[Durham INC] Draft Minutes of July Delegate Meeting

[Pat Carstensen]

Please let me know if there are corrections or additions.  Right now, the minutes are also on my Google-Drive (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19VPAptOji3tyQKAmwQu4D568Wcvk3E-X1FH5NSQfJZY/edit?usp=sharing); I need to work with Pakis to learn how to post them to the INC website.


July Delegates’ Meeting Agenda

Via zoom

July 28, 2020 7-9PM


Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen
Falconbridge – Richard Ford

Forest Hills – Ellen Pless

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias, Tina Bessias

Merrick-Moore – Bonita Green
Morehead Hill – Rochelle Araujo

Northgate Park – Keith Cochran, Debra Hawkins, Dan Singer

Old West Durham – Vicky Welch

Trinity Park – Philip Azar, Mimi Kessler

Trappers Creek / Greymoss – Will Wilson

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan Sewell



Visitors

Annette Smith – DPR and Durham Parks Foundation

Derek Bowens – Director of Elections

Phil Lehman – Chair, Board of Elections

Sheila Huggins – Friends of Durham

Lynwood Best – City of Durham, NIS
Gary Foureman, Amanda Smith, Gail Lloyd, Joe, Patti R, Petra, Doug Roach, Courtney Kelly, Rosemarie, Gerri McGuire

Will Wilson welcomed those “present” and folks introduced themselves.


Approval of Minutes – Phil moved to approve the minutes, Susan seconded.  This passed. Susan moved that we re-open the Covid-19 resolution so that Northgate Park can vote yes, Pat seconded, and the resolution was re-passed.


November Elections – At the Board of Elections (BOE) meeting last week, the BOE approved a robust early voting plan.  A lot as work has been done to make voting safe, fair, and as efficient as possible, and they have been making a lot of progress.  Our primary election was early enough that we didn’t have the mess we saw in other states.  We are looked as a leader around the state in terms of preparation; Derek Bowens has been called in to advise others at the state and national level.


For those who choose to vote in person, BOE will provide masks and individual pens, have social distance markers, and have monitors.  Election workers will have face shields and gloves.  They are putting together a lot of signs.  They’ve bought hundreds of gallons of hand sanitizer and lots of wipes.  There will electrostatic spraying and deep cleaning of enclosures each day.  Voters will not be required to wear masks to get in (it’s the law), but masks will be available and encouraged.  There will be 14 sites for early voting ​over 17 days beginning October 15 with lots of hours; some sites can be used as overflow sites because they are close to the high-volume sites like South Library.  BOE will direct folks to the large supplemental sites in the event there are lines.  Sites will be open every day until 7:30 pm except for the final Saturday when they close at 3 pm. Know your ballot before you go – get a sample ballot – so you can get in, mark the ballot and get out.  Curbside will be available, but please don’t abuse the privilege as it is supposed to be for those who can’t go inside the polling place rather than those who won’t.


Absentee by mail was changed recently, the biggest change being that only 1 witness is required.  Effective September 1st, there will be an on-line portal to request an absentee by mail ballot, which is both convenient and will do some pre-checking to make sure that all the required data is entered and coherent.  Durham BOE has ordered 60K envelopes (about 160K voted in Durham in 2016).  They have already processed over 6000 requests for absentee by ballots; there are 500 more sitting in the queue to have data entered.  If you have questions about the status of your request, call the office; the law changed so only the voter or a close relative can ask about the status.  They will start sending absentee ballots out September 4th so you can hold off on sending in request for ballot until then, or do it now so that you don’t forget.  Just don’t wait until the last 3 weeks – do it before early voting starts. What goes on behind the scenes is pretty complicated in terms verifying that all the fields are filled out and completing all the required processes.  The board approves “prep steps” for absentee ballots as they come in; that is, they review envelopes to make sure they are valid (and get things corrected if possible), open envelopes, and scan the ballot (not looking at the results but having a back-up copy); the ballots received before Election Day are put through the tabulator starting that afternoon so the results should be available soon after polls close.  If you don’t get your requested ballot by Election Day, you can vote in person.  If you do get a ballot and change your mind about doing absentee, you can still go to the polls (they would prefer that you bring the absentee ballot to the polls so they keep it with the controlled pile of spoiled ballots).


On staffing and plans for precinct polling places, they know they will need a lot of workers for the precincts and early voting, but they have had a huge surge in applications and believe they will be fully staffed with adequate backup.  As a contingency, they are working with temporary agency if some workers cannot show up.  They are working on bigger spaces, such as in gyms for school polling places.



On other matters, there are registration and absentee ballot request forms outside the office; they will also give you up to 200 registration forms if you ask in advance.  If someone has changed their name, they can update info by sending in a new registration form, by filling out the “name change” part of the ballot application or by getting it done when they go to the polls.  You can watch the BOE meetings; check the website.  Sample ballots will be out soon; they are still making sure there are no typos.


OLD BUSINESS:



Open Space/Trees reductions –The whole bundle of proposed changes was sent to the subcommittee, which has been having meetings to discuss it.   The trees and open space parts were removed, but it still has reductions in yard space.



Single-family definition – The same developer asked that the 3-unrelated-person rule should be replaced by a 6-unrelated-person rule.  The subcommittee is also considering this.  Probably we need a more flexible rule that perhaps considers floorspace and location and is not so easy to elude by tactics like renting by the room.


New Business:


Statutory Development Agreement Text Amendment – Statuary development agreements are details in the zoning map that are negotiated between the governing bodies and the developer.  What is being proposed would allow underlying zoning to be changed (or operate in lieu of zoning) and essentially bypass the Planning Commission thereby bypassing citizen review until it is before the governing body which is essentially no opportunity for review or comment before the deal is sealed. The Planning Commission will look at a different draft on Aug 4th at their special meeting.  It also pertains to a specific project that is offering 82 affordable housing on Farrington Rd near NC54. The proposal would change the citizens to participation substantially.  Please comment to the Planning Commission, which is trying to improve it, and to elected officials.  In commenting, please reference the case number (TC2000003 ) to distinguish it from the specific development proposal being expedited. Contact Mimi Kessler (mimikessler1 at gmail.com<mailto:mimikessler1 at gmail.com>) for details about what to comment.  The proposal is at https://durhamnc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/32561/TC2000003-Development-Agreements



Nominating Committee – Will, Phil, Tom will work on getting a slate together.



Neighborhood Reports and Announcements

  *   On the Duke Party House resolution, the progress that had been done will be continued.
  *   Get your census count in
  *   Check out Playmore (https://www.dprplaymore.org/200/Play-More-Guide) – they are updating programs a lot, doing some summer camp

  *   Merrick Moore Community has been working closely with residents of Milan Woods, Landon Woods and North East Hills as this development will affect them, with environmental issues i.e. flooding. The developer is planning to open streets into these neighborhoods that should relieve some of the traffic from Cheek Rd. We were given a date of September 15th to return to the planning commission. There is already a full agenda for that date, the planning commission agreed to add an additional date for September but that date has not been determined.

  *   Northgate Food Truck Rodeos are virtual, but they are encouraging folks to pass on the posts about ways to support the food truck community.
  *   Topics for future: what we are doing about folks losing housing and utilities, equity task force, taking street space to increase outdoor seating,





Adjourn














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