1) What specific steps will your administration take to improve wages, benefits, staffing levels, and working conditions for Durham city workers?

• Wages and compression: Raise the wage floor to $25/hour for all City employees and covered contractors on a defined timeline. Implement a tenure-based step plan with skill/certification differentials and market adjustments so experienced workers are never leapfrogged by new hires.

• Benefits that retain talent: Provide annual Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLA), strengthen longevity pay, expand paid family leave, and offer tuition support and childcare stipends for hard-to-staff shifts.

• Staffing: Execute a 12-month vacancy reduction plan with pipelines through Durham Tech, DPS, and NCCU; conditional offers at hiring fairs; referral and retention incentives; and workload reviews to reduce unsafe overtime.

• Working conditions: Adopt a Citywide Heat and Severe Weather Standard (water, rest, shade, schedule adjustments, and stop-work authority). Modernize personal protective equipment (PPE) and fleet on a predictable replacement cycle. Provide paid safety and skills training on City time.

• Worker voice: Formalize meet-and-confer with recognized worker organizations, establish joint labor-management committees in major departments, and publish a public dashboard on vacancies, overtime, safety actions, and grievance timelines.

• Morale and excellence: Launch a Morale and Excellence Agenda on Day One—listening rounds with every major department, supervisor excellence training, and a clear Code of Care for communication, scheduling fairness, and zero retaliation. The City will invest in people, and together we will deliver excellence for residents.
  
  

2) Do you support the right of all workers—including city employees—to form and join unions without fear of retaliation? How would you advocate for strengthening those rights at the state and local level?

Yes. Union rights are community rights. Locally, I will codify anti-retaliation, ensure organizer access, enable payroll dues deduction where lawful, and institutionalize meet-and-confer so worker voice shapes policy despite state limits. At the state level, I will advocate publicly to repeal the ban on public-sector collective bargaining, submit formal letters, testify when invited, and coordinate with peer cities and our legislative delegation.

3) What is your plan to create and preserve truly affordable housing in Durham? How will you ensure that housing remains affordable for low-income residents in the long term?

• Define affordability by reality: Use residual-income and the Housing + Transportation Index to set targets that match Durham paychecks.

• Preservation first: Acquire and rehabilitate existing units; expand community land trusts; require right-to-return; secure multi-decade affordability covenants.

• Public and mission-driven production: Prioritize DHA, non-profit, and aligned developers for City land with deep affordability (30–60% AMI and below) and permanent controls.

• Anti-displacement: Establish an Anti-Displacement Fund for emergency assistance, legal support, and critical repairs to keep families in place.

• Accountability: Tie public dollars and zoning relief to enforceable community benefits, labor standards, and long-term affordability with transparent monitoring.
  

4) Do you support the newly proposed Unified Development Ordinance? Why or why not? How will you ensure that any development policy prioritizes the needs of Durham’s working-class over developer profits?

I will not support any UDO that lacks enforceable affordability, anti-displacement, labor, and environmental standards. I will support a revised UDO that:

• Requires deep and durable affordability with clear targets, monitoring, and penalties.

• Embeds worker standards on City-aided projects (living wages, local hire, safety training, and neutrality on organizing).

• Centers anti-displacement through right-to-return, rehab supports, and community ownership models.

• Publishes a Public Benefits Ledger so residents can see, project by project, what the public gives and what the public receives.

• Stormwater and soils: Prohibit “cosmetic turf” over compacted, impervious subgrades. Require post-construction soil de-compaction, minimum topsoil depths, field-verified infiltration, and as-built certification of stormwater best-management practices. Set effective impervious area caps with credits only for measured performance.
  
  

5) Do you believe Duke University should contribute its fair share in taxes or payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) to support Durham’s public services? If so, how will you work to make that happen?

Yes. Duke is a major factor in Durham and a critical partner. Duke indicates that approximately 62% of its employees live in Durham, which means strong public services directly support Duke’s own workforce and families. I recognize Duke’s current local contributions and philanthropy. Those are welcome and will continue. They are not a substitute for predictable public revenue.

I will pursue a multi-year, transparent PILOT agreement that is distinct from philanthropy and procurement, with a clear floor that grows with footprint, assessed value, and service demand. Negotiations will bring labor and community voices to the table, avoid double-counting of charitable gifts or cost-avoidance, and publish annual reports showing how funds are invested in core priorities such as affordable housing, stormwater and climate resilience, and worker-shift transit. This is pro-Durham, pro-worker, and pro-partnership.

6) Do you support policies to ensure that large corporations and wealthy individuals pay their fair share of taxes to fund Durham’s public services? What specific measures would you champion?

Yes. Within City authority, incentives will be the exception and only with enforceable Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) guaranteeing living wages, local hire, neutrality on organizing, clawbacks for non-performance, and measurable public gains. I will modernize impact fees and utility/system development fees to reflect true public costs and will advocate for enabling legislation that diversifies local revenue and reduces overreliance on homeowners while ensuring major institutions contribute fairly.

7) How will you support Durham residents who lost their homes in recent storms and other disasters? What concrete plans do you have to ensure these residents are made whole and can return to safe, stable housing?

• Establish a Durham Recovery and Resilience Fund that braids local dollars with FEMA HMGP/BRIC and HUD CDBG-DR for rapid repairs, temporary housing, and case management.

• Deploy a Home-Repair Strike Team to assess damage quickly and mobilize qualified contractors, prioritizing elders and low-income families.

• Expand voluntary buyouts and mitigation with a local match fund and a Repetitive-Loss Strategy, pairing buyouts with open-space and floodplain restoration.

• Require verified infiltration standards and enforceable maintenance for stormwater systems so new development reduces, rather than increases, downstream risk.
  
  

8) Will you commit to prioritizing funding for public services and city worker pay over tax incentives for private developers and corporations?

Yes. The baseline budget will fully fund core services, the $25/hour wage floor, compression fixes, safety, and maintenance. Any incentive must pass a Public Benefit Test and will be deferred or denied if it compromises staffing, safety, or state of good repair.

9) What will you do to address chronic understaffing in critical city departments such as sanitation, water, and public works?

• Pay what it takes with a competitive step plan and premiums for hard-to-staff roles.

• Apprenticeships and paid training with Durham Tech, DPS, and NCCU that lead directly to City positions.

• Fix the funnel: faster HR timelines, conditional offers on site, dedicated capacity for screenings and medical clearances.

• Retention: predictable schedules, modern fleet and tooling, realistic crew sizes, and injury-prevention focus.
  
  

10) Do you oppose the privatization of public services in Durham? Will you commit to keeping essential city services publicly owned and operated?

Yes. I oppose privatization of essential services. For any non-essential outsourcing proposal, the City will conduct a Public Value and Labor Impact Assessment, require labor standards, and preserve pathways for affected workers. Essential services will remain publicly owned and operated.

11) How will you ensure city workers have safe working conditions, including proper equipment, training, and protections from extreme heat, storms, and other hazards?

• Adopt and enforce a Heat and Severe Weather Standard with thresholds for breaks, hydration, shade, schedule adjustments, and stop-work authority.

• Fund PPE, fleet, and tools on a predictable replacement cycle.

• Provide paid safety training on City time, including ergonomics, confined-space, and traffic control.

• Establish joint safety committees with worker representation in every major department and publish quarterly incident and corrective-action data.
  
  

12) How will you ensure that city workers and residents have a real voice in decisions affecting Durham’s budget, development policies, and public services?

• Codify meet-and-confer with recognized worker groups and guarantee release time for participation in policy, budget, and safety meetings.

• Create a Worker and Community Budget Advisory Council with frontline seats and a published engagement calendar so input arrives before decisions.

• Use participatory budgeting with strong oversight, anti-fraud controls, and transparent reporting on outcomes.

Require community-benefit oversight boards for major projects, with worker and resident voting seats.