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good afternoon everyone i am going to go
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ahead and call our budget
05:38
workshop to order
05:42
we have an agenda that has been sent out
05:44
and i believe
05:45
the staff sent handouts earlier
05:49
today but the q and a's came out in the
05:51
friday packet
05:53
so without any further ado i'm just
05:55
going to
05:56
ask council members because this is an
05:59
electronic meeting
06:00
that we go to the if wendy can go to the
06:04
visuals of people on the screen so that
06:08
those that are present in the room will
06:10
introduce themselves and then we will
06:13
go to the council members for
06:14
introductions of here
06:16
so we'll start with our deputy clerk
06:20
stephanie bello deputy city clerk kelly
06:23
flannery cfo
06:25
ryan bergman strategy and budget marcus
06:28
jones city manager
06:29
donata jackson office of constituent
06:31
services kay
06:32
cunningham mayor's office and i'm vi
06:35
laos and i serve as mayor for the city
06:37
and we'll start with the mayor pro tem
06:42
mayor pro tem julia eisel serving at
06:46
large
06:49
committee member and acknowledgement
06:55
greg hoops serving at large
06:58
braxton winston at large argan eggleston
07:02
district one
07:04
now from graham district two
07:08
renee johnson district four
07:11
good afternoon everyone matt newton
07:12
serving district five
07:15
car district 6. ed drake's district 7.
07:19
so as other members join us they know
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that they are to check in
07:23
um so that the city clerk can recognize
07:25
when they've joined the meeting
07:26
so with that i'm going to turn it over
07:28
to the city manager to begin the
07:30
workshop
07:31
thank you mayor members of council if we
07:33
would go back
07:34
to the council's annual strategy meeting
07:38
back in january i would say that we had
07:40
set out six meetings that were
07:44
i would call it budget related in other
07:45
words the
07:47
monday strategy sessions at the
07:49
beginning of the month
07:51
followed by the wednesday budget
07:53
workshops
07:54
so after today we would be two-thirds of
07:56
the way
07:57
through these six meetings that we're
08:00
trying to get direction from the council
08:02
to inform us for the fy 2022 budget
08:06
what you have in front of you today and
08:08
as the mayor mentioned and i
08:11
the strategy and budget off the q and
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a's made it to you over the weekend
08:16
and one of the pieces of feedback that
08:18
we received last time was
08:20
to please get the q and a's out to you
08:23
earlier so
08:24
i'm very thankful for the hard work of
08:26
staff for that
08:27
today we'll provide an update on
08:30
key revenue and typically this happens
08:33
after the budget is introduced and the
08:36
mayor will turn to me and say
08:38
are there any new updates with uh
08:40
revenue but we figured that
08:42
because volatility of the revenue
08:44
sources that we would
08:46
give you an updated eat at the beginning
08:48
of each budget workshop
08:50
today ryan will talk again about
08:53
property tax
08:54
as well as sales tax performance and
08:56
those two
08:57
taxes are related to the general fund
08:59
but also kelly will give
09:02
you an update on two taxes that are
09:06
connected with our hospitality fund and
09:09
that would be
09:10
a prepared food and beverage and
09:12
occupancy tax revenues and so
09:14
as those graphs come up on the screen
09:18
red is not good green is good okay
09:22
uh and so we'll we'll do that then we'll
09:25
have
09:26
rodney jameson as solid weights
09:29
services director government and and
09:32
speak with you
09:33
about uh the future of solid waste
09:35
services
09:36
as as many of you know we have the
09:39
general fund we have our
09:41
cip but we also have enterprise funds
09:43
and those enterprise funds
09:45
are typically operates by
09:49
fees the solid waste services is
09:52
an exception it's a hybrid part of it
09:55
is paid for by taxes and part of it is
09:58
paid for by thieves we've learned a lot
10:00
during covet
10:01
we thought it would be good to give you
10:03
an update of where we are with solid
10:05
waste services
10:06
but also some changes that are on the
10:09
horizon
10:10
the last time we were together ryan
10:12
talked a little bit about the americans
10:14
with
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disabilities act facility plan today
10:18
we'll give you
10:19
a presentation with where we are to date
10:23
and victoria johnson will lead that
10:26
discussion as well as some outside
10:27
consultants
10:28
who have been working with us and then i
10:30
know that
10:31
councilman madrigs is super excited
10:33
about having an opportunity
10:35
to go back into the capital investment
10:38
plan
10:38
and have a discussion about priorities
10:40
as we discussed
10:41
at the last budget workshop this is the
10:45
beginning of a series of
10:47
bond cycles that in the past
10:51
as we started those we would begin with
10:54
a tax increase to fund
10:57
future bond cycles this is very
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different in that we have
11:01
a steady state with capacities out there
11:04
that does not assume
11:05
any property tax increase
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and before we talk about stormwater
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and the border budget outlook and as mr
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drake said on monday
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this is a good news story in terms of
11:20
where we are
11:21
in these two enterprise funds
11:24
if you will we will have one follow-up
11:28
that deals with arts and culture and
11:30
tracy dodson
11:32
will be the staff resource on that
11:34
discussion
11:35
there was a preliminary discussion on
11:37
monday
11:38
and eventually our goal as staff
11:42
is to get a nod from the council to move
11:44
forward
11:45
with the examination of the proposal
11:47
from the ad hoc committee
11:49
so with that said mayor unless you have
11:51
questions
11:52
of me we would be ready to go into item
11:55
2
11:56
which are updates on key brevity
12:00
before we go into the next step
12:05
any questions we'll go right to mr
12:08
bergman
12:09
good afternoon everybody uh i'm like the
12:11
manager said i'm gonna talk a little bit
12:13
about
12:14
property tax and sales tax and then i'm
12:17
gonna turn it over to our cfo who's
12:19
gonna talk about the hospitality taxes
12:21
uh fortunately uh the two slides i'll
12:23
show on the general fund revenues are
12:25
both
12:26
good news stories and then occupancy
12:28
taxes are a little bit more mixed
12:30
but if we can go to the next slide
12:33
so last last budget workshop
12:36
i showed a slide that was like this
12:39
through january
12:40
and what it showed is that we were
12:43
trailing a little bit
12:44
where we were the prior year in property
12:46
tax collection rate
12:48
we've received good news this month from
12:50
our county tax collector
12:52
we're actually a little bit ahead of
12:55
where we were last year
12:57
so with this information where we're
12:59
already almost to 98
13:01
i think it's fair to say that some of
13:04
the concerns that we had with the
13:05
property tax collection rate this year
13:08
did not materialize we ended last year
13:11
at 98.9
13:13
we plan in the budget to be at 99
13:16
percent
13:16
currently so that's always our target
13:19
and as we evaluate this we'll keep
13:21
getting more information from the county
13:23
but this is certainly good news and may
13:25
put us on a track towards
13:27
maintaining where we are currently which
13:30
is 99 percent
13:31
if we go to the next slide
13:35
i circled the the only update that
13:37
you've uh that you haven't seen since
13:39
last time
13:40
the slide set up the same way as i've
13:42
shown the last few times
13:43
we received one more month of
13:45
information it was 2.7 percent
13:48
higher than fy20 levels uh pre-pandemic
13:51
levels
13:52
uh so this really tells the story uh
13:54
just like some of the
13:55
state revenue information you may have
13:56
heard about sales tax overall in north
13:59
carolina did not experience
14:01
the the declines that were feared
14:04
so this is uh good news for us with
14:06
budget planning uh it doesn't change uh
14:09
dramatically where we were last month
14:11
but it's certainly a good news story
14:13
going forward i would point out on the
14:16
slide january of 21
14:20
which i know has already happened but we
14:21
get this information a few months
14:23
in arrears you'll see that we are we
14:26
would then be starting to project
14:28
being back to fy20 levels so
14:31
uh while we do think that will happen we
14:34
probably won't be running way ahead of
14:36
our projections
14:37
once we get into january and february
14:40
and so with that i will turn it over to
14:42
our cfo
14:44
hey wendy can you thanks if you remember
14:47
back in april of 2020 when we were
14:49
making revenue projections for the
14:51
hospitality tax revenues
14:53
there was a lot of uncertainty around
14:55
the duration of the pandemic vaccination
14:57
plans in the pace of a recovery
15:00
economists in the rating agencies all
15:02
had varying assumptions and at that time
15:05
we married mirrored models that
15:07
suggested hospitality leisure and travel
15:09
based tax revenues would fall by up to
15:11
85 percent
15:12
of prior year levels through the
15:14
mid-summer of 2020
15:15
and then begin a gradual return to the
15:17
historical norms into the spring of
15:19
2021.
15:21
as you can see this approach was on
15:23
budget through the summer into the fall
15:25
in fact in october for prepared food and
15:27
beverage revenues were only four percent
15:29
below 2019 pre-pandemic revenue levels
15:33
in december we did see revenues fall
15:35
below projections which was likely due
15:37
to the second wave and restrictions
15:39
but through january the food and
15:40
beverage tax revenues are 11 percent
15:42
above the year-to-date projections
15:45
as restrictions continue to be lifted
15:46
and vaccine rollout has become more
15:48
aggressive we are optimistic that the
15:50
food and beverage revenues
15:51
for the remainder of the fiscal year
15:52
will continue to outpace budget
15:54
projections
15:56
next slide so that that was the good
15:59
news
16:00
the occupancy tax revenues are a little
16:02
less optimistic
16:03
as i mentioned in april we projected
16:06
travel restrictions to impact hotel
16:08
business through mid-summer
16:09
and experience rebound beginning in july
16:12
increasing throughout the remainder of
16:13
the fiscal year
16:14
and as you can see that experience was
16:16
more or less on target throughout the
16:18
fall
16:19
however beginning in november began not
16:21
to realize the budget expectations which
16:23
was
16:24
likely due to the second wave and
16:26
restrictions in people's resistance to
16:27
travel
16:28
through january occupancy tax revenues
16:31
are 34
16:32
below the year-to-date budget
16:34
projections the good news
16:36
is that due to the manager and this
16:38
council's commitment to financial
16:40
stability
16:41
we have in place the financial policies
16:43
on these funds
16:44
that have prepared us for this type of
16:45
crisis well we expect we will likely
16:48
have to utilize additional fund balance
16:50
to balance fy21
16:52
we do have available fund balance to
16:54
fulfill our fy21 commitments and to
16:56
maintain the 100
16:58
next year's debt service reserve policy
17:01
we continue to monitor these revenue
17:02
sources frequently we're working with
17:04
partners at crva
17:06
and in the travel and aviation
17:07
industries to develop forecasts
17:09
for fy22 to ensure we can continue to
17:12
maintain the financial metrics
17:14
that have allowed us to maintain a
17:16
triple-a rating for the last 43 years
17:20
questions are there questions from the
17:24
council on the revenue
17:25
update mr drakes mr driggs
17:30
yes thank you i'm wondering how uh
17:33
these these numbers affect the kind of
17:36
outlook for capital spending
17:38
from the hospitality funds
17:41
this bannery thanks so for 21 all
17:45
commitments that we have so that
17:46
includes existing debt
17:48
and the only capital project we have
17:50
currently underway is the convention
17:52
center
17:53
we expect to be able to make all of the
17:54
21 commitments as well as 22
17:58
debt service requirements will be met
18:01
beyond that we don't have any
18:02
um out of the norm capital expenses so
18:05
we're in good shape for the remainder of
18:06
fy21
18:08
but the uh the capital plan that none of
18:10
us knows that much about are we having
18:12
to kind of reschedule that at all
18:15
so the there are some commitments that
18:17
we make to crva and building maintenance
18:19
and
18:19
some assumptions around what we think
18:21
the increase will be every year
18:23
i think it's too soon to tell for 2022
18:26
what kind of cuts that might require not
18:29
just a capital
18:30
but to contributions throughout the fund
18:33
i think we're optimistic and hopeful
18:35
that the restrictions that were lifted
18:37
last week
18:38
we can experience a rebound and maybe
18:40
that in a mix of any
18:42
available stimulus funds that might be
18:44
able to provide some relief to these
18:46
funds uh right and i guess we'll hear
18:49
more about stimulus funds but thank you
18:51
so i think that mr drake's point on the
18:54
longer term beyond where
18:56
we are and what we've committed to do
18:57
will be continuously monitored
19:00
and adjusted even at in 2022
19:04
so while we feel comfortable the
19:06
projections that will be
19:08
always something to keep our eye on any
19:11
other questions
19:13
hearing no further questions why don't
19:15
we move right into the next topic
19:18
thank you mayor members of council as
19:21
rodney jameson makes his
19:22
way uh into a 267. again typically
19:26
we would have an update that relates to
19:30
solid waste services and many times it's
19:33
it's the fee right what would be the
19:35
increase
19:35
in the fee what rodney wants to do
19:39
we'll do today is tell you a little bit
19:41
of a story about what we have been doing
19:44
with our stellar staff and solid waste
19:46
services that we're very
19:48
proud of and some challenges that we
19:50
have in the short term
19:52
and lessons we've learned from covet and
19:54
some changes
19:55
that we are going to put in place
19:59
thanks rodney thank you thank you good
20:02
afternoon mayor council
20:03
rodney jameson director of solid waste
20:05
services
20:06
thank you for having me well let's talk
20:08
trash here
20:10
so many people never need police fire
20:12
medic their entire lives
20:14
but cannot go a week without needing
20:16
seeing needing to see their garbage
20:18
collector
20:19
that truly shows how essential and
20:21
important the service we provide to our
20:23
residents are
20:25
as you all know cover 19 has introduced
20:27
many challenges and changes to how we
20:29
provide service
20:33
they first let me make sure this
20:34
doohickey works for me
20:36
huh
20:45
gotcha all right i'm in business now
20:47
apologize
20:50
um cover 19 presented uh extreme
20:53
difficulties and challenges for solid
20:55
weight services
20:56
so in the meantime and throughout cover
20:57
19 we uh
20:59
wanted to distract ourselves and our
21:01
staff and
21:02
in dealing with the turmoil happening in
21:04
people's lives
21:05
so solid way services wanted to continue
21:07
to prepare our individuals for their
21:09
next phase in life in the future
21:11
we did that through our employee and
21:13
community upward mobility programs
21:16
we have an internal career pathways
21:18
process that starts from
21:20
our temporary good works agency all the
21:22
way through supervisory leadership
21:23
training
21:24
throughout over 19 we had approximately
21:27
14 employees that gained their cdls
21:30
through our in-house cdl training
21:32
program and a total of 43
21:34
internal promotions throughout the uh
21:37
kovit
21:38
we funded and supported the city-wide
21:40
high set ged
21:42
program so far we have three individuals
21:44
that
21:45
graduated with within covet that was a
21:47
virtual sessions
21:48
we have partnered with outside agencies
21:50
to reintroduce employees
21:52
with barriers to the workforce we have
21:55
continued virtual
21:56
financial literacy workshops soft skill
21:59
coaching and resume writing sessions
22:01
so we've been pretty busy we've also
22:04
instituted our own
22:06
food pantry within solid waste services
22:09
to to provide for our staff and their
22:11
families and we we titled it some
22:14
and that is means so others may eat
22:18
so um it's been pretty successful and
22:20
worthwhile
22:25
uh we have a pretty resilient staff
22:26
we've been been doing great
22:28
um cove like we stated presented many
22:31
challenges so our staff
22:32
was able to continue providing services
22:35
to our residents
22:36
but we had to make many enhancements and
22:39
put them in place
22:41
we had to ramp up on our personal
22:42
protective equipment we brought in a
22:44
vendor for daily truck sanitation
22:46
sanitizing we installed clear physical
22:49
barriers
22:50
in our dual occupancy real orders we had
22:53
to reduce the size
22:54
of our crews from three to two um and
22:57
and to take the brunt of the load or to
22:59
assist with that we actually also use
23:01
cash funding to uh bring in contractors
23:03
and private haulers
23:04
uh to assist in the collections um and
23:06
then we continue today
23:08
to provide automation training for
23:10
cross-training uh individuals
23:12
for single occupied vehicles
23:18
now all the services that we provide
23:20
right
23:21
we continued to provide these services
23:23
throughout covent
23:24
we provide garbage collection weekly
23:28
recycling bi-weekly weekly unlimited
23:32
yard waste
23:33
collection and then unlimited bulky
23:36
collection
23:37
by appointment we also provide
23:40
many other services from city maintained
23:42
right away
23:43
litter picking street sweeping dead
23:46
animal collection small business garbage
23:48
collection
23:49
and we also maintain the cats platforms
23:52
and like
23:53
lines as far as providing them with
23:54
service
23:58
so as you see we're pretty busy now
24:03
on the slide you'll see a photo of a
24:04
real loader on the left and that's
24:06
us manually loading the back of that
24:09
rear loader on the right hand side you
24:10
see the automated side loader which um
24:12
that side loader only needs one driver
24:15
and occupant
24:16
to service and that's what we use for
24:17
our garbage
24:19
reason for showing this also is if you
24:21
fast forward from when
24:23
kovitt was introduced to the operation
24:25
um july 2020
24:28
we lost a family member in a tragic
24:32
accident and solid waste services
24:35
osha was called in to conduct a full
24:37
investigation
24:39
we were not cited for that situation but
24:41
in their investigation they made strong
24:43
recommendations
24:45
and one of the strongest recommendations
24:47
was us to look at a side
24:48
load of automation study and conduct one
24:51
so we are in the process of doing that
24:53
now
24:54
in doing this this may show us that we
24:56
can reduce
24:57
injury workers compensations claims and
25:00
insurance premiums
25:08
we've already started to move in a
25:10
automated direction
25:11
we've already moved started the process
25:14
and converted our small business garbage
25:16
customers
25:17
to side loader automation versus
25:19
manually collection
25:21
yard waste is one of our services that
25:23
is still serviced manually by real
25:25
loaders
25:26
the cart this chart right here shows the
25:28
difference in our workers compensation
25:30
claims for
25:31
a manual operation of yard waste
25:34
and versus the automated collection of
25:37
garbage
25:40
and you can see the distinct difference
25:42
there
25:43
now how can we get there ways to improve
25:46
worker safety so these are options here
25:48
that are on the table that we've been
25:49
looking at
25:50
and i'd like to share them with you so
25:52
strategies to make to improve worker
25:54
safety
25:54
the first approach could be to convert
25:56
to paper biodegradable bags
25:59
then we can look at making limits to the
26:03
amount of yard waste collected per stop
26:05
and maybe further down the line we can
26:07
look at introducing automated service
26:09
with yard waste bins to the process
26:16
in utilization of the com compostable
26:19
paper bags it provides many
26:22
benefits for us but number one um
26:26
mecklenburg county compost facility
26:27
doesn't accept plastic bags for us
26:30
so we have our workers and employees
26:33
out here walking around with blades and
26:34
knives because they have to bust
26:36
open cut open plastic bags dump them in
26:39
the back of the manual reel loader
26:41
and that is extremely dangerous for us
26:43
for for us to be doing
26:45
paper bags is also a benefit to our
26:47
environment it takes plastic
26:48
over 10 years to decompose and then
26:52
further down the line if we introduce
26:53
bids this also works in conjunction with
26:55
the bed operation
26:59
here is an example of a manageable pile
27:02
for
27:02
solid waste services we're looking at
27:04
something that's
27:06
eight feet wide four feet high four feet
27:08
long
27:09
um and and probably the size of a
27:12
refrigerator laid on its back the
27:13
typical refrigerator laid on his back so
27:15
that's a manageable pile especially
27:17
being that we have now only two uh
27:19
two individuals on a truck
27:23
converting to bins for yard waste can
27:25
improve operational efficiency
27:28
it could definitely reduce the risk of
27:30
coming in contact with snakes and
27:32
rodents and insects that wander into the
27:34
piles overnight
27:37
and then the challenges and possible
27:39
disadvantages of
27:40
actually going to this is the transition
27:42
to bins itself
27:44
space limitations for our residents as
27:46
well as the capital investments
27:52
as our city continues to grow we always
27:54
look for
27:55
look at other municipalities and the
27:57
services they provide and at what cost
28:00
this slide right here just pretty much
28:02
provides um
28:03
and shows that most municipalities in
28:05
the state of north carolina
28:07
have either a cart based program limits
28:10
for yard waste or additional fees to
28:12
provide services
28:17
from this point i will pass it over to
28:20
uh mr ryan bergman to
28:21
discuss cost model analysis and fees
28:25
thanks rodney um the the budget office
28:27
and solid waste have had a really good
28:29
relationship the last couple of years
28:31
to the point that we actually assign our
28:34
new analysts to solid waste typically
28:36
because solid waste has such a strong
28:38
management team such strong financial
28:40
management
28:41
that it's really good exposure and i
28:43
only mentioned that because these next
28:44
two slides were
28:45
a combination of work between the the
28:48
two departments
28:49
and i wanted to provide the council a
28:51
little bit of analysis and benchmarking
28:54
so this first slide what this shows is
28:57
our solid waste fee
28:58
as it currently is we generate about 24
29:01
million dollars in revenue
29:03
as the manager mentioned we have kind of
29:05
a hybrid system
29:07
where we are primarily supporting
29:10
solid waste with property taxes but the
29:12
fee revenue does support some of the
29:14
costs
29:15
if you look at the actual fee ordinance
29:18
it is not specific
29:20
about what the fee is paying for it is
29:23
just generally
29:24
paying to help support solidworks serv
29:26
solid waste services
29:28
so what you see on the screen is our
29:30
attempt to break down the different
29:32
services
29:33
that solid waste offers and the actual
29:36
cost
29:37
so this is inclusive of things such as
29:39
trucks
29:40
and inclusive inclusive of things such
29:42
as management
29:44
and what you'll see is that with about
29:46
65 million dollars in services
29:49
we recover about 24 million from the fee
29:52
so that's about 37 of costs currently
29:55
that are recovered so uh while this
29:58
probably isn't uh something we would
30:00
consider this year
30:01
long term it may be in the interest of
30:04
city council to identify a target
30:06
for what that split should look like uh
30:08
should it be covering garbage collection
30:10
should it be covering everything but
30:12
garbage collections
30:13
should it be covering 50 of costs like i
30:16
said this is probably not an fy 22
30:18
discussion
30:19
but i feel it's important context for
30:21
you to understand the services that we
30:22
provide
30:24
if we can go to the next slide and it
30:27
wouldn't be a budget workshop
30:28
presentation if i didn't
30:29
show you a super complicated slide that
30:32
i had to explain so
30:33
i apologize for that but i think it's uh
30:36
relevant for you to understand the
30:39
services we provided as rodney mentioned
30:42
currently we provide excellent service
30:44
in every area without limits
30:47
and so i wanted to compare us in our
30:49
solid waste fee
30:51
to the 10 next biggest cities and towns
30:53
in north carolina
30:54
so it's the same list that you saw on
30:56
rodney's other slide a couple of minutes
30:58
ago
30:59
what you'll see if you just look on the
31:00
left and this does include county solid
31:02
waste fees as well
31:04
we are well below the median we have a
31:06
67
31:07
city fee that's annual and we have a 40
31:10
county fee
31:12
so we are the fifth lowest there but
31:14
what is also important
31:16
is if you look on the right what that is
31:18
is the combined
31:20
city and county property tax rate you'll
31:22
see that
31:24
the red dots on the left are the same
31:28
re cities that are the red dots on the
31:30
right so you'll see that
31:32
everybody else who provides a lower fee
31:35
than us has a significantly higher
31:38
property tax rate so it's kind of a
31:40
trade-off
31:41
if you actually did the analysis overall
31:43
charlotte actually comes out ahead on
31:45
immediate home value
31:48
and so with that i know there's a lot of
31:50
information i'll turn it back to rodney
31:51
and any questions you may have
31:54
all right we have several council
31:57
members that have questions
31:59
before we go on to that rodney i um
32:02
mr jameson i would like to say thank you
32:05
when we have career employees
32:09
that are able to participate in in-house
32:12
training
32:13
that's not just around work but around
32:16
quality of life
32:17
that is so commendable and i just want
32:21
to say thank you for the leadership
32:22
and thank you for what you're doing
32:24
there we don't think about food pantries
32:27
a lot in this community and our own
32:30
organization
32:31
but i know that there are many people
32:34
that work
32:35
in your area that have
32:38
family friends and areas
32:43
and i just want to say thank you um for
32:45
what you do
32:46
and with that i'm going to ask and we're
32:48
going to begin with questions and mr
32:50
driggs
32:52
thank you mayor i wanted to note we used
32:55
to talk about the fee
32:56
portion as a tipping fee is what it was
32:59
referred to
33:00
and it was kind of pointed to in the
33:02
context of the cost to us
33:04
of uh tipping on
33:07
county owned waste disposal sites
33:11
so when you say there is no
33:14
uh you know historically there is a
33:18
basis for that fee
33:19
and we've gotten away from that to the
33:20
point where there is a general policy
33:23
question
33:24
and the mayor and others will recall
33:26
that we've had this conversation in the
33:27
past
33:28
about what the mix should be of the fee
33:31
versus the portion that is covered by
33:33
uh property taxes the real issue about
33:37
that is
33:37
incidents like you need to calculate uh
33:40
exactly
33:41
where that cost lands depending on what
33:43
makes you choose
33:45
but i would just make the general
33:46
comment that i think this is a policy
33:49
question so i don't believe as your
33:51
budget chair that we should be trying to
33:53
answer these questions
33:54
in in the course of the budget process
33:57
and therefore mr bergman i appreciate
33:58
your comment that this is something we
34:00
will want to take up later
34:02
uh i hope in the current budget cycle we
34:04
can be sensitive to the issues that were
34:06
pointed out to us about needs for change
34:08
in the equipment
34:09
and safety of employees but
34:13
i really want to have the conversation
34:15
about the mix of fees
34:16
and tax funding somewhere else and as
34:19
you point out
34:20
there is a there's a spread people have
34:22
arrived at different conclusions where
34:24
the property tax rates are higher and
34:25
the fees are lower and vice versa
34:28
we haven't really had in my time on
34:30
council
34:31
a a unintentional conversation about
34:33
what that
34:34
is but i do want to make clear we are
34:37
departing entirely now
34:38
from the history of associating those
34:40
fees with tipping fees
34:42
thank you i would hope that that's not
34:44
the intent of what you were trying to do
34:46
but to point out the same i think
34:47
i think that mr driggs is making the
34:49
same point that you were making mr
34:51
bergman so
34:52
it shouldn't be in the context of the
34:54
budget it should be in the context of
34:56
what i believe
34:57
is a county-wide solid waste plan that
34:59
is has to be updated and
35:01
if i recall correctly i'm not sure how
35:04
old the plan
35:04
is that we have now but the plan
35:06
includes issues that
35:08
are not just financial but capacity
35:13
and methodology and so in a large part i
35:16
think it
35:16
is mr drake's point is that if we have a
35:19
solid waste plan
35:20
we should do that as a plan for the
35:22
overall service
35:24
it's a big deal if we're going to meet
35:26
some of our goals
35:27
for client for our c app if we're going
35:30
to
35:31
continue to attract the employees the
35:34
quality of
35:34
employees and utilize the equipment
35:36
there are lots of factors that go into
35:38
this and so
35:39
thanks very much to mr driggs and mr
35:41
bergman for that
35:42
um ideas of what do we do
35:46
and when do we do it and when the solid
35:48
waste plan comes up
35:50
and that was my point mayor thank you
35:51
appreciate it yes thank you
35:53
miss hamira yes thank you madam mayor
35:57
um so for the
36:01
uh this question is for a solid waste
36:04
director
36:06
does this automated loader system does
36:09
it require
36:09
cdl license yes the automated truck
36:13
it does require a cdl license
36:16
so is the plan uh is the plan
36:20
is i guess what is the plan to sort of
36:22
train and tell our workforce development
36:24
to transition to this new model
36:27
uh because that will require everyone
36:30
get cdl
36:31
isn't isn't that the case well we have
36:34
drivers it requires a cdl for the rear
36:36
loader as well
36:38
the real little truck so it was just be
36:40
training for specialized equipment
36:44
gary so do you see any workforce impact
36:47
as a result of this automation
36:49
no actually i see some growth for our
36:51
staff because uh that's a different uh
36:55
pay rate for an individual so i actually
36:58
see uh
36:59
upper mobility going in this direction
37:03
that's good to hear um also when
37:06
mr burkman when he brings this
37:09
conversation about the policy
37:13
and overall fees
37:16
and property tax i would be interested
37:19
in seeing if
37:20
other cities in north carolina if they
37:23
have their own enterprise fund
37:24
for solid waste services and
37:28
also what is the county's model like uh
37:32
has i know they're also having
37:34
conversations about
37:37
solid waste and how would that
37:42
if there is any change in terms of um
37:45
fees for this year's budget from the
37:47
county
37:49
thanks all right thank you miss
37:52
massage mirror mr phipps
37:56
uh thank you madam man i have several
37:57
questions i guess
37:59
mr jameson uh
38:03
it looks as here i'm trying to figure
38:06
out how sustainable
38:07
is some of our practices on a go-forward
38:10
basis
38:10
it looks like we're gonna have to make
38:11
some adjustments when you do come up
38:13
with a
38:14
solid lace waste plan but how
38:17
sustainable
38:18
our recycling efforts right now i
38:21
understand that uh
38:22
overall across the country recycling
38:26
uh the percentage of recycling
38:29
items uh being recycled is very
38:33
low and and that most of recycled
38:35
materials end up
38:36
in the solid waste stream how would you
38:39
describe
38:40
charlotte's recycling efforts right now
38:44
i mean are we is the public being given
38:46
a false sense of
38:48
environmental uh uh due diligence
38:52
in as much as we recycle on a bi-weekly
38:55
basis but
38:56
how much does that re of our recyclables
38:59
are being
39:00
processed in a manner that we expect
39:04
all right um recycling is actually um
39:08
it's in a a decent place for our
39:11
residents right now
39:13
but we have some work to do so we we
39:15
continue to educate
39:17
uh residents and we we're putting
39:19
together focus groups
39:20
to focus on particular items for
39:23
recycling so we can kind of focus on
39:25
what
39:25
can be recycled and what is being reused
39:29
versus just throwing everything in the
39:31
trash
39:32
so i think we're going and can
39:35
do a lot better and we'll continue to
39:37
move forward with that and educating our
39:39
residents so we're working on
39:41
dual activities with the county as well
39:43
as um
39:44
our efforts and education
39:47
mr jones okay so about the next question
39:50
before mr mr mr jones wanted to comment
39:54
on your question as well okay
39:56
thank you so thank you mr phipps we've
39:59
had this uh
40:00
conversation in the past and this time i
40:02
won't bring my wife into it in her
40:04
recycling habits
40:06
um one of the things that it's very
40:08
important
40:10
is to have a clean stream of materials
40:14
so as rodney was speaking in this
40:17
educational piece
40:18
there is an opportunity perhaps for us
40:22
to be more innovative
40:24
in what we what what is recycled
40:27
right and how we do it and and we are
40:31
having partnerships with envision
40:32
charlotte
40:33
to find different ways of innovation
40:36
around recycled materials but it has
40:40
been tough
40:41
because as you know what happened in
40:43
china and what's happened across the
40:44
world
40:45
in terms of what is received or what can
40:49
be used in terms of recycling so we're
40:51
very aware of that
40:54
okay mister okay yeah
40:57
uh uh uh moving on at the last budget
41:00
workshop we did have a quote from our
41:02
mayor i don't know she might remember it
41:03
or not but she did say
41:05
that the citizens of charlotte like to
41:07
litter
41:08
so to that to that point
41:12
how much funding is devoted to
41:14
right-of-way
41:15
litter cleanup right now uh unless you
41:19
live in this in the central business
41:20
district where things seem to be
41:22
uh you know pretty much litter free
41:24
other areas of charlotte that i've
41:26
noticed
41:27
is just terribly trashy and um
41:32
do you have any any any comments on that
41:34
i mean uh
41:35
do we have any any hope that we can
41:38
devote any
41:39
any any more budgeted funds for a litter
41:41
pickup because that's where a lot of
41:43
our uh constituents complaints come from
41:47
when they look at litter
41:49
and of course litter doesn't
41:50
differentiate if it's a city street or a
41:52
state
41:53
road or not but can you help us out on
41:56
that litter front
41:58
yes yes we can litter is a concern a
42:00
huge concern of
42:01
ours we have partnered um with some
42:04
agencies
42:05
to assist but it has been very difficult
42:08
to keep
42:09
up with i mean especially with the state
42:11
streets
42:12
we can clean a street today and tomorrow
42:15
it is littered again
42:17
and we just don't have the resources to
42:19
actually touch the street
42:20
every week but we do our best and bring
42:23
in
42:24
we encourage people to actually adopt
42:26
streaks and assist us we look for help
42:28
across the city
42:29
to provide that assistance we'll come
42:31
pick up the bags if you actually
42:33
just put some garbage in them and place
42:34
them in an area that we can get to
42:36
um but we look for assistance but we can
42:38
get back with you with numbers
42:40
exactly numbers of what we use and spend
42:43
for a little cleanup
42:45
and my final question is uh with regards
42:49
mr phipps can i ask a question about
42:51
litter
42:52
has how has culvert impacted the um
42:55
litter
42:56
is there is there a significant
42:58
difference since covet 19
43:00
and um in prior year history
43:03
what what if we were coming out as we
43:06
were coming out not if
43:07
as we are coming out of this pandemic
43:09
are there things rodney that you could
43:11
help us
43:12
think about doing and go back to doing
43:16
because i just thought that it seems to
43:18
me it has been worse this past year and
43:20
so
43:21
any comment on that it has um and
43:24
and i can we can just use covet
43:27
for a reason but also there's a lot of
43:28
individuals moving to the city of
43:30
charlotte
43:31
and the traffic and the passer buyers
43:34
and mobile
43:35
um arena they're just tossing a lot out
43:38
of their
43:38
vehicles and
43:41
it's causing a lot of challenges so
43:44
things that we can do differently
43:46
is just get more people involved
43:49
enforcement of some sort
43:53
to clean these the areas in the city of
43:55
charlotte
43:56
it might be really good to get our keep
43:58
charlotte beautiful committee
44:00
to send us something that they think
44:02
that would work
44:03
and ask for their feedback because these
44:05
are people really committed to what
44:06
we're doing coming out of the pandemic
44:08
what would they like to see us do
44:10
and and and participate and accomplish
44:13
mr phipps sorry thank you for allowing
44:15
me that time
44:17
yeah my my final question on this topic
44:20
is
44:20
uh relates to the yard uh uh
44:24
pick up yard waste pickup um
44:27
what's what's stopping paper bag usage
44:31
now in terms of things for like leaf
44:34
collection and such a lot of residents
44:38
use plastic i think it's easier
44:40
convenient easier to fill
44:42
but a lot of people are using plastic
44:45
bags to put their their leaves in
44:49
so it would just take a act of actually
44:52
transitioning
44:53
people's people into using paper bags
44:58
but is there a movement afoot to do just
45:00
that because you said you got to cut the
45:02
uh uh
45:04
the blade cutters and such and you know
45:06
i guess people spending money on the on
45:08
their plastic bags and you're cutting
45:10
them and but
45:11
those plastic bags end up in a container
45:13
that you all have
45:14
on the truck right so they're not
45:18
is cool it seems like it's a very
45:19
inefficient uh process there
45:22
so mr phipps uh nothing's stopping us
45:25
as a matter of fact that's why we're
45:27
talking with you today
45:29
this is a very logical step forward
45:33
with that said there takes a bit of
45:35
education
45:36
for our residents that there is going to
45:40
be a change
45:41
but for every reason that rodney said
45:43
earlier just from the safety of our
45:44
employees to
45:46
our environment this is a no-brainer
45:49
and we intend to move forward with this
45:53
conversion
45:56
thank you very much okay
46:00
mayor pro tem thank you madam mayor and
46:04
uh thank you mr jamison i'm glad to hear
46:05
that we're moving forward with the um
46:08
with bags instead of the plastic i i
46:10
want to ask a question about
46:12
um you had mentioned that perhaps you're
46:15
going to have to limit the amount of
46:16
yard waste
46:17
and with regards to that or recycling
46:21
i remember uh representative john autry
46:23
who
46:24
used to be on council would bring up the
46:28
idea of pay as you throw is that
46:30
something that
46:31
um especially for yard waste is that
46:34
something that has been considered
46:37
i know it would require other equipment
46:40
yes it has been looked into
46:42
um but the way our fees are structured
46:45
it would be um
46:46
problematic at this time but maybe
46:48
something in the future
46:49
we can talk about you want to add that
46:51
to the solid waste plan list
46:53
yes okay i just know i just wondered
46:56
because i know you'd have to have
46:57
special equipment that
46:59
can weigh it and whatnot but i wonder if
47:01
it's a consideration
47:02
and then i'll just also mention i've
47:04
noticed a
47:06
big difference in the level of service
47:08
from your team so i just want to thank
47:10
them
47:10
for um maybe all this internal training
47:13
you're doing
47:14
is really paying off but i've noticed
47:16
them being a lot more courteous and
47:19
and friendlier when you wave at them on
47:20
the street or talk to them
47:22
and um the bins are you know back where
47:25
they
47:26
started instead of in the middle of the
47:27
street after they've been collected so i
47:29
do appreciate the
47:30
the improvement and level of service
47:32
from uh from the team
47:34
thank you thank you all right
47:37
um thank you mayor pro tem ms johnson
47:40
you're recognized
47:45
thank you mayor i wanted to piggyback
47:47
off my predecessor
47:48
councilmember phipps in district four we
47:51
have a lot
47:52
of state-owned roads like primarily it
47:55
seems
47:56
so i wanted to get some clarification
47:58
from mr davidson
48:00
what the plan is to partner or to
48:05
to manage those state-owned state-owned
48:07
streets
48:09
um right now we're partnering with the
48:11
state on that but also with our outside
48:14
the agencies that we brought in um we're
48:16
giving them a list of streets and those
48:18
streaks in your area
48:18
i did receive those we have those on the
48:21
list
48:22
to touch but um those areas are areas
48:24
that once we clean
48:26
one day sometime the next day it's back
48:28
littered again
48:30
and a lot of traffic is in that area
48:33
increased traffic
48:34
is in that area so is there
48:37
is there going to be a schedule that
48:38
they'll be
48:40
maintained or clean or will it be
48:43
sporadically
48:44
uh there will be those streets are being
48:46
placed on the schedule
48:48
okay okay because um
48:52
one of the things that we're doing in
48:54
the area um
48:55
jane talon is setting up a meeting with
48:58
the
48:58
vendors for the apartment complexes
49:02
that's one of the complaints or one of
49:04
the findings that
49:06
we've been told that some of the the
49:08
vendors that are picking up
49:10
trash from the apartment complexes the
49:12
the trash is not secured
49:15
so that's one area that we're working um
49:18
with the with the apartment complexes
49:20
and also uncc
49:22
reached out to to me and they're going
49:25
to be
49:26
working with advanced high school
49:28
engineering students
49:30
to try to come up with some solution
49:34
to address the litter because this is
49:36
such a a huge area
49:38
in district four i get complaints and
49:40
i'm sure that mr phipps got them
49:42
you know prior to my term we get them
49:45
constantly about the litter in the area
49:47
and because of the state maintained
49:50
streets it's just
49:51
it's very problematic so any attention
49:54
to that
49:55
would be great if there's additional
49:59
funding in the budget that would be that
50:01
would be great because this area is
50:02
truly affected because of these
50:05
state maintained streets so thank you
50:09
thank you all right thank you all right
50:11
i don't have anyone else to be
50:13
recognized and so
50:15
um we'll go ahead and continue in our
50:18
next section thank you mr jameson
50:20
all right our next um presentation is
50:23
the ada facility plan
50:27
ms johnson or mr jones that's fine so
50:30
thank you mayor
50:30
members for council as i mentioned
50:33
earlier
50:35
at the last budget workshop we had a
50:38
conversation that there would be an
50:40
impact of the results of the americans
50:43
with disability act facility plan
50:45
that we could implement over time
50:48
so we'll have victoria
50:52
begin the conversation and bring our
50:53
consultants in also
50:55
thank you good afternoon
50:58
madam mayor council members the city
51:02
contracted with altura in 2019
51:05
to evaluate all city-owned and occupied
51:08
facilities
51:09
programs policies procedures
51:13
and public-facing information technology
51:15
applications
51:16
for ada compliance arturo
51:20
altura was also tasked with providing an
51:24
ada transition plan for the city
51:27
as of now altura is 85 percent completed
51:32
the recommendations will allow city
51:33
staff continued commitment
51:36
to serving the public the recommendation
51:39
shows
51:40
the city's commitment to protecting
51:42
everyone's civil right
51:44
more than just the civil rights of
51:46
people with disability
51:47
and more about equality of service for
51:51
all citizens
51:52
the city can clearly demonstrate actions
51:56
being taken
51:57
in today's social environment
52:01
the recommendations would would elevate
52:04
the importance of the civil rights in
52:06
both public
52:07
and with city staff and at this point
52:11
i will turn it over to terry bradley
52:13
deputy director
52:14
of community relations he will speak to
52:17
the enormous
52:18
amount of work that altura and his
52:20
department
52:21
has undertaken for the city to have
52:24
reached this point
52:25
in the process mr bradley
52:30
uh good afternoon uh thank you acm
52:32
johnson i appreciate that
52:34
um thank you um council members mayor
52:37
council members and uh manager jones for
52:39
this opportunity
52:40
i just wanted to kind of give some
52:42
insight about the work that we've been
52:44
doing
52:44
as acm johnson has mentioned
52:48
the community relations department has
52:49
been charged with
52:51
coordinating and monitoring city
52:53
compliance with ada section 504
52:56
as well as the state civil rights
52:57
requirements regarding discrimination
52:59
and harassment
53:00
based on disability as a civil rights
53:04
law
53:04
the american with disabilities act
53:07
provides
53:08
for freedom of harassment or denial of
53:10
services solely
53:12
based solely on your on disabilities
53:16
also we are um overseeing the compliance
53:19
efforts
53:19
to minimize the occurrence of ada
53:21
section 504 violations
53:24
we're implementing the city's
53:25
discriminations complaint procedures
53:28
including investigations with respect to
53:31
allegations to ada
53:33
and following the uh the adoption of the
53:35
two 2010 regulations
53:38
um the city began to undertake and we
53:40
continue
53:41
to undertake the self-evaluation of all
53:44
of our programs services and activities
53:47
as well as the facilities to provide
53:49
full and equal access to all persons
53:52
now while working with our consultant to
53:55
which i'm about to introduce to you um
53:58
you we have determined that this work is
54:00
more about
54:01
social justice inequity and the
54:04
inclusion within the city of charlotte
54:07
it also allows our citizens to connect
54:11
good paying jobs also it's a way for
54:15
us to enhance public safety and it
54:18
allows our residents
54:20
an opportunity that they can still work
54:22
play learn and retire comfortably
54:24
here in the city of charlotte now with
54:27
that i just want to
54:28
turn this over to our consultants out of
54:30
austin texas arturo solutions
54:32
jesus lord of zama who is the principal
54:35
who will update us on the work around
54:37
the city's assessment
54:38
and the development of the ada
54:40
transition plan
54:41
um jesus yes
54:45
thank you terry and thank you city
54:48
manager
54:48
mayor and council for your time
54:52
you appreciate it as terry mentioned it
54:54
i'm with alternate solutions
54:56
and we are working on the city's ada
54:58
transition plan
54:59
and i'd like to give you just a little
55:01
bit of an outline of the presentation
55:04
i'm gonna briefly go over what the
55:07
americans with disabilities act
55:08
transition plan entails
55:10
and i'll also go over how we gathered
55:13
the information today
55:14
and the rigors that we went through and
55:17
then
55:18
ryan will help discuss some of the the
55:20
budget planning aspects of that
55:23
but we could go to the next slide uh
55:26
a brief background as it's been stated
55:28
before the
55:30
americans with disabilities act as a
55:31
federal civil rights law
55:33
that prohibits discrimination
55:36
against people with disabilities and in
55:38
fact it ensures
55:40
access to state and local government
55:42
services for people with disabilities
55:45
however as terry mentioned you know
55:47
we're well
55:49
the focus of this was through the ada
55:51
lens we have looked at it as more of a
55:54
a broader civil rights component
55:58
the department of dut justice or doj
56:01
requires that government agencies
56:03
conduct a self-evaluation
56:06
of the accessibility of their facilities
56:08
programs and services
56:10
as well as policies and procedures so
56:13
the ada was enacted in 1990 and of
56:15
course a lot of infrastructure had been
56:17
built
56:18
before that date and not to the
56:20
standards so
56:21
this gives government agencies the
56:23
opportunity
56:24
to go back and conduct a self-assessment
56:27
of what the current state of their
56:30
facilities are
56:32
and also i'd like to point out that the
56:34
ada does not require
56:35
every single facility to be brought into
56:38
compliance
56:39
instead what the ada aims for is program
56:42
accessibility
56:43
which means that in its entirety when
56:45
the city looks at
56:46
at its facilities and programs is it
56:49
providing
56:50
programs and services in an equitable
56:53
manner
56:54
next slide so the 88 transition plan
56:58
after a government agency has gone
57:01
through the self-evaluation process
57:03
then the city basically creates a plan
57:06
to address all the identified barriers
57:08
whether they be physical or programmatic
57:11
the transition plan identifies the
57:13
physical barriers
57:16
recommends remedies and proposes uh cost
57:20
along with time frames so in essence it
57:22
helps the city
57:23
put itself on a budget and schedule to
57:26
reach program accessibility
57:29
and this transition plan is going to
57:31
serve
57:32
as the city's guiding document to
57:35
achieve
57:35
program accessibility over the next 15
57:38
years
57:39
from from the facilities standpoint
57:42
as mentioned earlier the city contracted
57:45
with altera solutions to provide the
57:46
transition plan
57:48
and as mentioned earlier we're at the 85
57:50
percent
57:51
complete mark as of now
57:56
next slide so as part of the assessment
57:58
we began this process in january 2019
58:02
we interviewed city staff from every
58:05
department to get a feel for programs
58:07
and services
58:08
how the city operates and definitely
58:11
want to commend
58:12
staff for their dedication and and
58:14
service and
58:15
and meeting the the requirements of the
58:18
ada
58:20
we have inspected 175 facilities
58:23
and i want to speak to the fact that
58:26
our specific analysis was for facilities
58:29
there
58:29
is a separate analysis being done for
58:32
the right-of-way which i'll touch on in
58:34
a bit
58:35
but we looked at 175 facilities and
58:37
these excluded aviation facilities
58:39
since aviation had done an independent
58:42
assessment outside of ours
58:44
what we have found is that there are
58:47
buildings that do
58:48
have some barriers these are typical of
58:51
what we see across the country
58:53
adjusting of counter heights adjusting
58:55
of drinking fountains
58:57
some restroom items that need to be
59:00
addressed installing of new ramps and
59:02
eliminating obstructions and pathways
59:05
next slide so for the facility
59:09
improvements
59:10
we are recommending improvements to 124
59:13
facilities
59:15
and these range as i mentioned earlier
59:17
from moving counters to redoing
59:18
restrooms and so forth
59:20
part of our scope was to provide
59:23
conceptual
59:24
budgetary costs these are not
59:28
engineering cost estimates but more to
59:31
provide an
59:32
order of magnitude of what is required
59:34
the city
59:35
we have met with several city
59:37
departments to
59:38
run these numbers that that we've put
59:40
together and
59:42
and make sure that the numbers are
59:45
providing that an order of magnitude for
59:49
what is coming next
59:52
and as i mentioned earlier in the right
59:54
of way the city is doing
59:55
a a separate assessment and a consultant
59:59
colon associates is completing that
60:01
assessment
60:02
and that includes infrastructure such as
60:04
sidewalks curb ramps
60:06
transit stops pedestrian push buttons
60:09
and on-street parking
60:12
they have not completed that study yet
60:14
but they are
60:15
recommending for their findings to be
60:18
addressed programmatically over 30 years
60:21
again
60:21
the facilities portion that we are doing
60:24
is over 15 years
60:25
the right-of-way since it a larger scope
60:28
will take 30 years
60:30
to address programmatically the approach
60:33
also includes
60:34
private development in that when a
60:36
developer
60:38
does the project they will be asked to
60:41
address the sidewalks and curb ramps
60:43
in the right-of-way which should help
60:45
the city reach
60:47
accessibility sooner once the
60:49
information is completed and the
60:51
right-of-way
60:52
our the overall city transition plan
60:54
will incorporate
60:56
those findings in into the facilities
60:58
and programs
61:00
transition plan with that i'd like to
61:03
turn it over
61:04
to ryan
61:07
so i just want to spend two slides
61:09
explaining what this may mean from a
61:11
budgetary standpoint
61:13
what you see on the screen are the
61:15
identified costs
61:16
in total but as truly mentioned the
61:19
intention
61:20
is that this is a 15-year plan which
61:23
from a general fund standpoint allows it
61:25
to be
61:26
a little bit more manageable as a
61:28
program we have
61:29
four million dollars per year identified
61:32
in our capital program
61:34
that we would need to include to address
61:36
this i really want to reinforce the
61:38
point that this
61:39
is fluid for instance we know that some
61:43
costs will change when we
61:44
go to engineering but there's also
61:48
some facility improvements that will
61:50
drop out of the program
61:52
as we replace some buildings for
61:54
instance there are
61:56
two fire stations with a total of over a
61:58
million dollars in improvements
62:00
that are very high on the fire chiefs
62:03
replacement plan
62:04
and will likely be done through that
62:06
before we get to
62:08
fixing the facilities from the ada
62:10
program
62:11
if we can go to the next slide and so
62:14
what this means on the capital program
62:17
is
62:18
we have bonds and then we have other
62:20
debt that we call
62:21
cops so in the steady state that we
62:23
talked about last time
62:24
there was 226 million and we had
62:27
identified
62:28
about 28 million for cops what this is
62:31
essentially saying
62:33
is that 4 million each year would need
62:36
to be dedicated to a program like this
62:38
to achieve the goals
62:40
that are likely to come out in the final
62:42
report this summer
62:44
so we also talked last time about some
62:46
other opportunities we have in cops
62:48
um as far as capacity so we feel um that
62:51
this
62:51
is a goal we can achieve but we really
62:54
it is a high cost impact though so we
62:56
really wanted to get it in front of you
62:58
and then i will turn it back to chewie
63:00
to finish up
63:03
thank you ryan our our next steps as i
63:06
mentioned earlier
63:07
we're basically at 85 percent and we'll
63:09
be releasing the draft
63:11
uh in either late march early april
63:14
that draft will include our
63:16
recommendations for
63:18
facilities and associated budgets
63:23
we will allow for public input to occur
63:26
from april through may we will then take
63:29
that public input and
63:31
formulate the final ada transition plan
63:34
which is planned to be released uh this
63:37
coming summer
63:38
for council consideration and uh
63:41
with that like to open it up for
63:43
questions
63:45
thank you very much um first before we
63:47
go to the questions i want to thank the
63:49
non-profit
63:50
disability rights and resources for
63:52
working with altura and our staff
63:55
this is a very important part of
63:58
infrastructure and creating equity in
64:00
the community
64:01
it's a part of our own mobility plan
64:03
it's a part of
64:05
what we need to do and i want to thank
64:08
all of our
64:10
the people that participated in the
64:12
surveys and the interviews
64:14
but especially disability rights and
64:16
resources for their good work with us
64:18
so with that i think i have mister egg
64:21
is it miss
64:21
miss sasmira um is recognized
64:28
ms jamira yes thank you madam mayor
64:34
terry thank you so much and chewie for
64:37
your work on
64:38
like mayor said creating equity and
64:41
inclusiveness
64:42
uh in in our city
64:46
buildings um
64:49
is there a regulatory requirement that
64:52
some of this transition
64:54
assessment has to be done and
64:56
implementation has to be done by a
64:58
certain time
64:59
frame and how does that um
65:03
what does that look like currently
65:06
yes thank you for the question you know
65:08
the department of justice
65:10
has not uh given a a timeline
65:14
so um you know originally when the ada
65:18
was first enacted
65:19
everything was supposed to have been
65:20
made ada compliant by 1995
65:23
which of course you know no city
65:26
achieved
65:26
you know and so now it's up to each city
65:31
to create a budget and a schedule
65:35
to get themselves to reach the program
65:37
access we worked with city
65:39
officials to get to a budget number that
65:42
made sense
65:44
or at the budget number and that the
65:46
schedule that made sense
65:48
in other words we don't want to say that
65:50
this could be done in five years
65:51
knowing that the the fiscal situation
65:54
would not allow it
65:55
um but we believe that 15 years
65:58
for the facility side makes sense and
66:01
and is achievable and something to
66:04
commend the city for
66:05
is this is being done to
66:08
try and get ahead of of ada
66:12
and and reach equitable
66:16
an equitable position because if for
66:19
example
66:20
the department of justice came in and
66:22
found that the city was lacking
66:25
then the department of justice would put
66:27
the city on a schedule
66:29
and um with
66:32
probably less consideration to the
66:34
budget you see other cities that are
66:36
told you will achieve this in five years
66:38
and it's up to you to figure out you
66:40
know from a budget standpoint how to do
66:42
it
66:42
so the city of charlotte is ahead right
66:45
now and that the city gets to make the
66:47
call in terms of budget and schedule
66:50
um so i think there is you know some
66:53
kudos to be had for city staff to get
66:55
ahead of this issue
66:58
all right um any other questions
67:03
yes i do have a follow-up question
67:06
uh as part of this assessment
67:11
have you also looked at a pregnancy
67:13
disability act and
67:16
and how um
67:20
if there are any changes that city needs
67:23
to make
67:24
in terms of infrastructure or invest
67:29
to be compliant with the pda
67:32
and and i want to make sure i heard you
67:34
correctly the pda
67:36
is the pregnancy
67:42
okay we we did not look at pregnancy
67:45
specifically we
67:46
you know our our lens is basically
67:50
you know the americans with disabilities
67:52
act but working with city staff we did
67:55
expand
67:56
some to include language inclusion and
67:59
and what we did and we believe
68:02
that some of the recommendations that
68:04
come out of the americans with
68:06
disabilities act
68:07
benefit many more society members than
68:10
just people with disabilities
68:12
so some of the recommendations being
68:14
made here would benefit
68:16
uh you know pregnancy
68:20
issues but we did not look at that
68:23
specifically
68:27
thank you to follow up on that mr
68:28
manager this one is for you
68:31
uh i'm not sure what our infrastructure
68:35
is like to support pregnant women
68:38
especially the need around nursing room
68:41
so i would appreciate in your follow-up
68:43
report if you could provide us
68:47
where we stand on that thank you
68:50
we'll do all right
68:53
miss ashmir thank you any other
68:56
questions
68:59
nope all right mr phipps i want to
69:02
recognize you
69:05
i had taken my hand down uh mayor
69:07
because i i think
69:08
uh the gentleman asked my question about
69:10
the
69:11
uh charlotte's uh favorable uh
69:15
grade and and and uh meeting their
69:18
programmatic um
69:20
schedule with regard to the the outside
69:24
infrastructure with regard to the ramps
69:26
and things like that
69:27
for ada compliance okay
69:31
miss johnson i'm going to be recognized
69:33
then
69:37
thank you mayor and thank you for this
69:39
presentation terry and
69:41
julie my question is also for the
69:43
manager
69:44
as far as our ada plan i realized this
69:48
evaluation was looking at facilities
69:51
does the city have a plan for
69:53
equitable hiring for individuals with
69:57
disabilities and also for
70:01
sts transportation i believe that the
70:04
policy currently
70:06
is sts will pick up residents where
70:09
there is a
70:10
bus stop and there's some half mile
70:15
requirement but if an individual has a
70:17
disability that makes it difficult to
70:19
walk
70:20
a half mile or get to a bus stop then
70:23
there needs to be some
70:24
equitable consideration and pickups
70:27
so i wondered what the city or if the
70:29
city has a plan
70:31
for ada and some equitable
70:34
consideration for hiring and for
70:38
uh for cats so thank you
70:41
thank you council member johnson we will
70:44
give you
70:45
all of the information we have around
70:47
those questions that you just
70:49
asked i am very familiar with the the
70:52
second one
70:53
because uh council
70:56
know remember newton and i have
70:58
discussed that uh uh from time to time
71:01
and while it is consistent with my
71:03
understanding uh cats is consistent with
71:06
what is required federally and there
71:08
could be some additional cost to
71:10
change from that but what i'll do in
71:12
order to bring all of the council
71:14
members up to speed
71:15
we'll include in the packet information
71:17
about what we do around those two areas
71:20
and what are some opportunities if that
71:21
works for you
71:24
that's great and you know i work with
71:25
individuals with disabilities so i'm
71:27
happy to speak with you offline
71:29
about some of the experiences um that
71:31
they've had with cats
71:33
um and some ideas for hiring as well
71:36
that'd be great thank you thank you
71:39
all right mr driggs
71:43
you recognized thank you mayor um
71:46
i wanted to highlight in particular uh
71:49
our veterans
71:50
who are disabled and so i'm very pleased
71:53
that we are addressing the needs of the
71:55
entire disabled community
71:57
with this initiative um i did want to
72:00
ask
72:01
uh since you referred to the fact that
72:03
we were taking a broader interpretation
72:06
of the ada
72:09
are there non-facility type of items
72:12
that would be included here
72:13
are there any investments we're talking
72:15
about making the can't be funded with
72:17
cops
72:18
what do you have in mind when you say
72:19
that we we may kind of take this
72:22
broader view of the ada
72:25
yes for so for example um
72:30
when the ada requires that you gather
72:33
community input
72:35
and ada specifically wants you to get
72:38
input from the community with
72:40
disabilities
72:41
uh and speaking with community relations
72:44
they said well let's take it a step
72:45
further and include
72:47
and let's have language inclusion so
72:49
let's do our
72:50
let's have our materials translated to
72:53
different languages
72:54
let's have not only sign language
72:56
interpreters but
72:59
other language interpreters at our
73:00
meetings
73:02
so so that's an example of we we took a
73:05
broader
73:05
look at ada from a civil rights
73:08
standpoint
73:10
uh however the the main focus was still
73:13
centered around
73:14
meeting the requirements the technical
73:15
requirements of the americans with
73:17
disabilities
73:18
act and we will definitely do that
73:21
but that's just one example of of us
73:24
thinking beyond it
73:25
we have analyzed how the city does
73:28
programs and services how they provide
73:30
those
73:31
and we have addressed or provided our
73:34
input
73:35
where there are opportunities uh where
73:37
the city might be unknowingly
73:39
discriminating
73:40
and in that instance we look at
73:43
not only people with a disability but
73:47
there's other potential aspects of where
73:49
that might be happening
73:51
we on on the
73:54
physical side on on the facility side we
73:57
did
73:57
stick primarily with the requirements of
73:59
the ada
74:00
and those are programmatically where we
74:03
we could
74:04
broaden our scope of it
74:07
okay this is a pretty big financial
74:10
commitment so uh
74:11
i just would like us to be disciplined
74:13
if we're going to call it an ada
74:15
program that we uh you know that we
74:18
recognizedly operate
74:20
within the requirements of the ada i
74:22
would also like to echo ms johnson's
74:24
comments about the
74:26
sds um i've had a couple of constituents
74:29
who called me this
74:30
and said that their eligibility for this
74:32
service has somehow
74:33
changed because of uh a redesignation
74:37
of the uh of who qualifies and in some
74:40
cases they ended up
74:42
having really no uh means because uh
74:45
with the loss of the sds they would have
74:47
to be taking ubers which for a lot of
74:49
people was really not feasible
74:51
so have we actually changed the
74:53
eligibility for the sds
74:54
or is that an ongoing conversation
74:58
so mr jericho cats yeah we will give you
75:01
information my understanding is that
75:05
there are opportunities that our
75:08
county provisions of a service
75:11
as well as city provisions of the
75:14
service
75:15
and we have been consistent with what is
75:18
required of us
75:19
from a federal perspective but i would
75:22
love the opportunity
75:23
to provide you with that information so
75:25
the council can have a
75:27
discussion around it
75:30
a couple of these cases were pretty sad
75:32
so i don't really have a policy
75:34
background on this subject
75:36
uh but i just hope that we um
75:40
we have a policy that doesn't leave
75:42
certain people out in the cold
75:44
because uh it's very lonely for them uh
75:47
at some point when they lose that access
75:50
so thank you for that mr manager thank
75:53
you
75:54
thank you um we have no further comments
75:57
um
75:57
i would say on the um
76:00
this topic so we're prepared to go to
76:04
the next topic
76:05
which is the cip priorities discussion
76:09
um and i think mr bergman are you going
76:11
to lead us or mr jones are you going to
76:13
mr bergman's going to lead us off i'll
76:15
start and see if the manager would like
76:17
to chime in at all
76:17
no he just said no so i could see behind
76:20
you put him in a bad spot
76:21
he was like pointing forward you know
76:23
like you know get out in front
76:25
way out in front okay so so i'm just
76:28
going to spend a minute
76:29
um going over the last couple of slides
76:32
from the last presentation
76:34
there's not new materials here if you'll
76:36
recall
76:37
we prevented uh presented a lot of
76:39
information
76:40
around our capital program at the last
76:42
workshop
76:43
and then where we ended up we didn't
76:45
have a lot of time for council
76:46
discussion
76:48
so i'm just going to show these final
76:49
scenarios again
76:51
and really the idea here is that this is
76:54
the time
76:54
for council discussion normally
76:58
the manager's proposed budget is the
77:00
first time you would see
77:01
and then react to it but this is such a
77:04
unique situation recently where we have
77:07
this five-year cip that hasn't been
77:09
populated
77:10
that we really want to make sure we have
77:11
a touch point with city council to talk
77:13
about your priorities
77:14
needs things of that nature we do have
77:17
the same people that were here last time
77:19
available in ch 14 which includes liz
77:22
babson our transportation director
77:24
jennifer smith our city engineer phil
77:27
rieger our general services director
77:28
and we also have pam weidman available
77:31
for any housing related questions
77:33
so if we can go to the next and mayor i
77:36
i forgot ryan in my um plea
77:40
pre-planned discussion point so so i
77:43
will jump in
77:44
and and so one of the things i will say
77:47
to
77:47
the mayor and council is that again i
77:51
mentioned a little bit earlier
77:53
this will be difficult because there are
77:57
programs in the cip that were even in
78:00
the planning fund
78:01
that typically have not been in these
78:04
bond cycles
78:06
over the last eight and and those are
78:08
major major roads
78:09
and major intersection projects but also
78:13
has not been a part of the beginning of
78:15
a series of bond cycles
78:17
at least the last two there have been
78:20
tax increases this one does not propose
78:23
a property tax increase
78:25
so in other words we're able to use the
78:28
steady state model
78:29
to populate the different bond cycles
78:33
at this point without coming back for
78:36
any type
78:37
of revenue enhancement in order to
78:39
afford it so again having said that
78:41
and as ryan said earlier you know
78:44
typically i would just
78:45
bring this to you on the third of may
78:47
but we just
78:48
believe that because there is no road
78:52
map per se
78:53
just understanding what priorities are
78:55
for you would be very
78:56
helpful as we move forward
78:59
and so what you'll see on the screen
79:01
i'll say the same thing i said last time
79:03
this is not a recommendation
79:05
this is more like a straw man to give
79:07
you a starting point
79:09
of the two bond cycles that would be in
79:11
the five-year cip
79:13
while also showing some of those costs
79:15
that are essentially locked in
79:17
if we're going to continue doing the
79:19
basic programs
79:20
for maintenance and street resurfacing
79:23
and things of that nature
79:24
so this first scenario which uh still
79:27
leaves
79:28
more than 50 million in capacity each
79:30
bond cycle
79:32
would assume no road projects and no
79:35
intersection projects from the planning
79:37
fund if we go to the next slide
79:40
so everything is the same on this one
79:42
except for that middle section
79:44
this assumes one road project and one
79:48
intersection
79:48
project from the planning fund we would
79:51
still be able to do it within the steady
79:53
state
79:54
we would have a little bit of extra
79:55
capacity and then if you go to the final
79:58
scenario
80:01
one slide ahead okay there we go thank
80:02
you
80:04
this shows the impact of doing both road
80:08
and both intersection projects from the
80:10
advanced planning fund
80:11
in the cip if you left some of those
80:14
other programs
80:16
at similar levels to 2020.
80:19
and so while we wouldn't formally
80:22
um approve something for a bond
80:25
referendum in this upcoming budget
80:27
uh we wouldn't do that until fy23
80:30
we would like to have a five-year cip
80:33
road map
80:34
that is in this proposed budget so with
80:37
that
80:37
um we can leave these on the screen or
80:40
not but really the intention here is uh
80:42
to allow city council a chance to talk
80:45
about their priorities
80:46
questions things of that nature so for
80:48
the council
80:49
this is in the workshop for february the
80:52
third
80:53
and this was where we talked about
80:55
steady state
80:56
and it was you know our steady state of
80:59
26 million
81:00
for cops and 198 million and go bonds
81:04
but obviously when you look at that the
81:07
big
81:07
even with the opportunity to pivot on
81:10
several projects and to do this work
81:12
if we're going to get roads built and
81:15
intersections
81:16
improve which i'm sure there is a very
81:19
much longer list
81:20
than one or two it's like 47 million
81:23
well i think it was like
81:25
35 million a road and 12
81:28
million for an intersection and that
81:30
assumes that we
81:31
continue to do those things that we do
81:34
in terms of maintenance and i don't know
81:36
how i think
81:38
ryan can you put up the slide with the
81:40
it doesn't i think this is consistent
81:42
on all the projects that we have
81:46
um under the no roads or intersection
81:49
just any one of the
81:50
graphs wouldn't or charts those first
81:54
nine or so projects are things that keep
81:57
our maintenance down
81:59
as well as commit to some of the major
82:02
programs that i would say
82:04
people expect us to spend our
82:07
debt for like sidewalks and and bikes
82:10
and
82:11
safety so there's i think the
82:14
discussion is probably at you know how
82:17
do you
82:18
maybe this is maybe i'm going to ask if
82:20
this is an appropriate way
82:22
if we continue to maintain our capital
82:24
facilities
82:26
and if we can make continue to
82:29
build upon safety um primarily
82:33
the question is those things that we
82:36
have chosen
82:38
transportation or mobility housing
82:41
corridors of opportunity and economic
82:44
development
82:45
we are looking below those two lines to
82:47
say are there trade-offs
82:49
or do we do more is that a fair way to
82:53
say that
82:53
yeah and so what i would add is if you
82:55
look at what's on the
82:56
screen the the first three
83:00
are traffic and bridge programs
83:03
they're locked because we need to we do
83:04
need to continue doing them
83:06
but there's also not a necessity to add
83:09
funding
83:10
or anything of that nature the next the
83:12
next two
83:13
nisi and valentine those are essentially
83:15
commitments that are already made
83:18
when you get into the bottom ones the
83:19
sidewalk the bike the vision zero
83:22
that's kind of an open lock because you
83:24
would need those to maintain the program
83:26
but they're different than like traffic
83:29
devices in that
83:30
more funding for those is of course i
83:32
was helpful
83:33
but then when you get down to the ones
83:36
under the advanced planning projects
83:38
you're correct those are affordable
83:39
housing corridors congestion
83:42
those are always things that we do kind
83:44
of to look forward
83:46
that's really at the purview of city
83:48
council
83:49
so i'm i'm going to say that while
83:53
almost everything in that first group
83:55
has some federal inspection
83:58
some requirement that would cause
84:00
greater harm it would
84:01
actually cost more if we stop
84:03
resurfacing street and building
84:05
sidewalks
84:05
we're just going to go deeper further
84:08
behind than we already are
84:10
and i'm going to say this and i know
84:11
that we'll have a number of people to
84:13
talk about this
84:14
but when i look at everything in this
84:17
grouping
84:19
these are things that we have discussed
84:22
consistently
84:23
as being major needs for a growing city
84:27
and things that we've communicated to
84:30
our residents
84:31
that we're going to try to systemically
84:34
add to our programs and so i
84:38
i'm looking forward to the discussion
84:40
and i think massage mirror is going to
84:41
start us
84:42
off massage mirror
84:45
thank you so i completely agree with you
84:49
that we have to continue to invest in
84:52
the
84:53
first bucket where we have a sidewalk
84:57
program and traffic devices and so on
85:00
to continue the maintenance um for
85:03
vision zero i would like to see that
85:04
number
85:05
a little bit higher because that
85:07
prevents fatalities
85:10
um and uh also
85:13
reduces some of our liabilities in terms
85:16
of
85:16
uh pedestrian fatalities where we really
85:18
need to invest
85:20
two million dollars a year will be
85:22
barely
85:23
uh fund one or two street light projects
85:26
where we have
85:27
major roads in our city that
85:30
do not have public lighting uh that
85:33
results
85:33
in fatalities and we do need to address
85:36
that so i would like to see that
85:39
what's the need and see if we can get
85:41
that number
85:42
a little bit higher thank you
85:46
thank you miss ashmira mr driggs
85:49
thank you mayor um guys i'm going to
85:52
take my life in my hands
85:54
here okay no don't do that ed just say
85:56
yes and move on
85:58
[Laughter]
86:00
so the way this is presented um it seems
86:04
to suggest
86:05
that the top range and the bottom range
86:08
are you know pretty much locked in
86:11
i accept what uh mr bergman just said
86:14
and that that our decision revolves
86:16
around the items uh the advanced running
86:19
and and i just want to point out and
86:22
bear with me here
86:23
affordable housing we went to 50 million
86:26
uh with the intention of stepping down
86:28
to 25 and i thought i remembered
86:30
reverting to
86:31
15 uh in the aftermath of the
86:35
keith lamont scott shooting now we see
86:38
it
86:38
kind of plugged in here as if it was a
86:41
permanent fixture
86:42
and i fully agree that affordable
86:44
housing is a top priority of ours
86:46
and deserves our funding but if you look
86:49
at the
86:50
annual investment here and you compare
86:52
it to the last four bond cycles the
86:54
number is pretty level at around 200
86:56
million
86:57
so we have gone to diverting 25
87:00
of our capital capacity to one priority
87:03
one important priority but nonetheless
87:05
just one
87:06
and um i will point out that the funding
87:10
that we have in there for sidewalks just
87:12
as a for instance this is a pet peeve of
87:14
mine
87:15
um apparently doesn't allow for
87:18
us to make progress on the waiting list
87:21
of sidewalk projects
87:22
such that a couple of them in my
87:24
district uh
87:26
can be accommodated in anything less to
87:28
than 10 to 20 years
87:29
i'm told and we have sidewalks that are
87:33
uh
87:33
we have roads that have become major
87:36
thoroughfares
87:37
along the edges of which children walk
87:40
to school
87:41
with cars whizzing by at 50 miles an
87:43
hour
87:44
and i think that's a legitimate priority
87:47
if you look at the core responsibilities
87:49
of the city
87:50
i think responding to situations like
87:52
that where there are
87:54
safety issues that are becoming kind of
87:56
increasingly more
87:58
urgent again because of the growth of
88:00
traffic and because of the speed in
88:01
which a lot of cars who are
88:03
transitioning along these roads
88:05
zoom through them so
88:08
i for example would like us to consider
88:10
to put the affordable housing in the
88:12
middle section there to be considered
88:14
along with these
88:15
road planning projects and other things
88:18
and really think about whether we're
88:19
keeping up
88:21
with our responsibilities uh in in other
88:24
areas
88:24
while we pursue this goal of creating
88:27
more affordable housing
88:29
um i don't think that we should go to
88:32
some big tax increase
88:34
obviously you wouldn't expect that from
88:35
me but i just would like to see the
88:37
apportionment
88:39
more reflective of other needs and
88:41
sidewalks is a good illustration in my
88:43
mind
88:44
and i will point out that if you look at
88:46
the 2040 plan
88:47
and a lot of the aspiration that is in
88:49
there it's going to be very hard for us
88:52
to continue to to commit
88:54
25 of our capital capacity to one
88:57
priority
88:58
and and also try to achieve a lot of the
89:00
other things that to which the plan
89:02
aspires
89:03
so i would just like us in this budget
89:05
conversation
89:07
to include in the mix of choices we have
89:09
to make
89:10
the amount of money that goes into
89:11
affordable housing and keep an open mind
89:13
about that
89:15
and i would love to see us step up the
89:16
sidewalk funding to 30 million dollars
89:19
so that we can make some progress uh on
89:21
that waiting list
89:22
and mr manager i'd appreciate it if we
89:25
could actually get a list
89:26
of the projects uh that cdot has
89:29
identified
89:30
the sidewalk projects that are pending
89:32
and how they've been ranked
89:34
uh i think if district representatives
89:37
from other parts of charlotte take a
89:38
look
89:39
they're going to see that things that
89:40
they recognize as needs
89:43
are uh probably 10 to 20 years away on
89:46
the current uh
89:47
schedule so uh i just put that out there
89:50
and and i hope we can at least talk
89:52
about what our ongoing commitment to
89:55
housing should be
89:56
thank you thank you mr drakes mayor pro
89:59
tem
90:01
thank you mayor so mr drake's really
90:03
touched on what i was going to say
90:05
i'm looking at these numbers sidewalks i
90:07
think are also really important because
90:09
what's in our sidewalk program is new
90:11
sidewalks and
90:13
last time i asked liz about this ms
90:16
babson
90:17
about what about sidewalk repairs and we
90:19
have a lot of sidewalks that are in bad
90:22
shape um and that you couldn't
90:25
um certainly talking about ada you
90:28
certainly can't
90:29
get through if you were in a wheelchair
90:31
or in some sort of
90:33
you know if you're immobile we've got
90:35
sidewalks in older parts of town that
90:37
have utility poles right in the middle
90:39
you couldn't push a baby carriage past
90:42
that or a wheelchair
90:43
certainly so i don't i really don't know
90:45
how to
90:47
look at this when we say 18 million a
90:49
year a bond cycle for sidewalks
90:52
and as mr drake says i really want to
90:54
know
90:55
what the demand is what the backlog is
90:58
and
90:59
and what that includes are we ever going
91:01
to talk about sidewalks that need to be
91:04
torn out and replaced or just fixed
91:07
and the same goes really for congestion
91:09
mitigation i just don't
91:11
have a frame of reference for that as to
91:16
what the need the overall need is same
91:20
with street resurfacing
91:21
i think we've all probably gotten the
91:23
occasional email from residents who hit
91:26
a pothole
91:27
in charlotte it does in some cases
91:29
thousands of
91:30
dollars of damage to their car they
91:32
don't get
91:33
reimbursed from the city on that they
91:35
just have to clean that privately so
91:37
the needs are there i'd like to know a
91:39
little bit more about what the backlog
91:42
is
91:44
thank you thank you um
91:48
to uh mayor pro tem and mr drake's we
91:51
will
91:51
get you that uh backlog as it relates to
91:54
sidewalks
91:55
i do want to talk a little bit about the
91:58
congestion mitigation
92:00
because it's somewhat well something
92:02
that was
92:03
old is new again so instead of
92:06
having let's say before the
92:09
big ideas a steady stream of funds
92:12
for let's say some of those smaller
92:14
projects
92:16
that can help us with congestion
92:18
mitigation
92:20
what we've done is put out i guess on
92:23
this buffet
92:24
everything that can happen so it's not
92:26
either or it's you know
92:27
roads we're assessing that as well as
92:30
traffic uh congestion mitigation which i
92:33
won't
92:34
which i will speak for less that is very
92:36
important to her
92:38
because instead of putting a lot of
92:40
money in one project and waiting
92:42
four five six years for that to be built
92:44
we can do
92:45
projects now and you'll see those
92:47
projects being in the steel creek area
92:50
south charlotte area as well as the
92:52
university city area
92:54
so i for one would say that having that
92:56
is important
92:57
because it stops us from having just a
93:00
huge
93:01
concentration of funds on one project
93:03
but we're able to spread it throughout
93:04
the city
93:07
so i don't know if mayor pro tem is
93:11
asked about that
93:12
and if we do that in a report but i'm
93:15
assuming these are things like adding
93:16
additional lanes
93:18
side um country roads that unique could
93:21
be paid
93:23
medians to change traffic flow things
93:25
like that
93:26
okay so we'll have to get that report
93:29
from
93:29
miss babson as a part of the next
93:33
budget workshop mr graham
93:38
uh thank you madam mayor um i just
93:41
wanted to kind of you know uh
93:42
follow up with ed's comments i i clearly
93:45
understand
93:46
where ed is coming from uh in terms of
93:49
the the
93:50
number of competing priorities we have
93:53
but i can't think of a higher one than
93:55
what we're doing regarding affordable
93:57
housing
93:58
and the investment that we're making
94:00
with law is significant
94:02
uh stove falls short there too right
94:05
and so i i just want to you know again
94:08
say that we need to
94:10
recommit ourselves to affordable housing
94:12
we need to recommit ourselves to
94:14
um great areas as relates to housing
94:18
i.e on the lower end 30 ami
94:22
and below shelter homelessness
94:25
although that's not our direct
94:27
responsibility it is a great area that
94:29
we play in
94:30
the public doesn't know the difference
94:32
uh and so that will stay in the fact
94:34
that silence
94:35
and any of these scenarios to accomplish
94:38
that
94:38
that's really that's what we're doing
94:41
we're kind of faced with a hard number
94:44
of um help me i'm not really good at
94:47
math
94:47
so if we have a scenario of um about 197
94:52
or 98 million dollars
94:55
it's how well how do you want to spend
94:57
it that and
94:58
and the staff has given you some
95:00
scenarios so
95:01
mr phipps i think i'm asking would you
95:03
see connectivity
95:05
of existing roads a higher priority
95:09
or on this list as opposed to something
95:12
else
95:14
well i don't know i would i would see it
95:16
almost as an opportunity for petitioner
95:18
to
95:19
to maybe jump the line so to speak i
95:22
mean because we've
95:23
we've identified projects but to the
95:26
extent that
95:27
that we say that there's a road needed
95:30
and and the petitioner feels that they
95:33
are willing to put in
95:34
some of the funds but in as much as the
95:37
road
95:38
would be a benefit to the city as well
95:40
that they want to approach the city
95:42
to help with the funding of the road do
95:46
we have
95:46
capacity given what we have on our plate
95:50
now do we have
95:51
capacity to even entertain those
95:54
type requests i think that's a question
95:57
for your colleagues
95:58
because we'd be really creating a
96:00
matching fund
96:02
for connectivity based upon rezoning
96:04
petitions
96:05
is that a fair assessment so i don't
96:08
know how your colleagues want to weigh
96:10
in or our colleagues want to weigh in on
96:11
something like that
96:12
and let me let me add one here um mr
96:15
bergman
96:16
i'm sorry mr bergman was going to
96:17
respond first and then this
96:19
year i was just going to lay out that
96:22
what we're trying to put together
96:23
is a five-year plan and during that
96:26
five-year plan
96:28
council will have the opportunity for
96:30
slight adjustments based on opportunity
96:32
so you're talking about developers
96:35
there's other opportunities that may
96:36
come up
96:37
like the state this past year giving us
96:39
bonus allocation dollars
96:41
where we can accomplish a project at 20
96:44
percent of
96:45
what the cost would have been so i i
96:47
think this is a
96:48
the idea behind this is that this is a
96:50
five-year plan and
96:52
that council would have the opportunity
96:54
as we go along
96:56
to make adjustments based on
96:58
opportunities
97:01
okay mr phipps
97:04
any thoughts on okay i'll i'll uh
97:08
i'll i'll thrash that around for a while
97:10
because we do have a
97:11
petition where we got a live situation
97:14
like that so
97:15
i'm just trying to figure out how would
97:17
we juggle
97:18
and and say hey you know we got we're
97:21
committed
97:22
right now so uh i'll give that some
97:24
thought but thank you very much
97:26
okay um mr driggs did you have a comment
97:30
well yes i i just wanted to say uh i
97:33
think
97:34
mr phipps asks a good question and uh
97:37
greg correct me if i'm wrong but my
97:38
interpretation of his question is
97:41
is this a presentation about our capital
97:45
capacity a message
97:46
that we're sending out saying don't
97:49
bother to come to us
97:50
with any other needs because we are sold
97:53
out
97:54
and and we have a backlog so
97:57
um that that's an issue all right
98:00
whether we can kind of say you know
98:02
we're open for business
98:04
i would point out that in situations
98:06
like pearl street and valentine
98:08
we address that with uh tigs and other
98:11
structures so we do have
98:12
opportunities to partner with private
98:14
developers where maybe there's a
98:16
confluence of
98:17
their kind of development and our
98:21
connectivity and other needs improvement
98:23
needs and valentine is a good example
98:25
there are many improvements
98:26
outside of the development itself the
98:29
cost of which is being more than
98:31
half funded by the developer and a chunk
98:34
of which is being funded by a take
98:36
from us so um
98:40
i i think the constraints that we're
98:42
identifying
98:43
on our capacity could be interpreted
98:46
by uh potential partners as a limitation
98:50
on our ability
98:51
to be a partner and um
98:54
that i think is the is the real question
98:57
here i mean the last scenario we're
98:58
looking at leaves us uh
99:00
35 million dollars underwater
99:04
in the 24 bond i'm not sure we're going
99:06
to want to go there
99:07
so if we can only tackle
99:11
one advanced planning road project and
99:13
maybe a couple intersections
99:15
and stay within our kind of permanent
99:18
capacity that list that miss babson
99:21
referred to
99:22
is long and there are a lot of things in
99:24
in places two through five
99:26
that i think we ought to be thoughtful
99:28
and and pay attention to
99:30
and and so i just get back to uh my same
99:33
point by way of uh
99:35
appearing to respond to mr phipps that
99:37
uh
99:38
we do need to look at that list and we
99:40
need to be mindful of the things that we
99:42
are not doing
99:43
um partly because of our choice about
99:45
affordable housing or
99:47
any other choice we might be making so
99:49
thank you mayor that was just my comment
99:51
thank you um mr jones yes so thank you
99:54
mayor mr council
99:56
i do want to to say definitely
99:59
there is not the message that we're
100:01
tapped out and we're not
100:02
open for business and i hope i didn't do
100:04
a double negative we're open for
100:05
business
100:06
we're not tapped out we can
100:10
do a number of things over these bond
100:14
cycles to release
100:15
reduce the stress on the system and i
100:18
don't think there's a scenario right now
100:20
where we would do two
100:22
roads immediately so
100:26
part of what we're trying to do is get
100:28
some feedback from council what i'm
100:29
hearing
100:30
loud and clearly is sidewalks roads
100:34
affordable housing at what level is
100:37
something that
100:38
will have to come back to you with
100:40
recommendations had you
100:42
come in today and said we want to get
100:44
out of the business of affordable
100:46
housing
100:46
that would have been something very
100:48
different or if you came back today
100:50
and said we don't want to build roads
100:52
with the cip
100:54
we'd rather have a different funding
100:55
source to build roads
100:57
those are the kinds of directional
100:59
discussions
101:00
that are important to us at this stage
101:02
but again everything that i've heard
101:04
over the course of this discussion is
101:06
that we're in the
101:07
right space with those locks and
101:11
sidewalks are important affordable
101:13
housing is important roads are important
101:15
and how to be structured in such
101:16
a way that we can give you the best bang
101:18
for your buck
101:21
okay thank you mr jones mr graham
101:29
i'm fine thank you you're good okay
101:32
thank you miss johnson
101:38
miss johnson mr jones addressed
101:42
my question thank you all right okay
101:46
so mayor miss jamira
101:51
yes thank you i i have a follow-up
101:53
question
101:56
i i just want to follow up on mr phipps
101:58
question earlier
102:00
so what line item would that be
102:03
uh because ultimately we are leveraging
102:06
private dollars um to
102:10
improve our infrastructure so i'm trying
102:12
to understand what line
102:14
items would that be and what is the
102:16
remaining balance in that line item
102:20
uh to to leverage private sector dollars
102:24
for
102:25
for infrastructure improvement
102:28
so what you see on the screen in front
102:31
of you
102:32
the example of what you're speaking of
102:34
is really valentine reimagined which is
102:37
on top
102:38
and in the scenarios that we have the
102:40
very last
102:41
line is public private partnerships
102:44
slash ed
102:45
so i would equate those two as similar
102:47
so
102:49
in these scenarios there's 15 million
102:51
dollars of bond
102:52
but i can tell you that that's just a
102:54
straw man scenario that doesn't mean
102:56
that
102:56
it will line up exactly to that but um
102:59
you know miss dodson is always working
103:01
on those types of opportunities
103:03
and so we wanted to make sure that we
103:05
have it in the scenario but
103:07
more than maybe anything else that's the
103:09
one that may have to be flexible from
103:11
bond to bond where it's
103:12
lower in one time and then much higher
103:14
in other times
103:18
okay that that explains uh thank you mr
103:21
bergman
103:21
and just to follow up on that
103:25
could you provide us in five years last
103:28
five years
103:29
what have we what have we spent on
103:31
public private partnerships
103:33
so that we have some sort of baseline to
103:36
compare things
103:37
you see that number needs to go up or
103:40
or higher compared to what we have seen
103:43
in the past
103:46
sure we will get you that in the the two
103:48
main examples would be
103:50
some of the work at eastland and then
103:52
valentine like we mentioned
103:54
but yeah we will get you that
103:58
anything else massage mira
104:03
i'm good thank you okay all right i
104:06
think that's our last speaker on that
104:08
topic
104:09
and so going back to the next area
104:12
we had a discussion or presentation on
104:15
monday on the
104:17
ad hoc committee on arts and culture and
104:19
we're going to
104:20
dive into a discussion on that support
104:23
now so
104:24
who's going to mr jones is going to
104:26
start us off okay so thank you mayor
104:28
members of council my goal
104:30
in the next 60 seconds is to keep tracy
104:32
dodson out of the room
104:35
we have a presentation
104:38
loaded but i'm not sure that we need to
104:40
do it
104:41
what the team needs mayor and council
104:45
is the ad hoc committee did come up with
104:49
some recommendations we are ready to
104:51
begin
104:52
an analysis of those recommendations
104:56
we were hoping that on monday we would
104:57
get the nod from the council
105:00
you know that sixth person or seventh
105:02
person or eighth person
105:03
so that we can do the assessment and and
105:05
that's all we're asking for
105:07
today so i don't know if there's
105:09
somebody from the
105:10
committee whether it's the the chair or
105:13
mr
105:14
piccari or or mr drake's who would like
105:17
to
105:17
chime in or mr winston i i
105:21
look kenneth before we go can i get in
105:23
your notebook there's a
105:25
slide on short-term recommendations and
105:27
long-term recommendations
105:29
and i think what the manager is asking
105:31
is a nod
105:33
that allows him to move forward based
105:36
upon these recommendations
105:38
so with that am i recognizing mr bukhari
105:41
mr bukhari yeah thank you and i'll just
105:44
and happy birthday happy birthday to
105:48
you oh yeah happy birthday to
105:51
you happy birthday
105:54
i do not sing but that was the best i
105:56
could do mr bukhari
105:58
you know when i was growing up i i
106:00
always dreamed that this is how i'd
106:02
spend my birthday
106:05
so how old are you okay well
106:09
feeling very old thank you all and
106:10
thanks everyone for the the
106:12
kind notes and things today um so i
106:14
think i can tee this up very well i
106:15
think the manager
106:16
did a a great kind of punch line um i
106:19
was on this ad hoc arts committee along
106:21
with
106:21
um council members isil graham winston
106:23
driggs
106:24
um so we analyzed the significant
106:27
investments that we've made as a city
106:29
to date and that's you know over 11
106:31
million in 2021 supporting
106:33
arts and culture on the whole over 50
106:35
million over the last 15 years in direct
106:37
funding
106:38
to the asc and the five members of our
106:40
committee
106:41
crafted and approved a very high level
106:43
recommendation
106:44
for the city manager to consider as he
106:47
and staff perform
106:48
their work as he just said to us in
106:50
presenting us with the budget
106:52
the punch line is we want an innovative
106:54
internal approach that maximizes
106:57
the you know the equity the economic and
106:59
cultural impacts that our city dollars
107:01
are having
107:02
uh mayor pro tem covered this
107:04
extensively monday night
107:05
council had a robust conversation where
107:08
staff was
107:08
able to hear and capture all those
107:10
inputs and comments as well so there
107:12
isn't really a need
107:13
for us to rehash those details now
107:16
without additional
107:17
insights and intel so the next body of
107:19
work
107:20
for our council to do beyond this
107:22
initial budget discussion
107:24
is to craft our longer term policy
107:26
vision that really focuses on
107:28
outcomes and what we want our
107:29
investments to ultimately create as
107:32
impacts
107:32
so aside from that what we need today is
107:35
is for the manager
107:36
to move ahead in analyzing our
107:38
recommendation alongside the bigger
107:40
budgetary picture and other factors
107:42
at play and then come and present us
107:45
back with what his ultimate proposal is
107:47
on the topic
107:48
um so no committee itself like our ad
107:51
hoc committee can tell the manager or
107:53
direct staff what to do in formal
107:55
actions
107:56
but these budget workshops are designed
107:58
just for that so
107:59
since we already have five council
108:00
members who formally supported the
108:02
recommendations that we discussed monday
108:04
night
108:05
in our strategy session i recommend we
108:07
just see if there's
108:08
one additional council member who's
108:10
willing to give a head nod
108:12
for the manager to move forward during
108:13
this phase while he still owns the
108:15
budget
108:16
taking into account our recommendations
108:18
while considering those other factors
108:20
and then and then bring that back to us
108:22
for our ultimate decision
108:23
as a body and i think that should really
108:25
maximize our time here
108:26
so if that's acceptable i just ask is
108:28
there one additional council member
108:30
outside of the arts ad hoc committee
108:32
who's willing to give the manager that
108:34
head nod
108:34
so that um so that he could move forward
108:37
in the diligence all right mr bakari i
108:39
would suggest that you're not limited to
108:40
one so all of those that would suggest
108:43
that they
108:43
um the manager take these short and
108:45
long-term recommendations
108:46
if you just raise your hand we can see
108:49
you on
108:50
yes i'm sorry
108:54
mr eggleston i'm sorry i did not get
108:56
your name off the
108:57
i'm bored so mr eggleston
109:00
would you have were you recognized
109:03
this one the manager if the manager is
109:05
tracking
109:06
what mr mccarthy said right there you
109:09
would be
109:10
assuming we give you the go ahead here
109:13
bringing back
109:14
and you would be bringing back options
109:17
for us to consider
109:19
one of which would be prompted by
109:23
the recommendation from the ad hoc
109:25
committee is that correct
109:27
and i'm not sure it would be options in
109:30
my
109:31
budget i would present an option
109:34
to the council based on what the ad hoc
109:38
committee has
109:39
sent my way so i'm going to be asking
109:43
you
109:43
the manager brings us a recommended
109:45
budget what's in that document
109:46
is his recommendation and then it's ours
109:48
to change
109:50
i guess the option the what would make
109:53
option plural i guess would be for the
109:56
council to
109:59
either move forward with that or to
110:01
proceed as we have historically on
110:05
on that issue i i'm not clear on what
110:08
that means
110:10
mr eggleston can you help me he can
110:12
bring us a recommendation based upon the
110:14
committee
110:15
or what was the other choice
110:18
well i i think my question is answered
110:21
but
110:22
the other choice i guess was me saying
110:24
for us to go
110:25
more the traditional route that we have
110:27
with arts funding
110:30
or to move forward with what will be
110:32
brought
110:34
by the manager as a recommendation based
110:36
on the committee's
110:38
work and that would be a council
110:40
decision based upon
110:41
after the manager's recommendation comes
110:43
forward based upon what we get as a hand
110:46
raising now
110:47
for the short and long-term
110:49
recommendations presented today
110:51
does that make sense yeah i mean okay
110:53
i'm just pointing out that there's not a
110:56
definitive decision being made on the
110:58
matter with this
111:01
manager forward
111:08
mr jones if i think i understand
111:12
the question that mr eggleston has
111:15
i would base everything that i'm
111:17
recommending back to the council
111:20
on this heightened increase this four
111:22
million dollars that is coming
111:24
from the city with the opportunity to
111:28
get at least four million dollars
111:30
of match from the private sector would
111:32
be the foundation
111:34
of any recommendation i bring back in my
111:37
budget
111:39
all right i'm good mayor thank you okay
111:41
so
111:42
um if you i i can see everyone except ms
111:45
ashmir i think stepped away mr winston
111:49
is has mr winston stepped away
111:53
he did as well so we've got i see one
111:56
there he is okay mr winston so i see one
112:00
two
112:00
three four five six seven council
112:03
eight council members so if you would
112:05
just indicate
112:07
um approval for the manager to move
112:09
forward based upon the recommendations
112:10
that are included in your materials
112:12
today
112:13
would you just raise your hand please
112:17
one two three four five
112:21
six seven so we have seven that have
112:24
raised their hands i'll just note
112:26
it is the committee member that was
112:28
eight madam mayor
112:29
where is the eighth uh malcolm he was
112:32
already formally with the committee but
112:33
he's
112:34
raising his hand there too okay
112:38
councilman remember graham you see him
112:39
right there he's waiting i see him in
112:40
the car now i just
112:42
couldn't see him in the car before so
112:44
that's eight members in favor
112:46
so mr jones sufficient all right thank
112:50
you very much for that
112:51
now the next item that we have is um
112:55
on charlotte salad
112:58
wait what are we doing water charlotte
113:00
water yes all right we're going to go to
113:02
charlotte water
113:03
and the materials and
113:06
who do i recognize um i'll start so we
113:09
have uh
113:10
angela charles and mike davis and some
113:12
other team
113:13
down in ch14 i would just note that they
113:16
presented
113:17
a longer version of the presentation to
113:19
the budget committee a couple of weeks
113:21
ago
113:22
so uh what you're going to be seeing
113:23
today is a condensed version of each
113:26
and in the appendix you'll see the other
113:28
slides that were presented at committee
113:30
so as long as she's ready i will turn it
113:32
over to angela
113:40
good afternoon mayor laos council
113:42
manager jones and staff i am
113:44
angela charles director of charlotte
113:47
water and we appreciate the opportunity
113:50
for the water team to provide you a
113:53
budget update this afternoon
113:55
water waste water and storm water are
113:58
working together in this community
114:01
under a one water vision according to
114:04
the u.s
114:04
water alliance the one water approach
114:09
envisions managing all
114:12
water in a community in an integrated
114:16
inclusive and sustainable manner
114:19
to to secure a prosperous future for our
114:23
children
114:24
our community and our country
114:27
so as we look how water operates in our
114:30
community
114:31
we have two funds two enterprise
114:34
funds the water wastewater fund and the
114:37
stormwater fund that have continued to
114:40
implement and plan projects to produce
114:43
outcomes and to project needs for our
114:46
future
114:47
even in the midst of a pandemic so i
114:50
will now turn it over to
114:52
mike davis who will talk about the storm
114:54
water fund
115:02
i'm trying to advance the slide
115:15
mr davis hit page down
115:19
there you go thank you thank you
115:22
all right good afternoon my name is mike
115:24
davis pleasure to be with you all this
115:25
afternoon
115:26
um and so it is a great privilege to be
115:29
able to present
115:30
really the work of a much larger group
115:31
of people kind of looking back at our
115:33
past year
115:34
and looking ahead to the fy 2022 budget
115:37
and and so we've condensed a lot of
115:39
things down in just these five slides
115:41
that i will walk you through um the
115:43
first of which is just to kind of put
115:45
into
115:46
scale um as we might in any budget
115:48
presentation the
115:49
the kind of work that we do and what we
115:52
believe is an efficient manner in which
115:54
we do it and so on the left you'll just
115:55
see a little bit of kind of quick stats
115:57
and mainly i would just highlight just
116:00
as kind of a sampling of the kind of
116:01
work that we do that we are
116:02
very project management focused very
116:05
construction focused
116:06
and our work really manifests as
116:09
physical infrastructure oftentimes in
116:12
the form of drain
116:12
pipes and related structural facilities
116:15
but also
116:16
in the form of stream restoration which
116:17
is really closely tied to our mission
116:20
to improve surface water quality and we
116:23
do that with a little over 180 folks
116:25
and we also believe we do it in an
116:27
efficient way and so
116:28
that sort of cube on the right just
116:30
gives some of the common metrics we
116:31
might think about
116:33
um as we seek to deploy that capital so
116:35
86 million dollars
116:37
for fy 2020 was done in a way that
116:39
sustained our
116:40
aaa bond rating and what i think is
116:43
particularly noteworthy
116:44
is that we were able to do 88 cents of
116:47
capital investment per
116:49
dollar collected which is a very high
116:50
ratio
116:52
and so and when we talk about where
116:54
we've been as an organization and look
116:56
back at the last year really
116:57
kind of starts with thinking about covid
116:59
and i wanted to talk about it in maybe
117:01
just three ways the first of which is
117:03
the financial impact
117:05
and so we look at that chart on the
117:08
right
117:10
it maybe is hard to detect at the scale
117:12
but there's two lines one of which
117:14
is the line representing our charges
117:17
cumulative charges going back to march
117:19
of last year kind of when that pandemic
117:21
was really kicking in
117:23
compared to a line that sits almost
117:25
exactly on top of it which is
117:27
what we got back in the door's revenue
117:29
against those charges
117:30
so the difference in those two lines
117:32
ends up being about 700
117:33
000 of impact or about 1.2 percent
117:37
of total charges um so it's not
117:40
insignificant but also well within what
117:42
we can manage
117:43
then we think about sort of how does it
117:44
impact our productivity
117:46
stormwater services and how it's made up
117:48
about two-thirds of our workforce
117:51
does the type of work that transitions
117:53
pretty well as it turns out to working
117:55
from home so we've we've made the kind
117:57
of adaptations that many have
117:59
and try to keep our level of
118:01
productivity high and have found
118:03
innovative ways to do that
118:05
the other third of our workforce is in
118:07
the field it's largely construction
118:08
related investigations related
118:11
and so we just had to again do like the
118:13
rest of the world has done is figure out
118:14
how to do that work in the safest way as
118:16
possible
118:17
and then we have of course done periodic
118:19
suspension of some volunteer events that
118:21
would have otherwise brought
118:23
people into close contact during that
118:24
period and then lastly is just kind of
118:27
thinking about workforce impact and this
118:28
is not
118:29
quantitative by any means but while on
118:31
the one hand we feel very good about our
118:33
level of productivity which i'll show
118:34
you in a minute
118:36
we do recognize that there are just some
118:38
challenges in staying connected as a
118:40
workforce
118:41
how you train new people and do
118:42
professional development it's just
118:44
harder to do
118:45
remotely um all right so if we want to
118:48
talk about productivity and
118:49
there's far more that goes on in
118:51
stormwater services than what i've
118:53
represented on this slide but i think
118:54
many of you know
118:55
we've undergone a fairly significant
118:58
transformation in the last couple years
119:00
and how we approach
119:02
dealing with what we've called minor
119:04
repair requests and this is where people
119:07
in our community are observing we've got
119:09
failing infrastructure and they're
119:10
seeking help
119:11
and so what we did back in fy 2020
119:14
many of you would know that we set out
119:18
on a journey to really
119:19
significantly increase our level of
119:21
production so what you see
119:23
in the chart on the right if you if your
119:25
eyes go to the bottom line
119:27
um that was the trajectory that we were
119:29
on
119:30
going into the fy 2020 budget year of
119:33
how many
119:34
of those minor repair requests we were
119:36
positioned to resolve
119:37
over the next five years and what we set
119:39
out to do and what your budget
119:41
set in motion was trying to resolve
119:44
1700 projects which was an 83
119:48
increase over what that baseline
119:50
represented so then those two dots the
119:52
260 and the 526
119:55
is where we've been able to come in at
119:57
the close of fy2020
119:59
and where we predict will be at the end
120:00
of fy 2021
120:02
to not only meet that projection but
120:05
slightly exceed
120:06
and one thing that's worth pointing out
120:08
about this chart is you'll notice that
120:10
that
120:10
projection line the goal line actually
120:12
bends upward it is not just steeper but
120:14
it bends
120:15
upward which really means every year
120:17
we've got to figure out how to get
120:19
better at what we did than the year
120:20
before
120:22
so we've shown you this graphic once
120:24
before it's just a visual icon
120:26
of a way we talk about sort of opening
120:29
up the project pipeline how do we
120:31
take 1700 projects as a goal and after
120:34
five years get them pushed through that
120:36
project delivery pipeline
120:37
and it requires doing several things
120:40
some it's about
120:41
reform of how we um
120:44
move those projects through the pipeline
120:46
but it's also about resources
120:48
it's about how we handle our contracts
120:50
and things like that so there's a tie to
120:53
your annual budget of how we address
120:56
resource needs in order to
120:57
push that volume of work through and
121:00
it's been successful
121:01
and so the last slide i have is really
121:04
just to kind of put this in the context
121:05
of our financial planning and so i won't
121:07
read all the bullets that are on the
121:08
left
121:09
but maybe the two that are really
121:10
important are the last two of those
121:12
bullets which is
121:13
really just to acknowledge that what we
121:15
do in terms of financial planning
121:18
we think is the best practice it's it's
121:19
a 10-year financial plan
121:22
where we're always modeling and updating
121:24
for sort of the key assumptions that act
121:25
on our capacity to take in revenue and
121:29
deploy that as
121:30
project investments and we do that
121:32
collaboratively with the finance
121:34
department with budget
121:35
and it's reviewed by the city's
121:36
financial consultant that lets us create
121:38
the plan
121:39
that you see on the right and the way
121:41
this chart was put together was really
121:43
to go back to 2020 because again that's
121:45
when we started out on what we've called
121:46
that five-year surge
121:48
goal and so in the middle column is what
121:51
that plan
121:52
had envisioned us doing to try to have
121:54
revenues sustainable for the plan
121:57
um trying to make it never too big in
122:00
any one year
122:01
but provide the revenue necessary to
122:03
support those targets
122:04
and on the right is the actuals so
122:06
you'll note that two years in a row
122:09
we've not had fee increases and so as we
122:11
go into the fy
122:12
2022 budget and we think about what had
122:15
been a 3.6 percent target
122:17
i feel confident in telling you that we
122:19
would be able to come forward with a
122:20
budget recommendation that would be
122:23
under that 3.6 but ultimately left
122:26
um to be as part of the city manager's
122:28
overall budget recommendation which
122:29
we'll present to you later in the budget
122:31
process
122:32
and so that's what i've got in terms of
122:33
my slides and i'm happy to take
122:36
questions now these slides go straight
122:38
into charlotte water slides so we can
122:39
talk storm water or keep going at your
122:44
pleasure
122:49
the recommendation on rates and the
122:51
budget for in the budget that he'll
122:53
present
122:54
all right let's go to charlotte water
122:59
thank you uh mayor laos again charlotte
123:02
water
123:03
has a vision to continue feeding the
123:05
leading water utility
123:07
recognized for excellence and dedication
123:10
to our people
123:11
community region and environment and
123:15
what we think is significant
123:17
about 2020 is that charlotte water
123:22
did not so did not suffer
123:25
any loss of service due to the global
123:28
uh pandemic and and as a reminder
123:31
charlotte water is a
123:32
regional utility serving about 1.2
123:35
million
123:36
of folks in our region a daily so we do
123:39
think that that is significant
123:42
uh to point out just some quick
123:45
stats about the utility we're pumping uh
123:48
in fy
123:49
20 and that is continued to date uh
123:53
108.9 million gallons of water a day
123:56
88.8 million gallons of wastewater
123:59
treated a day
124:00
through uh 8 850 miles
124:04
of pipe and so again when i talked about
124:07
one
124:08
water we're talking about just to keep
124:10
the distinction
124:11
water waste water and what i love to say
124:14
is wash
124:15
brush flush if you think those those
124:17
three things
124:19
uh you are talking about the water
124:21
wastewater fun
124:23
if you look at the capital investment
124:26
that was made in 2020 in our community
124:29
that was 280.7 million
124:32
invested in capital improvement projects
124:36
we continue to be one of the few
124:38
utilities our size
124:39
in the nation we are in the top 20 in
124:42
size in the united states
124:44
uh but we are one of the few that have
124:46
the aaa
124:47
that have maintained and continue to
124:49
have a aaa
124:50
a bond rating from moody's pitch and
124:53
standard
124:54
emporers and as a reminder to everyone
124:57
for three cents you can purchase
125:01
a gallon of charlotte water that is
125:04
three ascent um the the
125:07
capital improvement program that is our
125:10
plan
125:10
is 2.38
125:14
uh billion for the next uh five
125:17
years and when you uh look at we put our
125:20
plan or categorize our projects
125:23
uh into buckets but we also we always
125:26
always have to look at projects for
125:29
capacity
125:30
for growth as opposed to projects for
125:32
rehab and
125:34
rehabilitation and replacement
125:37
and so we are looking at 56
125:42
of our five-year capital program really
125:44
being dedicated to projects
125:46
for capacity for growth in our region
125:50
and that's on the water and wastewater
125:52
side and then we've got
125:53
23 percent for rehab and replacement of
125:56
existing
125:58
infrastructure and we think that that is
126:00
important not think we know that's
126:02
important
126:03
when you look at a utility that's been
126:05
around since the late
126:06
1800s we know we have pipe in the ground
126:09
it's been around since the 1920s
126:12
it's important that we strike that
126:14
balance
126:15
in our planning between capacity
126:18
projects and projects to rehab
126:21
and replace our existing
126:25
infrastructure if you
126:28
thank you investments we wanted to also
126:31
show council how we relate to the
126:34
strategic priorities in our
126:37
uh community and i have said that this
126:40
is mr jones's favorite slide out of
126:42
everything that we have to present today
126:45
but we just wanted you to get to get a
126:48
feel
126:49
for investments water and wastewater
126:52
investments that are happening in the
126:55
corridors of opportunity
126:57
of course we believe and know that for
127:00
all types of initiatives that happen
127:02
in our region that there is
127:04
infrastructure in the ground to support
127:06
those projects water waste water and
127:08
storm water projects
127:10
and so as we look at initiatives like
127:12
the corridors of opportunity
127:14
it's very important that we are also
127:19
aligning with the strategic priorities
127:21
of the organization
127:26
we have been impacted um like
127:29
every other utility in the nation uh due
127:33
to
127:33
uh covet in terms of accounts eligible
127:37
for disconnection
127:39
normally we would have about 3 000
127:42
accounts
127:42
eligible for connection and we are
127:45
carrying around 16
127:47
000 accounts in our community and we
127:50
have
127:51
been for the past few months that are
127:54
eligible
127:55
for a disconnection in
127:58
october of last year we made the
128:00
decision
128:02
to put all folks all customers of
128:05
charlotte water
128:06
on a one-year automatic payment plan and
128:10
so we
128:10
think that that implies that we will not
128:15
resume disconnection of water service
128:18
until october
128:20
of 2021 and we believe that that is the
128:24
right thing
128:25
to do for our community in the midst of
128:29
a pandemic now there are other utilities
128:32
in our community who have resumed
128:35
disconnections
128:36
and there are many other water utilities
128:39
in the state of north carolina
128:42
who have resumed disconnections we
128:45
believe that we are leaders here
128:47
and that if we continue to have the good
128:50
support of our community and get support
128:52
of this council
128:54
we believe that and that is a business
128:56
practice all utilities have this type of
128:58
business practice
128:59
but we believe that october 20 2021
129:03
is when we would um resume that practice
129:06
uh in our community and we just believe
129:09
that that's where the community is
129:11
water is related to public health and
129:14
it's just the thing that we
129:15
we want to do for our community
129:20
just like the stormwater fund we do have
129:23
a long-term
129:25
financial plan this is the prediction of
129:28
our
129:29
fy 2020 rate model we do know that
129:33
that manager jones will be presenting
129:36
his official recommendation in terms of
129:40
of a what rate increase preliminarily
129:44
we want to stay within the range of what
129:47
the plan
129:48
has predicted for the water wastewater
129:51
fund and of course that will support
129:53
a 501 million
129:56
fy 22 budget and again
130:00
we are supporting a 2.38 billion
130:04
dollar capital improvement program
130:08
we growth has not stopped
130:11
in our community even in the midst of
130:14
the pandemic
130:15
uh charlotte water um set more meters
130:19
in in calendar year 2020
130:22
than we ever have in the history of of
130:25
the utility
130:26
and so again um you know we
130:29
we are in a community that really has
130:32
uh you know uh demands demands on the
130:36
watering
130:37
and wastewater system and so there um
130:40
hopefully there will be a recommendation
130:42
come forth uh from mr jones according to
130:45
the plan
130:51
is that the last one okay so i will end
130:54
as i begin talking about uh one
130:57
water and division of water waste water
131:00
and storm water
131:01
operating as one and there is a short
131:05
uh video that's about a minute and i
131:07
think 49 seconds
131:09
that will be shown and then we will
131:12
entertain
131:13
questions and on behalf of 1 200 water
131:17
professionals
131:18
in our community we certainly uh thank
131:21
council for your support and so if we
131:24
can get
131:26
calm to go ahead and run a video
131:39
[Music]
133:07
really good thank you okay
133:10
um we do have um we're going to have
133:13
questions now and i want to recognize
133:15
council member winston
133:20
mr winston
133:24
yes um thank you first of all i want to
133:27
give a shout out
133:28
to miss angela charles i know she gets a
133:31
lot of props
133:32
um in the business community uh in the
133:34
municipal community but
133:36
you know um you know she's bounced
133:38
around
133:39
as every employee has but in particular
133:42
over the past year from assistant
133:44
city manager um dealing with several
133:46
special projects it seemed
133:47
like mr jones will put her on all the
133:49
special ones and now back as our water
133:51
director
133:52
um i just want to thank you uh uh for
133:55
the way you continue to serve
133:56
our organization and our constituents um
133:59
i
134:00
wanted to ask about uh just just from a
134:03
budgetary
134:04
standpoint um an operational standpoint
134:07
um what are this
134:09
being that this these capital
134:10
improvements are are ongoing and
134:13
and so large i know a couple years ago
134:15
we invested
134:17
in a workforce development um in in this
134:20
area i want to just kind of see kind of
134:22
where our efforts are there
134:23
um and what our continued investment
134:27
um will look like are there any needs or
134:30
is there anything more that we can do if
134:31
we increase
134:33
our investments in that area thank you
134:37
sure thank you councilmember uh winston
134:40
for that recognition recognition and um
134:43
we do have a
134:44
um a great team um in charlotte water
134:47
and in the city of charlotte
134:49
um we do have an apprenticeship
134:51
apprenticeship program
134:53
and we have continued that program
134:56
uh throughout the pandemic
135:00
and so i'm looking here at our data here
135:04
right now we have non-apprentices
135:08
who are currently with us throughout the
135:11
uh
135:12
pandemic and fy 20 we had a 15 water and
135:16
wastewater apprentices and 93
135:19
of those are presently
135:22
employed and so um we do have plans to
135:26
accelerate our apprenticeship program
135:29
uh covet has caused us to slow it up
135:33
just a tad
135:34
but certainly as the community recovers
135:38
and we get what is called herd immunity
135:42
we do plan on continuing
135:45
and accelerating our apprenticeship
135:47
program that's something that we believe
135:49
in
135:49
stronger and we believe that that is our
135:52
workforce
135:53
of the future and what's really nice
135:54
about this
135:56
is that we were already dipping our toe
135:58
into storm water so now that we are
136:00
aligned with storm water
136:03
we do plan on expanding our uh
136:06
program to include uh folks in this
136:09
stormwater sector also
136:13
all right thank you and if if there's
136:15
anything that we can do
136:18
from a budgetary standpoint or council
136:20
guidance standpoint
136:22
to strengthen and accelerate that work
136:25
beyond our current capabilities i hope
136:28
we will
136:29
agree to do that thank you thank you mr
136:32
winston thanks
136:33
for reminding us that we have been doing
136:36
this work around
136:37
workforce development for years and and
136:40
really appreciate that
136:41
um comment mr phipps
136:47
yeah i was uh i was just uh curious
136:50
about
136:51
uh mr davis talked about the several
136:53
hundred thousand dollar
136:54
i guess that's reduction in revenue as a
136:57
result of the covet
136:59
uh pandemic what i wanted to get a feel
137:03
for is
137:04
like in as much as we've had a lot of
137:07
people working from home
137:08
[Music]
137:10
um and i guess that that meant that
137:12
water usage
137:14
was way down in our office buildings
137:17
uptown
137:18
i mean you know no no not a lot of hand
137:20
washing going on uptown
137:22
not another commodes being flushed or
137:24
whatever
137:25
but did i mean how much of a gap
137:29
did we see between the loss of that kind
137:33
of uh
137:34
water usage uptown with everybody
137:37
working at home is that
137:38
is that was is that what's reflected in
137:40
that 700 000
137:43
reduction or i'm just trying to get a
137:46
feel for
137:46
that you know did we measure the gap in
137:49
in water usage as a
137:50
as a result of our change in work status
137:55
uh yes i'll take that when councilmember
137:57
fitz
137:58
the uh 700 000 refers to this storm
138:02
a water fund now in the wastewater waste
138:06
waste water wastewater fund i can't talk
138:09
to stephanie
138:09
in the water wastewater fund we are
138:12
projecting a gap of somewhere between
138:15
7 to 10 million
138:18
and us some of that is you know what we
138:20
call deferred
138:21
revenue that we will be collecting later
138:24
on now
138:25
our consumption has remained relatively
138:28
flat
138:29
and that's mainly because folks stayed
138:32
in our community
138:34
so even though the water usage may not
138:37
have been
138:39
in a tower in uptown charlotte we were
138:42
still
138:42
getting water usage throughout the
138:45
different premises and dwellings
138:47
you know in the community the gap
138:51
is mainly due to council member phillips
138:54
to folks not paying
138:58
and so we have been aggressively
139:02
contacting folks in our community we
139:05
developed a customer care program we're
139:07
one of the few utilities and i don't
139:09
know if any yet
139:11
in the nation who's made a commitment to
139:13
contact
139:14
every uh customer who's eligible for
139:17
disconnect we have we are picking up the
139:19
phone and we personally contacted
139:22
over 11 000 people in our community
139:26
using uh charlotte waterfolks and folks
139:29
from other city departments to uh tell
139:32
them about
139:33
um funds that are available
139:37
in our community to help with water bill
139:40
assistance
139:41
so um that's a long way to you know long
139:44
way around to your answer we have
139:48
consumption is flat okay
139:51
we do see a gap due to covet
139:55
the gap is mainly due to
139:58
uh folks being delinquent
140:02
in uh paying their bills
140:05
the plan is and we're executing that
140:08
plan
140:09
is to contact all 16 000 folks
140:12
in our community and and inform
140:16
them of programs uh in our community to
140:19
help with water bill assistance
140:21
so we have partnerships with over 16 000
140:24
folks
140:25
um nonprofits not really folks but
140:27
nonprofits in our community
140:30
to assess i mean to assist people
140:33
with their water bills and i think a
140:36
lesson from kovit
140:39
is that we need a charlotte water
140:42
foundation a utility
140:44
our size serving the number of people we
140:48
serve in the region
140:50
i should have a non-profit established
140:53
to create those partnerships
140:56
out into the community and whether we're
140:59
in a pandemic
141:00
mode or not um we we need to have
141:04
something more formalized
141:05
uh to to help our folks who are
141:08
struggling
141:09
with their bills so we've got a team
141:11
working on that that's this
141:13
one idea that um we've pitched to mr
141:17
jones that
141:18
now is the time that is a lesson
141:21
for us and then that's something that we
141:23
would continue to have no matter what
141:26
the economic situation is in the
141:29
community
141:32
okay thank you it's it's i have to say
141:35
miss charles that i to hear that kind of
141:38
thinking
141:39
as we know that we're coming to a place
141:42
that perhaps
141:43
we will be able to begin to reopen
141:47
but it will be different and and your
141:49
solution is one of those things that i
141:51
think would be an example of change
141:53
that's a very positive
141:54
as a result of this pandemic mr dreggs
141:59
thank you mayor i think this is one of
142:02
those rare occasions where i can
142:03
wholeheartedly agree with mr winston
142:06
um we really need to recognize the
142:08
outstanding performance of charlotte
142:10
water during covid
142:12
uninterrupted supply of clean water uh
142:15
the efforts they've made to protect
142:17
people
142:17
the financial capacity that enabled them
142:20
to shelter people
142:21
from shut off so ms charles to you and
142:24
your team congratulations
142:26
i i did have a question about stormwater
142:29
in the past we talked about stormwater
142:31
in terms of backlogs and things like
142:33
that and there was a whole narrative
142:34
around
142:35
tears and curves and backlogs
142:38
we've made huge progress since then
142:40
which again i think is a great credit to
142:43
the team and mr davis explained how
142:46
we've accelerated projects
142:48
but do we have any update on what those
142:51
waiting lists look like now or what the
142:52
status is of service requests that
142:54
that are still in the pipeline thank you
142:58
sure thank you for that question um so
143:01
in in the budget committee discussion
143:03
that question was raised and we're
143:05
compiling a report that will give all of
143:06
council kind of a complete view on that
143:09
um what i would just say sort of you
143:11
know painting with a broad brush
143:12
is part of what we're achieving with the
143:14
reforms to the program
143:16
is that we're really changing
143:19
um everything about the way we do
143:21
business in terms of what qualifies for
143:23
work in the first place
143:24
so we're kind of attacking it on both
143:26
ends and i can get into sort of
143:28
what i mean by that if you would like
143:30
this detail
143:31
but on the one hand while we are trying
143:33
to
143:34
make sure we're consistent and using
143:37
some discipline and what qualifies for
143:38
our work
143:39
as i mentioned in the presentation we're
143:41
also ramping up our capacity to be able
143:43
to resolve what we had as outstanding
143:45
so as i mentioned we had about 1700
143:47
projects
143:49
that we think we can get done in five
143:51
years
143:52
but as of course we are resolving those
143:54
there will continue to be new
143:56
new needs that arise when the end of
143:58
that five years occurs
144:00
our capacity to resolve
144:03
um new repair requests that come to us
144:05
that need our attention
144:06
will be greater than the volume of work
144:09
that is coming in
144:10
so what what that allows us to do what
144:13
we've talked about in some other
144:14
conversations
144:14
is shift what we've called an asset
144:16
management approach
144:18
we really get away from thinking about
144:19
backlogs and instead begin to think
144:21
about what do we know about our system
144:23
where do we need to make proactive
144:26
interventions and the maintenance of
144:27
that
144:28
system so that overall we're able to
144:30
maintain it
144:31
at a lower cost of the program but we
144:34
have to kind of be able to retire that
144:35
backlog as you say
144:37
um and so that five-year plan lets us do
144:39
it and we think we'll be
144:41
better than certainly far ahead of a
144:43
steady state by the end of that
144:44
five-year period
144:46
that's great work thank you thanks mike
144:48
all right thank you mr drakes
144:50
miss johnson
144:53
thank you mayor i would also like to
144:56
congratulate miss charles she does a
144:58
great
144:58
job and it's and it's great to hear that
145:01
charlotte waters making
145:03
an intentional decision to
145:06
to extend the um the
145:09
the moratorium on shutoffs and and to
145:12
work with the public
145:13
um even after the federal government
145:16
lifted that
145:17
because um we know that covet is a virus
145:20
there were people that were struggling
145:22
before
145:23
and there are going to be people that
145:24
are struggling after so i i
145:26
hope that that this that this pandemic
145:30
has made the nation and
145:34
government organizations more empathetic
145:36
to
145:37
individuals who were who were in
145:39
situations where they needed
145:40
you know housing and rental assistance
145:43
and and
145:44
assistance with the utilities so i
145:47
definitely i would support that
145:48
foundation
145:50
and i wanted to ask is that something
145:52
that we are going to discuss
145:54
adding to this this budget conversation
145:57
mr jones so a couple things thank you
146:01
miss johnson um
146:04
one i'd like to jump on the angela
146:06
charles bandwagon
146:08
also and that she said something that's
146:11
very interesting the uh
146:13
quarters of opportunity being a favorite
146:15
of mine and
146:16
she should take credit for a very
146:18
contentious
146:19
discussion we had in the 15th floor
146:22
conference room
146:23
which actually led to the courthouse
146:25
opportunity
146:26
i say all that as a backdrop and thank
146:29
you angela
146:30
is that the same type of
146:34
effort around our employees whether it's
146:36
in water
146:37
or storm water or in solid waste as
146:40
rodney spoke
146:41
about earlier is a part of the entire
146:44
organization so as we go with our job
146:47
study
146:48
and being an employer of choice
146:51
or best place to work you can
146:55
be rest assured that in the budget that
146:57
i present to you
146:59
and i guess it's may 3rd we'll have
147:01
components around our employees
147:03
that are consistent with what you've
147:05
heard today but not just
147:07
from a department aspect but the entire
147:10
enterprise
147:14
okay miss johnson
147:18
we we can't hear you
147:23
miss johnson
147:28
can you hear me now just you just barely
147:31
um but you were speaking we could see
147:33
that you were trying to
147:34
um you must have been muted so if you
147:36
started your beginning
147:38
thank you that that that answers my
147:40
question thank you
147:43
okay thank you all right mr bakari
147:47
yeah i just wanted to um just recognize
147:50
mike davis and the team um you know
147:53
it can be easy in this unsexy work of
147:56
storm water and things like that to just
147:58
breeze by it
147:59
but um the the magnitude of that work
148:02
cannot be overlooked and for those of
148:05
you who we came in at the same time
148:08
um you know almost four years ago
148:12
we were sitting at in with an
148:14
unsurmountable
148:15
problem of a mountain in front of us and
148:18
while there's still a lot of work to be
148:19
done
148:20
this is very a promising direction of
148:23
some
148:23
tough decisions and some hard work
148:25
that's needed to be done for a long time
148:27
that's that's getting done so i just
148:29
don't want to
148:31
move past this point without just a
148:32
moment of recognition uh and now back to
148:35
white work mike
148:37
all right thank you mayor pro tem
148:42
likewise i just want to thank mike and
148:43
his team for their responsiveness
148:46
and their hard work on a very um often
148:48
unpopular
148:49
um and the unpopular decisions they have
148:52
to make and take
148:53
and he's been really responsive to
148:55
requests i've had
148:57
to go out and see uh citizens and to
148:59
look at
149:00
situations that are really difficult so
149:02
thanks to
149:03
mike thank you and your team
149:06
thank you all right so that
149:10
is um the conclusion of our workshop
149:13
topics for
149:14
today our next um budget workshop is
149:17
april the 7th um and then i think after
149:20
that it becomes a part of the manager's
149:22
work to bring us a recommended budget so
149:26
with that if um having no further topics
149:29
to cover
149:30
um we're going to adjourn this workshop
149:33
and be prepared for the
149:35
um next meeting i guess next monday
149:38
no not monday miss jackson said no no
149:42
no not monday so whatever it is thank
149:44
you very much
149:46
the 15th thank you very much everyone
149:48
have a great evening
149:50
[Music]
150:44
do
151:18
you