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 Paris Miller-Foushee Mayor pro tem Karen Stegman Council Member Michael Parker Council Member Jessica Anderson Council Member Amy Ryan Council Member Camille Berry Council Member Adam Searing Council Member Tai Huynh Monday, September 19, 2022 6:30 PM Library Meeting Room B Language Access Statement In Person Meeting Notification The Chapel Hill Town Council will meet in person for the Meeting. Public attendance is welcome. The Town of Chapel Hill wants to know more about who participates in its programs and processes, including Town Council meetings. Please participate in a voluntary demographic survey https://www.townofchapelhill.org/demosurvey. We will not live stream the event, but will provide the Post-Meeting Video https://www.townofchapelhill.org/councilvideo Parking • Parking is available at the Library lots. The Library is served by CL Route, D Route, F Route, and GoTriangle Routes of Chapel Hill Transit. Entry and COVID-19 Protocols • Meeting Room B is to the right from the main entrance. • Visitors and employees will self-screen. Do not enter if you have these symptoms: Fever, chills, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, headache, muscle pain Page 1 of 5 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 19, 2022 • Attendees are encouraged to wear masks and will sit physically distanced. OPENING Mayor Hemminger called the work session to order at 6:30 p.m. and explained the rules. ROLL CALL Council Members Stegman and Searing joined the meeting at 6:32 and 6:57 p.m., respectively. Council Member Ryan attended remotely. Present: 9 - Mayor Pam Hemminger, Mayor pro tem Karen Stegman, Council Member Jessica Anderson, Council Member Camille Berry, Council Member Paris Miller-Foushee, Council Member Tai Huynh, Council Member Michael Parker, Council Member Amy Ryan, and Council Member Adam Searing OTHER ATTENDEES Town Manager Maurice Jones, Deputy Town Manager Mary Jane Nirdlinger, Deputy Town Manager Loryn Clark, Town Attorney Ann Anderson, Business Management Director Amy Oland, Downtown Special Projects Manager Sarah Poulton, Police Officer Bradley, Deputy Town Clerk Amy Harvey, and Communications and Public Affairs Director/Town Clerk Sabrina Oliver. ANNOUNCEMENTS BY COUNCIL MEMBERS 0.01. Mayor Hemminger Regarding Council Member Parker in [22-0669] OC Visitor's Guide. Mayor Hemminger distributed a copy of the Town's new Visitors Guide and noted a photo of Council Member Parker on the cover. 0.02. Mayor Hemminger Thanks To Staff for Handling Meeting [22-0670] Logistics. Mayor Hemminger thanked the Council and staff for rescheduling the current meeting after she had been unexpectedly called to the White House to discuss Chapel Hill's plan for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) spending. She said that the evening's work session would focus on the $1 million in ARPA funds that the Council had agreed to allocate to community non-profits. The Council would discuss remaining ARPA allocations at its October 3, 2022, meeting, she said. 0.03 Mayor Hemminger Regarding TOCH and Carrboro [22-0671] Participating in NCDOT's Fall Litter Sweep. Mayor Hemminger noted that Chapel Hill and Carrboro were participating with the N.C. Department of Transportation in a fall "Litter Sweep". She mentioned ways that the public could join the effort to remove trash from Page 2 of 5 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 19, 2022 streams and other areas. 0.04 Mayor Hemminger Regarding Planning Commission and [22-0672] Number of Units Approved by Council. Mayor Hemminger said that the Council had approved approximately 1,900 units of housing over the past three years and that more than 400 (21 percent) of those had been affordable. She would forward a report on that to Council Members, she said. 0.05 Council Member Stegman Regarding the Durham Pride [22-0673] Parade on September 24, 2022. Mayor pro tem Stegman reminded everyone that the annual Pride Celebration would be held in Durham on September 24th. Festivities would begin at 10:30 a.m. and continue all day, she said. 0.06 Council Member Berry Regarding Asia-Fest 2022. [22-0674] Council Member Berry mentioned that she and Council Member Huynh had represented the Town at a recent "Asian Fest 2022" celebration in Cary. 0.07 Mayor Hemminger Regarding her Son's Engagement. [22-0675] Mayor Hemminger shared that one of her sons had recently become engaged to be married. AGENDA ITEM(S) 1. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Community Partner [22-0662] Application Update. Director of Business Management Amy Oland and Special Projects Manager Sarah Poulton updated the Council on the plan to allocate $1 million in ARPA funds to community projects. They presented a review of the application process and discussed the scores for each of 31 eligible projects. They asked the Council to consider which projects would qualify for funding and what additional information would be helpful. Ms. Oland reviewed a proposed timeline and said that a Council vote in the fall would enable funds to be distributed by December 31, 2022. Ms. Poulton described the application process and the training that staff had provided to both the applicants and those scoring applications. Ms. Poulton said that there had been 34 applications (from 30 different organizations). Nine of those supported public health, 20 addressed Covid's negative economic impacts, and five addressed both categories, she said. She reported that three of the projects had been deemed ineligible and that the remaining 31 had requested a total of $6.8 million. Page 3 of 5 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 19, 2022 Ms. Poulton reviewed the scoring criteria. She said that 30 scorers came from four different groups and included graduates of the People’s Academy. She described the evaluation process, which included applying an equity lens, and explained the scoring mechanism. She said that projects had been ranked in categories such as Food and Supplies, Public Health, Economic Impact, and Affordable Housing. Ms. Poulton presented lists of recommended projects, which were divided into several groupings. She asked the Council to consider those, ask questions, and prepare to vote on the plan on October 19, 2022. Council Members commented on the large range of projects and amounts being presented and expressed concern that some would need continuing funding after ARPA money ran out. They said that they had wanted to see one-time projects or those that were sustainable. They stressed the importance of having applicants understand that there would be no commitment to continue funding after the one-time grant. Ms. Oland and Ms. Poulton said that staff had been specific about that. They believed that applicants understood that the funds were meant to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, they said. The Mayor and Council proposed that staff obtain more information about the sustainability of the recommended projects. They proposed ranking applications and separating out those that would require only one-time funding. Mayor Hemminger pointed out that doing such an exercise would provide staff with useful information about how the Council would likely vote. Council Member Huynh asked for more information regarding sub-categories and the nuances of how projects were scored. He did not feel certain about the idea of having the Council rank projects and would prefer that staff provide different scenarios on what the money could do, he said. Council Member Searing expressed discomfort with the idea of the Council picking and choosing grant proposals outside of the budget process. However, he generally preferred projects that specifically addressed the effects of the pandemic, he said. Council Member Parker said that he was reluctant to substitute his judgment from the staff's. He and Council Member Anderson proposed eliminating a portion of the list, such as the bottom third, and then obtaining more information on the remaining candidates. Mayor pro tem Stegman expressed concern, however, merely removing the lowest-scoring applicants could skew the distribution, she said. She wanted some additional categorization as well, she said. Page 4 of 5 Town Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 19, 2022 The Council agreed that the list should be limited to self-limiting projects that were in direct response to COVID-19. Mayor Hemminger said that removing applications that did not fall into that category would allow a deeper analysis of the eligible applicants. Council Member Huynh confirmed with Town Attorney Ann Anderson that Council Members could not rank or vote on projects by organizations where they were board members. Mayor Hemminger determined that Council Members Searing, Anderson, Stegman, Ryan and Parker were on applicant boards and would not be able to rank or vote on those applications. The Council discussed trying to determine if there were other funding mechanisms for the remaining projects. Mayor Hemminger pointed out that many of the proposed programs would normally go through the Town's Human Services Advisory Board. Others could consider a different route for Town funding, such as the Affordable Housing Initiative or other ARPA funding categories, she said. Council Member Parker noted that applicants needed to understand that the Town would not be able to help them financially prior to January 2023. Ms. Oland replied that staff would work with applicants regarding that, and Attorney Anderson pointed out that each organization receiving a grant would have a performance agreement with the Town. Mayor Hemminger confirmed that staff had enough information to move forward with shortening the list and doing more research on remaining applicants. She said that a separate item regarding other ARPA funding would come before the Council at its October 3, 2022, meeting. The discussion was continued to October 03, 2022. ADJOURNMENT This meeting was adjourned at 7:56 p.m. Page 5 of 5