[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ to I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to go to the next room. We are now going to begin the Charlotte City Council Consent Action Review portion of our agenda tonight, but let's start with introductions and we'll start with our city attorney and then come around. Good evening, Patrick Baker, city attorney. Good evening, the one-of-mayfield council member at large. Darb Cargis-Six. Welcome Graham District 2, Marcus Jones City Manager. By-Liles Mayor. Impalaish. Jim Palashmara, at large. James Mitchell at large. Renee Johnson and I'm honored to represent District 4. Billy Tom's deputy city clerk. All right, thank you everyone. So we've called our meeting to order and we've had our introductions and so now let's move to the consent items that are on our agenda. Are there any consent items that any council member would like to have for a separate vote or for comment? Anyone? Yes, sir. All right, Ms. Azamira. I remember 33. 33 for a separate vote or a comment. But I have a question about that. So, okay. So separate vote. Yes, all right. Anyone else? Okay. Hearing none. A mere number of questions. Yes. Number 28, please. 28. Question or a comment? Okay hearing none a mere number is Johnson yes number 28th plea 28 Question or comment question, okay got it Okay anyone else okay, so may I have a motion? I'm sorry Miss mayfield Okay, that's 28. Okay, we will have a separate vote for those with questions and then we'll go from there. So May, I have a motion for items 19 through 35 with the exception of 28 and 33. So hold back. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please raise your hands. Anyone opposed? No one's opposed. So let's go to item 28. Katz Micro Transit Service. Miss Mayfield and Miss Johnson had questions and area where we are with that. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll have Brent Kagle from Kat. Mayor members of City Council, good evening. My name is Brent Kagle. I'm interim Kat C-E-E-O. Ms. Johnson to your question, Micro Transit. It's a new mode that we are rolling out. With this contract, we'll enable us to roll it out into northern towns. We say that it's in the northern towns. It's Davidson, Cornelius Huntersville, but also in Charlotte for the initial rollout because it includes the area generally around North Lake Mall. So there are elements in the initial rollout to your question of what's the plan? There are 19 different zones, micro transit zones throughout the county, and the plan is to over the next few years to roll out micro transit and all of those zones, pending funding. Specific to university city, it is the next on the list. So funding allowed, it will is the next on the list. So funding allowed, it will be the next area that we look to roll out micro transit. We are currently having conversations with university city partners and some of the businesses in the university research park to see if there's a way for us to either roll it out on a limited basis sooner or to see if there are partnerships with some of the private businesses to enable us to roll it out as soon as possible. But it is next on the list to focus on as a roll out area. Thank you. That is something we've been talking about for a long time. So it's good to hear that we'll start North Lake Mall area in District 4 and then University City in District 4 is next. Thank you. Ms. Mayfield. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for the information, Mr. K. O. I wanted to just one highlight Marie was able to answer some of the questions I had. I personally always have a challenge when we look at an outside company, this company that we're talking about moving forward with is out of California somewhere, when we have local companies. But I do know that our local company, her right share did not apply. Yet I do say that I appreciate the extra work that was done. So this is not a given. The first thing I wanted to acknowledge the fact that you as a team that you all went out and you created a relationship because my challenges, outside of state company does not have the relationships locally. They don't know the drivers, they don't know the community. Mapquests is not always your plan and Charlotte when you don't know Charlotte Road so that can be challenging so I do appreciate that we have an organization locally that was identified and this is the question to my understanding the way that this particular contract is written there is also opportunities for other local rights share even though the contract is asking us to give the main contract to a company that is out of state. That is correct, ma'am. So there are several opportunities. One would be through expansion. So I mentioned there are 19 zones. This is, these are three of the zones. Each of those zones we could look to expand on the existing contract or run new RFPs for expansion as well as the ability of other providers to come in and partner with MV or just stand alone and provide the service on their own. So there is the ability to expand. That is also why we unbundled service provision from the software. Had we put those together, it would have been very, very difficult for smaller companies to provide both. So we unbundled those to provide the service as a separate contract from the software to create more opportunities locally. And I'm glad you spoke to that because I was going to ask that question as well, just really for public and for us to have it noted in the meetings that you are listening to what Councilmember Mitchell and others have asked as well as myself, with how do we on bondle these projects to give more opportunities? Mr. Manager, I would like for us to just take into consideration. We have local companies. We have a number of local companies in the city that unfortunately have packed up and moved to other cities because of honestly lack of support. So I do appreciate that we do have one of our local organizations that has a considerable commitment of 38.14% on it and they will probably be reaching out to others. But I do think we have an opportunity to really look home, looking at our own backyard and see how we can support our businesses to get them to the level. For them to be able to move a conversation. Because this request is asking for a minimum three year initial term, with also authorizing since this is ABC&D, authorizing you the ability to, for up to two additional one year term. So that potentially could be five years that this one company has access, even though we're going to be expanding to other zones. We need to make sure that there's opportunity to have Charlotte growth in Charlotte. Thank you Mr. Mitchell. I'm going to be very brief. I'm just going to echo Councilmember Mayfield. Brent thank you. Cats have shown a tremendous desire to be very passionate about CBI inclusion. So thank you and 38.14% of participation. We haven't seen these numbers in a long time, so thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. All right. All right, so we've... All right, Ms. Esmeral. Thank you, Mayor. So Mr. Kegel, I wanted to follow up from Councilwoman Johnson's question. You mentioned there are 17 areas that's been identified. Could you please send us what those 17 areas are? Yes ma'am. Okay. All right. That's all I have. Thank you. Hearing no one else for a comment. We have a motion and a second and any further discussion. All in favor of item 28 for cats, micro transit service, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? All right, that passes. Now we'll go to item 33, municipal record retention and disposition schedule update, Ms. Esmeral. Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. So transparency issue keeps coming back. And I know there have been conversations about backlog of record request. What implications would this have on our backlog of record request if any. So and now also deferred to the clerk if they have anything specific to add but this should have no impact. This is just updating the retention schedules and the terminology to be consistent with the current standards. Yes, I did review that and I, this looks like more of a state requirement for maintaining public records, but at some point we would like to get an update on where we are with the backlog, how long, some of this requests how we need our queue, and what are the steps we are taking to address this issue, especially from the transparent perspective. Yes, ma'am. We'll work on that for you. All right. Thank you. Ms. Mayfield. I'm sorry. Thank you. Madam Mayor and we do have our assistant city clerk here. And I just for clarification, we were advised earlier that there was a considerable backlog regarding our meeting minutes. We had a number of challenges with staff as well as transitioning training. So actually the minutes that we are working on approving is actually getting us caught up and this is a question not a statement. Is this helping to get us caught up because of the backlog that we previously had? So to my understanding as we're going through and approving these, this is to help us get back on track because of previous staff shortages and challenges that we had. Yes, ma'am, that's correct. And they didn't want to end it at you. The clerk's office didn't want to send you all at once. So they've been breaking them into packages. So if you recall, the last business meeting, you got six. You got six today and they might, they might put the forward more because there's only one meeting October to hurry and get you more caught up. But yes, ma'am, which I'm going to say I appreciate because that's given us small bites. They have to go back through and read. So I appreciate that, but I just wanted to clarify. So thank you for that. Thank you. I think the question is, is there's the records and then there are the minutes. The minutes are on our agenda for approval and our business meeting and they are I think 2022, 2022 minutes but this is about the records authority that we have to have what we have to keep up and what can be disposed of and so it's not I don't want to mix the two because we do have one item on the agenda here and then one in the retention area on this agenda, right? So for clarification, I was specifically speaking to the meeting minutes and why we are getting them at this point because of a backlog previously within the City Clerk's office and now they're playing catch up because of some challenges. So I was clarifying that right now, what we're getting are the minutes to help us get back on track. But this isn't because of any neglect. We had some staff challenges. So I, correct, yes, ma'am. That is correct. So Mr. Jones? I guess two things. So you've already approved item number 34, which are the minutes. And what was pulled was item 33, which the mayor was saying was something different. The records are different than the minutes. That's all I wanted to do and make sure that we are okay. So the memo would be on the records. The memo would be on the records. Correct. Yes, ma'am, to your, sorry, Ms. Ashmeer, you had requested the backlog of current record request. Yes, yes. If I heard that correctly. Yes, yes. Yes. OK. And so we'll get that additional information because as you know, we've had a, as as Miss Mayfield has said a difficult time with getting people out and ready these for approval. Miss Johnson did you have a question? I did thank you. I just wanted to clarify that we would like a report on the minutes and also the records retention. So we'd like an update for both. If the minutes, if we're looking at minutes from 2022, we'd like to know what the schedule is for them to be caught up. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right. So we have approved the meeting minutes. And so let's go to item 3 municipal records retention and disposition for vote to approve. Do I have a motion? Second. Second. Hearing no further discussion. All in favor of approval of the municipal records retention and disposition schedule update, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? If not, we are complete with our consent agenda items. And now I'd like to turn it over to the manager for an overview of our action review discussion topics. Thank you Mayor and members of Council for three items that are on action review agenda for tonight. And they're really carryovers from the committee meetings from last week. And what we try to do is in the action review, set you up for future votes for items. So the community area planning update, Monica Holmes will kick us off with that. That was in committee last week. It's not necessarily a vote for you and an upcoming meeting, but we thought it was important to make sure that the council is fully aware of the engagement that's going on with the community area planning. And how that also works a little bit with the strategic investment areas and all the engagement that's going on with that. Then we have two other items that came out of committee. The arts and culture governance which will lead to a future council action and the financial partner policy which will lead to a future council action. And Mayor, if for any reason, from a time perspective, if anything needs to be moved to my piece under policy, we can do that also. Okay. Thank you. All right, you're up. Okay, good evening. Mayor and council, if y'all are doing well. Monica Carney, Holmes, I'm the Deputy Planning Director and I am just going to introduce this topic and then I'm going to turn it over to our Acting Long Range Division Manager, Kathy Cornett, to really talk about the nuts and bolts of community area planning and where we are in the process. So this process kicked off in the winter of 2023 and our team has been hard at work further refining the Charlotte future 2040 plan really drilling down into those 14 sub areas, engaging the community, looking deeply at the policy map and kind of working through phases. So you'll hear from Kathy, we're in phase three of the project right now. And we are in the middle of an intense engagement season this fall. We just had our first set of meetings last week. Had over a hundred attendees on the west side, both virtual and in person. And I'm excited to really talk to you tonight about how community area planning and this area plan update can further refine that vision that we set several years ago that has really set us on a course linking together our mobility, our infrastructure investments, how we access our daily needs, and how we grow as a city. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Kathy. Please feel free to ask questions. We are excited to share with you where we are. Thank you Monica, Kathy Cornett. Again, acting long-range division manager and thank you very much for letting me be here this evening. So as you all know, and as Monica mentioned, with the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan in 2021, and then the Strategic Mobility Plan and the Unified Development Organists, our city has made tremendous strides in modernizing and broadening our toolbox to help manage growth. But we know that planning is an iterative process and it's never finished and we are hard at work on all of the implementation items that come from those plans for all three different efforts. And I'm going to concentrate tonight on the community area of planning process, as Monica mentioned. So in 2022, immediately after the adoption of the comprehensive plan we began the first major implementation item which was the adoption of the policy map and I want to make sure that you know where we are with refining that map through the community area planning process and also as Monica mentioned going to a little bit more detail on what our engagement looks like and what the workshops look like. So community area planning is that third tier of guidance that's needed to implement our vision. They'll provide more detailed development guidance than the comprehensive plan does across the 14 plan geographies. They demonstrate how the citywide vision and goals plays out for each of the in the unique context of each of those geographies. So we're developing all 14 plans concurrently over a two year period. So no area of our community is left waiting for the guidance. And the expected outcome of this effort are 14 plan documents. And the intended use of those is for decision makers like yourselves and for the community. and the expected outcome of this effort are 14 plan documents. And the intended use of those is four decision makers, like yourselves, to inform processes such as rezoning, also capital investments, and then the revised policy map. So this is what the process looks like over that two year period. The first four phases are scheduled to be completed at the end of this year and then we'll move into review and adoption in 2025. So phase one, which we call setting the stage, identified each geographies greatest needs in terms of access to housing, jobs, goods and services and also towards reducing any environmental impacts. This work is summarized in community reports which are available on our project website and they kind of are the background work that we did leading into the next two phases. So phase two, which we called creating great places, really reviewed the place type designations and was very focused on the place-based policies. And that work resulted in the revised policy map which was released on March 12th. And so if you go to the project website the adopted policy map is there and the revised policy map is there as well. Our next phase is called supporting the vision and that's what as Monaco mentioned we kicked off last week and here we're working we have been working throughout with our interdepartmental partners both at the city and the county level but in in this phase of our workshops they are really the star of the show because we know that the growth of the city is not just based on the play space policies but it's also very, very tied to projects and programs to help achieve that vision. So that is that's what's happening during this phase and I'll talk a little bit more in detail about that in a minute. Phase four is developing and that's almost concurrent with this phase is developing the plan documents so there will be 14 plan documents that will be ready right before we start reviewing adoption. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute as well. To talk a little bit about phase two engagement, give you an idea of what that look like. It wrapped up in the spring, but it was, we put our engagement really in three different buckets, constant, coordinated and collaborative. So a lot of not great things happened out of the pandemic, but I would say a good thing that happened is we really, really enhanced what we call our constant toolbox. So the things that are available on our website 24-7 and people have really grown to expect that that will be available. Then the coordinated is kind of the more in-person type events, the workshops and the meetings that we go to and all of those things that we're used to. And collaborative is what we're doing here tonight, what we do with elected and appointed officials, planning commission, et cetera. So that work had over, all of that engagement in phase two, over 130,000 interactions. So we had 42 workshops for each of the 42 workshops for the 14 geographies. So for each geography, there was a virtual option and two in-person options. We had almost 500 participants and almost 900 comments. In addition for that period, a six-nine-month period, once a month we were available at a library in each of the geographies. We attended a bunch of other meetings and then as I mentioned our virtual platforms continue to be very popular and really Garner the most input as well The in-person workshops focused on organized conversations around specific areas in each geography in terms of access to housing jobs goods and services And what that work resulted in in terms of access to housing jobs, goods, and services. And what that work resulted in phase one and phase two, the comments collected fed into this revised policy map, and you can see the revisions are shown in the bright yellow color on the map. And that was both internal and external engagement, so not only talking with community members, but also our inter-departmental partners, all of that fed into the map. And actually the map revisions it resulted in a 6% change, which you can see how that plays out across the development of the map in general in a few slides. But bottom line is we really think that we've been able to incorporate the comments. We've kept a consistent methodology throughout our whole community. So we're treating one area and in one part of the community the same as we're treating another in terms of specific issues. And this map informs rezoning decisions. So again, the adopted map is on our project website and the revised map as well. In addition to that, at the same time that we released the revised policy map, we released a policy map manual. So what that does is really describe how the map was created, it describes the methodology, place types, et cetera. It also talks about how the policy map relates to the UDO and the zoning districts, and then it talks about how the policy map can be updated. So that's planning related updates, like we're doing right now with the community area planning process, but also minor plan map amendments, what the criteria are for those and you see those mostly through the rezoning process and then also major map amendments. So when we look at the development of the policy map since 2020, well since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan, and then immediately the Comprehensive Plan was adopted in June of 2021 and July of 2021. We immediately began this large implementation piece. And you can see here the different comments that are received through each phase of the process and also the different engagement methods that we use. And what I'd like to point out here is that you would notice that the comments are decreasing as we go through not from 2021 to 2022, the development of the adopted policy map and then since 2023 with the revisions that have been made, the comments have been decreasing as they should. And you can see also all of the different types of engagement methods that we used as well. So I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second too. And I'll also mention that from the policy map perspective, the city. So if you have a advisory policy map, you should have in your August 29th agenda packet received what we call a briefing book that breaks down all of these map changes by council district. So there's more data that's broken down by district and also overall as for the city as a whole. So phase three engagements. So the phase that we're in right now talking about projects and programs are inter-departmental partners or stars of the show. We've added another component, which are focus groups that we've partnered with UNC Charlotte to professors of planning there in the geography department. Those were, that was over the summer, those were six sessions that were very intentionally small and focusing on folks that we typically don't hear from and also transit dependent folks as well. And there were six sessions across three study areas, two of them line up with the quarters of opportunity. It also has some overlap with some urban heat mapping that these two professors are doing as well. You can see some of the themes that were discussed. Three of the sessions were in Spanish and three were in English. In addition to that, our workshops, our traditional workshops, we've divided the 14 geographies into four cardinal geographies. So we're talking about three of the sub geographies at each of these workshops. We have eight total workshops. There's one virtual option, which is Tuesday at lunchtime, which we've found. That's the very popular time for folks in the virtual setting. And then in-person workshops on Thursday from 5 to 7. The workshops are a drop-in format. There's no formal presentation. There is an orienting video that is when folks come in. They watch the video and then they're free to. I'll talk a little bit more about details around it in a minute. But they're free to visit the stations and as many stations as they want stay as long as they want. And they're more importantly, be able to ask questions and engage with all of the partners that are in charge of and developing these different projects and programs get questions answered and more importantly, provide input on those as well. We're creating this in-person experience online using a web tool that offers 24-7 opportunity to engage. It's active from early December until mid-November and it includes basically the exact same components that you would find in an in-person meeting, but it also includes embedded surveys to help collect feedback. So if you look at where and when the workshops are, completed the West last week, next up is the North. There's a little bit of time in between each of the workshops because every time we do this and every time we go out, we know that there's something that we can improve or tweak. And so that allows opportunity to do that. You can see across the bottom, when I talk about the different stations, these are the stations that we have, mobility, sustainability, and open space public services, community character and special districts. And you can see there's pretty much almost 20 different city, county departments and also our municipal services districts represented at each of these meetings. So it's really a one-stop shop for folks that are attending so that they can get information, questions answered and provide input as well. So if you were to go to one of the stations at the workshop, what does that look like? This is a sample of the mobility station. So these are posters that are created that illustrate different projects and programs and other information that you find from cats CRTPO and also Seed out with the strategic investment areas so each Attendee is given a passport when they arrive There are questions within the passport that we've designed with our partners that they're asked to fill out If they don't feel like doing it in person Writing it down. There's a QR code and they can do that online later or they can add more things they've thought about since they've gone home later. These are some samples of some of the questions that we've asked and all of this input will be shared with our partners as well. I mentioned the web tool which is how we are providing the same experience online. So we do, we use this web tool both in the virtual meeting setting and then it's available for folks to use 24-7 as I mentioned and it uses dynamic maps to share the same sort of information. So instead of having static posters we have dynamic maps, folks can scroll through. There's embedded survey questions for them to provide input. And also there's an online mapping comment tool there as well, which we have used throughout the policy map process. And folks are very used to that. And we've tried to keep that experience in how the comments are made, especially regarding the online mapping tool consistent throughout so that people are pretty used to it. I mentioned the next steps in the plan development, so there will be 14 individual documents, there'll be a guide kind of at the front that explains, you know, an introductory piece and also includes pieces that will apply to all 14 geographies. In these documents, you can expect to find the community profile or existing conditions and demographic information and overview of each area's priorities as it relates to the comp plan's goals, maps of recommended place type refinements that are made through the policy map, lists of planned projects and program, illustrative concepts and an implementation strategy. And again, all of this is work that feeds into or one of the pieces that you would look at as you consider rezoning petitions, capital projects, et cetera. So that is all I have and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you for the information, Kathy. It's a lot of work, a lot of effort I can see already. So let's open the floor. But first I want to recognize that we had several council members come in and I just want to recognize that Mr. Driggs is in and then this brown is here and Miss Malina will soon be back. So thank you all for getting here and appreciate it. So questions oh, oh, that's right. And Miss, Miss Blatt-Lington. I know I'm trying to like everybody. So all right, so with with that so here we go so if who would like to have is there a question Mr. Drake's and then Ms. Johnson and then Ms. Brown. So we've had a lot of conversations about this appreciate the work I think some of us may still be looking forward to finding out more about what this actually looks like and how it's going to work but you had a date up there where the draft was to be ready, which was in February next year, is that right? That's right. So at that time, you will release to us something like five or six hundred pages of area plants, all at once, right? And we'll then have an update of the policy map to go with that, reflecting the final alignment process or whatever else has come on board. How much time do you expect it will take to get from the release of the draft to the adoption? Well, that's always as much time as you need, but we are working on the draft right now so that we can't begin reviewing adoption until we have those documents complete. As you mentioned, I will say that we're trying very hard to make it just the slim documents that really cut to the meat of each of the areas and they'll be very visual as well. But we are working on, once we get through the workshop process, I think the next step for us, in addition to producing these documents, is really to refine what that review and adoption schedule looks like, and have a couple of different options for that as well. So, will you have engagement with Council members on a district by district and area by area bases before the release of the drafts? We can do that, yes. I would encourage you. district by district and area by area bases before the release of the drafts. We can do that, yes. I would encourage you. I would definitely encourage that that happen that each district person have the opportunity to see the draft. Okay. We should do anything without the council members in the district reading it. I also want to chime in that the policy map has been revised a couple times without adoption. So the briefing book was handed out and we can start having those conversations specifically around the policy map sooner rather than later because we have been revising that along the way so that it is in a more refined state heading into that adoption process. So we can start doing that soon, basically. It's already online. And it will go through another round of revisions following this community engagement. But it's been iterative, so it's already out there. So there won't be, go ahead Mr. Mayor. Sorry I just wanted to finish there. There will not be a binding change to the policy map before that point in time when we adopt the area plans and the updated map. Is that right? So we're getting updates on the draft, but there is no intention to act on that until we have the area plans and the whole thing becomes effective as a package. Yes, that is correct. All right. Thank you. So, thank you very much because I think that's a really important point and I know that we get a lot of information and this is a lot of information. If there's a possibility of ways to like code, what we're getting, let's just say Miss Malina is always gonna be in blue because she has blue paper because she's in a blue dress today and her document will always be blue. But I think this is important because it is absolutely how do we communicate with the citizens in the area as well as all of the district people. So if you can find ways to kind of adjust for us to be able to determine what we're really working on and be able to do deep dives that would be helpful. So Mr. Jones. Thank you Mayor Mimosa Council. That's one of the reasons why we're presenting tonight. What we've learned over time is that there are different ways that you communicate with your residents and we don't want to be in a situation where as you mentioned 500 pages comes to you on a Thursday And you say where is what are we doing so as much feedback as we can get today that'd be very helpful Well, thank you mr. Drake's for opening that up because I think that is essential to what we have to do You have any other comments No, I think I was just going to mention maybe for us. This process is supposed to have the effect of aligning the UDO better with circumstances in individual areas. It doesn't modify the UDO by itself. I think it's important to know that the UDO's at stands will essentially remain. I mean, it's always subject to some text amendments and revisions, but the intention of this is not to create 14 UDO's in 14 different areas, but simply to clarify the application of the UDO, the appropriate existing UDO categories in different areas. And I'm hoping that the outcome of this is going to be that we have fewer instances where rezoning applications come in and they're not consistent with the plan and we approve them anyway. Because that's not a good situation, that's a transitional thing, but we have to get to a place where the plan is working well enough that most of the time a petition that is consistent with the plan gets approved. So that's my comment. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to piggyback off Councilmember Driggs. When we were considering the UDO, it was my understanding that these community area plans were kind of the meat and potatoes of the UDO or how it actually applies to the different neighborhoods. So we want to make sure, thank you for the presentation, we want to make sure that we're receiving feedback. And we talked about that a lot with the UDO and even with all the feedback that we received, I think the numbers when you compare to the entire population was just a small percentage of the residents actually were engaged. So if we can ensure and I've said this multiple times, this is a lot of information. We have to have more simplified ways of getting this out there. I know I have a group that I would like to just to be presented to, and I think that as a council, we can recommend different neighborhood groups like the District 4 Coalition and different areas. So I wanna make sure that we're getting this out. Is there a way that you can put this slide, the Phase 3 engagement slide, with the dates, or the Phase 3 workshops? Is that going to be on social media? Yes. Yes, we do use social media and we actually boost our social media and then see what kind of results that's getting us. Yes, it has been on social media. And if you'd like to put it on your social media, we have ready made graphics that you can use. That would be great. Thank you. And then you also mentioned that you had sent something out to counsel a breakdown by district that was sent to us. Yes, that was a, it's called a briefing book and it was in your August 29th packet. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. That's all I have. Thank you. Ms. Brown. Thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you so much for your presentation. So there's a lot of information that you've shared with us. And I know that I wanted to drop in on the planning sessions that you were doing specifically in my district and was not able to do so. The drop in piece, we said there's no specific agenda. They can just walk in. When they walk in, what are they getting? What's there for them? So when they walk in, they go to the sign-in table is their first stop and they sign in. We do, we use the event bright, we kind of do that really to gauge like about how many people might be there, they don't have to do the event bright. They sign in and then they're handed one of these passports and then they're escorted to a video that's a two-minute long video that kind of describes what the process is, the history of it, and then what they're doing there tonight. Then once they're finished with the video, there's a room set up where there's all of these different stations with the posters that I shared in a subsequent slide. And there's plenty of staff there. There's one to two representatives from each department that are very knowledgeable about all that that department does generally speaking and then the projects and programs that they're highlighting there that night. And they're also able to ask questions. There's prompting questions of feedback that each of the departments would like on their projects that's in the passport. And again, if they don't want to do it there at the meeting, there's an online way they can do it as well. Okay, so you did too that I know of, and like this week, or this month, this week, this week, in my district. So the virtual, do you know, how many, did you see me the impression on? How many it's in it virtually? 78. 78 virtually, and then how many were in person? About 30. OK. And you have data from those meetings? We're still processing that. But yes. And we will share that with departments. OK. And then when we will be doing another one. Another the next meeting. The next meeting will be the North, and it'll be Tuesday. The virtual piece will be Tuesday, September 24th. They're all on a Tuesday, and they're all from 11 to 1230. The in person will be at the OASA Shriners Temple on the 26th from 5 to 7 pm. Okay, that's all that I have right now. I have any other questions I'll get back with you, but thank you so much for compelling the presentation for us. So it gives us an idea, general idea, but it is a lot of information. Yes. I have one other thing. I just thought of it, community leaders, like that are over there, community organizations. How can we get them involved to be there like for instance Wesley Heels, Clinton Park, those community, Yorkmont, the people that are in the district that actually lead the efforts for the community and get the word out to other people. How can we get that information out to them? We have a very extensive mailing list that we've kept since the comprehensive plan process and it does include all the neighborhood leaders. Okay, and we try to strike a balance of providing timely information and status and when meetings are without blowing up their mailbox. So something went out to them this afternoon, kind of as a follow up from last week's sessions. So are you physically mailing it and emailing or you don't want to the other? We're emailing it, but we also do have some canvassing that goes on where paper flyers are handed out. I would have to get the details of exactly where that is happening. Right. No problem. So how do we know who gets to the email list? How are you compiling the composing the email list? The email list is, that was compiled through the community area plan process and it was a sign up for the most part. So we have permission to email folks. And so when I check with certain individuals that want to be involved, if they're not on your email list, how can they get on your email list? They can sign up on our project website, they can call or they can email me. There's a variety of ways. Okay. Thank you so much. That's all I have. Yeah, sure. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you. This is good work. Thank you. This is good work. Thank you very much. Mr. Bacari. Yeah, I was just going to quickly comment that as a district rep from my own experience, I don't know if others have it, but I'll just speak for myself, and I got to imagine others do. The number one thing, practically, that I need out of this exercise, and hopefully based on what it looks like, it should be scoped into this. But if not, it needs to be, is a view of the infrastructure, needs and backlogs, not just at a current state, but at a state where now with the UDO, we have increased density in units and trips and all the other things that are there. And I mean, if I had a nickel for every time, I'm in the middle of a scenario with the neighborhood where pre-UDO, there was an acre and a half that could have gotten eight dwelling units on it. And now it's 29 units by right, or 30 or 35 or 37. And there is no game plan for what the backlog and the increase that that dumps onto it for the roads and the trips, for the water and the sewer, for literally everything that is considered infrastructure. I mean, we have, by design purposely dumped all of this extra stuff there and we don't have any sense of what the right answer is, are they where they need to be with infrastructure or not? So hopefully when I read that part that says you're focusing on projects and programs needed, that will be an overlay of a map that shows me current state. This is like the level of failing or adequacy of all the components of infrastructure and then elaborating out to how much people then can go with the UDO to build in addition to that, what the gap is. Okay. Because until we have, like anything else with the meetings and all that stuff is real nice, but what we practically need on the ground is district reps is an understanding of the anger that is bubbling up over the lack of infrastructure and planning around this stuff. Understood. Mr. Drake's. So, strongly agree with that. I think a lot of that thought is going on and I would just mention on mobility which is a key infrastructure component. We expect to start a planning process based on the reality of the allocation of funds that has been permitted by the state, which is going to be involved a lot of engagement and outreach. And the interesting challenge is to harmonize the planning that we do from ability with the planning that we do for land use and in our UDO and understand that those two things act on each other. If you build the blue line, for example, going south, you get south end. So you can't do these things in isolation. It does have to be a coordinated process where we harmonize the mobility plans and the development plans and other infrastructure. So appreciate that and agree with you. Okay, thank you very much. Good work and great questions and a lot to do coming up and quickly for us. So all right, so Mr. Jones, we've done community area planning how about arts and culture. Okay, sounds good. So I think we're gonna turn this over to the chair of the committee. Thank you, Mr. Manager. I don't have much mayor and council members. I just wanted to provide a quick overview before I turn it over to Julia Martin with the City Manager's office. Last Thursday, the jobs and economic development committee heard a presentation regarding the council's potential participation in the new arts and science culture governance structure There are a few important points that I want to just highlight one is the core priority of the Charlotte arts and culture plan Which council accepted in November of 23 was public sector collaboration and secondly, through the fifth school year, 25 budget, both the city and the county approve historically high allocations to support the arts and culture. 11 million from the city and $10 million from the county. Governance collaboration amongst the public sector and the arts sector atodge is the next step. On September 3rd, as I indicated, the committee voted for to move it to the Phil council for consideration. And I'll turn it over to Ms. Martin. Thank you, Council Member Graham. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Here to talk about arts and culture governance, I'll quickly talk through the policy referral that went out in August. If you notice the note on the bottom, concluding this presentation, we'll be seeking consensus on participation in the new arts governance structure. So it doesn't require a formal vote, but we'll be just be looking for consensus to move forward with that. Here's the referral. So what role should Charlotte City Council serve within the governance structure? And then the charge below, really focusing on what that structure is going to do and how Council's participation would support furthering the Charlotte Arts and Cultural Plan. As Council Member Graham said, back in November, the Council accepted the first-ever Charlotte Arts and Culture Plan, eight priorities in that plan. Two have been called out here for you tonight. Priority one is about collaboration with the public and private sector, and then Priority two is really more about funding and governance. Again, as Councilmember Graham said, a great year for arts in Mecklenburg County in the City of Charlotte. It combined 21 million across the organizations. You can see Mecklenburg County's $10 million allocation in blue. And then the City of Charlotte's $11 million allocation in green. Important to note, a bulk of our funding, $9 million is going to support the annual operating organizations that receive annual operating support every year. That money goes right to the foundation for the Carolinas and gets distributed directly to the organizations. Again, a little bit of background and then we'll get to what the new governance structure will look like back in May. A memo went out from Kathy Besant at the foundation for the Carolinas to the Charlotte City Council, Mechelberg County Commission, and the Arts and Culture Advisory Board. A couple of key points in that memo. The first of which is that the ASC Arts and Science Council would be restructured to become a legally affiliated supporting organization of the foundation. And so what that enables is the ASC to really build upon their tradition and history in this community of supporting artists implementing grant programs while enabling the foundation who again has a long history of business and admin management to do more of the back office functions required with supporting those grants. In that letter, a new governance structure was proposed and that included participation from the city, the county and cultural leaders. As of June, that new supporting organization, the Arts, Science, and Cultural Council, ASCC, has been incorporated under the foundation. So here is a look at the ASCC governance structure. So five appointees each for the city and the county, three appointees for the foundation, two from the Mechelibur County Towns, and then two from the ASCC Grants Board. And that Grants Board, as you can see on the screen, is really comprised of arts and culture professionals, who are the ones that can advise on grant making, the types of grants, and they would make funding recommendations to the governance structure who would ultimately have the final say. So the role of the ASCC governing board, much similar to the ASC where they played a central role in our community in terms of convening the arts ecosystem and organizing the sector as a whole, this ASCC governing board would look to play a similar role. In FY25, they'll also be responsible for distributing the $10 million from Mecklenburg County in addition to any private allocations and corporate support that they might receive. I think especially important for the City Council to know is that part of this board's charge is to help guide the implementation of the Charlotte Arts and Culture Plan. There are a number of priorities and strategies within that plan, not all of which, or not even the majority of which fall under the public sector's purview. And so how can this group galvanize the sector as a whole and help start moving that plan forward? galvanize the sector as a whole and help start moving that plan forward. And then a priority as well as a through line of the Charlotte Arts and Culture Plan was to ensure that programs and funds are delivered in an equitable and inclusive manner. And so again, that is a central component and charge of this governing board. So just a reminder about the city's allocations. I'll draw your attention to the dashed box in the bottom and light green. And you will see that on the next slide. So everything in blue in the hard line box will be distributed by the ASCC in FY25. This year we are moving forward with Charlotte's creative to distribute the $2 million that you see in the dashed box. A couple of reasons for that. We have a long history of working with Charlotte is creative through the infusion fund. And additionally the ASC would typically be the organization that would help distribute those funds for us but given the changing nature of that organization we wanted to make sure that we could get that money out into the community as soon as possible. Should Council choose to participate in this governance structure, there is the potential for a future contribution of $2 million to that grants pool that again, the ASCC governance structure would help distribute into the community. Similar to how Mecklomber County has put buckets of money in parameters, Council of course would be able to do something similar. As Councilor Graham said, committee took action on this on September 3rd and voted for to one to support council's participation on the ASCC governance board, seeking council consensus tonight to participate on the board and then looking ahead We will move forward with the standard appointment process managed by the clerk striving towards end of October for council action on actual appointments Put that turn it back over to the mayor. Let's open the floor for council discussion and let's start with Miss Mayfield followed by Miss Whiteland. Thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I have a Couple of questions if we go back to slide seven where we look at the governance structure so That's a neat clarification. You have on here a 17 member governing board. Tell me the difference between county and pointies and make towns and pointies since aren't the towns part of the county. Yes, so it is just a separate carve out that two appointees from the county would have to come from one from the Northern town one from a southern town. So why 17 versus 15 in the county has their five versus county having seven representation and the city having five? Mr. Jones. John's Mr. Jones. So Julia if you can go to a slide that really represents the money that this new board would have oversight over. So if you start to think about it, the Mecklenburg County is taking roughly the entire $10 million and sending it to this board for distribution. I'll use a term that was used two budget cycles ago. Nine million of the city's money is hardwired. And basically what's going to happen is going to go to organizations and there's a very limited overhead to distribute the money. What this proposed governance structure would really have oversight over is two million of the 11. So therefore, the concept is a greater weight of the votes that go to, let's say the county in the towns because so much more of the money is under this board's jurisdiction from the county. Okay, so we keep this slide in mind, which is slide 10, and we go back to slide five, the background. So fiscal year 2025 public sector arts participation. Mechler-Brugge County was 10 million city of Charlotte, 11 million, 9 million of that 11 is our heart services. So this is currently what we've allocated is $11 million. Correct. And what is being proposed on slide 10 is that along with our $11 million, we're looking at an additional $2 million, or we're saying instead of the $11 million commitment we're looking at potentially only a $2 million commitment. $2 million. So in FY25, here is the city's allocation. So 9 million has already gone to the foundation. We are working with Charlotte is creative on the 2 million. In FY26 and beyond, should you choose to, you have the option to contribute up to 2 million or whatever amount to this ASCC governance board. So this is not impact. FY25, this will be FY26 and moving forward. So the 2 million, potentially, for Charlotte is creative. Charlotte is creative. It's separate from the foundation for the care line. Correct. So this is yet an additional organization when we find that foundation for the care line is for foundation of care line is to get money out to the arts organizations. It's a great question. Councilmember Mayfield, hopefully we will get to a point in time where there is no such things, 11 million and 10 million. There's 21 million. And then there are certain things that are important to the county. Certain things that are important to the city. When you put it all together, it is a broad brush that goes from those organizations that occupy our buildings, the buildings that we have to keep the light on all the way to the individual artists. And so I know it's tough tonight, but over time, this should be a public sector contribution to the ecosystem that's very different than anything we've done before. So Mr. Manager, what I would like for her to request sooner rather than later, there have been a number of leadership changes over the foundation for the care line is, foundation for the care line is needs to come present to full council. It will be good for us to get an idea of their plans because we support a number of line items through tax dollars through foundation for the care line is. So it will be helpful to get an idea from foundation for the Carolinas, the direction they're going in, as well as an update, because little amounts being presented to us individually over a period of time, it will also be helpful to get an idea in totality for the number of different initiatives including arts that the city, IE, tax dollars are distributing through foundation for the Carolinas. That will be helpful to know since if I'm understanding and if I'm not, please correct me. The 9 million that we have allocated is that administrator. I don't know how much of that 9 million is actually covering salaries or anything at foundation versus if all of it is going right back out into the community. We don't have to answer it. I need to say them right now. So what that looks like. At some point, we may get to a single line item. But for right now while we have city funding as well as county funding, it will be very helpful to be able to share if I'm asked where your tax dollars since basically taxpayers are paying twice. You pay two thirds of your taxes to the county, you pay a third of the taxes to the city. I'm paying out of both of those sets of taxes to cover this. It will be helpful to say exactly how city dollars are going right back to the community. So Councilmember Mayfield, things are very important. At least I answer the first piece. I'll know what the new number is. But for the first three years, putting all of this money out, the market was like 60,000 on 9 million. Yeah. So it is, there's no way in the world as a city that we could administer something like that for such a very low. So we're not paying salaries with this administrative fee, it is literally being able to cut checks, get the dollars out and be accountable to how the dollars were spent. I appreciate that part of that accountability is for them to come in and do a report out. Thank you. Ms. Watlington. Thank you. I've just got a few questions because as we all know, this is one component of an overall discussion around arts and culture and the budget. And so I want to make sure that I'm clear about some of the other items as we consider this. So just for clarity, say, I see on slide five, city of Charlotte is 11 million dollar contribution. Can you help me understand the money that the city is putting into support, the buildings? Where is that on a slide? So, in Julia can bail me out. It's not here at all. So there are 15 million. There's a big number that we're doing each year just to pay the debt service on the buildings. What also is not here is that we need to maintain those buildings. HVAC, roofs, things at nature, their air assets, we worked with. This is simply an allocation that is going into the ecosystem to organizations. It is not the debt that we pay, and neither is it the maintenance end. There's a second referral that I believe is in your committee. I'm Mr. Graham, where we're trying to see for other options as it relates to these grants operating support other than the general fund, which was something that you brought up doing the budget discussions. Thank you. That's very important to me in this conversation because I want to make sure that Councilmember Mayfield's point, everybody's clear about what is the overall sum of money that's going to support this particular industry and how do we best do that in a way that makes sense. The second question that I have is in regards to the nine million annual operating support for organizations in the city to be distributed by the foundation. As I understand it, these particular organizations are the same organizations that are in the buildings that we're already supporting, is that correct? Correct. And the ideas that these same organizations every year will get investment. Let me clear that up. These organizations are the organizations that traditionally have been funded by the ASC, a combination of private sector funds and public sector funds both the city and the county. So what occurred in this first year of this collaboration is that the county took on all of those smaller organizations that were in the towns, not in the city proper. The city continued to fund those organizations that had been a part of this group and maybe it's 30 plus organizations. And almost I would call it two categories, maybe three. The first category are the ones that I think are near and dear to everybody. And that are those institutions that we're paying debt on. And then there are some other large organizations. And then you can make a case that there's a number of organizations that may receive $100,000 or less. So because the plan basically's stability in the ecosystem. The first thought process wasn't to just eliminate the folks who had been receiving funds over the years, but make sure this first year and maybe even going forward that there's still stability in that group, but also with all this new money, how are you able to do more things with individual artists in some organizations that have been on the outside looking in? And so that's going to be pretty important to me as we think about this. I appreciate you saying that this is this year, but I noticed you said ongoing. I don't want by any means that any vote in the affirmative for this is an endorsement that these are the organizations going forward in perpetuity. So that I would need some more clarification on. Can I take a shot at two different things? Okay. That this is a governance structure to get funds out into the community and have accountability. This council decides the amount that goes in and whatever are the levels for those groups with this is a very different mechanism, again two pieces, getting money out into the ecosystem, but you also want to make sure there's some accountability that the organization are doing with the said they're going to do, which is consistent with elements of the plan. How I heard you say that council will decide the allocation amount, but I didn't hear a discussion about who. So is the idea that the same organizations in perpetuity are going to get something? So I would say yes, but let me go a little further. One of the things that I believe this body didn't want to do is have dozens of organizations come up annually during the budget process to have, I guess, a bite at that nine million or whatever the number's going to be instead to have the amount. And the amount isn't, I guess, more important than having individual organizations come to you during budget. Just think about financial partners. If all of a sudden you had arts financial partners, I think we'd have a much longer budget process. So I appreciate what you said. That's still, it's a little murky. Are you saying that we decide how much but there is no opportunity for organizations in this community who are also taxpayers to get a bite because now the distribution will happen in an organization that's separate and apart from the council. So again if we think about this as one pot of money during the infusion fund there was 11 million a year, 12 million a year. You have 21 a year. So there are much more resources for everybody versus that. And I would say Council can decide, Council can decide, but also really I sure hope the Council would have a willingness to let a board that you appoint folks to look at the bigger picture. So you've answered my question. The intent as it's written here is that this nine million, whatever we do with the other 12 million, this nine million is a ear mark for certain organizations only. So that I'd like to understand that a little bit more going forward, because I do think that all of it should be something that could be equitably accessed. And absolutely, we understand that each organization plays a different role within our community, but we need to be open to the idea that where we invest might change. So that's going to be a sticking point for me. To your point about the board, so a foundation for the Carolinas and ASCC. Certainly, we foundation for the Carolinas is a known quantity at this point. I'd like to understand a little bit more about the ASCC. Who is appointing the members of that board? You are the county and the Foundation for the Carolinas. I'm sorry. I may be calling it the wrong thing. I'm not talking about the left side I'm talking about this this light green box here ASCC grants advisory board. Who are they? So the ASCC Will still have staff members. And so part of their job is to convene a group of experts that represent cultural perspectives from across the ecosystem. There's not yet a set number of how many people are on that advisory board, but that is the job of that staff to cultivate who is on that board. And that's really thinking more people who live in Breed Arts every day. So in that sense, then, this governance board will choose the advisory board who then chooses appointees that goes on this governing board. Am I reading that correctly? So the ASC will have its own staff. Part of their job will be to find the individuals who comprise the grants advisory board. I don't know how they'll select who those two govern instructor boards are, maybe that govern instructor appointees are. Perhaps they do it as an advisory board and we say we want Julia and Marcus to be a participant in this. But they have their own staff. And that is how that will go. Just as the they have their own staff. And that is how that will go. Just as the foundation has their own staff. Okay, I'd like to understand out a little bit more because I don't totally, I don't totally get it. What I, and I'll say those, the role of those people is to really help provide the perspective of artists and people employed active and working in that space. So it's a much closer feel to what's happening on the ground and speak to, hey, here's why we recommended this grants program. Here was the discussion amongst our board. This is food for the law for you guys. And that advisory board is appointed by staff of the ASCC. I believe so. And then that advisory board selects two people to sit on the governing board for the ASCC. I'm going to say I believe so, but it's, we're all still, it's in flux. Okay, that's, that's a red flag for me. And the other question that I have is just as it relates to the county and the city appointees, how is that split in terms of council appointees mayor appointees? I guess the county the commission just does them all I'm not sure how that particular piece works, but how is that split? So my understanding from the clerk's office. This is a situation we have five. It's typically the one the mayor and for the council or two the mayor and through the council. Okay, when will that be shown? Is that what I'm assuming is ahead of the vote? I'm gonna leave the details to be sorted out. No, no, and I guess the other question I have is, at some point, there is going to be a nomination process like you typically did. And so I don't know if you're going to have an ordinance, an RCA and then a nomination process or you'll just move forward with the nomination process and I think what initially we have said is one for. Okay. And I don't believe Julia that we need anything other than moving forward when the council is ready to have nominations for the board. Correct, because this is not a city board, it's a private board, and you were just making nominations. Okay. So that would be through your typical process. Okay. And then the last thing I will say, as I look at the foundation appointees to this board as well, and the foundation is also, we are appointing people to the foundation and then the foundation is also appointing people to this particular thing. I just, when we start to get with appointed people making appointments, to me that's a step too far away from accountability to the public. So I just want us to really think about this as we put it together. That's all. Thank you. Hey, Mr. Mitchell. What's that? Followed by the message. Mayor, thank you. I was a yes vote and committed to move this for and have this great conversation. But I did raise one issue. And I just want to discount for us to be very careful with the type of modeling that we try to establish. So, Julie, if you go to slide number nine, the distributed by Charlotte is creative. I think we need to be very careful not to so-so as opportunities when we know that we have other firms and I CBI they can do the same work And so I would prefer that to be a procurement process To hot to select someone who can provide the two million dollar grant Staff I do not know about shout-out is creative. They can have a great reputation But it's counsel we have to be careful to give everybody opportunity when we know there's other firms out that it can do the same the same job so is this time sensitive that we can have a procurement process and we can award who would be providing the grants. So I'll say the a couple reasons we selected Charlotte is creative. Through the Opportunity Fund, we have worked with Charlotte is creative. They worked with the subcontractor who helped them with some marketing. But in terms of here in Charlotte, there's really two main entities that distribute arts and culture grants on a large scale. And that Charlotte is creative and the Arts and Science Council. And so because the Arts and Science Council, again, that organization is currently in flux with their staffing and their operations, in order to get these funds out into the community sooner, we selected, we went with Charlotte as creative. And so the current plan is for them to start advertising the grants and the opportunities in October. Do really extensive community engagement and then to have the money out into the community early in the calendar year of 2025. So let me do a follow-up because I think all of us around this table knows people who can provide grants. So what makes this unique because it's a arts grant Correct Charlie's creative is an exclusive arts nonprofit They do a tremendous amount of work and engagement in the community in terms of spreading arts and culture they know And other people they really have the expertise to advise us who are not Arts and culture grant experts on, here's what is the best thing for the arts community. So the capacity building component was something that they had added because they had learned from their experience through the opportunity fund. We really need to give artists and small collaboratives experience writing grants because that's an area that was really lacking and prohibiting them from getting other grant opportunities. So we did a procurement process wouldn't you be comfortable that that create shelter this created with steel score high enough to be awarded the contract. I think part of this is transparency and being fair and so I'm trying to separate this from the policy discussion so I raise my hand but I'm too passionate about CBI and procurement opportunities for us to in this particular case we so sourcing we have selected this firm to distribute grants and we're talking about grants and we know a lot of companies that they can provide grants so Council I'm going to be a big no for this particular reason. I just, we going down to slippery slope, we have staff, staff, just so-so it's an opportunities. When we know we got capacity in the community. Thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry. Yeah, please. Sure. OK. All right. OK. So I want to make sure that as we're going through this, that I've put a couple things into the record. I do believe that the foundation for the Carolina's has done a great job over the course of the last few years with the infusion fund. I'm not so sure that we could be where we are today with this level of collaboration without having the foundation for the Carolinas. And I feel confident that even in distributing that 9 million, I think the fee is 150,000, but that also includes you know performance measures and things of that nature. The so I'm not going to leave you out there. Julia the concept with Charlotte is creative was we just didn't know we didn't know what your life first would be like. We didn't know if there would be an AAC. Was it? AACC. AACC. And we didn't want a lot of the organizations that had gained this great momentum through the infusion fund to feel like, okay, here we go again. It's going to take forever for us, like it's almost starting over again. So, Mr. Mitchell, I don't disagree with you with the look of this, as it seems like we're just, we're picking somebody, that the concept was because they had to distribute some of the infusion funds that asked this other 10 million was trying to get out that again, there wouldn't be any step back from the previous three years because 11 million was being deployed. But I just wanted to make sure that was some of the thought probably. But I totally understand where you're coming from. All right. Well, I'm glad Mr. Jones went before I did. But let me first say this. I understand Mr. Mitchell's perspective on giving, on being fair and transparent in the process, but I also understand the staff is trying to get the money out sooner, because a lot of organizations were concerned after the whole reorganization of the structure. So they were concerned about whether they were going to get funding or not. So if we had delayed it, it would not have looked good. So certainly in this case, I understand why this organization was chosen. I will say this, I have been to Charlotte is creative events. and they have every Friday they host various artists in town. In fact myself former council members, Agustin and Winston along with Mukari, we attended Charlotte is creative event and we were part of the panel and that's the first time I and along with Mukheri, we attended Charlotte's Creative event and we were part of the panel. And that's the first time I got to see like majority of the movers and shakers in the arts community under one roof. So certainly I appreciate the work that they have done and they have really built relationships in arts cultural. I mean, this is a very niche area that you have to have expertise in in order to distribute funds. So I can certainly attest to their expertise. But I think to Mr. Mitchell's point, if they have the expertise, even if we go through the process, they're going to do well. And they're going to actually be our partner. So yeah, I think from transparency perspective and fairness, it does make sense to go through that process and I'm pretty sure they will score much higher than other organizations because of their expertise. Well, that was not my question. My question was about more to follow up on councilwoman Watlington's and Mayfield's question. So I just want to make sure I heard this correctly. So this structure doesn't have anything to do with funding commitment, correct? Correct. OK. So we are not aligning or committing any amount, whether it's two million or I understand two million was approved in the budget that we just adopted, but moving forward, it could be nothing or it could be five million or it could be anything in between. Correct. Okay. Go. That's true. That's absolutely true. It would go against one of the pillars of the arts and culture plan. If all of a sudden, let's say, Mecklenburg County, say we're only going to give 2 million and not 10. So there is this concept and again you can't find a future council that you can't create stability if each year you're going to change it. I understand but I guess what I also want to be mindful that just because we are committing to the structure does not mean that if they are not able to raise additional private funds, that it will become city and counties responsibility. Yes, our commitment is a two million, but if they don't go out and raise whatever the amount that they have raised in the past, it doesn't automatically the city and the county is not the backup plan. So the concept here is in the past, the private sector came in and you know the story the public sector came in and at some point we dipped below $4 million. And as we move forward, this public sector, public sector, combination, there are no private sector dollars in this $21 million. But what the private sector is doing is starting to sponsor more programming and things of it and nature fundraising, things of that nature. I just didn't want the council to leave tonight believing that anywhere in this 21 million are private sector dollars. It's over and above this. Okay, so anything, so this is just the basic. Correct. And then they will raise more based on the programming. But there is no adjustment for any increase or any discussion about that at this point. Right. Okay. Are there, is there any management fee that we are committing to because of this new structure? So in terms of getting the money out, $150,000 is what they have done. Much similar to in the past, they were $60,000. The difference is they're also going to do a bit of performance measures on this because there's criteria. This is not as if even with, and this maybe we should set it up this way, even with the organizations that have been receiving funding over the years, there are some requirements in terms of collaboration, there are some requirements in terms of equity to make sure we're just not writing checks to these organizations. So part of what that fee will do is to make sure that these organizations are adhering to what they said they would do in order to get the money in the first place. And that was very important to the council to make sure that it wasn't just writing checks to these organizations. So what I'm hearing is it is more involved process when it comes to distribution of dollars. So $150,000 of $2 million? That's 150 of 9 million. Oh 9 million. Yes, it's like about 1.5%. Okay, okay, because I was like 7. half percent management fee. That's unheard of. Okay All right, that makes sense. Okay, and What so I Understand that currently we have picked the Charlotte is creative nonprofit to Assist us with getting this $2 million out. Moving forward with this structure, ASCC will distribute the entire $11 million or just the $2 million. Just the $2 million if council chooses. So in that case Charlotte is creative and not be part of this model. Should council choose to give the $2 million to the ASCC government structure. They might solicit additional organizations or help capacity building, etc. But should council choose to give the $2 million to the ASCC, we will not have a direct relationship with Charlotte's creative. I understand. So the decision just was recently made to choose this nonprofit Charlotte is creative. And now it's not even been six months, we are changing, we are bringing in a new organization, ASCC. Has there been any concerns or about Charlotte's creative capacity to do this continuous work? Why change just in middle? In our conversations with them, not at this point. You can see the buckets of funds that will be distributed through the ASCC which are the blue for Mecklenburg County and the $4.5 million is largely culture blocks which is a grant that the ASC has been distributing for years and so my presumption is that they will have the staff retain to be able to administer that program themselves. And so in terms of, Charlotte's creative expertise is really around individual artists and small organizations capacity building. And so haven't heard from them that they would be, that they think they would be tapped to distribute some of these additional funds nor would there be a capacity issue for us this year. So I would like to hear from Charlotte is creative since they are involved currently. What is there a take on this? And I see that committee had voted for the one. So what was the committee's or at least a committee members opposition with going with this model? Mr. McCarrie, rather than the negative thing, he can speak for himself. You asking why I voted no? What was it? Sorry, I just tuned in here. To me, we've been on a long-term journey with us trying to take something that over multiple decades was on a decline, the arts culture and culture funding community, because of a simple reason, the business community had disengaged in a way that they had before. So we ripped the bandaid off in 2019 and 2020. We worked hard, we redesigned it, we fixed some of the broken parts and then basically it went back on a bit of a rough path. We focused in on part one of two parts, which was dump a ton of money in there, which was really good, theoretically. But we fell short on part two, which is, how is this going to be governed long term? So not only does the money make it to the right places, but the government money becomes a way to reignite the engine of the broader ecosystem to engage to shape where it goes in the future and make it sustainable over time. So the reason I voted no is not that I don't think we're on somewhat the right path, because I have a lot of faith in the expertise and ability of foundation for the Carolina's being a big part of this at the table, where I have a problem, is similar to where I have problems in other fronts is a bunch of people that are going to make the decisions and help steer the course of this longer term being just appointed by us is not the recipe for success. It's a recipe for friends and folks in the community to get appointments to something that they're not equipped to necessarily do, which is completely chart a new path to restart the engine of the public sector, private sector being engaged in all this. So if you strip all that away, we could just do one time million without anybody's help. We could literally have staff toss the two million out the door. We know where the nine million is going. The whole reason for this governance structure and being associated with this conversation is the hope that some new thing is going to rise out of the ashes of all this. And then start a new vision, chart a new path for the future. I have a huge problem that we're just dicing up and saying, okay, we'll point five here. You can see how we appoint people to stuff, right? I mean, I think I don't need to say more on that. So what I would suggest we do is the 11 million is nearly baked. I think that the Charlotte is creative folks have the on the ground expertise to get stuff out fast, which they didn't the past. I think their reason is changing for them in the future. So I would think that we get behind in a near term goal, the foundation for the Carolinas, and let them provide the business acumen where Charlotte is creative, provides the grassroots understanding, and allow them to put a little governance and take this $2 million. It's literally going to get out one way or another whether we RFP it or give it out through staff or let them do it and let them kind of have a little bit of an ability to pilot something and show us the outcomes of that 2 million so that when we're sitting back here for the next discussion which needs to be an overhaul of who's on that board to make sure the right people are on it but also how much more money is going gonna be given in the future, we have something tangible to look at. And I think that might be the solution in the near term because it's clear with all the negotiations, we're not gonna fix the governance structure right now right away. It's also clear that most of that money knows where it's going. So let's use the little bit of it, there is discretion to keep doing what's been done okay, which is Charlotte is creative, find the opportunities and the different things, but allow the foundation to do what they do well, which is put the business acumen and governance around it to structure something where we get back an opportunity to see how well they did. And then we can make big, broader decisions going forward. I don't know what the question was, but I hope that I addressed it. Why, I just say no. All right, I have Ms. Johnson. Okay, I've got a couple questions. My first question is, can the folks in the dias see this meeting? Do they know why we're late? They can see, is it on the screen on the dias? They can see when the night outside in the chamber? It is on the screen. Yeah, they can see the shame Isn't I say that correctly? Yeah, yeah, okay. I just want to make sure because we always go over Yeah, we're the agenda. Well, I mean we have to be allowed to ask questions my Second question is this item up for a vote We're talking about it like there's a choice. I mean like we're voting on it. Are we voting on this or is this a done deal? No, absolutely not. So the council will decide whether or not you will move forward with this governance structure. And when is that vote? So my understanding is it's not necessarily a vote. If you say you're going to move forward then you would go back to your normal appointment process. I thought that Julia said it's some consensus around the council. So when they say that I assume that means that at some point most of the council says yes go forward and others may not but I'm just saying that's pretty much the way it works. That's not the way it works. Like we vote on consensus that's what they ask for. So it's already so you don't need council vote. No you can add additional step that we could bring an RCA forward. You can vote on the RCA and after you vote on the RCA you can add additional step that we could bring in RCA forward. You can vote on the RCA. And after you vote on the RCA, you can make appointments. Okay. No. No, I mean, we all, so this is, it would be up to us if we want to move a different direction. Okay. My second question, or third question, is there a difference in the allocation that the individual's artists are going to receive with this structure versus the old structure? Is there a difference in the allocation? Is there less money for the individual artist? So, so with the, what we have on the screen for the last three years, the green has been what has gone into the ecosystem, plus some portion of these culture block grants, but in terms of the infusion fund, $11 million went into the community each year of the last three years 12 12 sorry So 12 million and this year would be 21 21 million okay My concern is always equity and transparency. And if we are allowing the foundation for the Carolinas or another group to be accountable or responsible for public dollars when we as elected officials are responsible to answer to the public. And then I've also shared my concern with just a few organizations being responsible for that level of funding. And I know Mr. Jones, you said we would have all these grassroots organizations coming to us at budget time. But that might be okay with some of us. We know that there's an equitable lens and we can really take a look at who's getting the funding because there was a grant I can think of last year that I recommended several grassroots organizations apply and none of them receive them. So we just, we want to be able to answer to our constituents that there's oversight of these dollars. So I just as a council member in the direction that we're going with our public dollars, I hesitant to keep, to award just a few small, a few large organizations that much control and power or responsibility and stewardship over the public dollars. That's all I have, thanks. Councilmember Johnson, one of the options early on was to create a new department with a lot of staff to do all of this. And even in the previous city, I haven't said this long time, that was in. We had it. It was big. And so to some extent, the concept was, how can you get, is if you set the parameters, if you set the rules, if you set the goals that's important to the public bodies, how can you get is if you set the parameters, if you set the rules, if you set the goals that's important to the public bodies, how can you get as much money out without having a lot of overhead. So that was kind of the one of the thought processes early on. Okay. Miss Anderson, Mayor Protang. Thank you. I know. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is always a confusing conversation. Every time we hit on arts and culture, I think we just have to work to demystify this. Because sometimes it feels like an over rotation. But if we just take the step back, there's just been a lot of historical skepticism and lack of transparency and lack of trust within the arts and culture ecosystem in the city of Charlotte. And it's gonna be uphill battle. I have you left to try and engender the loss from residents and from members of the artist community. And I personally think that the foundation for the Carolinas are an excellent, Stuart choice to help us get this, right this ship in to help from a governance perspective. So that we do have the right pieces on the table to ensure that we have a thriving arts and cultural community in Charlotte. We should want that and I personally want that. I feel I'd like for Charlotte to be known as an arts town. I would like to have that feeling of aesthetics as people walk, come to visit our city and as we enjoy it just as we believe that we're a sports town, right? And so, but that's a heavy lift. And if anybody is, I think, equipped to do it, I have tremendous faith in Kathy Bassant's leadership over the foundation of Carolinas, with input from us, of course. I would say standing up a city department, adding additional overhead to manage something like this. that we are not going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going perspective because there are entities out in the community that have that expertise. But I feel like there's three things that we need to focus on here and not necessarily about the 9 million and the 2 million. But really, what has been missing, at least from my perspective, is a collective voice from all aspects of arts and culture in our community. We have people who are part of that community who have felt like they, their voices haven't been heard, that they've been left out from a funding perspective. So as we're thinking about the new model and a new government structure. Having, ensuring that that collective voice is present, is critical. The other piece, we're already doing it, but just continuing to do that, and that's supporting our existing institutions that we've mentioned several times this evening. And ensure that they have the right support so that they can grow as well. And then thirdly, we have to make sure that there's equitable access to funding and support from artists small to large, to the Blumenthal Arts and some of our other blue blood institutions. And so I hope that as we get to a point where on this slide, we're thinking about the appointees. I think there's specific acumen and characteristics of these appointees that we really need to be thoughtful about because they will be by and large responsible for ensuring that the arts community grows, the commerce of the arts community grows and fits in order to be successful for this governance structure to be successful in a long run. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mr. Drakes, I'm sorry. He had Mr. Drakes have been holding Mr. Drakes. So I think it's appropriate that a lot of questions are being raised here. But I just want to offer a little perspective, right? A few years ago we had gotten to the point where the city was putting $3.4 million into an ailing ASC and there were culture blocks being funded by the county. We've come a long way. We're now talking about an amazing partnership and understand, it's a partnership. The county and the city and the foundation have all come together to tackle this issue of funding the arts. And I think that's an amazing feat in itself, frankly, because we haven't had that kind of cooperation. The involvement of the foundation is important because they are the connection to private sector. The manager mentioned I have been told by private sector leaders their intention is to be sponsors and to, in fact, step up their investment in the arts. But what one executive told me was he went to an event that was hosted by the Arts and Science Council and another sponsor's name was all over the thing and this company was not even acknowledged because of the way they had funded. So the companies do want to get the benefit at least of some recognition, some name recognition. And so I think we can expect to see that and a lot of what's been talked about is going to need to be worked out but we've also accomplished a lot here and the understanding is for one that although we are committed for the first year the intention is to make this a kind of a sustainable effort to create an expectation that this will continue. Another expectation is that the grant-making board will consist of creatives and people from within the arts community who know what's what and what's going on there. So it will be up to us through our appointment power and oversight to make sure that that works the way it's conceived. But that was something we agreed early on. We wanted to do. We did not want politicians or people like that actually deciding on grants. So this is a process that it was intended to create the partnership among those three entities and then give the grant making to people who know about arts. So I just think that we rightly question a lot of these things but there is a cause for celebration here. We have finally figured something out that was nowhere for 10 years. Thank you. Mr. Graham. And I'll be quick. I know we're sure on time. I won't reiterate with Councilmember Drakes and Anderson has articulated articulated, I think they're spot on. Again, the committee did vote this out for one, so it's in the hands of the council to do as you choose. I think if I would love to advance it as submitted, but if there's council members that want to cut around the edges of it, that's your prerogative to do so. But I think what council member Aniston and Drakes has outlined it demonstrates a year and a half, two years worth of work that we've been trying to get to this point to really advance this discussion to a conclusion, right? And so I would hope that council will continue to ask the very important and valid questions that's here today, but be prepared to vote for it, right? Because I think we're close to the end than the beginning. Where we can see the goal line and again, everything that we do won't be perfect. But I think we've got to a point with this where I think there's a meaning of the collective mind with the city, the county, the foundations of the Carolinas structurally pitting a structure together. And that's what we're voting on. It's the structure of how we advance arts and science in this community. And obviously there's will always be discussion about how what we find, how we find, to what extent we find. I think that's a separate conversation and I'm willing to have that conversation as well. I just had a great visit with the history museum last Friday and we'd love to see them get in the game, right? So I'm separating the funding of what we're doing versus today which is really approving the structure of governance for the Archdiocese with community partners. And I think I would encourage us to put on the agenda relatively quickly and move before it. Thank you. Thank you. So Mr. Jones, do you have an action step that you'd like to take or talk about? I think the committee chair just did that. I just want to make sure, Mayor, I talk to Councillor Memoray, the financial partner policy is Dylan Committee. policy is still in committee, so we shouldn't be discussed tonight even during the manager's piece, so that's still in committee. So it's still in committee. We're not going to discuss that until it comes out of committee. Okay, so this has been a really great conversation. People are asking for explanations. People are expressing their thoughts and ideas on this. But I think that if we are going to be in this city where we have public-private partnerships, where we work with our foundations in lots of ways, and as well as we can maintain the infrastructure that we have for the arts and community that we support and have supported through our debt funding and all of that. But the idea of programming really requires expertise. Now, you know, and I think that we have to look at where we're going to get that and how we're going to get it. So I don't know if there's a motion, I think Mr. Graham made a motion to accept the structure if I'm saying that incorrectly. What was asked for participation here at the end of this slide, what it asked for was not? Not a motion. So are we saying the not is saying more for it because it stands right now based on what we are presenting. I am a note to that not. I understand that. But I wanted to make sure because I think Ms. Johnson talked about, well, it has to be a vote. Because it was a nod. But I think Ms. Johnson said if it was better, if we had some kind of effort around, how do we raise our hands? So I'm just trying to get to some place to the next step because we have a recommendation of Madam Mayor to have this consensus to participate. And it says proceed with you agree with that, that's fine. So proceed with standard appointment process and Madam Mayor, yes. Madam Mayor. If we're making a motion, what I'm hearing around the room is that there's some work around the edges if you will, like you said, to be done. I would rather we do that work and then bring it back for consideration. And that's what I'm trying to get at. Tell me what you want so that we can actually move on. So I mean, if it needs to be in a motion, I would move to do that. Second, the motion. I don't know what they move to do some work. All right. We'll be back. More work. All right. Is there anyone that agrees with that? I promise. I second the motion to move forward. Council on me. I think there needs to be a time now. I think there needs to be a time now. Hold on. No one second. I'm trying to hear what Demier say. I think that what we're trying to figure out is that we are going to come back and do some more work on this. Miss the mayor pro-tim has said give us a timeline because these groups are not going to be able to operate without having this funding that we will need. And who's going to do the work? And do the work so it's worth. Mr. Manger how much time do you need to work in the edits that you heard of this diet? Okay so the first thing is that the $9 million is gone. That's gone. Okay that is part wire. So there's $2 million that we can park and there's a government structure that you want more answers to and we can bring something back to you at the next business first business meeting in October. Fantastic. 14. Because it's not about the money. It's about the structure. Right. Yeah. Well, we are on the same page with you. I listen to you guys. I listen to you attentively and from what I heard mostly from everybody is come back. I don't think everybody said come back. Well, some. I think that we're going to come back in the meeting. I don't know, there's a majority. It was a lot of people. Well, thank you for the majority. I don't think the council member brought. I don't think we have to have a motion. This was on the action committee. We have had a discussion and I believe that the manager said the first meeting in October he would come back. What Mayor Pro Tem said is let's make sure we have a timeline so that will be the timeline of first. So we don't have to make a motion if it would on it. So we're going to come back to the. Go ahead. I was going to say point board it had been moved in properly second. There was a motion on the floor So if we want to vote for it then if we want to vote for it and if it votes down then Mr. Graham may be correct that it's got the votes to move forward. So. I mean, I just. No. Well, you were making comments so you have something to say. No, no. I've already said it. Um, once, and I think we're focusing on the governance, not the money. Maybe $2 million, maybe EPLAY. There's, it's time-sensitive. And I think the mayor of Pro Tem and the manager said with the next business meeting something like that I think that makes sense. Yes, I agree with that. I'm not in opposition. I was just one of you said not most people. I'm just I'm just okay, because he's just I'm. I'm falling. I'm coming with all the respect. I'm not going to be going to be going to be wanted to be sure. All right, thank you so much. And it's a focus on the governance issue. Correct. We've understood. Yeah, I just want to understand. All right, we have people downstairs. And let's go downstairs and start our regular meeting. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. Thank you. I'm going to go back to the next video. I'm going to go back to the next video. I'm going to go back to the next video. I'm going to go back to the next video. I'm going to go back to the next video. I'm going to go back to the next video. I'm going to go back to the next video. I'm going to go back to the next video. and we'll start with our clerk. Second panel, City Clerk. Seven, seven, city clerk. Welcome, Dimple Ashmerah at large. Good evening, I'm Marjorie Molina, representing Charlotte in District Five. Good evening, I'm Renee Johnson, and I'm honored to represent District Four. Good evening, James Mitchell, City Council at large. Marcus Jones, City Manager. By-laws mayor. Dante Anderson, mayor Pro Tem District 1. Now from Graham District 2. And Drinks District 7. Dr. Picard is 6. Good evening. I'm Victoria Wattlandton, representing you at large. Patrick Baker, City Attorney. All right. Thank you. We begin our meeting with an invocation and expression of inspiration followed by the pledge of allegiance. The invocation is going to be delivered by me tonight, and it's intended to solemnize our potential for working together and how we do this. We do ask if you choose to celebrate with us any religious diversity in our community, and if you'd like to participate in our prayers or in our pledge, feel free to do so. And if you choose not to, that is okay as well. So with that, if you'll take a moment and bow our heads for prayer, your God enable us today to find the reasons for actions we hope to understand and make possible in our community. Let us open our minds to look at our opportunities so that we may better serve the people that live with us and hear. Call us to find ways even in our differences to focus on our ability to serve knowing that together we find more to unify us than divides us. Thank you very much, Lord, for giving us this day and this opportunity to serve this great city in your name. Amen. Amen. If you stand for the pledge of allegiance, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for winter sands, one nation under God, and in this rule with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So tonight we are going to have several recognitions and awards. And I thought that we would start first though because we are keeping people that came down earlier to present to our petition, this council, for their ideas and their thoughts. So we will go ahead and have our public forum recognition and we have speakers. Speakers will have three minutes to talk with the council. In this case, we do not reply, but you will have someone on the staff to address your question and you will get some information if not immediately tonight than sometime over in the next week or so. So we will have 11 speakers tonight and I believe and one on our actual business item, but we will start out with Joy Mayo, Ms. Mayo. And Ms. Mayo will be followed by Sil Gonzalez and be careful coming down steps. We'll be Pretty steep. Thank you. You have three minutes. Hi, I'm Joy Mayo. I'm the board chair of Transforming Nations Forward, a new community development organization. I'm here to highlight the urgent need for space for our youth so that they can feel safe, thrive, and see a brighter future. Harsow 205-17125 at East Arrow, Arrowwood Road in England Street offers a key opportunity to address the disinvestment and crime that has long impacted our neighborhood. This area, home to many low income minority and immigrant families, desperately needs safe enriching spaces. On March 19th, community members met with city officials to discuss the parcels development. The consensus was clear. Our youth need a place to gather and engage in positive activities. We envision amenities like basketball courts, soccer fields, a playground, a pavilion, and community needs space. So the part租 that I mentioned is actually owned by the city. We'll talk more about that. We urge the city of Charlotte to sell portions of the parcel to Mecklenburg County for $1. Prioritize in community needs. Additionally, we ask the city to subsidize rent in the proposed mixed-use facilities at the parcel for nonprofits like Arbridge for Kids, Despreita, and the Urban Leagues Alternatives of Violence Program, allowing them to continue vital work in the community. Transforming Nations Forward has collected over 1,000 signatures from city of Charlotte residents who believe investment is critical. I am requesting a meeting with each city council member to discuss this proposal further and will follow up with UV email to arrange a time. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration on this important matter. Thank you very much, Ms. Mayo. We look forward to that conversation. Our next speaker is Sil Ganzo. I'm not having to wear this shit, three. Sorry. No, man. That's it. I'm fine. any work out there. Should be. Sorry. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, education, acculturation and well-being of newly arrived refugee and immigrant children and their families. Since 2014, our bridge provided out-of-school programming and wraparound services to over a thousand refugee and immigrant children. We primarily always worked on the east side of town. However, the pandemic led us to expand our reach to the southwest, specifically the South Boulevard, the nation's forward and era-ward corridors, because a growing number of immigrant families were carpooling to our communities side on the east side. As we began developing relationships with newly our right families in the Southwest, we learned that they want access to English classes, more recreational activities for their children, and after-school programs that could help their kids with homework and stay connected with friends through healthier activities. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we spent time meeting with local leaders, understanding the available resources, identifying service gaps, and listening to what families need it. We found that the southwest area is now the biggest pocket of immigrants in the county. In fact, 60% of the neighbors there identified as Hispanic Olatino. But the more we learned, the more concerned we became with the future of the children growing up in the southwest as the gaps were bigger than we initially identified. More specifically, I'll use three apartment complexes at the corner of Aerowood and Nations Ford. About two blocks from the parcel, Joy just mentioned. 82% of the residents in those three apartment complexes are Latinos, remember that. And 36% of the homes in those three apartment complexes are Latinos. Remember that. And 36% of the homes in the neighborhood have access to internet compared to 80% of the rest of the county. And while life expectancy in the city is 72 years old, it drops to 60 years old in the southwest area. And in this apartment complexes where 82% of Latinos live, Life expectancy is 48. 48 years old. Inequities are stark and that is not okay. And I know we can do better. So I am proud of here to stand in support of Joy Meyau, the Swan leaders and the neighbors who have been advocating for investment in that area for the past 40 years. I urge our City Council to consider the leaders requests and work with the county to enhance the quality of life for all families in the Southwest. Thanks. Thank you very much. Our next two speakers are Kristen Coughlin and Anna Grace Blatt. Thank you. Council members, first I want to thank you for your time today. Before I get into the topic at hand a little bit about myself, I am proudly a born and bred charlatine. My mom was raised on a farm off Sandy Porter Road and attended Olympic High School. I myself graduated from South Mecklumpur High School, went to App State University and missed the city so much that I moved back after graduating to pursue a career in finance. I started fostering for ACC back in April of this year. A call went out to the community asking anyone who had capacity to take a dog while the shelter underwent renovations for three weeks. I drove over to the shelter, picked up a very handsome black lab mix, and took him home. The three weeks came and went in when I was faced with the choice of fostering until adoption or returning him to the shelter. It really wasn't much of a choice. Returning him to the shelter meant that he faced the very real possibility of being euthanized. I believe he deserved an advocate and a fighting chance at adoption. I am happy to report that that dog was adopted into his forever home on July 15. Over the course of my time fostering, my eyes have opened the struggles that the shelter faces. ACC operates on a bare bones budget that does not reflect the exponential growth the city has experienced in recent years. This underfunding results in inadequate resources for basic necessities such as food, medical care, and proper facilities. Because of this, they struggle to maintain a humane environment for the animals they care for. If I'm being honest, going to the main shelter off-bire is something that I try to avoid doing very regularly. The reason is because it's not a pleasant place to be. When I'm there before I walk inside, I have to take a very deep breath. The air feels heavy and the front desk staff are overwhelmed or absent. Most of the times there are scared confused animals being surrendered, they're often caked in dirt and neglected. The other reason I avoid the shelter is the bigger one because I'm asked to. Almost weekly, I receive an email telling us please not to come to the shelter. They're under staffed. They have no capacity so unless you are a community member coming into foster or adopted animal. It's an emergency for your foster pet or you are a volunteer, please avoid coming in. As you can imagine, many staff members at ACC are burnt out. They are tasked with not only handling the daily care of animals, but also administrative duties outreach efforts and community education. Investing emotionally in the animals in community is taxing, especially when they know that not every dog who walks through the front doors will walk out. That's a heavy thing to experience day after day. I love that as a citizen, I have the ability to cast my vote for the candidates whose platforms reflect the causes I care about. In that way, I'm able to advocate for myself. The tough thing with animals though is that they don't get to do that. They rely on us to act as their advocates. I firmly believe we have a responsibility to create a framework that gives them a fighting chance at a life worth living. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Anne Grace-Bloin and I'm a foster for the Animal Shelter. Shelter advocates have been asking for two things that can significantly improve the pet homelessness crisis in our city. A new, adequately staffed shelter and an independent city department. I support both of these requests. I want to extend my gratitude as well for the recent approvals of additional staff which will benefit both animals and caretakers. While we're thankful for the new staff positions, they remain insufficient and the need for a new shelter and independent city department is urgent. Operating under the police department causes multiple bureaucratic challenges including low, non-competitive pay for key roles like veterinarians. As a foster, I see the desperate need for more clinic staff to manage the overwhelming number of animals requiring care. Beyond staffing, the shelter itself is outdated and ill-equipped to handle the growing demand. A new facility is essential to improve animal care, provide adequate space, and reduce strain on both staff and resources. Earlier this year, I found a dog tied to a tree in a parking lot abandoned after recently giving birth. I bought her to the shelter and she was placed on a mandatory three-day stray hold despite her condition and obvious mistreatment. To my surprise, someone did reach out looking for her and promised her a tree for by the end of the day, but they never showed up. Her name was Honey. I was able to find a foster home for her, but due to strict procedural obligation, the shelter had to extend the stray hold by an additional 10 days because contact was made. During this extension, Honeycontactated Kennelcoff, a highly contagious respiratory infection that can lead to pneumonia. After two weeks of waiting in a kennel in discomfort, the previous guardian finally arrived but chose not to take her back due to her illness. Honey's illness had developed into pneumonia and she suffered immensely for over a month. Honey's suffering could have been significantly reduced with a less crowded, appropriately designed shelter, and more veterinarians to manage care of the animals. For people like myself and many others who are here today, it is tiring and overwhelming to work for a system that does not work for us. Furthermore, the current structure heavily impacts public perception. People are less likely to support or trust in a system that seems more concerned with red tape than with the actual welfare of the animals and the community members it serves. As Charlotte continues to expand, the need for a better shelter facility and more adequate staffing grows simultaneously. I also urge you to consider the significant benefits of designating the shelter as an independent city department and to take action to ensure that the shelter can operate with the autonomy needed to best serve our community. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Alicia Harvey. Alicia Harvey. Montezia McLean. Montezia McLean. All right, we'll go ahead and go down to the next. The Stockter Madeline McLean. Cameron Smith. Cameron Smith. Thomas Vincent. Thomas Vincent. Mr. Benson? Hello, how are you doing? Mr. Benson? I'm here speaking on the transformation of Nations 4. I'm here with Mr. Joy-May-o and also with Swine. I'm a native Charlotte T and I've been here 46 plus years. I'm closer to 50 and 40. We know as a resource dancer in the nation for an area. Mr. Mitchell used to be my mentor. Thirty-set years ago he used to come pick me up because we had nothing over there. He would come pick me up to go to save the seed at Johnson C. Smith. We've never had anything over there. The crime rate has escalated tremendously over in the nation's four-row quarter. And that's because they don't have anything to do. We are in the top four in you know, in the city and the violent crime, makes up 8% of it and we're only 1% of the land mass in Charlotte. We're just asking for the help from the city to put something over there so we can get you something to do, which also can bridge the gap between the youth and the elderly by bringing us all together. Because it can also be a place for the elderly to come play bingo, have a little dance. This is new different stuff. So just be something for y'all to think about. Let us get that parcel. You know, help us out. Everybody claim the floor. We ought to for so put something on the floor. Invest in the floor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Our next speaker is Kimberly Moore Hey, so that concludes under the volume. She's here. I got this. OK. I got this. Just ask. Yeah, I know. I got it. So now I'd like to go to a time that we would have for recognitions here. I'm very, for the very first recognition that I would like to have is that we just lost a major leader in our city. Leader in civil rights, leader in equity inclusion at a small, at the age of 75, Kelly Alexander passed away this past week. And I just wanted to acknowledge him. He has been a part of a family of legacy and always about talking about how do we make sure that people have their civil rights, that people have the opportunity. He will be missed so much from this community. But we also know that his family loved him deeply, and the legacy that he left for is the businessman a legislator is very important for us to recognize. So if we could just have a moment of silence for Kelly Alexander, I would certainly appreciate it. Thank you. I would also like to recognize and thank the Knight Foundation for the investments that they made on a visit of their Board of directors to the city of Charlotte. And this investment included a really deep dive into one of our quarters of opportunity along Bates Ford Road. And not only did they look through the Bates Ford Road template of what was going to happen, thank you, Jatanya, and all of the residents along Bates Ford Road, template of what was going to happen. Thank you, Jatanya, and all of the residents along Bates Ford Road for this. But they also left an investment of almost $17 million in economic development initiatives for the corridor. So for that, I want to say thank you to the Knight Foundation and the work that they do. They are part of what we used to have as our newspaper, and they have been a part of this community in so many ways for very long history, and we need to recognize them for what they've accomplished and what they contribute. They also left funding for our culture and arts program. So hopefully, we'll see in five or so million dollars in some way that we can figure out a way to get it out to the community and work with them because that is really important and I think that they would really again should be recognized for that. And so with that I would like to ask Fonda, try it to come down and have a proclamation. We are grateful for the opportunities that you are taking. We made our decision to take the place. And. And. So I know this she's pretty cool. So it's not a prevention, no. I can hear them. So she's asked me to make this proclamation. I'm grateful to do it. And then she's going to give us some comments. Whereas suicide and suicide attempts affect the health and well-being of families, friends, loved ones, co-workers, and the community. Suicide is especially affecting our young people with suicide being the second leading cause of death for young people the ages of 10 to 34, for young black males the ages of 10 to 24, and on college campuses it is the number one cause of death for police officers not in the line of duty. In the United States one person completes suicide every 11 minutes, resulting in over almost 50,000 suicides in 2022 according to the foundation for suicide prevention. Whereas the stigma around global mental health is the number one reason why people won't seek help and fuels the suicide rate, suicide is a global health crisis and not a personal character flaw. Mental health conditions and suicidality work against suicides by discouraging persons at risk for suicide from seeking life-saving help and further traumatized survivors of suicide loss and people with lived experience of suicide. And whereas organizations like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Wellness Action Recovery, Mental Health America, and others continue to work to help those suffering and solace and prevent suicide from through advocacy, education, research, and action. Now therefore, we, by Alexander Laos, Mayor of Charlotte and George Dunlap, Chair of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissions, do hereby proclaim the month of September 2024 as National Suicide Prevention Month. And we ask all of our citizens to honor this observance and certainly no more than we can have from Fonda Bryant who has carried this cause so well for so long. Thank you very much Miss Bryant. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm gonna try to get through what I say without crimes. Sometimes I had those dates. When I was coming in you know on July 1st, 2024, CMPD lost their fourth officer and two and a half years to suicide. According to BlueHelp.org, the police were not able to get the job done. So I wanted to let you know that on July 1st, 2024, CMPD lost their fourth officer and two and a half years to suicide. According to BlueHelp.org, the organization attracts first responders' suicides. As of today, we have lost 62 police officers nationwide to suicide, eight more since Officer Brent Simpson died. Where's the call of action? Where's the help? As at his memorial, his wife talked about the pain he was dealing with. I know daily, I know that pain. And if it wasn't for my aunt's spanky 29 years ago, recognizing the warning signs of suicide, I wouldn't be here and neither would others. I would have missed that on so many good things if I had taken my life on February 14, 1995. I would have missed that on so many good things if I had taken my life on February 14, 1995. I would have missed my son growing up and my grandson, Bryce. Suicide isn't a warm or fuzzy subject. It's a hard subject to talk about, but we must have these uncomfortable conversations to become comfortable and vote can change through action. Words are just words if action doesn't come behind them. We can share how sorry we are when someone dies by suicide. We need more than mere words. We need to do better as a community, a culture, and a society when it comes to preventing suicide. Education is the key to presenting suicide. Suicide is the most preventable death of all deaths and it is everybody's business. No one should have to deal with the pain and tragedy of losing someone to suicide. Everyone needs to care and everyone needs to get involved to stop the global health crisis that is suicide. I put pins on Y'all's desk for Y'all to wear tomorrow. September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day. The Duke Energy Building will shine till and purple for that day. Everyone needs to take a moment and recognize that whether directly or indirectly, suicide affects all of us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Glad you're still here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. which may also send out. So is that the extension? Thanks, thank you. Thank you very much. That concludes the public portion for speakers and our forum and our awards today. So now we will go into our first public hearing, which is hearing and a decision on HUD's best area of voluntary annexation. Do we have any speakers, Mayor? I mean clerk, Madame Clerk. I'm a mayor, I'm sorry, whatever. Any speakers? Madame Clerk, none. So do I have a motion to close the public hearing and adopt an annexation ordinance with effective date of September 9th, 2024 to extend the corporate limits to include this property and assign it to Council District 4. This is for moved. We have a motion. Thank you. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? All right, the motion carries. The next item is the policy section of our agenda and we refer this to our city manager, Marcus Jones, do you have any updates for the council? Thank you. Mayor Mimosa, council, I have a little side bent going on with Councilmember Mimosa. He didn't know I had several presentations. So, Mayor Councilor, what would like to do is we were going to, I was going to have Julia Martin come up and talk about the strategic progress tracker. Don't want to do it tonight. But we did send some information out to you. Last month, you will remember at the annual strategy meeting we're trying to make sure we could line our goals objective some performance measures so that is going live we'll make sure that we get information out to you on that we're really excited about that and in the future meeting we'll give you a go through with it okay. All right thank you very much so the next item on our agenda is a policy item that is for affordable housing policy, affordable housing policy, funding policy. It is item 10 and so we will hear from the committee but this is a motion cut. I have a motion to a recognition from the committee chair and vice chair approve the housing safety and community recommendation to create affordable housing funding policy guidelines inclusive of housing goals and outcomes, investment priorities and investment goals across affordable housing categories to help direct the city housing investments through local funding sources. So we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Absolutely. Thank you Madam Mayor. So I just want to say that I thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed working on this with staff and my colleagues. My vice chair, Luana Mayfield, and Council Member Drake, who was able to join us as an unofficial committee member over the summer. We were tasked with thinking about how are we going to deploy this $100 million in our housing trust fund. We know that we've done 50 million over the last several years and that was a step change at the time and now we're ready to take another step. But we want to do it in a way that is not just doubling the amount of funding but we want to make sure that we are updating our funding to reflect our community's current needs. And I think that we did that. So I'm very excited to see this come to the table. It was supported by our committee. And thank you to our housing safety and community committee members, Brown may feel, excuse me, Brown may feel Johnson as well as Eschmere. Thank you for your work on this and thank you for your input. Thank you to the community. We were able to get community engagement executed and we're in the process of getting that feedback. And I do believe that what we've got here is reflective of the broader goal. So I'm excited to see the investment at home ownership at a level that we've never done before. I'm particularly excited about the $5 million that we've got in an innovation fund that will really allow the market to tell us what is it that we could be doing at scale that we just have not set up a tool to do. So I look forward to the great ideas that come out of that. But once again, just very, very proud of the work that staff has done and certainly I would turn it over to Vice Chair Mayfield. Thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you. Chairwoman, I again want to echo it was, while a lot of people are off on summer break, we, the three of us, were trying to dig in to come up with some really creative ideas. What I would like to add is we have a survey. We worked very hard together to push out the importance. The survey honestly takes five minutes to complete. We already have a list of priorities. You are literally just moving the little moving, the sentence up for what is your number one priority. We have less than 400 surveys so far. That have been submitted. I have shared it on my social media, the City of Charlotte on my Facebook as well as Instagram, the City of Charlotte's Facebook page, as well as all of our social media. The link is on there for the input. I promise you it takes five minutes. This is a way for you all to let us know if the ideas that the three of us and the entire committee that we thought we heard from you as the community that is of importance, we are now giving it back to you. I can't say so far for the almost 400, we are right in alignment. The idea of how we are looking to allocate the funds and support our community and not just do another 50% more of what we previously done, but to look at outcomes, not just quantity. That was very important. But for those 400, right now, those will be the ones that say, hey, this is what we want. So we really, really, really want everyone, all of your family, all of your neighbors, all of your church members, all of your friends, make it a challenge. Go in, who can complete the survey first? Get the survey done because we want to hear from you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor, I apologize. I will be remiss if I let this moment pass without acknowledging our Assistant City Manager, Sean Heath, Director Rebecca Hathner, and Warren Wu, out of housing and neighborhood services. They did a tremendous job supporting us this summer and being very responsive to the questions that we asked. They provided excellent data and the research that they did. We could not have done it without you. Also thank you for once again, knocking it out of the park. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So Mr. Drake's. Thank you Madam Mayor. At the time we adopted our budget over actually my opposition, I did express a concern that we were increasing our housing commitment to $100 million and in my view we weren't specific enough in targeting it. We didn't have accountability around results and I think that earned me a slot on the working group. And I have to say I did enjoy working with you ladies very much. And I want to also chime in on the staff, the amount of material that the staff brought to us and the analysis they brought to us and the way they responded from what we said in one session to the next session was really remarkable. So very impressed with that. And I'm pleased with where we came out. I think what we have now is a more clearly expressed intent around our investment in affordable housing. And the goal is to make sure that the people who benefit the most from it and who deserve it get it. And that we are going to be accountable about being able to prove that that was the case. So I think we came out in a good place. And I'm going to try and get my summer back this fall sometime. I appreciate your ladies. Thank you very much. All right. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mr. Driggs, I think we all, a few of us need some more days from our summer, right? From the work that we did. But I want to commend the committee on the work that you all did on this presentation. I was able to sit through a couple of meetings and I really like the strategic approach and the focus on economic mobility and residential stability. One of the things that I noticed a couple years ago when we were talking about housing, was the percentage of the units for sale to promote home ownership in our community were very low. And in this proposed structure, we have increased the dollars approximately 150% towards home ownership, which many of us key issues of a growing city is not having proper housing for our workforce to stay inside of the city, proximate to where they work. And without that housing, it is not the community that is missing and that is one of the key issues of a growing city is not having proper housing for our workforce to stay inside of the city proximate to where they work. And without that housing, it breeds flight out of the city and therefore tax base in resources. And so really love the focus on that specific area as well. And lastly, I'll just say, I know that we're going to go through a tremendous community education process, but this will be just one of three bonds on the ballot in the fall. And so I really encourage our residents to educate, please take the survey as Ms. Mayfield stated, but educate yourselves and keep a lookout for all the information that we as a city will be pushing forward on information around the bonds because they're really critical to ensure that we have a city that can grow and thrive properly. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to say thank you to the committee members and those self-appointed and some of those that were just annoying it. And I want to say that because the city has worked many years to figure out how can we do this better, how can we do it, and I think that what you did was exceptional. But it only works if we come out and vote for the $100 million in bonds. So this good work needs financing and funding. And if we will be accountable for that, but we will need your vote to make it happen and make it possible. This ballot's going to be almost, I think, two pages long. And so when you come in, it's always going to start with the president and bonds are always at the bottom so but we need to really understand that and as you go out and talk about this wherever you are in your community your neighborhood your church your schools just know that we need you to follow the ballot all the way until the end and support these bonds because that's the way we will implement change and opportunity. So thank you very much. Thank you again to the committee for the work that they've done. So with that I think that we don't have to have a vote on this I believe until after the election. So you hear that? We can't do this until after the election. So you hear that? We can't do this until after you vote for it. Okay, thank you very much. All right, Ms. Mayfield. Ms. Mayfield, please excuse me. I'm sorry, it's your introduction. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm going way too far. Here I am trying to get you to do the next action. We have a motion and a second and we want to approve the housing safety the committee's recommendation. So thank you. All in favor, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed, Mr. Bacari? Thank you very much. All right, and again, thanks for the work. All right, so now we'll move on to consideration of our business items. I'm sorry. That was today. Thank you for that. Okay. I will now move on to our consideration of our business items. The very first one being 11, Dr. Budget Ordnance appropriating 417,600 dollars from NCDOT, for consolidation and coordination of regional public transportation to the CAT's operating fund. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second is there any discussion? Hearing none all in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? All right, next. The next item is 12. For item 12, what dop the resolution authorizing the manager to negotiate and execute a supplemental agreement with the NCDOT to accept the surface transportation block grant direct a tributal funds in the amount of $1 million. $745,000 for the Mars field drive bridge replacement project, adopt a resolution authorizing the manager to negotiate and execute, said the product and budget ordinance appropriating 2,602,000 from the North Carolina Department of Transportation to the general capital projects fund or have a motion. So motion and a second is there any discussion. Very none all in favor, please raise your hand. Anyone in opposition? No opposition, thank you. The next item is item 13, a doctor resolution authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute a supplemental agreement with NCDOT to accept state resurfacing funds in the amount of $300,000 for the railroad widening project and a doctor budget ordinance appropriating said funds to the city's general capital projects fund. Do we have a motion? Second. Any discussion? Any none? All in favour? Raise your hands. Any one opposed? Motion carries. The next item is item 14. Is there a motion to adopt a resolution to direct the expenditure of opioid settlement funds? So motion. Second. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. The next item is item 15. It is for Eastland redevelopment sports and entertainment development agreement. Friday 15 is their motion to authorize the city. Second. Okay. All right. I think everybody else in the audience may want to know what it's about. We'll start with a little bit. I won't read all of that. But the manager to negotiate and execute a master development agreement with the sports complex team, setting forth general terms and conditions of the city. Also authorizing the manager to negotiate an execute agreement for the reimbursement of costs for public infrastructure and an amount not to exceed $18 million which represents an additional $8 million or at million. $9 million from previous city council approval which is expected to be reimbursed to the developer in full by the 2024 bond referendum or split between 24 and 26 bond referendum authorizing the manager to negotiate and execute the agreements for the reimbursement of costs of expenses for expenses associated with indoor and outdoor amateur sports facilities and other public improvements in the amount not to exceed True is a 2 million 334 22 million 334 million Grif represents an additional 2.34 millions from previous City Council approval and authorize the manager to execute these documents as needed. So with that, do I have a motion? Motion to support A, B, C, and D. Second. We have a motion and a second. We have a speaker. Greg Fursuda. Would you please join us down and welcome. Good evening all. My name is Greg Ischuto and I'm the Executive Director of Charlotte East. We are the Community Development Organization dedicated to building social and economic capital in East Charlotte. Your vote tonight is the last, last turn of key needed to restart an economic engine that promises to bring a $169 million annual economic impact, 500 jobs at E Charlotte. This project, these outcomes, are what thousands of E Charlotte T-ins have spent two decades fighting for. And while last year saw a very public and contentious advocacy cycle, we would not be here tonight without it. As this chapter closes, we're excited to start a new one by welcoming Bolton Ivory Canty, Edge Sports Group, Southern Entertainment, and Charlotte Soccer Academy to our community. And I believe all of them are here tonight. We are incredibly excited and cannot wait to see the transformative impact that their work is gonna have any Charlotte. And I would like to say this is a lot of Tory public comment. I am grateful to the city of Charlotte for its investment both in the site and our organization. With roughly a quarter million in support via the corridor's team, Charlotte East is excited to embark upon a two-year effort to establish and formalize a greater Eastland business district. Our goal is to help our business community navigate the opportunities and challenges posed by this development, ensuring existing small businesses are given the supports they need to thrive and stay in place while opening the door to those who want to do business on our side of town. And in case it gets lost or I don't get another who want to do business on our side of town. In case it gets lost or I don't get another public opportunity to do it, I would like to thank all members of Council tonight for helping us arrive at this moment in time regardless of the ultimate decision in your vote. Some specific thanks to the following. Council member Izmirah, thank you for ensuring that this sports complex did not die in committee last summer. Councilmember Watley-Tay, thank you for your constant support of our community and leadership in the formation of this March proposal. Councilmember Bacari, thank you for helping shepherd this final funding request through to tonight's finish line. Councilmember Graham, thank you for your oversight of this project since Tepper's departure. And lastly, I would like to give a huge, huge thank you to Council Member Mitchell for ensuring you Charlotte at a seat at this negotiating table from day one. Thank you for your day one support, your guidance, and your delivered promises. And I'm going to wrap up and truly say thank you to everyone here. Thank you again for your support of Eastland. And I look forward to working together in coming months to ensure that both our residents and 100,000 plus annual out of town visitors will be able to get to it via train. Thank you. All right, thank you very much for your remarks. All right, so I believe that the district rep would like to make a remark and then we'll have the committee chair as well And then we'll go around so then everybody can have an opportunity to speak all right miss Melina Thank you my ally, miss Madam Mayor I I spent the weekend deciding Just collecting my thoughts and my words around this. And so in order to make sure that I didn't leave anything out, I wrote my thoughts down. So I'm going to read them to you the way that they came from, my mind collecting everything that has happened over the past almost two years now. Tonight marks a monumental step forward for East Charlotte and our entire region. Today, we officially close the transaction on the North folk Southern Rail Line, which is an essential part of what could become a comprehensive regional transportation system. This acquisition opens the door for connecting neighborhoods, reducing traffic congestion, and fostering economic opportunities. It represents the type of forward thinking infrastructure investment that will benefit generations to come providing e-shallot and our entire region with the much needed access to citywide transit. Just today, I interacted with a dedicated, long-time community member who brought more concerns to my attention. The message was, for too long, E Charlotte has been underserved when it comes to transportation and infrastructure. Independence Boulevard, one of the busiest roads in the region has been a corridor of frustration for residents and commuters alike. From the demolition of the Coliseum Shopping Center on Independence Boulevard in 2017, once a bustling retail hub to the bustling retail hub that was Eastland Mall, the community of East Charlotte has felt left out and I want to acknowledge that sentiment. The closures have left gaping holes in the hearts of East Charlotteians. Despite high hopes, the area still awaits meaningful development and the promise economic revival that has yet to materialize. I commit with the announcement of both items today that these key milestones for as long as I hold this duly elected position to continue to push for solutions that serve e-sharlots long term needs. Now for the main event. I want to focus on Eeslin Yards, a crown jewel of East Charlotte's future. As many of you know, Eastland Mall once stood as a vibrant center of commerce and community gathering. When it closed in 2010, it left a void in both the economic and social fabric of our district. Since then, we've been on a long and sometimes difficult journey to revitalize the site. I've been deeply involved in this process as a member of the Jobs and Economic Development Committee in both election years 22 and 23, and we've carefully reviewed every proposal for Eastland Yards. From those early discussions to where we are today, the project has undergone multiple iterations. What began as a singular A and B is now a comprehensive option that considers a broad and comprehensive range of desires from the escharlic community. It's a mixed-use development that will combine residential housing, retail and green spaces, bring jobs and economic vitality back to the area. Tonight we will finalize the last major decision. Approved an additional $11 million to complete the final 30 acres of this development. When I asked our city staff and this council to support the combined option on August 28, 2023 and return the results in 45 days, it was a risk. A risk that I was willing to take to consider the broad needs of our community members in each Charlotte. That act was supported unanimously by this council, which I am extremely grateful for. I am encouraged by the outcome and I am proud to support the additional funding in what will be a long awaited solution for the community that I represent on this body. As a councilwoman, a 20 year charlatan, and someone who has lived through the ups and downs of this community, I understand the frustrations that many have expressed. Eshara has been traditionally overlooked. And I've heard those concerns loud and clear. Since taking office, I've been committed to ensuring that Eshara the Tians get the attention and resources it deserves. Tonight's decision is not just a new development or infrastructure. It's about creating the future that we've all been waiting for. A future where East Charlotte is a thriving part of Charlotte's community story. Tonight's decision on Eastland Yards, and today's acquisition of the North Fork Southern Rail Line, our critical steps towards addressing long standing gaps in transportation and economic development for our district and the entire city of Charlotte. Each Charlotte has traditionally been underserved. I say that once again, but I feel strongly that we are now on the right track. We are laying the foundation for a future that will bring jobs, housing, and transit options that have been long overdue. I am proud to be a part of that journey, and I look forward to continuing the work with my colleagues, the community, and business leaders to ensure that each Charlotte reaches its full potential. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Molina. Thank you Madam Mayor. Thank you Madam Mayor. In August of 2012, the city purchased approximately 80.4 acres of the former East Slim all property. The model itself was demolition 2013. And since those times we had a lot of discussions about East Limal and a wide variety of ways. On the first of the night I tell the council a lot of the time I used to work at East Limal at Webster's Men's Wear selling clothes when I was a student at Johnson's Seasmith University. And I had the opportunity today as I was shopping in East Charlie Gray to drive by the site. And was extremely impressed by what I saw in terms of the development. Crossland and Southeast and I see Tempest up there has been doing a fantastic job building to senior housing the affordable units retail is going to be out there Mecknerburg County continues to work on creating a a for-a-for park And by the end of the year there'll be people actually living on the ground. I think that deserves a round of applause for waiting for 10 years. And then it's the concept that we're fulfilling today. Working with a wide variety of community partners to have indoor sports, basketball, pickleball, volleyball, outdoor sports, soccer, arts and entertainment, restaurant and retail, all with community access to the property. It's a great day for East Charlotte, and there's a commitment that this council has taken to heart. I want to thank the committee because Greg is right. We had a pretty interesting year and a half of committee meetings and the residents for being honest brokers and advocating for their community. I appreciate what you've done and your advocacy. And I want to thank the committee for working with me, Chairman, Vice Chairman Mitchell, Mr. Bacari who I enjoy working with. I really do, I like my hot dog with mustard and ketchup on it, so I really enjoy working with them. Mr. Drakes, for always being a regional member and certainly the district rep. When she first got here in 2019, it was intentional that she served on the Economic Development Committee because we knew that this project was long overdue and her advocacy and her voice was desperately needed. I want to thank the team at Sports Global and the Charlotte Soccer Academy Southern Entertainment all for really working together. And I see they handshake up there because we didn't know if this was going to work. the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, the college, among yourselves, negotiated with the city to come to a conclusion that represents the best interest of this community. So I wanna thank you for your leadership, thank you for your commitment to each all it in and partnering with the city of Charlotte. Lastly, I also wanna thank the staff, right? Tracy and Todd enough. I've seen the emails go back and forth for a year and a half trying to make sure that we dot eyes and cross-tees and our professional staff is good at what they do. They protect the interest of the city for sure and that's what they're supposed to do. So I want to thank the staff for their commitment. I was telling that the manager earlier today, this was the easy part. The hot part now is the billet and the operation of it, the maintenance of it, the upkeeping of it. All right, that's the hard part and I'm committed. I know that the right team is there to get it done. I think there's no doubt about that. These folks are committed, partnering with the city to ensure that when we have this groundbreaking sooner than later, that that facility is going up there for years and years to come, that would be a landmark at destination location for not only the citizens of East Charlotte before the region, this a regional destination in which we'll bring growth, development, jobs, housing, all those type of things necessary to fulfill the mission of the project. So I'm happy that we're here. This is only a halfway there. We got a lot more work to be done for sure. But I'm committed to working with the team and the members of the team as well as you to kind of finish what we started to accelerate the pace of where we're going. Because I think I want to get there sooner than later. I think we all do, but certainly this is a good day for each of us. It demonstrates when people come together what they can do. It demonstrates the commitment of the city to create jobs, economic opportunities, affordable housing, senior housing, sports and entertainment are wrapped up in one facility. So thank you very much and I look forward to voting yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Councilwoman Molina is correct. This is a monumental step in the right direction. This feels like a dream that is finally being realized. I mean, I've been on the City Council for over four terms now. So, to see this as a East Side resident, as a former District Council member, I have waited for this moment for a long time. And I know certain members that are in the community that have waited way longer than I have. I can, I remember talking to Diane Langevin, Carolyn Millen and others. And when I first met with them, they would show me big binders that had presentations after presentations, after presentations of every proposal that's been out there. That's how passionate our neighborhood leaders are. And we all deserve a big, we all deserve, they all deserve a big hand from us. I'm proud to live in a community where residents, neighborhood leaders come out. They are engaged throughout the process and they are committed. They are committed. I mean, we are talking about committee meetings that happen during the day time. They are there. They are there at neighbourhood events. When the team had done various community events, all of these neighbors showed up and team had done not one, not two, not three. There are so many community events that team and his group had done to ensure that this was a community development project. And I appreciate the work that you have done along with both development teams. I would be remased if I did not thank District Councilwoman Marjorie Malena for taking this to the finish line, for steering this project to the finish line. I also think about our predecessors, especially Matt Newton, John Otrie, Nancy, and others. They really laid the foundation and groundwork for us, so today we stand on their shoulders. This has been truly a collaborative effort, every step of the way with Charlotte East and neighborhood leaders. So thank you to Charlotte East for your leadership in this process. This is just a transformational investment. As Chairman Graham said, this is going to be a destination point for not just for the East side, but for our region. We are talking about a sports and entertainment district. Transformation investment that's going to unlock economic success for generations to come. So I'm really excited and I can't wait for the groundbreaking to happen soon. All right councilmember brown would you like to speak? I have anything to say. All right. Councilmember Johnson. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to say that I'm honored to be a part of this, this this transformation of both also and also to stand beside my colleague. Congratulations. I know there's a lot of work and a lot of late nights. So I'm honored to support you and honored to support this development. The speaker mentioned $169 million worth of economic benefits. But I also want to acknowledge the community benefits that will be a part of this project. So we talk about youth violence and tools to address youth violence. This is some resource in the community for those youth to answer or to respond to the violence in our community. There will be a sustainable year round athletic ecosystem that benefits not just the east side but the Charlotte community. There's over 9,000 hours of free community access to the facility, on-site physical therapy and sports medicine, Carolina sports, walk of fame, local artists and interior and exterior murals. Over 500 jobs that are going to be created, a diverse mix of food and beverage options, so that's going to benefit those small businesses, small business owners, and also development through community learning center, STEM education and health and wellness program. So this center checks so many boxes and meets so many of our priorities. So I'm honored to support, thank you to both the developers Miss Canty and the other group. I'm sorry, I'm not it. Okay, thank you. And it's just awesome to see you all sitting together. That's collaboration and partnership. Okay. Yeah, it's great. So we're honored to support today. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This really is a historical moment. I've shared my story. I'm a Charlotte native born and raised. And when Islamal was constructed constructed it was a unique destination and really a magnet for yes Charlotte Tins I spent endless weekends there just hanging out having fun and meeting my friends there but it was also a regional destination as was mentioned before where people outside of the city of Charlotte would come to Eastland and spend an entire day. Shop, have a meal at Darrell's, watch people in the ice rink. It was really a destination that brought economic dollars into East Charlotte. e-sharlot. And so I'm really, really happy to be a part of the vote and the affirmative to bring yet another economic driver and destination on the very grounds where something unique had been many, many years ago. So this, what we're voting on today has taken months and months and months, Ms. Molina. And we've had conversations with the developers. You guys are awesome. Interation after iteration, answering the questions, being there for all the council members who had questions and wanted to see something really meaningful come on this site. And so I'm, Mr. Graham is right that this is really the easy part. We have to build it, but I am so excited to see the end product and be able to walk through this facility and see all the East Charlotte residents that just have tremendous engagement throughout this across the board. It's gonna be such a day of joy for East Charlotte when this is constructed and we're able to really embrace it as a community. So I wanna thank everyone for their engagement with this in particular Miss Malena, who's the district rep. Many of us who have been district reps, I think pretty much all of us. We know that when something happens in your district, it's all hands on deck all the time. Answering questions, emails, phone calls. So anything that occurs, especially something historic in a particular district, the district rep has done extreme heavy lifting to bring that to the community. And so I want to think the district rep for her involvement and all the other council members too because this really has been a full council effort because we all care so much about Eastland Mall, that site and bringing economic vitality back to the East side. Thank you Madam Mayor. Mr. Driggs. Thank you Mayor. Having been on council for over 10 years, I've experienced a lot of the saga of Eastland and the sheer futility. The mall went broke. There was no commercial solution. Nobody saw a feasible way of developing it through the normal means of just tearing things down. So the city recognized we had to get involved in order to make something happen there and remove this source spot and the city bought the land, the city then raised and cleaned up the site to make it more accessible and continued to consider possibilities. A breakthrough came then when the partnership with Crosland South East came about and really do appreciate that. I think Crosland was willing to move in when others weren't. And it's one of the main reasons we were able to get to where we are today. After that, we all know there were setbacks. There was supposed to be soccer there, and then there wasn't. And then we went through a whole new round of what happens at that location. And I remember being in a number of conversations with people who had ideas for development there, that I thought weren't good ideas. And they involved a huge amount of public money and not much other investment. weren't necessarily supported by the kind of substance that I would like to see for Eastland. Because you had to think about we need to do something where we can be confident about success. And there was no point in seizing upon a plan that had with it a great risk of just not being able to be completed. Then as everybody knows, we got into a late situation where there were two proposals and we were sort of stuck wrangling those proposals and so I'm incredibly pleased that after too much time and it's taken a lot of time but we've arrived in a good place. I think we've got the best of those two proposals. We resolve that. The city is willing to step up and increase its investment in order to allow this plan to move ahead. And I hope the people of East Charlotte appreciate that. There is a history of under-investment and I've been told about it often, but on this occasion we are stepping up and we're doing so out of a concern for the future of East Charlotte. I want to commend Councilmember Molina. She has been through a lot here. I think most of us in the room know what it was like. I'm glad I wasn't in the middle of that. I can tell you that. There weren't easy answers and you hung in there and you fought for your people and I respect that. I admire that. So I'm a ES and I look forward to seeing this come true. Thank you very much. Mr. Bacari. Good work everybody. I was a hell of a journey. Thank you all. I'm trying to do me. This vote? Wait a minute. We may have other people that would like to speak. All right. Miss Watlington would do. Okay. I want to come back. Miss Brown, did you want to speak? And Mr. We did have a, I have been walking waiting for Mr. Mitchell to come back so that he's already got his shirt on. Oh gosh. Sorry. Sorry. All right. Miss Brown. Yeah. Thank you Madam Mayor. I just want to speak to what Mayor Pro Tem said about Isimal. No one in history of Isimal living here in my entire life, definitely experienced some of the things that happened over at the ice skating ring and just being an East Amal with my mom. Those memories are prices. They were never, ever go away because we would catch the bus from Southside homes to East Amal. But I just want to just thank my colleague because we go daily with 100,000 people that we have to support in these districts. And I think everybody could just point the finger at us. And I'm gonna take, I'm wanting to just give her flowers right now. I don't, I can't, I've been in this chair for since January, but Eason has been going on long before I got here. But if anybody can speak to Eason, all this me, because I probably spent more time in Eason has been going on long before I got here. But if anybody can speak to Eason all this me, because I probably spent more time in Eason out anybody in this arena. But I would like to say that it's hard. When you have all these, quite well, Loana, I don't know, maybe you can have them for a while. Oh, I see. I think I'm not going to be good. Maybe you'd better say that. I'm out of my thing. You're about to say, man. He had to work in the store. You were probably having more fun. That's right. I was having more fun. You had more fun. That's what I would say. But anyway, going back to it, it's really difficult. And I just want to commend you for all of the work. I've seen all of the emails, and I'm going to stand in solidarity with you and support your vote. People don't understand the magnitude of this job, all of the emails. It's easy to say what we don't do, but I don't think people know what we do do. I'm behind these closed doors, so I'm standing with you and I'm going to vote with you and just keep moving forward. This is a hard job. And if y'all don't believe it's triass, come take a seat do it it's very very hard it's not easy at all and there's a lot of emails there's a lot of phone calls a lot of text messages a lot of going back and forth and we work really hard so it's easier to say it than done and it's easy to point the thing and say what you're not doing I know what you are doing so I stand with you in solidarity and I'm ready to vote so So yes for me. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mitchell. Oh. Did you start it? So I got to tell it from a standpoint of a journey. And so y'all bear with me, I promise not to go over 30 minutes. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So back in 2008, I think on the one that was on the ED committee was Councilmember Mayfield. When we first had this conversation about something transformative on the East Side. And through that, we tried several projects that we thought was a good fit. People have already acknowledged the previous District 5 representative who were passionate about doing something special for the East Side. And then 2019, this young lady replaced our Austin's District 2 representative and she attended a meeting and she raised a question to an ED about amateur sports and how much money was amateur sports and we should be playing in that market. And I remember at the time Ron Kimbo did a study. Amateur sports in 2019 was a six billion dollar industry. Six would have been. And that council member of the time made a joke. She looked at the city manager and she said, when I get off city council, I'm going to become an amateur consultant. And I'm going to do something special for the City of Charlotte. Here we are today, 2024. And this has not been an easy journey. There were four other opportunities to put this vision, this transformative project, and other parts of our city. So sometimes it is the right project with the right leader at the right location. And tonight I think that's why we're going to vote for this transformative project. Tim, thank you for having the leap of faith and being the first developer there. Charlotte Sports Academy and Bob, thank you for joining forces. What I think is going to be not in a top project for the region, for nationally. Talk to CRB 8 a day, Steve Bagwell and Steve said, we're so excited about this project. We're going to make sure we do all Steve Bagwell, and Steve said, we're so excited about this project. We're going to make sure we do all we can to make sure it's successful. The National Junior College Athletic Association, Headquarter here in Charlotte, have already committed championships to when this facility can be built and up and operating. And so to the visionary, to the young lady in 2019, who told us that she had an idea. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your perseverance. Thank you for going, let's take a pause. Yes ma'am. Can you stand up? Can you stand up? Can you please stand up? Can you please stand up? Yes ma'am. Thank you. Can you please stand up? Can you please stand up? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And as with any leader, she knows she needs to surround herself with people who can help her along the way. A young man came from the corporate community, Mr. Robert Bolton. I didn't even know Robert Bolton. Robert. And so, Eastside. Eastside. Thank you for your patience. Carolyn, you can stop coming to ED meetings now. Greg, you can stop calling me ED meetings now. She was joking. Greg, you can stop calling me on Saturdays. We are here to deliver. And I'm an echo Joanne Lopez, the future house representative. Joanne said it might be called Eastland, but it's going to have so much energy, so much national recognition that it's going to have one name. We're going to call it the yard. So thank you and I'll be supporting the motion and raising my hand with my proud T-shirt send. Thank you for your patience and job well done. Thank you, you said. Applause. Is there anyone else that would like to also put their hand out and understand that this is going to be a vote that's momentous to this community? I do want to say to all of you. You know, the housing is important because once we have housing, we have people. People that can have opportunities around them for whether they want to work or if they just want to be a person that can remember and create the new balance of whatever Eastland is going to be with all of this after it's done. I mean, we won't be able to talk about the sport and the ice-fink anymore. We'll be talking about different things, probably a lot more on STEM education and a lot more on ideas around basketball and sports that really leaves us an opportunity. Sports is a big business. I mean I looked at Sunday the game, I shouldn't say which game, but I'm on Sunday watching the game and you know they have four screens up now and imagine what that can be what we get to Eastland. So what I would like to say to you is thank you for what you've done so far but let's make sure that what we do at the end of the day celebrates every one of you who begin this journey. And we really appreciate you. So we have a motion. All in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Thank you, everyone, that's participated in this. Now you know you're invited to stay in your seats and continue to listen to us go on and on and on. You want to take a picture with a hand. You want to take a picture with a hand. You want to take a picture with hands on the floor. Thank you. Thank you. You got it. We've gotten one of the most important things that we're doing. Next item is, item 16, is there a motion to authorize the city manager? Okay, I knew this celebration was gonna happen and it was from take a while, right? To accept a grant and the amount of 963,000 from the United States Department of Justice for the community assistance, respond, engage, and support team program. So moved. And a doctor as a luscious and the budget ordinance. We have a motion and a second in a discussion. Hearing none, all in favor, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? The next item is item 17, approved the purchase of 11.79 acres of property located on the Wood Ridge center drive. And in the amount of $7,100,000 for the relocation of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department's Aviation Division and expansion of the special op unit. Authorizing the manager to negotiate and execute documents. To approve. Motion and a second. Okay. Did I hear a second down there? Second. Yes. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion. all in favor? Please raise your hand. Is there anyone opposed? No, that's it. The next item is for item 18 appointments to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Access Corporation. Madam Clerk. Yes, ma'am. I'm from Sasha Thomas Schesky. I was appointed to the Charlotte Me-Maconberg Public Access Corporation. Right. You don't have a motion to adjourn. So long. All right. Everybody, thank you. It's a long day. We really appreciate you. And what you do. Thank you. you Thank you.