 We're all here. Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you all for being with us today. Thank you very much. Let me just call this meeting to order. Matt Rickerman is not here today. And of course, we pray for him as he departs and as he comes back to us. And of course, for all of those persons in the city of Columbia who's going through some kind of visit to certain ass that you remember them. Just before we get started, let's have word of grace together. For your loving kindness, for your tender mercies, all of the sundress and wonderful things you've already bestowed upon us. Lord, we gather around this table to discuss and, of course, to interact with each other. We simply ask that you might continue to sensitize us to your grace and to your mercy. But we particularly would pray for the Comet family with the passing of Derek Hudgens. We pray that you might be with his family, be with them during these days of death. Church, and allow us to feel your grace as the Comet moves in a direction that even in death, we move forward. Lord, bless members of our council. Bless members of our city as we continue to expand and grow. We ask it in your name. Let me just, for the record, adopt our agenda. You have your agenda before you. You've got an amendment to your agenda. Yeah, I'm sorry. Please, I want to get in and out quick, right? Madam Clerk, if you would. Here. Present. Yes. Present. Thank you. All right. You have amendments to our agenda. And of course, when we get at that appropriate time, we will move into executive session and how we would ask that you do that at that appropriate time. OK, you want to adopt the amendment with the executive session? Yes, if you would. All right. As we adopt the agenda is presented by adding an executive session discussion of employment of employee pursuant to 30-4-70A1 homeless services. Moving seconded, that we adopt our agenda. Are there any other questions? If you'd approve this, would you just indicate by saying aye? Those opposed? Madam Clerk, if you would, call the roll for me, please. Aye. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. We have three presentations for today. And of course, our first presentation is about Ms. Ed Madden, Professor of English University of South Carolina. Dr. Madden, where are you? I met you on the elevator. You did? We're running ahead, sir. OK, is that? Point Lawry, yes, sir. Yes. Is this working? Yeah, you can hear me. I can hear it. So first of all, just let me say that it's been an honor and a pleasure to serve as the city's poet lawyer for the last eight years. And thank you for the opportunity to present a summary of what I've done the last eight years to you guys today. So the position was created in 2014. You all know this to encourage the appreciation of poetry, to create opportunities for the dissemination of poetry, to promote appreciation among youth, and act as a spokesperson for Columbia Writers. Also, I sort of think in a larger way that it's an additional voice for the city. It's an honorary, unpaid position. The poet is selected by a committee for a four-year term. So I'm serving this renewable once. So I'm serving my second and last term as the city's laureate. And it comes with a small budget for projects and supplies provided by OneColumbia. The roles and responsibilities as outlined in your resolution are to give a reading at a special city event. This was my big city event when I started, which was the burning of Columbia at Boyd Plaza in 2015, to visit schools, attend city, library, and school functions as requested to engage the public in literary arts and to provide a summary of the work. And I had to think about what I would do beyond those expectations. So I came up with three things over the course of my eight years. One was to create venues for area writers, highlighting young writers and thinking about the range of voices that were being included. Second, to imagine literary arts as a public art, which I think is really important for a city that values public arts of all kinds. And then finally, to respond to public and current events with a public voice. More about that in a second. And just to give you a context, we are the first city in the state to have a poet laureate. Edgefield followed quickly thereafter in 2015. Charleston, 2016. Rockhill, 2020. PD, 2020. And Greenville just about a month ago in 2022. And I just added here to note that the state position is currently unfilled since Marjorie Wentworth stepped down in 2020. Governor McMaster has three candidates but has not acted on it. So for my first year, I had my first public event, which was the Burning of Columbia. My first public art project, I thought we'll put poems on public transportation. So we did the Comet City buses. We even had a route map that had a poem on it. And we did a couple of big launch events, including one where we rode around the city on bus 101 with poets standing up in the middle of the bus and reading poems, kind of a nerve people. Third, my first attempt at a public voice. And I have to thank former councilman Mo Bedura for this. After the Charleston shooting, he looked at me and he said, you're the city poet. You should say something. So I wrote a poem in response to the Charleston shooting, which was read by another writer at the Take It Down rally at the state house. My first collaboration at the Columbia Museum of Art and I started going to schools. And I just want to note here at the outset that Irmo High School was the school that made a commitment to me in their programming. It's an arts magnet. So for about five years, I was going consistently out there to teach creative writing classes. A year later, lots of invitations to start doing public events. This is from the Gervais Street Bridge Dinner. I read there twice. I was invited to do a poem at SC Pride in September. I was also named among the, sorry if I laugh at this, but I was named among the 50 most influential people in the Midlands, according to Columbia Business Monthly, which I should think what a nice thing for a poet. My favorite thing that year, our National Poetry Month project was coffee sleeve poems. And I think I don't have extras of these. Most of these things I have extras of, which I have given to Erica and she's going to put in your boxes, but I don't have extras of the coffee sleeve. So as if I'm in a classroom at USC, I'm just going to pass these around and tell you I want them back because I don't have extras. But we did coffee sleeves at four locally owned coffee shops with eight poems by Columbia poets that we hand stamped and we distributed over 8,000 coffee sleeves. And I put up here just one to emphasize the range of voices. This poem by Bugsy, he's a black spoken word poet. I love his work and this particular one was a response to the 2015 flood. So he was one of our poets on the coffee sleeves. But the most amazing thing was that the state newspaper asked me to write a poem in response to commemorate the first anniversary since the Charleston shooting and unbeknownst to me they did this. It was on the front page of the paper that day with a photograph of the mother of manual steeple. So it felt very, very much like having a public voice at that point. 2017, a very, very busy year, lots of programs and invitation. I just want to highlight the image is from the Mend Daylong Poetry Marathon at the Sims Monument. It was organized by black women writers in South Carolina to protest the Sims Monument and the language on that monument. And I think I was the only man and the only white person to read. And I thought it was an amazing, if exhausting day long event. My favorite project that year though was the parking tickets. We did fake parking tickets in downtown Columbia. It was the perfect conjunction. We had National Poetry Month, which is April, April 1st, which is April Fool's Day and a Saturday when the city doesn't ticket and add to that just a gorgeous day. So Soda City was packed. So we distributed over 2000 fake parking tickets all over downtown. It's one of the only things we didn't ask permission to do in advance. You also, she has copies of our parking tickets. So these can go in, we'll go in your boxes as well. I want to shout out to Lee Snowgrove as the best collaborator ever from one Columbia. He designed these. They look like real parking tickets, even have a bar code. So they were great fun. 2018, we focused on poetry as public art. That really was our project. I just want to highlight here the house box poems. We put 35 of these boxes around the city that look like real estate boxes. And thinking about the diversity of voices to include the poems are about housing and home. I included two poems by homeless poets as part of that collection. And you can see the list of other very public things we did. One was we did Main Street Banners for National Poetry Month. You can see here what they look like on Main Street. And I love this project because it's something that can continue to be used. And I hope future poet laureates add to them. But the versions we released on social media you can see were animated. So this is one by Marjorie Wentworth, our former state laureate. And I love the animation, I just think they're so cool. 2019 was a year of visibility both in terms of the kinds of public art we did but also just in recognition of my work. And I just want to say right now it was such an honor to represent Columbia that year. I was one of 13 inaugural poet laureate fellows chosen city and state laureates from around the nation from the Academy of American Poets. Huge honor. And then also I put up here the Prisma Emergency Care Guide. And I know Erica has copies of these as well. There's a link and I'm not gonna show it to you because I don't think I have time but there's a three minute video that Prisma put together about the guide. I worked with them as students and they asked me to write a poem. So every emergency room in every Prisma hospital in the Midlands has this guide with my little prayer poem on the back. The point of which is to think about you were in a room with people who are there the same reason you are. You're not isolated. So anyway, if you have a chance to look at that video it's a really, really lovely thing. We did rain poems in 2018 and 19. These are poems we did. We did cardboard stencils. It's a hydrophobic paint, invisible hydrophobic paint. So when you do the spray paint, it doesn't show up except when it rains and then the cement darkens. I use lots of middle school writers for this. This is Jisoo Lee who's a middle school writer I worked with at a summer arts camp. I just love this poem. The clouds burst open one by one. They can't stand it anymore. The truth is too much to bear. I love that. I love this. It only shows up when it rains. They last for about two months and we put them all over downtown. Thinking of just other images of poems as a public art. We did poems in the Lincoln Street tunnel during the chalk art festival. And this is me doing a pop-up typewriter poetry thing at Soto City. 2020, I've called it starting and stopping but it's really beginnings and endings. We had the new flags. I wrote a poem for that. But of course the event was canceled to the close to the public because of COVID. I have a new class, English 200. I'm teaching it this fall which is a creative writing class but the students are required to do some kind of community service project tied to the arts. I was also part of a national project called Dear Poet 2020 where students all over the nation read one of my poems and then wrote me letters about it. And I responded to them and so they're on a national education website with the Academy of American Poets. My favorite was a little eight, I think she was an eighth grader. He said, Mr. Madden, why is your poem so scary? But of course, this was the year of the shutdown. And the image here is I was asked to read at the Memorial Service for Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg on the steps of our state Supreme Court that year. 2021, I just put small things. It was hard to figure out public projects during the pandemic but the one thing that I really loved doing Columbia Council for Internationals working with the US State Department welcomes delegates working on different issues here to Columbia. And this first group was a group from Nigeria and other African countries working on LGBTQ issues. So I did a poem as a welcome for them and I have continued to do these poems this year as welcomes for the different groups coming. And our theme that year was when it's over. This is from parking day where we got people to write on a big piece of paper what they would do when it was over and we posted them on all the windows outside the Columbia Museum of Art that day. And then this is from the bus poems that year. I just love this one. It's by Cade Stockton, who's a senior at Spring Hill High School. So this was on the bus is mustache. When we don't need mask, I will have a dope mustache and get compliments. And then 2020 just finishing up. The one thing I've done this year is a postcard poetry project. I was trying to think what can I do this both public and possible during a pandemic? So every morning I get up, I write a little tiny poem on a postcard, I post it on social media and then I send it to someone. Sometimes friends, sometimes strangers, sometimes Senator Lindsey Graham. I challenged 12 other South Carolina poets to do it with me in April. They also did poems on postcards and posted on social media and every pop up poetry event and every classroom I go to. We're doing postcard poems as well. We're still finishing up, I'm not done. I put up here, we have a poem appearing on Polly's front porch menu on November 2nd. We're gonna announce it and have a little event at the restaurant. And next week for National Pharmacy Week, two locally owned pharmacies will be putting little poem prescriptions in all the prescriptions you pick up for the week to celebrate National Pharmacy Week. And I just flagged here that I put together all the poems I've done in these eight years for the position and it's gonna be published in a book next year called A Story of the City. So just to summarize, in eight years I've done 12 official city events including six state of the city addresses. I've done 29 city or community readings or presentations. I have done 42 other kinds of readings and admittedly I'm a poet. So I'm gonna do those anyway, but I counted them because I think every time I did a reading for a book or something, it carried with it the additional valence of being the city poet laureate and in some way advancing this position. And I have 61 presentations to schools, libraries or community organizations including more than 25 to schools or classroom visits. I say more than because I know I'm not good at keeping records so I know I didn't keep them all. And that can be anything from tea with kids at the Montessori School to an auditorium full of eighth graders at Heathwood to a gymnasium full of socially distanced English and theater majors at Spring Hill to a tiny, tiny lunchtime poetry club on Zoom out at Spring Valley. I did presentations with other poet laureates in the city, I mean in the state, so Charleston Free Verse Festival in 2017. Earlier this year we did an online reading and it was recorded so it can be used in South Carolina schools. These are all the existing city poet laureates. I would do anything you asked me to to represent the city. So here's two examples. I was asked to be the Jasper crew king in Mardi Gras and I love my crown made of pencils. It was done by local artist Kendall Turner. And then I was asked to participate in Trusses Theater's giant fundraiser Vista Queen and yes I won, that's me. So 2016 I was test demand. Public arts projects. I did 33 public arts projects, six installations of poems on the comment. The major projects including the parking tickets, the main street banners and rain poetry but I put poems on coffee sleeves, movie screens, sidewalks, buses, hospital guides and parking tickets. Other projects, I put 43 other projects, they could be anything. So this is a pop up poetry event at the 701 Young Artist Festival but I also included things like downtown church asking me to write a poem for their advent service because I'm the city laureate. I'm particularly proud that I edited four books through Muddy Ford's Laureate series which was just to help people get their first book published. Two of them were senior writers retired seeing their first book in print. One was a blind writer so I love that we had a focus on disability as well and the fourth which and I love this book is by Rockhill Poet Laureate, Angelo Jeter who's a spoken art artist. It's an elegy for his wife who died but it's very much connected to the Black Lives Matter movement as well. So we published those four books, their first books. Lots of publications and awards. I'm not gonna go through them. It's at the note two biggest ones. One was the Academy of American Poets Fellowship. Again, I was 13 out of the whole nation and also I was selected for the Instituto Sacatar in Brazil. I was one of 22 artists from 14 countries and I know that the Laureate position played a role in the selection so I had two months in a studio on the beach at the end of 2019. It was wonderful. And I just wanna end by saying thank you to the Columbia City Council. Thank you especially to one Columbia. Thank you to former Mayor Steve Benjamin who always included me and always told me what his speech was vaguely gonna be about so that my poem would fit the program. Cindy Bordard at the Jasper Project always gave me ways of publishing local writers. Lee Snowgrove again the most amazing best collaborator ever. He knew when to ask permission and when not to bother. And then my husband Bert Easter who was always willing to haul and carry and load and design and create, do anything to assist me in this work. So that's it. I'm open for questions if you have any. And just to say today the announcement goes out for the next Poet Laureate. They will be selected by the committee before the end of the year. I will meet with them and their term begins at the end of January of next year. Dr. Madden, thank you very, very much. I understood you to say that you're in your eighth year and you're retiring, not retiring but stepping away from this. I am. You sure you wanna step away? Well, that's kind of how it's set up. So the position is only for four years and it can only be renewed once. And I think that's a good thing so that you have lots of possible voices. Absolutely, it's a good thing but when you got something you like and something that is working, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Let me just say an appreciative word and I'm sure my colleagues will offer words of appreciation. Thank you so much for what you've done for our city. Our city Laureate, you're right nowadays, especially when there was some real vicitudes in our city and in this nation of ours. You said a word and that was usually a powerful word. So we are very, very appreciative. And of course, while eight years may be the term, there's always room for Laureate to come back and do what he or she needs to do. Thank you so very, very much. Thank you very much. My colleagues. Mr. Mayor, it's a pro tem, I just wanted to thank Ed, Ed McDowell and I have had the pleasure of listening to Ed for six years. For six years, seven years now. And he always has inspirational poems for us among the committee that's looking for Ed's successor we met last week and when he finished his presentation I said, my one fear is that nobody is gonna apply for this position because Ed has set such a high bar that it's gonna be hard to fill those shoes. And we do thank you for the work you've done in your eight year term. And I know you're not going anywhere. No, I'm still here. You can still produce your poetry. Yes. But thank you. Dr. Madden, just wanna echo my colleagues in thanking you for all your hard work. You're gonna have a lot of free time it looks like coming up soon, but all you've done for promoting the literary arts in Columbia and the Midlands. Couple questions for you. So you were here from day one. Two terms, eight years. Moving forward, what would your advice be to the next individual in this position? And also programming wise, what's your advice to us on how to strengthen the position to really make it the most it can and should be? Okay, easy questions. My first advice for the poet Laureate coming in would be keep better records. Cause I went through my calendar. That's why I put more than 25 classes. I just have no idea. I have what's on my calendar, but I know I didn't keep good records. For you, I would say include me. So that was the one thing I really appreciated about former Mayor Steve Benjamin is that every time there was a state of the city address a month before or more he would say, I'm gonna be using this Bible verse or I'm gonna be thinking about these three big words. It was always, it was clear that I was gonna be part of the program and it was also always clear ways I could fit what he wanted to do. And Lee Snowgrove was just watching for every possible city opportunity. Like he had me read for the, if you remember the candidate forums before the election. So he was always looking for that. So my main advice to you guys would be simply that think of ways to include the poet laureate to have that voice. And then third and maybe this is advice for one Columbia. I am the only city laureate in this state who gets no stipend. Like, you know, I love doing this. So I would have done it without being paid and I love that there's a budget for project materials. But Greenville's two year poet laureate is getting at least a $1,000 honorary stipend. It's kind of standard best practices across the nation for city laureates to get, according to the Academy of American Poets, anywhere from $200 to $2,000. So, and again, that may be for one Columbia rather than you guys. But I think just even if it's an honorary stipend that makes clear the value that the position holds. Do you think there's an avenue for us to work with the position to get programming through our parks and rec departments? I think that'd be super. And Lee was really good about linking me up with Parks and Rec for different programs we did. And in fact, one thing I'm still working on. Hyatt Park wants me to do a poem for their steps. The one I wrote was too long for them. So they want me to write a shorter one. But I still, I love this idea. This is their idea that Parks and Rec wants a poem that would go up the steps as you're walking up the steps there at the park. And I'm also working with youth in the youth programs that we, you know. That would be super too, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, wonderful. Thanks again. Thank you. And I just had a follow up question with the stipend. Was that, is that a stipend for the entire term? Or was that for a yearly stipend? That was for the entire term. So for the different cities have different terms. Different terms, yeah. The Charleston one was kind of indefinite. And I think they've now established how long it's gonna be. The Greenville one is definitely two years. So it just depends. I would say I would hate to have a two year term because it's kind of like the second year you figure out what you're gonna do. So it doesn't make sense. Well, thank you all. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Ms. Wilson. Agenda, we get back to it. It is a review of Amplify Columbia, Ms. Margie Reese. Interim Executive Director for One Columbia for Arts and Culture. Hi, Margie. Hello again. Good afternoon, Council Members. Good to see you all again. The last time I presented to you, I was a consultant and we had just completed the Amplify plan. And I've been summoned back to Columbia by the board to serve in the interim capacity and to lead the search for two new positions for the organization. One, I'm happy to announce we've just filled the new Public Art Administrator that her first day on the job will be October one. She comes from a public art program in Florida. And then we've announced a search for the new Executive Director for One Columbia and we're getting really good, high quality applicants from across the country. So that's the basis of my work now for the organization. And I'm here today to review the draft, the final report I should say, of the One Columbia plan and to answer any questions that you have in that regard. And so for some of you, this will be a review and you can feel free to interrupt, but the primary focus, I guess I'm supposed to do this. The primary objective of the planning process was to identify the most effective and efficient role of the city in cultural development. So it was not our task to necessarily design programs for you or funding amounts, but just to look for efficiencies and to look for ways forward for the city. Ultimately, the desired outcome was to develop an inclusive vision that would help to galvanize the talent, attract more talent and to merge those plans into the larger comprehensive plan, as you recall that was ongoing during that process. And over the course of the year, you can see the numbers of people that we spoke with. And then the four areas that came out of those conversations was to look at the economic prosperity of the region as it relates to arts and culture. To think about civic vitality, how do we bring in more of the city residents into the conversation about arts and culture? We heard that there was an extreme desire that would lead to social and cultural equity. And we could talk about what that means, but in a broader sense, it was to broaden the picture, broaden inclusion of people that were involved with arts and culture. And then finally, to look for ways to embed arts and culture across the city's comprehensive plan. And I will say that we had a great deal of success and collaboration, working with members of the planning department team that followed us every step of the way and gave us guidance and advice during that process. Several of the key points that we were looking at during that process was looking at a review of the existing public art resources that were in the city at that time without necessarily looking at policy, but just doing an assessment. We looked at the trend for the city's funding allocations over the years. What kind of picture did the city show for who it was investing in, how it was investing resources dedicated to arts and culture? We did a public art review. We gained a better understanding of heritage and preservation, asking communities to talk about their definition of heritage from an individual perspective and then whose heritage is being preserved and then how do we advance the preservation of the collective heritage of the residents of Columbia? We did an investigation of the current arts and cultural sector, what does the leadership look like? How are we embedding leadership growth within the sector? How are we encouraging new arts administrators to come into the practice? We looked at philanthropic priorities in the region, in the state and across the country who was investing in Columbia and how could the city take greater advantage of philanthropic dollars that they were not receiving? We looked at racial and cultural equity in the city, so you know for yourself that in most city governments, the goal is not to serve anybody, the goal is to serve everybody. And so how do we get there from a cultural equity perspective? And then we looked at identifying potential partners within the city. It really terrific conversations with the city's park department, as you can imagine, there's some good alignment there. But we also looked at things like law enforcement. How does culture affect the way we police our cities? And so how do people understand the different ways that individual communities respond? We came up with a few key recommendations. One was to, and this is my all-time favorite, so you know I'm a bureaucrat, so don't blame it on the person, was to actually develop a cultural policy for the city. You have several policies in place about how you will use the different tax opportunities, but what is the city's long-term goal? What is your strategic vision for the city as it relates to arts and culture? And then how do you get there? So instead of having an annual kind of conversation about the allocation of resources, you have a goal that is based on policy. We looked at establishing a public art policy, and I'm happy to report today that with funding from the Knight Foundation and with the hiring of the new public art administrator, that the development of a draft of policy of a policy for public art is underway. Sure. Should they all work? Yes. And also the Knight Foundation. Okay, I'll talk about both because they're definitely connected. So Lisa Nellgrove, really the champion of the arts in the city for a very long time, left a legacy of looking at community-based input to develop public art projects in the city. So the city does not currently have a percent for art ordinance, but he was able to work with developers, with individuals to include a percentage of their budget for a public art piece, as well as to respond to private developers who had a desire. And so over time, the practice in everybody's mind was policy, right? But it was a practice of engaging the artist early, working with the developer or the owner of the potential project. And so submitted a request to the Knight Foundation that over time, a significant inventory of public art in the city had been created. But the city needed to know who was gonna protect this work. Donors wanna know if I give you funding for a piece of art, how is it gonna be maintained? The city wants to know the same thing. Is it on city property? Is it on private property? Who has access to it? How does the artist factor in a maintenance strategy for a particular piece of art? All of those things were included in a grant request to the Knight Foundation who funded a $100,000 two-year process to a higher designated public art administrator. So we've hired that person. And then to begin to develop very specific and tactical policies around maintenance, ownership, deaccessioning, relocating, the creation of community voice in the development of new public art projects. All of that work has some tenants of a policy that exists, but not officially, there has not been brought to you a document that says over the last few years these have been the practices that have been developed and here is a recommendation for adopting a policy. And that would not include a policy related to private sector investment. It would primarily include the investment of the city and then set some standards about how the city might expect a private developer to participate in delivering those policies. So the Knight Foundation grant was really a boost that the organization was able to go after once this body approved to the organization as a local arts agency. Then this, that gave one Columbia the heft to be able to go after more private sector philanthropic dollars. And so that was one of the benefits of that move. Other tenants of the planning process asked us to look at the potential creation of an Office of Cultural Affairs. And so we made recommendations about how might and a representative on the staff of the city internally help to expand the city's growth in the art sector from a governmental perspective. So as city planning is done, as department heads are developing their own strategic plans, is there a voice that is in this building or a part of the city staff that can talk about the values, the costs, the risk factors that can be a voice for arts and culture, not necessarily an implementing voice, but from a structural perspective. And many cities have both. Many cities have a Department of Cultural Affairs, like I'm describing to you, that's a part of city government and planning and living side by side an implementation arm called a local arts agency that actually delivers the programs against a contract with the city. And so we took a look at how that might work. How does that, we look at the governmental aspect of that particular role. Is that relatable or can that be related to community? Or is that relatable in terms of community and the emphasis that what might take place here in the city that it metastasizes into the community? Absolutely. And I will say it this way, Councilman. You have a fire chief, a police chief whose job it is to look broad at safety issues, policing, neighborhood safety, all those things within the governmental structure that makes public safety a priority in your planning. That is the lean into for a czar, if you will, or a chief, if you will, or a general manager of arts and culture for city government to advise you on policies coming down the line, on federal funding opportunities coming down the line that could benefit the city. And it crosses over and intersects with every aspect of public life. That position is in conversation with the police chief when there's a crisis at the high school. That says our local arts agency has a roster of artists that can go into that school, artists like Ed and others in the city and provide counseling. But from a law enforcement perspective, the conversation is happening with your arts czar who then says to your local arts agency, we wanna designate some funding in your organization to implement that program. So you're not the implementer, but the city government is the driver of the action for neighborhood redevelopment conversations, et cetera. Who in this building intertwines arts and culture with your directions for a more livable city? Well, it seems as if you're putting more folk at the table in terms of collaborative, collaboration kind of things. And at the same time, providing members of a community the opportunity to not only hear it, but to see it's taking place within the city and in that particular. It's your chief advocacy person. Well, I wanna be a, I want the city to drive, but I need some passengers on that bus too. And of course, if that could happen, all of us sitting at the table, we help build that table together. Absolutely. And you have a bus driver at the table. Yes. Right, who can then disseminate your goals out to other partners and other non-profit organizations for your funds? We also looked at leadership development for the arts. We did a survey on how many years of service leaders of your current non-profits have been in place and looked at is there another generation of leaders that will take the city's investment to the next level. And that seemed to be an area that should really be taken seriously. I will say to you that when we did, we sent out the call for public art administrator applications. We got 98 applications from around the country and we're seeing the same thing with the executive director position. And so what that tells us is we can do a little bit better job at building the infrastructure for arts leaders in Columbia and at the same time, continue to attract fresh eyes, new advice from other professionals around the country. So how do you balance that? And whose job is it to protect your investment by organizing a leadership track in what you do? Yes, sir. Margie, those numbers are amazing, especially since they're nationwide results. Do you have any reason is Columbia that high on the radar screen of the arts community that people are saying they're hearing up in the city economy, we want to be part of it? You know, I'm not gonna trip myself up the door by saying no, but what it speaks to is opportunity. So when people look at Columbia, look at you have a cultural plan, you have a system for delivering services and the cost of living at this point in time is extremely reasonable. The quality of life, the ability to participate in all kinds of civic benefits is attracting people and people in my field are mobile. They move around a lot, they gain the experience that they need, they build something, they stay or they go. And so I do think Columbia has an attraction right now and you're an enigma in the South. People are curious about South, everything South right now. So I do think that it is a combination of all of those things. I also think that coming out of COVID, we lost a lot of arts administrators, people left the field. And so there are younger ones coming aboard, graduating from schools and they're looking for opportunities. I came out of retirement to come back to talk to you. We also looked at how the arts might play a role in neighborhood development, more to your points. Not just slapping a public art project in the middle of something, but having conversations and dialogue with neighborhood councils, people who have built neighborhoods and communities, new families, immigrant families, migrant families that are moving in and out of the area wanna know what the history of this neighborhood was. You wanna document that. And that's the role that the arts can play in making sure that neighborhood legacies get retained and taught. We talked a lot with individual artists about how do we support local artists and encourage them to stay in Columbia and work in Columbia. And one of the things we heard loud and clear about why that isn't happening really had to do with lack of opportunities for employment and engagement. So job creation that is actually in the creative sector as opposed to an ad hoc job. There are artists in this city that are hugely talented, that are scraping by making art. So they have to have two or three other jobs. We heard that from artists. We've heard about insurance coverages and opportunities for larger commissions. And so right now your public art program is one of the hot opportunities for visual artists anyway to make a living. And then finally we talked about designing an arts learning network. What are we doing for children? How does the arts community capitalize on the investment that this body has made over years and create a systemic process for young people to be engaged in the arts in out of school time. So the public school does what they do but kids do other things besides go to school. And that's why our conversations with the park department were so exciting and interesting. Summer, spring break, after school that six to nine window that law enforcement talks about is the most active time for young people who are not engaged in something. So how could the arts fill that void? We talked about some bigger ideas. How do we create more of a destination for Columbia, for tourism? Some of our big ideas was a downtown cultural center that's still a goal and a dream that we, but our recommendation was to launch some study to see what might be possible to create a space in downtown that was multi-use, multi-disciplinary that could offer ongoing programs of interest to a tourist. The work with the Waterfront Sculpture Park has actually launched and begun in earnest with the Boyd Foundation. And I think we'll see the first public art project come to completion the end of this year on Boyd Island. I believe that the full Amplify plan was merged in with the Compass plan and approved by the council and then COVID happened. So we came back and took a look at what would be a more scaled down realistic response to the economic crisis at the time. Now we seem to have gotten past that to some degree and receipts for travel are coming back. But we heard from, we wanted to share with you this Tony Mars quote that said, when during times of civic crisis, it's absolutely when artists go to work. So COVID didn't stop creativity from happening. And we wanted to keep the conversation about the arts on the front burner. And so one Columbia and its board continued to work with individual artists, continued to manage the public art programs. You continue to make grants even though the receipts were lower. And so it was really important that we see a pre and post COVID. And then the long-term goal then during that COVID period was to develop an ordinance that would name one Columbia as the official localized agency, allowing one Columbia to take advantage of and it did take advantage of emergency funding that was available through the NEA. In fact, the $50,000 NEA grant came in to the city and has buffered other reductions. I came into one Columbia organization so that it could continue to operate during that time. The agencies applied for and received a $40,000 grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission for the first time that's supporting general operations so that we can continue to hire artists outside of the funding that comes from the city. Let me ask you about that funding that you received. So you were acting as the local arts agency. Did any other groups, nonprofits and the arts community come to partner with you to go after funding like that, that federal money that was available for those groups during COVID? I have to honestly say that I'm not aware. I don't know how to answer that. You had to find that out. But there are dollars, as you know, from the NEA specifically for local arts agencies to either re-grant or to continue to operate and during that emergency time the grants were quick and fast. You had to get it in and they were a ceiling. It's 50 or nothing. And one Columbia was able to win one of those. So a local arts agency moving forward would be a teaming partner for local other, local performing visual arts and the non-profits. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. So you as a local arts agency you're constantly looking for funding mechanisms out there that would fit the need for a specific performing arts nonprofit or something. Let me make sure that I'm answering the question in the right way. There is designated funding at the National Endowment that only a local arts agency can apply for. So that it's not competing with other nonprofit arts groups. With those dollars, the local arts agency can either re-grant them if that's its mission. It can develop artists led projects. It can support the development of new organizations. Any number of things, it's a long list. But definitely in collaboration with the community of arts organizations and artists that it currently serves or seeks to serve. But you as a local arts agency are a resource to other arts groups in the area. 100%. OK. That's why local arts agencies should exist. Yes, sir? We've always had a, the city of Columbia has always had a good relationship with the Knights Foundation and the Knights Foundation through Central Carolina Foundation. Do you see that partnership continuing? And is it enhanced because we do have the opportunity through one Columbia and the one local arts agency to go out and seek other funding? Yes. The Knight Foundation is one of those foundations that believes that it should initiate and invest long term. I believe that there are more opportunities with the Knight Foundation for the city of Columbia. This grant, we're staying on track with a timeline, getting the job announcement out, hiring the public administrator. The other thing I will tell you that's just about done is also a full review and assessment of every piece in the city's collection. Can you give us a ballpark of what that number is? No. Hundreds? Hundreds of thousands of dollars in value. I don't know. No, pieces of art that are in your inventory. Oh yes, hundreds. That are both city-owned, privately-owned, county-owned. So anything that's in your geography is being documented. Yeah. Are y'all going to just let me say goodbye and finish out my thing? I just want to say one last thing, though, to your question about the local arts agency, both of you gentlemen, that we, oops. I don't have to read it and I can show it to you. This is what typically a local arts agency does. It may not do all of these things, but it makes grants. It presents programming. It manages buildings. It provides services to artists and arts organizations, which is really where we need the most heavy lifting in this city, in my opinion, is development for the leaders and future leaders of local arts organizations. We need advocacy for arts-friendly policies across the board, ensuring equity. Now, I'm not here to talk about equity, but I could talk about it for days about how decisions are made that allocates the funding resources that you have against practice and habits and not policies. That's going to be an opportunity for you to take a look at, forging partnerships to your point, and then managing public art programs. So you've got an entity that has almost a decade of history in just creating this thing that you have now, as of last year noted, is your local arts agency, which gives them the ability to go after other public dollars at the national level, regional level, and private sector dollars. Without that piece of paper, when you apply to the NEA, if you're not the designated local arts agency you're at, you can't act on behalf of a city. We talked a little bit more about creating some policies negotiating with the one Columbia board. You've done all those things. And that's my story. Yes, sir? When you and I first met several years back, you were telling me some of the amounts of money that other cities get because the local arts agency goes out and gets them. Do you have any feel for what we should expect the city of Columbia, one Columbia, or the city of Columbia, to be able to gather in from the Knight Foundation, from NEA, from Arts Commission? What sort of resources are we talking about if we want to have to? Well, I will just say, just based on the past year, year and a half, you're $100,000 ahead from the Knight Foundation. You're $50,000 ahead from the NEA. And you're $40,000 plus ahead from the State Arts Commission. So if that practice continues, and if there is directed guidance from this body to double that amount, you've got to write the grants. You've got to take the shot. But somebody has to wake up every morning looking for grant opportunities. And they're out there. They exist. South Arts is another agency based in Atlanta where I live that services the southern region. They've got grants for artists that your local arts agency can apply for, re-granting dollars, facility. There's money out there on the table right now to retrofit historic buildings with elevators, right? So with cultural facilities, I will say. So I think. I'm not in small elevators. OK, well, I'm not in that. I'm not in there. But I do think that there is an opportunity and your new executive director, the new executive director for OneColumbia, we will be looking at that person's ability to raise money. Other questions? Ms. Reeves, thank you very, very much. You're very welcome. Very insightful, proactively ready to roll. All right. Thank you so much. It's my pleasure. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Madam City Manager? Our final presentation is the Stormwater Capital Improvement Program Management, Ms. Dana Higgins, Director of Engineering, and Mr. Hal Clarkson, Program Director for Water Management for Wolpert Inc. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us today. My name's Dana Higgins. I'm the Director of Engineering for the City of Columbia. Thank you so much. Today, I'd like to introduce our team. With me is our Deputy Director of Engineering, Andrea Bowling, if you'll stand up. Also, we have Frances Bryant, who's our Assistant City Engineer for Design. And on Wolpert's side, we have Hal Clarkson, who is a program manager. And Trevor Guerin, who is a project manager for Wolpert. So with that, we'll go ahead and get started, if that sounds good. So we just wanted to come and give an overview of our Stormwater CIP. I know there's some new council people that have joined us since our original bonds that we had issued back in 2018. So we just wanted to give this an opportunity for y'all to ask questions and kind of let you know what we've been doing. So up until about 2017, our CIP was funded with $3 million a year based on what our revenues allowed. The projects that were identified across the city were in excess of we actually identified $93 million with the projects, just based on complaints and flooding concerns. So at the time, it was decided that we would go forward to issue bonds in 2018. And that was done in December of 2018. At the time, we had so many projects that we wanted to get kick-started that we realized we had a need for some project implementation support, help, and some asset management and looking at the condition of our infrastructure. So we went out for an RFQ and we selected Wolpert. So I'm going to hand this over to Hal with Wolpert so he can kind of go over some of the things they've been doing to help us. And then I'll take it back over at the end and we'll get questions answered. And here's Hal. Thank you, Dana. And thank you, Council, for having us here today to kind of talk about this program. It's an extremely important program to the city, putting in new infrastructure to manage flooding and water quality issues across the city. I'll take just a moment. I know we're on time schedule, but let you know a little bit about who we are. Wolpert is an international firm. We've got about 1,600 people across the world. But here in South Carolina, which is more important to you, we have three offices with our primary office being in Columbia. We have about 45 stormwater professionals in South Carolina with 25 of those seated right here in Columbia. But it's not just us that's providing the support for this group. We have some really outstanding teammates, child associates, they're providing us with served land surveying services and also some engineering support on the structural engineering side. PJ Noble and Associates, Pat and her group do an outstanding job in helping us reach out to communities and making sure your citizens are informed as to where these projects are, the status of them and how it's gonna help them. HDR is another engineering firm very similar to Wolpert. They add to our bench strengths. They've also got some services that they provide that we don't. WEE3 is primarily Bill Spearman who provides us with some high level strategic planning. And then last but certainly not least, a new member to our team is Weston and Samson. And they bring to us some equipment that assist in performing the condition assessment of stormwater systems. They can also do cleaning and some light maintenance. So that's the team that's helping out with this project. Oops, wrong way, here we go. We've been assisting in four primary areas. One is program management. That's adding resources to the city like Dana mentioned, you've gone from $3 million a year to trying to get $93 million worth of infrastructure in the ground rather quickly. And while they're very capable and experienced, they needed some assistance. And so we provide some additional resources to help make that happen. The public outreach and meeting facilitation, I'll talk about that in a little more detail in just a moment. But again, just trying to make sure the message is going out to your citizens so they know how that money is getting spent. Field services, we've been mapping your drainage system and also performing condition assessment. That condition information is important and not only helping identify new projects but also in understanding how this system is working. What subcontractors performing that? The condition assessment. So that would be a partnership between Wolpert, Chown Associates, and Westin. And that's been going on years, right? I mean three, four years. You think there's an end in sight? Right. I think we've got about 40% of the area mapped to about 500 miles of pipe map so far. And the way we're doing that is we try to lay out watersheds or basins, areas in terms of critical infrastructure. So where do you have the oldest infrastructure and if it fails, what's the impact of that? And so we're methodically working through those watersheds. And we just doing that inside the city, right? That's correct. We don't like the water and soil a little bit. That's correct. Really? That is correct. So in addition to the field services. Sure. Under public outreach and public outreach and meetings, I've attended several meetings where some of that is already presently taking place. I think it's the best thing, especially for floodwater and the damage that is caused just in that effort. So yes, thumbs up on that. Thank you. Folks are really enjoying, I shouldn't say enjoying, it's very informative, a small group concept that is working extremely well. So yes, public outreach and meetings working extremely well. We appreciate the input feedback on that. That's good to know. The asset management piece, you're making a significant investment in infrastructure. And so what we want to do with this is to make sure that you're protecting that investment. You don't want to have to do this again in 10 years down the road. So setting up policies and operating procedures that will help maintain this infrastructure once it's in the ground. Looking a little more closely, this is a list of I think 12 or 13 of the ongoing projects during various stages of design and construction around the city. And right behind that, we're also helping your staff identify the next round of projects that might be needed to improve flooding conditions and water quality. We provide some expertise in terms of watershed analysis and modeling. This is the model set your design consultants use in order to analyze a watershed flooding issue and then to do the design. And we're just making sure that that data is consistent and accurate. And as needed, performing some of those modeling exercises for the city. I think the image up there is actually from Harlem Heights project that's been constructed now. Field services mentioned earlier about 500 miles of pipe that's been inventoried. We've been doing condition assessment, which actually has indicated that a large portion of your system is in really good shape. But there are some areas that need some attention. And what we've been doing is taking that conditioned data once it comes in from the field. We do an analysis on it. We prioritize those individual pipes or inlets based on what we call a criticality analysis or business risk. That has a high likelihood that it's going to fail and a high consequence if it does fail, then we want to go address that immediately. It's got a low likelihood, low consequence, less inspected again in five or 10 years, but don't worry about it today. That information is getting fed over to roads and drainage. Jerry over there has been doing a great job of taking that list of critical items and going out and addressing those. He still has to address his emergency repairs and that sort of thing, but at least he's got a good work plan to move down the critical items. And then finally, before I turn it back over to Dana on the public outreach, I just wanted to let you know your citizens are being contacted. Thank you. We've done about 17 of those meetings. We've sent out, I think, a little over 7,000 flyers. Not quite as many as the 8,000 that the poet had done, but we're catching up. And then we have a dashboard. It's a little washed out here on the screen, but this is a web-based dashboard where citizens can go in, look at their neighborhood, see the projects that are planned and ongoing there, and the status of those. And I think the nice part about this is they can also submit comments and questions through that dashboard. Thank you. I think that work can be done. Yes, sir, we sure have, recently. Thank you, Hal. How do you get to that URL? I sent it out about a month ago when we had the landscape ordinance, but I'm happy to send that again. The link, I absolutely will. I'll get that done no later than tomorrow morning. So in conclusion, our key accomplishments, we're getting a lot of projects, major projects kicked off at the same time, really excited about that, going through feasibility and design and continuing through construction. We do have a lot of our system already conditioned, assessed, and know where our data is, we have a higher confidence in our data. Something that we're very proud of is our partnership with Benedict College. We work with their senior design class, and it is an ongoing relationship that we have developed with them and their senior design, Dr. Führer. We have partnered with them on the project, actually the Benedict LID, Reverend McDowell that we met with the neighborhood last week. But it's nice because they're coming out and they're doing field trips. There's actually a picture up there looking at the installation of engineering projects, and now they're ABEDD accredited, so it's exciting. We also had the first stormwater secured green bond initiative back in 2018. That was across the US that was certified by the Climate Bond Initiative. So we're very proud of that. We have started, are prioritizing our maintenance. We have the dashboard, which I'll send that back out, and it allows constituents to not only follow and track the projects, but also provide input in how the project's going. The models that Hal mentioned actually really helps us a lot. As you can imagine, Shandan, Devil's Ditch, Mr. DeVall, Steve Brown. So just making sure that as we make these improvements, we're not creating adverse impacts downstream. The emergency repairs, and then we have several projects that have won awards for APWA, the MLK Park, as well as our Penn Branch project. So with that, next council meeting, we have a brand new contract that we will be putting before you to help us continue what we've been accomplishing so far. We'll be continuing our project implementation and our field data collection and system assessment, and as well as we're adding a little bit more support because of human resource issues in our streets, and that's gonna end up being about 33% of the contract just to help us with the emergency response as well as getting out there and doing some of the operation and maintenance. So with that, we wanna open it up to questions. Questions, Dana? Yes, sir. We started this process several years ago after the 2015 learning. We identified $93 million worth of projects. Yes, sir. Has that number increased? Are you identifying more projects as you do more study or did $93 million satisfy us? Well, it's interesting because prices have gone up since we first did our CIP, but we're trying to be strategic about looking at our models and determining the best way to spend our resources as well as leveraging that funding with some of the grants opportunities that are out there right now. So we are working right now. Actually, Andrea and I were working on that today in Francis on our next round of projects and just using Will Purge's assistance and looking at the models to see what makes the most sense. Being able to get a little more proactive in some of those maintenance issues and take care of so hopefully reduce the number of large pockets you have to do. Yes, sir. Dana, a couple of three questions. Just curious, how are other municipalities paying for this? We're paying for it with basically an assessment on the impervious area on somebody's lot. How are other municipalities paying for it? But they're stormwater issues. Well, I can tell you Richland County does not have a stormwater utility fee. That's my next question, but I mean, how are other cities... Do you have an idea? Wilford does bring a lot of experience to that. Well, why? Yeah, they're two basic ways. He's through an enterprise fund such as a utility or taxes, right? And so in South Carolina, I think right now there's 30 or so communities that are using some form of an enterprise fund, a stormwater utility, restrooms and taxes, across the Southeast. What's the difference between an enterprise fund and tax? So enterprise fund is based on use or your contribution to the issue. And so it's... You're considering ours an enterprise fund? Yeah, yes, sir, yes, sir. So it's a fee as opposed to a tax. And so I would say looking across the Southeast, we're seeing more and more communities going to some form of stormwater utility on an enterprise fund. All right, and so if you're in the city, you pay this enterprise fee, but if you're in Richland County, you don't have to pay it. That's correct. Why doesn't... We don't spend our money in Richland County outside of the city limits. I don't know, but I'm looking at just competitiveness of location. Yes, sir. So if you're in the county, there's no fee for that. Are they looking at one or...? They do have a stormwater fee within their tax bill, but it's not based on... Pie, is what you're saying? Pardon? Piece of that property tax pie? Is that stormwater allocation? Exactly, exactly. And so city residents pay that as well? If you're paying county tax. Missy Kaufman is shaking her head now. Not sure what the answer is to that. I'm just curious to whether we charge it as an additional fee or an additional tax, and whether it's included in the county's property tax base. I can certainly get with finance and get that answer. I'm just curious to see how I'd like to know that. And you mentioned the next phase, are we borrowing more bond work in the next phase or not? So the next phase of what the contract we're looking at engaging with, Wilpert, is to continue the project implementation, a lot of the field services and data collection and system inventory and... No financing though. We're gonna be looking at that actually. Okay, well I just wanna make sure when you talk about 33% of it being personnel type things, we're not borrowing money to pay for personnel. No, not right now, not with this contract. I hope not ever, but... Ha ha ha. Okay. Councilman, we are looking at reviewing our financials again and bringing in a company to take a look at our, at the rate structure, what the rates have generated, at how much cash we've got. We're gonna be working with Jeff in the finance department over the next few months to do that, to look at this next round of projects and how we might finance those. How much cash we've got to be able to move forward, kind of do the cash flow analysis to see if we need to go out for another bond issuance again. I understand and I'm not demeaning the importance of what we're doing here, but as we go further down the road of talking about our city's ability to compete with other entities, if we've got, this is a fairly significant tax, by the way. I'm not so sure that many of us really understand how much it can be on a shopping center or a car lot. I mean, I've heard tales of it being as much as $30,000 a year on a car lot. I mean, that's more than the property taxes on that car lot in, say, Newbury County or other counties. And again, I just think this is something we need to be very cognizant of and very diligent at keeping this from, because technically it is another property tax. I mean, even though we describe it as a fee. And I just, again, before we get what's the old saying, all good deeds. What is it something like good deeds goes unpunished? I'm afraid we're gonna get a punishment on this one. If we don't look at how we can address it, bring it under control at some point. Yes, sir. Mr. Brennan. Missy, do you have, you were gonna say something? Yes, sir. The Richland County charges on their 2021 millage rate. It was 3.4 mills. And it's not charged on the city property, which means it's a tax for the county. Mr. Hall was saying, which means most likely property is not gonna be included on like a church or non-profit. Whereas here it's a fee, so it's charged to anyone. Okay, and could we maybe at some point you'll send the email out and give us what an example of 3.1 mills is worth in the county versus what we charge here? Yes, sir. Yeah, and then I have one last question. Let me jump, yeah, I'm sorry. And this is come up in several of the discussions about parking lots over the last, I'm becoming intrigued by the idea of creating stormwater incentives that could lower and reduce this fee. And as part of this next phase, I would encourage you to look at, again, look at bringing the cost down, but also looking at how we can create, and I don't hate the word incentive, but how we can create a motivation for developers and existing property owners, especially how they might mitigate stormwater runoff on their property. Well, we do, Councilman, and so there are some incentives now. We're looking at doing a city-wide water quality improvement area. What incentives do we have now? So right now, if they reduce their impervious surface, obviously it reduces the fee. If they do, if they put in, yes, sir, if they do some public outreach, they can get a reduction in the fee. So the folks, Dain, you can speak some more specifics, you can reduce the fee up to 30% with public outreach, and what do you mean? So if we were dealing with Midland Shopping Center several months ago, and they've got a very large parking lot, and so they put some flyers about ways that, you know, trash the poop, different things like that to improve water quality, so when the public comes into their place of business, they can get some information on how they can, what's the public can do? That's all going up to 30% of your year? 30% every month, yes, sir. So you can get that if you do things like swells or the tension to improve water quality, you can get additional credits as well. Some of those things cost capital dollars on the front end. Are we advising developers of that when they come into our office for permitting? We worked with Owens Field Airport because we have an overlay for that Gills Creek area because we do have a TMDL, Gills Creek. So we have an overlay where you can install a BMP on an existing property, just like you said, and actually getting up to 45% reduction instead of 30, so we just add, and then it can go up to 60, is that correct, Andrew? Yeah, and we are- Send me those just right now. Yes, sir, and we actually, Clint and I have been looking at as long as well as our stormwater group after the landscape discussion started looking at creating like a city-wide incentive to try to spend that extra money on the front end but also get that recoup it on the reduction, yes. And do we charge the, you should mention a minute ago, we charge the fee on churches and hospitals- Every property. State property. State property. Just one. And we even pay it on our properties. That's right. It might be interesting for Mr. Taylor to get the before and after on Owens Field. And let me ask you one question. In District 3, and I think all districts, we have doughnut holes, County City. So you explained earlier, we keep up our stormwater system within the municipality boundaries. Does it include the doughnut holes in Rosewood and South Belt Line, for example, behind the VA? It's pretty much the general outer bound of our city limits. So the doughnut holes we're paying for, the stormwater, keep up maintenance. That will speak. Okay. Just one more question. Can we stop before Devils ditch? We're going to go in and out and partner with the County on that, but- But there's no, there's no mechanism for a County stormwater transfer for the number of County residential properties within the city. That's a great question. Help us a little bit. We can ask it. Say that again, I was not paying attention. Have Richland County pay us for the doughnut holes we're servicing? I think, you know, when you're looking at planning for the watershed, you want to handle the flow coming through and have facilities that are large enough. But if a particular pipe asset, once you fail within that doughnut hole, then it would be, then you correct me from how they'll be on Richland County to make that repair if it starts affecting our citizens in the economy. And I think that at the South Belt Line curve, is that a DOT or a County stormwater if it always comes up? That's a great question. Because it's Gills Creek and it is DOT and there are a lot of areas within the city that are owned and maintained by DOT. So we have been working in partnership with them to have funding allocated to some of the projects. And if they don't have funding that they want to bring to the table, then a lot of times we'll just say, okay, well, here's our information on this particular area if you'd like to take it further. They got rid of the engineering, I think Directive 28 where they partnered with entities that were interested in using their resources as well as ours. So. I mean, may I ask a question early on? There's a consultant that's coming in, it's gonna take a few months. So I heard you say get some things together. I wanna get some clarity on that. Yes, sir. So, Wolpert is our consultant that's helping us manage the projects and do the condition assessment, continue the mapping. So you'll entertain that contract and this coming Tuesday evening. And then beyond that we have our rate consultant, Black and Veatch will be coming in to take a look at the stormwater financials. And so they'll look at the existing rate structure and the health of the fund, how much cash we have on hand to fund the projects that are coming up. Is it time to go out for another bond issuance, those sorts of things. The other thing we hear you loud and clear, we're gonna ask them what others are doing in terms of structuring their rate. If there's a different way for us to structure that rate so that someone that has a large parking lot or there are other things that we can be doing so it's not so punitive on those businesses as well. There's a certain rate setting methodology but we're gonna ask, or there are other ideas, we'll certainly have Hal and we've had that conversation before how we'll have the Wolpert team at the table as well as we look at ways to, if we wanna do anything different. Best practice is what we're trying to look at. Thank you, sir. Any other questions? All right, Clint, Dana, thank you all. Thank you for your team. Thank you for coming to us with a real, thank you. Thank you very, very, very much. I think now we are in executive session and Mr. DeVall, would you read where we are? Mr. Mayor, pretend I'm making a motion. We're going to the executive session for discussion of employment of an employee pursuant to 30-4-781 Homeless Services. All right, you heard that. Madam Clerk, ma'am. Second. Thank you. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll, please? All right. Aye. Aye. Yes. Aye.