the resolute we don't do that. It's just some This isn't a board policies and and procedures. Not on that not on the item that is in ceremonial items. So, so, we'll acknowledge So, what we'll So, what we'll do here is the first one we'll be acknowledging is 260197, which is resolution for women veterans day 2026. Resolution for women veterans day 2026. Um the board has requested uh the the adopt the attached resolution proclaiming January of June 12th, 2026 as women veterans day in Durham County in honor of women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. June

Good evening, everyone. Thank you commissioners for this resolution and for your immense support. My name is Hayleen Windoly Rodriguez. I am a Navy veteran and a Durham County Veteran Service Officer. I just want to remind everyone the importance of remembering women in North Carolina and how they supported military and political efforts since the revolutionary war. Our contribution span nearly 250 years showcasing critical frontline sacrifices, tactical espionage, and advanced combat roles. We will be having our second annual

recognition of Women's Veterans Day on this Friday at 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Health and Human Services Building. You all are can enroll at Eventbrite, but we all above everything we want to thank everyone for the support, the community, and transcend evolving roles of women from nurses of 1901 to the 1974 combat support and leadership positions in recent conflicts. Honor and courage the honoring the courage and the sacrifices of all service women, past and present, because without them and all of our military personnel, not just our women, safeguard our freedom today. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Comments from commissioners.

I just wanted to thank Helen for your leadership on this issue. I have seen what you are doing to lift up our female veterans and I noticed at our our veteran Memorial Day celebration, there was a contingent of women there and they said that you had organized of women veterans getting together and so I I just I I really want to applaud you for your leadership in this area. So, thank you so much for what you're doing.

Valentine

my team. Without my team, there will be there's no I in team.

Thank you to the team also

[laughter]

for making it possible for what you are doing.

Ms. Ruiz, thank you for your uh reading of the resolution here this evening. Um I think it's important to to recognize that after World War II there were so many women who actually sacrificed through their service. Some who didn't

make it back home, some who did. Um the same thing in primarily much of the battles throughout the history of our nation. But, I point to to World War II only to indicate that the women who came back were denied status as veterans in our country. And so, today you stand in the gap for many of those early trailblazers who served our country and didn't receive the recognition. And so, every opportunity that we get to shine a light on women and their service to our country, I'm happy to participate in that. So, thank you. And thank you to your team.

Thank you.

Okay. Any other comments from commissioners? Thank you very much. Okay. Oh, I flipped the wrong way. Sorry. All right, the next item on our agenda the next proclamation is the gun violence awareness month 2026. Um, I'm not going to read this whole description, but the board is requested to proclaim June 2026 gun violence awareness month um, in Durham [clears throat] County. Excuse me.

Good evening, everyone. Um, Chair Lee, Commissioners, Manager Hager, thank you for recognizing June as gun violence awareness month and for issuing this proclamation. Today, we honor the lives lost to gun violence, support survivors and their families, and reaffirm our commitment to building safer communities. This proclamation helps raise awareness and reminds us that preventing violence requires all of us working together, local leaders, community organizations, families, and residents. We appreciate the Board of County Commissioners for bringing attention to this important issue and for standing with those impacted by gun violence. Together, we can continue working towards a future where every person can live, learn, work, and thrive in safety. Thank you.

Okay. Uh, comments from Commissioners on the proclamation for gun violence awareness month 2026. Uh, Commissioner Valentine.

Uh, thank you, Chair. Thank you, uh, Ms. Harris, for, um, the proclamation. And I just want to say that, right now in our community, um, it's timely that we talk about, uh, gun violence and, um, the plague that it is um, inflicting on our community right now. And so, um, to to who's listening, uh, we all play a part in ensuring that our communities are safe. And so, it starts with uh our households. It spreads to our neighborhoods, into our communities, and to the city. Each and every one of us has to do their part in ensuring that our community is safe. And I hope that you will join the people who are doing the hard work on the ground, and also join all of the the policy makers who are making some tough decisions in this area in making our safe uh making our community safe. And so, thank you.

Um uh Vice Chair Lum.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harris, uh for coming in and for all the work that you've done uh across Durham County over the years. I wanted also add and give you the opportunity to share, as we have many people here, to share some of the programs that Durham County has to really address gun violence, especially in in the early year years uh for like Project Build and other programs.

So, um uh Durham County does house the Project Build um program, which is our gang violence intervention and prevention program. Um we recently added the prevention um to include 10 to 13-year-olds, as well as our aftercare, which will include any youth that has participated in Project Build. We'll

follow them for the next 9 to 12 months to ensure that they are able to maintain and be self-sufficient. Um we also have our Justice Services Department who works with those individuals who are justice involved, um and that is um directed by Director Humphrey. Um so, we do have several investments within Durham County that is working towards a safer community around violence reduction.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay. The next item on our agenda is the proclamation for National Re-unification Month. Now, um just a moment [clears throat] ago I said generally generally speaking we don't do public comment on proclamations. Um um however, I don't think that that was expressively expressively written anywhere, and so I'm going to allow 1 minute each person who signed up. Okay, just just for fairness. And then that's Do we Do we understand? So, we have uh Walia Burns, we have Amanda Wallace, Antoinette Halls, and Sharaka? Oh, I got it right. Okay, 1 minute each, okay? Um at the end of your 1 minute the microphone will turn off, okay? I I ask that you please respect this. I'm making an executive decision here to do that. To do this. Okay? So, before we do the proclamation, we'll do the 1 minute each here and we'll move on. So, we have You can go in in whatever order you wanted to go here, but I have Walia Burns. Here.

Okay, so um hi, yes, my name is Walia Burns. I am G'Hara's mother.

And my question to you guys is why do we need reunification funds if the kids was not taken in the first place? Seems like y'all playing this cycle and it's not really doing anything good. Um y'all putting money in places that seems to be already I want to say like useful, but I'm I'm not completely understanding. Why do y'all have reunification funds for children who has housing, who has uh a a fit parent fit becoming fit parenting for themselves? Why do y'all guys have that? Um my son is now 2 and I'm missing valuable time with him. I should have my son back by now. Uh it's he's 2 years old. I I had to go through the system for 2 years now. I'm tired of it. I want you guys out of my life.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Burns.

What can be done though? That's my question.

Thank you, Ms. Burns. Um Ms. Wallace Oh, or uh Ms. Hughes, Ms. Halls, you're going to go. Okay, Ms. Halls.

name is Antoinette Halls and I'm an impacted parent. My My rights were terminated in 2016. And to this day, I am still fighting to get access to my my son who was adopted. So, I know about reunification. But, it was nothing that Durham County did. It was nothing that Social Services did. It was nothing that anyone did but God who held me and kept me till I could get back to my children, where I could find them. And I found them on my own. And reunification is a wonderful thing. But, it it is even more wonderful even though you had to fight through the whole process. And they say, "Well, you're not fit. You're not this." And who whose right is it for you to tell me? I don't understand how you can justify

taking somebody's child and let their parents walk away into the abyss into public society. If they're not fit for parenting, they're not fit for society.

Does that make sense?

Thank you, Ms. Halls.

Thank you.

Um okay, Ms. Wallace.

So, my name is Amanda Wallace and I'm the founder of Operation Stop CPS, which is a grassroots campaign and our mission is to abolish the family policing system. And we're here tonight for two things. One, because the Department of Social Services is trying to pass this uh resolution when they are, again, the second slowest county in North Carolina to reunify children. On average, children are stolen from their families and kept in foster care for over 677 days. So, it's laughable if it wasn't impacting families that y'all would be sitting here trying to pass this tonight. And the second thing is the budget is going to be passed. And we're we're demanding that one, at least, 1% of the budget go to family reunification and preservation. Because why isn't it already? Why is it that you're taking children from their families for housing and not just giving them housing. Like, this is a moral problem in this county. Like, make sure that the budget reflects your values.

Thank you.

That's what needs to happen.

Thank you, Ms. Wallace.

Good evening. My name is Sharaka Pettiford. Um to proclaim June as National Reunification Month in Durham while myself and a plethora of other families and mothers are fighting like hell to reunify our families,

it's a slap in the face. It's disrespectful as

So, I'm going to ask I'm going to have to ask that you not use that language. Thank you. Thank you.

I don't come to these meetings because I don't like to be lied to and I don't like how y'all lie in my face. So, that's why I stay far away from these, but I want y'all to know until my children are returned you will see me, you will hear me, and you won't get the peace that you think you have. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Pettiford. Okay. Please move along. So, the proclam- the proclamation for National Reunification Month the board is requested to proclaim June 2026 as National Reunification Month in Durham County. Director Clapp.

Thank you, everyone. I just want to say thank you very much for acknowledging that this month. This is a huge part of the work that my staff do every day to reunify children. It is also Fatherhood Awareness Month and I just want to say having just lost mine recently we do know how important fathers are to this process. So, I want to wish everyone a happy Father's Day and I just want to say thank you for your support for our efforts to continue to reunify children with their families and for my staff that work hard every day and and do the hard work. So, thank you.

Ms. Wallace. Ms. Wal- but but you can't but you can't

interrupt like that. Ms. Wallace Ms. Wallace Ms. Wallace nobody nobody interrupted No one interrupted you. I'm asking that you don't interrupt anyone else. It's very simple. If you continue If you continue speaking, if you continue speaking, I'm going to ask you to leave. If you continue to speak, I'm going to ask you to leave. I'm trying to be nice. Okay, if you can if you continue to speak, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You say and she say one that thing else, I'm going to have to have to Okay. Let's go. It Try I'm trying to be nice here. Trying to give you the opportunity, but I'm telling you you can't keep speaking. No, I've already I've already asked her to leave. No, so I'm actually asking you to leave. Thank you. Yes. I'm asking you to leave. Thank you. Please please remove Miss Wallace. Good Yes, I'm I'm telling you to leave the chambers. Okay. Just a You're being You're being asked to leave that because you're interrupting the interrupting our meeting and you cannot return. Thank you. Keep going.

Let's go. Sheriff's deputies, please. Let's just All right. All righty. We will continue on. Security, can we please Okay. Okay, so that was the last proclamation that we had. I apologize for the interruptions here. Okay, next item on our agenda is consent agenda. Uh we have a few items here, but I'll and that's been that are moved from our work session to our regular session. I'll accept a motion to approve or are there any comments about the consent agenda? Okay. I'll accept the I'll will accept accept the motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved.

Second.

It's been moved and properly seconded that we approve

the consent agenda. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please use the same sign. Passes unanimously. Now we've moved on to our other business, which the only thing we have on our agenda for other business is the adoption of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget ordinance. Okay. We do have Since this is our other business our regular agenda items, we do have public comment. We have four. And I apologize. There's a couple last names or first names I can't I can't read. I don't I don't understand. So I'll just read them out here. So the first is going to be uh Jack Turnwald. And they're going to be over here. And uh we'll do 3 minute 3 minutes cuz it's just four. Then we have the first name of the Phoenix. Oh. Yeah, last Okay, Laura Phoenix. Uh it'll be second. Then Heidi Jodlin. Okay. Okay. And then Christy Clem I'm sorry. Clement? Oh, Clement. Okay. So those are the four we have signed up. We'll do 3 minutes each. This is the budget ordinance and public comment for it.

All right. Uh good evening, commissioners. I'm Jack Turnwald. My pronouns are they/them. I want to address the budget tonight in relationship to pride. I've heard several of you who sit here tonight say things about budgets being moral documents, reflections of values. I used to think policy was a love language. It still can be.

For 3 years I was living in a town 40 minutes away where four council members and the mayor were refusing to adopt the county's non-discrimination ordinance. I ran for office as an out trans human. My partner at the time had me wear an air tag because they were afraid based on the emails that I was getting that someone was going to kill me. But now that town has a new mayor and a new council that just issued the town's first pride proclamation and joined the non-discrimination ordinance. I moved back to Durham at a difficult time because I'm rooted in community here and I expected to feel held. Seeing elected here preemptively cower to discriminatory executive orders instead feels shameful. Listening to crocodile tears and statements of solidarity from the folks who voted to remove pride funding last year, I I don't even know what to say about. Um ultimately programming in Durham that centers black folks and queer folks shouldn't even be characterized as DEI. It should just be programs for constituents because a good number of your constituents are black or queer or both. Stop preemptively throwing folks under the bus. What we actually need is as an apology, as repair, is pride funding to be restored. Library programs and committees to be restored. The LGBTQ committee was eliminated. Apologize for the harm that occurred. As adults, we're actually really terrible of example terrible examples of making apologies. You guys made a really nice statement of solidarity. I didn't hear anywhere in there the words, "I'm sorry."

Okay. Thank you.

Uh Sorry, I got a got a order here. oh Laura Laura Phoenix. Oh, over here.

Yes, hi. I'm Laura Phoenix. My pronouns are they and she. I don't have a prepared statement, but I'd like to echo the words of my friends Jack my friend Jack and urge you to do more than words and to restore budgeting for pride. Um to to like do more than statements, but let your actions make the repair that we're asking for.

Yeah. Thank you. Uh Uh Heidi.

Good evening. I'm Heidi Jo Hetland and I'm a physical therapist with Durham Public Schools and I'm a resident of Durham. Um as a PT, I'm part of the classified staff that was affected by the major uh pay debacle from a couple years ago. We have not had raises in 2 years as therapist. Um the salary compression and the low salaries for classified staff are not helping us recruit people or maintain staff members highly qualified staff members. Um over the past year, the PT department of nine people have lost six. You right now are looking at half the PT department that covers the entire county with myself and Miss Clem here. So, we cannot attract people. I know several people who want to come work for Durham. They live in Durham. They cannot afford to work for Durham. It is too much of a salary cut and we really need to invest in these supports that support the schools and support the students the students especially the kids in special ed, the custodians, the bus drivers. We need these people to feel valued. We need them to be able to live on the salary they are making. People I know work two and three jobs and still don't make the same amount of money that's six figures which is what many people in Durham County way up high make and they work three jobs. Some I've heard live in their cars and they're not making enough

to even live off of working all those jobs. So there are many I know tangible items on the budget but I I'm asking you to invest encourage DPS to invest in the classified staff, the lower paid staff and maybe the higher paid people don't get a raise this year. We've gone without one for two years and just to allocate if if this keeps continuing like our department cannot function if we lose any more people and we're looking at lawsuits from children not getting federally mandated services. So please please consider this. Please urge DPS to do what they need to do and can do to retain staff and continue to support our children. Children are leaving to go to charter and private schools but who's not leaving? The kids in wheelchairs with high need autism, kids with AAC devices. They are not they don't have to be served in private schools and even charter schools some take the kids and some don't. One of my students wanted to go to the charter school where her sister went. She they don't have access to their second floor, no elevator so she doesn't get to go where the rest of her family went. So those students stay here and the needs and demands on the therapists, the instructional assistants and special education are not going to decrease very much in the grand scheme of things. So please consider the people that keep the school going. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Christie Clapp lead physical therapist. I've been with DPS for 10 years now, I think. Couldn't come to the budget hearing, so I wanted to come tonight. Um I don't know if this final decisions are made or not, but um I really hope classified pay as a whole is taken into account. Um I cannot think of a single classified employee that does not positively impact students in the school. Not a single one. Everybody thinks of teachers, but it's all the classified folks that do so many things behind the scenes. And when those people leave to go 10 minutes down the

road to take a the same job that pays them more, then there's huge gaps in the schools. And those gaps are felt by the students. Those gaps are felt by the students. Heidi Jo just said it, but um the uh or the PT department, we've operated at 62% staffed for most of the year. The best we got was 80% staffed. So, what does that mean? That means I work a lot of hours on the weekends writing papers, writing reports for Medicaid, federally mandated IEP services that there's about 70% of the people we need trying to serve the students in our district. The most vulnerable students. It's not a personal thing about me, but my father passed away less than 2 weeks ago. What was I doing on that day? I was writing IEPs. I was with him. I was at the I was at my parents' home, but because I can't ask a half-staffed department to do extra, on his final day I'm doing paperwork. What did I do the next morning? I joined virtual IEP meeting. Because if I don't, a student doesn't get served, something goes out of a compliance, and that gets pushed a week or two down the road where I have to ask somebody in my department to do more. It's not about me. That is one example I can think of. But there are so many. So many examples like that. I I mean, right now we just took two resignations within the last 3 weeks. So we're now 55% staffed. We couldn't find contract agencies to fill our positions. Is it sustainable for us to continue to do what we've done to try to provide federally mandated services? Not at all.

You have good therapists leaving. You have good IAs leaving. You have good custodians leaving. You have great bus drivers leaving. All of those folks are folks I collaborate with on a regular basis to provide a better learning experience for our students. Of course I collaborate with the teachers. Commissioner Burton and I worked together for several years at Spring Valley. Of course I talk to the teachers, but I talk to all the classified folks even more.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So our budget ordinance. Um do we have a presentation or we just Are we Do we have discussion?

Um there is not a a presentation on the ordinance, and I would ask Mr. Lane to come forward and share some remarks as we go through this next step.

Thank you, Manager Hager, and I thank you for the opportunity to speak, Commissioners, and to the citizens listening. The only thing I really want to say is I want to speak to the unsung departments in Durham County that had to take a cut to their budgets to make this work. I I think sometimes they get forgotten and I just want you all to understand that a number of departments every other department in the county almost every other department had at least a 2% budget cut to help pay for the budget in total. Um it's been another hard year uh for commissioners and particularly for manager Hager to figure out how to do this budget. I will say we are not out of the woods yet. We probably have another couple of years to go before we see sort of positive revenue growth given the situation that we're in. So, we need to be prepared to continue making hard decisions and we all need to be involved and support uh the community in general. Thank you.

Okay. Uh comments from commissioners. After Oh. Vice Chair Alston.

Well, I was going to do the discussion before or or was it after?

Yeah, we can start with discussion. Yeah.

Do you want Okay, I don't I don't know if you were raising your hand to What? Okay.

I have some comments to share, but I didn't know if we were going to do it before or after.

And I would make a few remarks. I do to echo Keith's comments. Um this budget has been one of the toughest of my career. I've been doing budget and finance since um probably early '90s and the way the shifts federally and state have occurred it has put more pressure on local governments in ways I never imagined. Changes in policy that partners who used to support us at levels that they're just not doing anymore. And it's just putting more pressure. I will say I'm proud to be in a and that um to the occasion and and be supportive. And although we couldn't meet all those requests, we had over over $40 million worth of requests above our available revenue. That's a lot. That's a big gap. Next year we have um at least 12 million, we know going into the budget season for 2027-28. Um due to some federal shifts that we're going to have to try to figure out well, how do we close that gap? There's not enough dollars to support public education, not enough for our community colleges. There are just gaps everywhere and most important um as we look at county operations, I do want to say that I'm so grateful as Keith mentioned as we had to try to

close the gap with this budget almost 3 weeks before we needed to adopt or put a recommended one together, the departments rose to the occasion and committed to finding dollars to make sure that we address those most important needs. And so I am forever grateful for our departments that um keep Durham first and are often working a lot more to meet those needs because they have fewer resources. And it is a shared challenge and so I do hope our state and federal partners will rise to the occasion a different level as we try to serve our residents so that we can keep keep our community and our state strong. And so again, I want to thank everyone um who have been a part of this process and I know we weren't able to meet all the needs, but we've in my opinion done a good job of balancing the limited resources that we have um to the budget and management Services Department, who I pushed really hard, um, who they, um, know I always say I'm a frustrated budget analyst, so, um, I'm I worked just as hard as they do, probably, um, as long, but I will say that we started this process in September because we knew it was going to be tough. And although we talked about the 2% that was reduced, we have cut a lot more because we pushed hard to find operational efficiencies in an effort to make it available so that we could realign those resources so that they would be available to others. And so, um, again, I thank you, Budget and Management Services team. The department has the staff who will get an adjustment. 2% is not what is desired, but we're grateful that we can move

forward with that amount. And I would also like to just say to our executive leadership team and then others, thank you, and most important, for our board who asked thoughtful, hard, tough questions, and were patient as we were, um, responsive. So, again, I want to thank the board.

Okay. So, go ahead.

Yeah, I just want to start off by first thanking, uh, and echoing Manager Wheeler's comments. I know this has been, I mean, I've been on the board, this is my sixth budget now. It has been the hardest one that we have had to go through, I'm sure for Commissioner Jacobs, she has a more of a history of, I don't know if we've had a budget like this one, um, in quite some time. And I know as, uh, Director Keith said that we have years to come before we're out of the hole, especially with state legislation coming through that is really putting a target on local governments on what we are taking away more of our powers of what we're able to do. And I appreciate so so much all of the department directors and heads who have taken cuts and who have found the savings within their departments even if it meant, you know, key programs that we really need um having to be re-shifted. I think for me, you know, I I've talked to some folks that I was like my mom, uh growing up she was a substitute teacher. She used to be a full-time educator, but when me and my sisters were, you know, growing up she gave it up to take care of us and then when we went to school she went back into the classroom as a substitute and she would often be called I was in Wake County public school system to be an EC substitute because she would always get those calls regularly cuz nobody would ever say yes to to

substituting in the EC classrooms cuz it was a really really difficult role. And having seen her grow up or having grown up watching her in those classrooms and just seeing a snippet of what you know, our EC educators and workers go through every day I know how hard this budget is and I I've talked to I know each of y'all individually and my worry is that with the restrictions coming from the state of what that can mean next year of if this is our last if this is one of our last potential opportunities to at least get us to that even and equal minimum wage for our DPS uh employees and Durham County staff. And I know it'll be I was hoping I know Keith, sorry to put you on on spot, wondering can you remind us how much like one cent half cent quarter cent like tax increase is a monthly per resident for like the average homeowner average home price?

It depends on the valuation of a home one cent on a on a $400,000 home is $40. One cent on a $200,000 home is $20. So do the math that way. Half a cent would be half that amount. Half a cent on a $400,000 house would be $20 a year additional on their property tax. Is that the question you're asking? So that's how the math works.

Yes. I know we're going to have to vote but I just wanted to put that out there in case you all I know we had asked that I in case we don't have this power next year if we can't close the gap this year.

[applause]

All right. Commissioner Burton.

Yes, thank you Chair Lee. Um from

I would be willing to do that. Um looking at what is given from DPS and one of the things I think about is this. And I I understand that this is important. Um that people need these raises if it's just a quarter cent. That's it. Um I think that many of our residents have expressed to us that they don't want any more tax increases. They have. Okay? You may have not, but many of our residents have, okay? Um but I'm willing to do just a quarter cent, okay? So.

Um I think it's important that we hear from our county manager and also our budget staff. There is no um question that what that your needs and the heartbreaking stories that we've just heard are not important um and should be funded. The problem is that we have other other heartbreaking needs happening and I would really like to hear from the manager because what we're facing with the federal government already in this year's budget, we had to absorb $3 million of cuts to social services. We have our DSS director back here. Um we are I just ran into our Medicaid director at a family moving forward

event on um Thursday night and she came up to me and said, "I am so scared because the number of people we've already seen a 10% decrease in the number of residents in just 6 months getting SNAP benefits. This is basic food security. Uh and there's a real concern um right now we don't have enough staff to deal with having 6 months uh repeated eligibility requirements now for both SNAP and Medicaid, which is going to increase the number of staff that we have in order to do the work and we're actually losing our staff. So, we can understand the stress of work. We are losing our DSS staff due to the stress of what's going on with these cruel cruel mandates from the federal government that are deliberately trying to push people off of getting food and medical care. But, the way it's translating for us in Durham County government is that our staff is leaving just like you're talking about with Durham Public Schools. We're losing We have new requirements in child welfare that now requires an investigation within 24 hours. We're losing our child welfare staff. And what I just heard learned a few days ago is now we're paying having to pay temps $150 an hour. I'm sorry, a day to come in and do this work. So, what I'm trying to say is that we have to balance a lot of needs and we also have to make sure that Durham County is on stable financial ground because if we're not and we lose our AAA bond rating it's going to be bad for Durham Public Schools. It's going to be bad for everyone cuz that's how we borrow money at at affordable rate. So, it's very complex, but what I'm

asking is that it's not just once we as we raise taxes that means we're going to have to fund everything going forward that we approved this year. It becomes our budget for next year, and we take on those costs. And it's just more that we have to take on at the same time when we're going to have to fill in We don't know what's going to happen with DSS. So, I am not going to I want to make a sound decision that is not just to respond to Durham Public Schools staff, but to all of the complex needs we have in Durham County departments and into the entire community. And I know [clears throat] for me personally, as a Durham County Commissioner, there are five of us who are responsible for over a billion dollar budget and ultimately for the financial stability and security of Durham County government going forward. So, that's my context and I would like to hear from our staff.

[clears throat]

Um we've been as I as shared in my remarks earlier, we've uh we we do five-year modeling um in some areas and 10 years um on our capital side. This year we're about to have one of the toughest we've ever experienced. Last year we started in No- in Sep- September with doing base budget realignments, base budget reviews because we didn't want to pass that burden on to some of our other partners who couldn't afford potentially to absorb the levels of expense. Um as I shared earlier, we're monitoring the federal changes to SNAP eligibility and other areas and so food

security, food um housing security, all of those areas are places that we are um trying to plan for. We also have uh in the past couple of years some of the highest tax rates that we've um ever seen because of the reassessment process and it's a good thing that our values have increased. It also means that many of our taxpayers have experienced significantly higher property tax rate increases. So, we are balancing our our residents' ability to pay um also with pressures that we're having to absorb because our federal and state partners have shifted how they support the organization. From my perspective, I I am concerned about an increase in the property tax rate because of the pressure that our residents are experiencing and also from the feedback that we've received. Um ultimately, it is a board decision. We're about to have some strong um headwinds before us and many of you have seen it. I do feel in Durham, we will get through it regardless. I do know that all entities that are funded by Durham will have to join us in that deep dive this year as they re-apri- re-evaluate how do we weather this storm because we're at a tipping point now that we're not going to be able to absorb it the way we did in the current fiscal year. So, ultimately, this is a board decision. From where I sit, I'm concerned because we have higher debt service payments coming on board that support primarily um Durham Public

Schools. Um we have um also in looking at the human services space um with shifts potentially um with Medicaid um funding as well as SNAP, some of our most vulnerable residents will be on the fringes. And so um at this moment, it's hard for me to say one way or the other. It is a board decision. I am concerned at the level at which our um our residents have been um having to address needs through the increased property tax rates.

Valentine.

Chair, thank you. So, when we initially uh received the county manager managers their proposed budget, it was sort of sticker shock to even see the two cent uh proposed hike. I was hoping that we could relieve the burden on the taxpayer this year. But, considering where we are, uh I think that was probably the responsible uh thing to do. In addition to the uh potential federal changes that are going to be catastrophic in ways that the community really is not uh digesting at this particular moment. Um beginning in the fall, it's going to be something that we're going to have to monitor literally on a on a daily basis. And so, as I ponder the decisions that we have to make, um I'm thinking about over the course of this budget season, hearing repeatedly uh what our situation is fiscally, low sales tax, decreasing uh occupancy tax dollars, which will be increased down to zero

in the future, less than expected uh revenue from our property tax. And even in light of that, we've been able to provide an adequate level of funding to our schools, I believe. And we've had some discussions about even doing a little better. The question is how much? And I think we need to be responsible with respect to to how we do that. The other good news part of the story is this