 Thank you, everyone, for being here. This is press conferences designed to be a full sharing of all information that the city can share in consultation with several of our partners who've been working closely together on the investigation of the deaths of the Allen Benedict Court, as well as just an update as to the role that the city will play moving forward. I'm going to be speaking briefly at the end of the conference. Councilman McDowell, who represents the area, will speak very clearly to several of the humanitarian efforts and the ways in which we've been meeting the needs of the displaced residents of Allen Benedict Court. I'll be followed by our city manager, who will be followed by both Chief Holbrook and Chief Jenkins. I do want to assure people. Can I do and encourage folks, everyone within the sound of my voice, that long after this crisis is over, and this is a crisis, this is a significant challenge that we have to face as a community, not as a housing authority, not as Columbia or Richland County, but as citizens stepping up to meet the needs of affordable housing and public housing all across this community. This cannot be an issue only in the wake of tragedy of losing two of our citizens. So I urge you to stay involved. I urge the press to stay involved in helping us as we craft solutions to meet the significant shortage of affordable housing all across this country, all across the state, and certainly all across the city and the Midlands, which is our primary focus. We will be moving forward with establishing a task force on housing and affordable housing in this community. This needs to be a primary focus over the next five years of the city, of our county, Lexington County, our public housing agencies, and several nonprofit and also for-profit developers. Everyone has a stake and I believe an opportunity here to help us reduce the several thousand units of affordable housing that we need here in the Midlands. This task force will be convening in the next month, and we urge you to help participate and share the information around it to help us attract and share information with the best and brightest who have ideas that come forward to help us meet those needs. Columbia City Council is going to be moving forward in its only statutory role as it relates to the Columbia Housing Authority. We appoint the Housing Authority Commissioners, there are two seats that will be coming up for appointment this year due to expired terms. We will be announcing those vacancies this week and we will be moving forward with appointing those specific positions. I want to make sure again that I underscore the significant challenge that we're facing here. Public housing units across the country need about $26 billion in repairs. This is a daunting challenge that agencies all across this country. Even in the weight of not receiving the Choice Communities Grant that the Housing Authority applied for and we supported them in that application, it doesn't mean that that need does not still need to be met. It needs to be met. I believe firmly that this community can do so and will rise to the challenge collectively to make that happen. Madam City Manager, your rocker roll, thank you. Good afternoon, I wanted to also recognize our Mayor Pro Tem Tamika Isaac Devine who's also joined us here today. Good afternoon, again, our purpose, as Mayor Benjamin has stated, is to reiterate and reassure the public and especially the former residents of Allen Benedict Court and their families of the investigations that have been ongoing since January 17th, 2019. Chief Holbrook will provide a chronology of events to date and detail the scope of both investigations which are independent in nature. As the Mayor stated, this Columbia Housing Authority is not governed by the City of Columbia. Further, Chief Holbrook will describe the collaboration with multiple agencies to include the Solicitor's Office, the State Law Enforcement Division, the HUD Office of the Inspector General as well. Following Chief Jenkins will detail next steps regarding the Fire Department's ongoing role and again, Mayor Benjamin and Councilman McDowell will come up, particularly Councilman McDowell will discuss the City's efforts on the humanitarian assistance for the former residents. Chief Holbrook. Thank you. My portion of this press conference is to explain the Columbia Police Departments and the Columbia Fire Department's initial response to Allen Benedict Court. Our investigative process to date and our investigative path moving forward. What I will not be doing is providing investigative findings or details that we consider sensitive to our ongoing investigation. We will discuss many things that we've already released through information and as stated, explain the investigative process moving forward. Before I do that, I wanna attempt to clarify several areas that are frequently discussed and have been reported on. Number one, there's been an ongoing investigation by the Police Department and the Fire Department since Mr. Roper and Mr. Witherspoon were found deceased on Thursday, January 17th. This investigation is in fact independent. The Columbia Police Department and the Columbia Fire Department are not part of or governed by the Columbia Housing Authority. However, Allen Benedict Court, as you know, is within the city of Columbia and part of our original jurisdiction. The second point, the Columbia Fire Department and Columbia Police Department Code Enforcement Division have completed their inspections at Allen Benedict Properties. Those findings and observations have been discussed with the Housing Authority and summarized in a letter that was sent to the Housing Authority by Chief Jenkins on January 18th. That letter discussed the inspection results to include levels of gas present throughout the property as well as the International Property Maintenance Code violations that were found to include missing or out-of-date fire extinguishers, missing or out-of-date smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, rodent and bug infestation and deteriorating conditions of the walls and ceilings, just to name a few. Third, the investigation by law enforcement is ongoing. I've spoken with officials with HUD's Office of Inspector General. Last Thursday, myself and staff met with the Fifth Circuit Solicitor to discuss investigative findings today. We were joined in a meeting by agents with the State Law Enforcement Division. As a result of that meeting, the solicitor has requested law enforcement to seek additional information regarding the Housing Authority's administration processes and procedures with respect to Allen Benedict Court. We will also be determining individual roles and responsibilities of officials and staff at the Columbia Housing Authority and Allen Benedict Court property to further assist the solicitor in review of this matter. Number five, SLED and HUD's Office of Inspector General will assist the Columbia Police Department with this next stage of the investigation. Today, CPD, SLED and the Office of Inspector General have met about moving forward collaboratively, as I would call post-haste. The Columbia Housing Authority has been cooperative with law enforcement throughout our investigation and I fully expect that cooperation to continue. Next, allow me to walk you through our initial response and investigative process today. There was some confusion initially with some information regarding this response and I think this may clear up a little bit of confusion. On Wednesday the 16th, which is the day before the two people were found deceased, there were, and I refer to that as event number one, there were two medical calls for service at Building J, apartment number two. The first call was at 431 AM. The tenant in apartment two called 911 reported that his guest was in some type of medical distress. This person was transported to the hospital, treated and later released. A few hours later at 836 AM, the same tenant in apartment two called 911 again to report that he was in some type of medical distress. He also was transported to the hospital, treated and later released. No gas smells were reported or detected during his initial medical calls on the 16th. The next event referred to as event number two occurred on Thursday, January 17th, 2019. At approximately 930 AM, Benedict College Police Department contacted maintenance staff at Allen, Benedict Court and asked them to assist them with checking on a coworker who had not shown up for work, who resides in Building J, apartment one. They entered the apartment and found Mr. Derek Roper deceased. As EMS and fire were arriving, the tenant who lives next door in apartment two, who had suffered a medical emergency the day before, walked up to authorities and stated that he had not seen his neighbor who resided in apartment three for some time. Officials entered apartment three to conduct a welfare check and found Mr. Witherspoon deceased. At that time, fire officials began taking several air quality readings from the apartments in question in Building J and found various levels of gas present. Chief Jenkins may elaborate in a few minutes about those different levels of gas. The fire department took measures to restore the air quality to a safe level. Once that was complete, the police department, along with the coroner's office, took control of the crime scene. This was when we began our death investigation. Two people found deceased, unaccompanied in separate apartments within the same building. As I stated, this investigation remains open and ongoing. We also know that both victims died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. The next event identified as event three occurred the night of January 17th at approximately 940 p.m. Fire officials received a report of gas odors at 1810 Allen Benedict Court Building R. High levels of gas were detected in Building R, forcing and an evacuation. Police department officers, Columbia police code enforcement officials also responded and throughout the night worked with fire officials to check buildings and other units and it ultimately resulted in over 60 people being evacuated overnight. The last event referred to as event number four occurred first thing that next morning, January 18th, 2019, approximately 7.35 a.m. At that time, out of an abundance of caution, the decision was made to evacuate and inspect the entire property. Again, a unit by unit inspection was conducted by fire department personnel, police department personnel and code enforcement staff. The inspections found various levels of gas throughout the properties, along with the international property maintenance code violations, prompting fire officials to declare the property unsuitable to occupy under current conditions. Again, as previously stated, the violations were summarized in a letter from Chief Jenkins to the Housing Authority. As we move forward to assist law enforcement with information gathering, we have established a tip line. This tip line is for Allen Benedict, the residents who have resided at the property over the last 12 months. By establishing this line, we hope to create a safe space for people to provide information or concerns to law enforcement. This number is 803-567-6301. When people call the number, they will hear a message, a brief message from me with instructions. The phone line will not be manned, but investigators will check messages throughout each day and contact callers to arrange a confidential time and place to meet most comfortable to that tenant. Although the Columbia Fire Department has completed inspections, as I stated at the Allen Benedict Court, Chief Jenkins will explain some next steps involving other Housing Authority properties as well as any information he deems pertinent to the ongoing investigation. Chief. Okay, not to rehash everything that Chief said. We were part of that response in checking those bills out and we found high levels of gas and we found levels of COS wet and other gases. So what are we doing going forward? There's been a question about are we going to be inspecting Housing Authority's other properties? Keep in mind that we don't normally inspect Housing Authority properties, but however due to what has happened, we made the decision that we are going to inspect them. So we have actually collected from them addresses of properties that they have not only in the city, but in the counties as well. And that's kind of the step one. And we have collected, like I said, the properties, like I said, in the city and the county. We're going to prioritize these as we get the information. Basically what we want to do is look at all those that got any type of gas burning products, heaters, dishwasher, whatever is stoves, anything that is using gas products. We don't want to make sure we prioritize those and inspect those first. As up to date, we have already begun that process. We've inspected Austin and here, Camond Village, Arlington Mountain, and Latterville Mountain. And I guess the question would be, well, did we find anything in those properties? Well, we did find some things in this property. It wasn't anything that rose to the level of us saying that we need to evacuate those properties at this time. Repairing them what we found. And we've also asked them to go ahead and make it right, fix whatever we have found. The remaining properties, those that has no gas laden products used, we're going to inspect those as well, but those are a little lower on our priority list. The other thing that we're going to make sure is that when they do their own inspections, we're going to require a copy of that report so we can compare what they found and also whether they have fixed them or made them right. So that's kind of what we're doing. We're going to continue to assist with the police department and whatever they need from us. And we're going to continue to work with the housing authorities as well to make sure that folks got a safe and proper place to live. We're also going to be doing some educational things with the houses as well, talking about CO alarm, talking about smoke alarms. And also very important, we want to make sure that they are placing these alarms in the right location and particularly the CO. They should not be placed at a high level because I always remember CO falls down and so we want to make sure they place them close to the floor. So if there is an issue within their apartment building or whatever, that does a lot for picking up. So that's kind of what we're doing going forward, just to make sure that we don't stay on top of these things and make sure that the residents, wherever they was at, I was at in a safe manner. Two weeks ago, this city was dramatically hit and of course district two became the epicenter of this event. Persons were relocated and right in the thick of things we knew immediately that this would not be a political venture into an humanitarian concept, but something that would touch, energize, and so that persons who were displaced would at least get the things that they needed. So two weeks ago, a team was formed three days afterwards. A team was formed, love boxes were beginning to pack themselves. Persons knew then that we needed to do something in a very tangible way so that our brothers and sisters would feel the sense of I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper. So that event launched, things began to happen, churches began to mobilize within the epicenter. Churches outside of district two began to mobilize and to bring in things and items that were needed. On Saturday, this past Saturday, because of the help and support of the city of Columbia, district two, and those persons who had a genuine interest in making sure that our brothers and sisters, although being displaced, would feel and sense that we were here with them. Three, four panel trucks were filled. Four panel trucks with everything needed. These trucks, even as I speak today, are circulating in the various hotels, motels, making sure that our families are cared for. Churches in our community, barber shops, Trinity Baptist Church, Second Cavalry, Second Nazareth Baptist Church, Jones Memorial, Union Baptist Church, they jumped on this quickly because we knew that if 411 persons were going to be displaced, we would want somebody to help us. If I found myself in a situation of crisis, I'd want somebody to lift up, hand out and give substance for their survival. This is not the last time. As you know, our city is concerned about health and safety. That has been the lean these past two weeks. We'll continue to do that. We'll continue to spread the kind of love and support and being compassionate, a compassionate city, where all of us are able to share our gifts with others. What is it that we continue to need? We need washing powder, laundry detergent, we need soap, dry food goods, we need boxes, we need bins to hold things. We don't need any more clothes, but we do need those items for life living. Please, continue to keep these residents in your prayers. It's not time to be political because we just buried Brother Roper and Brother Williams. Let's understand our function and understand what we've got to do. Thank you so much. I'll wrap this up. We have, of course, Councilman Davis and Councilwoman Devine here with us, as well as an agent from SLAD who will not be speaking, but is actively participating in the ongoing investigation. I want to close by restating, again, our commitment to affordable housing and asking the public for their continued participation just over the last few years. We've committed more than $3.1 million in home funds to newly construct or rehabilitate single-family homes across this city. We work closely with those in the private sector to see new affordable housing spring up on North Main Street, the Veranda North Main on West Avenue, as well as just around the corner from Allen, Benedict Court, the point at Elmwood, 60 units going up there. We need a lot more. We need a lot more affordable and workforce housing across this city, and we're committing ourselves over the next five years to continue to support the East Columbia Transformation Plan in new and innovative ways, and look forward to your support. I'm gonna take some questions from the press, a few questions from the press, and hopefully, questions that have not yet been answered. So, any questions? Judy Katzen with WIS. Can you tell us, or maybe Chief Hope will tell us what controlled SLEDS involvement, why you made the decision to get them involved in the investigation? We think after consulting with the solicitor, and as we move to this next phase of the investigation, that there's, in our quest to find some additional answers, that could be some volumous interviews that will be necessary. We know with, we had a very good meeting with the agents with the Office of Inspector General. We think that that's gonna include a lot of document review. So, we just think that a collaborative approach is a force multiplier force, and it's consistent with how we have really done business ever since I've been here. We very much approach things collaboratively, and we rely on the expertise of our law enforcement partners to increase our capacity to do very thorough investigations. Chief, you have your tip line there that you put up. Is speaking with the residents, or getting with residents been difficult, and it wouldn't assess tenancy? No, I wouldn't say it's been difficult. It's obviously, the last few weeks has been extremely stressful for tenants that have been displaced. We respect that and certainly understand that. We wanna make sure that a tenant resident that has concerns or information is both comfortable and confident that when they come forward with information, it's gonna be handled confidentially and in a manner that allows us to find the truth. Mayor or Councilman, can you just give us the latest on residents who live at Alameda Deportments? How many have moved? How many are still living in hotels? What's the latest on the actual residents? I have to defer to the Housing Authority on specifics. I will say that we've been assured that some people have keys, that most if not all of them already have vouchers. But obviously the challenge that I highlighted earlier is that there's a paucity of affordable housing across the city, particularly one-bedroom units. A major challenge there. So even with the voucher, making sure people are able to find some place to live. I've been deferred to the Housing Authority. That's their bailiwick. But they're keeping us apprised. We wanted to assure people here today, of course, of the ongoing investigation that being led by the Police Department and the Fire Department of the Inclusion of Sled and the Fifth Circuit Solicitor, actively involved in this process. And just making sure, just the interest of transparency and accountability that everything we have that can be shared that you and the folks who rely on you for information have the information as well. And obviously making it clear the work that Councilor McDowell has been leading, which has been more of a community effort, I think is the way we want people to approach this. This is a major concern. People's lives have been disrupted, have been seriously disrupted. And we need to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to try and help people transition at this major point in their lives. We're gonna continue doing that. Lauren? Since the CHA did not get the Choice Neighborhood Grant that they went out for the $30 million, what kind of fund to tear down Alamedon in court? Sure. Every major endeavor that the city has, that the Housing Authority has pursued over the last several years, long before there were Choice Neighborhood Grants back when there was Hope 6 and any other effort, the city has participated financially as a partner to help facilitate that. That will not stop today. We'll step up our efforts. We know that they're aggressively looking at some more innovative ways to try and help completely rehabilitate that property as well as Gonzalez Gardens. And we're gonna support them in that effort, both in word and indeed financially. I expect we'll be hearing a lot more from the Housing Authority in days to come. With or without the Choice Neighborhoods Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, we're gonna move forward in developing and redeveloping Alamedon in court, give the people who lived there the opportunity to come back into quality and safe housing and also work on an aggressive plan to again provide more housing all across the region. We're gonna move forward with or without the Choice Grant. The city of the law. Sure, you will, but Madam City Manager, but you will receive all information within the guidelines of the law, definitely and certainly maybe sooner than that, again. So we made an effort to prioritize all the four year requests that have come to us in relation to Allen Benedict Court or the Columbia Housing Authority. One of the issues that comes up is some of these records have to be looked at by the Housing Authority. Really, they have the records for some of the things that you all have requested. But what we've tried to do and consult with them is let them know what we have, what we've received and pass it on in an expedited manner. I think you may be referring to calls for service, things of that nature. We have to go through the Housing Authority as well with those. Anything that has come through our 911 communications, we have to listen to that. We have to make sure if there's anything that needs to be redacted due to personal information. We're doing that, as Mayor said, under the confines of what is legal and proper, but you can rest assured that we wanted to also have this press conference today to make sure that all of the accurate information that we have is timely and we're giving it to you and being transparent simultaneously. We're working feverishly to answer and get all of the four year requests answered and they are voluminous. But we're working very hard and very fast. Chief, two more questions about the investigation. A public information officer with SLED was quoted in an interview saying the agency SLED would move forward with an investigation only if it determines that there is a possible criminal element at play. So does that mean SLED's involvement means that that possibility doesn't exist? Well, the solicitor, that's his purview to ultimately make that decision. With any investigation, especially with something that starts as an unaccompanied death, we view that as suspicious. We investigate it, look for evidence that would support that. And the standard of what they become involved in is as far as criminal or not is not different really than the same thing with the police department. We investigate it to determine if a crime occurred and present that to the solicitor. Oftentimes what we take to the solicitor's office, it may not necessarily rise to the level of a crime as far as being a chargeable crime. The solicitor may redirect us to find more information that would be in better support of that criminal violation. But again, that's part of the process that's underway at this time. And at this point in the investigation, have you interviewed any of the members of the Columbia Housing Authority Board or staff members who oversee the management at Alabama State Court to assess what they did or did not know? That is, that will be part of this next phase. We've interviewed, as you can imagine, some residents and maintenance workers associated with the repair or the work done at the building J, where the two deaths occurred. And the Inspector General's office is gonna help us understand the bureaucracy of the Housing Authority, I guess the nomenclature of the organization itself, the roles and responsibilities, and what certain records mean. So this is, there's obviously some work to do and they're gonna help us understand some of the methodology here when it comes to HUDs oversight and then ultimately the local housing authority itself. You're probably housing authority invited to the press conference today? Or they, I mean, you guys have done a press conference with them before? I did not invite them, if that's true. Why not? Well, this is a press conference held by the Chief Investigative Agency who has handled this matter and these matters since their inception. And certainly we are collaborative and working hard, but this is under the auspices of the Columbia Police Department's investigations. This is a Columbia Police Department press conference and briefing. And Lauren, one second now. And do you remember the press? Okay. We don't have a question about the investigation. Yeah, sure. Lauren, I wouldn't read too much into their absence. This is a briefing from the police department, from the fire department about issues that the city has been taking the lead in. This is only the second press conference that's been had. So I don't want to say it suggests that they're not included here being anything. This is not sharing information. The very first press conference was at Hock, as you remember, on site. And as things go forward, we'll continue to share information. This is purely, because much information that we had access to into the public domain and they'll continue to be case. Judy? The other question I had about the investigation and perhaps Chief Jenkins or Chief Olford could speak. So I know that the Columbia Fire Department is not responsible for investigating the federal properties in that, now you made the decision to go in after this tragedy. But the fire department has responded on a number of occasions. Has Columbia Housing Authority ever been told that they need to install carbon monoxide detectors at Allen Benedict Court? And do we know when and if they were told that or informed of that? You know, we go by the International Fire Coast and the International Proper Maintenance Code. So when those are upgraded, it is not our responsibility to let them know especially since they self-inspect themselves. Anytime we respond to anything at the Housing Authority, whether it be a gas leak or anything major, we always notify them to let them know that we've been there and make sure they sit at the proper people to take care of what needs to be done. The only time we really get involved in inspecting any property that we had on purview on them, if we get a complaint. And I think we had a complaint several years ago, we inspected one building or one area. There was no reason to go back in to do anything else. So I just want to make sure I understand, Chief, that the fire department responds to a complaint about the smell of gas or a gas leak in the area. The fire department will respond to address questions and concerns about the air quality, but they would not take a look at whether that unit had a problem with an outside detective. Well, under when we respond to, and keep in mind we have units responding and they have no reason, in the reason to really inspect the building or suppressing unit, they go there and take care of the issue. Then we pass it on to the Housing Authority. We let them know that, hey, we responding here because the tenants say they smelled gas or there was a malfunction in the stove. We go there, we'll cut the gas off and then we'll turn it over to the Housing Authority. In turning it over to the Housing Authority, would you also tell them that they need to have carbon monoxide detectors? Well, I'll respond as units wouldn't tell them, wouldn't tell them that. But if we get our code enforcement folks involved, they go out there and inspect it. They're certain we'll pass that information on to them. Chief Jenkins, are you even going to tell us the levels that were in the apartment? What was the highest level? I don't have that chart with me, but we reached the sum as high as 600 parts per million or as some as low as maybe 20 parts per million. You didn't receive anything over 150 parts per million can start to give us some problems. We realized there could be some readings, some probably some low-level readings, if things are not perfect. You start getting into your high levels then that's when you start having problems. Yeah, Sara? Oh, Chris, you mentioned you found some things not high enough level to evacuate people from, but what kinds of issues? What we're looking for is those fire and life safety issues problem that would cause new problems. So we have not found anything, I mean I think we might have found something like a sprinkler system need to be in one of the buildings that kind of need to be looked at. But we hadn't found like gas or anything of that nature. And normally when we go into any business, if we go in and we inspect it, what we do we get them a performance. They say we want this rectified in 15 to 30 days, depending on the level of the severity of the problem, and we get an opportunity to fix it. So we're doing the same thing, but then we're giving them the opportunity to fix it. Certainly we find any deficiency like we do with any other building. We go back in for a performance inspection, and then we'll make sure that it gets done. We're taking note of everything that I mentioned in that letter. We're looking at everything, and we'll certainly record those things that we find some deficiency. Those falls up under the property maintenance. They may not be sort of under the fire and life, but they do certainly fall under the property maintenance. What's the timeframe for what time you give the housing authority to go and make those changes before you go back for another inspection? Normally it's about 15 to 30 days. It just all depends on what we find. Some things can be fixed in the mouth, and some things can be fixed on the spot. If they can fix on the spot, we require them to fix on the spot. Some things that may take some repairs, especially when you're talking about having an inspection done on a sprinkler system, they got to actually have a company come in and inspect it and make sure that it's operable. You mentioned some numbers there. Can you talk about how long someone would have to live with that level of gas for it to become fatal, like it did when we used to have them? Well, I can't give you the timeline on when somebody, all I can tell you if it starts to rise, and seal kind of builds up in your body. And once you get to a certain level, certain you either gonna feel nauseous, you gonna pass out, you're gonna feel sick, and it just all depends on how much and how long you've been exposed to it. Chief, are you gonna tell us what's the actual source of the leaks? Well, right now I don't wanna say what the source is, other than any time we take readings, if it's coming from the stove, we'll say in or around the stove. Now, once we cut that stove off, cut the gas off, then normally it'll stop. Or we may have to go out to the gas meter and cut the meter off. So as far as exactly where it's coming from, we can say it's coming from around the stove. But we like, I like to say in or around because I don't wanna paint myself in the corner. Chief Obrook, with the HUD now involved, does they actually inspect the property? And if they did, what kind of regulatory and investigative powers would HUD have in this situation? Well, they arrive today. They will be with us the rest of the week and working in tandem with our investigators. Their authority is as far-reaching and we have not experienced an investigation with that particular investigative body. So that's to be determined. I was very pleased with our meeting this afternoon and I think they will be an invaluable resource as we continue to gather facts moving forward. If I might add, and I guess, tomorrow this question too, I wanna be clear. While we are always going to be collaborative as far as what is in the best interest of housing authority residents going for community aspects of affordable housing efforts, humanitarian efforts, everyone needs to understand that this is an ongoing investigation, two ongoing investigations and the very fact that our police department is involved with the federal housing urban development department of our country to ensure that going forward, we are doing things effectively and efficiently to make sure the scope of this investigation is very thorough. Please don't mistake my answer earlier is that's not being collaborative. Quite frankly, Lauren, I did extend the call to Mayor Cogel who's working with the housing authority as a courtesy. It was not an invitation. It was certainly a courtesy for them to know that we are having this press conference today and we're always gonna be courteous and collaborative. We're also gonna do our jobs and I think that's what they would expect us to do. Thank you. One final statement that we're gonna wrap up. And you all forgive me for reading from this but it's so important as we continue to read certain reports and view certain reports just to make some things clear. This independent investigation by the police department and the fire department that's led in consultation with the Fifth Circuit solicitor and the Office of the Inspector General is ongoing. We'll continue to go on. Our efforts as policymakers and community leaders to continue to meet the needs of the citizens displaced by an Alabama court will continue. A five year plan to address affordable housing needs in this region will continue. We will continue to focus on making sure that if there's accountability to be had, people will be held accountable. We will continue in these efforts to make sure that every bit of information that we have that can be shared, that we're transparent in providing the information each and every one of you. But it's important just to make clear the distinction between the city of Columbia and the Columbia housing. I'm the mayor of the city so it's particularly important to me. So I'm just gonna cover a few bullet points just as you continue to report on this over time. Hopefully this feeds into the narrative. State law under the Housing and Redevelopment Title, Title 31 in Chapter 3 requires a city to establish a resolution, a state of need for the authority, a housing authority, and requires city council to appoint the municipal housing authority commissioners, no less than five, no more than seven. That has been the case here since 1950. Once the commissioners are appointed, the city has no oversight of the housing authority. It's board or it's executive directors. The commissioner appointment is the only nexus that the city has to the authority. Funding for the authority is almost exclusively from the U.S. Department of HUD and Urban Development. No city funds are involved in the authority's operation. The city only provides funds for collaborative projects through intergovernmental agreements and contracts. The Columbia Housing Authority maintains its own affairs. Its own employees has its own legal counsel. The city of Columbia and the Columbia Housing Authority are two separate and distinct legal entities. The city collaborates with the Columbia Housing Authority for the benefit of the citizens and for the benefit of the citizens in Richland County. As evidence in our support of the application for the Choice Neighborhoods grant, we will continue to support their efforts. We will work closely with them on meeting the needs of all the people of this city and of this region. But it's important as you communicate with people who rely heavily on your advice, the distinction between the two entities will make it clear that the commitment to transparency and accountability, we take it very seriously, we're gonna make sure that we continue to adjudicate along our responsibilities, those formal and informal. Thank y'all for being here.