 here. Here. Present. Yes. Present. Here. Um, Reverend McDowell, you mind giving us a word of prayer, please? O Lord, in the midst of all that we are charged to do, in the midst of all of the things that are happening in our world today, our brothers and sisters and Ukraine, children who are suffering, suffering in such a way that little kids are dying because not having water to drink and not being fully hydrated. Lord, we simply ask that you might be with those who are directing and leading this charge because it could easily become not only Ukraine, but it could easily become the United States with all of the vicitudes there. We ask your guiding presence as we move through this season of Lent. We can easily define ourselves about giving up something for Lent. But how about defining ourselves in peace, love and collaboration and reconciliation? Be with the city of ours as we discuss and move forward. This onward move to be a city sitting on top of a hill, such as individually and collectively. Allow us to sense your presence, not only in this place, but in this city of ours and every community that perhaps is hurting. We ask it. Claim it. Powerful name of him who is to come. Any discussion? Any changes? Not seeing in or hearing in, Madam Clerk? We're going to start the discussion. I know Ashley is going to start the first one is the Standing Committees of Council. And I think at this point, I would like us to make a decision on how we're going to move those committees forward. I know there's been some confusion about referrals versus calling a committee and so forth. And I think we should establish protocol moving forward on how we want to utilize those. My vision would be is that we would use these councils really as true working committees so that we can get through a lot of issues and be able to really move advance the ball forward. It would be helpful if we could decide on a protocol on how we call forward on the meeting and not just being. I think what the sentiment seems to be from council is that that we would have the ability to call the committee committee meeting working through. Obviously, you need to coordinate that with the clerk so that we have everything that is noticed to the public, but also that we have recordings and staff available for those meetings. So is that the wish of council as that that's how we're going to move forward? I think that the committee meeting should be called by the committee chair. Only got three people, so the other two can ask the chair. If you got two out of three agreeing to it, then that that committee can call. Yeah, chairman needs to be called by the chair. So if it's so we're looking at them to it. So if we do a referral, yes, whatever that committee or the chair can call right, discuss an item, discuss an item or be briefed. Correct. Hearing any concern with that or questions? Yeah, we good. So that good. If you madam clerk motion. So I was asked, do we need to make that an emotion? TK or is that essentially, we agree. Yeah, we can just put it on the agenda for the next council. If we need to have a thank you, ma'am. This woods as you've already addressed the standing committee, the assignment of the staff. Yeah, I think your very first section shows your makeup of those committees that you've now determined will be called at the pleasure of the chair. I think my understanding is you're going to have a referral session on the agenda in case another council member wants to refer something into the um, but obviously they're listed for you. Special committee and I have a couple of notes to share with you on those. Just going to go over a quick overview. So as we've already said, the city of Columbia has several standing committees, special committees, task force and commissions of city council, as well as external boards and commissions. So the committee's task force and boards are designed to allow council to gather information, explore options and make informed decisions that will affect citizens. They also serve as an opportunity for citizens to volunteer and get involved with city government. And the boards and commissions mostly operate in an advisory sense or capacity to counsel. They help advocate for advocate and advise city council as well. So the purpose of this update is basically to provide like the current status of boards and commissions and city council task forces to discuss the vacancies and then also current appointment process and any potential enhancements for the city of Columbia boards and commissions appointment process. Just a few stats for you on the current layout of the boards that you'll find in your binder. We have six city council standing committees, nine special committees, task force and commissions, five land use boards and then 31 external boards and commissions, all of which are sectioned in your binders and actually labeled by those categories. Of course, first is the lineup of the standing committees from administrative policy all the way through technology. And those are in the first section of your binder with tabs one through nine. It should be one through six. And then also just a little bit about the state code that kind of govern or the city code that governs the boards and commissions. That's in your presentation as well. You can read over that. And then under special committees, task force and commissions like Miss Wilson mentioned, there are staff liaisons noted. And we can also discuss citizen appointments for you, each of them with a memo and any information if we had any information pertaining to those. Again, I would bring your attention to the staff liaisons that I've assigned for these, as well as I think the highlights may reflect just some housekeeping that you haven't taken care of yet, like a chairperson mayor if you're going to have one for Fort Jackson Joint Committee, Columbia Fort Jackson Joint Committee on cooperation. I hope you all are seeing this memo and following along with me. And then the second page has that there should be a chair, I think to be appointed for short short term rental. I'm sorry, it's actually in your binders and it says new and updated and it has highlighted portions. It's right at the beginning of your special committee and task force section. And so with the task force to prevent an homelessness, I think the makeup of that committee has already been outlined when you all established the task force. And of course, chair, your woman buses will be leading that but the chief of police is to be involved the president of the Five Points Association Elmwood Neighborhood Association and the executive director of CCP. We just know we were just noting for you being that you're talking about appointments today that this was one where two additional citizens are referenced that you will appoint. The same for the tax modernization committee, you all indicated that you would be appointing for citizens are appointing them, it says by the mayor. So again, we were just simply bringing these to your attention. I'm not sure that you're wanting to deal with them today or on the next council meeting. Are these are these listed somewhere else in here or just in the front? They are also behind your tabs for each respect because if you could, a problem would be a good help to go ahead and add the names of the people we know that are on there. And frankly, it might even help to get from their association. Their term expires. So, for example, Steve Cook's the president of Five Points Association for a term. And so when Steve's term would end, the new Five Points Association person would come home, correct? That one's only six months. So the likelihood of him Okay, investigation. That's fine. Yeah, we're gonna get to those external ones and it'll be listed there for you, Mr. Taylor, their appointments and terms and all of that. These were just you know, the ones that you all established. And so again, whenever you're ready to deal with these particular ones. Mayor, you all just let us know. Yes, sir. And I'm looking at the where's the administrative committee? Yes, sir. It's under your standing committees. Look, it's so voluminous. I gotta navigate my way through this. And then these tabs. Alright, I got it now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Those were just the relevant notes. Those are kind of quick, the standing and the specials. So we can definitely deal with those later. If you don't choose to deal with those right now. And they all have deadlines attached to them. Yes, sir. I'm hoping that we could kind of round this off and maybe even get it done to be in time to be on the agenda for next Tuesday. Actually, the only one that's by the mayor is the tax committee from what I'm reading in here. And homeless. And homeless. I didn't think that I thought that was a Mr. Tillard, I heard you say that on the 22nd, there are some full coming in. Let us know. You're putting together your agenda for the 15th, obviously right now. So let me know if you want us to list those appointments. I'd hope that I can try to get that nailed down. I need to talk to Dr. Bussell and some other folks on the homeless. But I mean, I think hopefully before, you know, you get a print on Thursday and they can be regular to send out for Miss Erica by Friday. We work on this paper instead of the thick book. It has your current it has the current vacancies and vacancies forecasted through June about to get there. We are now at your land and external boards and conditions. So actually do you want to talk quickly about what information we have here? So for the land use boards and you'll find that segment in your binder. For each we have the purpose, the composition bylaws or ordinance or the governing documents and their current membership list, which lists their current citizen appointments. And then we also have vacancies and the forecast of vacancies for second quarter. So that's April through June. So that separate list that you're referencing Councilor McDevall is the forecast of vacancies to do was provide you the information for every single voluntary board land use and or otherwise with the composition, the bylaws, the current makeup as we know it, the current members as we know it for the land use, you know, of course, those are the board and zoning appeals form based code. You'll see a memo for that one from Christa where they really aren't meeting. I mean, they haven't met in some time. The building board of adjustment and appeals as well. It's very similar. Then you have DDRC and planning commission for the current forecast. If to your point, Mr. Devall, if if you would like before we turn to all the other external boards and commissions, Ashley can bring your attention from this sheet. If there are any that are related to any of the land use boards as you go through your book, if you would like to are there any actually in forecasted and Christa is here as well. Yeah, she is. There's there's definitely planning listed as well as building board of adjustment and appeals as well as design development review commission and board of zoning appeals form based codes, all of which if you you know want deep down information regarding code, etc. Christa would be able to explain it. The planning commission actually has two vacancies because Dr. Mandela has served multiple terms and not shown on that sheet correctly. She's not eligible for. Yes, sir. It needs to be corrected. Yes, sir. I remember that you all decided that you didn't want to point. So yes, sir, we'll update that to reflect her position as well. I was trying to go through and I think these are important that we should go through. And obviously, we got the board of zoning appeals, which is the first one, which right now don't have any it looks like nobody until May is is up. So we have a full board and they are all attending correct. And then, you know, the board of zoning appeals form based, which is the next one. Yeah, absolutely. Yes, sir. But all the form which would come through you. Yes, sir. So it comes through myself. And but the terms and how long we advertise it like say, for instance, you all decide you want to do it beyond two weeks or advertised beyond two weeks, that's determined by you and I do have my point is you'll be our central contact. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. As Christa to be here in case you had some information, you know, she could share about, you know, certain individuals participate. Oh, yes. No, sir. Yes, sir. May, are you I think you covered Boza and then again, I would draw your attention to the to the memo that I did ask Christa to provide about the form based codes because again, that one, it just hasn't haven't been any request, I think that necessitated them needing a whole line. I just had a question from from a legal standpoint. Is this is this necessary to have a separate committee for this or is that something that Boza could do in its its current form? Legally, it's not required except for it was in the development agreement. So the development agreement would need to be amended. It was requested as part of that negotiation for bull street. And opinions may differ on that, but I certainly think that it could go to the Board of Zoning Appeals, the General Board of Zoning Appeals. Most of what is necessary. This form based is only for bull street? Correct. It's only for anything that would be with a form based code and the bull street PUD is the only form based code we have. So it was established strictly for that development. It has two current vacancies. Correct. Yeah. And I believe that the developer would also need so that's governed by state statute. TK would need to weigh on on that, but that would require a renegotiation of that part of the development agreement, which does come up. I mean, it's required every five years that that be reviewed. So in two years, right, it's more like three. It's eight now, right? We're in year eight as of July one. I believe so. So it would, we'd have to wait until that time. So the time to change that is when the redevelopment. So what we need to do is make sure that we've got people on those boards. So it looks like to me, there's there's two openings and you may need to reappoint. I mean, Charles Brooks is on here, but it's term ended. Well, all these that two of them ended in 208. I mean in 18 and haven't been reappointed and we have two openings. So question is, do you reappoint those folks or do you have four openings? Essentially, because they've been serving since them, which really means they've served a whole another term because we're in 2022. They're four year terms, right? Or three year, three year, excuse me. This is correct. Yes. Generally speaking, that's why they've never met. So again, to my question earlier, is it necessary to have it? Well, it's the PUD. Yeah, the PUD. Right. And so you do, by law, have to have an appeals board, a BOSA. We just established a separate one for that code because it was a different type of code. They do, you know, but for the pandemic, they met once a year just to look at each other. But, you know, it would be good in case something were to happen to have current members. No, sir. I mean, this really still only applies to Bull Street. Christa, before you sit down, can I ask you a question? The land use boards, you know the history of them. Have we always relied on a application for candidates or have we ever had a verbal interview process through some through some committee, standing committee? No, to my knowledge, you all have never done an interview process. I know that's done at the county through a subcommittee so that you can, you know, get a little bit more information about the candidate and potentially set expectations as well. Perfect. Thank you. Well, that was a great question. That was one homework to follow up on. Interestingly enough, at the state level, nobody applies for anything. You know, the governor on his appointments, the general assembly, they go out and find who they think are the best candidates. We can give little stickers, but my point is simply is as we go through the process, we probably should ask ourselves at some point in time, do we have the ability to nominate people for the lack of a better description, or do we have to rely on the application? Well, we do that informally. We found out that we've got three vacancies on Mosul, and so we look around the table and say, all right, we need somebody in District 3. Will said, I'll get somebody in District 3. Daniel said, I'll get somebody in District 4, which will be your responsibility now, and we go out and recruit them and make them do the application. It's just a different way to do it. I mean, that's enlisting somebody to go fly. One of the things that I want to always do as a district counselor is not necessarily with people based on where they live, but with people on the ability to do jobs. Hopefully, that is synonymous. Are we still looking for a historic architecture professional in District 4? There's your charge. I mean, I really do think that's important. I agree with you. That's why, you know, that's why I'd rather, you know, you've got an individual that you think would make an outstanding choice for whether it's the planning commission or the pet walking board, whichever it is, you know, as a member of the council, you'd make the case for it. Well, while we talk about grievances, one of mine is that the district council members get very concerned about, we've got to have somebody in District 1, 2, and 3, 1, 2, 3, and 4, but they ignore the fact that Dr. Bussos and I represent the whole city, so we don't get the pick. We defer to our district comrades. Doesn't that mean you like multiple things going on at the same time? No, it means that you will lose when I will kind of disengage, but I want to go back to what I thought was the initial discussion as far as applications versus appointments, and are we done with that issue? For me, it was all part of some discussion, but I understand what you're talking about. My point is, are we restricting ourselves, but only, I just think it's a much more modern, more open, open-type process? I think it's all they take a look at. I agree with Howard, that is what we do now. Could you tell the years or so like that once you take it? If the issue is whether or not we no longer want to be up there? It's my job if I want to dominate some of the state of South Carolina. Is this an application or though? Sure is. I agree, but I do think that, first of all, the process kind of dictates who's qualified to sort of narrow it out. Like for instance, when it says you have to have this particular area, this particular area, but I just wanted to make sure that you were clear that what you were not attempting to do. It sounded like that's what we were doing. This is what I was saying both times. Not taking away anybody's ability to do that. That's fine. You're bringing up different forms or different things now. I want to talk about how to... I think it's the process that you're I think what I'm understanding is the pool of applicants is only restricted to the application, and I don't think that's what we're offering. What you want to have the ability to do is if you've got a good candidate, nominate them. The caveat to do is just to make sure that everybody has your CV or wherever. This could be the proper way to do it. I think we're all saying the same thing. We're just saying it differently. So at the end of the day, I think what we're saying here is that you shouldn't restrict candidates because they didn't care to. They should have the ability to nominate from the floor. And I will just put the caveat that hey guys, this isn't good information with everybody. I think this is a different difference. For instance, if it said that this is a different pool of applicants, what I've observed is that we always get difference too. As a single-member district representative for us to have the very best people I put a deal like this. The bottom line is I think if we're going to be a great city going forward, we have to begin to do things that are the best interests of the city. And I think we need to be thinking in terms of that when it comes to these appointments. Yes, I agree with diversity. That I may have nominated or may have applied is not the best person for the job and the council thinks there's someone better. I think we should be putting the best people in there. The restriction that we've had has been made by the council. Most of the boards and commissions that we appoint don't say that you've got to have district one, two, three, and four. The council, since I've been on it, has always said, well, we need somebody from district four because that's what we represent. That's correct. That is correct. We make our own barriers. That's right. That needs to be I think in relationship to both Howard and Dr. Brussels when there's an opportunity to nominate somewhere, I think it would be in our best interest if we were moving in this direction it would be good to know that Howard, you've got somebody out there you've got somebody out there in either one of the districts and that conversation includes itself so that when we get at the table we are able to have the same view. So I agree with that but it would certainly give some latitude what Mr. Taylor is saying but for you two guys of course it would certainly be good that we have that conversation if it's on the outside or if it's in the inside of it that conversation is needed. Yeah, I think my concern is not so much with the application or lack thereof I think it's no matter what people's friends get put on to these committees because it's natural to choose your friends and that's fine if they're the best candidate but my concern has been for the generation wanting to step up and get involved and I've had the fortune of talking to Ashley about some of the exciting changes that are coming through is how it's not as automated of a process to really know where your application is and I think that with the adoption of match board hopefully we'll start to get more applicants. I think a lot of people have been jaded to even apply or engage because things may not be up to date on the website because appointments and terms change very quickly or there may have been someone that dropped off and there's so much manual work that was behind this to keep things updated that we really weren't engaging a large population. So I'm interested to see what this will look like now that we are getting a process that will remove some of the burden from our staff to be able to hopefully get some good folks in the door. So I think there needs to be a balance. It needs to be a balance between getting the best candidates but also not continuing to appoint the same old same old because we're friends with them. I think it's an exciting time for us to bring in and bring in new people. I think it's easy to default to the people that we're comfortable with but I'd really like for council to think more openly about folks that maybe haven't engaged but are really great and would be great to be working with the city but maybe for one reason or the other have not been able to get involved on a border. So a big package that just went all over the place. The paradigms have shifted based upon what we used to do here in this curriculum. I think the paradigms have shifted in terms of we started out with an application whether or not we want to do an application or whether or not that's we're just going to select the best folks. It would seem to me that while the paradigms have shifted it would seem to me that an application is still there and in addition to that we will also look at persons in our districts and of course persons who are at large who fill in some of those things. Yes sir. So if I may say historically that's what council has done. Everything is at your discretion. So if they found a really great candidate even if they didn't exactly fix that individual based on how council decided to vote. So they'd say I have this person they don't necessarily fit this but they'd be great for it. That's what you all have always done and you've always also had the option of nominating anyone for any committee and just having them fill on the application. So the current application list their district their name, their address, their age you know additional information their interest lets them have they served before so and so forth and they can submit it. But there have been times where councils have nominated individuals and they think they're best for it and as you all were saying earlier they feel they still fill out an application but it's a little bit later because they've been appointed. But it's essentially a piece of record that allows us to track we keep them on the file for two years say for instance someone applied and they weren't selected this term come around we have their application just in case that position opens and we still consider those existing applications up to two years in addition to whatever maybe council recommends to appoint or new people that have applied. So the pool has always included nominations, applications any other recommendations suggestions of council. So some of the boards including like Safer Institute's hospitality tax they actually include people who are at large so they're not limited to district. They're more limited if it's to restaurant tour and if they're lodging or you know so on and so forth but a lot of boards have at large members listed as well. Councilman McDowell's question and this may be better addressed to Theresa. Didn't I see somewhere that there was a point in time until like six or seven or eight ten years ago whether you could serve on a city board or commission if you lived or worked in a city? And that changed when? I think in 2018. Most of them have changed. I mean Mr. Gregory is restricted to people. No, I'm just historically there was a point up until was it 98? 2008? 2016? I have no idea. Taylor, I mean there's been so many. You lived or you worked in the city? You were eligible to serve on a city board or commission? Just about all of them are still at work. Not the way I read it now. For that occasion. Yeah, but I thought the way I saw I think it was like 2016 it changed. It required you to live in the city. John Gregory did live in the city and he served on Buzza because he works in the city. I'm just telling you you might want to just I think you're right. I think that's fine. I think if you work and invest in the city you have a voice. Because if that's the case I mean let's be realistic the majority of our fire department doesn't live in the city. They don't have a voice. I think they're just confirming whether normally what has happened in the person who applied worked in the city used a city address but lived somewhere real. So because of that distinction that's when a former council member asked that we start putting on every committee whenever we put it in you all's booklet that it show their work address and their home address. Because at some point and we can verify I believe council voted to only do reside instead of work whereas prior it was work or reside. Because they wanted to get rid of that distinction former councilman Devon asked and as well as council asked that we start including the work address and the home address of every applicant. So that's while when you receive your booklets or you're voting on a citizen appointment you will see their work address and their home address and the district or out of district for either. Yes sir. So we've confirmed that we're going to keep a combination of application process we've also confirmed we're doing a combination of work and and primary residence being in city being allowed. I think we're a good mayor to move on. I understand it. Took a little bit but we got there. So the next when we were on was Board of Zoning Appeals which is fully staffed at this point and won't have anything until May if we don't reappoint the individual. Yes sir. I think one of the things that we do now is we have all of these books, dates and everything that we want to make sure we start the process way in advance so that we have notice that hey in two months you've got something because for us to get the best candidate if we want to nominate you can't just go find it because we've been looking for an architectural historian for two years now. Yes sir. From any district because we didn't want to serve and that's you know and that becomes a question and to clarify that that is a requirement of state statute right or is that something that we can change? You can change that. It's in the ordinance what it does afford you is it allows for us to be certified as a certified local government which affords us the ability for grants and other types of state incentives. So it's federally certified. All right. So the next one is the building board of adjustments and appeals. She went through the BDRC. She hasn't gotten there yet. This is another one that Krista provided a memo for you. It notes the last time an appeal was filed was 2018. The staff recommends changing this to simply having five members with three year terms to be consistent with other board lines. I mean I guess the question would it make sense since most of these terms have expired you know seven years ago I mean would it make sense to advertise and just get five new commissioners in? The only one that was most recent was Ms. Jacinta Ellis maybe contacting her but otherwise it'd be worth advertising I do believe. We're talking about the board of adjustment and appeals. The building board they meet rarely which is good. And just exactly what do they do? If there is a question of interpretation of the international building code that is the board who can adjudicate. Or if there's a discussion of an interpretation of a Columbia building inspector is that where you go there or do you go to Bozer? It's the code yeah so it's when if you have an interpretation of materials or the application of materials that's where you can go. With the inspector you go to the building official. Go where? To the building official if there's a question of what the inspector is requiring that should be based on the plans that were approved. If you got a question on the plans you go where? So if during the plan review process if there is a difference of interpretation of the code that's where you would go to the building board of adjustment and appeal. So if I was building a restaurant and it was a little bitty restaurant and the plans examiner in your department said there had to be two ADA bathrooms but there really wasn't but for one and I wanted to appeal that where would I go? So it's not to appeal whether you need to have one if the code says only one is required but your inspector says two are required. Yes and well first you would appeal that to the building official who would because the plans examiner but if that is not a matter of interpretation if it's not required it's not required. So. That wasn't the case. I mean I mean where do you go? Seriously. Bozo or here? You would first go to the building official and then he could bring it to the building board of adjustment and appeal. He comes here. They make that decision. Yes sir. The building official staff set. So may it proceed really if we were to change this to five members does it have to be sent to administrative subcommittee for confirmation? I don't think so. If we're making if we're having discussion does it carry forward from this point forward or does it need to be confirmed? Well we'll have to put it on the agenda to vote on it. In this work session we're making suggestions to and the bylaws will need to be changed by that group as well. And that if changes are made the statues then are amended? We can. This is a city board so we can amend those. So the recommendation is as we go to five members Yes. Having alternates is just a bit odd. So just having five members who know that they'll be called up if necessary. And so what I would suggest my recommendation to the floor would be is that we move to reconstitute this essentially with new members, advertise it and while we're doing that, while we're taking applications, nominations or whatever over the next couple months for us to go and make the adjustments to the bylaws through all ordinances to reflect that there's going to be only five members. For three year terms? That we required to have this bylaw through the international building code. Yes, sir. It provides that safety valve, just like you were saying. What I think what everybody's discovering is one of those boards nobody really knew about didn't know that they had an option to go to when there was a question. So I think by having a new I understand what it is. My question was if it wasn't required bylaw, I mean, could we just not you know empower the staff to be the appeal you know, versus We can look into that. Versus having to take it through a commission. The problem is, and I personally had this issue so I'm not winging it here where you know, it just gets stalled into the five and six week process when most of the time this is again the code stands on its own the opinion of the building the plans viewer may not and again, lots of times I would prefer that our first line of appeal be to senior staff level versus having to stall somebody out six weeks. Right, we'll look into it. I believe it is a requirement of the international code, but if it's not we would love not to have another board to staff. We're clear we're going to confirm that it's required. If it's not required with the new updated code, then we'll get rid of the board and make it a staff appeal. We'll examine the prospect of making it a staff appeal. For the form based code, you're going to reappoint just two members. The one that was before this. For the Bull Street. Maybe it's I want to go backwards but why couldn't the Bull Street commission just serve as that appeal? That's a good question. You already have the Bull Street commission. Is that possible? So in your ordinance we have they are established two different boards building the regular BOSA and then this BOSA form based codes and the form based codes when explicitly relates to the PUD that's established. I think you could merge them. We would just need to do a text amendment. Would you just look at that and make a recommendation first? Certainly. So we're locked in with regard to the PUD and the development agreement so that cannot change at this time without reopening that development agreement so we would be looking at the regular Board of Zoning Appeals and whether that's possible. This is a DDRC. Currently there are three vacancies on there. One with architectural historian which we have struggled to find. We have a lawyer and a community representative based on this. We need three members at this point. Ed, you need to talk in the mic please. Oh, I'm sorry. The clerk's over here snapping my finger with her ruler. Can you hear me now? Chris, one of the things that I'm getting especially for those persons who have been vetted and nominated for DDRC that training process. I don't know too much about it but I've heard that it was very for lack of a better word difficult for some folk. Is that something that we will continue to use for vetted purposes? Yes, state law has a mandatory six hour training requirement for all land use boards and staff. It's a computer deal, right? Yes, sir. Six hours? Six hours required by state law. I guess that's the thing that I raise is that persons who have been nominated for DDRC they will need up front. I need to tell them before they apply. Absolutely. It's not just DDRC, it's any land use board it's planning commission, board of zoning appeals. I was particularly interested in DDRC. Yes, sir. Because that's the issue that was brought to me. Now it's not six hours all at once it used to be a mandatory three hour block so they have allowed it to be broken up it is mandatory, sir. Thank you ma'am. We need to fill these spots between advertising and everybody looking for the right candidates. We got one that's created more challenges than others. Yes, ma'am. Next is the planning commission which we have two positions open. One is a vacancy and one is Dr. Mandela who's been serving for a long time, expired. She had served multiple times so she's tapped out on. This is her second appointment so she served a number of years ago which is why it's showing that so she came she was actually appointed again. This would be her third in this realm from our documentation that we were given earlier. So this will be her she's already served two terms in this current she served two terms before tapped out left came back served two so she's our documentation she's served one year three year term for this particular time. She did serve multiple last time I believe but she has served multiple terms. No, because we when we got our sheet before it showed where it said this was a second round she'd basically been there close to 12 years off and on which taps her out so we'll have to replace her as well. So that's another one that needs to be advertised and people need to be thinking about and then the next is we get to the next tab which is the external boards and commissions which you can see we have 31. Now obviously some of these are are key I know that some of them should be maybe would be set for a time period most of them are ones where we appoint citizens to or we're currently serving on. It was just in here as a reference point when we brought you these are the ones that you all had to be appointed to. I just put everything in here that you've ever but these are just the ones where council members needed to appoint themselves to and you've done that. The external boards and commissions list some of these are ones that of course are existing organizations others were created by previous city councils to be community based. I mean I guess you could say that about BPAC Mr. DeVall you could say that about CPAC you could say that about any numbers I mean I think what happens is you all or councils over the years have established things and they morph into these ongoing boards or committees or commissions versus something that is truly an external organization. A lot of these have ties to the city or like adventure or the museum of art there's some type of arms length arrangement with the city financially maybe or through building maintenance reasons so I think with any of these you could make some case for what category it might fall under. We just grouped all of these here I think the difference and what I'm hearing you say about the standing and the other um task forces that you've just established a sunset date on many of those new ones and some perhaps some of these never had sunset dates applied and they just have lingered on and continued over the years we've tried to do our best Ashley Erica and myself doing some research on each to try to get as much of the information with the bylaws how they were established that sort of thing that's in the binder for you um but sometimes we weren't able to get clear answers to be honest for example with transitions which you serve on that we have a document that shows that Mr. Bond have been serving and you but we don't see in the bylaws where it says that two council members would be appointed so maybe that just have been occurring I don't know that you'll you know you'll see that we listed her because she had some documents that show that she was participating so we just put it as a vacancy to see if one of you want to do that because that was probably one of we tried to already deal with all of the ones where council appointments needed to be made um but just this past over the past few days that would be my attention in my opinion today the accommodation tax advisory I'm going to call out the ones that I think are I think the accommodations tax advisory the BPAC bicycle pedestrian the citizens advisory for CPD climate protection committee uh calamity and appearance commission election commission food policy hospitality tax advisory parks and recreation foundation property maintenance board of adjustment of the fields and the South Carolina Memorial Park commission are all internal whether they're internal or external you appoint citizens to them so you know at the end of the day I think we were referring to it as the ones that you have to make citizen appointments to but I do agree with Howard for the ones that solely exist for us like to help us solely I do feel that that's more of an internal cause I also noted the citizens advisory committee for community development that supports the community development department CRLF solely exists to support OBO um so I don't really see those as external boards I think we kind of appoint them just like we appoint the land use they just aren't considered land use I think that's true land use of course is determined by state law on some level these are things that over the years again just like some of these other ones that you've you know where you all put them you can just find with me wherever you all want us to put them and whatever you want us to call them just let us know so what we have in the memo that y'all gave us we've got current vacancies that we need to address then we have upcoming vacancies that come out all the way through the end of this this fiscal year for us so the question becomes you know some of these have folks that are eligible for for reappointment so the question is is do we want to begin the process of going ahead and advertising and reaching out to find the best candidates for these positions because right now and the current vacancies that are available you've got accommodations accommodations that needs three and those two have to be lodging one has to be hospitality you've got looks like two positions open one eligible for on the BPAC zoning appeals as we discussed earlier had the for the form base has two vacancies but we're going to hold that until we find out if that can be rolled in the appeals has basically six vacancies as we've seen so that needs to to be addressed community development has one vacancy climate protection has two non housing authority which is a big one folks that we have not only a commissioner that needs to be appointed as soon as is that we can find the right candidate we're also going to have one this fall in September that is vacant as well so we need to be prepared for that and those are two very critical appointments you got four on tree and appearance repairs advisory committee revolving loan has to be an attorney in a small business the DDRC as we just discussed attorney historic architectural historian and district two representative if we're going by district or we're trying to find the right person either one we still need three people there relations council we have three hospitality therefore vacancy one has to be a restaurant and then there's three at large this is probably you know another critical and then the airport commission we have a vacancy there as well and then the planning commissions one so these are ones that we need to to work on now and then obviously come April we have multiple again so I think the ones that are current vacancies that we need to make sure we're advertising or recruiting for and nominations brought to the floor I guess my question is and I may need to be reminded of how we advertise and then if there is an easy way for us to help I'm not real technology savvy despite being the chair of the technology committee but if it's in a format that I can easily send out to folks that would be great but when we say advertising I'm just do we put it on the website or what are we doing it's actually advertised on the city of Columbia website via press release from PR we also additionally send it out to a list of outside agencies with the press release so it goes beyond the city website to outside network say for instance different basically leadership organizations and so on and so forth and then now we have the extension of match board which will expand it even further can I ask one question real quick Ms. Wells would you go ahead and draft a memo that has all these on it that you can send to us that we could forward out you know to people who we thought may be interested in this it has a little more directions on how you apply what's required in the whole shoot Howard's already picking out people I want to find the best people I was just kind of thinking of if it's on the website then I can just just send that link I'm going to send it to everybody because there's a lot of a lot of positions here and some of these you know we really need to focus on as a council you know housing authority airport commission hospitality and tax which is thing which their meeting before long I mean I'll be honest with y'all we're today's what the date we really need to try to push and generate this and try to have something that we could get in on the first meeting in April if not the second at the latest to get these filled and I would just highlight on what Dr. Bussell said rather than just sending these to our friends look for people that you met that could excel in these boards and commissions you know and get this in front of them and either ask them to apply or ask for their resume so you can send it in I mean there's a lot of talent in this town that I don't know if they ever see these opportunities or not so next we have just a little bit about the appointment process and enhancements and the introduction of match board essentially a streamlined online application that provides a single point of entry for applicants and management of application process it gives a so basically a comprehensive review is underway of the boards and commissions appointments and membership term limits as well we can discuss that but match board essentially is an online interface that allows citizens to create a profile and apply when they create their profile they can list their interest their name their information they can upload their resume and can they apply for boards that they're interested in but match board also provides recommendations for additional boards that they could potentially serve on so they aren't limited to the ones that they can think of match board takes all the information compiled and provides recommendations as well and then there's also an easy side of the interface for us and then also for council to be able to view information about each candidate so it makes the whole entire process easier actually let me ask you to that point in the past when candidates have been brought forward to yeah I lost my train of thought because of Howard I'm just kidding there was a staff recommendation for certain individuals can you speak to what is that process what went into that for those recommendations to come forward so all the applications were received and then from there the staff liaison board would review those applications and provide a list of recommendations for who they thought would best fit the board based on what the board requirements were but however council was provided with all the applications that were received in addition to the list of recommendations so you all received every application none were eliminated and then from there you also receive the list of staff so those people essentially can speak to the needs of the board what the requirements are you know and who they think would be the best fit so that was the process and then we would give that to council in memo form maybe a letter from the board chair saying these are our recommendations and you all would see those in addition to the other applications great thank you you're welcome I'd like to keep for possibly an interview process for some of the applicants I did not say that maybe also keeping the ability to use the application process but certainly encouraging nominations and also opening up to outside the districts necessarily just signing the best qualified candidate and they can either work or side in the city of Columbia if there are any additional recommendations we would certainly like to hear them and again if that should state that we're looking forward to utilizing the board as soon as it can be fully implemented and making sure that there's alignment with your priorities as well as if you determine because there are so many here and they all serve good purposes but again from doing this exercise we know that some of those purposes sometimes need to be updated or maybe you fulfill a purpose as you're doing some of the newly established and you're going to let those sunset appropriately so as you take more time to look through your book if you have questions about any of these I mean we can try to continue to do the research for you. This is very helpful to have this and as we post moving forward I think as we talk about it I think we let people know well in advance and continue now that we have making lists. I'm hoping that down the road we can also go through these external lists too and make sure all of these are relevant to today because you know between this we've got I mean I don't know how many are here total what 50 plus boards and commissions and committees so as we move forward you know where there are opportunities to merge groups together or other things you know we can think about let's take this is the first step and if we can get a good looking memo that spells it out what the process is what's available that all of council can not only send out to the folks that may have interest. I know I've got a long list of folks who want to try to participate so I'm going to encourage them to take part in this process obviously there's a lot of talent as we've all acknowledged so we need to make sure we get out of the comfort zone and make sure we're continuing to invite and encourage people to be part of the process. Ms. Herbert. I just had a question that came out of the session we did with Leadership Columbia today and folks were asking did we have certain task force that we haven't quite thought of. Do we have a process for when citizens are wondering you know citizens feel like we need a task force on certain issues and if y'all have any thoughts on how that should be handled. I won't get into the topics because that may change the conversation but I think it's a legitimate question when citizens say do you all have a task force on this issue or that issue? Are the topics of this task force not covered by any of these boards of commission? Not. Well hmm. My response would be it wouldn't be a direct you would have to like try and fit it and then I think it would throw your committee off a particular it would take you in a different direction. Mr. Mayor don't we have the ability for any citizen to come make public remarks at council council meetings every meeting and that's what I would just say if somebody wants a task force I think we ought to be studying something we ought to come to the council meeting and call for the task force. The way that has been handled in the recent years that I've been on council is that an issue comes up affordable housing and we put together a small group of study and it grows into a task force so that's one example the ACE committee would be another we had a problem come up to council and a committee was formed to the committee and it resulted in the formation and advisory commission on equality the sort of spontaneous thing but Joe's suggestion of asking them to come verbalize what they want and then the council can decide collectively whether or not we think that needs to create some sort of ad hoc group which may turn into another permanent group. I agree I like it I just always like to be able to give citizens some kind of answer what they're trying to do and I think that's a good option thank you. We have a staff members assigned to every one of these councils do we have any kind of attendance requirement I mean if you miss three consecutive meetings or whatever you're at that's actually the attendance requirement that's actually at the three consecutive you can't miss three consecutive I believe it's like I believe it's three you can't miss three consecutive meetings. Can I carry forward for external? Yes sir and they send us their attendance list I mean is that what you're at because you said a staff That's right she answered my question I just want to make sure the staff if we had somebody that never came to a commission meeting we ought to take them off and you could make it automatic if you didn't want to have to vote and put somebody in its place I mean I don't know if everybody comes to all the DDRC meetings or planning commission but these things are reported I mean and that information councilman would also be included when they provide recommendations too we've asked them to let us know three consecutive yes sir mm-hmm It means Ed you have to have a doctor's excuse no call no show Speaking to Mr. Brennan's question though the external boards and my definition of external they have their own requirements we set the requirement of three for our some of these things are not our boards but well I would tell you that if we appoint somebody and they don't show up to meetings then we need to take them off because that's not the purpose of that we're not appointing people so they can have the board seat like my mama said we put you in this world we take you out of this world thank you miss Wilson thank you good to know that we have multiple opportunities for everyone in the city of Columbia to be involved the item is the American Rescue Plan at funding Missy Missy Kauffman our budget and program management and grants director and I and Jeff will assist with this item the main purpose of course is to finally bring a recommendation to you on a program for the allocation that we received as a city 27,178,358 dollars and of course this is another item where it's carrying over from a previously seated council to the newly seated council and so the list and the spreadsheet that I've provided to you has certainly changed when we first started looking at this when the funds first came down from the federal government obviously the council just began initial look they asked for any and every type of possible eligible use and of course the compliance regulations have evolved over time we feel like we're at a point now where those regulations and guidelines are probably about as closest we're going to get to having and we try to obviously stay in line with that with the eligible uses that we're putting before you but also I try to think about it from the perspective of things that I've heard from the council that are of interest to you particularly most urgently some of the items that you've been describing of late that have to do with public safety in particular so what we'll do is take you through a few slides and then really seeking your endorsement suggestions for the eligible uses as we've outlined them here or thereabouts but we can designate it over the course of the three or four years and procedurally the discussion today when you said endorse does that mean that then we're formally approving or does it go to vote when we go into a budget we're going to give you directions on that obviously we're in the current fiscal year 21-22 budget so you will see some items here out the gate that we feel we can go ahead and utilize the funding for those things and if you so want to consider Dr. Bussles we would have to bring that to you at your one of your next council meetings on the agenda for your possible approval for only for FY 21-22 and then the idea would be for the items as listed if you choose to keep them as we have them or if you have you want to tweak some things as part of the budget process we're in for 22-23 we would incorporate those items as part of your budget process okay thank you Ms. Kaufman if you want to go through some of the slides and then we'll reserve questions to the end so that we can go through it and talk about the spreadsheet and eligibility and other things and just kind of that way you can just go through the overview quickly and some of the other points and then we'll take questions from there if that works Yes sir absolutely I really was not going to spend any time on the on the primary sessions other than just information for you you do have a copy of this presentation before you so you can well read it at your leisure of course it is a very much summarized of the entire of the entire program so there's a lot more information if you do want some additional information later on as Ms. Wilson mentioned the city received about $27 million we received those funds over what's called two tranches which means which is the federal use of the terms which basically means they've upfront paid us 13 million funds million last June and then we will receive the second tranche or the second half of those funds any time after this coming June there's no date set in certain and we have started reporting we are required to do quarterly reporting of these funds there are we were showing five categories but the technically there's there's four categories of eligible uses those four categories are fairly broad when you look at sub-categories and distinguishing lines between them public basically they're addressing public health and economic challenges caused from the pandemic as mentioned update that I just mentioned the 27 million we have our half the other direct funds I'm only mentioning them here because these are the only two sources of direct funds that the city's received from the American Rescue Plan Act so far and that would be the city's direct ARP allocation and of course the home ARP allocations from HUD CDBG which Ms. Said will be discussing with you momentarily. We did want to establish some goals or parameters around the recommendations from which we make to you based on conversations with the prior City Council and of course guidance that we're seeing from Treasury and from input we see from other communities around the country in terms of how they're approaching the use of these funds we want to focus and remind ourselves that these are one-time funds we are using these funds to try to address immediate needs we want to of course create sustainable solutions we want to make sure that we're compliant and we are submitting the reports as required and we want to be able to achieve long-term benefits with these funds so with that we'll go straight into the recommendations or the proposed plan allocations and as Ms. Wilson mentioned there have been some funds already contemplated in the current fiscal year this has been adjusted slightly so far so the spreadsheet you have before you and this on the screen the top portion represents items that are either allocated currently in the budget or they are funds that have actually been spent then the bottom portion can we confirm what I just want to make sure my understanding from a confirmed spent the only thing that's been spent is the premium pay and the vaccine incentive those are the only dollars we have actually expended that's correct the others have just been allocated via our budget process and actually we've adjusted those so they reflect a different amount than what's in the budget today but we've made some adjustments based on where we are with revenue projections since the allocations are basically helping us to address potential revenue shortfalls so originally that was in the budget this year is 1.7 million the current hospitality tax budget included allocation of 1.7 million from ARP based on where we are with revenue projections for the hospitality tax fund we have adjusted that down to $500,000 to see if that gives us a cushion and we'll be able to adjust that even more once we get to the fiscal year and I think that's part of what we want to talk about because hospitality fund is what's collected it's not a replacement I think we're going to I think that's one of those discussions we're going to have as a group here as we move forward sure so of course we have you know at this point $500,000 mostly just as a cushion to help us see how we get through the rest of the fiscal year so that we can stay within budget with what funds have been allocated from the hospitality tax fund any other questions about what's the question parking is also based on the same is the same discussions based on the potential loss of revenue during since the pandemic on our parking fund so we don't end the fund in a deficit so the fund doesn't end in a deficit the parking fund I think what she's saying is so at the beginning of the year we budget expense let me finish because you let me finish and so if we don't get the anticipated revenue then there will be a deficit and it's going to be in red I'm remembering my budget days I didn't want to be in the red so it has to come from somewhere and I think that's what she's saying absolutely you see what I'm saying make sure we're not in red make sure we're not in red in that department and that fund of course parking fund has taken some of the majority of the hits with regards to revenue as a result of the pandemic and the fund itself the revenue so maybe I'll ask it this way the revenues that are generated from our parking services does that go towards our general fund no it goes in the parking fund it's the enterprise fund and it's its own fund so parking revenue support parking operations much like water and sewer supports water and sewer operations it is its own fund and there are bond covenants from our parking proceeds absolutely one thing to just to clarify there's a recommended target of 5% for administration is that something that that number is something that we have to have or I know it's allotted to us the question just because this is funding that we could use in different places if it's services we're already doing then we ought to use it where we can if we could just clarify that as well so I'm sorry we probably should have started with that right that's true yes it's just a recommendation of 5% I know many of you have asked me the question about as various funding opportunities come down that are also many being funded from the federal government because of the pandemic and American Rescue Plan funds through agencies how are we going to be prepared and ready to apply we also have to be compliant with these funds and so we just we just came with a 5% number that hopefully we can use for grant writers clients folks et cetera potentially again you're right Mayor it may be that you know as we're going to our budget process if through the general fund we can cover that and not have to use it from here but our recommendation is that you do set aside some amount because we are going to have to administer these funds and I think we offset what we have to administer but I don't want to just I would prefer that we didn't just set an arbitrary number when we could possibly use that to make a difference somewhere and some of the things that did our priorities correct 5% was based on just sort of a standard and then we also know even though these funds are not directed by HUD or guidelines by HUD 5% is standard and HUD related grants so 5% administration of course that number is adjustable based upon what we do see and then I think Mr. Palin's pointed out as well with regards to hospitality tax that's correct any funds we use whether it's in the parking fund or the hospitality tax fund none of these funds would be used to help us bank a surplus that's actually not eligible so we would only utilize the funds that would be deemed in terms of keeping us within budget to meet our obligations and commitments nothing above and beyond that when you get down to the what you're going to get us some more detail on where we really are with parking and everything so we understand that obviously I know it's ineligible so is crime and other things so I want to make sure that we're addressing those you know one of the questions I had is COVID related expenses for the PPE are we do we know what we've spent to date and how that plays into what you're looking for for the future just I wanted to see if we could just get some more information under that just understanding what we're preparing for so to date we've already spent over $400,000 in regards to and the majority of that cost is going to be cleaning and COVID testing especially after the surge from this last winter but cleaning and preparing offices if you recall you know since this goes from July 1 when we reopened offices July 6 so obviously a lot of cleaning purchases of PPE and other other items to be able to repair offices so this was allowed to cover the cost of those expenses and then the $200,000 is just thinking through the start of this budget year that would be this coming July of course these would be just based on what are actuals versus forecast and then as we moved into the categories especially around public safety obviously the pathway units we all endorsed last week and we're anticipating on moving that and you kind of budgeted out and spread that out there I know that you've got initiatives to address crime and gun violence at one time we had and then obviously we have the demolition that we've talked about of trying to help in the neighborhoods and take away those those restrictions by using these funds versus other funds the second gear a bunker gear look this is probably one of the most critical items I'm glad to see it there and obviously we talked about the clean rooms I'm hoping that the county is going to match these as well for their portion that they had felt like they had committed to at our last meeting but we need to confirm that I did want to just ask out of curiosity one time we had some camera money in here is that from a priority are we switching that because these are things that will have more immediate effect on our community yes sir they will but again Chief Holbrook and Chief Jenkins have given us lots of information that we can use to shift if we need to obviously initiatives that address crime and gun violence the cameras are a part of that but as we're going into their regular budget cycle and some of the things that we're going to be looking to do I think we're going to be fine as far as the cameras are concerned cameras and like general fund I believe what I just heard Miss Wilson say is that the cameras will be part of the general fund budget I guess I had a I appreciate the description up there about community based violence intervention programs are there are there staff suggestions as to what those might be have we explored I would be interested to learn a little bit more about how we got to the 2.273 number there oh and yes we can absolutely tell you where the chief works with Missy and Jeff and myself to give us firm numbers on what certain yeah programs might cause that that with you today well some we can we can talk at least at high level some of it is based on there's from from chief all work in the police department related specifically you're referring to the CBD initiatives addressing crime and gun violence yeah so there's a couple things that Miss Wilson has mentioned with regards to like cameras some additional surveillance type cameras that are are in so is this like shot spotter or is this like not not shot not shot spotter but some of the rapid DNA that would be equipment and some re reoccurring costs license plate readers that would go on believe 24 vehicles is what we're quoting for for at this point a community based programming that's addressed that focuses on crime and gun violence that's a program to be to be named chief is that chief is working with it's a national program as well as some of the other ones some of the other programs was a an Alistar equipment which I mentioned the security cameras those are those are in specific areas like neighborhood lighting no going to be something you see well let me just address that mr. McDowell to because you know as as dr. Bussles asked for the details on the initiatives I would tell you the same thing down on neighborhood and community investments I mean I'd like to see the details on what you're thinking there before final decisions made because you know a couple of things you know I'd like to just have a chance to better learn how we're we're using our existing housing stability attanity and brought you know how we're using the existing stuff that we've got to see if we need to add that or add more or less I think as part of our neighborhood development mr. McDowell I think one of the things that we need to really look at is better lighting Henry in our parks you know and converting things like that to LED and stuff like that and lighten our neighborhoods I think what we did last week is is a phenomenal thing I don't think this is necessarily our responsibility but we have an enormous problem with the Alvin S. Glenn of detention center what we're going to you know somehow somewhere where they can't where it's the county or us participating something's got to be addressed on that jail I mean they well my point is my point is let me tell you something we get ready to be dealing with a real issue I think I haven't talked to the chief but when the bad guys are beating our policemen back in town because of 70% understaffed somebody's got to address that and I don't know whether we as we could deal maybe going forward some of these funds could be could be very much a part of that and again I want to get a better intention better a better understanding on what commercial retention and redevelopment programs are before before we before we that is the actual program that's administered by the Office of Business Opportunities a lot of times it's funded through $32 but they usually you know doing the facades for the small businesses or the small business wants to get a grant I understand I'd like to see what our success rates been on our grants I'm a new guy I'd like to see what our success rates have been on our grants I'd like to see you know how we've been you know we've been putting in the facades I mean they may I hope it's all wonderful and proves the fact that more investment yields greater results but I'm a seeing is believing kind of guy it does so I did have a question about the community based violence intervention programs is this something that we're thinking about doing internally or partnering with someone are we still feeling that out it would be a partnered program with a national organization I think the hesitancy is to name that group once we have a contract they would bring forward okay and then I want to make sure that council understands the intent of the proposed budget outline because I would not want you all working extensively on anything that we have no intent on funding and so I just want to make sure I'm clear and I'm understanding that y'all are asking for general guidance on how you all think the best priorities are because I know that we want details but what I'm saying is don't spend three weeks I don't want to put folks through spending three weeks to put something together just for council to say well no that's not really what we want to do yeah so I think and I just want to make sure I'm clear on what the expectation or what the ask is because I want to make sure that we're not being too cumbersome and not getting we have to be effective I just want to make sure we're effective and so whatever work y'all are working on I wanted to end up with some results so and I hope y'all understand what I'm saying they need some guidance so that they know that yes this is an interest area before you put in a whole bunch of work so my question around crime and gun violence was an interest area of mine to be able to share that with constituents that I have a clear understanding of here the evidence based things that we are doing and chief and I've had a conversation already but I hear you Tina in that it's important for us to get the kind of sub lines of maybe how this might be broken down a little bit more but I'm not expecting any sort of in depth anything yet except for some of those like bullet points of what this may entail until some of these kind of like the national partnerships I'm just speaking to the crime and gun violence there may be different expectations for other council members again I think I said at the beginning the reasons that you see these particular categories and the projects as they are very specific direct is quite honestly from the previously seated council and what I've heard this seated council say so far so you have specifically said go fund the pathways program right so it's on here that's correct you have specifically said some of you but again until I get you all together I'm ready to tackle whatever demolitions that David can do tomorrow and the only reason he isn't doing them is he doesn't have the money not through CDBG because with CDBG he's hamstrong because he has to go get an environmental with these monies he does not so that's why that's on here the previous council said fund the gear the second set of farm gear okay so it's on here fund some station livability issues and we just picked I mean $500,000 quite frankly over the next three years it's certainly not going to do everything but it's a start again it's meant to give you a guide and to your point Dr. Bussells we can give you as much detail as you want to your point Ms. Harbert if we're clearly not even in the ballpark with this stuff on here please let us know and we will go in a different direction Madam City Manager I think you're right on target I'm going to beat my drum again and I know what you know I think you know what that drum is I'm sorry give us a lava layer Mike so I can roll back in this chair I think it is essentially important as I've said on numerous occasions and I think our mayor can sort of bear me up on this high equipment for our firefighters it's on here I see it being on paper is something doing it is something else our guys are all that CPD is doing all that CFD is doing our firefighters and they they are jeopardizing their life every day our officers are jeopardizing their lives every day called senigent, cancer called senogens and we've got here extractors and we've got here new gear let's make this happen both too many of our firefighters get in sick and it's because of the senogens that are in their uniforms when they get through with the fire so we need to make sure that not only are we putting it on paper we need to make sure and I'm glad the city manager brought that up I'm glad I want to make sure that those guys we've talked about it numerous times let's put our money where our mouth thank you can you talk to us about city projects and amenities the subcategory of rolling stock and capital equipment is general safety driven for recruitment retention purposes that's a pretty significant number there it is so as you may recall we included on the annual budget 9 million dollars of fleet replacement programs this year we did go up to 9 million because there was a year during the pandemic we suspended that so as we have also added more fleet to our program the need to increase the amount of vehicles we replace every year has grown so the purpose of this was to help us catch up our replacement program we would probably specifically focus these on public safety to meet the requirements of the although public safety is not a specific eligible expense however there are a lot of caveats or a lot of subcategories that allow for use for public safety and first responders at any rate our loss of revenue is another option but in this case so this would help us to supplement our existing and I had to use that word referring to grant dollars but in this case it would be increasing the ability of our replacement program so we are able to budget now but still meet some of Chief Holbrook's goals take on call we see those big numbers that roll through the agenda for Columbia water in this case it would be just general fund active it would be our police and fire public works so our garbage trucks our traffic utility traffic the bucket trucks if you will park truck creation vehicles but primarily police and fire one fire truck would take this out I think the fire truck producers are going to have a long lead time with all the orders that are going to be coming in right and so since we had suspended some of that program during the pandemic so this will help us we were already following some behind so this will help us catch up we are able to utilize these funds for a couple of years it would be helpful for us because of understanding the parking fund and hospitality which I don't think I'm just going to be front I don't believe that hospitality money should come out of here that's $500,000 that can be put somewhere else where we have a one time capital need hospitality tax has always been built off of what's collected and that's what's collected that's what we distribute and that's just the way it is I do think the numbers are better than they were but I don't think this I don't know about the parking fund and I think that's something that we need to have a discussion about to show us where that is because if it's a requirement because of bonding or anything like that then we have to address that if it's not then we don't need to address it you know I mean it is what it is we suffered like other businesses that there are other opportunities for us to do this I know that we voted on the pathway units and I'm thankful to see that we're not under a time constraint to push any of this so I think if we can massage just make sure we're getting information and start picking them off one by one I mean you know obviously we can't make a decision in here today but I'm hoping on the next agendas we can start picking off you know by you know if it's the second set of bunker gear making sure that what we're putting in for initiatives for both the crime and the gun violence are you know we're all on board we understand what we're doing because it's going to be very important for us to explain that to the public as well so I think if we can get some more detail on what we're thinking on each one of these we can start moving this forward I think we're starting to head down the right path but let's make sure that we're we're all on accord of what we're talking about I know these are general headings in here obviously because it is but I think the detail behind it will get everybody more comfortable as we move forward and obviously we don't even know at this point we might not get the next tranche of money in July it may be September it may be November so we're having to look at really what we can you know what we can move forward today with what we have and you know as far as I can tell we've spent about 5.2 million at this point is that roughly out of 13 so that'll give us something so maybe what we ought to do is go back and look at that from a budgetary standpoint as we're talking about each one of these because I don't want to commit any dollars until we actually know we're getting the second dollars so do you not want us to bring back to or potential approval the FY 21-22 funding that is most urgent because I do know you made a motion for the pathways for us to implement it in June yeah we already voted on that so that piece is we didn't vote on the funding so we need to go ahead and do that since we've all committed to that already and I'm hoping that we can get enough information on the others to everybody so everybody understands we start picking these off I don't know that we can commit to all of it yet just because there's still questions we don't know if we're going to look at that's 3.4 million plus that's almost 4 million at the top of the heap just on parking and hospitality so that would change what we have to spend obviously in 21-22 that I mean 4 million dollars could make a big difference in a lot of areas I would like to see us get going on the bunker gear and I was going to say yeah because that's part of the car can we make a goal of getting the public health and the public safety areas I'd like to make a suggestion before that we when you look at our budget for this operating budget for fiscal 21-22 with the number of vacancies that we're experiencing I mean there should be some significant surpluses somewhere in there and I think frankly the right thing to do now the pathways project we need to get that going immediately but I would say the smart money says take this and look at it as you're developing your budget for next year and see there may be things you want to spend out of a budget surplus instead of out of here or vice versa I mean to me to me to do two separate budget processes I'm just not so sure if you end up putting things in the right places or things that you may want to do that might be a great broad approach I agree but we don't have the money for the bunker gear we've got the money for the bunker gear we're just in another line item so if you want to go ahead if there are things like bunker and again certainly things like the pathways I'm fine to it but the rest of these things like putting money and funds and this that and the other I think you look at it as part of the budget process it's not that far from June the 30th you get down to it well one thing that I will add to it's women's day it's making sure that so when we try to expend large sums of money like this and we have to go through the procurement process to buy these things we don't need to put things off too long because the process the time that it takes to make sure that we spend the money because I don't know if this is one of these things if we don't spend it in time that we lose it or does it sit I don't know this will be a clawback right yeah so I've just known how some ideal projects start in the process that it takes to actually spend the money can be a lot more lengthy than the conversation that we're having so if we are all the things that we have a consensus on we just need to go ahead and start moving them and not prolong the decisions because I think we'll be here forever I'm more than willing to go through a list of I don't know if you want to pull out those things that you have concerns about and need further information on but we do need to we need a clear way forward that doesn't have us to going back and forth way too much on stuff we need some definitive timelines for when we are going to make decisions if I could interject if we're having a surplus because of the lack of positions being filled it's going to come to the bottom line in a year anyhow for us to use this money on projects we all agree on with the exception of two or three I think it's just delaying I think what Mr. Herbert is saying is correct if we want the bulk of gear if we want the other public safety things the pathways let's go ahead and approve I think I was fairly clear when I said things like pathways and stuff but I would incorporate the rest of these things into our budget process let's talk about which ones you want to incorporate in the budget process which one are you ready to let go I mean the public safety things I'm fine and public health COVID related expenses for PPE testing we don't have a real number back yet do we 500,000 dollars to is not a real number I think we need to be able to approve parts of this and maybe in our next meeting at least the public health and public safety then Mr. Taylor this agrees with public health we'll talk about that I think we need to make that a part of our agenda these are issues that have been sort of swirling around that we have not descended this way and we need to really make it a secret well I think we've got to understand what we have and two things in here that we don't have a clue on yet is the parking fund in this is this fund underwater that's affecting us making bond covenants or anything or is this just a filler because that's four million dollars we've already spent 5.2 we only got 13 five right now we can't commit to the 13 five we don't have yet so we didn't want to make sure what numbers we have so that we can go through this and say alright we can commit to if it's public I mean just this public safety if you just took all of them you just wiped out all that money let me say I'm finally moving forward on the public safety let's move forward on public safety and discuss public health all the public health is in partial which is frankly budget I have a suggestion I mean what can staff just bring us this budget and we take it line by line and then that will determine what they need to go back and work on and what they don't oh I'm sorry so the miss Wilson sort of touched on the way we would would have incorporated these funds would be in the upcoming budget we would have included these items in the upcoming budget and we would designate as a revenue source the amount equivalent to cover those expenses we could detail out what those are but also I think the point has been made if that is not a path forward for a particular project then let us know guidance wise now so that we don't incorporate into next year's budget that would be one sort of thing I think to sort of give us some feel for I don't think you're asked to approve anything by vote or motion even today or even next next at the next council meeting because a lot of it would be incorporated into the budget process and it would only be for one fiscal year of course at that time they could right a motion budget amendment that would be a budget amendment program with a June 1st implementation date so that needs to be approved next way again I would tell you I have no issue with any of the public safety things I just would like to get a little more information on parking again as the chairman of the community development and economic development I've had no real introduction at all to the ones that are part of that I'd like to have at least one committee meeting and get reports on what we're doing and frankly what they may want to do with that so I just don't think that's too difficult to have but you don't object to public safety when we go for next we should be all going for it because I would reason to say that I would spend that money on public safety if we didn't have a surplus or not because y'all talk two different pots because we're talking about these funds here that miss you should y'all but we're also talking about any sort of we'll call it surplus that comes through the operational that we don't spend in the current year so in the key to that in the mayor brought that up is we've only received 13 point something million and we don't know for sure when and you know depending on who you ask if we'll get the other 13 million so on some of these programs as y'all are talking about the importance of them and moving ahead with them maybe staff will be able to come back by next week and sit there and say here's what we should use out of the ARPA funds here's what we believe we can use out of the operational dollars that we have left over in the current year bring that back to you when we talk about hospitality I will tell you to me that's really they probably put that more for me that's more reserve there's a good chance we will make our budget and meet the obligations on everything we agreed to vote on I'm sorry everyone that y'all voted that we agreed to pay in the current year because hospitality tax collections are pretty solid unless there's some weird spring that occurs I just you know we can't tell you the number we budgeted previously was much higher than that 500,000 we don't use that to meet any of the obligations in the current year that's really 500,000 that can be applied to another project when we get the other 13 million parking is the same way that's kind of a large number I don't think we're going to need that amount but it is really taking a look at the parking system as far as making sure that we meet at least have created enough operating income along with funds from this to make our bond payments and after that we're not trying to build a fund reserve or anything like that in it so we'll be able to show you bring the numbers back for the current year for parking though it's really just an estimate right now but over the next couple months we'll be able to tighten that number up as we get towards the end of the year so I wouldn't expect us coming to y'all next week or even in the first meeting in April to even say absolutely please vote on hospitality and parking because we we won't have a final number on any of those either you ready for public safety to go up next week I mean the main items out of public safety that are numbers that in front of you are the numbers the pathways program I just handed you the budget the demolitions that's the number the gear extractors and second set of off the gear that's the number if you all want us to bring those three and we can give you back up on the additional item if you want to if it fits within the the tranche that we have after we've taken out the premium pay and other public health initiatives and we have the number for how much we spend I mean we can tell you to the penny what the number is on how much we spend for COVID related expenses we can bring that those are the things if it makes you more comfortable that we know today and we could bring that next week can we do that can you make it all public health and public safety if that is what you would like us to do so public safety the chief said he can get me the information I want for gun violence prevention so I think as long as it fits as long as it fits within the the numbers here certainly do so let me see okay so it's consensual that we agree on public safety six times I'm going to ask you to repeat it twice because last time you agreed to something I agreed to what I want to do it before yeah you got both hearing aids on and everything right I want to make sure public safety when the essence of time I know Gory is going to go as quickly as she can this is the other American rescue plan funding that we have been allocated but it's specific to the home program Mr. Mayor no I'm sorry now was that public safety last health initiative just public safety just the five lines that are public safety we're not there yet alright I just want to make sure we're ready oh no problem no problem it's been fun listening to you all so it's my turn again I'm Gloria Said director for the city of Columbia's community development department I appreciate the opportunity to come before you today to give you an overview of the city's home ARP grant and the process required to submit an allocation plan to HUD this HUD this plan is required to be submitted during this fiscal year action plan so that that can be amended before we submit our fiscal year 22 action plan which is due to be submitted in May so I just wanted to to give that information I know I've heard some keywords like deadlines and you if you make a decision to do something you got to be able to move quickly and so we won't have a problem with this particular presentation that I'm about to go over with you all so alright so today's focus is going to be on three things we're going to describe the eligible uses in the purpose of the home ARP allocation we're going to talk about the development of the allocation plan and we're also going to talk about the timeline to submit to HUD for review and approval so community development has been working on the allocation plan process since December and I'm going to share some of the information that we gathered during that process through a required consultation process then there's still another required consultation process and a survey and so you all do have a copy of the survey on your table and then we'll talk about some of the information that came out of that briefly so the American rescue plan, home rescue plan ARP enabling legislation so President Biden signed on March 11, 2021 into law legislation for the home ARP and so the goal for this particular part of money is to reduce homelessness and increase housing stability across the nation the City of Columbia has been awarded $2,580 in home $820 in home ARP so this is of course a separate allocation from our regular home settlement that the City receives on an annual basis the entire appropriation for this particular tranche of money is $5 million but again we got $2.5 million which is slightly 10% less than what you all just talked about the $27 million of the other home ARP dollars so this is a one-time allocation and how these funds are used for long term for long term benefits is going to be crucial so I'm hoping through this discussion we can talk a little bit about what you all have come up with thus far with your pathways plan to see how this particular part of money can complement that Gloria just for my clarification we will only get the $2.5 million we won't get the $5 million that you referenced yeah it's the $2.5 the total is $5 million across the country but we got $2.5 million of that but that is the total amount that we are getting correct so so we're going to talk about anyway the home ARP funds the pandemic brought some things to our attention although we already knew prior to the pandemic we already had issues with affordable housing or the like thereof and we also knew that we were dealing with some homelessness issues here locally as well as nationally but the pandemic actually made it made it worse so we know now that there's an increased need for emergency shelters we know that as a result of the pandemic there's a reduced shelter capacity we know that there's a need for use of non congregate housing and we'll talk a little bit about what that is and we know that there's more people that now needs to be who are unsheltered that needs shelter and also fewer people are exiting the shelter to permanent housing so we want to talk a little bit about how these funds can help in that area so with the home American rescue plan there are some eligible activities the eligible activities include rental assistance non congregate shelter and tenant based rental assistance and supportive services activities so I want to give just a few examples of what those eligible activities could include for example with rental assistance it can include acquisition of standard rental housing it can include construction of rental housing it can include rehabilitation of rental housing under non congregate shelters is anyone familiar with that because that was a new term for me when they came out with this money yes oh I'm sorry I thought you had a question right if you could I thought she said it like excuse me yeah that's what I thought so for non congregate shelters that's defined as one or more buildings that provide private units or rooms for temporary shelter it serves individuals and families that meet one or more of the qualifying populations and then you can see that also to the right of the screen what qualifies as a qualifying population and it does not require occupants to sign a lease or occupancy agreement so it sort of reminds me of in some cases too of an SRO a single room occupancy are any of you familiar with the Oak Hill apartments on Toonach Road and so that's the SRO and Forest Oaks is also I mean Forest Hill is also an SRO and so those were hotels that were turned into single room occupancies Oak Hill is specifically for homeless individuals and so you know hearing some of what you were talking about with the new initiative the pathways when you're looking at serving those individuals who are having some mental health crises maybe some substance abuse and just homeless in general and they need some care you know where they're going to go once they leave that facility which I think is wonderful I had an opportunity to read all about that and what it will include but I think if we're looking at what could be long term one of the options would be some type of shelter where it's temporary housing transitional housing or even some type of permanent housing for individuals who want to be who want to get off the street everybody doesn't but for those who do these funds could in some way be used as gap dollars to help fund that type of project so that's what the non congregate housing is and that fund for NCS could be used for acquisition of structures it could be used for new construction with or without land acquisition and it can be used for rehabilitation of existing structures such as the example I gave earlier like motels or even nursing homes yes I mean there could be rent that could be charged of course it would likely be affordable because of yes to use the funds for rental assistance okay I mean so I mean that is eligible as well because it talks about tenant based rental assistance as well I mean I know there's a lot of need but again there's only 2.5 million dollars so you know what we hope to gain from you all today is you know what direction you would like us to go into as we finalize a draft allocation plan so that you know we can continue with the process before we can submit this to HUD another thing that it covers here is supportive services and I'm just going to jump around a little bit because I'm just basing this on what I'm hearing from you all today that you know supportive services in the event that that's something that you're interested in doing it also covers that so I can give you some examples of what will fall into supportive services as well it could be costs to assist with child care educational services life skills training mental health services outpatient health services outreach services substance abuse treatment services case management and you know financial assistance costs so it's a wide range of things but again you know what we're going to look for at the end of the day is you know how these funds could best be used for long term to assist the qualifying populations which include individuals or families who are homeless at risk of homelessness fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence dating violence sexual assault stalking or human trafficking other populations where assistance would prevent the families homelessness or serve those with the greatest risk of housing instability so there's a wide range of things but at the end of the day what I'm going to look for today is you know some guidance into whether council would want to prioritize the use of these dollars whether it be for housing under NCS whether it be for supportive services or any of those things that can be you know tied into any of the other initiatives that you currently have in place. Is this something that we could also I know your timeline is tight but discuss with our first task force meeting at the end of the month just to give them an overview that this is coming our way and that this could supplement some of the efforts that we are undertaking with that task force. Well we do have a very tight timeline what I was hoping today is this based on the presentation that you have before you the information that we have in the stakeholders survey that we can at least get from council how they want to allocate those dollars. It's not specific to you know how it would be used once HUD approves it so if you say you want to use it for supportive services and housing then that's what we would need to know. That's basically what we're going to ask for you so that we can continue to move forward because we do have a very tight timeline to get this before the public for public comment which is required and then get it back before council for approval before we submit it to HUD. So I do have a timeline on this page. Mr. Heak, can I ask a couple of three questions? Yes. Real quick. There's a follow up to Dr. Bustles. Yes. So the deadline to submit the application is June 30th. That's at the end of this fiscal year earlier. So we have to submit this allocation plan I hadn't gone over that the deadline to do that yet but we have to do it we have to submit it this fiscal year and we need to do it before we submit our next annual action plan for the public comment. So that's the tight timeline that we have that HUD has given us to get this to them to approve or we give them our next action plan for approval. So our action plan what you're asking for today is kind of maybe some indications of how we might split this money and we still have a little bit of time to think through the allocations of how that say let's just say for example we said we want to put three quarters of this money towards homeless programs you still have time to look and see which we might use. Yeah, so if you want to do that at the end of the day what we need to know is where you want to put it. Once it's approved we can come back and decide how. I understand I would ask that if we sooner rather than later I think maybe you and is Dr. Sehe right? No Gloria Sehe. Second question can you get us the information about the other communities in our metropolitan area getting for this home program? Absolutely. What Richland County is getting, West Columbia is getting what Casey is getting kind of the whole picture? Oh absolutely. That will be pretty easy to get. And would you ask HUD if the money that's received by particular county? I can certainly ask that. What I'm saying is for example if the city of Columbia has put forth with a homeless program on this and we're carrying the social burden cost in the city of Columbia is it possible that we might ask some of the other communities out here to participate in the cost of these homeless programs or something like that through this same fund? Absolutely. Absolutely. I can get that answer from HUD. I don't want to guess what it is but yes I can certainly do that because that would make a lot of sense. To me it was a little bit amazing in the last it's on the sheet from the earlier one that Richland County gets 2.696 million Lexington gets 2.6 I was surprised at the difference the county got over the city in the ARA I would have thought it would have been a little bit more here. Right. I know with some of our CDBG dollars we've done collaborating projects with the county before but sometimes they get into we don't want to spend our money in the city and things like that. Let me say this I understand very much so that individual housing or in every area of the millions but I suspect the homeless issue is concentrated in one in particular. So and to go back to this really we're focused on these eligible activities and how you'd like us to allocate or give you direction on what you'd like for us to focus on. Yes. Okay. And I can tell you based on the survey that we have already done that you have in front of you you can kind of see what some of the responses are. In some of the questions it was a 10 survey and we left it out for responses from those organizations that serve homeless individuals and or you know nonprofits that serve homeless individuals agencies housing authorities they're the ones that responded to the survey and you can kind of see you know where they felt the most need was on each of these three questions and so housing seemed to kind of always come through but there was information that they provided as needs as well as it relates to supportive services and also you know non-congregate housing so you know again any type of affordable housing whether it's you know a shelter or SRO or whatever it would benefit the area and certainly those individuals that were trying to get off the street. Yeah and I agree with you that non-congregate housing is going to be the most important approach and sure people have stable and stable housing and permanency one thing I do want to point out and this is nothing towards you all but something to keep in mind with my researcher hat on is there was 35 people that responded to this and six of those were the same people from Mercy or from Homeless No More so we may also be seeing a slight trend towards wanting to support certain services because of who responded and so I think it's important for us to see that potential skew in mind and so that's why I asked if it would be possible for us to engage with other folks and I can talk with you offline on the best way to do that just to make sure we're trending in the right direction in terms of in addition to that permanent affordable housing what are some other things they'd like to see. Right and I will say too it could be sometimes with those agencies more than one person responded that works at the agency but through additional information through the public comment period and also because we do have to we're required to have a public hearing so that's an opportunity for us to still get additional information before final decision is made on the plan and submitted to HUD. If someone had additional information already that I think what was a glaring miss I think opportunity is to pull in additional help and we talked with Allison Barrell a lot and we had already been talking with some of her colleagues but I do think it's very important again I keep reiterating as we are putting the emphasis on the pathways program funding it enhancing it there's still that gap and Allison reiterated that to me that yes there is a building that's been identified for the individuals to go to that our pathways teams will work with them but it only houses maybe 10 individuals that drive from my memory so that is not going to be sustainable and again if some of these other I guess I don't know which category it could fall under several but if it's supported services I'm not sure but how we could connect those dots to make sure if this funding could be used but to your point I think you know if someone like Allison Barrell had responded to the survey her responses may have been very different than some of the other providers here yeah so I would suggest to council that what we focus on with these or what we kind of shift our direction to I don't know what the right words are but is the really the what are the four categories the non-congregate shelter and then the supportive service activities those are the two things that I have heard as somebody engaged in this work outside of being a city councilwoman as well as some of the conversations that Ms. Wilson has referred to and you know it's also an evidence-based approach to provide stable housing and then support those that are experiencing the mental health crises it could also help build out some of our initiatives with CPD and public safety I just told you the buckets I don't know the percentages yet I'm just bringing that to the table well and what I the question I that too because I agree the non-congregate shelter is something that we need a lot more of and I think that you could have permanent results from and see the data and results question is what can you do with 2.5 million not a lot so so that's my that's the other part of the concern but then I don't want to put money into something that we'll say for a whole year we were able to help 20 people you know so I don't know if you have any recommendations but as far as getting the most bang for our butt and the other thing is did we talk to any homeless folks or previously homeless folks in the survey we did not what we did based on what hood actually did mandate is that we consult directly with those service providers okay and so that's the part that we have completed I got you the other part is the public meeting and the public comment we have not done that yet so to your point councilwoman Bussles that would be an opportunity to get some additional input and feedback to support those other areas is that the one you emailed out yes did you email it out is that the one you emailed I have it in my stack so councilwoman Herbert to answer your question though in terms of you know whatever we decide what percentage which I would like to have something today if I could so that we can work up the draft action plan but to your point this amount of money won't do an entire project what you would want to do is you know in the event we go into the direction for the non-carbon shelter is that whoever the non-profit or developer is who takes on that project they will seek other sources of funding perhaps through the united way I understand that they do have some funding available that could be another source because again this is just gap funding but it would be an opportunity to be that source of funding for a larger project for a brand new for a brand new construction and they would maybe adapt it to this purpose and that's what DMH is doing now they've secured it already well I would not see why that would be a problem because some of the examples used before is like an old hotel or a nursing home so it is a building that can be adapted for this purpose but we can certainly check but I wouldn't think that that would be an issue if it's going to be used for that type would it be used for I guess along that loans, low interest loans repayable for developers to go down that path providing residential type stock that we're talking about where it comes back to us can we one time spend or can we put together a loan program where we can really stretch it out making my head swim I don't know specifically for this I know with our other grants I mean we have revolving loan programs already established but that's a whole other process because it is expensive for the construction component and this might be a way to thank you for or that program that's true but on the other side of that the administrative burden of that in managing it but if you know on the staff side pardon me but if you only do one project for the that's true too, that's possible really easy I'm going to write that down just to see if that could be if those funds, if it's meant for those funds to be loaned I can certainly do that check the box for innovative approach go that route okay out of the box out of the box out of the box out of the box out of the box I think there's a lot of folks who don't know what's out there and there's also understanding the hurdles that are in the way for folks to get services to and I think we both today we're just moving forward thank you for that and I can honestly say if it were one project just listen to your point if it was that building that would be upfitted we would have the services right there on site it would be wonderful so they won't have to go anywhere they're living right there where they're getting the case management services our biggest hurdle with that concept unfortunately is nobody wants it in their neighborhood let's be realistic that's our toughest battle right now is where to do it so how do we take care of our residents now it's a city-wide it really has become a big cause every day different parts about what we can do to help folks so in terms of what I'm hearing and again this is for us to discuss but I still am hearing some sort of consensus around non-congregate and support services one suggestion okay so it's 2.5 right 90 go towards shelter 10% go towards supportive because it does take a lot to create shelters that will be effective in doing what they need to do or we can decide that maybe we want to tweak that a little bit and put more towards these mental illness programs if we are investing and we're all in given some of the caveats if we're not sure whether or not we can as Miss Wilson asked fund DMH's existing initiative of 2.5 million that's several hundred thousand 250 you think more how I think maybe more than if we say that we're putting 100% towards homelessness do we have to give a breakdown between so that we can really see what that number is because it could fluctuate yeah that's my so so we would have to do our budget because there are some other considerations to take into account one of them being planning and administration and planning which is what we would charge for the administration what percentage is 15% of the overall grant up to 15 well we we're allocating the entire 15 in this case because what we do with that is that's how we augment our staff salaries and so that's how we're using that but with all of our grants and I know there'll be opportunity to talk about all of them at some other point we a large portion of what community development staff is paid by is through grant funds is based on that percentage that we can charge each year and so that's how this is structured I would just ask us to take a look at that it's $375,000 so if it's not charged there then it would fall on to the city's general fund I want to revisit this so I'm looking at this pathways ARPA budget of essentially it seems like to me if you do need percentages somewhere in the 500,000 ballpark is what I would be interested in dedicating towards the continued mental illness and substance use prevention efforts among those experiencing the homelessness and the rest go towards stable shelter and housing that would be my suggestion to council we can work that and put it in a in the draft and show you as Wilson we can get that as soon as tomorrow because that will take a hard lift to do that are we allowed to make adjustments at any point since we're just having the ballpark without any solid numbers I want to make sure we have flexibility if we need to go one way or another we'll have public comment so we can tweak after that I think this is kind of our starting point and then we can tweak it in and we can take a look at it the non congregate housing and the support services with agencies and service providers whose clientele include home ARP qualifying population we've held a stakeholder meeting with those same agencies just to get further feedback right now we're in the process of developing the action plan your information today is helping us move that forward and so the next steps is for the ARP allocation plan proposed draft to be posted on March 11th which is Friday which is why we'll move very quickly to get these adjustments made and get it out to everyone and then there's a 15 day public comment period that starts on March 13 and ends on March 28th that is required and then we're also required to have a home ARP virtual public hearing we've counted to where we want to make sure the plan is out there for public view and comment for at least 10 days so we've projected a public hearing a virtual public hearing to occur on March 23rd and then we'll bring it back to city council for approval and of course between that time I'll be working with manager Wilson and ACM Gentry to make sure that we're circulating getting you all the information that you need for review and then once we get council approval we'll submit it to HUD for review for an approval on April 8th thank you process after the 15 day comment period and then you've got the public hearing you'll let us know what the comments were in prior to the council thank you all very much the final item is simply your schedule I know many of you have asked to have the dates formed up for the budget workshops rather than just saying all of the off Tuesdays so try to give us some time that you know we're still working through budget items front load that and we just have a final Tuesday in March Tuesday in April to meet with you and then we'll kind of get a little bit heavier in the meetings and also Tyler St. Clair has provided your council retreat reports and a draft vision of strategic outcomes document for you to look at in advance of her coming back if you all agree for her to do that on April 20th and 21st she said she only needs a day and a half ideally so I was just seeking some feedback on that those dates work there within your they're listed on your power but do you have any time for you in those days so she wanted me to find out from you all what worked best you know she said a day and a half and she needs a day like 21st and 21st and it's on the I think that is that not in there council meeting dates should be in your information your package I think you can give me your Bronx in on it would take it would take a death wish we may have a conflict she offered the I think that was a Wednesday Thursday right so she offered the 27th and the 28th as well she preferred the 20th and the 21st but yeah I think 27, 28th okay that the consensus for April 27 a full day on the 27th and a half day on the 28th that is what she asked for yes sir but if we Ms. Herbert cannot do the 28th a full day on the 27th a half day on the 28th a full day on the 27th and I think Tina said she couldn't the half day on the 27th comment will be on it'll be on by noon April 27th and the morning of the 28th do they have to do a motion again they can't even do a motion to go on the 27th all right so we just have this final item which is contractual so I wouldn't need to all can do a motion to go into executive section I would make a motion to go into executive section second that would be just counseling the city manager discussion of negotiation that would propose contractual arrangements pursuant to 30 act 40 as 78 to executive management and leasing leasing in corporate executive session I need the I want to have this that's fine then we'll have it without just we'll have it executive session without council without staff afterwards or I just have to do a presentation and so the presentation the staff has put it together with me if you want me to do the presentation by myself I'm happy to do that too I think we need the assistant city managers on this thing the background information for what we're going to discuss the motion is to go into executive section we had the first and second vote aye aye