Town Council

Town Hall TOWN OF CHAPEL HILL 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Town Council Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Meeting Minutes - Final Mayor Pam Hemminger Council Member Nancy Oates Mayor pro tem Jessica Anderson Council Member Michael Parker Council Member Donna Bell Council Member Rachel Schaevitz Council Member Allen Buansi Council Member Karen Stegman Council Member Hongbin Gu Wednesday, September 18, 2019 6:30 PM Library Meeting Room B Roll Call Present: 9 - Mayor Pam Hemminger, Mayor pro tem Jessica Anderson, Council Member Donna Bell, Council Member Allen Buansi, Council Member Hongbin Gu, Council Member Nancy Oates, Council Member Michael Parker, Council Member Karen Stegman, and Council Member Rachel Schaevitz Other Attendees Town Manager Maurice Jones, Deputy Town Manager Florentine Miller, Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos, Housing and Community Executive Director Loryn Clark, Housing and Community Assistant Director Sarah Viñas, Community Connections Coordinator Megan Peters, Affordable Housing Manager Nate Broman-Fulks, Affordable Housing Development Officer Emily Holt, Police Officer Rick Fahrer, Communications and Public Affairs Director and Town Clerk Sabrina Oliver. OPENING Mayor Hemminger welcomed everyone to the Town's work session which opened at 6:32 p.m. Mayor Hemminger gave a friendly reminder that the work session was being videotaped and mentioned the set-up was a work in progress. She said future adjustments could be made as needed. ANNOUNCEMENTS Mayor Hemminger said there would be a Weavers Crossing Project community meeting held September 19th at 5:30 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Public Library, Room A. A short-term rental open house for next Monday, September 23rd from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. will be held at the Seymour Senior Center. Mayor Hemminger mentioned the Town was forming a short-term rental task force to look at how to address whole house or whole-unit rentals. Applications are being accepted through September 24 and information can be found on the Town’s website. Page 1 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 Mayor Hemminger mentioned Chapel Hill celebrating its 200th birthday as a town with various installments such as walking events, trivia nights, and other activities. She mentioned other events could be found on the Town’s 2018/2019 Event’s webpage. An update to UNC’s Campus Master Plan and Eastowne’s Master Plan development process will take place at the next Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday, September 25th at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. Mayor Hemminger said the State of the Community meeting would be held on September 19th at 7:30 a.m. at the Friday Center. Mayor Hemminger mentioned that Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders will be in Chapel Hill on September 19th, and said she invited him to the Good Neighbor Cookout Event. AGENDA ITEMS 1. Presentation: Overview of Technology in the Town. [19-0754] Scott Clark, Executive Director of Technology Solutions, provided an overview of what technology solutions (TS) is working on throughout the Town. Mr. Clark said that the purpose of TS is to provide technology to the various departments throughout the Town, digital solutions, and to provide help with the functions they provide to citizens, helping to support and promote both the public and businesses. Mr. Clark informed the Council that his presentation would detail six components: data centers, workspaces, security, construction projects, digital transformation, and smart cities. Data Centers Mr. Clark mentioned that the Town operates three independent data centers throughout the Town. They provide cloud services, which is a vendor provided service that enables the Town to spread things out as much as possible for added security and backup. Mr. Clark said that this provides the Town the ability to operate from different locations if needed. Additionally, the Town provides Wi-Fi by fiber loop to its buildings which allows one end to remain connected if the other side loses connection. Mr. Clark provided an illustration of both equipment and connectivity offered by TS to the Town. Workspaces Technology Solutions provides a variety of workspaces for both the staff and public. This allows staff to work at the front-end and provides the items necessary for cash management such as credit card payments, security, and the ability to capture personally identifiable information that citizens have to provide in order to use the services. Page 2 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 Mr. Clark mentioned that TS provides the connectivity needed by police officers to access the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Criminal Justice Information System and provides connectivity for the Fire Department to have access to the 911 center and dispatch throughout the county. Additionally, they provide needed information on buildings and various routes throughout the buildings for Fire Department personnel. Other supported workspaces include: the transit department - for their demand response, security, and the Wi-Fi offered at major stops; public works - for their vehicle maintenance, dispatching through the SeeClickFix system, and automated vehicle locations. Mr. Clark said that as construction projects come about, TS provides secured and appropriate connectivity for those projects. Security Mr. Clark spoke on the topic of security and said this is a top priority for TS. The security offered by the Town is a multilayered approach starting with an awareness that staff is provided training to understand the dangers of phishing and consistencies in emails. Mr. Clark said the Town uses a process called least-privileged access, limiting access only to information needed for a person to perform their duties; thereby, limiting potential problems only to the spaces accessible and not the whole system. He said vendor management and risk management are also performed by the Town ensuring all vendors follow required compliance rules. Mr. Clark explained that the Town does have business continuity plans in place to help correct technological issues and informed the Council that all backups are stored offline so they are kept isolated for a good start-up point. Mr. Clark mentioned that October will be cyber-awareness month and said the Town will be working with the public on the cyber-awareness program. He informed the Council that last year, the Town had 125 million probes and peaks at its firewall. The Town maintains 1,077 mailboxes with 750 users, and in a span of 30 days, there are roughly 490,000 emails with 197,918 allowed through, 288,797 blocked, and 8,039 quarantined for review. The Town works with state and federal agencies and others to make sure the firewall on the Town’s systems are kept up-to-date to prevent bad things from getting through. Construction Mr. Clark said that TS works with the Planning Department on use of the GIS geospatial system which enables individuals to monitor projects interactively. Additionally, the engineering division of the Public Works department and the road maintenance team both work with Google to perform shallow depths at worksites for a cleaner, faster, and a less destructive method of installing ribbon fiber within the Town. Page 3 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 Digital Transformation Mr. Clark explained that digital transformation involves a strategy for rolling out systems to the various departments and mentioned there are two components involved: Intersystem Operability and Data Governance. Currently, there are projects going on with every department in the Town, from websites and upgrades to developmental services. Mr. Clark mentioned four points that TS looks at for new systems. · Cybersecurity and Risk Avoidance · Project Partnerships · Resilience Cost Sustainability, Upgrades · Regional Partnerships Mr. Clark explained the details of various projects completed by TS; the Hive program for internal services, the geospatial system currently being piloted with the emergency management department, and support for the emergency operations center. Smart Cities Mr. Clark said the Town is looking to prepare for the future. He said that Chapel Hill is one of AT&T's Spotlight cities, and as a partner city, AT&T has provided the Town with pilot equipment to try a variety of setups. Areas of concern noted were, parking and pedestrian traffic so these would be highlighted as focus areas for the Town and AT&T. Among the various setups performed, Mr. Clark addressed the utilization of optics for parking management. He said the Town found problems when using optics, as the landscape blocked parking visuals, and the telephone poles are owned by Duke Energy. He said the Town is hoping to use sensor docks and attachments in the future. Mr. Clark said the use of traffic analysis cameras have been a success for the Town, and an array-of-things, sensor cluster will soon be implemented. The following outreach efforts were discussed. · Smart City Outreach - Working with Carrboro and Chapel Hill students on their Next Tech Showcase · Code for Chapel Hill - Civic Hack-A-Thon Pitches · Town’s First Annual Recycling Program partnered with the Kramden Institute and the University Mall. Council Questions Council Member Stegman asked about the data that the Town is collecting and wanted to know if there is training, support or education on how to Page 4 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 use it or what to do with it. Mr. Clark said there is a data analytics group that went through an inventory of the systems and categorized all the data that was being collected. He said they work with the departments under the data governance plan about what can be done with the data and how it can be secured. Council Member Oates asked about messages from Barracuda and asked if they could be deleted automatically or if the user had to open the email, access management, and then delete. Mr. Clark said that these messages could be deleted. Council Member Oates asked for more information about the photos of the on-street sensors and images. Mr. Clark said that the photo was of public works attaching an analytics camera to determine the count of everything within its field of view: cars, a truck, a person or bicycle. Information captured on the camera is not recorded anywhere. Council Member Parker asked what level of collaboration exists and would it be more efficient to collaborate with lots of other places to do things collectively. Mr. Clark said the Town is currently working with all of the municipalities in the Research Triangle area and the County to improve what we get as far as data for GIS systems. Council Member Parker asked if the Town periodically reviews what is being used and not being used to manage investments, resources, imaging our portfolio IT assets. Mr. Clark said there is an inventory of systems of what is being used and how much money is spent on the system. This is an on-going effort and will be tied into the five-year plan that is being worked on for budgeting. Council Member Buansi asked about the shelf life of the underground fiber cables, their maintenance needs, and how often replacement will be needed. Mr. Clark said that the underground fiber cables have a very long life expectancy. There is a maintenance budget along with insurance and if fiber is accidentally cut by a developer, the Town will work with the developer to repair it. Mr. Clark said most traffic cameras are owned by DOT and they have the maintenance plan on them. Those do need replacing more often than the fiber cables. Council Member Gu spoke on open data. She said from her experiences she has the impression that it is being updated less frequently than in past years and asked if there had been a change in the policy. Mr. Clark said that each one of the data sets is supposed to have been updated on a schedule. He said some have not been updated within the specific time frames. He said the staff and open-data crew will be looking at that. Council Member Gu asked about the digitalization of Town services and said she has attempted to access forms and applications and they seem to be dated. Mr. Clark said the Town is working with different Page 5 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 departments on the processes and what is needed to correct processes. He said the belief is that this will lead to a better system for the folks who use the services. Council Member Gu said it is important to update the interface with people and said she would like some type of timeframe on when this would occur. Mr. Jones said part of that will depend on the budget because of the significant costs associated with updating systems. This will be part of the five-year budget strategies discussion to identify the cost and then there will be a discussion with Council. 2. Receive Update on Building Integrated Communities Initiative [19-0755] and Provide Input on Draft Language Access Plan. Sarah Viñas, Housing and Community Assistant Director, highlighted that her presentation would contain two parts: A brief update on the Building Integrated Communities (BIC) Initiatives and an overview of the Proposed Language Access Plan. She said that staff was asking for the Council’s input on the draft Language Access Plan and the components of the plans listed in the PowerPoint. Ms. Viñas said the department’s focus is on immigrant and refugee engagement and the development of a Language Access Plan (LAP) aligns with Council’s Vibrant and Inclusive goal as well as the Community Connection Strategy and the New Strategic Plan goal. She said the department’s work in the area is a key way for the Town to facilitate further engagement with residents with language barriers. As a reminder, she said the BIC Initiatives is a statewide community planning effort out of UNC Chapel Hill that works with local governments across the state to help facilitate and engage with foreign-born residents to improve relationships, enhance communications, and develop leadership. Ms. Viñas said that the department has developed a BIC action plan outlining five key areas for the Town to focus on to better serve and connect with refugee and immigrant residents. These key areas are: Public transportation, Housing, Public Safety, Law Enforcement, Leadership, and Government Communication. Ms. Viñas noted that a detailed timeline for implementation was included on page 80 and 81 of the Council's packet. A main area of focus highlighted by Ms. Viñas was making Town meetings more accessible. She said the Town provides language interpretation for Council meetings and that the Town has purchased interpretation equipment for future use. In working with Communications and Public Affairs, she said another area of focus was the development of multilingual emergency messages for use during critical situations. She said that the department had recently received a grant from Duke in support of the Town’s emergency multilingual communications. Page 6 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 Other initiatives included The Chapel Hill Library for their recently added world language collection, the police department for their extensive outreach to Latino residents in hosting Know Your Rights and ID events, the variety of Town held festivals and events to support building relationships with immigrant and refugee focused organizations, and the improvement of signage at Town Hall and other Town facilities. Dr. Hannah Gill, Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of America, UNC Chapel Hill and Principal Investigator for the BIC Initiative, provided a brief overview of the Language Access Plan. Dr. Gill said that her team at UNC works with many municipalities across the state and the partnership with Chapel Hill has been one of the most productive due to the Town’s commitment to its goals. She said she was looking for the Council’s feedback on a very critical aspect of the action plan, language access. Dr. Gill said the language access plan establishes policies and procedures ensuring limited English proficient (LEP) residents the ability to communicate with the Town in their preferred language, complied with federal requirements, aligns with the Town’s values, and responds to the highest priority of immigrant and refugee residents. Megan Peters, Community Connections Coordinator, said that several Town departments received federal funding and are taking steps on an ad-hoc basis towards language access. She said one of the benefits of the proposed Language Access plan is that it will be performed Town-wide to streamline language access across all departments. The proposed plan will involve three key components: Needs Assessment · Several departments have frequent contact with residents that are limited English proficient and the Town provides many vital services that are important to an individual’s daily quality of life. · There are currently existing resources within the FY20 budget. · In communications with over 250 residents, there is an interest in language accessibility. Policies and Procedures · Proposal for the Town provide interpretation and translation services free of charge. · Proposal that the Town use a variety of methods to notify residents of the services. · Proposal for the Town to offer language service training with a pay incentive to bilingual employees who speak detailed primary languages with a 2.5 percent annual pay incentive. What’s Next · Continue to develop LAP based on Council and community input. Page 7 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 · Present the revised LEP to Council for consideration by end of the year. Council Questions Council Member Parker asked if the staff should link the need for bilingual and trilingual employees when recruiting. Ms. Viñas replied that this is one of the strategies in the BIC action plan but is not something that is specifically highlighted in the language plan. Council Member Buansi asked if there was any way to capture the number of folks who were requesting certain languages. Ms. Viñas said that they do have the data and that the number was detailed in the PowerPoint presentation with the number of Facebook views. Council Member Buansi said he wanted to know if there was a way to further investigate these numbers. Ms. Viñas replied that the refugee and immigrant populations use different technology tools to communicate among their language groups. She said some messages are pushed out through agency partners and recommended gathering the number information from the partners. Council Member Oates asked if this would start in July 2020 or the budget year. Ms. Viñas said they are proposing to come back before the end of the calendar year. The staff is asking for the pay incentive to be considered in the budget process for a rollout next fiscal year. Ms. Viñas said there are resources within the housing and community’s budget for BIC implementation and if Council agrees then we would use the money put aside for BIC implementation for that purpose. Council Member Schaevitz asked about the potential to use communication feeds for other messages such as, emergencies, land-use plans, and festivals. Ms. Viñas said the hope is to start with the vital documents and then building it out. Council Member Schaevitz recommended saving time and resources by creating videos language free and then dubbing the needed language onto the video. Ms. Viñas said this aligns with the Town’s interest in using more plain language. Council Member Stegman said she wanted to see how the different programs connect and a big picture view on how the Town is working towards their aspirations. Ms. Viñas said that the overarching strategy that gets at what Council Member Stegman is referring to is the Communications Strategy which includes racial equity work and the BIC strategies. She said it has been revisited based on the Council’s feedback and the department has made its focus on community engagement. Council Member Gu said she has an interest in providing more targeted services and would like to know how this can be accomplished. Ms. Viñas Page 8 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 said there was a survey done with Town departments to determine how frequently they get requests for language services and which languages are requested. She said there is not a ton of historical data, but is something that is being worked on. Mayor Hemminger asked if there has been any thought into updating the website and the Connect app with the resources available. Ms. Viñas said that this will be part of the website redesign and mentioned a translate feature that will be added. 3. Discuss Affordable Housing Prioritized Sites Analysis. [19-0756] Nate Broman-Fulks, Affordable Housing Manager, said he would continue a conversation on the three Town-owned sites that were being prioritized for housing development. He said staff would like Council’s feedback and guidance on the next steps for how to move forward with the proposed sites and pathways. As a brief background, Mr. Broman-Fulks said that utilizing Town-owned land for AH development has been a key policy of the Town. The AH strategy was approved in 2013 and outlined this topic as a key strategy. Additionally, the use of Town-owned land was recently listed as a key initiative in the Council’s strategic goals and objectives for the coming years. Mr. Broman-Fulks said that in June 2019, the Council prioritized three Town-owned parcels for AH development: Jay Street, Bennett Road, and Dogwood Acres Drive. He said his department has followed a three-step process by identifying sites, analyzing development potential, and design and implement - developing a planning process for the sites. To help create a report for analyzing the development potential, staff procured a local engineering team to help explore if residential construction was feasible on the proposed sites, the number of units possible, and what housing types were possible. The following was determined in the feasibility analysis: Jay Street 50 homes / apartments and duplex homes / steep terrain limiting the footprint Bennett’s Road 60+ homes / townhomes and apartment homes / steep slopes with development challenges. Dogwood Acres Drive 100+ homes on North parcel / 70+ homes on the South parcel / townhomes and apartment homes / possible LIHTC property. Emily Holt, Affordable Housing Development Officer, summarized two Page 9 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 pathway the Town could consider when moving forward with development. She noted that both pathways involve bringing on a development partner. · Pathway 1 - The Town leads the initial planning and vision for the site and then bringing in a development partner to finance and implement division; and · Pathway 2 - The Town would bring in a partner in right away having them transition as the leader of that plan and vision process from the beginning. Ms. Holt noted that community and stakeholder engagement is a key factor in both pathways and plays a big role in shaping the vision regardless of the choice. Staff provided the following recommendations: Jay Street - Pathway 2 · Project has lower yield for staff investment. · Project similar to surrounding area. · Smaller usable footprint has potential to deliver homes faster. Bennett Road - Pathway 1 · Consider community discussion on desired number of units on site. · May want high-level of Town control and visibility in early stages of planning. Dogwood Acres Drive - additional analysis · Large contribution toward Town’s affordable housing needs. · Project changes use of site. · Impact on existing community benefits on site. Ms. Holt highlighted the proposed initial next steps for all three properties. She said staff was seeking Council’s guidance on next steps and proposed pathways. Council Questions Council Member Parker commented and said he likes the approach but wanted to know if the timeline could be performed faster. Mr. Broman-Fulks said the timeline was created based on staff’s experience on Homestead Road and the knowledge of the existing development review process. If Council would like staff to look into a more expedited process for one or more of the projects, this is something staff could do. Mayor Hemminger asked about Jay Street and asked if staff was thinking a RFQ or separate lots. Ms. Holt replied that the feasibility analysis identified the two in the middle too steep for a building, but a good place to bring in water and sewer. Page 10 of 11 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 18, 2019 Council Member Stegman referred to Council Member Parker’s comment about the timeline and said there should be a created sense of urgency. Council Member Bell said she agrees with Council Member Stegman and feels that should be a Council policy decision and not something for staff to consider. She said Jay Street didn’t meet the smell test on her side of the table and said she doesn’t want it to feel like we are not having a consistent conversation about how to think about AH development as a policy. Council Member Oates asked if Dogwood Acres and Bennett Road are in the swath of land that was supposed to be preserved to offset the high density of Southern Village. Mr. Karpinos said the property on Bennett Road was donated to the Town as a gift as open space. The property on Southern Village was a park so there was no issue about changing the density. It was not factored into the density, it was condensed. Council Member Gu asked about transit and asked if transit was a consideration in how these sites would be connected with the rest of Town. Mr. Fulks said proximity to bus stops was one of the key criteria used. Mayor Hemminger asked Council if they were ready to move ahead with trying to find a process for Jay Street. There was a consensus. Mayor Hemminger asked if the Council was good with the other two after more analysis. There was a consensus. Public Comment Dolores Bailey expressed her thanks for moving ahead on this. She said her real concern is about the folks living in the mobile homes and again thanked the staff for looking into the three lots. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:36 p.m. Page 11 of 11