Work Session

Good morning everyone and welcome to our work session, our June 1st work work session. It is 9:00 a.m. Well, a little after 9:00 a.m. as a matter of fact. And we'll go ahead and get started. I'll read our public charge. Um, vice chair alum, would you mind reading the land acknowledgement? Okay. All right. The board of commissioners asks members and citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful, courteous manner both with the board and fellow citizens. At any time should a member of the board or any citizen fail to observe this public charge, the chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control. Should the quorum fail to be restored, the chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed. Vice chair alum.

Thank you, Chair Lee. As we convene for the Durham County Commissioners meeting, it's crucial to recognize the painful truth of history. We stand on the stolen ancestral lands of the Kataba, Eno, Okanichi, Shakori, and Tuscarora peoples whose deep connection to this land predates our arrival. We acknowledge with humility the unjust displacement and violence that occurred leading to the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their homelands. Their resilience in the face of such adversity is a testament to their strength and spirit. May we humbly honor the ancestors and elders of these nations both past and present by committing ourselves to fostering understanding, healing, and justice for all who inhabit this land. Let us walk forward together with open hearts, acknowledging the past and embracing a future guided by compassion, respect, and unity.

Thank you, vice chair alum. The first item on our agenda is close session. So, I'll accept a motion to to go into close session for the for the for the following reason. The board requests to adjourn into close session to prevent the disclosure of sensitive public security information protected under

uh North Carolina General Statute 132-1.7A3 pursuant to 143-318.11 A1.

Chair Lee, I move that we go into close session for the reason stated. Second.

All right. Our motion to go into close session for the reason state has been moved and properly seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor say I.

I.

All oppose, please use the same sign. We are now in close session.

come out of close session. No action was taken. Uh we will now recess the meeting to attend the Junth flag raising ceremony. Attorney Williamson, do I need a motion to recess?

Okay, so we are recessed and we'll return around 12:30.

one. Um earlier we had a closed session, we came back and we opened it back up and now we're continuing. We were in recess to do the Junth event and now we are back in open session for our regular meeting. Um so this is a re uh this is the second item on our agenda which is what the third item which is we're reconvening from our recess. The fourth item on our agenda are citizen comments. We have two we have one in person and one online. We have internet halls who is in person. She will go first. We have three minutes each. And then we have Amanda Wallace who is online. So after Miss Hall speaks, we will um go online to Miss Wallace. Hello, my name is Antonet Haw and I think it's very rich that you guys um go to the Junth meeting and um pay homage to the Indians every time you start your meeting knowing that your actions are contrary to support and services for our current marginalized community. And I mean that I mean it is it's lukewarm at best your actions to support this community. And of course if for the record it shows and now you out here putting out fires because what you did last year put the working class in Durham County in additional financial peril. So I I mean, you know, I don't expect that you're going to do that again this year because it's going to be worse next year. It doesn't seem like you have the citizen in mind when you're making these administrative decisions. Let me

recommend you invert the pyramid, right? Have the flat on the top, which is the people, and the people with the money and the corporations at the bottom serving us. Let me recommend that. Or even yet, dig into your coffers, dig into your reservoir, and pull out some money that's going to assist this community and help us stay afloat during this crazy administration. And for the record, I do believe that Durham County needs a drug court because we have a lot of people suffering addictions. However, um we also need that 1% to go to C child protective services um reunification and family development. We need that. And for the last time, not really. Y'all need to audit DSS. She needs to be audited. She's moving money and the money is available and she act like she send her social workers to court telling the judge, "Well, we don't do that. We don't have those funds. We're not able to do that." Which is a hot lie. It's a hot lie. And y'all still supporting her. So, I mean, if you continue to do what you do, then you continue to do more harm to us, and that's going to cost you. It's going to cost you your seats. I promise you, the decisions, some decisions have been made. And and and you're at the top because if we want our better quality of life, we got to get rid of the thing that caused us harm, which is you. You're causing the working class in Durham County harm. And that's the end of the story. I'm going back to work to earn the money that you gonna ask me for.

Right. Thank you. The next speaker is

our virtual speaker and that's Miss Amanda Wallace.

Yes. You hear me?

Yes. Yes, we can hear you. Miss Wallace, you have three minutes. uh start before my start. I just wanted to say Larry St. Drew um is in the waiting room uh and she sent an email to the to the clerk of the board tried to sign up cuz she couldn't be there at 9 and then wait until 1:00 um but her plan was to be there. So I just wanted to put that on the record that she's in the waiting room and trying to speak.

Could you repeat could you repeat the person's name, Miss Wallace, that's in the waiting room?

Leslie St. Drew,

thank you very much.

Okay, thank you. Um, so yes, my name is Amanda Wallace and I am the founder of Operation Stop CPS, which is a grassroots campaign, and my mission is to abolish the family policing system, which some people call child protective services. I'm also a resident of Durham. And I want I'm here today because I want to clear up some misinformation that was spread by Commissioner Steven Valentine at the last work session. Well, first like he was completely right that there is a movement to abolish the family policing system, not just locally but nationally. And the demand is to reallocate funds directly to families. Again, that should not be revolutionary. It should just be what we do. But here we are. Valentine likes to straddle the fence. Um, behind closed doors, he says he is reading books like Torn apart by Professor Dorothy Roberts and committing to getting into the community to talk to people impacted by the system. But in public, he pledges his allegiance to the system. I'm very confused. Right. So that may be why Valentine misqued the amount 1% of the budget would equate to,

even though we gave him the numbers when we met last month. We are demanding 1% of the social services budget, which is about 1 million total. And when you split that in half, it's about 500,000 for family reunification, which is currently just a mere $52,000 that's allocated to family reunification and 500K for the for family preservation. Valentine also stated that some people in the community think money can just be found and used to fund these kinds of demands. And I just want to remind y'all that at the May 21st work session, Wendy Jacobs literally thanked staff for finding the money for the family treatment court proposal. So y'all can find money when it benefits the system, but not when it benefits the people. Family treatment court is harmful. In the book trial by treatment, it shows how reforms like family treatment court keep that keep power and discretion in the same hands just further entrenches the very problems that you promise to solve. So with the same enthusiasm the commissioners have for this solution that research has already shown is ineffective. Y'all funded it before and now you're trying to do it again. Put that towards allocating 1% of the budget to reunification and preservation. And in closing, today is the first day of stolen children's month. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, history will show that you you sitting on the DAS were responsible for funding the stealing of children.

All right. Thank you, Miss Wallace.

That's that's all we had uh for sign up for public comment. All right. So, next item item on our agenda is the consent agenda. Manager Hagar. Good afternoon, commissioners. We have several consent agenda items for your consideration. Um the first one is

receive keep Durham Beautiful's annual report. I just want to acknowledge um Tanya Dotlick who is here who's the director of Keep Durham Beautiful and I just want to thank you and your team for the amazing work. When you look at your report and the amount of funding that you get from the county and the city um combined is, you know, really and how much you raise outside of that is amazing. plus all of the work that you do. It's just really incredible uh the impact um that you are having on our community. So, uh I just really want to thank you and acknowledge all of that. Okay. The second item is 260263, approval of budget ordinance amendment number 26 BCC884 for the Department of Social Services to recognize Duke Energy Carolina's LLC, Shine the Light Funds in the amount of $16,99. The next item is 260264. This is approval of board review of the fisc year 2627 county funding plan for the home and community care block grant for agent adults. The next one is 260266. This is an approval to enter into a contract with Southern Elevator Company, Inc. in the amount of $148,200 to provide elevators, maintenance, and repair services across Durham County government facilities and parking decks.

The next item is 260283. This is to approve and authorize the manager to execute a resolution and lease agreement with Bull City Slabs LLC for a suite at Shops of Hope Valley. The next item is 260284. This is to approve Durham County support for and participation in triangle land conserv purchase and protection of 145 acres of farmland at 4209 4310 Hall Road including a 750,000 county contribution. The next one is 260298. This is the library's request to award a contract for soul source purchase of digital content management services for ebooks, e audio books, and e magazines and streaming content from Overdrive. Okay, this concludes our consent agenda items. Okay, any discussion of the consent consent items that were presented by manager Hager? Any discussion from commissioners?

Commissioner Dickens.

I just have one question because our DSS director is here. The amount of money that we're getting from Duke Energy for

the energy assistance, is that consistent or how does that amount compare to what we've been got what we've gotten in the past? Do you do you know?

Okay. Can Can we uh can we have you come up here because um there's no way we can the audience can hear that.

Good afternoon. Yes, it is consistent. Um sometimes it will range around anywhere from the 16 to maybe even 30 to 35,000 range. um depending on the the time of the year.

Thank you.

Okay. I'm sorry. I thought it was on. Um any further discussion from commissioners or questions about the consent agenda? Okay, thank you very much, manager Hager. These consent agenda items will go to our regular session for approval.

Okay. So, this starts our other business and um I'll turn it over to manager Hager for this.

Yes, sir. We have two items that we would like the board to suspend the rules to approve um due to the time-sensitive nature of the matters. The first one is u we're requesting the board suspend the rule and approve the budget ordinance amendment 26 BCC086 appropriating 1,379,000

of general fund fund balance and authorize a manager to execute a contract with TKC management services for facility management at the Durham County Detention Center. And this is as a result of an RFP and staff have worked um across um the finance budget sheriff's office and benchmark other places and have done quite a bit of due diligence over the past several months um may feel like a year almost in trying to see how best we support our um sheriff and in maintaining our detention center at a different level of service. And so we're asking that the board suspend the rules and um approve this budget amen ordinance and the contract.

Okay. Any uh discussion about this particular item that I hear?

Commissioner J.

Yeah, thank you. I just have a number of questions about this. I know in the past um this has been the responsibility of general services and so I think it would be helpful to understand some context around this um and also I don't think I saw usually the bid information is in here about the other um you know what the the other business you know who else bid on this. I didn't see that. Um, and I'm just wondering um what our cost has been per year for doing this work internally is one of my questions. And then second, I noticed it's for a five-year contract and I'm just wondering because it's would be a new thing that we're doing. Um, do we have the ability to actually not continue the contract if we decide that it's not um, working for us?

Sure. I'll answer the question about the contract terms. For all Durham County contracts, we have the ability to um, end the relationship with that vendor with a 30-day notice if my I see um, county attorney um, nodding. Yes. So 30 days is the time that's allowed um to give notice and we've actually executed that um for different reasons over the years for different vendors. Uh we can I'll have um the folks from the sheriff's office u to share about those who bid on the project as well as um Miss Martrio to share about that as well.

Good afternoon commissioners. Um there was only one bidder on the contract and they are actually here with us today to help answer any questions you may have. These gentlemen here from TKC Management Company. Um and of course uh general services can ask answer some of the questions as well. But regarding your question about is this something that once we start can we stop? We actually had a maintenance contract vendor in the facility from 2000 to 2012 through Aramark. Is that correct?

That's correct.